Russia in Bible Prophecy

by Bertrand L. Comparet

Today all well informed people know that we will soon receive a treacherous attack by communist hordes, led by Russia. Those who are well informed in the word of Yahweh, have known this for a long time, the prophets described it in detail, written thus some 2,500 years ago. We find it principally in the 38th and 39th chapters of Ezekiel. Beginning at Ezekiel 38:1 we read: “And the word of Yahweh came unto me saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince (or prince of Rosh) Meshech and Tubal and prophesy against him and say, Thus saith Yahweh, Behold I am against thee O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.” Of whom is Yahweh speaking?

Gog, in ancient Hebrew, meaning huge or gigantic, is from the root word G-G. The same root is found in Agag, a king of Amalek, sometimes written Agog, this fits Russia’s great size. Magog, in ancient Hebrew and Arabic, geographers applied this name to the area lying north of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, the Hindu Kush (Afghanistan) and Altai, western and southwestern Russia. The root M-G-G also underlies Mongol, you know the proverb, “Scratch a Russian and you find a Tartar”. Magog was the 2nd son of Japhet, others being Mesheh and Tubal, and was known to have migrated to southwestern Russia. Meshech in ancient Hebrew, is a word of three letters corresponding to M-S-C or M-sh-ch. This root is found in many place names near and including Moscow. The ancients understood this to mean Moscow, Tubal in ancient Hebrew, written with three letters corresponding to th-b-I. Later it was sometimes written Thubal, sometimes Thobal. It is the root from which is derived Tobolsk-Tobal plus the Russian suffix “sk” indicating a place name.

Moscow is the capital city of western or European Russia, while Tobolsk for most of its existence has been the capitol city of eastern or Siberian Russia. For at least the last 150 years, scholars have recognized these words as identifying Russia as the power spoken of in these verses.

Ezekiel 38:4 continues, “And I will turn thee back and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army. Horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armor, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords”. Russia’s previous invasions of Europe were turned back, until the treachery of our own leaders gave her eastern Europe in 1944-1945. Yahweh turned back all premature advances of Russia, keeping her out until the proper time. Note the references to armor, for the last 2 centuries this did not seem realistic. However, in the last few decades, all major armies have made use of fiberglass/plastic body armor as protection against steel splinters from bursting shells, so Ezekiel is really up to date.

The Hebrew word parash is translated horsemen in this verse and probably correctly so. It is noteworthy that Russia has more horse cavalry than in all other armies combined and her Mongolian allies will furnish her more. Some have wondered if parash might be a suggestion of parachute troops. If so, Russia originated paratroops and now has over 1,000,000 trained paratroopers.

Then the Bible goes on to name in Ezekiel 38:5-6 Russia’s allies, not just conquered satellites. “Persia, Ethiopia and Libya with them; all with shield and helmet: Gomer and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the sides of the north and all his bands; and many people with thee.” Persia’s modern name is Iran, it is under heavy Russian pressure and subversion. It adjoins Russia’s southern border, a natural target for Russian expansion both as a warm water outlet and for its rich oil fields.

Ethiopia, whose Hebrew name Cush was applied to both Ethiopia, in Africa south of the Sudan, and to Afghanistan (Hindo Cush) adjoining Russia and a natural gateway to India. The Russian occupation of Afghanistan now exists in all but name. Libya, on the Mediterranean coast of Africa just west of Egypt, will naturally follow Egypt.

For the rest of the roll call of Red allies, we turn next to Ezekiel 30:1-6. “The day of Yahweh is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen. And the sword shall come upon Egypt and great pain shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall be broken down. Ethiopia, and Libya and Lydia, and all the mongrel peoples and Chub and the men of the land that is in league with them by the sword.” Chub and the land that is in league, we cannot yet identify, but Egypt is already in the Soviet orbit. Ethiopia is now the center of Russian communist subversion in all Africa. Libya, as we have seen, adjoins Egypt and is coming under its influence, Lydia is now part of Turkey.

Psalm 83:1-8 gives us the rest of the Red alliance. “Keep not Thou silence O Yahweh: hold not Thy peace and be not still O Yahweh. For lo, Thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate Thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against Thy people and consulted against Thy hidden ones. They have said, Come and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may no more be in remembrance for they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against Thee: The tabernacles of Edom and the Ishmaelites: of Moab and the Hagarenes: Gebal and Ammon, and Amalek: the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assur also is joined with them.”

Communism and those who created and still control it, are surely Yahweh’s enemies, those who hate Yahshua. Making a tumult, is their favorite occupation, they have taken crafty counsel against us. Here is further recognition that the Anglo-Saxon people are the Israel of the Bible, Thy hidden ones. Our Israel identity is still hidden from most people.

They have said, “Come and let us cut them off from being a nation”, for they are trying desperately to reduce us to a mere conquered province of the United Nations, with all of our national independence gone.

The first enemy mentioned is Edom. We know today that the Edomites are the inventors of communism and the leaders of it today in all nations. The Jewish Encyclopedia, in its article on Edom says, “The Edomites today are found in modern Jewry.”

Next the scriptures mention the Ishmaelites, the Arabs, they would naturally be our allies against Godless communism. However, our politicians, seeking Jewish money and votes in the big cities, have made us the enemies of the Arabs by pouring out our wealth and our official support for the Jewish invaders of Palestine. Thus the Arabs are reluctantly compelled to recognize us as enemies by our own choice, not theirs. Moab, Gebal, Ammon, the Philistines and Tyre are all found within the territories of the Arab nations. The Hagarenes would also be either Arab or Egyptian for Hagar was an Egyptian, the mother of Ishmael. Amalek was one of the Edomite Jewish tribes. Finally Assur, the Assyrians. After the fall of Assyria, the survivors fled what is now southwestern Russia. Several prophecies about the Assyrians are now being fulfilled by Russia.

Let’s go back over these verses, for they are far more significant than just a roll call. Surely as Ezekiel 30:3 says, “Today is the time of the heathen”. By their numbers, they now completely rule the United Nations. We crawl humbly on our bellies before them, vainly imploring their approval of our efforts to forestall the catastrophe they are promoting. We impoverish our own taxpayers to pour billions of dollars into fattening and strengthening our enemies. We ruin our own industries by building and subsidizing the industries of the heathen nations and admitting their products to our country with little or no tariff protection for our own workmen.

All the mongrel people, the mixed breeds of Asia, Africa and India, who have but one thing in common, their bitter hatred of the white man. They will ally themselves with anything which promises them that they can pillage and rape in the lands of the white man. All these nations, so far listed, will be true allies of Russia, they will fight for the loot which Russia promises them. Unlike the enslaved satellite nations of eastern Europe, which are unwilling to destroy the free nations which are their own last hope of rescue. Why aren’t the European satellite nations listed here? Because their part is in the revolt among the Russian hordes, is discussed separately.

Ezekiel 38:9 describes Russia’s two pronged attack. One line of attack will be to seize the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Canal, this cuts off this important life line of the civilized world. This especially cuts off Europe from all her supplies of oil from the Middle East. Without this oil, Europe’s mechanized armies and air forces will come to a halt. However, the long march across hundreds of miles of mountain and desert from Russia to Egypt, would take too long. The Bible foretells that Russia will seize this area by paratroop attack. “Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou and all thy bands and many people with thee”. Ever since 1945, Russia has built 5 transport planes to our one and she has over 1,000,000 paratroops. Ezekiel chapter 30 and Daniel chapter 11, show that this part of the war will be fought largely in and around Egypt, obviously for control of the Suez Canal.

Ezekiel emphasizes that Russia will also strike in another direction while this is going on. Ezekiel 38:10-12 continues, “Thus saith Yahweh: It shall come to pass that, at the same time shall things come into thy mind and thou shalt think an evil thought: And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of the unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwelleth safely, all of them dwelling without walls and having neither bars nor gates, to take a spoil and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land”. Ezekiel 38:9 describes the paratroop attack. “And thou shalt think an evil thought.” The Hebrew word here translated thought, is makh-ash-aw-baw, which also means a device or machine.

So things will come into Russia’s mind concerning an evil machine which they have. They shall make an attack to take a spoil, a prey, out of a wealthy nation. This certainly can’t refer to the flea bitten poverty of the people of the Near East, where the first attack is made. Who is this wealthy nation?

From the clues given in Ezekiel chapter 38, you should be able to tell who this nation is. First, the land that is brought back from the sword. This is not true of Palestine, which is an armed camp, ready to erupt into war at any moment. Zechariah 12:2-3 promises that Palestine and Jerusalem shall be a cup of trembling and a burdensome stone, nothing peaceful about that. But, the United States is a land brought back from the sword. The last major war on our soil was over a century ago and even the Indian wars ended about 80 years ago. We do dwell safely in unwalled villages and are at rest. However, this has not been true of Palestine for 2,000 years and is not true of Palestine now. They dwell in fear, behind barbed wire entanglements, wondering when the next raid will come. We are a nation gathered out of many people, and brought forth out of the nations. We have gotten cattle and goods, the principle form of wealth in Ezekiel’s time. Not only are we the wealthiest nation in the world, but we can even be literal about it. Part of our wealth does consist of tremendous numbers of cattle and we have more goods of practically any kind than any other nation.

This wealth is what makes us the target for the attack, even the desolate places that are now inhabited, fits us. This describes our great southwest quarter, desolate until we reclaimed its parched lands with irrigation. “The mountains of Israel which have been always waste”, also identifies us. Note this doesn’t say desolate, for our mountains are not desolate, it says waste. Waste means unused or unoccupied, our mountains were always waste until we occupied them, for the Indians put them to no use. This would not fit the mountains of Palestine, for they have been inhabited for dozens of centuries.

Even the description of the attack upon us further identifies us. “I will go up to the land of the unwalled villages; thou shalt come up against My people Israel, out of the north parts”. If you look at a map, you will note that north is at the top. Yes, even the Russian maps are drawn that way. Russia will have to go down, south and west, to go to Palestine and Egypt. She will have to go up north, across the North Pole, to attack us. She will strike us out of the north parts, as her air fleets cross the North Pole and drop down upon us.

What form will the attack take? The attack will be partly from the air, for Ezekiel says, “And thou shalt come up against My people Israel, as a cloud to cover the land”. There will also be a land attack, for Ezekiel also says, “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”.

We know Russia has more cavalry than all the armies of the civilized world put together. Because of the general lack of good enough roads for mechanized forces, she uses horse drawn equipment to a great extent. Also, the nomadic people of Inner and Outer Mongolia and Sinkiang, all adjoining Russia’s southeastern border, are horsemen. They would certainly join in the great looting expedition into the world’s wealthiest nation. For some time, our Air Force Intelligence officers have known of the great fleets of invasion barges in the ports of Siberia and Manchuria. Obviously they are being amassed there for a purpose.

If the hordes of Asia could be landed on the coasts of southern Alaska and Canada, they would consider the conditions there no hardship. It would be paradise compared to what they are used to in most of Asia. They would need very little supplies other than ammunition, for they would live off the land and live better than at home.

Nomadic warriors, dispersed through the vast forests of the western Canadian mountains, would be very hard to hunt down and destroy. Our great production centers of Detroit and Cleveland for machine tools, Pittsburgh and Gary for iron and steel, Chicago as a great central hub of transportation, the Puget Sound region with its naval base and aircraft factories, are very vulnerable. With all of these areas devastated by treacherous rocket attacks and air raids, with many coastal cities atom bombed by rockets launched from Russian submarines we would be very vulnerable. With this damage done to us overnight without warning, Russia may well feel that she can launch her land army attack with a large chance of success. Our capacity to equip large forces will be for a time at low ebb. If we keep such forces as we have for our own defense, Europe will fall for lack of our assistance. If we send our troops abroad, to defend the rest of civilization, we will be weak at home when the Asiatic hordes roll in like a flood in our northwestern states. From a materialistic point of view, it is a cleverly planned strategy.

However, Russia overlooks Yahweh’s promise that He will take the decisive part in this war. Here is what Yahweh promises in Ezekiel 38:18:22. “And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith Yahweh, that My fury shall come up in My face. For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath have I spoken. Surely in that day shall there be a great shaking in the land of Israel; so that the fishes of the sea and the fowls of the heaven and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the land, shall shake at My presence; and the mountains shall be thrown down and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. And I shall call for a sword against him throughout all My mountains, saith Yahweh: every man’s sword shall be against his brother, And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him and upon all his bands and upon the many people with him, an overflowing rain and great hailstones, fire and brimstone.”

Note the weapons used. One is the tremendous forces of nature, which will break up their organization and send them fleeing in panic in all directions. Another is mutiny among all the conquered countries, now she faces a dilemma. If she leaves them at home while she sends Russian armies out to war, not only will Russia be weakened by having to bear all the losses, but also the satellite countries will seize the opportunity to revolt at home, as did the Hungarian Red army. Therefore, to make them bear the losses and to get them away from their own lands so they can’t liberate their own people, she will put them in the invading armies. In the confusion of battle, the satellite armies will mutiny and attack the Russians.

At least twice before Yahweh has used this device to destroy enemy armies. Judges 7:22 tells how, when Gideon attacked the Midianites at night, in the confusion “Yahweh set every man’s sword against his fellow, and they destroyed each other.” I Samuel 14:20 tells how Yahweh used this method against the Philistines, “Every man’s sword was against his fellows and there was a very great confusion.”

Now it will be used against the enormous hordes of Russia and China and the satellite armies, this is confirmed by Haggai 2:21-22. “I will shake the heavens and the earth; and I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the heathen; I will overthrow the chariots and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders will come down, every one by the sword of his brother.”

More of Yahweh’s weapons are pestilence and blood, epidemic disease and infected wounds. Because sanitation is unknown among most Asiatics, pestilence will spread like wildfire among them.

The next weapon is the weather. “I will rain upon him and upon his bands, and upon the many people with him, an overflowing rain.” Transportation will bog down hopelessly in the bottomless mud. Flooded streams will block all progress, even all retreat, while supplies run out and hunger takes its toll. The stormy skies will prevent any help from Russia’s air fleets, scattered and destroyed by the fury of the storm. Next to come are great hailstones, it is not certain whether this really means hailstone or stones from heaven, meteors.

That it could be meteors is evident from the fact that on August 15, 1951, what the Iranian newspapers called a downpour of meteors on the south Iranian city of Shiraz wrecked 62 buildings, killed 12 persons and injured 19 more. Joshua 10:11 records that Yahweh rained meteors upon an Amorite army and slaughtered them. However, if hailstones is the correct translation, there are many historic instances of armies halted and even defeated by hailstones, even as recently as 1895. In Job 38:22-23, Yahweh asks Job, “Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? Or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?”

Several times in recent years, our American newspapers have recorded instances of hailstones up to the size of baseballs, easily capable of killing a man hit by one. Finally, among the weapons, fire and brimstone, which is sulphur. This probably refers to volcanic eruptions accompanying the great earthquakes.

Outbursts of fire and sulphur fumes are common in volcanic eruptions. Gas masks would be no protection against sulphur dioxide fumes. What is the result of Yahweh’s defense of us? Ezekiel chapter 39 is pretty badly translated in the King James Bible. It suggests that 1/6th of the Russian forces escape, while the original Hebrew reads, “And thou, son of man, prophesy concerning Gog and say, Thus saith Yahweh; I am against thee O Gog, Prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, and I shall turn thee back and lead thee, and cause thee to come up from the sides of the north, and bring thee in against the mountains of Israel. And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, yea, thine arrows out of thy right I cause to fall. On the mountains of Israel thou fallest, thou and all the bands of the people that are with thee”.

The slaughter is so great that we shall be seven months gathering up and burying the dead. Ezekiel 32:18-30 describes the final result. “Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit. There is Meshech, Tubal and all her multitude: her graves are round about him; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused terror in the land of the living. ... There is Edom, her kings and all her princes, which with their might are laid by them that were slain by the sword; they shall lie with the uncircumcised and with them that go down to the pit. There be the princes of the north, all of them.”

Finally in Ezekiel 39:7-8, 21 ,25 ,29 Yahweh says, “So will I make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let them pollute My name anymore: and the heathen shall know that I am the holy one in Israel. Behold it is come, and it is done, saith Yahweh: this is the day of which I have spoken. ... And I will set My glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see My judgment that I have executed, and My hand that I have laid upon them. ... Therefore, thus saith Yahweh: Now I will bring again the captives of Jacob and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous of My holy name. ... Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out My spirit upon the house of Israel, saith Yahweh.”

It is true that incredible stupidity and treachery among our politicians in high office, have built up the power of communism beyond the ability of ordinary means to combat it. It is also true that the greatest weapons are those in the hands of Yahweh. He has promised to use them in our defense. Isn’t it comforting to know that THIS IS OUR GOD, YAHWEH!!!

Critical note by Clifton A. Emahiser: We have to give Comparet much credit for a great job of presenting this subject, although the world scene has changed somewhat since he delivered it. Many today might respond to this message and retort: “But today communism is dead.” Don’t you believe it, for communism has been successfully transported from Russia to America and other Israel lands, and all ten planks of the bad-fig-jewish Karl Marx communist manifesto have been adopted by our respective governments.

I researched this same topic in depth and put together a booklet entitled The Problems With Ezekiel 38 & 39. As we look at this situation today, we can quickly observe that some of Comparet’s postulations are off-the-mark somewhat. In-the-main, though, he did quite well. The one area where Comparet shines is, he identifies the players in the game. And when we consider these players in the game, we must ponder the geographic areas rather than the peoples who lived there at various times. For instance, Iran (Persia) are not the same people as the Persians of old, for the Persians of old were pure milk-white in color. But, with the prophet’s insight into the future, he was able to help us identify from where these forces would be located in our present day. Therefore, we need to consider this when we read of Gog, Magog, Mesheck, Tubal, Persia, Ethiopia, Libya, Lydia (which seems to be “Chub”) etc. Many of these peoples to whom Ezekiel refers were pure-white in his day, whereas the peoples located in these same areas today are of mixed blood.

I don’t agree with Comparet that a majority of the invaders will be paratroopers as the word “cloud” in the Hebrew means a covert (under cover) incursion rather than an overt invasion. All the equipment prophesied to be brought with these invaders simply couldn’t be dropped from aircraft! And as for the use of horses, this was the only way that Ezekiel could compare the method of conveyance in his day. As for the weapons to be used in this great invasion, Ezekiel could only compare them with which he was familiar during his own lifetime. I do agree with Comparet that Psalm 83:1-8 gives a further description of the peoples that will be involved with this great coming invasion, which would include the Edomite-jews as well as the arabs. We must remember that all bad-fig-jews are not necessarily Zionists.

One item of interest is the fact that Ezekiel didn’t seem to include Iraq as one of the invaders. Is it possible that while we are involved trying to occupy Iraq and force them to become a so-called democracy, we will simultaneously be invaded by the euphemistic Gog and Magog?