{"id":45647,"date":"2026-06-08T05:32:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T12:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/?p=45647"},"modified":"2026-08-13T05:51:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T12:51:55","slug":"new-booklet-the-mystery-of-antisemitism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/new-booklet-the-mystery-of-antisemitism\/","title":{"rendered":"NEW BOOKLET: “The Mystery of Antisemitism” by Dr. Andy Woods"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lighthouse Trails is pleased to release our latest topical booklet, The Mystery of Antisemitism<\/em> written by Dr. Andy Woods. The content of this booklet is from a talk Dr. Woods gave in February 2026 at the Sugar Land Prophecy Conference in Sugar Land, Texas.* The booklet is 18 pages long and sells for $1.95 for single copies. Quantity discounts are available. Our booklets are designed to give away to others or for your own personal use. Below is the content of this new booklet. To order copies of The Mystery of Antisemitism <\/em>in booklet format, click here. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE MYSTERY OF ANTISEMITISM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Dr. Andy Woods<\/strong>**<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Antisemitism:<\/strong> An irrational hatred and a transgenerational hatred for the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Today we see a lot of examples of antisemitism. Hitler, the Ayatollah, and even Martin Luther. We\u2019ve seen situations in New York City where they have elected, for lack of a better expression, a jihadist mayor. People say he\u2019s a socialist and tend to undersell what he is. I don\u2019t think Marxist even covers it. Zohran Mamdani doesn\u2019t believe Israel has a legitimate right to exist. And 20 percent of New York is Jewish! Think about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then we\u2019ve seen antisemitism on the right coming from well-known conservative pundits such as Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, people we used to trust a few years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe it was either Olivier Melnick or Paul Wilkinson yesterday who gave a quote from Martin Luther who said in his book On the Jews and Their Lies<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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First, set fire to their synagogues . . . so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them.1<\/sup> . . . Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed.2<\/sup> . . . Third, their prayer books and Talmudic writings [should] be taken from them.3<\/sup> . . . Fourth, their rabbis [should] be forbidden to teach henceforth, on pain of loss of life and limb.4<\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And it goes on and on like this for about 80 pages (other instructions by Luther in his book included taking away from the Jews all their cash, silver, and gold, and condemning them to hard labor or exile). As was mentioned yesterday, this is Hitler\u2019s favorite theologian, Martin Luther. Even the Lutheran church today has distanced itself publicly from these comments. People can misspeak. I\u2019m like the expert at that. I\u2019ve mangled a syl-lab<\/em>-le or two in my time as a public speaker, but it\u2019s different when you write it down because when you\u2019re writing, it\u2019s more of a cool, calm, deliberate process. And so there\u2019s no way to let Luther off the hook for this\u2014as many people have tried to do\u2014and say he was just a grumpy old man at the end of his life. I\u2019ve heard people say things like that. No, he was moved, toward the end of his life, into antisemitic thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Calvin, in certain circles, always gets a free pass on this. But an honest intellectual reading of John Calvin will not allow that. Calvin said of the Jewish people:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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God so blinded the whole people that they were like restive dogs. I have had much conversation with many Jews\u2014I have never seen either a drop of piety or a grain of truth or ingenuity\u2014no, I have never found common sense to prevail in any Jew.5<\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Could you imagine saying that about any other people group?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, you probably have heard of Epic city (now known as The Meadow) that\u2019s being built in the Plano, Texas area. A Muslim mini city for lack of a better word. The man largely behind this is Yasir Qadhi. Qadhi was on my radar screen a long time before he came to Texas. He was living in the Tennessee area. And he is one of the leading scholars of Islam today in the United States. He once made a statement that Hitler never intended to mass destroy the Jews,6<\/sup> and he talks about a good book everyone should read called The Hoax of the Holocaust<\/em>.7<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qadhi also has stated that the Jews living in the land of Israel aren\u2019t really Jews (that\u2019s called the Khazar theory). Olivier Melnick has written a lot of things debunking that.8<\/sup> But that whole idea that the Jews living in Israel today aren\u2019t real Jews has been destroyed. There\u2019s no there <\/em>for that. By the way, if the Jews living in Israel today aren\u2019t real Jews, the Muslims never got the memo, did they?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Motivates Antisemitism?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We see antisemitism all around us. What we are going to deal with here in this session is what causes it<\/em>, and what motivates it<\/em>. And that\u2019s why I\u2019ve had you open up to Revelation 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bible teaches over and over again, and I wish we had time to look up every one of these verses (Job 1:12; 2 Kings 6:15-17; 1 Chronicles 21:1; Daniel 10:12-13, 20; Matthew 16:21-23; Luke 22:31-32; Ephesians 6:12), but if you look all of them up, you\u2019ll see that what is happening in our physical world is being influenced by events happening in the angelic conflict, the fallen angelic realm. The things happening in that invisible realm, that we can\u2019t<\/em> perpetually see, influence events in our physical world that we can<\/em> see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in my basketball days, before a game, we would watch videos of the other team we were going to face that particular weekend playing a game. It just went on and on, watching game tape videos mandated by the coaching staff. Why would we do that? Well, to figure out the other side\u2019s strategy<\/em>. How are they; who\u2019s their leading scorer? Where does the leading scorer like to shoot from? What kind of defense do they run? Is it man-to-man? Is it half-court press? Is it full-court press? Is it zone defense? Do they trap? How do we break the trap? Who are their worst free-throw shooters because when the game is on the line, those are the people you want to foul. You\u2019re just taking in all this information before going out to play because the team that wins doesn\u2019t always have the best talent, but they have the best strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And likewise, there are strategies in life. There are retirement strategies, marketing strategies, political strategies, you name it. And what we need to understand is\u2014the devil has strategies. Paul talks about them in 2 Corinthians 2:11 where he says, \u201cLest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices,\u201d which is a translation of the concept of strategies. I\u2019m here to tell you folks that Christianity today has no clue on the strategies of Satan. And yet they\u2019re laid out for us in blueprint form in Revelation 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first five verses of the chapter deal with a past strategy of Satan, which revolved around stopping the first<\/em> coming of Jesus Christ, that failed. After the failure of that strategy, Satan moved into strategy two, which is the second part of the chapter\u2014a future strategy of Satan destined to fail, revolving around the second advent of Christ. So, with those things being said, let\u2019s jump right in and figure out the strategies of Satan. Because when you see these, you\u2019ll see where the antisemitism that is proliferating all around us comes from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revelation 12 begins:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And there appeared a great wonder [sign] in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: 2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. 3 And there appeared another wonder [sign] in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. 4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. 5 And she brought forth a man child [son], who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Now, this here is a history lesson, but it\u2019s no ordinary history lesson. It\u2019s a history lesson about the birth of Christ told from the perspective of the angelic conflict. And in this particular history lesson, we run into three characters: the son\u2014s o n\u2014verse 5, to be distinguished from the sun\u2014s u n\u2014also mentioned in this passage. We run into the dragon, verse 3, and then we run into the woman, verse 1; and we know that this is symbolic language. (Not everything in the Bible is to be taken literally when there\u2019s a clue that a symbol is in play).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we\u2019ve stumbled into in Revelation 12 is the most symbolic chapter in the most symbolic book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation. You can\u2019t get more intense symbolism than this. And we know that<\/em> because of the word \u201cwonder\u201d (\u201csign\u201d in NASB) (translation of the Greek word s\u0113meion<\/em>) used in verse 1 and verse 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we hit this kind of thing, the question becomes, how do we interpret it? There are some rules. We follow the rules; we\u2019ll figure it out quickly. If we don\u2019t follow the rules, and we just apply our imagination, we\u2019ll come up with confusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first rule to follow when we hit a symbol is always search the immediate context because most of the time the symbol is identified in the same context. And the second rule to follow when we hit a symbol is, if we\u2019re in the Book of Revelation, search the Old Testament. The Book of Revelation has 404 verses in it. Two-hundred and seventy eight of those verses are references back to the Old Testament. And we\u2019ll typically find the symbol identified there. If we just follow those two rules, we can understand everything in the Book of Revelation. So let\u2019s apply the rules, shall we?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who\u2019s the \u201cson\u201d? (s o n). Well, the son, verse 5, is Jesus because He\u2019s going to rule the nations with a rod of iron. Hey, that\u2019s familiar. That\u2019s Psalm 2:9, speaking of the Messiah. He was caught up to God and His throne. That sounds familiar. That\u2019s the ascension, Acts 1:9. So the son is Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who\u2019s the dragon? Well, the dragon is the devil. How do we know that? Revelation 12:9 tells us that, as does chapter 20, verse 2 of the Book of Revelation. It says in verse 9, \u201cAnd the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan.\u201d That\u2019s an easy one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All right. Well, who\u2019s the woman? There\u2019s a lot of people running around today saying the woman is the church. We have a problem with that because the woman is giving birth to Jesus. The church did not give birth to Jesus. Jesus gave birth to the church, right? He says that in Matthew 16:18: \u201cI say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.\u201d The church is the bride of Christ, not the mother of Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who in the world is this woman then if it\u2019s not the church? Well, it\u2019s not identified in the passage. So, let\u2019s just follow our rules. Let\u2019s go into the Old Testament. And if you\u2019re familiar with Joseph\u2019s dream, you know exactly who the woman is. This is a dream that Joseph had at the age of 17. Genesis 37:9 says, \u201cAnd he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more.\u201d And see if this imagery doesn\u2019t ring a bell, \u201cthe sun and the moon and the eleven stars,\u201d Joseph being the 12th, \u201cmade obeisance [bowed down] to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph\u2019s dream would be fulfilled about thirteen years later when he was 30. We know that he would be elevated to second in command in all of Egypt. And he related it to his father and his brothers. His father rebuked him, basically saying, you stupid 17-year-old\u2014you don\u2019t know anything.<\/em> In the process of his rebuke, Jacob fills out the imagery. And because Joseph related it to his father and to his brothers, his brothers wanted him thrown into the pit, leaving him for dead, and then selling him as a slave. Just sheer jealousy.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Joseph\u2019s father said to him, \u201cWhat is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I [that\u2019s the sun] and thy mother [that\u2019s the moon] and thy brethren [that\u2019s the eleven stars, Joseph being the twelfth star] indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?\u201d (v. 10). So, the sun is Jacob, the moon is Leah, not Rachel, because Rachel had already died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The eleven stars bowing down to the twelfth star are Joseph\u2019s brothers. The twelfth star is Joseph. From Joseph and his brothers came Israel\u2019s twelve tribes. So, the sun and the moon and the twelve stars are a representation symbolically of the nation of Israel. Now, you would never know that if you didn\u2019t filter Revelation 12 through Genesis 37. So, the son is Jesus, the dragon is the devil, and the woman is the nation of Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Do you see what I just took you through there? An exercise on how to interpret the Book of Revelation, which everybody today tells me you can\u2019t understand. Well, that\u2019s a little odd because the very title of the book is Revelation coming from the Greek word apocalypsis<\/em>, which means disclosure. How could a disclosure be non-understandable? Henry Morris, in his commentary on the Book of Revelation, writes, \u201cIt must be stressed that revelation means unveiling, not veiling.\u201d9<\/sup> All the way through church history, everybody acts like Revelation is something you can\u2019t understand. Luther didn\u2019t even consider the Book of Revelation as an actual canonical book inspired by God. That\u2019s Martin Luther. No wonder he didn\u2019t understand prophecy. But you don\u2019t have to be afraid of the Book of Revelation. You just follow a couple of rules and you can understand everything in the book because that\u2019s the point of the book\u2014to be understood. That\u2019s the title of the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stopping the Birth of Christ?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The most important verse, for our purposes here, is verse 4. It says the dragon (Satan) stood before the woman. Who is the woman? Israel that was about to give birth so that he might devour her child. Who is the child? Jesus. What is being described here is what was happening in the angelic conflict, the spiritual realm, when Jesus Christ was born into our physical world. And what was happening was Herod was insecure over his own throne. He didn\u2019t like the competition of a coming king of kings. And so, as you know the story\u2014the famous Christmas story\u2014he went out to have the innocent males\u2014children in Bethlehem\u2014wiped out; and that\u2019s all chapter 2 of Matthew tells us. John comes along on the island of Patmos, and he says, Let me tell you what was happening in the spiritual world as that event or those events were happening in the physical world.<\/em> It was actually the devil using Herod\u2019s insecurity to stop the arrival of Jesus Christ. It\u2019s just Matthew doesn\u2019t tell us that. John says, I\u2019ll tell you the whole story.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was Satan trying to do? He was trying to stop something. This is strategy A. Satan was trying to stop the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15, which is a messianic prophecy. It\u2019s the first messianic prophecy in the whole Bible. Right when the fall of man happened, God put the devil on notice. He spoke these words to the serpent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And I say, \u201cAha, I\u2019ve got an aha moment.\u201d Because now little old me understands why there were countless attempts to stop the messianic lineage leading to Jesus in the Old Testament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why Cain killed Abel\u2014to stop the coming of the Messiah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why the angels were having sexual relationships with human women in Genesis 6\u2014to tamper with the genetics of the pre-flood gene pool so that a Messiah who must be fully man can never be born. So let\u2019s create a race of people who aren\u2019t fully human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s why Pharaoh persecuted Israel and tried to drown her male children in the Nile (Exodus 1:16, 22).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if there was ever a time in history where Satan almost pulled it off, it was in the story in 2 Chronicles 22 and 23 relating to baby Joash (son of Ahaziah) who was persecuted by his grandmother, Athaliah, a usurping wicked queen. And had it not been for the intervention of Joash\u2019s aunt (Ahaziah\u2019s sister) who hid baby Joash in the temple, Satan would have won because the Davidic lineage leading to Jesus would have been shut down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s why Haman persecuted Israel in the Book of Esther.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s why Antiochus Epiphanes desecrated the Jewish temple in 167 BC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it\u2019s why Herod persecuted and murdered the infants in Bethlehem in the Christmas story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all these instances, a war in the heavenlies (or spiritual realm) was simultaneously taking place to break the chain of the Davidic lineage to Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the way, if you\u2019re a preacher and a teacher and you want a good Christmas message, this is it. Don\u2019t teach Matthew 2. They already know that story. I mean, teach it, but augment it, supplement it. Talk about Revelation 12 because that\u2019s<\/em> the Christmas message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Satan tried relentlessly to stop the lineage leading to the birth of Christ. And guess what? He failed. And there\u2019s blood everywhere, all over the Bible. And it\u2019s a record of Satan\u2019s warfare against the seed of the woman. Satan lost round one. Now, preach that on Christmas. You\u2019ll get their attention. Believe me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Antisemitic Connection<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Now, you might be saying, \u201cWell, this is all fascinating, but what does this have to do with antisemitism?\u201d It has everything<\/em> to do with antisemitism because the second part of Revelation 12 deals with strategy two that Satan is using. It\u2019s a preemptive strike. I\u2019m going to take you <\/em>(Jesus) out before you take me out because I know you\u2019re coming to crush my head<\/em>, Satan says. (Genesis 3:15) So, I\u2019m going to stop it from happening.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know God has promised to bless the world through the nation of Israel. In Genesis 12:3, God says, \u201c[I]n thee [Israel] shall all families of the earth be blessed.\u201d And boy, has that not happened? We have the Scripture because of the Jews. I mean, there\u2019s not a Southern Baptist author in the whole Bible. There\u2019s not a Methodist author. There\u2019s not a Presbyterian author. They\u2019re all Jewish. The only one who\u2019s debated anymore is Luke. And evidence is coming in that maybe Luke was Jewish as well. No God working through the Jews? Then no Bible. No Savior because Jesus was a Jew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we can see God\u2019s promise to bless the world through the Jews, but Satan was trying to stop those blessings from coming with round one of his preemptive attacks. But there\u2019s a third blessing on the horizon that the devil hates more than anything else. And it\u2019s the kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The kingdom is going to be headquartered in Jerusalem (e.g., Isaiah 2:2-3; Zechariah 14:16-18). You see, God has not finished using Israel to bless planet Earth. He\u2019s given us the Bible through Israel. He\u2019s given us the Savior through Israel. But Israel\u2019s gifts are continuing to come. There\u2019s a third one coming. It\u2019s the coming of the kingdom, which will be birthed through the nation of Israel. And of all the blessings, Satan hates that one the most because once that one hits, his days are over. He\u2019ll be bound (Revelation 20:2-3) in the abyss for a thousand years. At the conclusion of that thousand-year time period, he will be cast forever into the lake of fire. However, for all of this to happen, there must always be a remnant of the Jews on the planet. Satan\u2019s final solution will be to attempt to wipe out all the Jews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Satan does not want to give up territory. He has enjoyed all of these millennia being an illegitimate usurper over planet Earth. The New Testament teaches that he is the \u201cprince of the power of the air\u201d (Ephesians 2:2). He\u2019s \u201cthe god of this world\u201d (2 Corinthians 4:4). He\u2019s \u201cthe prince [ruler] of this world\u201d (John 12:31). He is \u201ca liar, and the father of it\u201d (John 8:44). And he\u2019s the one we \u201cwrestle\u201d with (Ephesians 6:12). That\u2019s why we have to put on the full armor of God. Satan roams about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). The whole world lies in his power (1 John 5:19), and he doesn\u2019t want to give up territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so our Adversary\u2019s ambition since he works preemptively is to destroy the instrument through which the kingdom will come. That\u2019s how he thinks. His mind is not well. In Ezekiel 28:12-17, it talks about how he was once a high-ranking beautiful angel and how his wisdom became corrupted. And he thinks he can stop God. How self-deluded is that? He thinks he can stop God\u2019s prophecies from being fulfilled. And this is why he\u2019s working in history to do the things he\u2019s doing. It\u2019s all an outworking. It\u2019s a manifestation of the angelic conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what is happening in the second half of the tribulation period is the most intense spiritual warfare that anyone would ever witness as Satan is working in history to blot out the Jewish nation. In Revelation 12:6, it says, \u201cThe woman.\u201d Who\u2019s the woman? Israel. She flees into the wilderness, most likely Jordan, where she has a place prepared for her by God, most likely Petra, so that there she is to be nourished for 1,260 days, which is a synonym, if you will, for the second half of the tribulation period. This explains what is happening in the physical world in the second half of the tribulation period as it\u2019s being influenced by the spiritual world. It\u2019s exactly what happened in the first part of chapter 12. What was happening in the spiritual world when Jesus was born into our physical world? What was happening in the angelic realm? Revelation 12:1-5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was Satan\u2019s first strategy. Well, he lost that round, so the strategy now moves to Satan saying, I\u2019m gonna destroy Israel so I can stop the coming of the kingdom<\/em>, but the Jews flee into the wilderness. Matthew 24:15-22 narrates the story from the perspective of the physical world. But John says, Let me tell you what is happening in the spiritual world, the angelic world that you can\u2019t see.<\/em> As Israel is fleeing into the wilderness once the beast desecrates the temple, Matthew describes the event in the physical world; John, in Revelation 12, describes it in the spiritual world. It\u2019s like a puzzle. We just need to take both pieces and put them together because the conflict in the spiritual realm is happening in conjunction to the conflict in the physical realm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Revelation 12:7-12, it says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom [basileia<\/em>] in Greek of our God, and the power [authority] of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s a short time? It\u2019s 1,260 days. You see, Satan, even now, has the ability to go into Heaven, not to worship and serve as he once did as a high-ranking angel, but to communicate and accuse. And if you doubt that, just read the Book of Job, which talks about it very clearly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What will happen at exactly the midpoint of the tribulation period once the beast desecrates the temple is that<\/em> privilege is gone, and Satan now plummets to the Earth. Personally, I believe he will enter the beast at that point, a demonic possession. But however he does it, he\u2019s got exactly 1,260 days left to destroy the instrument, Israel, through which the kingdom will come\u2014because although he thinks he can stop prophecy, he understands prophecy. It\u2019s kind of a strange thing. He knows who the kingdom is going to come through, Israel; yet he thinks, I\u2019ve got exactly 1,260 days left to annihilate it so that the kingdom will not come. <\/em>Even before you get to Revelation 12, you get near the end of chapter 11, which says, \u201cThe kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ\u201d (v. 15). The kingdom authority is coming. It\u2019s being transferred. And Satan says, I\u2019m going to stop it. And I\u2019m going to stop it by gobbling up the woman (Israel), the woman clothed with the sun, moon, and twelve stars, so that the kingdom will never materialize.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Book of Revelation, God is taking the whole world out of bondage just like He did in Exodus where He took a nation, the nation of Israel, out of Egyptian bondage. The Book of Revelation is the ultimate exodus where God takes the whole world out of the satanic bondage that it\u2019s been in and where the illegitimate usurpation of authority by Satan going back to Genesis 3 ends. That\u2019s why the judgments we read about in Exodus seem so parallel to the judgments we read about in the Book of Revelation.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Satan goes into two preemptive strikes. Here\u2019s strike one. And he\u2019s going to strike out too:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. (Revelation 12:13-14)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Now \u201ca time and times, and half a time\u201d is a synonym for 1,260 days, which equals 42 months. (Time, a Jewish year, times two Jewish years, half a time, half a Jewish year equals three and a half years. The Jewish calendar has 30 days per month. That adds up to 1,260 days, which translates into 42 months.) We\u2019re dealing with the second half of the tribulation period when Satan pulls out all the stops, and he persecutes the woman. We\u2019re not sure how he does it, but the same word for persecution is used in Matthew 5:10-11 where we are called blessed if we are \u201cpersecuted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, as I mentioned earlier, just like God hid baby Joash when Satan was within a millimeter of victory, God comes through for Israel when no one else will. That\u2019s where you get this imagery of eagle\u2019s wings. \u201cAnd to the woman [or Israel] were given two wings of a great eagle\u201d so that she could fly into the wilderness to a place where she is protected by God for three and a half years (Revelation 12:14).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s not get weird here. Don\u2019t lose your hermeneutics. Don\u2019t lose your rules. I can\u2019t tell you how many sermons I\u2019ve heard about how America\u2019s symbol is the eagle and Air Force One swoops in at the last minute. And I\u2019m a patriotic guy. I want all that to be true. But don\u2019t do stuff like that. Stick with the rules. What are the rules? If the symbol is not found in the immediate context, then we search the Old Testament. And when you go back to Exodus 19:4, you\u2019ll find exactly what the two wings of the eagle represent. It\u2019s not a mystery. It\u2019s what God did for Israel as they were coming out of the Egyptian bondage, the Exodus, the parting of the Red Sea, and so forth. It\u2019s analogized to God rescuing Israel via eagle\u2019s wings:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles\u2019 wings, and brought you unto myself. (Exodus 19:4)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the interpretation you give when you see the exact same imagery in Revelation 12. God came through for Israel during her darkest hour in the Exodus events. The same phenomenon is going to happen when it looks bleakest and it looks like the devil is within a millimeter of victory. In strike one of Satan\u2019s preemptive attacks, God comes through for Israel in a way that only He gets the credit. Air Force One doesn\u2019t get the credit. God gets the credit. That\u2019s how He set up human history to glorify Himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then we read strike two in verses 15 and 16 where it says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Some kind of flood comes from the serpent (i.e., the devil). Now what\u2019s the flood? I have a tendency to think the flood is an army of some kind because when the prediction is given about Titus of Rome sacking Israel in AD. 70 in the Book of Daniel 600 years before it happened, it\u2019s analogized to the coming of a flood (Daniel 9:26). So, I think that\u2019s what this flood in Revelation is. And what does God do? He opens the ground up and swallows up the army. Oh, and by the way, God is really good at this. I mean, really good. In Numbers, chapter 16, a bunch of people cornered Moses and said, Hey, Moses, we don\u2019t really like you as our leader,<\/em> and God says to Moses, Hey, this one\u2019s on me. <\/em>And the ground opens up, and all the disgruntled people go right into the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That becomes strike two failed. And then we have a summary statement at the end: Verse 17 says, \u201cAnd the dragon was wroth [enraged] with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed.\u201d I would think that they would be the 144,000 evangelists perhaps who were the first fruits saved or maybe converts reached in the tribulation period itself \u201cwhich keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which Side Will You Choose?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In this summary statement in chapter 12, look at these words that are used to describe the satanic hatred for Israel. And as you take hold of these, you\u2019ll understand very clearly the mystery of antisemitism<\/em>. What is Satan\u2019s attitude towards Israel? Wrath! Enraged! That\u2019s the English translation of the Greek word orgiz\u014d<\/em>, which is a sexual term. But here, in Revelation, it\u2019s not being used in the sexual sense. It\u2019s being used in the emotional sense. It\u2019s uncontrolled rage. That is the attitude Satan has toward Israel\u2014when he thinks of Israel, when he sees Israel. Because when he sees Israel, he sees his end of days because Israel is the gift that keeps on giving. That\u2019s what God said. I\u2019ll bless the world through Israel,<\/em> which includes the Savior. It includes the Scripture, and it includes the kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In verse 13 of chapter 12, Satan wants to persecute Israel. In verse 15, he wants to sweep Israel away, and in verse 17, he\u2019s enraged, and he\u2019s at war with Israel. Why does he hate Israel? Because through Israel came the patriarchs, the law, the prophets, the Messiah, the apostles, the biblical writers, the early church, the early Christian martyrs, Paul and everything he did, and the future kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we think about all this, Israel can explain her existence without Christianity. Christianity, by contrast, cannot explain its existence without Israel. And so when people within Christendom attack Israel, it\u2019s like they are out on a limb and they are sawing off the tree that is connected, and they\u2019re out on the edge. It\u2019s complete insanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we wrap this up, here are four points of application:<\/p>\n\n\n\n