Views of Last Days’ Bible prophecies

Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ² “Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him, ³ and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. ⁴ I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords. ⁵ Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; ⁶ Gomer and all its troops; the house of Togarmah from the far north and all its troops—many people are with you. Ezekiel 38.1-6

Jewish views on the Bible’s Last Days prophecies

There are a lot of interesting comments on this. Jewish people see it as being significant, because it signifies the coming together of various prophetic elements with currents events and trends in the Middle East.

Some Jewish and Christian Scholars are suggesting we’re on the way to the fulfilment of this prophecy.

There are a number of different interpretations of it. Some liberal scholars would say it is just a symbolic picture of ‘the battle of Good and Evil’, which should not be taken literally.

I once discussed this with a semi-orthodox rabbi. He told me that it was about wars in the Persian Empire during Bible times which have long passed and therefore does not have a future reference. I asked him, ‘which battles?’, and he didn’t really answer.

At the same time, the general Orthodox view is that it is a prophecy relating to an apocalyptic war at the dawn of the Messianic age. There is a man in Israel called Rabbi Pincus Wilson, he is a very prolific writer. He has written over 100 books on the subject, and he identifies Ezekiel 38 and 39 and Zechariah 12.1-6 as pre-messianic wars over Israel. He takes a pretty similar line to us except that he doesn’t believe the Messiah is Yeshua.

The burden of the word of the Lord against Israel. Thus says the Lord, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him: ² “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. ³ And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it. ⁴ In that day,” says the Lord, “I will strike every horse with confusion, and its rider with madness; I will open My eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. ⁵ And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength in the Lord of hosts, their God.’ ⁶ In that day I will make the governors of Judah like a firepan in the woodpile, and like a fiery torch in the sheaves; they shall devour all the surrounding peoples on the right hand and on the left, but Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place—Jerusalem. Zechariah 12.1-6

According to the Orthodox Chabad website that is Lubavitch in orientation, they say that the prophet Ezekiel’s chapters 38-39 describe a climatic battle that will be instigated by Gog and/or Magog and be waged against Israel and God.

And there’s a rabbi in Jerusalem called Yekutiel Fish, a prominent Jewish Mystic, who stated unequivocally that the current war in Ukraine is a precursor to the pre-Messiah war of Gog and Magog. The rabbi cites the Midrash in Bereshit Rabba which states,

“If you see kingdoms taunting each other, you can anticipate the coming footsteps of the Messiah.“

He speaks about the armies which fight each other and then stop fighting each other and start fighting Israel. He says they will not succeed. This will of course be due to God intervening to prevent them from harming Israel.

But you see that there are Jewish people who are writing about this and saying that we are on the way to this prophetic scenario being fulfilled.

Christian views of the Bible’s Last Days prophecies

Of course, there are Christians are writing about it as well. There are a lot of different views on this subject but perhaps the major one is that expressed by Arnold Fruchtenbaum in his book The Footsteps of the Messiah.

He says this event will happen before the event known as ‘The Rapture of the Church’. So, the Rapture of the Church will happen first, then the Tribulation will come, but this battle would come before the Rapture and therefore before the Tribulation. In other words, it could happen anytime now.

It will set off the events which will lead to the seven year period at the end of the age and the Day of the Lord.

I get a magazine from Australia called ‘Herald of Hope’ where they say that this event will happen in the first half of the Tribulation period.

That is, after the Rapture when the Russian and Islamic forces invade the land of Israel.

Therefore, you’ve got two options there: before or after the Rapture.

Islamic views of the Bible’s Last Days prophecies

Finally, there’s a man called Joel Richardson who wrote a book called ‘The Islamic Antichrist’

He believes that the Rapture comes at the end of the Tribulation period and identifies the events in Ezekiel 38 and 39 on par with Armageddon. In his view, this happens at the end of the Tribulation and is followed immediately by the return of the Lord to the earth and His setting up of the Messianic Kingdom prophesied in Zechariah 14 and Joel and revelation 16.

He says this is an Islamic invasion not led by Russia but by Muslim powers hostile to Israel. In his interpretation, Gog the leader of this Alliance is the same person as the Islamic Mahdi.

According to Muslim belief, the Mahdi will bring about the end of days battle and the worldwide victory of Islam with the objective of the war being to restore full Islamic control of Jerusalem and bring an end to Israel. In particular, these powers will want to take control of the Al-Aqsa mosque and end Jewish control of Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock which is of course where the Temple stood, on the Temple Mount.

In Joel Richardson’s view, Ezekiel’s Gog is the same person as the Beast or Antichrist. He says he’s a Muslim leader who comes probably out of Turkey.

As we question some of these things about Israel and about Russia, this does raise itself as a possibility. I don’t think it is Russia. I’ll tell you in a moment why, but one thing we have to say is that since this event hasn’t yet happened, we do have to be open to different possibilities of how it might happen.

Geopolitics of the Middle East and prophecy

Let’s go back and have a look at the current situation and see how it fits in, and then we’ll conclude with a word about the coming of the Lord.

Now, one of the issues relating to Russia, Iran, Syria, and China is the fact that Russia today has been weakened by the Ukraine war. It’s one of the questions I’ve wrestled with and I haven’t really come to an answer yet. But the issue of Ukraine does raise questions about how prepared or able Russia would be to launch an invasion bringing its troops into another part of the world.

The Ukraine war has actually turned into a disaster for Russia with its army weakened, its morale and weaponry destroyed, it’s economy in trouble and, U.S estimates, around 200 000 Russian casualties in Ukraine killed or seriously wounded with up to a million men having fled Russia to avoid being called up into the army.

The Russian army has been humiliated and exposed as badly equipped and guilty of war crimes against civilians. Nevertheless, as I read recently in the Telegraph, Russia is still a threat to Britain.

“It would be very easy”, the article says, “to look and think that the Russian military has collapsed and is in dire trouble. But that’s uneven”, said General Cavoli at a security conference in Tallinn in Estonia. “Their ground forces are greatly eroded” he said, “they’ve run into big trouble, but the navy has lost almost nothing, ‘cyber’ has lost nothing, space has lost nothing. How long would it take Russia to rebuild?” The question is: How would long would it take them to rebuild to do what they’re capable of doing?

Now, there’s all sorts of contradictory things being said about the state of Russia at the present time but, if it’s right that Russia could rebuild if it comes out of Ukraine, use its navy, its air force, and its cyber capabilities to try and disable Israel’s technology, it’s also possible that Russia could be the leading force in this coming army.

You also have Russia and Iran. One of the things which we’re noticing is the deepening relationship between Russia and Iran. What is happening there? Putin is talking to the ayatollahs in Iran. The Iran Iranian regime itself is also in trouble of course. You have got many people today rejecting the Islamic rulers, crying out to freedom from the imposition of Islamic tyranny.

We saw at the end of the last year a rebellion largely led by young people who were fed up with being told what to do by Islamists, whose main achievement since the 1979 Islamic Revolution has been to make Islam hated and feared by the majority. Many young people want a secular Western-style government and are open to Christianity and the Gospel.

The present Iranian regime seems to have contained the revolution which erupted in 2022 but it has only done this by suppressing the people, by imprisoning members of the opposition thus making itself even more unpopular. What we are noticing though is that Russia and China are becoming more involved in Iran and both have a strong interest in helping keep the present regime in power.

China has been giving them some cameras to put in Tehran and all around the place to pick up any troublemakers to pick out any women who are not working the hijab, and finding them on the spot, so that they are basically controlling the people with the kind of mechanisms which China is also using to control its population.

China’s getting involved in the Middle East. If the Islamic regime should fall or Russia should be defeated in the Ukraine, it would actually make it quite difficult for this line-up (Iran, Russia, Turkey against Israel) to happen, but all things are possible.

⁴ I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords. ⁵ Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; ⁶ Gomer and all its troops; the house of Togarmah from the far north and all its troops—many people are with you.

⁷ “Prepare yourself and be ready, you and all your companies that are gathered about you; and be a guard for them. ⁸ After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely. ⁹ You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you.” Ezekiel 38.4-9

One thing that you notice with Ezekiel is that it implies that the leader of this Alliance is going to send a lot of troops to fight in this battle.

There is another interesting little fact here about Russia and Syria. Mr Assad, the president of Syria welcomed Putin’s armies into Syria to keep himself in power during their civil war. Assad has got a long-term alliance with Russia which needs to keep Assad in power because Russia has two ‘warm water’ ports which it uses in Syria: one at a place called Latakia and a second one at the place called Tatus on the Syrian coast. Russia also has an air base in a place called Khmeimim Air Base which means Syria is a very important strategic ally for Russia.

If you know your geography, Syria is located just above Israel. So, having Russia on the borders of Israel is interesting to put it mildly. Russia was used to keep Assad in power. One of the ways they did that was to bomb the opposition into submission, particularly the city of Aleppo (second city in Syria) which they basically reduced to rubble, as they’ve done in parts of Ukraine. Russia’s tactic for winning wars is to bomb the places.

Assad has asked for more Russian soldiers to come into Syria. There’s a bombed out city in Syria, he asked Russia to maintain permanent bases in Syria. Russia is already supplying Syria with anti-aircraft missiles (S-400s) by which it can control the airspace above Syria.

Israel needs to get into the Syrian airspace to hit the Iranian targets they want to hit. It has recently hit targets in Damascus which has not pleased either Assad or Putin, and you have this situation in Syria building up which could involve Russia even further.

Additionally, we see Iranian and Turkish forces getting involved. So, you’ve got Russia, Iran, and Turkey already in Syria, just to the north of Israel. You’ve also got China taking part in the situation through diplomatic initiatives such as brokering a peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Is all that interesting? Is it significant?

One of the things you’re noticing is that China is taking a growing interest in the Middle East and has become a growing power in the world. China sees itself as a partner with Russia.

Russia and China have their plan for a Russian / Chinese New World Order which has other countries, including Iran and other nasty countries, involved in trying to create their new world order. In fact, in this agreement, China is becoming the dominant partner not Russia, especially since the Ukraine war where Russia is seen to be losing power and China is gaining power. China is pushing for a peace settlement in the Ukraine proposing that (I think) the ideal is that Russia retains control of Crimea in the Donbas area while committing not to take any more territory in Ukraine. The Ukraine is then defended by NATO from any further aggression from Russia.

Now, that is not happening at the moment but Russia is basically subject to China.

This situation is interesting and Russia’s weakness is making it more dependent on China.

One of the things which is also happening away from the Middle East but which also involves Russia is that it has been using some 20 000 troops to get control of a town in Ukraine called Backhmut which they say has no strategic value. At the same time, Russia is losing control over a vast area of Asia in the Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan.

All those countries had a had a summit recently with China which means that China is taking more and more interest and control over them.

In China’s far east, Russia, if you go to the end of the Trans-Siberian Railway, you get to a place called Vladivostok which used to be a Chinese City.

China is getting back into that territory and is saying they want more interest there. They are getting control of the port city, and you can see that China is making inroads into Russia’s Far East.

So, that’s another interesting thing. But China is a dominant power. China is moving into all parts of the world, including the Middle East, and they made this deal with Iran and Saudi Arabia, a very important deal because Saudi and Iran have been at loggerheads for a long time. Saudi Arabia is the leading Sunni power while Iran is the leading Shiite power. They are hostile to each other. Iran has hit Saudi with missiles in the past and there has always been the possibility of a conflict taking place between those two Muslim countries.

Now that they’ve made an agreement and established diplomatic relations again, they’re beholden to China. Saudi is becoming more beholden to China as well and they’re pushing to change the petrodollar system so that America will be pushed out and China will have growing control in that part of the world.

Interestingly, China is also making proposals for an Israel-Palestine peace agreement. China has an interest in Israel, it’s got a lot of investment in Israel. Remarkably, last year, Barbara and I were in Tel Aviv. While stuck in a traffic jam where they’re making a new transit system, we asked the taxi driver what was going on. He said that they’re making this transit system and told us that the people doing the work on it are Chinese immigrant workers. They’ve got thousands of Chinese immigrant workers in Israel building up the infrastructure.

Is that a good idea? Probably not, but China is involved in the Middle East and it wants to be more involved.

China is of course building up its army, threatening Taiwan, making a big investment in it, and has an eye on the Middle East. Is China part of ‘the kings of the east’ mentioned in Revelation chapter 16? I think so. Watch China. they’re already involved.

¹² Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. Revelation 16.12

China has also held naval drills in last few months in the Middle East, in the Gulf of Oman, with Russia and Iran coming together as a unit to assert some kind of a power and to confront the United States and their power in a region which America sees as very significant development. So, you have Russia, China, and Iran actively moving into that area.