Blood Moons, By Gog!

No, that's not a "typo" in the header. Previously I have written extensively on the coming ( perhaps sooner than we may reasonably expect) of the World War that is generally referred to, Biblically, as the Gog/Magog Invasion of Israel. I have taken the speculative position that I believe the scriptural language in various passages ( such as Ezekiel 38: 17, etc.; Joel 2:28, and Revelation 6: 12 through 17), which refer specifically to a massive military invasion of northern Israel by an alliance of nations led by Russia ( whose leader God refers to as "Gog" in Ezekiel 38, and 39; from the "land of Magog"), and several other nations that are overwhelmingly controlled by Muslim governments, seems to describe a defeat of the invading armies by Israel, materially, through the divine urging of God who has apparently reached the end of His patience with these murderously anti-semitic nations.

This invasion seems to be precipitated by a Sarin-gas-like attack upon the population of northern Israel, which perhaps has less than the intended effect of annihilation ( perhaps because the Israeli government has been distributing free gas masks to its citizens for decades), but it opens up the right of Israel to defend it's people according to international standards using "weapons of mass destruction" including Tactical Nuclear Weapons. This seems to be the case as the Bible describes God as saying that He will rain fire, and pestilence upon the invaders, with blood , and fire, and hail, and "brimstones" ( the same terms used to describe the destruction of Sodom and Gommorah). This type of military defensive action seems to have already begun, perhaps by Israel, when in early August of last year a large weapons stockpile which apparently included missiles aimed at Israel was mysteriously blown up by a small nuclear explosion, outside of the Syrian city of Homs, which is under the control of pro-Assad forces. Could this be Israel's way of firing "a warning shot across the bow" of Syria's forces, to let them know what they faced if they continued their aggression? This was captured on the internet and displayed on Youtube, mushroom cloud and all, for all to see. So between Assad's reputed use of Sarin gas upon the rebel towns held by the insurgent forces, and this apparent Israeli use of tactical nuclear weapons, it appears that the stage is set for the Gog/Magog invasion.

Lately the Christian community has become rather intrigued by the reports of the so-called "Blood Moon" eclipses that scientists tell us are set to appear over the next two years ( one on April 15th, and again coinciding with the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, in the fall, and repeated in 2015). These astronomical phenomenon have occurred in the past, including 1948 ( coinciding with the official rebirth of Israel as a nation, which God had prophecied) and again in 1967 ( coinciding with the Israeli retaking of East Jerusalem, from their Arab enemies). The fact that these "Blood Moon" eclipses are not expected to happen again for another 100 years lends credibility to the belief that whatever God is warning His people about may be of cataclysmic importance. So, calling these mere coincidences is difficult for Bible-believing Christians to swallow, and that leads to the expectation that God may be planning to allow something big to occur at the times of these "Moon Blood" eclipses, perhaps even signaling the soon-expected Invasion of Israel, which He has described as His method of declaring to the world that He exists, and He is in control, when he allows the eventual destruction of 83% of this invading army ( mostly by the revolt of the invaders, presumably against their commanders who could be expected to try to turn a panicked retreat from Israel's defenses, with the resulting "every man's sword shall be against his brother"). I don't know if this is accurate or not, but it certainly seems plausible to me.

Regardless, I am troubled by the description in Revelation chapter 6, when it refers to this phenomenon as the angelic opening of "the sixth seal [when]...the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood". This seems to describe what we have discussed above, yet what follows immediately is more troubling. Verse 13 says: "...the stars of heaven fell unto the earth ( which is literally impossible without destroying all of the earth, which does not happen), but remember this account is the Apostle John's description of his heavenly vision, described in his own words. Which raises the question of what he might be describing. It occurs to me that he might be describing a vision of a nuclear holocaust, which is supported by the description that follows of what seems to be the race to seek underground shelter by "the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men [who]...hid themselves in the dens and the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, 'fall on us and hide us ... from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is come'". Of course they are in error, but it will certainly seem so to non- believers.

This account closes Revelation 6, which is immediately followed by John's description in Revelation 7, which talks about four angels withholding the destruction that occurs in Revelation 8, until the sealing of the 144,000 witnesses of God has been accomplished. The timing of this seems rather unnecessary to me since there are hundreds of millions of Christian witnesses on the earth today. So, could it be that coinciding with this sealing of 144,000 witnesses this might be the timing of God's removal of the hundreds of millions of other witnesses from the earth, which we refer to as the Rapture of believers to meet Jesus in the air??? The descriptions of the Rapture say that we will meet Jesus in the air, not that He will actually land on the Mount of Olives, which will happen when He defends Israel in the battle of Armageddon before He ushers in His Kingdom Of Heaven on Earth. If my Biblical reasoning here is at all accurate, which I do not claim to necessarily be the case, then it would seem that the Gog/Magog Invasion might be just around the corner and the Rapture could possibly follow that immediately, with what seems to be a nuclear holocaust between Russia and the U.S. happening afterwards, and Jesus' final return to establish His Kingdom to come in as little as seven years following that ( the length of time for the Great Tribulation?).

Whatever, it seems safe to say that however this all shakes out, the certainty of Jesus' Words that we should, "look up, for your redemption draweth nigh" seems more, and more relevant with each passing day!!!