Welcome to Bible Believers Fellowship and the ministry of bbfohio.com. I'm Pastor Greg and I welcome you to our 20th study in our Israel and the Jews series titled Israel and the Gog Magog War Part 1 as we look at Ezekiel 38 verses 1 through 8. Alright, many moons ago At least about 12 years ago, I believe, we did a study on Gog and Magog. The Gog and Magog War, Ezekiel 38. Most of what you're hearing will be, in some way, a repeat of what we discussed then, but there's going to be a couple of things that's especially different, so keep your ears open for that. Most of us need a reminder after a decade, so I think this is probably a good time to go through this. But there's a lot of false things about Gog Magog that the anti-Israel crowd bring up and everything. So that's why we're including this in the Israel and the Jews series because the Gog Magog war is about the attack on Israel. So it's very important. So let's read in Ezekiel 38 verses 1 through 8, and you can join me in the even verses. So I'll start with 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 of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him. And say, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshach and Tubal. 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 armor, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords, 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 me. Be thou prepared and prepare for thyself, thou and all thy company that are assembled under thee, and be thou a guard under them. After many days thou shalt be visited. In the latter years, thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword and is gathered out of many people against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste, but it is brought forth out of the nations and they shall dwell safely, all of them, amen. So verse eight kind of takes us into the next section, but I wanted to include that because it makes it clear who we're talking about there. We'll see that this is a prophecy about Israel, but a judgment against her enemies. In verse eight, as we read, it says clearly it's out of the people being gathered out of many nations. That's what's happening now. This wouldn't have made sense before 1880, and definitely until 1948 it wasn't really clear, but only since then has this been clear to people. That's why a lot of the really old stuff you read, a lot of times they don't know how to handle this. But we're going to see, I'll quote several from before 1880. I purposely found sources before 1880 showing that Bible believers just took it at face value. It didn't make any sense. There were only a handful of Jews in the land at the time, and they were scattered all over the world, but they believed God's Word, that He was going to bring them out from many nations, and that Gog, Magog, and all these armies are going to go against the mountains of Israel. So, back in verses 1 and 2, 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 of Meshach and Tubal, and prophesy against them." So Gog is a ruler in the land of Magog. So Gog is a man, Magog is a land. And he is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. That's where he came out of to then take over all of Magog. That's basically what that means. So Gog is, when it says chief prince, that word is Rosh, which they believe is related to Russia. And they believe Russia is the land of the Rosh. And the Rosh was the Gog. And so that's how they got that name. And Gog is identified with the leader in historical sources, with the leader of the Scythian peoples. Scythian peoples is the ancient form of the Russian people. And it's in the Scythian people lived in the lands of Magog, which is modern Russia. then Magog itself is the land of Gog, as we saw, it's made up of the Scythians, the ancient land of Rosh, or Russia. So there seems to be no doubt about that, but there's, for some reason, some teachers that just want to say it's just Turkey, based on the fact that it says they'll come from the north, but we'll show you the map in a minute, but Russia overlaps above Turkey and comes from the north as well. And by the way, we're seeing in Jeremiah, Babylon, which is almost due east of Jerusalem, their armies are said to come from the north. Why? Because they had to go up around the Sea of Galilee and come down from the north, even though Babylon's located to the east. So Gog is the prince, Magog his land. And the reference to Meshach and Tubal is Moscow and Tobolsk. It's a clear mark of identification in Russia. Russia and the northern powers have been the latest persecutors of dispersed Israel. This was written in 1897. This was when the Jews were just starting to come to Israel because of the persecution of the Jews in Russia. That's where a lot of them were coming at that time. You know why there was a Holocaust in Europe? Because the Jews weren't leaving. They were coming down from Russia for the most part. before the World War II Holocaust. Continue. This is from Easton Bible Dictionary. A fellow, M.G. Easton is his name. Quote, and it is congruous, congruous, is that the right way to pronounce that? Congruous, meaning together with. both with divine justice and with the covenants, and he's got comments from Genesis 15, 18 and Deuteronomy 33, which we've talked about, that destruction should fall at the climax of the last mad attempt to exterminate the remnant of Israel in Jerusalem. So we'll come back to that in a minute. Meshach, according to these sources, again, is also Moschi. Meshech and Mosquee, that's modern Moscow, and it's in ancient Magog in modern Russia today. During the ascendancy of the Babylonians and Persians in Western Asia, the Mosquee were subdued, but it seems probable that a large number of them crossed the Caucasus, the Caucasus range, and spread over the northern steppes, mingling with the Scythians. There they became known as Muscovs and gave that name to the Russian nation and its ancient capital by which they are still generally known throughout the East. So all interesting stuff. And then Tubol is today found on the map spelled T-O-B-O-L-S-K, Tubolsk. And it's a region of ancient and modern Russia. It's a city, but it's also known as a region. And they were a people originally of the Asiatic highland west of the upper Euphrates, the southern range of the Caucasus. on the east of the Black Sea, which is where Ukraine and Russia are fighting that war right now. So this is a map from 1874, again, before the Jews started going home and everything. And you'll see there, I placed the flags for, the flag for Russia next to Magog, the flag of Turkey next to Togarmah. It's in modern Turkey. And then of course, Israel down in the corner. Meshech and Tubal over there. And Gomer, they have, actually on the corner of Turkey, and a lot of people, including me, in the past have put that in Germany. I'm going to tell you that I've changed my teaching on that. Anybody says I'm not teachable? Once in a while, I'm teachable. You got to convince me, though. That's the key. But it says, and prophesy against him. Who? Gog, this leader. A lot of people think it's Putin. Could be. Or it could be the guy who comes up after him, you know. But verse three says, and say thus, saith the Lord God, behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. And then he describes this in verse four, 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 armor, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords, et cetera. Hook, you get that? It's not, it doesn't look like they're going to do it because they necessarily even want to. Something's gonna force them, force their hand. What could that be? There's been times where Russia was really hurting economically back under the Soviet Union. Their people were starving to death and they were having trouble getting grain just so people could eat bread. That can happen very easily again because Russia and Ukraine are two of the most corrupt countries on the planet. And right now, there is a big scandal with Zelensky, and like $100 million that have been laundered, and that's going on in the Ukraine. But don't be fooled, and we've shown the graphic a number of times, this isn't good versus evil. These are two evil people. Zelensky's evil, Putin is evil, and the governments of those two nations are evil. And there's a lot of evil people there, of course, just like there are a lot of evil people in our country. But an economic downturn, as could be a result of this ongoing war, what broke the Soviet Union? The war in Afghanistan. And if this war with Ukraine keeps going, it could break Russia. And they come down, we're going to see later, because the country's not taking part. They're going to say, what are you doing, coming down here for a spoil? So in ancient terms, this foretells a future invasion of Israel by Russia and allies. Bottom line. Verse 5, Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya. with them, all of them with shield and helmet. Now Persia is Iran, and we've talked about that many times. It breaks down like this. It actually includes the area of Iraq, even though Iran is a nation that was known as Persia until, what, 1954, I think it was, and they sort of became known as Iran. but it used to also include Iraq. And thanks to the Bush administration and this travesty of the Iraq war, the Christians have been run out of Iraq, the Jews have been run out of Iraq, and it's now almost totally Muslim. So it looks like they'll join right up as part of the Persia referred to here. And then Ethiopia would include, in ancient times, Ethiopia was a strong nation, it was an empire, included Sudan and Somalia. And the president, I think today, spoke out about what's going on in Sudan. Last week, he was talking about Nigeria. That might even be included in this, or at least the part that is Muslim. Basically, you look at Africa and look what's Muslim, and they'll probably be a part of the Gog Magog War. And Libya, which is also in Africa, it's the northern horn of Africa, as they call it. But it's not the small little area we have today. Libya. in ancient terms took out, actually, I think I might have a quote here, so I might repeat myself, but there were sources that just called Africa, Libya, and they refer to Africa, they just call it Libya. Here's Easton again, however, by the 5th century BCE, I don't think that's the term he used, that's an edit. That's just BC by our understanding. Greek historians like Herodotus or Herodotus expanded the term to refer to the, that's what I was just referring to, to the entire continent of Africa, dividing the known world into Europe, Asia, and Libya instead of Africa. So it tells you something about Libya when you're talking about it here. It could be all the Muslims of Africa, including those which used to be a part of Ethiopia. Egypt won't be a part of this, by the way. It's interesting. Verse 6 says, Gomer and all his bands, the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands, and many people with thee. So that breaks down as the third... I'm sorry, that should be fourth. The fourth... Let me fix that for posterity's sake. The fourth country there is Gomer, and it's important because that's the one I, as I mentioned a moment ago, that I've changed my view on. I think in the old study, it used to be, I said it was Germany. And in this study, I'm making a tweak on that to say that it's the Celtic, Welsh, and Irish. And I'm just saying it because the more I've researched it, the more I've found that all the old timers used to say, based on the known information from the migration of these people, that they became Ireland. in large part, and includes the Welsh and Irish in that. And I just think that a lot of people stopped teaching that that was the case just because they found it too hard to believe. I think that's the only reason they didn't. And to Garma is Turkey. So when you hear people say, oh, Gog and Magog, that's Turkey. It includes Turkey, but Gog is in Russia, and Togarmah is Turkey. So I will make this confession here that I previously identified Gomer as Germany, but the biblical, historical, and contemporary evidence is convincing that it is the Celtic, Welsh, and Irish, Do some research on your own, but these are my resources. Sutcliffe's 1835 commentary, Jameson, Fawcett, and Brown was 1871. American Tract Society Dictionary, 1859. Easton Bible Dictionary, 1897. Smith Bible Dictionary, 1884. And Watson Dictionary, 1831. I use all those, all but a couple of those in my Sword Searcher Bible software. Now this is the map that I, this is the new version of the Gog Magog map there. Now you look and you see Ireland up there coming in. You see Libya and Ethiopia. You see the one flag up there, that's the actual flag for Moscow. And then the white, blue, and red is the Russian flag. And then you have all these other flags from these other Islamic countries that are named right here in our text. It is a Russian Islamic confederation. A lot of people don't know that about a third of the population in Russia is Muslim. And all these stand countries are majority Muslim. So all around Russia, part of the old Soviet Union, it was practically a Muslim country. Yeah. Well. The opposite. And just like Japan. Now Japan's not mentioned in this, but why do all the Japanese hate the Jews? There's no explanation for it except for their paganism. And Ireland is pagan. Two-thirds of them are better. Could you look that up? That's a good question. The population of Ireland that is Catholic. Yeah, because I was just looking at it. There are a lot more Muslims than there used to be. In Ireland? Well, that's what I was gonna say, but as far as the reason why the majority would go along with it is the Roman Catholic, and the Roman Catholic Church hates Israel. They hate the Jews. You'll hear otherwise in the news and stuff. It's all political posturing. They've wanted, what do you think the Crusades were all about? Not just defeating the Muslims so we could give it back to the Jews. It was defeating the Muslims so that the Roman Catholic Church could claim Jerusalem. So what do you got there? 70% Catholic. And again, I present some facts, but I encourage you to do your own research as well and go out there and look up Ireland and Israel. They are anti Israel and they have they have rallies with all these Irish people holding Palestinian flags. I've shown a couple of clips, but I haven't really focused much on it, but that's the reality. The Roman Catholic Church. Now, there's some Catholics who are very pro-Israel. Patricia Heaton, who played Raymond's wife on Everybody Loves Raymond, she is very anti-abortion and very pro-Israel and a Roman Catholic. But the exception proves the rule, as we say. She's the exception. So now to verse seven, be thou prepared and prepare for thyself, thou and all thy company that are assembled under thee and be thou a guard under them. This actually God is taunting Gog. Go ahead, get yourself ready, arm up, get prepared. He's still gonna wipe you off the face of the earth. I put it in my own words as I was thinking about it in the study. Go ahead with your military buildup in preparation for this massive defeat you're about to suffer. And then verse eight begins, after many days thou shalt be visited in the latter years. Now, of course, there are people who try to claim this isn't about the last days. There are people who actually try to claim this has already happened. But you can't find anything in history that matches what we're reading here. So that's one of the problems. Again, it's pointing us biblically to the end of the church age, which, hello, we're there. Celtic is the Irish background, the ancient Celts who migrated to, and Patrick was British, Saint Patrick, they call him. He was British, but he was taken as a slave into Ireland by the Celts, and then he escaped, and then decided to go back and minister, and I believe he preached the gospel, and he was loosely affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, but he was nothing like today. It's the Celtics, yeah, the Celts built Stonehenge, yeah, very pagan. A lot of the Wicca worship and Gaia worship is connected with the Celts. And verse eight continues, says, thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword. What's that referring to? This is a prophecy about 70 AD, that after it's destroyed in 70 AD, in the last days, it'll be brought back, which we're seeing right before our eyes now. and is gathered out of many people that's where the Jews have come from we could list all the nations and they're still in dozens of nations actually against the mountains of Israel which have been always waste from 70 AD till now they were waste this leaves no doubt as to the end time regathered nation of Israel being the target of Gog against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste, but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely, all of them." That's the end game. Bible-believing preachers have acknowledged and believed this future prophecy since before 1948 and even 1881, as I mentioned earlier. Joseph Sutcliffe, he wrote this in 1835, no doubt it is a prediction that the Jews shall be gathered in the latter day and that the Turks shall in part be destroyed. I said, that was 1835. A number of resources correctly point out that, this is Easton again, quote, this prophecy has been regarded as fulfilled in the conflicts of the Maccabees with Antiochus. The invasion and overthrow of the Chaldeans and the temporary successes and destined overthrow of the Turks. That's just nonsense. Well, Turkey, the nation of Turkey is where, The Ottomans. It was the Ottoman Turks. That's where Turkey came from. But it was once a big empire. But all these interpretations are unsatisfactory and inadequate. Amen. And he wrote that in 1897. But then many go on to incorrectly make this baseless conclusion. It's our final point we're going to close with. There's a lot of people who tell you this. The vision respecting Gog and Magog in the apocalypse, Revelation 20 verse 8, is in substance a re-announcement of this prophecy of Ezekiel. If you go to Revelation chapter 20 and look at verse 8, It does say that at the end of the thousand years, in verse 7, when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. Verse 8, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. So they say, well, that means that this is the same thing. And it's not. It's when it says Gog and Magog, it's telling you to all those Muslim nations during the millennium, they'll behave themselves. But at the end, that's where a lot of the rebellion is going to come from. Allahu Akbar. One more time. One last time. Be Allah's last hurrah before that devil gets destroyed. The fact that Gog and Magog appear at the end of the millennium at the final battle in Revelation doesn't mean that this is the same as the Gog and Magog war in Ezekiel. I've used this example before, but Germany fought our country and the Allies in 1914 through 1918 and 1939 to 1945, two different wars. That doesn't mean it was the same war just because Germany was in both, amen? One's called World War. And the other's called World War. And just like Gog Magog, there's gonna be a Gog Magog one and a Gog Magog two. And they're gonna be separated by more than a thousand years. It's that simple. And our study is to be continued. All right, well, let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for this time in your word. And we do thank you for giving us discernment, helping us understand these things. We thank you for all those men up there with you now who wrote these commentaries that give us the truth. Men that believed the Bible before it made sense. It's amazing. And some go back in. I'd like to have the time and ability to do the research and show all the people throughout the centuries who really believed this book. And they weren't all dispensationalists by name, but they held many of the same things we believe. All we have to do is rightly divide the word of truth with the help of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for helping us do so. And even though our number is smaller and smaller as the years go by before the rapture, we are thankful for all the fellowship we have with Bible believers. And we thank you because they're all saved by the blood of Jesus, all family. Thank you in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. All right, stand if you can. Give thanks with a grateful heart. Give thanks to the Holy One. Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ His Son. Give thanks with a grateful heart. Give thanks to the Holy One, give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ His Son. And now, let the weak say, I am strong. Let the poor say, I am rich. Because of what the Lord has done for us. And now, let the weak say, I am strong. because of what the Lord has done for us. Give thanks. Give thanks with a grateful heart. Give thanks to the Holy One. Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son Give thanks with a grateful heart Give thanks to the Holy One Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son, and now let the weak say, I am strong. because of what the Lord has done for us and now let the weak say I am strong let the poor say I am rich because of what the Lord has done for us give thanks Say amen to that. Say thank you, Jesus. For living. ♪ I will call upon the Lord ♪ Who is worthy to be praised ♪ So shall I be saved from my enemies ♪ I will call upon the Lord ♪ I will call upon the Lord ♪ Who is worthy to be praised ♪ So shall I be saved from my enemies ♪ I will call upon the Lord The Lord liveth and blessed be my rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted. The Lord liveth and blessed be my rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted. ♪ I will call upon the Lord ♪ Who is worthy to be praised ♪ So shall I be saved from my enemy ♪ I will call upon the Lord ♪ I will call upon the Lord Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King Alleluia, Alleluia, we're going to see the King No more dying there, we are going to see the King No more dying there, we are going to see the King No more dying there, we are going to see the King Alleluia, Alleluia, we're going to see the King ♪ The rapture's coming soon ♪ And we are going to see the king ♪ The rapture's coming soon ♪ And we are going to see the king ♪ The rapture's coming soon ♪ And we are going to see the king ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, we're going to see the king A banquet's waiting there We are going to see the King A banquet's waiting there We are going to see the King A banquet's waiting there We are going to see the King Alleluia, Alleluia We're going to see the King ♪ Mighty's waiting there ♪ We are going to see the king ♪ Mighty's waiting there ♪ We are going to see Feel free to sing with an accent. ♪ Mighty's waiting there ♪ We are going to see the king ♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ We're going to see the king Soon and very soon. Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King Soon and very soon going to see the King hallelujah hallelujah we're going to see the King hallelujah hallelujah we're going to see the King hallelujah hallelujah we're going to see the King amen I'm satisfied with just the cottage below A little silver and a little gold But in that city where the rain still will shine I want a gold one that's silver and large I've got a mansion just over the hilltop In that bright land where we'll never grow old And someday yonder We will never more wander, but walk the streets that are purest gold. Though often tempted, tormented, and tested, and like the prophet, my pillar will stand. No permanent dwelling I know he'll give me A mansion of my own I've got a mansion Just over the hilltop In that bright land where We'll never grow old And someday yonder We will never more wander But walk the streets that Are pure as gold ♪ Don't think me poor or deserted or lonely ♪ I'm not discouraged, I'm heaven bound ♪ I'm just a pilgrim in search of a city ♪ I want a mansion, a robe and a crown I've got a mansion just over the hilltop In that bright land where we'll never grow old And someday yonder we will never more wander But walk the streets that are pure as gold Amen.