Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

20:7-8
ministry; that was Satan’s motivation for tempting
Him, for entering into Judas to betray Him, and for
inspiring the Jewish and Roman authorities to slay
Him. His plan backfired, of course (1 Cor. 2:6-8), and
the Cross became his own destruction. Throughout the
Book of Revelation St. John has shown the devil
frantically working to bring about the final battle, and
invariably being frustrated in his designs. Only after
God’s Kingdom has realized its earthly potential, when
the full thousand years have been completed, will
Satan be released to foment the last rebellion – thus
engendering his own final defeat and eternal
destruction.
In describing the eschatalogical war, St. John uses the
vivid “apocalyptic” imagery of Ezekiel 38-39, which
prophetically depicts the Maccabees’ defeat of the
Syrians in the second century B.C.: The ungodly forces
are called Gog and Magog. According to some popular
premillennial writers, this expression refers to Russia,
and foretells a war between the Soviets and Israel
during a future “Tribulation.” Even apart from the fact
that this interpretation is based on a radically
inaccurate reading of Matthew 24 and the other “Great
Tribulation” passages, 33 it is beset with numerous
internal inconsistencies. First, premillennialists tend to
speak of this coming war with the Soviet Union as
synonymous with the “Battle of Armageddon” (16:16).
Yet, on premillennialist assumptions, the Battle of
Armageddon takes place before the Millennium begins
– more than 1,000 years before St. John’s “Gog and
Magog” finally appear! Thus, premillennial prophecy
buffs are treated to prolonged discussions of present
Soviet military might and their supposed preparations
for assuming the role of “Gog and Magog.” 34 At the
same time, there is virtually a complete neglect of what
the Book of Revelation actually says about the war with
Gog and Magog; apparently, the specific facts of
Biblical revelation occasionally get in the way of
“prophetic truth.” 35
Second, those who interpret the war of “Gog and
Magog” as an end-time war involving the Soviet Union
usually pride themselves on being “literalists. ” Yet we
should take note of what a strictly literal interpretation
of Ezekiel 38-39 requires:
1. Gog’s reason for invading Israel is to plunder her
silver and gold, and to take away her cattle (38:11-
13); contrary to much premillennialist exposition,
nothing is said about expropriating Israel’s oil or
extracting minerals from the Dead Sea.
2. All of Gog’s soldiers are on horseback (38:15);
there are no soldiers in trucks, jeeps, tanks,
helicopters, or jets.
3. All of Gog’s soldiers are carrying swords, wooden
shields, and helmets (38:4-5); their other weapons
are wooden bows and arrows, clubs, and spears
(39:3, 9).
4. Instead of using firewood (apparently no one even
considers using gas, electricity, or solar power), the
victorious Israelites will burn Gog’s wooden
weapons for fuel for seven years (39:9-10).
Third, the expression Gog and Magog does not, and
never did, refer to Russia. That has been entirely made
up from whole cloth, and simply repeated so many
times that many have assumed it to be true. Ostensible
reasons for this interpretation are based on a peculiar
reading of Ezekiel 38:3, which speaks of “Gog, the chief
prince of Meshech and Tubal.” The word chief is, in the
Hebrew, rosh; some have therefore translated the text as
“Gog, the prince of Rosh.” Rosh sounds something like
Russia; therefore Gog is the prince (or premier) of
Russia. Unfortunately for this ingenious interpretation,
rosh simply means head, and is used over 600 times in
the Old Testament – never meaning “Russia.” 36
Those who hold that “Gog” (a name supposedly
derived from Soviet Georgia, since they both start with
a “G”!) is the Soviet Premier generally make the
further claim that “Meshech” is really Moscow, “Tubal”
is Tobolsk, and “Gomer” (of Ezek. 38:6) is Germany. In
his very helpful examination of this issue, 37 Ralph
Woodrow comments: “This is doubtful. ‘Moscow’
comes from the Moscovites and is a Finnish name.
Moscow was first mentioned in ancient documents in
1147 A. D., when it was a small village. Some think
Tubal means Tobolsk, but this is only a similarity in
33. This should be obvious by now; cf. Chilton, Paradise Restored, pp. 77-102.
34. It is certainly true that the Soviet Union’s aggressive imperialism and its
worldwide sponsorship of terrorism pose a grave danger to the Western
nations; see Jean-Frangois Revel, How Democracies Perish (Garden City:
Doubleday and Co., 1984). This, however, has nothing to do with fulfilled
prophecy, and everything to do with the fact that the West has
simultaneously engaged in an increasing renunciation of Christian ethics and
a progressive military and technological outfitting of her enemies; on the
latter, see Antony Sutton, Western Technology and Soviet Economic
Development, 1917-67, three vols. (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1968-
73); idem, National Suicide (New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1973); cf.
Richard Pipes, Survival Is Not Enough: Soviet Realities and America’s Future
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984). Those who are shocked that the
possible future conquest of the United States by the Soviets might not be
included in Bible prophecy would do well to consider the large number of
important conflicts throughout the last thousand years of Western history
that have also been omitted – such as the Norman Conquest, the Wars of the
Roses, the Thirty Years’ War, the English Civil War, the American
Revolution, the French Revolution, the Napoleonic War, the Seminole War,
the Revolutions of 1848, the Crimean War, the War between the States, the
Sioux Indian War, the Boer War, the Spanish-American War, the Mexican
Revolution, the First World War, the Spanish Civil War, the Italo-Ethiopian
War, the Second World War, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, to
name a few; many of which were viewed by contemporary apocalyptists as
notable fulfillments of Biblical prophecy.
35. The obvious example, of course, is Hal Lindsey, whose Late Great Planet Earth
(Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1970) spends about thirty
pages (pp. 59-71, 154-68) detailing how the Soviet Union will soon fulfill the
prophecy of “Gog and Magog” in the Battle of Armageddon, and takes only
two or three sentences to deal with Rev. 20:8 – not once even mentioning
that the only reference to Gog and Magog in the entire Book of Revelation
is in that verse. Cf. idem, There’s a New World Coming: A Prophetic Odyssey
(Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 1973), pp. 222-25, 278. Another example is
the usually more circumspect Henry M. Morris, whose Revelation Record: A
Scientific and Devotional Commentary on the Book of Revelation (Wheaton:
Tyndale House Publishers, 1983) discusses Gog and Magog under Rev. 6:1
(pp. 108-110) and 16:12 (p. 310), but strives mightily to dismiss the
significance of the reference in 20:8 (pp. 422f.).
36. Here is a complete list of its uses in Ezekiel alone: 1:22,25, 26; 5:1; 6:13; 7:18;
8:3; 9:10; 10:1, 11; 11:21; 13:18; 16:12, 25, 31, 43; 17:4, 19, 22; 21:19, 21;
22:31; 23:15, 42; 24:23; 27:22, 30; 29:18; 32:27; 33:4; 38:2-3, 39:1; 40:1;
42:12; 43:12; 44:18, 20.
37. Ralph Woodrow, His Truth Is Marching On: Advanced Studies on Prophecy in
the Light of History (Riverside, CA: Ralph Woodrow Evangelistic
Association, 1977), pp. 32-46.
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