Identifying Gog & Magog

The Great Battle of the End Times

By Kurt M. Simmons

Introduction

Revelation twenty is among the most difficult passages in the Bible.  Whole interpretative schools have grown up with names describing their particular approach to the chapter.  Amillennialism, Premillennialism, and Postmillennialism describe these schools’ particular interpretation of Revelation’s millennia.  Although disagreement exists concerning the nature and timing of the millennia, all agree that the battle of Gog and Magog immediately precedes Christ’s eschatological coming in judgment upon world.  If Preterists are to succeed in convincing others that Revelation is fulfilled, then they must have a firm command on the battle of Gog and Magog and be able to convincingly identify its historical referent.  In this article, we will show that Gog and Magog was a symbol employed for the persecution under Nero and the Jews.

Old Testament Themes and the Prophetic Method

It will be helpful to our understanding of Revelation if we first survey the source of John’s imagery and gain an understanding of the themes and method of the Old Testament prophets.  The three major themes of the OT prophets were 1) the coming judgment upon Israel and Judah in which they would be carried into captivity; 2) the restoration of the nation to the land; and 3) the kingdom of the Messiah.  Although separated by several hundred years, prophecies about the return of the captivity and the nation’s political restoration were often woven together with prophecies about the kingdom of the Messiah and the spiritual restoration of man in Christ.  In fact, the gathering together and return of the captivity under Zerubbabel became a type of the Messiah, who would gather together Israel and lead them unto spiritual Zion and the heavenly Jerusalem. 

In this example, the first part of the prophecy appears to have Zerubbabel in view. In its immediate historical context, Zerubbabel was the “one head” that would lead the captivity out of Assyrio-Babylonian captivity.  However, the prophecy has a plenior sensus (Lat. “fuller sense”), and looks beyond the return of the captivity unto Christ (“David their king”).  As Zerubbabel gathered the captivity home to the land of Canaan, Christ would gather the true Israel into his kingdom by proclamation of the gospel.  Another example of this sort may be seen in Amos:

This prophecy is especially poignant because it inserts a prophecy of the restoration of the Davidic throne in Christ (“the tabernacle of David”) in between prophecies of the  coming captivity (“sifting Israel among the nations”) and the restoration of Israel to its land (“I will bring again the captivity of my people”).  We know that the raising up of the tabernacle of David looked ahead to Christ because we have James’s inspired word for it in the book of Acts. (Acts 15:16, 17)  The reason the prophets lumped together the return of the captivity and the coming of the Messiah in this way is that both were in Israel’s future and the former was a necessary precondition for bringing to pass the latter.  The prophecies about Christ’s birth in Bethlehem, his flight into Egypt, his being raised in Nazareth, his rejection by Israel’s rulers, and his death, burial, and resurrection all required that the nation return from captivity.  Thus, in bringing the nation back from Assyria and Babylon, God was fulfilling his promise of the Messiah.

The Return of the Captivity and Coming of Christ

In the Book of Ezekiel

The imagery of Gog and Magog in Revelation is adapted from Ezekiel.  Like other prophets, Ezekiel wrote about the coming captivity, the restoration to the land, and the coming kingdom of the Messiah.  The first half of Ezekiel addresses the coming captivity and is laden with prophecies of wrath and lamentation; the latter half is devoted to the themes of national restoration and the coming of Christ.  Ezekiel’s most graphic portrayal of the return of the captivity is set out in his prophecy of the “valley of dry bones” (Ezek. 37:1-17):  The nation was in captivity; the ten northern tribes carried away by the Assyrians; Judah carried away to Babylon.  The temple was burned, the city lay in ruins.  Ezekiel likened the nation unto a defeated army, whose bleached bones lay scattered across a vast plain.  The question for the Jews of the captivity was did the nation have a future?  The answer was, Yes!  The valley of dry bones would revive and come together in a political resurrection of the nation: 

The prophecy of the dry bones would be fulfilled in the restoration of Israel to its land.  Cyrus would allow the city to be rebuilt and the captives to return home.  This happened in the great migrations under Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah.  But Ezekiel’s prophecy didn’t stop with the return of the captivity; like other OT prophets it looked beyond the return of the captivity unto the spiritual restoration of man in Christ.

Like Hosea’s prophecy of “David their king,” David here is a symbol for Christ and speaks to the restoration of the Davidic throne that had been usurped by Nebuchadnezzar and the Gentile powers.  However, Christ would not sit upon the throne of David on earth or the terrestrial Jerusalem, but in the heavenly Jerusalem above.  Peter made this abundantly clear in the very first gospel sermon after Christ’s resurrection:

Peter makes plain that the prophecies of “David their king” spoke to the resurrection of Christ and his coronation in the heavenly Jerusalem, where he sat down at the right hand of God.  Premillennial hopes of Christ seated upon David throne upon earth are empty and vain; they embody the very hope that led the Jews to crucify Christ; for they looked for a national liberator, not a Savior who would deliver from the bondage of sin and death.  When, therefore, Ezekiel and the prophets speak of David ruling over his people, we understand that they spoke of Christ and the church.  The church is the restored Israel and kingdom of Messianic prophecy.  

Ezekiel’s prophecies of the valley of dry bones and “David my servant” occur in Ezekiel thirty-seven; the prophecy of Gog and Magog occurs in chapters thirty-eight and thirty-nine.  Thus, restored Israel (the church) under “David” is the historical and chronological context of the prophecy about Gog and Magog.

The Eschatological Battle of Gog & Magog

Ezekiel describes the great battle of the end time in terms of a pagan hoard that invades the land of Israel; a host so numerous that they ascend like a storm and a cloud to cover the land:

Several points need to be made at this juncture.  First, Gog has set himself as the enemy of God and his people and there is an historical account that the Lord wants to settle.  When he says that “after many days thou shalt be visited,” the prophet indicates that God has abstained from vengeance for many years, but that Gog’s day would come.   Gog’s war against restored Israel was divinely permitted or ordained, and would provide occasion for judgment and vengeance against the people symbolized by Gog.  Second, the invasion of Gog would occur in the latter times.  This phrase speaks to the closing years of the world economy marked by the reign of sin and death.  This places Gog’s attack upon restored Israel in the period immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, for the end of the mosaic age coincided with the end of the world order that obtained from the time of mankind’s fall. Third, the description of Gog’s territory mirrors that of the Roman empire.  Ethiopia and Libya were Rome’s south-western boundary, Persia beyond the Euphrates unto the Caspian sea was its eastern-most boundary, and the “north quarters” coasting long the Black sea and the Danube unto the British isles were its northern-most holdings.  Evidence that Ezekiel’s description of Gog’s territory answers to that of Rome is provided by Agrippa II’s famous speech attempting to dissuade the Jews from war with Rome, recorded by Josephus:

Having established the time of Gog’s attack and the extent of his territory, it remains only to show whom he attacked.  Ezekiel describes the objects of Gog’s invasion as those “brought forth out of the nations;” viz., restored Israel under “David,” which is to say, the church.  But if Gog’s territory answers to the Roman empire, and the time of his attack upon the church preceded the destruction of Jerusalem, then what historical event must the prophet have in mind?  That’s right, the great spiritual battle that overtook the church in the first century.  The battle of Gog and Magog is a symbol of the eschatological persecution of the saints by Nero and the Jews.  This conclusion is corroborated by John’s Revelation.

Gog and Magog in Revelation

In Revelation, the battle of Gog and Magog occurs after the defeat and symbolic thousand-year binding of the dragon in the bottomless pit.  The dragon represents the embodiment of sin and death expressing themselves in the children of disobedience in the form of Leviathan, the world civil power at enmity with God and his people.  The dragon first appears in Rev. 12, where he attempts to kill the Christ-child in Herod’s slaughter of the innocents.  (Rev. 12:4; Matt. 2:16-18)  The child escapes and is later caught up to the throne of God.  However, he first wages war with the dragon and his angels under the guise of Michael the Archangel (prince of angels). This was the earthly ministry of Christ, who defeated the power of sin and death by the blood of his cross (Rev. 12:11; Col. 2:14, 15), wresting the right of world dominion from dragon. Ascending to heaven, it thus became Christ’s to rule all nations with a rod of iron.  (Rev. 12:5) 

When the dragon saw that he was defeated, he made war against the woman who bore the Christ child: not Mary, but the virgin of Zion, the mother church in Palestine.  (Rev. 12:13)  Following as it does upon the heels of Christ’s ascension, this persecution is easily identified as the persecution that arose over Stephen, which St. Paul led under the commission of the Sanhedrin with the assent of Pilate.  The dragon did not wage this persecution directly, but through its alter ego (Lat., other I) the “beast.”  (Rev. 11:7)  The beast is the persecuting power of the civil government; it receives authority to wage war against the saints from the dragon (imperial Rome).  (Rev. 13:2, 4)  The persecution that arose over Stephen lasted three and a half years, or one thousand two hundred and sixty days (A.D. 34-38) (Rev.12:6, 14); it collapsed with the removal of Caiaphas from the high priesthood; Pilate’s leaving Judaea, and the conversion of St. Paul.  The persecution revived momentarily under Herod Argippa I (Acts 12 - circa A.D. 41), but ended almost as abruptly as it started when Agrippa died of a stroke from God.   Aggrippa II was too young to manage his father's kingdom, so Claudius returned Judea to a province and sent thither Cuspius Fadus as procurator, returning the protection of law to the church.  The collapse of the persecution in Palestine is represented by the earth opening its mouth to swallow the flood of persecution pouring out of the dragon’s mouth.  (Rev. 12:16)  It is also symbolized by the beast receiving a mortal wound to one of its heads.  (Rev. 13:3) 

In receiving the mortal wound to its head, the beast lost the power to persecute and symbolically went down in death to the bottomless pit (hades tartarus).  (Rev. 11:7; 17:8)  The dragon, which gave the beast power, also went down to the bottomless pit.  (Rev. 20:1, 2)  Both the dragon and beast remained in the bottomless pit for a period symbolized by a thousand years.  (Rev. 11:7; 17:8; 20:7)  Greco-Roman notions of hades had it that the dead lived in hades a thousand years, after which they were born anew into earthly life. (Plato, Republic, Bk. X, 315-320;  Virgil, Aeneid, Bk. VI, 734-769;  Justin Martyr, 1^st Apology, VIII, Ante-Nicene Fathers, p. 165)  The scriptures speak of the spiritual realm in similar terms, as essentially timeless, where a thousand years is as a day, and vice versa.  (Ps. 90:4; II Pet. 3:8)  This seems to be the significance of the thousand year internment of the dragon and beast; it points to the period during which they were “dead” in terms of their power to persecute the church.   

Claudius was the “angel” that bound the dragon.  (Rev. 20:1)   All during Claudius’ reign the church enjoyed the protection of law; even banishing Jews from Rome for rioting against the church.  (Acts 18:2)  St. Paul alludes to Claudius in his second epistle to the Thessalonians as “he who lets” (restrains).  (II Thess. 2:6, 7)  The persecution of the last day would not come so long as Claudius was upon the throne, repressing the mystery of iniquity and powers of persecution.  When Claudius was taken out of the way, Nero would be revealed as the man of sin and son of perdition, and the church would be gathered in martyrdom unto Christ.  John portrays this by the dragon and beast being loosed from the bottomless pit and the mortal wound to the beast’s head having healed. John described the beast in Rev. 17:8 as the beast that “was and is not and is about to ascend out of the bottomless pit.” That is, the persecuting power of the empire that suffered defeat by the collapse of the persecution over St. Stephen was about to manifest itself again, this time under Nero, whose name the beast bore. This is the point at which the battle of Gog and Magog begins: 

“Satan” is a generic term signifying an adversary.  The character which here in verse seven is called “satan” in verse two is called the “dragon.”  In other words, the adversary in this case was world civil power embodied in Rome, Nero, and the Jews.  In Rome, the beast was identified with Nero, who was its driving power (Rev. 13:1-10); in Asia and other parts of the empire, the Jews, at the behest of their leaders in Jerusalem, were the driving force.  John portrays this by a harlot, riding the beast in a surfeit of blood and gore.  (Rev. 17:3-6)  In Palestine, the persecution was driven by the “false prophet,” the religious leaders of the Jews who bade them to make an inquisition against the church like unto the beast’s.  (Rev. 13:11-18)  The dragon and beast make war against the church by surrounding the “camp of the saints” (the church).  But fire comes down from God out of heaven and consumes Gog and his host, and the dragon, beast, and false prophet are cast into the lake of fire.  (Rev. 19:20, 21; 20:9, 10)  The harlot is also consumed.  (Rev. 18)  An angel calls to the birds of heaven to come and devour the carcasses of the slain.  (Rev. 19:17, 18)  This is a direct quote from Ezekiel.  (Ezek. 39:17)   John's application of Ezekiel's prophecy is certain proof that the persecution under the dragon, beast, false prophet and harlot were the battle of Gog and Magog.  Their destruction occurred in the cataclysmic events of the first century, including famines, earthquakes, and plagues, in which also Rome saw a succession of civil wars and four emperors in the space of little more than a year, and Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus.  Following the world-wide devastations of the last days, God renewed the earth, in which the church reigns supreme with Christ.  (Rev. 21, 22)

Conclusion

The battle of Gog and Magog was a symbol for the eschatological battle of the last days; the persecution under Nero and the Jews.