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And of the end of the world?" (Matthew 24:3)

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Ezekiel 38, The Arab League, and The Pre-Trib Rapture

One could make the case that Ezekiel 38 is the ancient rabbinical version of Armageddon. Authors like Hal Lindsey have made this case. Others, Like Dr. Chuck Missler and author Grant Jeffrey have suggested that Ezekiel 38 happens just prior to or simultaneously with the beginning of the Tribulation Period. When we consult rabbinical commentaries from the pre-Christian era we can find references that connect the invasion of Gog and Magog to the coming of Messiah. One example is the following commentary on Psalm 110, from the Midrash Alpha Betot...
"My firstborn, you sit on my right until I subdue the army of the hosts of Gog and Magog, your enemies, under your footstool." -Midrash Alpha Betot-
Ezekiel 38 parallels the Battle of Armageddon in the book of Revelation in the way that the enemies of God and Israel assemble to destroy the Jewish nation. What differentiates the two events? Can we see that they are separate events? The clue to placing this event in a timeline lies in Ezekiel 39:9, when Israel is able to burn the enemy's weapons for seven years. This seems to indicate two things. 1- Nuclear Weapons are involved and are able to provide seven years worth of energy. 2- The invasion of Gog and Magog kicks off the Tribulation Period and foreshadows the final Battle of Armegeddon when the European Union and the Kings of the east join in. The most astounding part of this prophecy is that it was written about 2500 years ago, and describes the present situation so well, with the Arab-Muslim nations all allied against Israel. To begin with, let's take a look at our text...
And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee. Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. (EZ 38:1-9)
Now the obvious questions are, where are these places, and who are these people? For help we turn to the following sources;
  • International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
  • Strong's - Hebrew Chaldee and Greek English Lexicons (Strong)
  • Brown, Driver, Briggs, Hebrew Aramaic English Lexicon (BDB)
  • Illustrated Bible Dictionary by M. G. Easton (Easton)
  • The Wold Book Encyclopedia
  • Let's begin with the obvious, Persia and Libya. These are two names that still make sense to us today. Libya is in northern Africa, next to Egypt. Persia changed its name to Iran only a few decades ago. However, let's not stop there. Let's see what our reference books say. Perhaps something more or less was meant when this was written 2500 years ago.
    Persia; the empire Persia; encompassed the territory from India on the east to Egypt... and included, besides portions of Europe and Africa, the whole of western Asia between the Black Sea, the Caucasus, the Caspian and the Jaxartes on the north, the Arabian desert, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean on the south... (BDB)
    Wow! That's alot more than Iran. It includes Iraq and Arabia. Well what about Libya? Let's see what our reference books say, perhaps something more or less was meant when this was written 2500 years ago. according to the Hebrew the word is 'Put', #6316 in Strong's. This is what the ISBE says about it...
    The common identification of Put is the Egyptian Punt (or Pwent) proposed by Ebers. The assimilation of n to a following consonant is common in the Semitic languages, and would occasion no difficulty if the vocalization be found to agree. The final "t" of Punt, however, seems to be the Egyptian feminine ending, whereas the "T" of Put is radical... Somaliland and Yemen: both sides of the sea (the Red Sea), Yemen would seem to be included. (ISBE)
    Wow! Again, that's alot more than Libya. It includes Egypt, Somalia, and Yemen. Now let's move on to the unfamiliar lands and peoples...
    Gomer
    They were a barbaric horde of Aryans who in the 7th century BC left their abode in what is now Southern Russia and poured through the Caucasus into Western Asia... (ISBE)
    Togarmah
    Probably Armenia... Both Kiepert and Dillmann regard Togarmah as having been Southeastern Armenia, and this is at present the general opinion. (ISBE)
    Mesech
    A people on the borders of Colchis and Armenia (BDB)
    Tubal
    A region in east Asia Minor, perhaps nearly equal to Cappadocia (BDB)
    Looking at ancient maps we see that is the part of Turkey that touches Lebanon and Syria.
    Gog
    the name of a district in the wild north-east steppes of Central Asia, north of the Hindu-Kush, now a part of Turkestan (Easton)
    Magog
    Josephus identifies the Magogites with the Scythians (ISBE)
    The World Book Encyclopedia
    Scythians, pronounced SIHTH ee uhnz, were ancient nomads who lived mainly north of the Black Sea in present-day Ukraine and southwestern Russia. They originated in the plains of what is now southern Kazakhstan. But tribes from China pressured most of the Scythians to move west during the early 600's B.C. Scythian territory expanded through the years. By the 300's B.C., these people lived as far west as present-day Hungary and eastern Germany, as far south as Palestine, and as far east as India.
    Now we begin to see the picture. This Biblical prophecy of 2500 years ago speaks of the peoples and lands now occupied by the Islamic world. It is no secret that from present day Libya to Iran, the Islamic world preaches the Koran to its people. The Koran teaches Muslims to 'lie in wait' to ambush infidels. It teaches that Jews and Christians, 'people of the book' are the infidels. It teaches Muslims to use 'every stratagem of war' including the 'peace of Hubadaya' where one may declare a cease fire to reorganize, or even pretend peace in order to stab the infidel in the back. The Hadith (the commentary on the Koran) is even more radical, saying that no land, once under Muslim control, can ever be surrendered to non-Muslims. This is the heart of the issue. In spite of the fact that the Ottoman Empire controlled the Holy Land, it was not important until Jews drained the swamps and cultivated the land in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Before that the area had been described as a desolate wasteland.

    Here I am going to add a little extra. These are 17 points, brought up by my Mennonite Pastor Friend, points that at once differentiate the Battle of Gog & Magog from the Battle of Armegeddon, and yet also may allow the anti-christ to say that the battle of Armegeddon has already taken place, that he is God, and the prophecies have been fulfilled. Note the subtle similarities and differences between the two events;

  • The Gog & Magog war will be the invasion of Russia and Arab allies against Israel. This can be misinterpreted by those left behind as Armageddon, particularly since Ezekiel 38 and 39 describe the two wars as one event.
  • The sun and moon will go dark and the stars will fall before the Day of the Lord (Joel 2:31), which is the beginning of the rapture. This can be misinterpreted as being the end of the tribulation, since many believe the Day of the Lord happens at the end of the tribulation based on a narrow reading of Matt 24:29-31. There might also be an earthquake at the pretribulation rapture, (Revelation 6:12) as an additional delusion and scriptural reason to cause people to think it is the end of the tribulation (Revelation 16:18)
  • The raptured people who disappeared for good will be said to be "those wicked pretribbers" whose doctrine the post tribbers have rejected. This is not much of a stretch given that the media today paints the picture of Bible believing fundamentalists as bigoted, gay hating, intolerant, woman beating, terrorists. This idea of the "rapture of the wicked" is a theology which is supposedly supported by Matt 24:38-41 (one taken the other left), but this is really describing the pretribulation rapture. The word for "taken" is "paralambano", which is used in John 14:1-3 as "received" as how Christ says he will "receive you unto myself". One of the definitions for "left" means "abandonded." Another scripture passage used to support the "rapture of the wicked" is in Revelation 14.
  • At the same time as the rapture, fire from heaven will destroy the armies from the north as the destruction of Gog & Magog in Ezekiel 39:6 "And I will send a fire on Magog...", and will be the "sudden destruction of 1 Thess 5:3 that happens at the start of the Day of the Lord, but this can be mistaken as the destruction at Armageddon. As Israel burns the weapons for seven years -Ezekiel 39:9 (the length of the tribulation) after the Gog & Magog war, and the antichrist ushers in his false peace, this can be misinterpreted as a sign of the millennium, making peaceful use out of weapons, "swords to plowshares".
  • The antichrist will confirm the post trib theological position, and say that Armageddon is over. The antichrist will lie and say he is the one who made the fire come down from heaven at the end of the Gog & Magog war, and he will prove that he has this power by repeating this sign and wonder.
  • The antichrist will come on the scene making peace (Dan 9:27) and setting up a world government (Daniel 2, the iron and clay feet, & Daniel 7:23), just as Christ is seen to return after Armageddon and establish peace and set up a world government. (Isaiah 9:7, Daniel 6:26, Luke 1:33)
  • The two witnesses will be seen as those few who reject the reign of Christ in the "new" millennium. The two witnesses have the power to not let it rain. Rev 11:6 "These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy..." This "no rain" can be misunderstood as the divine punishment for not worshiping the antichrist. Zech 14:17 "And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain."
  • When the two witnesses are killed at the middle of the tribulation, the world will rejoice (Rev 11:8-10), because they will be so inclined to worship the antichrist as god (2 Thess 2:3,4), and the two witnesses will be seen as the rebellious evil ones. How will the antichrist explain their resurrection? Rev 11:11,12. Many theorize this mid trib rapture will also involve the 144,000 of as seen in Rev 14. Will this be again explained with the same lie, the "rapture of the wicked" at the end of the trib, all over again?
  • Some people say that the antichrist/beast may have a false death, to imitate the death and resurrection of Christ. Zechariah 11:17, Revelation 13:3,14
  • Rev 11:13, the great earthquake at the middle of the tribulation, as the two witnesses rise, can be misinterpreted as the great earthquake at the end of the tribulation when Christ returns in glory, (Zech 14:4,5 Revelation 16:18). Thus, those who did not yet believe the antichrist was god before will have more scriptural reasons to do so now. Also, the events and plagues of the previous 3.5 years will fit into a 3.5 year tribulation mistake, so that there are even more reasons to believe the antichrist is now god.
  • The antichrist will i mpose his "mark of the beast" (Rev 13) but he will call it "the seal of God". (Rev 7:2,3 & 9:4)
  • Those who take "the seal of God", which will really be the "mark of the beast", will suffer torment (Rev 9:5), but they will not be able to kill themselves. Rev 9:6 "And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them." This can be misinterpreted as those who took the seal of God as having received a kind of immortality, but it just happens to be a painful process, because, in this theology of deceit, we all must suffer as Christ suffered, somewhat like pennance. It can also be seen as "the next step of the process of evolution", or any number of explanations. All who love not the truth will line up to receive the "seal of God" (mark of the beast), the pain and torture, and false immortality.
  • Those who worship the antichrist, thinking he is god, will gladly follow his orders to search and destroy those left behind who have come to repentance, and not fallen for the delusion. The "war on the saints" Rev 13:7, Dan 7:21,25
  • The antichrist will need an excuse to persecute the Jews, and he might say that they only claim to be Jews but are not. Even today, anti-Jew propaganda makes use of this tactic, saying that the Jews of today are not really Jews, but are really from a mongolian tribe from Asia.
  • The antichrist, the beast, will turn and destroy the harlot woman of Rev 17. This can be misinterpreted as the destruction of Satan and the false prophet, whom Jesus will destroy, as shown in Rev 20:2,10 and 2 Thess 2:8
  • The antichrist will try and get all of his followers to gather together at Jerusalem, (Rev 16:14,16) just as Jesus says he will gather together all of his saints at Jersusalem. (Isaiah 27:12,13; 2 Thess 2:1)
  • These are interesting times to live in. Prophetic events are lining up like dominos. When will they be toppled over? Only God knows. But we can see events leading towards that day soon. It is a good time to have a close and personal relationship with the King of the universe, the creator of everything, the Lord of Lords, the lamb of God, Messiah Yeshua, Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.

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