The Copper Scroll	Contributor Joel Rosenberg Joel C. Rosenberg is the New York Times best-selling author of THE LAST JIHAD (2002), THE LAST DAYS (2003), and THE EZEKIEL OPTION (2005), with more than one million copies in print. He previously served as a senior advisor to several U.S. and Israeli leaders, including Steve Forbes, Rush Limbaugh, former Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Natan Sharansky, and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He has been interviewed on more than 300 radio and TV shows, including ABC's "Nightline," CBN's 700 Club, CNN Headline News, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, the Michael Reagan Show, the Rush Limbaugh Show and the Sean Hannity Show.. Website - [go to Rosenberg Index]
The Ezekiel Option
The Last Days
The Last Jihad
Epicenter

"I don't think the situation has gotten out of control, but I don't have the certainty that the return of the soldiers will stop the conflict," Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the G8 Summit in St. Petersburg.

The introduction of Russian ground troops into the region would be a dangerous development. Russia is an increasingly close ally of Iran and Syria. Moscow recently sold Tehran $1 billion of new missiles and conventional weaponry. Moscow is selling new missiles to Damascus. The Kremlin has long had designs on taking over the Middle East, and U.S. foreign policy for the second half of the 20th century was aimed at keeping Russian forces out of the region, for good reason. What's more, Moscow is currently running interference for Iran at the U.N., preventing the international community from taking tougher steps to prevent Iran from going nuclear.

Bible prophecy, however, tells us that a Russian incursion into the region is inevitable. The Hebrew prophet Ezekiel, writing some 2,500 years ago, wrote in chapters 38 and 39 of the Book of Ezekiel that a dictator will emerge in Russia and that Russia and the Central Asian republics will form an alliance with Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and other Islamic countries in the Middle East to attack Israel in the "last days" before the return of the Messiah. It was this prophecy that formed the basis of my novel, The Ezekiel Option.

I've been getting a lot of emails in recent days asking whether the current crisis in the Middle East are the early stages of Ezekiel 38-39 coming true. In two back-to-back sermons I delivered yesterday at Greenwood Community Church in Denver, Colorado, I explained the prophecy and addressed that question.

The truth is it's too soon to say for sure that this is the beginning of what Bible scholars call the "War of Gog and Magog." More pieces would need to fall into place to know for certain. Remarkably, however, it is not out of the realm of possibility. As difficult as it is for some to believe we could be living through the fulfillment of major end times Bible prophecies, the prophecies found in Ezekiel 36 and 37 have already largely come true in our lifetime. These chapters involve the rebirth of the State of Israel, the regathering of Jews to the Holy Land after centuries of exile around the world, the rebuilding of the ancient ruins in Israel, and the blooming of the deserts. This process began in the early 1900s, accelerated in 1948 and 1967 and have continued up to this present moment. Meanwhile, Israel has become a very prosperous country, as the prophecy requires, and Russia and Iran have begun to form a military alliance for this first time in human history.

What would have to happen next if Ezekiel 38 and 39 are coming true? Here is what to be watching for:

• Does Russia take the lead in building a coalition to destroy Israel? Ezekiel is clear that the Russian dictator referred to as "Gog" takes the lead is developing and executing his "evil scheme."
• Do all the countries cited by Ezekiel join Russia’s coalition? See below.
• Does the whole world abandon Israel, including the United States? Currently the U.S. is standing with Israel, as is Canada. Even the G8 issued a statement defending Israel's right to exist. But the Scriptures are clear, Israel will be totally alone when Russia and Iran attack.

• Russia and former Soviet states (what Ezekiel called Magog, Rosh, Meshech and Tubal)
• Iran (Persia)
• Sudan and Ethiopia (Cush)
• Libya, Tunisia and Algeria (Put)
• Turkey (Gomer)
• Syria, Lebanon, possibly Jordan ("many peoples with you" including those along the "mountains of Israel")
• Central Asian Islamic republics (Beth Togarmah)