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Why The Holocaust?
by Sam Nadler |
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Since May 2 this year is Holocaust
Remembrance Day, we thought it vital for all who take the Bible
seriously to understand the importance of the spiritual issues at stake.
During the 1930’s & 40’s about one third of all Jewish people alive on
earth at that time were murdered by the Nazi regime. As terrible as that
was, the prophet Zechariah tells us that there is something even worse
to come. In Zechariah 13:8 he prophesies that during a future holocaust,
not one third, but two thirds of all the Jewish people living at that
time will be killed! Many ask the question, “Why? Why are there
Holocausts? The Scriptures are clear regarding the main reason for
anti-Semitism in general, and holocausts in particular: “Spiritual
Warfare.”
The Scriptures inform us that there is an enemy of God: Satan (the
Hebrew word for “adversary”). Though it may seem futile for anyone to
fight against an almighty God, Satan is working to defeat God’s
redemptive plan in order to dethrone God (Is. 14:12-14). |
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Hitler - the 'almost anti-Christ' |
Satan's
Activity To Stop The Redeemer
In Genesis 3:15 God promised that the Redeemer of mankind would also be
the Destroyer of Satan. This Redeemer was promised to come through the
Jewish people as the Messiah of Israel (Gen.12:3; 22:18; 49:10;
Isa.11:10; 49:5-7; etc.), and Satan would attempt to stop this Redeemer
from coming by destroying the Jewish people (via Pharaoh in Ex. 1;
Balaam in Num. 23-24, Haman in Esther 3, etc.). But Messiah did come,
died for our sins and was raised from the dead! On this point we know
Satan has failed. But if he has failed, why is Satan still trying to
destroy the Jewish people today? Right now “the devil prowls like a
roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8), but at The
Second Coming when Messiah returns to earth to restore the Davidic
Kingdom, He will then have Satan bound for a 1000 years (Rev. 20: 1-3).
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Afterwards, Satan will be “thrown in the Lake of Fire” forever
(Rev. 20:10). The lynchpin to all of this future activity and victory of
God is the survival of the Jewish people.
The return of the Lord to reign on planet earth is directly related to
Israel’s repentance of rejecting her Deliverer. This is a consistent
principle in Scripture: before deliverance can take place, God’s
deliverer must be recognized and received on God’s terms. For example,
after first being rejected, Moses brought his people out from Egyptian
bondage only after he was accepted by Israel as their deliverer. Joseph
as well, could deliver his estranged family from destruction only after
his brethren repented of their rejection of him. Joseph, the ‘rejected
one’, was actually God’s means for their salvation (see Gen. 50:20).
Again, David could not rule over all of Israel and completely remove his
adversaries until the people accepted him as their king (see 2 Sam.
5:1-5). So, Yeshua will not return to reign on the Throne of David and
remove the Adversary, Satan, until the Jewish people acknowledge Yeshua
as King. This is why Yeshua* said to our people, “You will not see me
again until you say,--‘Baruch Haba B‘Shem Adonai--Blessed is He that
comes in the Name of the Lord’” (Matt. 23:39).
Indeed, the prophecy of Isaiah 53 is not so much a prophecy of the
coming of Messiah as much as it is a prophecy of the Jewish people
confessing their rejection of the true Messiah, who would die as
atonement for their sins (Isaiah 53:4-10). This confession will be made
at the Second Coming of Messiah: “And I (God) will pour on the house
of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and
supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they
will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as
one grieves for a firstborn” (Zech. 12:10). Then Messiah will return
as “His feet will stand upon the Mount of Olives” (Zech. 14:4).
Peter reiterates this point when he proclaims to the Jewish people,
“Repent and turn to God, that your sins might be wiped away, in order
that the times of refreshing might come from the Lord, and that He might
send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you--even Yeshua. He must
remain in Heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as
He promised…” (Acts 3:19-21). The return of Yeshua who will “restore
everything”--“the times of refreshing”, as well as the destruction of
Satan--depends on the Jewish people repenting and returning to God.
Yeshua must remain in Heaven until that time.
Stop Messiah from Coming Again!
God has made very specific promises to the
Jewish people, among them...
1) The Jews shall always remain an identifiable people before the
nations of the world: “Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for
a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a
light by night, ...If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the
LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation
before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be
measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will
also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith
the LORD” and...
2) Israel would become a nation again: "For, lo, the days come, saith
the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and
Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that
I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it" (Jer. 31:35-37;
30:3 ).
If the Jewish people were to go the way of the Babylonians, Hittites,
Ninevites, etc., God’s promises would be nullified and Satan would
essentially have a stalemate. |
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The total number of victims of
Auschwitz
between 1940-‘45 is 'officially'
estimated at between 1,100,000 and 1,500,000 people. The majority of
the Jewish deportees died in the gas chambers immediately after arrival. |
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Thus in his desperate attempt to prevent Messiah’s return, Satan is
doing all he can to destroy Israel and the Jewish people. At the same
time he is trying to make faith in Yeshua so alien and repugnant that no
self-respecting Jew, much less all Israel, would ever desire to repent
and trust in Yeshua as the Messiah! I would even say that every
congregation of believers in Yeshua/Jesus, Jewish or Gentile, which does
not endeavor to bring the Good News to the Jewish people, is actually,
though unwittingly, playing into the plan of Satan: to stop Israel from
recognizing their Messiah.
Spiritual Warfare
Why holocausts? Because of spiritual
warfare. Therefore as believers in Jesus/Yeshua, Israel’s Messiah, let
us “fight the good fight” (1 Tim. 6: 12) for “we are more than
conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom 8:37). I’m asking that you
encourage your congregation to remember the Holocaust at your services,
to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Ps. 122:6), and do all you
can to bring the Good News of Messiah to the Jewish people around the
world. And may Israel soon say, “Baruch Haba B’Shem Adonai: Blessed
is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.”
Y
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Other Holocaust sites:
http://www.remember.org/
http://www.pbs.org/auschwitz/
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