The Prophesied Prince of Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin is very much in the news today. His Satan 2 missile is capable of destroying an area the size of Texas or France. We live in an age of nuclear peril, and Putin is largely to blame!
This world knows a lot about Vladimir Putin, but people don’t realize that he is specifically mentioned in the Bible! You can prove that. He is prophesied to lead the largest army in history. What’s even more phenomenal is that Jesus Christ will return and personally destroy Putin’s army. How can we neglect such a world-shaking prophecy?
“And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them” (Revelation 9:16). The Apostle John saw a 200 million-man army in this vision, more than the total population of Earth at the time he recorded this! Even today, such a massive army is truly unheard of! The heavily populated nation of China will supply many of the troops.
Such a vast army requires a massive amount of oil. Only Russia could supply this need. That’s one reason why Putin has so much power, which he is using to build destructive weapons while neglecting his own people.
In The Prophesied ‘Prince of Russia,’ I point out Putin’s statement back in 2005 that the demise of the Soviet Union was “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” The Soviet Union persecuted, imprisoned and murdered tens of millions of its own citizens! It also attacked and wrecked nations such as Hungary in an attempt to devour the entire world. Putin aims to rebuild this fallen empire.
In that booklet, I wrote:
Putin made these goals clear in August 2008 when Russia used military force to invade the former Soviet nation of Georgia. I wrote the following in our October 2008 Trumpet issue: “Russia’s attack on Georgia in August marks the beginning of a dangerous new era in history. This was the first military strike of a rising Asian superpower—and there will be more! … Will the Georgia strike actually spark European unification? Will a crisis occur over Ukraine? That area is the breadbasket of Russia, and surely it is willing to wage war over that as well.”
Putin has since invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea in 2014. He virtually controls that whole country now. Russia has usurped American authority in the Middle East with its support of the Syrian regime. China has pushed America out of the South China Sea. While these terrifying Asian powers become more assertive, America continues to retreat from the world stage!
The Linchpin
Putin has cut off the gas flow to Ukraine three times, which is especially devastating during the cold winter months. He has also withheld certain food exports from Ukraine.
“At the secret meeting in early November 2013, Putin apparently agreed to ease up on these crippling measures,” I write in that booklet. “He also offered [Ukrainian President Victor] Yanukovych some rich financial rewards that would help him hold on to his power—if the Ukrainian president would pull out of the [European Union] deal” (ibid).
“This is no trivial matter,” columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote in December 2013. “Ukraine is not just the largest European country, it’s the linchpin for Vladimir Putin’s dream of a renewed imperial Russia.” This is a dangerous world because of his dream and China’s dream and Europe’s dream to rule the world!
Putin has long realized that his power would be greatly diminished if Ukraine joined the EU. He decided to do something to stop it. By taking over Crimea, Putin gained even easier access to the Black Sea, which connects to the Mediterranean Sea, in which he built a naval base off the coast of Syria. He has used that naval base to prop up the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, who has killed many thousands of his own people. Putin has blatantly undermined United States efforts to topple Assad.
“Putin applied all that pressure on Ukraine because that nation is the linchpin of his goal of a renewed imperial Russia!” I continue in the booklet. “A linchpin is the pin in an axle that keeps the wheel from coming off. Mr. Putin was doing everything in his power to keep the wheels from falling off his dream of a new Soviet empire. And that meant applying intense pressure on Ukraine.”
A Secret Deal
“In the 1990s, Germany led Europe, the U.S. and the UN to rip the Balkans away from the former Soviet Union. It is highly probable that, at some point, Germany made a deal with Russia not to intervene in Putin’s conquest of Ukraine” (ibid).
Just before World War ii, Germany and Russia made a peace agreement before turning their focus toward regional hegemony. History has repeated itself!
In my booklet Germany’s Conquest of the Balkans, I explain how Germany stood up to the whole world by recognizing the breakaway Yugoslav states of Croatia and Slovenia, allies of the Nazis in World War ii. America buckled under German pressure, allowing Germany to dominate the Balkans, which border the Adriatic Sea, which connects to the Mediterranean Sea. Russia, China and Germany all have global ambitions. The Mediterranean is crucial to these ends.
Why would Germany take control of the Balkans but not bother to help Ukraine, which was about to make a league with the EU? It must have made a deal with Putin!
God’s Army
Ezekiel 38 discusses Vladimir Putin. Verse 8 says the message is for this end time.
“And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him” (verses 1-2). God commands His end-time messenger to prophesy against a specific man, the prince of Russia.
This end-time messenger must know who he is prophesying against. He must also understand who Gog and Magog are. God has revealed these truths.
Where do you find someone talking about all this? Where do you find a work that warns about Russia and China and so many other key players in Bible prophecy?
Here’s another quote from The Prophesied ‘Prince of Russia’:
Scholars generally agree that “Gog” is Russia, and that “the land of Magog” includes China. The descendants of Meshech and Tubal have been found together throughout history. In Assyrian and Greek histories, Meshech appears as Musku, Muski or Mushki—all names related to the Russian spelling of Moscow, as you can read in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. What about Tubal? On the eastern side of the Ural Mountains lies the city of Tobolsk, named after the Tobol River, a name derived from Tubal. Tobolsk was once the seat of Russian government over Siberia and was basically considered Russia’s Asian capital.
There is also a name for all of the Russian people in Ezekiel 38:2. There is controversy over how the Hebrew word rosh should be translated in this verse. The King James Version uses the adjective “chief.” But the correct rendering (used by the Moffatt, New King James and others) uses the word not as an adjective, but as a proper noun: Rosh. Thus, that verse should read, “the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal.”
Rosh was the ancient name of Russia, once called Rus. Many encyclopedias and commentaries (such as the Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary) recognize this. So who is this “prince” of Russia, Moscow and Tobolsk? The use of all three names shows that this is an individual ruler of all the peoples of Russia, from the west to the east.
“And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal [or Russia]: And I will turn thee back …” (verses 3-4). God will personally turn Russia back! Christ will personally destroy the prince of Russia’s massive army! This involves tremendous suffering and trials.
Because of the time frame, only Vladimir Putin can fit this role. We are about to witness the return of Jesus Christ.
Nations such as Japan and India will join Putin’s army (verses 5-6). God is angry with the modern-day descendants of ancient Israel, comprised primarily of America, Britain and the Jewish state in the Middle East. (Request our free book The United States and Britain in Prophecy, by Herbert W. Armstrong, for proof.) God is allowing our nations to suffer at the hands of these Gentile powers!
“They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me” (Hosea 7:7). These verses apply mainly to Britain and its Commonwealth—Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa—and also to America and the Jewish state.
God says here that our nations are “hot as an oven,” or steeped in corruption! With a mountain of troubles staring us in the face, our people still won’t cry out to God for help! God wants to save our physical lives, but we have to turn to Him first.
Verse 8 talks about a “cake not turned.” A cake may look fine on the outside even though it’s totally burned inside. Our nations lack substance to prevent them from falling apart. Verse 9 says that foreigners eat away Israel’s strength. Has that happened?
These are distressing prophecies. We must keep in mind that Putin’s army is actually God’s army (Joel 2:3-10). God will use it to crush the European superpower after Germany destroys the nations of Israel. Then Christ will annihilate all human armies that dare fight against Him when He returns. All rebellious groups will receive correction, but that correction leads to an eternity of peace and total unity with our Creator!
