Excerpts from “The Two Gog-Magog Wars.”
Understanding that Ezek. 38 and 39 are two different battles, is the key to understanding end-time events. Read Ezek. 38 and pay attention to the last verses, (18-23). G-d will be glorified in the eyes of many nations, but Israel is not mentioned in this part of the passage. It is because the Rabbis teach that Messiah will come after the great Magog war. Are they being set up to accept the Antichrist? I am afraid so. Now we Christians have a contentious debate about whether the Magog war is at the beginning or end of the great tribulation. The reason everyone seems to disagree is because there is proof for both sides. This alone should have been enough to show the shepherds that two different wars are spoken of in Ezek. 38 and 39. The modern shepherds, like the Jewish Rabbis, do not see the three and a half year valley between the mountains of Ezekiel 38 and 39.
So then, what does this have to do with the Assyrian? His throne will be solidified at the time of the first Magog war. He may even have something to do with the destruction of the Magog coalition, thus the cheers of many, “who can make war with him.” The Assyrian will take the credit for what the true G-d does to the Magog coalition, and the unbelieving masses of humanity will believe his lies.
The throne of the Assyrian will include Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, to start with. These countries now occupy what was the territory of the beginning of the ancient Assyrian empire. We know that Babylon is in Iraq, and that it is now rebuilt, and the king of Babylon is Lucifer. We shall also see now that Satan is also the king of Tyre, which is today a small coastal town in Lebanon, but was once a great seaport trade center for the Phoenician Empire. These two cities, Babylon and Tyre, will become two of the three most important cities in the Antichrist’s throne, Jerusalem will be the third, and is of the upmost importance to Lucifer. We shall now read Ezekiel 28:1-19, where we learn that the prince of Tyre will be the Antichrist, and the king of Tyre will be Satan himself.
Ezekiel 28:1-19
v.1) “The word of the L-rd came again unto me, saying,
v.2) Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the L-rd G-d; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a G-d, I sit in the seat of G-d, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not G-d, though thou set thine heart as the heart of G-d:
v.3) Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee:
v.4) With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures:
v.5) By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches:
v.6) Therefore thus saith the L-rd G-d; Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of G-d;
v.7) Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness.
v.8) They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas.
v.9) Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am G-d? but thou shalt be a man, and no G-d, in the hand of him that slayeth thee.
v.10) Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the L-rd G-d.
v.11) Moreover the word of the L-rd came unto me, saying,
v.12) Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, thus saith the
L-rd G-d; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
v.13) Thou hast been in Eden the garden of G-d; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the Beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
v.14) Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of G-d; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
v.15) Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
v.16) By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of G-d: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
v.17) Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
v.18) Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
v.19) All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.”
Not only do we see here the Antichrist and his god, Satan, but also we read curious statements about Lucifer. He is the anointed cherub that covereth. He was also created in perfection and perfect beauty, but ultimately, iniquity was found in him. Could it be that G-d wanted to exhaust all options before giving his Son as the new covenant? G-d would have known beforehand what would happen. Was this part of his plan? I do not know, but it is possible that Lucifer’s original purpose was to be our covering, thus he was anointed. Since iniquity was found in him, he became the father of those that reject G-d and his Son.
Now surely G-d knew this would happen, but when Christ came to the point that he had to decide, in the garden of Gethsemane, he knew there was no alternative, though he prayed for one. So he gave himself in death, to be our covering for sin. And Lucifer, who was unwilling to follow the plan of G-d, actually helped fulfill it at the cross by his murderous act against Christ! All of this must be why Lucifer will imitate the Messiah in the end. He has been prepared by G-d for the work that must be done during the great tribulation! This is why his lie will be so powerful! G-d has said that he would send a strong delusion on the unbelievers of the last days. He will send Lucifer, the angel of light. This is Satan who will be cast out of heaven with his angels.
So now that we know Satan is the king of Babylon and Tyre, we must assume that the countries they are in will also be part of the Antichrist’s throne. Lebanon, where Tyre is located, is today a puppet state of Syria; in fact the Syrian army is still in Lebanon. We read of the destruction of Damascus and Syria in Isaiah chapter 17.
Isaiah 17:1-14
v.1) “The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
v.2) The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.
v.3) The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the L-rd of hosts.
v.4) And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean.
v.5) And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim.
v.6) Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the L-rd G-d of Israel.
v.7) At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.
v.8) And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images.
v.9) In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Israel: and there shall be desolation.
v.10) Because thou hast forgotten the G-d of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips:
v.11) In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
v.12) Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
v.13) The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but G-d shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
v.14) And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.”
So when does this destruction of Damascus take place? We are given some indicators in the text. The cities of Aroer were in what is now Jordan, east of the Dead Sea. Now the question arises: are the “flocks” of verse two, flocks of sheep? or G-d’s flock, the Jews? This area of Jordan is the territory that was Moab. We read of the Antichrist, at the time of the end, this statement:
Dan.11: 41) “He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many [countries] shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, Edom and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.”
The word “countries” here changes the meaning of the text. That is why I put it in parenthesis. The word was not in the text but was added by the translators. You may have noticed other places were I have left out some of these additions; it is only where they conflict with scripture. We did not need men to add to the word of G-d for us to understand it. Here is what this verse is telling us, leaving out the word countries: Dan.11: 41) “He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, Edom and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.”
Did you catch that? G-d is calling Edom, Moab, and Ammon, part of the glorious land, Israel! These areas were in the area now known as Jordan, and Ammon became what is now Amman, the capitol of Jordan. The fact that Edom, Moab, and Ammon, escape the reach of the Antichrist, means that this area is most likely the wilderness that is prepared of G-d for his people in Rev.12. This is the wilderness where the “woman” will flee to for 1260 days, and this is the flock of Isaiah 17:2! This then, if it is true, means that Damascus will be destroyed before the last half of the seventieth week starts.
The next question that arises is; where is the fortress of Ephraim? The boundaries of the allotment to the tribe of Ephraim fall primarily in the area now known as the West Bank in Israel. Interestingly, Ramallah, where Yassir Arafat has his main headquarters for the Palestinian Authority, is also in the territory of Ephraim. Is this the fortress spoken of in Isaiah 17? As I write this Arafat is holed up in his compound in Ramallah, and war is on the horizon in the Middle East.
We also read, in verse three, that the kingdom shall cease from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria. And because of verse nine, it appears that Israel will be the cause of all this. Could it be a response to a Syrian missile strike on Israel? I would bet on it! It is very possible, and even likely, that the coming war in the Middle East will see this prophecy fulfilled, setting up the Empire of the Assyrian. With Damascus obliterated, world opinion against Israel will be even more inflamed, (the fatness of Jacobs flesh will wax lean, verse four). This could be the catalyst that brings about the first Magog war! Now if this is correct, and I believe it to be, then Isaiah 17 describes some of the events leading up to the great tribulation. Keep your eye on Damascus and Syria!
There is a cryptic prophecy in Isaiah that I would like to share with you now. I refers to Remaliah’s son, which sounds eerily not unlike Ramallah.
KJV Isaiah 7:1-22
1. “And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it.
2. And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.
3. Then said the L-rd unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shearjashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field;
4. And say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.
5. Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying,
6. Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal:
7. Thus saith the L-rd G-d, It shall not stand, neither shall It come to pass.
8. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people.
9. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.
10. Moreover the L-rd spake again unto Ahaz, saying,
11. Ask thee a sign of the L-rd thy G-d; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.
12. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the L-rd.
13. And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my G-d also?
14. Therefore the L-rd himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
15. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
16. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.
17. The L-rd shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.
18. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the L-rd shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
19. And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes.
20. In the same day shall the L-rd shave with a rasor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard.
21. And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep;
22. And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land.”
What are the implications of this passage today? It certainly was not fulfilled in the time of King Ahaz of Judah! The prophecy includes the virgin birth of Christ our L-rd! And that was the sign to the house of Judah that G-d said He would give them. So then, when is the son of Remaliah, from Ephraim, defeated? When is Damascus defeated? I’ll give you a hint: the passage states that at that time Egypt will loose in a war with Assyria. The “hissing” of G-d, to the fly in Egypt and the bee in Assyria, is the call to war.
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the L-rd shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.”
This is, once again, a reference to the final two legs of the Seleucid and Ptolemaic Dynasties, the last of the Grecian kingdoms that are about to take center stage again. Bees are capable of inflicting much more pain than flies, by the way, and the bee is the symbol of the tribe of Dan, (see the story of Samson and the lion's carcass).
So Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq will be the beginning of the new Assyrian kingdom. Does this mean that these are the three that the Antichrist will subdue? We cannot be sure, all I can say is that we should be watching, and we should be watching the Middle East, not Europe!
Here is another case in point: the European Union now has fifteen member states, and is soon to be twenty-five, yet the modern shepherds continue to say that they will be the ten toes of Daniel, the ten kings of Revelation. Look at a map of the Middle East, there are eleven nations that could be the final ten kings plus the Antichrist! Iran, (Persia), we can exclude; they will lose the first war of Magog, Ezek.38. We can also exclude Egypt and the kings of the south, we know that the king of the north is the Antichrist, and at the time of the end he will destroy the king of the south, Dan. 11: 40-43. Egypt will not be part of his kingdom in the beginning.
The ten nations that will make up the empire of the beast could very likely be these: Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, and the tiny state of "Palestine" that is slowly emerging, eleven in all. These would give their power and authority to the beast. These things are being set up before our very eyes! Did you know that Africa also has a Common Market? The world is being shaped into massive power blocks and the man of sin will arise in the Moslem oil-rich power block. And likely, out of the next war in the Middle East, ten kings will arise or possibly seven.
We must watch and be ready. If seven kings are left after the next conflict in the Middle East, then we must pay attention to who uprooted three of them, for he is the eighth, and the little horn, the Antichrist. He will worship the god of the “mauzzim,” (Moslem).
Dan.11: 38a) “But in his estate shall he honor the god of forces.”
The Hebrew word for forces here is “mauzzim.” Sounds a lot like Moslem to me, and what does mauzzim mean? Mauzzim means the protectors of G-d, or G-d’s protectors. Isn’t this exactly what they claim is their duty, protectors of their Holy sites, Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem? The true G-d has a much different plan for the Holy City Jerusalem! They can have Mecca and Medina, but G-d will fight for Jerusalem. This will be the cause of Armageddon. And “Mauzzim,” I believe, is the reason Moslems now want to be called Muslims.
Update July 9, 2003: It becomes more and more evident that the Assyrian and the AntiChrist may be two different entities. President Bush is now the ruler and king of Babylon, and Iraq. This has profound implications! Be sure to visit TimeLineCharts, Herodian Dynasty, and The Four Horsemen for the latest updates on these events!
