Dr. Ron Rhodes:The Ezekiel invasion involves an invasion in which there’s going to be a northern coalition. A northern military coalition made up of Rosh, which I believe is Russia, and there’s going to be a number of Muslim nations that join in with this, including Turkey and Iran and Sudan and Libya, and some of the area around the Black and Caspian seas, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan and some of those “-stan” nations. They’re going to join together into a massive invasion into Israel.

Now, if you consider the small, teeny piece of real estate that is Israel, versus the massive amount of Arab real estate, you’ll quickly see that Israel stands no chance of surviving that. But what the text of Scripture tells us is that God Himself will be the defender of Israel. And He’ll destroy the invaders in several ways. For example, He’s going to cause a massive earthquake that does a great deal of damage; He’s going to cause friendly fire where they start shooting each other. It may be that the Russians and the Muslims start fighting each other, for example, suspecting double-cross. There’s going to be like a plague that breaks out. You know, just a variety of things like that happen that decimates this invading force. And so for that reason I think it’s safe to say that the Muslim forces will be decimated.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be any more Muslims. There will be some Muslims left, but the invading forces will be completely destroyed. And so that may relate to the easy rebuilding of the Jewish temple. It may relate to the easy emergence of the one-world religion; because both Christians and Muslims would stand against that. And if Christians have been raptured and Muslims have been destroyed, well, they’re out of the way now, you see. So that’s kind of the way that I see it. As for the book of Revelation, what say you?

Dr. Mark Hitchcock: Well, Yes. In Revelation 20 you have a reference there to Gog and Magog at the end of the reign of Christ on earth for 1,000 years. A lot of people equate that with Ezekiel 38. The problem is, in Ezekiel 38-39 that’s before the millennium in Ezekiel 40-48. And the one in Revelation is at the end of the millennium. So the timing is different. Also in Ezekiel you have certain nations that are mentioned that come against Israel; whereas in Revelation 20 it’s all the nations are coming. So these seem to be different.

So people say, “Well, why is the one in Revelation called God and Magog?” I think it may just be a shorthand way for God, without going through all the description, He’s just saying this is Gog and Magog again. It’s kind of like World War I and World War II. Or you know someone have said, some have likened it to the word Waterloo. You know, when you refer to Waterloo; in other words, it’s going to be an invasion that’s going to suffer cataclysmic defeat again. So I think it’s just John’s way of saying, “Look, you know what happened back in Gog and Magog? This is going to be another Gog and Magog that’s going to take place.” So, I think that’s the way he’s using that term in Revelation 20.