10 March 2022: The now 14-day old invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation and Belarus, the Union State of Russia and Belarus has had an effect not seen since the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Suddenly the prophetic Scripture of Ezekiel 38/39 is a hot news item, with reporting ranging from outright scoffing and ridicule to the prophetic interpretation of this event you've been reading on Eschatology Today for a solid three months, and before then going back to the first act of Russia's invasion of Ukraine (Global SITREP B13-14: Ukraine (Russia Invades) of March 1, 2014). I'd suggest a re-reading of that SITREP to recall what virtually everyone has forgotten, particularly the part dealing with, and frequently mentioned here, the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.
In considering the Budapest memorandum there is an interesting fact to mention once again. The US, UK and Russia were nuclear armed nations back then, so what has changed? Everyone, except perhaps Putin, seems supremely paranoid of what invoking the clauses of the memorandum could lead to if it were upheld to the letter. Seriously, there is a left-of-center government in the USA in 2022 as there was in 1994 and again in 2014. So what has changed? Perhaps the Holy Restrainer is doing what He does best, applying restraint in an ever collapsing world. But I digress.
Back to Bible prophecy in the MSM. On the Beliver side of this issue we have seen in the past 10 days Pat Robertson (700 Club) come out of retirement to offer his take on what this war portends; that God is compelling Putin to invade Ukraine, but that Putin's goal is ultimately to invade Israel, and Pastor Greg Laurie with his excellent and now viral video response to the Russian invasion is embedded in the link for your viewing. We the bride of Christ understand these accurate presentations of prophetic Scripture. There are legions of such comentaries as these available on the internet.
In an Eschatology Today conducted Google search with the criteria "Ukraine Bible Prophecy" there were more than 1.2 million results presented. Those results vary as much in content as the number 1.2 million imples. Everything from the Chicago Sun-Times article about Ukraine's former first lady Katernyna Yushchenko offering about an 11th century mosaic (Oranta Mosaic in the Kyiv Cathedral) of the Virgin Mary offering protection and the survival of Ukraine if Russian troops do not destroy it. The mosaic is ostensibly under UNESCO protection, so that shoud keep Russian ordnance at bay. And then there are the scoffers.
One of the worst scoffers is found on the website of very poorly named The Christian Post. It assures its readers through a tweeted quote from Old Testament and Semitic scholar Michael S. Heiser, that "The idea that Ezekiel 38 and 39 is about Russia or a Russian invasion has literally no merit in terms of exegesis." That's the, and I use the term loosely, educated view of an "Old Testament scholar." Yet The Christian Post gives Heiser the "without a doubt" nod of being absolutely correct as compared to what we all believe Ezekiel 38/39 foretells. When it comes to scoffers, the Word of God is absolutely correct. The scoffers offer nothing more than world-class pablum. Let the internet surfer beware.
Eschatology Today believes that while Russia's invasion of Ukraine will be followed soon enough by God placing spiritual hooks in Gog of Magog's jaws to draw him and his military confederation to destruction on the mountains of Israel, there are other prophecies that concern Israel as we know the country today which must take place prior to the application of those hooks.
For example, in Ezekiel 38:11-16 Gog of Magog and his entire military force, down to the smallest shard of human bone, are to be buried in the Valley of Hamon Gog which lies east of the Dead Sea in what today is the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. This invokes Psalm 83, Isaiah 11:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:24-26 as requiring literal fulfillments first. If Christians and Christian sites want to tak about the fulfillment of prophecy, they need to speak to it indepth because fulfillment of the Lord's prophetic word is exact and inerrant to the letter of each written word.
