Solzhenitsyn and Russia - East and West

Ezekiel 38

1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land

of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal,

and prophesy against him,

3 And say, Thus saith the Lord G-D; Behold, I am

against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech

and Tubal:

4 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:

5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of

them with shield and helmet:

6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah

of the north quarters, and all his bands: and

many people with thee.


Ezekiel 39

1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against

Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord G-D; Behold, I

am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of

Meshech and Tubal:

2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the

sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come

up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon

the mountains of Israel:

3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand,

and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy

right hand.

4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel,

thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is

with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous

birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the

field to be devoured.

5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have

spoken it, saith the Lord G-D.


In the first verse Gog is interpreted to be

Russia, Meshech is Moscow and Tubal is the

province of Tobolsk. These passages describe an

army of six nations that will mount an invasion

against Israel in a sneak attack. They will

launch the attack from the north, out of the

country of Russia.


This is a prophetic passage that has not yet been

fulfilled. There is more detail about this

invasion in these two chapters, but I won't go

into the other details. I just want to look at

the fact that this is an invasion from the north,

that consists of an army from six different

countries. The motivation is that the Lord will

'put hooks into thy jaws', in order to draw these

nations together for an invasion.


What we see happening in this region right now,

is setting the stage for the fulfillment of

prophetic scripture. For now, there is no six

nation alliance gathering to mount an invasion of

the nation of Israel, as far as I know. Recent

events show that Russia is just putting the bear

hug on former Soviet states to secure its own

borders.


Walvoord offers these comments:

"The prophecy against Gog is one of the most

dramatic predictions of Ezekiel. Many details of

the prophecy are not entirely clear, but the man

thrust of the prediction is not difficult to

understand. The passage predicted an invasion of

Israel by a great army that will attack Israel

from the north...


This passage is a part of the predictions of the

great world conflict which will characterize the

years just before the Second Coming. Though

Bible expositors have differed as to when this

fits into the prophetic picture, it is plausible

that preceeding this event the prediction of the

revived Roman Empire, a ten-nation confederacy,

will be fulfilled...


As the battle described here is a disaster for

the invading countries, it may change the

political power structure to such an extent that

it will be possible for the Roman leader of the

ten nations to become a world dictator...


The Great Tribulation also records another

mammoth world war (Dan. 11:40-45; Rev. 16:12-16)

which will occur just before the Second Coming.

This should be distinguished from the war in

Ezekiel 38-39 which is not a world conflict but a

war between a select group of nations attacking

Israel.


In the quarter of a century since World War II

Russia has risen to be one of the great military

powers of the modern world. To a far greater

extent than ever before Russiahas become a

prominent nation, especially in its influence on

the Middle East...


According to Scripture the invaders will be

totally destroyed which, undoubtedly, will have

an effect on the world power struggle in which

Russia is now a major factor... (the ten-nation

confederacy will be free to act at this point)

The war centering in Armageddon is one which

involves all the nations of the world. The

Russian war is predominantly Russia with six

allies. The Armageddon struggle covers all the

Holy Land, but the war with Russia is settled on

the northern mountain of Israel... The scenes are

different." pp 188-191


The latest news of the Russian invasion of

Georgia is a reminder of the recent passing of

solzhenitsyn on August 8th of this year, and the

address that he made in 1978 at the Harvard

University commencement ceremony. It's worth

having another look at the address to guage how

events are unfolding in the east.

Solzhenitsyn said,"A decline in courage may be

the most striking feature that an outside

observer notices in the West today. The Western

world has lost its civic courage, both as a whole

and separately, in each country, in each

government, in each political party, and, of

course, in the United Nations. Such a decline in

courage is particularly noticeable among the

ruling and intellectual elites, causing an

impression of a loss of courage by the entire

society. There are many courageous individuals,

but they have no determining influence on public

life."

http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles/Solzhenits

ynHarvard.php


"Russian troops poured into South Ossetia on

August 8 to repel a Georgian attempt to regain

control of the breakaway region. After smashing

Georgia's small US-trained army in South Ossetia,

Russian troops then pushed deep into Georgia,

including through Abkhazia."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080825/ts_afp/georg

iarussiaconflict

Russian military had been making preparations to

move into Georgia for a while. It wasn't a big

surprise to those who were paying attention. But

it sends a message to the world about the

direction of Russian interests. Even though the

Soviet Union fell apart in the 1980's, there are

still those in Russia whose idea of independence

is not that much different than the senile

alchoholics who ran the Soviet Union. I'm not a

student of Russian political personalities, but

from what little I read, Mr. Putin fully intends

that Russia control the region bordering Europe

and Middle Eastern countries. Of course, the

unspoken yet fully understood objective is

complete control of petroleum resources, and

therefore, complete control of western economies.

Look at what has happened to the West - Europe

and the U.S. For hundreds of years there was no

serious challenge to the leading role played by

Western Europe and the U.S. Economic control was

centered in the Western world. In times past,

the level of economic superiority of the west was

stunning. One indication of that was the fact

that you could travel almost anywhere in the

world and people would gladly accept U.S.

currency as payment. That's changing.


One of the primary reasons for change is the

energy dependence of western countries on the

petroleum resources of eastern countries. Mr.

Putin knows this. Western Europe and the U.S.

have a problem. They both have petroleum based

economies that rely on imported supplies. This

situation creates an opportunity for the

exploitation of East-West political tension.

Solzhenitsyn titled his address, 'A World Split

Apart' in reference to the conflict between

Eastern-Western worldviews. What he saw as he

viewed Western societies was a lack of moral

direction and courage. From his own experience,

he knew that this was a serious flaw. I would

suggest that one primary reason that we find

ourselves in this position is exactly because of

what Solzhenitsyn mentioned in his address to

Harvard as far back as 1978. There is a lack of

spiritual energy in Western society, that is not

lacking in the Eastern. As Schaeffer has pointed

out, Christian theology has been infiltrated by

modern western notions of 'truth'. What we have

left is only a shell of western christian

influence in society. In other words, we don't

have anything left to believe in. But the

Eastern worldview is fully energized by its envy

and loathing of Western society.


You see, if we had a shared sense of moral

clarity, we wouldn't question the idea of taking

and maintaining a leadership role in the world.

But we don't have that shared clarity, and we

don't desire a leadership role. We've become

irrelevant. And Russia just sent us that

message.


So we see world events unfolding before our eyes.

We see things taking shape in the Middle East,

Europe and Asia and we see what's happening in

this country. But how do we interpret the

significance of events? I'd suggest that for the

time being, in the U.S. there is a sense that

things are not well, but there isn't any desire

to address the real issues either at home or

offshore. Recent world events make us

uncomfortable, but we'd rather not confront the

realities, right now.


Scripture has something to say about the

significance of world events. As I've written

before about the book of Daniel, I believe that

one reason that we have the prophecy of scripture

related to end times is that in spite of all the

chaos and confusion caused by a world in crisis,

we can have the full assurance that it is under

Divine direction. Scripture provides us with

everything we need to know about the direction

and significance of world events as the end of

time draws near.


In the last post, I closed with the opening

passage of the book of Revelation. Looking at

developments in Europe and Asia over the past ten

or twenty years in light of prophetic scripture

leads to the conclusion that the time is very

soon at hand. The book of Ezekiel has a prophecy

that is directed toward Gog -- a nation whose

army will attack Israel from the north. Gog is

interpreted to be the modern nation of Russia.

Implications are that the West is totally corrupt

and rotting from the inside out. And the Church

of Jesus Christ will soon be taken out of the

earth to make way for the final assault of the

kingdom of man (Babylon) on the kingdom of heaven

(Jerusalem). But it will not succeed.