Middle East Meltdown 022 – Q and A 3

Middle East Meltdown 022 – Q & A 3

By Dr Andy Woods – 07/10/2022

Ezekiel 38:18-19

Let’s open in a word of prayer and we’ll get started. Father, we thank you for today, as we celebrated last week, we thank you for the freedom that we have to worship you today in Spirit and truth. Having just read a newspaper article about somebody in Pakistan who apparently was accused of insulting the prophet Muhammad. So now he’s on schedule to be sentenced for death. So Lord, compared to those kinds of things going on in the world, our problems here in the west are very, very small. So we thank you for the freedom that we have. We do pray that Your Word would go forth today as we seek to be instant in season and out of season. We ask for the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit, which promises to guide us in all truth and so that we can receive fully, today Lord, from Your Word, both in the session and the session that follows, we’re just going to take a few moments of personal silence, to get matters right with you if needed. We thank you, Lord, for the promise of 1st John chapter 1, verse 9 (1 John 1:9). It is not there to restore position but it is there to restore broken fellowship when needed. So we lift all of these things up in Jesus’ name and God’s people said, Amen.

Well, if you could take your Bibles and open them to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 39 and verse 1 (Ezek 39:1). As you know, we’ve completed our verse by verse teaching, Ezekiel 36 through 39, in a study that we’ve called the Middle East Meltdown

Ezekiel 33‒48

1. Ezekiel recommissioned (33)
2. False shepherds removed (34)
3. Edom destroyed  (35)
4. Israel’s restoration: physical & Spiritual (36)
5. Israel’s restoration illustrated (37)
6. Means of restoration: Northern invasion (38)
7. Results of the Northern invasion: conversion (39)
8. Millennial Temple (40‒46)
9. Tribal land allotment (47‒48)

and of course, when you focus for several weeks, as we have done, on a prophetic scripture or area of scripture, in particular a controversial scripture, there’s a lot of questions that people have and so I asked people to submit questions to me online, via email, just put Middle East Meltdown or MEM into the subject line, so I can get to it and so here are six more questions that have come in.

MAIL BAG

1. Is Gog killed in battle?
2. Second seal judgment?
3. Coincides with Rapture?
4. Armageddon?
5. Resurrection during Millennium?
6. Israel and the Antichrist?

We’ve had, actually, a couple of sessions answering questions, this is session number three, but this particular question here number one, is asking is Gog killed in battle? So here’s what the question says: It says, in Ezekiel, 39, verses 4 through 6 (Ezek 39:4-6) it says: Gog will die in conflict… It also says in Ezekiel, 39, verse 11 (Ezek 39:11): He will be buried there along with his horde… Like you, I believe that Gog is the current or future leader of Russia, but I find it confusing that he would die on the battlefield since leaders of countries no longer participate in the actual fighting as they did in ancient times. It would be the equivalent of Putin being on front lines with his troops in the Ukraine, can you clear this up for me? Well, it is true, Gog, the leader of this coalition that comes against Israel in the last days does die in battle and he appears to be buried upon death in the land of Israel, you see that in verse 1, chapter 39 (Ezek 39:1), it says: You son of man prophesy against Gog, thus says the Lord God, behold I am against you, Oh Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal… and then you go down to verses 4 through 6 (Ezek 39:4-6), it says: You… that’s Gog, the leader… will fall in the mountains of Israel you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you. I will give you as food to every kind of predatory bird. You will fall on the open field for it is I who have spoken, declares the Lord. I will send the fire upon Magog and those who inhabit the coastlands and safety and they will know that I am the Lord, God… and then dropping down to verse 11 (Ezek 39:11), it says: On that day, I will give Gog a burial there in Israel. The valley of those who passed by the east of the sea and it will block off those who pass by, so that they will bury Gog there with all his horde and they will call it the valley of Hamon-Gog… So apparently Gog, the leader of this coalition, is a real human being. Kind of hard to bury someone that’s not a real person, Amen? And he will be killed in battle and he’ll be buried there in the land of Israel and so the question is well, that’s a weird way of fighting. You know, isn’t the military leader typically, you know, behind some control panel somewhere in a remote part of the earth, not fighting in battle? And I guess I would say by way of answer yeah, normally that’s true. Normally, leaders of political countries are not actually fighting in the battle themselves but what we’re reading about here is abnormal. The normal rules that warfare proceeds on are not applicable here cause this is an abnormal time and you know it’s an abnormal time because the Restrainer, the Holy Spirit through the church, has been removed and so Satan is doing things here that would not normally take place in normal battle. So these are abnormal times and beyond that, it could be that Gog is very over confident. I mean, he’s so over confident that, I mean, Israel has no one to rely upon other than God himself and so you could see how Gog, from a human perspective, would say, okay! There’s no way I can lose this invasion, this war that I’m starting through invasion and so that may be the reason why Gog is, you know, fighting, it would seem and buried in the land of Israel. By the way, you have examples in the Bible of people, leaders of armies, that fought in battle and were killed in battle. One of them is named Josiah, you can read about his story in 2nd Chronicles, 35, verses 20 through 24 (2 Chron 35:20-24), of course, you know, David and Saul went as leaders of Israel and actually fought in the battles themselves. So that’s how I would handle that. Some would take this as what’s called a synecdoche. A synecdoche is a figure of speech meaning the part for the whole. The part represents the whole. So when we say today the White House said, we’re not talking about the entire United States government, we’re just talking about what one branch of government said. So White House is a synecdoche part for the whole, for the whole United States of America. So someone could actually take Gog here as a synecdoche part for the whole for the whole invading force. I’m really not comfortable with that kind of solution because it does say he’s buried. He’s buried in the land of Israel and so it seems to me that he’s actually out front doing the fighting and the reason for that might be over confidence and this is a time period when the Restrainer is taken away and what’s normal in military warfare, from our experience, those rules have been suspended. So that’s the best I can do with that. 9:28

Question number two reads: Are you able to elaborate more on your view as to why you think the Ezekiel war coincides with the second seal judgment? So the greatest, as I’ve tried to mention before, the greatest debates in prophecy don’t relate to the what question. They relate to the when question. Pre millennialism which is the view that Jesus comes back first and then sets up His kingdom is really a discussion not so much as what but when. The whole rapture debate, when is the rapture going to happen relative to the tribulation period, that’s a big schism in Christianity related to not what but when timing and those are the biggest areas of controversy in these passages, Ezekiel, 38 and 39. People want to know how it fits in with the time scheme of everything else described in the book of Revelation. So as I tried to teach in the series, I believe that chapter 38, now take 39 and just put it out in your mind for a second. Chapter 38 takes place with seal judgment number two. Chapter 39, as I’ll try to explain in a subsequent question, I think number four there, asking about Armageddon, is leaping forward to the very end of the tribulation period. So the view that I have on the timing is chapter 38 is consistent with the second seal judgment and chapter 39 is describing events at the end of the tribulation period. So why do I believe that chapter 38 is speaking of the second seal judgment? Well, if you look at chapter 38 and you look at verses 18 and 19 (Ezek 38:18-19). There is language there that locks down, in my estimation, when this invasion will occur. It says in chapter 38 verses 18 and 19: It will come about on that day when Gog comes against the land of Israel, declares the Lord God, that my fury… So this is a time period when this happens when God’s wrath is unleashed… That my fury will mount up in anger… Verse 19: In my zeal and in my blazing wrath I declare that on that day, there will surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israel… So God says that when these events happen, it’s going to be a time period of His fury, of His anger and of His wrath. Now, if you put this before the tribulation period starts, as many people do, then you’ve got God’s fury and anger and wrath taking place before the seventieth week even begins. That to me is problematic because, biblically, we know that the next time in biblical history where God’s anger is going to be unleashed is not going to be during the church age. It’s not going to be before the tribulation period starts but it’s actually going to be in the tribulation period itself. So when I see these terms fury, anger and wrath that to me is communicating that this is something that is going to happen in the seven year tribulation period, because that’s the next epic or era of history when the world will experience God’s wrath upon planet earth. We have no other divine revelation of God’s wrath being unleashed before this time. If you’re going to say God’s wrath is going to come before this time period, you’d have to be relying upon some kind of private vision or something that God gave you outside of the Bible, but if you want to follow what the Bible says, the next time period in history when God unleashes His wrath will be in the seven year tribulation period and therefore, this has to happen, by my way of thinking, in the tribulation period itself because of the three references there to His fury and to His anger, that locks it down in terms of the timing question. Now, when you move from seal judgment number one, this is from God’s wrath starts, because Jesus in heaven is opening a seven sealed scroll and every time He peels back a scroll, an element of God’s wrath hits planet earth and when you look at seal judgment number one and you look at seal judgment number two, there is a transition from peace to war.

In fact, here are the first six seal judgments that are described in the book of Revelation and if you look, for example, at Revelation chapter 6, verses 1 and 2 (Rev 6:1-2) that’s the rider on the white horse comes forward.

1^st Six Seals (Revelation 6)

SEAL 1 – Rev 6:1-2 – Advent of antichrist

SEAL 2 – Rev 6:3-4 – War

SEAL 3 – Rev 6:5-6 – Famine

SEAL 4 – Rev 6:7-8 – Death

SEAL 5 – Rev 6:9-11 – Martyrdoms

SEAL 6 – Rev 6:12-17 – Cosmic disturbances

In other words Jesus is allowing the antichrist to come on the scene and you see that described there in Revelation chapter 6, verses 1 and 2 (Rev 6:1-2). The antichrist himself is sort of a form of God’s wrath. Why? Because when God allows the antichrist to come forward, he deceives all of planet earth. So you see that described there in Revelation, 6, verses 1 and 2. Then when the second seal judgment is opened, suddenly war breaks out and if you look at Revelation, 6, verse 4 (Rev 6:4), it says: And another, a red horse, went out to him who sat on it and it was granted to take peace… Peace is the Greek word eiréné, where you get the word irenic, you know someone’s temperament is irenic, it’s the opposite of being polemic, polemical, it’s a peaceful personality. It says: And another, a red horse, went out to him who sat on it and it was granted to him to take peace from the earth and that men would slay one another and a great sword was given to him… So you can’t take peace from the earth unless peace is first established on the earth, right? But when is peace first established on the earth politically? It deals with seal judgment number one. Seal judgment number one, the world, Israel and the rest of the world moves into kind of a pseudo peace. It doesn’t last long because then the Lord opens seal judgment number two and warfare breaks out. So you’ve got a clear transition in the book of Revelation early on from peace to war and that is the identical transition that’s described in the verses that we’ve been studying. Ezekiel, 38, verse 8 and verse 11 (Ezek 38:8,11). Ezekiel, 38 says: They… That’s Israel… is living in security.. and then verse 11 says: And you will say… That’s Gog… I will go against the land of unwalled villages, I will go against those who are at rest. There’s one Hebrew word that’s used there is the word Shacat. It’s different than verse 8, which was a different Hebrew word used Batach. Batach, verse 8, describes security. Shacat, describes tranquility, being at peace, being at rest… That live securely, all of them without walls and having no bars or gates… So very clearly, the chapters that we were looking at, describe the world and in particular Israel, as living in peace and then the war comes. The war is described in Ezekiel, 38, verses 14 through 16 (Ezek 38:14-16). It’s a very intense war, a very intense invasion and so we just moved from peace to war. 18:44

So, my goodness, Revelation, 6, 1 through 4 (Rev 6:1-4), peace then war. Ezekiel, 38, describes the exact same transition from peace to war and so that’s the main reason why I think that this particular war that’s described as it begins, begins with seal judgment number two. I mean, all I’m doing there is comparing scripture with scripture. I mean, the first thing I’m noticing is Ezekiel, 38 describes a time of God’s blazing wrath. We saw those verses earlier, verses 18 and 19, and I say to myself, well, that’s tribulation period language and then I say to the Lord, well Lord, can you give me some more information on this? And the Lord says, I’m glad you asked, keep reading, there is a transition here from peace to war, which harmonizes perfectly with seal judgment one and seal judgment number two. So that would be the logic as to why I’m putting chapter 38, the beginning of this war in seal judgment number two and then, what happens, as I’ll try to explain later, is Ezekiel is not going to give you every detail about the seven year tribulation period. That’s where people are frustrated, they want to learn about everything here that they read about elsewhere in the Bible concerning the tribulation period. Ezekiel says, I will not tell you about that. What I’m going to instead tell you about, is the aftermath of all of these things and that’s why when you move into chapter 39 there’s a discussion there of Israel’s conversion, which is God’s ultimate goal. There’s a discussion there about the birds of prey feasting on the carnage of the dead troops, which is Israel’s conversion and the birds of prey essentially are events as we tried to explain at the end of the tribulation period. So chapter 38 is the transition from seal judgment one to seal judgment number two. Chapter 39 is the aftermath of all of these things and what Ezekiel is doing is he’s giving you the outer edges of the tribulation period. Now, if you want to read about Armageddon, the temple desecration, the mark of the beast, Ezekiel doesn’t talk about that. You’ve got to piece the data together with other scripture. Ezekiel is just giving you the outer edges. So this is a view called the two phase view. It isn’t unique with me, the first time I heard about this was from my professor the late Harold Hohner and so I’ve sort of adopted his view as my view and so of course, he’s smiling from heaven as I’m speaking because I’m speaking favorably of him. He influenced me on this and when I heard his view on the timing I said, well, that’s it. Everybody else is mixed up, because they’re trying to make this one event. This isn’t one event. These are the outer parameters of the tribulation period, that’s all Ezekiel is doing there and so chapter 38, I think is the second seal judgment because the transition from peace to war is exactly what we read about in the first two seal judgments in Revelation, 6, verses 1 through 4 (Rev 6:1-4). So I hope that helps. 22:41

MAIL BAG

1. Is Gog killed in battle?
2. Second seal judgment?
3. Coincides with Rapture?
4. Armageddon?
5. Resurrection during Millennium?
6. Israel and the Antichrist?

Question number three relates to, does this war coincide with the rapture? So here’s the question, this is number three. It says: What do you think of the view of the rapture in the Ezekiel war occurring simultaneously as that also seems to be a common view point of when the Ezekiel war will occur? So a lot of people think, well, this war is going to break out and simultaneous with that is going to be, at that very nano second, the rapture of the church. I would not read into Ezekiel, 38 and 39 anything related to the rapture. The reason is the rapture concerns the church, which was a mystery or an unknown commodity at the time Ezekiel had his prophecies and wrote these chapters. So this is not church age truth here that’s being described. This is describing something that will transpire I believe subsequent to the rapture of the church or the translation of the church and that would be one reason not to see the rapture here. Ezekiel didn’t know anything about the rapture as the rapture is a mystery and that mystery would not be unfolded until the upper room. That’s the first reference to the rapture of the church found anywhere in the Bible, in the upper room John, 14, verses 1 through 4 (John 14:1-4), beyond that, the Bible over and over and over and over again, in fact, it says it so many times I’m shocked that this issue is even discussed anymore but it says, to the church, that would be us, that we are not appointed unto wrath. I mean, that should make you very happy, it makes me happy and by wrath I’m talking about divine wrath. So you’ll see that promise repeated a number of times in the epistles.

Promised Exemption from Divine Wrath

• The promise (1 Thess 1:10; 5:9; Rom 5:9; 8:1; Rev 3:10)
• Tribulation = divine wrath/anger (Rev 6:16-17; 11:18; 14:10; 15:1,7; 16:1,19; 19:15)

The epistles are not the wives of the apostles, Amen? The epistles are the letters which govern the church and so you’ll discover in 1st Thessalonians, 1, verse 10 (1 Thess 1:10), I don’t know if we need to look up all these verses cause we’ve covered a lot of them in our rapture series, 1 Thessalonians 5:9; Romans 5:9; Romans 8:1; Revelation 3:10. It says it over and over again that we are not appointed unto divine wrath. So what then is the tribulation period? The tribulation period, just like the Noahic flood in the past, is an expression of God’s wrath. In fact, if you look at that second bullet point below, you’ll see repeated over and over and over and over and over again in the book of Revelation the word orgé, which refers to, in this context, divine wrath. This particular event, the Gog-Magog invasion takes place during a time of God’s wrath. That’s what we saw earlier in Ezekiel, 38, verse 18 (Ezek 38:18): It’s a time of My fury, My anger… says God… My blazing wrath… and so when you see that language you already say to yourself, well, this couldn’t be talking about the church, because the church was a mystery at the time this was written two thousand six hundred years ago and number two, I’m not going to see myself in this passage. A lot of people don’t accept a Bible interpretation unless they find themselves in the passage somewhere. We would call that not exegesis but narcigesis, right? Cause it’s all about me, I got to see myself somewhere in here. Well, you can’t be in here, because God made you a promise that you’re spared from divine wrath and this is a time of His blazing anger. Furthermore, what triggers this seven year tribulation period is a peace treaty of some sort between the antichrist and unbelieving Israel. Once that peace treaty is entered into is the moment that Daniel’s seven year clock, you know, Daniel was given a four hundred and ninety year stopwatch, you might recall in our studies in Daniel. Four hundred and eighty three of those years have transpired, seven years left. Daniel no doubt was probably asking, well, when are the final seven years going to start? Well, Daniel explains it in Daniel 9:27.

In fact, the angel Gabriel who gave Daniel that prophecy, called the seventy week’s prophecy, Daniel, 9, verses 24 through 27 (Dan 9:24-27) tells Daniel exactly when the final seven years will start. They will start with a peace treaty between the antichrist and unbelieving Israel and that’s why this invasion takes place during a time period when (a) Israel is living in security, Ezekiel, 38, verse 8 (Ezek 38:8) and she’s also living at peace and rest. In fact, some of your English translations translate those words as unwalled villages, meaning Israel doesn’t have a need for military defense anymore, because her security has been guaranteed through the peace treaty that she has entered into with the antichrist and here’s the thing to understand is the antichrist, who will enter into this peace treaty with Israel, which will start the final seven years on Daniel’s clock, that antichrist cannot even come into power or into existence on the world stage as long as the church is here. That’s Paul’s point in 2nd Thessalonians, 2, verses 6 and 7 (2nd Thess 2:6-7), where Paul says, and keep in mind the context of 2nd Thessalonians, 2. They had gotten a forged letter from Paul, allegedly coming from Paul, saying that the day of the Lord or the tribulation period has started. So they were, talk about hitting the panic button, the Thessalonians were hitting the panic button. Particularly, since Paul had told them in the first letter, you won’t be here when the tribulation period begins. Now, they get this forged letter that they’re in the tribulation period. So Paul writes 2nd Thessalonians to calm them down. He says, you’re not in the tribulation period yet, because the antichrist has not made a peace treaty with the nation of Israel. Oh, and by the way, as I used to instruct you in these things, the antichrist himself cannot even come upon the scene to make the peace treaty with Israel as long as the church’s restraining ministry or the Holy Spirit’s restraining ministry through the church is present and so that’s his point in second Thessalonians, 2, verses 6 and 7. He says: you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way… So the man of lawlessness, the antichrist, who will start the tribulation period by entering into a peace treaty with the nation of Israel, he can’t even come on the scene yet as long as the church is restraining His ultimate coming as God via the Holy Spirit is working through the church. 31:36

So we’ve been very careful in our rapture series that we did to explain why this Restrainer is indeed the Holy Spirit. Here the Holy Spirit is not being identified by His personage but He’s being identified by His ministry. The Holy Spirit has a lot of ministries, amen. He’s called the Spirit of truth, Jesus called them that in the upper room. Paul in Romans, 8, calls Him the Spirit of life, he gives you the Spiritual vitality. So what you’ll see in the Bible is many times the Spirit of God is identified not so much in His person but in the ministry that He is doing and currently the Holy Spirit is doing a ministry. He is restraining the antichrist

3 Reasons Why the Restrainer is the Holy Spirit

(2 Thessalonians 2:6-7)

1. The Holy Spirit is omnipotent
2. The Holy Spirit view handles well the switch in gender from the neuter (vs. 6) to the masculine (vs. 7)
3. The Holy Spirit is active in the world (Gen. 6:3; John 16:7-11)

This has to be a reference to the Holy Spirit, because only the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Godhead, omnipotent God, could hold back Satan’s project. You have to understand that the antichrist, when he comes, will be Satan’s special project. Satan will work through the Antichrist right down to counterfeit signs and wonders in an unhindered way and right now the Holy Spirit is stopping this. This has to be the Holy Spirit because only the Holy Spirit is strong enough to stop the devil. Beyond that, the Holy Spirit view in 2nd Thessalonians, 2, verses 6 and 7 handles very well the switch in gender from neuter to masculine. Now, did you notice that in the slide I had up earlier.

The participle in Greek restrainer is used twice but the gender switches. It says you know what restrains him now. There “restrainer” is neuter and then in verse 7 it says, for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, only He who now restrains him will do so until he is taken out of the way. Paul when he writes switches from the neuter to the masculine. Restrainer, neuter, verse 6, masculine in verse 7 and I’m here to tell you that that is a phenomenal description of the Holy Spirit, because Jesus, in the upper room in reference to the Spirit coming on the day of Pentecost, when he talked about the Holy Spirit he called Him, He. He, the masculine pronoun He. Also interestingly enough the word Spirit in Greek is pneuma, which is a neuter noun. So Jesus referred to pneuma, a neuter noun, the Holy Spirit in other words, also through the masculine pronoun He. So this shift from the masculine to the neuter fits the Holy Spirit perfectly and that’s what Paul is saying here. He’s saying, you’re not in the day of the Lord and I don’t care what forged letter you got. I don’t care whose email address it came into, you’re not to be afraid of this being suddenly plunged into the tribulation period. Why not? Because the Holy Spirit is doing something right now, actively restraining the Antichrist and the antichrist is necessary to start the seven year tribulation period. Now, the next sort of phase in the argument is (a) the Holy Spirit restrains the Antichrist.

Restrainer Must First be Removed

• Restrainer holds back the Antichrist (2 Thess 2:6-7)
• Restrainer = the omnipotent Holy Spirit (2 Thess 2:9)
• Holy Spirit permanently indwells all Christians (John 14:16; Rom 8:9)
• Spirit indwelt Christians must first be removed prior to the Antichrist’s advent

The restrainer is the omnipotent Holy Spirit and then, the next point to consider is where does the Holy Spirit live right now? Any guesses? Living inside of us. Our body is called the temple of the Holy Spirit. 1st Corinthians, 6, verse 19 (1 Cor 6:19) says that and by the way, once you become a Christian and the Holy Spirit enters you, which happens at the point of faith alone in Christ alone, how long is the Holy Spirit in you for? He’s in you forever. John, 14, verse 16 (John 14:16), Jesus says: I will ask the father and He will give you another helper and that helper, Paraclete, the one who comes along side to assist is clearly the Holy Spirit, because in verse 17 of John, 14 (John 14:17), he’s called the Spirit of truth. I will ask the father and he will give you another helper that He may be with you forever. Notice this, He will not be on you. He will be in you, forever and what a thing to remind them of, as He’s announcing His departure, because they were panicking. Oh no! Jesus that we followed around for three years, who we’re intimately connected to, these eleven disciples that heard this, every time He says I’m going back to the Father, that scared the living daylights out of them. He says don’t panic about that because when I go back to the Father, I’m going to send the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is going to be inside of you forever and if you understand that the Holy Spirit is inside of you forever, that forms a big chunk of your basis for accepting the doctrine of eternal security, right? Once saved, always saved. I mean, that’s a pretty powerful argument. You can’t do anything to get rid of the Holy Spirit as a Christian. Now, you might grieve the Spirit, through sin, we might quench the Spirit’s power in us through sin but you can’t lose the Holy Spirit. I mean, to lose the Holy Spirit, if you have the Holy Spirit, then you lost the Holy Spirit would make a mockery of Christ’s statement here. So the Restrainer holds back the antichrist, 2nd Thessalonians, 2, verses 6 and 7. The Restrainer is the omnipotent Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit permanently indwells all Christians. 38:27

Now, Paul here is talking about a time when the restraint is taken out of the earth. When you think that’s going to happen? That’s the rapture. Once the rapture happens, all Spirit indwelled Christians and that by the way is the only kind of Christian you can have, Amen? I used to think, you know, there’s the Baptist Christians over there and the Presbyterian Christians over there and the Methodist Christians over there and yeah, then there’s the born again Christians over there. I used to look at being born again as kind of a sect within Christendom. The reality of the situation is if you’re not born again, you’re not a Christian, right? How do you get born again? You trust Christ and at the moment you trust Christ the Spirit comes into you and lives in you forever and the Spirit can’t depart from you. We can grieve the Spirit, we can quench the Spirit but the Spirit in the church age cannot leave us, he’s not even on us, he’s in us forever and right now, what Paul is saying as he’s dealing with an audience that’s reeling from of a forged letter coming from Paul, is the Spirit of God is doing something through the church that you’re probably not even aware of. He’s holding back the antichrist. So you might look at your life as being insignificant but the truth of the matter is your presence as a Christian on planet earth is highly significant because God is using your life and all of His church, to prevent Satan from unveiling his ultimate project the antichrist and if you understand that, then the vitriol that the world system has towards Christianity starts to get explained. Satan hates the Christian, because the authentic Christian, the born again Christian, which is the only kind of Christian you can have, his or her very presence on planet earth is stopping Satan from unveiling his ultimate project, the antichrist. So all of that to say don’t read rapture teaching into Ezekiel, 38 and 39. Ezekiel, 38 and 39 is talking about a time period after this peace treaty is entered into. That’s why Israel is dwelling in peace for a season and that peace treaty cannot even be entered into until the antichrist comes on the scene and enters into that peace treaty with Israel and oh! By the way, the antichrist can’t even come on the scene to enter into that peace treaty until the church and the restraining ministry that God is doing through the church is what? Removed first. So first will come the removal of the restraint, that’s the rapture. Then will come the antichrist coming forward. Then will come the peace treaty between the antichrist and unbelieving Israel, which will start the time period, seven year time period and then, after that, will come the Gog-Magog invasion, second seal judgment which is the war which disrupts the world pseudo peace. So none of these things, if you understand that chronological order, none of these things can even transpire without the rapture happening first. So all of this kind of idea that, you know, this is talking about the rapture and maybe this is going to occur concurrently with the rapture just push that out of your mind, because there’s a logical order of things it must transpire before the peace treaty can even come into existence. The church has to be removed first and if this world is as bad as it is with the Restrainer here, can you imagine what it’s going to be like with the restraint gone? and I’m very thankful we’re going to be gone before that happens. So I’m having a hard enough time coping with the world as it is now with the restraint here. So hopefully that clears up a little bit as we’re dealing with questions and answers on the Ezekiel, 38 and 39 study. 43:18

MAIL BAG

1. Is Gog killed in battle?
2. Second seal judgment?
3. Coincides with Rapture?
4. Armageddon?
5. Resurrection during Millennium?
6. Israel and the Antichrist?

Okay, number four. Let’s talk about Armageddon. A lot of questions about Armageddon. Gee pastor, you put chapter 38 with the second seal judgment, chapter 39 is the end of the tribulation period, are you meshing chapter 39 with the battle of Armageddon? What is the battle of Armageddon? The battle of Armageddon takes place relative to the sixth bowl judgment, which, as you can see from our chart here, is towards the very, very end of the tribulation period.

So when you go over to Revelation chapter 16, verses 12 through 16 (Rev 16:12-16) you can get some wonderful teaching on Armageddon if you’re interested in that. Maybe you want to do your devotional time this week in Armageddon and there’s a passage I could give you. It says there, verses 12 through 16: The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east. And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean Spirits like frogs; for they are Spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty… Verse 15, Jesus says… Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame… Now, verse 16 is your Armageddon verse… And they… Who is they? The unholy trinity, the antichrist, the false prophet and Satan… They gathered them… Who is them? This great army coming from the east of the Euphrates River. If was a betting man, I would say one of the players in that would be China, amongst other nations. That was the position that Dr. John Walvoord takes in his Revelation commentary… They gathered them together to the place… So we’re talking about an actual physical location on planet earth. They gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon… Now,  Har-Magedon is a compound word, it comes from the word Har in Greek which means mountain and then Magedon comes from an area called Megiddo in northern Israel and I think it was Napoleon that passed through that part of the land of Israel and said, you know, this would be a great place for a war. I couldn’t dream of a better scene for a World War, he said something to that effect and he was prescient in his comments because God says that’s what’s going to happen. The armies of the earth are going to be satanically drawn. They’re going to come from across the east of the Euphrates river. They’re going to move into this territory for the final conflict, the battle of Armageddon and so that basically is what Armageddon is. We believe that Armageddon is a literal place on planet earth. You read some notes in some study Bibles and they say well that’s just the struggle that we are all in as Christians or something. No, when the Bible uses geographical areas, particularly in the book of Revelation, they’re always literal.

Asia is literal, Patmos, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea is literal, the Euphrates river is literal, the references to Jerusalem and the millennial Jerusalem and the new Jerusalem are literal places on planet earth so, so is Armageddon. So when I’m teaching Ezekiel, 38 and 39 and I’m trying to explain that chapter 39 is the end of the tribulation period, people are wondering well, is chapter 39 talking about Armageddon? My perspective on it, is chapter 39 is not talking about Armageddon. It’s talking about what happens at the end of all of these things, including the battle of Armageddon. So Ezekiel has a prophecy about the second seal judgment and then he just leaps forward like  jumping over a high jump bar and he leaps past all of the events of the tribulation period including Armageddon and then he talks about the aftermath of all these things. 48:52

So J. Dwight Pentecost in his wonderful book “Things to come” and if you don’t have this on your bookshelf, you should think about getting this cause it’s like the granddaddy of all prophetic teaching in terms of trying to systematize it. He has a couple paragraphs describing how Ezekiel, 38 and 39 is not talking about the battle of Armageddon and I took his material and put it in a chart.

Ezekiel, 38 and 39 there is no battle. It’s just God judging the hordes that are invading but in Armageddon, and you could see the scripture references that I have in parenthesis, there is an actual battle between the armies and the Lord. In Ezekiel, 38 and 39 the invaders come from the west and the north as we’ve tried to explain but in Armageddon, Revelation, 16 all the nations invade. In Ezekiel, 38 and 39, particularly 39, the enemies are destroyed on Israel’s mountains but in Armageddon the events take place in Jerusalem in the valley of Jehoshaphat. In Ezekiel, 38 and 39 Israel, what precipitates this conflict in Ezekiel, 38, is Israel is dwelling in safety but in Armageddon, Israel is not dwelling in safety. She is being pursued by the dragon or Satan who has been evicted from heaven. In Ezekiel, 38 and 39 there is absolutely no mention of a massive blood flow recorded. It just talks about the burial of Gog and his invading hordes, but in the discussion or the prophecies concerning Armageddon, there’s a massive flow of blood described. In fact, when you look at Revelation 14 and you look at verse 20, it says, the winepress was trodden outside the city and blood came out from the press up to the horse’s bridles for a distance of two hundred miles and that’s just an unbelievable, monumental flow of blood that is spoken of at Armageddon but it’s not spoken of in the Ezekiel, 38 and 39. In Ezekiel, 38 and 39 fire comes upon the invaders but in the description of Armageddon, fire does not come upon the invaders. So therefore, when we study Ezekiel, 39, and even though I’m putting it at the end of the tribulation period, the details are very different than Armageddon, so I think chapter 39 skips Armageddon. In fact, it skips all of the tribulation period prophecies and just tells you what’s going to happen at the very very very very very very very very end. The two things that are going to happen are the conversion of Israel, which is God’s ultimate goal and then there’s going to be so many corpses, that the birds of prey are going to feast upon the carnage. So again the perspective that I have on it and I know this is a new perspective, most people haven’t heard this, Ezekiel is giving you the outer edges of the tribulation period. He’s skipping everything in between and if you want to study Armageddon, which is a good thing to study, I wouldn’t study Ezekiel, 38 and 39. I would study Revelation, 16, 12 through 16 and if that’s not enough Armageddon scripture for you, you can study Joel, 3. We’re actually in our studies here on Wednesday night when we reconvene in the fall, we’re now in Zechariah, 13 and 14, having just cover chapter 12 at the end of the spring which deals with Armageddon and those are the scriptures that I would go to, but don’t go to Ezekiel, 38 and 39 because Ezekiel 38 and 39 is not about Armageddon per se. It is about the after effects of Armageddon and all of the other prophecies for that matter, but it’s not specifically talking about Armageddon. So when you become a student of the prophetic word and I’ve used this illustration before, it’s a lot like assembling pieces on a jigsaw puzzle. You got all of these pieces and you just have to know where they fit. Ezekiel, 38 and 39 gives you a big piece here’s what’s going to happen at the beginning of the tribulation, here’s what’s going to happen at the end, but you’ve got a consult other areas of the Bible to put the whole scenario in place and so Ezekiel, I don’t think is going to give you the Armageddon piece of the puzzle. Revelation, 16 and the other scriptures that I mentioned will. So hopefully that clears that up and let me skip number five for the sake of time. We’ll come back next we can do that, because I wanted to get to question number six, because this is a big question on people’s minds as well. 55:01

MAIL BAG

1. Is Gog killed in battle?
2. Second seal judgment?
3. Coincides with Rapture?
4. Armageddon?
5. Resurrection during Millennium?
6. Israel and the Antichrist?

That question reads as follows: Will Israel believe the antichrist is the Messiah for the first half of the tribulation period? I ask because if they will, why would the abomination of desolation be bad in their eyes? If they believe he is Jesus, they wouldn’t oppose worshiping him in the temple and so Daniel 9:27 is really the tremendous verse that sketches for you the whole seven year tribulation period. Tells you how long it’s going to last, it tells you what’s going to start it, the peace treaty between the antichrist and unbelieving Israel. It tells you what’s going to stop it, the personal return of Jesus to the earth and it tells you what’s going to happen right in the middle of it. Right in the middle of it, it says, but in the middle of the week, he, that’s antichrist will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering. So right in the middle of the tribulation period, the antichrist, who prior has entered into a peace treaty with Israel will betray Israel and he will go into the Jewish temple and he will deify himself in their rebuilt temple, proclaim himself to be God and as that happens, the Jewish eyes, nationally I’m speaking about, are opened and they realize that antichrist is not their messiah. They’ve been falsely trusting in the wrong guy. Their Messiah actually came two thousand years ago in the person of Jesus Christ. That’s why when they enter into this peace treaty, antichrist enters into the peace treaty with Israel, Isaiah, in Isaiah, 28, verse 15 (Isa 28:15,18) and in Isaiah, 28, verse 18 calls it a covenant with Sheol, a covenant with death. A pact with Sheol which means death or hell. You just made a deal with the devil, you don’t realize it. Why does it say that? Because the man that gave them this treaty, antichrist, is going to betray them three and a half years later by desecrating their temple and so we’ve made the point that when the antichrist goes into the Jewish temple and he begins to deify himself, that’s the point in which the Jewish nation is awakened to the fact that something’s wrong here. Antichrist is not our messiah, our messiah is Jesus. So the question is, if they, the Jewish people believe he is Jesus for the first three and a half years, then why are they opposing him in the temple? The answer is this time the antichrist has crossed the line. He’s done something that they can recognize is wrong in their own history books. Right now, the nation of Israel is being primed for the antichrist. In fact, Jesus made that statement two thousand years ago. He says, I have come in my Father’s name, speaking to the Jewish leadership, and you did not receive me. If another, antichrist, if another comes in his own name, and boy, that’s what the antichrist is going to do. He’s got a bad case of the eyes. I will worship, make myself above all that is called God. If another comes in his own name, He doesn’t say you might receive them, He says you will receive them. The moment it became clear that the nation of Israel wanted nothing to do with Jesus Christ is the moment Jesus said, now you’re sitting duck for the antichrist, because when you reject truth, your mind becomes open to all kinds of deception and the nation of Israel is no exception to the rule. I mean, just look at our how our world is functioning. It’s amazing the things people believe when they reject the truth. You reject the truth, your mind becomes open all kinds of bizarre teachings and the nation of Israel is no exception and when the antichrist goes into the temple and desecrates it, he says, I am God in the temple and he sets up a pagan image in the temple that actually speaks. You can read about that Revelation, 13, verse 15 (Rev 13:15), the moment the Jewish nation, who knows its history very well says, this guy is not our messiah because this is what one of our villains did in the past. A man named Antiochus Epiphanes, who December 25, 164 BC, essentially did the same thing in the second Jewish temple that was functioning at that time.

There was the Maccabean revolt against him, you can read about that in the books of first and second Maccabees which we don’t accept as inspired but they contain some valid historical source material. The Maccabean revolt pushed back against Antiochus, the temple was liberated and rededicated. There was the miracle at that time period of the lamp oil which was only supposed to burn for a day, they only had supplies for a day and it miraculously burned eight days which is what their tradition says has to happen in order to re dedicate the temple. There’s a whole holiday that comes out of this that Jewish people celebrate called what? Hanukkah. Sometimes called feast of dedication, sometimes called feast of lights. Jesus in John, 10, verses 22 through 24 (John 10:22-24) as a devout Jew made His way to Jerusalem to celebrate this various feast that happened about 164 BC, roughly a hundred and seventy, a hundred and sixty years before Jesus ever came to planet earth and so as a result of this, the nation of Israel took a holiday and added it to their calendar. 1:02

Leviticus, 23 lays out the seven feasts that the Jews are to memorialize and commemorate.

They show up at specific times on the Jewish calendar and then what’s added to the mix is Hanukkah.

It’s typically celebrated around the same time that we celebrate Christmas. So why would they add that holiday to the Jewish calendar? They would add that holiday to the Jewish calendar because of the miracle that God did in deposing Antiochus and re dedicating the Jewish temple. What you have to understand is that Antiochus is a type of what the antichrist will do.

Daniel, 11, verse 32 (Dan 11:32) of Antiochus says, he will desecrate the temple. Daniel, 9, verse 27 (Dan 9:27) takes that identical language and applies it to the future antichrist. What Antiochus has done, the antichrist will replicate in greater form exactly three and a half years into the tribulation period and once the antichrist does that, the Jewish mind says, you know what? This has happened before. As the great theologian Yogi Bear would say, it’s deja vu all over again and this is how they recognize that they’ve been had and they’ve been under deception for all these years because it’s going to take an event of that magnitude to awaken them to this truth. The gentleman that led me to Christ back in 1983 gave me a great piece of theology, he said, God knocks us down so that we look what? So that we look up, that’s how God works in all of our lives and that’s how He’s going to work in the life of his elect nation, that has rejected nationally Jesus and now embrace the antichrist and it’s going to be a tremendous, tremendous disappointment for them to see them double crossed like this. And as an earth shaking event of this nature happens in the life of the Jewish nation, as they see something happening that they all know about via Hanukkah, their eyes are opened. It says in Zechariah, 12, verse 10 (Zech 12:10) I will pour out on the house of David, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace. Why do they need grace? Cause they rejected Jesus all of this time, so they need his unmerited favor just like we all do and supplication so that they will look upon whom they have pierced, Jesus, who they rejected two thousand years ago and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping of a first born and that’s how Israel moves away from a partial hardening, Romans 11:25, into a time period, Romans 11:26, when all Israel will be saved and the reason Israel, who has been deceived for three and a half years, won’t be deceived at this point is because of the magnitude of the double cross. The double cross fits perfectly with what Antiochus did, a villain in their history and God shakes them to the core and consequently, after the double cross, in the second half of the tribulation period, they’re now open to the true Jesus Christ. So it’s a tremendous prophetic teaching that we have in our Bible concerning the future and we can know all about it, can’t we? Just by studying what God says and so it’s exciting. That God has not forgotten the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Amen?. Let’s pray. Father, we’re grateful for Ezekiel, 38, 39 as we study it in Sunday school. I do pray you’ll be with us in the main service that follows as we take a look at the book of Genesis and we’ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus’ name and God’s people said, Amen. Happy mini intermission.