Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Russia & Bible Prophecy
As Russia assumes a leadership role at the upcoming G8 Summit, UPI takes a look at the enigma of Russian power (SpaceWar - Is Russia Strong Or Weak?):
"Russia is never as strong as she looks; Russia is never as weak as she looks." This quotation, or ones similar to it, have been attributed to Talleyrand, Metternich, and Churchill. In May 2002, Putin pronounced a modified version of it (which he attributed to Churchill): "Russia was never so strong as it wants to be and never so weak as it is thought to be."
Our interest in Russia stems from the popular identification of Russia as the King of the North found in Ezekiel 38:3 and Daniel 11:40. Students of military history and more recent history will note that Russia is not in a position to invade Chechnya, much less Israel, so we expect these prophecies to be fulfilled at some future date after the fortunes of Russia have been revived. For this reason I place the Ezekiel invasion at some point after the middle of the Tribulation and not at the start, which is another popular scenario you may already be familiar with. Of course, we could all be wrong about Russia, so it remains wise to monitor any military developments to the north of Jerusalem.

2 comments:

Michael said...

Russia is already in the land. If you would go to Israel you would see this. Many Russian 'Jews' have immigrated(did 'aliyah')already, to the point that many store signs have hebrew and Russian lettering, rather than Hebrew and Arabic. They speak Russian to each other, rather than Hebrew. Having just completed 3 months of BEING THERE, my 4th trip to Israel, I can attest that the above is true.
On another point, if you allow scripture to interpret scripture, you would see Gog/Magog does not start war until AFTER the 1000 year reign. Compare Revelation 20 with Ezekiel 37-39.
Michael

Portents said...

Michael, thank you for your comment. I've never been to Israel so it is good to get a first-hand account of what is happening there. As for Gog/Magog, I agree that the battle mentioned in Revelation is post-mill, I don't think that is the prophecy I meant to reference in my post, I will have to go back and take a look at it.