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Tuesday, March 17, 2009 Timing Gog-Magog: The Battle
By Nathan Jones
The Details
The Gog-Magog Battle is set between a massive coalition of nations descended from Noah's sons Japheth and Ham against Israel (Gen. 10:2-7). The nations are from the territories of ancient Rosh, Magog, Meshech, Tubal, Persia, Cush, Gomer and Beth-togarmah. Their leader is called "Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal" (Ezek. 38:2-3). The battlefield is on the "mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate" (Ezek. 38:8). The purpose of the invasion is to "plunder and loot" and destroy the people of Israel (Ezek. 38:12, 16)....
.....God's purpose of personally interceding using the supernatural destruction of so massive an army is not just its destruction, but "so I [God] will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD" (Ezek. 38:23).
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 Timing Gog-Magog: General
By Nathan Jones
We have already addressed the possibility that the Gog-Magog Battle never will happen and dismissed that view for its blatant spiritualization of the Scriptures. We've also dismissed the view that the battle already happened some other time in Israel's past history because no such battle has yet happened that fits the Ezekiel 38-39 description of nations.
For our study of the remaining views of when the Gog-Magog Battle could take place, we're going to utilize what I believe is the best written book on the subject — Northern Storm Rising by Dr. Ron Rhodes. Dr. Rhodes is the president of Reasoning From the Scriptures Ministries, author of over 40 books, and was the Bible Answer Man before Hank Hanegraaff. Personally, Dr. Rhodes is an overall great guy who I had the pleasure of co-interviewing for the upcoming April "Christ in Prophecy" television shows on answering tough questions. Dr. Rhodes is an expert on the Gog-Magog Battle, and his book excellently lays out each timing view's pros and cons.
We have looked upon the General Timing Clues given by Ezekiel that demonstrate that the Gog-Magog Battle is yet future. The first clue was the use of the terms "latter years" (Ezek. 38:8) and "last days" (Ezek. 38:16). The second clue is the historical record that shows no such battle in Israel's history has fit the description. The third is that Israel is a nation once more. The fourth is that the nations that comprise the invading coalition are finally united today by their hatred of the Jews. And, the fifth clue from Ezekiel 38:11 is that Israel has to be living unsuspecting and in peace.
We'll continue with the study of the views that place the Gog-Magog Battle before the Tribulation, looking at what each view believes are their pros and cons. The following two views lie heavily on the Pre-Tribulation Rapture viewpoint.
Before continuing on with looking at the different views in the timing of the Gog-Magog Battle, though, I want to revisit Rosh being claimed as modern-day Russia. Because Russia doesn't seem to fit into the Islamic national identity that the other coalition nations now share, the historical debate over the identity of Rosh, and the questions readers have been asking, it is important to identifying the timing of the Gog-Magog Battle that we look at why Rosh is indeed properly identified as Russia. We'll look at the research given by Dr. Ron Rhodes in his authoritative book on the topic called Northern Storm Rising (Harvest House Publishing, 2008), and I'll add some of my own points.
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