February 22, 2009
Steve Collins
This is an unusual posting for this blog as it shows that strains can exist within the Gog-Magog blog prophesied to exist in the latter days. Russia, China and Iran are currently the three most active nations in the anti-American, anti-western alliance prophesied in Ezekiel 38. The two links below discuss the same story: the sinking of a Chinese ship by Russian vessels. This is quite an unusual event, and, while it may have been a result of animosities on the part of local commanders or a complete glitch in their ship-to-ship communications, it does highlight an aspect of Ezekiel 38’s prophecy which I have not often discussed. The first link is from the Wall Street Journal and the second is from Al Jazeera (two diverse sources!).
First let’s see this in context. While Russia, China and Iran are united in their fervent hatred of the USA and the West, these nations are not natural allies. Under Vladimir Putin, Russia has been acting more like an Imperialist nation with Putin as the new Czar. Russia thinks it should be the dominant nation of a new world order after the USA weakens, and Russia also has the most nukes and huge natural resources. China thinks it should be the dominant nation as it has the largest population of any nation on earth. Indeed, China has many times the population of Russia and Russia’s eastern provinces have people more ethnically connected to the Chinese people than to the Russians who live in Moscow. Russia has reason to fear that China could eventually take over Russia’s eastern provinces. Iran is Shiite Moslem, so it’s mullahs naturally view both the Russians and Chinese as infidels who are merely useful tools for the time being. Iran’s leader (who wants to “wipe Israel off the map”) is a devotee of a Shiite cult which expects the arrival of a messianist “hidden imam” who will eventually vanquish all infidels (including Russia and China). It is only their common hatred of America that binds these nations together.
If they were to conquer America, Russia, China and Iran would eventually fight each other for global supremacy. Ezekiel 38 prophesies that the Gog-Magog alliance will be torn apart at the end of this age when its nations turn on one another and fight each other’s armies. Ezekiel 38 prophesies that the Gog-Magog alliance will launch a surprise attack against the nations of the modern ten tribes of “Israel.” God’s “presence” comes to the earth in verse 20 (Christians would logically see this as the return of Jesus Christ) and Israel’s nations are urged to fight against the Gog-Magog alliance with their weaponry in verse 21 so the war is still in progress when God intervenes. Verse 21 also prophesies that “every man’s sword shall be against his brother.” Since this verse is within account in Ezekiel 38:20-39:6 re: the eventual destruction of the armies of the Gog-Magog alliance, it is evident that verse 21 prophesies that the armies of the Gog-Magog alliance will turn on each other. If we take the entire prophecy chronologically, it seems likely that the armies of Russia, China and Iran will turn on each other in a state of confusion just after Divine intervention occurs in verse 20. However, while the timing may be subject to debate, it is certain that this event will occur sometime during this latter-day world war.
There is a precedent for this action. In II Chronicles 20, three nations (Moab, Ammon and Mt. Seir) made an alliance to wage war against the kingdom of Judah during the reign of King Jehoshaphat. In verses 22-25, the alliance of Moab, Ammon and Mt. Seir fell apart as they were about to invade Judah and the previously-allied invaders slaughtered each other so completely that the army of Judah simply spoiled the dead bodies of the fallen invaders. This biblical account involved the kingdom of Judah, but Ezekiel 38 pertains not to “Judah”, but to the nations of latter-day “Israel” (identified in my books, articles and blogs as being the USA, the UK and its related British nations, many European nations of NATO, etc.). The II Chronicles 20 account shows that there is an ancient precedent for what God will cause to happen within the Gog-Magog alliance at the end of the global war in the latter days. Just as Judah came upon a scene of massive numbers of dead bodies from the armies of the allied nations who had come to attack them, so will the Israelites have to bury the dead bodies of the fallen armies of the Gog-Magog alliance (Ezekiel 39:9-16).
This should be a comforting message for those who live in the Israelite nations targeted by this prophesied latter-day attack from the Gog-Magog alliance. However, Ezekiel 38 gives us no timetable as to how soon God will cause this to happen. In the first part of the war, Russia, China, Iran and their allies (verses 2-7 will fight on the same side as they invade the western nations and their global allies. The Gog-Magog alliance will wage war vs. the western world in a united front for an unknown length of time prior to their prophesied falling-out in Ezekiel 38:21.
The sinking of a Chinese ship by the Russians confirms that tensions are simmering below the surface within the Gog-Magog alliance. Ezekiel 38:21 indicates these tensions will explode at some point during the final global war of our age.
