A Fatal Wound
In the late 19th century, an idea began to percolate throughout Europe that the Jews (who had at this point been exiled for nearly 1,800 years) would, if only for their safety, be much better off having a country of their own.
Naturally, the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people seemed the obvious choice. But that land had long since been conquered by Islam, and the Muslim world was uncompromising in their refusal to cede any amount of territory to the Jews.
In an interesting turn of events, the Muslims lost that territory in 1918, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War.
With the land now free, it seemed only a matter of time before a Jewish state became a reality.
However, another 30 years passed by before any decision was made, and in that time the world lost an estimated 6 million Jewish souls (over one-third of the Jewish population) in the Holocaust.
It was not until May 14th, 1948, three years after the end of the Second World War, that Israel was finally declared a nation.
A Summary:
From the natural perspective, Jerusalem was conquered by Babylon, Rome, and Islam.
Babylon (597 BC—538 BC)
Rome (63 BC—AD 638)
Islam (AD 638—AD 1924)
Islam’s rule over the Holy Land was interrupted by the First World War, allowing for the (re)birth of Israel shortly after the end of the Second World War.
But let us take a look at the unseen realities behind these events.
A Spiritual Perspective
From the spiritual perspective, each of these empires was a tool in Satan’s hand (a tool with which he attempted to smash/scatter the Jewish people and seize the Holy Land for himself).
These are the results of those attempts:
Babylon:
Conquered the Kingdom of Judah
Destroyed the 1st Temple
Exiled the Jewish people to Babylon
Babylon was not entirely successful, however, as the Jewish people eventually returned to Jerusalem and built a second Temple.
Rome:
Conquered Judea
Killed Jesus
Destroyed the 2nd Temple
Killed hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of Jews
Exiled the Jewish people
Changed the name of Judea to Palaestina
Like the Jews, the reigning powers and principalities knew that a Messiah was coming, but did not know when.
When Jesus finally made His appearance, they mistakenly thought that by killing Him they were thwarting the plan of God. (Of course, we now know that it was just the opposite, and that the death of Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s plan, rather than the frustration of it.)
When Satan and his fellow forces of evil realized their mistake, they lashed out in rage and fury toward the people of God, and this manifested itself physically through the violence that was then inflicted on the Jews and the Christians by the Roman Empire.
Rome, then, was successful where Babylon had tried and failed: the Jews were banished, and the land of Judea was effectively wiped off the map.
But now there was another problem: Christ.
For the spiritual powers of darkness, it was back to the drawing board. Christianity was spreading, and what Jesus accomplished on the cross could not be undone.
But it could, they discovered, be denied.
Islam:
Conquered the Holy Land
Built the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Dome of the rock on the ruins of the Jewish Temple
Ruled over all the earth, given dominion (Daniel 2 and 7)
After the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the spiritual forces of evil spent nearly 600 years lying in wait, studying the prophecies in both the Old and New Testaments and plotting their next move.
What they needed was a plan that would not only nullify the truth of the gospel but replace it.
What they came up with was a new religion: Islam.
Islam, among many other things, denies the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, claiming that He was a mere prophet and not the Son of God.
Muhammad, on the other hand, is venerated by Muslims as the greatest of all prophets, as it was he who delivered what they consider to be the final and perfect word of God (i.e., the Qur’an).
In other words, the plan worked.
Islam ruled over the Holy Land for nearly 1,300 years. But when rumors started to circulate that the Jews ought to return to that land, the spiritual realm started to panic.
WWI:
Regardless of the human reasons for WWI, what happened behind the veil was a battle between good and evil.
The battle was over the Holy Land, and good prevailed.
This shift in power was a signal that the Jewish exile was coming to an end, and for the spiritual powers of darkness, that meant time was running out.
Something had to be done, and so a plan was hatched to raise up a man who would do everything in his power to prevent the Jewish people from returning to their homeland (and thereby prevent prophecy from being fulfilled).
That man was Adolf Hitler.
WWII:
In 1939, a grand total of 16.6 million Jews were alive in the world, and roughly two-thirds of that population lived in Europe (approximately 9.5 million).
By the end of the Second World War, roughly two-thirds (6 million) of those Jews living in Europe had been wiped out, murdered by a man who would have exterminated them to extinction if his plans had not been cut short.
This attempted genocide was—without question—a calculated and desperate effort made by the forces of evil to rid the world of God’s chosen people (because without them, the prophecies foretold in the Bible about the end of days cannot come to pass).
Fortunately, this attempt was not carried through to completion, and Israel became a nation in 1948.
I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain…
(Rev. 13:3 NASB)
Looking at these historical events through the lens of biblical prophecy, we see that Islam (the 3rd beast) did indeed suffer a fatal wound, and that because of this, the Jewish people were—after an interval of 1,800 years—able to return to the land of their forefathers.
And here lies the point: it is not just that a kingdom dies and is revived. There is purpose in its death. And that purpose is to allow for the regathering of the Jewish people to the Holy Land.
Unfortunately, it is their very presence in the land that is fueling the revival of the beast which we thought dead, and its name is Radical Islam.
