Thursday, September 19, 2013

Who is “Gog” and Why he’s NOT the Beast of Daniel’s 70th Week

Collective Security Treaty Organization
Организация Договора о коллективной безопасности

Update 19 September 2013: Four years is a long time between updates, nevertheless, this item is back to the top of Eschatology Today with an update.



In my assessment the CSTO is about to kick itself into high gear due to the very recent events which pitted the CSTO military alliance against a faltering NATO alliance over the issue of chemical weapons use in the Syrian civil war. While the world may see that confrontation as one of Russia versus America, I see it as a CSTO versus NATO confrontation because the charters of these organizations view an attack upon one member as an attack upon all members who are then obligated to join in a common defense.

As a direct result of these recent events a CSTO Council and statutory bodies meeting will convene in Sochi, Russia on Monday morning, 23 September 2013 at which the member nations representatives will sign numerous documents and agree to the creation of a CSTO Joint Air Force. The CSTO Joint Air Force will complement the already existing CSTO Collective Rapid Reaction Force (CSTO CRRF). One week later, between October 1 and 4, these same CSTO members will reconvene in Yerevan, Armenia for further tightening of the alliance in all areas of military cooperation. 



The key military function of both meetings is the CSTO CRRF which as of yesterday morning began a large scale military exercise on the territory of member nation Belarus. The exercise is known as "Cooperation 2013." The "Cooperation 2013" exercise will continue through September 27, 2013 and includes the CSTO CRRF contingents from Armenia, Belarus, the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

It is my assessment that the CSTO Collective Rapid Reaction Force and its newly integrated Joint Air Force will be the forces that are prophesied to march against Israel in the near future during the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38/39. It is these forces which will be annihilated by God and buried by the people of Israel in the Valley of the Passengers (the Valley of Hamon-Gog) east of the Dead Sea.

  

02 October 2009: Armies of Gog, The Chief Prince of Magog, Rosh, Meshech and Tubal Initiate Military Exercises
 
The Russian-led military alliance of seven former Soviet Republics known by the acronym CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization), the counter-balance to the American-European NATO alliance, began large-scale military exercises today at the Matybulak training grounds in southern Kazakhstan.

The name given to this CSTO military force is "Collective Rapid Reaction Force" (CRRF). One of the CRRF's principle mission objectives is to wage war on Islamic insurgent groups on the territories of the member countries: Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Just another nail in the coffin of the Gog is Antichrist shoehorned eisegesis.
14 September 2009: The overwhelmingly accepted Christian eschatological definition for the name Ezekiel 38 and 39 identified as “Gog” is that of a man who will be the chief prince or leader of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal and who is to come from the land of the Magog located far to the north of modern day Israel.

Eschatology Today and our sourced documents have provided the ancient historical records, themselves from additional multiple-sourced historical records, from which a firm eschatological conclusion has been achieved in determining that Magog, Rosh, Meshech and Tubal are ethnically diverse nations which exist today within modern Russia to include the 46 oblasts, 21 republics, 4 autonomous okrugs, 9 krays, 2 federalized cities and 1 autonomous oblast of Russia; officially and internationally recognized as the Russian Federation, or within the increasingly totalitarian political confederation known as the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Let’s compare the above regarding “Gog” with my July 8, 2009 article “Origin of the Antichrist.”
A few excerpts of my research should suffice for this comparison.
“He (Antichrist) has always been an enigma, a man of mystery, prophesied to be of fierce countenance, a master of deceit and deception, of such unearthly evil power and charisma that by his mere presence all of mankind will be subdued and submit to his will.

The beast will be a man who ultimately will be wholly possessed by a demonic spirit ascended out of the abyss and identified by the name of Abaddon in Hebrew and Apollyon in the Greek; a man of mind bending unconscionable evil destined to stand as Satan incarnate during Daniel's 70th Week. He is a man whose name John revealed in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, chapter 13 verse 18, would count to or calculate to the Greek alphabetical-numerical equivalent of χξϚ (chi-xi-stigma) or six-hundred, three-score and six. 666.”

Who among us is so bold as to declare, contrary to the Word of God in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, that the name of “Gog” must be given the same alpha-numeric value as the 666 assigned to the Antichrist? Only someone completely ignorant of the Lord’s admonition found in Revelation 22:18-19 would do so.

As I wrote and cited Scripture in the above article, all indications from the prophet Daniel are that the coming Antichrist would be modeled on his Biblical predecessor, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a man of a definitive Greek-Macedonian bloodline; that he would possess a might that is not derived from his own power; that he would exalt himself above everything, including God and Christ, and yet in the end he would come to his end without human means, as revealed in Revelation 19:20-21:

“Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.”

To review what has already been covered in this blog, Gog comes from the land of Magog and is a prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal. Gog is a man who is from an ethnic Russian origin. Gog is killed in battle in Israel and buried in Israel in a mass grave in what will become known as the Valley of Hamon Gog. Gog has no side-kick or accomplice such as the False Prophet.

In stark contrast to the fate of Gog, the Antichrist is indwelt by a demonic spirit from the Abyss known as Abaddon/Apollyon. It is my absolute conviction that Daniel's prophecy informs us in no uncertain terms that the coming Antichrist will specifically arise from a Greek or Hellenic ancestry; that he will be a direct descendant of the Biblical Javan via one of his sons whose progeny populate Europe and most of the nations of the West. In his defeat Antichrist and his False Prophet are captured by Jesus Christ and are immediately “cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.” This fate is entirely and wholly different than that of the human followers of Antichrist who are “killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of” the KING OF KINGS AND LORD OR LORDS, our Lord Jesus Christ.

The differences between Gog and Antichrist are exceptional differences. They are even more exceptional than the brief synopsis provided in this article. However, even these brief exceptional differences cannot be overlooked by anyone unless they are conducting eschatological studies in a manner not unlike the locomotive ability of some surface skimming water strider.

UPDATED EXEGESIS: The ultimate proof that Gog cannot possibly be one and the same as the Antichrist is found in the Biblical fact that Gog and his armies are IMMEDIATELY UNSUCCESSFUL in their invasion of Israel. Almighty God will personally see to that. On the other hand, the Antichrist WILL BE SUCCESSFUL and will stand in the Temple declaring himself to be God. Put another way, since Gog will be dead and buried in the Valley of Hamon Gog it will be literally impossible for him to stand in the Temple much less have an image of himself placed there. Therefore Gog cannot possibly be the Antichrist.

8 comments:

  1. Gramma from Canada,

    Thank you my dear sister in Christ Jesus. Anything you wish to contribute to the comments of this blog will continue to be published immediately.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Interesting. I agree 100% with the fact that Gog is not the Antichrist.

    One thing though, can you please help me to understand why you believe that the Antichrist is specifically of Greek/Macedonian decent. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Please see my linked July 8, 2009 article "Origin of the Antichrist" for details.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sharon downunder in NZOctober 17, 2009 at 12:29 AM

    I liked your article Sean, it was most helpful. Look forward to reading more of your articles.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you Sharon downunder in New Zealand. There's more and more recent info in this line of discussion in the linked "Origin of the Antichrist."

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lujack Skylark said...

    Sean, Russia is having a CSTO meeting on September 23, 2013 to discuss their future military alliance. Russia, almost all the former Russian Moslem Republics, Armenia and Belarus will be present at the meeting.

    Events in September 2013. Ukraine and Georgia establish closer ties with Iran. Russia reestablishes ties with Libya. Russia gets call from the Sudan which the Sudanese praise Putin for his work on the Syrian situation. Putin then visits Iran.

    Russia and Iran have made contact with all the lands listed in Ezekiel 38:2-6 except for Turkey.

    IF all the nations in the Ezekiel chapter 38 are almost in their prophetic position, Aren't the Isaiah 17:1-14 & Psalms 83:1-18 prophecies even closer to fulfillment?

    Sean,It really seems like Bible prophecy is speeding up in September.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lujack Skylark wrote:

    "Thanks Sean for your research! I always look forward to your review of prophetic events."

    You're welcome Lujack; this is one of the specific purposes of the Eschatology Today blog - giving people factual information relative to Bible prophecy in an increasingly chaotic world.

    Now, for some fact checking on specific items you have mentioned. These things require correction if you have posted them elsewhere for our brethren to read.

    "The Turks now are meeting with the Iranians."

    The Sunni-Islamist Turkish government and the Shi'a Islamist government of Iran have no choice but to have diplomatic discussions about the political fate of Syria, a nation with whom they both also share a common border.

    Also, the war in Syria is, within Islam, a three or four way free-for-all bloodbath. Multiple factions of the Islamic jihadists are killing one another with as much fervor as Sunni and Shi'a-Alawi are killing each other inside of Syria. There is spillage of this blood-letting in Turkey as well as Iran. Turkey and Iran have much to talk about.

    However, at this time an attempt to conquer Israel is not high among the topics of discussion.

    "Iranian ships are docking in the Sudan."

    Iranian ships have been regularly docking at Sudan's Red Sea ports for over 20 years. This is mostly due to the rise to power in Sudan of the National Islamic Front (NIF) in 1989. The NIF is connected to the Iranian Shi'a in much the same way as HAMAS in Gaza is connected to Iran - rejection by the majority Sunni-led governments who would normally be their allies (Saudi Arabia, Egypt) or openly hostile towards them as are Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia.

    "Russian and Ukrainian volunteers are going to help Assad fight the rebels."

    This is is a false report from last May.

    It is absolutely not something that was an action taken by the governments of the Ukraine or the Russian Federation.

    It is basically an insignificant and numerically very small, communist-led, wannabe-militia of former or retired Russian and Ukrainian soldiers under the nominal leadership of one Sergei Razumovsky. (I think this guy is about a quarter shy of a happy meal.)

    Back in May Razumovsky made a YouTube video pledge to assist Bashar al-Assad's army against the Sunni rebels in exchange for a promise of homesteads inside Syria for his volunteer soldiers after the Syrian civil war is over. (Razumovsky thinks his volunteers will turn the tide of the war in al-Assad's favor - think makes him certifiably insane IMHO)

    This has more to do with the dire economic plight of these communist veterans of former Soviet soldiers that it does with the Ezekiel 38/39 prophecy.

    The fact-of-the-matter is that wild-eyed conspiracy theorists in the West bought into this clown Ruzumovsky's claims hook, line and sinker and then embellished his claims 10-fold.

    There is no truth to this at all, and it has nothing to do with the prophecy of Ezekiel 38/39.

    There are a very few Russian "volunteers" in Syria operating some aircraft and air defense equipment, but they are young, active duty Russian soldiers and not retired old men of the former Soviet Union's armed forces.

    ReplyDelete

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