Fall/Winter 2003
Will The Real Gog Please Stand UP?
hen President
George H.W. Bush mobilized American forces to liberate Kuwait from Sadaam
Hussein’s Iraqi army in 1990 I wrote the President (a thing I rarely
do) to thank him for returning the respect to American Armed Forces they
deserve. Coming from a military family I was thrilled to see the burden
of mistrust placed on the Viet Nam era military finally removed.
The week it
became clear the President wouldn’t finish the job by toppling Hussein,
I was editing my “why not?” letter when the Holy Spirit stopped
and reminded me that such affairs were out of the President’s league.
“Mark, leave it alone,” He said. “I’m in control
of that.” I was then reminded of Daniel’s words to Belshazzar
when the hand of God wrote out the king’s doom on his palace wall:
“…the Most High God is ruler over the realm of mankind, and
He sets over it whomever He wishes” (Dan. 5:21).
Iraq
and Iran share the ancient land space of Persia who according Ezekiel
38 will accompany Gog’s Israeli invasion. So some of God’s
hand writing seemed to appear in Ezekiel during my prophetic inquiry. Hussein's
recent financing of Palestinian suicide bombers and his general persistence
in inflaming Mideast tensions are more short-range witnesses to God's
sovereign resolve.
But
just exactly who Gog is has always nagged at me despite the common teachings
of his identification with Russia. How many of us who share an ear
for the prophetic haven’t enjoyed Hal Lindsay’s and others
teachings on the Russia connection? I encountered them my second
year in Christ through Hal’s “Count Down to the ’80s”
tape and workbook. Having served in a Germany based nuclear missile battalion
with the U.S. Army at the height of the Cold War, they certainly made
sense to me.
Then
the Iron Curtain fell and Lindsay, along with many others, suddenly changed
their tune to fit Gog into the radical Islamic factions of Russia’s
splintering superstate. Among them were Dr. Stewart McBernie, one of the
few I know who shares my midtext pre-trib (a.k.a. midtrib) rapture
view.
Since
then we Gog watchers have been on the lookout to see how Russia will return
to her formidable state (which turned out to be not so formidable at all),
and swoop down on Israel in a unique Gog event.
When
“Mad Vlad” Vladimir Zirinovski appeared spewing his antiwestern-racist
views in 1994, we thought we had a ringer. His eschatological resume was
said to include a book entitled The Final March South, which allegedly
outlined Ezekiel’s chapter 38 scenario. I looked for the book while
in graduate school and came to the conclusion it was probably
more myth than prophetic fact.
In fact, after some twenty years of serious watching world events in light
of Scripture’s prophetic text, I am reasonably certain the traditional
view of Gog is more myth than prophetic fact.
Here’s
why.
Anyone who reads Eschatology Today understands I am convinced that
most of what the mainstream prophetic press (as I call them), has had
to report about the Rapture and Second Coming has been the same old party
line stemming from the “pre-everything non-church involvement”
commentary of the Scoffield Bible. Very few commentators apply any solid
hermeneutics to back up their lockstep positions. But because they have
proliferated their views for a generation, most Christians accept them
as fact without personally studying the matter out. So again I offer
new food for thought to season our prophetic palate in challenging yet
another sacred prophetic fixture: The Battle of Gog.
Today those on
the Russia Gog watch are focusing on former KGB head Vladimir Putin who
recently forged a military alliance with China and continues to arm the
radical factions of Islamic Jihad.
Putin
could fill the bill of Russian/Gog candidate as well as any of his communist
ancestors. If so, God will put a hook in his jaw, as Ezekiel says,
to draw him and his allies down on the mountains of Israel to super-naturally
destroy them through divine intervention. The Bible calls it a “routing”
(hamam “to put in commotion, to disturb, drive, destroy”).
And when God does it, His targets wipe themselves out while He lobs hailstones
and meteors to get what they miss. This is going to happen to Gog, just
as it happened to the Canaanites (Judges 4:15), Midian (Judges 8:12),
the Philistines (1 Sam. 7:10), and Ammon and Moab (2 Chron. 20:22), no
doubt. Just exactly who this Gog will be is at issue in this commentary.
Since
the Iron Curtain fell in ’89 the criminal Soviet spirit that governmentally
oppressed and killed their political enemies found a new home in organized
crime. Capitalism still hasn’t found a good foothold over there
yet because of the “have and kill those who have not” communist
spirit.
But
with the defeat of Communism also came new freedom to seek Jesus. And
since then the Russian church has swelled.
Maybe
Putin and current moves of the Coptic Church to shut down this spiritual
freedom will produce a revived nemesis in a new Soviet State.
It is just as possible, however, that Ezekiel’s Gog identity is
a genealogical connection to the lineage of Japheth who fathered the caucasian
race. And that Gog, who sprung from Japheth and Magog’s loins, could
be a prophetic reference to the European antichrist. If this is true,
and I think it is, Ezekiel's 500 BC batttle could be his view of the Second
Coming of Christ.
Open your Bible and see what you think.
In Ezekiel’s
Gog scenario, Magog and other descendents of Noah’s grandson by
Japheth, are all mentioned.
Ezekiel
38:1-6
2
"Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the prince
of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
3 and
say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am against you, O Gog, prince
of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal.
4 "And
I will turn you about, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring
you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them splendidly
attired, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them wielding
swords;
5 Persia,
Ethiopia, and Put with them, all of them with shield and helmet;
6 Gomer
with all its troops; Beth-togarmah from the remote parts of the
north with all its troops-- many peoples with you. Ezekiel 39:6
6
"And I shall send fire upon Magog and those who inhabit the coastlands
in safety; and they will know that I am the LORD.
Researching
Magog’s family roots in Genesis 10 reveals his ancestry makes up
the white or caucasian races that grew out of Mt. Ararat’s
regions northward following the flood.
Genesis
10:1-5
1 Now these are
the records of the generations of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of
Noah; and sons were born to them after the flood.
2 The sons of Japheth
were Gomer and Magog and Madai and Javan and Tubal and Meshech and Tiras.
3 And the sons of
Gomer were Ashkenaz and Riphath and Togarmah.
4 And the sons of
Javan were Elishah and Tarshish, Kittim and Dodanim.
5 From these the
coastlands of the nations were separated into their lands, every one according
to his language, according to their families, into their nations.
Historic
lands these ancient descendants of Japheth founded were originally known
by their personal names.
Since
then Japheth’s seed has spread throughout Europe and into
America. There is even a mountain range in the region named the Caucasian
Mountains. Gomer is believed to be the founder of Europe through his son
Riphath. Verse 5 expands the descendants of Magog along “the
coastlands of the nations” where Japheth’s descendants were
“separated into their lands, every one according to his language
(200 European languages are spoken today) according to their
families
into
their nations."
Making
allowance for the years that have passed since Ezekiel’s prophecy,
the descendants of Magog today make up the European peoples who have
evolved over the past 2500 years. Today they populate the entire European
and American continents. So Magog of Ezekiel's day could
be Reinhart Scmidt of Frankfurt, John Phillips of London, and Bill Jones
of Chicago in our day.
The same time expansion is necessary when interpreting Gog’s antiquated
weapons. The armies of the modern Russia don’t use bows, swords,
bucklers, and shields as their primary combat weapons. Neither do they
deploy into combat on horseback. Today automatic weapons, armored personnel
carried infantry, tanks, missiles, long-range artillery, helicopters,
and jet aircraft are standard military equipment.
But there is more than Gog’s genealogy to build a Gog/antichrist
case. The hermeneutic principles of key words and events I harp on
in every Eschatology Today analysis reveal a remarkable
pattern of paralleling events in Ezekiel and John’s texts.
Gog/Armageddon
Key Word Connections
Zephaniah 1:7
7 Be silent before the
Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is near, for the LORD has prepared a
sacrifice, He has consecrated His guests.
First, the
battles of Gog and Armageddon share the infamous “reverse”
sacrificial offerings of their battle’s dead to the birds of the
air.
Ezekiel
38:4
4
"You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops, and
the peoples who are with you; I shall give you as food to every kind of
predatory bird and beast of the field.
Revelation
19:17
17
"And as for you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD, 'Speak to every kind
of bird and to every beast of the field, "Assemble and come, gather from
every side to My sacrifice which I am going to sacrifice for you, as a
great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and
drink blood.
Ezekiel and John’s wars also share similar key battle plagues
that annihilate God’s enemies.
Unprecedented
Earthquakes
Ezekiel
38:19
19
"And in My zeal and in My blazing wrath I declare that on that day there
will surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israel.
Revelation 16:17,18
17
And the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air; and a loud voice
came out of the temple from the throne, saying, "It is done."
18
And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and
there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came
to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty.
Ezekiel
38:20
20
"And the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the
field, all the creeping things that creep on the earth, and all the men
who are on the face of the earth will shake at My presence; the mountains
also will be thrown down, the steep pathways will collapse, and every
wall will fall to the ground.
Revelation
16:19-20
19 And the great city was
split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And Babylon
the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of
His fierce wrath.
20
And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
Fire
from the Sky
Ezekiel
38:22
22
"And with pestilence and with blood I shall enter into judgment with him;
and I shall rain on him, and on his troops, and on the many peoples who
are with him, a torrential rain, with hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
Revelation
6:12, 13
12
And I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake;
and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon
became like blood;
13 and
the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe
figs when shaken by a great wind.
Only Ezekiel expands this coming event through the routing
of God’s enemies and their seven-month burial in
the valley of Hamon Gog.
Ezekiel
38:20-23
21 "And I shall call for
a sword against him on all My mountains," declares the Lord GOD. "Every
man's sword will be against his brother.
22 "And with pestilence and
with blood I shall enter into judgment with him; and I shall rain on him,
and on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, a torrential
rain, with hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
23 "And I shall magnify Myself,
sanctify Myself, and make Myself known in the sight of many nations; and
they will know that I am the LORD."'
Ezekiel
39:11-12
11 "And it will come about
on that day that I shall give Gog a burial ground there in Israel, the
valley of those who pass by east of the sea, and it will block off the
passers-by. So they will bury Gog there with all his multitude, and they
will call it the valley of Hamon-gog.
12 "For seven months the house
of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land.
Land
of Unwalled Villages?
Gog is also said to swoop down on an Israel at peace with unwalled
villages.
Ezekiel
38:10-12
10
'Thus says the Lord GOD, "It will come about on that day, that thoughts
will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil plan,
11 and
you will say, 'I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will
go against those who are at rest, that live securely, all of them living
without walls, and having no bars or gates,
12 to
capture spoil and to seize plunder, to turn your hand against the waste
places which are now inhabited, and against the people who are gathered
from the nations, who have acquired cattle and goods, who live at the
center of the world.'
Breaking news from the Mideast today reports the building of walls
and death tolls rising from the brutal suicide bombings that have thrown
the region into war. It will require an astounding event to reverse current
conditions. And the antichrist’s peace covenant that will initiate
Daniel’s Seventieth Week could prove to be that event.
Anyone analyzing current events through the prophecies of Scripture are
always on the watch for this infamous figure who will affirm a covenant
of peace that will end "mid-week"with the Great Tribulation’s Abomination
of Desolation.
Daniel
9:27
27 "And he will make a firm
covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he
will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations
will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one
that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate."
Study history and Daniel's prophecy and you will discover his “people
of the prince who is to come" did in fact "cut off to have nothing,
Messiah the Prince” — destroying the city and sanctuary
of Israel, completing the prophecy’s sixty-nine week period (Dan.
9:25,26). The seventieth week will one day switch on the Eschaton’s
last seven years (Dan 9:27). So it could be this very period that places
Israel in Ezekiel's unprecedented era of “unwalled” peace
when Satan will cease his deluding violence temporarily to put his man
on the scene.
"Are
You the One I Spoke of in Former Days?"
Ezekiel’s
prophecy also affirms Gog as a prophetic figure alluded to by Israel’s
prophets of old.
Ezekiel
38:17
17
'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Are you the one of whom I spoke in former
days through My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those
days for many years that I would bring you against them?
Because
Ezekiel himself is one of those prophets, his prophetic voice in chapter
38 is obviously retrospective and refers to a warring eschatological
figure who will do what Gog is revealed to do.
There
is no other reference to Gog in the Old Testament outside of Ezekiel.
There is, however, an Israel attacking figure in Daniel who is commonly
connected with Paul and John’s antichrist. So again, key word
connections help us navigate God’s Old and New Testament prophetic
stream.
Gog
and Magog’s Post-Millennial War
Gog/Russia positionists face one other key word conflict in interpreting
a Soviet Ezekiel invasion because of Gog and Magog’s mention in
Revelation 20:8. Both are prophesied as adversaries at the end
of John’s revelation in a great war that will terminate the Millennial
Age.
Revelation
20:7-10
7 And when
the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison,
8 and will come
out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth,
Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number
of them is like the sand of the seashore.
9 And they came
up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints
and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them.
10 And the devil who deceived
them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast
and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night
forever and ever.
It
is significant that Soviet/Gog proponents overlook Gog and Magog’s
identification in this late prophetic passage as “the nations
which are in the four corners of the earth.” Why? Because it implicates
them as general antichrist factions that will be gathered for one final
rebellion at the end of the Millennium. Their mention here certainly
lends credence to a genealogical host over a Soviet State before the
Millennium begins. And it can't be connected to Ezekiel 38, because Battle
of Gog casualties are fed to the birds and buried in Hamon-gog. In this
battle, God completely consumes them in the fury of His fire as a sacrifice
for Himself.
Finally,
there is, one key event prophesied in Ezekiel, Zechariah, and John’s
prophecies that occurs at the Second Coming of Christ, which has always
made me challenge a separate Gog event. See if it does the same to you.
All
of Israel Will Be Saved!
During
Gog’s war, all of Israel will receive God’s Spirit and know
Jesus is Lord.
Ezekiel
39:29
29 "And I will not hide
My face from them any longer, for I shall have poured out My Spirit
on the house of Israel," declares the Lord GOD.
Key
words in Zechariah’s revelation connect this eventuality with
Armageddon.
Zechariah
12:8-11;14:4
9
"And it will come about in that day that I will set about to destroy
all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
10
"And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will
look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one
mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the
bitter weeping over a first-born.
11
"In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning
of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo
If this were to happen before the Great Tribulation as most Gog/Russia
advocates teach—all of Israel would be saved before the
Tribulation. They would also be raptured, according to the same Gog
advocate's Revelation 4:3 pretrib thought—leaving no reason for
the 144,000 Jewish evangelists—and no one to morn the One they
pierced.
So there you have it. Will the real Gog please stand up?
Will he be a revived Soviet leader who will wage Ezekiel's suicidal
war?
Or
is Gog of the land of Magog a geneological identification representative
of eschatology’s infamous European antichrist?
If
Ezekiel’s view of Gog’s annihilation is in fact a prophetic
view of the event from inside Israel itself, he adds to all the Hebrew
prophets’ "Day of the Lord" revelation a stunning routing and
burial that will accompany the event.
He
also adds to John’s revelation of ten allying nations that will
join the antichrist’s futile efforts (Rev. 13; 17). Will they
include the modern day people who makeup Gog’s allies revealed
in Ezekiel 38?
Ezekiel
38:5-6
5 Persia (modern
Islamic Iraq [1] and Iran [2]), Ethiopia (northwest Africa
including Islamic Algiers [3] , Tunisia [4], and Morocco
[5] ), and Libya [6] with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer (Europe
and all his bands [7]; the house of Togarmah (son of Gomer: Armenians
of Turkey and Tukistan) of the north quarters and all his bands [8]:
and many people with thee.
Stay
on the watch.
You
decide.
Eschatology
Today Sr. Editor, Mark Norris
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