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A short synopsis on The Synagogue of satan Today this term is used against all Jews, to make them all persecutors of the church, to promote hatred and guilt upon all Jews everywhere. It is clarified that John is writing of those who say they are Jews but are not (Rv.2:9). Some interpret the synagogue of Satan as being Jews that rejected the Messiah, using Paul, who said that a Jew is not one physically but one inwardly (having faith in the Messiah). But this cannot be applicable to the text for a number of reasons. John is pointing to a synagogue, an single assembly in a particular area, (not many synagogues of Satan in many areas). There is no global synagogue[s] of Satan as some make this out to be for our day. Saul persecuted his fellow Jews who were following Christ (before his conversion), was he of the synagogue of Satan? Was he saying he was a Jew when he was not? Of course not. He called himself a Jew even after he was saved. Even if they were Jews not having faith they would still be called Jews as the Bible attests to this usage, but John says they are lying. The Bible is teaching of the church were being affected by these people who were persecuting both Jewish and Gentile Christians in the churches. It was a small group of people in that local area mentioned who were the ones persecuting the church in Smyrna, and in Philadelphia. This synagogue was a not a problem to ALL the church then, but locally to a few in that area at that time Since there would also be Jews in the Church, this clearly refutes the idea that all Jewish people are part of this persecution, it cannot refer to all Jewish people globally today. Scripture states they are not Jews (either by blood or by Covenant), whoever this group of people was, it was a gathering of gentiles claiming to be Jews. They could not be called a church if they claimed to be Jews, thus the title a synagogue is applied to them. There is the possibility of them trying to stir up animosity and division between the Jews and the church, this certainly cannot be rejected. Clearly John is saying there are others who are Jews, but that those who claimed this for themselves who were persecuting the church were not. We know this because of what John later writes in Rv.7, the Lord chooses 12,000 from each tribe of Israel to have 144,000 represent him, evangelizing during the tribulation. So the view that all Jews are of this synagogue is not possible.The similarity to replacement teaching, that says the church is now the true Israel, that one becomes a Jew, an Israelite by believing in Christ certainly fits into what John is actually saying, they claim to be Jews but they are not. For a more in depth explanation www.letusreason.org/biblexp509.htm |
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