Russia in Prophecy

We are going to have a PowerPoint presentation. As I mentioned to you, that we are going to be covering world events. Prophecy. I think it's been on your mind. The world has been shocked. I hope some people realize that a lot of the gravy train is over. That this period of time of relatively good world peace has finished. Because right now, there's a war. We don't know how long it's going to take or how far it's going to spread. As we begin here, I apologize. I couldn't get all the fancy PowerPoint in different ways. This is my format that I've used over the years. I hope you can see it clearly. We begin with what it says. It says, This is what I presented in a sermon given on April 27, 2014, titled, Russia in Prophecy Using Biblical Prophecies as Best as We Understand Them. I said, what has happened so far in the Ukrainian crisis in 2014?

That's when they invaded the Crimean Peninsula and took it over.

But that was the first wake-up call. What has happened? Number one, it has awakened the European Union to the Russian threat to rebuild the Soviet Empire. I mentioned that almost eight years ago. What are you listening to the news? What did you hear President Biden say? This is what Vladimir Putin has been talking about, wants to rebuild the former Soviet Union by slowly taking over some of these republics that broke away. Back in 1991 or so.

Number two, it showed weakness of the U.S. The moral decline led to moral weakness and waffling.

And God does not bless that type of leadership. Let's go to Isaiah 1.4 because we know these prophecies are dual when he's talking to his people at that time. It wasn't just for that time when Isaiah spoke of it. Isaiah was also talking about the end time period. And so it says in Isaiah 1.4, it says, Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corruptors, they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward. It's interesting it talks about children who are corruptors.

And it was back basically in the late 50s, 1950s, when you started seeing the children developing their own culture. And it was a culture of rebellion. It was a culture against what they call the establishment, the culture of their parents. You saw juvenile delinquency grow enormously. And you saw Hollywood popularize all of this with the rebels and the guys in motorcycles coming in and savaging a whole town and thinking that that was somehow glorified. So children who are corruptors, when you put children in charge of a lot of things, they don't have the experience, they don't have the wisdom to make good decisions. Going on to Isaiah 3, 1 through 5. See if it is not a reflection of our society today.

It says, for behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stock and the store, the whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water, the mighty man and the man of war. You used to have strong leaders. Where are they now? Where do you have the strong judges, the judge and the prophet, to which even at that time, at least you had ministers that did preach a lot of the Bible principles.

Not like today. The diviner and the elder, talking again about different type of ministries. The captain of 50 and the honorable man, the counselor and the skillful artisan and the expert enchanter. I will give children to be their princes and babes shall rule over them. These kids that also are basically involved in a rebellion. If people could see how today, you look at some of these rock concerts or you see some of this music, modern music, and you look at the guys.

You don't know if they're boys or girls. You don't know they're all tattooed. They got green, purple, red hair. They're looking and because they've got the power to influence society. And this is what God said. I will give children to be their princes. These are the big, powerful money-making businessmen. And babes shall rule over them.

The people will be oppressed. Everyone by another and everyone by his neighbor. Now, it's not like there are too many safe neighborhoods today. The child will be insolent toward the elder or the older person and the base toward the honorable. And that's what you see. Who are these pundits and experts out there? You know, the majority of them are way over their heads. They're there because they're part of a political party.

That they're put up there in the press or they've got the right cultural background or whatever. But it doesn't mean they're the wise, the veterans, experienced people. We just had Presidents Day and in that they had a program in the History Channel on Abraham Lincoln and a series. And it wasn't just him, but a lot of the men around them and how they had to deal with some of the most difficult problems.

But these were men that not only said things, they carried them out. And they kept the nation united. They were able to liberate the slaves and have a society which could come together and everybody have more equal rights. And that's absolutely necessary. But as Martin Luther King brought out, we should judge a person by their character and not by their color. And now, many of that, you know, it's just they're not applying a lot of those principles. So going back to Isaiah, it tells us that the end time society, just like in the day at that time before eventually Judah would be invaded and punished by the Babylonians.

And so God is going to take away his protection over society. And we're going to see a lot more dangerous things. And number three here, Europe will need strong leaders. And we're going to see that happening because now they've got a threat. And they know that if they stand by a lot of these other border countries like Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, that border the Ukraine and Russia, they can be taken over.

They had been part of the Soviet Empire before. Number four, look to Russia becoming closer to China, militarily, politically, economically. Has that happened? You bet it has. And now they've got actually an alliance of these nations in Asia that have signed up and they are behind China and Russia.

So it's not just them. That's very significantly significant as far as prophecy is concerned. Number five, the church must do its job warning the world and preparing a people for the end time and the coming kingdom. So that's why we need to get the word out.

We need to have a work that is preaching the gospel to the world and the publications. It takes a lot of work, brethren. It takes a lot of money and effort to get that out to the world. That's part of our responsibility. So now in 2022, all of those things are coming to pass.

And who is provoking this? Yes, the Russian bear. It's coming in with its big paws, is now attacking, and Europe is awakening.

This is the first true war in Europe since World War II. The current invasion in...

Christ warned the church in Luke 21, 34 through 36, but take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing drunkenness and cares of this life. He's saying, be careful. Don't let the worldly things get you, and that they come to you unexpectedly. Because you can just go with the crowd, go with society, think, oh no, God's not going to intervene in our lifetime. We can still eat and drink and be merry, and not worry about things. And Christ is warning, especially when you begin to see these things happening, that he said, watch therefore. Watch what's going on in the world. Watch when that fig tree starts with the leaves they sprout before the fruit comes out. And pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass.

Because if we're not close to God, he might just leave us here to go through that whole great tribulation period. And we just realized, no, we weren't up to the task. We let ourselves get down and get into the world so much, we're forgetting that we are a work of God. We're not just a church. And he says to escape all these things that will come to pass. There's nothing wrong with that. If you don't have to go through the great tribulation, is there anybody who wants to volunteer and just go through that whole period of persecution? Not if we can avoid it.

God continually says, look, you do your part. I will be there. I will protect you. I will protect those of my people. And then he says, and to stand before the Son of Man. What does it mean to stand before the Son of Man? It's described in verses 27 through 28 of Luke 21. To stand means that your redemption, which means that resurrection, that first resurrection, is near. And when you see Jesus Christ, that you will be resurrected. That you will be redeemed, which means transformed. You will stand before him as a spirit being, resurrected in that first resurrection. Isn't that a great hope? Isn't that a great goal to have? And also in 1 Thessalonians 5, 20, it warns us in the easy reading version. It says, don't treat prophecy like something that is not important. So you see, a lot of people, they talk about, well, yes, well, let's all get together and let's all just fellowship and that's the important thing. And let's talk about spiritual things. What about prophecy? Are people behind the prophecies? Are they getting the word out to the world? I want to be part of a bigger work than just a small group someplace. I want to be part of that team that God is going to use to also shake the world with its truth. Because after the world gets spanked, then it needs to be cared for and say, look, you're going the wrong way. Here's the right way to go. This is the way we learned. You can be part of that. So going further here, this is the Ukraine. And notice that the Ukraine is divided into two parts because the Russians, knowing the Ukrainian people, have their own culture, they have their own language. What they did was, during the time of Stalin, they brought in a whole bunch of Russians to the eastern side of the Ukraine. And they developed the Russian culture so that then they would be more influenced by Russia. And so you have the western side of the Ukraine, which is the one that is very much against being engulfed and swallowed up by Russia. Whereas there are some of these others to the east, they're more Russian-leaning.

And here we have the current attacks in the north, in the east, and also in the south. And so right now it's heavy warfare going on. They've got the big, heavy Russian tanks.

And the Ukrainian army doesn't have the same type of firepower.

So this is happening as we see the news every day. Now there's another factor involved here.

And that is all of these NATO members. NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Alliance.

And you can see here all of those that are more of the yellow, dark yellow color, those are all NATO nations. And they border the Ukraine. So if any of these NATO nations are attacked, then all of the nations will go to war. And believe me, if that happens, all bets are off. Because you've got Russia as a nuclear nation, and you've got NATO as a nuclear nation. Nobody wants to see that. But it is something that worries world leaders.

Now, who are these nations according to the Bible? In Genesis chapter 10, verses 1 through 3, is what is called the table of nations. After the flood, these were the different families. And after the tower of Babel, where God divided the languages of the families, they couldn't understand each other. Cuantos me puede en tender, cuando estoy hablando en española, or ami mo. Cuantos me puede en tender. Okay, we might have six or seven. See, that's a table of nations. That's the Spanish people. They've got language and culture. But the rest of the people, I can be speaking in English, and some of the Spanish people, they need to have translation equipment because they can't understand the English. And so you have the table of nations. And basically, it was 70 nations that spread around the earth at that time. And what's interesting is they can still be traced up to today. In rough parts, most of those nations have not really moved as much.

Because you have, like the Chinese, Chinese have been there for thousands of years.

And you have in India, usually the Indian people live in that area for thousands of years.

And so you have here, where it says, now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah. There were three of them. Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And sons were born to them after the flood.

And so you had Shem, Ham, and Japheth, but you also had their wives. Their wives had their own genetic makeup. It says, the sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, it has to do with Japan, Tubal, Mises, and Tiras.

So the first son of Japheth, the sons of Gomer were Ascanaz, Riptha, and Tagarmah.

Japheth basically are the Eurasian people. The Eastern Slavs are included, which are part of the Russians and Ukrainians.

And the Orientals as well, including India. Magog, the son of Japheth, was divided into two branches, the western, Caucasian-looking Slavs, and an Eastern Asiatic type. If you want to look further into this, I recommend the Worldwide Church of God booklet, Russia and China in Prophecy.

I was able to download the PDF of that, so it's a booklet printed at that time. It includes Herbert Armstrong wrote one of the articles. We have Gene Hoggberg and also Keith Stump, very fine writers. And so you can go online, and this is a booklet, and it covers and gives you all the details, which I don't have time to cover right now. Now, in Ezekiel 38, 1 through 6, it is talking about an invasion from basically Gog and Magog, because it seems like that mentality is adverse to submitting to God. And even today, where are the main atheistic societies? Well, they're in Russia and China. Although Russia did change some of its attitudes toward atheism, and now it's no longer imposed on people, it's still. The majority of the Russian people still lean toward atheism, and the Chinese still teach atheism.

It says, Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, set your face against Gog, which means a high or mountain, a great prince of a people, of the land of Magog, which is Eurasia, the prince of Rush, where the term Russia comes from, from Rus, which means blond. So you see one part of Jathas are those more Caucasian Slavs, and you see Vladimir Putin, and he is typically one of these Russian, kind of more blondish type of Eurasians or Slavs. And Mishek, that comes from Moshe, where Moscow and many of the other geographical parts of that area all have to do with Moshe. And Tubal, Tabulsk, we're going to see in a map in a moment. And prophesy against him, and say, Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rush, Mishek and Tubal, I will turn you around and put hooks in your jaws.

Going down further, it says Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet, Gomer and all its troops, the house of Tagarmah, from the far north and all its troops. So, of course, talking about Israel, it's far to the north. That's where these Eurasian armies are, that oppose God and Christ. This will happen after Christ comes back. These are nations that will not submit. They didn't go to Armageddon, but they still think the same way.

Here is a history of Russia.

And you can see here the tribes that settled in the part of Russia that are there. And another map. This is Russia by the 1200s. And you see there in the center, which was the principality of Moscow. And that became the center of Russia. And it still is. Here we have Russia in 1850, after centuries of conquering.

They are called here the Empire of Rus, the Russian Slavs. Here, it's important to understand.

These are the prophetic identities. As we understand them today, as you see there, you have Gog at the dark part of Russia. Magog, mainly China. Foot is India. Kush is part of Africa. And so, there still are tribes and cultures and languages that go back thousands of years.

They have not changed their identities. In Ezekiel 38, 8-11, it says, After many days you will be visited, in the latter days, talking about Israel, you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel. So, yeah, it's talking about Gog and Magog. And you are going to come to Israel.

And this is, it says, they were brought out of the nations and now all of them dwell safely. Yes, Jesus Christ will be there. You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud. On that day shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind and you will make an evil plan. You will say, I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. They don't need protection. They've got Jesus Christ now. They don't have arms. They don't have walls and armor. I will go to a peaceful people who dwell safely. All of them dwelling without walls and having neither bars nor gates. We don't need to have locks anymore to take plunder and to take booty. So they're going to go against Christ and they're going to be crushed again like they were before Christ came. They all came to Armageddon and then went converged toward Jerusalem. And Christ defeated them. This is going to happen another time.

So Gog and Magog will meet there in Israel and other nations will come. The invasion of Gog and Magog. And then in Ezekiel 38, 21 through 23, it says, I will call for the sword against Gog throughout all my mountains, says the Lord God. Every man's sword will be against his brother and I will bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed. And so this is going to happen. And at the very end, Ezekiel 39, 9, it says, then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and bucklers, the bows and arrows, the javelins and spears, talking about all the military warfare and implements, and they will make fires with them for seven years. So you see at the beginning of the millennium, it says there in Isaiah 2 that he's going to, Christ is going to rebuke many nations and it's going to take seven years just to be able to get rid of all of the junk and destruction from that time.

This is the difference in size between Russia and the other nations and that's why Vladimir Putin feels so powerful. Unfortunately, we have virtually a type of a dictator now in Russia. He's calling the shots and he's going to provoke a lot of pain and suffering. Here we have in the darker blue and lighter blue all the nations that separated from the Soviet Union. Now Russia looks big, but you've got to draw kind of a horizon or a latitudinal line in this way because that upper part is Siberia. Only anybody lives there. The great majority of Russians live close to the area of Europe because everything else is basically forests and snow. So it's not like it's populated throughout. Look where Sweden is at the top there, that light blue one.

That's there talking about Sweden and that's very cold. So you can imagine that whole area. It's like talking about the north of Canada. It's close to the Arctic Circle.

That's why they want the Ukraine. It has the wheat. It has the grasslands. It is the major agricultural producer in that whole area and Russia wants it back.

Here's a comparison. Notice the United States is much lower and basically Alaska is where a lot of Russia is located in the same latitude.

So although they have a lot of land, it's not arable land. It's not land that you can populate people in, but there's a lot of oil there. Here's one that shows the tribal separation in Europe and Russia.

And what's important is in the green are all the Slavic countries.

And they have a different mentality. It's Japheth. It's not Shem. It's not the Shemite people.

And these are more the Eurasians, Mongols, and others that have come in. And they are much more warlike and cruel. Even today, the Russian people are not really free. They're under a type of dictatorship. And in the end time, Russia is going to even make a bigger move. In Daniel 11, 43, it says, talking about the king of the north, which we believe has to do with Russia, with the alliance, Gog and Magog. It says, he shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt. Well, I want to correct. The king of the north has to do with the European leader that's going to rise. And he's going to invade the Middle East. He says, he shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt. Also, the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels. But news from the east and the north, this is actually an expression talking about the northeast, where Russia is, shall trouble him, the leader in Europe. Therefore, he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many. Just like Hitler did that against the Russians before. It's going to happen again. And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain. So, he's going to invade Israel. And he shall come to his end, and no one will help him. So, again, he's not going to prosper in the long run. So, here we have what the Bible calls the first woe, Revelation 8, 12 through 9, 12. This is talking about the European beast power attacking Russia. And it talks about all of these flying machines that come. They have armor. They have fire coming out from their tails and from all of their different parts. So, that's Europe that will attack Russia. They feel Russia is a threat to them. They will never be at peace until they solve the Russian problem. Aren't you glad you live far from Russia?

But Russia is going to counter attack, which is the second woe. It attacks the beast power, very similar to what happened in World War II. At first, they were attacked, and then they counter attacked. And then, thirdly, the third woe is when the nations converged at Armageddon. They feel the threat of this being coming down from heaven. And guess what? They don't care about vengeance and fighting each other. They've got to fight the one who's coming. And that's Jesus Christ. Now, some people say, how can all of these things happen? Very simple. The Bible explains here, Satan has used dysfunctional, perverted men, and we can call them cold-blooded killers, to do his will in the past, such as Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, that killed millions of people cold-bloodedly. Satan will use similar evil men in the future and enter into them along with some of his demons. So, you see, if you look at some of these histories about Hitler, Hitler was not a successful man. He couldn't even get employed becoming an artist. He was a frustrated artist. He was a guy who was hermit-like. He didn't go along with people. And then World War I started. And so he enlisted in the German army, and there he found a cause, and he became a fanatical soldier. And a very brave one at that, but he always wanted to get back after World War I and the loss there. And so he was very resentful. But, see, Satan entered into him and gave him incredible powers. And for a time, he could do no wrong.

Just like it says here, as Revelation 16, 13 through 14 tells us, the sixth angel poured his bowl on the great Euphrates River. It dried up to nothing. The dry riverbed became a fine roadbed for the kings from the east. From the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, I saw three foul demons crawl out. They look like frogs. These are demon spirits performing signs. They're after the kings of the whole world to get them to gather for battle on the great day of God. So, see, as long as Satan and his demons are there, they're going to find somebody that will do their bidding. And God is preventing that for the time being. Maybe we have one of the Russian rulers of the end time right now, because he has certain characteristics that are showing that here it's not just human things working out, but we'll have to wait and see.

And so, brethren, I know I'm going a little bit over.

Christ will return in the clouds and defeat the warring nations as they converge in Jerusalem. The beast and the false prophet are thrown alive into the lake of fire. Revelation 19, 19-21. He then puts Satan and his demons in a deep pit and seals it for a thousand years. And then, Christ establishes the kingdom of God on earth. He will rule with the saints of the first resurrection for a thousand years. This will be the ultimate solution to man's problems. This is the way God is going to solve man's problems. There will be no more war, poverty, pain, or diseases.

And so, I just have a few more slides. If you permit me, it says, regarding the European Union, Paul Henry Spock, Belgian prime minister and president of the Council of Europe in 1949 through 1951, said something prophetic. He said, we do not want another committee. We have too many already. What we want is a man of sufficient stature to hold the allegiance of all people and to lift us out of the economic morass in which we are sinking. Send us such a man, and be he God or the devil, we will follow him.

So, what we presently understand is Gog and Magog will be part of the kings of the east that will first be attacked by the European beast power. Then they will counter-attack in the second woe and converge in Armageddon, and at Jerusalem be defeated. Two, there will be a second rebellion by them at the beginning of the millennium, leading a Eurasian horde, described in Ezekiel 38 and 39. And then there will be a third and final rebellion of Gog and Magog, which will take place at the end of the millennium when Satan is loosed and is described in Revelation 27 through 9. So, brethren, we need to be watching world events. We don't know all the details, but we do know the overall framework of prophecy. There are four great and time leaders. First, the beast, the king of the north, backed by ten European rulers. Two, the false prophet, a religious leader. And three, the king of the south, probably an Arab Mahdi or their Messiah. And number four, Gog, leading a federation of nations, Magog, and other nations. One final encouraging lesson for the coming Passover, Revelation 19 6 through 9. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thundering saying, Hallelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. That's us, brethren. Are we making ourselves ready? And to her it was granted. It wasn't something that one deserved. But God granted it to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, Right, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And in a sense, the Passover is celebrating what Christ one day will do when he comes back. How important it is to prepare for that coming Passover season, just a little over a month and a half from now.