In February 2022 , the 91 - year - quondam televangelist Pat Robertson come out of retirement to share an urgent content about Russia ’s invasion of Ukraine . According to Roberston , the Russian President Vladimir Putin was " compel by God " to start a war that was predicted M of years ago by the Old Testament oracle Ezekiel .
Specifically , Robertson key out Putin as " Gog of Magog , " a leader of barbarian armies that Ezekial prophesied would attack Israel in the final day and finally be squash by God .
Gog and Magogare note in the Hebrew Bible , New Testament and Quran and may refer to two individual , an individual and his land , or even two nations . Magog appear twicein the Old Testamentwhere he is report asa son of Japhethor a grandson of the biblical characterNoah(the one with the ark ) . Gog is described in1 Chron . 5:4as a descendent of the prophet Joel . Despite their lineages , they are usually affiliate with ushering in the ending of the world and destruction .
Over the centuries , there have been countless diachronic challenger for Gog and his " northern " encroacher from the Carry Nation of Magog . Ancient Christian writer were certain that Ezekiel was talking about uncivilized horde of Goths , Huns , Mongols , Picts and Turks , while modern watchman for the " end times " have opt enemies like Russia , Iraq , China or even the United States .
" The candidates for Gog range from Ronald Reagan to Mikhail Gorbachev to Donald Trump , " saysStephen Cook , an expert in apocalyptic literature at the Virginia Theological Seminary . " revelatory written material is hard , because there ’s always the enticement to seek to treat it as a form of code or cipher for present-day geopolitical events , and that ’s been done across meter . "
notion in biblical prophecy conk all the way up to the White House . Ronald Reaganwas convincedthat the former Soviet Union was Gog of Magog and that nuclear war between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. would be the biblical battle of Armageddon prophesied in the Book of Revelation . George W. Bush , when preparing to invade Iraq in 2003,reportedlytold the French president Jacques Chirac that " scriptural prophecies were being fulfilled " and discover Gog as Saddam Hussein .
So where on the dot did these apocalyptic prophecies fall from and why have the literal word gripped the imagination of believer from all three major monotheistic faiths : Judaism , Christianity andIslam ? Let ’s dive in .
The Bible as a ‘Map’ of the End Times
Both the Old Testament ( or Hebrew Bible ) and the New Testament take writings that purport to map out the " end times . " The details differ , but the big - picture show idea is that before God establishes his reign of peace on Earth , there will be a disruptive period of warfare and bedlam . Ultimately , the military group of God will defeat the forces of Satan , but things will get a small mussy first .
The Book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament is one of the earliest apocalyptical text edition . An " Book of Revelation , " explains Cook , is unlike from regular prophecy . Nebiim receive revelation about succeeding events , but apocalyptic visionaries like Ezekiel are shown a " window into the beyond " and claim to literally see those future event unfold .
Inchapters 38 and 39 , Ezekiel records a vision in which God control him to prophesy against " Gog , of the land of Magog , " and inform this Gog fictitious character that the Lord God was going to " put hook in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army " to go to war . God continues , say :
In other words , Gog will invade Israel and God will display his resplendency by perfectly destroying the armies of Gog and give their corpses straw across the land as " food to all kinds of carrion birds and to the wild animals . "
For Judaic reader , Ezekiel ’s prophecy was a promise that God would one solar day deliver his mass from the strength of subjugation , whether it was Babylonian capturer , Roman emperors or Nazi murderers — all good nominee for Gog of Magog .
Gog of Magog Becomes Gog and Magog
For Christians , Gog of Magog underwent a transformation in another apocalyptic text , the New Testament Book of Revelation . Inthe final chapterof Revelation , an angel binds Satan in hell and heralds a thousand - year reign of peace make love as the millenary . The text continue :
In place of Ezekiel ’s vision of a single individual , " GogofMagog , " Revelation presents " GogandMagog , " a collecting of all the land play a joke on by Satan into fighting the force of God . grant to Revelation , the state of war with Gog and Magog is the last with child fight before God defeats Satan and begins the final judgment .
The precise identity of Gog of Magog is dissimilar in Ezekiel and Revelation , but for both ancient and modern Christian readers of the Bible , the overarching Gog prophecy is the same .
" It ’s clear that there will be an eructation of chaos that will hap before this net battle against evil where all the forces of death , chaos , disruption and wildness are finally put down , " sound out Cook . " That defeat will usher in what Jesus and other prophets consult to as the Kingdom of God . "
The Ancient Game of Identifying Gog
For more than 2,000 age , mass living in radically different places and multiplication have believed that they were witness the visual modality of Ezekiel and Revelation fall to pass . And just like Pat Robertson , they were convert that they had expose the true identity of Gog and/or Magog .
The Jewish - Roman historiographer Flavius Josephus , write in the first century C.E. , was confident that Magog referred to those " who are by the Greeks call Scythians . “AccordingtoAndrew Mein , a biblical scholar at the University of St. Andrews , the full term " Scythians " refers to a band of " wild tribe " from Central Europe to the Caucuses , which fits Ezekiel ’s description of Gog ’s army attack from the north .
In the 4th century C.E. , the Christian writer Ambrose was 100 per centum trusted that Gog was the Goths . Not only did thetwo gens voice alike , but the tike fit the peak as violent , marauding hordes that attacked the Roman Empire from the north . During the Crusades , Christian leader like Pope Urban and St. Bernhard equate the " Saracen " ( a Middle Ages term for Muslims and Arabs ) with the force of Gog and Magog .
Martin Luther , the Protestant reformer , also got in on the act . He key the Turks — who hecalled"a wild , ravening people … always ready to rob and engage warfare " — as the true nation of Magog .
The " Gog secret plan " has endured for centuries and is n’t enclose to Christians . In 1991 , the Chassidic Jewish leader Menachem Schneersondeclaredthat the first Gulf War was " the final battle against the heathen King Gog from the land of Magog , " and that the Temple in Jerusalem would be rebuilt travel along the battle .
In the Quran , Gog and Magog are represented byYajuj and Majuj , and they trifle the same apocalyptic function for Muslims . Centuries ago , Muslims identified the Mongols as the force of Yajuj and Majuj , since a 13th - 100 Mongol encroachment destroyed in Muslim Abbasid Empire . In modern times , some Muslim clerics have shot back at " westerly imperialists " like the United States , say Mein , and accused Christian nation of being the dependable Yajuj and Majuj .
For Cook , who has spent decades studying apocalyptic textbook , and of late publisheda new translation and commentary on Ezekiel , folk music like Robertson and his harbinger are overleap the compass point .
" To come out and say that ' this is THE Gog and Magog event , and it was foreseen like a crystal ball at the time of Ezekiel , ' that ’s just not read this lit right wing , " says Cook . He believe that vaticinator like Ezekiel and John of Revelation were tap into an " archetypal reality " that live beyond the land of current events , but nonetheless signals that God will one 24-hour interval make thing right in the world .
