Epicenter 2.0

by Joel C. Rosenberg

  Consider the case of Adolf Hitler.

  The Nazi leader thought of himself as a secular messiah, “uninhibited by any religious sanctions whatever and with an unappeasable appetite for controlling mankind,” observed the renowned historian Paul Johnson. Hitler explicitly rejected the idea of God as an authority figure over himself. He rejected biblical principles and authority, and he bitterly opposed all who claimed to live their lives according to the Holy Scriptures.

  “Hitler hated Christianity with a passion which rivaled [Vladimir] Lenin’s,” Johnson once wrote. “Shortly after assuming power in 1933, he told Hermann Rauschning that he intended ‘to stamp out Christianity root and branch. . . . One is either a Christian or a German—you cannot be both.’”243

  This hatred of Christianity and the Bible upon which it is based led to an even more virulent hatred of the Jewish people who wrote the Bible and were the first true followers of God. Adolf Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf:

  Wherever I went, I began to see Jews, and the more I saw, the more sharply they became distinguished in my eyes from the rest of humanity. . . . Later I often grew sick to the stomach from the smell of these [Jews]. . . . Was there any form of filth or profligacy, particularly in cultural life, without at least one Jew involved in it? If you cut even cautiously into such an abscess, you found, like a maggot in a rotting body, often dazzled by the sudden light—a [Jewish person]. . . . Gradually, I began to hate them. . . . For me this was the time of the greatest spiritual upheaval I have ever had to go through. I had ceased to be a weak-kneed cosmopolitan and become an anti-Semite.244

  Driven by this hatred of God and his chosen people, Hitler went on to murder 6 million Jews in a campaign known as The Final Solution that was designed to wipe out all Jews. Such a campaign might very well have succeeded if the U.S. and allied forces had not been able to destroy Hitler’s regime.

  Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union in the 1930s and 1940s, likewise hated all who looked to the Bible as a source of inspiration and authority, and he reserved particular cruelty for the Jewish people. He had a favorite saying by which he lived and by which multitudes of Jewish people died, notes Soviet expert Arnold Beichman: “Est chelovek, est problema, net cheloveka—net problemy.” It meant, “A person, a problem; no person—no problem.” As Beichman put it: “Millions of people in the Soviet Union became un-persons during [Stalin’s] quarter-century rule . . . and he had a particular hatred for Soviet Jews. Stalin’s own daughter, Svetlana, attested to that psychosis: ‘What was originally political hate gradually became a feeling of racial hatred against all Jews, without exception.’” During Stalin’s reign of terror, tens of millions of Russians died from purges, wars, and famines. Many of these were Jews, at least a million of whom were deported from Moscow in 1953 and sent to slave-labor camps in Siberia, never to be heard from again.245

  Today the murderous anti-Semitic and anti-Christian spirit of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin is being carried on by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. As we have seen, he has called for the complete destruction of the Jewish state, echoing the words of the Ayatollah Khomeini: “Israel must be wiped off the map.”246 He is feverishly seeking nuclear weapons to accomplish the complete annihilation of Israel and the United States. He believes that the Islamic messiah’s return “will be preceded by cosmic chaos, war, bloodshed, and pestilence.” And he believes it is his job to bring about such apocalyptic events by launching a global jihad against Jews and Christians.247

  Osama bin Laden also made it his mission in life to curse the Jews, destroy their state, and destroy anyone—first and foremost the United States—who seeks to bless Israel and stand by her during a time of jihad. “We are sure of Allah’s victory and our victory against the Americans and the Jews, as promised by the Prophet, peace be upon him,” bin Laden told a reporter in 1998. “Judgment Day shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews, where the Jews will hide behind trees and stones, and the tree and stone will speak and say, ‘Muslim, behind me is a Jew. Come and kill him.’”248

  A careful examination of Scripture reveals a number of different ways that God has dealt with tyrants who curse the Jewish people throughout history. But Ezekiel warns us that certain leaders of certain nations will face an unprecedented and cataclysmic judgment in the last days. That is what the War of Gog and Magog is all about, and it may be here sooner than most people think.

  THE WAR AHEAD

  Let us now turn our attention to understanding just what will transpire during this War of Gog and Magog and how the nations of the world will be affected by this unprecedented event.

  In Ezekiel 38:9, we learn that Israel will face overwhelming odds. The Russian-Islamic alliance will come “like a storm,” and its troops will “be like a cloud covering the land” (NASB). The military forces commanded by the Russian dictator will come “out of the remote parts of the north” and appear as “a great assembly and a mighty army” (Ezekiel 38:15, NASB).

  Nowhere in the text, however, does Ezekiel indicate that any nation will come to Israel’s side to defend her against such a massive onslaught. Ezekiel 38:13 suggests that an international discussion is under way over Russia’s motives and objectives. Perhaps this will occur in the UN General Assembly or in the Security Council itself. It will certainly happen on radio and television as the storm clouds build. But in the end, Israel will stand alone, on the brink of extinction, facing what many will openly predict at the time as another holocaust.

  It will, therefore, be a lonely and frightful time for Israelis in particular and for the Jewish people around the world as their enemies advance ever closer to Israel’s borders, day by day, until she is completely surrounded, cut off, and alone. One can reasonably surmise from the context, from biblical history, and from recent history that Israel’s enemies will be taunting her, boasting of their strength, of her weakness, and of the imminent and glorious triumph of Islam.

  One can also reasonably expect Israeli leaders to be making preparations for war and considering a preemptive strike. They will likely be considering what some have called the Samson Option, wherein Israel—convinced she is about to be destroyed—chooses to take all of her enemies with her to the grave.

  The Samson Option is named for the ancient Hebrew judge who prayed in Judges 16:28-30, “Sovereign LORD, remember me again. O God, please strengthen me just one more time. . . . Let me die with the Philistines.” In Samson’s case, he pushed over the pillars holding up the roof of the temple that he and his captors were standing in, and the collapsing ceiling crushed them all. In modern Israel’s case, the plan would be to launch a massive, preemptive nuclear strike against Moscow, Tehran, Damascus, Tripoli, Khartoum, and other enemy cities, despite the fact that Russia—at the very least—would unleash her nuclear missiles as well, leaving no one standing on either side.

  Regardless of first-strike plans being made by either side, the War of Gog and Magog will be unlike any other war in human history. The intelligence Ezekiel provides clearly indicates that God himself will go to war on behalf of Israel and against her enemies, with devastating results.

  Ezekiel 38:18-20 indicates that “on that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel,” the Lord God says, “My fury will mount up in My anger. In My zeal and in My blazing wrath, I declare that on that day there will surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all the creeping things that creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the face of the earth will shake at My presence” (NASB).

  The earthquake will be epicentered in Israel, but its shock waves will be felt around the world. Clearly, Israel’s enemies will be directly and immediately affected by the quake, as “the mountains . . . will be thrown down, the steep pathways will collapse and every wall will fall to the ground” (Ezekiel 38:20, NASB). But does the text also mean that literally every person on the planet will physically shake as if he or she were standing at the epicenter? Or does it mean
that the destruction will be so great throughout the Middle East that everyone on earth will be affected personally by fear, by higher gas and oil prices, or by other less physical but no less powerful forces? It is not quite clear, but one should be prepared for all of the above.

  This massive earthquake, however, is only the beginning.

  “I will call for a sword against him on all My mountains,” declares the Lord God in Ezekiel 38:21 (NASB). “Every man’s sword will be against his brother.” In other words, in the ensuing chaos, the enemy forces arrayed against Israel will begin fighting each other. The war will begin all right, but Russian and Muslim forces will be firing at one another, not at the Jews.

  “With pestilence and with blood I will enter into judgment with him,” the Lord God continues in Ezekiel 38:22, referring to the Russian dictator known as Gog. “And I will rain on him and on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, a torrential rain, with hailstones, fire and brimstone” (NASB).

  This will be the most terrifying sequence of events in human history to date. On the heels of a terrifying supernatural earthquake that will undoubtedly take many lives will come a cascading series of other disasters. Pandemic diseases will sweep through the troops of the Russian coalition as well as through “the many peoples” who support these troops in their war of annihilation against Israel. Additional judgments will be leveled against the attackers such as have rarely been seen since the cataclysmic showdown in Egypt between Moses and Pharaoh (Exodus 7–11).

  Deadly and devastating hailstorms will hit these enemy forces and their supporters (reminiscent of Exodus 9). So, too, will apocalyptic firestorms that will at once call to mind both the terrible judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19) and the most frightening of Hollywood’s long list of disaster films. But such events will be neither ancient history nor fiction. They will be all too immediate, real, and tragic.

  Such firestorms will be geographically widespread and thus exceptionally deadly. In Ezekiel 39:6, the Lord says, “I will rain down fire on Magog and on all your allies who live safely on the coasts. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”

  This suggests that targets throughout Russia and the former Soviet Union, as well as Russia’s allies, will be supernaturally struck on this day of judgment and partially or completely consumed. These could be limited to nuclear missile silos, military bases, radar installations, defense ministries, intelligence headquarters, and other government buildings of various kinds. But such targets could very well also include religious centers, such as mosques, madrassas, Islamic schools and universities, and other facilities that preach hatred against Jews and Christians and call for the destruction of Israel. Either way, we will have to expect extensive collateral damage, and many civilians will be at severe risk.

  THE AFTERMATH

  The devastation will be so immense that Ezekiel 39:12 tells us it will take seven full months for Israel to bury all the bodies of the enemies in her midst, to say nothing of the dead and wounded in the coalition countries. What’s more, the process would actually take much longer except that scores of bodies will be devoured by carnivorous birds and beasts that will be drawn to the battlefields like moths to a flame.

  “Call all the birds and wild animals,” the Lord God tells his prophet in Ezekiel 39:17-19. “Say to them: Gather together for my great sacrificial feast. Come from far and near to the mountains of Israel, and there eat flesh and drink blood! Eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of princes as though they were rams, lambs, goats, and bulls. . . . Gorge yourselves with flesh until you are glutted; drink blood until you are drunk. This is the sacrificial feast I have prepared for you.”

  A more gruesome sight is hard to imagine, but again, this is not the stuff of fiction. Ezekiel is giving us an intelligence report of the future, a future that is steadily approaching.

  Ezekiel 38:22 says that one of the weapons God will use against the enemies of Israel is disease. When I see reports about the threat posed by the avian flu, it is hard not to think about this passage and its implications. The H5N1 virus is sweeping through the bird populations of Russia, the Middle East, central Asia, and east Asia, and it has begun to penetrate Africa as well, forcing officials in these regions to slaughter more than 200 million birds in an attempt to head off a possible global pandemic. European nations are just beginning to find cases of infected birds. U.S. officials say they expect birds in North America to be hit with the deadly disease soon and are working feverishly to produce and stockpile vaccines for human consumption.

  By early 2006, over 100 people had died from this strain of avian flu worldwide. But health experts warn that millions more could die if the flu successfully leaps from birds to humans, from humans to humans, and then accelerates into a pandemic.

  One worst-case scenario from an Australia-based think tank projected 142 million deaths and global economic losses of $4.4 trillion. But researchers warned that even a “mild” pandemic could result in 1.4 million deaths and $330 billion in economic losses.249 The report also found that U.S. deaths alone could range from 20,000 in a “mild” scenario to more than 2 million in an “ultra” or severe scenario.250

  We don’t yet know, of course, if there is a connection between the H5N1 virus and the approaching fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy. There may be none. But when one watches how much fear the virus is striking in the hearts of government leaders and public health officials, one can begin to imagine how quickly and how terribly a modern pandemic could sweep across the world and take the lives of millions, just as Ezekiel has predicted will happen in the last days.

  REASONS FOR HOPE

  Ezekiel’s prophecy raises many troubling questions. Will all of Russia be supernaturally destroyed? Will all of Iran and Libya and Sudan and other Islamic countries in central Asia and elsewhere be destroyed? What about Germany and Austria? Will everyone in these countries be killed as well?

  Without a doubt, the devastation described in the text will be beyond compare in human history. It is clear that God intends this War of Gog and Magog as a divine judgment of Israel’s mortal enemies. It is also clear from the text that the countries certain to be affected by this judgment include those that have in recent times warred against the very existence of God (Moscow-driven Communism and atheism) and those that have warred against the One True God, the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus (Mecca-driven Islam).

  One may reasonably conclude, therefore, that the judgment will bring both political and spiritual systems to their stunning ends. The wrath of God will fall on the Kremlin and the Red Army. And the world will witness the end of radical Islam as we know it.

  As discussed earlier, Germany and perhaps Austria may find themselves facing calamity too. We do not know for certain that this will be the case, but we can’t rule out the possibility either.

  That said, however, there are also strong indications in the text that the devastation will not be complete and that God will show mercy.

  In the Masoretic Text—the ancient Hebrew manuscript of the Old Testament upon which the King James Version of the Bible is based—we find an interesting passage in Ezekiel 39:2. The Lord says to Gog, “I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel” (emphasis added). This suggests that five-sixths of Gog’s forces and his coalition’s forces will be destroyed but that one-sixth—about 17 percent—will remain behind and survive. We should hold out hope that many will be spared, but the truth is we simply do not know for sure.

  Throughout history, God has acted in ways that humans don’t always understand but that bring to fruition some part of his perfect plan. I must say I don’t fully understand what is coming, and much of me wishes that God in his providence would find some other way to protect Israel and chasten the nations who oppose him. At the same time, I do see signs of hope that will come out of the disastrous judgment described in Ezeki
el.

  Several verses in the biblical text indicate that a great, global spiritual awakening will result from this unprecedented day of judgment. In Ezekiel 38:23, for example, the Lord God says, “I will magnify Myself, sanctify Myself, and make Myself known in the sight of many nations; and they will know that I am the LORD” (NASB). In Ezekiel 39:21-22, the Lord God provides more detail: “I will set My glory among the nations; and all the nations will see My judgment which I have executed and My hand which I have laid on them. And the house of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God from that day onward” (NASB, emphasis added).

  Dr. Charles Ryrie, editor of the Ryrie Study Bible, once noted, “The twofold purpose of this judgment is that the nations might acknowledge God’s glory and that Israel might know God’s grace.”251

  I agree. It is entirely consistent with God’s character and his plan and purpose throughout history for him to use times of judgment against some to shake up—and wake up—others to their need for a personal relationship with him. In John 3:16, we read: “God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son [Jesus Christ], so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” 1 Timothy 2:3-4 tells us that “God our Savior . . . desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (NASB). 2 Peter 3:3-9 tells us that “in the last days mockers will come” to cynically dismiss the words of the prophets since their forecasts have not yet come true. But “the Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (NASB).