7

          Ezekiel (chaps. 38-39) warns us of a soon-to-come invasion of Israel by a huge army referred to as Gog and Magog the King from the North.  Since  there has been no Israel for almost 2500 years, it behooves us to identify this last days invader located to the far north of Israel. There is almost unanimous agreement by Biblical scholars, past and present, that this invader is indeed Russia.  Take a ruler and draw a line straight north and you will pass right through Moscow.  Josephus and other historians place the names Meshech and Tubal as the descendants of the sons of Noah, who settled in the Caucasus Mountains by the Black Sea. Ezekiel (38, vs. 8-10) says of this nation, "After many days thou shalt be visited:  in the latter years thou shalt come into the Land (Israel) that is brought forth out of the nations and they shall dwell safely all of them -- (speaking of peace treaties).  Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.  Thus saith the Lord God;  It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought."  Now we can see from these verses that:

    1)  Israel will be dwelling in relative safety at the time of this invasion, probably due              to the peace treaties she is now forging with her Arab enemies.
   
2)  That this northern invader will have collaborators -- later identified as Persia (Iran      and Iraq), Libya, Ethiopia and others.
   
3)  That in the course of this invasion this leader will get an evil thought in his mind; though we cannot look into anothers mind; it is my speculation, (based on my eschatological hypothesis) that this evil thought will be a pre-emptive nuclear assault by Russia against the United States and our allies. This may explain the strange silence in the Bible concerning the United States, while also underwriting the rise of the Anti-Christ and Europe as the prime progenitors of end-time events.

          Ezekiel (39 vs. 2) states that 5/6ths of this northern invader will be burned in fire and brimstone along with those who dwell carelessly in the Isles,  a possible reference to Britain and her offspring -- the United States and Canada. 

          Now many great scholars have placed this Ezekiel (chaps. 38-39) war at the Midway point or at the end of the Tribulation, equating it with the battle of Armageddon.  But I believe a careful rendering of these chapters will place this war at the beginning of the tribulation; either immediately after, or occurring concurrently with, the revelation of the Anti-Christ -- but immediately following the Rapture of the overcomers in the Church.  The key to the timing of this battle occurs in Ezekiel (39, v. 9) where it says, "and they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall set on fire and burn the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows and the handstaves, and the spears; and they shall burn them for seven years" (the exact length of the Tribulation).  This places this war at the beginning, not the end of the Tribulation -- and correlates with the Red Horse (the Russians are the Reds) of the Book of Revelation.  Later on, in Ezekiel (39, v. 14) there is reference to the dead being buried for seven months; for in verse 15 it states:  "and the passengers that pass through the Land (Israel) when any man seeth a man's bone;  Then shall he set up a sign by it till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon Gog."