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the different prophets have shown either in vision by figures, symbols, and similitudes, or by plain language, in speaking of what is to arise in the latter days, all refers to this one great manifestation, and as the features of it are many, therefore different prophets have viewed them and described them from different standpoints, each one presenting some featurs which the others did not. But when we group together all that the Lord has said by his servants the prophets, we have then not only the bold outlines of this great subject presented before us, but also the different parts and more minute details to study; and when we consider that the Lord has had all these things in mind and in purpose from the creation of the world, and that therefore what he has done in the past in connection with the nations of the earth has been to mould and fashion all things with a view to this great day, and what is to follow, it invests this great matter with a grandeur and an importance that should demand the admiration and careful attention of every lover of truth and righteousness.

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SIXTH, THE BEAST IN REVELATION

The next notable Scripture that we shall now refer to, where Gog and his great multitude are brought to view, is in the prophecy of Christ, the Book of the Revelation. This book is called "The Spirit of prophecy"; that is, it is a concentration of the things contained in the visions and revelations of the prophets. John was shown this great confederation of nations under the symbol of a beast that rose up out of the sea, as it is described in chapter 13, of Revelation, as follows, saying, "And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion."

This beast rises out of the sea of nations; he is called "Gog" by Ezekiel, "the Assyrian" by Isaiah, and "the beast" by John. This beast therefore comes from his place out of the north parts and rises up, or as it is said of Gog, "ascends" out of the sea of nations, and comes up upon Israel's land in the latter days against God's people Israel, as it is said of the Assyrian, "to take the prey, and to tread them down as the mire of the streets." This beast was shown in vision to Daniel also, but not in such a concentrated form. Daniel saw four beasts, John saw but one. Daniel saw a lion, a bear, a leopard, and a fourth beast (a nondescript), dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, having great iron teeth, but John saw all of Daniel's four concentrated into one. Therefore the beast that John saw had a mouth like a lion, feet like a bear, and a body like a leopard. The beast also that John saw had seven heads and ten horns. What is there in Daniel's vision to answer to that?

Daniel saw four beasts; one of the number (the leopard) had four heads which, with the other three, would make the seven heads. The fourth beast had ten horns, which completes the list; so that in Daniel's vision there were four beasts with seven heads and ten horns, and in John's vision there are Daniel's four beasts concentrated into one, with seven heads and ten horns, thus conclusively showing that the vision of Daniel and the vision of John are one and the same thing.

And again, if Gog and his multitude are the same power as the beast that rises out of the sea, then it follows that inasmuch as the beast of the Revelation has seven heads, Gog of Ezekiel has seven heads also, to answer to the seven heads of the beast; and so it transpires that Gog has seven heads, which we will now enumerate.

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The Lord says of Gog by the hand of Ezekiel that he is the chief prince of Meshech, and Tubal (those are two); and he adds, "Persia, Ethiopia and Libya with them (they make five); Gomer, and all his bands, the house of Togarmah, of the north quarters, and all his bands" (they are two more, making seven). These are not only the seven heads of Gog's confederacy, but they are also the heads of the beast of the Revelation, and these seven heads are the seven mountains on which the woman sitteth, which is shown in this way: first, the woman sits "upon many waters" (Rev. 17:1); second, she sits upon a scarlet coloured beast having seven heads and ten horns" (verse 3); third, "the seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth" (verse 9). Now the woman does not sit upon three different things, but upon one thing which is represented by three different figures. She sits upon waters, upon a beast with seven heads, and upon seven mountains. Therefore if you have the interpretation of one of the things which she sits upon, you have the interpretation of all three. And so it is said (verse 15), The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." And by the hand of Ezekiel the Lord points out who they are and calls them by name, and sums them all up as, "Gog and all his multitude." John drops the name of "Gog," and simply speaks of them as "multitudes." By this simple and scriptural method of interpretation we are delivered from this modern Protestant clerical absurdity which say that the woman of the Revelation is the Pope and people, and that the seven mountains on which the woman sitteth are the seven little knolls on which the city of Rome is built. This woman, and what is said of her has no more reference to the Pope of Rome and the Catholic Church over which he presides than it has to Joseph Smith and the Mormons of Utah, which we will more fully show hereafter. We have thus called attention to some of the chief places where Gog is spoken of, elsewhere than in Ezekiel's prophecies, and by other titles. But we will now return to our subject, as it is further testified of by Ezekiel (38: 18) saying, "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."

Now this point of time when God's fury comes up in his face transpires, as it is set forth in the Book of Revelation (7:18), under the sounding of the seventh trumpet, saying, "And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear thy name, small and great, and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth," first the Jew, and afterwards the Gentile, namely, Gog and all his multitude, and the rebellious house of Israel against whom the Lord sends them.

Again (verse 19-20) the Lord says, "Surely 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 heavens, 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 all the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground." This great shaking in the land of Israel in the day of judgment is that which is so often spoken of in the Revelation as voices, thunders, lightnings, and earthquakes." The fowls of the air, fishes of the sea, beasts of the field, creeping things, mountains, steep places, and walls are figurative expressions by which people of all grades and classes are spoken of, the same as it is said in the eighth Psalm, of Christ, "Thou hast put all things under his feet," and, "All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passes through the paths of the seas." This is spoken not simply of sheep, oxen, fowls, fish, and things of that kind, but of people.

THE DESTRUCTION OF GOG

"And I will call for a sword against him through all my mountains, saith the Lord God; every man's sword shall be against his brother" (Ezek. 38: 21). This manner of warfare that the Lord, the God of Israel, by his power over mankind so efficaciously employs in overthrowing his enemies, is worthy of more than a passing notice, for this is done by so operating on men's minds. that a man comes to regard his neighbor at his elbow as his enemy, insomuch that he falls upon him and slays him. The same power that the Lord possesses to cure a man of lunacy, madness, and every form of mental and physical infirmity, can also be employed to inflict those infirmities, and therefore the Lord says by the hand of Zechariah (2: 2-4), "Behold I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege, both against Judah and against Jerusalem, and in that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people; all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it." And now observe what follows, for the Lord saith, "In that day I will smite every horse (soldier) with astonishment, and his rider (officer) with madness, and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah (the remnant), and I will smite every horse of the people with blindness."

Now it must be observed that in all the great battles between the Lord's people Israel and the nations, when the Lord fought for his people, this was one of the means that he used to discomfit the enemy, so that victory crowned Israel's banners whether their numbers were few or many. A good illustration of this is found in the history of Gideon, whose army the Lord reduced to three hundred men, and into their hand he delivered the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east, who were like the sand of the sea for multitude, and who lay along the valley like grasshoppers. Into the hand of Gideon and his three hundred the Lord delivered this army, for when Gideon and his men at the command of the Lord blew their trumpets in the middle watch of the night, and dashed their earthen pitchers to pieces upon the ground, and shouted, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon." Then the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host. And the Midianites were defeated with a great slaughter (Judges 7).

This is therefore one of the means by which Gog and his army will fall upon the mountains of Israel after their work is accomplished upon the rebellious house of Israel. Another means of destruction that the Lord will use against them is the burning pestilence, which Zechariah says operates as follows (14: 12-13): "And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. And it shall come to pass in that day that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them, and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor." And we have shown also from other Scriptures, the Lord turns every man's sword against his brother. Another means of destruction that the Lord says that he will employ against Gog is an overflowing rain and great hailstones, fire and brimstone. The ter rible and deadly nature of this plague of the hail can be estimated by referring to the plagues of Egypt, where it is said (Exod. 9: 23), " And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along the ground, and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation."

Again when Joshua fought against the five kings that came up against Gibeon, because they had made peace with Israel in the day when "the sun stood still upon Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of Ajalon, and hasted not to go down about a whole day, until the people avenged themselves upon their enemies," at that time, it is said, "And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel and were in the going down to Beth-horon, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah and they died. They were more which died with hail stones, than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword" (Joshua 10: 11). And in the last days, when the plagues of old Egypt are to be visited upon spiritual Egypt, namely, the rebellious and idolatrous house of Israel, one of the plagues that God visits upon them under the pouring out of the seventh vail is a great hail which falls “ upon them out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent." And yet this has not produced repentance, for it is said, And men (that is the idolators of Israel) blasphemed God because of the hail, for the plague thereof was exceeding great" (Rev. 16:21).

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The judgments that God visits upon Gog and his multitude in the day of their destruction, when God pleads against him with pestilence and blood, when he turns every man's sword against his brother through all their vast armies, and rains hailstones upon them out of heaven, with thunder and lightning which runs along upon the ground as it did in Egypt, these judgments constitute what is known in the Book of the Revelation (19-20) as "the Lake of fire and brimstone," and it is into this lake that Gog, or "the Assyrian," or "the Beast," and the kings of the earth and their armies" are cast alive to be consumed; and it is by the spirit of God that these deadly and destructive agencies are used against the wicked and against the armies of the aliens for

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their destruction, and it is by the word of the Lord which is called "the breath of his mouth" that these things are done. Therefore it is spoken of by the prophets as follows: Isaiah says of Christ," He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked" (Isa. 11:4). Again it is said of him, "Out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations" (Rev. 19: 15). Again the prophet Isaiah says, The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, kindles the fires of Tophet" (where the Assyrian is to be consumed) (Isa. 30:33).

It is into these fires of God's wrath that the resurrected wicked are cast, which will burn them up root and branch, exterminating them utterly; and those who have eyes to see, and ears to hear, will understand from the testimony of the prophets on this matter that the hell for the wicked is not in the subterranean regions of the earth, but upon the face of the earth, and at the city and environs of Jerusalem. But people who are bewitched with the heathen theory of immortality, namely the immortality of human souls, never can interpret the Holy Scriptures, as we have before shown; for their fancied immortality and their fancied hell, where they suppose that wicked people burn forever without being burned up, is utterly false, and mere wind and confusion. The wicked, whether living or those who have been raised from the dead to die the second death, cannot stand fire and therefore they are said to be quenched like tow and like chaff and stubble, and "like the fat of lambs into smoke shall they consume away."

THE LORD'S GLORIFICATION

After the Lord has destroyed Gog and all his multitude, upon the mountains of Israel, after the manner that he points out by Ezekiel (38:23), he says, “Thus will I magnify myself and sanctify myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord." The punishments that are inflicted, first upon the house of Israel, and afterwards upon the nations, are to teach them that God is the Lord; not simply that there is a God, or one God only and none other, but that he is Lord and all that name implies, and that he is to be honored as such by our believing his word and obeying his voice, and by keeping his statutes, his commandments, his judgments, and his laws, as Abraham did.

The Lord says of the nations and countries that are round about Jerusalem, "They have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them" (Ezek. 5:6). Even in the days of the apostles when the Lord sent out his servants commanding all nations to repent and believe the gospel, although this command was enforced by the working of wonders, signs, and miracles, even to raising the dead, yet not a single government, Jew or Gentile, obeyed the command. A few, mostly obscure individuals in the lower walks of life, gave ear to the word and obeyed the gospel. And now as all mild and persuasive measures have failed, both with Israel, and the nations, the Lord will break their stubborn, rebellious, and haughty spirits with a rod of iron, with the sword, with famine, with the pestilence, and with hailstones.

Such measures as these are the only means by which the nations of the earth can be taught obedience and the fear of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah

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