PRIMER ON THE RUSSIAN CRISIS: PREPARATION FOR GOG’S LAST DAYS MISSION

SCRIPTURE. “Son of dust, face northwardtoward the land of Magog and prophesy against Gog king of Meshech and Tubal. Tell him that the Lord God says: ‘I am against you, Gog. I will put hooks into your jaws and pull you to your doom. I will mobilize your troops and armored cavalry and make you a mighty host, all fully armed. Peras, Cush, Put shall join you too with all their weaponry, and so shall Gomer and all his hordes and the armies of Togarmah from the distant north, as well as many others. Be prepared! Stay mobilized. You are their leader, Gog! A long time from now you will be called to action. In distant years you will swoop down onto the land of Israel that will be lying in peace after the return of its people from many lands. You and all your allies—a vast and awesome army—will roll down upon them like a storm and cover the land like a cloud.’” – EZEKIEL 38:2-9, TLB

KEY TERMS. ‘Against’ – Gog; Magog; Rosh; Meshech; Tubal; Peras; Cush; Put; Togarmah

• AGAINST. ‘El’ [אֵל]: “A preposition indicating motion toward or direction to some object, place or individual; to come very near (in opposition, noting contradiction, or repugnance); of adversity, injury, or wishes [causing God to become one’s Adversary or Enemy and thereby to fight against].”

QUOTATIONS

• ABRAHAM LINCOLN. “As a nation, we began by declaring that ‘All men are created equal.’ We now practically read it ‘All men are created equal, except Negroes.’ When the Know-Nothings get control [Anti-Immigration Party], it will read ‘All men are created equal, except Negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.’ When it comes to this, I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving Liberty – ‘To Russia,’ for instance, where Despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of Hypocrisy.” – The Lincoln Letters, 1860-1865; edited

• EDWARD RUTHERFURD. “The answer to Russia’s problems lies here, in Russia … ‘The Church is the Key.’ If Russia’s guiding force is not Religion, then her people will be listless. We can have Western laws, independent judges, perhaps even parliaments – but only if they grow gradually out of a ‘Spiritual Renewal.’ That has to come first.” ― Russka, 1991; edited

• STEVEN M. COLLINS. “When one speaks of ‘Russia,’ one is usually discussing the Russians who live west of the Urals. The Russians who live east of the Urals are clearly ‘the descendants of Japheth’ … The names ‘Magog, Meshech, Tubal and Togarmah of the north quarters’ (mentioned in Ezekiel 38:1-6) and long identified as Russia by many scholars and writers) are all descendants of Japheth (Genesis 10:2-5), so the Semitic inhabitants in Russia are a distinct minority group within that nation.” – “Who Are the Descendants of Japheth?” Blog, July 11, 2008; edited

I.  FIRST THOUGHTS

CHERNOBYL. It was in the spring of 1993 as I recall, while sitting with my dear friend and business executive Jim Santo and a few Russian government officials in the massive Mayor’s Meeting Hall in Moscow as part of our visit there to bring aid to “The Children of Chernobyl” following the massive nuclear disaster of April 26, 1993.

One of the Russian Councilmen leaned toward me and asked, “Cliff, do you know what ‘Chernobyl’ means in Russian?” I said I had no idea, and he followed with a single, burning (pun only partly intended) word: “Wormwood”!

THE SCRIPTURE. “The third angel sounded [his trumpet], and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch [flashing across the sky], and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of [fresh] waters. ‘The name of the star is Wormwood;’ and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the waters, because they had become bitter (toxic).” – REVELATION 8:10-11, AMP

This, a rather remarkable highlight of one of the most fascinating journeys I have ever taken when I traveled with Mr. Santo for a meeting of Russian politicians, educators, and medical professionals to see what we could do to help with the children devastated by that horrid event.

While we were of course not permitted to visit the highly radio active site of the accident, I did want you to get a bit of a taste of what took place there as we move into our brief conversation about Russia today.

“The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. Called the world’s worst-ever civil nuclear incident, it is one of only two nuclear energy accidents rated at seven—the maximum severity—on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the other being the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. The initial emergency response, together with later decontamination of the environment, involved more than 500,000 personnel and cost an estimated 18 billion Rubles—roughly US $68 billion in 2019, adjusted for inflation.”

According to a report from the National Library of Medicine in June 2016, thirty years after the disaster, “epidemiological studies reported increased long-term risks of leukemia, cardiovascular diseases, and cataracts among cleanup workers and of thyroid cancer and non-malignant diseases in those exposed as children and adolescents. Mental health effects were the most significant public health consequence of the accident in the three most contaminated countries of Ukraine, Belarus, and the Russian Federation.”

I recall taking a tour of one of the leading hospitals in Moscow, where we saw so many young ones in beds or hyperbaric oxygen chambers, with little to no medication with which to treat them. We were told they had nothing more than aspirin at the time, and all we could do is pray for some of the kids.

RUTHERFURD’S RUSSKA. During my brief stay in Russia, a number of other things transpired that were both instructive and preparatory for me (I realize now) for such a time as this. Not the least of which was my reading Mr. Rutherfurd ‘s extraordinary historical novel while traveling in that extraordinary country, a book that that brilliantly argued for a single FOUNDATIONAL PREMISE which I never forgot:

Russia has strongly preferred Authoritarianism over Democracy for her entire history, since at least 400 AD.

Much later while scattering about in the online journals and historical sources for this report, I found that the Founder of the Russian people, Noah’s third son’s very name, “JAPHETH,” was associated with “enlargement, expansion, growth,” or by some implication, ‘Conquest or Dominion.’

That Reality struck me every day I was in Russia, as with several “Lessons” I would learn about this unique Land of Mystery.

• When I watched the criminal element in Moscow blowing up buildings or burning them half down in order to take them over from another owner who didn’t wish to sell.

• Or when I was riding the midnight train to Saint Petersburg and a lovely young train attendant warned us that armed Muslim thieves would try to break into our sleeping compartment overnight and to take necessary precautions. Which we did by tying the belts from our raincoats around the door to secure it. Sure enough, around 3:00 am we heard the doors rattling but they could not get in.

• Or the time we drove to a checkpoint in the Kaluga Region heading south toward Vladimir where an armed guard stopped us for inspection. And from inside the van, I naïvely started to snap a picture of the guard and our interpreter named Ludmilla slapped the camera from my hands and shouted: “Cliff, no! you are in Russia now!”

CHERNOBYL’S LEGACY. Stanford University’s EDDY ROSALEZ-CHAVEZ 10 an intriguing yet brief analysis the overall impact of the Chernobyl Event on the Russian soul and political standing. “The impacts of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster can be felt to this day. As shown in [this study], Chernobyl is still radioactive and a danger to the public. The explosions and their aftermath weakened the Soviet economy, tested the Kremlin’s most loyal supporters and ‘in the opinion of some, marked the start of the USSR’s Decline.’” (Mar. 8, 2017; edited).

Russia. Japheth. Ukraine. Chernobyl-Wormwood. And Israel. – What can all this mean in today’s wild light of Russia’s ongoing conflict between Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN and YEVGENY PRIGOZHIN, warlord head of the privately owned Wagner Mercenary Army?

Here are a few early thoughts, as promised.

II.  THE CURRENT CRISIS

SUMMARY (a/o June 26-27, 2023). This report is comprised of a synthesis of several news media reports both from within Russia and a few outside the Conflict Zone.

• CNN. “Prigozhin’s Wagner forces, for all his boasting, were never going to be a match for the Russian security forces. The ‘March on Moscow’ was comprised scattered convoys that had little shape and less direction – and insufficient firepower to challenge the regular military. Despite Prigozhin’s bluster, there is virtually no evidence that any regular Russian units came over to Wagner’s side, though some may have opted not to confront them. In some ways, it was surprising that Prigozhin’s columns got as far as they did. And yet, the saga was humiliating to the Russian military and at least embarrassing to the Kremlin.”

• WAPO. “Russian President Vladimir Putin is damaged goods. He may have survived this weekend’s mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner Group of mercenaries. In reacting as he did, though, Putin not only made himself even weaker, but planted the idea of his impotence in the minds of Russians and the world [by June 27 was widely mocked for his weak speeches] … In all of these ways, Putin continues, sixteen months after his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, to be the opposite of his Ukrainian counterpart and namesake, VOLODYMYR ZELENSKIY. Where Putin spreads lies, Zelenskiy hews to the truth wherever possible (this is war, after all). Where the man in Moscow is at heart a coward, the one in Kyiv has found his inner hero.”

• MSN (A/O 6.28.23, 8 AM). “Vladimir Putin tried this week to show he was firmly in control after the dramatic attempted mutiny by mercenary commander Yevgeny Prigozhin. But among the Kremlin and business elite, many powerful players aren’t buying it. ‘A Banana Republic’ was the phrase one former senior official who still maintains close government ties used to describe the spectacle of Prigozhin leading his column of tanks and fighters to within 200 kilometers (124 miles) of Moscow and then being allowed to leave for neighboring Belarus without facing criminal charges. A top business tycoon said the Russian president’s botched handling of the uprising was more of a shock than Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine last year.”

WHAT (OR WHO) NEXT?. A “Banana Republic” is defined by professor of political science (U of Utah) JAMES CURRY as: “A country that is controlled economically by a single industry, powerful corporation [or head of state] and is for that reason, ‘politically unstable.’” That said, if Civil War Chaos is the next step, here are the MAJOR PLAYERS who could possibly inherit or seize control. This is from an older report a year ago by Politico (Sep. 29, 2022).

• The Mercenary — Yevgeny Prigozhin. “‘Wagnerites tell me they’d vote for him over Putin any time, and it seems to me that he smells blood,’ tweeted Christo Grozev of investigative website Bellingcat. It would, however, require a stunning reversal on the battlefield — in which much of the territory claimed by Russia since 2014 is lost and hordes of disgruntled troops return home to roam the streets — for a warlord like Prigozhin even to have the remotest shot at power.”

• The Butcher — Mikhail Mizintsev. “Mikhail Mizintsev, the ‘Butcher of Mariupol’ … led the devastating siege in which more than 20,000 civilians died before the port city fell in May. He has just been promoted to Deputy Defense Minister in charge of logistics, as Russia seeks to turn the tide against Ukraine’s latest offensive and end its mobilization chaos. Mizintsev may not be a direct contender for power but will be a face to watch in the days and weeks to come.”

• The Superspy — Nikolai Patrushev. “Should Putin accept that his position has become untenable, Kremlin watchers see Nikolai Patrushev as his most likely successor. The former head of the FSB spy agency, now secretary of the Security Council of Russia, has the advantage of sharing a worldview with Putin — one that is shot through with hostility toward the West in general, and toward the United States in particular.”

• The Lackey — Dmitry Medvedev.  “If there’s anyone Putin can trust, it’s Dmitry Medvedev: The Russian leader gifted the presidency to his former right-hand man from St. Petersburg in 2008. The job swap enabled Putin to keep power in his own hands while complying with the constitutional term limits that then applied. Medvedev duly kept the presidential seat warm while getting a passing grade as a modernizer — governing by iPad and touring Silicon Valley. But, when his four-year term was up, Medvedev meekly made way for Putin’s return to the Kremlin.”

• The Bodyguard — Alexei Dyumin. “By his own account, Alexei Dyumin once saved Putin from a night-time attack by a brown bear, emptying the clip of his service pistol at the beast’s feet as it stood menacingly in the doorway of a mountain retreat. Fearlessly loyal, yet still humane (the bear survived) — what better qualifications to succeed Putin, while ensuring the elder statesman can enjoy a comfortable retirement and avoid being tried in The Hague for war crimes?”

• The Princeling — Dmitry Patrushev. “Putin’s allies in the Kremlin aren’t getting any younger but that doesn’t mean that the regime won’t seek to perpetuate itself. It was Nikolai Patrushev who, on being appointed to run the FSB in 2000, called Russia’s spy elite the ‘New Nobility.’ A generation on, his son, Dmitry Patrushev, has emerged as a princeling and credible potential successor. The 44-year-old was appointed agriculture minister in 2018, having earlier graduated from the FSB academy and headed the state-owned Russian Agriculture Bank.”

• The Premier — Mikhail Mishustin. “Article 92.3 of the Russian Constitution states that, in all cases where the president is incapable of carrying out his duties, ‘they shall be temporarily fulfilled’ by the prime minister. That puts Mikhail Mishustin in pole position to take over as acting head of state should Putin fall seriously ill or be assassinated. Mishustin, 56, was Russia’s chief tax collector before being named prime minister in 2020, when Putin pushed through those constitutional changes that, effectively, opened the way for him to become president for life.”

• The Muscovite — Sergei Sobyanin. “The quintessential insider, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin could emerge as a contender to succeed Putin if protests in the capital escalate to the point where repression is no longer viable and constructive engagement is needed to complete an orderly transition. This is by no means a best-case scenario: Protests against Putin’s mobilization order are nowhere near reaching the scale of the Euromaidan movement in Kyiv that forced Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych from power in early 2014.”

• The Prisoner — Alexei Navalny. “Anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny would be the prime candidate to lead a Russian color revolution, having helped organize protests against Putin’s return to the presidency a decade ago. Those demonstrations — the largest in post-Soviet Russia — ultimately failed. But Navalny persisted, channeling his efforts into exposing corruption. The state retaliated by poisoning Navalny with a nerve agent and jailing him on trumped-up fraud charges.”

• The Exile — Mikhail Khodorkovsky. “Former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky is another regime critic who took on Putin and lost, ending up being stripped of his Yukos oil empire, thrown into jail for 10 years and finally going into exile. His Open Russia foundation, banned in Russia, continues to campaign for reform, but Khodorkovsky himself displays no obvious ambition to stage a triumphant return and play a leadership role in a post-Putin Russia.”

• The Warlord — Ramzan Kadyrov. “Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, whocalls himself ‘Putin’s footsoldier,’ is one of the highest-profile backers of Russia’s war in Ukraine. He characterizes the conflict as a gangland showdown between his personal army of ‘Kadyrovtsy’ and Ukrainian enemies he has branded Neo-Nazi ‘devils.’ His troops have, however, performed better as warriors on TikTok, the smartphone video app, than at the battlefront.”

DK. Now that we have some idea of the current situation and the major characters in this tumultuous challenge to Russian Order, we must understand that it is effectively a ‘SIGNATURE PRELUDE to Russia’s role in the coming Fourth War of the Last Days.’ I will briefly review that War, and then close with my own views of what The True Church needs to do in response to all this.

III.  THE EZEKIEL WAR

Now we come to what I consider the next to the last Battle of the End Times, taking place inside the Seven Year Time of Jacob’s Trouble. This is the Conflict that most Bible scholars and students have closely examined for centuries now, traditionally referred to as The War of Gog-Magog. Most conventional treatments regard this War as a Russian-led and Turkey-assisting attempt to once and for all eliminate the State of Israel, which constitutes the overarching purpose of this massive attack “From the north” of Israel.

THE COALITION. The Alliance consists of those ‘left-over’ Arab nations from previous conflicts with Israel in which they were decisively defeated and are now fully prepped for one more attempt to lay ruin to the Jews once and for all. Largely adapted from Dillon Burroughs, “Who Are the Nations of Ezekiel 38?” Blogos, May 4, 2013; John Ankerberg, “What Nations Will Be Involved? Jashow, Oct. 2020; and the Editors, Oxford Bible Church articles on identity of each region, ret. Nov. 2021. 

• Gog: The land north of the Black Sea. This is a reference to modern Russia or at least major parts of it. Though scholars still wrestle with the identity of this nation (or individual, or “Chief”), the preponderance of evidence strongly suggests Russia as Gog-Magog, that presents an entire history of Jewish Antisemitism by her many Pogroms in centuries past. In addition to the poisonous authorship of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in 1903, a false and savage Antisemitic harangue about the Jews’ ostensible plan for global domination.

• Magog, Meshek, and Tubal. To consolidate three names in this passage, DR. ROGER BARRIER, writing for Crosswalk (“Gog and Magog,” June 17, 2021), observes that Magog, Meshech, and Tubal were all sons of Japheth, who was one of the three sons of Noah. According to the biblical record, Japheth and his family migrated to the area of modern-day Russia (Gen. 10:2-3). “Gog” then is a person who rules over the Land of Magog (Russia). Magog means the “Prince of Rosh.” Gog, or Rosh, is the old root word for the land of Russia, though Meshek and Tubal also have historic reference and relationship to Turkey.

• Persia: Modern-day Persia is broadly defined by the severely militant Islamic Republic of Iran. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, wresting the power from Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, longtime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has been issuing decrees and making the final decisions on the economy, environment, foreign policy, education, national planning, and everything else in the country. Currently ramping up its nuclear capability in the aftermath of President Trump’s abandonment of the Iran Nuclear Accord in May 2018, this nation shall prove central to the upcoming assault on the northern hills of Israel.

• Cush: The second nation named in verse 5 is Cush, or Ethiopia. The nation known as Ethiopia back in Ezekiel’s day is not the same nation that we know as Ethiopia today. The nation known as Ethiopia in Ezekiel’s day is more likely the nation that we know today as the Sudan, another present-day hotspot for that region, historically Coptic Christian, but today well over 90 percent Muslim. An Islamic military junta has recently taken control of the country, and the religious strife continues to both simmer and explode periodically in its long-term civil war between Muslims in the north, and Christians largely situated in the south.

• Libya: The third nation named in verse 5 is Libya. Libya is located due west of Egypt in North Africa. Since the years under the leadership of Mu’ammar Qaddafi ended in the Battle of Sirte on October 20, 2011, his son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, is considering a run for president of Libya. Though not likely to win the presidency, he brings old longings for national greatness to the fore once again. More broadly, Wikipedia reports that the Politics of Libya is in an uncertain state of turmoil due to the collapse of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in 2011, and a recent civil war between the House of Representatives in Tobruk and its supporters, and the New General National Congress in Tripoli and its supporters, along with various jihadists and tribal elements controlling parts of the country.

• Gomer: The fourth nation named in verse 6 was Gomer. In Ezekiel’s day, Gomer was a tribal group of people who were located in the central part of what you and I know today as the nation of Turkey. Gomerites were the ancient Cimmerians, expelled in 700 BC from the southern steppes of Russia into the area we know today as Turkey. Today, of course, Turkish president RECEP TAYYIP ERDOĞAN [recently narrowly reelected] wields anti-West, anti-Israel power with an iron fist, and if he or his ideological successor remain in politics, Turkey, of course, figures prominently in this great war.

• Togarmah: This is another country aligned with Russia. He was a son of Gomer, son of Japheth (Gen. 10:1-3), known in Assyrian records as Tilgarimmu, a city state in Eastern Anatolia (Asia Minor, or modern Turkey). More specifically, it includes “the south-eastern part of Turkey near the Syrian border.” This identification is generally acknowledged by all. Once again, we have a region in present day Turkey as further evidence of Turkey as a key player in of the Ezekiel War against Israel.

OUTCOME OF THE WAR. In utterly spectacular fashion, Yahweh Himself directly and dramatically intervenes in what would otherwise be Israel’s utter defeat as a nation. This leaves no question of who He is, what He thinks of Israel, “the apple of His eye” (Zech. 2:8), or dramatically confirming the Jews’ deep structure recognition of the reality of God in their affairs.

“‘But when you come to destroy the land of Israel, My fury will rise! For in My jealousy and blazing wrath, I promise a mighty shaking in the land of Israel on that day. All living things shall quake in terror at My presence; mountains shall be thrown down; cliffs shall tumble; walls shall crumble to the earth. I will summon every kind of terror against you,’ says the Lord God, ‘and you will fight against yourselves in mortal combat! I will fight you with sword, disease, torrential floods, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone! Thus will I show My greatness and bring honor upon My name, and all the nations of the world will hear what I have done and know that I am God!’” – (VV. 18-23, TLB)

“Every kind of terror” is unleased by a Furious Yahweh, including a massive earthquake, human ordinance, a torrent of floods, huge, fiery hailstones reminiscent of ancient Egypt’s similar Judgments, and brimstone. In the confusion, the Coalition troops turn upon themselves, adding to the slaughter of those daring to touch The Beautiful Land.

Throughout Jewish and Christian history, we see the God of the Scriptures demonstrating His absolute authority and unlimited power to defend His people. As this next to the last war clearly illustrates, He shall always have the Final Word.

Always.

IV.  LAST THOUGHTS

Most of the information above is drawn from a previous series of Commentaries on the Five Great Wars of the Last Times: An American Civil War; The Psalm 83 War; The Isaiah 17 War; The Ezekiel 38 War; and The War of Armageddon. With those in mind, I turn now to a few personal, tentative REFLECTIONS.

ONE. As Jesus and the Apostles made clear, one of the most prominent signs of the Last Days are “Wars and Rumors of Wars” proliferating the planet (cf. Matt. 24:6; Rev. 6:4). Consequently, God’s people and especially their pastors and leaders are to be preparing for such domestic and worldwide combat and chaos in biblically prescribed ways.

TWO. The impact of Russian Chaos will ramify across the world and certainly here to America, and this should mitigate our ‘Practical Decision-Making’ about life in general and also our choices in the upcoming Presidential Election of November 5, 2024.

THREE. In terms of our duty to our family and neighbors, ‘The Great Commission’ becomes more salient as we come rapidly nearer to The Day of the Lord in this runup of Birth Pangs to that stunning Mega-Event (cf. Matt. 22:37-39; 28:19-20). To be blunt: Thoughts of and plans for “just having a blast” (typical American call to attend church) here in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave amounts to both staggering foolishness and violation of our Covenant with Christ.

FOUR. The most important implication of all this tumult is to double down on becoming the Christian counterparts of The Sons of Issachar, “Men who had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do” (cf. 1 Chron. 12:32; Matt. 10:16). In this regard, our light is supposed to shine so brightly, that folks would come to us for answers to the terrors that are fast approaching.

The Prophet Speaks: “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” – ISAIAH 60:1-3, KJV

I close with this FINAL THOUGHT. You have heard me say more than once that ‘the Last Days could become our finest hour.’ But only IFwe take these Prophecies being fulfilled all around us to heart, and then conduct our lives accordingly.

I wonder right out loud sometimes about A Question posed by the late DR. FRANCIS SCHAEFFER in 1976, precisely 20 years before the Chernobyl Disaster: “How Should We Then Live?” As I proposed in my last Commentary:

‘As if today was our Very Last Day.’ 

Ever your servant, DK

Cliff Kelly, Ph.D.

Digital Circuit Rider

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/qPmCOs-KzV4