Gog and Magog identified: Turkey, NOT Russia!
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This is an updated article from 2015.
I used to believe that Gog and Magog which invades Israel as depicted in Ezekiel chapter 38 is Russia. This is a popular belief taught by famous evangelists and Bible teachers such as Chuck Missler. But from December 13, 2014 when I learned that Daniel 9:27 is referring to Jesus Christ, not the Antichrist as I was taught, and when I learned that today’s misinterpretation of Daniel 9:27 was formulated by a Jesuit priest named Francesco Ribera in 1585 for the purpose of getting Protestants to stop thinking of the Popes as antichrist but to think of the Antichrist as a single individual who rises in the future, I have come to seriously question all interpretations of Endtime Bible prophecy I have been taught over the past 40 years! The prophecies in Ezekiel 38 is one of them. Is Gog and Magog really Russia? I learned this doctrine has been around only from a couple hundred years ago!
Main points from the video
Who on Earth is Gog and Magog? The dominant Christian view is that it’s Russia but I’ve not seen any evidence that convinces me that it’s Russia.
The North Pole is the northernmost point of planet Earth. If we go over to Google Earth and find the North Pole, if I rotate the Earth so that we get both Jerusalem and the North Pole on the same screen, we connect Jerusalem to the North Pole in a straight line. This line that I’ve drawn on screen is true north of Jerusalem. Moscow is here and it’s nowhere near north of Jerusalem. In fact, none of Russia is northwards of Jerusalem. This line on screen is true north of Jerusalem and it cuts directly through Ankara which is the capital city of Turkey.
I’ve compiled 10 reasons why Turkey is the Gog and Magog of the Bible here’s a few of those reasons.
Number one, the seven churches in the Book of Revelation were all in turkey.
Number two, for thousands of years Satan’s seat was in Turkey that’s in Revelation 2:13.
Number three, Ankara, the capital city of Turkey is directly north of Jerusalem.
Number four, Noah’s Ark landed in the Mountains of Ararat which is in southern Turkey, the source of the river Euphrates.
Number five, Persia which is modern day Iran shares a border with Turkey, and that’s in Ezekiel 38:15.
Number six, the Fountains of waters are in southern turkey and they feed the river Euphrates again that’s in Revelation 16:12.
Number seven, a major reason why Gog and Magog is Turkey and not Russia is that the Bible says it’s Turkey.
So if I break down these verses, the chief prince is the prime minister, the president. It’s universally accepted amongst Bible scholars that Meshech and Tubal are two cities at either end of Turkey. They still exist today. (Note: This is confirmed from an independant source on https://www.openbible.info/geo/ancient/a5f9092/meshech)
So Gog is the land of Turkey, Meshech and Tubal are cities within Turkey, and the chief prince is the king the president of the whole land of Gog which we’ve identified as Turkey.
I’ve saved the best for last I’m about to blow your mind with some information that I’ve discovered. Revelation 9:16 says,
So the number of people who invade Israel will be 200 million but where do they come from? Ezekiel 38:5 tells us where they come from Persia, Ethiopia, Libya and Turkey. Here’s where it gets interesting. If we add up the populations of these countries, Persia which is modern day Iran, 75 million, Ethiopia which is modern day Sudan and according to the CIA World fact book the population is 45 million, Libya 6 million, and Turkey 75 million, add them up and we get exactly 201 million. All these countries border with each other exactly as the Bible says. They surround Israel exactly as the Bible says and the combined populations add up to 200 million exactly as the Bible says. All these four countries are Muslim and opposed to Israel exactly as the Bible says.
(End of transcript of important points from the video.)
How did Russia become associated with Magog?
The text below was from http://blogs.christianpost.com/guest-views/debunking-the-russia-war-of-gog-and-magog-myth-8754/ It doesn’t appear to be online anymore.
The erroneous belief that Russia is Magog can be traced back to a small group of 18th and 19th century theologians who wrote long before the primary evidence from the ancient Assyrian records was discovered, translated and made available to the public. Instead, they based their assertions on secondary sources, historical works written over 500 years after the time of Ezekiel, and to make matters worse some of these sources had come to be purposefully altered. These altered references include statements attributed to the first century AD Jewish historian Josephus, and first century AD Roman historian Pliny.
In his book The Antiquity of the Jews Josephus says that the Greeks called the “Magogites” the “Scythians” despite the fact that the Greeks did not call the Magogites the Scythians. In this same passage there are other errors in the identification of other ancient nations of Asia Minor. This passage shows that the author did not understand that Ashkenaz is the Hebrew word for the Scythians. (Interestingly, the Assyrian word for the Scythians, Ishkuza or Ashguza is similar to the Hebrew word for the Scythians – Ashkenaz.) This passage also comes into conflict with what the ancient Greek historian Herodotus who after living with each group wrote about the Scythians and the Lydians in his book The History. Since Josephus used Herodotus’ book as a reference, one can only speculate how and why these obviously wrong statements are in Josephus’ book. Were these inaccurate statements the products of Josephus’ imagination, or were they the result of alterations to the few copies of Josephus’ work that existed in medieval times? (Jews did not preserve the writings of Josephus because they considered him to be a traitor.) Beginning in the 11th century these surviving manuscripts were copied by Catholic monks, and obviously altered in some places to suit prevailing beliefs. Ecclesiastical acceptance of the erroneous connection between Magog and the Scythians traces back to Saint Jerome of the late fourth century AD. Unfortunately, the oft quoted statement that has Josephus connecting Magog with the Scythians is an act of document forgery.
Similarly, the oft quoted statement that has the ancient Roman historian Pliny in his work The Natural History that connects Magog with the Scythians is another forgery. Nineteenth century Scottish Reverend John Cumming is credited as being a leading promoter of the Bible interpretation that calls for Russia invading Israel. In his book The Destiny of Nations Cumming quotes a passage from Pliny’s book about Magog which he purposefully altered.
Reverend Cumming on page 126 wrote: “Pliny says ‘Hierapolis taken by the Scythians was afterwards called Magog.'”
Pliny on page 439 actually wrote: “Bambyx (a part of Lydia) the other name of which is Hierapolis, but by the Syrians called Magog.”
Pliny’s statement has been misquoted by Cumming in a way that makes it seem that Magog was related to the Scythians rather than the Lydians. Unfortunately, this same misquote of Pliny has been carried forward in time and appears in Hal Lindsey’s book The Late Great Planet Earth (page 53). This alteration is easily verified by going to a copy of Pliny’s book and seeing how key words were changed and switched around. It is difficult to believe that none of the many authors of books that discuss Ezekiel 38/39 and the war of Gog and Magog have not discovered this sleight of hand and exposed the deception. (While many contemporary Evangelicals gave Cumming’s books on prophecy favorable reviews, an article in the Westminster Review in 1855 about Cumming attacked him for his “intellectual dishonesty, anti-Catholic bigotry, and moral and spiritual perversion.”)
The correct identification of Magog with Lydia and not Scythia is consistent with the ancient texts of the Assyrians, who at various times were either the allies or the foes of the Scythians, but had peaceful dealings with the Lydians, who they also referred to as “Magog.” Within academia today, no professional archeologists, historians or serious Bible researchers associate Magog with the Scythians or the Scythians with the Russians. The truth is that modern scholars have unequivocally documented that a group of Scandinavian Viking traders called the Rus began the Russian state during the mid AD 800’s, and gave their name to Russia. Therefore there is no historical or factual basis for any connection of Russia to Magog.
ANCIENT NATIONS OF EZEKIEL 38/39 Ezekiel 38/39 makes reference to a group of ancient nations that are all found in Asia Minor: Magog (Lydia), Meshech, Tubal, Togarmah and Gomer. The correct identification of these nations comes from the “Royal Court Records of the Assyrians”; the primary source on this subject. These same Assyrian Court records are referred to in the Bible (Ezra 4:15, 19).
LYDIAN MIGRATION TO ITALY An early Lydian dynasty experienced a prolonged famine which caused half of the Lydian population to migrate to the west coast of Italy, just north of Rome. The Romans called these Lydian migrants “Etruscans.” The Etruscans settled in an area called Tuscany and they helped found the city of Rome and jump start the Roman civilization. Hundreds of years after this migration, the Lydian population in Asia Minor came to be ruled by a militant ruler whom the Greeks called “Gyges of Lydia.” To the Assyrians this same leader was known as “Gugu King of Ludu,” and “Gugu of Magugu.” Ezekiel referred to this same leader as “Gog of Magog” where “Magog” means “the land of Gog.”
If anybody has more information about this subject, please share it and I may add it to this article.
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