An important rule of hermeneutics is context, and to who is something
said? in the latter question is often the issue of how (if at all) it can be
applied to the Bible student looking for insight and guidance for his
or her life in general or specific issues.
Now, another rule, is that Scripture interprets Scripture. And look
for patterns.
Applying these two, lets look at the Ezekiel 38 Gog Magog war.
Notice the following:
The razing of Jerusalem in AD 1244 cannot be THE Gog Magog
war, since though the same peoples may have had representatives
there, it was not a formal gathering of any but two or three of them,
and no divine intervention occurred. So while that episode may be
a kind of foreshadowing, it is not THE event, which must be still
in the future.
In the following chapter, we see the burial of Gog Magog,
and that dwellers in the cities of Israel will go about burying bodies
for 7 months, and that the combustible weapons they brought will
be so many that they will be firewood and no need to gather firewood
for seven years.
There is also a rather explicit refernce to Gog Magog people as
having bows in one hand and arrows in another.
This should give some pause to those who assume that this war
will occur when modern weapons of war are in play.
It won't.
Ezekiel, you should note, describes a vision of the New Jerusalem
and the New Temple in chapter 40.
Revelation also describes the Gog Magog war, as happening after
The Second Coming of Christ, when He will reign on earth forever.
THE GREAT ERROR OF CHILIASM, WHICH WAS DENOUNCED
BY A CHURCH COUNCIL AS HERESY, IS TO DEPICT CHRIST
AS RULING FOR A THOUSAND YEARS,
WHEN IN FACT "OF HIS KINGDOM THERE SHALL BE NO
END."
Revelation never depicts Christ as ceasing to rule at any time after His
Second Coming. But it DOES depict the devil being bound for 1,000
years, which may be exact or approximate. During that time, he cannot
tempt the nations.
The amillennialist position of Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy
and some Protestants, that the devil is bound now and this milennium
is a symbol of the Church ruling on earth and binding satan is obviously
wrong, AND HAS NEVER BEEN FORMALLY SUPPORTED IN ANY
ECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF THE EAST, whatever the schismatic
RC may or may not have declared in some council.
Because if true, there would be no need for exorcists, and no need for
the prayers of exorcism before baptism, and such like things.
It is argued that the binding is relevant to the Christians (or specifically
the RC or EO Christians, whichever group is speaking), since indeed
Revelation says he can't tempt THE NATIONS.
But if that were true, there would be no need for spiritual warfare
by monks and non monastics, no temptations to the Christian except
perhaps from the flesh and the world but we are taught and hear of
otherwise.
The reason Revelation got relegated to not-in-use-in-The-Holy-Liturgy,
and that some even doubted its legitimacy, and is not used to base
any doctrines on or argue them from, is mostly because the Montanist
heretics, not unlike some modern charismatics, misused it so much
they gave it a bad reputation.
So the devil is CRIPPLED and bound in that sense, but not absolutely
permanently bound, because he can (with difficulty) tempt the devoted
Christian, and easily tempts the unbelievers and nominals.
Revelation also says, that the devil will be released after that 1,000 years
to briefly tempt the nations one more time, which will result in the Gog
Magog war, ending in disaster for Gog Magog. And the devil at that point
will be finally and permanently bound so he can't whisper to anyone.
Then you have the resurrection and judgement of ALL the dead and
the New Jerusalem, described as a city that is of such measurements
that they work out to around 1200 or 1500 miles high wide and long, a
huge CUBE.
This is after the new heavens and the new earth are shown, so apparently
the laws of physics have undergone an overhaul as well.
Now, the prophecy "experts" read modern conditions into The Bible,
and IGNORE everything that doesn't fit. Is a chariot mentioned? the
writer didn't know how else to describe a tank. Are arrows mentioned?
Don't even deal with it.
But modern technology is fragile and dependent increasingly on things
that can be destroyed. For one thing, a huge network of specialists are
needed, and financial networks, and power grids and all kinds of stuff,
which can be easily destroyed in a catastrophe, such as Revelation
chapter 6 describes happening after The Fourth Horseman.
Albert Einstein once said something to the effect that, he didn't know
how WW 3 would be fought, but WW 4 will be fought with spears and
arrows or clubs and stones.
And Bible Prophecy seems to support him.
Justina (Christine Erikson)
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