A1. Many nations gang up together to attack Israel Look in your Bible at Ezekiel 38. This is a well known prophecy about what will happen in the last days before Jesus Christ returns. We know this because verses 8 and 16 mention the phrase “Latter days” and this refers in the Bible to the time just before Jesus Christ will come back to this earth. Ezekiel 38 tells us that before Christ returns, there will be a group of nations, all joined together who will invade Israel and once again virtually wipe it out. Verse 3 tells us that these nations will be led by a nation called “Gog”, who it calls the chief prince. And verses 5 and 6 state that the nations of Persia, Ethiopia, Libya, Gomer and Togarmah will be with this Gog. Verse 8 is a bit convoluted, but it basically says that in the “latter days”, i.e just before Jesus returns, this group of nations will invade Israel. The bit that says “the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people,” and “which have been always waste” refers to the fact that from the first century until the twentieth century the people of Israel were banished from their land, and lived amongst other nations. Then from the start of the 20th century, the Jews started to go back to their homeland, until in 1948 they were powerful enough to declare independence. A number of Biblical scholars and historians have tried to identify who the ancient names of the nations refer to nowadays. Some suggest that Gog refers to the country of Russia. Their explanation is as follows: In Ezekiel 38 verse 3 says (Authorised version) “God says, behold I am against you O Gog, the chief prince.” Now the Authorised version of the Bible is slightly misleading here. The Hebrew word for “chief” there is the word “Rosh”, and Hebrew scholars say that it is a proper noun, so should be left as the word Rosh and not translated into English. In other words the nation called Gog is identified as the prince of Rosh, which is the ancient Hebrew word for the nation of Russia. Scholars have also looked at who else will join with Russia. Some suggest the other countries are as follows: Persia the land of Iran, Iraq, and Qatar Ethiopia the land just below Egypt (Sudan) Libya Libya Gomer France and Western Europe (“Gomer” is the Hebrew word for the Gauls who settled in France and Western Europe) Togarmah Turkey Magog Germany These countries may or may not be correctly identified. However, one thing is for certain. A group of many nations will come together and attack Israel, and this will be a sign that Jesus will return.