When will the military attacks prophesied in Ezekiel 38 occur?

By: Dr. Renald Showers; ©1996
Bible Prophecy Questions Answered by Leading Christian Scholars.

 

When will the military attacks prophesied in Ezekiel 38 occur?

Dr. Renald Showers: We’re told here in Ezekiel Chapter 38 that this will take place, verse 8, “after many days, you shall be visited, in the latter years you shall come into the land that is brought back from the sword and is gathered out of many people against the mountains of Israel which have been always waste but is brought forth out of the nations and they shall dwell safely, all of them.” God is saying this attack by Russian and Islamic nations will take place after Jewish people had been re-gathered from nations around the world and reestablished in their homeland as a nation. And we’ve seen Israel brought back from many nations and reestablished as a nation state in their homeland beginning in 1948.
But God says that this attack will take place when the people of Israel are feeling very safe and secure. Verse 11, He says to Gog of Magog, “You shall say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely; all of them dwelling without walls and having neither bars nor gates.” God is saying that Russia will lead this attack when Israel is feeling so safe and secure in their homeland that they have let down their own defenses; they do not have their own defenses with which to stave off any attack against themselves.

Now, that certainly is not true of Israel at the present time. Israel, because of constant threats, is loaded to the hilt with very sophisticated weaponry. But, according to Daniel 9:27, at the very beginning of the future seven-year Tribulation period, the head of the future revived Roman Empire, the Antichrist, is going to confirm a covenant with the nation of Israel for a seven-year period and through that covenant, Antichrist will guarantee the national security of Israel. And so Israel initially in the Tribulation period will feel very safe and so secure because of the commitment by the revived Roman Empire ruler to defend Israel against all attackers. But now according to Daniel 9:27, in the middle of the seven-year Tribulation period, Antichrist himself will turn against Israel and begin desolating it worse than it’s ever been desolated in all of world history from the past.

So therefore it’s only during the first half of the seven-year Tribulation period that Israel is going to feel safe and secure while Antichrist is still its protector and its great ally. In light of that, we are forced to conclude Russia and these Islamic nations will invade Israel during the first half of the seven-year Tribulation period.

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