sign in sign up
<<
Home , Ashkenaz, Caucasus Mountains, Don (river), Magog (Bible), Meshech, Put (biblical figure)

The

Open your bible to 38. Verse 1, “And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief [or the prince of the chief] of and , and prophesy against him, And say, [...] I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal...” God is against them. “Ezekiel tells us that Gog, [referring to Magog], the nation that will lead all of the other powers of darkness against , will come out of the . Biblical scholars have been saying for that Gog must be . What other powerful nation is to the north of Israel? None. But it didn’t seem to make sense before the , when Russia was a Christian . Now it does, now that Russia has become communistic and atheistic, now that Russia has set itself against God. Now it fits the description of Gog perfectly.”

The above is part of a speech given at a dinner with California legislators back in 1971 by a then U.S. President, Ronald Regan. People can come with and propagate all kinds of theories of who is who and what is what when they do not study God’s Word along with the history that must go along with it. I have kind of pointed that out in this series for years now. Even a former U.S. President was convinced that Russia was Gog of Magog, that they are the ones to the north. It goes on to say in verse 4, “And I will turn thee back, and hooks into thy jaws...” I referenced a silly theory of one very popular prophecy teacher’s explanation for what ‘put hooks into thy jaws’ means. He drew an imaginary line on a map from the areas that Russia took control of, and the northern , and made the invisible line hook around and through the to Israel’s location. It was to represent “And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords...” That was his conclusion; Russia’s latest move is a sign concerning the prophecy we find here in :4. If only it was that easy. It is stupid and silly. I can’t really dignify it with anything else. It’s not worth the time of day in bringing it up, but there are some that will tune in somewhere along this series and think, “Well, I heard this...by this individual. It did make sense when I drew that imaginary line. It is kind of hooking around back to Israel.” If that is what you are going to based your understanding on, then you are really lost. It is the blind leading the blind and they all fall in a ditch together. Unless you listen to the truth, find it somewhere, you are going to stay in that ditch. I am not talking about your salvation, I am taking about your understanding of what we are to be aware of in these last days. “Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and : , and all his bands; the house of of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.” Now it is not just President Ronald Regan. It is like I said, ninety-nine percent of all ’ geographical understanding of Gog the land of Magog is that it is present day Russia. The Native of are called Indians, but what do these people have to do with the country of ? Absolutely nothing. Hundreds of years ago, Christopher Columbus was looking for a water passage to the country of India as a means of obtaining and valuable spices. When he arrived in the islands of the , Columbus, seeing dark skinned people [like you’d see in India], called them Indians and declared his passage a success. [He thought he reached his destination and he was in India.] However, the people we call Indians were not related to the people of India [not even close] and the Caribbean Islands are a very long way from India.

There has been a similar misconception in many bible prophecy books over the last 100 years. [Actually, it goes back further than one hundred years. In my opinion, it goes back two thousand years.] As previously discussed, the belief that Russia is the country from the North who is to attack Israel during the end times is a mistake.

Now to preach and teach that goes against everything that’s being preached today. What else is new? We’ve pretty much done that since the beginning of the series. It goes against the grain. It goes against what is being taught in bible colleges, churches, home churches, bible study classes, you name it. It has been taught that present day Russia is Gog of Magog. Do I think that is a mistake to have that kind of an understanding, if that is what you have been taught? Yes. I will get to explaining why. Although evidence that contradicts this conclusion has become common knowledge within the academic , this misconception is still prevalent in end times Bible prophecy books. This misconception short circuits the proper understanding of end times Bible prophecy. Just as we know the “Indians” are not citizens of India, we will see that Russia is not the country spoken of in Ezekiel 38-39.

Championed by the authors of many Bible prophecy books, the erroneous interpretation of Ezekiel 38-39 has remained the current and popular belief among many evangelical Christians who associate the with . This interpretation [and there is plenty wrong with this too, but...] says that sometime before the great Battle of Armageddon, there will be a Russian and war with Israel. This end times Russian invasion theory is based on faulty eighteenth and nineteenth century references used to determine the identities of the ancient nation of Minor (modern Turkey) which are discussed in Ezekiel 38:2-6. It has been mistakenly believed that the ancient nation of “Magog” in Minor was the ancient “tribal name” of the “,” a group of Iranian speaking nomadic tribes from north of that traveled across the Russian , and came to live in the north of the Black Sea.

Which would put it up in the area. Just north of the Black Sea is the area that use to belong to Russia, today called Ukraine. You’ve seen in the news that Russia wants that back. There is no doubt about it. They want it back in their territory. That area is a key component that maintains their communication to the and their oil flow (amongst other commodities) that are exported from Russia, and if that was not available they would face certain economic disasters. Then, in turn, and again in error, it has been believed that the ancient Scythians were the progenitors of the modern Russians.

That is one of the biggest problems. I am not going to get that deep into it but with these eschatologists trying to figure out the people who this area in the past, one of the problems they face (and that they argue all the time even in today’s present understanding) is who the ancient Scythians really were -- were they part of what we would consider modern day Russians today. Within academia today, there are no professional archeologists or historians who associate Magog with the Scythians...

I am telling you right now, neither do I. I am not a professional archeologist, or historian. I just love history. I ’t label myself with any of those titles. I don’t associate Magog with the Scythians. If you do that and you are a Bible teacher, you make one of the grandest errors in an eschatological understanding of who Gog of the land of Magog is, who they were, and who they are today. The Scythians had nothing to do with it. I’ll tell you in advance (and probably tell you more in the message), the Lost Tribes of Israel were part of the Scythians that migrated through the between 600- 700 BC. They migrated from the area between the Black Sea and the and through the . Now some went north and eastward from the east side of the Caspian Sea also, but most of them went through the Armenian area passageway, which is now , and so forth. They are not Russians. ...or the Scythians with the Russians. explains that a group of Scandinavian traders called the began the Russian state around 800 AD. It says, “The and there (near today’s St. Petersburg) called them Rus, after the Finnic term for , Ruotsi... These Rus eventually founded the first Russian state centered in Kiev in today’s Ukraine, and gave their name to Russia, a cultural inconvenience the historians were compelled to dispute for decades.” The name “Rus” or “Rhus” appears in the writings of Bishop Troyes in 839 AD, and according to the 12th century document known as the Primary Chronicle the land around Kiev was named “Rus” and the inhabitants called “Russes” in 852 AD. National Geographic goes on to tell how Novgorod (east of St. Petersburg), was an early Russian Capital founded by the Rus, and how in the of Kiev, the Rus Prince converted to in 988. Also, as explained, the renowned Arab Chronicler Ibn Fadlan tells how in 921 AD he met with a group of blond haired people of Swedish origin called the Rus. He told how he met them on the upper River in western Russia as they came up the river in their to trade with the . Even the author’s daughter’s high school history textbook details how Russian origins are Scandinavian. Simply put, the Scythians were gone for at least 500 years before the Russians came to be a people.

I am telling you right now, it was a lot further back than 500 years. It was at least somewhere between 800-900 years. There is neither a genetic nor a cultural connection between the Scythians and the Russians.

I will go into it a little bit further next time, but the Lost Tribes of Israel became a part of the Scythians. They were taken into captivity by the Assyrian and settled in the areas of eastern , northern , and northern Iran. And then when the Assyrian Empire was defeated, they migrated north through the Caucasus Mountains and then west. If they did not go up through the Caucasus Mountains, they went up through today’s , , and areas north of the Caspian Sea and then they also migrated west. Now some believe part of the tribes, maybe Naphtali or part of it, migrated toward India, down toward that area. I am not going to get into all that topic because I do not feel it is pertinent to know all that stuff for this study. That is for another study. Where did the idea begin that Magog begat the Scythians?

Now some of this might be all Greek to you because you’ve never heard any of this history. You don’t even know what a Scythian is; or if you did, you thought it was something else—which it is not—but you didn’t know very much about the Scythians. There are other groups in those areas besides the Scythians also, but the Scythians were predominantly the group. This is important to know. Just as we needed to debunk all the Christian science fiction non-sense in the beginning of The Last Days series, the same thing needs to happen with the Gog-Magog War and the players in it. Where did the idea begin that Magog begat the Scythians? It began with one very questionable sentence written by the First Century AD Jewish historian, Josephus in his book The Antiquity of the .

We find that in Book 1, Chapter 6, line 123 (in case you have a copy of it) of The Antiquity of the Jews in The Works of Josephus translated by Whitson. The sentence says the called the “Magogites” the “Scythians” despite the fact that the Greeks did not call the Magogites the Scythians. “Well Josephus was an honorable, learned Jewish historian. How could he make such a mistake?” Are you sure about that? Not only is this statement in conflict with the far more detailed writings of other ancient historians (Greek and non Greek) and wit ancient Assyrian texts that provide firsthand information about both the people of Magog and Scythians, but this sentence [just a sentence by the way] by Josephus, which identifies Magog with the Scythians, is found in a passage where Josephus makes other errors in the identification of other ancient nations of Asia Minor.

Footnote: Josephus’ books provide first-hand information about the Jews of the First Century AD but when it comes to earlier periods, such as the Seventh and Eighth Century BC, Josephus usually himself relies on earlier ancient historians. Scholars today, on a case by case basis urge caution in regard to Josephus’ historical reliability. Those who blindly accept Josephus’ apparent association of Magog with the Scythians tend to elevate Josephus’ words to the level of Scripture. They do not seem to be aware that Josephus’ history of the Jews, The Antiquity of the Jews is in direct conflict with Bible scriptures in a number of instances.

Although Josephus uses the historian Herodotus’ book The History as a reference on a number of occasions, in this passage about Magog and the Scythians, Josephus is not only in conflict with Herodotus, but he even conflicts with other statements he made about who he says the Greeks identified as the Scythians. In one line Josephus says the Greeks identified the Scythians with Magog, but then a few lines later Josephus using the Hebrew word for the Scythians, “Ashchenaz,” says the Greeks identified “Ashchenaz” with Rhegium, which was a port city of Southern (Acts 28:13) known for its rock of Scylla. The names “Scythians” and “Ashchenaz” are just English and Hebrew transliterations (ie. they spell a word in the alphabet of another language) of the Greek name, Skythes for the same nomadic people. To those familiar with Herodotus’ book The History, it is obvious that the Greeks didn’t make either of the identifications Josephus attributes to them.

One can only speculate how and why these obviously wrong statements are in Josephus’ book. Were these inaccurate statements the products of Josephus’ imagination, or where they the result of alterations to the few copies of Josephus’ work that existed in the first century? Maybe Josephus was using the word “Magog” as a generic term for any fierce people coming down from the north. Whatever the reason, the statements don’t reflect that the ancient Asia Minor nation, referred to as “” or “Ashchenaz” in the Hebrew of the Old Testament, is in fact the same nation or people the Greeks called the “Scythians”. You can find them in the Old Testament. All we need to do is go to Genesis 10:3, ’s family record. “And the sons of Gomer [also found in Ezekiel]; Ashkenaz, and , and Togarmah.” It is not like they are not in Scripture; they are there, but they have been misidentified. It is a shame because that is what started a lot of eschatologist down the wrong road. Why is it important to understand who the Scythians were and where they came from? Well, must have thought something of it. We find in Colossians 3:11 it reads, “Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian [easily identified if you know what Paul is writing about], Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.” Of course here Paul is writing concerning other issues when writing the Colossian letter, but he brings up the Scythian, ““Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.”. Hmm, we have a reference to Ashkenaz in the Old Testament and we have a reference that Paul uses, that the Greeks even used, that separates who this “Scythians” were. Paul was not the Apostle to the Russians or any of that area (whatever it was called back then). No. Who was Paul an Apostle to? Of course it was the common word (which I’ve already referred to in past teaching), the Gentiles. He was an Apostle to the Lost Tribes of Israel. As for identifying Magog with the Scythians, who the Hebrew knew as Ashkenaz, it is important to note that the Table of Nations found in Genesis 10:2-3 lists Magog and the Ashkenaz as quite separate entities. Interestingly, the Assyrian word for the Scythians, Ishkuza or Ashguza, is similar to the Hebrew word for the Scythians – Ashkenaz. Those who have relied on the erroneous statements found in Josephus about Magog and the Scythians must recognize the simple fact that the Scythians and the Ashkenaz are not separate nations. In truth, they are one and the same.

Further, the erroneous statements by Josephus about the Greeks identifying the Magogites with the Scythians, and the Greeks identifying Ashchenaz with Rhegiun are preceded by yet another erroneous and anachronous statement about the relationship between two other ancient nations of Asia Minor. In this statement Josephus writes that the Greeks associated the Gomerites (Ezekiel 38:5) with the Galatians, when in fact the Gomerites () and the Galatians had absolutely nothing to do with each other. The Greeks of Josephus’ time simply did not call Gomer the Galatians. The Gomerites (Cimmerians) were invaders from an area around the northeast shore of the Black Sea. They displaced the ancient nation of Meshech in central Asia Minor and occupied this area from around 800 BC – 630 BC before pulling back. The Galatians ( and not the Gauls of Roman ) were migrants from Central , who came to Central Asia Minor as a result of a population explosion during the third century BC. Eventually they won over the local tribes and gained status as the Roman of in 25 BC. While the Gomerites and the Galatians both occupied Central Asia Minor, they did so at different times and bear no relationship with each other. Despite what Josephus wrote, Gomer did not found the Galatians, and Magog did not found the Scythians.

One cannot help wondering how and why Josephus made three such totally erroneous statements in a single passage, if in fact he did. Ecclesiastical acceptance of the erroneous connection between Magog and the Scythians traces back to of the late forth century AD. [I told you it was a 2000 year problem.] It is interesting to note that several other critical statements found in Josephus’ book The Antiquity of the Jews which was written by Josephus in Greek, and later copied in Greek by Christian copyists, are not found in an copy of his book. This indicates that the few Greek copies of his book, which were available early on and were in turn copied, were altered in some places to suit prevailing Christian beliefs.

Finally, this deception about the Russian invasion of Israel was first popularized in the . [The 1800’s when all the other Christian Science Fiction theories about the last days were put together.] A book written by a pastor at the time seems to contain a purposeful misquote of a statement about a city in Magog made by the highly regarded first century AD Roman historian Pliny. In his multi-volume work called The Natural History, Pliny identifies the ancient Lydian city of Hierapolis as being part of Magog. Built atop the cliffs, the city of Hierapolis controlled the water supply of the Lydian city of Laodicea six miles to the south. The city of Hierapolis was built by the Lydians and always under Lydian control until the Lydian Kingdom became part of the Persian Empire in 546 BC and then part of the Greek and Roman that followed. Like Pliny, today’s archeologists also identify Magog with the ancient nation of , which was in western Asia Minor. Indeed, written records from the Assyrian show that the Assyrians used the name Magog as an eponym for the nation of Lydia. In his book Pliny writes, “Bambyx the other name of which is Hierapolis, but by the Syrians called Magog.” In other words, Pliny identifies the famed Lydian city of Hierapolis as being part of Magog. In this we see that Magog is another name for the ancient nation of Lydia. However, in the book The Destiny of Nations by nineteenth century Pastor John Cummings, one of those credited with being the author and popularizer of interpretation that calls for Russia invading Israel, we read, “Pliny says ‘Hierapolis taken by the Scythians was afterward called Magog.” We can see Pliny’s statement has been misquoted or misunderstood in a way that makes it seem that Magog was related to the Scythians rather than the Lydians. Unfortunately, this same misquote of Pliny has been carried forward in time and appears in Hal Lindsey’s book The Late Great Planet Earth.

It is this error which incorrectly relates Magog to the Scythians, who were erroneously believed to be progenitors of Russia that led President Ronald Regan and others to refer to the as an “evil empire” and “the focus of evil in the modern .” At a dinner with California legislators in 1971 (before he became president), prophecy student Ronald Regan concisely summed up his view of Russia’s end time role.

I told you what he said at the beginning of this message. The identification of Magog with Lydia and not is consistent with the ancient texts of the Assyrians, who at various times were either the allies or the foes of the Scythians yet had peaceful dealing with the Lydians. The identification of Magog as Lydia, and not Scythian is also consistent with the writings of the ancient historian Herodotus (ca 490-424 BC), a Greek who was born in, lived in, and traveled throughout all of ancient Asia Minor. Herodotus’ famed book, The History, which gives a detailed history of all the ancient nations of Asia Minor, was written about 100 years after Ezekiel’s writings. Herodotus, who is considered the Father of History, wrote detailed information about the three different Scythian tribes and the ten different tribes that neighbored them, including their ever changing and opportunistic . Herodotus also wrote in detail about the Lydian Royal Dynasty. It is clear that Magog (Lydia) and the Scythians were not related. He says that Magog (Lydia), as led by the historical figure Gog (Gyges to the Greek, Gugu to the Assyrians) and the Scythians, were in fact enemies! In Gyges of Lydia we have the leader the Assyrians called “Gugu, King of Ludu,” and “Gugu of Magugu,” the Bible’s Gog of Magog.

In Foes From the Northern Dr. Edwin Yamauchi, a professor of history at Miami University in Ohio writes that Herodotus’ account of the Scythians is our chief literary source about the Scythians. He says that some Bible scholars “seem to be unaware of the numerous archeological confirmations of Herodotus’ reports in general, and of his Scythian account in particular.” In his book, which contains a great deal of information on the Scythians, Yamauchi makes it clear that modern Russia’s origins are not Scythian, and like other historians he explains that modern Russia’s origins are Scandinavian (the Rus). Also, Yamauchi emphatically explains that none of the ancient nations referred to in Ezekiel 38-39 can possibly be related to modern Russia. Further, Yamauchi says:

“Even if one were to transliterate the Hebrew rosh as a proper name (as does the NAS) rather than translate it as ‘chief’ (as does the KJV, NIV, and Hebrew Tanakh), it can have nothing to do with modern ‘Russia.’ This would be a gross anachronism for the modern name is based upon the name Rus, which was brought into the of Kiev, north of the Black Sea, by the only in the .”

The Bible interpretation calling for a Russian invasion of Israel was framed at a time when little was known about Magog, the Scythians, or Russian origins. Many who have held to this interpretation have also tried to understand who the other listed in Ezekiel 38-39 were (Meshech, Tubal, Gomer, Togarmah). Some have associated Magog and/or Rosh with Russia, some also erroneously associate Meshech with the Russian city of , and Tubal with the Siberian city of . Promoted by the 1909 and the 1917 editions of the Scofield Reference Bible, these erroneous associations are representative of a type of arm chair “name game” archeology that was quite popular during the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Based on the inappropriate transliteration of the Hebrew word rosh, which most of the Old Testament (KJV, NIV, Hebrew Tanakh) properly translate as the word “chief”, the NAS mistakenly refers to a country called Rosh. Historian Paul Boyer notes that “Scores, and probably hundreds of post war prophecy writers made the Rosh=Russia connection, usually citing Gesenius, Bishop Lowth, Scofield, or all three.” For those who insist on the erroneous transliteration of the Hebrew word for “chief” that yields a nation called Rosh, ancient Asia Minor had several different localities that could answer to this name and fulfill the obvious Asia Minor context of Ezekiel 38:2, 3 and 6 without invoking Russia. It should also be noted again that unlike Magog, Meshech, Tubal, Togarmah and Gomer of Ezekiel 38-39, which are all mentioned in the Table of Nations in Genesis 10:2-3, a nation called Rosh is notably absent.

For decades archeologists and historians have known that neither Magog, nor the Scythians, nor any of the ancient nation referred to in Ezekiel 38- 39, could possibly have had anything to do with the origins of the modern Russians. For example, Daniel I. Block, a professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois in The says,

“The popular identification of Tubal with Tubolsk in Russia (Hal Lindsey, The Late Great Planet Earth 1970, p.53) is ludicrous...The popular identification of Meshech with Moscow (of Lindsey, The Late Great Planet Earth p.53) is absurd.”

Of course he is using Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth—that Mr. Lindsey sold millions upon millions of copies of—to show the mistake. Lindsey is still out there teaching erroneous doctrines based on theory, not any sort of history. In fact, there is no history involved. If you have never read his books and all their editions (I have the very first edition), you will find in those other editions that he had to make some corrections, changing things along the way, because as time changes and events change, he changes. But the one thing Lindsey is sure of and kept the same is that Gog, the land of Magog, or Rosh, was Russia. They aren’t.

This map shows the Assyrian Empire relocated the ten northern tribes. You can see the House of Israel (Ephraim being the leader) toward the bottom right and the red arrows with one arrow leading to Media (the Medes), the Iranian area of today, and another pointing to (northern Iraq, parts of northern Iran); and of course the arrows around the Black Sea. Remember God disowned the Lost Tribes, the ten tribes to the north. They were going to be known as not His people. So they were not known by their tribal names any longer or any Israelite name, but they had similar names so that we can connect the dots. If you do a study on the Lost Tribes and how they migrated after the Assyrian Empire crumbled, where you see “Scythia” (which is the lower Ukraine area today and lower Russia or what today is all the ‘’), they migrated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, and to the right of the Caspian Sea north. They spent a short time there and then they started migrating west (where we see all those western arrows) and they became known as the Celts. Now before their captivity there were also other migrations (depicted by the green arrows). Everything pretty much ended up in the area of the British Isles (England, Scotland, Ireland), , and up into the Scandinavian areas. They migrated north and west. They were not known by their tribal names such as Ephraim or Manasseh or Naphtali or Ruben or any of those names. Judah was taken into captivity by the Babylonian Empire about 100 years later. They never lost their name. They were still considered the House of Judah when they were released from their captivity. The House of Israel (today the ten Lost Tribes) were no longer called Israelites. Their names were changed, but there are some identification markers so that we can connect the dots. I just wanted to show you what the argument is (which isn’t really much of an argument); that basically all these bible prophecy book writers don’t really get into the Scythians in detail because they know if they bring out the history it will prove their theory wrong. What we will find out is most of the Gog, Magog, and other names we find in Ezekiel 38 (I.e. Gomer, Togarmah) are located between the Caspian Sea and the southern areas of the Black Sea—which, a large area of that would be Turkey. And of course we find in Ezekiel 38 that other nations will join in such as Persia (Iran, and I believe, , all the way to , the ‘stans’ or ); Ethiopia (), some areas of Iraq, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the south didn’t join in on that also; Put (Libya), which also includes , will probably also be included in that because that is all the areas of northern ; Gomer and all his bands, the house of Togarmah in the north quarters, and many people with thee. As I mentioned last time, what Ezekiel was prophesying against is the last beast that we have in prophetic scriptures that God deals with—which was the 7th, that started to officially die in the west when they tried to conquer through France, but they were pushed back by Charles “The Hammer” Martel in 732 AD. If they had gotten to England, it would have been all over and this whole world would have been Islamic. But it was pushed back and part of the beast died, that 7th Beast, and then the (which I haven’t gotten much into yet) collapsed in the earlier part of the last century. It was officially no longer the 7th Beast. Now it came back to life because its wound would be healed. I mentioned the ways it did become healed earlier in the series [Last Days Series, Vol. 4]. It is now known as the 8th Beast and still Islamic because it was healed from its deadly wound. It is coming back to life and it is no surprise they are trying to revive the caliphate, areas where the Ottoman Empire once controlled before the 7th Beast officially died. Most of the areas like , , Italy, , and areas like that from a little before 800- 900 AD pushed the beast back. Then we get to the 15th and 16th centuries in southeastern Europe and it was pushed back to where it only remained in Turkey, , Syria and areas like that.

They want back this area we see depicted on the map. Once something is claimed for Islam, it is always Islam; once they claim it for allah, it is always allah’s land. Even if they lose it, it is still allah’s land and rightfully theirs in their mindset. I have news for them, they have another thing coming. God (the real God, not the false one created through Mohammed) doesn’t see it the same way they do. Now that is what they want to accomplish, the first stages. Do you think Iraq and Syria, if ISIS is it, is all they want to accomplish? No, they want a larger state than that. They want the whole caliphate nation to include the areas in black on the map and then beyond. They want the world bowing down to allah. Now any caliphate that started in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, or any of those areas is going to be involved in an Arab confederacy (listed in Psalm 83). They will be destroyed, but that doesn’t mean Islam is dead, that doesn’t mean the 8th Beast is done with. In fact, the Psalm 83 Arab confederacy will be the weaker section (if you want to call it that) of the Beast. The stronger areas, the areas that have more firepower and capabilities to destroy Israel (that little land about the size of New Jersey, in the ), will come against her with a greater army than any Arab confederacy. The Ezekiel 38-39 War will cover a larger area than the Arab confederacy in Psalm 83, with stronger nations that have more power and more finances to fight a war. In the future I will outline on a map who the players are, the nations listed in Ezekiel 38:1-5. It is almost like a second confederacy. When the first confederacy of Arab nations doesn’t work, the second confederacy will act. Israel will think it is at peace with all its brethren because it will pretty much control the area around Israel to give it some stability without having to worry about some being fired over into their neighborhoods, some rockets streaming across and hitting innocent peoples’ homes, schools, buses, or terrorists willing to give up their lives for the sake of allah. Israel will have some peace because Scripture does state it has unwalled ; meaning it will have some security, and in a sense it will be dropping its guard to some degree. But some of them will turn, and I think it will be shortly after the Psalm 83 War. I don’t think it will be decades and decades, but something will turn and God will draw the areas that are listed in Ezekiel 38, put a hook in their mouth and draw them in, and God will deal with that one. All this nonsense about Russia being Gog of the land of Magog is without any historical data to prove it. There really isn’t any. It is just a theory that was developed and said so many times, and written about so many times, that it looks like it is truly a part of history, but it never was a part of history. It can’t be proven that what Ezekiel is saying is referring to Russia as the major part of the army. I mean if you think about it why is today’s Russia, the second strongest military power in the world, not considered a beast? Think about it. “Well they are going to join up with the Beast.” Let me tell you, there is not a nation in this world that is not going to have some of their nasty political fingers involved in what is going on. We are talking about a military invasion. I am sorry, Russia is not leading it. If you think Russia is going to lead it, then prove it; but don’t use someone’s theory and doctrine as your proof. Go to the historians. We have seen the errors in Josephus. Now some people believe that because his work was copied and recopied in different languages, that that one sentence could have been a scribal error - because that is where some of the confusion comes in for the people that study this and say the Scythians were Russians, when honestly they are not. Next time I will tell you who the Scythians were so you can understand they were not the Russians. I’m telling you some were the ten tribes. They became ‘not God’s people’ because of their idolatry and their sins, but they were not to be ‘not God’s people’ forever because there is plenty of scripture that says once He disciplined His people including the northern tribes, the ten tribes, they will become known as His people once again. Those Scythians migrated west. They had several different name changes; the most popular is the Celts. Most of them finally wound up in the Western parts of the Europe and the British Isles, and then migrated from there to the west even further, to , the USA and so forth.

To be continued...

The Last Days Study Guide The Magog Deception

1. Give the proper translation for ‘rosh’.

2. What are the Rhus?

3. Who migrated westward and displaced the nation of Meshech?

4. Who was the father of Ashkenaz?

5. Name the historian who wrote his history 100 years after Ezekiel’s writings?

6. How long had the Scythians been gone when the Russians became a people?

7. Magog is another name for what ancient nation?

8. Name the two individuals who are the source of error in identifying the Magogites?

9. The House of Israel became known as not God’s people. What was the outcome of that event?

10. Name the bible prophecy author whose flawed eschatology inspired Ronald Regan’s 1971 speech?

11. Give the Greek and Assyrian rendition of the name Gog.

12. When did the 7th Beast officially end?

13. What is the relationship between the Ashkenaz and the Scythians?

14. Name the reference bible that promotes 18th and 19th century name game archeology?

15. What is the relationship between the Lost Ten Tribes and the Scythians?