Gog and Magog

Satan is bound at the beginning of the Millennial Reign:

[Rev 20:1-3 LSB]  Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. [2]  And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; [3]  and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were finished. After these things he must be released for a short time.

Yeshua has been reigning over an unprecedented time of peace during the Millennial Reign.  As seen above, Satan has been bound so that he would no longer be able to deceive the nations.

When Satan is released, from the abyss, he will draw the nations in for the Gog-Magog war:

[Rev 20:7-9 LSB]  And when the thousand years are finished, Satan will be released from his prison, [8]  and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore. [9]  And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them.

Many try to equate the passage below with Armageddon - which clearly does not fit.  At the midpoint of the 70th week the Antichrist tramples Jerusalem and sets up the abomination of desolation.  Israel is not even close to being considered as living securely... it is mass chaos.  There's only one period of time that this could be speaking of and it is during the Millennial Reign of Yeshua.

[Eze 38:8-12 LSB]  “After many days you will be mustered; in the last years you will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been gathered from many peoples to the mountains of Israel which had been a continual waste; but its people were brought out from the peoples, and they are living securely, all of them. [9]  “And you will go up; you will come like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your troops and many peoples with you.” [10]  ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “It will be in that day, that thoughts will come into your heart, and you will devise an evil plan, [11]  and you will say, ‘I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will go against those who dwell quietly, that live securely, all of them living without walls and having no bars or gates, [12]  to capture spoil and to seize plunder, to turn your hand against the waste places, which are now inhabited, and against the people who are gathered from the nations, who have acquired cattle and property, who live at the center of the world.’

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Theologians and commentators are all over the place when discussing the timing of this war.  Some claim the Gog-Magog war occurs before the 70th week, some claim the middle.  Some will claim this war is actually the Battle of Armageddon and that Gog is another name for the Antichrist.

It should be noted that every single ECF taught that this war occurred post-millennium.  In fact, they don't even mention Ezekiel 38-39 when discussing Revelation 20.  Why?  Because they assumed it was a given and obvious that Revelation 20 was discussing Ezekiel 38-39.  They absorbed it into Revelation 20 and therefore felt no need to cite it separately. The moment the church began to see a large chronological gap between the second coming and the Millennium (or abandoned literal premillennialism altogether), then people had to start explaining what to do with Ezekiel 38–39 and that only begins to happen in a major way with Jerome in the early 5th century. Jerome, deeply influenced by Origen's allegorical method, is the first claim that Revelation 20 was not dealing with Ezekiel 38-39 and is the major influence in western theology to this day. Don't forget - Jerome is also responsible for the whole "Lucifer" debacle that also influenced western theology.

Note that Jerome is responsible for a lot of bad theology in western Christianity. The above is one example, another is his addition of Rome and combination of Media and Persia for Daniel 2, and last (certainly not least) is the whole "Lucifer" debacle that personally created! You can find all of this in other blogs I've posted.

So the near-silence is not evidence that they rejected a pre-trib or mid-trib Gog war — it is evidence that they never conceived of one in the first place.

I also used to believe Gog was a name for the Antichrist.  Mostly because of this verse:

[Eze 38:17 LSB]  ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days by the hand of My slaves the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you against them?

I still can't explain that verse as "Gog" is prophesied about nowhere in Scripture other than Ezekiel.  One possibility is that the passage is proleptic: the passage could be written from the perspective of what those in Gog’s time will say when Gog appears on the stage of history. In other words, the prophesy referred to may be Ezekiel 38:17 itself.

Click here for more on Ezekial 38:17

Whatever it means, it is impossible for Gog to be the Antichrist.  The Antichrist and the false prophet are cast into the Lake of Fire at the end of Daniel's 70th week.

[Rev 19:20 LSB]  And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who did the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone.

If the Antichrist is predisposed in the Lake of Fire he will still be unavailable at the end of the thousand year reign.  We're told explicitly that the Antichrist is STILL in the LoF when Satan is cast in.  

[Rev 20:10 LSB]  And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

We just read in Rev. 20:7 "when the thousand years are finished" that Satan will gather Gog and Magog to war.

This means Gog must be someone else.

He is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:

[Eze 38:2-3 LSB]  “Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him

[3]  and say, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.

Some will claim that in the war prophesied by Ezekiel, Gog is the main aggressor, a man, whereas in Revelation 20, Satan is said to be the aggressor.  There is no Scriptural reason to expect that after the Millennium Satan will be somehow now be incarnate and will physically lead these nations to battle.  In fact, there is explicit evidence that he operates in the same way he always has after he is released... he is "to deceive the nations" to go to war.

Some commentators will claim that this alone is another argument against the timing.  Their claim is that in Ezekiel it is Yahweh that brings Gog to war:

[Eze 38:4 LSB]  I [Yahweh] will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your military force, horses and horsemen, all of them magnificently dressed, a great assembly with large shield and shield, all of them wielding swords;

Their argument is that it is Satan, not Yahweh, who brings Gog to war in Rev 20:7.  Since when does Satan do anything against the will of Yahweh?  Yahweh has used Satan to accomplish His goals from the beginning.  

Their next argument is that the armies in Ezekiel come from the north; but in Revelation 20 the armies come from "the four corners of the earth". 

[Eze 38:15 LSB]  You [Gog] will come from your place out of the remote parts of the north, you and numerous peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great assembly and a numerous military force;

First, it is Gog who comes from "the remote parts of the north".  Secondly, as can be seen in the verses from Ezekiel below, the nations who join Gog come from all directions:

[Eze 38:5-6 LSB]  Persia [east], Ethiopia [south], and Put [Libya] with them, all of them with shield and helmet; [6]  Gomer with all its troops; Beth-togarmah from the remote parts of the north with all its troops—many peoples with you.

[Eze 38:13 LSB]  Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish with all its young lions will say to you, ‘Have you come to capture spoil? Have you assembled your assembly to seize plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to capture great spoil?’

[Eze 39:6 LSB]  “And I will send fire upon Magog and those who inhabit the coastlands securely [west]; and they will know that I am Yahweh.

Why they insist that the armies in Ezekiel only come from the north is beyond me.

Next, they'll insist "four corners of the earth" suggests a worldwide invasion, whereas Ezekiel is describing a coalition that is based primarily in the Middle East. 

The term "four corners of the earth" or "four winds", are often used interchangeably, and are terms which often refer only to the four compass points within a Middle Eastern context (Daniel 11:4; Jeremiah 49:36).  Sometimes, they're even used together:

[Rev 7:1 LSB]  After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree.

Gog and Magog clearly represent all rebel "armies" of the world who are deceived by Satan at his release.  

[Eze 38:18-23 LSB]  “And it will be in that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel,” declares Lord Yahweh, “that My wrath will mount up in My anger. [19]  “In My zeal and in My blazing fury I have spoken that on that day there will surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. [20]  “And the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the beasts of the field, all the creeping things that creep on the ground, and all the men who are on the face of the earth will quake at My presence; the mountains also will be pulled down, the steep pathways will fall, and every wall will fall to the earth. [21]  “And I will call for a sword against him on all My mountains,” declares Lord Yahweh. “Every man’s sword will be against his brother. [22]  “With pestilence and with blood I will enter into judgment with him; and I will rain on him and on his troops, and on the numerous peoples who are with him, a torrential rain, with hailstones, fire, and brimstone. [23]  “And I will magnify Myself, I will manifest Myself as holy, and I will make Myself known in the sight of many nations; and they will know that I am Yahweh.”’

Ezekiel 39 then goes on to the burning of the weapons, etc. to purify the land.  Gog will be buried in the Valley of Armageddon.

[Eze 39:11 LSB]  “And it will be in that day, that I will give Gog a burial ground there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea, and it will block off those who would pass by. So they will bury Gog there with all his multitude, and they will call it the valley of Hamon-gog.

[Eze 39:12 LSB]  “And for seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land.

There's nothing in Scripture that dictates that the Great White Throne Judgment must occur immediately at the conclusion of the thousand years.

It is worth noting that in Ezekiel and Revelation the assault follows the period of the messianic kingdom. In Ezekiel 36–37 Israel is restored to the land; then comes the warfare in chapters 38 and 39. This is followed by a portrayal of the eternal state under the figure of a rebuilt temple in the New Jerusalem (chaps. 40–48).  Mounce, Robert H.. The Book of Revelation (New International Commentary on the New Testament (NICNT)) (p. 371). Eerdmans. Kindle Edition.

While the New Testament has little to say about a temporal messianic kingdom, Ezekiel’s prophecy has the same basic structure as Rev. 20. Chapters 36–37 picture the salvation of Israel, restored to their land and blessed with the messianic salvation (see 36:24–29). The goal of the prophetic expectation, “you shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezek. 36:28) is now realized. David, God’s servant, will rule over his people, and God will dwell in their midst (37:25, 28). However, the blessing of the messianic kingdom is not the end. The kingdom is disturbed by an eschatological war led by Gog from Magog (chapters 38–39); and only after the divine victory do we have a picture of the eternal new order, which in Ezekiel is described in terms of a rebuilt temple in the new Jerusalem (chapters 40–48).8 This structure of a temporal messianic kingdom followed by the eternal kingdom in the new age is the same as that in Revelation.  Ladd, George Eldon. A Commentary on the Revelation of John (Eerdmans Classic Biblical Commentaries (ECBC)) (p. 270). Eerdmans. Kindle Edition. 

More to come on this topic...