As the war in Israel intensifies, increasing the danger of it escalating into a wider conflict, even a global one, I see a haunting scriptural specter hanging over it. It is the incredible ancient prophecy of Gog and Magog. While much of our world sees the Scripture as an old antiquated relic, without relevance in our sophisticated modern-day world, I see its prophetic timelines in today’s headlines. Indeed, I am convinced that the only way to truly understand our times, is to understand the Bible, both its Old and New Testaments. For instance, to see the current conflict in the Middle East through the prism of Bible prophecy, enables one to understand that it is but a harbinger of a far greater conflict that is soon to come. 

Over twenty-five hundred years ago, a divinely inspired ancient Prophet named Ezekiel predicted an upcoming attack on the nation of Israel. According to Ezekiel, this predicted invasion of Israel will be conducted by “Gog” and Gog’s allies. All of these adversarial and attacking nations were actually places that existed in Ezekiel’s day. They were places settled by, as well as traceable back to, descendants of Noah, as we learn in Genesis 10:1-7. So all the places Ezekiel predicts will invade Israel in Ezekiel 38:1-6 are places we’re told about in Genesis 10:1-7. However, it’s here that this ancient prophecy becomes most intriguing.

If we look back over our shoulders with 20/20 hindsight into history, we will discover that there has never been an invasion of Israel that remotely resembles what Ezekiel predicts in chapters 38 and 39 of his prophecy. We are forced, therefore, to conclude that what Ezekiel predicted, more than five hundred years before the birth of Christ, is yet to be fulfilled. It is to this very day a prophecy about a forthcoming future event, which Ezekiel predicted would occur in “the latter years,” after Israel had returned to the land and been reestablished as a nation (Ezekiel 38:8).

This biblically foreseen and future attack upon Israel, according to Ezekiel, will be led by “Gog” from “the land of Magog,” who will be “the chief prince Of Meshech and Tubal” (Ezekiel 38:1-2). The Hebrew word translated “Gog” literally means “roof.” It is used by the prophet in the context of his incredible prophecy to refer to “a man on the top”; that is, to a despot or a dictator. According to Hebrew scholars, the Hebrew word “Rosh,” which is translated “Magog,” means “head,” and should be understood as Russia. If this is so, then, we find here in Scripture something quite extraordinary, the only place in the Old Testament where an ancient prophet of God refers by name to a modern-day nation, which did not exist in biblical times.

Further proof that Ezekiel is predicting a future end-time invasion of Israel led by a Russian despot is found in the following corroborating evidence. First, the Hebrew word “Rosh” refers to the inhabitants of ancient Scythia, from whom modern-day Russians get their name. Second, “Meshech,” which is referred to in Ezekiel 38:2, was also, as we learn in Genesis 10, the name of a grandson of Noah, who moved to the area south of the Black Sea in modern-day Russia. His descendants, who settled that area, became known as the “Muski” or “Mushki,” from which we get the name “Moscow.” Finally, the word “Tubal,” which is also mentioned in Ezekiel 38:2, was the name of another grandson of Noah, as we are again taught in Genesis 10, who also settled in the area south of the Black Sea in modern-day Russia. His descendants became known as “the Tuballi,” from which today’s Russian city of Tobolsk gets its name.

If we add up all of the above, we can clearly conclude that Scripture predicts an end-time attack upon Israel by a coalition of antisemitic nations led by a Russian despot, who despotically rules over Moscow and Tobolsk. Now that we’ve identified the leader of this coming invading coalition, let’s turn our attention to the identity of the antisemitic nations that comprise this coalition. The first, according to Ezekiel, is “Persia.” If you know history, as well as geography, then, you know that ancient Persia covered the area of our world known today as Iran. The Iranians are Persians. They are also the world’s number one state sponsor of terrorism, who have repeatedly stated their intention to wipe the state of Israel off the map.

To understand the Iranian ire toward Israel one must understand that the Iranians are Shiite Muslims. They are awaiting the “Twelfth Imam,” “the Modi,” the Muslim messiah. They believe when he comes he will lead the jihad warriors to conquer the world for Islam and Islam’s god, Allah. However, they believe there is one last obstacle to “the Modi’s” coming. It is the nation of Israel, which they believe must be annihilated before “the Modi” can come and establish his world-conquering caliphate! Therefore, when the mad mullahs of Iran promise to blow Israel off the map, as soon as they can acquire a nuclear weapon, they’re not kidding; they’re serious. After all, they actually believe it is their religious duty to do so.

The second member of the coming antisemitic coalition against Israel, which is identified for us by the Prophet Ezekiel, is “Cush.” Unfortunately, the King James Version of the Bible, which borrowed the Greek Septuagint’s translation of this Hebrew word, translates it as “Ethiopia.” However, the biblical land of Cush actually extended from southern Egypt into what is known today as Sudan. Egypt, of course, is the birthplace and home of the antisemitic Muslim Brotherhood. Sudan, in spite of recent overtures at normalizing relations with Israel, is still an Islamic nation and a member of the Arab League, which is infamous for its “Three Noes Resolution,” which adamantly avows, “No peace, no relations, and no negotiations with Israel.”

The third member of the coming antisemitic coalition against Israel, which is identified for us by the Prophet Ezekiel, is “Put” or “Libya.” We are all well aware of Libya’s horrid history of terrorism and antisemitism. How can we ever forget the Lockerbie bombing or the one hundred and forty Jewish fatalities in the anti-Jewish riots in Tripolitania, the region around Libya’s capital, Tripoli?

The fourth member of the coming antisemitic coalition against Israel, which is identified for us by the Prophet Ezekiel, is “Gomer.” Like “Meshech” and “Tubal,” which we looked at earlier, “Gomer” is also, as we once again learn in Genesis 10, the name of a grandson of Noah. This grandson, however, did not migrate to the area south of the Black Sea, like the the previously mentioned Meshech and Tubal, but migrated north up the Danube River. According to the Jewish Talmud, the land Gomer settled became known as “Germani,” from which modern-day Germany gets its name. In fact, Germany was once known as “Gomer” or “Gomer Land.” What nation in the world today has a more infamous history of antisemitism than Germany? Indeed, it was because of the Holocaust, the mass murder of over six million Jews by the Nazis, that the modern-day nation of Israel was founded, as a supposed safe haven for all Jewry.

The final member of the coming antisemitic coalition against Israel, which is identified for us by the Prophet Ezekiel, is “Togarmah.” Now Togarmah was not a grandson of Noah, like Meschech, Tubal, and Gomer, but a great-grandson of Noah, as we again learn in Genesis 10. His descendants became known as the “Turkmen tribes,” who inhabited what we know today as modern-day Turkey. Once again, the ancient Prophet Ezekiel has pinpointed a present-day nation that is hostile to Israel and antisemitic to the hilt. 

It is truly breathtaking how this ancient prophecy of an ancient prophet pinpointed these present-day antisemitic adversaries of modern-day Israel over twenty-five hundred years ago. It is made even more astounding when we stop to consider the role that these antisemitic nations are presently playing in Israel’s current conflict with Hamas, a war that could easily expand and expeditiously effectuate the fulfilling of Ezekiel’s frightening prophecy. For instance, Hamas, which is a mere proxy of Iran, recently praised Russia’s Putin for his “tireless efforts” to stop “Israel's aggression" against them and their antisemitic allies. Turkey’s President Erdagon has issued a warning to Israel not to invade Gaza, as Israeli diplomats have fled Turkey, because of widespread anti-Israel protest all across the country. And Germany has been forced, by rising antisemitism and thousands of anti-Israel protestors, to crackdown on public protests. Tragically, growing antisemitism and increasing hostility toward the nation of Israel can been seen all over our world today, from the United States Congress to the United Nations General Assembly. 

If you ask me, it’s time to take out and dust off your Bible. If you do, you’ll learn that God, as the Bible predicts, is putting “a cup of trembling” to the lips of our world (Zechariah 12:2). He is making Jerusalem, as another ancient prophet predicted, the world’s flashpoint for global conflict. You’ll also learn that the long sought after political solution to the Palestinian problem; namely, the ever-elusive two state solution, is nothing more than the pipe dream of naive politicians crying, “Peace, peace, when there is no peace,” as another ancient prophet predicted (Jeremiah 6:14; 8:11). From your dusted off Bible you’ll also be able to see that the only hope of peace in this war-torn world is the soon return of the Prince of Peace, who is the world’s only hope of peace. It is when He returns to reign over the earth from the throne of David in Jerusalem that men will finally “beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruninghooks” and that “nation shall not lift up sword against nation” nor “learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4). Until then, however, the animosity and hostility toward God’s two witnesses, the only two He has ever had in the history of the world, the Jew and the Christian, Israel and the church, will grow expeditiously, which alone explains the present-day phenomenon of our world, including our own country, becoming more and more antichrist and antisemitic!