Bible U

As we watch the world hurtle toward fulfillment of the Bible’s end-times prophecies, one of particular interest is the invasion of Israel by Gog, ruler of Magog, who rallies many other nations to his cause. Will this happen while the Body of Christ is still here, and if not, will it be at the start, midpoint, or end of the Tribulation? Let’s look at details in both the Old and New Testaments for clues.

In Revelation 6:15-17 the people of the world all know that it’s the Lamb and the God of the Bible who is raining down wrath on the world. How do they know that?

The answer is in Ezekiel 38, specifically verses 17 through 23. When Gog of Magog brings many armies to invade Israel, God causes a massive earthquake there. Mountains collapse and God himself destroys the armies. This tells them exactly who is causing the disasters, and finally the people of Israel return to God, according to Ezekiel 39:22.

So since the world asks the mountains to hide them from God and the Lamb by the sixth seal, and since this knowledge is gained when they see the supernatural demise of Gog’s armies after trying to invade Israel, then the invasion must happen before the sixth seal. It’s possible that this could be the war symbolized by the red horse of Revelation 6:3 at the second seal’s opening.

Ezekiel 39:9-24 goes on to say that the people of Israel will burn Gog’s weapons for fuel for seven years, and they’ll spend the first seven months purifying the land of Israel. Since they would not be cleansing the land during the Tribulation, and certainly not the whole seven years of that since they will flee at the midpoint, it must happen at the end.

But how can the Gog invasiion come before the sixth seal yet also happen at the end of the Tribulation? Do the judgments all run concurrently instead of sequentially?

First we should ask how there could be mountains to hide under, or for Gog to die on, when Rev. 16:20 says all the mountains are gone after the seventh bowl. A possible answer is that the cry to be hidden is just before this, after which Jesus sets foot on Mount of Olives and splits it in half, according to Zechariah 14:4. Yet this mountain doesn’t disappear after it’s split, as we can see in verses 1-15, which clearly describe the time after the Tribulation.

But the greater objection is that the seventh trumpet is not at the end but at the mindpoint of the Tribulation, for two reasons. The first is that when the two witnesses, who testify for three and a half years, are killed by the Beast, people are able to send each other gifts. It’s very unlikely that people will be capable of doing this by the end of the Tribulation. The second is that the Beast begins its forty-two month reign after violating the seven-year covenant at the midpoint, as stated in Daniel 9:27. This matches up with Revelation 13, which is at or after the seventh trumpet. This being the case, it’s impossible for the trumpets and seals to run concurrently, since the last judgment in each case happens at different points in the seven years.

We should also note that Zechariah 14:5 says the people of Israel will run away through the valley created when Jesus stands on the Mount of Olives. Could this be the midpoint, since according to Revelation 12:6 and 14 they are to flee to the place prepared for them to be safe during the Beast’s 42-month reign? No, because Revelation 19:11-16 has Jesus returning to earth with heaven’s armies after the Tribulation is over. So though Zechariah doesn’t tell us what the people are running from, it can’t be at the midpoint.

This all should remind us of a similar conundrum regarding prophecies of the Messiah before he came. Would he come as a sacrifical lamb or a conquering lion? Only in hindsight could we see the solution, that he would come twice. We should also note the differences between the Rapture and the Second Coming. We must always note differences, not just similarities, and not dismiss differences as trivial.

So can we solve the mystery of the timing of Gog’s invasion of Israel by proposing two separate events? Consider the differences of the invasions between Ezekiel 38:21-22 and Zechariah 14:12-15, and Revelation 20:7-9. What motivates the invasion, plundering Israel or hatred of Jesus and his people? How many nations are involved, only some or all the world? How do the armies die, by various plagues and disasters or only by fire from the sky? Clearly these cannot both refer to the same invasion.

Will Christians be here to see the first invasion? I seriously doubt we will, since salvation will no longer be by faith but by sight. Yet we certainly are seeing the alignments of nations, and especially the overt, pervasive evil and violence that brought the Great Flood so long ago, as stated in Genesis 6:5 and 11. While Jesus did reference the days of Noah and Lot in Matthew 24:37-39 and Luke 17:26-28, it was in reference to the sudden disaster people didn’t see coming, not to everything happening at the time.

Consider also the parable of the wheat and tares in Matthew 13:24-30 and 36-43. The harvest will only come when good and evil have fully grown. Today, the divide between good and evil has become so obvious and open even to unbelievers, that surely God’s wrath is at hand. And the Rapture of the church must precede it.

Though the world is only now acknowledging it, the governments have been run for generations by demonic powers operating world leaders like puppets. Few cities, and even fewer countries, are not under their direct control. But it’s not just the leaders anymore. We see on a daily basis how unhinged and wicked people in general have become. Though students of Bible prophecy in generations past have wondered what it would take for the world to merit the final wrath of God, we wonder no more. Along with this, we also have, like no generation before us, the premeditated and wholesale destruction of the natural world through toxins and genetic modifications, to the point where life is becoming unsustainable.

Some may object by arguing that the wicked rulers wouldn’t destroy the place where they and their children live. But when we consider that they have self-sustaining underground cities connected by tunnels, this objection falls away. The world they and their master Satan want is one where everyone but them is either a slave or dead. How can God’s wrath be delayed any longer?

“Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” Revelation 22:20