At the present time, men and women who receive Jesus Christ as personal Saviour, are being added one by one to the body of Christ. It also means the enrapturement of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ according to First Thessalonians 4:13-18. Some one has translated this last to be “the full number of the Gentiles.” This gives us a good picture of the Lord’s calling out from among the nations a people for His name. How many this will be, or when His purpose is complete, we do not know, but we can rest assured that He will do it, and that He will be exactly on time. D r . A nderson : As we get nearer and nearer to the return of the Lord, we will see the peril which will mount in every realm of man’s existence. Cer tainly it will be most evident in the political realm. We can readily watch the land of Palestine itself to note developments there. The situation in the religious world is something to behold as we see the fast rise of many cults and religions on every hand. In the light of these and many other signs, no wonder men’s hearts are filled with fear! D r . T albot : I believe with all my heart that we’re standing at the edge of vast and far - reaching events which will make an impression on this old world such as we have never seen before. How timely the words of the Lord Jesus as He warned the Pharisees, “Ye can discern the face of the sky, but ye cannot discern the signs of the time!” This sad plight can certainly describe many people today! “The Times of the Gentiles” refers to the governmental rulership of these nations over the world, includ ing the Jewish nation. One of these great powers, certainly from a mili tary standpoint, is Russia. Scripture clearly reveals this great power of the North to be involved in the
events of the end times. A careful study of Ezekiel, especially chapters 38 and 39, will give us a great deal of light on the subject. D r . A nderson : It is well to remem ber that whenever directions are mentioned in biblical prophecy, they are always related to the land of Pal estine as the hub or center. In He brew the word visited, translated in the King James version, is more ac curately rendered inspected. So we properly read Ezekiel 38:8: “After many days [years] thou shalt be in spected!” It is as though the Lord were saying that in the last days He would turn the spotlight on Gog and the land of Magog. Verse 15 shows us the direction in the North, and the evil intent to plunder the land of Pal estine. It is our conviction that the primary reference here is to the Northern and European power s, headed up by Russia. The reference to Meshech and Tubal (v. 3) could well be Moscow and Tobolsk. There is a great wealth of definite informa tion we can use to identify Russia as this tremendous power of the North which will sweep down into Is rael in the latter days. We see the land of Magog first in Genesis 10:1, 2. Japheth, one of the sons of Noah, and his descendants, largely inherit ed the region of the North. Dr. L. Sale-Harrison points out that the mountains of Russia, known as the Caucasus, actually mean “Gog’s fort.” A quarter of a century ago, the Nazi war machine was stopped cold in its tracks as it moved into the shadow of “Gog’s fort”. Josephus, the Jewish historian, who lived contemporaneously with Christ, states that the Magogites mi grated to the North in the early hours of the world’s history. Writ ings of the early church fathers con cur with this view. Historians fur ther agree that the Magogites were divided into two distinct races of peo ple: European and Asiatic. The for- 25
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