HomeARC ML 2146
EZEKIEL 38!--Verses 1-21! ET# 24 DO 2146 2/85
--And the Five W's of Journalism!
1. I WAS THINKING ABOUT MY BIRTHDAY, & SINCE WE'VE ALREADY GONE OVER ALL THE THINGS WE'RE THANKFUL FOR & FOR THE PAST YEAR & ALL THAT--we did that New Year's Eve & New Year's Day & Christmas too--I thought, "Well, Lord, what else could I give them more than You've already given?" What other birthday present could you have but me? I'm your birthday present!--Except what you like the most, & that's the Word! I'd like to give you a birthday present of the Word. PTL? So since I've been stalling & stalling so long to dig into the Scriptures, maybe I can get into it today! So if you've got the time & the patience, I've got the Word! Would you like that? Would you like to dig into the Word? (Fam: Amen!)
2. MAYBE WE'D BETTER GO AHEAD & READ EZEKIEL 38 & 39, OR AT LEAST SCAN'M A LITTLE BIT. Do you know where Ezekiel is? Ezekiel is one of the whom? (Fam: Major Prophets.) Who are the Major Prophets? (Fam: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel & Daniel.) Very good. Some people throw in Lamentations, but that's also by Jeremiah.
3. THE FIRST VERSE OF EZEKIEL 38 SAYS, "THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME UNTO ME!" So we know this is the Word of the Lord, right?--By the mouth of what Prophet? (Fam: Ezekiel.) Verse 2: "Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech & Tubal, & prophesy against him." Now actually it should have said "against Gog of the land of Magog," or "and the land of Magog," because Gog is the leader, the king, Magog is his country, & Meshech & Tubal are two of his greatest cities. And from what we've studied already, you know this is what country? (Fam: Russia.) And what are these cities Meshech & Tubal? Their new names still slightly resemble the ancient names, at least they start with the same letter. (Fam: Moscow & Tobolsk.) Meshech is the ancient name of Moscow, Tubal is the ancient name of Tobolsk.
4. SO IT'S PRETTY CLEAR WHAT THIS COUNTRY IS, EVEN NAMING TWO OF ITS MAJOR CITIES. Moscow is the major city of Western Russia, Russia proper as it's called, or the heart of the Russian country. Tobolsk was formerly the major city of the Eastern part of Russia, or Siberia. So here you have what amounts to the capital cities of both of the major parts of Russia. It couldn't be any clearer than that, could it? So if this guy is the king or the leader or the head of this country whose two major cities are those two cities, he's got to be the head of what country? (Fam: Russia.)--Obviously!
5. RUSSIA IS ACTUALLY COMPOSED OF 15 SEPARATE SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS. That's why most of them begin with USSR or SSR or SS something, because Russia is a land divided into many different countries. It's similar to the States of the United States, the difference being that Russia is an assembly of countries where they actually speak different languages. Russian was only the language of the Central Republic of Russia. The main Republic, the capital, is Russia, but there are all these other various Republics of Russia which probably none of us could even name any more than maybe a Russian could name the States of the United States! They have 15 different separate Republics, supposed to be separate.
6. THAT WAS ONE OF THE BIG ARGUMENTS IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE UNITED NATIONS, Russia was insisting that each of these countries was a separate country & should have a separate vote. Well, of course the U.S. countered with, "If that's so, we want a separate vote for every State!" So finally they came to a compromise & they allowed Russia to have a vote for the three major ones, the Russian Republic, the Byelorussian Republic & the Ukrainian Republic. Anyhow, this is obviously Russia the Lord is talking about here.
7. THE MAIN IDEA IS TO FIND OUT WHO THE LORD IS TALKING ABOUT FIRST & THEN YOU'VE GOT THE BATTLE HALF-LICKED! Then you find out what the subject is. I don't know whether you children have had much of that, not in our kind of schooling, but when you study grammar you learn that every sentence has a subject & it has a predicate. The subject is either a person, place or thing, & the predicate usually is a verb which tells what the person, place or thing is doing, or its state of being.
THE FIVE W's OF JOURNALISM!
8. SO WE'VE GOT THE GUY PINNED DOWN, WE KNOW WHO HE IS NOW, THE NEXT THING TO FIND OUT IS WHAT'S HE DOING, OR WHAT HE'S GOING TO BE DOING. It's pretty simple to read all the stuff that he does. You've read it & I don't know that we need to go into the whole thing, but I'll try to go over it a little bit. But in the study of Bible Prophecy or Bible History, what's important besides knowing the subject & what the subject is doing or up to? What's the famous criterion of journalism? Some of you guys should have memorised that in college, the famous Five W's. (Fam: Who, what, when, where & why!) Very good. Why or how, it might be either one.
9. IN WRITING A STORY, JOURNALISTS ARE TOLD TO BE SURE THEY GET IN THERE AS MUCH AS THEY POSSIBLY CAN: Who is it they're talking about, what did they do, when did they do it, where did they do it & how or why did they do it? They call it the Five W's, I guess that's why they use "why" instead of "how." Who, What, When, Where & Why really is the essence of every story. The reason they call them journalists & journalism, children, is because a journalist used to keep a journal. And do you know what a journal is? Each one of you have one!--Your daily Diary, that's your journal. In fact for short, because I have so little room in my Diary, I abbreviate it to "Log." We used to call them the Logs in the early days, that was your Colony Log, what happened in your Colony, & you were supposed to keep it diligently every day--at least the Colony Shepherd was--to know exactly what was happening & going on in that Colony.
10. SO A JOURNALIST IS SOMEONE WHO KEEPS A JOURNAL, WHO IS LITERALLY WRITING THE STORY. When you're keeping a Diary, you're writing a story about whom? (Fam: Ourselves!)--Right! You're writing a story about you! So there's your subject, the who! And what's the what in your Diary? Come on, Children! You're the subject, you're the one writing the story, what's the what? (Kids: What you do.)--What you do every day! Who, what, when. How do you know when? (Kids: We don't keep hours.) I keep mine by hours, but at least you know what day it is. Do you know what the word diary means?--It means by the day, daily. That's from the original Latin, diario, meaning something that's done daily.
11. SO IF YOU'RE KEEPING A DIARY OR A DAILY LOG, YOU'RE A JOURNALIST! You're keeping a journal. And in that journal you tell who did what & when they did it, at least you tell what day they were doing it, & where. Don't you say something about where you did it? Of course, we've got to be real Selah in our Diaries & we don't talk too much about who or where & hardly even what! But sometimes you say why or how, don't you? So you're journalists & those are the Five W's or the A-B-C's of Journalism. They memorise those & make sure in every story they've got Who, What, When, Where & Why!
12. SO NOW WE'VE PINNED DOWN WHO, & AS YOU READ THESE TWO CHAPTERS, YOU CERTAINLY READ A LOT ABOUT WHAT, & IT'S QUITE OBVIOUS WHERE! Did you figure out where all this happens? (Fam: In Russia.)--No! Most of this action is not in Russia. (Fam: It happens at Armageddon.) Now you're talking about when. Well, that's a place too, right. Although it doesn't say that in here, we know by the description & from other Scriptures that that's where it's bound to happen. But if you're going to study Bible Prophecy, one of the most important things you need to know is not only who it's talking about & what they did, what it's talking about, but you need to know where it's happening! If you don't even know the names of the countries & you don't know where it's happening, it doesn't do you much good, right? Sometimes I even have to read through these news stories & really figure out what they're talking about. They're not too clear.
13. BUT IT'S VERY ESSENTIAL TO KNOW WHAT ELSE? Does somebody besides Peter know the answers? I just gave you the Five W's! Come on, Folks! Wake up! (Maria: When!)--When! Mama's got it! Why is not always clear at all, it's vague & that's almost interpretive, but it's essential to know when it happened! Now, if this has already happened, what's the use of reading about it now? It might be interesting from the standpoint of history, but so what? Who cares what happened thousands of years ago, ancient stuff when Russia was Magog & Moscow was Meshech & Tobolsk was Tubal?--Only people interested in history, etc. So is when important? (Fam: Yes!) We're not too much interested in the past, are we?--Only when it's a matter of lessons for the Future! But when you're studying Bible Prophecy, that's usually about the Future!
AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION!
14. SO WHY ARE WE STUDYING THESE TWO CHAPTERS? (Fam: To learn about the Future.) And how do we know this is about the Future? Did you figure that out? That's very important. Forgive me, but I'm doing to you like the professors do in college, trying to make you think! It's a teaching tool. I'm not here just to give you all the answers, I'm here to make you think & come up with the answers yourself!--Not just because I said so. Sometimes my children would gripe about doing something & say, "Why, Daddy? Why do I have to do it?" And if I was in a hurry I'd say, "Just because I said so! Period! Now get out & do it!" But if I had time, I usually tried to explain to my children why they had to do that thing, because of this & that, etc.
15. IT'S IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO TRY TO FIGURE IT OUT FOR YOURSELF! If you figure it out for yourself or you let the Lord interpret it for you & reveal it to you, let the Holy Spirit actually communicate with your mind & tell you, you're going to know it's the Truth, for one thing, & you're also going to remember it a lot better than just my sitting here telling you. That's too easy, you're not working hard enough.
WHEN?--THE LATTER DAYS!--Gog & Magog & the Nations with Them!
16. SO I'M ASKING YOU TODAY, WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM STUDYING THESE PASSAGES? Already you found out who it's talking about. We told you who these people are, so what are they doing? Obviously from reading these passages, what is this guy Gog doing? What's the verb? (Fam: He's invading Israel.) He's invading, he's making war! And you've also answered the other question--where? (Fam: Israel.) It's not hard to tell that he's invading, but how did you find out it's Israel? What does it say? (Fam: Verse 8: "Against the mountains of Israel.") There you are, Israel!
17. NOW WE KNOW WHO, WE KNOW WHAT HE'S DOING, FIGHTING A WAR, AND WARS IN FACT, AND WE KNOW WHERE IT IS! We know what land it is, and if you want to know whether it's history or Bible Prophecy, you've got to know when it is! How do we know it isn't just ancient history that happened a long time ago? (Fam: In Verse 8 it says "in the latter years".) There's one clue, "In the latter years!" You ought to circle that or mark that.
18. WE ESTABLISHED PRETTY EASILY WHO, BECAUSE I TOLD YOU. That's something you wouldn't necessarily know unless you'd been a student of ancient history & knew from other teachers that this was Russia & these were cities of Russia, etc. Right? It doesn't tell you that here, because Russia was not an ancient word at that time, it's too modern. But we know that Magog is an old Bible name of Russia, & therefore Gog is a personality here because God is talking to him & saying, "O Gog". So he's a man, he's a person, & he's obviously the head of Russia & these cities, fighting a war which is invading Israel.
19. IT TELLS ALL ABOUT HOW HE DOES IT, BUT ANOTHER CLUE OF WHERE HE DOES IT THAT MAYBE YOU DIDN'T NOTICE IS IN THE 11TH VERSE, & THIS ALSO BEGINS TO TELL US WHEN. We want to know whether it's ancient history or modern history or even yet in the Future! What does it say in the 11th Verse? (Fam: "And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, & having neither bars nor gates.") How do you know whether that means ancient Israel or modern Israel? (Fam: It's only just recently that they didn't have walls.) It's only been in modern times that cities & villages no longer have walls.--Why? (Fam: They don't need them like they used to.)--Why? (Fam: Because of modern weapons.) With modern warfare the walls wouldn't do a bit of good! That's why they don't need'm, they wouldn't do any good! The guns can shoot right over them, the planes can bomb right inside of them, so what's the good of a wall? Why go to all the trouble to build a wall around the place when they can shoot & bomb inside, wall or no wall, & even destroy the wall just by bombing & shooting big guns?
20. THE ANCIENT CITIES OF ISRAEL ALL HAD WALLS, EVEN THE VILLAGES HAD WALLS. Any village worth its salt had a wall to try to keep out any unfriendly people or enemies. Since when have they not had walls? (Fam: Modern times.) Modern times, in general, is an easy way to put it, today! In recent times is the only time that they have had cities in Israel and villages & towns without walls. Therefore we know that this passage is speaking about something recent!--Since ancient times, after mediaeval times. This is not talking about ancient Bible History here, this never happened in Bible times, never, nothing like this! There was never a city or a town or a village without a wall in those times, therefore you know it is not talking about ancient history, it is not talking about the past. It is either talking about the present, modern times, when there are no walls, or the Future. Now let's try to figure out whether this is now or later, because cities have no walls now.
21. YOU'VE GOT TO BE A PRETTY GOOD STUDENT OF ANCIENT HISTORY TO KNOW THIS, BUT DO YOU RECALL IF THERE HAS BEEN ANY OCCASION IN WHICH RUSSIA HAS MARCHED INTO ISRAEL ACCOMPANIED BY THE COUNTRIES LISTENED IN VERSES 5 & 6? Who else is fighting this war? There are a whole bunch of names. (Fam: Persia, Ethiopia, Libya, Gomer...) Who is Gomer? (Fam: Germany.) And Togarmah, that's a little harder. (Fam: Turkey.) You'll notice some of these names even in English still begin with the same sound as the ancient names. It takes years sometimes to corrupt languages or change names or pronunciations. That's why when I was a teacher, if some of my poor students even started the word with the right letter & you could tell he was trying to spell it, but he just couldn't spell, I'd at least give him half-credit.--Because that's what he meant. He could hardly pronounce it, much less spell it--I really had some dumb bunnies--so I used to give them at least half credit for trying! Dear Dora appreciates that because she was a teacher only a grade below where I was teaching. God bless her!
22. THERE ARE FIVE COUNTRIES NAMED HERE THAT ARE FIGHTING ON RUSSIA'S SIDE, WHOSE ARMIES ARE ACCOMPANYING THE ARMIES OF RUSSIA. Some of you guys are pretty well educated, can you think of any period in all ancient history, past history or modern history--& this would have to be in modern history--in which Russia has invaded Israel, first of all? (Fam: No, Sir.)--Along with Persia, Ethiopia, Libya, Germany & Turkey? You can't even think of any time in ancient or modern history when Russia's invaded Israel period, much less with this strange assortment of countries! Tell me where all these countries are, whether it's Europe, the Mideast, North Africa or Asia. Persia is where? (Fam: Asia.)--Right, or you could say the Mideast because they're quite close to the Mideast there & some people include them in the Mideast. Persia, which is now what country? (Fam: Iran.)--Pronounced E-ron'.
"MANY PEOPLE WITH THEE!"
23. WELL ANYHOW, PERSIA IS IRAN TODAY, & DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY CALL THE LANGUAGE THEY SPEAK THERE? (FAM: PERSIAN OR FARSI.) They only changed the name of this country during my lifetime! Most of these modern countries still had the ancient Bible names right on the maps in the geography books when I was a kid in 7th Grade! Think of that! Iran was still Persia, Iraq was still Mesopotamia, etc.
24. WHERE'S ETHIOPIA? (FAM: NORTH AFRICA.)--Right!--And it's next to a very famous Bible country that you will also recognise the name of. It's called the Horn of Africa, & what country is that? (Fam: Somalia.) Today it's Somalia, & what did it used to be called? (Fam: Abyssinia.) Abyssinia is modern Somalia. Ethiopia still goes by the Bible name, probably because they have been Christians for centuries. The Ethiopians had one of the earliest Christian churches, the Coptic Church, & do you know why? (Fam: Philip & the Eunuch.) (Acts 8) Because one little disciple was faithful in his witness when he was hitchhiking! He hitchhiked on this chariot & witnessed to the fellow he found out was a very important man from Ethiopia, the Treasurer for Queen Candace. And because that one Christian disciple was faithful in witnessing, he converted her Treasurer, who went back & converted her, & they converted the whole Kingdom to Christ! It's one of the earliest Christian churches, which claims to be even earlier than the Catholic Church, called the Coptic Christian Church.
25. IRAN IS PRETTY MUCH ASSOCIATED NOW WITH THE MIDEAST BECAUSE OF THE ARABS & ALL, but are the Iranians Arabs? (Fam: No.)--They're Persians. They're a different nationality, a completely different ethnic group entirely & speak a different language. They do not speak Arabic, they speak Persian. Libya is still called Libya today, they refuse to change their name. Now we're getting into some more difficult ones. What's the next one? (Fam: Gomer, or Germany.) And Togarmah is Turkey. Did you find it there on the map? It's the big Turkish peninsula between the Mediterranean & the Black Sea.
26. SO HERE WE ARE WITH A GROUP OF FIVE NATIONS THAT ARE GOING TO BE FIGHTING ALONGSIDE OF RUSSIA, OR SYMPATHISE WITH THEM & JOIN WITH THEM.--And from what major areas? Persia is where? (Fam: Mideast.) Ethiopia? (Fam: North Africa.) Libya? (Fam: North Africa.) Gomer? (Fam: Europe.) Togarmah? (Fam: Asia Minor.) Well, it is Asia Minor, but they also call it the Mideast. In fact, in Bible times, even as late as New Testament times it was called Asia, what is now known as Asia Minor. You hardly ever hear of Asia Minor any more, but that's what we teachers in school were taught to teach kids, that the peninsula of Turkey is Asia Minor. Well, now they know how much more of Asia there is, which they didn't know too much about when they called that Asia. There's a lot more to Asia than just Turkey! But here we have these five countries & now you know where they are. So they represent how many different continents? (Fam: Three.) What are they? (Fam: Europe, Asia & Africa.)
27. COUNTRIES FROM THREE DIFFERENT CONTINENTS ARE FIGHTING ALONGSIDE OF RUSSIA! That shows it's a pretty international war, & a pretty big war! And we find out in another passage that there are also other countries. Daniel even names countries that are fighting against Russia. Can you remember any of those? (Fam: Tarshish?) Which stands for what? (Fam: England.) We find that later on in this passage (Verse 13), as well as in Daniel. It's the British, at least, & you can probably include the Europeans in general. But Tarshish usually refers specifically to those who are British, the British Isles, those were the original places.
28. WE FIND IN OTHER PASSAGES, IF YOU WANT TO JOT DOWN THE REFERENCES, THAT LEBANON & MOAB ALSO FIGHT ALONGSIDE RUSSIA. Let's see, I think Psalm 83 is one passage, & I think in Daniel 11:41. So if you want to jot those down here, all those people are fighting alongside Russia, "many people with thee." (Eze.38:6) It's a big war, with many people fighting. So we're finding out more about who for the story, not only Russia & its leader, but all these other countries too.
29. YOU COULD SAY, "WELL, THERE WERE THOSE ANCIENT COUNTRIES BACK THERE THEN, SO MAYBE IT HAPPENED A LONG TIME AGO!"--NO! IT'S IN THE LATTER YEARS & AFTER TOWNS NO LONGER HAD WALLS. But there's even better proof as you go through these passages. Do you want to go on down a little bit? In the 13th Verse we find some more people--are they fighting with Russia or against Russia? (Fam: Against.)--Right! They're challenging Russia: "Hey, what are you doing? Why are you coming down here?" It doesn't sound like they do very much about it at first, does it?--A lot like they're doing now with Russia. They talk a lot about Afghanistan, but who's doing anything? They talk a lot about Poland, but they're not doing anything. They don't want to get involved in a war with Russia. So Russia can have pretty much what it wants, & all they do is scream & holler, "Hey, art thou come to take a prey? What's the big idea?" So here are these other countries against them.
30. ANOTHER REASON WE KNOW IT'S RUSSIA IS THEY CAME FROM WHAT DIRECTION? (FAM: NORTH.) WHAT VERSE? (FAM: 15TH.) "OUT OF THE NORTH PARTS." And it keeps on raving about how many there are, a great company, a mighty army, lots of horses, many people! It must be gigantic! And who is talking here in this 16th Verse? It says, "I will bring thee against My land, that the heathen may know Me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes." What in the World does that mean? (Fam: It's God talking.) God is speaking! Didn't He call Israel the chosen land at one time, & even the chosen people, etc.? Isn't that the land He chose for His chosen people?
31. NOW LET'S NOT GET SO HARD ON THE JEWS WE FORGET ANCIENT HISTORY ENTIRELY & JUST CAST IT ALL ASIDE! They were a chosen people & they were put in a chosen land by God! He had to do it that way in those days. People didn't much understand spiritual things, so He had to have an actual nation of people who worshipped Him. All the other nations had gods, all the other nations had kings, they each had their religions. He had to try to get a bunch of people to worship Him, & He started off with just one man & his family.--In fact, they became a whole host of nations! Who was that man? (Fam: Abraham.)--Abraham, the Father of the Faithful! The sad part about Abraham was that he was also father to a lot of unfaithful, in fact it seems like almost more unfaithful than faithful!
32. BUT WHY IS ABRAHAM CALLED FATHER OF THE FAITHFUL?--BECAUSE PAUL SAYS, "YE ARE THE CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM BY FAITH!" (Gal.3:7) Who was he talking to? (Fam: The Gentiles.) The Gentiles. Not the Jews, they were already bragging about being Abraham's children & looking down on the Gentiles as being nothing, they even called them dogs because they weren't Jews. "Oh, we're Jews, behold, we are the people! We're the children of Abraham!" Jesus even told them they weren't the children of Abraham! Boy, that was enough to make'm mad! Paul told'm they weren't the children of Abraham either, because you had to become a child of Abraham by faith! So God is talking, He's talking about His chosen land of the chosen people.
33. IN THE 16TH VERSE HE SAYS, "AND THOU SHALT COME UP AGAINST MY PEOPLE OF ISRAEL, AS A CLOUD TO COVER THE LAND."--In the land of Israel. "And I will bring thee against My land." Who is this guy Gog, by the way? What is his modern name, his New Testament name that we call him today? (Fam: Russia. The Antichrist.)--The Antichrist! Gog is not Russia. You've got to get the distinction, Beloved. Gog is the man! Magog is the land, the country. Now who is Gog? (Fam: The Antichrist!) Who is Magog? (Fam: Russia!) All right. And who does this 16th Verse say is bringing the Antichrist down upon the Jews? (Fam: God!)
WHY?
34. GOD IS BRINGING GOG, THE ANTICHRIST, DOWN ON THE JEWS!--WHY? Well, I think you know why, I've told you a thousand times why!--Because of their unbelief, their faithlessness, their waywardness & their murmuring from the time he brought them out of Egypt, until their final crowning crime of crucifying their own Christ! [DELETED]
35. SO WHY IS GOD BRINGING THE ANTICHRIST DOWN ON THE JEWS? You say, "Dad, I thought you said the Jews were going to make him the Antichrist, were going to make him king, that he might even be a Jew, even if he's from Egypt. How come he's down on the Jews?" Well, we studied that in Daniel.--Why? Come on, Folks! Don't sit there like bumps on a log, you know why! Maybe you don't know what the question was, you all just woke up when I said, "Why?" That happens so often in school. All of a sudden the teacher says, "What?" & they wake up! They were daydreaming & they don't know what! "What, what, what? Why, why, why? Why what?"
36. WHY DOES GOD BRING THE ANTICHRIST DOWN ON ISRAEL & THE JEWS? (FAM: BECAUSE OF THEIR REBELLION.) Yes, their wickedness, their sins. [DELETED] As John said, "Even today there are many antichrists!" (1Jn.2:18) The Jews were quite hep on Bible Prophecy & they were expecting the Antichrist & all that sort of thing, as well as the Messiah, believe it or not. But he threw it back in their faces & said, "Even today there are many antichrists, there're a lot of people around who are against Jesus!" All right, let's see if we can get through this Chapter, at least. There are so many important details we need to go over here.
37. HE SAYS IN VERSE 16 THAT HE'S BRINGING THEM DOWN "THAT THE HEATHEN MAY KNOW ME!" What in the World does that mean? "When I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog." What does it mean that the Lord is going to be sanctified in the Antichrist? You've got to know a lot of different terminology. (Fam: The heathen will see that God is just, because Israel deserves to be punished.)--Exactly! You've got the exact phrasing. "They will know My sanctity or My holiness, My cleanness, My justice, My righteousness, because I'm going to be justified in thee in sending thee down to afflict My people for their sins!"--Get it?
38. THE WHOLE WORLD HAS BEEN HORRIFIED AT SOME OF THE THINGS ISRAEL HAS BEEN DOING LATELY TO LITTLE DEFENCELESS COUNTRIES LIKE LEBANON & OTHER COUNTRIES AROUND HER, & a poor little handful of Palestinians from whom they stole not only their homes, but their whole country away from them & are still going on arrogantly. [DELETED] But the Jews came in & ran the poor Arabs largely out of their land. So the Lord says, "The heathen are going to know that I'm just when I come down & afflict you, Gog, on My people Israel. They're going to know that was the right thing to do."
39. THEY ARE GOING TO KNOW ISRAEL DESERVES IT WHEN SHE GETS IT! Did you get it?--And in Daniel we find out why. What is the specific cause or incident or particular sin, the thing he doesn't like, for which Gog comes down & invades Israel? Don't you remember? Weren't you with me when we studied Daniel awhile ago? (Fam: Because they're always down there fighting & arguing & bickering?) Yes, but what about? What is the picture, Folks? I guess it's getting too late, I might as well quit, you're going to sleep. Come on, Daniel 11! How many wars did the Antichrist fight? (Fam: Five.) How many of them does he fight with one country?) (Fam: Three.) With whom? (Fam: Israel.) Why? (Fam: Because of their rebellion.) Rebellion against what? (Fam: Against the Antichrist.) But not only against the Antichrist, but what is implied, if not exactly stated? What is the matter? What precedes a period of semi-peace? What precedes this? (Fam: The religious Covenant!) Now we're getting on the track! I thought you guys knew all this. We've been over & over & over it so many times!
40. THE COVENANT HAS PRECEDED THIS INVASION, SO OBVIOUSLY THE JEWS HAVE NOT BEEN DOING WHAT? (FAM: FULFILLING THEIR PART.)--KEEPING THEIR PART OF THE BARGAIN! They have not stuck to their share! [DELETED] [EDITED: "T"]hey always try to hog it all if they can get it, just like they are hogging Israel. Even if Jerusalem were internationalised & divided between the three major religions by the United Nations, what would you find the Jews doing? They'd [DELETED] try to fudge & inch beyond their limits & boundaries of the Temple up there on Mt. Moriah & everything else. They'll still try to get the lion's share.
41. SO APPARENTLY THEY CAUSE SO MUCH TROUBLE THAT HE GETS FURIOUS, BECAUSE THEY'RE NOT KEEPING THE COVENANT, THEY'RE LITERALLY BREAKING THE COVENANT! So he says, "You want to break the Covenant? Okay, let's break the Covenant! I'll conspire with those people who want to break the Covenant, people who don't like the Covenant anyhow. We'll throw the whole thing away & we'll have a new religion!"--Worldwide what? Don't be afraid to speak up, Folks! Worship of whom? (Fam: The Image.) Not just the Image, the Antichrist claims to be whom? (Fam: God.) So the main thing is the worship of the Antichrist & his Image.
42. AND WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL OF THIS & BRINGING THE ANTICHRIST DOWN ON THE HEADS OF THE JEWS? (Fam: God!) God says He's behind it all! Don't blame everything on Russia & the Communists, God's behind it all! God's the One that's bringing Russia into power, God's the One that's letting the Communists take over the World, God's the One that's going to let'm invade Israel, in fact He's sending them down there purposely! So don't blame so much on the Communists & the Russians, they're just tools in the hands of God!
WHEN GOD GETS MAD!
43. SO THAT'S THE STORY OF WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE, & IN THE 18TH VERSE IT TALKS ABOUT HIS FURY!--WHOSE FURY? "And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that My fury shall come up in My face!" The Antichrist comes down in his fury on Israel, but by & by, God says it's enough, He's punished them enough. Verse 19: "For in My jealousy & in the fire of My wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel." Remember, there's going to be an earthquake!
44. DOESN'T ARMAGEDDON END WITH SOME KIND OF A BIG EARTHQUAKE? It says so several places in the Scripture. Verse 20: "The Earth shall shake at My presence & the mountains shall be thrown down!" How about that? Do you want to know how God gets rid of the mountains? "The steep places shall fall, every wall shall fall to the ground."--Any walls left. That's not only the walls that they don't have around cities any more, but what other kind of walls? What kind of walls do they have nowadays?--Buildings & houses will fall to the ground!
45. WE KNOW HE'S FOUGHT SEVERAL WARS ALREADY AGAINST ISRAEL, BUT I'M GOING TO SHOW YOU IN THE NEXT CHAPTER, HOW WE KNOW IT'S ARMAGEDDON, BECAUSE IT COULD ONLY BE ARMAGEDDON! Maybe you've already studied & read the next Chapter & you know why. This could only be the last war, not one of his many invasions of Israel, but only the last war. But here we have a sign of it, in that it ends with a great shaking, a great earthquake, which Armageddon also ends with.
46. AND THEN IN VERSE 21 GOD CALLS FOR WHAT? (FAM: A SWORD AGAINST HIM.)--AGAINST GOG! "Throughout all My mountains, saith the Lord: every man's sword shall be against his brother. I will plead against him with pestilence & with blood; & I will rain upon him, & upon his bands, & upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain." What kind of rain?--"Hailstones, fire & brimstone!" Sometimes when there's a great earthquake there's also a great volcanic eruption. There have been volcanic eruptions there before, believe it or not. That's what created the Dead Sea, & all that mount of salt there around Sodom was from the destruction of Sodom when it rained down fire & hailstones! This usually means a volcanic eruption, because it casts these fiery hailstones clear up into the sky & then they fall down on the people & the cities.
47. THAT VIDEO ABOUT THE DESTRUCTION OF POMPEII WAS REALLY TERRIFIC! It's amazing how they were able to simulate all that raining down of fire & brimstones & burning rocks, rocks so hot they're on fire!--Rivers of molten rock, rock rivers, rock that is so hot it has melted into rivers, into liquid rock that flows down out of the top of the mountain, wiping out villages & towns, & in this case the whole city of Pompeii & all the people! Only a few managed to get away. It's not just the hot rocks that fall on them & kill them, but the sulfuric fumes asphyxiate them & the ashes choke them, raining down out of the sky! Boy, when God gets mad He does a good job of it! He really pours it down on some of these bad, wicked people! So that's what He's going to do.
48. HE'S GOING TO LET THE ANTICHRIST PUNISH THE JEWS FOR THEIR SINS, THEN AS SO OFTEN HAPPENS IN ANCIENT HISTORY, GOD IS GOING TO PUNISH THE ANTICHRIST FOR HIS SINS & ALL THE PEOPLE WITH HIM!--And it sounds like they're going to be pretty well wiped out. Because in the next Chapter he says only how much of the Antichrist's forces are going to be left? Does anybody know?
49. NOW THERE ARE A FEW THINGS I WANT YOU TO STUDY THE NEXT CHAPTER FOR & LEARN. First of all, what happens to the Antichrist's forces? What destroys them?--That even while they're standing on their feet their eyes are going to burn away in their sockets! When is the only time man has known this to happen in any kind of wars or bombings? (Fam: Atomic.) How do they know? (Fam: Hiroshima.)--Exactly, the results in Hiroshima. Some of the peoples' eyeballs just melted right in their sockets & ran like tears down their faces from the atomic blast. That's why you'd better not be looking that direction when it happens, because your eyes get the effect of it. It says that even the horses' eyes burn out right in their sockets.
50. THAT'S ANOTHER THING, WHY ARE THEY GOING TO HAVE SO MANY HORSES & HOW COME THEY'RE GOING TO BE ABLE TO BURN THE INSTRUMENTS OF WAR? I want you to find out how long it's going to take them to bury the dead & how long it's going to take them to burn up all the instruments of war. It doesn't look like it would be very easy to burn tanks & guns & things like that. Well, I'm going to give you a new idea which maybe you never thought of before when we talk about it, that maybe the tanks & the guns & all are going to be inoperative.
51. THAT'S WHY RUSSIA IS TODAY PREPARING HOSTS OF THOSE FAMOUS COSSACKS, FAMOUS MOUNTED FORCES, TRAINING FOR WAR! (Hated by the Jews, by the way, because they were often used to persecute the Jews in Russia, particularly during the days of the Czars.)--Because they believe the time is going to come when you can just drop an atom bomb high in the sky & everything electronic will be totally neutralised! They won't be able to run a car nor a truck nor even operate a gun or a tank or anything, they will have to fight with swords & shields again on horses! Even their rifles & all their complicated equipment they have now, automatic & everything, I don't know whether they can still use those or not. You say, "Oh Dad, you are crazy saying that men are going to fight with swords again!" Well, I can prove it by the Bible! Man has gotten so smart now, even with all of his smart instruments he can outsmart them, with his smart weapons he can outsmart them, so they're going to go back to horses & swords, etc.
52. WELL, YOU FIND WHERE THAT IS IN THAT NEXT CHAPTER, HOW LONG IT'S GOING TO TAKE THEM TO BURY THE DEAD & HOW LONG IT'S GOING TO TAKE THEM TO CLEAN UP ALL THE WAR RUB BISH. Let's see, what else?--Whom they're going to use to bury the dead & do all this work & how much of the Antichrist's army is going to be left. I want you to find it for yourself in that Chapter. It's a good homework lesson for the kids to study that Chapter.
53. YOU'VE GOT TIME TO READ IT FOR YOURSELF SO WE DON'T HAVE TO READ IT IN CLASS. A lot of students I had wanted me to read the lesson over in class, but I said, "Nothing doing! You've got the textbook, you've got the time, you read the lesson at home & we'll just discuss it in class!" I'll ask you the questions & you give me the answers to show you have read it!--Fair enough? Okay! So do your homework! PTL? All right, Sweetheart, you stood up once & you were ready, but Grandpa talked so long! Come on, you can hold Grandpa's hand too! That's sweet! We have a little prayer circle here, & you can have a prayer line or circle, whatever you can reach. TYJ! Hallelujah! PTL!
54. ARE YOU LEARNING ANYTHING? (FAM: YES!) DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING NEW TODAY? (FAM: OH, YES!) Well, that's why we're trying to give you a few more Classes, because you need to learn a few more details. As we'regetting closer, you need to know these passages well & what they mean. How are you going to study them with some heathen or some babe if you don't know what they mean yourself? So let's pray His Prayer, shall we? (Prays the Lord's Prayer.) PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ! Amen! God bless you all! ILY!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
