The Epic of Gog of Magog

What circumstance is Ezekiel 38 & 39 referring to and when will it happen? This article takes a bite out of that question.

Let's identify the players involved before getting into anything else. Scholars debate the identity of Gog and the location of Magog, but the description provided in the text says enough--"the far north”-- to leave little doubt, at least in my mind. The word far, as in "far north," is translated from a word meaning extremity (Hebrew: yerekah). If the longitude of Jerusalem is taken northwards towards its farthest extent, ultimately, it leads to Russia, falling just a short distance to the west of Moscow. That line does pass through Turkey, which is interesting of itself, and Ukraine, but the farthest extent is in Russia, so Gog is the ruler of Russia, which is Magog.

The rest of the cast are easily identifiable, for the most part. Persia is modern Iran and Put is modern Libya, little debate there. Cush is often misidentified as Ethiopia but it really refers to modern Sudan, the area of ancient Nubia. Gomer is best identified, it seems to me, by ancient references from Assyria as the Cimmerians, which places them around or just beyond the Caucasus, most likely in southern Russia. Beth Togarmah is hard to place today with any definiteness. Beth means “house,” so this is a tribal or clannish designation, often it's placed in Anatolia, but it's probably refers to the Caucasus as well, so Georgia, Azerbaijan, or perhaps Armenia.

In modern terms then: Russia, Sudan, Libya, Iran, and some representation from Georgia, Azerbaijan, and perhaps Armenia make up the alliance of Ezekiel 38 & 39.

When will all this happen? The text says after many days, in the latter years, when the land (Israel) has been restored from war and the people of that land (Jews) have been gathered from many peoples upon the mountains of Israel, which had been a waste, but upon which they now dwell securely. That would be... now! In the aftermath of WW2, Jews began returning to the historic land of Israel (aliyah) in numbers, became an independent nation in 1948, and after several wars with her neighbors now dwells securely in this location. The land is restored and productive, so all that remains in this readied space is for the sudden surge, storm-like, of the Gog alliance attacking and invading Israel.

Why will they do such a thing?  Ezekiel says to loot. Israel is wealthy in our day, especially in comparison to its closest neighbors. It is productive agriculturally, has a strong economy and it is well-stocked with armaments-- certainly a trove worth plundering. Israel's wealth is a recent phenomenon, however, the nation has been considered wealthy by western standards only recently-- like in the last twenty years or so. From the perspective of the alliance I am sure looting is what they think their motivation is, but from God's perspective this is an action he's instigating and it occurs for his purposes.

God will put a hook in Gog's jaw and pull him back and into Israel for judgment, to express his fiery wrath, and to demonstrate his sovereignty over the whole world. In our day, Russia has had troops in Syria since 2015, some within 25 miles of Israeli-occupied Golan. Russians have supposedly been withdrawing from the neighborhood since 2016, but conditions in Ukraine have given added impetus to moving Russian troops and materiel out of Syria since May of 2022. As bad as Russia may need to get out of Syria to deal with issues elsewhere, Ezekiel 38 leads me to believe that God is likely to pull them back in, not stopping in Syria on the rebound but progressing all the way into Israel.

How will God judge the invaders? In several ways, but generally, it seems to me, some sort of volcanic cataclysm is the heart of the matter. Will it synchronize with the sixth seal, which I also see chiefly in volcanic terms? Perhaps, but not necessarily. There is that cryptic half-hour to deal within the Seventh Seal which seems to imply a short break between the Sixth Seal/Rapture and the start of the 70th Week/First Trumpet. Regardless, I do think Ezekiel 39 ends with the beginning of the 70th week of Daniel, as we shall see.

As far as the identifying the judgment as a volcanic cataclysm, all we have to do is consider the description to arrive at that conclusion. There is a great earthquake, landslides, rain, hail, fire and sulfur-- all marks of a volcanic eruption. There is, fortuitously, a volcanic system near enough to propound the possibility: the Levant Volcanic Province. It covers the Hula Valley in northern Israel, sweeps over the Golan Heights with its many cinder cones, and extends down into Jordan. Although considered extinct (e.g. Mts. Avital and Bental are said by geologists to have last erupted 10 kya.) I entertain the notion that what has happened there before could happen again.

Cinder Cones in the Golan

In the chaos and confusion of the described events, presumably, the soldiers of Gog's alliance kill one another. Those not killed by another soldier die from sickness (pestilence), which I assume will be the effect of air fouled by volcanic gases and ash rather than some sort of contagion. This volcanism will occur on a scale large enough to affect the coastlands, likely in Lebanon, which would make this a larger phreatomagmatic eruption than what is witnessed in the geologic evidence in the area.

The end result of all this for the alliance is death. Their weapons end up providing Israel with fuel to burn for seven years (there's a span that rings a bell). Their bodies, exposed to the elements, carrion fowl and critters become the focus of a major effort to bury the bones over the next seven months. A burial site for the dead troops is made east of the sea-- whether that means the Mediterranean or Dead is hard to tell, but it makes sense to me that it would be east of the Dead Sea. The odd skeletal remain will be found occasionally long after the slaughter ends. 

What is the end of all this for Israel, which is, after all, the focus of all end-times prophecy? A spiritual awakening is the obvious answer, but not just a period of revival. To catch the whole impact of this renewal we have to touch base with Daniel 9 and Romans 11.

In the present age after the cutting off of the Messiah at the end of the 69th week of Daniel, Israel was dispersed among the nations. A partial hardening had come upon the Jews from God because of (the implication is) their rejection of Christ and their unwillingness to depend on faith in God's mercy in Christ rather than their status as Jews and their religious works. The history of this age might give the observer the idea that God was done with the Jews, having cast them aside, but this age of partial hardening will only last until God is done with the Gentiles. Once his redemptive objectives have been accomplished with them, God will turn his redemptive attentions back to the Jews and all Israel will be saved.

The word translated “until” in Romans 11:25 always means “up to that time” in the NT. Therefore, this hardening in part that has come upon the Jews will only remain in place up to the time that the fullness (completion, Koine: pleroma) of Gentiles has come in. Then, the partial hardening which has let the Jews stew in their unbelief, allowing only a trickle of Jews to come to Christ, will no longer be in effect. What can that something be that turns the tide and turns hardening into openness? There’s only one thing that convicts people of sin, righteousness and judgment and woos them to faith in Christ, and that’s the Holy Spirit!

If you, like me, have wondered how anyone could be saved during the Great Tribulation if the Holy Spirit (if understood as "he who now restrains") is taken out of the way. The scriptural record is clear that people will reject the Antichrist, his mark and put faith in Christ during the Tribulation, how can they if the Holy Spirit is gone? Now, in my view, it is not the Holy Spirit who is taken out of the way, but the Holy Spirit in and with the Church extant at the time (Rapture), but that doesn't make the situation less impossible.  Who can be saved if the Holy Spirit isn't poured out on the flesh getting saved? 

No one can, but Ezekiel tells us that after the Battle of the Gog Alliance the Holy Spirit IS poured out on Israel. When Daniel was told of the 70 weeks of work that God had left to do with the Jews and Jerusalem before everything was complete, Gentiles were not included, they weren't mentioned, they weren't in view. The 70 weeks are about Jews and God's work with them, not about God's work with Gentiles. 69 of those weeks passed until the cutting off of Messiah, at which point, God cut off (at least partially) the Jews. That means one week remains, one seven year period in which God will finish his work with the Jews and then all Israel will be saved.

So Ezekiel 38 and 39, The Epic of Gog of Magog, is actually the story about what touches off Daniel's 70th week.

The Olivet Discourse: Be Prepared

The paradox of certainty v. uncertainty in regard to Christ's Return has some practical implications for the serious believer. We know with certainty it’s coming, but don’t (and can't) know when, so how should we then live? We're not left without instructions on the subject from Christ in the Olivet Discourse, which, as it happened, served to bring that discourse to an end. So what was the final word on the word about the final? Simply, "be prepared."

In Matthew's account, Christ advises that uncertainty is the fuel of preparation. Because the Son of Man will be coming at a time it doesn't seem like he will, being prepared for his return at any time is the only wise, practical response--a point graphically reiterated in The Parable of the Ten Virgins. Christ spoke of a parabolic homeowner who, if he would have known in what part of the night the thief was coming, would have made sure he was awake to prevent it. Since we cannot know when Christ will return, we should be at least as conscientious as that homeowner (who had a better forecast in regard to the thief than is possible for us in regard to Christ) and be watching rather than sleeping.

Luke presents the most general application of all three accounts: pay attention (Koine: prosexete) reflexively to how you are living. We are not to live weighed down by the worries of ordinary life, especially, I would say, if drunkenness (or even just "buzziness") is the means of doing so. It is not a burden to live in Christ, but it is a burden to live for this world, and it lulls us to sleep in regards to spiritual truth. The only way to gain the upper hand, and not be trapped suddenly in the tribulation ("these things") to come, is to stay awake and pray that we can gain that upper hand.

Matthew and Mark, although different as to specifics, both use a similar parabolic example (cf. Luke 12:35-46) to get this message of practical import across. The thought is that we should take Christ seriously as Master over us and be doing what he told us to be doing when he gets back. Since we do not know when that may be, reason dictates that we always be doing what he asked. It appears the best preparation for the end of the age is to be obeying Christ as a lifestyle.

So what are you doing?

The Olivet Discourse: No One Knows

All three accounts of Olivet Discourse issue warnings to be watchful in light of what Jesus prophesied concerning his return. I think this has led some to the faulty conclusion that the events foreseen would have been expected very soon by his original audience. I've already stated in other posts on this discourse that the signs mentioned were impossible to cram into a short time frame, so I won't repeat my reasoning here about that. Suffice it to say that Jesus' warning was not meant to convey urgency so much as it was meant to convey uncertainty.

No one knows when, exactly, Christ's return will occur. The phrase "day and hour" is specific enough to mean that the particular moment the event occurs is in view rather than a period of time within which it occurs; however, considerations about the suddenness of the event discussed below mean that the ultimate end cannot be what's in view either. We are told that angels do not know at which moment it will occur (I suppose that means the Devil doesn't either) and even the Son doesn't know. If only the Father knows, and the Son does not, that means there is no way for anyone to know--there is no way to figure it out and no revelation could be expected which would specify it.

No one knows, no one can know!

Yet, the crowd which has tried to figure it out or reveal it outright continues to grow (including Wm. Miller of the 7th Day Adventists, Chas. Taze Russell of JW’s, Herbert W. Armstrong of the Worldwide Church of God, Edgar Whisenant, author of 88 Reasons, and Harold Camping of Family Radio, among others). Really, I don't know how much clearer Christ could have been on the subject. Those that pursue such a course have, minimally, fallen into error, and possibly, purposely, taken on the mantle of false prophet. May such folly cease to gain traction among the faithful!

Matthew (cf. Luke 17:22-37) tells us the time immediately prior to the return of Christ will be like the days of Noah before The Flood. Then, normal life (eating, drinking, marrying, farming, milling) proceeded right up to the moment sudden destruction came upon the world unaware. Despite Noah's preaching of righteousness and witnessing the construction of the ark, life prior to the flood was similar enough to what it had always been to lull his listeners into inattention. That, I believe, is the key point Christ was making--there was nothing about life as experienced by the masses prior to global judgment that signified that wrath was about to be poured out.

However, that point comes on the heels of Jesus elucidating very clear, noticeable, presaging signs that signified the end was near. How can these two points be compatible? They cannot be, if what Christ was referring to in this sudden ark-like deliverance from judgment at the end was to occur after the Abomination of Desolation (and all that goes with it). The only way the suddenness in the midst of regularity indicated by the description makes sense is if Jesus was not talking about the the ultimate end, but was referring to a period of judgment that started with that deliverance and finished with the ultimate end. This would be akin to the flood starting with Noah's family embarking on the ark, proceeding with a lengthy rain, and ending a year later with floodwaters receding and Noah's family disembarking.

In the example of Noah the judged were carried away by floodwaters, which was certainly passive for them, but was for God too, in the sense that it was indirect, through the agency of water. Noah, on the other hand, was personally, actively protected by God, who shut him in. There is a subtlety in the language of Matthew that could be seen to call upon the same dynamic. The word (paralambanetai) used to convey the action involved in taking the one in the field and at the mill has a range of meaning that allows it to be used for more personal, tender actions (like taking a bride) than either the word used of the floodwaters' action (eren) or for the ones left (aphietai) in the field or at the mill.

So, what is pictured is a cataclysm much worse than a mere 40 days of rain and a year of flood (i.e. 7 years of Great Tribulation) coming upon all on the earth at the end of the age. Some, like Noah in his day, will be actively removed from danger and taken by the hand of God (snatched or raptured), which fits quite well with Luke's "escape" (Koine: ekphrygien, to flee out from) and is pictured by the Parable of the Ten Virgins. Some will be left to their fate, carried off by the judgment overwhelming the whole earth as prophesied by Christ who will return at the end of it. The threshold the faithful need to cross is being ready for that Noachian escape popularly called The Rapture which comes suddenly, unknowably, but certainly in the course of everyday life.

The Olivet Discourse: Dispensationalism

There is, in my view, an unmistakable dispensational quality in what the scriptures say about the last days (see this, this, and this). Gentiles are on one schedule for redemption, whereas Jews are on another. Don't take that to mean that I see a way to God other than Jesus Christ, I do not! Everyone who is ultimately saved will be so because he or she recognized Jesus as the Son of God, who died for our sins and rose from the dead, and therefore put all his or her hope in him.

God merely has one agenda for bringing that salvation in Christ to the Gentiles, and another for bringing that same salvation to the Jews.

In the Olivet Discourse, this reality can be seen in what Jesus prophesied concerning the Abomination of Desolation. Notice how the context changes at the introduction of that sign in Matthew (it is more subtle in Mark and Luke but still discernible). Earlier in the discourse the emphasis was on the nations (Gentiles), but once the subject of the Abomination is broached, the emphasis shifts to the Jews. That change, it seems to me, is clear enough to be obvious and yet its import can be easily missed.

Notice, specifically, how instructions given to those who see the Abomination are given to those in Judea and to sabbath observers. The Jewishness of such a designation can scarcely be overlooked. Furthermore, tribulation is curtailed and relief provided for the elect, but that action is marked by the sign of the Son of Man which causes the tribes (phulai) of earth to mourn. That distinction contrasts the Jewishness of the sufferers against the "Gentileness" of the mourners.

If we consider the original context in Daniel for this sign, it becomes very clear that the Abomination of Desolation (and thus the Tribulation signified by it) is part of God's redemptive plan for the Jews. Nothing is offered to the Gentiles by it but mourning due to their unbelief. As for all those Gentiles who did believe in the gospel, they are not addressed, nor even mentioned. The inference, therefore, is that they're not around until they are gathered from one end of heaven to the other when Christ returns!

The Tribulation, redemptively, is for the Jews and Jerusalem. It brings nothing but wrath and the portent of ultimate judgment to the Gentiles who experience it. Believing Gentiles will be off the scene at that time and not return until after it is over. There is one redemptive track in history for the Gentiles, and another for the Jews.

Satan's Antichrist Scheme

The one word that describes Satan, as well as any could, is proud.

Hubris led him to the conclusion that he could manage things as well as his Creator, even better, and he was more worthy of adulation too-- the ultimate narcissist. He thought this way despite being in the very presence of God and being graced with great intelligence. When you experience the Almighty as he actually is, and then come to think as Satan did, nothing remains that God could show of himself that could alter that opinion. The Devil was intractably lost as were all those angelic beings that rebelled with him.

Even apart from that rebellion, Satan cannot ever learn from his mistakes. Pride hardens the categories and seizes the mind, and dooms the prideful to endlessly repeat the same errors. Satan is a one-trick pony, forever trying to accomplish his aims by using the same means over and over again. Since the Fall, he keeps working the same tired plan in an attempt to thwart God's ultimate aim of redeeming mankind from the Fall. 

In his mind, the Devil cannot conceive of an invention of his failing.

In the garden, God announced the protoevangelium, the first gospel message, in the midst of his curse upon Eve. A glimmer of hope for humanity, it spelled the Devil's doom. It was cryptic enough for the Devil not to fathom, even though I think he understood it much better than we often do. I think he grasped that it was the woman's child, not the man's, and he seemed to pick up God's subtlety in the using a collective singular noun (seed) with a singular masculine pronoun (he). That meant one particular son was in view rather than offspring in general, a point Paul was able to apply to God's promise to Abraham as well. 

I'm absolutely certain that Satan picked up on this by the time the promise was reiterated in substance to Abraham. Why? Because it's revealed in his strategy of dealing with that promise--namely hijacking it. The basic outline of the plan he developed involves displacing the seed promised through Eve and Abraham (and Isaac and Jacob since they were the heirs of the promise) and undermining the place of the Jews as the seedbed. So his plan focused on substituting a seed for the seed and the destruction of the Jews as the seedbed.

Up in smoke goes the plan of God, at least in the mind of the Devil. A flawed strategy for sure, but one which the Devil's pride causes him to repeat over and over again. By the end of time, he will have tried it eight times! In the last couple of iterations he comes closer than ever to succeeding, but in the end, Christ steps in and throttles his efforts. This is what I call, the Antichrist Scheme.

In the 17th chapter of the Apocalypse, through the use of the symbolic imagery of the seven heads of the Scarlet Beast, John spells out the efforts made to ply this scheme throughout all redemption history. Up to the time of the writing of the Apocalypse, so in past history, five iterations of the scheme had been attempted. At the time of writing, effort number six was winding up. Efforts seven and eight were coming in the future (so some time after 95 AD). 

The efforts all centered around dispossessing or disposing of the Jews, and then, if he got that far, offering his shill as the "God-man". The gospel promise, which was funneled through Abraham and accrued to the benefit of all mankind, had to be undermined, undone and displaced. Some schemes got farther than others, but all fail, ultimately, because of divine intervention. Six are actually recorded in scripture and attempt #8 (the last) is defeated by the physical return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Satan's Attempts at the Antichrist Scheme

The five kings who are fallen, and the one who is:

1) Egypt under Pharaoh at the time of the Exodus (ca. 1446 BC)

This was an attempt to undermine the gospel promise by destroying the promise of land to Israel (the seedbed). If one aspect of God's promise is derailed, all promises are called into doubt. God may call his Son from Egypt, but if one doesn't trust God's word of promise, one can never be redeemed. So God raised up Moses and Joshua who led the people to Canaan by divine interventions and thwarted this attempt.

2) Assyria under the dynasty of Sargon II (ca. 722 BC)

The ten northern tribes of Israel (Samaria) were exiled from the promised land (seedbed) and an attempt was made to besiege Jerusalem and destroy Judah (under Sennacherib, Sargon's son). God intervened in response to Hezekiah's prayer, and Judah was delivered and stayed in the land insuring that a remnant survived to see the promise.

3) Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar (ca. 586 BC)

In his third foray into Judah in 19 years, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem, razed the Temple, and deported what was left of the population after the siege and two earlier deportations (605 and 597 BC). Thus, the Babylonian Captivity began; it was not ended until God intervened by appointing Cyrus to deliver the captive Jews (539 BC). Had God not sent Cyrus, the Israelites would never have returned to the promised land, and God's promise would have blown away like dust in the wind. 

4) Persia under the influence its highest noble, Haman (ca. 475 BC)

Though a "champion" of Israel under Cyrus and other emperors who followed, under Xerxes (Ahasuerus, and particularly his prime minister, Haman) Persia became a murderous foe of the Jews. Haman scheduled the slaughter and plunder of all the Jews throughout the empire and the hanging of his archrival, Mordecai. God raised up Esther for such a time as that and through her intervention and God's favor, turned the plot back on Haman's head. If Haman had been successful, there would have been no Jews left to receive God's promise

5) Seleucid Empire under Antiochus Epiphanes (ca. 165 BC)

Dubbbed, "the King of the North" by Daniel, under Antiochus, this kingdom  attempted to eradicate Jewish customs, to destroy all the Bibles (scrolls) it could, and modeled the abomination of desolation which the Antichrist will replicate in the Great Tribulation. God intervened by granting the forces of the Maccabees a stunning, upset victory which resulted in the purification of the Temple (which is celebrated in Hanukkah), and eventually, independence for Israel (after 40 years of war). Antiochus sought the complete assimilation of the Jews into his Greek, pagan Empire which would have destroyed the seedbed Messiah was to be planted in.

6) Rome under Tiberius, Vespasian and Hadrian (ca. 33-135 AD)

The Messiah, the promised seed, began proclaiming his gospel of salvation during the reign of Tiberius. Satan had unsuccessfully tried to kill Jesus as an infant through Herod's demented decree to slaughter the innocents. He would continue to press that effort during Jesus' ministry, apparently succeeding through the betrayal of Judas and the sentence of Roman Procurator, Pilate. Killing the seed would definitely destroy the promise and open the way for the Devil to accomplish his aims, but God raised Christ from the dead and overturned Satan's plan. 

When the forces of Roman General Titus (under Emperor Vespasian) finally broke into the besieged city in 70 AD, no stone was left unturned in Jerusalem. The Temple was utterly destroyed, the city was left an uninhabitable ruin. It forced a depopulation of the city by the Jews for some time, but in 135 AD, after another rebellion by the Jews against Rome (Emperor Hadrian), Jews were banned by law from the environs of Jerusalem all together. Thus they became another part of the Diaspora. Perhaps this seems irrelevant in light of Jesus' death and resurrection, but that still left the unbelieving Jews bereft of promise, and all Jews without a homeland. 

God's promises get fulfilled, or the one who promised them isn't God-- he's either too powerless to be God, or too unrighteousness.

God's intervention had already delivered the promised seed (Jesus), which provided redemption to all who believe on him. With that, one might suppose that the Devil was a pound shy and a day late in his efforts, but sin and death have continued on since then, and the Devil still roams about seeking someone to devour. Why? Because nothing is complete without the Jews. Though the focus of God's redemptive work shifted to the Gentiles after the Jews' rejection of Christ, undermining the promise of land still holds the potential of taking the promise of the seed with it in the minds of humans who still need to believe in Messiah in  order to be saved.

The king who is to come for a short time, and the eighth:

7) Germany under Adolph Hitler (ca. 1933 AD)

Apart from world domination, Hitler's aim was to eradicate the Jews, once and for all. He had them systematically rounded up within his domains (which was where most Jews lived at the time) and killed approximately two-thirds of them. The unseen hand of God guided the situation into the defeat of the Nazis and set off a migration, unexpected by the world, of Jews to their ancient homeland in Palestine. The end result was resurrection of the nation of Israel in May, 1948.

After the failure of seven schemes, the Devil actually found himself in the worst situation ever, with Israel reestablished and the gospel reaching into all the world, EVEN AMONGST THE JEWS! He has one more flare to fire, and it will be the one that gives him the greatest whiff of victory but then suddenly delivers the most crushing defeat.

8) The Ten Horns under the Antichrist (ca. SOON!)

After the cataclysms of the Epic of Magog and the Sixth Seal, the Antichrist will step into the vacuum created by them and establish his hegemony over ten nations in his region. He will sign a treaty with Israel establishing peaceful relations for seven years and which grants Israel the right to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.

As the Temple is nearing completion,* and similar to Antiochus Epiphanes before him, he will enter the Temple, curtail expected activities, install his False Prophet as high priest and idol of himself as the object of worship, and kill those (they'll be Jews) who refuse to worship him as God and take his mark of submission. He will be defeated and destroyed by the Return of Christ.

In his pride the Devil has attempted to one-up God over and over again, only to fail over and over again to achieve his ultimate aim. Even at the end of time, when he knows failure awaits him, his pride will compel him to bang his head against that wall one more time. He'll get farther than he ever did before, but end, nonetheless, in dismal failure just like every time before. 

*Since the only acceptable sacrifice before God (the Lord Jesus Christ) has already been offered and received, and that sacrifice was so perfect in its qualities that one offering was sufficient for all time for all people, I do not expect that God will allow any sacrifice of a lesser, and at best presaging nature, to be offered in his name again.

Identifying the Seals of the Apocalypse

The Seals of the Apocalypse

In Revelation 5 we have that grand scene in the throne room of God, where no one but the Lamb was found worthy to take the scroll. He had successfully redeemed mankind by his own blood, and thereby proved his worthiness to be the heir to power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory and praise. The scroll represented the consummation of all redemptive history, God's master plan to save the lost human race. Each seal broken was a witness to the Lamb's legitimacy to rule and reign in that ultimate place.

We know that Jesus ascended to heaven shortly after his resurrection, only to return shortly thereafter to reveal himself to his disciples and ready them for the task ahead of them. It seems to me, the prophetic scenario in Revelation 5 would have to represent the moments immediately after Christ's resurrection when he ascended to his Father, entered the throne room, and, having completed his mission as the Redeemer of Mankind, received the scroll. His return to the disciples, though not included in the prophetic scene of that chapter, becomes the perfect segue into the First Seal, since the Great Commission is what that is all about (as we shall see).

#1 - The White Horse

Where in the Bible, and especially in the Apocalypse, was the color white ever used symbolically for anything other than good? The answer: never! The white horse does not represent anything evil, such as the Antichrist, the idea itself is ridiculous if one gives it any thought at all. No, this seal represents the church being turned loose on the Great Commission (ca. 33 AD). Its breakage initiates the Church Age, really, the Age of the Gentiles.

#2 - The Red Horse

The color invokes the thought of blood. Fittingly, the rider is tasked with taking peace away from the earth. To understand this image, we cannot overlook the "world" in which John and the early church existed. It was a Roman world, ruled by the strong-armed, yet prospering comfortably within the steadying hands of the Pax Romana. Into that "tranquility" dropped the Emperor Commodus, after which everything began swirling down the commode. The red horse represents the loss of the Pax Romana (ca. 192 AD).

#3 - The Black Horse

Grain was effected by the famine unleashed by this rider, but not oil and wine. Why? The crops that produce oil and wine were grown in more southerly climes than was grain. The implication is that this broken seal effected northerly climes more than southerly ones. Factor in the color, which speaks of the loss of sunlight and warmth, and out pops the Little Ice Age as the proximate cause of the shortage. The black horse itself represents the Great Famine, ca. 1315 AD.

#4 - The Pale Horse

Even though this rider has the power to kill by sword and famine, like the two before it, its unique claim to fame is the decimation of one fourth of earth's population by the added means of pestilence and wild beasts. The combination of details could not describe better in condensed, artistic language the outcome of the bubonic plague. It was world-wide, borne by rats, and caused enough chaos in its wake to produce war, anarchy and famine. Most importantly, it killed a fourth of the population of the entire earth. The jaundiced horse represents the Black Death (ca. 1347 AD).

#5 - The Martyrs

Often, the assumption is that martyrdom was a phenomenon of the early church, but point in fact, the numbers of martyrs were not large then. That changed with the advent of Protestantism in the sixteenth century, when a sudden uptick in the numbers of martyrs rose precipitously to become a flood of multiplied thousands. The rate is still escalating today-- it must be getting downright crowded under that altar! Why doesn't God step in and put an end to it? It's a full number thing again. Suffice it to say, this seal represents the increase in martyrdom that began with the Reformation (ca. 1520 AD).

These five seals are historical to us. Their initial breaking unleashed something that still reverberates in the warp and woof of current events. For instance, the church is still actively engaged, and more successfully than ever, in winning the world to Christ; the world, particularly the Mediterranean world, has never been as peaceful again as it was before the unleashing of the red horse; severe grain famines have occurred over and over again since the black horse went riding; frightful pandemics seem to cycle through regularly since the pale horse first clip-clopped over planet Earth; and martyrs are being killed today at record pace though that "seal was broken" 500 years ago.

Let's get on wtih the rest of the seals which remain prophetic.

#6 - The Volcanic Cataclysm
The text does not mention a volcano, it just seems to describe one to me. From pyroclastic material falling from the skies (stars), to pyroclastic flows (rolling clouds), to ash choked skies (blackened sun, red moon), to moving mountains and islands, the description seems to fit. This, of course, is not your grandmother's volcano (like Krakatoa), this is something more akin to Toba or perhaps Yellowstone. People survive the cataclysm with the anticipation of the immediacy of God's wrath. If the Antichrist needs a story to cover the disappearance of the Church, this would fit the bill!

The Rapture
This is more akin to an inset, or an interlude, within the narrative of the sixth seal. The four angels holding back the winds refers to the events of verses 6:13-14, and makes the inset a snapshot taken as those events began. In the moment of earthly time that it takes the events of the inset to occur, the marking angels complete their task (v. 7:3). Then, time and space (the winds) are no longer held at bay and destruction continues. Both aspects (A and B below) of the inset are set off by the phrase, "after this" and reveal those who are ready (ie. truly believing in Christ) as the 70th week begins:

A) 144,000 Jews are sealed on earth, and remain there, and

B) Gentile saints are translated out from the Tribulation to the throne room of God.

#7 - The 70th Week of Daniel

This seal, when broken, hands off the flow of end time events to the Seven Trumpets and the Seven Vials. It points to the same period as the 70th Week of Daniel, which is also divided into two. So, the Trumpets represent the first half, the Vials the second half of the 70th week, which is often referred to as the Great Tribulation.

That's my take on the Seven Seals. I think it makes sense. When it comes to the Revelation, my firm belief is that it should make sense, to any of God's servants. It should make sense to you. I hope this helps.

A Rapture? Actually, There's Three

What I'm about to share with you I'd wager you've never heard anywhere else before. Don't let that scare you, though you may suspect I'm a Gentile short of the full number before it's over.

Before we go any further, let's define an important term: rapture. The word itself is generally considered to be a non-biblical term, but that is not quite true. It is a fair translation of the Koine, harpazó, found in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, as the dictionary clearly demonstrates. For the sake of accuracy, let me define rapture in this way: an event in which God translates the body of a believer not only from its earthly location to a heavenly one, but also, and more importantly, transforms it from its earthly form to its eternal one. Both the living and the dead are included, and the fullest treatment of the circumstance is found in 1 Corinthians 15:50-57.

The most important consideration, quite apart from all that, is whether or not the term does justice to biblical thought, and that it does quite well!

If you've been a Christian for a minimum of 5 minutes, you've probably been assaulted by the arguments as to the timing of this event. Although there are those who would argue against the existence of the event at all, that perspective is so out of harmony with scripture, it's not worth the words it would take to refute it. That aside, there are pre-, mid-, and post-tribulationists who subscribe to the event but differ as to its timing. There are even so-called pan-tribulationists, cheeky monkeys who say they could care less, figuring it will all pan out in the end.

What I can say in regard to this question, that may be unique and is definitely outre, is that they're all right! 

Haven't I said in prior articles that the Gentile church was raptured out at the beginning of the 70th week? Yes, but let me say here that each of the viewpoints (pre, mid and post) can cite solid scriptural references to back up their viewpoints. For each view, those that hold the others can shoot holes in their arguments. Why? They are, in fact, all right, they just don't realize it. What the Bible actually teaches is that the rapture has a pre-, mid-, and post-tribulational component. What!?! Yup, all three pre-millenial rapture theories are correct, but not exclusively so, whereas post- and a-millenialism are out to lunch.

I lay out the pretribulational rapture of the Gentile church in another post, so let me lay out the rest for you. 

In Revelation 7 we are introduced to 144,000 Jews who believed in Christ at the beginning of Daniel's 70th week. They are sealed and protected from the wrathful events falling upon earth at that time for three and a half years. Their time on earth during the 70th week runs concurrently with the two prophetic witnesses mentioned in Revelation 11. Those witnesses are killed at the midpoint of the Tribulation and left unburied on the streets of Jerusalem for three and a half days. At that point, God calls for them from his abode and they rise from the dead and ascend into heaven. 

That experience for those two witnesses most certainly fits the definition of Rapture. As it so happens, the next mention of the 144,000 is in Revelation 14, but, quite noticeably, their location then can no longer be said to be clearly on earth. They're with the Lamb, singing a special song before the throne and the elders. How did they get there? They were raptured, like any other humans who get there, along with the two witnesses. And smack dab in the middle of Daniel's  70th week!

What about the post- component?

That's found in Revelation 20, where we discover that those (they will be Jews) who were executed in the last three and a half years of the 70th week, will be raised from the dead and join the ranks of those ruling and reigning with Christ. Rather than buy into THE lie and take the mark of the beast, they stayed true to Christ and paid the price with their lives. They will find the same reward as all who have done similar before them. And, it meets the definition of Rapture!

There you have it. The completion of the first resurrection-- a rapture for sure, but in three distinct, biblically attested phases.