Prophecies concerning Turkey

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Oct 28, 2015 at 06:54

Shalom Tovey.

Good comments and observations. Just to pick on one,

That being said, does Turkey still figure in the Ezekiel scenario? To be sure, yes it does; since from the time before the Galatians, Turkey, by its predecessors names (and by its prominence in the Apocalypse of John), has been at the crossroads of every major (and probably some minor) territorial conquests and is positione now to be the doormat to the invasion coming to a Israeli neighborhood near Jezreel.

I'm glad you connected the "Land of Magog", in part, with Galatia. This emphasizes the fact that Ezekel meant the term to be taken geographically rather than ethnically, linguistically or in some other sense:

The Galatians overran much of Europe in the 4th Century BCE, and burst into Turkey (the part then called SW Cappadocia) in the early 3rd Century. Josephus called them "Gomer", a name listed among Gog's allies, and historically equivalent to the "Cimmerians" who had occupied Cappadocia during Ezekiel's time. If we were to try to understand the prophecy along linguistic lines, we would have trouble; because the Turks were preceded by the Greeks in that place, the Galatians before them, Greeks and Persians before them; and before the Persians, two varieties called "Hittites" -- the aboriginal "Khirbet Kerak" folk who ruled during the height of Akkadian rule in Mesopotamia; and the Hittites "proper", an Indo-European group that invaded during the days of Noah and his descendants and formed the basis of the Lydian Kingdom of Gyges (Gog) and his descendants.

The name "Lydia" itself refers to Lud, a son of Shem, who probably settled in the area while the Khirbet Kerak "Hittites" lived in eastern Turkey -- or more precisely, eastern "Anatolia"; for this is the ancient and geographical name for the place. LIke the ancient native Lydians, the Khirbet Kerak Hittites may be connected with a Great Flood survivor, namely Heth, a descendant of Ham. Alternatively, "Heth", hence "the Hittites" may have been the name of a non-Noahic people from the region. When the "Hittites Proper" invaded Anatolia, the earlier "Hittites" settled in the Levant -- apparently including some who settled in Canaan Land. Hence, the descendants of Canaan included "the Hittites"; and the latter term may have simply had the geographical connotation of "Anatolians".

Speculating now, I think Magog, a son of Japheth, was an early and prominent settler of Anatolia. I don't think he spoke the Indo-European Hittite language; but that's neither here nor there. What matters is that the land he settled, which we now call Turkey and Anatolia, was probably named after him from a Semitic point of view. Magog is not explicitly located in the Bible; but it's worth noting that all the sons of Japheth settled either in part or completely inside modern Turkey -- from Tiras (Thrace) to Javan (Ionia, around modern Izmir and western Turkey), to Gomer (north-central Turkey, including the capital Ankara), to Meshech and Tubal (in south-central Turkey) to Madai (the modern Kurds, who live mostly in eastern Turkey).

For what it's worth, I've started delving into studying what I call the "three sixes" -- namely the sixth seal, the sixth shofar and the sixth vial mentioned in Rev. 6:12, 9:13 and 16:12, respectively. Because the three "sixes" appear after one another, I at first tried to think of them as succeeding one another. I no longer think this: The breaking of the seals referred to the progressive revelation of the prophecy, which was written on the scroll that John ended up eating; the shofars, or "trumpets" of KingJamesese, were signals announcing the commencement of an event -- like the shofars blown every year at Rosh HaShannah. Finally, the vials are successive "cups of God's wrath". In every case, the breaking of the seal marked the opening of prophecy, the shofar marked the beginning of the crucial events, such as battles; and the vials represent accompanying plagues, calamities, etc. All three "sixes", etc. just show, as far as aI can see, three aspects of the same sequence of events.

Accordingly, it seems that the "1-5s" speak about the Great Tribulation and other events; the "sixes" speak about the final preaching of the gospel into all the world and accompanying events, and the "sevens" speak about the coming/ reeturn (as one's doctrine might be) of Messiah.

I'm falling asleep.

Shalom shalom :-)

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