Prophecy Update | March 2022 | The War in Ukraine

well welcome to tonight's prophecy update i'm excited to get into it uh and uh why don't uh once you just kind of get your bibles out and ready to go we're gonna look at a few scriptures and talk about what's going on now prophecy updates are for the purpose of um you know looking to jesus looking for jesus the book of revelation tells us that jesus is the spirit of prophecy so it's not all about the current events that's the important thing it does include watching what's going on in the world and just seeing the times that we're living and being familiar with that and so that's kind of how we we really want to roll tonight is just considering what the lord is doing so um i'd like to start off you know we're going to kind of focus this evening on the war in ukraine obviously that's been the buzz around the world um and for good reason um it's a massive conflict between russia and ukraine um and uh you know what's interesting i'd like to kind of begin with just a real cautionary word do you guys remember the the 1999 movie the matrix um and you know as a portraying basically a dystopian future where re the reality that people inhabit is actually a simulation uh created by machines that were you know intent on subjugating the human race um and um you know what's interesting is some of the intellectuals including elon musk say we could be living in a simulation right now like that's what they're saying what's interesting is biblically you can almost call what god is doing in some ways as a simulation i mean the bible talks about a whole realm that we don't even know anything about that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness there's stuff going on we're in our own little world here but there's a greater world and there's a kingdom that's not of this world so in a sense we are those guys are getting closer to the truth when they think we're living in some kind of a simulation simulation but but not really like the matrix but the thing that the film continued to resonate with people of the matrix is the whole red pill blue pill thing do you want to know the reality or do you want to just live in your bliss and kind of go on uh you know blissfully ignorant of what's really going on and you know and be conditioned by technology and mass media and all that stuff but um but as it turns out um i believe we've reached feverish levels um and and i think we're really seeing this uh in the last couple years and i'd say once the coronavirus crisis came we started seeing different realities and we saw particularly two extremely different world views that were so disconnected it was almost laughable you know i mean i think of the coronavirus issues where we we uh you know had had rules that people would live and die by one person would freak out if you didn't have your mask on when you went into a restaurant um and you'd walk from the door of the restaurant to your table which was like 25 feet and man you had to be massed up and then once you sat down you're in the safe zone you can sit down and and um some people were the place where yeah you got to do that saving lives is what you're doing there others of us were kind of like you mean the door to the table's the walk of death but once you're at the table it's all good and then we made you know outdoor seating for restaurants and they had to be covered and so we made little miniature restaurants in the cold where everybody's shivering and we're all gathering in a tent instead of in a a sealed tent a lot of those were like waterproof canvas this queen restaurants i i think that maybe just being in the restaurant would have been safer and better uh but that's that was my world view other people nope you're a murderer by going into a restaurant and eating food um and just different world views and um and then you know you hear the the mainstream media and the disagreement of what's really happening um during the coronavirus and all that but as it turns out you know even here with this russian ukrainian crisis i think one of the big things we have to be really careful um is what we're hearing um and is it real is it true is what what's being said actually factual um and i think that that's uh so far gone now it's almost like you want to give up on information uh because there's so much misinformation or disinformation about what's going on did you know many decades ago george orwell sounded the warning of modern man's sort of matrix-like condition when he said this he said history stopped in 1936. what did he mean by that and by the way the source of this intriguing observation is not orwell's novel you know 1984. but it was actually in his 1943 essay called looking back on the spanish war it was written as a reflection on orwell's participation in the spanish civil war that would be like 1936 to 1939 was the spanish civil war that's when he was involved with it but he fought for the republican side against the franco-led fascists and according to orwell it was during the spanish war that he became aware of the pervasive use of propaganda used to support modern totalitarian regimes let me read to you from this essay and i think it's it's a little bit uh shocking uh at how really on the mark he is he says i remember saying once to arthur costler history stopped in 1936 um at which he nodded in immediate understanding we were both thinking of totalitarianism in general but more particularly of the spanish civil war early in life i have noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in the newspaper but in spain for the first time i saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie i saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting at all and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed i saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as the heroes of imaginary victories and i saw newspapers in london retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that had never happened i saw in fact history being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various party lines and i think that george orwell was speaking about something that happened way back in the 1930s but he'd be shocked at the levels that we've reached really today of that and i hope i hope as christians that we're discerning um so much of the misinformation disinformation out there is actually causing people to hate one another to be divided um there's there's anger and hatred and and now warfare um and this war that we're seeing the potential for trouble with the the war in ukraine um is most people don't even have any idea it's unimaginable um that you know nuclear superpowers would ever go to war uh we that's that's been something we've never really seen because really it was the nuclear superpower of the united states that ended world war ii and we've really not had major conflict between those superpowers until recently uh this week and so this is a somber time and it might be more uh than just ukraine and russia that we're talking about this is why the whole world is sort of holding their breath there's certain people that are more concerned than others the you know all of eastern europe really most of europe is concerned um and and so you know we have to be careful with the information we've been given and i have to be careful too because um i don't really want to dive in in this prophecy update but who's right and who's wrong and you know and some of you would say well of course you know russia should not have attacked ukraine and i would have to agree with that uh no one i know approves of what russia has done in ukraine including myself um we're all troubled by this and what this means to the world but you know putin has very boldly threatened the use of nuclear weapons that he he's saying that's not off the table that should cause people in the world to be concerned it gives me pause when i hear putin sounding a little bit unhinged now the question the big question on this is putin unhinged um is he crazy you know there's suggestions that he's lost his marbles you know and and there's it shows him you know because of the coronavirus he was uh paranoid about getting sick and so there's you can see the videos like when he's meeting with macron the french president uh there at the table that's like 50 feet long and putin's sitting at one end and macron's on the other and it's because putin didn't want to touch anybody or see anything or get the coronavirus from anyone and some would suggest he's paranoid and and crazy about that is that true i have no idea it's definitely been in the media they're suggesting that in fact it's on the front pages of all the websites that you watch and see and you know as putin lost his marbles is he crazy and what have you but but here's the thing um is there something else going on that has driven putin to react to some things that maybe we all don't really see what's going on i'm not going to make an argument for or against i really am not um and truthfully i i my heart breaks for ukrainians who are being shot at um houses and apartment buildings being destroyed um and that's why like on sun you know uh last sunday we talked about um how we need to be in prayer for ukraine but i also know that there's going to be suffering in russia and there already is as some protesters are being you know detained by russian officials that's not a good day in russia if you're being detained you may never be seen again i feel for those people and and really the average person in russia are they get with these sanctions that we've been uh introducing um it's never putin and the higher-ups that you know feel the pain of that it's always the average ordinary person in russia that feels the pain of that so i find my heart breaking for that whole region of the world russia ukraine and um and then here's where i really start getting suspicious about what's going on do you remember all the people this past year who have you know silenced us on social media when we talk about coronavirus and vaccines and mask wearing and social distancing and just the you know all the um canceling that we've seen this past uh you know year and or two years really you know what's interesting is these are the same people that are really raw rawing and waving the ukrainian flag and it just gives me pause um who are the number one proponents of us going into ukraine and boots on the ground and um you know arguing for um for us to you know uh close the airspace over ukraine now people don't understand what that means if nato or the united states says we're gonna you know uh shut down the airspace over ukraine that means that american pilots will will have to shoot down russian pilots over the ukrainian airspace and are we really really ready to do that is that something we really want to do um two nuclear powers going head-to-head is that is that a great idea um that's something we we do need to ask the question well who's the who are the people that are most raw rawing those kinds of notions well as it turns out um the real story um hollywood elites are on board nancy pelosi uh george soros cnn msnbc um these are the same people that were um you know removing some of our religious liberties and freedoms in the past couple years and and not and i'm not sure they're really into democracy as i'm into democracy but these are the same people saying we need to defend the democracy in ukraine does that give anybody just any questions about are we hearing the true story about that you see there's a history in ukraine that a lot of people don't know about and i'm not going to go into all that but um just like all countries you know and i have to be careful because the united states like i mentioned last sunday you know we're one of one of the more corrupt countries in the world according to the uh corruption index um and uh and so you know this is the pot calling the kettle black but you know as as the united states has become more and more corrupt politically and our leaders in our nation um one thing we have to realize is there's corruption both in russia and corruption in ukraine and the reason the leadership of these nations the united states russia and ukraine they're sinful men at the helm and as christians we shouldn't be shocked at what we're seeing here um and so you i do think we need to be careful about the information that's being pushed um you know there's there's all kinds of questions you know uh maybe you guys have you know especially if you've put you know the ukrainian flag on the front of your you know facebook page or or whatever and you're all excited and you heard about the ghost of kiev is it kiev or is it kiev which one well actually there's a story behind that the russians say more like a kiev with a little bit of a w at the end of it uh like instead of vodka it's what it's a little bit like a but but and we called it kiev for a long time why because it was part of this former soviet union what the way the russians called it the ukrainians say a little more and we can't really i've noticed i don't even know how to really say it correctly but it's kind of a key uh and uh if you're ukrainian it's a little shorter a little more keith um and you've been wondering which one is right we've been told kiev all this time and now it's keith which one is it well it has to do with the battle that even the what's in the name and how you pronounce it depends on who's in charge but all that to say um you know what's going on with all this well this this there's a lot to this uh conflict but my job as a pastor is not as much to try to say who's right and wrong in the russian ukrainian issue and some of you might say well it's really clear um and i would just say be careful of everything you're hearing and what seems to be clear i'm just not sure and i'm saying that not out of just total you know ignorance i've actually studied this to pretty extensive levels um and i'm i'm learning a ton about the ukrainian history about russian history and that whole region and there's a lot to it that is being sort of not even talked about so be careful by jumping on bandwagons and all the raw rawing that hollywood and pelosi and soros and cnn and fox news all of them you have to be really careful about what we're seeing there um but but what does this have to do with bible prophecy this is where i like to really kind of jump in because um as you know this is following what jesus talked about let's go back to scripture here and this is one we often go to the reason we go to matthew 24 often in prophecy updates is because man it's like two pages in your bible of red letters where jesus answered the single question of the disciples when is the end of the world going to be and what it's going to look like and jesus just went on and on and on about the end times like like when people say oh you know i'm just not into end times well as it turns out jesus was into end times and when he was asked that question he was given the disciples were given a huge answer and it kind of starts out you know at the beginning uh here in matthew chapter 24 verse 3. it says this and as he sat on the mount of olives the disciples came to him privately saying tell us when shall these things be and what shall the sign of thy coming in the end of the world and jesus answered and said unto them take heed that no man deceive you for many shall come in my name saying i am christ and shall deceive many and you shall hear of wars and rumors and i've highlighted that word rumor think about that for a second um you will hear of wars and rumors of wars see that you be not troubled for all these things must come to pass but the end is not yet for nation shall ride against rise against nation and kingdom or greek word ethnicity shall ride again rise against ethnicity and there shall be famines and pestilences also could be translated as diseases and earthquakes in diverse places all these are the beginning of sorrows greek word there for sorrows is the same as the you know the birth pains of a woman in childbirth we've talked about that before but i i was kind of thinking through this passage again you know and that weren't rumors spelled in the king jimmy there u r r-u-m-o-u-r-s that's the old 1611 english but but that the the word rumor um i thought what a strange word and that concept i i mean i've said it a million times in teachings but i thought you know i wonder what the greek word for rumor is and so i looked it up um and it's this interesting word and it actually brings to light something that i think is really cool ako a in the in the greek um and the definition in the greek is the faculty of hearing but also having itching ears there's an implication to this idea of rumor um the connotation is not just we're hearing rumors all around about things that are happening the idea is people love to hear things um do you want to know where else we read this this word ako a in the greek it's in second timothy chapter four verse three for the time will come will they not endure sound doctrine and you guys you bible people know this scripture this is this is when we talk about how people don't want to hear the scriptures anymore because it says but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears that's that those two words itching ears is the single greek word ako a in the greek which means to have itching ears in the faculty of hearing in other words you kind of want to hear the itching or ears sort of idiom is talking about how you just kind of want to hear stuff almost like you want to hear gossip or the latest thing whether it's true or false doesn't really matter as long as it's interesting that's kind of this itching ears thing and sadly this verse chapter 4 of 2 timothy verse 3 has come to pass sad to say a lot of churches and pastors have bailed on sound doctrine and instead they're teaching things that you know give people sort of oh that's the latest information that's interesting may or may not be true or biblical or even godly but who cares as long as it sort of satisfies our itching ears that's the problem with the some of the church today but all that to say it's the same word jesus employs when he says you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars itching ears about what's going on around the world in wars and i worry that maybe this is what we're seeing with this russian ukrainian and the russian invasion um you know do you get the sense in the past week week and a half that we're all spectators at a sports event like when you watch the news does it seem weird that people are like calling it play by play and and you know you got your pundits explaining about their favorite team and what they're doing and and there's even cheerleaders raw rawing the ghost of kiev um this this uh fighter pilot that's taken down you know i've seen anywhere from six to 16 planes that you know russian planes that he's downed and everybody's like he's amazing the ghost of kev it sounds really great it's almost like watching a movie uh let's get the popcorn as the world watches what's going on meanwhile there's real bloodshed and people dying and it's not a movie and it's not a sporting event you know it's it's shocking to me um how we're treating it like that it's almost like we have this this um uh uh ako a itching ears we just want to hear play-by-play and what's going on and um and so we have to be careful about that um and to re remember that this is a real conflict and especially as bible prophecy students we want to look to scripture and see what's really going on and not not just be caught up in the hype or all the news that's out there this is one of those things i think we have to be really careful about uh the information that we're hearing and seeing may or may not be true um so i like to land as a bible prophecy bible teacher i love to talk about what are the things we know about um the bible end times what do we know about russia what do we know about ukraine well as it turns out there are some things we do know um and this is where we link what's what's going on and and we see possibly um what's going on could be linked to the ezekiel 38 gog magog invasion invasion of um of israel now um first of all you know is putin gog described by you know ezekiel 38 prophecy some bible prophecies teachers i've heard even this week saying absolutely yes putin is gog uh my answer to that is we we'll see it's possible but we don't know for sure like i think it's uh lacking um oh what what should i call it it's lacking um uh discretion i think to just go out and say this is for sure gog of ezekiel i'll talk about ezekiel 38 in just a second more about the gog magog thing but but if putin is killed tomorrow uh which that could happen um then suddenly what are these bible prophecy teachers gonna say oh we were wrong uh wrong guy uh he's not gog um and it could be a different guy like if if putin you know died let's say his putin water putin's waterloo uh with this whole ukrainian crisis and you know the ukrainians are saying hey we got this and putin's going down if that's true and it's putin's waterloo who's the next ruler of russia that could be the gog of ezekiel 38. so i i'm apprehensious about us just saying yes for sure in fact i treat all bible prophecy that way be careful um watch out and and um i'd say otherwise good bible prophecy instructors um they're they're good at most of what they do but but i think they there's this tendency to say well this is for sure what's happening i think we have to be really careful um one of the big ones this this was the big one because i was teaching bible prophecy i've been doing bible prophecy stuff for the past oh man almost 40 years now i've talked about bible prophecy and done studies in daniel in revelation and prophecy updates for a long long time but one of the big goofs i remember when a bunch of those prophecy update guys got all into y2k do you guys remember y2k uh you know this is where you know a lot of bible prophecy teachers lost a lot of credibility do you remember like some of the memes from y2k like this one office 2000 because you know it was 1999 and they were getting ready and they said this will be your computer uh you know uh for uh because because the y2k bug that was gonna you know hit the world and everybody thought their computers would shut down and even at best buy this was a real tag from best buy remember turn your computer off before midnight on 12 31 1999 and uh so people were afraid the whole world was going to go down and and then christian bible prophecy guys sadly said jesus is the end this is when the rapture is going to happen or the second coming of christ and people got all into that and then it didn't happen everything went on perfectly normal which by the way i predicted that that was not going to be the time or the hour and some people said well why would you be so bold to say that well the reason why is because that was a very hour people were saying we know the hour midnight 12 31 1999 midnight uh everything's gonna shut down and the world's gonna go crazy and christ is gonna return and i the lord says no at an hour when you think not so i said for sure it's not happening there because everybody thinks it's gonna happen on y2k i hope you see the logic there and and i was you know yelled at by some people saying you're teaching your congregation to be irresponsible about you know the end of the world and and i i said no i'm just trying to think biblically that's what we're going to do but being dogmatic about some of these things be careful on that so is putin gog who knows um but with all that said you can see a scenario where putin may turn out to be gog the power that comes down with a hook in her jaw to israel to to go to war against israel so um and by the way you might say well what does israel have to do with this russian ukrainian thing well again when you're talking about bible prophecy israel is the epicenter of all things bible prophecy um israel is the epicenter of all things remember that israel is god's timepiece stopwatch israel is the nation god is most interested in is his chosen people um so we have to start when we try to make sense of what's going on in the world we have to always kind of look at that in light of israel so that's one of the things we need to do when it comes to the russian invasion of ukraine israel has enjoyed a decent relationship with both nations the ukrainians and the russians um now uh how did they pull that off how how has israel been a friend of of ukraine and a friend of russian russia um uh largely there's a large jewish population in ukraine um and um and so there's it sort of makes sense that israel has a link to that we'll talk about another link in a second but um but how did israel become sort of friendly with russia there's really one answer to that and has to do with the former um you know leader of israel benjamin netanyahu you know it seems that somehow he would go and meet with putin of russia and they sort of hit it off it seems like like putin had real respect for netanyahu and it's because he was a statesman but also i think netanyahu you know how putin's um into i think what is it judo and taking his shirt off and shooting things and kind of a man's man and sort of a you know former kgb guy well as it turns out you know benjamin netanyahu is that kind of a guy too doesn't take his shirt off thank the lord but um he actually uh was a military hero his brother was killed at the radon in tubby um you know he was injured in battle netanyahu was and and and really um an amazing guy and putin saw that but also benjamin netanyahu was really respected just just for his statesmanship and uh so netanyahu seemed to sort of win over uh putin and they respected each other um but now this is something you have to understand that's changed that is important even as you know when we change presidents is it is it different from obama to trump from trump to biden well of course those are different presidents and and very different world views well in the same way when netanyahu was ousted after a long you know long time of leading israel um well the new guy naphtali bennett he's the new guy in office netanyahu's out uh bennett is in and and um how is bennett well he if i don't mean to sound insulting but he is kind of like a child compared to netanyahu he's not a seasoned statesman he doesn't seem to know a lot how to deal with some of these things he and the you know the prime minister and the president they've made some mistakes already that i think netanyahu would have never made in some of the statements they've made they've even contradicted each other on the same day and they're looking kind of clumsy a little bit israel on this whole issue with the ukrainian russian crisis um and so he's facing some so this new leader uh naftali bennett he's facing some really sketchy times for israel the russian ukrainian invasion is very important to the israelis and you might have to ask why why why would israel care about ukraine or what russia is doing well as it turns out do you remember who is on the northern border of israel as we speak um there's a bunch of nations actually united states still have a small contingency in syria the northern border of israel but um but more than that the the iranians are there at the border of the northern border by golan heights uh in damascus in syria and you know the iranians hate israel they've they've said they've pulled no punches they they've said we want to blow israel off the map the jews are going to be driven into the sea like israel has real enemies in the north in damascus um and there as well is the russian army there's um russian fighters fighter jets there's russian army in is in syria right on the northern border of israel so here's the problem when the iranians start hauling all their weapons in and they're they're just building up weaponry they're trying to build up their weapons in in syria to what purpose well it's pretty clear um they don't even try to act like they're not doing this um they're building up weapons so they can eventually try to destroy israel that's their ultimate goal the iranians hate the jews and they hate israel so because netanyahu and putin had good relationship well when the iranians would bring in all these weapons the jews could fly uh you know operations bombing raids into syria and take out some of these iranian weapons and stuff and the russians would just kind of say okay you have clear space uh knock yourselves out take out those iranian positions but they've just kind of turned turned you know around and didn't really look at what israel was doing and that's been the relationship really since netanyahu the problem is now with the ukrainian crisis um what is israel's position on the ukrainian situation well that's been a tricky deal in fact new york times did an article uh that's that's uh entitled um war in ukraine forces israel into a delicate balancing act and that's a good way of putting it that article says i'll just read part of it to you israel is a strong ally of the united st zelensky the ukraine's jewish president we'll talk about that in a minute but israel also doesn't want to provoke russia israel is a key partner of the united states and many israelis appreciate long-standing cultural connections with ukraine which for several months in 2019 was the only country other than their own with both a jewish president zielinski and a jewish prime minister both there in ukraine jewish president and prime minister but russia is a critical actor in the middle east particularly in syria israel's northeastern neighbor and enemy and the israeli government believes it cannot risk losing moscow's favor for much of the past decade an israeli air force has struck iranian syrian and lebanese military targets in syria without interference from the russians trying to stem the flow of arms that iran sends to its proxies both in syria and lebanon and to limit military buildup in its northern northern borders like you know hezbollah there over in lebanon israel also wants to leave itself enough room to act as a go-between in the conflict after ukrainian requests mr bennett has offered at least twice to mediate between russia and ukraine that's happened just recently in the last week and a half and they've even offered jerusalem as the meeting place because you know um zielinski didn't want to go up to minsk there in belarus uh you know early in this conflict and uh so they've they've since moved it uh you know but the question is why are the jews trying to say hey we want to be the mediator we want to bring peace we want to be the the go-between and and really this is how israel kind of is trying to do this you know like this delicate balancing act between russia and ukraine now um this this um you know this delicate balancing act israel did uh you know uh last week uh confirmed their uh you know they did condemn the uh invasion of russia into into uh ukraine uh and that was a bold move um you know it's easy for the united states to condemn russia for going into ukraine but we don't have russian soldiers on our border ready to come in israel does israel has russian soldiers just a few miles from their border there in the north by the golan heights so this tension that israel is trying to deal with if if they say the wrong thing to putin does that sort of ignite putin's anger against israel for standing with the united states against moscow see that's that's a new part of the israeli troubles they want to be friends with their their closest ally the united states but they also want to sort of stay cool with putin uh who is uh you know the united states enemy uh right now um so this so the question is what's the problem with that if russia well even some of the uh defense ministers in russia are saying stuff like israel be careful you're gonna lose the right to fly over syria we're gonna we're gonna take away your liberty or that you know that favor you've had with us where you're just gonna have to be silent and for a while we were wondering if bennett was gonna start bomb there was the iranians were bringing in a bunch of weapons last week and they were they were kind of silent uh uncharacteristically the israelis were doing nothing about all this buildup of arms uh it's like the iranians thought oh now's our chance and they were trying to get weapons into syria and we were wondering is bennett gonna you know pull the trigger and defend her you know israel's uh safety um and it was silent for a while but just this last week of course the israelis did uh rocket and and bomb some of these um you know places where the iranians were stacking weapons so the israelis are still emboldened to defend themselves and and bomb in syria they're doing that as we speak but how long will they have access to syria like that and if they don't what does that mean you see israel can't afford to just mess around um we as the united states we kind of do mess around because nobody's been ever fought a battle on our soil the americans we don't know what it feels like to have an oppressive regime at our northern border you know canada we're just not afraid of canada we're not worried about an invasion of canada at least not not lately we've never even had that but israel uh israelis have had to live with that for a long long time with enemies on all their borders and they they're the size of new jersey this tiny little nation um that really wouldn't stand a chance technically if all these nations went to war against her um but but we know that god's not gonna let that happen from the bible see here's what here's what we start to see the tension between russia and israel is mounting with this russian ukrainian invasion which could possibly trigger the gog magog invasion spoken of in ezekiel 38 let's review that just really quickly for the the some of your newer folks to prophecy updates and stuff in ezekiel 38 a radical prophecy it says and the word of the lord came to 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 and say thus saith the lord god behold i am against the ogog the chief prince of meshech and tubal and i will turn thee back and put hooks in thy jaws and i will bring thee forth and all thine army horses horsemen all of them clothed with all sorts of armor even a great company with bucklers and shields all of them handling swords now you say okay brett that sounds very um old testament you know who are these people well um we've done whole teachings on this just just look up our ezekiel 38 teaching uh on youtube or on our website but let me just remind you the first word here that's uh key is magog magog is what we would call the land of russia and herodotus talked about the the magogites as being the scythians which would become today's modern day russians and we've gone into all the the you know the table of nations of genesis 10 and how this all works out but he says you know the land of magog who's going to be leading well the next operative word there's gog he says son of man set thy face against gog gog is the leader of magog so if you would this is speaking of a futuristic battle that includes russia and some of the former soviet union um and by the way there's other nations involved in this as well later on in ezekiel 38 it talks about persia which is modern-day iran along with turkey and it's interesting to watch what turkey's doing with the ukrainian they're they're falling more in line with supporting um turkey which is kind of interesting or pardon me ukraine which doesn't really fit the ezekiel 38 narrative just honestly not as much but we've known turkey to kind of flip-flop fairly quickly uh so that's not even a bit of trouble as far as i see as far as the prophecies of gog magog but um but this is basically saying that you know the leader of russia and russia they're gonna they're gonna come down and and it says here notice in verse four and i will put you know hooks in thy jaws here's this big bear up in the north in russia and and it says that he's going to put hooks in their jaws and bring forth all thy army horsemen and where are they going to go they're going to go down into israel so magog leading bible scholars say this is russia and the republics of the former soviet union most bible scholars believe gog is not a name but a title like pharaoh or a czar he's gonna he's gonna be a dictator who will hatch an evil plan if you go forward a few verses to verse 9 in ezekiel 38 it says thou shalt ascend and come like a storm thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land thou and all thy bands and many people with thee thus saith the lord god it shall also come to pass that at the same time shall things come into thy mind and thou shalt think an evil thought boy that's an interesting thing especially in light of what you're seeing putin do right now um why is putin thinking of saying i'm going to in invade not just you know eastern ukraine but the whole thing how did that come into his mind i believe much of this has more to do with spiritual significance more than just even political thou shalt think an evil thought and thou shalt say i will go up to the land of unwalled villages i will go to them there at rest that is in israel and that dwell in safety all of them dwelling without walls and having neither bars nor gates to what for to take a spoil and to take a prey this tells us why russia will ultimately come down into the land of israel in the ezekiel 38 gog magog invasion is to take a spoil what kind of spoil will they take uh who knows it could be um natural gas or oil or even though just the riches of israel it could be everything from the farm-rich farmland and agriculture to the science and technology of israel like like it really who knows what the spoil is going to be now let me remind you for you uh gog bagog people who've already studied ezekiel 38 all this is review but do you remember what do some of the nations around the world do when gog invades israel well we call them i like to call them protesting bystanders there's going to be nations and they're listed there in ezekiel 38 verse 13 sheba di dan the merchants of tarshish with all the young lions thereof shall say unto thee art thou come to take a spoil hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey in other words they're just going to protest say what are you kidding you're going to invade israel um and now this this is this again for many of you this is review but those protesting bystanders shiba di dan virtus of tarshish that seems to be saudi arabia and perhaps uh england the british um with the young lions thereof and some people say that could be the united states the young lions from tarshish that could be speaking of the descendants of tarshish or british which would be the united states the americans but these nations according to ezekiel 38 13 they're going to stand by and protest when russia and the leader of russia gog comes in and attacks israel and they're just going to stand by and protest now some of you might say okay brett what does that have to do with the ukrainian invasion well one thing that you can do it's almost like we're seeing this past you know week and a half or so it's almost like a dress rehearsal for ezekiel 38 only instead of israel's ukraine where man what what came into the mind of putin to suddenly say i'm going to invade ukraine um and uh you might even call it an evil thought that went into his head to do that now um again there's reasons why putin felt the need to do that whether they're you know evil from satan or just misguided or whatever the truth is what we've seen this past week is a dress rehearsal for ezekiel 38. just the same way russia rolls into ukraine as we speak um the same way they will roll into israel according to the scriptures um and what's interesting is you know what's the united states and england and the british and what are we all doing we're standing by and protesting um where there's this this little dress rehearsal we're seeing with the ukrainian invasion is exactly uh what ezekiel says we're going to just stand by and protest and that's really all that america seems to be good at in bible prophecy we don't really see the united states as a world power in bible prophecy which is shocking why is the united states not there we've talked about that before i think there's a number of possibilities many possibilities one is maybe we destroy ourselves from the inside out i see that happening i think we're on a crash course to destroying ourselves internally a little bit like the romans did if you look if you know your roman history um but we're morally imploding or uh you know politically imploding or maybe even economically starting to implode who knows we're seeing all kinds of trouble in america and and and not only that we're we've lost all respect really around the world um largely because of the clumsy afghanistan pull-out and we've just um showed great weakness um uh in this past year particularly um so it's important to remember that you know the predictions found in ezekiel chapter 38 could happen in our day our lifetime now there's something more you should remember about the ezekiel 38 and that is what comes before ezekiel 38 ezekiel 36 and 37. you say bro that's really smart well here's what's amazing and i want to remind you of this because this is important um the ezekiel 36 and 37 prophecies have really almost all of them have come to pass completely and many of them in our lifetime uh let me remind you uh if i'm just going to give you the high points you can maybe jot these downs in your in your some of your notes but um the first thing that ezekiel 36 and 37 talk about is the rebirth of the state of israel in the end times that israel will at the last days become a nation once again check may 14 1948 number two the return of the jews to the holy land after centuries in exile the diaspora is what we call that the scattering of the jews ezekiel 36 10-11 36-24 36 37 38 all these scriptures talk about the returning of the jews and you can check that box as well the jews have regathered and much of them most of them in our lifetime which is amazing we've seen 36 come to pass um number three the rebuilding of the ancient ruins in israel ezekiel 36 36 talks about that and we've seen that israel has become a rebuilt country and it's an amazing power in the world and number four the re-blossoming of desolate desert lands to produce uh you know fruit and abundant food and all kinds of foliage uh banana groves you know uh pomegranate trees like it's an amazing thing to see how israel was turned into a desolate desert but in the in the last days in our lifetime israel through science and modern techniques of farming the jews have brought the the land of israel back to life i'd say the lord did that just like ezekiel 36 8-9 ezekiel 36 30-35 all of these have come to pass one more um the creation of an exceeding great army was a fulfillment as well ezekiel 37 11. for the gog magog invasion happened all of these things had to happen and most of these if not all of them that i just listed of the five have happened in our lifetime and the reason i go over that is i just want to remind you if ezekiel 36 and 37 had largely come true in our lifetime isn't it possible that ezekiel 38 and 39 will soon come to pass as well um i believe the stage is set and we see an emboldened russia and i get a sense that russia is a little bit in and this is something you won't see on the news because we're hearing about how powerful russia is and their nuclear weapons and and all that but but we all know the nuclear option is uh lose-lose for everyone i hope everybody knows that um but why is russia behaving seemingly erratically it's because i believe russia russia feels very threatened by the uh nato nations and you know ukrainians wanted to become part of nato's so that they wouldn't have to fear russia and russia is not going to let that happen and it's because of fear it's almost like you don't want to do you really want to make a lion feel afraid is that a good idea and that's kind of what we're seeing is sort of a a bear a hungry bear and could it be that we're seeing the hook that we read about in ezekiel 38 being set in the bear russia and even in its leader gog and magog could it be putin i don't know but the stage surly seems set for that to possibly happen now let's talk for a moment about vladimir zelinski you and i are watching kind of a world uh history defining event that's happening right in front of our eyes um this is this is something that most people haven't talked about in fact i've not heard a lot of people talk about this at all but how is it that a jewish guy is at the center of all the the world's um you know perceptions and all eyeballs are on this guy um he's a jewish guy uh and so zielinski is becoming sort of this uh folk hero uh you know he's sort of the captain america of ukraine um how is this happening you know if you know the history of the ukrainian people um there was a huge anti-semitism in um in ukraine and uh and you know not that long ago there were entire divisions of the ukrainian army that were given to neo-nazism and it was official they had like a neo-nazi unit of their army uh not that long ago as it turns out um so how is it like you know the idea of a president of ukraine being a jew is something that i find kind of shocking it's a little bit like do you guys remember um and and this doesn't even do it justice you know one of the things when i remember when obama was elected i was excited and happy for one reason um and that was not because i agreed with him politically as much but i thought finally we've got an african-american guy in the presidency so we can kind of put that to rest that united states is you know a racist country um to me that a lot of us and i even heard you know both sides of the political spectrum saying wow we've you know we've broken through that racism and now mount america elected an african-american and i thought that was awesome um [Music] now go to ukraine uh it's even more radical that they elected a jew in you know in a real landslide kind of election to be the leader of the ukrainian people that's a shocker um but it happened and ukraine is changing um you heard putin talk about nazis in ukraine and you're thinking oh that's just propaganda well sort of but it actually isn't there there actually were neo-nazis and still are small groups i think of that in ukraine uh and um that's not completely untrue what he's talking about there one thing you need to understand about the ukraine uh people is they're very they've been very divided you know you've got the eastern ukrainians and the western ukrainians and um you know and it depends on which group you're talking about and there's maps you can look up where are the different people groups and um you know the ukrainians are not a solid group of people that all believe the same thing um you know your eastern ukrainians are most of them russian speaking uh and uh and consider themselves more russian than ukrainian that's why some of those eastern uh you know uh districts were wanting to uh you know sort of defect if you would to russia even in the last few weeks we saw that um so there's a real crimea mostly russian speaking and all that but you know if you go to the western side of ukraine there's very different people groups over there and there's old school ukrainians and different world views and jews are kind of settled in certain areas and it's a it's a very divided kind of country it is interesting however to see somewhat of a rallying around this jewish president i i find that interesting um uh you know and and and is is all the stuff we're seeing about him true you know we've seen talked about the ghost of uh kiev you know and how or keith how um you know it's been kind of debunked that that actually happened but then you wonder about all the other stuff you're seeing maybe you saw the lady with the bloodied face and it came out that she was it was a fake picture and she'd been taking that picture three years earlier and then it came out again that no is actually real and so there's this huge battle of what's true and false was the lady with the bloody face real or was it fake from a few years earlier um and um and then you saw an uh article where she's actually interviewed about the russian attack and she goes into the apartment shows the mirror that shattered and made her face bleed um so she knows that she's actually true and not false what what are we to believe well as it turns out zielinski uh you know he's almost like a cowboy now remember uh all over the the news last week uh you know like like the times of israel article summed it up like so many all around the country uh zielinski rejects u.s give actuation offer he says i need an ammunition not a ride that's kind of a john wayne sort of thing to say and um he said the fight is here ukraine president tells the u.s officials from secret whereabouts secret fighting against russian forces underway and kev uh officials say now what's more interesting is you know here's this guy who's now kind of this hero of ukraine um you know and uh you know these are some older pictures or at least the one on the left there's an old older picture before the russian but he's in his military garden so these kinds of pictures are being circulated where he's drinking coffee with his you know soldiers and he's you know in bunkers and and all that stuff and and he's sort of being presented uh which is interesting because this guy is a former actor and comedian who's been serving as president of ukraine uh since 2019. um so he's a jew it's amazing due to the fact that ukraine was at a reputation of being kind of an anti-semitic country in some ways in previous years so so big deal that they elected a jewish uh president um so this what this does by one of the reasons the russian you know leader putin really doesn't like this guy and has threatened to kill him um as uh ukrainian president it sort of demolishes years of russian propaganda by appointing a jewish guy as prime minister uh portraying contemporary ukraine as a hotbed of fascists and anti-semites that that's not flying as much now that they've elected a jewish president um but but while this president of the ukraine is being touted as a hero and brave and everybody's like everybody's on board with him how's our president doing how's the american president faring well most people agree no matter what side of the aisle you're on that we've had some big failures in our leadership in america and you know one of the biggest failures of all is the pull out of afghanistan and the way that went down you know we badly botched the american pull out and and it's been generally a show of weakness um and putin has timed his invasion um when we really don't know what we're doing with our foreign policy now of course you know biden's putting sanctions on uh uh on russia but the problem with sanctions they're usually i think meant to be used before an invasion uh it's it's weird that we're trying to impose sanctions after an invasion um and then like when you heard the press conference this this last week did you hear what biden said let me show you a snippet and this just shocked me when i heard this this is biden at the press conference when he was asked a question mr president if i can you detailed some severe and swift new sanctions today and said the impact it will have over time but given the full-scale invasion given that you're not pursuing disconnecting russia from what's called swift the international banking system or other sanctions at your disposal respectfully sir what more are you waiting for specifically with the sanctions we've imposed exceed swift the sanctions we oppose exceed anything that's ever been done the sanctions we imposed have generated two thirds of the world joining us they are profound sanctions let's have a conversation in another month or so to see if they're working that's the shocker to be let's have a conversation in a month or so and see if these sanctions are working um how's that really going to help the ukrainian people and you know in a month you know that might as well be as an eternity if you're one of the uh people trying to survive in ukraine um you know a month of sanctions uh it's gonna be interesting to see how they work but uh most of the world's not that hopeful that they're going to work and putin's blowing up like you know yeah whatever um but again i i feel bad because those sanctions that we're imposing are not really going to hurt putin as much i don't think maybe long term possibly but it's going to hurt the people uh the mid you know the middle class people of russia are going to suffer probably the greatest and so what happens here is when when world leadership is weak especially the united states um that's when the bullies come out and do what they want to do um uh you know example of this do you remember when jimmy carter was president some of you guys remember that um and the the big you know hostage crisis um do you guys remember how that came to an end the hostage crisis uh it was on january 20th 1981 minutes after ronald reagan's ign inauguration as the 40th president of the united states the 52 u.s captives held at u.s embassy in tehran iran were released ending the 444-day iran hostage crisis maybe some of you are old enough to remember this the very seconds into his presidency why does suddenly the iranians say oh here's your hostage back you know it's because it's because they knew reagan meant business you didn't want to mess with reagan he was a nice guy it was a state he was a statesman as well i don't think we've had as many statesmen as like netanyahu or ronald reagan those were guys that were more than just politics they were they were truly statesmen and the world took them seriously um our leadership today um both in israel and the united states for for that matter i'm not sure we're being taken seriously because we sort of have proven we don't know what we're doing we're sort of mr magoo trying to figure our way around the world and figure out what's going on and that's that's um it's it's it's only opened it up for people to do bad actors to do what they want to do now this raises all i haven't even talked about europe yet with with what's going on in ukraine the europeans are feeling threatened now let me just say um the the europeans many of them sanctimoniously i might add for the last several decades have been saying you americans you know you're just you're kind of you know um um sort of warmongers we have sort of we europeans have sort of risen above um warfare and we've sort of evolved like star trek you know where they had the prime directive and they got rid of all the weapons of the world and and the europeans sort of viewed themselves as and i would say sanctimoniously um but as it turns out europe is freaking out right now because um they have sort of been resting on their laurels weapon uh weapon wise and uh largely are depending on on nato but is nato really ready for what's seemingly looming how far will putin go after ukraine will he go for some of the other baltic states and eastern europe um he's even mentioned you know poland people are concerned about romania and um and europe doesn't really have an answer right now uh to putin uh except for perhaps the united states uh that might be their greatest defense um and so the they're they're sort of there's a little bit of a change of tune you'll notice geopolitically with the europeans um wall street journal article europe stays in bed after its ukraine wake-up call that's an interesting title leaders understand what's at stake in the conflict but are in denial about what a solution requires of them to describe an event as a wake-up call implies the calls recipient will stay awake rather than roll over and fall back asleep which will it be for western europe now that uh vladimir putin's invasion of ukraine has finally happened what's going to happen leaders particularly in germany seem to have been genuinely embarrassed by their weak and disorganized initial response when it became clear in january that the invasion was impending so europe is in kind of a weakened state and they're worried about and they don't have an answer to russian power and putin is right on their doorstep and so now the main reason nato by the way wouldn't allow ukraine in is basically because everybody's afraid of russia and the power of russia and they don't really have an answer so um ukrainian president zielinski has talked about neutral status the ukrainian president was begging for nato acceptance but now he's abandoned that notion and and not going to be pursuing being a part of nato nato has let the ukrainians down as far as they're concerned they were asking for help and nato blew him off you know nato could today say um you know you're in and and we're going to protect you but nato won't because that means really uh the united states going to war with with russia and if you think about that uh you definitely should have a second thought about that meanwhile so europe europe's nervous about what's going on there of course but here's another big thing that's going on in the world that this is back in that category of wars and rumors of wars uh with uh what jesus said in matthew 24. um when we see what's going on in china um china's watching with an eagle eye uh what what's happening in ukraine because basically you know taiwan is an exact comparable situation to what the russians are to ukraine so are the chinese to taiwan uh the chinese claim that taiwan is theirs and they should take back their you know their people and their place new york times article uh has this both sides of taiwan straight are closely watching ukraine's crisis the article says beijing with russian massing troops along ukraine's border president xi yingwen of taiwan felt compelled to act she ordered the creation of a task force to study how the confrontation of thousands of miles away in europe could affect taiwan's long-standing conflict with its larger vastly more powerful nation neighbor china taiwan has faced military threats and intimidation from china for a long time miss tsai told a gathering of her national security advisers late last month according to his uh statement by her office perhaps more than more than people in any other place in the world taiwanese know what it's like to live in the shadow of an overbearing power with china claiming the island as it's owned miss tsai added we empathize with ukraine's situation so why the correlation is not exact um between you know ukraine and taiwan the confrontation between russia and the united states uh over ukraine's fate has resonated with both sides of the taiwan strait and it's uh and it's causing great concern if china pulls the trigger on on taiwan and by the way in my opinion i'm surprised they haven't already done it while everybody was over here looking at russia and ukraine if china would have done that oh the world would have been shocked and all that but what are we gonna do two big fronts are we going to take on both of those situations can we walk and chew gum at the same time in america we're proving that we cannot even do one thing at a time that's the problem so um you know with nuclear superpowers china and russia this threat that you and i as americans and really much of the world the threat that we're facing today is actually fairly large nuclear superpowers rattling sabers threatening putin threatening to use nukes that's a big deal now some of you say well brett that's troubling um nuclear weapons has been troubling since i was a kid um it's just that we've kind of forgotten of nuclear power and what the implications of maybe one unhinged world leader going nuts with the button um you know and and um you know we need to remember what jesus said instead of focusing on the trouble and and this is true if you're ukrainian or if you're a russian or an american or european um as christians remember what jesus said it's it's luke 21 when jesus luke 21 is the other place jesus talked about you know the end times he said when these things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh um man i love that matthew 24 again we read this earlier but he said you'll hear of wars and rumors of wars and then he says see that you be not troubled for all these things must come to pass but the end is not yet now you might say well brett that's easier said than done to be not troubled in a troubling world but don't forget his commandments are his enablements when when he tells us to do something we can do it he'll give us the power to do it so when he says see that you be not troubled if you feel troubled then you need to say lord would you give me a peace even if you're a ukrainian living in ukraine right now you could say i don't feel peace right now i feel bombs going off to in in my neighborhood jesus can give you a peace that passes understanding if you put your trust in the lord now i gotta say one more thing and then we'll wrap it up as it is getting late i do um want to say something that i think is pertinent to our church specifically and that is um you know jesus taught us that our kingdoms you know our kingdom as christians not of this world and if you're a christian you are more of a christian than you are an american at least you should be i mean your kingdom is of the lord same with ukrainians same with russians your kingdom is of the lord and one of the things that i think satan is trying to do is cause hatred anger and division and i believe that um that's right up his alley he wants to make family member angry with family member and you know as we have a large part of our congregation of the slavic community we are at risk i think of seeing real hatred and division even within our own neighborhoods here around portland and our brother against brother kind of thing and as christians we need to fight against that um you know i was talking with one of my buddies um who is of the slavic community and um he sent a note to his family i won't name him but uh i just thought this was an interesting letter can i just read you his note that he kind of sent he said good morning to his family he said i wanted to make my position clear on what's happening now in europe first as a christian i'm pro-peace and totally against any killings and or any destruction unless you're being personal intact i support self-defense and the second amendment second i'm an american and i do not want any of our men or women to go and die there or anywhere else for that matter i'm against any military conflict what will defend my home third i was born in ukraine and i wish this stops now because my family is still there and some are fighting against russia i blame politicians here and there for allowing this to escalate which by the way i think he's spot on there um most i think most of the people in ukraine and russia probably did you see the russians that were apprehended and taken prisoners of war and they were interviewing them and they didn't even know they were going into war they thought they were in an exercise as they were marching like like whether that's true or false though who knows that could be more propaganda but anyway the russian soldiers seem to not know what they were getting into but i like this guy i agree it's it's these leaders that have uh messed up so he says um i blame politicians here for allowing this to escalate as a fair person i have i have to acknowledge russian position regarding nato expansion united states often adopted the monroe doctrine in 1823 and russia adopted similar principles after nato expansion and clearly warned nato and hope uh negotiations between upper but pardon me between ukraine and russia bring this conflict to a resolution this is painful to watch brotherly late nations fighting and killing each other brother killing brother i have to say that our political class has no clue what people want and need in other parts of the world and their ignorance brings destruction around the world you can't get rich by destroying life one should not push your democracy by threats intimidation sanctions and invasions i also believe putin made a mistake by invading ukraine this will push both ukrainian and russian people further apart may god help us all to see the sins and heal the nations no world war three and i have to say i agree with that synopsis um you know um nation will rise against nation ethnicity against ethnicity but as christians and ukrainians and russians especially here in america um i think that it's important for you guys to stand together as believers and to um understand it's a bunch of wacko politicians that have got us in this mess and man we should be gathering praying remember don't forget what romans chapter 12 verse 18 says it says if it be possible as much as life in you live peaceably with all men that's what we're called to do and so just a word to the slavic community also a word to the americans who are so quick to jump on the bandwagons and say oh those russians or those ukrainians um i i would say we as christians need to take it to a higher level and realize they're people who god cares about on both sides i'm not arguing one side or the other i'm not even talking about you know i've made myself clear about what i think about what putin's doing but i i think we have to as christians take it to another level that's that's my challenge that's my charge i know it's easier said than done but as much as possible the lord says as much as lies within you live peaceably with all men well lord i pray that you would just help my brothers and sisters especially of the slavic community to put aside those differences and and all the the information that's that's out there that's true or false or who knows but lord we know that you love people and you care about them and i pray that we would love our enemies do good to those that persecute us i understand warfare lord is something you actually have used in times past and maybe even this war is something you're you're using to orchestrate events in the world i understand war is real and you gotta fight if you're being attacked i get that but but lord i pray that that would not be an excuse for hatred unnecessarily lord i pray that that the christian church would be the place where the world can see that there's something better something more true and more powerful and that is the love that you have for us and the love that we have for each other in your church ukrainian russian european american either way lord we we pray that we love one another so show us how to do that in these difficult times may satan not have a foothold in in in the church of jesus christ so we pray your blessing your covering and these troubling times give everybody that peace that passes understanding lord in jesus name amen

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 58,961

Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship

Id: BeLQFtYIJuU

Length: 74min 26sec (4466 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 04 2022