Star-Crossed Syria: A Fallen Christian Nation Defiled
What happens when the land of Aram and Antioch is conquered by the Jewish state? The continued erasure of Christianity, that's what
And it will be in that day, that Yahweh will start His threshing from the flowing stream of the River to the brook of Egypt, and you will be gathered up one by one, O sons of Israel. And it will be in that day, that a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and who were banished in the land of Egypt will come and worship Yahweh in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
Isaiah 27:12
Nothing says “corrupt U.S. establishment media complex” like the fall of a historic Christian nation into the hands of an openly antichrist nation.
Just in time for Christmas, the ruling regime of Syria has fallen. Many of us are wondering what this means for the Christian refugees who were unable to flee before and now face the prospect of Islamic domination under an al-Qaeda offshoot.
Others may understandably fear the worst is at hand for some of Christianity’s oldest churches located in the cradle of the faith itself.
But not our decrepit legacy media. No, the rotting corpse known as the American mainstream media is worried about the Jewish state, more commonly known as the State of Israel.
Yes, throughout countless, breathless reports from media outlets around the U.S., the fate of Christians in Syria, however dire and unsure, has garnered barely a mention compared to the latest invasion by the strongest military in the region, which as of this week anyway, reclaimed the Golan Heights, a strategic summit in the land of Israel with a rich Biblical history.
In fact, Syria was one of the first places in the world to have a Christian community, a fact confirmed in the Book of Acts and the Apostle Paul’s famous conversion on the road to Damascus.
Most Evangelicals know this from Acts 11, where our fathers were first called Christians in Antioch:
Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. So for a full year they met together with the church and taught large numbers of people. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.
In the first-century, Antioch of Syria was one of the largest cities under Roman rule, with a wealthy and fruitful community of as many as 300,000 Jews. Antioch is first mentioned in the NT in Acts 6 in reference to Nicolas, who was one of seven Hellenist (or Greek-speaking) Jews chosen as deacons for the nascent assembly of Jesus Christ.1
By any measure, Antioch is where the assembly/ekklesia was born and, as noted above, the very first place in all of history where Jesus people were no longer called Jew or Greek, not Hebrew or Hellenist, but that blessed title of a people marked by hope in the God of Israel - Christians.
It is this very land which is now being decimated by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
According to one Greek media report:
The violent ousting of dictator Bashar al-Assad by the Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani has generated concern over the safety of the country’s Christian population, including the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch.
Christians amount to about 10 percent of Syria’s population. Given that HTS has its roots in al-Qaeda, there are concerns in Greece and the Western world about the fate of Christians in Syria.
Lest you confuse this progress, here is video of a statute of Assad’s father falling to cries of “allahu akbar” - the Islamic praise of a nonexistent deity.
In Defense of Christians (IDC), which advocates for Middle Eastern Christians, said: “IDC’s contacts on the ground report that Christians have become the target of widespread crime and vandalism in Aleppo. Basic necessities—including food and medical care—are scarce and inaccessible.”
"Thousands of Christians have fled the ancient city and are internally displaced. Christians who have remained in Aleppo live in significant fear, as violence against Christians may intensify rapidly. IDC will continue to monitor the situation closely,” the groups said in a press release.
Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, more than 120 churches and Christian places of worship have been destroyed.
The historical ties between the land and Christianity are being severed with increasing regularity and scope.
But lest you mistake this for another Muslim invasion, it’s critical to recognize which flag is now being lifted in Syria: the star of Remphan, otherwise known as the symbol of the Jewish state.
On Dec. 8, IDF soldiers raised the Israeli flag on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon.
Take that image in. Put a pin in that for a moment.
Just days before Christmas, Israeli media reported the IDF vandalized and moved a cross that was found atop Mount Hermon. According to the report, IDF soldiers “didn’t like” the fact that the area had been named “The Jesus” due to a longtime cross found at the location used to mark the peak - “so they ‘made sure that from now on, no one will have a reason to see a cross there and call it as such.’”
According to Russian media, every year in August “Christian pilgrims ascend Mount Hermon to commemorate when Jesus took his disciples Peter, James and John to the summit, where he transformed before them.”
This place, of course, is commonly known in Evangelical circles as the Mount of Transfiguration, where Jesus appeared in His glorified state alongside Moses and Elijah, two symbols of the Law and the Prophets.2
So here we have a cross atop the highest point in the region where Christians ascend annually to commemorate this seminal moment in the history of our faith being tossed aside and vandalized like common waste.
Not by satanists or Muslims. By the Israeli army.
Finally, on Christmas Eve, this heinous act was addressed by IDF Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, who said soldiers fixed the cross, adding that the vandalism “does not reflect the values of the IDF, and our soldiers represent all different backgrounds and faiths.”
Nadav also tweeted out an image of the cross standing upright, almost defiantly, atop a snowy Mount Hermon.
Just northeast of the Sea of Galilee, Mount Hermon is the highest point in the Golan Heights, reaching an elevation of 2,814 meters (9,232 feet) and straddling the border between Syria and Lebanon. Known for its ski resort and strategic military significance, the Golan is known as Bashan in the Bible, referenced in Deuteronomy 4:43, 1 Kings 4:13, Psalm 22:12, and Isaiah 2:13 for example. This is where the half-tribe of Manasseh settled, and Golan is named as a city of refuge in Joshua 21:27.
Notably, this same area was also not foreign to the Philistines, who chose the highest parts of the mountains for their idol worship. The Bible specifically mentions Mount Hermon in Judges 3:3 and 1 Chronicles 5:23 as home to the rulers of the Philistines.
These “high places” in the Golan were significant to cultures entertaining idols. It was thought that the higher the point, the holier it was.
In fact, it’s said that Mount Hermon sits atop the “gates of hell” Jesus referenced and
“is particularly famous for the worship of a Greco-Roman god named Pan. The Canaanites, who were already a deeply occultic and superstitious people, described Mount Hermon as the realm of the dead.”
Later on, prophet Elijah and the righteous kings Hezekiah and Josiah tore down these “high places” when they confronted idol worship of the Canaanite gods.3
Now, however, instead of condemning the symbols and seizure of the high places, Evangelicals applaud it and cheer on the IDF.
This is their star.
This is the idolatry of the Judeo-Evangelical complex.
We watch the IDF reclaims the land of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the name of a god whom their fathers did not know. And the American Chruch, as the supposed stewards of God’s Word in a world where biblical faith is growing increasingly rare, we’re supposed to cheerlead this effort?
Syria is home to some of the oldest Christian communities in the world.
In fact, by most standards, Syria, prior to the Mohammedan invasions of the 7th century, was largely considered a Christian nation.
I know, I know - that’s racist. But it’s also true.
Syria, often referred to as Aram in the Bible, is mentioned numerous times throughout both the Old and New Testaments, with significant cities like Damascus and Antioch playing important roles.
The people of Syria trace their lineage back to Aram, the son of Shem and the grandson of Noah, and various prophecies and historical events involving Syria are recorded in the scriptures.
We’ve already seen Antioch is where the world first used the word “Christian.”
After the birth of Christ and into the early “Church age,” Syria was the backdrop for some of Christianity’s seminal moments; the Apostle Paul, who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, encountered the risen Christ on the road to Damascus.
Of the 325 bishops who took part in the First Council of Nicea in 325 AD, where the pages of Scripture which had long been held as sacred were officially canonized, 20 were from Syria.
By all accounts, Syria was indeed a Christian nation.
Those days are long gone.
Contemporary Evangelicals almost always misuse the term “nation” to refer to a literal country or nation-state with geopolitical borders rather than in the Biblical sense from the Greek “ethnos” or race, tribe or bloodline.
Yet that’s precisely what Syria is, or at least was, historically speaking.
The dawn of the Christian era was introduced with a star leading the wise men to Bethlehem, to the birth of the God-Man, Emmanuel, or “God with us.”
The Biblical nation of Assyria was known by the star and cross symbol first adopted for the flag of the nascent state of Syria in the mid-20th century. This same star and the cross, by the way, is found in the U.S. Confederate Flag, the Union Jack, and others.
But this Christmas, a different star - one embedded with the number 666 - is raised high over the Syrian people, a star which is wholly alien to and explicitly condemned by the God of our fathers, while a cross, the symbol of the love of Yahweh Elohim in Christ Jesus, is defiled.
We’re told this is the pursuit of a "Greater Israel", one which Evangelicals largely believe will result in the return of Christ to His throne in Jerusalem.
Evangelicals will kick and scream that the nation-state of Israel - with its antichrist religion and pagan star - must be blessed and expand its territory for what the Jewish people believe is their own messiah to come.
Scripture, however, says this land was a Christian nation, one which, while rudimentary in practice, sacrificed and worshiped according to the Law of Moses and the commandments of Yahweh.
Not once in all those pages was a star - or any other object, for that matter - ever to be worshiped or exalted as a substitute for the Holy One of Israel.
The sons of Israel may be in the land of Assyria still, but they’re not the ones exalting some pagan star in the name of a foreign god.
They are being brutally and systemically erased from their land for their proclamation of Christ as King. A once-was Christian nation is succumbing to the idols and idol-worship of the land.
And American Evangelicals, they’re too busy singing “Holy is the Lord” to even bother noticing that the Holy Land is being brought into subjection to a foreign deity while the Cross of Christ is set aside.
Father forgive us. And thank You for Your Son, Christ Jesus, the future and eternal King of Israel.