The antichrist is against everything that God is for. The villain in the end times’ saga will wage war against God’s holy people. Whether you agree with it or not, the people of Israel are still God’s holy people, not because of their works or behavior but because they are chosen by God. I think it should be fairly obvious when reading the Scriptures that the people of Israel are important to God. (Don’t believe me. Ask God yourself!)

The majority of the Bible centers around the history of Israel. We are fully informed through the Scriptures that God chose Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel) to accomplish His purposes. We are carefully led through the lineage of God’s people throughout the generations. God even delivered His own physical body through the same lineage.

Most of the problems in the world start with a refusal to know God and do His will. It’s why the Israelites were repeatedly taken into captivity by an enemy power. God allowed it as a punishment for refusing to know God. During the times of the judges, we can see that each time the people tried to be their own god or to worship counterfeit gods, they found themselves eventually crying out to God for mercy. God sent deliverers, known as judges, to rescue them from their miserable circumstances. And … all was well until they returned to their pagan practices and false gods. Which they did repeatedly.

Many of Israel’s kings refused to know God or obey His will. They instead built up their own little kingdoms that allowed for darkness to find root. Those subtle evil beginnings grew into all out pagan idol worship and ignoring God. God was right to leave them in the hands of their false gods.

The prophets were commissioned by God to deliver messages of warning, caution, and rebuke. (Rarely were they sent with words of encouragement.) That’s why the prophets were so often persecuted. But God … saw the mistreatment of His prophets, and He increased the captivity and misery against His own chosen people for refusing a word from Him.

The antichrist has a very familiar agenda against the people of Israel.

* In Egypt, the Pharaoh ordered all the male children of Israel to be killed. (God sent Moses.)

* In Babylon, Haman tried to have the Jewish people exterminated. (God sent Esther.)

* Herod ordered the same edict during the time of Christ’s birth.

* History has continually proven the devil’s plan to destroy the nation of Israel as seen during The Holocaust and in its enemies today.

“The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. Whoever has ears, let them hear.” (Revelation 13:5-9 NIV)