Just about sixty years after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, his friend John experienced a profound vision. His images of Christ governing the earth became the final book in the Bible. And part of it foresees a world in which most nations unite to wage war on Israel.
Think about how outrageous the idea must have been in AD 90 when John put it in writing. Twenty years earlier, Israel had been left in shambles by a frustrated Roman Empire. Jerusalem had been sacked, and the glorious temple had been burned and demolished, stone from stone! After nearly 2,000 years of ritual sacrifice, the Jews had abandoned that act of worship altogether. At that moment, thinking people must have assumed Israel would remain on the ash heap of history forever. But John's Revelation anticipates the Jews will once again rise to such prominence and influence that the whole world will eventually align against them.
Fast forward to 2025 and it's hard to believe what we find. Israel is denounced all around the globe. On respected university campuses all across the US, demonstrations against the Jews have multiplied and Jewish students are harassed. One global organization says violence against Jews is up 340% in the last two years.
That's in spite of the fact that Jews are a tiny sliver of the world population- only two-tenths of one percent!
Never mind that Israel's current military activities in Gaza are in response to an invasion on October 11, 2023. In a military assault code-named Operation Al-Aqsah Flood, Hamas fired 2200 rockets into Israel before unleashing 1500 armed militants across the border in a wave of violence against unarmed civilians. Some 1200 unsuspecting Jews were brutally murdered, many at a concert event, and 250 were captured as hostages. At least twenty of those are still being starved and abused in underground tunnels nearly two years later.
How do we explain such bitter intolerance toward a tiny nation and a miniscule minority of the world population? After the holocaust and the horrendous genocide against European Jews by the Nazi's, the civilized nations united to say, "Never Again!" In world capitals, there are respected museums that document the atrocities inflicted on the Jews by Hitler and his regime. Death camps like Auschwitz have been preserved as shameful reminders of the past. Yet the Jews continue to be singled out.
The real issue is a spiritual problem older and much deeper than the modern left. In his journals back in 1492, Christopher Columbus recalled vast numbers of Jews being expelled from Spain before his famous voyage. This was long before there were National Socialists in Germany or Communists in Russia. We deceived ourselves when we assumed history books and holocaust museums could protect the Jews from the vengeance of Hell.
In Revelation 12, John describes a woman who represents Israel giving birth to an infant son who denotes the Church of Jesus Christ. Significantly, the vision captures the Church being taken up to the throne of God, but Satan continues to pursue the woman into the wilderness. Yes, Christians have faced generations of persecution, but Satan has never stopped pursuing the Jewish people who gave birth to the Savior either! That's how intensely the forces of darkness despise the life and bloodline of Jesus.
You'll never be able to calculate the day of Christ's return by reading the Book of Revelation. But you will come away with clear insight into how our world works. And you'll discover seven biblical principles for living in a world that despises the Savior who died for our sins, rose again, and has promised to return. So don't be intimidated by idle speculation that the closing book of the Bible is all about dreadful events in a distant future we can scarcely imagine. Revelation is about your life today. Read John's powerful words for yourself.
For fresh insights into John's Revelation, take along Timothy Floyd's handbook, The Epic Life: Revelation, Resistance, and Revival. It's a skinny little book full of helpful tools and biblical wisdom for unlocking the vision for yourself, and it's available wherever you buy good books.
