Three Future Wars

by Clevetta Herndon R.N.

1.   Gog Magog War,
2.   Armageddon War and
3.  Post Millenium war (war after Christ's Kingdom is ushered in. -Rev 20:7)
 
I believe that the Gog Magog war and the Armageddon wars are two separate wars. In the popular mind, the Gog/Magog War and the Armageddon war have more often than not been confused as one rather than two wars, the tendency being to merge the Scriptures which detail the events of the Gog/Magog War with those of Armageddon. This confusion has been aided and abetted by pastors and teachers who should know better. Why has this knowledge not filtered down to the churches from the seminaries from which it was first made? Why? - because when one finally admits to the differences, certain conclusions with regard to the United States and its involvement in the Middle East become inevitable - conclusions which the vast majority of American christians  are simply not prepared to accept

There are a number of considerations which make it clear that we are dealing with two great wars in our future  rather than one war: In the Gog/Magog (further referred to as G/M) war, several allies of Gog are mentioned, as opposing Israel. -Ezek.38 These are the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. Gog (in verse 3) is described as the prince of these countries or princes. They include modern day Ethiopia, Libya and Egypt.

2.  In the Armageddon war, ALL nations are engaged against Jerusalem (Joel 3:2; Zech 12:3; and 14:2)

3.  In the Armageddon war, the sun and the moon are darkened but not in the G/M war (Joel 3:15,Matthew 24:29, Luke 21:25,  Zechariah 14:6

4.  Gog comes from the North (Ezek 38:6, 15), while at Armageddon, the armies come from out of the whole earth.(Joel#:2, Zech12:3 and 14:2)

5.   Gog comes to take a spoil (Ezek 38:11-12), while at Armageddon the nations of the earth assemble themselves together specifically to destroy the people of God.

6.   Gog is the head of the armies at his invasion (Ezek.38:15), but at Armageddon the beast Beast is at the head of the invasion (Rev. 19:19)

7.   There is a protest against Gog's invasion (Ezek. 38:13), but at Armageddon there is no such protest because all the nations of the earth have joined themselves with the Beast in his attack against Jerusalem.

8.   Gog is overthrown by divine intervention through the convolutions of nature (Ezek 38:22) , but the armies at Armageddon are destroyed by the sword which goes out of Christ's mouth (Rev 19:15) and by the Lord my God and ALL the saints (Zech 14:5).

9.  Gog's armies array themselves in the open fields (Ezek 39:5) while at Armageddon they are seen in the city of Jerusalem (Zech 14:2; Rev. 11:2).

10.  Gog's armies are destroyed outside of Jerusalem on the mountains and in the valleys (Ezek39:2-4) and take 7 months for the people of Jerusalem to bury, while the Beast and his armies are destroyed in the city of Jerusalem itself (Zech 12:2; 14:2)

11.  The Lord calls for assistance in executing judgement on Gog (Ezek 38:21), while at Armageddon He is viewed as treading the wine-press alone. - (Rev. 19:15; Isaiah 63:3-6).

12.  The invasion by Gog will be sudden and will come with relatively little warning (Ezek. 38:11)



 STUDY OF the ARMAGEDDON PROPHECY,


   The Jews rejected Christ during His first advent (Acts 4:10-12), and between His two advents, Jesus was going to build His church (Matt. 16:18) until the fullness of the Gentile church comes in (Rom 11:25). Then shall the Lord set up His Davidic Kingdom during His Millennial Reign here on earth.  Jesus makes reference to the Gentile control over Jerusalem; the passage says: "And they shall fall by the edge of the sword(Jerusalem), and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."- Luke 21:24 Israel has been re-established as a nation since 1948, Jerusalem shall go back into captivity for 42 months before christ and the saints return to free her. We see in Revelation 11:2; "and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. Revelation 11:3 THEN STATES THE WORD  **AND*** I will give power unto my two witness, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days (3.5 years). This may indicate that the two prophets that will be killed in the street will occur at the same time that Jerusalem is overtaken. Another prophecy that Jerusalem will be overtaken once more is in Zechariah 14:2 which states " I will gather ALL nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken and the houses rifled and the women ravished and HALF of the city shall go forth into captivity (the half alloted to the Gentiles as indicated in Revelation 11:2???) and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city."

       As we read verses Zech 14:3 & 4, we see that in this battle the Lord my God shall come AND all the saints with thee. This indicates that he is speaking of The battle of Armageddon (not to be confused with the Gog/Magog battle, which is before the final battle). As we read on we see in chapter 6 "and it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark...verse 7...not day, nor night:but it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light. As we read on about the Armageddon war, we see the description of a nuclear warhead's destruction in chapter 14:12 "and this shall be the PLAGUE wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth". Also see Revelation 16:8 which coincides with this prophecy. "And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given him to scorch men with fire. and men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over THESE PLAGUES : and they repented not to give him glory".


       We see in Revelation 16:12 that the Euphrates river must be dried up in order for the final battle to occur, so this also will be a sign to us of the coming of the final battle of Armageddon. "And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates AND THE WATER THEREOF WAS DRIED UP, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared."This verse will cause us to beware and watch for the Euprates rivers to dry up, thus forwarning us of the final battle.


Some more devotional articles on apocalyptic Biblical themes for the inquiring Christian.