The Land Of Unwalled Villages – How Can Ezekiel 38 Be Fulfilled In The Near-Term?

Many MidnightWatcher visitors are already familiar with my perspective of Gog-Magog, but there are other views. Here is Brother Jack Smith’s interpretation, author of “Islam: The Cloak of Antichrist” …

By Jack Smith
When the Pieces Fit …

Climbing the wall to attend prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, July 26, 2013. Photo by Oren Ziv

Ezekiel 38 is to Bible prophecy what Christ is to Christianity. Without it’s conditions satisfied, the end cannot be near.  Ezekiel 38 prophesies of a “Gog” (interpreted by yours truly to be Russia) who will lead an alliance of nations/groups (which includes Iran, Ezekiel 38:5-6 NASB) to attack Israel in the end-times. Some interpreters (myself included) see Israel as initially overrun; but in the end, Gog is “turned around” (Ezekiel 38:4) and ultimately defeated, along with his alliance. Gog and his alliance are destroyed by God through a great earthquake (Ezekiel 38:19-20) which leads to Gog and his forces turning their swords against one another. Ezekiel 38:21-22.

For most students of Bible prophecy, the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38 in the modern-day seems imminent — even without the recent declaration by Sunni Salafi-jihadist al-Bagdadi of his establishment of the Islamic caliphate. (Not since 1924 has Islam been united under one leader (“caliph” or “sultan”) and one Muslim community. In 1924, Kemal Ataturk, president of Turkey and the sultan of the languishing Ottoman Empire renounced the sultanate and disbanded the Islamic empire in favor of a secular state. (Read more.) One example of the imminence of the tribulation is recent international pressure placed upon Israel to negotiate with the Palestinians in the formation of a two-state solution. At times in the peace process, it appeared as if the entire world was aligned against the Israelis, a condition bringing to mind several end-time prophecies about Israel: Zechariah 14:2; Zechariah 13:8-9; Revelation 11:2.

Yet, in spite of the seeming immanence of the tribulation, there is a major impediment to the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38 in the modern-day