Bible study

An Old look at Prophecy Which Nations will attack and invade the House of Israel in the Last Days? A point-by-point response to an article by my friend, Steven Collins’, “A New Look at Prophecy” By C White www.originofnations.org In this article, I respond to my friend, Steven Collins’ article on which nations will be attacking the House of Israel in these last days. Whilst we agree on most fundamental issues, Steve and I disagree on this one particular aspect of prophecy. We remain firm friends, despite this disagreement. The layout of this response is simple: 1. I reprint Collins’ statement about prophecy 2. under his statement is my response 3. appendix 1 at the rear listing the consistent and accurate teachings on the rise of a Germanled Europe 4. appendix 2 concerns prophecies relating to Assyria 5. appendix 3 on the time when Ezekiel 38 & 39 may be applied 6. Suggested reading

At the conclusion of my book, The “Lost” Ten Tribes of Israel…Found!, it was stated that a new book detailing prophecies about the ten tribes of Israel would be written. Since my four new books containing important new information about the ten tribes’ history had to come first, that book on prophecy is yet in the future. However, it is partially written. This booklet-length article is an effort to get some of that information to people in a timely fashion. What follows is not a direct excerpt from my future book, but is rather an adaptation of some of its material for those people who are in churches or fellowships which formed as the “old” Worldwide Church of God disintegrated. For these groups, some of this information is too important to be delayed for inclusion in a future book. Response: I invite readers to view another perspective. The paper “Pax Germanica or a New World Order – Which?” may be found at http://originofnations.org – click on the link ‘Books and Research Papers’ and then ‘Free Books and Research Paper Downloads’.

A History of Prophetic Errors: Decades ago, the “old” Worldwide Church of God (WCG) attracted many people with a message emphasizing biblical prophecy. The WCG developed prophetic expectations which were held so strongly that they developed into church dogmas. “Old-timers” who remember the WCG in the 1950s and 1960s can recall the prophetic dogma that a rearmed Germany would lead a “United States of Europe” in an invasion of the USA and Great Britain. This theme filled many pages of the Plain Truth Magazine. The WCG taught that this expected invasion would lead to a “Great Tribulation” of national captivity for the USA and Great

Britain. At first the WCG believed this invasion would begin in 1972 and that the church would flee to Petra for three and one-half years before Jesus Christ returned in 1975. The WCG taught these prophetic doctrines very strongly to its church members, and offered a booklet, based on these assumptions, to the general public called “The Year 1975 in prophecy.” As a teen-ager, I recall reading a booklet called “There is a Way of Escape,” which was based on the church’s belief that its members would be uniquely protected from the expected apocalypse in 1972.

Response: I have two problems with the above: 1. the inference that only prophecy attracted people into the Church 2. The issue concerning 1972 should not have any bearing on whether a German (Assyrian) led invasion of the United States because 1972 and Germany are two separate issues, not connected in this context at all. “There is a Way of Escape” was not about a place of refuge in the last days. It was not a booklet, but a short article and I cannot recall it referring to 1972 at all.

The first sign of a major problem with the WCG prophetic expectations occurred when 1972 came and went uneventfully. At first, church leaders thought that we had been given “seven more years,” and the expected events were postponed to 1979 in the church’s thinking. Then 1979 came and, again, nothing happened. The failure of church prophetic dogma was next ex-plained by a new teaching about “19 year time cycles” which, if true, would mean that the Ger-man/ European invasion would begin in 1991 (19 years after 1972). Then 1991 came and the church’s prophetic expectations failed again. The WCG then stopped offering new dates, but the general expectation of an eventual German-led invasion of the USA and Great Britain has remained imbedded in the minds of many people in the various COG off-shoots which formed as the “old” WCG gradually self-destructed. In the “real” world of corporations and businesses, when a set of assumptions or expectations fails over and over again, those assumptions and expectations will either be discarded or intensely scrutinized for errors. However, churches rarely engage in critical self-examination even when their prophecies fail as they are loath to admit error of any kind. Nevertheless, it is now a well-established fact of history that the prophetic expectations of the “old” WCG failed repeat-edly. A re-examination of the assumptions that caused the WCG’s prophetic errors of the last half-century is long overdue. This article will not only examine the assumptions on which the church’s failed prophetic dogmas were based, but it will also offer a new look at prophecy, based on a literal application of biblical prophecy to modern world events.

Response: My friend uses date-setting as a lead-in to the whole idea of which nations will invade Israel. Yet, this has nothing to do with it! It is a red-herring and serves to give the wrong impression and focus especially considering that 1972 was not a prophetic doctrine nor fundamental, therefore it has nothing to do with who will invade end-time Israel. The fact is, the unofficial idea that there might be a beginning to end-time events in 1972, was dropped by the mid- to late- 1960s. Indeed, DATES have no bearing on WHO is the end-time adversary of Israel, so why bring it up? It only serves to confuse or lead people to associate duties with who the adversary is. This section is difficult to follow. Of course, the US and Britain did not collapse. Nazis did not take over Germany. The former has not happened YET – so what?

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The second, that of Nazism, unlike the former, was not based on prophecy, but misunderstanding geopolitical realities and has no bearing on identifying the end-time forces that shall invade Israel. In fact, the booklet 1975 in Prophecy has been misunderstood and misinterpreted by many for approximately 40 long years. It may be viewed as the ultimate condensation of the Ezekiel Message. This energetic booklet shocked people out of their complacency. Its unfortunate title has been a major reason for derision being brought upon this doctrine from certain quarters. Yet it contains vital information for us in a brazen way and a style which is becoming more and more acceptable to the community at large today (the type of graphic details portrayed by Basil Wolverton are a part of our mass culture today). In many ways it was a work ahead of its time. Many other booklets have been published which are also very strong and useful, but are not Ezekiel Message type material as such: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; Is this the End Time?; Are we Living in the Last Days?; The Mark of the Beast; The Middle East in Prophecy; Who is the Beast?; The Book of Revelation Unveiled at Last!; The Modern Romans and How to Understand Prophecy. The 1975 in Prophecy booklet was by far the most stunning and startling. Its title has led to the assumption that Mr Armstrong taught 1975 as the date of Christ’s return. Rather, the booklet was trying to catch people’s attention with a sensational title. I have before me a book Famine 1975! by William and Paul Paddock which used similar tactics. Another is The Coming Plague, or Newly Emerging Diseases in a World out of balance by Laurie Garrett and of course George Orwell’s 1984. The booklet took the following outline: • an introduction • Good news of the coming Utopia • trends toward German resurgence • The prophesied US of Europe (under German control and leadership) • Coming Drastic Weather Changes • World War III • The great National Calamity and WHY our peoples will be punished • Why all life will not be annihilated • Americans and Britons to be made slaves • The Day of the Lord • Divine intervention • Satan put away The new • the Millennium What is so wrong with the above? How can it be criticised? • • • • • •

criticism of the booklet has been unjustified as focus has been on the negative aspects rather than the majority positive aspects of it the booklet is not just full of doom and gloom it addresses a subject others did not it discusses the Day of the Lord as a literal event which few works by this world’s groups do the title was unfortunate, but most of the booklet was accurate, pulsating, exciting and Biblically sound no apology is required

The booklet was laced with startling graphics portraying the end times, tribulation, Day of the Lord and the Wonderful World Tomorrow. It woke up many people and led them to Christ. So, let us quit attacking this booklet. There are those that I struggled with over the “Y2K” controversy, predicting economic collapse and so on (including Collins). In my e-mails and talks with various ones, including Steven, I attempted to assure them that nothing will happen. But they persisted in their error. 3

Some have even used the present crisis arising out of the September 11 bombings as proof that European nations had sided with the USA and Russia and central Asian nations hadn’t, apparently pointing toward certain prophetic events. Now look what happened: Russia and central Asian republics have sided morally, diplomatically and militarily with the USA! So who is wrong now? But are they willing to say of themselves what they accuse the old WCG?

Over the last half-century, it is a historical fact that Germany did not experience a national resur-gence of Nazism. Germany reunified and became an economic and political leader in Europe, but German militarism never resurfaced. Germany became a strong member of NATO and a staunch ally of the USA. The USA and Great Britain not only did not “collapse,” as was expected by church dogmas, but actually went on to much greater levels of prosperity. The USA became steadily stronger and is now the leading economic and military power on the planet. The old WCG had taught that “the pride of our power” would be broken, but it never happened. It was thought for a time that the Vietnam War heralded the sunset of American willpower and military prowess. However, the Vietnam War never threatened any vital American national interest. Both the USA and Great Britain have since fought wars which ended in complete victories after their national interests were threatened. First the British won the Falklands War in the 1980s when Margaret Thatcher, the “Iron Lady” Prime Minister, rallied her nation to accept nothing less than total victory. Then Saddam Hussein conquered Kuwait and threatened Saudi Arabia, placing the critical oil supplies of the Western Alliance at risk. When its vital oil supply was threatened, the United States led a coalition of nations in 1991 against Saddam Hussein and quickly inflicted a crushing and swift defeat on Iraq’s large army.

Response: 1. resurgence of Nazism or not has nothing to do with Assur rising at the appropriate time. The length of time for something to occur has nothing to do with whether it will occur or not, and thus such arguments are superficial and have no bearing on which nations the Bible says will attack the House of Israel in the last days 2. to say that “German militarism never resurfaced” can only be argued within the context of the leadin to this article trying to synthesise 1972, Nazism, German militarism with a future German-led US of Europe. To say it hasn’t happened and therefore won’t happen, is incomprehensible. One could likewise use the same argument for just about anything. For instance, because Russia has not attacked the USA, therefore it won’t? 3. the US became structurally weaker, as predicted in the booklet, The Modern Romans. As we always taught, the USA would rot from within, with the outer veneer or shell, looking strong. It’s pride will be broken and is being gradually so, but we have revivals every now and then as there was in ancient Israel 4. Britain declined exactly as we predicted in the early 1950s 5. Germany became stronger, as predicted and reunited exactly as the Church taught since the early 1950s. In particular, HWA, Hoeh, Meredith, McNair and then later, GTA, taught this accurately 6. the Church taught that we would have good and bad ‘kings’ or ‘judges’, just as we did in ancient Israel. So, Reagan and Thatcher we indeed good ‘kings’ or ‘judges’ or however one would like to view them. But did this in any way stop the overall slide politically, ethically, morally, spiritually? Nope, it merely slowed down the slide. The statement that the USA “is now the leading economic and military power on the planet” doesn’t make sense. It was so since WWII. It is now stronger in the sense that no single nation is anywhere near as strong. But, collective nations, such as the EU, are coming closer and closer to the US’s economic might. Further, the US economic might has dropped dramatically since WWII. It was more than 50% of world GDP. This has now dropped to about 24%. However, even this has been driven by a massive speculative market bubble on Wall Street. The US stock market now accounts for about 53% of the value of the entire world’s, but this 4

is over 50% over-valuation. When it finally bursts or deflates, the world will not look too kindly at the USA for the massive economic crisis that will follow. “The economic size and significance of the 15 countries that make up the European Union are indisputable. The combined 1995 gross domestic product of these countries was estimated at $8.4 trillion, exceeding that of the United States ($7 trillion). This means that Europe is the largest single market on the face of the globe. The European market is not just large -- it is also affluent. The EU's population stood at 371 million in 1995 and G.D.P. per capita was $22,690; comparable figures for the United States were 264 million and $26,640. One manifestation of these simple facts has been the significant presence of foreign investors in Europe, corporate and individual, with the result that the stock of foreign investment in the EU, at the end of 1995, stood at $6.55 trillion, as compared with $3.16 trillion in the United States. Any corporation that pretends to be global has to have a substantial European presence.” (quoted from Business Expectations and Strategy for the United States of Europe). The strength of the US economy has been driven by ‘hot air’ – a massive speculative bubble funded by enormous unsustainable debt and by huge inflows of foreign capital primarily from Europe. But, there is no fundamental reason for the stock market valuations that have occurred. Secular commentators have been predicting this collapse for decades, but it has not happened yet. It is almost as if a hidden hand has staid events from taking their natural course. He knows when to permit events to occur and will remove His protection in due course, permitting the US and then the world’s economies to tumble – but we just do not know when this will happen. But because it hasn’t happened, does that mean it will not?

Before both these wars ended in spectacular victories for the British and Americans, some voices in the WCG-related churches expected and even predicted American and British defeats in those wars, based on the “old” WCG doctrine that “the pride of our power” had to be broken in the latter days. It didn’t work out that way. Since the purpose of this article is to edify its readers and identify prophetic errors, not to embarrass individuals who espoused those prophetic errors, no church personality will be named. Those individuals were shaped in an autocratic church envi-ronment which demanded that church leaders either “support headquarters…or else.” Honest, biblically based research was discouraged and even punished! Because the church “sowed” a climate where it would not and could not reconsider its latter-day prophecies, it has “reaped” the embarrassment (and extensive loss of membership) that has resulted from a series of very public prophetic errors. During the Falklands War, one prominent church leader voiced an expectation that a famous British ocean liner, refitted as a troop ship and full of British troops, would be torpedoed on its way to the Falklands and sunk as the ”pride of British power” would be broken. When the Persian Gulf War was imminent, another ex-WCG personality predicted a victory for Saddam Hussein as he also expected the “pride of American power to be broken.” These predictions were based on the “The Germans Are Gonna Get Us” dogma which was at the heart of all WCG prophetic expectations. As usual, these dark predictions about British and American fortunes failed again. Many readers will also recall WCG leaders giving sermons with detailed prophecies based on the prophetic dogmas of the old WCG. It is doubtful if any of these prophecies ever came to pass. Everyone who has made prophetic predictions based on the WCG expectations of a Germanled invasion of the USA and UK has been left with “egg on their face.” Isn’t it time we re-examined this prophetic dogma which has led to so much embarrassment for the leaders and churches that espoused it? As we will see, the WCG’s prophetic dogmas consistently failed because they were based on wrong assumptions. Let’s examine those assumptions and see why they lacked a biblical foun-dation. It should be acknowledged, however, that the WCG leaders who made those incorrect prophetic predictions were not trying to deceive anyone. They truly believed that they possessed vital prophetic “keys,” and they wanted to share that warning message with others. They were deeply sincere in their prophetic teachings, but it is now also clear that they were sincerely wrong in those teachings.

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Response: It is a pity that wording such as “Everyone who has made prophetic predictions based on the WCG expectations of a German-led invasion of the USA and UK has been left with “egg on their face”” was used. It is, firstly, not the case and secondly, the language is a little strong. But again, because something hasn’t happened, does not mean that it won’t and referring to the Falkland’s situation has no bearing on who will invade Israel.

The Key False Assumption: Allow me to acknowledge that hind-sight is always, as they say, “20-20.” This article will not castigate or demean those who originated the incorrect assumptions that led to 50 years of pro-phetic errors. Indeed, one can easily understand how those assumptions began. The church had, quite correctly, understood the USA and Great Britain to be primarily composed of the modern descendants of the so-called “lost” Israelite tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim. The church also saw, correctly, that the modern descendants of ancient Assyria were found among the modern German people [As an aside, those who have read my book, The “Lost” Ten Tribes of Is-rael… Found!, also know that many Germans are Israelite descendants as well]. As World War II ended, the old WCG originated an assumption, based on the above facts, that there was going to be a parallel in the latter-days to the series of wars fought between the ancient Kingdoms of Is-rael and Assyria. It was assumed that even as the ancient Israelite-Assyrian wars continued until Assyria conquered and “took captive” the ancient Israelites, that modern Assyria [Germany] would keep fighting the nations of modern Israel [primarily the USA and UK] until “modern Assyria” conquered “modern Israel” and took it captive. Response: Calling it false is very strong language indeed. The The Church has been involved in a growth curve. The Church saw the Beast as emanating out of Europe since the 1930s. Only since the late 1940s or early 1950s, to my knowledge, did it come to see that Assyria is today resident in Germany. Given German history and character, there must be very few Israelites, indeed, within that country. So, the Church has taught that the Beast power is a revived Roman Empire (which included Germany) since the early 1930s. We learned about the Germans having descended from Assur in the late 1940s or early 1950s when HL Hoeh apparently brought this to the attention of HWA. Wrong for 50 years? See appendix 1. Extract from Fifty Years of Warning by G T Armstrong

Many “old timers” will recall sermons by WCG ministers about the starvation, cannibalism and tortures that would be present in American cities before we were “carried captive” by reborn Nazi armies. The WCG was so sure its prophetic dogmas were right that one of its booklets fea-tured macabre illustrations by a noted Mad Magazine caricaturist to depict the extreme suffering which God would inflict on everyone who was not “in the church.” Is it any wonder why so many young people left the church when they matured and realized that the ghoulish scenarios taught to them as children proved to be utterly incorrect? Response: This is not true and is mere assumption: 1. the ghoulish scenarios are based on the Bible 2. they are no worse than movies such as Asteroid etc 6

3. the over-strictness of some ministers and subsequent lure of the world was a major cause, not prophecy!

One can understand how the WCG’s assumptions developed in the post-World War II world. However, it is unfortunate that this human assumption was allowed to harden into a church dogma that could never be questioned, no matter how many times it failed to be fulfilled. In fact, the Bible nowhere offers any prophecy that relationships between latter-day Assyria and Israel will have a parallel to the ancient wars which culminated in the fall of Samaria circa 721 B.C.! Check your concordances. No such assertion exists in the Bible. There are vague scriptures which were speculatively interpreted to infer such a thing, but no biblical prophecy specifically states: “in the latter days, Assyria will conquer and carry captive the house of Israel.” The church taught its prophetic message as if such clear statements were in the Bible, when in fact, they were not there at all. Since the church’s prophetic expectations were based on an incorrect human assumption, the church’s prophetic teachings kept failing…over and over again. How could its assumptions have been so wrong?. The WCG in the 1950s saw that Germany had “risen from the ashes” of World War I, so it as-sumed that Germany would again “rise from the ashes” after World War II to launch World War III. However, the facts should have made it very clear that Germany could not rise again to launch a war of aggression. World War I ended with Germany’s surrender, but not its defeat. German factories and shipyards were intact after World War I, and Germany was not occupied by foreign troops. Germany remained in control of its own destiny, and was able to quickly re-arm as soon as Adolf Hitler ordered it to do so. The situation after World War II was 100% dif-ferent. Germany had been bombed into the proverbial "Stone Age,” and its industrial facilities and national infrastructure had been shattered. Furthermore, Germany became a “captive” nation, dismembered and divided into four military zones governed by the USA, the UK, France and Russia. Foreign troops occupied all of Germany. Germany had no control over its own destiny after World War II, and it could not possibly “rise again” in any military capacity. As Germany’s post-war leadership demonstrated a firm commitment to the values of the Western Alliance (de-mocracy, capitalism, etc.), it was gradually allowed more national autonomy. Today, Germany is an economic power, but it is still weak militarily. It could not defend itself from a determined outside attack without prompt help from the USA, Britain and France. Germany has also paid massive war reparations to its former enemies and to modern Judah (the Israelis and Jews). The book, From Horror to Hope, by Hans Weissmann, notes the following: “Subsequent agreements with a number of European countries…between 1959 and 1993 brought the compensation and restitution payments by Germany since 1949 to a total of more than 97 billion marks, including 74 billion marks in com-pensation to individual victims and their descendants. 37 billion marks have been paid to recipients living in Israel. Future payments of 27 billion marks are ex-pected, bringing the total to a sum of 124 billion marks.”1 This was written in the 1990s, but it makes the point that Germany has been, since the end of World War II, a nation under tribute (especially to the Israelis). It was widely reported in the media that Germany recently funded most of the construction (in German shipyards) of three, ultra-modern submarines for the Israeli Navy. The Israeli Navy is expected to retrofit these sub-marines to carry strategic missiles with nuclear warheads. Germany even sends some of its top military cadets each year to be trained by the Israeli army.2 Germany is NOT now an enemy of the USA, the UK or the Israelis. Any idea that it will lead a European attack on the USA (or any other nuclear power) any time soon is simply divorced from reality.

Response:

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Firstly, the ‘assumptions’ were not falling over and over again and what has Russia possibly invading Germany have to do with a German-led Europe invading Russia. Today, Russia is not in a position to invade Germany and the coming European army would easily whip any invader. And yes, Germany has been paying tribute, but also buying allies. I fail to see the connection with this and what the paper is supposed to be about. For an excellent writer and researcher, Steve has developed a poor argument.

Actual Biblical Prophecies for “Assyria”: There is a “latter day” prophecy in the Bible which does shed light on the latter-day relationship of Germany and the modern nations of the house of Israel (the ten tribes). It indicates that latter-day Assyria will be allied to the nations of latter-day Israel! Numbers 24:14-24 is a prophecy of Balaam which God caused to be recorded in the Bible. It offers prophecies about the roles of various nations in “the latter days” (v. 14). Therefore, we know this prophecy is for the period of time just prior to the return of Jesus Christ. Does this prophecy indicate that the latter-day nations of Israel will be defeated and taken cap-tive? Not at all! Numbers 24:18 specifically prophesies that “Israel shall do valiantly” (or “tri-umphantly” in the KJV marginal reference) in the latter-days. This prophecy states Israel will be a triumphant nation in the latter days. Verse 22 does say Assyria will carry the “Kenites” captive, but the nations of Israel are not the Kenites. Verse 24 prophesies that in the latter days: “ships. shall come from…Chittim, and shall afflict Asshur and shall afflict Eber, and he [Chittim] also shall perish for ever.” The word “Asshur” refers to the Assyrians, found among the German peoples in the latter days. The Hebrews were named after their namesake, “Eber.” Who are the most prominent biblical descendants of Eber? While Edom, Ishmael, Moab, Ammon and others are also descended from Eber, his most prominent biblical descendants are the tribes of Israel, who inherited the blessings of the covenant God made with Abraham. This prophecy indicates that a common enemy will attack the descendants of Asshur and Eber in the latter days. In other words, the descendants of Asshur and Eber will be allies in the latter-days. Their mutual enemy is called “Chittim” or “Kittim,” revealed in Genesis 10:2-4 to be one of the nations of Japheth. Are the descendants of Asshur and the Israelite descendants of Eber allied today? Yes! Their alliance is called NATO. Did you ever hear this “latter-day” prophecy mentioned by the “old” WCG? Of course not. Numbers 24:14-24 contradicted the prophetic dogma of the WCG, so it was ignored. Numbers 24 doesn’t provide a lot of information, but it clearly predicts that the Assyrians and the descen-dants of Eber (this includes all the tribes of Israel and possibly Edom, Ishmael, etc.) will be at-tacked by a common enemy from the descendants of Japheth in the latter days. This prophecy also foretells that while Asshur and Eber’s descendants will be “afflicted,” their attackers will “perish.” The book of Hosea also includes a prophecy that Assyria and Ephraim would become allies in the future. It is not always easy to determine which prophecies in Hosea are for the latter days and which were strictly for the 8 th century B.C. because Hosea was written before the fall of the kingdom of Israel to ancient Assyria. However, Hosea 12:1 prophesies: “Ephraim…followeth after an eastwind…they do make a covenant with the Assyrians.” A “covenant” is an agreement or alliance. Since Israel and Assyria were never allies in ancient biblical days, this argues for a latter-day fulfillment. Is Ephraim (England) allied to modern Assyria? Yes. The British have made numerous “covenants” with Germany via NATO, the European Union, etc. Hosea 14:3 adds that a time will come when Ephraim will realize it should have relied on God instead of its covenant with Assyria. It prophesies Ephraim will say: “Asshur will not save us,” indicating it learns that security comes from God, not its alliances with other nations such as Assyria. Although the Bible has several prophecies indicating the tribes of Israel will be allied to Assyria in the latter days, there is none states that Assyria and Israel will be enemies at that time. In such “covenants” as NATO, the EU, etc., God has fulfilled in modern times his prophecies that 8

Ephraim and Assyria would become allies. This is the opposite of what the old WCG expected, but it is precisely what God prophesied he would do in the latter days. Again, we see that the prophetic expectations of the former WCG lacked a firm biblical foundation. Response: It is pleasing to see that several authors and researchers now accept, at least in part, that the Germans descend from Assur and thus may be classified as the Assyrians in the modern world. This includes Collins, Davidy and Blodgett. Yes, there are prophecies indicating that Israel will be allied to Germany for a time followed by the geatest double-cross in human history. See appendix 2.

Reversing Old Expectations: Before we embark on an entirely new look at biblical prophecies, let’s examine speculative scriptures which were cited to support the dogma that German would lead a European attack on the USA and the UK. Since the “old” WCG identified many European nations as being Israelite nations along with the USA and the UK, the dogma of a German-led European attack upon the USA and Great Britain required the “the nations of Israel” to attack “the nations of Israel” in the latter days. This was a contradictory concept so some kind of justification was needed for it. The defenders of this prophetic dogma cited an obscure scripture in Deuteronomy 27:11-14 which recorded that when ancient Israel entered Canaan, certain tribes of Israel stood on Mt. Gerizim. while other tribes stood on Mt. Ebal. The Levites then reminded all the tribes about the various blessings and curses of the Old Covenant. The WCG speculated that there was a “latter day” ap-plication to this division of the tribes, saying one group of tribes would join Assyria’s attack upon the other tribes of Israel. However, that speculation had no biblical basis. To begin with, Deuteronomy 27 is not a “latter day” prophecy at all. Secondly, “Assyria” is not mentioned any-where in that passage. Since the Bible itself assigns no latter-day significance to Deuteronomy 27 and this chapter says nothing about Israelite-Assyrian relationships, the old WCG should not have “read into” the scriptures something which simply wasn’t there.

Response: This is the first I have heard of it and can only suggest that it was speculation by a minister or two and not a doctrine in any sense. As such it has no bearing on WHO will invading Israel in the end-time.

Deep in the WCG-trained psyche is the expectation that modern America will “have the pride of its power broken.” Let’s look at that prophecy carefully. It is in Leviticus 26:19 amidst a com-mentary about the blessings and cursings of the Old Covenant that the ancient Israelites made with God. Under the Old Covenant, God would deal with Israel positively or negatively accord-ing to their national obedience or disobedience. One of the progressive punishments that would result from Israel’s disobedience was that God would “break the pride of [Israel’s] power” and that Israel would eventually go into captivity. That prophecy was fulfilled when both Israel and Judah went into national captivities in the first millennium B.C. Nowhere in Leviticus 26 is there a statement that this prophecy will apply to the “the latter days.” Since the Bible itself makes no connection between Leviticus 26 and “the latter days,” we should be wary about “reading into” the scriptures a connection which God didn’t place there. Are the “blessings and cursings” of the Old Covenant even applicable in New Testament times? Response:

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Surely Steve must know that we taught and hold to the duality principle? We clearly demonstrated that Lev 26 parallels Matt 24 and also the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Most readers likely believe that Jesus Christ was the pre-existent God who made the Old Cove-nant with Israel at Mt. Sinai and led them in the Wilderness (I Corinthians 10:1-11). When the God of Israel “emptied himself,” became flesh and died in a crucifixion (Philippians 2:4-11), the Old Covenant ceased to be binding as one party (the pre-existent Christ) to that contract had died. After his resurrection, Jesus Christ made a New Covenant into which not just Israelites but all mankind was invited. The “blessing and cursing” terms of the Old Covenant, which included “breaking the pride of Israel’s power” statement, are no longer binding today, just as the obliga-tions of a wedding covenant are no longer binding after one party to that covenant dies! Paul re-ferred directly to this fact in Hebrews 9:15-17. The entire relationship between God and the tribes of Israel changed dramatically after Jesus Christ died. Just as animal sacrifices, mandatory circumcision and the Levitical Priesthood were abolished when the Old Covenant ended, so were the “blessings and cursings” of the Old Covenant. Indeed, long before the Old Covenant was made at Mt. Sinai, God had already prophesied in Genesis 49:22-26 that “the latter days” would be a time when he would give immense blessings and “strength” to Israel, especially the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. Since that prophecy predated the existence of the Old Covenant, it was not affected by either the creation or the demise of the Old Covenant between God and Israel. However, as readers of this article likely realize, the end of the Old Covenant between Israel and God did not abolish God’s immutable laws which had been in effect since Creation and are often referred to in the Bible prior to the Mt. Sinai Covenant. Even though the New Covenant replaced the Old Covenant, Jesus Christ himself affirmed that this action would not abolish either the Law or the Prophets (Matthew 5:17-18). The terms of the Abrahamic covenant are as binding today as they ever were, as they predated the Old Covenant and were not affected by its abolition. Therefore, while biblical prophecies are still valid today, Leviticus 26’s “cursings and blessings” section was not technically a “prophecy.” It simply outlined God’s conditional obligations to-ward Israel under the terms of the Old Covenant. When the Old Covenant ended, those condi-tional obligations also ended. This fact is affirmed in the world around us as God is clearly not. dealing with “latter day” Israel according to the “cursings” chapter of Leviticus 26, even though the nations of modern Israel are increasingly disobedient to God’s laws. To the contrary, God has been pouring out on the nations of latter-day Israel the great blessings he promised to them in Genesis 49. Significantly, these latter-day prophetic blessings of Genesis 49 flow from the Abra-hamic Covenant, which was not dependent on the obedience of Abraham’s descendants. Response: The blessings on Israel today are typological of what they shall inherit in the Millennium. These promises are summarized in Deut 8:7-10. This is followed by warnings that if they sinned they would perish (vv1120) and this principle remains true to this day. What happened to ancient Israel is typological of what shall yet occur in these last days. Too many prophecies indicate captivity for Israel – how can they not apply for the last days but others alongside them somehow do?

Another prophecy often cited by the old WCG was Isaiah 10:5 where God called Assyria “the rod of mine anger.” That passage was written prior to the final Israelite-Assyrian war resulting in the fall of Samaria and the end of the ancient kingdom of Israel. It was fulfilled in approximately 721 B.C. Nowhere in this scripture is there any prophecy that Assyria will be “the rod of God’s anger in the latter days.” God has used many different nations as “rods” against Israel, depending on whatever nation or empire was strong enough to be a tool in God’s hand at a particular time. God has used Philistines, Syrians, Moabites and Ammonites, Edomites, Babylonians, Egyptians, 10

etc. as his “rods” at various times in history against either Israel or Judah. Indeed, Assyria was usually not the “rod of God’s anger” against the Israelites. However, in 721 B.C., it did serve that role. Sometimes the shoe is on the other foot. Jeremiah 51:20 declares that the nations of Israel are “God’s battleaxe” with which he will destroy other nations and kingdoms. God will some-times use the tribes of Israel as a tool in his hand to punish other nations. Genesis 49:22-26 and Numbers 24:14-18 prophecy that one such time will be the “latter days” of this age. Response: It is true that the scriptures do not use the exact words that “Assyria will be “the rod of God’s anger in the latter days.””, just as it does not say “America is Manasseh”, “Christ died on Wednesday”, “the holy spirit is not a person” and so on. BUT, after assembling all of the scriptures, that is what it means. We transliterate scripture into modern meaning. So what?

One more speculative interpretation regarding “Assyria” will be examined. Isaiah 27:12-13 prophesies that: “in that day…you shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel… the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.” This prophecy has language identifying it as a latter-day prophecy. Who is it that are “ready to perish” in Assyria and Egypt? Is it enslaved Israelites or is it the Assyrians and Egyptians or all of these groups? Isaiah 19:24 prophesies that Israel, Egypt and Assyria will be the three primary nations as the millennium begins. Like Isaiah 19:24, Isaiah 27:12-13 mentions Israel, Egypt and Assyria “worshipping the Lord at Jerusalem” as the millennium begins. Zechariah 14:16-19 shows Egypt will need some “convincing” to come and worship the Lord at Jerusalem, but it will occur soon after the millennium begins. Isaiah 27 does not state the Israelites were conquered or taken captive by Assyria or Egypt in the latter days. That interpretation was “read into” the text. It actually sounds like a parallel prophecy to Isaiah 19:24 and Zechariah 14:14-16. The term “ready to perish” could apply inclusively to Israel, Egypt and Assyria as Matthew 24:22 reveals “all flesh” would be close to perishing when Jesus Christ returns. Response: Is 27 refers to Israel – see the previous verse and the typology of Deut 26:5. Yes, all flesh will be close to perishing further into the Tribulation and then Day of the Lord. But earlier in the Tribulation it will be Israel. Consider the following principles which applies to both spiritual and physical Israel: Rev 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; therefore be zealous and repent. Luk 12:48 But he not knowing, and doing things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For to whomever much is given, of him much shall be required. And to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

What Latter-Day Prophecies Really Predict: Let us now examine several prophecies that reveal how God will deal with the tribes of Israel in the latter-days. In order to avoid the mistake of turning human assumptions into prophetic dog-mas, this article will construct a new prophetic scenario based solely on those prophecies which clearly state that they do pertain to the latter days. First, let’s look closely at the “latter day” prophecy found in Genesis 49. The “old” WCG applied this prophecy to locate the tribes of Israel among the nations in our modern world. The WCG saw that Genesis 49 was for the “latter days” so it was correctly applied to the time just prior to Jesus Christ’s return. It is this author’s opinion that the WCG did a good job of applying this. 11

prophecy to identifying many modern Israelite nations. This author agrees with the WCG identi-fications, with the exception of Gad and Asher. What the WCG did not do was pay serious at-tention to what Genesis 49 prophesied about the condition of the tribes of Israel in the latter days. Did Genesis 49 prophesy that the nations of Joseph (i.e. Ephraim and Manasseh) would be con-quered or go into captivity in the latter days? No! Quite the contrary! Genesis 49:22-26 reveals that God had predetermined that the tribe of Joseph would enjoy tremendous wealth, power and blessings in the “latter days.” Has that happened in the modern world? Obviously, the answer is “yes.” First the British Empire (Ephraim) was the premier power in the world, and then the USA (Manasseh) assumed that role after World War II . Verse 23 does prophesy that “the archers have sorely grieved him [Joseph] and shot at him and hated him.” That indicates that Joseph will be the target of a military attack in the latter days, and it implies an attack via the air as “arrows” were ancient “missiles” which traveled via the air. However, does this prophecy state that this attack will lead to Joseph’s total defeat and captivity as the old WCG taught? The answer is a strong “NO!” Response: This prophecy does not say that Israel will be attacked, but others do. So where is the argument?

Genesis 49:24-25 tells us what happens when “Joseph” (Ephraim and Manasseh) is attacked in the latter days. It prophesies: “But his [Joseph’s] bow abode in strength and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob…even by the God of thy fa-ther, who shall help thee.” This is the exact opposite of the old WCG prophetic expectations! The WCG taught God would weaken Israel’s nations in the latter-days and send them into captivity, but Genesis 49 unmistakably prophesies God will “strengthen” the tribes of Joseph during the latter-days! Genesis 49 reveals that even though God allows the latter-day nations of Joseph to be attacked by nations who “hate him,” Joseph will be strengthened and helped by God when this attack occurs! Far from delivering the nations of Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) into cap-tivity when they are attacked in the latter days, God promises to intervene to help and strengthen them against this climactic attack! Genesis 49:24’s prophecy that Joseph’s “bow” (which would launch Joseph’s own “arrows” or “missiles” against his attackers) will “abide in strength” means that Joseph’s latter-day weapons will prove to be “strong” against this attack. This is not my “interpretation.” It is simply taking God at his word. Since the old WCG always taught that Genesis 49 was a very important prophecy for latter-day Israel, it is remarkable that it over-looked the fact that the church’s gloomy assumptions about the fate of Israel in the latter-days were strongly contradicted by the prophecies of this very chapter! Earlier we examined the latter-day prophecy of Numbers 24 that also prophesied Israel would be “triumphant” or “valiant” in the latter days. These prophecies are consistent with each other. Response: Again, this prophecy does not say that Israel will be attacked, but other prophecies do. So where is the argument?

Read Genesis 49 yourself. You will not find “captivity” to be the prophesied fate of any tribe of Israel in the latter-days! Joseph and Judah are especially prophesied to be triumphant over their enemies in the latter-days. This prophecy has been fulfilled as the USA, Great Britain and the Israelis have strong military forces, and they have won many wars. Only the tribe of Gad is prophesied to be “overcome by a troop” in the latter-days, but even Gad is prophesied to recover from its defeats and rise to prominence “at the last” (the very end of the latter-day period). The word “troop” can also be translated as “an invading force,”3 so Genesis 49 does prophecy that the tribe of Gad will be the only tribe of Israel to be invaded and occupied at some point during the latter days. However, Genesis 49 also prophesied Gad will recover from its defeat and rise to prominence before the latter-days are concluded. After the other nations of Europe have been 12

linked to various Israelite tribes in Genesis 49, the prophecy of being “overcome by an invading force” can identify only Germany. It was “overcome by a troop [of nations]” in two World Wars, but has recovered to be a political and economic power in today’s world. There is much evidence that modern Germany includes not only Assyria but also the Israelite tribe of Gad. Those wishing. to see the evidence can find it in my book, The “Lost” Ten Tribes of Israel…Found! A little-noticed prophecy of Moses about the future of Israel’s tribes predicted that at an indeterminate point in the future, the tribe of Gad would be “enlarged” (it would have a large population) and it would manifest the nature of a lion ripping apart its prey (Deuteronomy 33:20-21). That also aptly describes the predatory history of Germany in the 20 th century’s two world wars. Next, let’s look at a pivotal “latter-day” prophecy that was almost totally ignored by the WCG. It was ignored because, like Numbers 24, it contradicted the church’s prophetic dogmas. If the WCG had taken this prophecy literally, it would have saved itself the embarrassment of repeated prophetic errors. Response: There is no evidence that the tribe of Gad resides in Germany. See my manuscript Who are the Germans? for proof.

What Ezekiel 38 and 39 Prophesy for Israel: Please open your Bible to Ezekiel 38 and 39. There is an immense amount of material in this chapter, but this article will limit its examination to the five “Ws”: Who, When, Why, What, and Where. First, the Bible clearly answers the question of “When” this prophecy will be ful-filled. It is vital to realize that the prophecy beginning in Ezekiel 38:1 is a completely different proph-ecy than the two other prophecies found in Ezekiel 37:1-14 (the “dry bones” prophecy) and Eze-kiel 37:15-28 (the “two sticks” prophecy). The Bible does not indicate that Ezekiel 38 is a con-tinuation of the timelines contained in the preceding prophecies of Ezekiel 37. Ezekiel 38:1 be-gins with the words: “And the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying…,” a phrase that tells us that the previous prophecy has been concluded and that a new prophecy of the Lord is about to begin. This same phrase appears in Ezekiel 37:15, telling us that Ezekiel’s “two sticks” prophecy is separate and distinct from the preceding “dry bones” prophecy. Ezekiel 38:8 and 16 tell us plainly when this prophecy will be fulfilled; there is nothing cryptic about it. Indeed, God states the time setting of this prophecy twice so that it cannot be missed. Verse 8 states the prophecy is for “the latter years” and verse 16 states it will be fulfilled in “the latter days.” The phrases “latter days” and “last days,” while slightly different in English trans-lations, come from the same Hebrew phrase (“yamim acharith”) which describes a particular, prophetic period of time.4 If we take the Bible literally and apply it consistently, Ezekiel 38 must apply to the same prophetic period of time as Genesis 49. As a former WCG member, I once heard an attempted explanation that Ezekiel 38-39 was a par-allel prophecy to Revelation 20:7-10. However, the Bible’s plain statements declare otherwise. Whereas God inspired Ezekiel to state that his prophecy about Gog and Magog would be ful-filled “in the latter days” (at the end of this age), God inspired the Apostle John to state that his “Gog and Magog” prophecy would apply at the very end of the millennium. A literal applica-tion of these prophecies indicates that Revelation 20:7-10 will be fulfilled approximately 1000 years after the prophecy of Ezekiel 38-39. A review of the prophecies’ content confirms that they address separate events. In Ezekiel 38-39, Gog and Magog and their allies attack the sinful na-tions of the house of Israel in the latter days. In Revelation 20, Gog and Magog attack the righteous saints (of any race) who are in a city at the end of the millennium. However, Eze-kiel 38 and Revelation 20 do reveal an interesting dualism: that the Millennium is both ushered in and climaxed by an invasion of Gog and Magog. The first attack is against the sinning human beings of “physical Israel,” and the final attack is against the “saints” at the end of the millen-nium (i.e. “spiritual Israel”).. Another WCG explanation taught Ezekiel 38-39 would be fulfilled early in the Millennium. There are several reasons why that interpretation isn’t accurate, but its primary flaw is that is 13

based on applying Ezekiel 37:15-28’s story-flow to the prophecy in Ezekiel 38-39. As the lan-guage in Ezekiel 37:15 and 38:1 confirm, Ezekiel 37 contains two separate prophecies with very different time settings than the prophecy of Ezekiel 38-39. When you read the text carefully, you can see that Ezekiel 38’s prophecy is not a continuation of Ezekiel 37’s prophecies. Also, Eze-kiel 38 twice states that its prophecy is for the “last [latter] days,” a phrase not included in either of the Ezekiel 37 prophecies. The first question of “WHEN” Ezekiel 38 will occur is solved. God plainly states that it will be fulfilled during the “latter days” of this age (the same prophetic time period as Genesis 49, Numbers 24:14-24, Daniel 2:28, Daniel 10:14, Jeremiah 30 and many other prophecies). The Bi-ble, when taken literally, states that Ezekiel 38-39 will be fulfilled in our age, just prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The “old” WCG wasn’t far from the prophetic truth. It was correct in teaching that the nations of the house of Israel would be attacked in the latter days, but because it declined to take Ezekiel 38-39 at face value, it did not comprehend the real identity of Israel’s attackers. It kept predicting Germany would remilitarize and attack America and the British, but it never happened. The WCG simply looked in the wrong direction for this prophesied attack. Let’s examine Ezekiel 38 and see which nations will attack the nations of the house of Israel in the latter days. So “WHO” will attack latter-day Israel? Ezekiel 38:2-6 prophesies: “Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him…Thus saith the Lord God; Be-hold I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: and I will...put hooks in thy jaw, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army…even a great company…Persia, Ethiopia, Libya with them…Gomer and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.” The above nations constitute a huge invading army. The language describes their weapons in an-cient, “low-tech” terms, but such latter-day nations will have missiles, bombs, tanks, planes, etc. Notice that every nation of this attacking alliance is descended from either Japheth or Ham (see Genesis 10 for confirmation). Modern Japheth mostly lives in Asia and modern Ham is spread mostly across Africa and southern Asia. Assyria, like Israel and Judah, is a Semitic nation (Genesis 10:21-22,) and it is not listed as a nation which attacks the tribes of Israel in the latter days. Indeed, not a single Semitic nation is included in this attacking alliance. Why? Because the Semitic nations are their targets! As Numbers 24:24 indicates, non-Israelite Semitic nations (“Asshur”) will be allied to the Israelite nations (“Eber”) in the latter-days. This is occurring in our modern world as the non-Israelite, Caucasian nations of Central and Eastern Europe are seeking membership in NATO and the EU. The biblical use of the term “Eber” may indicate that all the descendants of Abraham will be allied with the Israelite nations in the latter-days. If so, this would include Edom (Turkey) and Ishmael (the oil-rich Arabs) in the alliance of the latter-day Israelites. This also describes our modern world’s political situation accurately. Turkey is already an important member of NATO and the oil-rich Arab nations have a natural common-interest with their customers in the Western, capitalist nations.. The identities of the attacking nations are not difficult to discern. Many Christian denominations have correctly identified these nations as Russia, China, Iran, Libya and other Asian nations in-cluded in the old USSR or dominated by China. This prophecy, written over 2500 years ago, cor-rectly identified the eastern bloc of nations led by Russia and China during the recent “Cold War” period. The term “Gog” is defined as “prince of Rosh,”5 a name preserved in “Russia.” The consonants of “Meshech and Tubal” are found in the names: Moscow, Tblisi, Tobolsk, and the Tobol River. All of these place-names are in Russia (or the old USSR). The term “Ethiopia” is more expansive than it appears. The word “Ethiopia” is translated from the word “Cush,” who was a son of Ham (Genesis 10:6). While the nation of Ethiopia, perhaps along with others in the Horn of Africa, is descended from Cush, most of the Cushites went eastward into Asia, settling in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc. The name of their forefather, Cush, is preserved to this day in the Hindu Kush mountain range along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Iran is modern Persia, so the region of Iran, Afghanistan (the Taliban) and Pakistan (all radical Islamic states) will be part of Russia’s alliance. 14

Many media reports have documented that Russia has aided Iran’s military and nuclear efforts. Russia has also furnished much of India’s armaments, and China has long aided Pakistan. Many media articles have noted that Russian and China are again acting like allies. Russia is slowly reassembling the old USSR (Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova are again coming under the leader-ship of Moscow). China is rushing to become a military superpower, building many conventional weapons and accelerating its nuclear arsenal development by stealing many secrets from the USA during the Clinton Administration. China effectively took over the operation of the Panama Canal from America, and it is acting increasingly bellicose toward the USA. Russia has “dis-armed” itself by selling aircraft carriers, submarines, fighter aircraft, etc. to China, India, Iran, etc., but this “disarmament” (which masks Russia’s real goals) merely redistributes its weapons among the other nations of the attacking alliance named in Ezekiel 38. One ex-WCG leader sees the danger posed to the USA by China’s growing military forces and its strategic actions. In the May, 2001 New Millennium, Ken Westby wrote the following in an article entitled “The Coming War With China?”: “…China bought and sold US secrets and technology to build a military machine powerful enough to engage America in a future war…The Dong Feng [DF-31 missile] can reach any city in America, and is armed with three nuclear warheads. It has Clinton-supplied guidance systems, nuclear warhead, nose cone and solid-rocket engine technology…China has gained control of both ports connecting the Panama Canal. It is currently construct[ing]…the largest container port in the world in Freeport, Bahamas…[and] in the Bahamas a 11,000 feet long run-way… to quickly supply a base that could threaten us in the event of hostilities.”6 Many respected people in the secular world have also seen the growing danger posed by China. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), Admiral Thomas Moorer, has warned re-peatedly about the growing military threat posed to the USA by China. A Chairman of the JCS in the Clinton years, Marine General Henry Shelton, warned that China could become “the 21 st century version of the Russian bear…[and added] they are aggressively modernizing their mili-tary forces, both conventional and nuclear.”7 An article in the March/April issue of 1997 publi-cation, Foreign Affairs, the magazine of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), sounded the. same alarm. In an article entitled “The Coming Conflict with America,” authors Richard Bern-stein and Ross Munro wrote: “…the Chinese-American rivalry of the future could fit into a broader new global arrangement that will increasingly challenge Western, and especially American, global supremacy. China’s close military cooperation with the former Soviet Un-ion… put it at the center of an informal network of states, many of which have goals…inimical to those of the United States, and many of which share China’s sense of grievance at the long global domination of the West.”8 Although written in secular terms, this prescient warning parallels the prophecy of Ezekiel 38. It notes that Russia, China and a host of other nations have a “sense of grievance” toward the USA and the Western nations. The above quotes confirm that secular observers can foresee the com-ing conflict between China, Russia and its allies versus the USA and its Western allies, even without knowing Bible prophecy. Ezekiel 38 foretold the same thing 2,500 years ago, and it also foretold how this war will begin and end. WHOM does the latter-day alliance led by Russia attack? In Ezekiel 38:8, the Russian-led army is prophesied “in the latter years” to come into the “mountains of Israel.” Many readers of this article are familiar with the biblical typology of “mountains” meaning large nations and “hills” meaning smaller nations. This prophecy states the alliance including Russia, China, etc. will at-tack the “mountains” or “nations” of Israel. Many Christian denominations do not understand the target of this attack. They think it means only the tiny Israeli nation in the Mideast, but that is not correct. The name “Israel” was given to Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes of Israel which came to be known as “Israelites.” The Jews/Israelis constitute only the tribe of Judah (with con-tingents of Levi and others as well). The name “Israel” was primarily and permanently placed on the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh when the patriarch Jacob/Israel placed his hands on Ephraim and Manasseh and said: “Let my name be named on them” (Genesis 48:14-16). From that time forward, the biblical term “Israel” primarily refers to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. After the division of the United King-dom 15

under Kings David and Solomon, Ephraim and Manasseh led the northern kingdom called “Israel,” composed of the ten tribes of Israel, while the tribe of Judah dominated the southern kingdom called Judah. Both Israel and Judah were exiled from Palestine because of their sins and migrated (or were taken captive) elsewhere. Afterwards, the Bible still calls the ten tribes “Is-rael” and it calls the Jews “Judah.” When God refers to the Jews in prophecy, he uses the term “Judah” (Zephaniah 2:1-7, Zechariah 12 and 14:14). When God refers to the ten tribes of Israel in the latter days, he uses the term “Is-rael” as in Ezekiel 38. In Jeremiah 30-31, God addresses both Israel and Judah in the latter-days as the prophecy concerns both entities. Ezekiel 38 specifically addresses “Israel,” the latter-day descendants of the ten tribes of Israel. The “old” WCG understood the term “Israel” primarily referred to the USA, the British nations, and many nations of Europe. Therefore Ezekiel 38-39 identifies an attack of a Russian-led alliance against the nations of the USA, the British nations and allied European nations, etc. Ezekiel 38-39 consistently refers to the “target” nations of this latter-day attack as “Israel.” Eze-kiel 38:14 and 16 refer to the “people of Israel” as the ones attacked, and verse 18 indicates the “land of Israel” is attacked. After the war is over, “the house of Israel” will bury huge numbers of the dead invaders (Ezekiel 39:12, 22-25). God also uses the term “my people Israel” in Ezekiel 39:7. The term “Judah” never appears in Ezekiel 38-39. By identifying the lands inhabited by the latter-day tribes of Israel as the primary battleground of this age-ending war, Ezekiel 38 has answered the question of WHERE these events will occur. There is a third bloc of latter-day nations discussed in Ezekiel 38. Verse 13 indicates that when this attack begins, the nations of “Sheba, Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish with all the young lions thereof” are not part of the Asian nations attacking the modern Israelite nations. This third bloc questions the motives and the attack of the Russian-led bloc, revealing the answer to WHY this attack occurs. Ezekiel 38:11-13 indicates that Russia and her Asian and African allies launch this attack to seize the wealth of the nations of Israel! They will attack latter-day Israel to “take…a great spoil.” Russia and her many allies want to seize the silver, gold, cattle, goods, etc. owned by the Americans and the Europeans. In other words, this attack will be an effort by the “have-not” nations of the world to seize the wealth of the “have” nations who received the birthright blessings of the Abrahamic covenant. Genesis 49:22-26 prophesied the greatest pos-sessors of this wealth in the latter-days would be the tribe of “Joseph” (i.e. Ephraim and Manasseh). Therefore, Ephraim and Manasseh will be the primary targets of the Ezekiel 38 at-tack. This is supported by the fact that Ephraim and Manasseh primarily bear the name of “Is-rael” in biblical prophecy and “Israel” is the target of the Ezekiel 38-39 attack. The “merchants of Tarshish” are not hard to identify. Tarshish was a nation of Japheth, and the father of Tarshish was “Javan” (Genesis 10:4). What nation above all others in Asia is noted for being a “merchant” nation and which has a name similar to “Javan?” Japan is known for its mercantile nature and has even been called “Japan, Inc.” in the financial press. The “young lions thereof” are smaller Asian nations in the mercantile mold of Japan. The financial press has even called these nations the “young tigers” of Asia’s Pacific Rim [uncannily similar to Ezekiel’s prophecy!]. These nations include Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, etc. The econo-mies of Japan and the Young Tigers of Asia are closely linked to that of the United States and its Western allies. Any Russian attack upon the USA and their other “customer” nations would im-mediately jeopardize the well-being of Japan and the Tiger nations. They will either be allies of the West or at least sympathetic toward them. Sheba and Dedan are nations of Ham descended from Cush (Genesis 10:7). Sheba and Dedan are the sons of Cush who do not participate in the attack upon the Israelite nations. What is a Cushite (i.e. “brown-skinned”) nation in Asia that has long been close to the USA? The answer: the Philippines, a nation also identified in the modern press as one of the “Young Tiger” nations of the Pacific Rim. Ezekiel 38:13 tells us which na-tions of modern Japtheth and Ham will not attack the USA and its allies. Ezekiel 38’s prophecy has accurately identified the alliances of nations in the modern world. It correctly prophesied the identities of the eastern alliance led by Russia, the Western alliance led by the USA, and a third group of Asian nations led by Japan which has strong ties to the Western nations. Ezekiel 38:8 states the nation of latter-day Israel most targeted by Russia’s alliance is a nation “gathered out of many people.” Can you think of a powerful, modern nation of Israel which is called “the melting-pot nation?” The obvious answer is the United States of America, which is also the leading nation of “Israel” in the latter-days, so it is the logical primary target of 16

this attack. Ezekiel 38:11 reveals the target nations are described as “dwelling safely, without bars and gates…a place of unwalled villages.” This attack will be like the one which occurred at Pearl Harbor, a sudden and unexpected attack upon people who are prosperous and unsuspecting of imminent danger. The terms “unwalled villages” and “without bars and gates” are instructive. In Ezekiel’s time, the primary defensive weapons of all cities were strong walls and reinforced gates that could be barred to repel an attacker. Ezekiel’s language indicates that the latter-day. nations of the house of Israel will have neglected their defenses during the latter-days. Indeed, the USA and its NATO allies have dramatically disarmed since the Soviet Union subdivided into different nations. The USA and NATO do not feel they can be attacked anymore. Ezekiel 38 re-veals they are seriously mistaken. They will be attacked even if God has to “put hooks in the jaws” (Ezekiel 38:4) of Russia, China and their allies and divinely compel them to attack the na-tions of Israel in the latter-days. From WHAT direction does this attack primarily come? Ezekiel 38:15 states this attack will come mostly from “the north.” During the Cold War, the USA and Canada always understood a Russian attack would primarily come out of the north. The DEW and BMEWS lines were built to warn of a Russian attack, and many air force bases were located in the northern part of the USA to intercept Russian bombers flying over the Arctic. The USA has deeply neglected its air defenses in recent decades, even though President Bush is trying to revive some air defense with a partial anti-ballistic missile shield. Europe and the North Atlantic sea lanes would also be at-tacked out of the north. While Russia lies to the east of Europe, many of its long-range bombers and much of its attack fleet are stationed in the Kola Peninsula, north of Europe and Scandinavia. Russia has also massed military forces in Kaliningrad, a small area in the northern portion of the European mainland. Russia could also attack much of Europe from the north. Ezekiel 38:9 prophesies the Russian alliance will attack “like a cloud to cover the land.” Clouds move through the air, so Ezekiel warns this attack will come via the air. This wasn’t possible until the invention of air forces and ICBMs in the 20 th century. Remember that Genesis 49:22-23 prophesied that archers unleashing “arrows” would attack “Joseph” (Ephraim and Manasseh) in the latter days? Missiles and aircraft, like arrows and clouds, travel through the air. Does God abandon the nations of Israel to this attack, giving them into the hands of their ene-mies to be held captive? Genesis 49 prophesied that when Joseph is attacked in the latter days, God will “strengthen” and “help” Joseph. Ezekiel 38 and 39 prophesy the same thing, as we will see later. Ezekiel 38:17 has a key statement which directly links Ezekiel 38 to other latter-day prophecies. In verse 17, God states concerning Russia’s attacking alliance: “Thus saith the Lord God; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel…?” God inspired Ezekiel to state that the latter-day attack upon Israel discussed in Ezekiel 38 is the same event about which previous prophets have spoken as well! We have already examined the latter-day prophecy of Jacob/Israel in Genesis 49 that Joseph will be attacked in the latter days, but that God will strengthen Joseph against this attack. We have also seen the latter-day proph-ecy in Numbers 24 that Israel will be “valiant” in the latter-days and that it will be allied to Assy-ria in the latter-days when an attack comes from Japheth (“Chittim”). Genesis and Numbers were written long before the book of Ezekiel, so these prophecies can be the ones referred to in Eze-kiel 38:17. There is another prophecy, often cited by the WCG, which also mentions the same attack as Eze-kiel 38. The book of Joel was written around 800 B.C., centuries prior to the book of Ezekiel. Joel 2 describes “God’s army” in the “Day of the Lord,” another apocalyptic phrase to describe the latter-day period when God intervenes directly in world affairs. It describes a great invasion force being repulsed by God himself, who intervenes at the head of his own divine army (verse. Page 15 11). The heavenly signs described in verse 10 also identify this as a latter-day prophecy. In verse 12-16, God calls on his people to repent and turn to him. In verse 17, God states: “Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep…and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them; wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?” 17

God commands his ministers and people to make intercessory prayer in behalf of the nations of Israel so that God will spare them from being conquered by a “heathen” (i.e. gentile) enemy in the latter days. Ezekiel 38 lists the “heathen” nations which will make this attack upon Israel, and Joel 2:17 implies that their attack could succeed if God did not intervene in behalf of Israel. Im-mediately after the ministers and people of God plead with God to rescue his people (i.e. Israel and Judah), verses 18-20 and 27 state: Then will the Lord be jealous for his land and pity his people…I will remove far off from you the northern army and will drive him into a land barren and deso-late, with his face toward the east sea and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up…Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice for the Lord will do great things…and ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God.” Ezekiel 38 prophesies a huge gentile army will attack latter-day Israel’s nations from the north. Joel 2 prophesies of a latter-day attack of “heathen” nations by a northern army against God’s people (also called “Israel”). The parallelism between these prophecies is obvious. God rescues “his people…Israel” from this latter-day attack from the north in both prophecies. This attacking “northern army” falls in a land bordered by an “eastern” and “uttermost” sea (i.e. an eastern and a western sea). Can you think of a modern nation of Israel which is known as a “land from sea to shining sea?” Obviously, it is the USA, the chief nation of the house of Israel in the latter days. It also physically describes Canada, America’s northern neighbor. This prophecy can also be ap-plied to the land of modern Judah (the Israelis), with the Mediterranean and Dead Seas fulfilling this prophecy. While this prophecy might apply to both Israel and Judah, it describes the land-mass of North America far better as it is bordered by large oceans (“seas”) on the east and west. While the Mediterranean Sea is a large water-body, the Dead Sea is not a “sea” at all, and is little more than a saline lake. At any rate, Ezekiel 38 meshes perfectly with its forerunner “latter day” prophecies in Genesis 49, Numbers 24 and Joel 2. Notice also that Joel 2 records that God commands his “priests and ministers” to intercede for the wellbeing of the people of Israel in the latter days. Indeed, it is their intercessory prayers that trigger God’s intervention! People in the old WCG were often quoted Jeremiah 14:11 which stated: “Pray not for this people,” as an indication that God’s people in the latter days should not pray for their countrymen. However, in Joel 2:17 God commands his people in the latter-days (“day of the Lord”) to pray for the deliverance and rescue of their countrymen! Jeremiah 14:11 was quoted out of context in the old WCG. Jeremiah 14 was a prophecy given by Jeremiah to Judah before that nation went into captivity to the Babylonians in the 6 th century B.C. The house of Israel isn’t even addressed in Jeremiah 14, and that chapter is not a latter-day prophecy. Since the Bible assigns no latter-day relevance to Jeremiah 14:11’s statement, it was incorrect to cite it as applying to our time.. Joel 2 also prophesies that the “northern” invaders will become a mass of dead bodies which will “stink” as they decay. Ezekiel’s prophecy agrees, as we shall see. But first, let’s consider the out-come of the northern invasion in Ezekiel 38 and 39. Ezekiel 38:18 reveals that God’s anger will be kindled against Russia’s invading alliance when the attack begins. This verse prophesies the following about God’s response to Russia’s invasion: “…at the same time when Gog shall come up against the land of Israel saith the Lord God, that my fury shall come up in my face.” Verses 19-20 prophecy that there will be a massive earthquake not just in Israel but across “the face of the earth” and “the mountains shall be thrown down.” As many readers already know, a great, worldwide earthquake is one of the climactic signs which occurs just prior to the return of Jesus Christ. Just after this worldwide earthquake, verse 20 cites God as saying: “all men shall shake at my presence.” The “presence” of God on earth can only refer to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, which occurs during Gog’s invasion of latter-day Israel. As Jesus Christ returns, the forces of Gog (Russia, et. al.) meet with terrible destruction. In verse 21, God calls on the people in “all my mountains” (the nations of Israel) to use their “swords” against Gog’s invaders. The returning Jesus Christ becomes the “conquering Messiah” who leads not only his angelic army in this world war, but also rallies the forces of the Israelite na-tions against their invaders. That Jesus Christ urges the nations of Israel to use their “swords” against the invaders also confirms this attack is at the climax of this age, not at the end of the millennium as in Revelation 20. The Israelites of Ezekiel 38-39 are armed with weapons and ar-mies 18

of their own. The Israelites are also sinners (see Ezekiel 39:7) at the time they are rescued who don’t really know their God until after he rescues them. Sinful, armed Israelite nations aptly describe the nations of Israel in our modern world. In the slaughter that follows, God and his angelic and physical armies destroy 5/6 ths of the in-vading army (Ezekiel 39:2) as God negates the usefulness of Gog’s weapons (verse 3). Verse 6 states God will “send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles.” This heavenly “fire and brimstone” could be divinely-sent fire. However, it may also include the nu-clear weapons of the USA, the UK, France and the Israelis raining down upon Russia and the nations which joined this invasion (after all, God did invite the Israelite nations to use their own weapons against the Russian-led invaders to help slaughter them). There will be so many dead bodies to bury that Ezekiel 39:12 states the “house of Israel” (all the Israelite nations) will labor for seven months to bury the remains. Just as Joel 2 prophesies the “northern army” will become stinking carcasses, so does Ezekiel 39 as verses 11 and 17-21 foretell that God will call on the birds and beasts to devour the stinking carcasses of the fallen invaders from the north. Revelation 19:17-18 directly parallels this same event as Jesus Christ and his army intervene in world affairs to slay a huge army, and then calls on the beast and birds to eat their carcasses. Just as God hardened the heart of Pharaoh so he could glorify his name by rescuing the Israelites in the time of the Exodus by slaying Egypt’s hosts, God will “put hooks in the jaws” of certain countries to invade the nations of Israel at the end of this age. He draws them to attack Israel so he can glorify his name by slaying Israel’s invaders on a scale far greater than what occurred in ancient Egypt. Just after God intervenes to rescue his people in the latter days, he “gathers them a second time” as prophesied in the famous millennial prophecy of Isaiah 11. Response: See appendix 3 where I prove that the Ezekiel 38 & 39 prophecies refer to another time period.

The Ten Toes of “Iron and Clay”: This new scenario is based on a literal application of “latter day” prophecies to modern geopoli-tics. The match between the two is very strong, arguing that the prophetic application is correct. But there are other key latter-day prophecies to be examined to see if this scenario meshes with. them as well. Let’s next examine Daniel 2, the prophecy of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream depicting a succession of world empires. Readers surely realize that ancient Babylon was depicted by the head of gold, Persia by the arms of silver, Greece by the torso of brass and Rome by the legs of iron. The “legs” of iron refer to the various resurrections of the Roman Empire during the last two millennia, and the separation of legs aptly depicts the fact that the Roman Empire was long divided into western and eastern empires. The ten toes, which are the ones struck by the “stone cut out without hands” in the end time, are composed of a mixture of "iron and clay." The iron depicts the continuation of the nations and/or territory of the Roman Empire, but who is repre-sented by the clay, a new material in the dream? Each time a new material was added to the great image, it designated a new nation. The clay has to mean a new national group which was not in the previous empires. If we “let the Bible interpret the Bible,” the answer is obvious. Jeremiah 18:5-6 records God saying: “O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? Saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in mine hand, O house of Israel.” Isaiah 64:8 also cites Isaiah as saying “we are the clay” while Isaiah is speaking for his people, the Israelites. The Bible links the “house of Israel” to the symbolism of “clay.” If we apply that biblical metaphor to Daniel 2, we should expect that the latter days will see an alliance of nations composed of the nations of the house of Israel allied with the nations of the old Roman Empire (or Holy Roman Empire). However, these nations will compose a fractious and squabbling alli-ance as the iron and clay will “not cleave one to another” very well (Daniel 2:43). Daniel 2:44 says that “in the days of these kings” (this end-time alliance will have many “kings,” not just one autocratic ruler), the “God of heaven will set up a kingdom.” That is obviously the Messianic age. Do we have a modern alliance which has joined the nations of the modern tribes of Israel to the 19

nations of the old Roman Empire? Yes! It is NATO. NATO is an alliance of the modern house of Israel with the European nations of the old Roman Empire. Is it an alliance beset by many inter-nal disagreements? Yes, the NATO nations internally squabble about many economic and politi-cal issues. NATO fits this prophecy quite well, and it is the most dominant alliance on earth to-day. Even as the “two legs” of ancient Rome depicted its separation into a Western and Eastern Empire on either side of the Mediterranean Sea, the imagery also fits modern NATO. NATO is composed of two groupings of nations in Europe and North America physically separated by the Atlantic Ocean. The old WCG interpreted the above prophecy as if all ten toes were on one of the feet of the great image (i.e. all the nations would be in a united Europe). However, the imagery of the prophecy is that the toes are located on separate feet and not all contiguous to each other. The final “ten toes” should, therefore, not all be physically contiguous nations. This aptly describes NATO as its nations are divided into two groups. One part of NATO is in Europe and the other part is in North America with the Atlantic Ocean between them. There are no other candidates for fulfilling this prophecy in the modern world. The number “ten” is still cryptic however, as Europe has more than ten nations while North America has two huge nations (the USA and Canada) and the headquarters of many UN supranational organizations. However, rather than depicting a latter-day house of Israel attacked by a united Europe, the prophecy of Daniel 2 indicates the house of Israel will be allied to the nations of a united Europe in the final “iron and clay” alliance.. Response: 1. Europe has had an historical division between West (Holy Roman Empire) and East (AustroHungarian Empire) systems. It has never included North America nor Scandinavia. 2. although Israel is referred to as clay, it is a figure of speech which can be applied elsewhere. Similarly leaven is likened to sin and to the Kingdom of God – how can this be? One must merely examine both the Biblical and immediate context The context of Daniel and Revelation is not Israel but non-Israelitish nations. Concerning the UN, most of its 21 or so organizations are based in Europe. The General Assembly is currently in New York and one wonders how much longer for.

The “Ten Sleeping Virgins”: Let’s now consider a prophecy about the state of the church itself in the latter days. Matthew 25:1-13 contains the parable of the ten virgins. The “virgins” depict the church (the saints) at the end of this age when the “bridegroom” (Jesus Christ) comes. How many of the virgins are asleep and blind to the correct timing of the bridegroom’s arrival? All of the virgins are prophesied to be “asleep,” unaware that the bridegroom’s arrival is imminent. The virgins all assumed that the bridegroom’s arrival was so far off that they had time for a nap. When the bridegroom comes unexpectedly and suddenly, five virgins have “oil” in their lamps and five do not. The ones with oil (the Holy Spirit in their minds and lives) are welcomed into the “wedding ceremony” (the kingdom of God), but the others are not allowed to enter. This parable indicates that the entire church will “fall asleep” prior to the return of Jesus Christ. This parable acknowledges that all the virgins were expecting the “bridegroom,” but they fell asleep when the bridegroom’s arrival took longer than they initially expected. However, the good news is that even those who were “asleep” were allowed into the wedding as long as they had sufficient “oil.” This indicates that Christians will be allowed to enter the kingdom of God based on how much “oil” there was in their lives, not on the basis of whether they “figured out proph-ecy.” No wonder Matthew 24:45-46 quotes Christ as saying “Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when he comes shall find so doing.” How could all the virgins of Matthew 25 be asleep just as the momentous event they had all an-ticipated, the return of Jesus Christ, was about to occur? This seems hard to grasp, especially when we realize that the church will have been “watching” world events for signs of fulfilled prophecy and it still “fell asleep” concerning God’s timetable. The obvious answer is that the 20

church (the virgins) had misunderstood prophecy and they did not comprehend that the latter-day prophecies had actually been fulfilled all around them! The Bible is clear that the bride-groom doesn’t return until specific latter-day prophecies have been fulfilled. How could the church miss key prophetic fulfillments all around them in the world? Easy! Let’s look at a bibli-cal precedent. Response: The above statements are ludicrous and do not warrant a reply. I could hardly believe what I read. However, many in the church are going into error on prophecy. As such they will be looking for the wrong events to occur and may not recognize the Beast power. Indeed, just as some in the West saw Hitler as a saviour, so will many militias and right-wing groups see a German-led Europe in years to come.

At the time of Jesus’ first coming, the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin and all of Jesus’ own disciples missed the key prophetic fulfillments occurring in their time. They were “asleep” to the actual prophetic fulfillments because of their wrong prophetic assumptions! They assumed the Messiah would fulfill the “Conquering Messiah” prophecies at that time and the “suffering Messiah” prophecies were of little interest to them. They wanted freedom from Rome and that required a Conquering Messiah! So they focused on those prophecies and missed all the “suffering Mes-siah” prophecies fulfilled in front of their very eyes! When Christ was crucified, Peter and other disciples figured prophecy had failed and they went back to their old secular occupation of fish-ermen (John 21:3). Their wrong dogmas also died hard. Even after Christ was resurrected and appeared to them for forty days and was about to be raised to heaven, his disciples still asked: “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Is-rael?” (Acts1:6). Their incorrect prophetic expectation that the Conquering Messiah would come in their lifetimes was so strong that it was the last question they asked Jesus Christ before he as-cended to heaven. I Thessalonians 4:15-17 indicates that the Apostle Paul also initially thought Christ would return in his lifetime in the first century B.C. It would take years for them to realize the Conquering Messiah prophecies would be fulfilled in the distant future. II Peter 3:1-8 shows that Peter eventually came to understood that the “day for a thousand years” principle of proph-ecy meant the return of Christ was going to be in the distant future and not in his lifetime.. Modern Christians shouldn’t feel too badly for making the same mistake of misunderstanding prophecy by substituting our dogmatic expectations for the actual word of God. The apostles did it in their time as well! The prophetic dogma that the return of Jesus Christ can’t happen until after the modern nations of the house of Israel are defeated and carried captive by a German-led Europe has actually put the WCG/Sabbatarian churches “to sleep.” For half a century, they have been expecting (and predicting) an end-time event which will never occur! The chances of a German-led Europe invading and carrying captive the nations of the USA, Great Britain, Austra-lia, Canada, New Zealand, etc. are nonexistent in the modern world. Not only do the European nations not have the means for such a global invasion, they have no motivation to do so either. Europe and the USA are completely linked together in a global economic system. Why would anyone attack and destroy trading partners on whom one’s own economy depends? On the other hand, Russia, China, Iran, etc. either currently possess (or are building) the means to attack us. Russia was our great enemy in the Cold War, China acts increasingly belligerent toward the USA and Iran has called us “the Great Satan.” They envy our wealth and power; therefore, they have a motivation to attack us. Ezekiel 38 prophesies their attack will surely come to pass, but the modern Churches of God have “gone to sleep,” thinking they have lots of time left because their long-standing prophetic dogmas about Germany have not yet been fulfilled. The prophetic expectation that a “German invasion…has to happen” before Christ can return has actually served as a “sleeping pill” to help put the church into a deep slumber concerning pro-phetic events and timetables, just as Matthew 25 predicted would happen. If our group of churches and fellowships applied literally the prophecies outlined above, we would realize that the prophesied latter-day alliances are now positioned exactly as God said they would be just prior to the return of Jesus Christ. If we were sounding a warning to the world based on Ezekiel 38-39, we would again have a sense of urgency about world events. If we real-ized 21

that biblical prophecies indicate that we are nearing the point where the “bridegroom” is ready to come, we would start acting like the “watchmen” of Israel and quit squabbling about such matters as calendar calculations and church administration methods. The Worldwide Church of God (and some offshoots) had many sermons expressing a belief that we were the “watchmen” of Israel. However, warning about a nonexistent threat to our people while ignoring the real danger revealed by God in his prophecies has made us blind watchmen. What has happened to the Churches of God in the last few decades? It has progressively splin-tered into squabbling churches and fellowships, lost all the Ambassador Colleges, lost head-quarters offices and some groups have stared into the abyss of insolvency. The Church has lost many members and the surviving off-shoots are a mere shadow of the Church’s former size. A curious thing has happened. For decades, the Church proclaimed the nations of latter-day Israel would be weakened and lose the pride of their power while the church flourished in a place of safety. However, it is the nations of Israel that have flourished while the Church has been weak-ened and “lost the pride of its power.” Has this weakening of the church come because of war or persecution? No. Most of the Church’s wounds have been self-inflicted. If the churches could rally around an urgent prophetic message (such as the latter-day warnings of Ezekiel 38), they would regain a common focus that would override the petty differences which now divide them. Matthew 25’s parable indicates that the church will not see the fulfillment of latter-day prophe-cies in world events, and that it will go to sleep at the critical time when Jesus Christ’s return is actually imminent. With that in mind, let’s examine another key latter-day prophecy and con-sider a possible prophetic fulfillment that we may have missed.. Response: My response mirrors that of the previous response, above. See also the appendix dealing with Ezekiel 38 & 39.

A Key Prophecy Already Fulfilled? The following discussion is offered as a possible example of how our churches (and other Chris-tian denominations as well) could miss prophetic fulfillments in our time. Please understand that this author is not stating dogmatically that the following world events were a missed prophetic fulfillment. What follows is a possible example of how our own expectations and assumptions could so blind us that we could miss a major prophetic fulfillment as it happened in front of our eyes. With that disclaimer, let us begin. I’m sure the readers of this article are familiar with the prophecy about the final “king of the north” in Daniel 11:40-45. It reveals details about a war in the Mideast at “the time of the end” between the forces of a king of the north and a king of the south. Many churches (not just the Sabbatarian Churches of God) have assumed this war will involve a major Israeli-Arab war that leads to an invasion and occupation of the Mideast by the forces of a United Europe led by “the king of the north” (also called “the beast”). Let us consider another possible fulfillment—one which has already occurred. There is a reference to “the glorious land” in Daniel 11:41, but the Israelis are not mentioned as a combatant in this prophetic war. Zephaniah 2:7 prophesied “Judah” (the Jews) would dwell in the former land of the Philistines before the day of the Lord, and that became a reality in 1948 with the founding of the Israeli nation. Zechariah 12 and 14 state “Judah” will be fighting in the area of Jerusalem as the day of the Lord unfolds, so biblical prophecies specifically mention “Judah” when the Israelis are being discussed. Daniel 11:41-45 never mentions Judah as a com-batant in this final war between kings of the north and south. What about the Arabs? The Arabs believe that they are the modern descendants of Ishmael. This author agrees with that belief. This tradition is so strong that it was cited in the 1943 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.9 The “Ishmaelites” are also not mentioned in Daniel 11:40-45. So how did the belief begin that this final “king of the north vs. the king of the south” war would begin with an Arab-Israeli war? It was another human assumption. If this prophecy required a major Arab-Israeli war to be fulfilled, wouldn’t God have mentioned “Judah” and “Ishmael” in it? Since God doesn’t mention either of these people in this prophecy, we should not assume that they will be fighting each other in this war. 22

Applying the Bible literally, let’s begin with a premise that this prophesied Mideast war doesn’t have to include an Arab-Israeli war. Can you think of a recent war in the Mideast involving many nations in which the Israelis and Arabs did not fight each other? Of course you can. It was the Persian Gulf War of 1991. Let’s examine Daniel 11:40-43 and see if the Persian Gulf War is a candidate for fulfilling that prophecy. Let’s first set the stage for this prophecy as it is the culmination of a long series of prophesied wars between various kings of the north and kings of the south. The early portion of Daniel 11 prophesied about wars (sometimes with remarkable detail), which were fought between ancient kings of the north (the Seleucids) and kings of the south (the Ptolemies). The historical context of this chapter involves wars fought in the Mideast region over the span of centuries between ri-val northern and southern powers. The final such war, fought at “the time of the end” should continue that context even though the Seleucids and Ptolemies ceased to exist long ago. There are two blocs which have fought many wars over several centuries in the Mideast. These rival blocs were Christian Europe and the forces of Islam (the Arabs, the Ottomans, the Moors, etc.). For centuries, these wars were called the Crusades when the forces of the “northern” power. invaded Islamic regions in an effort to regain control of the Holy Land. For a time, the Crusades were successful and Crusader forces occupied Palestine and Jerusalem. Later, the Islamic forces prevailed and drove the Crusaders out of the Mideast. The “southern” kings also invaded the ter-ritory of Christian Europe. The Islamic Moors controlled much of Spain for centuries and Is-lamic armies invaded Europe from the Mideast as well, occupying much of Balkan Europe, and occupying Budapest for over a century. Twice Islamic armies besieged Vienna in the heart of Europe. Modern cultures do not stress history in our schools, so most people have little aware-ness of the centuries-long struggle between the forces of the “kings of the north” (Christian European leaders) and the “kings of the south” (Islamic leaders). If history is any guide, and Daniel 11’s context strongly indicates it will be, the final king of the north should win a war between the nations of Christian Europe and the forces of an Islamic leader in the Mideast. Daniel 2’s prophecy that the clay and iron of the ten toes indicates the final “Roman” Empire will be a fractious alliance between the nations of the house of Israel and the nations of the old Roman Empire. NATO is such an alliance. Saddam Hussein of Iraq, an Islamic nation, recognized the historical precedents as he called the invading NATO-led forces “Crusad-ers” to try to rally other Islamic nations to join him in the war. Daniel 11:40 says: “At the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horse-men, and with many ships: and he shall enter into the countries, and shall over-flow and pass over.” [Emphasis added.] This war starts when the king of the south merely “pushes” at the king of the north, who re-sponds with a powerful military attack upon the king of the south. The king of the south does not actually attack the king of the north’s territory, but provokes the king of the north with an action which “pushes” at the king of the north’s interests. When Saddam Hussein seized Kuwait and was poised to invade Saudi Arabia, he directly threatened the crucial oil supply of the Western World. President Bush of the USA led the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in quickly organ-izing Operation Desert Shield. This operation was the most massive airlift of military weapons in a short period of time since World War II, and it was also the most extensive overseas deploy-ment of US military forces by sea since Vietnam. The Bible prophesied the king of the north would come via the air (“like a whirlwind”) and via the sea (“with many ships).” That is how the forces of the USA, Britain, France, etc. were trans-ported to the Mideast. Many tanks (“chariots”) were brought to the area in preparation for large-scale tank battles with the Iraqis. The United States deployed a fleet to the Mideast that was the most powerful war-fleet in history (with six nuclear-capable aircraft carrier battle groups). So many American and European forces poured into the Middle East that they, indeed, “over-flowed” the region. Allied forces were deployed in many nations: Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Persian Gulf states, Bahrain, Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean , etc. The phrase “enter into the coun-tries” does not actually state that he “invades” those nations. He simply “enters” them, and this came to pass as the NATO-led armies entered many nations as they deployed all over the Mideast. Operation Desert Shield fulfilled Daniel 11:40. 23

Daniel 11:41 adds:. “He [the king of the north] shall enter into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.” This prophecy does not foretell the king of the north will invade or conquer “the glorious land;” it merely states he will “enter” it. The word “enter” comes from a Hebrew word that does not necessarily signify an invasion. The Hebrew word translated “enter” also means “enter a house” or “enter a city” in other biblical passages.10 It is an innocuous word. So while the king of the north “overflows” into the Mideast region, he merely “enters” the glorious land. The same word is also used earlier in this same prophecy in Daniel 11:24 when a previous king of the north “en-tered peaceably” into a region. Let’s assume the “glorious land” means the modern Israeli nation. In Operation Desert Storm, the USA’s military forces entered peaceably into the Israeli nation, deploying Patriot missile batteries there to defend Israelis against Saddam Hussein’s scud missile attacks. If the USA had not deployed protective military forces into the Israeli nation, the Israelis likely would have at-tacked Iraq and the NATO-led coalition would have fallen apart. Daniel’s prophecy foretold Edom, Moab and the chief of the Ammonites would escape out of his hand in this war. In other words, they will not be enemies of the king of the north in this war. Turkey is, in my view, an Edomite nation. The former name for Turkey was the Ottoman Empire, with consonants of TT-MN. One of the most prominent sons of Esau (Edom) was “Teman” (Genesis 36:10-16) with consonants of T-M-N. Turkey is a NATO member and, naturally, was not targeted by this attack. Amman, the capital of Jordan, preserves the name of the Ammonites who lived anciently in the region of modern Jordan. Jordan was sorely torn in its loyalties, but stayed out of the war. The Moabites anciently lived side-by-side with their brother nation, the Ammonites. Jordan’s neigh-bor nation, Syria, surprisingly joined the coalition of the “king of the north” and, thereby, “es-caped out of his hand.” The above quote, taken from the King James Bible, renders the word “countries” in italics be-cause it was not in the original text. Without this humanly-added word, the prophecy merely says: “many shall be overthrown” by the attack of the king of the north. The spurious word “countries” misleads readers into thinking that “many nations” must be defeated in this latter-day war, but that is not necessary to fulfill the prophecy. In fact, “many soldiers were overthrown” as huge numbers of Iraqi soldiers were slaughtered in the “blitzkrieg” war which NATO and its al-lies fought against Iraq. Saddam Hussein possessed “a million man army,” but it crumbled under the weight of the American, British and allied air strikes and tank assaults. As American B-52s carpet-bombed Iraq’s reinforced troop bunkers (turning them into mass graves), tens of thou-sands of Iraqi soldiers died. The Encyclopedia Americana estimated that Iraq suffered 100,000 casualties in the six-week war, while the allied forces led by the USA and NATO suffered only 376 casualties.11 Some estimates of Iraqi casualties offer even higher figures. This means that the Iraqis lost more soldiers in six weeks than the USA lost in 14 years in Vietnam! The word “overthrown” in Daniel 11:41 literally means “to be feeble.”12 Was Saddam Hussein’s great army “enfeebled” (made weak and ineffective) in the Persian Gulf War? The answer is clearly “yes.” The outcome and alliances of the Persian Gulf war fulfilled Daniel 11:41 as well. Daniel 11:42-43 prophesied: “He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver,. and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and Ethiopians shall be at his steps.” The king of the north’s invasion will leave him in control of the “gold and silver” in the region. Is “gold and silver” symbolic of the wealth of the Mideast just as “gold and silver” is symbolic of the wealth of latter-day Israel in Ezekiel 38:13? The wealth of the Mideast, as everyone knows, is oil! Indeed, control of and access to the oil of the region was the whole reason for the king of the north’s invasion! The king of the north was also prophesied to have control over the “pre-cious things” of Egypt during the war. What could that be? Egypt is a poor nation and has few “precious things” outside of the pyramids and ancient ruins important to the tourist trade. How-ever, in a war effort, Egypt has one asset which is very precious, indeed: the Suez Canal! Egypt 24

placed the Suez Canal at the disposal of the American and allied forces as NATO warships freely traversed the Suez Canal in their deployments to the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Without access to the Suez Canal, the military effort of the king of the north would have been seriously impeded. The wording about the Libyans and Ethiopians is cryptic, and not easy to understand. However, the prophecy’s wording does not declare any major role for them, but seems to indicate they will have only a peripheral role. Libya was a non-combatant while three mostly-Cushite nations (Af-ghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan) were nominal, but largely uninvolved allies of the king of the north. That ends the prophecy about Daniel 11:40-43’s war in the latter days between an unspecified “king of the north” and an unnamed “king of the south” in the Mideast. The prophecy predicts an easy win for the king of the north, and that is exactly what happened in the Persian Gulf War. Did the Persian Gulf War fulfill the expectations of many churches that there be a great Israeli-Arab war which draws in occupying outside forces from Europe? No. However, did this war ful-fill the literal prophecies of Daniel 11:40-43? Apparently, yes. The Persian Gulf War featured the most powerful battle fleet in history, the largest helicopter assault in history, the largest and quickest airlift of military forces in history, the largest tank battles since World War II, and it showcased the new “stealth” technology aircraft of the USA. It also caused very heavy casualties on the Iraqi side. Indeed, how “big” does a war have to be before it is “big enough” to fulfill this prophecy? It is still possible, of course, that the Persian Gulf War was only a precursor to a larger war which will occur sometime in the future. This author is not saying that the Persian Gulf War had to be the fulfillment of Daniel 11:40-43. But the above discussion should illustrate how it could be possible for Christians to miss the fulfillment of prophecies because of our own inaccurate expectations, assumptions and dogmas. The “sleeping virgins” parable strongly indicates the church will miss key prophetic fulfillments during the latter-days.. How else could the latter days “virgins” all “go to sleep” concerning God’s actual timetable for events? Let’s assume for a moment that the Persian Gulf War fulfilled Daniel 11:40-43. If it did, the chronology of Daniel 11 lists only one more prophesied event before the return of Jesus Christ occurs in Daniel 12:2. Daniel 11:44-45 describes another war which triggers the return of Christ. This last war is not between the kings of the north and south. It will be fought between the king of the north and new enemies located to his north and east. These verses state: “But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to make away many… yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.”. Interesting. At an indeterminate date after the king of the north wins the war against a king of the south, the king of the north is, himself, attacked from the north and the east. This king of the north will be the final leader of the North American-European alliance (the “ten toes of iron and clay”). The Bible does not tell us how much time transpires between the war of Daniel 11:40-43 and the final latter-day war of verses 44-45. However, it reveals the alliance of the king of the north will be attacked from the north and east at the start of the final great war at the close of this age. The king of the north, when he is targeted by an apparent “surprise attack” from the north and east, is enraged and launches total war against his attacking enemies. This author suggests to you that the Ezekiel 38 attack of Gog and Magog from out of the north against the nations of the house of Israel and their allies constitutes the “northern” attack of Daniel 11:44. Revelation 16:12-21 picture a great attack of the “kings of the east” coming west-ward [toward the Israelis and Jerusalem] across the Euphrates River, apparently to seize control of the oil fields and Jerusalem. Zechariah 14 describes a great war is raging between Judah and an invading enemy in the Jerusalem region at the time the Messiah intervenes. The Revelation 16 and Zechariah 14 wars parallel the “attack from the east” mentioned in Daniel 11:44. The attack from the north is primarily against Israel and the attack from the east is primarily against Judah. They are simultaneous attacks, as Daniel 11:44 asserts, and both of these attacks trigger divine intervention. After Christ’s intervention in the Revelation 16 attack from the east, Rev. 16:17 states “it is done.” After divine intervention in the Ezekiel 38 attack from the north, Ezekiel 39:8 also says: “it is done.” They are parallel prophecies which climax at the same point in time. Daniel 12:1-2 prophecies the following outcome to the World War which will erupt after the king of the north’s alliance is attacked from the north and east: 25

“And at that time shall Michael stand up…for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake…” This time of unprecedented trouble can only be the Great Tribulation of Matthew 24:21-22, a time of trouble “such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time.” It is also de-scribed as “Jacob’s Trouble” in Jeremiah 30:7, a time of trouble such that “none is like it.” The term “Jacob” designates all the tribes of Israel (Judah and Israel). We have seen that Israel is at-tacked from the north in Ezekiel 38 and Judah is attacked from the east in Rev. 16 and Zechariah 14. These attacks constitute “Jacob’s Trouble.” The king of the north’s alliance is attacked from the north and east, so the king of the north will be the leader of the Western alliance at that time and the Israelis are part of that alliance. Response: Daniel 11 is not yet completely fulfilled. The King of the North versus King of the South antagonism very likely commenced with Sargon of Akkad (Assur) and Lugalzaggissi son of Ukush (Nimrod) after the flood. This has continued through time and will come into terrible conflict in the end-time. Israel is not part of the equation. How anyone can say the Israel is part of the King of the North and that the prophecy has been fulfilled is beyond me. The various Churches of God must take part responsibility for wrong interpretations from emerging amongst members, many of whom have ‘itching ears’ for something new and excitingly different. There are very few articles or booklet covering various areas of prophecy like we used to have and virtually no sermons with detailed information. Most are very general leaving interpretation up to the individual without broad guidance.

“Jacob’s Trouble”: Jeremiah 30’s prophecy about “Jacob’s trouble” needs comment. Jeremiah 30:24 states this prophecy is for the latter days, and verse 3 states both Judah and Israel will be targeted in this time of trouble. However, verse 7 states Jacob “shall be saved out of it.” This is consistent with Genesis 49 that a latter-day attack against Ephraim and Manasseh will result in God “strength-ening” them against that attack. Ezekiel 38-39 also prophesy that God will intervene to rescue Israel at the end of this age and Zechariah 14 prophesies God intervenes to rescue Judah at the end of this age. Daniel 12:1 also foretells Michael [the archangel] will “stand up for thy people”. (the Israelites) after these age-ending attacks from the north and east occur. There is symmetry in all these prophecies. Jeremiah 30:3 has been misunderstood in the Churches of God. The King James translation says: “I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah.” The words “bring again” imply that a second great captivity is coming in the latter days for Israel and Judah. Wrong. The words “bring again” in 1611 English meant “end,” “stop” or “reverse” the captivities of Israel and Judah! The literal meaning of the Hebrew phrase “bring again” is “to turn back.”13 The Revised Standard Version of the Bible translates Jeremiah 3 in modern English as: “I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the Lord…” That puts a very different connotation on the prophecy about “Jacob’s trouble,” doesn’t it? The RSV translates verse 7 as: “Alas! That day is so great there is none like it; it is a time of distress for Jacob; yet he shall be saved out of it.” In verses 8-9, God declares he will “burst bonds” from his people and resurrect David to be king over them as the millennium begins. This is obviously the time paralleling the resurrection of the dead in Daniel 12:2 and other prophecies about the end of this age and the coming of the Mes-siah. Matthew 24:21-22 adds that this unprecedented time of trouble would end the lives of “all flesh” if divine intervention did not “shorten those days.” It is easy to see how this could happen. If 26

Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, etc. launch a surprise attack against the USA, the UK, France, the Israelis, NATO and all its allies, there will be many nuclear powers hurling “fire and brimstone” at each other. A nuclear World War would quickly jeopardize “all flesh,” so God will intervene not only to rescue Israel and Judah but also to prevent mankind from annihilating itself. This lengthy article has addressed many prophetic issues in latter-day prophecies and found a scenario which harmonizes the prophecies and also makes sense, given modern alliances and geopolitics. When will it occur? I don’t know. But you could have a role in how soon that war ends once it starts! Remember Joel 2:17-20 in which God commands his priests and ministers to offer prayers urging God to intervene and rescue his people from an attacking “northern army” in the latter days? God promises to be receptive to those prayers, but he also indicates he will not intervene until those prayers do occur. Forget any notion that you “should not pray for your peo-ple.” God expects you to offer such prayers, serving as intercessors for the modern nations of Israel and Judah. If you are alive when this apocalyptic attack strikes your nation, you will be highly motivated to ask God to intervene to stop it! When one puts all the latter-day prophecies together, it can be seen that “Jacob’s Trouble” is the climactic attack of Russia, China and their allies against the modern nations of the tribes of Israel. How Russia and China Could Attack: You have likely read that Russia is in “chaos,” that China is “decades” away from challenging the USA, etc. You may wonder how an attack from Russia, China and their allies could occur anytime soon. The answer is that their invasion will not start in a conventional manner. Oriental war-making strategy is guided by the principles of the legendary Chinese strategist Sun-Tzu. In his book, The Art of War, he states one principle of deceiving an enemy is: “When you are strong, feign weakness.” Let us consider how the prophesied Ezekiel 38 attack could unfold. Expect more stories from Russia and China emphasizing their “weaknesses” and de-emphasizing their war preparations. Also expect a variety of “agreements” which will hide China’s real inten-. tions. However, the truth will be much different, as was noted in the 1997 Foreign Affairs article by Bernstein and Munro cited earlier. They cited: “…many Chinese statements and actions that suggest the country is emerging as a great power rival of the United States…Influential Chinese planners like General Mi Zhenyu, vice-commandant of the Academy of Military Sciences [stated] ‘For a relatively long time it will be absolutely necessary that we quietly nurse our sense of vengeance,’ Mi wrote…’ We must conceal our abilities and bide our time.’”14 [Emphasis added.] These comments by a Chinese war planner echo the strategies of Sun-Tzu, who maintained that wars are won by skillfully deceiving an enemy about your own true intent. General Zhenyu, no doubt, did not expect his revealing statement to be translated into English, as it confirms China’s real intent is to prepare for war while duping the West with peaceful gestures and blandishments. Let us consider an unconventional means by which Russia, China and their allies could attack the USA and the Western alliance in our modern world within a few years. Ezekiel 38 and Daniel 11:44 indicate this war will begin with a surprise attack which was not expected by the targeted nations. Therefore, it is not likely to come at a time of international tension when nations would have their guard up. Instead, this time of “sudden destruction” will come “when they say peace and safety” (I Thessalonians 5:2-3). The overriding goal of Russia and China will be to delude the USA and the West into a false sense of security while they prepare for war. Here is one way that Russian-Chinese war planners could do it. The Russians could freeze or reduce their nuclear missile arsenal to help the West “relax.” The Chinese could even slow down their production of ICBMs. Instead, they could build many short-and medium-range cruise missiles to deliver either nuclear or conventional warheads. This will make the USA think it is not the target of China’s aggressiveness. Just before they attack, they could reconfigure a portion of the extensive Chinese ”civilian” merchant fleet to fire short- and medium-range missiles from gantries hidden in their cargo holds but which could be raised to firing position as they approach our seaports. Since American and the Western nations import a flood of cheap goods from China, there is always a large number of civilian Chinese merchant ships approaching the shores of Western nations. This opportunity to stun the Western world with an unexpected volley of hundreds of cruise missiles fired at short range from ships is al-ready 27

“in place.” Genesis 49:22-23 prophesies that “Joseph” will be attacked in the latter-days by a volley of missiles (i.e. “arrows” fired from “a bow”), and Numbers 24:24 prophesies an alli-ance of Israelite and non-Israelite Semitic nations (“Eber and Assur”) will be attacked from “ships.” Those ships are prophesied to sail from Chittim (the land of Japheth—somewhere in the Orient). Russia and China are already “encircling” the USA via Communist Cuba, the current Chinese operational control of the Panama Canal, and the new Chinese airport and seaport in the Baha-mas, as was noted earlier. As part of the SALT treaties, the USA and Russia both possess “overflight” rights via which military aircraft can fly over the territory of their rivals to verify treaty compliance. These flights are now considered routine. However, on a given “D-Day” day in the future, a Russian military aircraft on such a “routine” mission could fly across the continental states of the USA and drop “EMP” weapons, devices designed to be air-blasted far above the ground level. As any reader of Aviation and Space Technology magazine knows, an EMP blast “fries” all solid-state and “hi-. tech” computer technology which is not “hardened” by special protective insulation. Russian Cold-War strategy included an EMP attack as an “opening blow” against the West, so this would be standard Russian strategy. During the Cold War, Russian warplanes were once laughed at be-cause they employed “vacuum tube” technology in key components until our Pentagon realized vacuum-tube technology would not be harmed by an EMP blast. Russian warplanes were built to survive such a weapon and keep flying. American planes, built with solid-state technology, would have fallen out of the skies. This led to a “crash” program to “harden” US planes, communication infrastructure, etc. against EMP blasts. Several Russian EMP blasts over the USA and Europe would not disable all military weapons, so the American and NATO military could still fight back. However, the US and Euro-pean civilian population would find itself “back in the Stone Age.” Only vacuum-tube technol-ogy or battery-powered items might still work, but electric power plants would fail. Cars would grind to a halt, television and radio communication would be disabled, the Internet and phone service would cease to work, etc. This would be designed to create panic and chaos among the civilians of the Western alliance. Just as the EMP blasts occurred, Chinese merchant ships equipped with retrofitted gantries could launch hundreds of short- and medium-range missiles at the USA, Europe and the Israelis as they approach their usual Western ports. Russian submarines could also launch missiles at that time. Since many radar units would shut down in an EMP blast, few would even realize the source of the missiles. Russian and Chinese missiles would “nuke” critical Western cities, military bases, etc. Russian Spetnaz teams would be pre-positioned in the Western nations, and they will blow up key facilities, poison large city water systems, etc. as part of this surprise attack. Soon after these attacks start, thousands of aircraft could start flying the short distance from Rus-sia to Alaska and Canada, gradually deploying many Russian divisions into the northern part of North America in a shuttle operation. In the post-EMP chaos, these well-armed Russian divisions would plan on surging southward toward America, thinking they will meet no organized opposi-tion from the “soft” Americans. Russia’s long-range aircraft could bomb targets in America, land in Communist Cuba, the Panama Canal Zone or the huge new Chinese airfield in the Bahamas for refueling and rearming. With a Chinese company operating the Panama Canal, its facilities would be at the service of the Russian-Chinese attackers or it could be sabotaged to keep the American fleets from reinforcing each other in either the Atlantic and Pacific theatres. This surprise attack could well be successful (as Genesis 49, Ezekiel 38 and Joel 2 imply) if it were not for God’s intervention. This kind of unconventional attack could be launched as soon as China has built enough short- and medium-range cruise missiles to place on their merchant fleet (this action would be concealed from US space-based reconnaissance satellites). Not all of this attack will be nuclear. Ezekiel 38:11-13 reveals the attackers want to seize the commercial and agricultural wealth of America and the Europeans (i.e. the “birthright” blessings of the Abra-hamic Covenant). You do not “nuke” the booty that you want to seize for yourself! Only the critical war-making sites of the Americans, Europeans and Israelis will be targeted by nuclear weapons. Some warheads may be the “neutron bomb” variety which minimizes physical damage to the areas targeted while killing all people within a certain distance. Revelation 18 depicts the utter destruction of a great capitalistic city, the heart of “Babylon the 28

Great” and also the primary city of the “merchants of the earth” (global multinational corpora-tions). Rev. 18:8 says it will be “utterly burned with fire” in a single day! Indeed, verses 10 and 17 prophesy this destruction will come in one hour! That sounds like a nuclear attack. What city. personifies the modern capitalistic headquarters of Babylon the Great? Candidates include Lon-don, New York, Zurich, Rome, etc., but this author believes New York is the foremost city of “Babylon the Great.” It is the HQ of the UN, the World Bank, the Federal Reserve System and Wall Street, the headquarters of many multinational banking, industrial and media companies, etc. It is also a seaport city, as prophesied in Revelation 18. The loss of New York City would paralyze any American effort to rebuild anything or organize a war effort. After America and the Western nations were devastated in an opening attack, an invasion of foreign soldiers would be-gin with great haste. Ships and planes could bring in foreign troops in a continual shuttle opera-tion. Also, an underground passageway between Siberia and Alaska has been proposed (similar to the “Chunnel” connecting Europe and England). If this project is ever completed in the future, a Russian invasion force could, literally, “drive” from Russia to the American heartland. Could the above attack happen? Certainly! The attack may unfold in a different manner, of course, but the above scenario is offered as a possible way such an invasion could occur within a few years. The main thing to realize is that this invasion is certain to come! God has affirmed in several prophecies that it will come to pass. Even as the book of Revelation has “seven seals,” the prophecy of Ezekiel 38-39 has seven divine affirmations. The phrase “Thus saith the Lord” occurs seven times in Ezekiel 38-39 (Ezekiel 38:3, 10, 14, 17 and 39:1, 17 and 25). No other prophecy in the Bible has such a divine stamp of certainty! Response: New York, whilst spiritually ‘babylonian’ like the rest of the world, is certainly not Babylon the Great. Israel has never been Babylon but will be taken captive by Babylon. A mighty strange and stretched interpretation of prophecy and virtually beyond belief – this is what evangelicals and conservative Catholics as well as conspiracy buffs teach. As I read this I have become increasingly frustrated by the lack of logic that I am no longer going to respond in detail as it would mean writing a booklet on prophecy for which I do not have time to do so.

Divine Intervention Rescues Israel’s Nations: God’s intervention changes the course of the war and shocks the Russian-Chinese alliance. After their attack begins, Ezekiel 39:1-3 prophesy: “Thus saith the Lord God; behold I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel: And I will smite thy bow (see also Gen. 49:23) out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.” God’s intervention strikes the “bows” and “arrows” out of the hands of Gog and his allies. This prophecy indicates God will negate the usefulness of Gog’s “arrows” (missiles) and “bows” (launching systems) so that this attack against the nations of Israel accomplishes only some of its objectives. However, we know God will allow Gog’s attack to at least partially succeed before he intervenes. Revelation 18 prophesies the chief city of latter-day capitalism will “utterly burn” and that will likely be the fate of other American and European cities which are particularly identified with the sinfulness of Babylon the Great. In this climactic war, Zechariah 14:1-4 pre-dicts that when the foreign invasion forces “take” the city of Jerusalem, the Messiah comes and “stands on the Mount of Olives.” Given modern political realities, this makes sense. Jesus Christ’s intervention will decide the outcome of a World War which is still being fought when he returns. Although the city of Jeru-salem will be “taken,” Judah is still fighting in that region as the Messiah intervenes (Zechariah 14:14). Matthew 24:22 warns that “all flesh” would perish in that final war unless it was “short-ened” by Jesus Christ’s intervention. Daniel 11:44 also prophesies that when the final “king of the north” is attacked from the “north “ and “east” at the end of this age, neither he nor his forces are “wiped out” by that attack. The final king of the north launches a terrible counterstrike 29

against his enemies attacking from those directions. This indicates Russia and China’s opening strikes do not disable all the king of the north’s forces. The double-crossed king of the north will. “go forth, with great fury to destroy and utterly to make away many.” The forces of NATO and their allies launch their own nuclear counterstrikes at Russia, China, etc. Ezekiel 38: 21-22 prophesy that right after God calls for the nations of Israel to use their own weapons against the forces of Russia, China, etc., “fire and brimstone” rain down on the forces and homelands of Russia, China, etc. This could easily be fulfilled by the use of nuclear weapons. The phrase “never again” has special meaning for the Israelis in the aftermath of the Holocaust of World War II. It is widely believed that if they were on the verge of losing a war for the sur-vival of their nation, the Israelis would implement a “Masada Plan” to rain Israeli nuclear weap-ons upon their enemies. One can easily visualize this happening at the time Jerusalem is “taken.” Zechariah 14:12-14 prophesies Judah (the Israelis) will be fighting near Jerusalem as this age draws to a close, and verse 12 states: “And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; their flesh shall consume away while they stand on their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.” This instant death will occur to “all the people” that were fighting against Jerusalem! While it could result from God “zapping” people suddenly, it also very accurately describes what happens to people who die in nuclear explosions. Their flesh “consumes away” before they even have time to fall over! That same kind of death happened to many thousands at Hiroshima and Na-gasaki. What nuclear power will have the greatest motive to retaliate against armies and nations fighting against Jerusalem? The Israelis, obviously! The Israelis are widely regarded as having hundreds of nuclear weapons already. Think how many millions of people could “consume away while they stand on their feet” as hundred of Israeli nuclear bombs ignite upon their enemies when “Jerusalem is taken” and all Israeli restraint is removed (Zechariah 14:2). This would hap-pen simultaneous to the nuclear exchanges occurring between the Russian alliance and the USA-led alliance as a result of Russia’s surprise attack upon the USA and Europe. Is it any wonder that divine intervention occurs to stop “all flesh” from perishing? The Russian and Chinese war planners cannot plan for every eventuality in their attack. The United States and its Western allies have had decades to prepare for an EMP air blast, and their critical weapons systems will survive this blast. American nuclear submarines will not be af-fected by the blast and their strategic deterrent forces should survive. Also, it is this author’s opinion that there are secret weapon systems possessed by American military forces (and per-haps other nations as well) about which nothing has been made known. One lesson of World War II is that the British and Americans are expert at misinformation campaigns, misleading the Axis forces into thinking their coded messages were safe when, in fact, they had been “broken” very early in the war. The USA kept the Manhattan project secret until nuclear weapons were used to conclude World War II. It also kept its stealth fighters a secret until they were unveiled in the Persian Gulf War. The USA sent manned missions to the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. What new military technologies have been invented by American “black projects” in the last three decades which are still state secrets? Whatever they are, the will be used in great “fury” in the final War at the end of this age after Russia, China and its allies attack America and its al-lies. Ezekiel 38 prophesies that the Russians and Chinese are coming to seize the wealth and land of America and Europe. They expect that Americans and Europeans will lose their will to fight after they are hit with a crippling first strike. However, they are likely to discover that the Americans and Europeans are not going to supinely surrender their freedoms, their possessions, and their wives and daughters [invading latter-day armies will rape the women—Zechariah 14:2] to their would-be conquerors. The USA will be the primary target of this attack as it is the dominant na-tion of latter-day Israel and it has the greatest concentration of wealth. Interestingly, God gave the USA a Constitution which gives the civilian population extraordinary rights to own firearms. The American civilian population has more firearms in its possession than all the rest of the world’s civilian nations combined. Indeed, very few foreign military forces have as many guns as the American civilian population! Rather than finding an America with “soft” citizens meekly surrendering all they have, the invading Russians, Chinese, etc., are 30

likely to be greeted by hundreds of millions of bullets fired at them by an enraged, and heavily armed, American population. Even American liberals will “want to grab a gun” and kill the in-vaders. There is a recent precedent which reveals how Americans react when they victimized by a surprise attack. Response: Just because America has more fire power now, does not mean it will in the future. What future technology will bring in quality, can out power quantity. Indeed, a future fractured USA, split into ethnic states and weakened by famine and pestilence, will be no match for a European superpower. American civilians being armed by rifles and automatic weapons will be no match for bombs and weapons of the future. And what is all this about “black projects” – it is all mere conjecture and cannot be used for proof that the USA will be invaded by and then repel the forces of Ezekiel 38 & 39. In fact, many US military projects were German and British designed.

When the sun rose on December 7, 1941, America was dominated by isolationists and pacifists who wanted to stay out of World War II. Americans are peaceful people who value life and wish to avoid the bloodshed of war. Then came the surprise attack upon the American port of Pearl Harbor. Before the sun set on December 7, 1941, America had become a nation of enraged war-riors thirsting for the blood of its enemies. Even American women wanted revenge as millions of “Rosie the riveters” went to work in factories to ensure their men would have good weapons to efficiently kill America’s enemies! I believe the same thing will occur on the day Russia and China launch their sneak attack in the latter-days. America, Europe and the Israelis will not meekly surrender. Instead, they will set out to annihilate their enemies and the war will grow to the point divine intervention is needed to prevent the destruction of all flesh. As this paper is be-ing written, the movie “Pearl Harbor” is being shown in American theatres. I urge you to see the movie. As Solomon observed in Ecclesiastes 1:9, history regularly repeats itself. Ezekiel 38 foretells another “Pearl Harbor” is going to occur, and it reveals that the USA and its allies will be the targets. Response: If history is going to repeat itself, then Europe and Japan will attack the Anglo-Saxon powers, not Russia and China. And what is this about hails of bullets pushing back the attacking forces? You have got to be joking! How can bullets push back much superior fire power, tanks, rockets etc. This entire section is beyond my comprehension and fails logic.

Israel–God’s Latter-Day “Battleaxe”! Jeremiah 51 is a remarkable prophecy. It is for a time called “the day of trouble” (verse 2), which sounds much like the time of the latter-days. It is a time when God’s punishment will be poured out on ”Babylon” during the “time of the Lord’s vengeance” (verses 6-13). This is obviously the “day of the Lord” when Babylon the Great falls at the end of this age (Revelation 18). God al-lows attacking forces to severely punish the world system called “Babylon the Great.” This prophecy has a latter-day context. Jeremiah 51:3 talks of the “archer bending his bow” to attack, which parallels Genesis 49:22 when “Joseph” is attacked by archers in the latter-days. Genesis 49:24 says that God will “strengthen” Joseph against that latter-day attack. Does Jeremiah 51 agree? Yes! Notice Jeremiah 51:5, which prophesies the following about God’s at-titude toward Israel and Judah in the latter-days: “For Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the Lord of Hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel." 31

Ex-WCG audiences need to read that verse twice! Israel and Judah will not be forsaken by God in the latter days! God himself declares so! Indeed, Jeremiah 51:5 prophesies God will not forsake Judah or Israel even though he acknowledges their land is “full of sin.” God also says the following in verses 19-20 about “Jacob” and “Israel” in the latter days:. Page 31 “Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war; for with thee I will break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms.” God prophesies that he will wield the nations of Israel as his “battleaxe” to destroy other nations in the latter days! The use of the term “Jacob” indicates that he says this to both Israel and Judah. That agrees with Ezekiel 38-39. Ezekiel 38:21 prophesies God will “call for a sword” against Gog’s armies throughout “all my mountains” (the nations of Israel). God unleashes Israel and its weapons against Russia and its allies, who are also the enemies of God. Ezekiel 39:1 cites God saying; “I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.” Ezekiel 39:3 shows 5/6ths of Russia and its allies become corpses in the war that follows. When God intervenes, he leads Israel’s nations in a war against Russia and her allies! As in Jeremiah 51, he does so even though Israel has been “polluting his name” up to that point (Ezekiel 39:7)! Far from forsaking Israel and Judah into a latter-day captivity (as the WCG mistakenly taught for decades), God not only intervenes to strengthen Israel’s nations in the latter days, but also then wields Israel and Judah as “battleaxes” against the nations who had attacked them. Notice another parallel between Ezekiel 38 and Jeremiah 51. Jeremiah 51:48 declare that: “…spoilers shall come unto her [Babylon] from the north, saith the Lord.” This parallels Ezekiel 38 which says the army of Gog and Magog come “from the north” (verse 15) to “take a spoil” (verses 11-13). Joel 2 also mentions this latter-day “northern army” which is defeated when it attacks Israel in the latter days. These prophecies that “Babylon the Great” and the nations of Israel are both attacked from the north at the very end of this age confirm that “Babylon the Great “ is the modern commercial, religious and political system of the Western world. Babylon the Great is the “clay” of Israel joined to the “iron” of the gentile nations that were in the old Roman Empire. God allows the cities and institutions linked to “Babylon the Great” to be “burnt” and destroyed in the attack of Gog, but He then rescues the people of Israel and Judah from their attackers at the end of this age. In this final climactic battle, none of God’s people will be “conscientious objectors.” In John 18:36, Jesus told Pontius Pilate: “…if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight.” When Jesus returns, his kingdom will be “of this world.” Therefore, his servants (spiritual saints or physical Israelites) will fight! Zechariah 12:8 prophesies: “In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is fee-ble [weak] among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.” God prophesies that He will empower His people (spiritual or physical) to be tremendous warri-ors in this fight at the end of this age. If you are a servant of Jesus Christ, then mentally prepare yourself to “go to war” for your Lord at the end of this age! After God leads Israel’s nations in a victorious war against their invading enemies, all the house of Israel will know that the God of Israel is THEIR God from that day forward (Ezekiel 39:22). Zechariah 12:6-14 prophesies the same thing will occur as God rescues Judah and they also rec-ognize him as their God from that time forward. Zechariah 12:7 says God will “rescue Judah first.” This is understandable as the Israelis have a small nation with no hinterland and Zechariah 14:1-4 indicates Judah will be in the greatest peril.. Page 32 Ezekiel 39:25 has the same misleading translation in the KJV of the Bible that appears in Jeremiah 30:3 (the prophecy about Jacob’s Trouble). In the KJV, Ezekiel 39:25 says that God “will bring again the captivity of Jacob.” The phrase “bring again” meant something very differ-ent in 1611 than it does now. The RSV of the Bible gives it a correct modern translation when it translates both Jeremiah 30:3 and Ezekiel 39:25 as saying “I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel and Judah.” Instead of being prophecies that God will “bring again” a latter-day captivity upon Israel and Judah, these prophecies actually declare God will intervene to prevent captivities for his people (Joel 2:17-20 also echoes this same message)! When God intervenes, there will be a spiritual “world war” as well as a physical World War as this age ends. Revelation12-14 reveals “devils” will stir up “the kings of the east” to launch their 32

portion of this climactic World War, and Revelation19:11-21 depicts Jesus Christ leading the heavenly armies into this battle. It is at this time that the “woman” of Revelation 12:14 is pro-tected from Satan’s attack for “a time, times and half a time.” Most prophetic writers have as-sumed this means 3 and ½ years. They may prove to be right, but there is another possibility. That phrase could just as easily refer to a period of 3 and ½ days, not years. A nuclear war at the end of this age would not require three and ½ years to unfold, but could easily reach a point of jeopardizing “all flesh” within three and ½ days. Matthew 24:21-22 prophesies that God shortens the “days” (not “years”) of the Tribulation to prevent all flesh from perishing. Mark 13:20 says the same thing. When you check your concordances, you will see that the word translated “days” usually refers to 24 hour days. Shortly we will see there is an important “three and ½ day” pro-phetic period which culminates in the return of Christ. The Role of the “Watchmen:” The Churches of God have many accurate biblical doctrines to offer the world, but we have done a poor job of being “Watchmen.” If God appoints certain people as “Watchmen” (Ezekiel 33), they must warn their nations about the imminent prophetic dangers facing them. The Churches of God used to regard themselves as Watchmen, and they assumed the prophetic danger would be a latter-day “Assyrian” attack. It never came, and that prophetic message led to embarrassment and loss of credibility for the WCG. After the repeated failures of the “Assyrian” invasion scenario, most of the Churches of God “went to sleep” prophetically. The Churches of God once proclaimed Russia would attack America, but not until after the mil-lennium began! That message was contained in a 1956 WCG article entitled: “Will Russia Attack America?” The May, 1986 Plain Truth magazine repeated that theme. The old WCG saw that Ezekiel 38-39 clearly predicted a Russian attack upon America and its allies. However, because of its assumption that a German-led invasion had to occur as well, it taught that Gog’s invasion would not occur until after the return of Jesus Christ and after the millennial reign of Christ had started! That teaching made no sense. Isaiah 2 and Micah 4 prophesy that the Millennium will be a time when “swords are beaten into plowshares.” No nation will have armaments during the millennium. However, once it is realized that the German-led invasion scenario is not in the Bi-ble, this invasion of Russia against America and her allies can be placed in its correct prophetic context — during the “latter days” just prior to the return of Jesus Christ. The church erred by trying to fit a German-led invasion of latter-day America into its prophetic doctrines. Conse-quently it discounted and ignored the real “latter-day” danger about which God warned in Eze-kiel 38. If we were ever “Watchmen” for our people, we need to repent of proclaiming a warning about a nonexistent danger and start proclaiming the correct warning message which God actually placed in the Bible. By warning for decades about a non-existent danger, our churches lulled both the nation and itself to sleep. We are not the only sleepy watchmen. Much of evangelical Christianity proclaims a prophetic message offering variations on the “Hal Lindsey” interpreta-tion of Ezekiel 38-39. To their credit, the Evangelicals correctly recognize that Ezekiel 38-39 is “pre-millennial” (i.e. it occurs before the millennium begins). They also recognize Gog as the Russian-led alliance that will launch the prophesied attack. However, they have a “blind spot” of their own. Because they do not comprehend that the biblical terms “Israel” and “Judah” are not synonymous, they misidentify the target nations of Gog’s attack. Because of that mistake, they think Russia and all its allies will attack the little Israeli nation in the Mideast while the USA and the NATO nations are just bystanders! If the Evangelicals recognized that the nations of the modern ten tribes of Israel are the targets of this attack, and if the Churches of God could see that Ezekiel 39 twice declares itself to be a pre-millennial prophecy, both groups would have the end-time scenario correct! Response: “To their credit, the Evangelicals correctly recognize that Ezekiel 38-39 is “pre-millennial”” states Steve. There is very little indeed, that we can ‘credit’ the evangelicals with. After all, it is they that helped in a MAJOR way to destroy the old Worldwide Church of God.

The Two Witnesses:

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At the end of this age, God will raise up two powerful emissaries to bring his warning message to the world. Revelation 11 calls them the Two Witnesses, and Zechariah 4:14 calls them the “Two Anointed Ones.” Revelation 11:4 directly states the two Witnesses will be the two people mentioned in Zechariah 4:3. Jewish tradition also includes prophecies about two latter-day peo-ple of God called “Messiah ben Joseph and Messiah ben Judah.” While they will not be The Messiah, the Two Witnesses will certainly be messianic messengers for God. If Jewish tradition merges with biblical prophecy on this matter, it would imply that one of the Two Witnesses will be from Joseph (the tribe of Ephraim or Manasseh) and the other will be from the tribe of Judah. Other combinations are also possible. The Two Witnesses could be an Israelite and a gentile, or two members of the same tribe (Moses and Aaron, who “witnessed” to Pharaoh, were both Levites). The future will reveal the identity of the Two Witnesses, but they are not apparent on the world scene yet. For a period for a period of three and half years the Two Witnesses will warn the nations about imminent intervention of God and about the need to repent (Revelation11:3). This is the same period of time as the reign of the Beast (Revelation 13:5), and these periods of time are likely to be concurrent. The Two Witnesses will fulfill Matthew 24:14’s prophecy about a “witness” which will occur on the earth just before Christ comes. At the end of three and one-half years, the Two Witnesses are slain and lie dead for three and one-half days before they are resurrected at the return of Jesus Christ (which stops “all flesh” from destroying itself). It seems logical that “all hell breaks loose” on the earth during the three and onehalf days when the Two Witnesses are dead and their intimidating power is removed. Although the world celebrates the death of the two wit-nesses, thinking a time of “peace and safety” has arrived, what actually befalls the earth is the “sudden destruction” prophesied in I Thessalonians 5:3. This paper proposes that the “sudden destruction” is the prophesied latter-day attack of Russia and its allies against the USA and its Western allies. The doublecrossed leader of the Western World (the final “king of the north”) launches a furious counter-attack to slaughter his attackers. Jerusalem will also be “compassed with armies” at that same time and climactic warfare breaks out there as well. With a nuclear World War raging, “all flesh” could quickly perish unless Jesus Christ returned…three and half days after the Two Witnesses have died.. Revelation 12:14’s “time, times and half-a time,” during which the church needs divine protection, could easily apply to that final three and one-half day period prophesied in the Bible to pre-cede the return of Jesus Christ. While the Two Witnesses are alive, the church (and Israel and Judah) can be protected by their power, which will be far greater than the power of any human nation or alliance. However, once the Two Witnesses are dead, the wrath of the Beast and False prophet will be unleashed on the church, and it will be in need of protection. The attack of Russia and its allies will quickly distract the nations from persecuting the saints. If this prophetic application is correct, the great persecution against the saints will last three and half days, not three and half years. That fits modern technological realities. It wouldn’t take the governments of the world three and half years to find the Christians and execute them. You can’t hide in today’s computerized world. The nations could find all the remaining Christians (those who had sup-ported the Two Witnesses) in a few days if they wanted to do so. However, the computerized technologies of the Western World will “crash” when the first Russian EMP weapons go off in the skies over North America and Europe. This article on prophecy has not addressed all aspects of latter-day prophecy. Indeed, it would take a book to address all possible prophetic scriptures and options. However, it is hoped that this article has presented convincing, biblical evidence that a German-led European invasion is not going to befall the modern nations of the house of Israel. It has also outlined prophetic scriptures which indicate a Russian-led invasion of the nations of latter-day “Israel” is certain, and pre-sented a realistic means by which that surprise attack could occur. Even if you disagree with the conclusions of this author about prophecy, I hope that it at least stimulates you to be more flexi-ble in your approach to latter-day prophecies. Those who still think that a German-led European invasion is coming upon America have a heavy “burden of proof” upon them. They have “cried wolf” for decades but the “wolf” has never come. Their dogmas have produced decades of prophetic errors. However, their greatest problem is that the Bible itself nowhere prophesies that “Assyria” will conquer or carry captive the “house of Israel” during “the latter-days.” Their human assumption that the latter days would parallel the ancient wars fought between Assyria and Israel in the 8 th century B.C. has no support in the Bible. Once we accept that fact, we will realize why the church’s prophetic scenarios have repeatedly failed for the last half-century.

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Will Russia attack America before the Millennium begins? Ezekiel 38 declares they will do so even if God has to “put hooks in their jaws” and compel them to attack the latter-day nations of the house of Israel. God will fulfill his prophecies according to His Word, not according to the dogmas of human churches. The sooner we get our prophetic expectations in harmony with God’s Word, the better! Nobody has “all the answers” when it comes to prophecy, but hopefully this article has provided some of them. THE END Response: The above is refuted in the attached appendices.

Concluding Remarks:

1. The paper by Collins would have been best presented as at least two separate papers, so as not to cause confusion: one on which nations will invade Israel and another on date-setting, for the two are not connected 2. Red-herrings be eliminated from such papers 3. ask for input and critique from those of us who still believe in the old teachings to ensure that such papers are non-offensive and at least logical. I trust that after reading the response and the accompanying appendices, that the reader will come to accept that the nations which will invade Israel are those of Europe led by Germany and not Russia.

Appendix 1: Extract from Fifty Years of Warning by G T Armstrong Now, notice what we have consistently written and preached for all these many decades: The PLAIN TRUTH, June, 1952, p. 11: "The 10 `horns'...in the 17th chapter [of the Book of Revelation] ...will be...the revival of the BEAST, the Roman Empire, `out of the bottomless pit,' by a `United States of Europe,' or federation of 10 European nations within the bounds of the old Roman Empire" (that includes such nations as mentioned above, in eastern Europe!). The PLAIN TRUTH, September, 1953, p. 1: "...This [riots had just occurred in East Germany], is the beginning of an East German revolt against Red tyranny. Czechoslovakia, Poland and other conquered nations behind the Iron Curtain have witnessed similar uprisings in recent weeks. It will take time [it certainly did!], but Russia is going to lose out in some of these countries..." The PLAIN TRUTH, November, 1954, p. 7: "Word comes from the College of Cardinals that the possibility of the new pope being chosen (when that becomes a necessity) from the ranks other than Italian is not too remote. The next pope could be the man who will unite Europe!" [Editor's note: This was about 25 years ahead of its time! When Wojtila, a Pole, was elected as Pope John Paul II, he was powerfully instrumental in Poland for nurturing "Solidarity" and for prying Russia's grip loose from Poland and Eastern Europe]. The PLAIN TRUTH, February, 1962, p. 5: "On the WORLD TOMORROW program, and in the pages of the PLAIN TRUTH, we have been shouting to a heedless world for [many] years this was going to occur...it would come as an ECONOMIC force, bringing unprecedented prosperity to Europe. But also, it is to become a political and military combine—a gigantic third power bloc in the world, that will include more population, greater man- power, and possibly even greater military resources than either the United States or Russia. When this giant combine—a United States of EUROPE—finally emerges as such before a 35

startled and dumbfounded world, it will last only a very short time. It will fight against Jesus Christ at His Second Coming!" [Editor's note: Read Revelation 17:12-14 with Revelation 19]. The PLAIN TRUTH, March, 1962, p. 26: "Fascism in Europe is about to be reborn in respectable business attire, and the Treaty of Rome will finally be implemented to its fullest extent...the dream of a Holy Roman Empire returning to power to dominate and direct the so-called forces of Christian mankind of the Western world [this dream] is not dead, but still stalks through the antechambers of every national capitol of continental Western Europe...IN THE DETERMINATION OF THE LEADERS IN THE COMMON MARKET NATIONS TO RESTORE THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE WITH ALL THAT THAT MEANS [Northwest Technocrat, Vol. XXV, No. 205]. United within ancient boundaries of the Holy Roman Empire; united by the common spiritual bond of universal Catholicism; united in a burgeoning and booming industrial economy that dominates today's world; united geographically in the most productive and industrial complex on earth—at least TEN NATIONS OF MODERN EUROPE WILL MARCH ONTO THE SCENE OF WORLD HISTORY AS THE GREATEST SINGLE FORCE EVER SEEN BY MAN!" "This United Europe will form a nonaggression pact or political alignment of some sort with the Soviet East. This United Europe will then consolidate its gains..." The PLAIN TRUTH, November, 1962, p. 10: "Just as certainly as we restore Western Europe to economic prosperity, and then to military power, a successor to Hitler will emerge, gain control of this power through a `United States of Europe,' which we [the U.S. government] are also encouraging, and we shall then wake up, too late, to realize we have restored our fascist enemy the power to destroy us!...battlefields are becoming economic, just as we said they would ...the movement is...forming toward complete political consolidation!" The PLAIN TRUTH, November, 1962, p. 21: "Listen, now, to some of the most shocking news of recent times! "ONLY THOSE DEAF TO THE SOUND OF HISTORY can fail to be excited by the French-German rapprochement and the steady movement toward the `making of Europe'...Historically, political union over so great a space came only from conquest or from the spread of a common culture. Where, in modern times, Napoleon, Bismarck, Hitler and Stalin failed, reason and mutual necessity are succeeding. A European political union would mean little if the ultimate power of deciding whether it fights...and dies...is going to rest with the Americans." Ibid. p. 22: "In a recent address at Harvard University, Professor Walter Hallstein, President of the European Economic Community, said...the... market is...highly political. He considers it the substructure for a hoped-for United States of Europe. He said, `I want to stress that...it is political, not just that it tends toward a political goal.'" The PLAIN TRUTH, January, 1963, p. 5: "Daring new plans for monetary reform and economic planning are on the drawing boards. These will so inextricably mesh the economies of the Six, reports Time, that they will `clear the way for the final goal of a POLITICALLY UNITED EUROPE.'" The PLAIN TRUTH, March, 1963, p. 3: "...a German STRONG MAN is the logical choice to ascend to the helm of the new POLITICALLY UNITED EUROPE." Ibid. p. 14: "Der Spiegel...was especially critical of the great number of former Nazis who were being wooed by Bonn to join the government ranks. The West German regime defended its policy of permitting former top-ranking Nazis to become an integral part of the new German democracy." The PLAIN TRUTH, October, 1964, p. 48: "Germany—A UNITED GERMANY with her former territories restored—is ready to emerge as the strongest nation on earth at the head of a revitalized...Europe! The power colossus is then going to deal a death blow to the United States and Britain..."

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The PLAIN TRUTH, December, 1964, p. 16: "...God shows that in this end time He is going to use the modern Assyrians...the Germans—to dominate a United Europe." The PLAIN TRUTH, April, 1965, p. 19: "In spite of Mr. Churchill's farsightedness, [this was written just after Churchill's death, Ed.], he could not see far enough into the future to visualize the outcome of a United States of Europe. He did not know from Bible prophecy that it would be comprised of ten nations, dominated politically by a Roman-Fascist-like system and religiously by a great universal, militant church. He could not foresee that this great politico/religio/economic power bloc of ten nations would not only refuse Britain membership [in the final United States of Europe—the ten], but would ultimately prove the undoing of the Anglo-Saxon peoples of America, Britain, and the Commonwealth countries." The PLAIN TRUTH, May, 1967, p. 4: "Second to building up a strong Germany, Adenauer's efforts [this was written after "Der Alte" had died] were dedicated to the establishment of a United Roman Europe—a union of Germany with those lands once within the confines of the Roman Empire" [emphasis mine: NOTE: Today, the nations of Eastern Europe are not only long since out from under Communist domination, but are being gathered into NATO; being admitted as members of the new European Union, and being tabbed as a part of the new economic union; signing on to the "Euro," the new European currency! Remember, this was written over 21 years ago, when all mainstream protestant evangelicals were saying RUSSIA was the "beast" of prophecy, and ignoring Germany and Europe!]. The PLAIN TRUTH, October, 1968. [Editor's note: I had just returned from Munich and Bonn, following interviews with the late Franz Josef Strauss, who was then head of the Christian Socialist Union of Bavaria, and former Defense Minister. The article in the October issue included a lengthy question and answer session with Herr Strauss]. p. 6: "One of our major conditions [Strauss said] is that the desire for admission to the Common Market is not based upon the motivation to impede political integration. We want...members who are ready and prepared to join us on the way toward a political integration with the long-run goal of the United States of Europe." Later, underlining the fact that Strauss had become a strong proponent of European acquisition of nuclear weapons, he said, "I believe the Europeans should take more responsibility for their own defense...I see as the only chance... that of building up a Europe—integrating the Federal Republic of Germany into that Europe and building bridges from an attractive, economically powerful, political and influential Europe with can defend herself—including a nuclear potential—to add to the power of the Europeans." Many More Articles Written Through The Seventies The PLAIN TRUTH kept publishing articles such as those quoted above all through the seventies. Space does not permit reprinting them all. By 1978, when I had incorporated as "The Church of God, International," I wanted to launch another magazine. We were not able to do so until the summer of 1979, when, on the very first cover of our new publication called "Twentieth-century WATCH," I featured a West German missile-firing tank under the title, "A Monster Stirs: West German Military Power Increasing." Here is a quote from that article: "Hitler imagined a `thousand year Reich' with himself...at the pinnacle of power, and dreamed of a millennial reign of `German supermen' over the world, as if he applied these prophecies [of a coming `Messiah'] to himself. This new leader of a united Europe, who will probably be a German, will attempt to fulfill the very same dream, proclaiming himself a great leader over the other 10 `kings' (in today's terminology, they could be presidents, premiers, prime ministers, etc.) and so wield power over a 10-nation combine, which will be the greatest power bloc the world has ever seen." Twentieth-Century WATCH, Winter 1984: cover story pictured the Berlin Wall with East German border guards: lead article, "Will Germany Reunite?" I wrote, "A West German official recently said, `I get mad when Americans and others dismiss it [German reunification] as an impossible dream.' Said a 42 year old engineer in Munich. `Why can't we be like others, proud of who we are, without everyone calling it "New German Nationalism?" On Page 29 I wrote, "There may be no such thing as the remotest dream [remember, this was written in 1984—five years before the Berlin wall came down!] in the mind of a living German that a reunited Germany, at the head of a future United States of Europe, could ever conquer the United States of America. But, even as many Germans understand, the current world situation is not the last chapter, either in European history, or in American history. The future will too soon be upon us." 37

From a transcript of a sermon, May 22, 1982: "...we may see a strange alliance between the Soviet Union and Western Europe...an alliance of nations including Germany, and a `United States of Europe.'" From a transcript of a sermon, April 25, 1987: "Many of you in this room have heard me saying that the prelude to World War III is going to be the collapse of the present day world economy, followed by the emergence of despots, dictatorships, and ultra-nationalists...governments in countries all over the world, especially [in] Germany. The reunification of Germany in the context of a unified Europe and the creation of a ten-nation central bloc...will become the United States of Europe, and challenge the United States of America." From a transcript of a sermon, Charleston, South Carolina, May 16, 1987: "..some...understand that Adolf Hitler was trying to put together the dream of...German geo-politicians like Haushofer and Makinder...to create in the heartland of Europe...a United States of Europe; a vast trading combine which would embody all of those industrial, inventive people from the Urals to the Atlantic...the Poles, Czechs...the Germans...and... East Germany...Adolf Hitler was nothing more than a weak revival of a prophesied seven resurrections of [the]...Roman Empire which was predicted to exist...until the time of the second coming of Christ...10 kings are going to fight Christ at His coming..." I could fill many more pages with similar quotations spanning many years! When the Berlin Wall came down, two of my sons and I watched the greatest celebration we had ever witnessed! We watched as segments of the wall came down; as East German border guards sold their hats and articles of their uniforms to eager West Germans for souvenirs. We chipped away at the wall with thousands of others, and brought pieces of it home with us. All the quotations you just read were found as a result of my desire to immediately publish a special edition of our magazine to shout out, `WE TOLD YOU SO!' Germany was REUNITING! Eastern Europe was COMING OUT FROM BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN; the Soviet Union was imploding; Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania were becoming independent nations! Had my father, Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong been alive, he would have done precisely the same thing! He would have researched all that he and I and others had written for DECADES; he would have then written a powerful article, shouting out to his readers, "WE TOLD YOU SO!" Shockingly, those he left in charge of the church and colleges God had used him to build treated these monumental events as if they were only a minor thing.

Appendix 2: Prophecy as it pertains to the the Assyrians in the Modern World The Bible reveals that there is soon coming a German-led United States of Europe, a National European Socialist Empire. The modern Assyrians are not going to make the same stupid mistakes as their predecessors. The Fourth Reich will be a military juggernaut — a Frankenstein monster which will plot out a terrible plan for world domination. Allied with them, but under their domination will be various Latin, Canaanite and Slavic nations. Let us cautiously peer into the pages of God's word, permitting it to teach us concerning the prophecies about the Assyrians in the last days. Isaiah Chapter Ten The aforementioned chapter presents an incredible story of end-time events in the history of modern Germany. What occurred to ancient nations such as Assyria are only forerunners of their yet to be completely fulfilled prophecies. Prophecies concerning ancient nations have only been partially fulfilled. Let Isaiah now warn us beginning verse five:

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5. O, Assyria! the rod of Mine anger, And the staff in their hand is Mine indignation [see Lamentations 3:1; Nahum 2:1]. 6. I will send him against an hypocritical nation [Israel], and against the people of my wrath will I give him charge [see Numbers 24:22]. 7. … it is in his heart [his mind, nature, instincts, or racial memory] to destroy and cut off nations not a few [see Numbers 24:22].

Isaiah chapter ten presents a startling picture of the German capacity to "destroy and cut off" (Compare Revelation 9:11). Let Isaiah, God's great prophet continue: 8. For he saith, Are not my princes altogether Kings?

The Hebrew for princes is "Sar", which appears to be related to the words, Caesar, Tsar or Czar and Kaiser! Notice, they consider their princes to be like kings — a clear reference to their master-race theory. Indeed "Sar" can quite easily be translated as "Master"!1 As a result of their superiority complex, God roars: … I will punish the fruit of the stout [proud, arrogant] heart of the King of Assyria [future leader of Germany and U.S. of Europe], and the glory of his high looks. 12-13. For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; For I am prudent [R.S.V. "have understanding." Compare Daniel 8:23; 11:21]: And I have removed the bounds of the people [compare Daniel 8:24], And have put down the inhabitants [of Israel] like a valiant man [R.S.V. "bull"].

Such Arrogance! While many nations suffer from an inferiority complex, some have a complex of the opposite extreme — superiority. This is not because of a feeling of inferiority in reverse — clearly it is due to their pride in their talents, successes and good looks, and have let it go to their heads. In verse fifteen God likens the Assyrians to an axe, saw, rod and staff. These iron implements were used by the Assyrians anciently in their pursuit of world conquest. They were the first to develop a great iron technology for military purposes (chariots, armor, weapons). Is it mere coincidence that Germany is famous for its great iron industry (especially Krupps), its iron cross and Iron Chancellor (Bismark)? Bismark, incidentally, is historically renowned for his statement on "blood and iron" in a speech before the Prussian Chamber on January 28, 1886. What he meant was that by the spillage of blood and the use of weapons of iron, Germany could fulfill her divine mission to lead the world. Accordingly, God will send the hordes of Asia against Germany (verses 16-17; see also Nahum 1:10) and "the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them" (verse 19). The beautiful Bavarian Black Forest, pride of Germany and national symbol of "blood and soil," will be almost utterly destroyed. Isaiah chapter seven too speaks of the coming German menace (verses 17-19). He says: 20. In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely by them beyond the river, by the King of Assyria.

This ties in with Ezekiel's prophecy where God also likens Assyria to a razor: … take thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair (5:1). 2. Thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: And thou shalt take a third part, and smite about it with a knife: and a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them.

Those Israelites will be taken captive to Germany and other places (Isaiah 11:11, 16; Zechariah 10:10; Numbers 24:22). It is due to their backsliding that they would be taken into captivity (Jeremiah 2:18-19, 36-37; Ezekiel 23:9; Jeremiah 50:17-18). 1

Strong's #4428 39

Notice: God would use Assyria to utterly destroy Israel, taking one third of them into captivity. Assyria would be a powerful instrument in God's hand. Isaiah chapter eight elucidates upon this future German invasion: Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river [compare Revelation 12:15; Daniel 11:40b, 22; Isaiah 28:2] strong and many [compare Joel 2:2; Jeremiah 5:15] even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: And he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks [cf. Daniel 8:16; 12:5-8]. 7-8. And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck.

Here we have clear reference to the future invasion of North Africa and the Holy Land by the German-led U.S. of Europe (Daniel 11:40-43; Ezekiel 4:3; Luke 21:20; Matthew 24:15; Daniel 12:11). Joel’s Warning Through his faithful prophet Joel, God warns us of the coming invasion in chapter two of his prophecy: 1-2. The day of the Lord cometh. . .A day of darkness and of gloominess, A day of clouds and of thick darkness. . .A great people and a strong.

Compare that verse with 1:6; Isaiah 8:7-8; 28:2; Jeremiah 5:15. Notice that they are called "strong," for "Asshur" means strong! Here we have a very strong, disciplined people whom God uses to punish the House of Israel. 3. A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.

From this scripture we can ascertain that those brutal armies will have weapons of fire which leave the area behind them aflame and devastated. These are weapons perhaps, which are being, or are yet to be invented. Like locusts they turn a pleasant land into a wilderness. How like the Assyrians, Scythians, Huns; and the Germans of World War One who cut down the fruit trees in northern France. 4. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.

These are not literal horses. Note, the verse says "as. . .horses. . . as horsemen." This links the verse and those symbolic "horsemen" to the First Woe of the Book of Revelation (9:1-11). The First Woe is a prophecy of the soon-to-arise European military juggernaut which arises out of the "abyss" — a condition of temporary political and military abeyance (in this case between World Wars One/Two and Three). 5. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap [war machinery] like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble. . ..

Compare that with Revelation 9:9 and Nahum 2:3-4. In the following verse Joel continues: 6. Before their face the people [enemy nations] shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness [paleness].

Knowing the terrible reputation of those German-led European armies, enemy nations lying in their way will be terrified of their conquest. 7. They shall run like mighty men of war [Kar-men, Gar-men or German means "men of war"!]; And they shall march every one on his ways [how like the East Germans during the amazing spontaneous uprisings against Honecher. As commentator after commentator gasped, they had no leader, yet they marched in order with amazing self-discipline and self-control], and they shall not break their ranks.

Surely we have reference here to German discipline, orderliness and efficiency! 40

In verse fifteen God calls them His army. Why? Because He sends them to do His will. Compare that verse with Isaiah 10:5, 12-15. Continue verse twenty, first part: But I will remove far off from you [Israel] the Northern Army. Notice too Daniel 11:40; Jeremiah 46:24; 6:22-23. These are men, not literal locusts, although it could well be dual. "Locusts do not come from the north. The armies of Revelation 9, and Daniel 11 do", claims Bullinger.2 Finally in verse twenty five God promises: And I will restore to you [Israel] the years that the locusts hath eaten. . .My great army which I sent among you.

The book of Nahum which clearly predicted the fall of Nineveh, capital of ancient Assyria, also likened the Assyrians to locusts: … make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts … Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the grasshoppers … (3:15, 17; compare Revelation 9:7-9).

What an apt description for as we have seen in earlier chapters, the Assyrians, Huns and Scythians were constantly compared to locusts in history. Steps Toward World Domination In a future book the author will detail the historical roots of the soon-to-arise United States of Europe, but this may be some years away. It would suffice at this time for the reader to review the following scriptures: Revelation 13,17,18; Isaiah 13,14,21,47,48; Jeremiah 50,51; Ezekiel 27,28. Here prophecy names the future European fascistic empire as Babylon and Tyre. Before our very eyes, we see materializing a terrible form — a disgusting specter — a Frankenstein Monster — a Military Juggernaut. This powerful fascist U.S. of Europe will be the culmination of all of Satan's attempts to thwart God's plan. It will be the tenth horn and seventh head of the Beast (Revelation 17:9-10; 13:1-3; Daniel 7:7) — i.e. the final resurrection of the Roman successions and Holy Roman Empire. It will also possess characteristics more closely Babylonian in quality with incredible material success than the other previous revivals. From a condition of underground planning, its arising will be almost unbelievable (Revelation 17:8; 9:1-2,11). God revealed through Daniel that the resurrection of Babylonianism to full bloom would not be permitted for 2520 years (Daniel 4:15,26; 5:24-31). This was typed by Nebuchadnezzar's seven years of madness (Daniel 4:31-34). This aspect or branch of Babylonianism would grow again in the end-time, revealing the most potent and successful empire the world has ever seen. Its glory, wealth and power will startle the world (Revelation 13:3-4). It will certainly be formed and operative for several years prior to its declaration of war on its enemies. But when? Not before the 2520 years of withholding its resurrection are up! When do we count the 2520 years from? While the city of Babylon itself fell on October 16, 539 B.C., and the entire nation was completely conquered by 537 B.C., its supreme king, Nabonidus was away campaigning in Arabia at that time and apparently was captured some time later.3 Europe will emerge as the new world super-power and the greatest trading bloc with the largest merchant fleet in history. This new Babylon with all its modern technology will fall however, as we shall see. (Its prototype, Babylon, had a defensive wall 300 feet high, 30 feet deep and 85 feet wide, yet it fell.) What is most interesting is that the difference in years between the Crash of '29 and that of '87 was fifty eight years

2

Bullinger ca 1890:1227 Culican 1965:54

3

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— "this factor is twenty nine plus twenty nine and signifies Expectancy of Judgement doubled" writes Rand, author of The Language of Numbers.4 The U.S.A. would have become a second-rate power and Russia and her allies would be no match for Europe. Like Assyria of old whose function it was to protect the civilized world from the threats of the Asiatics to the East5 and Germany during the Middle Ages which considered itself as "God's chosen people"6 protecting Europe against the golden hordes, so the coming German- dominated U.S. of Europe will find itself in a similar role. It shall stand between East and West; North and South, - and the world will celebrate "peace in our time". The Anglo-Saxon nations in particular will be lulled into a sense of security, thinking that we have "peace in our time" (I Thessalonians 5:13; Jeremiah 6:13-15, 22; Ezekiel 13:2,1013; Isaiah 28:15-18; Daniel 8:25; 11:24). Britain in particular will make the biggest faux pas of its history. Hosea blasts Ephraim (the English peoples): When Ephraim saw his sickness. . .and Judah [certain Highlander and Ulster Scots. The author shall dwell on Scottish identity in a future book] saw his wound, then went Ephraim [as leader of the British tribes] to the Assyrian, and sent to King Jareb [future German leader]: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound (5:13).

It appears from this scripture that Britain will be in such economic, financial, social and moral straits that she shall seek help from German-led Europe. What will Europe do? How shall she respond to Britain's plea? Initially after signing an agreement with Britain (and North America?) it will turn on her (Isaiah 33:1,7-8). The following verse reveals this treacherous double-cross: For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the House of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him. I will go away and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offense, and seek My face: in their affliction they will seek me early (5:14-15).

Notice God likens the Assyrians to wild, ferocious lions. Other scriptures do likewise: Jeremiah 2:1415,18; 4:7; 50:17; Ezekiel 38:13; Nahum 2:8-12; Joel 1:6; Zechariah 11:3. See also I Peter 5:8. Other verses on this future "covenant" between the House of Israel and Europe are: Hosea 10:6; 12:1; 14:3; Isaiah 28:1-3,15,18; Daniel 11:22; Ezekiel 16:28. No wonder God slams Israel for having political and military "lovers" — she should be depending on her God, not man! (Isaiah 30:1-9; 31:1-3) I suggest the reader look up the following verses on these "lovers" (Gentile allies) of Israel: Jeremiah 2:36-37; 4:30; 22:20-22; 30:14; Lamentations 1:2,19; Ezekiel 18:33-37; 23:5-9,22; Hosea 2:5-13; 8:9. The Greatest Double-Cross in World History It is not in the mind of Germans or Europeans today to double-cross or attack the Anglo-Saxon-Keltic nations. This will not occur until some time after the formation of a National European Socialist Holy Roman Empire (Isaiah 10:7). God through His prophet Hosea roars: Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria (7:11). For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers. Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes (8:9-10). (Compare Isaiah 10:3).

The last part of verse ten is very interesting. The Hebrew for "sorrow" is "woe" or "writhing" — in agony — due to enslavement. They are writhing "a little for the burden" of Tribulation. Again, the Hebrew for "a little" means in a little time, speedily or suddenly. Very suddenly Britain will be plunged into the Great Tribulation: For when they say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; And they shall not escape (I Thessalonians 5:3).

4

Rand ca 1950:16 Wiseman 1973:156 6 Poliakov 1974:98

5

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Ephraim and the tribes of Israel (not excluding the USA) will be lulled into a false sense of security, possibly believing that their New World Order of One World Race, One World Religion and One World Capitalist Ecomomic Free Trading System would bring world peace. Instead, the Europeans also believe in a New World Order...but one which is radically different to the Anglo-Saxon Powers. Theirs is a Fascisttype of system endearing so-called Christianity to the State, thus reviving the Holy Roman Empire. It is completely different and opposed to the Anglo-Saxon version of a New World Order in such fundamentals as race, religion, finance, economics, social attitudes, personal liberties etc. Dear reader, maybe some do not believe these astounding prophecies and SCOFF! (II Peters 3:3-4; Jude 18; Jeremiah 20:8). The scoffers and mockers who do not see the signs of the times will be taken unawares. Regardless of scoffing, these "things. . .must shortly [Greek is speedily, suddenly, quickly] come to pass" (Revelation 1:1). Jeremiah, after preaching for some twenty-five years, wondered how long things would drag on for before the prophecies were fulfilled (12:1-7; 17:15-18; 20:7-11). Don't we do the same thing? Take comfort from Ezekiel: Son of man, what is the proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged and every vision faileth? … Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; There shall none of My words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord God (12:22,28).

In other words there will be no more delay or holding up of world events (Ezekiel 12:25; Revelation 10:6; Daniel 12:9; Luke 18:7; Jeremiah 30:24). Habakkuk says much the same: … the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry (2:3).

God instructs us to wait and be patient through Habakkuk (compare Revelation 3:10): Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them? (2:7).

Other verses concerning the sudden destruction on the earth may be found in: Isaiah 30:13; 33:14; 60:22; Joel 2:9; Luke 17:34-37. Amos, too, warns of the sudden turn-about in world conditions in the last days: … Lord is his name: That makes destruction to come suddenly to flash upon the strong [original Hebrew], so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress (5:8-9) [See 9:10, where the Hebrew for "prevent" means surprise.].

Finally, Isaiah speaks of this surprising and quick fulfillment of prophecy which will catch the scoffers and mockers unaware, but not God's people: I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of My mouth, and I showed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass (48:3).

Notice how many times God warns us of sudden destruction. The Anglo-Saxon-Keltic nations will be enormously surprised when a U.S. of Europe which appeared, initially, to be neutral playing its part between the East and the West, suddenly turns nasty. Anti-American broadcasts, trade wars, sanctions, condemnations of their decadence etc. will flower when Europe sees a weakened North America as a ripened plum, ready for the plucking. God condemns the Anglo-Saxon-Keltic-Nordic nations for making alliances with the continental Europeans (Ezekiel 16:28; 23:5-9,12). Therefore … thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will raise up thy lovers [allies] against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side (23:22).

In verse 9 he explains that these allies are principally the Assyrians. Note that Israel became alienated or disgusted with them. A falling-out between the North Americans and British on one hand, and the National

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European Socialists on the other hand will occur, much to the sorrow of the Anglo-Saxon peoples and their descendants around the world. In verse twenty-three Ezekiel continues, naming the "lovers" of Israel: The Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans [Southern and Central Italians], Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them: all of them desirable young men, captains and rulers, great lords and renowned, all of them riding upon horses (Ezekiel 23:23).

The Aramaeans were probably joined with the Assyrians against Israel anciently.7 The Aramaeans are located in northwest Germany, northeast Austria and pocketed in northern Spain and northern Italy today. Pekod, referred to by Ezekiel may in fact be the Puqudu Aramaean tribe.8 The Koa may have been the Kutu tribe from Syria9 or the Qutu (Quadians?), while the Shoa may have been the Sutu or Su10 who may have become known as the Sugambri tribe. Now notice what prophecy says concerning this shocking double-cross: And they shall come against thee with chariots, wagons, and wheels, and with an assembly of people, which shall set against thee buckler and shield and helmet round about. . .Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment [it shall take them by surprise — suddenly!] and desolation (verses 24,33).

What occurred to Israel, Judah and Jerusalem in the Old Testament are mere types of a far worse calamity yet future. Jeremiah warns: She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she has none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies (Lamentations 1:2,19).

Similarly, Jeremiah complains loudly in his book: And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson … in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life (4:30).

Finally, Ezekiel explains who these "lovers" actually are: Thou has played the whore also with the Assyrians [Germany] … Behold I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them round about against thee, and will uncover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness (16:28,37).

Yes, the Anglo-Saxon peoples will be destroyed and enslaved by her "lovers", principally Germany. Do we dare ignore this warning by God? Assyria will attempt once and for all to destroy the direct descendants of his twin brother Arphaxad (through Israel. ie the Anglo-Saxon-Kelts). But why? The age old resentment and envy that God had given the birthright blessing in place of Elam to Arphaxad, and not to himself (Assur) — that God chose that line, and not Assur's is still heaped up in the Assyrian heart. Let there be no mistake: the German descendants of Assur are an extremely intelligent and handsome people who resemble the descendants of Arphaxad and Aram physically more so than any other nation. Their sense of order, discipline and cleanliness is superb and world-famous. But so is their warrior-image. Consequently they wish to overthrow Arphaxad and lead the world with their militaristic style, rather than in God's way and take the Birthright lands of North America and the British Isles from the Anglo-SaxonKelts! The Great Tribulation Daniel predicted centuries ago that Europe would invade the Middle East (Daniel 11), and especially the "King of the South" (Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan). However, she would have certain allies in the Middle East: 7

Achtemeier 1885:946 Douglas 1972:957 9 ibid:1182 10 ibid:703, 1181 8

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Keep not thou silence, O God: … For lo, Thine enemies make a tumult. . .They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel, may be no more in remembrance … They are confederate against thee: The tabernacles of Edom, [modern Turkey and possibly their relatives, the Turkic peoples of Central Asia], and the Ishmaelites [Saudi Arabia]; of Moab [Jordan — see Daniel 11:41], and the Hagarenes [Arabs in Saudi Arabia]; Gebal [in Lebanon], and Ammon [Jordan] and Amalek; the Philistines [Berbers?] with the inhabitants of Tyre [southern Italy today]; Assur [Germany] also is joined with them: they have helpen the children of Lot. Selah (Psalms 83:1-8).

Did you notice that German-led Europe in accordance with this prophecy, is in some kind of alliance with the non-North African Arabs? However, the Mizramites (Egypt), the Phutites (translated as "Libyans" — the Africans) and Cushites (Ethiopia, Somalia, southern Sudan, and perhaps southern India) are their enemies in this race war and worthy of invasion. Europe will react strongly to the moves towards a New World Order with a New Age Religion and One World Race. She will be tired of these ‘politically correct’ programmes of Europe encouraged by certain circles in the USA and Britain. So, this invasion is a "sign" to the Anglo- Saxon-Kelts of an invasion thirty days later (see Ezekiel 4:1-3; Daniel 12:11; Matthew 12:1521). The Assyrians will lead the European forces (Isaiah 23:13) as they invade Egypt, and many will die on the battle-field (Ezekiel 32:22). They are said to be part of the end-time "Tyre" in Ezekiel (i.e. Babylon or the coming U.S. of Europe, Ezekiel 27:23). With them are Haran (the Hurrians), Canneh (Babylonians), Sheba (the Swabians) and Chilmad (Babylonians?).11 Also in the service of Tyre is Dedan (the Prussians) (verse 15). Dedan also includes the descendants of Letushim (Genesis 25:3) — the modern-day Lithuanians and Latvians. It should come as no surprise to us if the Baltic States now freed from Soviet domination become partners of the coming National European Socialist Kingdom — a U.S. of Europe. [Author’s note: See also my paper True Origins of the Peoples of Eastern Europe. for a full explanation on the origins of these people]. Eventually Europe, led by the Dedanite Prussians on this occasion will double-cross their Saudi-Arabian allies and smite them (Isaiah 21:13). Within thirty days of the MiddleEastern excursion, Europe will turn full fury against the Anglo-Saxon nations. Notice what will happen to them: Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth My sword out of his sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked (Ezekiel 21:3, 9-14). The Lord God has sworn by His holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that He will take you [Israel] away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks (Amos 4:2).

Did you know that that literally occurred thousands of years ago? It will happen again once more! For in the Assyrian monuments one may see the captives with hooks in their noses (see Ezekiel 29:4; II Chronicles 33:11). Such unbelievable cruelty will become the order of the day — yes, in this twentieth century! Yes, we are capable of treating others like dirt! The human mentality has certainly not changed these many centuries. Jeremiah also mentions it: Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest. We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread … They ravished the women in Zion [Israel] … Princes are hanged by their hand … They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood … (Lamentations 5:5-6,11-13; see Jeremiah 2:18-19).

Hosea, speaking of Ephraim (the English) cries out: They shall not dwell in the Lord's land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt [as slaves] and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria (9:3).

German-led Europe will have such super space technology ("star wars") that they will easily knock-out North America and the British Isles. They will slyly acquire Western space technology and then use it against Britain and America. Like the Pharisees of old, those with a sly mentality lie in wait seeking whom 11

ibid 45

they may devour (I Peter 5:8; Job 1:7; Mark 3:2; Jeremiah 9:4; 5:26; Micah 7:5-6; Psalm 55:12-14, 21; 69:8-12). Of these pharisees who evilly misinterpret Matthew 10:16, claiming that it means one can lie in wait to poison and devour others, Christ sends a terrible rebuke: Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell (Matthew 23:33). Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do, he was a murderer [including character assassinations and slander, compare John 16:2; Matthew 10:16-22 — referring to spiritual death] from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it (John 8:44).

What an indictment! What a stern rebuke! Today evil pharaseeism is still around, both spiritually and politically. Politically it is about to make a swift come-back in Europe. Jeremiah warns of the space technology of Europe (51:53). It will be used in the most horrible pharisaical fashion possible: Moses predicted that in the yet future Tribulation, Israelites will be "driven unto the outmost parts of heaven" (Deuteronomy 30:4), while Christ said that true Christians will, in the resurrection, be gathered "from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matthew 24:31). No doubt, like the horrific human experiments performed by Nazi scientists, the scientists of the coming National European Socialist Empire will perform terrible experiments on Israelites and lukewarm Christians (termed Laodiceans in Revelation 3:14-22) — experiments which may only be performed under the weightless conditions of space. Unbelievable experiments will to be performed on Anglo-Saxon-Kelts. Note what scientists are telling us: In addition, weapons of psychic and weather warfare will be unleashed upon the British and Americans12. Perhaps anti-gravity flying aircraft — super weapons of destruction — will also be employed. I have extensive literature indicating that they are likely to be man-made and originally invented by the Nazis13 Yes, Europe will come like a "whirlwind" (anti-gravity electric aircraft?) against her enemies (Daniel 11:40; Isaiah 5:28; Jeremiah 4:13; Hebrews 3:14; Jeremiah 23:19). The Final Showdown! A final showdown is coming between Germany and Russia. These age-old foes will tear at each other's throats in the most shocking and bitter hate-filled race war in world history. Germany will have her European and South American allies with her. Russia will have the nations of Asia on her side. Each will be leading other nations into stage three of World War Three (stage one was the invasion of the Middle East by Europe, followed by stage two — their conquest of the Anglo-Saxon-Kelts as we have seen). In the Middle Ages the Germans, led by the weird and sinister Teutonic Knights of darkness invaded Russia. Napoleon, leading various European armies (including German) invaded Russia, and in World War One the Central Powers invaded the Baltic regions and Ukraine, occupying an area as vast as Hitler did in World War Two. Four invasions of Russia have occurred and yet will again! It should come as no surprise that this ingrained love-hate relationship between Russians and Germans has its roots in the ancient Middle East. It is so much a part of their "racial memory" that it is a constituent part of their human nature. For the Assyrians and Mushki were regarded as "natural" enemies throughout their history14 They were each other's major enemy notes Saggs in his celebrated work The Might that was Assyria15. Germany will invade Russia one more time (the First Woe of Revelation 9 pictures this), making such inroads, perhaps up to the Urals, that the Russians would have to call on nuclear weapons and their eastern allies as a final resort. The nations will go mad with bitter hatred for each other. This will be the culmination of race war!

12

McRae 1984; Baker 1981 and Baker 1977 See the books on such by Stranges 1982; Deyo 1987, chapters 1-5, appendixes 1-6; and neo-Nazi books by Friedrich, listed in the Bibliography. 14 Gayre 1973:54 15 Saggs 1984:59

13

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We know that German — led Europe will invade Ethiopia (Daniel 11:4,36). The Hebrew here is Cush and implies not only East Africa but India as well! How like the Aryan, Assyrian, Persian and Greek attempts to conquer India. The European/Roman Empire invasions will not be welcomed by the invaded: But tidings [news] out of the east [China, India, etc.] and out of the north [Russia] shall trouble him [the Beast]: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to take away many (Daniel 11:44).

Memories of the Mongol golden hordes devastating Europe in the Middle Ages and the cruelty of the Russians in their invasion of Germany in World War Two will come flooding back into the memories of Europe. As God says in the book of Psalms: "Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech" (Psalms 120:5). That was a term used in Biblical days like we use the terms Vandals, Huns or Philistines for merciless, cruel peoples and nations. Thus comes the counter-attack (the second Woe of Revelation 9 — stage four of World War Three). Notice what John says of this second woe: Loose the four angels [which may be demons, see II Peter 2:4] which are bound in the great river Euphrates [Iraq]. (See Revelation 7:1; Zechariah 6:1-2; 9:14).

How many are in this army from the east which shall invade Europe and challenge her armies in the Middle east?: Two hundred million! (Revelation 9:15; 16:12). This could only refer to the combined armies of China, India, Russia and southeast Asia. Isaiah refers to them coming against modern Babylon/Europe (Isaiah 21:2-4; 13:12-18). Jeremiah, too, explains: For out of the north country cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate. . .an assembly of great nations from the north country [Russia and her allies]: and they shall set themselves in array against her … Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth [China, Far East]. They shall hold the bow and the lance: they are cruel, and will not show mercy … The King of Babylon hath heard the report of them [compare Daniel 11:44] (50:3,9,41-43).

In chapter fifty-one Jeremiah continues: 11. Make bright the arrows [rockets?]; gather the shields [defense systems]: the Lord hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for His desire is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of His temple [i.e. the persecuted and martyred of His Church in the Tribulation]. (See Revelation 11:2; 18:20; Jeremiah 50:28; Lamentations 2:7; 4:22).

Notice that the Medes come up against Modern Babylon. Today the peoples who constituted the empire of the Medes may be found in western Russia, specifically the Ukraine and Volhynia. This is proven in my paper True Origins of the Peoples of Eastern Europe. In verses twenty-seven and twenty-eight he declares: Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat [Georgia, Armenia], Minni [Iran?] and Ashchenaz [southeast Asia]. . .Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion.

Notice, it is the rulers of Russia which shall marshal together the eastern hordes to attack and destroy Europe — Germany in particular (Zephaniah 2:13; Nahum 3:1-5; Micah 5:5-6; 7:12-13). With them is Kittim (Numbers 24:24; Daniel 11:30). Today Kittim dwells in northeast China! The final conflict will be at the famous Armageddon where the Beast's armies will be in its death throes with the East (Revelation 16:16). Here the powers of Assyrian — led Europe and the Russian-led Orient will temporarily form a truce to battle an invader from outer space — Jesus Christ. However, he will easily defeat them and slaughter anyone who dares exalt himself to stand in His way. Christ will smash militarism!

47

Christ will use the East to devastate Germany to such an extent that even the Black Forest will be flattened (Isaiah 10:18). Look what Isaiah says: As yet shall he [the Assyrian] remain at Nob that day: he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem [the True Church]. Behold. . .the Lord of Hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled (10:32-33).

Germany will be broken! God will humble them (and all nations) like never before! Watch out Germany, God says what He means and means what He says! The Assyrian yoke — burden — on the western world will at last be broken (See Zechariah 10:11; Isaiah 10:24-27). God roars angrily: ... I will break the Assyrian in My land [the Holy Land], and upon My mountains tread him under foot (14:25a).

Notice — Christ will tread them underfoot, disintegrating their ferocious, war-mentality forever. Turn now to the fast-moving, pulsating chapters thirty and thirty one of Isaiah and see with your own eyes what God Almighty portends for the future of the coming Assyrian Beast leader of Europe. In chapter thirty one verses twenty five to twenty six, Isaiah speaks of the Day of the Lord (see Revelation 16:8) during which God will heal the "stroke" of His people. Here he speaks of the beating of Israel by the Assyrian rod (verse 31; 10:5) and how He will deliver them: For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod. And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the Lord shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in bottles of shaking will he fight with it. For Tophet [the place of burning in the Valley of Hinnom; see Jeremiah 7:31] is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; He hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it (Isaiah 30:31-33). [see Isaiah 10:16; Revelation 19:15,20; Daniel 7:11]

Notice, the end-time leader of Europe is called "the Assyrian" and "the King". No doubt the future European dictator, a man of royal background, diplomatic persuasion and acceptable to all the nations of Europe (unlike Hitler, the "vile person" of Daniel 11:21. Incidentally, verse 20 refers to the Hohenzellern's which means "raiser of taxes") will probably arise out of Austria, as a German as such would probably be unacceptable to the peoples of Europe. Notice what Isaiah says in chapter thirty one: Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man; And the sword not of a mean man, shall devour him [compare Revelation 19:15; Isaiah 11:4; Daniel 8:25; 11:45]: but he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited [Hebrew is "tributaries" — i.e. paying respect to God with submission, obedience, gifts etc.]. And he shall pass over to his stronghold for fear [original Hebrew has it "and his rock (i.e. the final Pope) shall pass away by reason of his terror"], and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign [see Isaiah 11:10,12; 66:19; Zechariah 9:16. This is Christ at His return], saith the Lord, whose Fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem (Isaiah 31:8-9).

However, the Good News is that Germany will repent and learn to serve God! Zechariah prophesies that "the pride [arrogance] of Assyria shall be brought down … And I will strengthen them [Israel] in the Lord; And they shall walk up and down in His name" (Zechariah 10:11-12). Walking in God's name means to go His way, under His authority (See Micah 4:5; 6:8; Amos 3:3; Genesis 5:22). They will repent of all their shocking sins and crimes against humanity, including the enslavement of Israel (Hosea 11:12). God will also punish Dedan (the North Germans) according to Jeremiah 49:8; 25:23 and the Swabians (Psalms 72:15; Isaiah 60:6). Their repentant nature shines through, however, in Ezekiel 38:13 where Sheba (the Swabians or perhaps the Sabine Italians), Dedan (the North Germans), Tarshish (western branch is Spain, eastern mutation is Japan. This is explained in my paper Modern Descendants of Dodanim and 48

Tarshish) and the "young lions" (symbol of Assyria) will side with the returned Israelites against the remnants of the two hundred million horde from the east. They shall remember their sins and consequent punishment. They will warn Gog and Magog and the other nations of their confederacy not to make the same mistake as they did! (Ezekiel 38 and 39 refers to a war some time after Christ's return).16 Finally, note what God also has to say of repentant Assyria (Germany) in Isaiah chapter 19: In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria....In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: whom the Lord of Hosts shall bless, saying, 'Blessed be Egypt, My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel Mine Inheritance.' (verses 23-25).

At long last there will be peace on earth and the Anglo-Saxon nations will no longer be troubled by the brethren, the Assyrians. The sooner "That Day" comes the better! Concluding Remarks Through the misty past we can see what history records of the Assyrians and their wanderings into Scythian Russia. The Germans have been a destructive force in European affairs over the centuries. And yet, paradoxically, brilliant inventors and admirable creators of culture, science, music and the arts. How like their ancient Assyrian ancestors: The Assyrian state is without parallel in history for economic destructiveness, organized rapacity, and calculated frightfulness. The cruelty of the Assyrians is a thing that stands out hideously … His greater energy and efficiency he devoted effectively to war. He fought with chariots and horses, with the new iron weapons of the Hittites, and with battering rams of his own invention … His chief god was the war-god Asshur. He set the example of world empire, followed in turn by the Persians, Greeks, Romans, French and Prussians.17

And so, upon repentance, God will use Assyria’s talents mightily during the Millennium and be a force for good and a wonderful example of repentance.

Appendix 3: When do the Armies of Ezekiel 38 and 39 Invade Israel” Does this prophecy occur prior to the return of Christ, after His return or at the end of the Millennium? Who are the nations to be involved in the frightening onslaught? Which nations will oppose them? Do they constitute the Beast power or a rival power? What does the Bible actually say?

• • • • • • • •

Highlights Various Interpretations What Commentaries Say Why will the forces of Ezekiel 38 & 39 invade the Holy Land? Typology Contained within the Book of Joshua Concluding Remarks Appendix: Parallel or Similar Scriptures Appendix: Ezekiel Chapters 38 & 39 with comments References

Various interpretations

16 17

Halley 1965:334; Beasley-Murray 1970:681 Worrell 1927:1048

49

For many years the old WCG taught that the armies of Ezek 38 & 39 come against the House of Israel after they are regathered after the return of Christ: “These … Asian armies are also described in Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39, where elements of those forces are prophesied to invade the Holy Land when all 12 tribes of Israel have returned … These circumstances will be extant only after the coming of the Messiah, when surviving Eurasian forces will be supernaturally punished” (Russia and China in Prophecy, page 31).

The Church taught that the book of Ezekiel followed a logical procession or “a time sequence flowing through the book” (Russia in Prophecy, page 1) interspersed with inset chapters, somewhat like the book of Revelation. For instance: • • • • • • •

Chapter 33 – end-time warning Chapter 34 – scattering of Israel and the Church Chapter 35 – punishment upon Seir and Idumea Chapter 36 – return of Israel to the Holy Land Chapter 37 – Israel and Judah re-united Chapters 38 & 39 – invasion by the forces of Gog and Magog Chapters 40-48 – Millennial Temple

The sequence leads us to come to a logical conclusion, as we shall see. Below are some typical views of these chapters: 1. it occurs shortly after the return of Christ 2. it occurs prior to the Millennium, as they are the forces of the Beast 3. it occurs prior to the Millennium, as they are allies of the Beast 4. it occurs prior to the Millennium, as they are the former allies of Babylon and invade the Middle East after the fall out 5. it is entirely historical and will not occur again 6. it refers only to the events mentioned in Rev 20:7-9 after the Millennium 7. it is entirely symbolic of the forces of evil. Given the above, the interpretation of these chapters may be confusing to some. So, let us turn to both commentaries and obviously, and most importantly, the Bible itself. What commentaries say Commentaries, of course, have various views, such as those listed above. Evangelicals generally take a position that the prophecy refers to an attack upon the Jewish people prior to the return of Christ, during the Tribulation. The more considered commentaries, more logical and conservative in their outlook, take a position more-orless similar to that of the old WCG. Here are quotes from some of them: 1. New Bible Commentary: “These two chapters are unique in OT prophecy in that they describe an uprising of foreign powers against the people of God after the commencement of the Messianic kingdom. The prophecy has already predicted the coming blessedness of Israel (33-37); he now portrays the nation as long settled in their land and transformed into a prosperous community (38:8, 11, 12, 14), a condition which, according to his earlier teaching, involves their prior repentance, regeneration and political revival (33-37). Whereas he had said that Israel’s restoration would come ‘soon’ (36:8), he says that Gog will be mustered ‘after many days … in the latter years’ (38:8). The motive underlying the prophecy is the necessity of earlier prophecies concerning the destruction of hostile Gentile powers being fulfilled (38:17; 39:8) and for the nations of the world to learn the power, holiness and sole deity of Yahweh (see 39:7). 50

The author of the book of Revelation has both used these chapters to vivify his description of Armageddon prior to the millennium (Rev. 19:17, 18), and adapted their essential idea so as to make it a final rebellion of the godless of humanity at the end of the millennium, before the new creation (20:7-9). In comparing the two writings it should be remembered that Ezekiel knew nothing of a new creation nor of a new Israel which was to inherit the kingdom; if John was to incorporate the prophecy he had of necessity to change its form. In conformity with his usage of OT prophecy generally, he has not hesitated to do so” (New Bible Commentary, “38:1-39:29 Prophecy against Gog”, pages 681-02) (emphasis mine).

2. J. Barton Payne in his famous Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy agrees with this position (page 367). He also states that the Bible is 27% predictive, including types. But he does not include many of the types and ‘hidden’ prophetic messages. So, at least 33% of the Bible is prophecy. Payne lists Ezekiel as the most predictive book in the Bible with 821 verses devoted to the subject. 3. Halley’s Bible Handbook: “… A glance at the map makes it plain that he has in mind that part of the world known as Russia … In these two chapters Ezekiel predicts Another Scythian invasion, on a far more stupendous scale, confederate with peoples from the East (38:5), into the Holy Land, against Restored Israel, “in the latter years” (38:8), apparently during the Messianic Age; and that with the help of God, they will be so overwhelmingly defeated that their weapons will supply fuel for 7 years (39:9), and it will take 7 months to bury their dead” (39:14). In the book of Revelation the same words, God and Magog, are used as representing all nations in Satan’s final furious attack on the people of God (Revelation 20:7-10)” (pages 333-34) (emphasis mine).

3. New Bible Dictionary: “The linkage with peoples at the extremities of the then known world (Ezk, xxxviii. 5,6; cf Rev. xx.8) suggests that we are to regard them as eschatological figures rather than as a historically identifiable king, etc. This is the interpretation in Rev. xx. 8 and rabbinic literature. Since we need not interpret Ezk. xxxviii, xxxix as earlier in time than Ezk. xl-xlviii, and rabbinic tradition places Gog after the days of the Messiah, we need see no contradiction between Ezekiel and Revelation, provided we understand the millennium in the sense the Rabbis gave ‘the days of the Messiah’” (New Bible Dictionary, “Gog and Magog” page 480-01).

In principle, this Dictionary sees a rebellion against God sometime after the return of the Messiah if they interpret rabbinic literature correctly – it sees Ezekiel and Revelation as referring to the same event in that context. 4. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: “Perhaps Ezekiel had in mind something of the eschatology of Zec. 14, in which the nations that represented “the ends of the earth” would rise against Jerusalem … In Ezekiel the invasion of Gog occurs during the messianic age, while in Revelation it occurs just at the close of the millennium. In Ezekiel Gog and Magog are gathered by Yahweh for their destruction; in Revelation they are gathered by Satan. In both cases the number is vast, the destruction, by supernatural means, is complete and final” (vol 2, pages 519-20) (emphasis mine).

5. Bullinger’s Companion Bible states: “… Israel will have then already been “gathered” … It must therefore precede the Millennium; and on that account must be distinguished from Rev. 20:8, 10 … after the “gathering” but before the final “Restoration”, and therefore before the Millennium” (pages 1161, 1163). 51

Bullinger can see that it refers to a period after Israel returns from captivity, although prior to the Millennium. One can therefore, given the above commentaries and the sequence of events in Ezekiel, take one of the following points of view: 1. the invasion occurs some years after the return of Christ and the official commencement of the Millennium. This could be at least 3 ½ - 7 years after the return of Christ. 2. the invasion of these peoples occurs after the Great Tribulation and Day of the Lord, after the second Exodus and the gathering of Israel to the Holy Land, and after a period of settlement and peace for Israel and probably other nations. Israel would have repented, had the Holy Spirit granted to her (Ezek 37:15-28) and have come into a Covenant relationship with God. This may be a few years prior to the official commencement of the Millennium when the entire world is brought under Christ and enjoys peace and prosperity. Just as there are some days, spaced between the Feast of Trumpets and Feast of Tabernacles, there may be some years between the return of Christ, putting away of Satan and the official commencement of the Millennium. I am not saying that this is the case, but may be the case. I just don’t know if such a scenario is possible. Finally, given that so much of scripture is dual that these chapters, whilst primarily referring to a time near the beginning of the Millennium, may also refer to the Gog and Magog of Rev 20:7-9 which rises up in rebellion at the end of the Millennium. Why will the forces of Ezekiel 38 & 39 invade the Holy Land? These are the remnants of the forces of the Second Woe (Rev 9:13-21) which God would have used to conquer and punish the countries of the Beast power. Perhaps after the first seven years or so of Israelites being settled back in the Holy Land, after Israel has swooped upon certain gentiles, many of these peoples will rise up in rebellion, claiming discrimination, racism and so on as justifying this invasion. Just as God gives us enough time to repent or show our true colours; just as He allowed Lucifer plenty of time to foment rebellion; so He will allow these forces to develop. The picture we get that these peoples are led by the forces that invaded the nations comprising the Beast power in Europe. As such, they comprise the remnants of the 200 million army pictured in Rev 9:16 (the 1/6th of Ezek 39:2 may mean that 1/6th of the 200 million will come against Israel or that 1/6th of the Gog and Magog forces will be left). The bitterness and jealousy will well-up into a lust for war. They shall see the great blessings and wealth of Israel returned to them and want it for themselves (see Rev 18:11-13; Hag 2:7-9; Is 23:17-18; Ex 12:35-36; Jos 6:18-19). Pro 27:4 Wrath is cruel, and anger is overwhelming; but who is able to stand before envy?

Ezekiel reveals the following: Eze 38:10 So says the Lord Jehovah: And it shall be in that day that things shall come into your heart, and you shall devise an evil plan. Eze 38:11 And you shall say, I will go up to the land of open spaces. I will go to those at ease [cp Lam 1:3], who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and there are no bars nor gates to them, Eze 38:12 in order to take a spoil, and to steal a prize; to turn your hand on the inhabited waste places, and on the people gathered out of the nations, who have gotten cattle and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land.

Notice: this rebellion is against the Israelites who have returned from captivity and who now have gathered much wealth. They also are dwelling in peace, which is hardly a description of the world. And why does this war occur?: Eze 39:21 And I will set My glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see My judgments which I have done, and My hand that I have laid on them. 52

Eze 39:22 So the house of Israel shall know that I am Jehovah their God from that day and forward. [there will be no more doubting Thomas’s] Eze 39:23 And the nations shall know that the house of Israel was exiled [ie prior to this Gog and Magog invasion] for their iniquity [therefore the nations must now also not sin]. Because they sinned against Me, therefore I hid My face from them and gave them into the hand of their enemies. So they all fell by the sword. [it follows on therefore that these gentile nations will now be called to repent and allow God to rule over them through Israel]

There may be parallel passages in Zechariah. Chapter 12 has a Trumpets theme and is read in synagogues on the Day of Trumpets; chapter 13 has an Atonement theme and read on the Day of Atonement; while chapter 14 is read during the Feast of Tabernacles. It is interesting to note that Ezek 38-39 are read in many synagogues during the Feast of Tabernacles, not prior to it. Chapter 14:1-11 refers to the first few years of the Millennium and specifically states that Jerusalem (symbolic of Israel) will be safely inhabited (cp Ezek 38:11,14). Then we are told: Zec 14:12 And this shall be the plague with which Jehovah will strike all the peoples who have fought against Jerusalem [both before and after the return of Christ]. Their flesh shall rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes shall rot in their sockets. And their tongue shall rot in their mouth. Zec 14:13 And it shall be in that day a great panic of Jehovah shall be among them And they shall each one lay hold of his neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor. Zec 14:14 And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the nations all around shall be gathered, gold, and silver, and clothing in great abundance. [cp Eze 39:10] Zec 14:15 And so shall be the plague of the horse, the mule, the camel, and the ass, and of all the beasts which shall be in these tents, like this plague. Zec 14:16 And it shall be, everyone who is left of all the nations which came up against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, Jehovah of Hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Zec 14:21 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holy to Jehovah of Hosts. And all those who sacrifice shall come and take of them, and boil in them. And in that day there shall no longer be a trader [ie Canaanite] in the house of Jehovah of Hosts.

Compare the above with Ezekiel: Eze 38:21 And I will call for a sword against him on all My mountains, says the Lord Jehovah. Each man's sword shall be against his brother. [cp Hag 2:22] Eze 38:22 And I will judge him with a plague and with blood. And I will rain on him, and on his bands, and on the many peoples with him, an overflowing shower, and great hailstones, fire and brimstone. Eze 38:23 So I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself. And I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am Jehovah. [and they know God by loving Him and obeying Him eg by observing the Feast of Tabernacles] What of those nations that, prior to the liberation of Israel by Christ, would have enslaved Israel, but by now have repented and even assisted in the transporting of Israelitish slaves to the Holy Land?: Eze 38:13 Sheba and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all their young lions [Assyria or Germany – Nah 2:8-12; Hos 5:13-14; Jer 2:14-15, 18; 4:7; 50:17; Zech 11:3; Joel 1:6], shall say to you, Have you come to take a spoil? Have you gathered your company to steal a prize, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?

Here we are told that Gog and Magog etc’s intent is to take from Israel what she has gathered from other nations. The nations speaking up and warning them are Sheba (Schwabians), Dedan (Prussians), Tarshish (Spain and Japan) and the young lions (Assyria). These are nations which had formerly comprised the Beast power and allies. But now they are repentant and warn the enemies of Israel not to attack Israel, God’s wife! Why? Because they would be very well aware of the consequences of such action!

Typology Contained within the Book of Joshua 53

The Exodus of Israel from Israel from Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, Wilderness wonderings, crossing of the Jordan and conquest of Canaan by Joshua are typological, as I am sure we have all heard. The typology follows two broad thoughts: 1. spiritual Israelites go through the same basic travel through life of rescue from Satan, baptism, life of trial, baptism of the resurrection, entry into the spiritual Promised Land (Kingdom of God), finding rest. 2. physical Israelites in these last days will be rescued from Babylon, go through a wilderness wondering where they will be cleansed and the Holy Spirit granted to them. They will take and enter the Promised Land of Israel led by Jesus Christ and His saints (Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua) and dwell there in peace (rest). But what happens next? Here are the pertinent scriptures: 1. Israel passes through the Jordan and enters the Holy Land (Jos 3-4) typing the Millennial age 2. Further enemies are encountered after the entry into the Holy Land (Jos 5-6). Keil explains: “… Jericho … the destruction of this town, the key to Canaan, was intended by God to become a type of the final destruction at the last day of the power of this world … [Christ] destroys one worldly power after another, and thus maintains and extends His kingdom upon the earth” (Commentary of the Book of Joshua, pages 50-52) (emphasis mine).

3. Further hostile powers are encountered (Jos 7 – 11). A northern alliance of enemies comes against Israel which Joshua destroys: Jos 10:10 And Jehovah troubled them before Israel, and killed them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goes up to Beth-horon, and struck them to Azekah, and to Makkedah. Jos 10:11 And it happened, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the descent of Bethhoron, Jehovah cast down great stones from the heavens on them to Azekah, and they died. The many who died from hailstones were more than the sons of Israel killed with the sword. [compare this with Ezek 38:22] Jos 11:1 And it happened when Jabin [name means The Intelligent (one)], king of Hazor, had heard, he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph, Jos 11:2 and to the kings on the north of the mountains, and on the plains south of Chinneroth, and in the valley, and in the borders of Dor on the west, Jos 11:3 and to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the mountains, and to the Hivite under Hermon, in the land of Mizpeh. Jos 11:4 And they went out, they and all their armies with them, many people, even as the sand on the seashore in multitude, with very many horses and chariots. Jos 11:5 And when all these kings had met together, they came and pitched together at the waters of Merom, to fight against Israel. Jos 12:1 And these are the kings of the land, whom the sons of Israel struck and whose land they possessed on the other side Jordan toward the rising of the sun, from the river Arnon to mount Hermon, and all the plain on the east: [cp with Jud 7:12] Jos 12:2 Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon and ruled from Aroer, which is on the bank of the river Arnon, and from the middle of the river, and from half Gilead, even to the river Jabbok, the border of the sons of Ammon; Jos 12:3 and from the plain to the sea of Chinneroth on the east, and to the sea of the plain, the Salt Sea on the east, the way to Beth-jeshimoth, and from the south, under The Slopes of Pisgah. Jos 12:4 And they struck the coast of Og king of Bashan, of the rest of the giants [great ones], who lived at Ashtaroth and at Edrei, Jos 12:5 and reigned in mount Hermon and in Salcah, and in all Bashan, to the border of the Geshurites and the Maachathites, and half Gilead, the border of Sihon king of Heshbon.

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Og is a related word to Gog. Ezekiel places him on an equal footing with Magog, yet he is not mentioned as being a descendant of Japheth in the Table of Nations nor anywhere else in scripture. Little reference is made to that or similar names. In history there is a king Gyges of Lydia, called Gugu by the Assyrians (New Bible Dictionary, page 480) who was ruler of a Cimmerian people (Peoples of Old Testament Times, page 165). Also the Arabs referred to the 'Yajuj and Majuj' as living in North-east Asia beyond the Tatars and Sclavonians. Gog may also be the Yao of ancient Chinese history. What does Gog actually mean? "Gog - it is a long o both in the Hebrew and in the Greek - is made from the old-worldroot 'GG', which in the early languages implied something 'g-i-g-antic'. Russia has this long time been the colossus of the north'. A potentate of bible history and prophecy was 'Agog'. That name, or rather, its title, comes from the same root. He was (in his own estimation), a, Aleph, + GG = No. 1 - GREAT ! The Agagites, we are told in Young's Analytical Concordance, were an ‘Amalekite tribe’ and Agog, was 'a poetic name of Amalek, derived from a particular dynasty ...'. Of course, it is always on the cards that some great military dictator [in Russian Central Asia] may arise - he would be the personal Gog". (The Russian Chapters of Ezekiel, pages 9-10).

It seems reasonable to assert that these northern armies are typological of the future armies described in Ezekiel. They invade after the commencement of the new age of Israel under Joshua, typological of the Messianic Kingdom, which is set up under Jesus Christ (= Joshua the Anointed One), after which Gog and Magog invade. 4. After they are defeated we are told: Jos 11:23 And Joshua took the whole land, according to all that Jehovah commanded Moses. And Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war [typological of the Messianic age after Gog & Magog are defeated – no more wars until the end of the Millennium].

From the above brief summary of Joshua’s typology, there can be no doubt that Ezekiel 38 & 39 are typed by foes primarily to the north of Israel, after Israel enters the Holy Land. Concluding Remarks Given all the evidence presented in this paper, I am forced to accept that the armies of Ezekiel 38 & 39 represent a threat to Israel after the return of the Messiah, and not beforehand. Now, if Gog and Magog et al, are not the forces during the Great Tribulation which comes against Israel, then who composes the end-time Beast power? Separate papers and booklets are available on this topic.

Parallel or Similar Scriptures There are various prophecies which use either similar wording or are parallel events. I list them below: Ezek 38 & 39

Other Scriptures

Comment

38:4

Zech 14:12-21; Hag 2:22

38:6 38:11

Jer 50:41-42; 51:27-28; Dan 11:44; Rev 16:12 Ezek 36:35-36; Zech 2:4-5; 14:11

38:13

Is 60:3-14

The parallel scripture in Zech represents a time after Christ’s return From this, we see that these hordes are the remnants of the 200 million strong armies The land is at rest (cp Lam 1:3), which is not the case in the end times These appear to be the repented nations who formerly composed the Beast Power or who were part

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38:20

Rev 16:18, 20

38:21 38:22

Zech 14:12-15 Rev 16:8, 21; Ps 140:10-11; Jos 10:11

39:16-21

Is 18:6

39:17

Rev 19:17-21

The earthquake in Rev is against Babylon. The one in Ezek is against the northern armies Parallel events seem to be described here Similar type of plagues poured upon Babylon and the Beast power, will be poured later upon these armies Similar wording and concepts in Is do not necessarily refer to the same event, but could do The ‘feast’ for the animals referred to in Rev is for the Beast armies, but a similar fate awaits the northern armies which are not part of Babylon

Ezekiel Chapters 38 & 39 with comments Note the parts highlighted, showing that its application refers to a period after the return of Christ. Eze 38:1 And the Word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Eze 38:2 Son of man, set your face against Gog [Central Asia], the land of Magog [China], the chief ruler of Rosh [Byelorussians], Meshech [Great Russians around Moscow], and Tubal [Great Russians around Tobolosk], and prophesy against him. Eze 38:3 And say, So says the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the chief ruler of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal. Eze 38:4 And I will turn you back, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed most perfectly, a great assembly with buckler and shield, all of them swordsmen; Eze 38:5 Persia [modern Persia or peoples near Byelorussia], Ethiopia [Cush in East African and India], and Libya [Phut – the Africans] with them, all of them with shield and helmet; Eze 38:6 Gomer [SE Asia] and all his bands; the house of Togarmah [Caucasus and also in Siberia] from the recesses of the north, and all his bands; and many peoples with you. Eze 38:7 Be prepared; yea, prepare for yourself, you and all your assembly that are assembled to you, and be a guard to them. Eze 38:8 After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you shall come into the land turned back from the sword, gathered out of many peoples, on the mountains of Israel, which have always been waste. (But he has been brought out of the peoples, and they shall dwell securely, all of them.) Eze 38:9 And you shall go up, coming like a storm. You shall be like a cloud to cover the land, you and all your bands, and many peoples with you. Eze 38:10 So says the Lord Jehovah: And it shall be in that day that things shall come into your heart, and you shall devise an evil plan. Eze 38:11 And you shall say, I will go up to the land of open spaces. I will go to those at ease, who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and there are no bars nor gates to them, [this must be a time after the Second Exodus] Eze 38:12 in order to take a spoil, and to steal a prize; to turn your hand on the inhabited waste places, and on the people gathered out of the nations, who have gotten cattle and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land. Eze 38:13 Sheba [Schwabian Germans] and Dedan [Prussians], and the merchants of Tarshish [Japanese and/or Spanish], with all their young lions [Assyrians (Nah 2:8-12; Hos 5:13-14; Jer 2:14-15, 18; 4:7; 50:17; Zech 11:3; Joel 1:6) and perhaps other former nations and allies of the US of Europe], shall say to you, Have you come to take a spoil? Have you gathered your company to steal a prize, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil? [ie “don’t you know what happened to us?”] Eze 38:14 So, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, So says the Lord Jehovah: In that day when My people of Israel dwells securely, shall you not know it? Eze 38:15 And you shall come from your place out of the recesses of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army. Eze 38:16 And you shall come up on My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It shall be in the last days, and I will bring you against My land [Holy Land, not North America and Britain], so that the nations may know Me when I shall be sanctified in you, O Gog, before their eyes. Eze 38:17 So says the Lord Jehovah: Are you he of whom I have spoken in former days, by the hand of My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days and years that I would bring you against them? [these prophecies appear to be lost] Eze 38:18 And it shall be on that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel, says the Lord Jehovah, My fury shall come up in My face. Eze 38:19 For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath I have spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great quaking in the land of Israel,

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Eze 38:20 so that the fish of the sea, and the birds of the heavens, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep on the earth, and all the men on the face of the earth, shall quake at My presence. And the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. [a giant earthquake] Eze 38:21 And I will call for a sword against him on all My mountains, says the Lord Jehovah. Each man's sword shall be against his brother. Eze 38:22 And I will judge him with a plague and with blood. And I will rain on him, and on his bands, and on the many peoples with him, an overflowing shower, and great hailstones, fire and brimstone. [cp Jos 10:11] Eze 38:23 So I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself. And I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am Jehovah. Eze 39:1 Therefore, son of man, prophesy against Gog and say, So says the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the chief ruler of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal. Eze 39:2 And I will turn you back, and lead you on. And I will bring you up from the recesses of the north, and I will bring you on the mountains of Israel. Eze 39:3 And I will strike your bow out of your left hand, and will cause your arrows to fall out of your right hand. Eze 39:4 You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your bands, and the people with you. I will give you for food to the birds of prey of every kind, and to the beasts of the field. Eze 39:5 You shall fall on the face of the field, for I have spoken, says the Lord Jehovah. Eze 39:6 And I will send a fire on Magog, and on the secure inhabitants of the coasts. And they shall know that I am Jehovah. [volcanoes?] Eze 39:7 And I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel. And I will not let them profane My holy name any more. And the nations shall know that I am Jehovah, the Holy One in Israel. Eze 39:8 Behold, it is coming, and it will be done, says the Lord Jehovah. This is the day of which I have spoken. Eze 39:9 And the inhabitants of the cities of Israel shall go out and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the javelins, and the spears. And they shall burn them with fire seven years [the Biblical number of completeness], Eze 39:10 so that they shall take no wood out of the field, nor cut down any out of the forests for they shall burn the weapons for fire [these weapons will provide fuel]. And they shall plunder those who plundered them, and rob those who robbed them, says the Lord Jehovah. Eze 39:11 And it will be in that day I will give to Gog a place there, a grave in Israel, the valley of those who pass by, east of the sea. And it shall stop the noses of those who pass by. And there they shall bury Gog and all his multitude. And they shall call it, The Valley of the Multitude of Gog. Eze 39:12 And the house of Israel shall bury them, to cleanse the land, seven months. Eze 39:13 And all the people of the land shall bury. And it shall be a name to them, the day when I am glorified, says the Lord Jehovah. Eze 39:14 And men shall separate those who continually pass through the land, burying those who passed through, who remain on the face of the earth, to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they shall search. Eze 39:15 And as they pass, those who pass through the land, and any man sees a bone, then he shall build a post beside it, until the buriers have buried it in The Valley of the Multitude of Gog. Eze 39:16 And also the name of the city is The Multitude. And they shall cleanse the land. Eze 39:17 And you, son of man, So says the Lord Jehovah. Speak to the bird of every wing, and to every beast of the field: Gather yourselves and come; gather yourselves from all around to My sacrifice that I sacrifice for you, a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, so that you may eat flesh and drink blood. Eze 39:18 You shall eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the rulers of the earth, of rams, lambs, goats, and bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. Eze 39:19 And you shall eat fat until you are full, and drink blood until you are drunk, of My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. Eze 39:20 And you shall be filled at My table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, all the men of war, says the Lord Jehovah. Eze 39:21 And I will set My glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see My judgments which I have done, and My hand that I have laid on them. Eze 39:22 So the house of Israel shall know that I am Jehovah their God from that day and forward. Eze 39:23 And the nations shall know that the house of Israel was exiled for their iniquity. Because they sinned against Me, therefore I hid My face from them and gave them into the hand of their enemies. So they all fell by the sword. Eze 39:24 According to their uncleanness and according to their sins I have done to them, and have hidden My face from them. [possibly from about here onwards, we have an inset section] Eze 39:25 Therefore so says the Lord Jehovah: And I will return the captivity of Jacob, and will have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for My holy name;

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Eze 39:26 after they have borne their shame and all their sins by which they have sinned against Me, when they dwell securely in their land and no one terrifies; Eze 39:27 when I have brought them again from the peoples, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations; Eze 39:28 then they shall know that I am Jehovah their God who exiled them among the nations. But I have gathered them to their own land, and have not left any of them there. Eze 39:29 Nor will I hide My face from them any more, for I have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel, says the Lord Jehovah.

References for Appendix 3 Armstrong, HW (1971) Barton-Payne, J (1973) Bromiley, GW (1982) Bullinger, EW (c1900) Douglas, JD (1972) Guthrie, D et al (1972) Halley, HH (1965) Keil, CF (1857) Milner, W (1941) Sayce, AH (1928) Wiseman, DJ (1973) Worldwide Church of God (1987)

Russia in Prophecy. Ambassador College, Pasadena. (update of 1956 article). Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy. Hodder and Stoughton, London. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Vol 2. William B Eerdmans, Michigan. The Companion Bible. Samuel, Bagster and Sons Ltd, London. The New Bible Dictionary. Inter-Varsity Press, England. The New Bible Commentary Revised. Inter-Varsity Press, London. Halley’s Bible Handbook. Zondervan, Michigan. A Commentary on the Book of Joshua. T&T Clark, Edinburgh. Reprinted 1996 by Henderickson Publishers, Peabody, Mass. The Russian Chapters Of Ezekiel. Destiny Publishers, Mass. First Published 1923. Races of The Old Testament. Lutterworth Press, Surrey. Peoples of Old Testament Times. Oxford University Publishers. Russia and China in Prophecy. WCG, Pasadena.

Other References: Chittum, TW (1996) Muehlberg, RL (1996)

Civil War Two. The coming breakup of America. Arizona. Jet Stream. New York.

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