At sunset last night, an eight-day Jewish festival commenced. It commemorates the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem. The Feast of Dedication, also known as Hanukkah, celebrates the victory of the Maccabees over Antiochus iv Epiphanes. Tradition says Antiochus betrayed the people of Jerusalem, slaughtered huge numbers of them, and went even beyond that. He erected a pagan statue in the holy of holies in the temple and did everything in his power to blot out the Jewish faith.

Judah Maccabee and his four brothers resisted. They led a revolt against Antiochus for three years before God granted them victory and enabled them to recapture Jerusalem. Judah then had blameless priests cleanse the holy place and erect a new altar of unhewn stones. They reconsecrated the sanctuary on Kislev 25, 164 b.c.

1 Maccabees 4:52-58 say: “Early in the morning on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, which is the month of Kislev, in the one hundred forty-eighth year, they rose and offered sacrifice, as the law directs, on the new altar of burnt offering that they had built. At the very season and on the very day that the Gentiles had profaned it, it was dedicated with songs and harps and lutes and cymbals. All the people fell on their faces and worshiped and blessed Heaven, who had prospered them. So, they celebrated the dedication of the altar for eight days, and joyfully offered burnt offerings; they offered a sacrifice of well-being and a thanksgiving offering. They decorated the front of the temple with golden crowns and small shields; they restored the gates and the chambers for the priests, and fitted them with doors.”

The book of Maccabees is not Holy Scripture, and the Feast of Dedication is not one of the seven annual holy days God commands His people to keep. Yet Jesus Christ Himself kept it as a civil memorial of the great miracles God performed to deliver the Jews (John 10:22-23). Hanukkah normally doesn’t mean much to non-Jewish Americans, but this year should be different.

A modern-day Antiochus sought to blot out America’s constitutional republic and Judeo-Christian heritage. This nation has just been delivered from him. It is worth pausing to consider the mighty miracles God performed to save America.

The original Antiochus obtained rule by pretending to be someone he wasn’t. He usurped power from the rightful king using lies and flattery and tried to extinguish the Jewish faith. His personality was similar to Barack Obama’s personality, as was his goal of blotting out what was left of the nation’s biblical heritage. Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry identified Obama as a type of that deceitful, destructive ancient Seleucid emperor in his 2013 booklet America Under Attack (which has since been updated and significantly expanded).

Obama obtained power through deceit before becoming the most biblically hostile president in United States history. The activist judges, liberal bureaucrats and “deep state” agents he appointed attacked the nation’s Judeo-Christian moral codes and constitutional form of government. In fact, Obama’s goal was to fundamentally transform America into a socialist dictatorship.

David Samuels at the Tablet wrote “How Obama Built an Omnipotent Thought-Machine, and How It Was Destroyed.” His article is a fascinating study of the nuts and bolts of the censorship-industrial complex that Obama used to deceive people—and nations. Obama literally sought complete control over what you see, hear and read. Yet a perfect storm of events and some men of courage stood up against Obama’s almost unstoppable power—and stopped him.

“It took three powerful men, each of whom had the advantage of operating entirely in public, and with massive and obvious real-world consequences, to rupture the apparatus of false consciousness that Obama built,” Samuels wrote, highlighting the roles of Elon Musk, Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump in the destruction of Obama’s work and legacy. Musk restored free speech to America, Netanyahu exposed Obama’s sham Iran nuclear deal, and Trump led a 77 million-voter revolt.

Like Judah, John, Simon, Eleazar and Jonathan Maccabee, Trump, Musk and Netanyahu are making the nation great again. As secular figures, they are not literally rededicating the temple of God. But they are creating the conditions for God’s work to thrive in America. Without their courage and fighting spirit, it would have been nearly impossible for God’s Church to deliver one final warning message to America and the world. The American resurgence won’t last long unless people turn to God in repentance, but the nation at least has a chance now that Obama has been silenced.

“The great God of the universe is taking an active, dramatic part in America’s politics!” Mr. Flurry wrote in his recent article “A Miracle Victory.” “God rules in the kingdom of men! That is the greatest lesson we can possibly learn!”

Americans should be truly grateful for the courage of Trump, Musk and Netanyahu; and even more grateful for God’s boundless mercy. They should also be humbled by their own role in allowing a political Antiochus to hijack the nation. If we do not learn from our mistakes, even worse punishment will rain down upon our nation in the future!