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 Part I 
 Gog- and Mis Def&a 
 
 Bf Rev, D, W. Latigelett 
 

The World -War 
 In the Light of Prophecy 
 
 PART I 
 GOG AND HIS DEFEAT 
 
 Ezekiel 38 and 39 
 
 Evidences that England is the Gog of Prophecy and 
 is Therefore Doomed to be Defeated 
 
 PROVEN BY 
 
 REV. D. W. LANGELETT 
 
 LUZERNE, IOWA 
 
 English Translation by Andreas Bard 
 
 Published for the Author 
 
 1915 
 
 THE GERMAN LITERARY BOARD 
 BURLINGTON. IOWA 
 
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 \*»» 
 
 COPYRIGHT 1915 
 
 By PASTOR D. W. I,ANGEI,ETT 
 
 IvUZERNE, IOWA 
 
 m 20 1915 © 
 
 CI.A411167 
 
1/3 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 While I am far from offering any apology for 
 the publication of this little volume, I desire to 
 preface it with a few explanatory remarks. 
 
 I had asked the Lord, even fifteen years ago, 
 that I might live to see the day, when the great 
 whore, who with her fornication had corrupted 
 the whole world, would receive her punishment. 
 But I never dreamed that I should be the author 
 of this book. Nor did I conceive the idea after 
 the actual declaration of war. I merely wrote 
 a brief article for the press calling attention to 
 certain prophecies in Ezekiel, Daniel and the 
 book of Revelation, with the particular object 
 of warning the small remnant of God's people in 
 England of the approaching doom. 
 
 All the while I entertained the hope that writ- 
 ers who might do this work with less effort and 
 greater success would come to the front. But 
 although the gentlemen of the press informed me 
 that they had read my contribution with much 
 interest, they declined to accept it for publica- 
 tion. My fellow-ministers with whom I had dis- 
 cussed these prophecies were equally irrespon- 
 sive. While not a single one of them could take 
 issue with me, they did not seem to care to get 
 the facts into the limelight. I am perfectly sat- 
 
isfied that there are men much abler than myself 
 who might have presented the truth of this vol- 
 ume, but the thought of it made them shake in 
 their boots. When they saw England appearing 
 in the form of the beast with the seven heads, 
 they lost their nerve and made for safety. How- 
 ever, it is of supreme importance that England 
 should be universally known as the God-defying 
 force to which the Bible refers. Only in this light 
 will she be properly understood and receive the 
 treatment she deserves. While I send out my 
 message to the world, I feel satisfied that it con- 
 tains naught save what God has revealed in His 
 Word. Nor do I fear criticism and scorn, for 
 the Lord Himself will shortly pass judgment. 
 They who have been overpowered by the Beast 
 and do not know it, will rage against this book- 
 let and find it full of folly, but the wise shall 
 understand ( Dan. 12 :10 ) . Even though I accom- 
 plish nothing but to stimulate some abler pen 
 to do justice to this vital theme, I feel that I have 
 carried my point. 
 
 Thus I commend these lines into the hands of 
 God, the Saviour who can so control the wicked- 
 ness of this v/orld that it will effect the glorifi- 
 cation of His name and the salvation of man. 
 May it please Him to bless these pages ! 
 
 D. W. Langelett. 
 Luzerne, lotva, March 26, 1915. 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 The glorification of God is the beginning, the 
 end and the central theme of creation. God be- 
 ing perfect, nothing but perfection can proceed 
 from Him and whatever He does reveals to His 
 creatures His infinite glory. The visible and in- 
 visible alike proclaim His grandeur. Inasmuch 
 as the gigantic structure of the universe shows 
 forth not only His majesty and might, but His 
 kindness and love, it also is a manifestation of 
 His glory. 
 
 That the salvation of man must also serve to 
 glorify God seems, therefore, but natural. We 
 cannot accept any religious system teaching a 
 way of salvation which does not glorify God. 
 And since human logic has never been able to 
 detect a scheme of salvation save that of pleas- 
 ing God by good works, we are compelled to 
 reject it because by giving honor to the merit of 
 man, it does not serve to glorify God. It is quite 
 impossible that human reason should discover 
 a way of salvation truly reaching the goal. 
 
 If man is to be saved, God must point the way 
 and reveal to us, how after leaving God through 
 our sins, we may again return to Him, the foun- 
 tain of peace and harmony. And this God has 
 done; He has shown us a way of salvation by 
 which His glory, His infinite love toward the 
 
fallen race, is made wonderfully clear. Christ 
 is tlie way. To believe in Him as the mediator, 
 to find life in His atoning death, this is salva- 
 tion. Through faith in Christ man again be- 
 comes a child of God and is made an heir of life 
 everlasting. He again enters into fellowship 
 with God which he lost through the sin of diso- 
 bedience, of unbelief and lack of trust. 
 
 But God has not merely found and revealed a 
 way by which man can return to the truth, but 
 He has made all kinds of preparations to guard 
 him against the delusions of unbelief and to keep 
 him in communion with Himself. That we 
 should know God, God has given us His Word, 
 the Holy Bible. The Bible is a letter of God 
 addressed to His prodigal sons and daughters, 
 who are astray in the wilderness of this world 
 and whose reason has grown so dark through sin 
 that they know neither God nor themselves. To 
 them God sends a letter through His prophets 
 and apostles in which He tells them of His fath- 
 erly love and of His attitude toward those who 
 left the parental home. And He also tells them 
 of their own condition, their disobedience and 
 wickedness in preferring the world and the devil 
 to the true light. Thus they have become ene- 
 mies of God. Finally He assures them that, 
 though they acted shamefully toward their Cre- 
 ator and thereby deserved to be rejected and 
 driven out, yet, in His mercy, He will forgive 
 and receive them back. God does not desire their 
 death, but tries to save them against themselves. 
 He wants them to turn from their wickedness 
 
 6 
 
and live. Aye, to this end He did not spare His 
 only Son who on their account was incarnated 
 into a human body, and by His suffering and 
 death redeemed them from the pangs of eternal 
 death. And this love, all love excelling, is pre- 
 sented to man in God's letter, ever urging him 
 to accept divine grace and to return to the fath- 
 erhouse. 
 
 But should man refuse to be terrified by the 
 presentation of the law which embodies God's 
 just and holy will, and should he fail to be at- 
 tracted by the Gospel, revealing the wondrous 
 love of God, then the heavenly Father applies 
 the rod of chastisement and by His judgments 
 in the world's history drives home the truth that 
 sin is man's ruin, both temporal and eternal, 
 thus compelling us to seek life and salvation in 
 Him. These divine judgments, while a just pun- 
 ishment for the ungodly, are for those who es- 
 cape a solemn warning to turn from evil ways 
 and to repent of their sins. Individuals and 
 communities, nations and countries, have exper- 
 ienced such chastisements which, if they fail to 
 accomplish their purpose, will be followed by the 
 judgment of the whole world. Among God's 
 visitations we especially point toward the deluge, 
 the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha, and the 
 siege of Jerusalem. But the world's history is 
 full of similar events. All of them are symbols 
 warning posterity that God frowns on the ways 
 of wickedness and that the carcass of sin will 
 attract the eagles of judgment. 
 
 We have not the slightest doubt that the pres- 
 
 7 
 
ent European war is a manifestation of the 
 wrath of God. It is not due to an error in dip- 
 lomacy. How foolish to argue as to which ruler 
 or diplomat really caused it. In a measure not 
 only all rulers, but all peoples involved in the 
 struggle, aye, to some extent every nation on 
 earth is responsible for the horrible catastrophe, 
 j^one can say: I am innocent of this war and 
 therefor suffer innocently of its consequences. 
 The war is a judgment of God, including all man- 
 kind, and a direct result of infidelity. It is pun- 
 ishment for Christians who have deserted the 
 faith or who have failed to live up to its pre- 
 cepts; punishment also for non- Christians be- 
 cause they refused to hear the voice of truth. 
 Again God demonstrates through the terrors of 
 this war that sin is the downfall of man, jeop- 
 ardizing first of all his temporal welfare and 
 eventually ruining the souls of those who fail to 
 repent. 
 
 There is no need to discuss the maker of the 
 war, because God has explicitly named the mal- 
 efactor through the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel 
 (chapters 38-39), whose prophecy, uttered some 
 2500 years ago, reveals the entire plot. This 
 fact should convince the heathen that the God 
 of the Bible knows all things and that from Him 
 no secrets are hid. Prophecy also tells us of the 
 end of the war. The people that dwell in the 
 midst of the land (Ezek. 38:12) shall conquer 
 the enemies of God. Just as Jehovah, when 
 leading his chosen people out of Egypt's bond- 
 age, allowed Pharaoh to wax strong, that by 
 
 8 
 
crushing liim He miglit make manifest to Israel 
 that He alone was the true God, so now, when 
 prophecy points to the time when the house of 
 Jacob shall be gathered from among all nations, 
 He has permitted ungodly powers to rise, that 
 their humiliation in the presence of heathen and 
 Jew may serve the glorification of His name. 
 The final purpose, even of this bloody event, is 
 not only the salvation of man, but the honor and 
 glorification of God. After the house of Jacob 
 has been regathered, then it will sing according 
 to Christ's prophecy : "Blessed is he that cometh 
 in the name of the Lord!" (Matthew 23:39.) 
 Until then we shall have to witness the condition 
 which Jesus portrayed (Matthew 23:38) : "Be- 
 hold, your house is left unto you desolate!" 
 Especially on account of the Jews, God has given 
 such an accurate description of the ungodly pow- 
 ers which shall rise against the people that live 
 in the midst of the land. He desires to convince 
 them that His prophecies, pronounced with 
 equal clearness in the writings of the Old Testa- 
 ment, Ezekiel and Daniel, and in the ISTew Test- 
 ament through the apostle John, bear the same 
 stamp of truthfulness and emanate from the same 
 source of light. While the picture of these evil 
 forces is put in different frames by the different 
 writers, its essential features absolutely harmo- 
 nize with each other, even in details. This 
 should prove to Israel that the same God who 
 spoke to Moses and the prophets also sent His 
 Son Jesus Christ and continued His message 
 throughout the New Testament. 
 
 9 
 
Tlie scriptural passages we bear in mind are 
 found in the 38th and 39th chapters of Ezekiel, 
 also in Daniel 7:24-27; 11:36-12:1,11,12, and 
 Revelation, chapters 12-20. The references in 
 Ezekiel should be considered first, because this 
 prophet names even the allies of the unholy 
 power. If this passage is properly understood, 
 we can use it as a clew to the others. Almost 
 all scholars agree that this prophecy has not as 
 yet been fulfilled in the history of Israel. Just 
 as Ezekiel promises the gathering of the Jews 
 as a sequel to the downfall of Gog and also 
 prophesies for the church of God a blessed period 
 on the earth, so Daniel predicts this era as a 
 result of the destruction of the great horn (7 :27) 
 and ( chapter 12 : 1, 7, 11, 12 ) after the ungodly 
 king who shall plant the tabernacles of his pal- 
 ace between the seas, has come to an end. John, 
 too, in Revelation (chapter 20) tells of this 
 blessed era and characterizes it as a period of a 
 thousand years. But it shall not arrive until 
 after the great city which has dominion over the 
 kings of the earth has been judged and burned 
 and after the beast with seven heads which car- 
 ries on its back the great whore, has been utterly 
 abolished. If thus Ezekiel, Daniel and John in 
 these passages speak of the same golden age, it 
 follows that the events leading up to it, must 
 happen about the same time and in a measure, 
 be identical. Once convinced that Ezekiel 38 
 and 39 refer to the present world-war, we cannot 
 but conclude that the other references, too, are 
 in course of fulfillment ; we simply have to make 
 
 10 
 
sure which is the Power of Evil called the great 
 horn (Dan. 7:24), the godless king (Dan. 11:36- 
 45 ) , and the beast with seven heads in the book 
 of Revelation. 
 
 11 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGK 
 
 I. Connecting Ezekiel 38 and 39 witli 
 
 Preceding and Following Chapters 15 
 
 II. Ezekiel Predicts Only One Defeat 
 
 for Gog 19 
 
 III. Gog . 23 
 
 IV. The Land of Israel 41 
 
 V. Gog on the Warpath .... 54 
 
 VI. The Purpose of God .... 77 
 
 Postscript 112 
 
 13 
 
CONNECTING EZEKIEL 38 AND 39 WITH 
 
 PRECEDING AND FOLLOWING 
 
 CHAPTERS 
 
 The theme which Ezekiel treats in his proph- 
 ecies might be aptly summed up in the words of 
 Hosea: ^'O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; 
 but in me is thine help" (13 :9). This theme he 
 expounds by showing on the one hand, how sin 
 is the cause of human downfall and how, on the 
 other hand, God will and can help those who seek 
 help and salvation in Him and solely rely upon 
 His succor. 
 
 The first chapter is merely introductory to 
 succeeding interpretations of this general theme. 
 If biblical scholars would view it in this light, 
 they would have no difftculty in analyzing cor- 
 rectly the striking pictures contained therein 
 and discover their profound significance. In the 
 second chapter the prophet announces his pro- 
 phetic mission. In the remaining chapters he 
 fulfills this mission by interpreting the message 
 entrusted to him. Dealing with his subject, he 
 observes a fine chronological order, not by 
 arranging his prophecies as he receives them, 
 but by grouping them according to their contents 
 and the time of fulfillment. 
 
 15 
 
He proves by the condition of Jerusalem and 
 thie Jews that sin means degeneration and death 
 and denounces the thought that a mere external 
 connection with Israel justifies people in doing 
 what they please; churchmembership is not all 
 that is required. Because of this erroneous view 
 God will punish the Jews, (chapters 3 to 24). 
 These prophecies have been fulfilled by the Baby- 
 lonian captivity of Israel and also by the de- 
 struction of Jerusalem. The prophecies against 
 the unworthy shepherds of the flock, the watch- 
 men that fail to give warning (chapters 33 and 
 34), also apply more jDarticularly to the Jews in 
 the time of Christ. However, he cautions the 
 enemies of God's people against any undue re- 
 joicing on their part over the misfortune of 
 Israel. He would guard them against the error 
 that to belong to God's people is a matter of little 
 worth. For, though they may create havoc 
 among the Israelites and in this serve as tools of 
 a punishing Providence, they are most surely not 
 exempt from the judgment of God which, when 
 it strikes Jehovah's enemies, means their utter 
 extermination. This thought is given promi- 
 nence in the prophecies against the Ammonites, 
 Moabites, Edomites, Philistines, Tyre and Sidon 
 and Egypt (chapters 25 to 32 and 35). Not 
 without significance. For what God has done 
 to the Jews and heathen of the Old Testament, 
 He will continue to do during the new dispen- 
 sation to the Christians and their foes. If Israel 
 of the new covenant will be untrue to their trust, 
 they shall be chastised and placed under the do- 
 
 16 
 
minion of Gog. But inasmuch, as Gog's wicked- 
 ness is colossal, he, too, shall be visited with the 
 judgments of God. 
 
 The second part of this theme is presented 
 with the dual aspect that while punishment is 
 prophesied for the wicked, promises are made 
 to those who turn from their evil ways. The rod 
 of chastisement is placed alongside of the apples 
 of reward. Especially in chapters 17 :22-24 ; 34 : 
 9-31, and chapters 36-48, Ezekiel emphasizes 
 God's burning desire to help those who do not 
 willfully reject the chance of salvation. In 
 chapter 17 : 22-24, he announces that the Lord 
 will even have mercy on the whole world by giv- 
 ing a kingdom to the Messiah and by subjecting 
 to Him all the nations of the earth. Chapter 34 : 
 9-34 reveals God's desire to help the lost and the 
 broken-hearted. His purpose to replace unreli- 
 able shepherds with the good shepherd who will 
 feed His flock in green pastures. Chapters 36- 
 48 contain prophecies of spiritual and material 
 blessings, giving a description of New Testament 
 times, especially of the period which John pic- 
 tures in the 20th chapter of Revelation as an era 
 comprising a thousand years. This millennium 
 begins with the downfall of Gog and a general 
 conversion of heathen and Jews. While chap- 
 ters 38 and 39 indicate the defeat of Gog who 
 with a mighty army marches against the people 
 of God, they also prophesy a striking revelation 
 of the strong arm of God in behalf of the right- 
 eous. This is particularly true of the last lines 
 of chapter 39. The defeat of Gog has the pur- 
 
 17 
 
pose of convincing Jews, heathen and Christians 
 that God does not merely wish to help, but that 
 He can do so, no matter how large the number 
 of his enemies and how strong their might. 
 Furthermore they are to learn that, though for 
 a time they may be given over to their foes, as 
 in the case of Jerusalem and Judah being dom- 
 inated by Nebuchadnezzar or the people that 
 dwell in the midst of the land being controlled 
 by Gog, this condition is not a mere accident. 
 Nor does it indicate that the Lord is not a very 
 present help in trouble. It simply shows that 
 God has turned His gracious countenance away 
 from those who have gone astray. But, verily, 
 if they turn from their wickedness and repent. 
 He will speedily and mightily deliver them from 
 all their enemies. 
 
 18 
 
II. 
 
 EZEKIEL PREDICTS ONLY ONE DEFEAT 
 FOR GOG 
 
 The hostilities of Gog and his defeat are de- 
 scribed in chapters 38 and 39. Since a number 
 of biblical scholars have contended that Ezekiel 
 in these passages speaks of two distinctive cam- 
 paigns and routs of Gog, it seems well for the 
 correct analysis of this prophecy to furnish proof 
 that only one warfare and its utter collapse is 
 here presented. 
 
 There is no question that the Bible knows of 
 two common defeats of Gog and Magog. After 
 the first the Jews mil return to Palestine and 
 the millennium, mentioned by John in the book 
 of Revelation, will be established on the earth 
 (39:25). However, at the end of the millen- 
 nium Satan will again assemble the hosts of Gog 
 and Magog (Rev. 20:8), who while warring 
 against the saints of God, shall be devoured by 
 a fire from heaven. Thus there are two distinct 
 defeats for these powers of evil, one at the be- 
 ginning and one at the end of the millennium. 
 The first is foreshadowed by Ezekiel (chapters 
 38 and 39), the second by John (Rev. 20). 
 
 The scholars who hold that Ezekiel speaks of 
 two defeats of Gog claim that the first is men- 
 
 19 
 
tioned in cliapter 39, the second in chapter 38. 
 This theory they substantiate by referring to 
 chapter 38 :8 and chapter 39 :25. We give the 
 first quotation : "After many days thou shalt be 
 visited; in the latter years thou shalt 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 always been 
 waste : but it is brought forth out of the nations, 
 and they shall dwell safely all of them." This 
 they interpret as referring to the return to Pal- 
 estine of Israel which according to chapter 39 : 
 25 is to follow the defeat of Gog. The prophet 
 says : "Now ( after the Jews have been chastised 
 for their transgressions and Gog has been de- 
 feated) I will bring again the captivity of Jacob, 
 and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel." 
 From this passage scholars have drawn the con- 
 clusion that Ezekiel in chapter 39 was speaking 
 of the first defeat of Gog which is also mentioned 
 in the 19th chapter of Revelation, while the sec- 
 ond defeat which according to Rev. 20, Gog and 
 Magog must suffer at the end of the millennium 
 was prophesied in chapter 38. However, this 
 interpretation entirely overlooks the fact that 
 the 38th chapter expressly speaks of Gog as be- 
 ing the chief prince in the land of Magog, while 
 St. John co-ordinates these powers as two dis- 
 tinct and independent forces of evil. The term 
 "after many days" is made to signify the thou- 
 sand years of Revelation and the phrase "in the 
 latter years" the era following the millennium. 
 This attempt to clear the difficulty of the proph- 
 
 20 
 
ecy is not only futile, but foolish. For certain 
 it is that if Gog is to be defeated on the hills of 
 Palestine he must first occupy these hills. If 
 it is claimed that Ezekiel speaks of two defeats 
 of Gog and if it is further claimed that "the 
 mountains of Israel" are synonymous with Pal- 
 estine, then it must be admitted also that Gog 
 is twice routed by the Jews in Palestine, for "the 
 mountains of Israel" are repeatedly mentioned 
 not only in chapter 38, but also in chapter 39 : 
 "I will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel" 
 (verse 2), "thou shalt fall upon the mountains 
 of Israel" (verse 4), "and they that dwell in the 
 cities of Israel shall go forth" ( verse 9 ) . As long 
 as the Jews are scattered over all the earth, they 
 can neither meet nor defeat a formidable enemy 
 in Palestine. Zechariah (chapter 14:14) proph- 
 esies that "Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem" 
 and join the enemies of Israel. Thus innumerable 
 difficulties are encountered by those who inter- 
 pret "the mountains of Israel" as meaning the 
 land of Palestine, no matter whether Ezekiel 
 speaks of one or two defeats. 
 
 However, there is no compelling reason to 
 assume that Ezekiel predicts two campaigns and 
 routs of Gog. The prophet writing during the 
 old dispensation was much more apt to apply 
 the term "in the latter years" to the time of the 
 New Testament and the term "after many days" 
 to the period commencing with his own age to 
 the beginning of the war of the world. The isTew 
 Testament not infrequently refers to the time 
 following Christ as to the latter years. 
 
 21 
 
That Ezekiel receives a second command from 
 the Lord to prophesy against Gog, (39:1) does 
 not necessarily mean a new prophecy or a new 
 event. This second command merely corrobo- 
 rates what God says in the preceding chapter 
 (38:19) : "for in my jealousy and in the fire of 
 my wrath have I spoken." The repetition proves 
 the holy intensity of God regarding this purpose. 
 
 The two chapters are closely related. Chap- 
 ter 38 describes the mobilization of Gog's army 
 and points out his evil designs. His defeat is 
 merely indicated. Chapter 39 relates the details 
 of this defeat and at the same time interprets its 
 meaning. It shows why God permitted Gog's 
 supremacy, using it as a stepping-stone for the 
 final redemption of His people. Separated the 
 two chapters remain fragmentary and obscure. 
 Together they form a harmonious whole. 
 
 22 
 
III. 
 
 GOG 
 
 Gog is named as the cMef foe and enemy of 
 the people of God. Who is Gog? Is he a per- 
 son, a people or an empire? 
 
 Ezekiel defines him (chapter 38:1-6) : "And 
 the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son 
 of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of 
 Magog, the chief prince of Meshesch and Tubal, 
 and prophesy against him, and say, Thus saith 
 the Lord God : Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, 
 the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal : And I 
 will turn thee back, and put hooks in thy jaws, 
 and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, 
 horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with 
 all sorts of armour, even a great company with 
 bucklers and shields, and all of them handling 
 sAvords ; Persia, Ethiopia and Libya with them ; 
 all of them with shield and helmet : Gomer and 
 all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the 
 north quarters, and all of his bands ; and many 
 people with them." The Lord Jehovah gives 
 command to his prophet to turn against Gog 
 with burning words of prophecy. The terrible 
 judgment, here predicted, shall fall on the head 
 of Gog. God himself will enter the arena 
 against him. In order to fully grasp the signi- 
 
 23 
 
ficance of this event, it is essential that we should 
 know who Gog is. 
 
 Here again we meet diverse opinions. Some 
 have one theory, others another and there is a 
 goodly number of scholars who do not even ven- 
 ture a guess. Note that Gog is minutely de- 
 scribed and clearly defined. He is said to come 
 up from the north parts and also that he dwells 
 carelessly in the isles (39:6). He leads a num- 
 ber of nations, a large percentage of whom are 
 Japhethites. But since we have had such inad- 
 equate information concerning the whereabout 
 of these Japhethite tribes, we can only now, in 
 the light of the prophecy being fulfilled, get some 
 kind of an idea of their character. 
 
 Who is Gog? Ezekiel describes him as going 
 to war against the house of Israel with an army 
 of gigantic size. This means that he is either 
 a mighty king or a great empire. That he can 
 not be an individual ruler we gather from the 
 fact that John in Revelation predicts that he 
 will, after the millennium, form an alliance with 
 Magog and resume the unholy war. He is there- 
 for not a person, but a world-power. Nor is Gog 
 a single nation. If he were, he would have been 
 mentioned in the tenth chapter of Genesis.* In 
 
 *We cannot prove any connection between this name 
 and Gog, the Rubenite (1 Chron. 6:4), aUhough the fact 
 that Ezekiel (39:18) also mentions fatlings of Bashan 
 recalls the English tradition that the ten tribes were lo- 
 cated in England. Bashan, once the kingdom of Og, the 
 Amorite, was located on the eastern shore of the lake 
 Tiberias and became afterwards a part of the tribe of 
 Manasseh. The eastern portion of this country touched 
 the land of Ruben and was very fertile. The cattle of 
 
 24 
 
Chron. 6:4 we run across the name Gog as be- 
 longing to the Riibenites. But since no prophet 
 indicates that any of the ten tribes are to par- 
 take in Gog's campaign, we should not confound 
 this Gog with the Gog in Ezekiel. But Zech- 
 ariah states explicitly that the Jews will battle 
 against Jerusalem (Zech. 14:14). There is no 
 further reference to Gog in the entire Bible and 
 neither the Old nor the New Testaments know 
 a nation having that name. Ezekiel tells us that 
 Gog dwells in the land of Magog and is the chief 
 prince of Meshech and Tubal. This forces the 
 conclusion that Gog is a vast empire composed 
 not of one, but of many nations, dominating Ma- 
 gog and controlling Meshech and Tubal. 
 
 That Gog is a fictitious name is also made 
 clear in Ezek. 38 :17 : 'Thus saith the Lord God ; 
 Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time 
 by my servants the prophets of Israel, which 
 prophesied in those days many years that I 
 would bring thee against them?" This proves 
 that Gog is not the real name of the empire 
 which is to rise against the Lord. If the name 
 Gog were not fictitious, this verse would contain 
 a platitude as stale as the remark : Thou Jacob 
 art Jacob. The true meaning of the passage is 
 this: When the prophecy will be fulfilled, the 
 
 Bashan was known to be the best. We gather from 1 
 Chron. 6:8-10 that the very Rubenites who owned Gog 
 pastured their cattle in eastern Bashan. By naming the 
 fatlings of Bashan and Gog together, the prophet refers 
 to these Rubenites. Just like England, the modern Gog, 
 so the old Gog enjoyed the fatness of the land. Beyond 
 this we cannot trace any connection between the two. 
 
 25 
 
Lord will make known through His servants and 
 through His church the real character of Gog. 
 The Satanic empire may have a new name, but 
 it will be recognized. As we open the pages of 
 the ancient prophecy, we can trace every line of 
 its treacherous physiognomy. Ezekiel draws 
 its dark picture with unerring pencil and puts 
 it into the light of God's countenance. 
 
 We may ask, why God failed to give this em- 
 pire its real name. Because this empire did not 
 exist at the time of the prophecy and received its 
 name centuries later. Moreover, if the real 
 name had been given, the prophecy would not 
 have been fulfilled. No empire would ever have 
 called itself Gog. This holds true of all prophe- 
 cies. In Rev. 13 :18 John refrains from giving a 
 name to the beast but merely says that his num- 
 ber is six hundred three score and six. Since 
 the beast had no existence during the time of 
 John and did not adopt its present name until 
 the ninth century, the prophecy was sealed to 
 the church before that time. Not otherwise we 
 are told in Revelation of the great empire as a 
 beast with seven heads. Daniel saw it as the 
 little horn on the head of the fourth beast be- 
 fore whom there were three of the first horns 
 plucked up by the roots. The cause of this 
 mysterious allusion is clearly stated (Daniel 
 12:4) : "But thou, Daniel, shut up the w^ords, 
 and seal the book, even to the time of the 
 end, many shall run to and fro and knowledge 
 shall be increased." For this reason Daniel has 
 so worded his prophecies that those which have 
 
 26 
 
not as yet been fulfilled are even now a sealed 
 book to us. The same principle applies to Ezek- 
 iel's predictions concerning the world empire to 
 which he gives a fictitious name, until history 
 will reveal the fulfillment of the prophecy. 
 
 Now the onlj^ way to ascertain which of the 
 belligerent nations resembles Gog is to trace the 
 prophetic outline down to modern times. In a 
 general way the description fits England and 
 Russia who now fight side by side against Ger- 
 many and Austria. It may be said of Russia as 
 well as of England that they "come up from the 
 north parts/' but only of England that ''they 
 dwell carelessly in the isles" (39 :6) . Of both it 
 might be said that they are at the head of the 
 peoples mentioned by the prophet, but to Eng- 
 land only applies the prophecy that it rules in 
 the land of Magog and that it is chief prince of 
 Meshech and Tubal. 
 
 We desire to shoAv first that all nations men- 
 tioned in the prophecy are fighting on the side of 
 the allies, and secondly, that England by assum- 
 ing the leading role amongst them, appears in 
 the character of Gog. 
 
 Ezekiel tells us that Gog was in the land of 
 Magog. Revelation, on the other hand, pictures 
 Gog and Magog as allies. This means that while 
 during the first war Gog is ruler over Magog and 
 holds his territory as a part of his empire, in the 
 second war they will be two distinct and inde- 
 pendent powers, but animated by the same 
 treachery and co-operating toward the same end. 
 
 Magog in Gen. 10 :2 is named as the second son 
 
 27 
 
of Japheth. The land of Magog is therefore the 
 territory occupied by the descendants of Japh- 
 eth. Is there anything known concerning these 
 descendants? Hieronym says: ''Magog repre- 
 sents the Scythians, those numerous tribes who 
 live north of the Caucasus and east of the Cas- 
 pian Sea as far as India." Josephus agrees with 
 Hieronym, but Suidas avers that Magog are the 
 Persians. Winer (Real W. 2:46) observes that 
 ''in a general way Scythians may be defined as 
 the aggregate of barbarian tribes of the North, 
 more or less unknown." Arabs and Syrians, 
 when speaking of Magog, had in mind the peo- 
 ple called Scythians, Avho lived north of India. 
 All of these sources agree that Magog's dwelling 
 place was East, Southeast and Northeast of the 
 Caspian Sea. The Scythians, mentioned here, 
 are not the European tribes, more frequently 
 called Sarmatians, but an Asiatic people by that 
 name. Suidas' theory that Magog means Persia 
 is not incompatible with but rather complemen- 
 tal to the reports of Josephus and St. Hieronym. 
 Nor are we to be misled by the statement of 
 verse 5 that the Persians fought as the allies of 
 Gog. The great Persian empire consisted of in- 
 numerable tribes and during the period of its 
 highest development ruled over Parthia, Bactri- 
 ana, Sogdiana and Massagethia. If Suidas 
 speaks of Magog as representing Persia he, no 
 doubt, thinks solely of the provinces mentioned. 
 The original Persians are a people largely Sem- 
 itic. Two of their provinces, Susiana proper 
 with the capital of Susa, and Elymais near the 
 
 28 
 
Persian Gulf were called the land of Elam, after 
 Elam, the oldest son of Shem (Dan. 8:2). The 
 fact that the Persians living in the first named 
 provinces had a higher civilization than the Scy- 
 thians living further north, is no evidence of 
 their different origin. According to the most 
 ancient traditions the region between India and 
 the Caspian Sea was occupied originally by the 
 Eastern Aryans and peopled by the descendants 
 of Magog, whom we, therefore, consider the pat- 
 riarch of the Aryan tribes. 
 
 Today we find but few of his descendants 
 in this locality. They have settled in India as 
 far as we are able to trace their whereabouts. 
 The native myths of the Hindoos concur in 
 this respect with the final conclusions of scien- 
 tific research (Standard Encyclopedia) : ''At 
 least a thousand years B. C. — probably much 
 more, perhaps fifteen hu^ndred — an Aryan race 
 from Central Asia descended across the western 
 Himalayas into northern India through the 
 northwest corner, and gradually spread over the 
 whole country. They were ethnologically of the 
 Caucasian or Indo-Germanic type, with fair com- 
 plexion, straight profile, lofty brow, compressed 
 mouth, tall stature. They received the name 
 Hindu from Hind, that quarter which they first 
 overran" (XIV, 259). 
 
 Again in the first century before and the first 
 century after Christ, Scythians migrated into 
 India, settling in the northwest corner of that 
 territory which they conquered and ruled for 
 more than 500 years. Of their kings it was said 
 
 29 
 
that they were zealous followers of Buddhism, 
 Buddha himself being one of their descendants. 
 It is also claimed that the four and a half mil- 
 lion Jats, and the ten million Rajputes in Raj- 
 putana are among their descendants. The lat- 
 ter are even today a proud and aristocratic peo- 
 ple, many native rulers having been selected 
 from their ranks. (Standard Encyclopedia, 
 XXI, 14). 
 
 The caste system strongly prevalent among 
 the Hindus has kept them from mingling with 
 other nations. Thus the Indian Aryans are not 
 a mixed people as are the Persians, composed of 
 Semites and Japhethites. Of India's entire pop- 
 ulation, numbering 336,000,000, there are more 
 than 261,000,000 of Aryan descent. Philological 
 researches seem to prove that besides the Hin- 
 doos only certain Kaffirs and the gypsies scat- 
 tered throughout the world can be traced to the 
 same origin. 
 
 All these investigations concerning the where- 
 abouts of the descendants of Magog disclose the 
 fact that their original home is now partly under 
 Russian dominion, but a much larger portion, 
 comprising almost twice the number of the 
 Czar's subjects, is controlled by British rule. 
 India is therefore undoubtedly the land of Ma- 
 gog, and since it is under the dominion of Eng- 
 land, England is the Gog* of Ezekiel's prophecy. 
 
 *Gog means "roof," "high" or "mountain." Buech- 
 ner's Concordance translates Magog "house, or some- 
 thing that is covered." This well expresses England's 
 relation to India. Compare also the name Gog with the 
 
 30 
 
It is further said of Gog that he is '^chief 
 prince" in Mesech and Tubal (verses 2 and 3). 
 The word "Eos" has been commonly translated 
 ''chief" ("oberste" — Luther), although the Sep- 
 tuagint treated it as the name of a nation. Some 
 of the more modern scholars agree with the Sep- 
 tuagint. Which version is correct? We find 
 the word ''Ros" frequently in the Hebrew text, 
 but only in one case it is used as a noun. We 
 refer to Gen. 46:21, where a son of Benjamin is 
 named Ros. But more than fifty times the same 
 w^ord is used as signifying "chief." In Deuter- 
 onomy (33 :15) it is translated "the chief things" 
 of the ancient mountains; in the first book of 
 Samuel (9:22) "the chiefest place." Since the 
 Bible uses the word fifty times as signifying chief, 
 we have no reason to choose a different transla- 
 tion in the passage of Ezekiel where the mean- 
 ing of the text would entirely justify its common 
 use. In fact there are solid reasons why the 
 current translation should be retained. It would 
 be absurd to assume that Ezekiel was in any 
 sense referring to Ros, the son of Benjamin, 
 For Ros belonged to the house of Jacob, which 
 was to be freed only after the defeat of Gog. He 
 therefore was in bondage and could not be called 
 
 old English idea of the King. Says Lamed (History of 
 England): "They selected their kings from heroic fam- 
 ilies whom they imagined to be descendants of the gods." 
 This fact will partly explain the significance of the 
 statues of Gog and Magog which since Henry V (1413) 
 have been kept in the Guildhall ef London. Even in the 
 17th century these gigantic figures were carried through 
 the city at festal occasions. 
 
 31 
 
a chief prince. No other Eos is mentioned in 
 the Bible, nor does history know of any people 
 by that name. Luther has given us the correct 
 translation. Grog, who is lord in the land of 
 Magog is also the chief prince of Meshech and 
 Tubal. Gog rules among the princes. He pipes 
 and they dance. 
 
 Who are Meshech and Tubal? Concerning 
 Meshech the critics agree. Meshech represents 
 the Scythians, sometimes called Sarmathians, 
 whose descendants are the Muscovites or Rus- 
 sians. The Analytical Concordance to the Bible 
 says : "The descendants of the son of Japheth 
 are the Moschi or Mosochi." This is admitted 
 even by those who hesitate to accept our deduc- 
 tion as to the Russians. Hengstenberg translat- 
 ing Psalm 120 :5 : ''Woe is me, that I sojourn in 
 Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar," is 
 puzzled by the combination of Meshech and Ke- 
 dar. While he admits that Mesech are the Rus- 
 sians, he wonders why they are mentioned in 
 connection with Kedar which is a province in 
 Arabia. Widely separated from each other, why 
 should they be closely co-ordinated? He argues 
 that the names are not used in their original 
 meaning but merely in a symbolic sense, both 
 people being of a warlike disposition and ene- 
 mies of peace. Hengstenberg thus fails to rec- 
 ognize the fact that this psalm is pre-eminently 
 a prophecy concerning the suffering of the Jews 
 among alien nations, among whom they were 
 scattered after the destruction of Jerusalem (70 
 A. D. ) . We find in it a biblical evidence of the 
 
 32 
 
fact that Meshech are the Slav people, especially 
 the Russians. No nation has so viciously robbed, 
 maltreated and persecuted the Jews as the Rus- 
 sians. Even in our modern era the Jews of 
 Russia are accused by the government of having 
 shed human blood for their sacrifices. This 
 charge is made the cause of brutal massacres. 
 And struck by the prophetic vision the psalmist 
 denounces these lying lips and deceitful tongues, 
 while as a representative of his people he bewails 
 his fate. Thus public opinion and biblical 
 prophecy concur that the Russians are the de- 
 scendants of Meshech. 
 
 This does not preclude the fact that the Tubal- 
 ites, too, are a nation of Slavs. This is alto- 
 gether probable. When the prophet mentions 
 Meshech and Tubal together he indicates, even 
 though he does not prove their relationship. Bo- 
 chart, Michaelis, in fact all modern scholars fol- 
 low the ancient writers Strabo, Pliny and Xen- 
 ophon in interpreting Tubal (Gen. 10:2) as rep- 
 resenting the Tibarenes, a people once located 
 on the southeastern shore of the Black Sea. Jo- 
 sephus, on the other hand, speaks of the Iberenes 
 who inhabited the southern slope of the Cauca- 
 sus. "The Tibarenes, south of the Black Sea, 
 and west of Colchis, whence they went to Spain, 
 Sicily, etc." (Anal. Cone, to the Bible.) It 
 seems that Iberenes and Tibarenes are two dif- 
 ferent names for the same people. The general 
 opinion of scholars solving the difficulty by re- 
 ferring to the original dwelling place of this na- 
 tion is probably correct. There is no doubt that 
 
among the present population of the Caucasus 
 there is still a residue of their descendants. We 
 know however that the Iberia which was located 
 south of the Caucasus was little more than a 
 geographical description with no relation to the 
 names of the inhabitants. Since during the 
 Persian era Tibarenes and Muscovites were 
 closely allied in military and administrative re- 
 spects, ( Herodotus 3 :94 ; 7 :78 ) , it seems proba- 
 ble that that portion of the descendants of Tubal 
 who in earliest times migrated to distant lands 
 are still found among the Slav people of today. 
 However we do not agree with Winer, when he 
 says that Hieronym's theory tracing these peo- 
 ple down to the Spaniards is altogether erron- 
 eous. Winer tells us that the biblical Tarshish 
 is the southwestern part of Spain. This is cor- 
 rect. But Isaiah ( 60 :9 ) applies the name Tar- 
 shish to Spain in her golden period, when the 
 sun did not set in her possessions and the Span- 
 ish monks went into distant colonies to convert 
 heathen subjects to the Catholic faith. Luther, 
 too, by substituting for the Hebrew words 
 '^ships of Tarshish" the broader term ^^Meer- 
 schiffe" ("ships of the sea"), seems to sub- 
 stantiate this theory. The Spaniards in the 
 biblical view are therefore essentially Javanites, 
 for Tarshish was a son of Javan. But this 
 again does not prove that the Iberians who in 
 early times occupied central and afterwards 
 northern Spain are not Tubalites. During later 
 wars of conquest they were driven northward 
 or into Portugal and partly exterminated. To- 
 
 U 
 
day we find possibly in Portugal a considerable 
 portion, in Spain perhaps a small residue of tbe 
 descendants of the Iberians and these have long 
 since intermingled with Celtic or Gothic blood. 
 The only part of the population which has not 
 mixed with other races is known as the Basques 
 and resides on the boundary line between France 
 and Spain. The characteristic features of these 
 people prove their descent from the Tibarenes 
 and Iberians, who used to inhabit the terri- 
 tory southeast of the Black Sea. However it 
 is clear that Ezekiel in his prophecy does not 
 refer to these dispersed tribes. Nor is this 
 necessary. For when the Romans conquered 
 Gaul, a large part of Aquitania was a terri- 
 tory, extending from the river Loire unto the 
 Pyrenees, and was inhabited by the Iberians. 
 In his famous work ("Pruefung der Unter- 
 suchungen ueber die Urbewohner Hispaniens 
 vermittelst der waskischen Sprache") W. von 
 Humboldt has shown that the ancient Iber- 
 ians were a people who early settled in Sic- 
 ily, Sardinia, Corsica, Spain, Southwestern 
 France and in the British Isles. Of these peo- 
 ple the Basques, living on the boundary line 
 between Spain and France, are the only tribe 
 unmixed with other races. Humboldt's conclu- 
 sions were at first applauded, later questioned, 
 eventually substantiated by other investigations 
 and are now generally accepted. Tubal, there- 
 fore, represents the original inhabitants of the 
 countries we mentioned. Of these countries 
 Portugal and France by their treaties are under 
 
 33 
 
British control and the others, more or less, un- 
 der British influence. The same is true of Me- 
 shech, the Slav empire. Through an agreement 
 Russia is bound to England, while Servia and 
 Roumania tacitly bow to British pressure. 
 
 To sum up : The land of Magog is India. Gog, 
 the ruler of India, (the land of Magog) is Eng- 
 land. Gog is also chief prince among the rulers 
 of Meshech and Tubal. Meshech are the Slavic 
 races and Tubal the original inhabitants of Eng- 
 land, France, Spain, Portugal and the Italian 
 isles of Sicily and Sardinia, who have mixed 
 their blood with the later immigrants of these 
 countries. England controls them all either by 
 ''reaty or by influence. Thus England is the 
 chief prince among the rulers of Meshech and 
 Tubal. England is Gog of whom Ezekiel proph- 
 esies. 
 
 This is further corroborated by the fact that 
 all the nations mentioned in the prophecy of 
 Ezekiel are fighting on the side of the allies. 
 Besides Meshech and Tubal Gog is leading Per- 
 sians, Ethiopians and Libyans (38:5). The 
 Persians are those Indian troops who dwell in 
 Balutchistan and that part of India which for- 
 merly belonged to Persia. Afghanistan and 
 modern Persia, while under Russian and British 
 influence, were not called upon to furnish troops. 
 Ethiopians, too, are in this army. These Ethi- 
 opians are descendants of Cush, the son of Ham 
 (Gen. 10:6). They dwell in the land south of 
 Egypt, known in the Bible as Ethiopia. "This 
 is the word used by the Greeks and Romans for 
 
 36 
 
the HebreAV name Cush. Ciisli was the son of 
 Ham, and his descendants occupied the country 
 to the south of Egypt, and comprehended in its 
 widest sense, the modern Nubia, Sennar, Kor- 
 dofan, and northern Abysinia, but in its more 
 limited sense, only the kingdom of Meroe from 
 the junction of the White and Blue branches of 
 the Mle to the south border of Egypt. Syene 
 was the division between both countries." (Anal. 
 Cone, to the Bible.) The Libyans live west of 
 Egypt. Ethiopians and Libyans are native 
 troops fighting for England in Egypt. 
 
 Regarding Gomer Winer makes the following 
 observation : '^The majority of scholars think 
 that Gomer means the Cimerians who were al- 
 ready mentioned by Homer. The earliest his- 
 torical records locate them north of the Black 
 Sea and betw^een the rivers Tyras and Martis, 
 perhaps also east of this region, in the Cherso- 
 nesus taurica. They soon migrated into Asia 
 Minor. In the seventh century before the Chris- 
 tian era they were driven by the Scythians across 
 the river Araxes. They devastated Libya. Still 
 pursued by the Scythians, they did not settle 
 there but roamed for a whole century through 
 parts of Asia." (Winer's R. W., I, 438.) The 
 Analytical Concordance may also be quoted in 
 this connection : ''Gomer was progenitor of the 
 Cimerians, Cimbri, and other branches of the 
 Celtic family, as well as of the modern Gael and 
 Cymry, the latter preserving the original name 
 with slight variation. The people descended 
 from Gomer settled on the north of the Black 
 
 or" 
 O ( 
 
Sea, and tKen spread themselves southward and 
 westward to the extremities of Europe." After 
 wandering through Asia Minor without settling 
 anywhere they turned toward western Europe 
 where they conquered the Iberians, part of whom 
 were driven into Aquitania in southern France 
 which was named Gaul. As early as 500 B. C. 
 a Celtic branch migrated to Spain intermarry- 
 ing with the Iberians. A little later some Celtic 
 tribes, called the Gauls, moved into upper Italy. 
 The Celts or Gauls who settled in France were 
 divided into the two groups of the Cymeres and 
 the Gadheles. The former dwelled partly in 
 France and modern Belgium, partly in England 
 where they were known as Britons. The Gad- 
 heles did not remain long in France but moved 
 to the British isles. They were either Caledon- 
 ians or the ancestors of the modern Irish. In 
 Schlosser's History of the World we find this ref- 
 erence : "Although the Celtic branch spread out 
 in many directions, it has been almost entirely 
 exterminated. The Celtic people have been 
 either annihilated or have mingled with other 
 races. Only in western England, in the north- 
 ern part of Scotland, in Ireland, Brittany and 
 a small part of the Alps we trace pure Celtic 
 stock. The inhabitants of Cornwall and Wales 
 are direct descendants of the ancient Britons 
 whose language still survives in the latter dis- 
 trict. Closely related to them are the inhabi- 
 tants of Lower Brittany who also use a Celtic 
 dialect known as the Bas-Breton. Other rem- 
 nants of these people can be found in Ireland and 
 
 38 
 
among the Scots. The former have largely adop- 
 ted the English tongue, while the latter still 
 speak the Celtic language known as Gaelic." 
 These facts furnish proof that the Gomer of our 
 text is representing the Scots, the Irish, the Bel- 
 gians and a part of the French and the Gauls of 
 upper Italy. 
 
 Another part of Gog's army is the house of 
 Togarmah. This represents races that dwell in 
 the Caucasus and the northern part of Armenia. 
 Says Winer: "The Armenians, according to 
 Moses of Chorene, their native historian, are de- 
 scendants of Torgomas, whose ancestors can be 
 traced back to Japheth. They are known as the 
 house of Togarmah" (1,87). The Analytical Con- 
 cordance finds the house of Togarma in northern 
 Armenia which is now under the rule of Russia. 
 According to Luther's translation it is located 
 "toward midnight," that is, north of Jerusalem. 
 This translation merely shows that these races 
 still live, at least partly, in northern Armenia 
 and in the Caucasus, thus being represented in 
 the Russian army. But we might more literally 
 translate the passage: "From the uttermost 
 north." Inasmuch as this verse also refers to 
 Gomer, the Scots and Irish, such a translation 
 would seem preferable. While it is improbable 
 that anyone should trace the house of Togarma 
 with certainty, the testimony of prophecy is suf- 
 ficient. We conclude that the Russian troops 
 from the uttermost parts of the north, perhaps 
 
from Siberia, of whose origin so little is known, 
 are related to these races. 
 
 All these nations are led by Gog (England). 
 A mighty army indeed! The races, mentioned 
 by the prophet, offer a united front against Ger- 
 many, Austria and Turkey. Thus the present 
 war characterizes itself as fulfilling the proph- 
 ecy of Ezeldel. 
 
 40 
 
IV. 
 THE LAND OF ISRAEL 
 
 The greatest difficulty encountered by the com- 
 mentators in the interpretation of Ezekiel 38 and 
 39, arises from that part of the prophecy which 
 states that Gog shall come up against the peo- 
 ple of Israel (38 :14-16) , that he shall be defeated 
 on the mountains of Israel (38:18; 39 : 2, 4, 17), 
 that the house of Israel shall bury him and his 
 host (39 :12 ) , burn the weapons (39 :9 ) , and that 
 the captivity of Jacob shall not be ended (39 :9) 
 until Gog has suffered the defeat thus prophe- 
 sied. This difficulty, however, mil disappear, 
 if we consider the prophet's plain statement that 
 these things shall happen ''in the latter years" 
 (38:8). The mountains of Israel, therefore, do 
 not signify Palestine nor is the house of Israel 
 to be interpreted as meaning the Jews. The 
 scriptural records of both the Old and New Tes- 
 taments, when speaking of the latter years, in- 
 variably refer to the time beginning with the 
 birth of Christ and ending with the last judg- 
 ment. Now, during this period the house of 
 Israel is composed of Jews and heathen alike, 
 and only those Jews who have accepted the Gos- 
 pel, can continue to claim fellowship with the 
 true Israel of God. Referring to the era of the 
 
 41 
 
New Testament Isaiali says (2 :2) : "And it shall 
 come to pass in tlie last days ttiat tlie mountain 
 of the Lord's house shall be established in the 
 top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above 
 the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it." 
 The prophet Micah (4:1) uses almost the same 
 phraseology, and St. John ( 1 John 2 :18 ) has 
 this period in mind when he says, "Little chil- 
 dren, it is the last time." Christ is the center 
 of the world's history. He divides the ages in- 
 to the first time and the last time. 
 
 Whenever the Bible speaks of the Israel of the 
 last time or of the New Testament, it does not 
 refer to the ten tribes but to the people of God 
 in a universal sense. This is strikingly illus- 
 trated by Jeremiah (23 :6) : "In his days Judah 
 shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely." 
 The prophet speaking of the time of the New 
 Testament and bearing in mind salvation 
 through Christ mentions Judah and Israel to- 
 gether as partakers of this salvation. Since the 
 ten tribes had been led into captivity by Shal- 
 maneser, king of Assyria, and had never re- 
 turned, the statement seems absurd. Only by 
 interpreting Israel as the spiritual people of God 
 and not as a provincial term this prophecy be- 
 comes intelligible. The same holds true of Jer- 
 emiah (33:7). Here the prophet speaks of the 
 returning of the captivity of Israel which in the 
 literal sense would be impossible since the ten 
 tribes had been led away and mingled with the 
 gentiles. That Jeremiah was thinking of the 
 spiritual Israel appears also in the phraseology 
 
 42 
 
of the 16th verse where the word Jerusalem is 
 put in place of Israel. Jerusalem is generally 
 used as typifying the church of the New Testa- 
 ment. The facts of history prove that the David 
 referred to in the 17th verse is not the Jewish 
 king. It is Christ, the spiritual king of Israel. 
 In the 72nd Psalm David clearly defines the uni- 
 versality of Christ's kingdom, picturing Israel 
 as a spiritual realm beyond all geographical de- 
 scriptions. To this Israel belong the poor of 
 the people and the children of the needy whose 
 oppressors the Lord will break in pieces. Zeph- 
 aniah (3:14) applies the terms "daughter of 
 Zion" and '^daughter of Jerusalem" to those 
 whose iniquity has been forgiven through the 
 merit of Christ. Surely not Israel in the literal 
 sense is thought of by Isaiah ( 19 :24-25 ) when 
 he speaks of "Israel mine inheritance." That 
 Christ uses the term in the larger sense is very 
 evident. Read Luke 3 :8. Also his statement 
 (John 8 :39) : "If ye were Abraham's children, ye 
 would do the works of Abraham." We might also 
 quote St. Paul (Rom. 2 :28-29) : "For he is not a 
 Jew which is one outwardly ; neither is that cir- 
 cumcision which is outwardly in the flesh : But 
 he is a Jew, which is one inwardly ; and circum- 
 cision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not 
 in the letter." A similar interpretation is given 
 in the epistle to the Philippians, 3 :3 ; also Rom. 
 9:7. To the Galatians he writes (3:28-29): 
 "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither 
 bond nor free, there is neither male nor female : 
 for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be 
 
 43 
 
Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs 
 according to the promise." All these quotations 
 prove beyond a doubt that whenever the Bible 
 speaks of the last time, the time of the New Tes- 
 tament, it employs the terms Abraham's seed, 
 circumcision or Israel only then in the original 
 sense when the context clearly shows this to be 
 the intent ; generally speaking, these terms have 
 allegorical meaning and apply to the spiritual 
 descendants of Abraham, the followers of Christ. 
 But since the Jews up to the present time are 
 not doing the works of Abraham ( John 8 :39 ) , 
 they cannot be called the children of Abraham. 
 The true Israel is not limited to a certain nation. 
 Still less is it confined to a certain country, for 
 the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. 
 The land of Israel is the country in which the 
 people are true to God and obey His holy com- 
 mandments. 
 
 Nor is Palestine the land of Israel of which 
 Ezekiel speaks, because the Jews do not live in 
 the land of their fathers. Therefore, even if 
 they were the people of God, they could not de- 
 feat Gog on the hills of Judea. Palestine is 
 not even a Christian country. It is controlled 
 by the gentiles. According to Christ's proph- 
 ecy it has been oppressed by the heathen ever 
 since the destruction of Jerusalem. The Lord 
 warned the Jews (Luke 13:35) : "Behold, your 
 house is left unto you desolate ; and verily I say 
 unto you. Ye shall not see me, until the time 
 come when ye shall say. Blessed is he that com- 
 eth in the name of the Lord." Before Israel 
 
 44 
 
sliall return to Palestine, it must recognize the 
 Lord and accept Him as king. And that this 
 may come about the Lord will defeat Gog on 
 the mountains of Israel (Ezek. 39). That ac- 
 complished, the Lord will bring again the cap- 
 tivity of Jacob and will return the Jews to the 
 land of their fathers (Ezek. 39:25-27). Gog is 
 to be defeated on the mountains of Israel and 
 to be buried by the house of Israel. Since the 
 Jews are still persisting in their unbelief and 
 therefore cannot be called a people of God, and 
 since they do not dwell in the land of their fath- 
 ers which is being occupied by the gentiles, it 
 is very apparent that neither the ''house of Is- 
 rael" mentioned by the prophet refers to the 
 Jews nor "the land of Israel" to Palestine. 
 
 Another reason why the war mentioned by 
 Ezekiel (38:39) cannot take place in Palestine 
 is the fact that such vast armies (38:1-6) are 
 to be brought into action during this, the great- 
 est war of all times, that Palestine affords no 
 adequate space for their movements. 
 
 Finally we are forced to reject Palestine as 
 the land specified by the prophet because a 
 place such as is mentioned ( 39 :11 ) does not 
 exist there. The English Bible speaks of "the 
 valley of the passengers on the east of the sea," 
 but we do not endorse this translation. If Ezek- 
 iel had spoken of Judah or some other tribe, 
 the St. James version might have some signifi- 
 cance. But as it stands it is so hazy that it 
 signifies nothing. We might as well apply it 
 to Syria; it might refer to any country which 
 
 45 
 
is witMn a thousand miles east of the sea. Lu- 
 ther's translation is much better. He uses these 
 words: "where people walk along the sea to- 
 ward the east." As a matter of fact, people in 
 Palestine can walk along the sea toward the 
 north and toward the south, but not toward the 
 east. This fact excludes Palestine from the pos- 
 sible lands referred to in our prophecy. It 
 shows that the land of Israel has spiritual sig- 
 nificance. 
 
 Which, then, is the true land of Israel? Since 
 we have demonstrated that England is the land 
 of Gog, because she leads all the nations named 
 in the prophecy, we might properly infer that 
 the land of Israel are the countries against whom 
 this Gog is going to war : Germany and Austria, 
 But while such a conclusion is no doubt correct, 
 we have other means of substantiating our belief. 
 
 Ezekiel says ( 38 :12 ) that the house of Israel 
 dwells "in the midst of the land," or as others 
 have translated, "around the navel of the earth." 
 This cannot be said of the Jews, even if they did 
 live in Palestine, nor of any great nation except 
 the two central empires : Austria and Germany. 
 They are in the midst of the land and sur- 
 rounded by enemies. 
 
 We also call attention to Ezekiel 38 :11 where 
 Gog says: "I will go to them that are at rest, 
 that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without 
 walls, and having neither bars nor gates." This 
 strikingly applies to Germany and Austria.* 
 
 * Since the publication of the German edition of this 
 book, we have received various inquiries as to the origin 
 
 46 
 
Germany has but few fortresses along tlie 
 Frencli frontier, wMle France lias scattered Iter 
 fortifications thickly along the German border 
 line. jSTeither have the central empires any for- 
 tresses to speak of near the Russian boundary, 
 and the few which they do have can be easily 
 circumvented. For this reason they bear out 
 the prophetic picture of a land dwelling safely 
 and without walls. Gog figured that he would 
 be in Berlin within three or four weeks. 
 
 And when we bear in mind the progress made 
 by ''the lands in the midst" since 1870, Austria 
 having greatly developed her commerce, while 
 Germany made gigantic strides, we may well 
 apply to them the words of the j)rophecy ( 38 : 
 12) : "which have gotten cattle and goods." 
 
 Another evidence may be procured from the 
 13th verse : "Sheba and Dedan, and the mer- 
 chants of Tarshish, with all the young lions 
 thereof shall say unto thee, Art thou come to 
 take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company 
 to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, 
 to take away cattle and goods, to take a great 
 spoil?" The nations here mentioned are those 
 
 of the German people. When in the year 114 B. C. the 
 Cimbri and Teutones, a partly German people, came in 
 contact for the first time with the Roman legions, the 
 full-blooded German and Scandinavian tribes had been 
 occupying their territory for many centuries. But the 
 historians of that age knew nothing about them. For 
 this reason we cannot even discover any suggestion of 
 their origin in the records of the past. Some of the 
 modern Jews have found in the Germans the descendants 
 of Ashkenaz (Gen. 10:3). But neither their national 
 traits nor their language indicate any connection with 
 the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel. Nor is the fact that Ezek- 
 
 47 
 
wh.0 excelled commercially in very early times. 
 Sheba is a country located in Arabia, near the 
 Red Sea, called Sabaea by the ancient Romans. 
 Today it is a part of Turkish possessions. In 
 later years the Sabeans were scattered over the 
 entire peninsula. Dedan, which according to 
 Ezek. 27:15 represents a people of merchants, 
 are probably not descendants of Ham ( Gen. 10 : 
 7), but Shemites, descendants of Abraham by 
 Keturah (Gen. 25:3). They located on the 
 peninsula of Arabia near the Persian Gulf, and 
 are also under Turkish rule. Since Mohamed- 
 anism originated among these people the proph- 
 ecy refers to the modern Turks, in fact to all 
 the Mohamedans who declared a holy war 
 against Gog. The merchants of Tarshish are 
 also mentioned (1 Kings 10:22) because they 
 had a navy and early attained a high degree of 
 commercial success. All of these, in fact all 
 who have grown mighty through commercial ex- 
 pansion declare war against Gog and unite in 
 the common accusation : "Thou art come to take 
 spoil." 
 
 Luther's translation of this verse is an excla- 
 
 iel calls the Germans the house of Israel to be used as 
 an argument. All we might gather from this is the be- 
 lief that they were descendants of Japheth, to whom was 
 given the promise (Gen. 9:27): "God shall enlarge 
 Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem" (mean- 
 ing the Christian church). 
 
 Should the English tradition, used by Redding in his 
 book on "Our Near Future," correctly trace the Ten 
 Tribes of Israel down to the Angles and Saxons, then we 
 are forced to conclude that the modern English, (the 
 Angles and Saxons of England), were also descendants 
 of Gog, the Rubenite. 
 
 48 
 
niation; the English version an interrogation. 
 The meaning remains the same. It certainly 
 applies to England. The whole world, not un- 
 der British influence, will agree in this. Aye, 
 even England's allies have been forced to admit 
 it. The Anglo-American press which is certain- 
 ly subservient to England openly states that 
 England will annihilate the German navy, de- 
 stroy German commerce and dismember the 
 German empire. For the expenses of the war 
 Germany is to pay a vast indemnity. Russia, on 
 the other hand, aims to rob Austria. But since 
 the whole scheme originated in the brain of 
 England, she will be held responsible for Russia 
 too. It is true that England has claimed for her 
 actions the noblest designs. She has assured the 
 world that she was merely fighting for Belgian 
 neutrality. But Germany has furnished con- 
 clusive evidence that Belgian neutrality did not 
 even exist when the war began, it having been 
 broken long since by a secret alliance with Eng- 
 land. Not only the German empire, but the 
 prophet Ezekiel characterizes England as a com- 
 mon liar. However, only Sheba and Dedan 
 (modern Turkey) have thus far drawn the log- 
 ical conclusion from England's treachery. 
 Rightly they argue. If England deals falsely 
 with Germany, she will do likewise to us. For 
 that reason the Turks joined the armies of Ger- 
 many and Austria, proclaiming to the whole 
 world : O Gog, thou speakest with lying tongue 
 and with deceitful lips, when thou through thy 
 spokesman Grey would'st have us believe that 
 
 49 
 
thou art guided by noble motives. Tliou art 
 come to take away silver and gold, to carry away 
 cattle and goods, to take a great spoil! (verse 
 13). Thus the fact that Turkey has joined with 
 Austria and Germany is additional proof that 
 these powers are the house of Israel spoken of 
 by Ezekiel. 
 
 Nor is it difficult to locate in Germany the 
 place mentioned in chapter 39 :11. On the 
 shores of the North Sea and also on the Baltic 
 coast are places where one can walk along the 
 sea toward the east, although prophecy, as yet 
 unfulfilled, does not permit us to speak of such 
 a place with certainty. 
 
 The reason why these countries represent the 
 house of Israel is their spiritual condition. Ger- 
 many is the land of the Keformation; in no 
 other country has the Gospel been preached as 
 truly and fully since the days of the apostles. 
 And while it is true that Catholicism, too, is 
 represented in Germany, and especially in Aus- 
 tria, we know that even among these Catholics 
 we find a spiritual Israel. Those who would 
 deny that Catholics might be saved, must also 
 deny that the pope is the antichrist. The rea- 
 son why Luther always characterized the pope 
 as the antichrist was the fact that he was sitting 
 in the temple of God (2 Thess. 2:4), that is, in 
 the midst of the Christian church, which he cor- 
 rupts with his ruinous influence. Although 
 there are Catholic countries in which this cor- 
 ruption has assumed awful proportions and one 
 may doubt whether or not any spiritual Israel 
 
 50 
 
is left in them, siicli a condition does not pre- 
 vail in either Germany or Austria. 
 
 But it may be argued that the true Gospel 
 has been degraded even in the land of Luther. 
 Monism, Deism and Agnosticism are being pro- 
 claimed from hundreds of German pulpits. But 
 we will show that this fact, instead of disprov- 
 ing our assertion, will rather help to corrobo- 
 rate it. 
 
 Says Ezekiel (39 :23) : "And the heathen shall 
 know that the house of Israel went into captiv- 
 ity for their iniquity: because they trespassed 
 against me, therefore hid I my face from them, 
 and gave them into the hands of their enemies : 
 so fell they all by the sword." This is the only 
 verse in the two chapters which the commenta- 
 tors have found difficult. However, we can sug- 
 gest a way out. It must be admitted in the first 
 place that the house of Israel mentioned here 
 includes the Jews who were scattered after the 
 destruction of Jerusalem. But that they are 
 not the only ones thought of appears from the 
 lines : "therefore hid I my face from them, and 
 gave them into the hands of their enemies, so 
 fell they all by the sword. According to their 
 uncleanness and according to their transgres- 
 sions have I done unto them, and hid my face 
 from them." In these words the prophet 
 announces that the war against Gog will claim 
 many victims of the house of Israel. We would 
 have to do violence to the text if we interpreted 
 it as referring to the Jews who after the destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem fell by the sword of the Ro- 
 
 51 
 
mans. The house of Israel mentioned here is 
 the one which the prophet had in view in 
 the preceding verses and which is to defeat 
 Gog. True it is that in this war many Jews 
 are engaged on either side and that many of them 
 will be killed. But we must insist on the prin- 
 ciple: "Not all that come out of Israel are Is- 
 raelites." The Jews of today are not Israelites, 
 one reason why their captivity is called "the 
 captivity of Jacob" (25). In the light of ful- 
 fillment we must interpret this prophecy. The 
 house of Israel mentioned in the 23d verse com- 
 prises not only the Jews and not only a Chris- 
 tian nation, but both. 
 
 The prophet speaks of an unfaithful house of 
 Israel. This applies to the Jews in the days of 
 Christ. For more than a thousand years God 
 had disciplined them and won them back to His 
 altars. But in the end they had rejected Him. 
 Finally the greatest act of mercy known in his- 
 tory was revealed to this people. God sent to 
 them His only Son. Him they rejected and 
 crucified. After that there was no further use 
 of discipline. For that reason God dispersed 
 them through the destruction of Jerusalem and 
 hid His countenance from them. They had 
 ceased to be His people and He permitted them 
 to be scattered. All of this is stated in this 
 verse of the prophecy. But that is not all. 
 
 In place of Israel God received the gentiles 
 among whom are also the Germans, the Austri- 
 ans and the Hungarians. Of these the prophet 
 has spoken in the preceding verses. But they 
 
 52 
 
too have proven uiiwortliy. Tliroiigh the Ref- 
 ormation God gave to the German people the 
 pure Gospel, the most priceless gift since the 
 days of the apostles. But Germany has been 
 an unfaithful steward. The bulk of her preach- 
 ers have offered naught but plain palaver or 
 mingled with the water and bread of life poison- 
 ous ingredients imported from England. Nor 
 have the Catholics of Austria and Germany the 
 plea of ignorance which might be made by mem- 
 bers of that church in other countries. They 
 have had opportunities of ascertaining the truth 
 not offered to less fortunate countries. But 
 like the Jews they neglected their chance. Thus 
 the Christian Israel and the Jewish Israel are 
 co-ordinated in the same verse, both belonging 
 to the unfaithful household of God. We are 
 judged according to the measure of grace. The 
 more we receive, the more we are held account- 
 able. The Jews were scattered by their enemies, 
 the modern house of Israel suffers under the 
 sword of Gog. Thus each is paying the penalty 
 of transgression. 
 
 53 
 
V. 
 GOG ON THE WAEPATH 
 
 In the latter days (Ezek. 38:8-16) Gog will 
 commence hostilities against the house of Israel. 
 The latter days as we have stated before is a 
 general term applied by the Scriptures to the 
 period beginning with Christ and ending with 
 the Last Judgment. That this event will not 
 take place in the early part of this period, but 
 some 2500 years after the time of Ezekiel is in- 
 dicated in the words (38:8) "after many days 
 thou shalt be visited." In the year 1914 the 
 prophecy found its fulfillment. 
 
 It is further stated that Gog will appear with 
 a large army. According to the prophecy ( 38 : 
 2-6) he is leading a great company with buck- 
 lers and shields : Magog representing the Hin- 
 doos, Meshech the Slav races, Russians, Serbs, 
 Poles ; Tubal, the original inhabitants of France, 
 the British isles and the Italian isles of Sar- 
 dinia and Sicily; besides the Persians, Ethi- 
 opians and Libyans; also Gomer and all his 
 bands, which means the Celtic race, Scotch and 
 Irish, the inhabitants of Wales and Cornwall, 
 the Belgians and French of Brittany and the 
 Gauls who live in upper Italy ; finally, the house 
 of Togarmah, representing the races south of 
 
 54 
 
the Caucasus and probably those who come from 
 Siberia, "out of the north parts.'' Truly an 
 army of gigantic dimensions, such as the world 
 has never witnessed ! Read the 9th verse : "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." Read 
 verses 15 and 16 : "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 : And thou 
 shalt come up against my people of Israel, as 
 a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the lat- 
 ter days." With so vast an army Gog comes out 
 of the north parts to cover Israel as a cloud. It 
 seems useless to prove that England has fulfilled 
 this prophecy; those who have eyes that see can 
 witness this spectacle even now. 
 
 Gog is by no means unprepared. He has been 
 getting ready in every possible way. Listen to 
 the prophet : "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, and all of 
 them handling swords; Persia, Ethiopia and 
 Libya with them; all of them with shield and 
 helmet" (38:4-5). The expression "clothed 
 with all sorts of armor" is significant. "This 
 means," says Starke, "that they were equipped 
 not merely with weapons suitable for an attack, 
 but also with armor-plate designed to furnish 
 protection and security." Such arms of pro- 
 tection are the bucklers and shields mentioned 
 
 55 
 
by the prophet. But these do not merely refer- 
 to the ancient shields which warriors carried 
 before them while attacking their foes, but sym- 
 bolize in a general way whatever may help to 
 protect and safeguard in ancient or modern war- 
 fare. Certainly Gog is well prepared as to this 
 style of armament. And now look at England 
 and her allies. Surely in this respect she has 
 reached the acme of perfection. With her forti- 
 fications she has encircled the whole globe. In 
 the isles of the sea, aye on every continent she 
 has her fortified harbors, whither her ships can 
 flee for safety when pursued by an enemy. 
 Among these are strongholds like Gibraltar, 
 which is said to be unconquerable. Moreover, 
 France and England excel in armor-clad ships. 
 The fortresses of Belgium and France are con- 
 sidered the most powerful in the world. At the 
 commencement of the present war the allies 
 boasted that France from Belfort up to the 
 North Sea presented one solid chain of fortifi- 
 cations. Thus this modern Gog is thoroughly 
 equipped with arms of protection such as shields, 
 helmets and bucklers. According to her own 
 estimate England is altogether invincible. Her 
 God is "the god of forces" (Dan. 11:38) whom 
 her fathers knew not, but iii whom she has now 
 put her whole confidence. Aye, this god Eng- 
 land has truly honored with gold and silver, and 
 with precious stones, and pleasant things." Will 
 this god be able to help her in the present crisis? 
 But not merely weapons of defence, but also 
 arms of aggression are provided for in Gog's 
 
 56 
 
preparations. The prophet speaks of bows aud 
 arrows, handstaves and spears (39:9). This 
 does not mean that Gog is to attack his foes like 
 the ancient Scythians, with bows and arrows. 
 These weapons indicate in a general way what 
 formerly constituted the equipment of mighty 
 warriors. The prophet desires to state that 
 whenever Gog will begin his warfare, he will 
 possess a splendid equipment of arms. And 
 though having spoken 2500 years ago, how truly 
 his words apply to England! She has the 
 strongest navy in the world and on her dread- 
 naughts she carries the most powerful guns. 
 France, too, excels in naval strength. And while 
 it is true that England's army is not very large, 
 it must be borne in mind, that she has enlisted 
 the services of other armies who are fighting for 
 her. That this powerful host of allies is clothed 
 with all sorts of armor the prophet has clearly 
 predicted. Thus equipped Gog will strike: 
 "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." 
 
 The following verses disclose Gog's evil de- 
 signs: "Thus saith the Lord God: It shall also 
 come to pass, that at the same time shall things 
 come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil 
 thought." We are told that in the latter years 
 of which verse 8 has spoken Gog shall conceive 
 some Satanic schemes. His plan is revealed 
 (verses 11 and 12) : "And thou shalt say, I will 
 go up to the land of unwalled villages ; I will go 
 to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all 
 
 57 
 
of them dwelling without walls, and ha^dng 
 neither bars nor gates, to take a spoil, and to 
 take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the des- 
 olate 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." This is Gog's plan. 
 Those that dwell without walls shall be made 
 a prey. Surely a treacherous plan! However, 
 we must guard against the conclusion that up 
 to this time Gog had been a youth of habits un- 
 defiled. Just as his ancestors would start ex- 
 peditions for the deliberate purpose of taking 
 spoil from the helpless, so he has ever been a 
 plunderer since childhood's early days. Rob- 
 bing and stealing have been his stock in trade. 
 In this spirit he grew up. And today he is no 
 longer a child of yesterday. Just like the beast 
 of which Revelation says that it shall rise out 
 of the sea, he is now 1260 years old. Habit sways 
 him. The old dog cannot be taught any new 
 tricks. If Gog is to change his ways, his long 
 fingers will have to be shortened. 
 
 When still a youth he stole in his own house- 
 hold. He robbed churches and confiscated prop- 
 erty. We admit that he generally wore a rather 
 saintly mask while performing these tricks. 
 Take the case of Henry VIII. This worthy po- 
 tentate would never have thought of introduc- 
 ing the Reformation into England, if he had 
 not coveted the property of the church (see 
 Larned, History of England, p. 274 ) . And when 
 the thieving business did not offer good chances 
 
 58 
 
at home, Gog became a pirate. Frances Drake, 
 who made the second trip around the world, 
 divided his robberies with the courtiers and the 
 queen. Since then English pirates, with the 
 sanction of their kings, have threatened every 
 shore, (History of England by Larned, p. 324). 
 England continued her nefarious business until 
 she discovered that robbery in distant lands was 
 the most profitable trade of all. So it came 
 about that she acquired colossal possessions, 
 '^devoured the wiiole earth," and that the Brit- 
 ish empire exceeds in size every empire of the 
 past (Dan. 7:24). 
 
 England's method of robbing reveals a clever 
 hand. Just as skilled thieves are apt to make 
 a haul when the police force is busy chasing 
 some notorious burglar, so England has watched 
 every opportunity of grabbing land. And not 
 only has she watched such opportunities, but 
 actually created them. She has sown the seed 
 of discord and incited one nation against 
 another. Even now as of yore she has her 
 agents working everywhere. In the United 
 States there are few metropolitan dailies that 
 are not swayed by English influence. 
 
 Again, by controlling commerce, in which she 
 had no competitors, England accumulated un- 
 told wealth. Since time immemorial she has 
 claimed this to be her birthright. When Ger- 
 many and her allies doubted the infallibility of 
 such a theory, they were marked for destruc- 
 tion. With this point in view Ezekiel's proph- 
 ecy is directed against England, while Daniel 
 
 59 
 
and John in Kevelatioii greatly add to the list 
 of England's crimes. 
 
 Ezekiel does not mention Gog's former sins. 
 Bnt lie puts special emphasis on the one great 
 crime which fills up the measure of iniquity, 
 affects large circles and is directed against the 
 house of Israel. This was formerly a land of 
 '^'desolate places." Hardly recovering from the 
 devastations of one war, it was rushed into 
 another, and when there were no enemies from 
 without, domestic strife would lay waste its 
 fields and cities. The weakness of Israel fitted 
 admirably into the English program, for under 
 such circumstances it was an easy matter for 
 her to rob, to plunder and to bulldoze the weak. 
 
 But the situation has changed. Since 1871 
 the German empire has been restored. This fact 
 served as a basis of unity for a number of small 
 kingdoms which had been hitherto divided. And 
 when Austria-Hungary entered into an alliance 
 with Germany, the amalgamation of divided but 
 related nations became complete. Since then 
 these nations have lived without bars or gates; 
 they have dwelled safely and without walls. But 
 England's traditional robber schemes could no 
 longer succeed. She could no longer sow the 
 seeds of discord or incite one nation against 
 another. To separate the united empires, to 
 break up into bits the people that dwell in the 
 midst of the land, surely this from the English 
 view-point would be eminently worth while. 
 
 Another fact mentioned in verse 12 : "which 
 have gotten cattle and goods," aggravated the 
 
 60 
 
situation. Heretofore Germany had depended 
 largely on agriculture. But when it became 
 necessary to feed her large population, she 
 turned her attention to commercial enterprises 
 and dared to compete with England. This 
 caused the enmity of Gog. 
 
 What were his real designs has become appar- 
 ent through various disclosures that have been 
 made since the beginning of the present war. 
 England intended to tear Germany and Austria 
 apart that she might use one against the other 
 Tfhenever her interests would require it. But 
 should she fail in this, she would crush both of 
 them by overwhelming numbers. She would 
 divide them into small kingdoms and levy such 
 an indemnity that for years to come they would 
 be under the yoke. In either case England 
 would come out ahead, because she would cap- 
 ""ure the trade of the vanquished. 
 
 Note how England measured up to the stan- 
 dards of the highwayman in the planning of 
 this robbery. For Gog no method is too base 
 as long as he carries his point. Although Eng- 
 land expected to gain much from the present 
 war, she had no intention of fighting any battles 
 herself. Edward VII. took a trip in 1907 for 
 the purpose of isolating Germany and of mak- 
 ing allies for England who might be called upon 
 to do the dirty work. England would do her 
 share by joining the triumphal procession into 
 Berlin. 
 
 But while man proposes, God disposes. In- 
 stead of winning a glorious victory, Gog shall 
 
 61 
 
suffer a most himiiliating defeat. God Himself 
 will rise up against Mm. Hear tlie words of 
 Ezekiel: "Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I 
 am against thee, O Gog ; the chief prince of Me- 
 shech and Tubal; I will turn thee back and put 
 hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, 
 and all thine army, horses and horsemen." Thus 
 the present war is the war of the Lord. Ger- 
 many, Austria and Turkey are merely the battle 
 axe in the hands of Jehovah who will strike 
 down Gog and his host. Against such an adver- 
 sary Gog with his belief in "the god of forces" 
 will gain nothing. Gog will come like a storm 
 and cover the land like a cloud, but it will profit 
 him nothing. God will put a hook in his jaw 
 like a horseman bridling a wild broncho. Listen 
 to the divine sarcasm of the 7th verse : "Be thou 
 prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou and all 
 thy company that are assembled unto thee, and 
 be thou a guard unto them." Gog who has pre- 
 pared this war for twenty years and has formed 
 innumerable alliances, reviews his forces and 
 thinks he is ready. The Lord invites him to 
 look again and to make sure that nothing has 
 been omitted. And after Gog has taken a sec- 
 ond look and is absolutely satisfied that his 
 preparations are flawlessly perfect, he is told 
 not to risk anything by turning the command 
 over to any of his allies : "Be thou a guard unto 
 them." This recalls the words of the Psalmist 
 (Psalm 2:4) : "He that sitteth in the heavens 
 shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in de- 
 rision." 
 
 62 
 
Tlie whole Psalm seems to apply to Gog's iin- 
 lioly war. For centuries France and England 
 have taken counsel together against the Lord 
 and His anointed. At the beginning of the 
 present war they ridiculed Germany for prajdng 
 to God and declared in so many words that the 
 present conflict resolved itself into a battle of 
 Voltaire and Rousseau against the old faith in 
 the crucified Christ. This view was offered last 
 fall in an article published in the Chicago Herald 
 on the occasion of the sending of the two French 
 battleships, Rousseau and Voltaire, against the 
 Austrian fleet. Such comments explain God's 
 determination to crush Gog and his allies. Eng- 
 land has declared war against the Almighty. 
 The challenge has been accepted. And in the 
 fire of His wrath God will consume His enemies. 
 
 That Gog's guilt must be of the blackest char- 
 acter, appears from the intensity of God's wrath 
 (38:17-19) : 'Thus saith the Lord; art thou 
 he of whom I have spoken in old time by my 
 servants the prophets of Israel, which prophe- 
 sied in those days many years that I would 
 bring thee against them? And it shall come to 
 pass at the same time, when Gog shall come 
 against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, 
 that my fury shall come up in my face. For 
 in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have 
 I spoken." Here we are told that God has 
 prophesied against Gog, not only through Ezek- 
 iel, but through other prophets. Daniel speaks 
 of Gog (7:24^^26; 11:36-45). We also refer to 
 Isaiah 27 :1 ; Jer. 30 and 31 : 11, 36-45 ; Micah 4, 
 
 63 
 
and no one can read the 2nd Psalm with un- 
 prejudiced mind without being reminded of Gog 
 and his evil designs. Very explicitly, although 
 under a different symbol, Gog is described by 
 John in the book of Revelation and Christ has 
 pointed to him in describing the tribulations of 
 the present war of which Gog is the cause. 
 
 In the 17th verse we are told that when God's 
 wrath will overcome Gog, the whole church 
 shall know "Thou art he of whom I have spoken 
 in old time by my servants the prophets of Is- 
 rael." Terrible indeed when God proclaims to 
 the world that a certain nation has been singled 
 out for punishment. Misled by false prophets, 
 ( among whom we might mention Russel of mod- 
 ern times because his destruction is clearly for- 
 shadowed in Revelation) France and England 
 have proclaimed themselves saviors of mankind 
 and defenders of civilization. They have even 
 announced their plan of inaugurating the mil- 
 lennium. And now they are told that the Lord 
 Himself is against them and that the millen- 
 nium can never come, unless the whole British 
 empire has been utterly destroyed. As a matter 
 of fact the devil, through England, has ruled 
 the world for a thousand years. The prophets 
 have spoken of judgments which would come 
 upon the gentiles. But only in the case of Gog 
 it is declared that God will personally conduct 
 the war. This proves how great is the wrath 
 of the Lord. In the 18th and 19th verses we 
 hear that when Gog shall come up against the 
 land of Israel, God's wrath shall envelop him 
 
 64 
 
in flames of destruction. Even before the war- 
 Gog's fate lias been sealed. God has foreknown 
 Ms wickedness and bas through the prophets 
 proclaimed his doom : "Behold, it is come, and 
 it is done, saith the Lord God; this is the day 
 whereof I have spoken" (39:8). This is the 
 decree of God and no power in heaven and earth 
 can alter its meaning. 
 
 God Himself is the supreme war-lord. His 
 battle-axe are the nations that fight against Gog. 
 He calls the people together : "And I will call 
 for a sword against him throughout all my 
 mountains, saith the Lord God; every man's 
 sword shall be against his brother." The Lord 
 will call his sword throughout all his moun- 
 tains. But the mountains of the Lord are not 
 as we have shown the mountains of Palestine. 
 If the text refers to actual mountains, it must 
 mean the mountains in whatever land the peo- 
 ple of God may live. But "mountains" have 
 also allegorical significance in Bible phraseol- 
 ogy. In Rev. 8:8, also in Zech. 4:7, they are 
 the symbol of some mighty ruler. Again, they 
 may signify protection ( Psalm 11 :1, also Psalm 
 121 :1 ) . St. James' version translates the 121st 
 Psalm : "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, 
 from whence cometh my help," differing how- 
 ever from the original which says: "should I 
 lift up mine eyes to the hills? Whence cometh 
 help to me?" This very passage proves that 
 the Bible has earthly things in mind when speak- 
 ing of mountains, unless the context proves dis- 
 tinctly that a spiritual significance is thought 
 
 65 
 
of. Even the 20th verse of our prophecy is 
 best interpreted if we apply to the mountains 
 a purely material sense. This would harmon- 
 ize its meaning with the preceding verses. The 
 mountains here mentioned signify the nations 
 of the earth which are in the service of the Lord. 
 But of Gog Daniel says that none shall help 
 him ( 11 :45 ) . These words of Daniel as well 
 as the last verses of the 38th chapter of Ezekiel 
 are so worded that they cannot well be inter- 
 preted until the time has come for their fulfill- 
 ment. They seem to indicate that England 
 will not succeed in gaining more allies than 
 she has gained so far and that, should she suc- 
 ceed in doing so, none of them would be able to 
 help her. Also they seem to suggest that 
 Germany and her allies will receive some rein- 
 forcements. The words "every man's sword 
 shall be against his brother" have been com- 
 monly interpreted as meaning that as the 
 Midianites killed each other when they were 
 being overpowered by Gideon and his three 
 hundred men, so Gog's soldiers shall destroy 
 each other. If this were necessary for Gog's 
 downfall, it would no doubt happen. But this 
 interpretation may not be correct. The words 
 might mean that Slav shall be against Slav, 
 German against German, Jew against Jew in a 
 fratricidal struggle such as is exemplified in the 
 present war. Read Matth. 24 :10 ; Mark 13 :12. 
 But there is no question that these words point 
 to uprisings and revolutions in the very camp of 
 Gog. Even now wild voices of revolt are being 
 
 66 
 
heard in India and Africa. This view is con- 
 firmed by the prophecy in Kev. 17 :17-18 where 
 we are told that the powers that have given 
 their kingdom unto the beast (Gog), to the 
 woman which is the great city that reigneth over 
 the kings of the earth, shall turn against her, 
 make her desolate and naked, devour her flesh 
 and shall burn her with fire. This simply means 
 that England will be deserted by her allies. 
 Suffice it to repeat that the Lord will call for a 
 sword and that Gog most surely will be crushed. 
 
 Even England's ''god of forces" will not stem 
 the tide of destruction. ''The steep places shall 
 fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground" 
 ( 38 :20 ) . The mountains shall be thrown down. 
 The mountains in this connection are those 
 powers which assumed a protectorate for others. 
 These shall be destroyed and prove unable to 
 protect anyone. "The steep places" spoken of 
 mean in the Hebrew "summits" or "high crags." 
 For this reason some commentators believe that 
 they symbolize kings. This is correct. Some of 
 these will be hurled from their thrones. Every 
 wall shall fall to the ground. Those who hither- 
 to sought protection in the shadow of these 
 powers will find themselves without support. 
 Empires will be dissolved and kings lose their 
 crowns. 
 
 That the Lord takes active part in the battles 
 is strikingly illustrated in the 22nd verse: "I 
 will plead against him with pestilence and with 
 blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his 
 hands, and upon the many people that are with 
 
 67 
 
Mm, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, 
 fire and brimstone." The plagues mentioned 
 here are partly beyond human control. They 
 are six in number. Although some have already 
 been recorded during the present war, we look 
 for still greater manifestations of their terror. 
 In the 16th chapter of Revelation we find a 
 parallel to this prophecy which invites com- 
 parison. From it we gather that the pestilence 
 mentioned by Ezekiel is probably the Bubonic 
 plague of India. Such a plague will break out 
 in Gog's army and tend to unnerve it. Blood 
 has flown in torrents; yet the most sanguinary 
 struggle is yet to come. Of hailstones and over- 
 flowing rains the press has frequently reported. 
 The meaning of flre and brimstone is explained 
 in Ezek. 39 :6, and more fully in the record of the 
 fifth and sixth plague of which John speaks 
 (Rev. 16). According to Rev. 16:10 the fifth 
 vial of wrath was poured upon the seat of the 
 beast. The seat of the beast is the great city 
 that has dominion over the kings of the earth. 
 It is to be burned ( Rev. 18 :18 ) . Ezekiel says : 
 ^'I will send a fire upon them that dwell care- 
 les ly in the isles" (39:6). The sixth angel 
 poured his vial upon the waters of Euphrates 
 that '''he way of the kings of the east might be 
 prepared. This thought is expressed by Ezekiel 
 (39:6) : "I will send a fire on Magog." "I will 
 rain upon him and his bands fire and brim- 
 stone" means that there are to be fires In Magog 
 which is India, or in the land of Gog which is 
 England. The 17th verse of Rev. 16 states that 
 
 68 
 
tlie seventli angel poured his vial into the air 
 and there came a great voice from the throne 
 saying, It is done, which corresponds with the 
 statements of Ezekiel (38:17; 39:8). Since we 
 shall return to these prophecies in the Second 
 Part, the general outline must sufiice for the 
 present. 
 
 After describing Gog's warfare, his defeat and 
 the causes which led up to it, in the 38th chapter, 
 Ezekiel proceeds to give a more detailed account 
 of it in the 39th chapter. There he says (verse 
 3 ) : "I will smite thy bows out of thy left hand, 
 and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy 
 right hand." With bows and arrows the prophet 
 characterizes the iveapons of attack ivhich Gog 
 employs for his purposes. The Lord will smite 
 the bows out of his left hand and since arrows 
 without bows have little value, they will be 
 thrown aside. This indicates that in this great 
 war Gog will not be benefited by his weapons 
 of attack. Therefore he cannot continue in 
 battle nor gain the victory. His defeat is sealed. 
 This is more definitely portrayed in the 4th and 
 5th verses : ^'Thou shalt fall upon the mountains 
 of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and tl.Q people 
 that is with thee : I will give thee unto the raven- 
 ous birds of every sort and to the beasts of the 
 field to be devoured. Thou shalt fall upon the 
 open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord 
 God." This does not mean that Gog and all his 
 bands shall appear on German or Austrian soil. 
 On the mountains of Israel he shall fall. The 
 great decisive battle is to be fought there. 
 
 69 
 
While many a conflict has taken place on Ger- 
 man or Hungarian soil, the mightiest is yet to 
 come. (This was written in February, 1915). 
 
 The words : ^'I will give thee unto the raven- 
 ous birds of every sort and to the beasts of the 
 field" are daily being fulfilled. This is to be 
 understood literally as may be gathered from the 
 12th and 14th verses : ''And seven months shall 
 the house of Israel be burying of them, that they 
 may cleanse the land . , . and they shall sever 
 out men of continual employment, passing 
 through the land to bury with the passengers 
 those that remain upon the face of the earth, to 
 cleanse it : after the end of seven months shall 
 they search. And the passengers that pass 
 through the land, when any seeth a man's bone, 
 then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers 
 have buried it in the valley of Hamongog." The 
 slain will be scattered on the battlefield and 
 therefore become a prey to bird and beast. This 
 will surely happen, of that there is no doubt, 
 "because I have spoken, saith the Lord God." 
 And to emphasize this fact, a second command 
 is given (39:17-20): "And, thou son of man, 
 thus saith the Lord God: Speak unto every 
 feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, 
 assemble yourselves and come ; gather yourselves 
 on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice 
 for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains 
 of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood. 
 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty and drink 
 the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of 
 lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them 
 
 70 
 
fatlings of Baslian. And ye shall eat fat till ye 
 be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of 
 my sacrifice, which I have sacrificed for you. 
 Thus ye shall be filled at my table Avith horses 
 and chariots, with mighty men and with all men 
 of war, saith the Lord God." Every feathered 
 fowl and all the beasts of the field are called to- 
 gether because the prey is so large that all can be 
 fed and have abundance. Nor is it a common sac- 
 rifice. It consists of the choicest of the land: 
 rams, lambs, goats, bullocks, all of them fatlings 
 of Bashan. Bashan used to be famous on ac- 
 count of its fertile soil and its rich pastures. 
 If anyone had purchased cattle that looked ex- 
 traordinarily well, people would say : he bought 
 a fatling of Bashan. Now among the descend- 
 ants of Ruben there was one Gog who used to 
 tend cattle in eastern Bashan. To him the 
 prophet calls attention. Just as Gog, the 
 Rubenite, never ate anything but the best, so 
 the Gog of this prophecy has never been satisfied 
 with anything but the choicest. Read also Rev. 
 18:1 and following verses. In this sense the 
 bands of Gog which are the sacrifices for the 
 birds and beasts of the field are also fatlings. 
 The allusion is ironical. It illustrates (as does 
 the terrible fate of Gog) the intensity of God's 
 wrath. 
 
 But Gog and his bands shall not only be» pun- 
 ished on the mountains of Israel. They shall 
 suffer in their own countries. "And I will send 
 a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell 
 carelessly in the isles, and they shall know that 
 
 71 
 
I am the Lord God" (Ezek. 39:6). Compare 
 with this Eev. 16:19. Magog is India. Fire 
 shall be poured upon India. As a result the 
 cities of the nations fell down (Rev. 16:19). 
 But fire shall also be poured upon those who 
 dwell carelessly in the isles. Commenting on 
 this statement, Luther says: "Gog's own land, 
 his very home will burn." If Luther had con- 
 sidered that Gog came from the north parts 
 ( 38 :15 ) , he would not have mistaken him for the 
 Turks, but found him in England. Of the 
 British Ezekiel says that they dwell carelessly 
 in the isles. This is also confirmed by John in 
 Rev. 18:7 where the woman which is the great 
 city says : "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and 
 shall see no sorrow." That this is the boastful 
 spirit of London and England is perfectly clear. 
 If you doubt it, read British comments on the 
 war. Nothing is more expressive of English 
 arrogance than their patriotic sentiment : "Rule 
 Britannia." But this defiant sense of security 
 will soon have an end. Says John in Revelation 
 (16:19) : "And great Babylon came in remem- 
 brance before God, to give unto her the cup of 
 the wine of the fierceness of his wrath." Judg- 
 ment will overtake her. "Therefore shall her 
 plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, 
 and famine ; and she shall be utterly burned with 
 fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth 
 her" (Rev. 18:8). Thus England will exper- 
 ience that the God to whom Israel prayed at the 
 beginning of the war but whom she has dis- 
 honored by bowing to Agnosticism, Materialism 
 
 72 
 
and Pantheism is the true God who inclines His 
 ear to the prayer of His people. 
 
 The terrible defeat of Gog is minutely de- 
 scribed in Ezekiel 39 :9-16. ''And they that 
 dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and 
 shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the 
 shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, 
 and the handstaves, and the spears, and they 
 shall burn them with fire seven years : so that 
 they shall ^ake no wood out of the field, neither 
 cut down any out of the forest : for they shall burn 
 the weapons with fire." After the battle is over 
 they that dwell in the cities of Israel will burn 
 the weapons. Shields and bucklers, bows and 
 arrows, handstaves and shields are mentioned. 
 But we are to think of those equipments which 
 are being used in modern warfare : rifles, guns, 
 wagons, tents, tools of every description. All of 
 this will be used as firewood by the citizens in 
 Israel and the supply is to last seven years. We 
 have no right to distort the plain meaning of these 
 words. We should note, however, that Ezekiel 
 does not say : all the citizens of the whole house 
 of Israel, but "they that dwell in the cities of 
 Israel," meaning, no doubt, those who live in 
 cities close to the battlefield. They will burn 
 the weapons and will have a wood supply for 
 seven years. 
 
 "And they shall spoil those that spoiled them, 
 and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord 
 God" (39:10). This signifies that the house of 
 Israel shall do to Gog what Gog meant to do to 
 the house of Israel. Now England has long 
 
 73 
 
since announced what she Avill do to her enemies 
 after they have been crushed. Will not Ger- 
 many, Austria and Turkey take note of this? 
 
 Gog and his bands have gone forth to take 
 possession of the house of Israel. They shall 
 possesss it, but not to rule over it as they im- 
 agined but as a burial place. This is the irony 
 of the 11th verse : ''And it shall come to pass 
 in that day, that I Avill give unto Gog a place 
 there of graves in Israel, the valley of the pass- 
 engers on the east of the sea (the valley where 
 one passeth along the sea toward the east) ; and 
 it shall stop the noses of the passengers : and 
 there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude, 
 and they shall call it the valley of Hamongog.'' 
 We have already indicated that there is in Ger- 
 many a place where one can walk toward the 
 east along the sea and we might express a definite 
 opinion as to where this place is located. But 
 the outcome of the war will soon solve the prob- 
 lem. We know that it is the place where the 
 great battle will be fought which will de- 
 cide the fate of Gog. So terrible will be this 
 battle that centuries afterwards those that pass 
 over the field of carnage will be horrified. And 
 because Gog's great power will be shattered 
 there, it shall be called Hamongog. The follow- 
 ing verses however clearly state that the place 
 of battle shall cover considerable ground : "And 
 seven months shall the house of Israel be bury- 
 ing them that they may cleanse the land. Yes, 
 all the people of the land shall bury them; and 
 it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall 
 
 74 
 
be glorified, saitli the Lord God. And they shall 
 sever out men of continual employment passing 
 through the land to bury with the passengers 
 those that remain upon the face of the earth, 
 to cleanse it ; after the end of seven months shall 
 they search. And the passengers that pass 
 through the land, when any seeth a man's bone, 
 then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers 
 have buried it in the valley of Hamongog. And 
 also the name of the city, shall be Hamonah. 
 Thus shall they cleanse the land'' (Ezek. 
 39 :12-16) . A battle on so vast a scale has never 
 been fought in the history of the world. For 
 seven months the house of Israel will bury the 
 dead, in order to cleanse the land. This, of 
 course, does not refer to the whole house of 
 Israel but to those who live in the neighborhood 
 of the scene of action. We have no right to as- 
 sume that the prophet made use of an exaggera- 
 tion to emphasize the fierceness of the conflict. 
 Considering that the battle lines in the present 
 war extend for hundreds of miles and that they at 
 times sway to and fro over territory covering 
 several miles, it becomes very evident that the 
 burying of the dead will require much time and 
 labor. At the end of the seven months people will 
 still search for dead bodies. The city of the 
 slain shall be called Hamonah, which means: 
 heap or army. There will be many general 
 graves in which hundreds of bodies will be 
 buried together. The largest among these is to 
 be called Hamonah. It is not only possible, but 
 probable that the city nearest it will receive the 
 same name, yg 
 
Tlius Gog's great battle plan will utterly fail. 
 He started out to cover with shame the house of 
 Israel and to crown himself with immortal glory. 
 He aimed to crush faith in the living God 
 and to replace it with the worship of Darwin, 
 Eousseau and Voltaire. But he shall be branded 
 with eternal disgrace, and before all Christen- 
 dom he will be unmasked as the enemy of God, 
 the apostle of negation over whose downfall 
 heaven and earth shall rejoice (Rev. 19:1). All 
 this will be done to glorify God, and to convince 
 the world that without the aid of the Almighty, 
 Israel could never have conquered. The victors 
 will praise the Lord. 
 
 76 
 
VI. 
 THE PURPOSE OF GOD 
 
 The evil design is conceived in the heart of 
 Gog. God merely permits it. But without this 
 permission the ungodly can in no sense harm the 
 house of Israel. If, on the other hand, the 
 people of Israel prove unfaithful, they are given 
 into the hand of their enemies until they repent 
 of the evil and return to the Lord. This has 
 always been God's way of doing things. Ezekiel 
 is only one among many other prophets who 
 testify to this truth. He says that God's way 
 will be the same in the latter years and that Gog 
 will serve as a punishment of Israel's unfaithful- 
 ness. This, to be sure, does not square with 
 Gog's opinion that the war is entirely of his own 
 making and that God has nothing to do with it. 
 English, French and American people repeatedly 
 stated at the beginning of hostilities that God 
 might be embarrassed by the opposing prayers of 
 the opposing armies. But that we should not be 
 deceived by such sacrilegious babble, we are told 
 twice in the 38th chapter (16:17), that God is 
 causing Gog to go forth against Israel. This is 
 
 77 
 
coiifirmed in tlie 39th. chapter ( 2 ) : "I will cause 
 thee to come up from the north parts, and will 
 bring thee upon the mountains of Israel." 
 
 We must clearly distinguish between this 
 statement and the similar one of the preceding 
 chapter (38:4). The latter says that when Gog 
 will go forth against Israel, the Lord will put 
 a hook in his jaws and turn him back. But the 
 39th chapter distinctly states that the Lord ivill 
 cause Gog to go forth against Israel. The 
 translators have met with some difficulty in the 
 word which the English Bible renders as mean- 
 ing ''leave but the sixth part of thee." This 
 according to some commentators might signify 
 either "strike thee with six plagues" or "draw 
 thee back with an hook of six teeth." We hesi- 
 tate to accept the translations because they read 
 into the prophecy what it does not plainly state. 
 Whether or not they are correct will have to be 
 seen in the light of fulfillment. They are not 
 proven by the phraseology. Luther, on the other 
 hand, translates the word as meaning "enticing," 
 conforming in this respect with the version of 
 the Septuagint and the Vulgate. But in 
 Ezekiel 45 :13 he translates this same word twice 
 as meaning "the sixth part." Other versions 
 are "I will leave of thee but the sixth part" and 
 "I will give to thee the number six." This latter 
 translation would harmonize with what Rev. 
 13 :18 says concerning the beast. But those who 
 strain the words as meaning "I will pull thee 
 with a hook of six teeth" attribute to the text 
 a significance w^hich does not square with the 
 
 78 
 
preceding or following verses. That the Lord 
 will turn Gog back with a hook of six teeth is 
 described in Ezekiel 38:22, but Ezekiel 39:2 
 speaks of the fact that God will cause Gog to 
 come up from the north parts and will bring him 
 upon the mountains of Israel. 
 
 Certain it is that the prophet wishes to empha- 
 size that the Lord Himself causes Gog to come 
 up from the north parts. He leads, urges and 
 beckons him to come. How God makes the 
 wicked to rush into their own graves may be 
 gathered from the story of Ahab ( 1 Kings 22 ) . 
 TVTien Ahab, the King of Israel, purposed to join 
 with Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, in a war 
 against the Syrians, he gathered false prophets 
 together, about four hundred men, and said unto 
 them, ^'Shall I go against Ramoth-gilead to 
 battle or shall I forbear? And they said, Go 
 up ; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hands 
 of the king." But there was at that time a true 
 prophet in Israel, Micaiah, the son of Imlah, of 
 whom Ahab said: "I hate him, for he does not 
 prophesy good concerning me, but evil." Ahab 
 did not care about the truth. He did not ask 
 for the w^ord of the Lord. He wanted prophets 
 who would tell him what was agreeable and 
 pleasant to hear. But upon the request of 
 Jehoshaphat the king consents to give ear to 
 Micaiah. When approaching this prophet the 
 messengers warn him ' 'Behold now, the words 
 of the prophets declare good unto the king with 
 one mouth ; let thy word, I pray thee, be like the 
 word of one of them and speak that which is 
 
 79 
 
good." Now since tlie king had sent for Micaiah, 
 althougk he was not anxious to hear the word 
 of the Lord, the prophet offers the pleasant re- 
 mark: ''Go, and prosper." But when Ahab 
 adjured him to tell nothing but that which was 
 true in the name of the Lord, Micaiah states the 
 facts. Then Ahab is greatly displeased and says 
 to Jehoshaphat : ''Did I not tell thee that he would 
 prophesy no good concerning me, but evil?" 
 Thereupon the prophet proceeds to tell the whole 
 truth: "Hear thou therefore the word of the 
 Lord : I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and 
 all the hosts of heaven standing by Him on His 
 right hand and on His left. And the Lord said. 
 Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up 
 and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said on 
 this manner and another said on that manner. 
 And there came forth a spirit, and stood before 
 the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And 
 the Lord said unto him. Wherewith? And he 
 said, I will go forth and I will be a lying spirit 
 in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, 
 Thou shalt persuade him and prevail also: go 
 forth and do so. Now, therefore, behold, the 
 Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all 
 these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken 
 evil concerning thee" (19:23). For this plain 
 statement of facts Micaiah was put into prison 
 and fed with the bread and water of affliction, 
 while the king went to war and perished. 
 
 Ahab had sold himself to work evil in the sight 
 of the Lord and was therefore marked for de- 
 struction. The Lord caused his prophets to 
 
 80 
 
propliesy falsely. Just so Gog has sold himself 
 to work evil in the sight of the Lord. Ever since 
 the Angles and Saxons took possession of the 
 British Isles, Christianity has suffered persecu- 
 tion. Only in secrecy and in out-of-the-way 
 places the Gospel could hold its sway. The 
 Christian Britons who had accepted Christ long 
 before the advent of the Angles and Saxons, 
 were conquered, oppressed and partly extermi- 
 nated. But as soon as the English kings con- 
 sented to be baptized, they aimed to dominate 
 the church. History clearly proves that these 
 kings were baptized solely for the purpose of 
 strengthening their influence with the Britons 
 who otherwise would have offered opposition to 
 their rule. Most of the kings showed no fruits 
 of conversion except to abandon grossest idola- 
 try. But if it did happen that a king proved to 
 be a real Christian, he was immediately assassi- 
 nated or tonsured and kept in a monastery. 
 True it is, that England has at all times posed 
 as the grand forerunner of Christianity, but only 
 such preachers have proved acceptable to the 
 English crown who knew how to harmonize with 
 the principles of Christ all kinds of crimes, 
 church robberies, etc., and who would sanction 
 the lives of Henry VIII., Edward VII. and 
 others. England is generally known as a mis- 
 sionary and distributor of Bibles. This even her 
 critics admit. But it must not be forgotten, that 
 no nation on earth has so greatly interfered 
 through its evil practices, with the progress of 
 missions as this same England. Just as the 
 
 81 
 
Englisli and later tlie Americans would enter in- 
 to agreements with the natives of this country 
 and afterwards urge settlers to break these agree- 
 ments so that they might have a subterfuge for 
 the slaughter of the Indians, so English mission- 
 aries have been sent into distant countries to 
 clear the way for England's colonial ambitions. 
 These missionaries were followed by British 
 soldiers. We do not deny that among such mis- 
 sionaries were men of noble purpose and of de- 
 vout disposition. But even they had to serve 
 as spies for Great Britain and report opportuni- 
 ties for English aggression. To English mis- 
 sionary activity we apply the word of Isaiah: 
 "In the land of uprightness will He deal unjust- 
 ly" (26 :10) . Like the scribes and pharisees they 
 compass land and sea to make one proselyte and, 
 when he is made, they make him twofold more 
 the child of hell than themselves ( Matth. 23 :15 ) . 
 The majority of Englishmen know only a 
 heaven upon this earth. For this reason their 
 missionary labors tend to close heaven to their 
 proselytes. Jesus says : "Ye neither go in your- 
 selves, neither suffer ye them that are entering 
 to go in." 
 
 Whatsoever is holy or unholy England has 
 placed in the service of her dreams of empire. 
 Just as King Ahab surrounded himself with four 
 hundred false prophets who were ordered to tell 
 him not the truth but rather the things that 
 please, so England has engaged a false prophet 
 to justify her colonial crimes. Therefore God 
 will lead England like Ahab upon the path of 
 
 82 
 
destruction. Kead the words of St. John (Rev. 
 16:13-14) : "And I saw three unclean spirits 
 like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, 
 and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of 
 the mouth of the false prophet. For they are 
 the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go 
 forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole 
 world, to gather them to the battle of that great 
 day of God Almighty." Unclean spirits came 
 out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth 
 of the beast and out of the mouth of the false 
 prophet. The dragon is the devil, England the 
 beast and Russell the false prophet. The un- 
 clean spirits which John saw coming out of their 
 mouth are the hostile attacks made by Russell 
 and the dragon against every holy institution of 
 the Church and State. The mouth of the dragon 
 is more particularly the English, the French 
 and the Anglo-American press. The unclean 
 spirit, coming out of the mouth of the beast, are 
 the lying comments on Germany, emanating 
 from England and propagated by the news- 
 papers. Russell is a false prophet and a child 
 of the times. It is difficult to say which is cause 
 and which is effect. Being in the same predica- 
 ment with his admirers, he undertakes to com- 
 fort them in their unbelief by denying the ex- 
 istence of hell. This accounts for the thousands 
 (or as he says: millions) in England, America 
 and Australia who have accepted his cult. This 
 prophet is a boon for England. The fact that he 
 prophesied the present war as early as 1898 is 
 proof that he is close to representative English- 
 
meii. His prophecies are a fraud. That lie is a 
 mere tool* in the hands of abominable liars 
 appears from the nature of his calculations, 
 arrogant and idiotic effusions which will help 
 to make the blind still blinder. God leads 
 England to destruction, but He does this not by 
 deceiving her through false prophets. England 
 herself is the deceiver. Just as Ahab had fellows 
 whom he called prophets and whose business it 
 was to say nothing except what would please the 
 king, so England has selected Russell. England 
 
 *If the reader has any doubt as to Russel's connec- 
 tion with the British government, he is invited to read 
 Russel's book: Studies in Scriptures. Series 4. The 
 Battle of Armageddon. A large part of this volume is 
 devoted to a discussion of Labor and Capital, quoting 
 suggestions of prominent men regarding a possible im- 
 provement of present conditions. It is noticeable that 
 all these suggestions are criticised with the exception of 
 those coming from Englishmen. Russel furnishes proof 
 that the silver law of 1873 originated in the brain of 
 British bankers and by them was made a law. Since then 
 British gold has been doubled in value and every financial 
 crisis in the United States brought about by English cap- 
 ital. But for this Russel does not blame the English. 
 On the contrary he makes them appear as wise teachers 
 who would have us know that only by submission to a 
 central government can the world be saved against finan- 
 cial panics. Russel's millennium consists in the British 
 ruling for a thousand years. From all his statements 
 we gather that his kingdom of heaven is simply a king- 
 dom of this world, although he is sly enough to conceal 
 this belief. Russel would interpret "Thy kingdom come" 
 as meaning: May British rule also come to us and extend 
 to the uttermost parts of the earth! 
 
 Since the publication of the German edition of this 
 book we ran across a volume by Wm. A. Redding, en- 
 titled "Our Near Future." Redding and Russel see 
 things so completely alike that they have either received 
 the same kind of inspiration in London or one is copying 
 "prophecies" from the other. Redding's statements are 
 really more to the point because this gentleman does not 
 
 84 
 
wanted the war that she might be sole ruler of 
 the world. To this end she needed a prophet. 
 She chose Russell to predict the war and to 
 justify it from the British point of view. We 
 call him a prophet, not because he foretells any 
 future events, but because he justifies ungodli- 
 ness by distorting the Scriptures. Recalling her 
 many successes in world politics by means of 
 deceit and misrepresentation England saw fit to 
 entrust Russell with the task of mudding the 
 waters of public opinion in the United States. 
 
 hesitate to declare openly that England and America are 
 the chosen people who will conquer Jerusalem and rule 
 the world. We also gather from his pages that Eng- 
 land's calculations have frequently miscarried. He con- 
 veys the impression that the Armenian disturbances of 
 1896 were caused by American and English missionaries 
 for the purpose of furnishing a pretext for England to 
 capture Palestine from the Turks. He intimates that 
 in 1915 England will control the whole world. Says 
 Redding (pages 82 and 83) : "And the great bulk of the 
 Lost Ten Tribes of Israel are in the United States and 
 England; and out of these Ten Tribes (not Jews) spring 
 the live roots which are to make the tree sprout up from 
 the stump. They are called the governors of Judah; 
 that is, they {not Jews) will govern the Jews, and vail 
 have such fearful power that they will melt down all 
 other rulers of earth." Of our own government he 
 writes (page 87): "In the face of all past historij and 
 present observation as to the lameness of all man-made 
 governments, we find the public talking loudly for a gov- 
 ernment by the people. Such talk is trash. It is the 
 gabbling of unenlightened minds." He exclaims (page 
 85): "Therefore, I say once more, governments of 
 earth! Good-bye, churches! The fatal dose is being 
 prepared for you, and the gripings and agonies, while 
 you are passing through dissolution, will be terrible, 
 but down you must, as the hosts of heaven will wrestle 
 with you, as the time is almost here for the Saints of 
 the Most High to take possession and rule and judge the 
 earth." No sane man can have any doubt that both 
 Russell and Redding are mouth-pieces of England. 
 
 85 
 
On the other hand the Bible says plainly that 
 God caused Gog to come up from the north parts. 
 God has veiled the vision of Russell so that he 
 cannot see the truth. Eussell studied the Bible 
 for the purpose of proving that there is no hell. 
 He was an infidel himself, unwilling to change 
 his ways. He aimed to ease his conscience. 
 For this reason God blinded his sight and made 
 him imagine that he had found what he 
 sought. England needed the aid of this prophet 
 to appear as the pioneer of the millennium. She 
 secured his services to create this impression. 
 Leaving public opinion to his manipulation, she 
 prepared for the war and caused it to take place. 
 It is this self-deception of England which ex- 
 plains how God causes Gog to come up from the 
 north parts upon the mountains of Israel. 
 
 The reason why Gog shall succeed in reaching 
 the mountains of Israel is explained by Ezekiel 
 (39:23-24) : "And the heathen shall know that 
 the house of Israel went into captivity for their 
 iniquity: because they trespassed against me, 
 therefore hid I my face from them, and gave 
 them into the hand of their enemies : so fell they 
 all by the sword. According to their uncleanli- 
 ness and according to their transgressions have 
 I done unto them, and hid my face from them." 
 AVe have already stated that while the first part 
 of the 23rd verse applies to the Jews, the second 
 part refers also to Germany and Austria- 
 Hungary. Just as the Jews proved faithless to 
 the Lord, so Germany and Austria-Hungary have 
 not prized the pearl of truth, but dug for them- 
 
 86 
 
selves leaky wells which did not hold the water 
 of life. For this reason God uses GrOg as the 
 rod of punishment. Had they remained true to 
 the Gospel, this tribulation would not have come. 
 But foreknowing their iniquities the Lord 
 warned them by the mouth of his prophets of the 
 approaching judgment (Ezek. 38:17). Gog is 
 the black cloud of God's wrath which is to cover 
 Israel. There is a difference. God's wrath 
 comes upon Israel as a punishment, but upon 
 Gog for the purpose of destruction. This is in- 
 dicated in these words (Ezek. 19:20) : ''In that 
 day there shall 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 earth, shall shake at my presence." The 
 house of Israel shall shake because the face of 
 the Lord is hid. Shaking is the result of fear 
 and terror. Those that are in great danger 
 shake and tremble. This Israel shall experience 
 that it may discover how helpless it is without 
 the aid of God. So great will be the wrath of 
 the Lord that the fish of the sea, the birds of the 
 air, and the beasts of the field shall shake. This 
 shaking will be due to explosions on land and 
 sea and in the air. Thus the prophet explains 
 that whatever pertains to the war is a revelation 
 of the wrath of God. 
 
 The ultimate aim of such a manifestation of 
 God's wrath is expressed (Ezek. 38:23) : "Thus 
 I will magnify myself, and sanctify myself ; and 
 
 87 
 
I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and 
 they shall know that I am the Lord." Even the 
 manifestation of God's wrath serves to magnify 
 Him. By His judgment He reveals to all 
 creatures in heaven and earth that He is holy, 
 visiting the sins of men even upon those who 
 bear His name. Israel of old experienced this, 
 when the ten tribes were taken captive by 
 Shalmaneser; Judah experienced it when led 
 away by Nebuchadnezzar and the Israel of the 
 New Testament shall also experience it in its 
 struggle against Gog. Thus God is revealed to 
 all the w^orld as a God who hateth iniquity and 
 whose holiness is violated by the sins of men. 
 If they persist in wrong doing, divine judgment 
 will surely overtake them. While it is God's 
 supreme purpose to win the human heart by 
 manifestations of love. He does not hesitate to 
 punish those who reject His grace. What Hosea 
 says to the Jews, applies to all mankind: ''My 
 people are destroyed, because thou hast forgotten 
 the law of thy God." This is the great truth 
 which is to be proclaimed to Jew, Gentile and 
 Christian. Again and again it is emphasized in 
 the two chapters of Ezekiel : "I will bring thee 
 against my land that the heathen may loiow me, 
 when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before 
 their eyes" (38:16). Read also 39:6: "they 
 that dwell carelessly among the isles shall know 
 that I am the Lord." "And I will set my glory 
 among the heathen, and all the heathen shall 
 see my judgment that I have executed, and my 
 hand that I have laid upon them. So the house 
 
 88 
 
of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their 
 God from that day and forward. And the 
 heathen shall know that the house of Israel went 
 into captivity for their iniquity: because they 
 trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face 
 from them, and gave them into the hands of their 
 enemies : so fell they all by the sword. Accord- 
 ing to their uncleamiess and according to their 
 transgressions have I done unto them and hid 
 my face from them." Those who are untrue to 
 God, must suffer for their sins; those who rage 
 against Him, shall be confounded. But in either 
 case God will be glorified. 
 
 But even when God glorifies Himself by pun- 
 ishing or destroying those who are faithless and 
 defiant, He is having in mind the salvation of 
 men. IsTot only the faithless Jews and Christians 
 but the heathen and the bands of Gog shall recog- 
 nize the Lord and turn from their ways. But 
 if they reject His help, they shall know that all 
 their storming and raging cannot undo His will. 
 In fact all their evil thoughts must serve to 
 strengthen the children of Israel in their faith 
 and to carry out in history the purposes of God. 
 This is stated in the closing verses of the 39th 
 chapter: "Therefore thus saith the Lord God: 
 Now I will bring again the captivity of Jacob 
 and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, 
 and will be jealous for my holy name ; after that 
 they have borne their shame, and all their tres- 
 passes whereby they have trespassed against me, 
 when they dwelled safely in their land and none 
 made them afraid. When I have brought them 
 
again from tlie people, and gathered them out of 
 their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them 
 in the sight of many nations; then shall they 
 know that I am the Lord, their God, which 
 caused them to be led into captivity among the 
 heathen : but I have gathered them unto their 
 own land, and have left none of them any more 
 there. Neither will I hide my face any more 
 from them : for I have poured out my spirit upon 
 the house of Israel, saith the Lord God." These 
 verses have the following meaning: "God will 
 have mercy on the whole unfaithful house of 
 Israel after it has borne its shame. The house 
 of Israel, however, are not the ten tribes that 
 were led away, but as we have shown, all Chris- 
 tians and Jews who have deserted the faith. 
 Upon this unfaithful house of Israel the Lord 
 will pour His spirit and will give them grace to 
 repent. If they repent, He will bring again the 
 captivity of Jacob. The dispersed tribes shall 
 become a nation and repossess the land of their 
 fathers. But also in the sight of the heathen 
 God will be sanctified. This will take place 
 when the heathen will find in Him the true God, 
 in whom they believe and through whom they 
 seek salvation. The whole house of Israel, com- 
 prising the faithful among the Jews, heathen 
 and Christians, shall thereafter dwell safely and 
 without fear. Here the prophet clearly pre- 
 dicts that after Gog's defeat the millennium 
 will come, the time of which John speaks in 
 Revelation as a period that will last a thousand 
 years. Since the prophet mentions this as a 
 
 90 
 
certain result of the present war, we should 
 briefly answer the question: "What does the 
 Bible teach concerning the millennium and the 
 conversion of the Jews?" 
 
 Ezekiel says that God will bring again the 
 captivity of Jacob and will gather them all unto 
 their own land. This will take place when He 
 will pour His spirit upon them. The prophecy 
 is borne out by many similar statements in both 
 the New and the Old Testaments. 
 
 But wherever such a gathering of the Jews 
 in their own land is spoken of, the event is made 
 dependent on their conversion. Since the old 
 covenant has been superseded by the new, con- 
 version means the acceptation by the Jews of 
 the Gospel of Christ. If we are to prove, there- 
 fore, that the Jews will return to Palestine, we 
 must show first, that the Bible prophesies their 
 conversion. 
 
 In many passages of Scripture the conversion 
 of the Jews, immediately preceding the end of 
 the world, is clearly predicted. Ezekiel speaks 
 of it in the 39th chapter and also in the 36th 
 and 37th chapters : "Then I will sprinkle clean 
 water upon you, and ye shall be clean ; from all 
 your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I 
 cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, 
 and a new spirit will I put within you: and I 
 will take away the stony heart out of your flesh 
 and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will 
 put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk 
 in my statutes, and ye shall know my judgments 
 and keep them" (Ezek. 36:25-27). That this 
 
 91 
 
propliecy was still unfulfilled in tlie days of tlie 
 apostles is clearly stated by Stephen: "ye stiff- 
 necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye 
 do always resist tlie Holy Ghost: as your 
 fathers did, so do ye." Surely the following 
 words of Ezekiel (37:23-26) are far from being 
 fulfilled: "Neither shall they defile themselves 
 any more with their idols, nor with their de- 
 testable things, nor with any of their transgres- 
 sions : but I will save them out of all their dwell- 
 ing places, wherein they have sinned, and will 
 cleanse them: so shall they be my people 
 and I will be their God. And David, my servant 
 shall be king over them ; and they all shall have 
 one shepherd; they shall also walk in my judg- 
 ments, and observe my statutes and do them. 
 And they shall dwell in the land that I have 
 given unto Jacob, my servant, wherein your 
 fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell there- 
 in, even they, and their children, and their 
 children's children forever; and my servant 
 David shall be their prince forever. Moreover 
 I Avill make a covenant of peace with them; it 
 shall be an everlasting covenant with them ; and 
 I will place them, and multiply them, and will 
 set my sanctuary in the midst of them for- 
 ever." No one who still honors the Bible will 
 dare to deny that these words refer to the con- 
 version of the Jews. Even if we assume that 
 the Canaan in which Israel and its children's 
 children shall dwell "forever" refers to the 
 heavenly Canaan, we cannot doubt that accord- 
 ing to this prophecy the descendants of Jacob, 
 
 92 
 
now scattered among tlie gentiles, shall be con- 
 verted and acknowledge Jesus as their king. 
 There is no doubt that Ezekiel foretells the con- 
 version of the Jews. So does Moses. Read 
 Deuteronomy 30:6-8: "And the Lord will cir- 
 cumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, 
 to love the Lord, thy God, with all thine heart, 
 and with all thy soul that thou mayest live .... 
 and thou shalt return and obey the voice of the 
 Lord, and do all the commandments which I 
 command thee this day." That Moses has in 
 mind the future conversion of the Jews is made 
 clear in the 4th verse : ''If any of thine be driven 
 out unto the utmost parts of heaven, from thence 
 will the Lord, thy God, gather thee, and from 
 thence will He fetch thee." This refers to the 
 present dispersion of the Jews, for their cap- 
 tivity under Nebuchadnezzar was a diffusion 
 less pronounced. Nor is there any doubt that 
 Azariah (2 Chron. 15:3-6) prophesies of present 
 conditions, when he says that the Jews in their 
 trouble will turn to the Lord God of Israel. 
 This conversion will follow a long season, when 
 they were without law and without a teaching 
 priest. Isaiah does not only say in many places 
 that his peofjle, too, will belong to the spiritual 
 Israel of the last days, but prophesies (Isa. 
 10 :22-23 ) that the remnant of Jacob shall re- 
 turn unto the mighty God. What Jeremiah pre- 
 dicts of the Jews in the 30th and 31st chapters 
 has not as yet been fulfilled. Therefore the con- 
 version which is prophesied in the 31st chapter 
 is also still in the future. He says : "Behold the 
 
 93 
 
days come, saitli the Lord, tliat I will make a 
 new covenant with the house of Israel and with 
 the house of Judah; Not according to the 
 covenant which I made with their fathers in the 
 day that I took them by the hand to bring them 
 out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant 
 they brake, although I was an husband unto 
 them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the 
 covenant that I will make with the house of 
 Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I will 
 put my law in their inward parts and write it 
 in their hearts, and will be their God and they 
 shall be my people." Here the conversion of 
 the Jews is as clearly stated as any other 
 doctrine in the entire Bible. Hosea says that 
 after the children of Israel have been many days 
 without a king and without a prince, and with- 
 out a sacrifice, and without an image, and with- 
 out ephod, and without teraphim, afterwards 
 they shall return and seek the Lord, their God 
 and David (Christ) their king and that they 
 shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the 
 latter days ( Hosea 3 :4-5 ) . This seeking of the 
 Lord has not taken place in the time of Christ 
 because at that time the Jews still had a king, 
 a sacrifice, an image and an ephod. Nor did it 
 take place after the time of the apostles. The 
 prophecy is yet to be fulfilled. 
 
 It is certain beyond all doubt that the 
 prophets of the Old Testament predicted the con- 
 version of the Jews. But we might ask, whether 
 or not there are passages in the Bible which con- 
 tradict this prophecy. The answer is that there 
 
 94 
 
is not a single verse in scripture wMcli teaches 
 differently. Nor is it true that this doctrine 
 clashes with the words of Christ or discredits 
 the merit of the Savior, When Jesus says : 
 ''Henceforth ye shall not see me until ye shall 
 say: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of 
 the Lord ( Matth. 23 :39 ) , He does not only not 
 deny that the Jews will eventually be converted 
 but confirms the prophecy that at last they shall 
 bid Him welcome. The quotation from 1 Thess. 
 2 :16 : "the wrath is come upon them to the 
 uttermost," ("unto the end/' Luther) does not 
 prove that the conversion of the Jews will never 
 take place. Looking at this verse in the light 
 of Luke 21 :24 and Dan. 9 :26 its meaning be- 
 comes clear. Daniel says that the destroyed city 
 of Jerusalem shall remain desolate unto the end 
 of the war. If this were meant to convey that 
 the Jews would never return to God, Daniel 
 would contradict himself, for in the 12th chapter 
 (1) he says distinctly "at that time (after the 
 destruction of the unholy nation specified 
 chapter 11:36-45) thy people shall be delivered." 
 Again in the 7th verse he declares: "when He 
 shall have accomplished to scatter the power of 
 the holy people, all these things shall be 
 finished." This means that the evil nation shall 
 be crushed and Israel be delivered. But that 
 this event will not coincide with the last judg- 
 ment, he makes clear in the 11th verse where 
 he specifies the time and also in the 12th verse 
 where he calls those blessed who wait and come 
 to the thousand three hundred and five and 
 
 95 
 
thirtieth day. Since Daniel leaves no doubt 
 that the Jews will be scattered until the end of 
 the great conflict and afterwards gathered unto 
 their land, we conclude that Paul, writing to 
 the Thessalonians, merely stated that the wrath 
 of God would be upon the Jews until the close 
 of the present war. This is also announced by 
 Christ (Luke 21:24) : "Jerusalem shall be trod- 
 den down of the Gentiles, until the times of the 
 Gentiles be fulfilled." The time of the Gentiles 
 is fulfilled, when God, for the purpose of judg- 
 ment, leads Gog to the mountains of Israel. 
 Whatever other scriptural passages have been 
 cited to disprove the conversion of the Jews, ex- 
 plain themselves in the light of the very clear 
 prophecies which we have mentioned. 
 
 Even the much discussed words of Paul ( Rom. 
 11 :25-27) are a very definite prophecy of Israel's 
 salvation : "For I would not, brethren, that ye 
 should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye 
 should be wise in your own conceits ; that blind- 
 ness in part is happened to Israel, until the 
 fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all 
 Israel shall be saved ; as it is written, there shall 
 come out of Zion the Deliverer and shall turn 
 away ungodliness from Jacob : For this is my 
 covenant unto them, when I stall take away 
 their sins." Here the apostle writes of a 
 mystery, known already to Moses and the 
 prophets, but which hitherto had never been 
 solved for the Gentiles in Rome. In the Old 
 Testament the Jews were the people of God, 
 while the Gentiles were in ignorance and re- 
 
 96 
 
fused to serve the true God. But in the New 
 Testament the Jews largely lost the vision of 
 truth, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come 
 in. The Israel that is to be saved is composed 
 of Jews and Gentiles alike. Here then we are 
 confronted with the deep mystery of grace and 
 have no right to speak of it more fully than is 
 justified by the statements of the Bible. But 
 certain it is that Paul warns the Christians who 
 came from the Gentiles against the conclusion 
 that henceforth the Jews are to be replaced by 
 the Gentiles. True, the Jews were guilty of un- 
 belief and have been struck with blindness, but 
 the Gentiles, converted to Christ, must continue 
 to work out their salvation with fear and 
 trembling and also guard against self-confidence. 
 God saves by faith both Jews and Gentiles. But 
 because the Jews hardened their hearts, God 
 permitted them to wander aw^ay. He called the 
 Gentiles that He might still have a chosen 
 people. The Gentiles filled the gap made by the 
 desertion of Israel. Pleroma, translated full- 
 ness, may also mean a piece of new cloth (Mark 
 2 :21 ; Matth. 9 :16) or a patch. Just as a patch 
 will cover a rent in a dress, so the gap caused 
 by the unfaithfulness of the Jews was to be 
 covered by the Gentiles. But this rent is not 
 merely temporarily covered by the Gentiles ; the 
 Gentiles do not merely fill the gap, until the 
 Jews return, nor have the Jews been blinded 
 that they should perish. By calling the Gentiles 
 God would stir up the zeal of Israel. Read 
 Rom. 10:19; also Deut. 32:21. Finally Paul 
 
 97 
 
tells us (Rom. 9:28) that tlie Lord "will finish 
 the work and cut it short in righteousness." 
 This recalls the words of Isaiah ( 10 :22-23 ) : 
 "For though thy people Israel be as the sand 
 of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return : 
 the consumption decreed shall overflow with 
 righteousness. For the Lord God of hosts shall 
 make a consumption, even determined, in the 
 midst of all the land." The meaning of these 
 words appears more clearly in Luther's version 
 "The Lord Himself will curb corruption and 
 righteousness shall overflow." This corruption 
 is caused not only by the unholy nation, but by 
 the Jews. Says Zechariah (8:13): "And it 
 shall come to pass, that as ye were a curse 
 among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house 
 of Israel, so will I save you and ye shall be 
 a blessing." In what the curbing of this cor- 
 ruption consists is indicated very fully in the 
 38th and 39th chapters of Ezekiel. Through 
 the downfall of Gog God will finish the work 
 and cut it short in righteousness. This mani- 
 festation of the presence of the living God will 
 cause the spiritual Israel, composed of Jews, 
 Gentiles and Christians alike to return to the 
 abandoned altars and to seek repentance. Says 
 Isaiah ( 59 ) : "For He put on righteousness as a 
 breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his 
 head ; and He put on the garments of vengeance 
 for clothing, and was clothed with zeal as a 
 cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly 
 He will repay, fury to His adversaries, recom- 
 pense to His enemies ; to the islands of Gog ( or 
 
 98 
 
England) He will repay recompense. So shall 
 they fear the name of the Lord from the west, 
 and His glory from the rising of the sun. When 
 the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit 
 of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. 
 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto 
 them that turn from transgression in Jacob, 
 saith the Lord; As for me this is my covenant 
 with them, saith the Lord; My spirit that is 
 upon thee, and my words which I have put in 
 thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, 
 nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the 
 mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord from 
 henceforth and forever" (17:21). To this 
 prophecy Paul refers in the 26th verse. We con- 
 clude that he meant to predict the final conver- 
 sion of the Jews. 
 
 After thus proving the conversion of Israel, 
 it seems superfluous to show" that the Jews will 
 return to the land of their fathers. Suffice it 
 to call attention to the main prophecies along 
 this line and to correct some erroneous impres- 
 sions. 
 
 We have repeatedly stated that the Jews can 
 only after their conversion return into the land 
 of their fathers. One event depends on the 
 other. Ezekiel says that if they will know the 
 true God (after Gog's defeat) the captivity of 
 Jacob shall end. Moses writes in the name of 
 Jehovah : If they will humble themselves ^'then 
 will I remember the covenant with Jacob, and al- 
 so my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant 
 with Abraham will I remember; and I will re- 
 
 99 
 
member the land. The land also shall be left 
 of them, and shall enjoy her Sabbaths, while she 
 lieth desolate without them; and they shall 
 accept of the punishment of their iniquity; be- 
 cause, even because they despised my judgments, 
 and because their soul abhorred my statutes. 
 And yet for all that, when they be in the land 
 of their enemies, I will not cast them away, 
 neither will I abhor them, to destroy them 
 utterly, and to break my covenant with them; 
 for I am the Lord their God. But I will for 
 their sakes remember the covenant of their an- 
 cestors whom I brought forth out of the land 
 of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might 
 be their God; I am the Lord" (Lev. 26:42-45). 
 "And it shall come to pass, when all these things 
 are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, 
 which I have set before thee, thou shalt call 
 them to mind among all the nations, whither 
 the Lord, thy God hath driven thee, and shalt 
 return unto the Lord, thy God, and shalt obey 
 His voice according to all that I command thee 
 this day, thou and thy children, with all thine 
 heart and with all thy soul ; That then the Lord, 
 thy God, will turn thy captivity, and have com- 
 passion upon thee, and will return and gather 
 thee from all the nations, whither the Lord, 
 thy God, has scattered thee. If any of thine be 
 driven out into the utmost parts of heaven, from 
 thence will the Lord, thy God, gather thee and 
 from thence will He fetch thee; And the Lord, 
 thy God, will bring thee into the land which thy 
 fathers possessed and thou shalt possess it ; and 
 
 100 
 
He will do thee good, and multiply thee above 
 thy fathers" (Deut. 30 :l-5) . Another prophecy, 
 still unfulfilled, we find in Jeremiah (31:8-10) : 
 "Behold, I will bring them from the north 
 country, and gather them from the coasts of the 
 earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the 
 woman with child and her that travaileth with 
 child together: a great company shall return 
 thither. They shall come with weeping, and 
 with supplications will I lead them : I will cause 
 them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight 
 way, wherein they shall not stumble ; for I am a 
 father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. 
 Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations and de- 
 clare it in the isles (in Gog's own country) afar 
 off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather 
 him, and keep him as a shepherd does his flock." 
 The book of Amos closes with the prophecy 
 (9 :14-15) that in the latter years the Jews shall 
 repossess the land of their fathers : "And I will 
 bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, 
 and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit 
 them ; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink 
 the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, 
 and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant 
 them upon their land, and they shall no more be 
 pulled up out of their land which I have given 
 them, saith the Lord, thy God." Of this same 
 time we read in the 8th chapter of Zechariah 
 (6-8) : "Thus saith the Lord of hosts; If it be 
 marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of His 
 people in these days, should it also be marvelous 
 in mine eyes? saith the Lord of hosts. Thus 
 
 101 
 
saith the Lord of hosts : Behold I will save my 
 people from the east country, and from the west 
 country. And I will bring them, and they shall 
 dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall 
 be my people, and I will be their God, in truth 
 and righteousness." Christ says that the house 
 of the Jews shall remain desolate only as long 
 as they persist in their unbelief (Matth. 
 23:38-39; Luke 21:24). Daniel does not only 
 prophesy that the dispersion of the Jews shall 
 have an end (12:7) but specifies the time when 
 the reunion shall take place ( 12 :11 ) : ''And from 
 the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken 
 away, and the abomination that maketh desolate 
 set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred 
 and ninety days." The daily sacrifice was 
 taken away after the destruction of Jerusalem 
 and its temple. The abomination set up refers 
 to a Mohamedan mosque erected in place of 
 Solomon's temple by Omar I. and his successors. 
 According to history this happened between the 
 years 635 and 640. The return of the Jews to 
 Palestine is to take place 1290 years after this 
 event. Since we have no accurate date as to 
 the building of this mosque, we cannot state with 
 accuracy, when Israel shall be gathered in Pales- 
 tine. Should the Bible calculate according to 
 solar years, the prophecy would be fulfilled in 
 1925. But comparing Daniel 7:25; 12:7 with 
 Rev. 12 :14 ; 13 :5 and also 11 :3 ; 12 :6, we incline 
 to the belief that we are to deal with lunar years 
 which comprise but 360 days each. This would 
 make a difference of 17 years and 11 months. 
 
 102 
 
According to that the time is now ripe for ful- 
 fillment and we might look for Israel's return 
 immediately after the end of the present war. 
 
 To guard against error, it is necessary to 
 differentiate between the time specified in Daniel 
 12 :11, and that referred to in Daniel 7 :25 ; 12 :7, 
 and Revelation 12 :14. In the one case we deal 
 with the era of the seven-headed beast upon the 
 earth, in the other with the time of its destruc- 
 tion and the gathering of the Jews. 
 
 The 12th verse of the 12th chapter of Daniel 
 specifies also that the prophecy shall be fulfilled 
 45 years after the Jews have taken possession 
 of the land: "Blessed is he that waiteth and 
 Cometh to the thousand three hundred and five 
 and thirty days." Whether the special bless- 
 ings conferred upon Israel at that time be of a 
 material or spiritual nature, we do not venture 
 to say. Suffice it to know that, while these 
 promises like those in verses 1 and 7 are meant 
 for the Jews, they can in no way exceed the glory 
 of the Christian faith. 
 
 Erroneous is the opinion, based on Rom. 11, 
 that the rejection of the Gentiles will precede 
 the conversion of the Jews. Contrariwise it is 
 the will of Cod that both Jew and Gentile shall 
 accept the truth. But it is not only possible, but 
 Ave have scriptural ground for the belief, that 
 many of Gog's army, when struck by the light- 
 nings of judgment, will harden their hearts: 
 "They blasphemed the God of heaven, because 
 of their pains and their sores and repented not" 
 (Rev. 16) ; only a part of the dead shall rise 
 ( Rev. 20:5). This refers to spiritual death. Of 
 
 103 
 
the unfaithful some will be converted through 
 God's unmerited grace, but others will grow re- 
 bellious and defy His judgments. 
 
 Erroneous, too, is the opinion that the Jews, 
 when converted, will live in Palestine and rule 
 over the Gentiles. Whatever the Bible seems to 
 indicate along this line, pertains to the spiritual 
 Israel, to the rule of the Gospel during the 
 millennium. The kingdom of Christ is not of 
 this world, but a spiritual kingdom and whoever 
 desires to be greatest in this kingdom must be 
 as he that serves. Should, therefore, the Jews 
 occupy a prominent position in this kingdom, 
 they will manifest their prominence by render- 
 ing service. This might be gathered from Zech. 
 8 :13 : "It shall come to pass that as ye were a 
 curse among the heathen, O house of Judah, and 
 house of Israel; so will I save you and ye shall 
 be a blessing." It is naught but an empty 
 phrase to assert that the Jews have never been 
 a missionary people and never will be. On the 
 contrary, it is quite probable, that the Jews after 
 they have recognized their sins and have been 
 led by grace to know their Savior, will, in 
 gratitude, be thrilled with missionary zeal. 
 
 Equally foolish is the statement that since 
 Christ came to bring spiritual treasures, such a 
 purely material benefit as the restoration of 
 Palestine could be no part of His mission. True 
 it is, that if Jesus had naught but earthly gifts, 
 He would not have dwelt among us. But He 
 says : "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all 
 these things shall be added unto you." This 
 promise includes all kinds of possessions, and 
 
 104 
 
among these a liome for the Jews. If God will 
 freely bestow the grandest blessings and open 
 the eyes of the Jews that they shall know Him 
 and His Son, Jesns Christ, will He refuse the 
 lesser gifts, such as the reunion of His people 
 in Palestine? Whenever the Jews will first 
 seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, 
 they shall also possess the land of their fathers. 
 This is scriptural teaching. 
 
 Let no one pass lightly over these gracious 
 promises. Let us remember the warnings 
 uttered against those who assert that the Jews 
 are a race without hope. The same curse that 
 applies to the Jews is to strike terror into the 
 hearts of those who hate and persecute this 
 hapless people (Deut. 30 :7) . Ezekiel denounces 
 those who deny that the Jews will rise again: 
 "Thus saith the Lord God; Because the enemy 
 hath said against you. Aha, even the ancient high 
 places are ours in possession : Therefore prophesy 
 and say. Thus saith the Lord God, because they 
 have made you desolate, and swallowed you up 
 on every side, that ye might be a possession unto 
 the residue of the heathen, and ye are taken up 
 in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the 
 people; Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear 
 the word of the Lord : Thus saith the Lord God 
 to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, 
 and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes, and to 
 the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey 
 and derision to the residue of the heathen that 
 are round about. Therefore thus saith the Lord : 
 Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken 
 
 105 
 
against the residue of the heathen, and against 
 all Iduniea, which have appointed my land into 
 their possession with the joy of all their heart, 
 with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey. 
 Prophesy therefore concerning the land of 
 Israel, and say unto the mountains, and to the 
 hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys. Thus 
 saith the Lord: Behold, I have spoken in my 
 jealousy and in inj fury, because ye have borne 
 the shame of the heathen. Therefore thus saith 
 the Lord God ; I have lifted up mine hand, Surely 
 the heathen that are about you, they shall bear 
 their shame" (Ezek. 36:2-7). These words are 
 directed against the heathen. But surely they 
 also apply to those who refuse to believe in the 
 conversion and reunion of the Jews and who 
 rejoice in the suffering of Israel. 
 
 Finally a word concerning the statement of 
 Ezekiel (39:28) : ''I have gathered them unto 
 their own land and have left none of them any 
 more there." Starke declares that since this 
 prophecy has not been fulfilled at the departure 
 of the Jews from Babylon, its consummation is 
 still to be expected. He infers that all Jews 
 without a single exception will be finally saved. 
 However this is incorrect. We must consider 
 the preceding verses which tell us that on ac- 
 count of their transgressions the Lord led Israel 
 into captivity. Against their will the Jews 
 went into captivity; against their will large 
 numbers of them dwell among nations who rob, 
 curse and persecute them. They are scattered 
 in many countries. Those living in Palestine 
 
 106 
 
liave to bow to a heatlien government and are 
 surrounded by a strange people. This punish- 
 ment shall cease. They shall be reunited and 
 have a native land. Against his will not one 
 of them shall remain among those who hate 
 Israel. But this does not mean that God will 
 force the Jews to go to Palestine. Even in the 
 days of the Judges, when Israel was theocratic, 
 there were Hebrews among the Gentiles. 
 Palestine is promised to the Jews because this 
 land was God's gift to their fathers, their native 
 land. It will be restored to them not for the 
 purpose of establishing a limited theocracy. It 
 is God's will that they shall have a home. That 
 Jews may continue to live among Gentiles, 
 especially when all are united in the thought of 
 the universal and spiritual Israel, is very 
 evident. And if according to Zechariah the 
 house of Judah is to become a blessing to the 
 heathen, it is to be hoped that some will remain 
 where they are. 
 
 Whether or not every Jew will be converted 
 is a question which we have no authority, either 
 to affirm or to deny. The Bible is silent on the 
 subject. According to scripture there will be 
 a general conversion of Jews during the latter 
 years and Paul says that the spiritual Israel, 
 composed of Jew and Gentile, is to be saved. 
 We want to be sure only of two things. In the 
 first place that we belong to the spiritual Israel, 
 and in the second place that we draw as many 
 as possible into this blessed fellowship. 
 
 As a result of Gog's defeat there is to come 
 
 107 
 
a blessed time, not only for the Jews, but for 
 tbe spiritual Israel : ^'Now will I have mercy 
 upon the whole house of Israel" ( Ezek. 39 :25 ) . 
 ''And I will set my glory among the heathen, 
 and all the heathen shall see my judgment, that 
 I have executed, and my hand that I have laid 
 upon them. So the house of Israel shall know 
 that I am the Lord their God from that day and 
 forward" ( 39 :21-22 ) . "When they dwell safely in 
 the land and none makes them afraid .... 
 neither will I hide my face any more from them : 
 for I have poured my spirit upon the house of 
 Israel, saith the Lord God" (39:26-29). The 
 blessed era which the prophet predicts for the 
 Church of Christ after the destruction of Gog 
 and his bands is merely suggested in these verses. 
 It is fully described in the succeeding chapters 
 (40-48). This splendid imagery must not be 
 limited to a material temple. Nor does it apply 
 to the saints in heaven. It portrays the Church 
 of the last time. While we do not vdsh to enter 
 into any detailed explanation of the meaning 
 of this prophecy, we should say a word con- 
 cerning the period, commonly called the mil- 
 lennium, to which Ezekiel refers in the 39th 
 chapter and of which John says that it will 
 last a thousand years. 
 
 In the first place we are told that the mil- 
 lennium shall begin with the destruction of 
 Gog. The defeat of ungodly nations and the 
 manifestation of the strong arm of God will 
 help Israel to find the Lord. Thus some will 
 rise who have been spiritually dead. God will 
 
 108 
 
cause His breath to enter into the dry bones 
 (Ezek. 37) and these bones will live. This 
 according to John is the first resurrection, 
 purely spiritual. For only he is holy and saved 
 who rises spiritually by faith ( Col. 2 :12-13 ) . 
 The Bible says nothing regarding a physical 
 resurrection before the last judgment. If re- 
 ports can be trusted, Germany has already ex- 
 perienced this first resurrection, many dead 
 souls having come to life. But the return to 
 God shall reach further and include many Jews 
 and Gentiles. God will reveal His glory to the 
 heathen, says Ezekiel; they too shall know the 
 Lord, believe in Him and be saved by faith. 
 However not all will bow to God's gracious de- 
 signs. While they must recognize without ex- 
 ception His power and majesty, some will refuse 
 to repent. "Many shall be purified and made 
 white and tried; but the wicked shall do 
 wickedly: and none of the wicked shall under- 
 stand, but the wise shall understand" (Dan. 
 12 :10 ) . John, too, in Revelation declares that 
 but a part of the people shall rise from the dead 
 (20:4-5). 
 
 Even during the millennium there will be 
 wicked people on earth. That Satan is bound, 
 does not mean that he has lost all power. Not 
 only the ungodly, but even the saints will ex- 
 perience temptations. But since God has 
 poured His blessings upon His people, they will 
 have the strength to withstand the fiery darts 
 of the devil. They will more clearly discern the 
 loving face of the Lord and bear testimony to 
 
 109 
 
the fact that He is a very present help in trouble. 
 They will dwell safely among their enemies and 
 none shall make them afraid. 
 
 The millennium is a period of universal peace. 
 Warfare Avill become a lost art and swords shall 
 be turned into plowshares ( Isa. 2 :4 ) . That 
 Satan is chained signifies that he is no longer 
 to rule through ungodly nations. For more 
 than a thousand years he has dominated the 
 world through the English kings. He has cor- 
 rupted the Church and degraded the heathen. 
 But after the British empire has been crushed 
 in the present war, the devil will be without his 
 mightiest weapon. He will be bound for a 
 thousand years. As Satan ruled through un- 
 godly principalities, so Christ will rule through 
 Christian nations. The Bible says nothing con- 
 cerning a visible throne of Christ. The very 
 thought is incompatible with the nature of God's 
 kingdom. Christ's throne is in the hearts of the 
 faithful. Through earthly kingdoms He will reign 
 and protect His own. They shall dwell safely 
 among their enemies. This is the scriptural 
 meaning of the reign of Christ and His saints. 
 
 To sum up : The Lord God of Sabaoth, it is 
 He who crushes the forces of evil that righteous- 
 ness may overflow His people. By powerfully 
 interfering with the plans of Satan, He mani- 
 fests His glory to Jew and Gentile. He reveals 
 Himself as a holy God and a just one who hateth 
 iniquity, punishes the sinner and whose wrath is 
 flaming over those who will not repent. The 
 anti-Christian empires He will utterly destroy, 
 
 110 
 
and Israel that lias grown lukewarm must also 
 bear its shame. Through these visitations God's 
 name will be sanctified and magnified. Those 
 who will not hear His voice, must perish. But 
 it is God's purpose that they shall turn from 
 their ways and live. Gracious are the plans of 
 the Lord! He is ever willing to receive those 
 who repent in every nation on the face of the 
 earth, be they Turks, heathen or subjects of Gog. 
 It is unbelief only and an unrepenting heart that 
 separates man from his Maker, Oh, that all the 
 world would see in the afftictions of these days 
 the mighty hand of God! 
 
 We know that Emperor William II. regards 
 the crown of Germany as a divine trust. Surely 
 Germany ought to thank God for such a ruler! 
 She owes a great deal not only to the builder of 
 empire, but still more to him who leads her in 
 prayer ; she owes much to her Christian empress. 
 If mighty princes bend their knee in prayer, 
 God is well pleased, and He may bless a whole 
 nation on account of such prayers. But we can- 
 not be saved by the religion of an emperor or any 
 other human being. The just shall live by faith. 
 It is of little value to conquer Gog, if there is no 
 conquest of sin in the soul. May God's spiritual 
 purposes be revealed to all! Those who would 
 boast of pure doctrines and saintly lives, better 
 beware of self-deception. Revelation says that 
 the beast has even corrupted the saints. If our 
 own country is not being punished after the 
 manner of Germany or Austria, may this be a 
 sign of God's favor and not of His displeasure. 
 
 Ill 
 
POSTSCRIPT 
 
 When the bulk of this manuscript was already 
 in the hands of the printer, ''Der Lutheraner" 
 published an article on ''Russelism" containing 
 an expression of Russell, and the Chicago Herald 
 an interview with the British Chancellor, Lord 
 Haldane. Since both statements concur and 
 since we have alluded in these pages to the com- 
 plete understanding between Russell and the 
 British government, we quote from both articles. 
 Russell publishes the following statement in the 
 Bible Students' Monthly (VI, 5). 
 
 "For 2,500 years God, through the Bible 
 prophets, has been telling His people about this 
 great war and concerning the more terrible Ar- 
 mageddon which will follow it; and can we ex- 
 pect Him to reverse the program at our behest? 
 
 The war will proceed and will eventuate in 
 no glorious for any nation, but in the horrible 
 mutilation and impoverishment of all. Next 
 will follow the Armageddon of anarchy. For 
 forty years I have been proclaiming this very 
 war and its glorious outcome by sermons, oral 
 and printed, and in my books on Bible study in 
 twenty languages. Now, when the very year 
 has come and the prophecy is being fulfilled, 
 could I consistently ask the Almighty to change 
 his program? Nay! 
 
 112 
 
Apparently all the nations will yet be in- 
 volved. Our President and our Secretary of 
 State are men of peace, and will surely do all in 
 tkeir power to avoid complications and war 
 itself. ( TMs is not true. President Wilson lias 
 done everything that he possibly could do to in- 
 volve our country in a war against Germany and 
 has most probably received his inspiration from 
 the same source where the prophecies of the false 
 prophet Kussell originate — London.) Never- 
 theless, the great nations of Europe, realizing 
 how much they will be weakened by this war, 
 will do all in their power to ensnare these United 
 States, lest at the conclusion of the war we 
 should tower above the others financially and 
 otherwise. 
 
 When the war is ended, these nations, sorrow- 
 ful and famine-stricken, will be greatly angered 
 at their rulers. Then will come the determin- 
 ation for something like Socialism. This the 
 governments will endeavor to put down, and to 
 some extent they will succeed. Then will follow 
 the great explosion — the Armageddon of the 
 Scriptures. Then will be the Time of Trouble, 
 immediately preceding the Messianic Kingdom, 
 which will inaugurate the long-promised Peace 
 on Earth." 
 
 We repeat that w^henever Russell speaks of 
 the Messianic kingdom, he thinks of England 
 ruling the world. He argues that after Ger- 
 many, Austria-Hungary, Russia, France and 
 other nations have been impoverished and be- 
 come financially dependent on England, their 
 
 113 
 
own people will rise in a revolution, tkus offer- 
 ing England a chance to conquer them all. The 
 same hope was expressed by Lord Haldane in 
 the Chicago Herald (March 7), although the 
 British diplomat speaks with greater discretion. 
 Here is the interview : "Assuming that the allies 
 win, will they attempt to democratize German 
 politics?" 
 
 "Government comes from within. If the army 
 and the navy and the men who made the war 
 lose their prestige, Germany probably will re- 
 cover herself. How can she better do it than 
 by effectualizing her democracy? 
 
 "In other words I feel that the real Germany 
 which has made so profound an impression upon 
 the world by reason of great qualities, will take 
 over the government of Germany when the 
 present regime has been discredited or des- 
 troyed." 
 
 "Then you are looking for a great democratic 
 advance as the result of the war?" 
 
 "For a great democratic advance and for a 
 great moral advance. Might has sought to es- 
 tablish itself as the supreme law. Eight is on 
 the defensive." 
 
 This effusion from the lips of Lord Haldane 
 is no doubt meant to poison public opinion in 
 Germany and Austria against the government. 
 (A very interesting article along this line was 
 published by the "Abendschule," St. Louis, Mo., 
 March 4, 1915, p. 495). Lord Haldane would 
 stir up trouble in the lands of England's op- 
 ponents. He knows that an inner disruption 
 
 114 
 
would greatly impair Teutonic strength. Should 
 the people of Germany and Austria listen to 
 the siren-voice which urges them to become 
 Kepublics, it will be but a short time when 
 England will dominate them both. Since 
 Eussel and the English chancellor have the same 
 idea on this subject, we cannot doubt that Eussel 
 is the hired prophet of the British government. 
 The plans of England are cleverly thought out. 
 But those who know good from evil and have 
 not bent their knee to Baal will cry to God and 
 pray : Lord God Almighty, pronounce judgment 
 on England ! Suffer not this war to end before 
 the British empire has been utterly crushed ! It 
 has corrupted Thy Church and undermined its 
 usefulness! Destroy those, O Lord, who have 
 grown fat through the sweat of the poor and 
 oppressed! Remember their robberies, their in- 
 numerable crimes! Just as they brought dead 
 men's bones from Egypt to fertilize with the 
 dust of Egyptian kings their hills and valleys, 
 so scatter Thou to the four winds their unhal- 
 lowed ashes! Thou, Lord, alone canst judge! 
 Fulfill the prophecy which Thou hast spoken in 
 Thy sacred word and we shall praise Thee for 
 Thy Justice and Truth, world without end! 
 Amen. For Thy Truth's sake, hear us, good 
 Lord ! Amen ! 
 
 115