Posted on 10/24/2007 8:18:14 AM PDT by topcat54
An article is circulating around the Internet that carries the title “Israel Warns World War III May be Biblical War of Gog and Magog.” It is written by Ezra HaLevi and was published in Israel National News.1 The article begins with the following prophetic claims, not unlike so many evangelical and fundamentalist end-time assurances about the end:
US President George W. Bush said a nuclear Iran would mean World War III. Israeli newscasts featured Gog & Magog maps of the likely alignment of nations in that potential conflict. Channel 2 and Channel 10 TV showed the world map, sketching the basic alignment of the two opposing axes in a coming world war, in a manner evoking associations of the Gog and Magog prophecy for many viewers. The prophecy of Gog and Magog refers to a great world war centered on the Holy Land and Jerusalem and first appears in the book of Yechezkel (Ezekiel). On one side were Israel, the United States, Britain, France and Germany. On the other were Iran, Russia, China, Syria and North Korea.
M. R. DeHaan, writing in 1951, identified “the sign of Gog and Magog” to be one of the “three most outstanding signs of the coming of Christ.”2 In 1972, Carl Johnson wrote Prophecy Made Plain for Times Like These.3 His chapter on “When Russia Invades the Middle East” includes a lengthy quotation from a message Jack Van Impe gave at Canton Baptist Temple in Canton, Ohio, sometime in 1969. Like so many who claim to know what’s on the prophetic horizon, Van Impe made his case for an imminent war with Russia on what the newspapers of 1969 were reporting. This war was so close, he charged, “that the stage is being set for what could explode into World War III at any moment.”4 In 1971, Ronald Reagan, then governor of California, followed a similar prophetic script:
Ezekiel tells us that Gog, the nation that will lead all of the other powers of darkness against Israel, will come out of the north. Biblical scholars have been saying for generations that Gog must be Russia. What other powerful nation is to the north of Israel? None. But it didn’t seem to make sense before the Russian revolution, when Russia was a Christian country. Now it does, now that Russia has become Cummunistic and atheistic, now that Russia has set itself against God. Now it fits the description of Gog perfectly.5
This familiar interpretation of Ezekiel 38 and 39 has been written about, talked about, and repeated so often that it has become an unquestioned tenet of prophetic orthodoxy. The question is, does the Bible teach it?
Ezekiel 38 and 39 has been interpreted in various ways over the centuries. The most popular view is to see the prophecy as a depiction of a future battle that includes an alliance of nations led by modern-day Russia in an attack on Israel. Chuck Missler writes in his book Prophecy 20/20 that “the apparent use of nuclear weapons has made this passage [Ezekiel 38 and 39] appear remarkably timely, and some suspect that it may be on our horizon.”6 Prophecy writers for nearly 2000 years have made similar claims, of course without the reference to “nuclear weapons.” In the fourth and fifth centuries, Gog was thought to refer to the Goths and Moors. In the seventh century, it was the Huns. By the eighth century, the Islamic empire was making a name for itself, so it was a logical candidate. By the tenth century, the Hungarians briefly replaced Islam. But by the sixteenth century, the Turks and Saracens seemed to fit the Gog and Magog profile with the Papacy thrown in for added prophetic juice. In the seventeenth century, Spain and Rome were the end-time bad guys.7 In the nineteenth century, Napoleon was Gog leading the forces of Magog-France.8 For most of the twentieth century, Communist Russia was the logical pick with its military aspirations, its atheistic founding, and its designation of being “far north” of Israel. In a word, identifying Gog and Magog with a specific nation or group of nations in the past is legion.9
As the above brief study shows, when the headlines change, the interpretation of the Bible changes. The failed interpretive history of Ezekiel 38 and 39 is prime evidence that modern-day prophecy writers are not “profiling the future through the lens of Scripture” but through the ever-changing headlines of the evening news.10
A lot has to be read into the Bible in order to make Ezekiel 38 and 39 fit modern-day military realities that include jet planes, “missiles,” and “atomic and explosive” weaponry. Those who claim to interpret the Bible literally have a problem on their hands.
The battle in Ezekiel 38 and 39 is clearly an ancient one or at least one fought with ancient weapons. All the soldiers are riding horses (38:4, 15; 39:20). These horse soldiers are “wielding swords” (38:4), carrying “bows and arrows, war clubs and spears” (39:3, 9). The weapons are made of wood (39:10), and it is these abandoned weapons that serve as fuel for “seven years” (39:9). Tim LaHaye describes a highly technological future when the antichrist rises to power to rule the world. “A wave of technological innovation is sweeping the planet. . . . The future wave has already begun. We cannot stop it. . . . [T]he Antichrist will use some of this technology to control the world.”11 How does this assessment of the near prophetic future square with a supposed tribulation period when Israelites “take wood from the field” and “gather firewood from the forests”? (39:10). There is nothing in the context that would lead the reader to conclude that horses, war clubs, swords, bows and arrows, and spears mean anything other than horses, war clubs, swords, bows and arrows, and spears. And what is the Russian air force after? Gold, silver, cattle, and goods (38:12–13). In what modern war can anyone remember armies going after cattle? How much cattle does Israel have? Certainly not enough to feed the Russians! The latest claim is that Israel will discover oil, and this is what will attract the nations to Israel. Where in the Bible do we find this claim?12
Chuck Missler attempts to get around the description of ancient war implements by claiming that the various Hebrew words “is simply 2,500-year-old language that could be describing a mechanized force.”13 The word translated “horse,” “actually means leaper” that “can also mean bird, or even chariot-rider.” He tells us that the Hebrew word translated “sword” “has become a generic term for any weapon or destroying instrument.” In a similar way, “arrow” means “piercer” and “is occasionally used for thunderbolt” and could be “translated today as a missile.” We are to believe that “‘Bow’ is what launches the [missile].”14 Is Missler trying to tell us that when Ezekiel wrote “bow” and “arrow” he really meant a launching pad for a missile? To follow his interpretive methodology requires us to believe that the meaning of the Bible has been inaccessible to the people of God for nearly 2500 years. Missler, like nearly all end-time prognosticators, breaks all the rules of exegesis.
2. M. R. DeHaan, Signs of the Times and other Prophetic Messages (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1951), 74.
3. Carl G. Johnson, Prophecy Made Plain for Times Like These (Chicago: Moody Press, 1972).
4. Jack Van Impe, The Coming War With Russia (Old Time Gospel Hour Press, n.d.). The quotation is taken from a message that Van Impe gave at Canton Baptist Temple, Canton, Ohio. The talk was recorded and available on a as an LP. Quoted in Johnson, Prophecy Made Plain for Times Like These, 82–83.
5. From an address that Ronald Reagan gave at a dinner with California legislators in 1971. Quoted in Paul Boyer, When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern Culture (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1992), 162.
6. Chuck Missler, Prophecy 20/20: Profiling the Future Through the Lens of Scripture (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2006), 155.
7. Francis X. Gumerlock, The Day and the Hour: Christianity’s Perennial Fascination with Predicting the End of the World (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, 2000), 68.
8. T.R., “Commentary on Ezekiel’s Prophecy of Gog and Magog,” The Gentleman’s Magazine (October 1816), 307.
9. Wikipedia
10. Gary DeMar, Islam and Russia in Prophecy: The Problem of Interpreting the Bible Through the Lens of History (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, 2005).
11. Tim LaHaye, “The Coming Wave,” in Ed Hindson and Lee Fredrickson, Future Wave: End Times, Prophecy, and the Technological Explosion (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2001), 7–8.
12. This claim will be discussed in a later chapter.
13. Missler, Prophecy 20/20, 165.
14. Missler, Prophecy 20/20, 165.
So, arguing from silence is the new foundation of the
REPLACEMENTARIAN MENTAL GYMNASTICS SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY?
The more things change the more they stay the same. Figures.
I think you can do better than that, Alex!
BTW being more than conquerers IN HIM will have some incredible implications in the coming months and years regardless of when The Rapture occurs.
And regardless of how many are honored by martyrdom.
Where does the quoted phrase “earthly people” come from? Sorry don’t recognize it....
= = =
Perhaps it comes from the same place that the
earthly theology
comes from . . .
NOT from above!
There you go again . . .
trying to confuse them with Biblical facts.
What a cheeky thing to do!
LOL.
Just in time to be slaughtered by the millions in the “great tribulation”. Is that what God has in mind for His “earthly people”?
= = =
Sometimes, it sounds like the only text the REPLACEMENTARIANS have to base their theology on is the . . .
groping . . .
ponder . . .
ponder . . .
Dr Seuss & The Church in the Hat.
It really boggles my mind that so many prophetic Scriptures have evidently been sliced out of their rubber Bibles.
The verses used to support that scenario are found in Zechariah 13:
7 "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, Against the Man who is My Companion," Says the Lord of hosts. "Strike the Shepherd, And the sheep will be scattered; Then I will turn My hand against the little ones. 8 And it shall come to pass in all the land," Says the Lord, "That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, But one-third shall be left in it: 9 I will bring the one-third through the fire, Will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, 'This is My people'; And each one will say, 'The Lord is my God.' "Here’s how one futurist interprets the passage:
The purge of Israel in their time of trouble is described by Zechariah in these words: “And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith Jehovah, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried” (Zechariah 13:8, 9). According to Zechariah’s prophecy, two thirds of the children of Israel in the land will perish, but the one third that are left will be refined and be awaiting the deliverance of God at the second coming of Christ which is described in the next chapter of Zechariah. (John Walvoord, Israel in Prophecy)
so that His name is no longer profaned and so that all his people he ingathered will be there for this display of His mighty saving and delivering power
Except for the 2/3 that are slaughtered.
Then you have not been "rightly dividing" according to dispensational principles.
Israel is God’s "early people" who receive the earthly promises of God, while the Church is God’s "heavenly people" and they receive heavenly blessing. This is the foundational truth for the theory of the pre-trib rapture believed by many followers of CI Scofield, Dallas Seminary grads, and Calvary Chapel types. You can also find it in the teaching of Hal Lindsey and it’s the fundamental basis for John Hagee’s "outreach" called Christians United for Israel.
The fact that it does not appear in the Bible is immaterial to these folks.
Where does the quoted phrase “earthly people” come from? Sorry don’t recognize it....
It is a tenet of dispensationalism that God has two peoples. Christians are God's heavenly people, Jews are God's earthly (eternal and reproductive (don't do the math on that)) people. Never mind the hard cases.
From this root error all sorts of wackiness is derived.
Where does the quoted phrase “earthly people” come from? Sorry don’t recognize it....= = =
Perhaps it comes from the same place that the
earthly theology
comes from . . .
NOT from above!
Thou hast said it.
Paul's use of 'church' is always a reference to the called out body of believers that make up the body of Christ...
I am not a post-millinialist. How did you arrive at that position?
“Christ made very clear that there were some puzzles to ponder.”
Here’s another question for you:
If God is in the practice of saying something is imminent when in reality it may not happen for centuries, why is there NOT ONE SINGLE Old Testament Prophecy saying the Kingdom was “near” or “at hand”?
“But nothing else fits the prophetic Scriptures. NOTHING.”
Perhaps nothing in Hal Lindsey’s, Hagee’s, or LaHaye’s books surely. They’re waiting for things to happen like the stars to fall (or interpreting them to be nuclear bombs). They’re waiting for a catastophe like no other EVER (forgetting that the Great Flood left only a total of 8 survivors on the whole earth).
In other words, Lindsey, et al. either can’t distinguish the apocalyptic writing from the literal writing in the Bible or they’re just trying to sell books.
I have a better book for you — “Apocalypse Code” by Hank Hanegraaff. Try reading that, praying, and checking it against the Bible yourself. And stay away from the authors selling sensationalism.
Not quite so accurate...The Dark ages started around 500 AD, with the fall of Rome and the rise of the Catholic church...The 'church' pretty much controlled Europe and learning and knowledge was suppressed...
The Dark Ages ended around 1500 AD, around the Time of Martin Luther and Gutenburg...
What, the Temple was destroyed in 100 AD??? You better try again on that one...
I see...
Interesting.
Been a dispensationalist all my life.
NEVER heard nor read such a thing.
Sounds like something a REPLACEMENTARIAN would concoct.
Then I guess I have no clue what that post of yours menat.
I think Hank is largely off the wall.
Scripture has spoken quite sufficiently clearly . . . particularly with Holy Spirit’s aid . . . for my 60 years.
Hank leaves me with a . . . foul feeling in my spirit. I think he’s stepped over some lines he’ll pay dearly for.
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