Thursday, June 14, 2007

Armageddon/Who is Gog?

Here is a study I did, which started as a look at Armageddon(Har-Megiddo). As most people who have studied scriptures and/or Israeli history, many battles have been fought at Megiddo. The LAST one will involve Yah Himself. By the way, I reference a couple of maps I've found, both using the E-sword bible program. You can find the program, along with the maps, at www.e-sword.net . A majority of downloads there are free, and it's a great program.
On to the study....

I did some research on Har-Megiddo/Armageddon as mentioned in Revelation 16. There is some POWERFUL stuff to understand when you start looking at WHO is involved with this. In a nutshell, there are TWO 'battles' or judgements: one for Babylon, the other for the GENTILES. If you have the American Bible society maps from E-sword, then look at the map of the Assyrian and Babylonian Kingdoms, 9th to 6th century BC. You'll find 'TUBAL' and 'MESHECH" are located in what is now GREECE. If you download the CLASSIC BIBLE MAPS(also free), and look at the MAP OF THE WORLD, you'll see the same thing, as these are children of JAPHETH(given in Gen. 10). These are important things to remember when you go through the scriptures.
Assuming you've gotten this far with this, I'll show you the NT reference, then highlight some important passages in the OT as far as the TIMING of these things....

Rev 16:12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
Rev 16:13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
Rev 16:14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Rev 16:15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
Rev 16:16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

First of all, you have to come to understand the LINK between Gog/Magog and the battle given above. That is given in Revelation 20....

Rev 20:7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Rev 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever .

Why are these passages linked together? Compare the following....

Rev 16:13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
Rev 16:14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
Rev 20:8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

Notice the result of this is the same.....
Rev 20:9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Eze 38:19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
Eze 38:20 So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.
Eze 38:21 And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man's sword shall be against his brother.
Eze 38:22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.

So it is important to understand WHO this battle involves and WHEN it takes place. Now that Gog/Magog is established as to the WHO, we can then further see WHO this is....

Gen 10:1 Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.
Gen 10:2 The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.
Gen 10:3 And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah.
Gen 10:4 And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.
Gen 10:5 By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.

I saw something else in that Gen 10:5 verse, notice the phrase 'isles of the Gentiles'. There is a reference to that in Ezekiel too....

Eze 39:6 And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

If you look at Revelation 20, there are two 'battles': the first one is when satan is thrown into the pit for 1000 years, the SECOND one is Gog/Magog/Armageddon. This is also confirmed by the Ezekiel passages....(Notice that this says it comes to mind as PAST TENSE, that is, that it has ALREADY HAPPENED at this point)....

Eze 38:10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
Eze 38:11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
Eze 38:12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
Eze 38:13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?
Eze 38:14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?

SO, by this reckoning, guess what? THE RAPTURE(really, the ingathering to the land)has ALREADY OCCURRED.(That may twist your thinking a bit about the rapture theory, I'm sure). Armageddon occurs AFTER the 1000 year rest, when there are people living securely in the land.
This also CONFIRMS what Paul was teaching. Check this out...

1Th 5:2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
1Th 5:3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
1Th 5:4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
1Th 5:5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
1Th 5:6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
1Th 5:7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
1Th 5:8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.
1Th 5:9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Messiah Yahshua Hamashiach.

This confirms Rev. 16 and Ezekiel 38....

Rev 16:14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
Rev 16:15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
Rev 16:16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

Eze 38:7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
Eze 38:8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
Eze 38:9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.

One other thing to consider....recall I said there were TWO battles, Babylon and Armageddon. Check out Daniel...

Dan 10:12 Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.
Dan 10:13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.

Persia was to the east, which included Babylon(Shinar), and those countries that are now MUSLIM. Note later in that same chapter of Daniel....

Dan 10:20 Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Greece shall come.

Now that we've come this far, we can identify BOTH PRINCES...Persia is of Mohammed(Muslim), Greece is of GOG(Gentiles). Pretty interesting stuff, and I'm sure there is more here than I'm seeing. More later, as it is revealed...
Michael

6 comments:

Susan said...

Hi Michael,

I'm confused, I'm sorry, your post just wasn't clear to me. Are you saying you think the rapture is after the 1000 years but before the Gog/Magog battle....? and what are you saying the two battles are exactly? Could you say it so that even I can understand it? This is an area (Millenium) that I'm real weak on, so I really have no clue what you are trying to say.

Thank you :)

Also, could you explain why you call Jesus Yah? Where is He called that? Have have heard the name YHWH, but not Yah, where does that originate?

Michael said...

Shalom Susan,
The two battles deal with the Prince of Persia and the Prince of Greece, which is given in Daniel(as posted in the blog). The Prince of Persia, which is basically the Muslim religion as well as Babylon, is what comes first, at Yahshua's return. That is when ONLY the saints are resurrected 'and we who are alive and remain will be forever with Him.'(1Thes.4:17) That would be your 'rapture'. BTW, the ideas given to the rapture are pretty much incorrect. The 'gathering', which is a more correct term, must occur before the sabbath day rest, because there is no gathering on the sabbath day. So, if I can nutshell this, we have the Babylon judgement(burning with fire), in which the world system is burned up, then the sabbath rest, then Gog/Magog, when the final resistance to God is defeated. Does that clear it up at all?
As for calling the Messiah Yah, I did not mean that, although I see where you might have come to that conclusion. I use 'Yah' as a basic term for 'God', that is, YHWH, the Creator. Yahshua is the firstborn SON of YHWH.

Susan said...

[quote]As for calling the Messiah Yah, I did not mean that, although I see where you might have come to that conclusion. I use 'Yah' as a basic term for 'God', that is, YHWH, the Creator. Yahshua is the firstborn SON of YHWH.[/quote]

Hi Michael, thanks, that is a little clearer, except for the above...do you agree that Jesus is God having taken on the form of the flesh, and having no beginning, having created everything that is made with God the Father?

Michael said...

The simple answer to your question is: No, He is not YHWH. He IS the firstborn SON of YHWH, which is true. From this point, my response would get into many scriptures. If this bothers you, I would say simply to find in the New Testament where He is called YHWH. You will notice with Yahshua's own words that He directs EVERYTHING, including all that was given to Him, FROM the Father. So there is ONE that is ABOVE Him, hence He is the Son. He even told His disciples to pray to the FATHER, not to Him. And to whom does He sit on the right hand of?
Maybe I should include something more indepth on the blog page itself?

Susan said...

Hi Michael,

Do you agree with the Jehovah's Witnesses view of who Jesus is? Yes, maybe a seperate blog article might help me better understand your POV on this, thanks!

Michael said...

I don't remember what the JW's belief is, as it has been many years since I've had to deal with them. I have found that all 'religions' have some truth in them, but also lots of leaven, as Yahshua warned us about....'Beware the leaven of the Pharisees/Sadducees/scribes'. I'll put something up on the blog about it.