Ezekiel 38 & The Four Horsemen: Russia's Role in End Times

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly. And now, here is Les Feldick. And again, good afternoon. It's good to see you here. And I guess we'll have to even tell our television audience that this is the first time in 33 tapings that we've had inclement weather that has hurt our attendance here in the studio. So, for those of you watching on television, we want you to understand that this is one of the rarities in Oklahoma, that the weather is such that everybody wasn't able to come out. All right, now, again, by way of announcement, we realize that we have new listeners coming in week by week, and we have to make them aware, as well as all of you who have been listening for a long time, that all of our programs, going way back to Genesis 1-1, are available on videotape. We also have the first 24 lessons available in booklet form. Hopefully, before too long, we'll have the next 12 or even maybe 24 ready in booklet form. But for those of you who are just recently tuned in, we began this series way back in Genesis. We've been on the air now almost two and a half years, coming up through the Old Testament on a complete tour through the Scriptures from beginning to end. Now, of course, we have digressed for just a little while, for a few weeks and months, to spend a little more time in prophecy than we normally do. And so, when we've finished our study in the book of Revelation, we'll go back and pick up where we left off just before we were ready to come into the book of Matthew. And then we'll cover the Gospels and the book of Acts and Paul's letters. And by that time, I guess, if the Lord hasn't returned, we'll be ready for Revelation again. So, anyway, so much for announcements. We don't like to waste these precious moments. I'd like to have you turn with me then to Revelation again and pick up where we left off in our last program, where we're into the, what they call, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Now, it was rather amusing after the last taping where we had just begun the Horsemen of chapter 6, and I got home and picked up the mail, and Time magazine was my mail, and as I usually do, I can't help it, I always turn to the last page of a book or a magazine. And I did again, and the last page of Time magazine, of course, is an essay of sorts. And here the writer was, oh, just degrading the fact that from time immemorial, the human race has always been looking forward to catastrophic events, an apocalypse of sorts. And, of course, I'd just finished teaching just that, and he was ridiculing the fact that, after all, you know, this is just human nature to look for evil things to come on the world, and then he used various books that have been bestsellers and so forth. And so, really, I imagine that's how a lot of people feel, that we're just barking without any bite. Well, I've always been of the impression that as I teach prophecy, I am not going to be a sensationalist. I'm not going to just, oh my, isn't it amazing, you know, that this is happening and this is happening, and it is. But that's not the point. We're not going to sensationalize it. We're just going to teach the way we feel the Bible is putting all this right out in front of us, so that for you and I who are believers, we can understand that we're not going to be here when all these things take place. The Lord has graciously promised that He has not appointed us unto wrath, but rather we're going to be saved out of it. For those who are as yet not ready, for those who have never yet expressed salvation by faith in the gospel, these, of course, are words of warning, because we know, regardless of what the scoffer may say, these things are coming on the earth. And we're not saying it simply because it's human nature to expect it, but only because the Word of God has laid it out so clearly, that after almost 2,000 years of God just pouring out His grace upon humanity, offering them salvation on a basis of faith plus nothing, that after that has been walked underfoot and has been spurned and rejected for so long, God is still going to enter in with His wrath and vexation. And we can't take His grace for granted forever. So anyway now, as we've come into the book of Revelation, we came through chapters 4 and 5 several weeks ago, and then, I think in about our last program, we got into chapter 6 with the appearance of the rider of the white horse, which we feel is the appearance of the Antichrist. And as we teach the book of Revelation, I've found the easiest way to understand all these things is to take it on a chronological basis rather than just chapter after chapter, because the book of Revelation does not unfold chronologically. You've got to skip back and forth, and the way you find out how these things fit is just by watching the time factor. And I'll show that to you, maybe not in this half hour, but sometime in the near future, how that you can show from one aspect of a portion of Scripture to the next, whether we're dealing with the first half of the Tribulation, whether we're dealing with the middle of the Tribulation, or whether we're dealing with the last half. And the timing is all in here, but you have to skip back and forth. in order to pick them out. And so we'll try to carefully do that, so that for those of you who may have never understood the book of Revelation, we'll hopefully clarify. All right, now then in Revelation chapter 6, just for a little short review, verse 2, where John now sees by vision, by Revelation, the white horse, and he that sat upon him had a bow, no arrows. So I have to equate that with what Daniel speaks of the Antichrist, how that he will come on the scene, of course, with flatteries, political manipulation, not with military force, and he's going to be promising everything that the world and the nation of Israel is waiting to hear, that he is going to be able to, to the nation of Israel, he will guarantee their borders, their sovereignty, he will actually enhance their return to temple worship. How? I don't know, but I know he's going to, because Israel will have the temple back for that first three and a half years. The world will just think he's the answer to all their dilemmas, their perplexities, and they'll welcome him with open arms. And so he comes on the scene here, not with military power, but with political maneuvering and with a charismatic character. But nevertheless, he goes on the scene conquering and to conquer, which simply means that he's putting everything together to set up his base of power. Now then, as we started just a little bit in our last program, in verse 3 we come to the second horse of the four horsemen, and this one is a red horse. Now, I'm going to be careful that some of the things I say today are strictly my own personal speculation, and whenever I digress from what the Word literally says, I'll always make that clear, that this is just my idea. It doesn't have to mean any more to you than anything else, but it may provoke some thinking. And I like to look at the red horse as a reference to the only military political power on earth that has been known as red, and that, of course, would be the Red Army of Russia. And so I like to feel, I like to think, that I can tie the red horse of Revelation here to Ezekiel 38. Now, like we've said before, we like to emphasize the things that all take place at the beginning of the seven years. We're going to emphasize a lot of things that take place at the midpoint, and then, of course, another group of events that'll take place at the end, and then we'll fill in the details. Now, of course, one of the first things that we see come on the scene here is the Antichrist signing that treaty with Israel. That's one of the first things. He signs the treaty with the nation of Israel, and that treaty is going to guarantee them, according to Daniel chapter 9, remember, seven years. And he's going to guarantee their borders. He's going to seemingly be everything that their Messiah had promised. And I'm always amazed whenever I read anything, especially in the Jerusalem Post, that it's referenced to their Messiah. It is almost verbatim of what I've told people over the years the nation of Israel will be looking for. They're going to be looking for a man who has political power. They're going to be looking for a man who has enough military power behind him that he can carry out his promises. He's going to be a man that is going to be seemingly morally upright. Everything that the nation of Israel would look for in a Messiah. And he's going to promise them peace and prosperity, safety from their neighbors. And so he signs that seven-year treaty with the nation of Israel, which, of course, we know will also then trigger God's time clock, kick it in gear, because now begins that final seven years of prophecy. And remember, prophecy is always in a time frame, and especially as God delineates the events that will fall within that time frame. So then shortly, shortly after, I think, he signs that seven-year treaty with Israel, we're going to see the red horse, and I'm going to equate it with the Russian invasion or the Russians and the Gogs and Magogs of Ezekiel 38. But before you go back to Ezekiel, I'd like to have you stop at Matthew 24 on your way back. I'm doing that for your convenience. In Matthew 24, if you'll remember, over the last several weeks at least, if not months, I've always designated as a chapter that is totally dealing with the tribulation. Because in the very first verses, in verse 3, for example, the disciples came to Jesus privately. Now, I'm in Matthew 24, verse 3. The disciples came privately and said, "...tell us, when shall these things be," that is, pertaining to the very end of time, "...and what shall be the sign of thy coming and the end of the age?" All right, and then Jesus begins this discourse now that describes this seven-year period. And in these verses, you can pick out a direct parallel with the revelation of chapter 6. For example, we know that the white horse, as we've already said, is the appearance of the Antichrist. So the first thing Jesus mentions as part of this period of time is that many, verse 5, shall come in My name saying, "...I am the Christ." And they shall deceive many. And that, of course, is exactly what the Antichrist will do. He'll come on the scene as a deceptive person, promising everything that the world wants, but we know that he's going to soon become the very emissary of Satan himself. All right, then in verse 6, Jesus said, "...and you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see that you be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass." But this isn't the end yet. Then in verse 7, I think this is the red horse. "...For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom." Now, I'm going to stop there with the red horse, and then when we get to the next horse, the pale horse, we're going to come back and finish this verse. But now let's come back to Ezekiel 38, where we left off in our last program, and we see this prophecy against Gog and Magog, and I think almost everyone is agreed that Gog and Magog are the nations that we now recognize as the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, what have you. And as you come down through chapter 38, verse, well, we might as well start with verse 2. "...Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshach and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, Thus saith the Lord God." Now, never lose sight of the fact that God is sovereign. I know the point came up again in our class last night. There are some things we can't understand that God does. But you know, it's not for us to question, because He's sovereign. He is the omnipotent, the all-knowing. And the Scripture tells us as plain as day that His ways are higher than our ways, His thoughts are higher than ours. So we can't always comprehend His way of doing things, but we just have to leave it in His hands and know that He never makes a mistake. And so here again, God is declaring here prophetically that the day is coming when He is going to bring this consortium of nations headed up by the Russians, and He now says in verse 4, I will turn thee back. In other words, He will literally, like turning a horse, He will change their direction. Now, as I've said, this is all just my own personal projection when I say some of these things that are not directly from the Scripture. All during the Cold War, we know that our allied leaders were deathly afraid of a great Russian invasion of Western Europe. And I know that'd be true because I had a friend who was a consultant to our military, and he was going west on I-40 one day several years ago, and he stopped in to visit with me. And he had just come back from a consulting tour of Western Europe, and the Red Army as it was facing our forces there in East Germany and so forth. And he said, Les, the only thing I'm going to recommend to our authorities is that we better get a neutron bomb ready and get it ready fast. Now, you know what a neutron bomb does. It kills personnel but not physical property because, he said, with that mass of Russian and East European troops facing the NATO powers, he said they'd be nothing but cannon fodder. And he said there's no way we could stop them unless we would use that sort of a weapon. And so we know that up until very recently Europe was just constantly aware of that great Russian horde sitting over there on the eastern borders, that there was no way they could be stopped. But the Scripture says that even though the world has been waiting for them to invade toward the west and go to the Atlantic, the Scripture says, I'm going to turn you back. See? And this is exactly what I think we have here. That all of a sudden, contrary to the world's general thinking, the Russian forces will not concern themselves with Western Europe because that's going to be the domain of the Antichrist. That power has to be in place for the Battle of Armageddon. And always remember that prophetically there are only really three areas of the world that are involved in those last days of the Tribulation or the Battle of Armageddon, and that is Western Europe, the Orient, and parts of Africa. Now there's nothing in prophecy so far as the end is concerned, the very end, of the Russian hordes or the Western Hemisphere. There's nothing in prophecy that would involve those two great areas in that last great battle. Now keep that in mind as we move on. So God is going to literally turn the Russian forces away from Western Europe, and He's going to bring them down into the Middle East, but not Russia alone. Now it's interesting. I've pointed this out to people over the years, and it almost knocks their eyes out, that here we have a consortium, especially before Communism fell apart, that all of these nations listed here were either already Communist or were right on the verge of becoming so. And here they are in verse 5. These are the nations and the peoples that will come with the Russians or with this Northern Confederation down to the hills and mountains of Israel. Persia. Now of course it's not called Persia today. It's called Iran. Iran. Iran is Persia. Ethiopia. Now you remember up until just a year or two ago, Ethiopia was a hotbed of Communism in Africa. It had a Communist government, and it was hand in glove with Russian people. Libya. I don't have to tell you what Gaddafi is. He's been a Communist from day one. And all of them, of course, with shield and helmet. Now remember when you read these things that Ezekiel is using the language of his day, naturally. He couldn't use the language of the present time because these things hadn't even been heard of. But war materiel is war materiel. Whether it's swords and spears or whether it's machine guns and cannon, that's beside the point. But this great mass of humanity is going to come down into the nation of Israel with all sorts of weapons. And then you come down to verse 6. Gomer. Now again, I think almost all Bible scholars are agreed that Gomer is, if not just East Germany, it's Eastern Europe. And of course when Patton was racing across Europe back in World War II, and I remember when I was just a kid yet in school, and we thought, you know, he'd be almost all the way to Warsaw before we knew it. But then the news came out that he had stopped at the Elbe River for seemingly no reason. Their excuse was that he had run ahead of his logistics. But we found out later that that was all agreed upon at Yalta when Stalin and Truman and, not Truman, Roosevelt and Churchill had met at Yalta and there they had divided Europe and consequently we had to stop at the Elbe River. Well, I don't know how many of you know your history or know your geography, but you see the Elbe River was really for the most part the eastern border of the old Roman Empire. So that really divided Germany just exactly where it needed to be divided in order for this Gomer to kind of be set apart from that which was more or less Western European. Now the other thing. When all of this started to fall apart a few years ago, we all began, I'm sure, to wonder, well, what about Ezekiel 38? And then, lo and behold, you see, the newspapers don't always put things on the front page. I found the best little tidbits of news are in the back page, sometimes hidden off in a corner. And unbeknown to the television news programs and so forth, there was an article by one of the news agencies, United Press or whatever, that Helmut Kohl, the German president, or whatever his title is, had met with Gorbachev, who of course at the time was the Prime Minister of Russia. And even though communism was falling apart, yet Kohl and Gorbachev made an agreement that the East German Army would remain in the Warsaw Pact for another at least four years. Now you see, you don't see that on front page news. But you see what that said is that Gomer is still intact with this consortium of nations with Russia and so forth. That four years still isn't up. Now whether that's true yet or not, of course, I do not know. But I have to feel that the Warsaw Pact military is still relatively intact. It is still a viable military force. I do know from what I've read that the Russian Army is east of the Ural Mountains. It's poised there. And it's ready to move whenever the authorities tell it to move. And like I said in our last program, if you think the Russian bear is dead and has rolled over, you better think again. It's not dead. It's certainly having a lot of economic problems. But it's not off the scene. In fact, again, I go back to Time Magazine. It's the one that I subscribe to, although I certainly read the others from time to time. But here again, just a few weeks ago, Time Magazine had in a little block article on one of the pages that every single ballistic missile that the Russians had several years ago are still in place, they're still loaded, and they're still pointed toward American targets. And it was alarming. And it said our administration is alarmed. But there's nothing they can do about it. In fact, I feel it's more alarming than it was before communism fell apart because now we don't know who's in control of the little black box. We have no way of knowing who can suddenly unleash those missiles on America. So we can't get smug. All right, so move on down. Iran, Ethiopia, Libya with them, Gomer, East Germany or Eastern Europe and all his bands. Now, as we're seeing in the news, these are all ethnic groups of people, various tribes and what have you who hate each other. In fact, I just read a little news again last night, I think in the last Time Magazine that came, that the reason the American powers that be, whether it's the president and his administration or whether it's the military, they realize that there's not much they can do because all these ethnic groups in East Europe hate each other with a passion. And remember, whenever hate comes in like that, it's a religiously based hate. In other words, they all have different ideas of religion. Now, never lose sight of that. And consequently, it's a mixed bag and we really don't know how to go in and handle it. But, somehow or other, these are all going to amalgamate when it's time to come down into Israel. Then verse 6, continuing on, "...not only East Germany and Eastern Europe with all his bands, but the house of Togerma." And again, that's the nation of Turkey. Turkey up until now, of course, has never been in the Russian orbit per se, but they are so close, constantly. In fact, when communism fell, after having ruled Russia for 70 years, Turkey was one of the first sovereign states to make overtures to get back into a good fellowship relationship with Russia. And so, I don't think it will take much for the nation of Turkey to all of a sudden come out of the Western influence and line herself up with the Eastern nations. Just watch them in the news. That's all I've told my class over the years. Just watch this group of nations in the news. We can't put everything together specifically, but we've got a pretty good idea. So then, verse 7, He said, "...Be thou prepared, prepare for thyself, thou and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them." Verse 8, "...After many days thou shalt be visited in the..." What's the next word? "...in the latter years." See, I always have to point out to my classes that scripturally, remember, the last days of Scripture are from Christ's first advent on. The last days of Scripture don't necessarily mean the last seven years, but it's been this last 1,900 and some years that are considered the last days. But the latter days, that takes you to the end time. That takes you, I think, into this final seven years. And that's the word that's used here, that in the latter days, see, that in the latter days or latter years, "...thou shalt come into the land." Now watch the language carefully. You know, I always appreciate when people write and say, now you read something on television that I've read all my life, but I didn't see it until you read it. So I don't apologize for doing a lot of reading on this program. Now read it carefully. "...they shall come into the land that is brought back from the sword, is gathered out of many people against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste, but it is brought forth out of the nations." What are we talking about? Present day Israel. 30, 40 years ago, 50 years ago, you know what Israel was? The land of Palestine? It was a no man's land. Absolutely nothing but a few nomad Bedouins, a few Arabs. Nothing. No production, no farming, nothing. What does it take? Some of us were just there a few weeks ago, and it is unbelievable. The production, the farm and the agriculture production, dairy farms, fruit farms, you name it. And where have these Jews come from? From almost every nation under heaven. And not only is the nation alive, but they've resurrected the dead language. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick And your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time.