Despite the 24/7 access to world events, at times, as soon as they happen, most people have no idea what’s happening behind the scenes. It’s understandable that those outside of Christ are oblivious to the unseen spiritual warfare that’s driving much of what we see. Sadly, this same unawareness typifies the majority of those who attend church on any given Sunday.
Jesus warned that such blindness would characterize humanity before His return. In Matthew 24:37-39, He compared the days of Noah to a future time when people would be unaware of the approach of another time of worldwide judgment: “For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”
The Lord’s warning reveals at least a couple of truths that pertain to our day:
- The current epidemic of unawareness should not surprise us; it fulfills Jesus’ prediction for the last days.
- Most people will remain in this state of blissful ignorance until the Rapture occurs and another extended time of God’s judgment begins. Even then, the majority will refuse to repent and put their trust in Jesus.
Sadly, many believers fail to recognize that they live in biblical times despite the myriad of signs pointing to the rapidly approaching seven-year Tribulation. I believe a primary cause for such unawareness stems from a lack of understanding regarding the nature of the spiritual warfare that’s driving world events toward an inevitable conclusion. Jesus’ words in John 10:10 certainly concern our walk with Him, but do they not also include Satan’s behavior throughout our world?: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
The rest of the New Testament makes it abundantly clear that redeemed New Testament saints have an enemy, Satan, whose sole objective is to “steal and kill and destroy.” The Apostle Peter describes our adversary as a “roaring lion” who is constantly seeking victims to “devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
The devil continually strives to disguise the existence of the warfare that rages around us, which not only makes believers vulnerable to our enemy’s devices and attacks against them personally, but also accounts for their inability to identify the same driving force behind the headlines of our day.
John Eldredge, in his book Waking the Dead, put it like this:
Until we come to terms with war as the context of our days, we will not understand life. We will misinterpret 90 percent of what is happening around us and to us.
When we take Eldredge’s words into the realm of Bible prophecy, they point us to the failure of so many Christians to interpret world events in light of Satan’s deadly opposition to the Lord’s redemptive purposes, which began long, long ago.
Before the flood of Genesis 6, Satan sought to thwart God’s plan to send the deliverer He promised in Genesis 3:15. He attempted to destroy humanity both through violence and the contamination of its DNA. Later, after God revealed that the Promised One would come through the descendants of Jacob, he sought to “kill and destroy” them so as to prevent the birth of the Messiah.
Satan’s failure to stop the birth of the Savior and His redeeming work on the cross, however, didn’t quell his murderous rage against the Jewish people.
The devil’s fury against God and His people explains why Israel, since its miraculous rebirth as a nation in 1948, has faced almost constant warfare, terrorism, and repeated threats of impending destruction. He knows how Israel’s existence fits into God’s revealed plans to wrap up human history and inaugurate the millennial kingdom at Jesus’ Second Coming, events that spell his doom.
The world recently witnessed Satan’s savage brutality against the Jewish people in Hamas’ October 7, 2023, barbaric massacre. His obsession with murdering God’s people again manifested itself in the vicious Washington, DC, murder of Israeli embassy staff members Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim.
Why the all-out blitz to kill the Jewish people?
Our adversary has not given up on his efforts to thwart the Lord’s redemptive purposes, namely that of restoring a glorious kingdom to Israel as promised throughout the Old Testament. He understands the Lord’s intent to use the terrors of the Tribulation to bring a remnant of the Jewish people to repentance (Zechariah 12:10-13:9) before He returns to rule over Israel and all the nations of the earth.
Satan’s efforts to stop these things from happening explain a lot of what we see today as he displays his true nature of being a “murderer” and “the father of all lies” (John 8:44).
The inability of most Christians today to recognize the behind-the-scenes battle is a byproduct of the assortment of teachings rooted in the errant belief that God no longer has a purpose for Israel but is rather fulfilling his kingdom promises through the church. As a result, they have bought into the lie that the Land doesn’t belong to the Jewish people. They regard the Middle East war as no different than any other conflicts among the nations and fail to understand the prophetic implications of both the wars and the world’s obsession with bringing peace to the Middle East.
When I retired nine years ago to engage in a full-time writing ministry, I never would’ve identified such teaching, known as Replacement Theology, as a “doctrine of demons.” Since then, my time of studying and reading, along with witnessing the fruits of such teaching, has led me to the conclusion that Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 4:1 apply rather well to it.
The adherence to some form of this false teaching in most churches not only accounts for the widespread unawareness of so many believers to the prophetic signs that characterize our day, but it’s also a contributing factor to the frightening growth of antisemitism that has tragically infiltrated many churches.
