If you follow Christian End Times prophecy teachers, it will not be long before you find someone who is teaching that the Gog/Magog war is a post-rapture, early Tribulation war. It seems like almost all Dispensationalists are saying this, but I have spent a lot of time recently showing, from the bible, that the Gog Magog war is actually a pre-Tribulation, pre-Rapture event.

I am not picking on anyone in particular when I object to some of the comments found at; http://servehiminthewaiting.com/2015/12/30/isis-fears-no-one-but-israel/ I tried to post the below comments on that page, but for some reason it was not able to accept them. I will keep on trying but in the mean time I have some comments that are applicable to anyone who thinks the Gog/Magog war is a post-rapture, early Tribulation event;

The speaker states that the Ezekiel 38-39 war will happen AFTER the Rapture. Please read Zephaniah 2:1-3, and you will see that Israel will be “gathered” before the Tribulation. Note that “gathered” is past tense; there will be no more gathering of Israel during, or after, the Tribulation. (1/3 of Israel will flee to the wilderness, and be saved there, but they will not be dispersed. They will remain together as a nation.)

  1 Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired;  2 Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD come upon you, before the day of the LORD’S anger come upon you.  3 Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD’S anger. 

Zeph. 2:3 states that the “Meek of the earth” will be hidden during the Tribulation. This is a rapture passage, and it indicates that the rapture will occur after Israel is gathered. (They will be hidden in their chambers in Heaven, not on the earth. Isaiah 26:19-21)

Now read Ezekiel 39:25-28, and you will see that the final remnants of Israel are being gathered AFTER this war. In other words, the Ezekiel 38-39 war is a Church-Age event!

25 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name;  26 After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid.  27 When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations;  28 Then shall they know that Iam the LORD their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there.

It is true that Ezekiel 38:8 states that the people in Israel will have been gathered before this attack, but this does not mean that all Israel have been gathered, only that the ones already there have been gathered.  This war will occur when most of Israel has been gathered, but it is this war itself that provides the incentive for the last remnants to return; They will believe (incorrectly) that this war IS the time of Jacob’s trouble, and “once it is over then it is safe to return”.  Nothing could be further from the truth!

Isaiah 27:12-13 indicates that Israel will be gathered at a time when the Lord beats off their enemies from the Euphrates to the Nile (This is a reference to the Ezekiel 38-39 war).  It is this fulfilment of His promise to Abraham that will lead them to believe that they are in for a time of “Peace and Safety”.

12 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. 13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

“The Great Trumpet” shall be blown as the final remnants of Israel are being gathered.  In order for this trumpet to be “great” it has to do a lot.

I don’t think there is more than one “Great Trumpet” in Scripture. This is not the same as the trumpet judgments of Revelation, but is the final trumpet in the gathering of Israel, and simultaneously the call to the Church to go Home! This Trumpet does “dual duty” as it signifies the end of the Church-Age, and the return to the age of Israel, for their last 7 years!

Paul had no knowledge of the book of Revelation, since it was written some 30+ years after his death. He had an Old Testament trumpet in mind, and it was the Holy Spirit who put him in mind of that trumpet.

Doesn’t a trumpet blast end with a crescendo? It is the nature of a trumpet blast to end with the greatest sound. So the Great Trumpet of Isaiah 27:13 is also the Last Trumpet of I Corinthians 15:51-52 .

 51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,  52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 

When you put these passages together it places the rapture shortly AFTER the end of the Gog/Magog war, and yet still BEFORE the Tribulation.

If the world considers Ezekiel’s war to be World War 3, then the rapture will occur after WW3!  First, however, even before this war begins, a major factor in the coming-together of this coalition of nations will be the Psalm 83 war, where the Sunni Muslims (with the exceptions of Turkey, Sudan, and Libya) will make an all-out-attack against Israel.  It is the political realignments which occur after the Psalm 83 war which lead to the Gog/Magog war!

Regarding the Gog/Magog war, the speaker names only a few of the nations involved; Russia and Iran.

Just because Iran and Russia are cooperating does not mean that the Gog/Magog war is imminent. Lots of other nations will be involved in that war, and they are not yet cooperating with either Russia, or Iran. Don’t forget that just before Christmas, Turkey shot down a Russian fighter aircraft. Truly, the members of the Gog/Magog coalition are, for the most part, still at each others throats!

Russia’s SU-24 goes down in flames, inside Syria

Search for the recent articles regarding this war and you will see that the nations involved will include the Celts, England, Germany, France, Scandinavia, the Eastern European Slavs, as well as Turkey, Russia, Iran, Ethiopia/Sudan, and Libya.

That day is not far-off, but it is not as close as the speaker would have us believe.

And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them. Luke 21:8

Note that in Luke 21:8 one of the End Times deceptions Jesus warns us about is that false teachers will come in His name, and they will be saying “the time draweth near”. Many prophecy teachers are “jumping the gun”, when they should be in the Word. Rushing God in this way will ultimately lead many to deception, and to affirm the real Antichrist when he shows up!

I have detailed all of this in The Spirit of Prophecy, as well as much more. This book was designed to be a “pain-in-the-neck” to the Antichrist as he goes about setting up his kingdom.

Dan