The Magog Deception Open your bible to Ezekiel 38. Verse 1, “And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince [or the prince of the chief] of Meshech and Tubal, 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 Israel, will come out of the north. Biblical scholars have been saying for generation 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 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 future U.S. President, Ronald Regan. People can come up 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 put 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, Crimea and the northern Black Sea area, and made the invisible line hook around Turkey and through the Mediterranean Sea 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 Ezekiel 38:4. 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 helmet: Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah 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 Christians’ geographical understanding of Gog the land of Magog is that it is present day Russia. The Native Americans of North America are called Indians, but what do these people have to do with the country of India? Absolutely nothing. Hundreds of years ago, Christopher Columbus was looking for a water passage to the country of India as a means of obtaining gold and valuable spices. When he arrived in the islands of the Caribbean, 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 arena, 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 Russians with Gog and Magog. 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 invasion 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 Asia Minor (modern Turkey) which are discussed in Ezekiel 38:2-6. It has been mistakenly believed that the ancient nation of “Magog” in western Asia Minor was the ancient “tribal name” of the “Scythians,” a group of Iranian speaking nomadic tribes from Central Asia north of Iran that traveled across the Russian steppes, and came to live in the territory north of the Black Sea. Which would put it up in the Ukraine 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 West 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 occupied 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 don’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 next message), the Lost Tribes of Israel were part of the Scythians that migrated through the Caucasus Mountains between 600- 700 BC. They migrated from the area between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea and through the Caucasus Mountains. 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 Armenia, Georgia and so forth. They are not Russians. ...or the Scythians with the Russians. National Geographic explains that a group of Scandinavian Viking traders called the Rus began the Russian state around 800 AD. It says, “The Slavs and Finns there (near today’s St. Petersburg) called them Rus, after the Finnic term for Swedes, 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 Soviet 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.