The Apostle Peter wrote, under Holy Spirit inspiration, about those who would at the end time simply think Bible prophecy is –well, nonsense: “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Pet, 3: 3-4).
Certainly we constantly get this sort of mocking and scoffing from those who claim no relationship to Jesus Christ. The world at large might be expected to harbor such mildly veiled hostility to God’s foretelling things to come. But, it is the others –the ones who will tell you they are “Christians”--that are more troubling. These are even more virulent in their scathing rebuke of those who hold to a belief in God’s Word as literal. Belief in the pre-trib rapture is a target that is most generally fired upon from these self-proclaimed believers who hold to all Bible prophecy as symbolism or allegory.
But, increasingly, the attacks are launched at all prophecies yet future. The top stories reported by news media present overwhelming evidence that there might be something to all of this Bible prophecy stuff. But, the evidence just seems to get in the way of the scoffers’ reasoning. Rather than examine that compelling evidence, the mockers choose to lump those who believe in the rapture, and the warning God’s Word gives about the coming tribulation and Armageddon, with the likes of Iranian ayatollahs and the fundamentalist Islamics who want to help apocalyptic events along by bringing death and war upon their enemies–Israel and America. Somehow, they say we are the same as those types, even though their god tells them to send their people out to murder and maim people with suicide bombs while our God sends us out to love people and give them the good news gospel message so they won’t have to spend eternity in hell.
These who concoct and hold such falsehoods are as guilty of creating fables as they accuse us of being, who teach about the rapture and other prophecies that will come to pass according to God’s Word. However, we don’t believe in, teach, or preach fairytales. For example, a clearly emerging geopolitical situation is developing that almost certainly has prophetic implications. And it is no fairytale.
Things have been happening at the North Pole for years now, and it all involves an entity that we view as a major end-time player, according to the prophet Ezekiel. And, we are not talking about Santa Claus! An excerpt from a news item from a number of years ago explains:
“Russian explorers have planted their country's flag on the seabed 4,200m (14,000ft) below the North Pole to further Moscow's claims to the Arctic. The rust-proof titanium metal flag was brought by explorers traveling in two mini-submarines, in what is believed to be the first expedition of its kind… President Vladimir Putin has already described the urgent need for Russia to secure its "strategic, economic, scientific and defence interests" in the Arctic…("Russia plants flag under N Pole," BBC News, 8/2/07).
Ezekiel said a leader to the far north of Israel (all direction in Bible geographical parlance originates from Jerusalem) will one day lead a coalition to take “great spoil” from the region of the Middle East:
“Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it? And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army: And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes” (Ezek. 38:14-16).
To see just how accurate is God’s Word in prophecy, hold a string on a globe directly upon Jerusalem. Then run the string straight up the globe (due north). You will find that the string runs upward along the same longitude and directly across Moscow in Russia. No doubt about it. Russia is the major power due north of Israel!
Just how far north Russia seeks to exert its power is seen in the preceding news excerpt. They reach as far north as possible –to the North Pole. That’s no fairy tale. We aren’t talking about Santa. It’s Vladimir Putin who currently occupies the top leadership position of the people many of us who have studied the future Gog-Magog war think will be at the forefront of the attack on Israel.
Russia’s flexing its muscles at this time seems more than mere coincidence. That nation is shrinking population-wise, and influence-wise. It has fallen far from its exalted dictatorial position as the center of the U.S.S.R. Putin is showing himself to be a man who is determined to use his experience, learned from his KGB years, to restore some of the power and prestige of the old Soviet Empire. His bellicose deportment of late fits within the end-time scheme of things. Israel is threatened by its hate-filled enemies; the EU looks to be the reviving Roman Empire out of which Antichrist will arise; China is the exponentially growing dragon which looks like it could be the king of the kings of the east found in Revelation, chapters 9 and 16.
These geographical elements are facts of life in these troubled times. We believe the prophetic elements well might also be a part of the geopolitical mix that are harbingers of end of days things, perhaps soon to come.