The Original - And The Generational Gog of Magog

It is amazing to me - as it is to most prophecy students and teachers, that there are still those serious followers of Christ who cannot rightly divide the Word for themselves. They often lock-step with one teacher or another and follow a course of error without any real digging on their part. So it was this week that I again encountered the reality that many believers see the battle of Gog of Magog (Ezekiel 38-39) as the same battle of Gog in Revelation 20:8. This article is to point out for you the differences in the two battles...

Aside from the fact that the battle of Ezekiel 38-39 takes place one thousand years before the battle of Revelation 20, there are great differences in the staging and the final results of the two battles.

The Ezekiel battle is called forth by God (Ezekiel 38:4) and the Revelation armies are gathered by Satan. The battles are one thousand years apart, the Ezekiel battle taking place just prior to the seven years of tribulation under the antichrist, and the Revelation battle taking place at the end of the thousand-year-reign of Christ on this earth.

At the Second Coming of Christ, at the end of the tribulation period, Satan is thrown into the bottomless pit in chains (Rev. 20:2-3) while the antichrist and the false prophet are thrown alive into the lake of fire (Rev. 19:20). At the close of the thousand-year-reign of Christ, Satan is released for a short time to tempt the enemies of God and to gather into one place all rebellion that has accumulated during the thousand years.

It is no secret, it has never been a secret, that Satan hates the Jews simply because God loves them so and has chosen them to be His people. Satan has been the source of all persecution against the Jews, all attempts to destroy them, and every battle against them, from the beginning. It is this enemy of all mens' souls that keeps the Middle-East in turmoil today. It is his goal, hence the goal of the sons of Ishmael, to totally and completely annihilate the Jews and take their land.

It will never happen...

The battle of Ezekiel 38-39 will take place AFTER the invasion of Isaiah 17 and Psalm 83, when Damascus will be destroyed as a city for all time, and all Israel's neighbors will be crushed yet again, when Israel will regain most of her currently usurped Promised Land, perhaps just after the Rapture of the Church and just before the tribulation begins. It is organized and called forth by God himself who has a controversy with Gog, the land of Magog (Russia). In this prophecy yet to be fulfilled, God names the nations and the peoples that will march with Gog, a strong army of Jew haters and Israel bashers that we are familiar with today.

In the Revelation 20:8 battle the armies come from all over the world, and are innumerable as the sands of the sea.

In Ezekiel 38:8 God declares to Gog that he will be visited and brought forth to the mountains of Israel in the "latter years." This will be at a time when Israel is dwelling safely and without fear.

This Gog invasion will follow the local invasion of Israel as described in Isaiah 17 and Psalm 83 (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza). Following this failed attempt by Israel's neighbors to drive Israel into the sea, Israel will dwell safely until the invasion of Gog of Magog.

In the Ezekiel battle, the world will ask Russia and Iran why they are doing this. In the Revelation account, the world under the Lord Jesus Christ is silent, watching the event that is reminiscent of the Gog of Magog war a thousand years before, except that this new invasion of Gog is not Israel's battle, it is the Lord's.

The earth is about to undergo a powerful cleansing and renewing, and eternity is about to begin and all rebellion has to be swept from the earth first. Generations have been born that have not exactly accepted the reign of Christ, gathering to themselves instead the seeds of human lust for human power, and the pride of Satan.

In the Ezekiel battle of Gog, one sixth of the army survived to return to their homes and families. In the Revelation invasion, there are no survivors.

In the Ezekiel battle, the dead littered the mountainsides and Israel spent seven months burying the dead and cleansing the land, and seven years burning the instruments of war.

In the Revelation 20 battle, fire came down from God out of Heaven and "devoured" them, leaving no survivors, no bodies to be buried, and no instruments of war. All will be devoured and the devil will be cast into the lake of fire where he will be tormented day and night forever and ever. This final judgment did not happen at the close of the Ezekiel battle.

Once Satan has been cast into the lake of fire, the dead without Christ are resurrected for the Great White Throne judgment of the unbelievers, the rebellious, the lukewarm, the unforgiving, the unrepentent and the high and haughty proud, and every man will be judged according to his works. This is the second death, and whosoever is not found written in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14).

Someone may ask, if Satan is released for a little while to tempt the rebels to war, how will such a thing be possible under the reign of Jesus Christ that an army as numerable as the sands of the sea can exist?

Well, even under the reign of the Most High God of Heaven and Earth, the seeds of the fallen nature of man still exist in the flesh and blood bodies that are born into the world during the thousand year reign of Jesus Christ.

As long as we live in these flesh and blood bodies, we are subject to the temptations of the seeds of lust that breed wickedness, selfishness, greed, envy, hatred and murder. Unless we are bathed, immersed and completely covered in the blood of Jesus Christ, walking in His Grace and His presence daily, belonging to Him alone, we are in danger of the wiles and temptations of the enemy who knows each one of us very well and how to push our individual buttons.

We will probably see the invasion of israel by his neighbors, but we will more than likely be Raptured before the Gog of Magog invasion. In fact, I personally believe the Rapture of the Church will throw the world into such disarray, the Russians and the Iranians and their cohorts in battle will use this disarray as an excuse to march on Israel.

In other words, the Rapture of the true Church will be the catapult for the battle of Gog, and the battle of Gog will be the launching pad for the coming to power of the antichrist. It will all happen soon...

Joan Krempel
June 18,2009
joan@joankrempelministries.com