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Topic: Will The Real Gog Please Stand UP?
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BORN AGAIN
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Iraq and Iran share the ancient land space of Persia
Iraq never shared the ancient land space of Persia. The southern highlands east and northeast of Iraq was occupied by Persia, while the northern highlands north of Irak were occupied by the Medes. Iran today occupies both the highlands of Persia and the Medes, but Iraq does not. Iraq was occcupied in the east by Babylonia, in the north by Asssyria, and in the west-northwest by Aram.
As for Gog, I have pointed out before that in English, the connection is not so visible, but in the original gutteral language, the name was most likely kauk, from which we later got kauk-asian, or to put that in English consonants, cauc-asian.
Revelation 20
8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
For me personally, I see the prefix Ma in Ma-gog to mean with, as in Spanish it is mas or more, meaning the rest of the four-corners-of-the-earth nations who will come with kauk.
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God bless, BORN AGAIN
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Will The Real Gog Please Stand UP?
When 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.
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 battle 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
Posts: 4684 | From: Southern Black Hills of South Dakota | Registered: Jun 2002
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