Let's talk about the Synagogue of Satan

Who did Jesus mean by that?

"Those who say they are Jews but are not" - AI generated image

Hello Bereans!

I find it somewhat ironic that as I began this series on Israel here on Substack, this platform found itself in the middle of an imbroglio involving self-appointed Nazi-hunters calling for those they’ve identified as Nazis writing on the platform to be de-platformed, or at least de-monitized. Which sounds all well and good on the surface, if you enjoy censorship and don’t like free speech, but one problem (of many) is that they could never come to a coherent definition of what a Nazi actually is, other than someone who writes hate speech, by which they mean, under closer examination, any speech they hate.

I find it even more ironic that the vast majority of those on the “Substackers Against Nazis” bandwagon are actually anti-Israel, pro-Palestine and even pro-Hamas. And what’s most ironic of all, but perversely typical of the spirit of the age, is that my faith, my values, my stand for truth and individual rights and freedom, and my support of Israel’s right to exist, defend themselves and not have to worry about their babies being raped and viciously murdered would make me one of the “Nazis” according to their deluded definition, even as I’m writing a series denouncing actual antisemitism and debunking its tropes.

Thankfully, Substack’s response to this push to get them to go the way of Twitter and Meta in censoring and silencing people and ideas that the progressive left doesn’t like was, essentially, “Get bent.” Which makes me feel even better about my decision to make this platform my main writing and social media hub.

I’ll get to my main topic in a moment, but I just want to take a pause to reflect on how this entire kerfuffle is so indicative of the spirit of the age, and something we Christians need to be aware of and on guard against. The god of this world and the prince of the air HATES both Christians and Jews, as well as conservatives, who may or may not be Christian but uphold and promote Judeo-Christian morality, values and institutions.

As the Church’s power and influence declines, the fallen realm gains more control and influence, and the vast majority of people alive today are under their sway and convinced of a plethora of twisted ideas and false narratives that make all of God’s people and anyone who allies or aligns with them out to be the bad guys.

Bad guys who, in the minds of a scary number of people, must be stopped at all costs.

And disturbingly, far too many Christians -- especially those caught up in the gnostic pursuit of “The Truth” and spend their time going down secular rabbit holes* instead of looking in scripture to see what God says is true -- are more aligned with this spirit of the age when it comes to Israel than they are with the Holy Spirit and God’s word.

If Satan would give you a thumbs up or like your posts on Israel, then maybe you ought to step back and rethink your position.

This brings me to today’s topic…

What did Jesus Mean by “Synagogue of Satan”?

Jesus mentions the Synagogue of Satan twice in the book of Revelation -- once each in the letters he had John write to the churches at Smyrna and Philadelphia (interestingly, both of the only two churches Jesus had no criticisms or warnings for, but only commendation and words of encouragement). He defines this mysterious group as “those who say they are Jews but are not,” and that’s all the information we’re given.

For at least the last hundred years or so, these verses have been paired with the Khazarian theory to justify both hatred of Jews and antisemitic views toward Israel. I debunked the Khazarian replacement myth in my last article. And if you consider that Jesus was literally writing letters to actual churches that existed at the time of John’s writing at the end of the first century A.D., long before the Khazars supposedly converted to Judaism, it’s highly unlikely he was referring to a future race of people that would pretend to be Jewish as they, according to the theory, ran the world behind the scenes.

While the letters to the seven churches were both literally written to existing churches of the day and also provide a prophetic overview of the Church age, with each church representing a period in Church history, it’s more likely that Jesus was speaking to a specific situation that these churches were dealing with at the time.

So what was going on back then that fit the description?

There were two major problems relating to the Jews in the early Church. The first was the Judaizers -- those who kept trying to bring early gentile Christians under the law, insisting that they must convert to Judaism in order to truly be saved. There were gentile Christians who fell for this and joined in the persecution of Christians who wouldn’t convert. The entire book of Galatians and part of Hebrews were written to refute this heresy which, sadly, has had a modern-day revival in the Hebrew Roots/Torah Observant movement.

Another problem was that, in the Roman empire at the time, Judaism was legal, but Christianity was not. In order to protect their livelihoods and avoid persecution from the Roman authorities, many Christians denied their Christian identity and claimed to be Jews. Apparently, some of them even went so far as to turn their fellow Christians into the authorities.

Given the subject matter of the letter to Smyrna -- commending them for standing firm under heavy persecution -- it’s likely that one, or both, of these groups is who Jesus meant, at least in that instance.

This is likely also true for Philadelphia, who was commended for keeping, i.e. guarding, God’s word. But there’s another view that I think is worth considering, in light of the prophetic Church timeline laid out in the seven letters. In this context, Chuck Missler proposes that the Synagogue of Satan could also be referring to those who say that the Church is the true Israel -- in other words, replacement theologians.

You know, people who favor an allegorical view of prophecy who love to browbeat those who insist God actually said what he meant and meant what he said.

As I highlighted in my last article, due to the fact that ancient Israel had a long history of welcoming Gentile believers into their tribes, and that Jesus himself had several Gentile ancestors, he can’t be referring to non-ethnic Jewish converts. Which means, even if there were a grain of truth to the Khazarian conspiracy (there's not), it wouldn’t matter, they still wouldn’t be the Synagogue of Satan just because they’re not ethnically Jewish.

Let’s talk about the Khazar theory

All of that said, I do think there’s validity to applying that label to those powerful individuals and families who lean on their Jewish identity while professing atheism and blatantly working to promote a Luciferian global agenda. But we need to tread carefully here, remembering that, among the elite families purportedly running this poop show, the Soroses and Rothschilds, et al, are among the minority. Most of them are gentiles. The globalist agenda is not a “Jewish” agenda. It’s a Satanic agenda, full stop. And it’s using fallen, sinful people to bring it about -- people who are lost and dying and enslaved to the powers of darkness because they don’t know Christ, regardless of their ethnicity.

However you define it, the bottom line is that the concept of a Synagogue of Satan should not be used by Christians under any circumstances to write any group of people off as deserving of destruction and exempt from being given the gospel. We’re commanded to pray for them, and our heart should be that they come to know Jesus.

Until next time, may the Lord bless you and keep you and guide you into all the truth.

Jean

*I’m not denouncing going down those rabbit holes. I’ve gone down plenty myself. But it can be dangerous to peek into those holes without a solid grounding in the truth of God’s word, and frankly, idolatrous to spend more time obsessively chasing the white rabbit in search of knowledge and understanding and giving short shrift to the study of scripture. Everything we need to know and understand about what’s happening in today’s world is right there in the Bible, which also tells us how this will all pan out.

---

Thank you for reading. I want to keep this content free for everyone, but these articles take a lot of time and effort to research and write. If you’d like to help keep them coming, you can click here to leave a one-time or monthly donation in the amount of your choosing. You can also support this publication by liking and sharing it. And if someone came to your mind while you were reading this, by all means, forward it to them.

Sources/Further Reading/Watching:

(As always, I provide resources here to serve as a starting point for you to do your own research and Bible study. My goal isn’t to spoon-feed you information, but to encourage you to emulate the Bereans by prayerfully searching for yourself and coming to your own conclusions.)