The Gog and Magog of Prophecy

By Richard Govier

If Gog and Magog are in the process of being fulfilled, then the one thousand years of the “binding of Satan” has been also fulfilled. What is confronting the world today is the final battle of Armegedon, and the Great Judgment in which Satan and his host will be cast into the lake of fire.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard Govier
• Release date: May 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463772683

Richard Govier

Richard O. Govier (1928-2018) was a Protestant pastor and missionary and travelled the world in that capacity. He planted a number of churches as well as training pastors who served in Brazil, Chile, Argentina and across the United States.After his marriage to his lifetime sweetheart, Christine Ann Golfis, at the Bethesda Missionary College in Portland, Oregon, he attended extension classes at Pierce College and the Portland State college. Touched by the Latter Rain revival that began in the Northwest, the call of God rested continually on their hearts and they were forever seeking means of preaching the Gospel to their generation. They bought a small trailer and began an evangelistic trek across the United States, preaching in small churches that were open to the work and moving of the Holy Spirit. They criss-crossed the United States from Los Angeles to New York and finally settled down in Los Angeles where they both got jobs and attended a church in Long Beach, California. While serving in that church their son, Jeffrey Lee, was born on November 4, 1963.God had spoken through prophetic words that they would be going to a land whose language they would not understand. Going through a dry period in their lives, Richard loaded up a small tent and made a trip to Mount Palomar, to wait on God. After a week of prayer and fasting, the Holy Spirit spoke to his heart that it was time to fulfill the call to a foreign land. Richard, Christine, and Jeff, set out for Brazil. They had no financial support for this until the night they boarded the ship. God sent a local Christian businessman who committed himself to their support for two years, just enough time to attend language school.It was while attending the Brazilian language school that a missionary visited and introduced Richard to one of Brazil's most notable guitar players, who had recently converted to Christianity. Richard played with him on the banjo and the two began a ministry together that took them to Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. Richard taught pastors in afternoon meetings, while accompanying his Brazilian friend in large city-wide evangelistic campaigns in the evenings.After serving for ten years in South America, Richard and Christine returned to the United States, primarily to get Jeff into an English-speaking school. Richard pastored churches in York, Pennsylvania, and later in Brooksville, New Jersey. The family eventually moved to Florida where Richard went to work for Piper Aircraft and Page Avjet.Richard loved studying the word of God and, in his retirement years, wrote over thirty books about the unfolding revelations of God in human history. His son, Jeff, published these books one year after his father passed away.

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THE GOG AND MAGOG OF PROPHECY

Richard O. Govier

Copyright © 2020 by Jeff Govier

Bible quotations unless otherwise identified are taken from

the King James Version with emendations by the author.

After reading this book and finding it of value to you, please consider sending a small donation for the the costs of advertising my father's work. Send all donations either by Paypal account name [e-mail] or by mail to:

Jeff Govier, 5511 Lorraine St., Lakeland, FL 33810.

CONTENTS

Introduction

I. The Magog Of The North

II. The Gog And Magog Of Ezekiel

III. The Gog And Magog Of Revelation

About the Author

THE GOG AND MAGOG OF PROPHECY

Introduction

Long before history began there existed evidence of an ancient people that inhabited the mountain region of Ararat. Stone age remnants found in Armenia, says Vahan Kurkjian, prove that the country has been inhabited from a time far back beyond human records. Even in ages so long ago that Mesopotamia was still under water, the Armenian tableland was occupied by a people who gradually moved down to such parts of the plain as became habitable with the recession of the waters. The Biblical story of the Flood and the spread of mankind to the plains of Shinar are therefore based upon a telescoping of eons of history into a few weeks. True, the Ararat group of mountains was at one time almost surrounded by water, but it stood that way for ages instead of days, as the old Hebrew legends relate.¹

According to Genesis the Ark of Noah came to rest, as the flood waters receded, on the mountains of Ararat which could have meant any one of the peaks that made up the tangled mountain mass of that country. The Armenians call the highest of these peaks Massis which is some 17,000 feet above sea level, while lesser Ararat rises to about 12,840 feet.

Many scientists and historians have looked upon the biblical account of the Flood as a myth; but all down through human history there has persisted legends about a great flood that wiped out the human race. It has not been until the invention of the satellite that scientists have been faced with undeniable evidence that there does exist, on the mountains of Ararat, an object resembling Noah’s ark with the dimensions specified in the Bible. Not only do the remnants of Noah’s ark exist today, but there is evidence that the prophetic word given to Noah’s sons are still relevant to this day; and that Noah was no imaginary figure described in the stories of ancient kings (such as the Babylonian account of Gilgemesh) but that Noah was what the Bible describes him to be, the progenitor of a new family whose sons gave birth to the present order of human beings on this planet.

We shall not, in this study, be going into the history, or origin of all the nations that came out of Noah other than as it relates to Gog and Magog, that ancient power of the North that resided beyond the Caucuses. [But see my book The Tree of Abraham for a detailed review of the genealogies.] In Jewish, Christian, and Muslim literature we find references to Gog and Magog cast in ominous tones as though they were the ultimate personification of evil.

Perhaps the reason that civilization has cast them in such a light is because so little has been known about them. It has not been until recently that we have become aware of the great role they have played in the development of Europe and of the world. What glimpse we get of this people in history they appear as nomads with an unusual ability at commerce and trade. They were a dominating race who imposed their will on their neighboring tribes until not less than thirty tribal groups were paying them tribute. Even the Vikings, who were feared by all, were forced to pay their dues before crossing their territory. Who were these people? And where did they come from? They were the Khazars, descendants of Gog and Magog of the House of Japheth, a son of Noah.

We shall attempt, in this treatise, to separate fact from fiction and show the relationship of this people to the prophecy of Ezekiel, and that of John the Revelator. Both the prophecy of Ezekiel and the prophecy of John are separate events, but apparently involve the same race of people.

Notes

1. A History of Armenia, Vahan M. Kurkjiam, American General Benevolent Union, New York, 1958

I. THE MAGOG OF THE NORTH

Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood. (Genesis 10:1)

The Descendants Of Japheth

"The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras." (Genesis 10:2)

For Jews, Christians, and Muslims who take the genealogies of Genesis to be historically accurate, Japheth is commonly believed to be the father of the Europeans.¹ The link between Japheth and the Europeans stems from Genesis 10:5, which states that the sons of Japheth moved to the ‘isles of the Gentiles,’ commonly believed to be the Greek isles.² The Bible does not go into detail as to what happened to the family of Noah once they had departed from the ark on the mountains of Ararat. The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that they inhabited the mountains Taurus and Amanus.³ A short distance south west of Massis, [the highest peak of the Ararat Mountains] lie the Aladagh (Dzagh-gantz) mountains, with one peak rising to 11,500 feet, their slopes covered with pasturage. South of the Armenian plateau is another range, the many-branched Taurus, extending westward and forming the natural frontier between Armenia and northern Mesopotamia. Further southeast, on the southern edge of historic Armenia, lie the Gorduq Mountains, from which flows the western branch (Bohtan-Su) of the Tigris. The main stream and feeders of the Western Tigris emerge from the Taurus heights, which divide this watershed from that of the Aradzani.⁴

According to Josephus, Japhet, the son of Noah, had seven sons: …beginning at the mountains Taurus and Amanus, they proceeded along Asia, as far as the river Tanais (Don), and along Europe to Cadiz; and settling themselves on the lands which they light upon, which none had inhabited before, they called the nations by their own names." Josephus subsequently detailed the nations supposed to have descended from the seven.

* Gomer: Scythians, Turks, Armenians, Welsh, Picts, Irish, Germans

* Magog: Scythians, Slavs, Irish, Hungarians

* Madai: Mitanni, Mannai, Medes, Persians, Indo-Aryans, Kurds

* Javan: Greeks (Ionians)

* Tubal: Tabali, Georgians, Italics, Illyrians, Iberians, Basques

* Meshech: Phrygians, Caucasus Iberians, Algonquians

* Tiras: Thracians, Goths, Jutes, Teutons

Gomer

The Book of Genesis does tell us that Gomer had three sons: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah (Genesis 10:3). National tradition represents the Armenians as descendants of Japheth, Noah’s third son [probably the second son of Noah], and coming to the plateau in later centuries from Babylon. They are connected with the Torgom - Togarmah and Ashkenaz of the Old Testament. Tularemia (Gurin), a fortress of Melitine (Malatia), is identified with the name of the people called Cimmers or Gimmers, the Gimirri of Assyrian inscriptions.⁵

Javan

As for the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim, the Bible says: By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations (Genesis 10:4, 5). "The name corresponds etymologically with Ionia, and denotes the Greeks. From early days the country had commercial relations with Phoenicia (Ezekiel 27:13; Joel 3:6).

Other than what Josephus says, we have little information as to the ancient history of these tribes other than spotty accounts by Herodotus, by Homer, by the Bible and certain inscriptions found in Assyria. Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim became a maritime people inhabiting the coasts of the east Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea. Kittim inhabited Cyprus and other Islands and coasts of the east Mediterranean (Numbers 24:24; Isaiah 23:1, 12; Jeremiah 2:10; Daniel 11:30). Tarshish exported silver beaten into plates (Jeremiah 10:9). Elishah and his descendants were exporters of blue and purple dye. Dodanim (Rodanim) inhabited the Island of Rhodes and the neighboring Islands of the Aegean Sea.

Meshech and Tubal

In the days of Tiglathpileser I (1115-1102 B.C.) and Shalmaneser III (860-825 B.C.), the land of Musku, that is Meshech, lay in the mountains to the north of Assyria and bordered on Tubal in the west. They were gradually driven north to near the Black Sea. Herodotus calls the two races the Moschoi and Tibarenoi, and locates them in the mountains southeast of the Black Sea.⁶

Madai

Madai is clearly identified as being the Medes. Media is …a country in Asia lying east of the Zagro Mountains, south of the Caspian Sea, west of Parthia, and north of Elam. A great part of Media proper was a tableland 3,000 feet high. The pasturage was excellent, and the country was noted for its horses. The aborigines were conquered by an Indo-European people, the Madai of Genesis 10:2.⁷ When Sargon captured Samaria, 722 B.C., he placed Israelites in the cities of the Medes (II Kings 17:6; 18:11). Media, successfully rebelled, and Cyrus, King of Anshan, became King of Media and Persia. The conquerors and the conquered were both of the fine Aryan race, and they became a dual nation, Medio-Persia."⁸

Josephus names Persia as being descendants of Madai, the son of Japheth. This may explain their close kinship in the uniting of the two nations under Cyrus the Great. But the aborigines who were conquered and replaced by the Madai create a problem that is hard to explain. If the Flood of Noah had wiped out the inhabitants of the earth, then from whence did these people come? Who were these people that already inhabited the tableland of the Zagros Mountains? Either they were survivors of the Great Flood, or they constituted an earlier migration of Noah’s descendants.

And then there are the Elamites, who are a non-Semitic people, but who are listed under the descendants of Shem (Genesis 10:22). Their language, however, has some relations to the Caucasian or Japhetic group and was in use for at least 4,000 years.⁹ At the early period they had settled in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley; in fact the Elamites, or a people closely related to them, constituted an important element in the pre-Sumerian population of Babylon.¹⁰ The capital of the Elamites was at Shushan or Susa and was the seat of an ancient empire. Elam, joining with Media, was ultimately to capture Babylon (Isaiah 21:2). The capture of Babylon by Cyrus the Mede seemed to set the stage for the rise of the Persian Empire which claimed Susa as its capital and Elam as a providence of the Persian Empire (Daniel 8:2; Herod. iii. 91; iv. 83; v. 49). The Elamites seem to have been closely associated with the Persians as if they were of the same