Gog and Magog coalition against Israel
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Ezekiel foretold an invasion led by "Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal" (), with Persia, Cush, Put, Gomer and Beth-togarmah. It comes "in the latter years" against "the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people", whose people "shall dwell safely all of them" (). Futurist interpreters read this as a coalition of nations, often identified with Russia, Iran and Turkey, rising against a restored Israel in the last days. In the text, God himself destroys the invaders with earthquake, hail and fire. For believers, the prophecy's message is that God defends his people and that history ends in his public vindication, not in the triumph of the nations.
No event so far matches the text's conditions, which include a land at rest "dwelling without walls" () and a public divine destruction of the invaders, with weapons burned for seven years and the dead buried for seven months. The research gives no weight to the identification of Gog with Russia; that weakness counts against its interpreters, not against the text.
Explore the counterarguments
The modern identifications are not grounded in the text. In Ezekiel itself, Meshech and Tubal are trading partners of Tyre beside Ionia (). Josephus made them Cappadocians and Iberians, and Magog the Scythians. "Meshech equals Moscow" goes back to a legend of 1674, and "Rosh equals Russia" rests on a similarity of sound. Gog has been identified with each era's northern threat: the Goths (Ambrose of Milan, about 378, who promised the emperor victory over them, a prediction that failed), then the Huns, Khazars, Vikings, Mongols, Turks and the Soviet Union. Revelation also places Gog and Magog's final assault after the thousand years (), not before them.