The world-war in the light of prophecy ...

Part I Gog- and Mis Def&a

Bf Rev, D, W. Latigelett

The World -War In the Light of Prophecy

PART I GOG AND HIS DEFEAT

Ezekiel 38 and 39

Evidences that England is the Gog of Prophecy and is Therefore Doomed to be Defeated

PROVEN BY

REV. D. W. LANGELETT

LUZERNE, IOWA

English Translation by Andreas Bard

Published for the Author

THE GERMAN LITERARY BOARD BURLINGTON. IOWA

"o

COPYRIGHT 1915

By PASTOR D. W. I,ANGEI,ETT

IvUZERNE, IOWA

1/3

Preface

While I am far from offering any apology for the publication of this little volume, I desire to preface it with a few explanatory remarks.

I had asked the Lord, even fifteen years ago, that I might live to see the day, when the great whore, who with her fornication had corrupted the whole world, would receive her punishment. But I never dreamed that I should be the author of this book. Nor did I conceive the idea after the actual declaration of war. I merely wrote a brief article for the press calling attention to certain prophecies in Ezekiel, Daniel and the book of Revelation, with the particular object of warning the small remnant of God's people in England of the approaching doom.

All the while I entertained the hope that writers who might do this work with less effort and greater success would come to the front. But although the gentlemen of the press informed me that they had read my contribution with much interest, they declined to accept it for publication. My fellow-ministers with whom I had discussed these prophecies were equally irresponsive. While not a single one of them could take issue with me, they did not seem to care to get the facts into the limelight. I am perfectly satisfied that there are men much abler than myself who might have presented the truth of this volume, but the thought of it made them shake in their boots. When they saw England appearing in the form of the beast with the seven heads, they lost their nerve and made for safety. However, it is of supreme importance that England should be universally known as the God-defying force to which the Bible refers. Only in this light will she be properly understood and receive the treatment she deserves. While I send out my message to the world, I feel satisfied that it contains naught save what God has revealed in His Word. Nor do I fear criticism and scorn, for the Lord Himself will shortly pass judgment. They who have been overpowered by the Beast and do not know it, will rage against this booklet and find it full of folly, but the wise shall understand ( Dan. 12 :10 ) . Even though I accomplish nothing but to stimulate some abler pen to do justice to this vital theme, I feel that I have carried my point.

Thus I commend these lines into the hands of God, the Saviour who can so control the wickedness of this v/orld that it will effect the glorification of His name and the salvation of man. May it please Him to bless these pages !

D. W. Langelett.

Luzerne, lotva, March 26, 1915.

INTRODUCTORY

The glorification of God is the beginning, the end and the central theme of creation. God being perfect, nothing but perfection can proceed from Him and whatever He does reveals to His creatures His infinite glory. The visible and invisible alike proclaim His grandeur. Inasmuch as the gigantic structure of the universe shows forth not only His majesty and might, but His kindness and love, it also is a manifestation of His glory.

That the salvation of man must also serve to glorify God seems, therefore, but natural. We cannot accept any religious system teaching a way of salvation which does not glorify God. And since human logic has never been able to detect a scheme of salvation save that of pleasing God by good works, we are compelled to reject it because by giving honor to the merit of man, it does not serve to glorify God. It is quite impossible that human reason should discover a way of salvation truly reaching the goal.

If man is to be saved, God must point the way and reveal to us, how after leaving God through our sins, we may again return to Him, the fountain of peace and harmony. And this God has done; He has shown us a way of salvation by which His glory, His infinite love toward the fallen race, is made wonderfully clear. Christ is tlie way. To believe in Him as the mediator, to find life in His atoning death, this is salvation. Through faith in Christ man again becomes a child of God and is made an heir of life everlasting. He again enters into fellowship with God which he lost through the sin of disobedience, of unbelief and lack of trust.

But God has not merely found and revealed a way by which man can return to the truth, but He has made all kinds of preparations to guard him against the delusions of unbelief and to keep him in communion with Himself. That we should know God, God has given us His Word, the Holy Bible. The Bible is a letter of God addressed to His prodigal sons and daughters, who are astray in the wilderness of this world and whose reason has grown so dark through sin that they know neither God nor themselves. To them God sends a letter through His prophets and apostles in which He tells them of His fatherly love and of His attitude toward those who left the parental home. And He also tells them of their own condition, their disobedience and wickedness in preferring the world and the devil to the true light. Thus they have become enemies of God. Finally He assures them that, though they acted shamefully toward their Creator and thereby deserved to be rejected and driven out, yet, in His mercy, He will forgive and receive them back. God does not desire their death, but tries to save them against themselves. He wants them to turn from their wickedness and live. Aye, to this end He did not spare His only Son who on their account was incarnated into a human body, and by His suffering and death redeemed them from the pangs of eternal death. And this love, all love excelling, is presented to man in God's letter, ever urging him to accept divine grace and to return to the fatherhouse.

But should man refuse to be terrified by the presentation of the law which embodies God's just and holy will, and should he fail to be attracted by the Gospel, revealing the wondrous love of God, then the heavenly Father applies the rod of chastisement and by His judgments in the world's history drives home the truth that sin is man's ruin, both temporal and eternal, thus compelling us to seek life and salvation in Him. These divine judgments, while a just punishment for the ungodly, are for those who escape a solemn warning to turn from evil ways and to repent of their sins. Individuals and communities, nations and countries, have experienced such chastisements which, if they fail to accomplish their purpose, will be followed by the judgment of the whole world. Among God's visitations we especially point toward the deluge, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha, and the siege of Jerusalem. But the world's history is full of similar events. All of them are symbols warning posterity that God frowns on the ways of wickedness and that the carcass of sin will attract the eagles of judgment.

We have not the slightest doubt that the present European war is a manifestation of the wrath of God. It is not due to an error in diplomacy. How foolish to argue as to which ruler or diplomat really caused it. In a measure not only all rulers, but all peoples involved in the struggle, aye, to some extent every nation on earth is responsible for the horrible catastrophe, j^one can say: I am innocent of this war and therefor suffer innocently of its consequences. The war is a judgment of God, including all mankind, and a direct result of infidelity. It is punishment for Christians who have deserted the faith or who have failed to live up to its precepts; punishment also for non- Christians because they refused to hear the voice of truth. Again God demonstrates through the terrors of this war that sin is the downfall of man, jeopardizing first of all his temporal welfare and eventually ruining the souls of those who fail to repent.

There is no need to discuss the maker of the war, because God has explicitly named the malefactor through the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel (chapters 38-39), whose prophecy, uttered some 2500 years ago, reveals the entire plot. This fact should convince the heathen that the God of the Bible knows all things and that from Him no secrets are hid. Prophecy also tells us of the end of the war. The people that dwell in the midst of the land (Ezek. 38:12) shall conquer the enemies of God. Just as Jehovah, when leading his chosen people out of Egypt's bondage, allowed Pharaoh to wax strong, that by crushing liim He miglit make manifest to Israel that He alone was the true God, so now, when prophecy points to the time when the house of Jacob shall be gathered from among all nations, He has permitted ungodly powers to rise, that their humiliation in the presence of heathen and Jew may serve the glorification of His name. The final purpose, even of this bloody event, is not only the salvation of man, but the honor and glorification of God. After the house of Jacob has been regathered, then it will sing according to Christ's prophecy : "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord!" (Matthew 23:39.) Until then we shall have to witness the condition which Jesus portrayed (Matthew 23:38) : "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate!" Especially on account of the Jews, God has given such an accurate description of the ungodly powers which shall rise against the people that live in the midst of the land. He desires to convince them that His prophecies, pronounced with equal clearness in the writings of the Old Testament, Ezekiel and Daniel, and in the ISTew Testament through the apostle John, bear the same stamp of truthfulness and emanate from the same source of light. While the picture of these evil forces is put in different frames by the different writers, its essential features absolutely harmonize with each other, even in details. This should prove to Israel that the same God who spoke to Moses and the prophets also sent His Son Jesus Christ and continued His message throughout the New Testament.

Tlie scriptural passages we bear in mind are found in the 38th and 39th chapters of Ezekiel, also in Daniel 7:24-27; 11:36-12:1,11,12, and Revelation, chapters 12-20. The references in Ezekiel should be considered first, because this prophet names even the allies of the unholy power. If this passage is properly understood, we can use it as a clew to the others. Almost all scholars agree that this prophecy has not as yet been fulfilled in the history of Israel. Just as Ezekiel promises the gathering of the Jews as a sequel to the downfall of Gog and also prophesies for the church of God a blessed period on the earth, so Daniel predicts this era as a result of the destruction of the great horn (7 :27) and ( chapter 12 : 1, 7, 11, 12 ) after the ungodly king who shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas, has come to an end. John, too, in Revelation (chapter 20) tells of this blessed era and characterizes it as a period of a thousand years. But it shall not arrive until after the great city which has dominion over the kings of the earth has been judged and burned and after the beast with seven heads which carries on its back the great whore, has been utterly abolished. If thus Ezekiel, Daniel and John in these passages speak of the same golden age, it follows that the events leading up to it, must happen about the same time and in a measure, be identical. Once convinced that Ezekiel 38 and 39 refer to the present world-war, we cannot but conclude that the other references, too, are in course of fulfillment ; we simply have to make sure which is the Power of Evil called the great horn (Dan. 7:24), the godless king (Dan. 11:36- 45 ) , and the beast with seven heads in the book of Revelation.

Contents

PAGK

I. Connecting Ezekiel 38 and 39 witli

Preceding and Following Chapters 15

II. Ezekiel Predicts Only One Defeat For Gog

The hostilities of Gog and his defeat are described in chapters 38 and 39. Since a number of biblical scholars have contended that Ezekiel in these passages speaks of two distinctive campaigns and routs of Gog, it seems well for the correct analysis of this prophecy to furnish proof that only one warfare and its utter collapse is here presented.

There is no question that the Bible knows of two common defeats of Gog and Magog. After the first the Jews mil return to Palestine and the millennium, mentioned by John in the book of Revelation, will be established on the earth (39:25). However, at the end of the millennium Satan will again assemble the hosts of Gog and Magog (Rev. 20:8), who while warring against the saints of God, shall be devoured by a fire from heaven. Thus there are two distinct defeats for these powers of evil, one at the beginning and one at the end of the millennium. The first is foreshadowed by Ezekiel (chapters 38 and 39), the second by John (Rev. 20).

The scholars who hold that Ezekiel speaks of two defeats of Gog claim that the first is mentioned in cliapter 39, the second in chapter 38. This theory they substantiate by referring to chapter 38 :8 and chapter 39 :25. We give the first quotation : "After many days thou shalt be visited; in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have always been waste : but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them." This they interpret as referring to the return to Palestine of Israel which according to chapter 39 : 25 is to follow the defeat of Gog. The prophet says : "Now ( after the Jews have been chastised for their transgressions and Gog has been defeated) I will bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel." From this passage scholars have drawn the conclusion that Ezekiel in chapter 39 was speaking of the first defeat of Gog which is also mentioned in the 19th chapter of Revelation, while the second defeat which according to Rev. 20, Gog and Magog must suffer at the end of the millennium was prophesied in chapter 38. However, this interpretation entirely overlooks the fact that the 38th chapter expressly speaks of Gog as being the chief prince in the land of Magog, while St. John co-ordinates these powers as two distinct and independent forces of evil. The term "after many days" is made to signify the thousand years of Revelation and the phrase "in the latter years" the era following the millennium. This attempt to clear the difficulty of the prophecy is not only futile, but foolish. For certain it is that if Gog is to be defeated on the hills of Palestine he must first occupy these hills. If it is claimed that Ezekiel speaks of two defeats of Gog and if it is further claimed that "the mountains of Israel" are synonymous with Palestine, then it must be admitted also that Gog is twice routed by the Jews in Palestine, for "the mountains of Israel" are repeatedly mentioned not only in chapter 38, but also in chapter 39 : "I will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel" (verse 2), "thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel" (verse 4), "and they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth" ( verse 9 ) . As long as the Jews are scattered over all the earth, they can neither meet nor defeat a formidable enemy in Palestine. Zechariah (chapter 14:14) prophesies that "Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem" and join the enemies of Israel. Thus innumerable difficulties are encountered by those who interpret "the mountains of Israel" as meaning the land of Palestine, no matter whether Ezekiel speaks of one or two defeats.

However, there is no compelling reason to assume that Ezekiel predicts two campaigns and routs of Gog. The prophet writing during the old dispensation was much more apt to apply the term "in the latter years" to the time of the New Testament and the term "after many days" to the period commencing with his own age to the beginning of the war of the world. The isTew Testament not infrequently refers to the time following Christ as to the latter years.

That Ezekiel receives a second command from the Lord to prophesy against Gog, (39:1) does not necessarily mean a new prophecy or a new event. This second command merely corroborates what God says in the preceding chapter (38:19) : "for in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken." The repetition proves the holy intensity of God regarding this purpose.

The two chapters are closely related. Chapter 38 describes the mobilization of Gog's army and points out his evil designs. His defeat is merely indicated. Chapter 39 relates the details of this defeat and at the same time interprets its meaning. It shows why God permitted Gog's supremacy, using it as a stepping-stone for the final redemption of His people. Separated the two chapters remain fragmentary and obscure. Together they form a harmonious whole.

III. Gog

Gog is named as the cMef foe and enemy of the people of God. Who is Gog? Is he a person, a people or an empire?

Ezekiel defines him (chapter 38:1-6) : "And the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshesch and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, Thus saith the Lord God : Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal : And I will turn thee back, and put hooks in thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, and all of them handling sAvords ; Persia, Ethiopia and Libya with them ; all of them with shield and helmet : Gomer and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all of his bands ; and many people with them." The Lord Jehovah gives command to his prophet to turn against Gog with burning words of prophecy. The terrible judgment, here predicted, shall fall on the head of Gog. God himself will enter the arena against him. In order to fully grasp the significance of this event, it is essential that we should know who Gog is.

Here again we meet diverse opinions. Some have one theory, others another and there is a goodly number of scholars who do not even venture a guess. Note that Gog is minutely described and clearly defined. He is said to come up from the north parts and also that he dwells carelessly in the isles (39:6). He leads a number of nations, a large percentage of whom are Japhethites. But since we have had such inadequate information concerning the whereabout of these Japhethite tribes, we can only now, in the light of the prophecy being fulfilled, get some kind of an idea of their character.

Who is Gog? Ezekiel describes him as going to war against the house of Israel with an army of gigantic size. This means that he is either a mighty king or a great empire. That he can not be an individual ruler we gather from the fact that John in Revelation predicts that he will, after the millennium, form an alliance with Magog and resume the unholy war. He is therefor not a person, but a world-power. Nor is Gog a single nation. If he were, he would have been mentioned in the tenth chapter of Genesis.* In

*We cannot prove any connection between this name and Gog, the Rubenite (1 Chron. 6:4), aUhough the fact that Ezekiel (39:18) also mentions fatlings of Bashan recalls the English tradition that the ten tribes were located in England. Bashan, once the kingdom of Og, the Amorite, was located on the eastern shore of the lake Tiberias and became afterwards a part of the tribe of Manasseh. The eastern portion of this country touched the land of Ruben and was very fertile. The cattle of

Chron. 6:4 we run across the name Gog as belonging to the Riibenites. But since no prophet indicates that any of the ten tribes are to partake in Gog's campaign, we should not confound this Gog with the Gog in Ezekiel. But Zechariah states explicitly that the Jews will battle against Jerusalem (Zech. 14:14). There is no further reference to Gog in the entire Bible and neither the Old nor the New Testaments know a nation having that name. Ezekiel tells us that Gog dwells in the land of Magog and is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. This forces the conclusion that Gog is a vast empire composed not of one, but of many nations, dominating Magog and controlling Meshech and Tubal.

That Gog is a fictitious name is also made clear in Ezek. 38 :17 : 'Thus saith the Lord God ; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?" This proves that Gog is not the real name of the empire which is to rise against the Lord. If the name Gog were not fictitious, this verse would contain a platitude as stale as the remark : Thou Jacob art Jacob. The true meaning of the passage is this: When the prophecy will be fulfilled, the

Bashan was known to be the best. We gather from 1 Chron. 6:8-10 that the very Rubenites who owned Gog pastured their cattle in eastern Bashan. By naming the fatlings of Bashan and Gog together, the prophet refers to these Rubenites. Just like England, the modern Gog, so the old Gog enjoyed the fatness of the land. Beyond this we cannot trace any connection between the two.

Lord will make known through His servants and through His church the real character of Gog. The Satanic empire may have a new name, but it will be recognized. As we open the pages of the ancient prophecy, we can trace every line of its treacherous physiognomy. Ezekiel draws its dark picture with unerring pencil and puts it into the light of God's countenance.

We may ask, why God failed to give this empire its real name. Because this empire did not exist at the time of the prophecy and received its name centuries later. Moreover, if the real name had been given, the prophecy would not have been fulfilled. No empire would ever have called itself Gog. This holds true of all prophecies. In Rev. 13 :18 John refrains from giving a name to the beast but merely says that his number is six hundred three score and six. Since the beast had no existence during the time of John and did not adopt its present name until the ninth century, the prophecy was sealed to the church before that time. Not otherwise we are told in Revelation of the great empire as a beast with seven heads. Daniel saw it as the little horn on the head of the fourth beast before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots. The cause of this mysterious allusion is clearly stated (Daniel 12:4) : "But thou, Daniel, shut up the w^ords, and seal the book, even to the time of the end, many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased." For this reason Daniel has so worded his prophecies that those which have not as yet been fulfilled are even now a sealed book to us. The same principle applies to Ezekiel's predictions concerning the world empire to which he gives a fictitious name, until history will reveal the fulfillment of the prophecy.

Now the onlj^ way to ascertain which of the belligerent nations resembles Gog is to trace the prophetic outline down to modern times. In a general way the description fits England and Russia who now fight side by side against Germany and Austria. It may be said of Russia as well as of England that they "come up from the north parts/' but only of England that ''they dwell carelessly in the isles" (39 :6) . Of both it might be said that they are at the head of the peoples mentioned by the prophet, but to England only applies the prophecy that it rules in the land of Magog and that it is chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.

We desire to shoAv first that all nations mentioned in the prophecy are fighting on the side of the allies, and secondly, that England by assuming the leading role amongst them, appears in the character of Gog.

Ezekiel tells us that Gog was in the land of Magog. Revelation, on the other hand, pictures Gog and Magog as allies. This means that while during the first war Gog is ruler over Magog and holds his territory as a part of his empire, in the second war they will be two distinct and independent powers, but animated by the same treachery and co-operating toward the same end.

Magog in Gen. 10 :2 is named as the second son of Japheth. The land of Magog is therefore the territory occupied by the descendants of Japheth. Is there anything known concerning these descendants? Hieronym says: ''Magog represents the Scythians, those numerous tribes who live north of the Caucasus and east of the Caspian Sea as far as India." Josephus agrees with Hieronym, but Suidas avers that Magog are the Persians. Winer (Real W. 2:46) observes that ''in a general way Scythians may be defined as the aggregate of barbarian tribes of the North, more or less unknown." Arabs and Syrians, when speaking of Magog, had in mind the people called Scythians, Avho lived north of India. All of these sources agree that Magog's dwelling place was East, Southeast and Northeast of the Caspian Sea. The Scythians, mentioned here, are not the European tribes, more frequently called Sarmatians, but an Asiatic people by that name. Suidas' theory that Magog means Persia is not incompatible with but rather complemental to the reports of Josephus and St. Hieronym. Nor are we to be misled by the statement of verse 5 that the Persians fought as the allies of Gog. The great Persian empire consisted of innumerable tribes and during the period of its highest development ruled over Parthia, Bactriana, Sogdiana and Massagethia. If Suidas speaks of Magog as representing Persia he, no doubt, thinks solely of the provinces mentioned. The original Persians are a people largely Semitic. Two of their provinces, Susiana proper with the capital of Susa, and Elymais near the

Persian Gulf were called the land of Elam, after Elam, the oldest son of Shem (Dan. 8:2). The fact that the Persians living in the first named provinces had a higher civilization than the Scythians living further north, is no evidence of their different origin. According to the most ancient traditions the region between India and the Caspian Sea was occupied originally by the Eastern Aryans and peopled by the descendants of Magog, whom we, therefore, consider the patriarch of the Aryan tribes.

Today we find but few of his descendants in this locality. They have settled in India as far as we are able to trace their whereabouts. The native myths of the Hindoos concur in this respect with the final conclusions of scientific research (Standard Encyclopedia) : ''At least a thousand years B. C. — probably much more, perhaps fifteen hu^ndred — an Aryan race from Central Asia descended across the western Himalayas into northern India through the northwest corner, and gradually spread over the whole country. They were ethnologically of the Caucasian or Indo-Germanic type, with fair complexion, straight profile, lofty brow, compressed mouth, tall stature. They received the name Hindu from Hind, that quarter which they first overran" (XIV, 259).

Again in the first century before and the first century after Christ, Scythians migrated into India, settling in the northwest corner of that territory which they conquered and ruled for more than 500 years. Of their kings it was said that they were zealous followers of Buddhism, Buddha himself being one of their descendants. It is also claimed that the four and a half million Jats, and the ten million Rajputes in Rajputana are among their descendants. The latter are even today a proud and aristocratic people, many native rulers having been selected from their ranks. (Standard Encyclopedia, XXI, 14).

The caste system strongly prevalent among the Hindus has kept them from mingling with other nations. Thus the Indian Aryans are not a mixed people as are the Persians, composed of Semites and Japhethites. Of India's entire population, numbering 336,000,000, there are more than 261,000,000 of Aryan descent. Philological researches seem to prove that besides the Hindoos only certain Kaffirs and the gypsies scattered throughout the world can be traced to the same origin.