Who is antichrist? Who can make war with the beast? Well, since the OP didn’t get banned for being passionate in his/her view that Islam is antichrist, and since other posters pushing dispensationalist heresies from the likes of Walid Shoebat didn’t get banned, let’s see what happens when I am just as passionate in my view on who I think antichrist is, and whether it’s true if “no one can make war with the beast”:
Let’s start at the beginning -
The promise to Abraham about blessing those who blessed him was given to him when he was a Gentile, not a Jew. Abraham didnt become a Jew until 25 years later when he was circumcised (Genesis 17). Hence, if Genesis 12:3 still applies, then it applies to Abraham as a Gentile, or at the most, to Abraham as a Gentile and a Jew, but it certainly does not apply exclusively to the Jewish race. It was precisely Jesus, John the Baptist, and Paul who separated the Jews from any dependence based on their physical relationship with Abraham (Mat 3:9; Lk 3:8; Jn 8:39; Rm 4:9-11; Gal 3:6-29).
Jeremiah 31 gives two phases to the covenant. One in verse 36 promising that the nation of Israel would be nation for (KAL HAYAMIM), which means all the days, not forever, in which the city would be rebuilt from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. This, of course, was fulfilled in the time of Nehemiah (cf. Neh 3:1; 12:39). Hence, all the days that Israel remained faithful to God, they would continue to be a nation and have their cities rebuilt.
But this occupation ended, of course, when Christ came and the Jews rejected him.
The second phase of the covenant is the spiritual covenant of salvation, a covenant that was fulfilled in Christ. This is why Hebrews 8:7-13 tells us that already in the time of Jeremiah the Old Covenant was passing away, awaiting the establishment of the New Covenant in Jesus Christ. It is to this spiritual covenant that the Jews can place their hope (Heb 11:10-16, 39-40), not a covenant giving them physical land on this sin-cursed earth. So God has fulfilled his promises to Israel.
Today, in the New Covenant, Palestine belongs to the world, not the Jews, unless the world decide to give it to the Jews, which they did in 1948 in a small portion of land the Jews could call their own. Unfortunately, Israel today wants to expand her borders beyond the UN boundaries, and wants to do so by excising the Arab Palestinians who are now living there. This is wrong, since Israel no longer has divine rights to the land, and thus has no rights to excise anyone.
There is not one single verse in the New Testament that says that the Jews would be restored to Israel prior to the Second Coming or anytime near the Second Coming. If the return of the Jewish race to Israel were such an important piece of the puzzle for knowing the return of Christ, we would expect to read about it in the New Testaments eschatological passages. But the only thing we read as a sign of the return of Christ is the general apostasy of the world, nothing about Israel.
The Jews are no longer Gods covenant people because they have no exclusive covenant with God. Their exclusive covenant with God was established with Moses, but that has been superseded by the New Covenant in Christ (Heb 7:18; 10:9). The New Covenant is for both Jew and Gentile, and therefore it is not an exclusive covenant for Jews and it has nothing to do with fulfilling land promises to the Jews in Israel today. All the land promises to the Jews have been fulfilled (Neh 9:7-8); and any future promises to David or Israel have been fulfilled by the Church (Acts 15:16-18; Heb 10:16-18); and those that have not been completely fulfilled will be fulfilled in the New Heaven and New Earth (Heb 10:39-40; 2Peter 3:10-13), not in a piece of real estate in the Middle East.Yes, the Messiah will restore peace to the world, but it will not be on this sin-cursed earth. Like Abraham, we do not look for a country made by man, but one made by God, a heavenly city (Hebrews 11:10, 16). Abraham will receive his promised land of peace, and we will be there with him, when God raises him from the dead and takes him and us to the New Heaven and New Earth, in eternity (Heb 11:39-40). Those who are looking for lasting peace on this earth, especially in the Middle East, are going to be woefully disappointed.
Our commitment is to Christ, not to Israel and Jews.
Race-based importance is condemned by Jesus, John the Baptist, and Paul (Mt 3:9, Lk 3:8; Jn 8:39; Rm 4:9-11; Gal 3:6-29).
The Jewish race are not God’s chosen. Paul tells us who the Chosen are:
Col 3
9Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
12Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Jesus is the seed of Abraham, Jesus is the seed of Jacob. It is Jesus, not Jews, who if cursed will lead to curses and if blessed will lead to blessings.
Why would God want us to bless a SECULAR nation full of atheist Jews that has made it a crime to spread the gospel in Israel and that denies ethnic Jews a right of return if they believe Jesus Christ is the messiah? Why would God want us to bless and give our unwavering and blind support to a people that reject his Son and curse his name? Why would God want us to bless the Israeli regime that treats Palestinians (which includes Christians) as worthless dogs?
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