Gog and Magog: Who or What are they?

Ezekiel 38:1-9, 15-16, 18-19, 21-23



Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, "Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, ' Thus says the Lord God:" Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords. "Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; Gomer and all its troops; the house of Togarmah from the FAR NORTH and all its troops--many people are with you.



"Prepare yourself and be ready, you and all your companies that are gather about you; and be a guard for them. After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had been long desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely. You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you....



" Then you will come from your place out of the FAR NORTH, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a might army. You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations many know Me, when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes....



"And it will come to pass at the same time, when Gog comes against the land of Israel," says the Lord God, "that My fury will show in My face. For in My jealousy and in the fire of My warth i have spoken: 'Surely in that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel....I will call for a sword against Gog throughout all My mountains,' says the Lord God. "Every man's sword will be against his brother. And I will bring him to judgement with pestilence and bloodshed; I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. then they shall know that i am the Lord."'"



etymologically, the Gog and Magog of Ezekiel 38 and 39 can only mean modern- day Russia. "Magog was the second son of Japheth who, according to Josephus, the great historian, settled north of the Black Sea. Tubal and Meshech were the fifth and sixth sons of Japheth, whose descendants settled south of the Black Sea." These tribes intermarried and became known as Magog. Several historians point out they were also know as the Scythians and referred to them as "a barbarous people."



In Ezekiel 39:2, God says to Gog, "I will turn you around and lead you on, bringing you up from the far NORTH, and bring you against the mountains of Israel." All Bible directions are given in relation to Israel. "North" means north of Israel. Any map will show that Russia is indeed the far north of Israel.



What is even more remarkable is that Gog's allies--Persia(old name for Iran), Libya, Gomer (thought to be Turkey) Ethiopia, and Togarmah--are all Arab Muslim countries today and they 'just happen' to be Russia's faithful allies. Their binding, overriding, passionate, and common hatred is Israel. Here are some interesting facts for you all to ponder on. Russia and Iran are collaborating on a uranium enrichment program. With this technology, a nuclear bomb can be produced. It is a WOMD(Weapon of Mass Destruction). Click on the following links to find out more. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/feb/27/russia.nuclear
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/iran-russia-reach-agreement-to-enrich-uranium/2006/02/27/1140888771985.html
The consequences of Russia and her allies await in my next post.

Blooming in the Desert

Which desert? Let's take a look.

The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy....Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. the burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow. (Isaiah 35:1-2, 6-7)

I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs. I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set pines in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together, so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it. (Isaiah 41:18-20)

When I read these two portions of the Scripture, my heart just exclaimed a vehement 'Amen'. How remarkable this would be, that the Holy Land of Israel will burst into bloom, water will gush forth. God is determined to show the world that He has not forgotten about Israel, nor has He taken His eye off the land of promise.

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. (Isaiah 43:19)

In our time I have seen several areas of the world turn from fertile grassland and productive farmland into barren, scorched wilderness; the Sahara Desert in northern Africa, for example, continues year by year to swallow ever more acreage. But when was the last itme we saw a desert turn into a lush garden? That, however, is exactly what God has promised to do in the land of Israel!

While I believe God will accomplish this great feat during the reign of the millennial kingdom, already we see hints of what He has in mind. In the years since Israel became a nation, rainfall has increased remarkably throughout Palestine. As a consequence, the nation has produced crops of astounding proportions. In fact, Israel has fruit and vegetables larger than those grown in the famed Imperial Valley of California!

From these little signs, we can see what God will be doing in the future, which is the desert of Holy Land turning into a landscape of rivers, springs and life. In the next post, I shall discuss about a disastrous sneak attack on Israel. Here's a clue: It'd be from Russia and her gang of Arab nations. =)

The Great Departing, Another Prophetic Event That's Taking Place

Another passage for you all beloved readers to ponder on:

Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report of letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come UNTIL THE REBELLION OCCURS.

2 Thessolonians 2:1-3, (NIV)

The apostle Paul is saying that before the day of the Lord, there will first be a 'rebellion', or a 'departing.' The Greek word translated 'rebellion' is apostasia, the source word for our English term 'apostasy'. It means a defection from the truth or a departure from that which was given at the first. The plain meaning of this prophecy is that before Christ returns, many who once were entrusted with the truth(which is God's plain plan of salvation through His Son) will depart from it.

Robert L. Thomas, writing in The Expositor's Bible Commentary, explains that the word apostasia "points to a deliberate abandonment of a former professed position...After the catching away of those in Christ(refer to 1 Thess. 4:17), all who are truly in him will be gone. Conditions will be ripe for people, especially those who call themselves Christian but are not really such, to turn their backs on God in what they do as well as in what they already have in thought. Then their insincerity will demonstrate itself outwardly. This worldwide anti- God movement will be so universal as to earn for itself a special designation: 'the apostasy'-i.e., the climax of the increasing apostate tendencies evident before the rapture of the church."

To supplement this passage from Thess., in 1 Timothy 4:1-2, Paul adds these additional details:

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.

The word translated "depart" means "to withdraw, become apostate."

Subsequently, 1 Timothy 4:3-4 writes,

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their wars away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

Isn't this so true in present society? Many of the false religions and cults of history have grown out of deceptions or 'apostate' branches of Christianity. Through the centuries whenever the church permitted theological error to creep in, God raised up reformers to call His people back to the foundational doctrines of Scripture. Or He raised up others who led movements to separate themselves according to the Scriptures; that is how many of our present denominations were formed:Pentecostal, Baptist, Bible- Presbyterian etc.

Take America as an example. Today it is generally believed 75-80% of Americans identify themselves as christians. With these facts it must be concluded that America is going apostate. Abortion was legalised in 1973. Homosexuality has become the norm. Divorce, murder are becoming more rampant. What's serious is false gospels, false Christ's and false prophets are so common in American churches. But all these are just a prelude to the final apostasy. They are only preparing the way for the ultimate antichrist who will set himself up in the temple and declare himself to be God. You might say he is preparing his followers to accept his ultimate lie. I' ll elaborate on this in my later posts. Keep you updated!