Positions on the Ezekiel 38-39 war and the Rapture

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Although I have seen this study posted in several different parts on a re-posting site elsewhere, the complete study is available on the link. This is about the best study I have seen on all the possible timings and positions on the Ezekiel 38-39 war. It gives all the different views and the pros and cons of each position. Nathan Jones position is quoted below. To read all the other views on this you will have to read the whole article.

By the way Nathan’s position is the same as mine except for a couple of timing differences. I am not sure this war is before the Rapture and I do not see how Israel could be burning the weapons of war for 7 years during the great tribulation?  At that point Antichrist has complete rule over the land of Israel and is exterminating Jews that did not flee to the mountains for safety. So how can Israel be burning Gog’s weapons of war in the great tribulation of 3 1/2 years?

My position is a little different then any Nathan presented. I think the war of Ezekiel 38-39 occurs 3 1/2 years before the 70th week of Daniel begins. After Gog is defeated supernaturally by God Israel burns the weapons of war but is forced to stop burning after 7 years because Israel has to flee from the Antichrist when the two witnesses sent by God are killed.

If you look at the many different views in this article you will see that none of them perfectly fit. I believe there is a reason for that. It is because most everyone thinks the war of Ezekiel 38-39 and Armageddon will happen within a seven year period. Actually I do not see where these events have to be limited to seven years at all. I do not think we can assume that all the seals of Revelation are within the last seven year spoken by Daniel. We also cannot assume that the first seals are part of Jacob’s trouble. The Jews are not even mentioned at all in Revelation until after the 6th seal is opened.

I say (not dogmatically) that the last seven years actually starts after the 6th seal. It begins with the sealing of 144,000 Jews. With my view we have a 10 1/2 year period from the war of Ezekiel 38-39 and Armageddon. All prophecy can then fit without using a shoehorn. In my view seven years after the Ezekiel intervention when the world is expecting a type of Christ to appear they receive the Antichrist.

So when is the Rapture in my view? It is imminent. It could happen today. It could be before the Ezekiel war or after it but before the sealing of the Jews.

Articles – Featured – Timing Gog-Magog

Timing Gog-Magog
When will Ezekiel 38-39 be fulfilled?
by Nathan E. Jones

My View
Which view one holds probably rests more on what one sees is the view that provides the most logical answers to the prerequisites. To me, timing the Gog-Magog Battle just before or at the very beginning of the Tribulation can best fulfill these prerequisites and makes the most logical sense in my mind.

This is how I see the timeline most likely playing out:

1. The Rapture of the Church removes the Restrainer.
2. Israel subjugates their surrounding neighbors in fulfillment of Psalm 83.
3. The Gog-Magog Battle destroys the Russian and Muslim influence in the Middle East, makes the world aware of God’s presence, and restores Israel’s belief in the God of the Torah.
4. The Antichrist conquers what’s left of the Middle East and makes a peace covenant with Israel to complete the Revived Roman Empire.
5. Israel spends the seven years of the Tribulation burning the weapons.
6. Jesus returns at the end of the seven years to defeat His enemies at Armageddon resulting in Israel acknowledging that Jesus is God’s Son.
7. Jesus gathers the people from all over the world for the Sheep/Goat Judgment, which results in only believers entering the Millennial Kingdom.

Time will tell when the Gog-Magog Battle will truly take place. But, the players are already in place and the scene is just about all set for this epic battle to be waged in the not-too-distant future.

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Muslim Antichrist proponents totally miss Islamic moral law

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Dr. David Reagan has been receiving attacks on the Internet for his article in Lamplighter that debunked the concept of a Muslim Antichrist. One of the misconceptions of Muslim Antichrist proponents is that Islam is looking for a Mahdi that all Muslims will unite behind. They believe this Mahdi will be the Antichrist and will lead Muslims to fight against Israel and the “Christian” West. Never mind that there really is no Christian West there is only a pseudo Christian West. There are more true Christians in Communist China than there are in today’s humanistic Europe.

I frankly do not know why Christians believe Muslim eschatology as if the lies of Islam can give Christians prophetic truth?  Perhaps they do so for two reasons.

One reason is because one of the main proponents of this Muslim Antichrist theory recently converted from Islam and instead of properly learning Christian eschatology used his shoehorn to ram Shiite eschatology and Christian eschatology into the same shoe. Yet, only ten percent of Islam even believes the eschatology that this man claims all Muslims will follow.

The other reason is because they want to make biblical eschatology fit the main threat that they see in the world today because they think Jesus has to come within a decade. Sorry guys, but the Lord is coming on God’s time schedule not yours. They fall in the same trap so many others did in history, i.e. the Pope, Hitler. Today the observable threat is Islam so the Antichrist has to come from Islam.

Nevertheless, I keep telling everyone that the Antichrist will be lawless. That does not fit Islam at all because Islam is all about trying to keep the moral law. When the real Antichrist arrives people will believe that He is God and if there is any religion in the world other than the worship of him it will be more like new age and alien concepts.

These Muslim Antichrist proponents have a strawman Antichrist. When the real Antichrist figure comes people will want to follow him like he was their God. The world does not throw a party when the Antichrist arrives on the scene and kills the two witnesses because he is now imposing Islamic law on them. They are rejoicing because He just killed the two prophets of God and set them free from moral law. Are these Muslim Antichrist proponents serious telling me that the whole world will follow some Islamic Mahdi with Islamic moral laws all the way to Armageddon? Give me a break! The concept is beyond ridiculous.

Dr. Reagan in this article points out why the Muslim Antichrist proponents have it all wrong about the teaching of Islam. Ninety percent of Muslims are not looking for a Mahdi and if one came they would not receive him. To think that all Muslims would accept the Mahdi is on par with expecting true Christians to believe that Jesus will gather all Mormons to New Jerusalem in Missouri before the judgment.

Further Thoughts About a Muslim Antichrist

By Dr. David R. Reagan

The January-February 2009 issue of our magazine, the Lamplighter, was devoted to the issue of whether or not the Antichrist could be a Muslim. I argued that there is no possibility.

Several readers questioned one of the points I made in the article, and I would like to respond to the question they raised. In the article I pointed out that those who believe the Antichrist will be a Muslim argue that he will be received by the Muslim world as their long-awaited Mahdi, or Messiah. I took the position that this is misleading to believe “that all the Islamic world is living in breathless anticipation of the appearance of the Mahdi, when the reality is that 90% of all Muslims – the Sunnis – are not looking for a Mahdi. In fact the concept of a Mahdi is not even found in orthodox versions of the Hadith like Sahih al Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.” I further observed that “the Sunni Muslims are looking instead for the appearance of the Antichrist, whom they call the Dajjal. If a person were suddenly to appear on the world scene claiming to be the Mahdi, he would be automatically rejected by the vast majority of Muslims.”

Those who questioned my position on this matter all pointed to two pieces of evidence which they said prove that Sunni Muslims do believe in the concept of a Mahdi. One was a fatwa issued by the Muslim World League, a Sunni organization, in 1976 which proclaimed that belief in a Mahdi is “obligatory.” The other was a long article on the Internet entitled “The Twelfth Imam.” In that article the author points out that there have been Sunni theologians throughout history who have believed in a Mahdi.

On the surface, both of these items seem to prove that the concept of a Mahdi is central to Sunni eschatology. But I would argue that both give support to my position.

Let me explain.

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The ministry of the two witnesses is the most understated 1260 days in Bible prophecy

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The Two Witnesses From Heaven Will be Hell to the World

The Two Witnesses From Heaven Will be Hell to the World
By Don Koenig


The ministry of the two witnesses from God in Revelation chapter 11 will last for 1260 days. This event is the most understated event of Bible prophecy. The witnesses, the two prophets from heaven will shake the world to its core and the whole world will rejoice when they are killed because they tormented those who dwell on the earth.

I think we totally underestimate the impact that these two prophets will have on the world. They will be second in power to no one until their ministry is complete. No weapon formed against them will succeed. If a nuclear missile is fired at them it will land on the nation that fired it. These prophets with supernatural powers will have God’s angels at their disposal. Anyone who dares to harm them will in like manor be killed. They are going to have such a profound impact on the world that after they are risen and taken into heaven the sinful world will want to be led to believe that they can stop the kingdom of Jesus from coming. Thus, at the end of this period of Antichrist rule the Antichrist gathers all nations against Jerusalem to try to stop the second coming and the fulfillment of their prophecies.

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Jews against Christian Zionism

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This excommunication of the Christian Zionists does not surprise me. Most of Israel are leftist secular humanists who will make peace with their enemies at any cost. The only hope they see for peace is a peace enforced by the world powers. Zionist evangelicals are telling them not to give up there land for peace because it will bring a holocaust but if they know Bible prophecy they also know that a holocaust must come. So it gets rather difficult to understand why some people’s ministry is to bring a mostly unbelieving people back to a place where they know they will be doomed.

Most of the liberals running the Jewish nation now just see Zionists as a hindrance to brokered peace so they believe Christian Zionists are a threat to their nation. It is one of the reasons why Christian proselytizing is not allowed.

Some Zionist evangelicals have made the mistake of thinking that the nation of Israel would be blessed before they returned to God. The Bible does not teach that. It actually teaches that before Israel will return to God the nation will accept a Wicked Shepard a false Messiah that will lead them into another Jewish holocaust where two thirds of all the Jews in the Land will be cut off.

So we have a two part truth here that is inevitable. The blind Jews that are running Israel will lead the country into the prophecies of their end time destruction and a smaller remnant will believe the two witnesses sent by God and be saved. The other truth is that Christian Zionists will be increasingly looked at by everyone as a threat to world peace.

Activist Zionists trying to hurry the Jews back to Israel might have thought they could hasten Bible prophecy because they correctly see that Israel will one day be restored but they too often downplayed the prophetic chapters that come before the final chapter where Israel is restored. They knew Bible prophecy declared that Israel would go into this final holocaust but their actions in supporting unbelieving people destined for destruction might be questionable. They down play the fact that Israel has not and will not accept their message and any role they played in Israel’s last days is probably way overblown.

I am not against Christian Zionism, I am one. All Christians should be Zionists. We know that God gave the land to the descendants of Israel but I also think many Christian Zionists today are pretty naive.

They should know that no long term blessings can come to the nation of Israel before Israel accepts their true Messiah and this brokered peace deal with the world was inevitable. It is prophetic. So don’t feel jilted when the Jewish leaders turn on you, it was inevitable.

American Thinker: Rabbi Yoffie Excommunicates Pastor Hagee

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, seems to think Israel has too many allies in America. In particular, he believes that Israel can do without the support of evangelical Christians, and especially Pastor John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel.

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Reasons why Enoch will come with Elijah

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I can make a good case for either Moses and Enoch being one of the two witnesses but I lean toward Enoch. I think Enoch will witness to set straight the record of the earth before the flood and Elijah will testify of the times of Israel. Here are eight other good reason why Enoch will probably be one of the two witnesses. 

Eight Good Reasons Why Enoch Must Be One of the Two Witnesses!

by BOB WUNDERLICH

With this study I wish to prove why we can know with all certainty who the two witnesses are! They are Enoch & Elijah!

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