As long-time readers know, I have for many years warned that the biblical prophecy of Ezekiel 38-39 foretold that, in the latter days of our age just prior to Jesus Christ’s return, a major alliance would form, led by Russia, China and Iran, and that this “Gog-Magog” alliance would attack an alliance led by the modern nations of the ten tribes of Israel at the very end of the latter days. The alliance led by the ten tribes of Israel is the western alliance comprising the USA, NATO nations and their allies. I’ve been warning about this since the late 1980s. When the Berlin Wall fell and everyone thought the Russian bear had turned into a teddy bear, the western world mostly disarmed and some thought I was wrong about Ezekiel 38-39. Some self-deluded souls went so far as to dismiss the concept that Ezekiel 38-39 would ever be fulfilled in the “latter days” of our age, even though Ezekiel 38: 8 and 16 openly state that fact. I still believed that God would guide world events to fulfill his prophecies at some point in the future. Today, it is obvious that Russia, allied to China, Iran and other nations, is no teddy bear and that it preparing for a global war against the West. Ezekiel 38-39 is being prepared for fulfillment–right before our eyes. Yet, how many pastors and religious leaders see this obvious fact and are warning the nations and their flocks about this prophesied eventual certainty?
Indeed, God has affirmed the prophecy of Ezekiel 38-39 in a way that no other prophecy in the Bible is affirmed. There is a phrase in biblical prophecies which connotes special significance and demands human attention. It is when God inspires the phrase “Thus saith the Lord” (as the King James Version of the Bible translates it) that we realize we are reading a direct, first-person quote of the Creator God’s pronouncements. We, as puny mortals made of flesh, need to pay special attention to such Divine pronouncements. Indeed, I think some trembling on our part would be appropriate when we read such direct pronouncements.
When you read through the prophecy of Ezekiel 38-39, you will notice something unparalleled in the entire Bible. In these two prophetic chapters about the fates and destinies of many of the world’s nations in the latter days, God seven times uses the phrase “Thus saith the Lord” in affirming the special importance of this prophecy. It is as if God has “seven times” affirmed this singular prophecy. As all biblically-informed people realize, the number “seven” denotes special significance or a sense of completeness (as in seven days in every week, seven Divine Holy Days in Leviticus 23, the seven latter-day churches of Revelation 2-3, etc.) I am not aware of any other prophecy in the entire Bible which is seven-times affirmed by a Divine decree as is Ezekiel 38-39. The seven Divine affirmations of this prophecy’s content and binding nature are found in Ezekiel 38:3, 10, 14, 17 and 39:1, 17 and 25. Just as the book of Revelation’s prophecy is “sealed with seven seals” (Revelation 5:1), Ezekiel 38-39 is sealed with seven Divine affirmations about its binding content. In doing this, it is as if God were saying: “I really, really want you to pay attention to this prophecy because it will come to pass in the latter days. [See my article, Are We Living in the Biblical Latter Days?, for evidence we are living in that prophetic time.]
Ezekiel 38-39 warn that Russia will lead the attack vs. the West in the latter days. All knowledgeable prophetic scholars that I know about all see that Russia is identified in Ezekiel 38:1-3. If the Bible is the Divine Word of a Creator Being who created the physical Universe and all life on earth, and if we are living in the latter days, then we should be seeing Ezekiel 38-39 readied for fulfillment. That is exactly what is happening.
A reader sent me the first link that details 30 reasons that indicate Russia is now preparing for World War III. I am posting this link for all readers to examine as it has a lot of information in it about Russia’s war-plans. It does not have the degree of documentation that I prefer to have when I post informational links; however, the information in it is so varied and expansive that if even half of it is true, it makes the case that Ezekiel 38-39 is well on the way to being fulfilled in the years ahead of us. I have also included two other links documenting Russia’s growing and openly-obvious war plans. The second link is about a new strategic missile that Russia has built that will significantly alter the balance of forces in Russia’s favor vis-à-vis ICBMs. The third link is about the fact that Russia is building its military forces so rapidly that in a few years it will be able to conduct several simultaneous military operations like the one it is now doing inside/on the border of the Ukraine. Add the growing military power of Russia to the rapidly-growing military power of China and the efforts by Iran to build a nuclear weapons arsenal and it is obvious that God is moving world events to prepare the Gog-Magog alliance to feel confident enough that a surprise attack vs. the West is winnable. I personally think that the leaders of the Gog-Magog alliance feel that if they lose half their populations in a nuclear war vs. the West, they will regard that as an acceptable loss to defeat the West and rule the world. In spite of the obvious construction of a massive war machine by Russia and China, most of the leaders of the West have their heads firmly stuck “in the sand” and refuse to see the obvious. In doing so, they are repeating the cycle of history that mankind repeatedly experiences (Ecclesiastes 1:9). The same thing happened in the years leading up to World War II. Even though it was blatantly obvious that Hitler was building a military machine to launch a world war, the West’s leaders (with the notable exception of Winston Churchill) lived in deep self-delusion that Hitler would not launch a world war. Today, Russia and China are building a military machine capable of launching a world war, and the West’s leaders are just as blind to the danger as were the pre-World War II leaders. The West’s leaders today are full of the spirit of Neville Chamberlain. Now for a pertinent digression about the Two Witnesses.
Personally, I think God has a “monkey wrench” planned that he will throw into the prophetic mix that will forcibly delay the attack of the Gog-Magog alliance. Ideally, such an attack should be made soon while the USA is still led by Barack Obama, who, in my opinion (and I think that opinion is shared by much of the world and most Americans) is the weakest national leader and the most militarily-ignorant president in the history of the USA. However, Revelation 11 prophesies that God is going to send two Divinely-empowered prophets called the Two Witnesses to warn mankind that God is quite real and that the time of his forcible intervention to take control of this planet is drawing near. The Two Witnesses are prophesied to be given the power to control the weather, alter the elements of nature, consume their enemies in fire, and plague anyone, anywhere as often as they wish (Revelation 11:3-6). They will be the most powerful prophets ever sent by God to mankind on planet earth. Moses and Aaron wielded Divine powers vs. Egypt in the time of the Exodus, but they had far more limited powers than will be wielded by the Two Witnesses. God told Moses and Aaron what plagues to direct upon the nation of Egypt during the Exodus account, and God decided the nature and duration of each plague. Moses and Aaron were merely the interlocutors of God’s decisions. This is not the case with the Two Witnesses. God is going to essentially “take a back seat” and allow the Two Witnesses to select the plagues to be sent on nations, world leaders, cities, people, etc. The Two Witnesses will be human beings so they may be capable of making some mistakes and going further than God himself would go if the Two Witnesses get really angered. There is a biblical precedent for this.
Elijah had such faith that he declared/sent the plague of a three and a half-year drought upon the ancient kingdom of Israel (I Kings 17:1) although James 5:17 adds Elijah must have “‘prayed” about this decision. I Kings 18:1 records that it was not Elijah, but God who stepped in and told Elijah that the drought had gone on long enough and God was calling an end to it. Elijah’s wrath and willingness to prolong that particular plague of famine was greater than God’s willingness to permit it to go on. The same thing may happen in the ministry of the Two Witnesses. While God is delegating them Divine powers to do whatever they want, God always will have the oversight to send the Holy Spirit to tell the Two Witnesses “OK, that’s enough of that plague, stop it.”
On one occasion, Elijah also got really “pissed off” at a crowd of juvenile delinquents who were mocking him. Elijah sent two bears to maul 42 of them to death (II Kings 2:23-24) in what must have been a terrible way to die. Elijah also had the power to annihilate military forces with Divine fire (II Kings 1). The Two Witnesses will have these same kinds of powers…but on steroids (Revelation 11:5). When the Gog-Magog alliance sees the power inherent in the Two Witnesses, I believe they will choose to “lay low” until the Two Witnesses are removed from the world scene when God allows the beast’s forces to finally kill the Two Witnesses at the end of their ministry (Revelation 11:7-12). It is after the resurrection of the Two Witnesses and their ascension into heaven that I believe the Gog-Magog alliance will feel emboldened enough to turn on the beast and attack him in Ezekiel 38-39’s global World War (Zechariah 14 would also be fulfilled at the same time).
However, I claim no infallibility in analyzing the Bible and its prophecies. The above viewpoint fits the prophecies and their logical contexts quite well, but what if I’m not correct in my expectations? If I ever come to such a conclusion about any prophecy, I’ll “turn on a dime” and say so in a post. There are a series of world events that were originally foretold in the book of Revelation called the “seven thunders,” but God told the Apostle John not to write them down and keep them a secret from latter-day mankind. Those coming but unspecified events could alter many of our prophetic expectations and sequences of latter-day events.
- http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/2015/01/18/30-reasons-proving-putin-preparing-start-world-war-iii/
- http://english.pravda.ru/russia/politics/16-01-2015/129540-putin_missile_surprise-0/
- http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/16/us-nato-russia-idUSKBN0KP1F620150116?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
