THIRD IN A SERIES OF PROPHETIC MESSAGES
By Louis S. Bauman, D.D.
I T is more than ten years since I wrote an article for The Sunday School Times (Dec. 30, 1939), on Ezekiel’s prophecy concerning “ Gog” (Ezek. 38 and 39), in which I made the statement: “ The Russian Empire is the subject of this prophecy.” An assistant professor o f Old Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary was given the entire front page and three additional pages o f The Presby terian Guardian (Feb. 25, 1940) to show that I was in error. I here wish to quote only three lines from this article: “ If, when Rosh [R. V.] is taken as* a proper name, with what country is it to be identified? We con fess that we do not know.” Enough said! Now it is written: “ All scripture is given by inspiration o f God, and is profitable” {2 Tim. 3 :16 ). But of what possible profit can a Scripture be, if the subject with which it deals cannot be identified? If “ Gog” cannot be identified, o f what profit is Eze kiel’s prophecy? Verily, “ If the trum pet give an uncertain sound who shall prepare himself to the battle ? So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken ? for ye shall speak into the air” (1 Cor. 1 4 :8 ,9 ). I cannot agree that the eternal God would “ speak into the air” ! I still affirm that “ the Russian Empire is the subject o f this prophecy” ; and, I am surer o f it today than I was ten years ago. A great, dense, inky-black thundercloud, streaked with forked lightning, ill-omened, lowering, threat ening a deluge o f blood, moving over the whole world with startling sud denness— that is Russia! Only a few years ago, Russia was regarded as an ignorant half-civil ized horde o f Asiatic barbarians— bellicose, but uncultivated in the art of war; an overgrown giant whose vast girth was his principal weak ness ; a great ice-bound, isolated coun try that nobody seemed to fear. It was the tread o f French legions marching to the Marseillaise; it was the growl o f the British lion; it was Pag« Ten
. . . The reference to Meshech and Tubal (Moscow and Tobolsk) is a clear mark of identification.” Rus sia’s old capital, Muskava, (that is, Moscow), gave Russia the name Mus- kovy, which it bore until recent cen turies,- and by which it is still known throughout the East. The people known to the Greeks and Romans as Moschians or Moschi, dwelt in the Moschi mountains in the Caucasus, and practically all authorities identify Moschi with Meshech; and, that Me shech is none other than Moscow. “ Tubal” seems less sure, but the best authorities believe it to be none other than Tobolsk, the stategic cen ter o f Asiatic Russia. But, there are other marks o f iden tification. “ Gog” is revealed as a bitter enemy of God, whose war is against all that is called “ God.” Jehovah cries: “ I am against thee, 0 Gog, prince o f Rosh, Meshech and Tubal.” And the Rus sian chief princes do not hesitate to tell the world that they are dead set against all that is called God. “ Re ligion”— all religion— “ is the opiate o f the people.” Such was the slogan of Karl Marx. Such was the slogan of Lenin. Such is the slogan o f Joseph Stalin. Other nations have all had their gods. Russia is the only great nation in history that officially sets herself against all gods. Recently, Prof. Vladimir Isovski, an expert on Soviet law, who is asso ciated with the Library o f Congress and Georgetown University, at a trial in the Federal Court o f Justice Dick inson Letts, quoted numerous statutes and decrees showing that in Russia anyone who teaches religion to per sons less than 18 years o f age, may be banished, or sentenced to imprison ment in labor concentration camps, for five years. He showed how all churches have been deprived o f the material means o f existence. He con cluded his testimony by expressing as his conviction that “ the whole Soviet legal system has been devised with the aim o f eradicating the idea of God from the human mind.” This T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
the goose-stepping o f the steel-pano plied German hordes, that struck ter ror into the hearts o f men—pot Rus sia! However, it was back there in 1909 that a group o f Bible-believing schol ars dared to go along with old Eze kiel, and put on permanent record in their notes in the Scofield Bible their belief that the mighty “ Gog” of the end-time, who would some day emerge from the “ north parts” and, would “ ascend and come like a storm . . . like a cloud to cover the land”— that this mighty “ chief prince of Meshech and Tubal” would be none other than Russia. (See Scofield Bible, Page 883). How recent years have proven them to be absolutely right! But let us now bring forth our reasons for believing that Ezekiel’s “ Gog” is none other than Russia. (Our Bible quotations will be from the American Revised Version, and from Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39). Note that the prophecy has to do with “ Gog, o f the land o f Magog, the prince (marg., chief prince ) of Rosh, Mesheck, and Tubal” (3 8 :2 ). Up to the end o f the 15th Century, the Russian rulers called themselves veliki kniaz — that is, grand prince. Then came the title, Tsar. Now, that title has been permanently discarded. In these two chapters, three times “ Gog” is called “ prince,” but never a “ king.” The word used means one raised up, i.e., one exalted by the people, and not necessarily a hereditary chief. The name “ Russia” dates back to the 17th Century. It was formed from the ancient name “ Rus.” The Bible used by our Lord, the Septuagint, like our own Revised Version, uses the name “ Rosh.” Nearly ' all lexicographers, with most expositors, affirm that the “ Rosh” o f our Lord’s Bible is none other than modern Russia. The learned German Protestant Hebraist, Gesenius, whose Hebrew Lexicon has never been equaled, says that “ Rosh” was “ undoubtedly the Russians.” The Scofield Bible, in a footnote on “ Gog” says: “ That the primary refer ence is to the northern (European) powers, headed up by Russia, all agree
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