Putting this final game of thrones together, we see that sometime after the rapture of all believers in Christ to heaven, the first move is made by the king of the west, who will begin the seven-year Tribulation by forging some kind of peace agreement or treaty with Israel. At some point, the kings of the north (Russia and its Islamic allies) and south (likely Egypt and the nations of North Africa) will invade Israel. Their attack will have two objectives: 1) wiping out the Jewish people and stealing their land, and 2) challenging the authority of the Western king (who has a treaty with Israel). Charles Ryrie describes their attack on Israel as a pincer move: “A pincer is an instrument with two claws used to grab something…. The King of the South is situated perfectly: right on the southern doorstep of the land that is up for grabs. Russia will form the northern claw, Egypt the southern claw; put them together… and you have the pincer. The attack will be launched on both fronts simultaneously.”[8]
After the kings of the north and south are destroyed by God, the king of the west (the Antichrist) will surge to global ascendancy. Finally, at the end of the seven-year Great Tribulation, the kings of the east will make their move as they cross the Euphrates River and pour into the land of Israel along with the remainder of the armies from around the world. The armies will muster at Armageddon in northern Israel. With the kings of the east and the Antichrist gathered in the land, there’s one final King who will make his move.
To make sure we have the full story, the final move in the end-times game of thrones is the return of the King of kings to take back planet Earth. His move will occur at Armageddon when he crushes the forces of the king of the west and the kings of the east, as well as the remaining armies from around the globe. Recently, the United States dropped a bomb on ISIS in Afghanistan called MOAB (the mother of all bombs). Revelation 19 describes the final MOAB—the mother of all battles. Revelation 19:11-21 describes the King who comes to take his rightful throne in a righteous bloodbath. The second coming of Christ will be as different as one can imagine from his first coming as a baby in Bethlehem.
There’s an often-told story that Vernon Grounds relates. When a friend of Grounds’s was in seminary, he would play basketball at a public school because there was no gym at the seminary. Each week as he and some other seminarians played, an elderly janitor would wait patiently until they were finished. He always sat in the stands reading his Bible. One day Grounds’s friend approached the custodian. “What are you reading?” he asked. The janitor answered, “The book of Revelation.” Grounds’s friend was surprised. “Do you understand what you’re reading?” “Oh, yes,” the janitor replied. The seminarian was even more surprised and asked, “What does it mean?” The janitor answered him, “It means that Jesus is gonna win.” Grounds writes, “That’s the best commentary I have ever heard on that book. Jesus is going to win.”[9]
Jesus wins the final game of thrones. None can stand against him. All will wither under his mighty hand.
It’s great to get the big picture in mind and know up front who the key players are and how the story ends. But we’ve gotten way ahead of ourselves. Now that we have a broad overview of some of the events of the end times, we’re going to slow down, back up a bit, and look in detail at key prophecies that must be fulfilled before Jesus comes, including the rise and fall of Russia.
Let’s zero in on the king of the north and track the Bear in Bible prophecy.
Chapter 3: Is Russia Really in the Bible?
EZEKIEL SAYS THAT… THE NATION THAT WILL LEAD ALL THE OTHER POWERS INTO DARKNESS AGAINST ISRAEL WILL COME OUT OF THE NORTH. WHAT OTHER POWERFUL NATION IS TO THE NORTH OF ISRAEL [BESIDES RUSSIA]? NONE.
Ezekiel 38 is the biblical entry point for any discussion of Russia in biblical prophecy. All agree the names Russia and Moscow do not appear in this chapter or anywhere else in the Bible. Yet as you will see, many reputable scholars believe that the ancient prophet refers to the nation we know today as Russia. Ezekiel 38:1-2 is the beginning of a list of nations that will join together, forming a northern storm in the end times: “The word of the LORD came to me saying, ‘Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him’” (NASB).
Two key words in this verse have been associated with Russia—Rosh and Magog. Some claim that any attempt to associate these ancient places with modern Russia is speculative and sensationalistic.[2] Others believe the ancient prophet identified the ruler of the modern nation of Russia as the final king of the north described in Daniel 11:40. To discover which view carries more weight, we have to examine the evidence. But before we look at Ezekiel 38, let’s briefly consider one other biblical passage that some have associated with Russia.
Because of the symbolism of a bear, some believe Daniel 7:5 is a reference to modern Russia: “Then I saw a second beast, and it looked like a bear. It was rearing up on one side, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And I heard a voice saying to it, ‘Get up! Devour the flesh of many people!’” Those who believe this refers to Russia in the last days place undue emphasis on the modern designation of Russia as the Bear, which would have been foreign to the original audience. Those who hold this view usually interpret the lion with wings of an eagle in Daniel 7:4 as a reference to Great Britain (the lion) and her offspring the United States (the eagle).
However, interpreting ancient prophecies based on modern national symbols is misguided. I, as well as an overwhelming number of Bible commentators, believe the lion in Daniel 7 refers to the ancient Babylonian empire while the bear refers to the ancient Persian empire. The basis for this interpretation is simple. In Daniel 2, four empires are symbolized by four metals in a great statue that King Nebuchadnezzar sees in a dream. The four metals are gold, silver, bronze, and iron. Daniel reveals that the first empire (represented by the head of gold) is Babylon (see Daniel 2:38). Then he says that Babylon will be succeeded by another empire. We know from history that the Medo-Persians followed Babylon, overtaking the city of Babylon in 539 BC. The Persians were followed by Greece and then Rome. Commentators are almost unanimous that the four metals of the statue in Daniel 2 refer to Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.
The four beasts in Daniel 7:1-7 are parallel to the four metals in Daniel 2, which means the bear in Daniel 7 is not Russia but the ancient Persian empire. We know this because the entire section from Daniel 2–7 is structured as a chiasm, an intentional literary device in which a sequence of ideas is repeated in reverse order, mirroring the original sequence in order to focus attention and highlight the center of the chiasm. Items in a chiasm are parallel, working toward the central point. The chiastic structure reveals that Daniel 2 and 7 cover the same ground, employing different images for the same empires.
| CHIASTIC STRUCTURE OF DANIEL 2–7 |
|---|
| Daniel 2—World empires symbolized by four metals of a statue |
| Daniel 3—Three young men delivered from the fiery furnace |
| Daniel 4—Nebuchadnezzar humbled |
| Daniel 5—Belshazzar humbled |
| Daniel 6—Daniel delivered from the lion’s den |
| Daniel 7—World empires symbolized by four wild beasts |
9
Vernon Grounds, “Jesus Is Going to Win,”
1
Reagan said this when he was governor of California. See Joel C. Rosenberg, “Ronald Reagan & Book of Ezekiel,” IOM America Resources, July 11, 2011, http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs086/1101261534859/archive/1106145003521.html.
2
Douglas Stuart, for example, claims Ezekiel 38–39 is widely misinterpreted. He says, “Many people who know little about how apocalyptic prophecy is properly interpreted have tried to equate Gog with some modern ‘northern’ nation…. No modern nation is mentioned in the Bible…. The history of any particular modern nation is not a subject that God has chosen to cause to be incorporated into His Word.” Douglas Stuart,