BIBLE PROPHECY: Let’s talk about Gog and Magog

invasionofjerusalem

Gog and Magog is one of the most discussed scriptures within the realm of Bible Prophecy and I want to cover some basics on it with you.

In Ezekiel 38-39, the battle of Gog and Magog, it describes what will happen to Israel in the last 3.5 years of the 70th week of Daniel, how God punishes Israel by allowing them to be invaded by Gog and his armies and then comes back to defeat Gog in what we call Armageddon.

 
Magog: Where is it?

What most people get wrong about this, among other things, is where Magog is actually located. I see it in my comments all the time. Magog is Russia, blah blah blah.

But that’s categorically wrong! Magog is NOT Russia!

Look, forget about Bible Prophecy teachers for a moment. Let’s see where Bible scholars put Magog in their Bible atlases:

Consider the following sampling of recreated maps representing several popular Bible atlases, each created by teams of highly accredited and interdisciplinary scholars, and where they all place Magog:


The New Moody Atlas of the Bible p. 93 places Magog in Turkey.

 

The Zondervan Atlas of the Bible p. 83 places Magog in Turkey.

 

The Holman Bible Atlas p. 36 places Magog in Turkey.

 

The IVP Atlas of Bible History p. 18 also places Magog in Turkey.

Turkey. Not Russia.

So why is this?

Well to sum it up, Magog was the grandson of Noah and led an ancient nomadic people. They did end up in Russia, but that’s not where they began their journey, nor where they were in Ezekiel’s day.

This is why all these atlases put Magog in Turkey, because that’s where they were when Ezekiel was alive.

Joel Richardson briefly explains all this here:

 
If you want a more in-depth and better explanation by Joel, watch his newer podcast on this here.

 
 
Timing

Some people will tell you that the war that Ezekiel 38-39 isn’t Armageddon, that it happens before Armageddon or after the Millennium. But neither is correct. It is Armageddon, and here’s why.

People always ignore this part at the end of Ezekiel 39, but it’s very important:

21 “I will set My glory among the nations; all the nations shall see My judgment which I have executed, and My hand which I have laid on them. So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day forward. The Gentiles shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they were unfaithful to Me, therefore I hid My face from them. I gave them into the hand of their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I have dealt with them, and hidden My face from them.”’

25 “Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name — after they have borne their shame, and all their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, when they dwelt safely in their own land and no one made them afraid. When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and I am hallowed in them in the sight of many nations, then they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who sent them into captivity among the nations, but also brought them back to their land, and left none of them captive any longer. And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says the Lord God.”

God makes clear in this passage that when He rescues Israel from the clutches of Gog and his armies, So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day forward.. Just think about this for a second.

It certainly hasn’t happened yet. Israel a very ungodly nation with around 60% of Jews living there claiming to be atheists. And of the religious Jews, most of them aren’t Christian either. There’s only around 20% of Jews that even claim to be Christian at all. In other words, sin is as rampant in Israel as anywhere in the West. Clearly God hasn’t reconciled them yet.

And to suggest that this will happen before Armageddon, well that doesn’t make sense either. “…From that day forward,” is permanent. Israel will be a Christian nation from that day forward and will worship Christ as their Messiah. This is the redemption of Israel, which is what Armageddon is all about.

God says in verse 25 above that he will bring back the ‘captives’ of Jacob from the enemy lands. These are the same captives that Zechariah talks about in chapter 14:

Behold, the day of the Lord is coming,
And your spoil will be divided in your midst.

For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem;
The city shall be taken,
The houses rifled,
And the women ravished.

Half of the city shall go into captivity,
But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

The captives are also mentioned in Luke 21 (Luke’s version of Matthew 24), which is about Armageddon:

20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. 22 For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. 23 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. 24 And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations.

These are just two passages, but these are the same captives that are mentioned in Ezekiel 39, that fell by the sword and were taken into other nations.

And if you’ll also notice in the passage in Luke, he calls this ‘the days of vengeance’, which also correlates to what God said in Ezekiel 39:21, that this is His judgement on Israel.

It all fits like puzzle pieces.

So everything here is why the timing of Gog and Magog can’t be anything other than Armageddon. There is no separate war of Gog and Magog. It is all the Day of the Lord.

If you want more on the timing of this and more, Joel Richardson goes into much more detail on the timing of Gog and Magog in his separate podcast.

 
 
Addendum

If you watch Joel’s podcast linked above, he mentions the safety of Israel mentioned in Ezekiel 38:11, but I want to address it here.

11 You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’

Much has been made of this verse that is really inaccurate. Even I once thought this was evidence of some peace agreement between Israel and the Antichrist nations. But it’s not.

The best way that I can explain this to you is how Walid Shoebat, the one who has uncovered so much of this to all of us, explained it to me.

He said that when he reads this passage, he imagines the “Godly video” that Ezekiel is seeing, if you will. Ezekiel is used to seeing Jerusalem as a fortified city in his day. It has huge walls around it to protect it from invading armies.

But in his vision from God, or Godly video, Ezekiel sees future Israel with no walls, as a city where Jews live safely and peacefully without the need for these huge fortified walls, or even bars and gates.

That’s all it really means. It has nothing to do with any peace agreement.

So I just wanted to put that out there.

I hope you all have enjoyed this simple lesson on Gog and Magog. There’s much more that could be written on this and we may do that in the future.

But for now I just wanted once again to present you with the basics, so you know that Gog and Magog is about Turkey and it is the Day of the Lord, aka Armageddon.

Read Ezekiel 38-39. It’s a fascinating read and a glimpse into what awaits the state of Israel, and what I believe awaits the revived Ottoman Empire that is forming before our very eyes.


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