THE MAGOG FACTOR

The Rosh To Judgment

by Preston McNutt

...with thanks to Joel Richardson and former Muslim Walid Shoebat, two authors who are faithful in their proclamation of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Ezekiel 38:1-6

1And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 2Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, 3And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: 4And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: 5Persia, Cush, and Put with them; all of them with shield and helmet: 6Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.

When reading a book, virtually all people start with page one and read it from beginning to end. That's normal. Yet many very good students and teachers alike make the mistake of starting at the end of the book in their studies of end-times! The Book of Revelation, more than any other book in the Renewed Testament, is loaded with direct quotes, references, and allusions to hundreds of passages from the Old Testament. You can't start with the Book of Revelation and make sense of the incredible predictions enumerated there without first understanding the foundation that the book is built upon. Proper understanding of what happens on the last page of the book requires an understanding of what happens on the first page of the book. Begin with the foundation.

Another mistake I made in years past and many others make is starting with the Book of Daniel. Like the Revelation, the book of Daniel is filled with allegory, symbolic hyperbole and itself requires serious study to properly interpret. So you don't start in the middle of the book with passages that themselves are difficult to interpret. You start with that which is clear, direct, and literal. Where you begin always determines your destination. The assumptions you form in understanding the clear and literal passages will serve as a solid foundation as you interpret other allegorical or symbolic passages that are not so clear.

Let's look at our title text and begin to lay a proper Biblical foundation for understanding the true nature of the Last-Days with regard to the anti-christ and his eco-political system as it develops before our very eyes.

The highlighted excerpt in the above quoted verse in the Hebrew text reads אֵלֶ֙יךָ֙ גֹּ֔וג נְשִׂ֕יא רֹ֖אשׁ מֶ֥שֶׁךְ וְתֻבָֽל׃ transliterated eleicha gog nesi rosh meshech v'tuval and is translated as "...I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal." On the basis of the word rosh coupled with the reference to a people from the north, the prevailing interpretion for decades has been that Russia would be the nation to lead the final attack on Israel. In military collaborations with several of the nations surrounding tiny Israel, YHVH would place a hook in the jaw of the great bear from the north and cause her to lead the attack.

While it seemed a plausible scenario given the animosity Russia displayed toward Jews in the past, and considering the curent military allegiances, treaties and arms support with strongly anti-semitic countries like Iran, the scholarship has proven to be faulty. Because the word rosh sounds like Russia, and because Russia is almost due north of Israel, Bible teachers have consistently interpreted these passages as pointing to Russia as the Gog and Magog of Biblical prophecy, despite the fact the Hebrew word rosh is translated here and in every other instance as head or chief, as in Rosh Hashannah, head of the year or New Year. As we seek to unwind decades and perhaps centuries of erroneous teachings, we will set forth some basic premises and then hopefully prove them as the article progresses.

Premise One(P1): All scripture is given by inspiration of God. including Brit Chadashah, (New Testament); the Bible is its own best interpreter, comparing scripture with scripture under the guidance of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) to arrive at truth; that any seeming contradictions in Scripture are a result of our own fallen abilities to properly interpret, not due to any error in the Word of God; that as a precept, we can interpret the entire Bible literally unless the context demands an allegorical interpretation; that as my friend Brad says, "God is smarter than we are"!

Premise Two(P2): Gog is the Antichrist. As a subset of Premise Two, we accept that even though scripture uses the term "Antichrist" to denote a spirit of rebellion, as in "instead of Christ" and not as the name of an individual, that the "man of sin", "the lawless one" of Pauline epistles and the "beast" of Revelation refer to an individual which for the sake of constancy can be called "Antichrist".

Premise Three(P3): Magog is a geographical area from which the Antichrist springs and which serves as the seat of his authority in bringing about end-time events described in Holy Writ.

Premise Four(P4): the Antichrist religious system commonly called "One World Religion" is in existence today and is experiencing tremendous growth and revival and will play a vital role in tandem with another world religion as the end-time events unfold.

The name Gog is a title of one who is the supreme ruler, in this case the prince or king of Magog. As Pharoah was the title of the successive rulers of Egypt, Caesars were the rulers of the Roman Empire and Gog is the title of the monarch of an empire called Magog. Knowing the title, we might gain better insight into the source of the one who will wear that title in the end-time scenario.

The book of Ezekiel is specific in detailing the list of nations from which the Antichrist mounts his assault on Jerusalem. Magog, Meshech, Tubal, Persia, Cush, Put, Gomer and Togarmah. According to Genesis 10:2, seven of these eight city/states are named after grandsons of Noah. Our job is to identify these eight geographic lands in their historical locations and place them in their contemporary settings.

  1. Magog:
    • Son of Japheth
    • The key to identifying Magog is in identifying Meshech and Tubal, which we will do shortly. Suffice to say, while the precise nations that historically made up the area known as Magog may be debatable, there is general consensus among Bible scholars and historians that it was comprised of nations located in Asia Minor, south of the Black and Caspian Seas and parts of central Asia. Today, they are the "stans" that lie far south of Russia and north of Israel, ie., Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, etc., and including Turkey and Chechnya.
  2. Meshech:
    • Son of Japheth
    • Many well known Bible teachers assign a Russian identification to Meshech and Tubal based primarily on the similarity of the words to two contemporary cities: Meshech-Moscow and Tubal-Tobolsk. The Schofield Study Bible makes this correlation. The problem is, basing an interpretation on the evidence that words sound similar can lead to a faulty conclusion. If the roots of a word cannot be traced back to its Hebrew origin, the results are spurious scholarship at best.
    • I personally have worn out two Schofield Study Bibles and working on the third (simply because I am a choleric creature of habit, not because I believe it is the "best translation"). And one thing I figured out many years ago is, YOU CANNOT ELEVATE THE FOOTNOTES TO THE LEVEL OF AUTHORITY OF THE WORD OF GOD! Too many people accept the footnotes and passage headings as scripture. Not only is that blasphemous but leads to some very unBiblical doctrines. For example, the heading above the passage Colossians 2:14 states Law observances were abolished in Christ. How asinine! You mean to tell me that Messiah meant to say "I came not to abolish the law but to abolish the law"? Is that what He meant? How ludicrous. Enough ranting. Let's move on.
    • According to Ezekiel 27:13, both Meshech and Tubal were trading partners with ancient Tyre, in what is today Lebanon. Noted Bible teacher Mark Hitchcock points out A closer study of these names reveals that Meschech and Tubal are the ancient Moschi/Mushki and Tubalu/Tibareni peoples who dwelled in the area around, primarily south of, the Black and Caspian Seas in Ezekiel's day. These nations today are in the modern country of Turkey, possibly parts of suthern Russian and northern Iran."
    • Meshech was located near what was known as Phrygia, in central and western Asia Minor, while Tubal was located in eastern Asia Minor. Both form portions of modern Turkey.
  3. Tubal:
    • Son of Japheth
    • See above.
  4. Persia:
    • Modern day Iran:
    • Iran was called Persia until 1935, and many Iranian Americans still refer to their nationality as Persian when asked where they are from. It's doubtful many would argue as to the current location of the ancient land of Persia.
  5. Cush:
    • Son of Ham:
    • Many Bible translations interpret Cush as Ethiopia, but modern day Ethiopia is not the area that the Bible associates with Cush. 9Egypt will become a desolate wasteland. Then they will know that I am the Lord. “‘Because you said, “The Nile is mine; I made it,” 10therefore I am against you and against your streams, and I will make the land of Egypt a ruin and a desolate waste from Migdol to Aswan, as far as the border of Cush." Egypt borders Cush. The Nile river flows into the southern border of Egypt from the modern nation of Sudan, known officially since 1989 as the Islamic Republic of Sudan. Therefore, Cush is Sudan.
  6. Put:
    • Son of Ham:
    • Put is the area west of Egypt. The Septuagint translates the word Put as Libue. It is the modern nation Lybia. Some people, like ex-Muslim Walid Shoebat, include Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The entire area is Islamic to the core.
  7. Gomer:
    • Son of Japheth
    • Gomer was well known in the ancient world as Gimarrai or Cappadocia in north central Asia Minor. The people were also known as the Cimmerians. Gomer is the area in what we know as Central Turkey.
  8. Togarmah:
    • Son of Gomer, great-grandson of Noah
    • Togarmah is revealed in Assyrian records as Tilgarimmu. Tigarimmu was a city state in eastern Anatolia, modern day Asia Minor. Again, that places it in southeastern Turkey near the border with Syria.
So there we have the contemporary locations of all eight of the nations Ezekiel prophesies about concerning the coming antichrist system. What I want you to keep in mind is:
  1. Every one of these nations is centered in and around Asia Minor with Turkey at the core.
  2. Without exception, the peoples of these nations are Islamic on the one hand and radically anti-Israel on the other.

Bible teachers for decades have taught that the antichrist world government would arise from a Revived Roman Empire. The teaching is that Europe, in the form of the European Union is that revived Roman Empire. It all sounded good for years, until the "aha" moment. You know what the "aha" moment is, right? Where you slap your forehead and say "Aha! That's what that means. How'd I miss that?" That epiphany came when Joel Richardson showed me that of the eight world empires spoken of in Revelation 17, six had come and gone, the eighth, or antichrist world system was yet to come, but there was a gaping hole where the seventh should have been. If the sixth empire was the Roman Empire, and the eighth empire is the antichrist's reign, and the antichrist's empire is a Revived Roman Empire, what happened to Empire Seven? Also, if Gog and Magog spring from Russia, it is inconsistent for it to be Russia leading the attack, but for the European Union, or the Revived Roman Empire, to be the antichrist seat of power.

Let us review Revelation 17 which speaks of the eight world empires, each of which reigned or will reign over vast and various portions of the Middle East, all of which included Jerusalem in their conquests. That is an important distinction, realizing that even though not all of them reigned over the exact same areas and their control was inconstant at times, they all considered Israel primary in their realm of control. Remember, tiny Israel always has been and always will be the center of the world's attention. Why? Israel has no major resources, no oil fields, is not a strategic crossroad for commerce, yet throughout history mankind has fought for control of that postage stamp sized piece of real estate. Why? Because it is the Jewel of Heaven! It is the Apple of God's Eye, the place where God Himself will be seated as the Ultimate Victor over evil! The devil, hasatan, knows that. He is the unseen enemy who has sought to thwart God's Redemptive Plan from the very beginning, first by trying to destroy the Seed of the Woman, ie. Cain and Abel, and progressing through history in successive attempts to destroy Israel, who would eventually deliver that Seed in the Person of Yahshuah haMoshiach. Note: Yohanan (John) prefaces his description by warning us in v. 9 that proper understanding requires a mind of WISDOM! Most translations, including the Orthodox Jewish Bible, have this verse translated "This calls for a mind with wisdom", meaning we are to actively seek wisdom if we're to "rightly divide the Word of Truth" II Tim. 2:15; see also Prov. 3:4,5,7,13. That says to me the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) is saying "Pay attention! There's something here vital to your understanding! Don't miss it!" And then we missed it.

Revelation 17:8The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. 9And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. 10And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. 11And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. 12And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. 13These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

Another history quiz: what are the eight empires of history referred to in this passage? (Hint: the answers start on the next line). And you pass the class with 100%! Well done!

  1. Egyptian Dynasties
    • Egypt, located in the fertile Nile valley in Eastern North Africa, was the first empire John wrote about.Around 3100 B.C., Narmer (also known as Menes) was the first Egyptian pharaoh to conquer and rule over Upper and Lower Egypt. Various pharaohs reigned in a unified Egypt for twenty-one successive dynasties until around 1100 B.C. when Upper and Lower Egypt split. Assyrians conquered Egypt in 669 B.C.
  2. Assyrian Empire
    • The Assyrian Empire was the second kingdom John saw in his Patmos vision. The Assyrians came from Mesopotamia, an area inside modern day Iraq. Their reign lasted until 625 B.C. before it began its decline. During their reign, they controlled all of the Fertile Crescent, including Egypt, before succumbing to a revolt by the Babylonians.
  3. Babylonian Kingdom
    • The third Kingdom in John's vision was that of Babylon. Babylon also was located in Mesopotamia within modern day Iraq. Babylon, under the leadership of Nabopolassar, father of Nebuchadnezzar, overthrew the authority of Assyria in the year 612 B.C. The Babylonian Empire reached its apex of development under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. You'll remember him. He was the one who ate grass and had the weird dream that Daniel the Prophet interpreted. A chronological tablet containing the annals of Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon, details a good amount of information about Babylonian life. It was under his reign that Cyrus, king of Persia, overthrew Babylon and commenced the fourth kingdom John refers to in Revelation.
  4. Persian Empire
    • We addressed the Persians, modern day Iran, in the Magog prophecy above. Under the rule of Cyrus the Great and Darius the Great, Persia became the largest and most powerful empire in history up to that point.
    • The Persians and Babylonians to this day are squabbling over real estate differences. (Think eight year war between Iran and Iraq from Sep. 1980 to Aug. 1988.) Thank goodness they have the Sheriff of the World to mediate and resolve those millenial conflicts, as the U.S. has done so effectively, right? That eight year war, by the way, was supported by the good ol' U.S. of A. with arms, munitions and money to fund both sides of that conflict. Now, if we can just get those dang Afghanis under control. But please don't get me started on the feeble attempts at Empire building by PNAC (Project for the New American Century), who coined the phrase Pax Americana. And that didn't raise the hackles of every American on this continent? I suppose that was to be expected considering most never learned the phrase Pax Romana in today's dumbed-down history classes. But, there ya' go. Ya' got me started, didn't ya'? Sheesh!
    • Persia saw its influence wane and fall to the Greeks when Greece invaded and conquered, after which it collapsed and disintegrated in 330 B.C.
  5. Greek Empire
    • Alexander III of Macedon ascended the throne in 336 BC after his father Philip II was assassinated. Commonly called Alexander the Great, Alexander oversaw an unprecedented expansion of Grecian rule. Though short-lived, the cultural impact of his conquests lasted for centuries, and indeed is still felt today. Much of thinking of western christendom is held captive to the philosophical mindset of Alexander's mentor, Aristotle, as well as the other major Greek Philosophers.
    • These are the five that "have fallen" at the time of John's writing. The next empire was the one "that is" or was in existence at the time he penned the Revelation. A pattern that cannot be over emphasized is the fact that each successive kingdom absorbed or destroyed the previous kingdom, and each kingdom had Israel as one of its conquests.
  6. Roman Empire
    • The five hundred year old Republic of Rome completed its transition to "empire" at the time of the first emperor, Augustus. Roman expansion intensified under Julius Caesar, the first one to be appointed perpetual dictator, and reached its zenith under Emperor Trajan.
    • The Roman Empire is the sixth defined by the angel to John in the Revelation. The next is of course the seventh, or the Mystery Empire. This one John writes "The beast who once was, and is not, is an eighth king." In other words, the seventh empire that existed ceased to exist but then came back as an eighth empire. If the Roman Empire was the sixth, and the eighth is a Revived Roman Empire, what was the seventh. That, my friends, is the Mystery that, once we solve it, will explain today's world events to a tee! Let's look a little more closely at Rome's demise.
    • In 395 AD the Roman Empire was divided into two portions; East and West. The eastern kingdom became known as the Byzantine Empire; the western kingdom, still centered in Rome, fell to invading Visigoths, the Barbarians. At that point the capital was simply moved to Constantinople. Rome continued as an empire for another thousand years, and finally fell in 1453 AD to the invading Seventh Empire.
  7. Mystery Empire
    • One can find mountains of documetation from well respected Bible teachers and scholars "proving" that the European Union is in process of fulfilling the prophecies to become the final empire of the Antichrist. However, the question has to arise, what was the seventh? Yohanan (John) expressly mentioned a total of EIGHT empires. If Rome was the sixth, and a Revived Roman Empire is the eighth, we have a dilemma. Once we determine what happened to the "missing empire", we'll have the answer to who is Gog, where is Magog, and WHO IS THE ANTICHRIST! We'll also answer the question as to what the One World Religion will be, which is the subject of a future essay.
    • Rome was conquered by The Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD and logically is the only empire that meets the requirements fulfilling the necessary pattern to be considered as the Seventh Empire! Therefore, the empire of the antichrist has to be a Revived Ottoman Empire, NOT as is popularly taught a Revived Roman Empire.
  8. Empire of the Antichrist

It is my considered opinion that the Antichrist Empire of last-days prophecy will be a Revived Ottoman Empire, centered in Modern day Turkey, and the antichrist himself will be either a staunch Muslim or at very least publicly proIslam. It answers perfectly every prophetic passage that caused confusion to so many teachers over the years; it answers the cryptic reference in Daniel 11:37 "Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.to the beast who denies the God of his forefathers." If the antichrist is indeed a Muslim, then as a descendent of Abraham through Ishmael, the God of his forefathers is the God of Abraham, the God who he will not "regard", "And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done." v36.

Now, no doubt there will be many who question these conclusions, and that's okay. Be like the noble Bereans. By all means receive "the word with all readiness of mind" and search "the scriptures daily whether those things are so." Acts 17:11. I am open to correction, so if you want to show me my errors, see me on Facebook - let's talk! or you can

Shalom aleichem,
Preston McNutt