Gog and Magogin It!..Again – The Prophecy Pundits Remix an Old Track
By Robert E. Cruickshank, Jr.
Daniel E. Harden (Editor)
Copyright © Robert E. Cruickshank, Jr. (June 21, 2025)
All Rights Reserved
With a vulgar twist on a Biblical term, Def Leppard famously titled one of their songs Armageddon It. Lyrical content aside, the song’s title is apropos to modern pop-prophecy. Every time world events shake up, the prophecy pundits riff off the news – with things that they make up. By tying today’s headlines to Biblical times, they are very much Armageddon It, so to speak. Fittingly, their take on all of this has about as much to do with Bible prophecy as the lyrics of that Def Leppard song.
But Armageddon isn’t the only song on the prophecy pundits’ playlist. Ezekiel’s “Gog of the land of Magog” is another chart-topper on their end-times station. Russia hits Ukraine, Hamas hits Israel, Israel hits Iran… and the pundits’ hits just keep on coming.[1] With every new conflict, the prophecy speculators cue up Ezekiel’s track yet again – tweaking it and remixing it to fit the latest headlines. In that sense, you could say they’re Gog and Magogin It.
Now, Gog and Magogin It may or may not be the same tune as Armageddon It. The pundits can’t seem to decide if the battle of Gog and Magog is just another name for the battle of Armageddon or a separate song on their setlist.[2] But their indecisiveness here is another topic for another day. For today, Gog is back—and he’s on the attack. And right on cue, the sellers of sensation were quick to react.
War! What is it Good For?
While we’re on the topic of songs, War!, by Edwin Starr, is arguably one of the most impactful songs of all time.[3] In terms of lyrics, music, and meaning, Def Leppard could have learned a lot from Starr. With that said, the prophecy speculators could learn a few things from Edwin Starr’s song as well. For them, war is good for a lot of things. It’s good for propping up their doomsday scenarios. It’s good for shoehorning the Biblical text to fit their newsfeed. And it’s good for jacking up their YouTube ratings.
Case in point: a recent video by James Kaddis, titled Israel at War with Iran: Update With Bible Prophecy Discussion! Not missing an opportunity to pad his views with the recent Israel-Iraq news, Kaddis speculates on the possibility of “whether or not this is Ezekiel 38,”[4] and he recounts a conversation he had with fellow prophecy pundit Jack Hibbs, which took place shortly after Israel’s strike on Iran:
“Earlier today, I was talking to Jack Hibbs. Actually, while I was on the plane I was texting Jack Hibbs and he said, ‘you know this is a time where people who have been teaching Bible prophecy for hundreds of years uh would have loved to live in.’ And I totally agree with Jack I think Jack is just so spot-on.”[5]
Kaddis’s comments here should give listeners pause – twice, in fact – because it’s troubling on at least two levels.
First, it’s not just “hundreds of years” – but it has been 2600 years, to be precise. That’s how long ago Ezekiel delivered his prophecy. According to the prophecy pundits, it still awaits fulfillment.
If this is the case, how was this relevant to either Ezekiel or his original audience? He was writing to people in exile, who were concerned about the fate of their children and grandchildren after the exile was over. How does modern-day Israel’s attack on Iran in the 21st century speak to those concerns, address their current situation at the time, or offer them any hope or comfort at all?
This brings us to the second cause for pause. Kaddis and Hibbs claim that Bible prophecy teachers “for hundreds of years” would have loved to have lived in the time we’re living in now. Why?
Because of a military strike? Because of Israel’s recent attack on Iran? Because of violence and war?
This is par for the course for Hibbs, as he has a history of getting excited about war.[6]
Hopefully, the reader can see the problem. Hopefully, Hibbs and Kaddis will both come to realize the coldness of their careless comments. Hopefully, believers will someday stop weaponizing Bible prophecy to justify war.
We all say things that we shouldn’t from time to time, and there is no other way to say this: their excitement over destruction and the loss of human life is disconcerting and disturbing. In a word, it’s sickening.
A Better Approach, Sort Of
The prospect of war in the Middle East has all the prophecy speculators humming the same tune, dusting off the Gog and Magog lyric sheets, and turning up the volume – even the ones whom we’ve not heard from in a while.
For example, self-described “biblical scholar and cultural commentator” Dr. Michael Brown hadn’t made much noise for some time – seven months, to be exact. But once he heard the music playing, Brown couldn’t help getting in on the act. When the latest airstrikes dropped, he dropped his latest video within days![7] Desperate for a hit, Brown chimed in and sang along to the Gog and Magogin It song, belting out the chorus with gusto.
To his credit, Brown offers a much more tempered and reasonable approach. He reminds his audience that “our first focus should not be on prophecy but on people.” Lamenting the tragedy on both sides, he asks us to remember that “families are dying,” and “the missiles are indiscriminate.” He reiterates that these are all “human beings” for “whom Jesus died,” and calls on believers to “pray for God’s best” for Israelis and Iranians alike.
This is refreshing, and kudos to Dr. Brown – I couldn’t agree more. Nonetheless, Brown still can’t avoid doing the end-times twist and spinning the Gog and Magogin It riff. But to cue up the track in chapters 38 and 39, he first drops the needle on an earlier groove in chapters 36 and 37. In order to take one step forward into the future, Brown takes two steps back into Ezekiel’s past – specifically, Ezekiel’s past chapters.
Brown Backs Up So He Can Zoom Ahead
While Brown fully concedes – and accurately describes – Ezekiel’s context as dealing with the return from exile, he argues that “the return of the Jewish people from exile does not live up to what’s described here in Ezekiel 36.” Why? Because verse 26 says: “I’ll give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you. I’ll remove the heart of stone from your body, give you a heart of flesh. I’ll put my spirit in you… then you’ll dwell in the land.”[8]
According to Brown, that didn’t happen after the exile. He concludes: “So there is a return still to come there” – a return “that has been ongoing for many decades now as God continues to fulfill Ezekiel 36.”[9]
In other words, Brown must rewind to chapter 36 and then fast-forward it into our future. That way, he can take the leap to chapters 38 and 39, and start Gog and Magogin It all over again.
Thus, Brown doesn’t deny that the historical context of 36 has to do with the return from exile, but he does deny that chapter 36 was fully fulfilled in the return from exile. And if there is more to come in our future regarding chapter 36, then there is more to come with regard to chapters 38-39 as well. He puts it this way: “So, what I’m saying is chapter 36 was relevant in Ezekiel’s day, but it’s also relevant to today” and “maybe Ezekiel 38 and 39 are relevant to this moment.”[10]
So, Brown backs up to chapter 36, claiming it wasn’t completely fulfilled in past times, so that he can jump ahead to chapters 38-39, and push them into our time – all to fit Gog of Magog (Ezek. 38-39) into his view of the end times. This is all justified by God’s promise that He’ll give the retuning exiles “a new heart” and “a new spirit” (Ezek. 36:26), which supposedly didn’t happen after the return from exile. But Brown’s backup plan backs him right into an obstacle that he can’t get around – or catapult into the future.
Backing Up a Little Further in Ezekiel
The problem with Brown’s approach to Ezekiel 36 is that this same promise of restoration and renewal is made back in Ezekiel chapter 11, and it is specifically made to Ezekiel and his “brothers,” his “relatives,” and his “fellow exiles” (Ezek. 11:14). The recipients of the promise are as specific as the promise itself, as God tells them:
“Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, Though I had removed them far away among the nations and though I had scattered them among the countries, yet I was a sanctuary for them a little while in the countries where they had gone.’ Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries among which you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.” ’ When they come there, they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations from it. And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.’” (Ezek. 11:17-20).
The context is clear as day, and the addressees are the Israel of yesterday. Equally clear are the promises that are made – he will give them (the returning exiles) a new heart and a new spirit.
As Danile Block points out, in these verses, “Yahweh addresses the exiles directly,”[11] and “highlights the fact that the exiles’ deliverance will involve much more than merely reversing the effects of the judgment,” but will include “the establishment of an entirely new order.”[12] Block cleverly observes that Ezekiel describes “the renewal in terms of a heart transplant.”[13] Indeed, this is exactly what the exiles needed, as they were sent into exile specifically because they had “set up idols in their hearts” (Ezek. 14:3), and “their heart continually went after idols” (Ezek. 20:13).
This renewal plays out on the pages of Scripture itself. The newness of the returnees’ spirit is expressed by their wholehearted obedience through the restoration covenant,[14] as they take on themselves “a curse and an oath to walk in God’s law, which was given through Moses, God’s servant, and to keep and to observe all the commandments of God our Lord, and His ordinances and His statutes” (Neh. 10:29).
Far from Brown’s claim of only a partial fulfillment of Ezekiel 36, the exile cured Israel’s heart problem and remedied her idolatry problem.[15] Chapter 37 follows with Ezekiel’s Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, where the formerly dead nation comes to life and all Israel is reunited back in their own land. After the nation was reborn in a day[16] through Cyrus’s decree (Ezra 1:1-7), Ezra records that “all Israel” returned to their own “cities” (Ezra 2:70), and “the sons of Israel” were “gathered together as one man” (Ezra 3:1). With a renewed heart and a restored spirit, the exiles had returned to their land and renewed their covenant with the Lord – meeting every condition for the fulfillment of Ezekiel 36–37.
Given all this, the massive battle described in Ezekiel 38–39 follows logically after chapters 36–37, and the battle in Esther fits the bill, coming historically after the return from exile.
But Brown insists that applying these chapters “to some past event or the book of Esther” is “absolutely wrong, wrong, wrong.”[17] Why? Because Ezekiel 38:11 describes Gog’s attack as coming when Israel is “living without walls, bars, or gates.”[18] For Brown, this points to a future “time of world peace” – a false calm before the final storm of 1 Thessalonians 5.[19] The irony? That description fits Esther’s day precisely – the very time of the attack – and Esther’s own book confirms it.
It Takes an Unwalled Village to Fulfill Ezekiel’s Prophecy
In Ezekiel’s prophecy, Gog’s “evil plan” (Ezek. 38:10) would be set in motion at a time when Israel was called “the land of unwalled villages (perazah)” (Ezek. 38:11). Needless to say, the fulfillment of this verse can’t be found in today’s headlines. Modern-day Israel is protected by a 500-mile-long wall called the “West Bank Barrier.”[20] Where the fulfillment can be found is in the book of Esther.
Esther 9:19 speaks of “the Jews of the rural towns, who live in the “unwalled villages (perazah).” Outside of these two occurrences, the word perazah appears only one other time in the Old Testament, i.e., Zechariah 2:4. Zechariah was written during this unique time in Israel’s history, i.e., after the return from exile, before the battle in the book of Esther, and before Nehemiah had rebuilt the walls. Gary DeMar puts it together:
“We learn that there were Jews who were living in relative peace in ‘unwalled towns’ (Esther 9:19, KJV) when Haman conspired against them. Israel’s antagonists in Ezekiel are said to ‘go up against the land of unwalled villages’ (Ezek. 38:11). The Hebrew word perazah is used in Esther 9:19 and Ezekiel 38:11.9 There’s a very good possibility that God did not want the returning exiles to build a wall before the temple was completed to remind them that He would be their wall and protector: Run, speak to that young man, saying, ‘Jerusalem will be inhabited without walls because of the multitude of men and cattle within it. For I,’ declares the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the glory in her midst’” (Zech. 2:4).[21]
The reference to “unwalled villages” is just one of the many connections that points to the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38-39 in Esther’s time, and not our own time. DeMar and I have addressed the topic of Gog and Magog extensively, and it’s beyond the scope of this article to repeat the work here.[22] The reader is encouraged to consult our works, study the text, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you as you work your way through God’s word. Educate and equip yourself to drown out the sound the next time the prophecy pundits come around and start Gog and Magogin It.
Gog and Magogin It could actually lead to Armageddon It – not in the Biblical sense of the real Armageddon, but in the modern sense of Apocalypse Now. Those who’ve seen the movie will know what I mean. War is good for feeding the prophecy pundits’ Armageddon appetite, but it’s not good for our young men and women losing their lives. It’s also good for those who have a vested interest in the Military Industrial Complex. To Echo Edwin Starr, that is truly all that war is “good for” – and that is “nothing, absolutely nothing!”
Conclusion
Ezekiel 38-39 describes an ancient battle, fought with ancient weapons, played out on the pages of ancient history. Believers today should fight against any and all attempts to weaponize the prophecy by warp-speeding it onto the pages of modern history. When the prophecy pundits start Gog and Magogin It – salivating over war, bloodshed, and doomsday all day long – it’s time for believers to sing a new song (Ps. 40:3). It’s time for believers to sing the Psalmist’s song: we should be for peace…when they are for war (Ps. 120:7). It’s time for believers to catch the melody – it’s a beautiful tune.
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[1] For past incarnations of Gog and Magog in light of current events at the time, See: Robert E. Cruickshank, Jr. Gog & Magog for the Very First Time? – The Burros of Berea https://bit.ly/3G6RXj1 ; Gary DeMar, Is the Israel-Iran Conflict “God’s War”? – The American Vision https://bit.ly/4n8Izw1
[2] For example, see: Les Crawford, The Battle of Gog and Magog – The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry https://bit.ly/43QWLlR
[3] War, what is it good for?. analysis of Edwin Starr’s “War” | by Kaitlyn Roberts | Medium https://bit.ly/3TACScw
[4] Karddis, Israel at War, 10:11–10:23
[5] Karddis, Israel at War, 10:11–10:23
[6] Hibbs has a history of getting excited about war, see: Robert E. Cruickshank Jr., War – It’s Good for Dispensationalism! – The Burros of Berea https://bit.ly/3ZDNuuT ; Robert E. Cruickshank Jr., War – It’s Good for Dispensationalism! – The American Vision https://bit.ly/3G5FoV5
[7] Is This the War of Gog-Magog? Live Q&A with Dr. Brown – YouTube https://bit.ly/4li7lIo
[8] Brown, Is This the War, 15:53
[9] Brown, Is This the War, 15:36-16:07
[10] Brown, Is This the War, 17:01-17:13
[11] Daniel I. Block, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament: The Book of Ezekiel, Chapters 1-24 (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997), 350.
[12] Block, Ezekiel, 351.
[13] Block, Ezekiel, 353.
[14] On the restoration covenant, see: James B. Jordan, Biblical Horizons – Covenants and Dates https://bit.ly/3T22grG
[15] See: Robert E. Cruickshank, Jr. with Daniel E. Harden, Isaiah’s New Heavens and New Earth (Part 8): Trying the Case – Isaiah’s Opening and Closing Arguments – The Burros of Berea https://bit.ly/4e8Jngp
[16] See: : Robert E. Cruickshank, Jr. with Daniel E. Harden, Isaiah’s New Heavens and New Earth (Part 6): Birth, Labor, Rebuilding, Rejoicing – The Burros of Berea https://bit.ly/3HOESv7 ; Robert E. Cruickshank, Jr., Isaiah 66:8 in 1948? Dispensationalism’s Warp Speed Hermeneutic – The Burros of Berea https://bit.ly/43dDTNh ; Gary DeMar, Does Isaiah 66:8 Predict the 1948 Modern State of Israel? – The American Vision https://bit.ly/4n89Aj5
[17] Brown, Is This the War, 32:04 – 32:11
[18] Brown, Is This the War, 36:47
[19] Brown, Is This the War, 36:59-37:04
[20] Background & Overview of Israel’s Security Barriers https://bit.ly/4jX6JXq
[21] Gary DeMar, The Gog and Magog End-Time Alliance: Israel, Russia and Syria in Bible Prophecy (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision Press, 2016), 57.
[22] The book, The Gog and Magog End-Time Alliance, by Gary DeMar, go here: https://bit.ly/45R8MsX
For my 10-part article series on Gog and Magog, go here: https://bit.ly/4laaREw
For my 2023 Berean Conference message Gog & Magog (Part 1), go here: https://bit.ly/3ZGeCJL
For my 2023 Berean Conference message Gog & Magog (Part 2), go here: https://bit.ly/4l2exbC
