Aug 17, 2016

There are two battles with Gog and Magog in the book of Revelation, one before and the other after the thousand-year reign of Christ on the earth. In the first battle (Revelation 19:17, 18) the angel only refers to Gog and Magog indirectly by quoting Ezekiel 39:17-20. In the second battle, Gog and Magog are specifically named (Revelation 20:8).

The Peace Angel gives few details about the battle against Gog and Magog, other than to tell us of their defeat. We must rely on Ezekiel to tell us of Gog’s invasion and occupation of Israel. Furthermore, Ezekiel’s prophecy is crucial in understanding the nations actually involved in this invasion. Unfortunately, most prophecy teachers misunderstand it entirely, thinking that Russia will invade the Jewish state.

History of Togarmah

The key is found in Ezekiel 38:6, where the House of Togarmah is listed as a key invader. Togarmah is the nephew of Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, and Meshech—all of whom are listed as the invaders. History tells us specifically about Togarmah.

During the Middle Ages, from about 600 to 1200 A.D., there existed a kingdom north of the Black Sea that was known as Khazaria. It reached its peak about 960 A.D. and then slowly began to be conquered and absorbed by the Rus from the north.

The Khazars, or Chazars, had converted to Judaism somewhere between 620 and 740 A.D. The precise date of their conversion is disputed, but no one disputes the fact that they were a Turkish-Mongolian tribe that had converted to Judaism. The Jewish Encyclopedia itself says, under the heading “Chazars,”

“A people of Turkish origin whose life and history are interwoven with the very beginnings of the history of the Jews of Russia… Historical evidence points to the region of the Ural as the home of the Chazars.”

Later in the same article, The Jewish Encyclopedia tells how the Chazars decided to adopt Judaism as their religion:

“It was probably about that time that the chaghan [king] of the Chazars and his grandees, together with a large number of his heathen people, embraced the Jewish religion. According to A. Harkavy (‘Meassef Niddahim,’ i.), the conversion took place in 620; according to others, in 740. King Joseph, in his letter to Hasdai ibn Shaprut (about 960) gives the following account of the conversion…”

We read also in An Introduction to the History of Khazaria, by Kevin Alan Brook,

“Under the leadership of kings Bulan and Obadiah, the standard rabbinical form of the Jewish religion spread among the Khazars. Saint Cyril came to Khazaria in 860 in a Byzantine attempt to convert the Khazars to Christianity, but he was unsuccessful, because by that time the Khazars had already adopted a basic level of Judaism.”

Most of this history was unknown to the western world (and to prophecy teachers) until 1976, when a Jewish author named Arthur Koestler wrote about it in his book, The Thirteenth Tribe. He told the story of the Jewish doctor for the Caliphate in Cordova, Spain, heard about a Jewish kingdom and wrote letters of inquiry to King Joseph of the Khazars. The Khazar king’s letter is quoted by most of the historians who write about Khazar history. Koestler writes on page 72,

“Joseph then proceeds to provide a genealogy of his people. Though a fierce Jewish nationalist, proud of wielding the ‘Scepter of Judah,’ he cannot, and does not, claim for them Semitic descent; he traces their ancestry not to Shem, but to Noah’s third son, Japheth; or more precisely to Japheth’s grandson, Togarma, the ancestor of all Turkish tribes. ‘We have found in the family registers,’ Joseph asserts boldly, ‘that Togarma had ten sons, and the names of their offspring are as follows: Uigur, Dursu, Avars, Huns, Basilii, Tarniakh, Khazars, Zagora, Bulgars, Sabir. We are the sons of Khazar, the seventh…”

King Joseph’s letter, then, identifies the Jewish Khazars as being from the House of Togarmah, one of the invaders of the mountains of Israel in Ezekiel 38:8. They were not Russians by ethnicity. In fact, in later centuries, the Russians conquered them and absorbed them. The Khazars, then, became known as the Ashkenazi branch of world Jewry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_Jews

Take note also that Ashkenaz himself was the brother of Togarmah (Genesis 10:3), so it is not unusual for the people of Togarmah to be called by the name of his brother, for it is likely that they lived nearby or among the Khazars.

Statistics show that these Eastern European Jews comprise 80-90% of the world’s Jews, and after immigrating to the mountains of Israel, the House of Togarmah has become the dominant ethnic group in the Israeli state today.

The Invasion

Once we learn history, we are then able to obtain a better understanding of Ezekiel’s prophecy. The invasion of the mountains of Israel was mostly a conquest by immigration a century ago. The invasion of Gog from the land of Magog appears to be an invasion of Russian Jews, not an invasion of Russians themselves. With the invaders have come Jews from “Persia, Ethiopia, and Put” (Ezekiel 38:5), along with Jews from other parts of the world.

In other words, Ezekiel 38 and 39 prophesies of the Zionist movement, by which the mountains of Israel were conquered by Jews from Russia and backed by other Jews from around the world. This invasion was finally successful in 1948 when the Jewish state was established.

When the House of Togarmah converted to Judaism, these people of Turkish origin became Jews. They had never been Israelites by ethnicity, but by adopting Old Covenant Judaism, they did become Jews in the same manner that so many have done in the past. I do not question their identity as Jews, but they had no right to call their state Israel. This subterfuge has served to hide the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy and to create the perception of danger from a Russian invasion. In fact, the invasion has already taken place, and all that remains is for the Zionist experiment to end in disaster.

The Peace Angel has already sent ambassadors to the Jewish state in the attempt to reconcile with Jesus Christ and to cease its hostility to Him (Leviticus 26:40, 41, 42). To this day, the peace overtures have been rejected by most of the people and, more importantly, by their representatives in government.

For this reason, the Peace Angel calls for the birds to assemble “for the great supper of God” (Revelation 19:17). Ezekiel 39:17 pictures it as a divine “sacrifice,” where the birds of prey, instead of the priests, eat the sacrifice, “as though they were rams, lambs, goats, and bulls” (Ezekiel 39:18).

There are many other aspects to this prophecy that one must know in order to understand the full picture, but we cannot cover all of them here. For further study, see my book, The Struggle for the Birthright, particularly chapter 15.

The Beast is Arrested

Revelation 19:19 says,

¹⁹ And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies, assembled to make war against Him who sat upon the horse, and against His army.

Jesus prophesied in Matthew 21:44,

⁴⁴ And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.

This was a veiled warning to the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem that they should not become part of the beast system (that is, the “feet and toes” of the image in Daniel 2), for if they should do so, they would be in danger when the “stone” arose to grind the image to powder. They did not heed Jesus’ warning. The Jewish Rothschilds worked hard to take control of the beast system in its final “banking” phase from 1815-2014. Their success only ensures their destruction when God judges the beast.

When the Zionist movement succeeded in establishing a Jewish state, a national entity emerged that served as a focal point for this judgment. For this reason, when the Peace Angel prophesies of the final battle that overthrows “the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies,” he refers to Ezekiel 39, which describes the Jewish state located in the old land. Jerusalem itself becomes liable for all the blood of the martyrs and prophets since the beginning of time. That city is liable because in the end it carries the authority of the beast systems.

Revelation 19:20, 21 continues,

²⁰ And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. ²¹ And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat upon the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.

The beast is seized when his allotted time to rule ends. As we have shown previously, the beast’s seven times of dominion ends progressively in 2014-2018. The “signs” that deceived men were first mentioned in Revelation 13:13, which were his healing from the fatal wound and the fire from heaven. The fatal wound was the papal wound that was healed in 1804, and later the fire from heaven as nuclear bombs fell upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

These, along with the Israeli state, are the combined powers of the beast system known by the name of Babylon, the great harlot, Sodom, Egypt, and Jerusalem. This beast system deceives those with the mark of the beast—the lawless ones who are motivated by the love of money. The main leaders of the beast system are arrested and judged by the fiery law of God.

“The rest were killed with the sword,” not a weapon in one’s hand, but a sword coming from His mouth. We have already shown that this “sword” is the word of God—in this case, a verdict or decree of divine judgment.

As for “the great supper,” this is most likely a metaphor and will not be fulfilled literally. It is said to be a spiritual “sacrifice,” which is hardly literal. Under the Old Covenant, this might be fulfilled in a physical manner, complete with a battlefield and vultures. There may be a limited fulfillment of this in an Old Covenant manner, but yet it seems to describe the consuming of the flesh in a spiritual manner.

Being “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20) is a graphic description, but we do not have to be literally crucified in order to put the old man of flesh to death. In my view, the purpose of God is not to destroy those who have been deceived by the beast’s lies and signs, but to enlighten them with the truth. The truth is the word of God, which comes from one’s mouth as a “sword.” I believe that the graphic image of God’s sacrifice speaks of the time when those who fought Christ will finally see the truth. God will send His spiritual birds of prey to consume their flesh in order that they might fulfill their destiny as the people of God.

This is part 159 of a series titled "Studies in the Book of Revelation." To view all parts, click the link below.

Studies in the Book of Revelation