Agent Smith and Amalek

“The Best Thing About Being Me – There Are So Many Me’s!”

Avner Boskey

March 20, 2026

“My name is Legion, for we are many”

“They came to the other side of the sea, into the region of the Gerasenes. When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him. He lived among the tombs; and no one was able to bind him anymore, not even with a chain, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces; and no one was strong enough to subdue him. Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and cutting himself with stones. Seeing Yeshua from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; and shouting with a loud voice, he said, ‘What business do You have with me, Yeshua, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!’ For He had already been saying to him, ‘Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!’ And He was asking him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said to Him, ‘My name is Legion, for we are many.’ And he begged Him earnestly not to send them out of the region. Now there was a large herd of pigs feeding nearby on the mountain. And the demons begged Him, saying, ‘Send us into the pigs so that we may enter them.’ Yeshua gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the pigs; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea” (Mark 5:1-13)

In the days of Yeshua, a Roman legion was composed of nine cohorts of 480 foot-soldiers each, and the tenth cohort (called ‘the first’) was composed of another 800 men. Approximately 120 auxiliary troops were also added to this main group of 5,280 warriors. The lead unclean spirit who possessed that demonized Gerasene/Gadarene (see Matthew 8:28), was in charge of a company of thousands of lesser demons – according to the text, about 2,000 in total. Both he and his demonic legion were expelled by Messiah Yeshua. They violently entered into 2,000 pigs, whom they then drowned in the waters of the Lake of Galilee. It’s worth noting that the Gadarene inhabitants were not Jewish, since being a hog farmer was not a typical Israeli occupation in those days.

In the same way as Satan’s hordes could move from one living thing to another in Gospel times, in our day the demonic spirits of anti-Semitism are flitting back and forth among many – be they media spokesmen and politicians, jihadi legions and world leaders, pastors, imams and theologians – or even next-door neighbors.

The flowers of evil

In his phantasy of a protest song ‘Ballad of a Thin Man,’ Bob Dylan said: “Something is happening but ya’ don’t know what it is – do you, Mister Jones?” Spiritual blindness is not uncommon – it raises its fuzzy head in every generation. Sometimes it manifests itself through materialism, at other times through narcissism. In our day it has chosen the red-black-and-green banner of anti-Semitism which is sweeping its way across international borders.

Hatred of the Jewish people and their homeland are poisonous weeds which are sprouting up all across the planet. The spiritual forces which led to the rise of the Third Reich have come back ‘from the dead’ and are spreading like the plague across the Western world.

The Age of anti-Semitism is here again; this Frankenstein’s monster is back for a second round in the ring.

If you had the opportunity in 1936 to take out Adolf Hitler – as Lieutenant Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and others (including Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer) attempted to do in Operation Valkyrie on July 20, 1944 – would you have joined the conspiracy? Was it acceptable to take down a messenger of the anti-Messiah in that day? Is it acceptable to do something similar in our day, when murderously anti-Jewish jihad aims its missiles and drones at Jewish civilians in the Jewish state of Israel? And what happens when the movie character similar to ‘Agent Smith’ of ‘Matrix’ fame takes over bodies and minds like the Gadarene demoniac – and then morphs into anti-Semites who proudly label themselves ‘Christians’ and ‘American patriots.’ Jew-haters are popping up on the right and on the left, like mushrooms after the rain.

‘Imagine’ everlasting hatred

When I was a young Jewish man, I learned that some famous Church Fathers hated the Jewish people and called for their persecution and destruction. Names like Justin Martyr, Origen, Augustine, Chrysostom, Torquemada the Grand Inquisitor, the Crusaders, Martin Luther – even the arch-terrorist George Habash (a Greek Orthodox Arab from Lod) who participated in the PLO’s Black September terror attacks at the 1972 Munich Olympics – to me these people represented an anti-Semitic core within Christianity. After I came to faith, I realized that there are other Christians who love the Jewish people – and I was (and am) deeply thankful for these brothers and sisters.

Yet, as anti-Semitic and anti-Israel voices rise in the West, dripping their acrid and deceitful insinuations on myriads of gullible people through internet propaganda, I have been forced to take a step backward, and to realize that the ghosts of anti-Semitic Church Fathers and leaders are unfortunately ‘still alive and well.’ Their malevolent messages surface hundreds of times a day on my computer screen and cell-phone, and millions are getting poisoned,. As it happened in the days of Adolf, so it is happening today.

John Lennon’s hippie idealism in his 1971 peace-anthem ‘Imagine’ is not the message of the moment on Planet Earth. Instead of Ringo Starr’s two-fingered peace sign, the world (especially jihadis in the Middle East) is shaking a one-finger sign at the Jewish people. Ezekiel prophesies that everlasting hatred from enemy nations toward Israel is actually the current and Last Days dynamic. It will be vanquished only by force of arms (see Psalm 149 and Psalm 139:21-22) and by the return of Messiah Yeshua:

“This is what ADONAI YHVH says: ‘Because the Philistines have acted in revenge, and have taken vengeance with malice in their souls to destroy with everlasting hostility …’” (Ezekiel 25:15-16)

“Since you have had everlasting hostility and have turned over the sons of Israel to the power of the sword at the time of their disaster, at the time of the punishment of the end …” (Ezekiel 35:5)

“And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following [Yeshua] on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty” (Revelation 19:14-15)

A counterfeit river brings a real reward

The pro-jihad, pro-Hamas, pro-Hezbollah and pro-Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) violent anti-Jewish and anti-American demonstrations shout their hate-chants “Free, free Palestine!” and “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!” Their championing of jihadi slaughter of the Jewish people has been taken up by leftists and rightists, in a horseshoe dynamic where anti-Semitic evil joins to anti-Semitic evil, even when the demonstrators come from the opposite sides of the political spectrum.

Genesis 12:3 speaks out a prophetic promise to the nations at the very beginning of the Biblical narrative: the one who who dismisses, disregards or dishonors the Jewish people will be cursed directly by YHVH the God of Israel. That is the meaning of the Hebrew verb ‘meqalelecha’ italicized above. As anti-Semitism rises and sits at the head table of the public sphere, its very permitted presence catalyzes a curse on the nation which permits it to survive and flourish. There is a ‘reward’ for cursing the Chosen People: a curse falls on that country, coming straight from the hand of God of Jacob.

Jean Améry, Austrian writer and Holocaust survivor, has stated that “anti-Zionism contains anti-Semitism like a cloud contains a storm.” He warned of the coming of “a revived anti-Semitism, often under the cover of anti-Zionism.” Amery called anti-Zionism “the respectable anti-Semitism.” This anti-Semitism is seemingly not directed against the Jews but “only against Zionists,” as it were. A day would come, said Améry, when anti-Semitism would no longer hide itself covertly in the shadows, but would once again rise to become a threatening presence in the public sphere.

Do you believe in the God of Joshua?

David was a poet and a warrior. The women of all the cities of Israel came out to welcome him when he arrived at Gibeah (see 1 Samuel 22:6) bearing Goliath’s sword and skull (see 1 Samuel 17:51-54; 1 Samuel 21:9). 1 Samuel 18:6-7 tells us that the women were “singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy and with other musical instruments. The women sang as they played, and said, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.’”

Many modern followers of Yeshua have great difficulty rejoicing in victory over one’s mortal enemies. Anti-Semitic talking heads like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens call such military joy 'anti-Christian' and opposed to the New Testament. These pundits reject that the God of Joshua is the same as the God of Jacob.

Back to the Bible

Carlson continues to speak in highly negative terms against the Jewish people, the State of Israel, the IDF and Prime Minister Netanyahu when positive reference is made to the Biblical teaching about God’s eternal war against Amalek:

“Then Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidim. So Moses said to Joshua, ‘Choose men for us and go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.’ Joshua did just as Moses told him, and fought against Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. So it came about, when Moses held his hand up, that Israel prevailed; but when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed. And Moses’ hands were heavy. So they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other. So his hands were steady until the sun set. And Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Then YHVH said to Moses, ‘Write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua, that I will utterly wipe out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.’ And Moses built an altar and named it ‘YHVH is my Banner’. And he said, ‘Because YHVH has sworn, YHVH will have war against Amalek from generation to generation’” (Exodus 17:8-16)

[Moses said]: “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way when you came out of Egypt, how he confronted you on the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God. So it shall come about, when YHVH your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies in the land which YHVH your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, that you shall wipe out the mention of the name Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget!” (Deuteronomy 25:17-19)

[The Prophet Samuel said]: “And YHVH sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go and completely destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are eliminated’” (1 Samuel 15:18)

The above Scripture passages are direct quotes from YHVH the God of Israel (see Psalm 119:160 and Proverbs 30:5), from Moses, described by Joshua as greatest prophet in Israel in his day (Deuteronomy 34:10), and from Samuel the Prophet (1 Samuel 3:19). According to Carlson, the Gospel does away with these words of YHVH. But this theological perspective is called ‘Marcionism’ – a heresy (according to church leaders is the Second Century AD. To call the words of the God of Israel ‘anti-Christian’ is to follow in the same steps as this anti-Semitic Church Father.

There are many today who see the Hebrew Scriptures as somewhat less than the word of God, and who cannot relate to YHVH as Lord of the battle or as Warrior God (see Deuteronomy 20:10-13; 1 Samuel 18:17; 25:28; Psalm 24:8; Psalm 144:1). And they do not believe that God fights for Israel and publicly identifies with her. Since the Word of God must be our foundation on these issues, it is telling to see that Carlson describes his own Christian upbringing and knowledge of the Bible as shallow and bereft of theological foundation (watch his address at the 50^th Anniversary celebration of the Heritage Foundation, at 00:50-01:01).

“I should say at the outset that I’m Episcopalian, so don’t take any theological advice from me because I don’t have any. I grew up in the shallowest faith tradition that’s ever been invented. It’s not even a Christian religion at this point.”

Sheep and goat Christians

“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, just as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left” (Matthew 25:31-33)

Messiah Yeshua speaks here of judging the nations at His return. Joel 3:1-2 explains more about this event. The nations of the world will be judged in a face-to-face encounter with Israel’s God. They will render accountability for their anti-Semitic words, thoughts and deeds. It seems that some of the people facing that judgment will be called ‘Christians’ yet their hearts are dismissive of Jacob’s people. They disregard and dishonor the nation of Israel. The separation between ‘sheep’ and ‘goat’ Christians will have reference to such individuals as well.

As we consider these coming events, and as we survey the poisonous rise of anti-Semitism across the globe, it is worth asking ourselves: How do we respond to this Satanic flowering of evil? Are our hearts connected to God’s heart, as it says in Isaiah 63:9: “In all [the Jewish people’s] afflictions He [YHVH] was afflicted!” As we examine the prophetic chessboard that the Bible lays out for us, could it be that have we constructed a chessboard that has no place for God’s tears – and for our intercessory tears?

How shall we then pray?

Pray that the God of Israel will activate believers everywhere to discern the Satanic weapon of anti-semitism and receive divine pro-active downloads on how to oppose it

Pray for the entire people of Israel to be protected and preserved from their enemies (see Luke 1:68-75), and that they would seek and find salvation in Messiah Yeshua