Episode 88: The Islamic Mahdi, the Antichrist, Gog and Magog

Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 88

Gary discusses current Facebook speculation about the war in Iran, Islam, and Ezekiel 39-39.

My library is filled with books that attempt to make the case that the events predicted in Ezekiel 38 and 39 are on our prophetic horizon, and it seems that each month a new book appears insisting that “given the current world situation, nuclear war is inevitable.”[1] Of course, a nuclear war might indeed take place, but we have to question whether Bible passages like Ezekiel 38­ –39 and Zechariah 12 make such a prediction.

These and other chapters are used by modern-day prophecy writers to defend the belief that Russia and her Islamic neighbors will attack Israel. It’s argued that this attack will put into motion a series of geo-political events that will set the stage for a coming world leader and an eventual worldwide “great tribulation” that can only be stopped by the direct intervention of God, but only after the Battle of Armageddon when billions of people have died.

This interpretation has a history going back to the eighteenth century but gained near universal acceptance with the publication of the first edition of the Scofield Reference Bible in 1909. The extended note that Cyrus I. Scofield adds to Ezekiel 38 in the 1917 revised edition identifies Russia as the subject of the two-chapter prophecy. He includes Zechariah 12:1–4 as a parallel passage. So many contemporary prophecy writers follow the script outlined by Scofield and others before him that this interpretation has become a point of prophetic orthodoxy.

The Gog and Magog End-Time Alliance will challenge the arguments used by today’s prophecy writers who claim modern-day Russia is the subject of Ezekiel and Zechariah’s prophecies that will set off a chain events leading to the end of our world as we know it.

The Gog and Magog End-Time Alliance

What if we read Ezekiel 38 and 39 literally? Is it possible that the Gog and Magog alliance that was designed “to destroy, to kill and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, women and children” has already taken place? That’s exactly what The Gog and Magog End-Time Alliance attempts to show.

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Gary discusses current Facebook speculation about the war in Iran, Islam, and Ezekiel 39-39. Once again, the popularizers take world events and cram them into a verse or two in the Bible, completely ignoring both the original context and the audience. They claim to interpret the Bible “literally” but stop doing so when the biblical facts don’t fit their current scenario.

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[1] Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Global Warning: Are We on the Brink of World War III? (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2007), 84.

American Vision’s mission is to Restore America to its Biblical Foundation—from Genesis to Revelation. American Vision (AV) has been at the heart of worldview study since 1978, providing resources to exhort Christian families and individuals to live by a Biblically based worldview. Visit www.AmericanVision.org for more information, content and resources