That was the first question. Oh, we're gonna do three. Here's the next one. You see why we do this on Sunday night. Here is the next one. It just came in. With the Arab Spring having turned into Arab chaos, with the weakening military will and capability of several Middle Eastern nations that Ezekiel mentions as being aligned with Gog when Israel is invaded, coupled with the seeming, what seems to be many of the sudden, to many, the sudden Russian show of strength on the world stage, Crimea, and a weakened U.S. military and support for Israel, I was waiting for the question here. What are your thoughts on the probable timing of Ezekiel's Russian invasion where God shows himself supernaturally protecting his people? Well, immediately, see, this is what the discipline of truth is. Where in the world Would it say anything about that? See, that's what we're supposed to know. Not the professionals, we're supposed to know that. That's what the discipline of truth is. When you hear of something, it should draw your mind to some portion of the Bible because you've read the Bible enough, you know it. better than your sports statistics, more than, you know, the latest goings on of, Bonnie and I were trapped in traffic going between two points in Los Angeles, and finally we found out what it was. It was one of these, and we were actually cutting between two places, and ended up on Hollywood Boulevard, and it was a premiere, and all these black limousines, and people were getting out in their little gowns, you know, and police were everywhere. And I said, wonder what that is, you know? We're so out of touch, and it was some premiere of some movie. But boy, if you talk about this, I know where it is. See, where is your treasure? Is it in heaven? Then you know the word of God. Is it on earth? You know what premiere it was in Hollywood last week. The two places you look are Ezekiel 38 and 39, and Daniel 9. So quick, open your Bibles, and we have exactly eight minutes, and I'll try and answer this. When I was little, they used to have 16 and a half, 33, 45, and 78, I think, were the speeds of the record player. which was a flat pancake thing that spun with a needle. And so we will go from, I've been going at 16 and 33, we'll go 45 and 78 soon. So the question is, do Russia, the Arab Muslims, and the current events fit anywhere in Daniel 9? First of all, what is Daniel 9? Here's Daniel 9. I printed out for you, Daniel 9, 24. 70 weeks. And I would add that the Bible shows us that actually is not 77-day weeks, but it's 70 heptads of 490 years. And I'll show you why. Upon thy people, little interpretation, that's the Jews, thy holy city, Jerusalem. So God says, basically, I have 490 years planned for the Jewish people in the city of Jerusalem to do all these things. Okay, now look at the next verse. And if you know anything about history, you know that in about 445 B.C., the Persian, Iranian king, made a decree, you can read about it in the last chapter of Ezra, and you can read about it in the first chapter of Second Chronicles, but this decree goes out to rebuild. the city of Jerusalem's walls and the temple. And from that point, 445 BC, and you can look that up, by the way, I checked, I always say this, and I checked this morning, went to Wikipedia, first thing, right there, in that collect all of a lot of junk, they had the right date in there, praise the Lord. Onto Messiah the King, we know that's about 30 AD, Jesus was crucified. Shall be, now look at this, we have to do a little math within sets and closed sets, okay? Three score is 60 and two. So 60 plus seven plus two. So there's something going on for 69 of these weeks. And what'll happen is the streets will be built of Jerusalem, the wall of Jerusalem, and troublesome times. Now we go to 26. Oh no, before we go to 26. How would we possibly know that Daniel is talking not about you know, 70 weeks, which is like one year and 18 weeks. One year, four months, and two weeks. How do we know he's not talking about a year and a quarter? Well, just plug in, just do a little math. From the command to restore Jerusalem was in 445 BC. Messiah the King was heralded on Palm Sunday in 30 AD. And if you do a little math and take those years, actually that is 475 years if you look at that, but if you take 360 day, which is what Hebrew calendars were, a lunar calendar, and divide that time period down today, you find it exactly is 483 years, which is just what the Lord said. The 60 plus two plus seven. right up to the time of Messiah. Now let's go back to the text, verse 26. After these three score and two, plus the seven that has already been mentioned, after these 69 weeks, or 483 years, something is gonna happen. After that, Messiah will be cut off. What's that? That's the crucifixion. The Messiah was crucified. And not for himself, it's a substitutionary atonement. And the people of the prince that shall come will destroy the city. Who crucified Jesus and who destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70? What nation of people? Romans, okay. So the Romans, see, all of this is, Very historically validated. The people that destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the temple were the Romans. But notice what it says. The people, the Romans, of, whoa, who's that? The prince that shall come. We know him. We meet him in Revelation 13. Beast. He's the anti-Christ. He, this is where we get the concept of the revived Roman Empire. It's not how Lindsay didn't think of that. God thought of that. God said the same people that destroyed Jerusalem and the temple is going to produce a prince that shall come. And what is he gonna do? And he, this is the very next verse, so the antecedent is the prince that shall come, shall enforce the covenant with the many, oh, there's the last week. Remember, we have 69 accounted for. But in the future, there's one left, and it's right there. And, oh, in the middle of it, So if a week is seven years, in the middle of the week, three and a half years, he's gonna cause, and this little line right here, Jesus, Paul, and John all believed. That was true. That there was a future time that this bad guy, the Antichrist, is going to stop the sacrifice and the oblation. Is there a temple in Jerusalem today? No. There hasn't been one since A.D. 70. But Jesus, Paul, John, and Daniel, in the future for one week saw this temple. And he's going to make it desolate. And what, I mean, if you've read the rest of the book, in chapter 13 of Revelation, it says that he sets up an image of himself and wants to be worshiped as God. This Antichrist savior of Israel that defends them at their darkest hour comes in. So that's the backdrop for You know, a picture's worth a thousand words, okay? Here's verse 25 of Daniel, 69 weeks, seven plus 62. It ends with Christ being cut off and the desolation, and there's this period that's not determined how long it is until this final section, this last week, that is bisected by a half, and at the halfway point, the Antichrist shows his true colors and turns on Israel. What does that have to do with Ezekiel 36 to 39? And are Russia and Iran part of this? Well, let's go there to Ezekiel 38 and look at verse one. The word of the Lord came to me saying, by the way, who's the me, it's Ezekiel. Babylon came and in 605, they took Daniel. out of Jerusalem. In 597, they took Ezekiel. And in 586, they wiped out the place and decimated it and moved around the people. So Ezekiel is writing in sometime around the 6th century BC. The only reason I told you that is to give you a little number. Hesiod, who was 200 years before Ezekiel, said that the Magogians were the Scythians. Herodotus, who is 100 years after Ezekiel, said that the Scythians were the Magogites, Philo, Josephus, In fact, there's references to the wall of China, and they called it, in ancient literature, the ramparts of Gog and Magog. In other words, that Gog and Magog were coming toward them, and they built a wall to stop them at the ramparts. They stopped them outside the walls. So whoever is outside of China is this Magog people. And by the way, the killer is if you go to the Kremlin today, I wouldn't suggest that today is not a happy day for us to go there, because they're not happy with us. But if you did, the first building inside the Kremlin is the Russian kind of Smithsonian. And the Smithsonian has all kinds of all kinds of exhibits about the Scythians. Now let me just show you this real quick, because we have one minute till we're late. If you were a Roman in the first century, right here, this would be the whole world, the red. This is the Roman Empire. And so they didn't think much about it. But if you were in the east, if you're a Chinese person, you knew where Scythia was because you had built your wall. to keep them out. The Scythians were basically in this area north and east of the Caspian and Black Sea. By the way, there's the problem point of the world right now. That's the Crimea. There was a war in the 1850s over that, too. It's just old stuff. But so the Chinese would have known who the Scythians were. Basically, this is the Persian and and Greek Empire, and they don't mention them that much, but boy, the Russians do. These are the camps of where the Scythians were. They were nomadic people in what are called the steppes of Russia. See the Caspian Black Sea? There's the Crimea again. They were fierce warriors. horseback riding warriors that chopped people's heads off, cracked their skulls, and drank their blood from their skull as their cup. I mean, they were bad guys, in other words. They were very accomplished, and they conquered all the way down to right there. That's Israel, and there's a city there called Scythopolis. That's the city of the Scythians right there. That's how far down they came, and then they were pushed back. So, I mean, the Russians know exactly who they are. Now, let's go back at this to answer the questions. Does Ezekiel 38 and 39, Magog invasion, does that happen before the tribulation? That's one view. Or does it happen near the end of the tribulation? Some people equate it as equivalent to the Battle of Armageddon, but that's a real problem because the Battle of Armageddon, well you can read it, it's different. A lot of points are different. Here's the main crux. Is this seven years in the future or could it happen any moment? I think that's what the person was asking. Basically, if you know Joel Rosenberg, he would be more here. The view at the end would be more of MacArthur and Dallas and others, but all of them say, really, the Bible doesn't tell us. And basically, what's amazing is if you look at the, Line up. The countries mentioned are Persia, that's modern day Iran. Cush, Put. In fact, let's just look at these on a map here. Here's Put, Algeria and Libya. You talk about, there's Cush, Sudan and Ethiopia. What happened last week if you're reading the news? a boat was going from Iran to Sudan filled with missiles, long-range missiles, to fire on Israel from the Gaza Strip, and it was gonna dock down in Sudan, down below Somalia here, and they were gonna smuggle them up into hitting poor little Israel, which is right there with that blue dot. And here's Gomer, Turkey, on and off. Here's Persia, no question. All of these in this final event are going to unite with, interesting, Mishek and Tubal, which is the old northern nemesis, Togarmah, which is probably the Stans, the Moslem old Soviet breakaways, who join with Persia. and come down with Turkey, and up from below come all the others, and they all come down, and there's poor little Israel right there. And so basically, that's why they ask the question, and I would say, I don't know. So, okay, but it's time to go. So let's all stand. And the lesson is this. Since you don't know the day or the hour that your Lord is coming, he said, be ready. Be found by him doing what he wants you to do. And just for you to see where we're gonna go tonight, how do you like this? This is the one I didn't get to. Wait till you read the note. I'm gonna read it tonight. This is the new believer and he says, he says, I come home and my family are watching things that displease the Lord. And I say, what are you doing that for? And they say, all things are permissible to us. It actually says that, 1 Corinthians 6, 12, and 10, 23. How does all things are permissible and forgiven fit with holy living? That's gonna be a fascinating talk. And that's just an example of all these amazing questions. But let's bow for a word of prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you that you have written history in advance, and that if we want to know about moral issues, about life questions, or even about the whole place that this world is going to be heading in the not too distant future, we go to our source of truth and we discipline ourselves in knowing the truth and learning how to explain the truth until people get hardened and turn away. But we're supposed to be explaining it and finding those who want to be your disciples. And then we nurture them and take them with us to heaven. And that's really what you left us for. And I pray that more and more that would be what we live for. In the precious name of Jesus, we pray. And all of God's people said, amen. God bless you as you go.