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Friday, September 2 2005
by Wayne Blank
Early Christianity was so "Jewish" that, in the minds of some of those who did not yet fully understand that the Gentiles were also children of God, they would have, in effect, if not literally, have said "You can't be a Christian if you aren't a Jew!" The apostle Paul publicly rebuked the apostle Peter for that very reason (a collision of two Biblical heavyweights, both true men of God, that must have been shocking to many of those who witnessed it):
"But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?" (Galatians 2:14 KJV)
"Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan"
The point of this is that many of the terms used by New Testament writers were "Jewish," that is, they were familiar terms spoken by, and to, Jews. Among those terms found in the New Testament is the "Synagogue of Satan," as spoken by Jesus Christ, a Jew, in the Book of Revelation (which was written by the apostle John according to what Jesus Christ told him i.e. Revelation 1:1), that some have used to persecute Jews over the centuries. They ignore the Jewish reality of the founding of Christianity, and foolishly proclaim, from the "Synagogue of Satan" term, and others, that "Jews are of Satan" and that "the Jews" opposed Christians (nearly all of whom were also Jews who did not even call themselves Christians - see the Fact Finder question below). Some ignorant, hate-filled bigots (see also Hate Jews?) will even call you a liar (and/or much worse, as I can attest from personal experience) if you say to them, for example, that Jesus Christ was a Jew, as the Holy Scriptures plainly say that He was. They commonly say that He was a "Christian," even though the Bible plainly describes Him racially as a Jew, living as a Jew, and worshipping God as a Jew (e.g. see "My Father's House").
Synagogue is from the Greek word (pronounced) sunagog which means "an assembly" (the photo shows what remains of the synagogue at Capernaum where Jesus Christ, a Jew, attended and taught at Sabbath services e.g. see Aliyya and Haftara). It was natural for Jesus Christ to use the term synagogue for "an assembly" in describing people who were a "gathering of Satan," not meaning that Jews were of Satan, but those particular people were an "assembly" of Satan.
The term "synagogue of Satan" is found twice in the Bible, both times as spoken by Jesus Christ, in describing people who simply opposed the Truth, and in both of the references the people spoken of were not even Jews in a religious sense.
"And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, but thou art rich and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan." (Revelation 2:8-9 KJV)"And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee." (Revelation 3:7-9 KJV)
Fact Finder: What is the surprising origin of the term "Christian"?
See Christianos
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This Day In History, September 2
31 BC: Caesar Augustus (Octavian) conquered Antony and Cleopatra (see The Ptolemies) at the Battle of Actium. Some historians consider this date to be the beginning of the Roman empire (see Ancient Empires - Rome).
1547: Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes died at age 62. He battled equally-famous Aztec emperor Montezuma in Mexico.
1752: The last day that the Julian Calendar (named after Roman emperor Julius Caesar) was used in Britain and its then American colonies. The present Gregorian calendar (named after Roman Catholic Pope Gregory XIII) began in use the next day.
1807: The British began bombarding Copenhagen to stop Napoleon from using the Danish fleet against Britain.
1864: During the U.S. Civil War, Union General William T. Sherman captured Atlanta.
1901: U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt's famous remark that American foreign policy should be to "speak softly and carry a big stick."
1930: The first non-stop flight from Europe to the United States, 37 hours flying time.
1944: Anne Frank, at age 15, was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The Dutch-Jewish girl, famous for her Diary of Anne Frank died at the Belsen concentration camp the next year, shortly before it was liberated by Allied troops near the end of the Second World War.
1944: During the Second World War, U.S. pilot George Bush parachuted out of his burning fighter plane into the Pacific. He survived, and went on to become the U.S. President in 1989 and the father of the U.S. President in 2001.
1945: "VJ Day" at the end of the Second World War. Japanese officials signed the terms of surrender with U.S. General Douglas MacArthur and other Allied leaders aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
1969: At the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), computer researchers made the first working connection between two huge, primitive computers. Some regard that event as the birth of the computer network that became the Internet.
