“What has been will be again; what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).
In the days of Judah Maccabee, there was an attack on the Jewish people by the Greeks. Not just on the Jewish people themselves, but on everything the God of Israel had commanded them and promised them in the Scriptures. Everything –– Jewish.
Every king, emperor or leader throughout history who has done anti-semitic things has been considered an enemy to Israel and the Jewish people: Pharaoh of Egypt, Haman in Persia, Caligula and Nero of Rome, Miguel de Morillo and Juan de San Martin of the Spanish Inquisitions, and Hitler. Each of these leaders set themselves up as gods and tried to snuff out the lives of God’s chosen people. There is still one more evil leader to come: the ‘man of lawlessness’ who will oppose every that is of God. Everything ––– Jewish.
“The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. … And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him” (Daniel 9:26-27).
“So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains” (Matthew 24:15-16).
“Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).
Today the same battle rages and could be called the modern Maccabean revolt. Since the first century, Greek and Roman ideologies have created a religious system contrary to Biblical commands. This system teaches the Torah is nullified, the Temple is unnecessary, the Levitical priesthood is obsolete, the dietary laws are cancelled, circumcision is unnecessary, the Sabbath is changed, and the Jewish people are rejected by God. Everything –– Jewish.
These doctrines transform the worship of the God of Israel into an institutionally designed church-god. Jesus is misrepresented as part of a Greek-based three-in-one godhead rather than the King of the Jews, the Messiah of Israel. Many who could come to accept Yeshua are driven away through these false and misguided teachings. Those who present these teachings are not giving the lost and dying world the good news of salvation; they are twisting the truth and giving the father of lies a platform on which to proclaim his message of lawlessness. These subversive doctrines are the work of the Adversary, the antichrist, the ‘man of lawlessness’ prophesied by Daniel, Yeshua, and Paul.
According to King Solomon in Ecclesiastes 1:9, there is nothing new under the sun. There will always be lawless men who want to destroy the Jewish people and their Biblical heritage. There will also be men and women, Jews and gentiles, like Judah Maccabee and his father, who will fight against such destruction and assimilation. They will place a Hanukkah menorah in their window to show they stand with the Jewish people and the God of Israel. They will light the eight candles on the hanukkiah each night to proclaim to the world that they will never assimilate into a Hellenized Roman religious system that advances the theology of the ‘man of lawlessness.’
The Syrians didn’t win the war against the small Maccabean army; Antiochus Epiphanes didn’t destroy the Jews or the Torah. Modern-day Christiandom won’t have victory over the remnant royal priesthood that stands against the lies and deceptions established through centuries of anti-semitic church fathers. The modern-day Romans in Vatican City won’t stop the “Torah from coming out of Zion and the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3, Micah 4:2). The battle is Yeshua’s and he stands on the Mount of Olives and returns to Jerusalem as High Priest, everything Biblical will be restored: the Torah, the Levitical priesthood, the Altar of Sacrifice, circumcision to enter the Sanctuary, and the Temple described by the prophet Ezekiel. Everything –– Jewish.
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