The Endgame: The Mountains of Israel

There is a new Russian Tsar, and he may be an apocalyptic player. Listen, Bible prophecy is winding down to one geographic area of the world comprised of some 8000 square miles, and that is the nation of Israel.

This is really what is driving the force, and when you find that someone is motivated by evil, you can be sure that Satan is behind it. Without question, Israel is the end target of all of these things that are going on. Welcome to Understanding the Times Radio with Jan Markell. Radio 4 the Remnant brought to you by Olive Tree Ministries. Today, Jan has two special guests, Michelle Bachman and Pastor Barry Stagner. Current events that apply to the Bible are happening at a staggering pace, and the three discussed those events this hour.

Here is today's programming. And now with Putin, you've got a leader. People say, well, could Putin be this Gog, this chief, this ruler of Magog, this Prince of Roche, if you will?

It's certainly possible. Depending on when all these other prophecies will be fulfilled, it's possible he'd be that. He's obviously the local thug. He's the bully on the block. But he's also very calculated and intentional.

What's really interesting, Billy, is you look at this situation here. You know, Hitler did some similar things right prior to World War II when he annexed Austria, and then he began invading Poland. Putin's really been the same thing. In 2004, he annexed Crimea without hardly a shot fired. And now he's moving in like Hitler did with Poland with more military force. It's almost like he's Hitler 2.0. He's coming in there and modeling himself after this world takeover. Of course, it's been many, many decades since that happened.

Sometimes people have a short memory. But whether he is the Gog of Ezekiel 38, or as Mark Hitchcock says, he's more Gog-esque. You know, he could be just someone who's setting up Russia to position them to be able to make that invasion at a future date. And another ruler in Russia comes in. We don't really know.

Thank you, Jeff Kinley, for that introductory clip. The Bible calls the last days perilous and watching scenes out of Ukraine the last two to three weeks. And we're seeing those perilous times escalate. Evil is escalating, watching heart-wrenching scenes. Just a thought or two before I bring on my guests, because the Russian bear has always been wicked, but now it's sort of as if Mr. Putin is almost possessed. He's showing aggression not seen in decades, and observers say he has somehow transformed recently into ultimate evil.

With the images playing out in front of us, I think that is fairly obvious. The conflict in Ukraine, I believe it's an end time turning point. It's much more than just wars and rumors of wars predicted in the Bible for the end of days, and it obviously further destabilizing the world, a world that is already groaning, fearful, and weary. Sometimes I wonder, is it 1942 again, or are we really in 2022? And then watching refugees on the run having left everything behind.

You know, the strong and particularly bullies always want to destroy the weak. Well, the globalist cabal must keep stirring things up with pandemics, with wars, with economic peril, with uncertainty, and more. And to reset their New World Order plan, the world must be riddled with confusion and with chaos. So where is it going when things are changing quickly?

I say this, and then I'm going to bring on my guests here, but I wanted to make this statement. When tyrants say they're going to act, please believe them. When Russia says it will strike, we need to believe them. When China says it will go after Taiwan, believe them. When Iran says it will get nukes and eventually try to go after Israel, believe them. And when the world lacks a leader and America is weak in the White House, this is all accelerated. So I want to consider this.

I want to consider the political, biblical, and prophetic issue of the Middle East and what's happening with Russia and more. I have two guests for the hour. Michelle Bachman will join me. Part one of my programming. She is dean of the Robertson School of Government, Regent University. Part two of my programming will be Pastor Barry Stagner. But, Michelle, welcome to the program.

Thank you so much, Jan. Big topic. Yeah. Vladimir Putin, he's really not a globalist. He's really a nationalist. And yet some say the globalists are behind this incursion into Ukraine.

As a matter of fact, a Ukrainian member of parliament says, quote, we are not only fighting for Ukraine, we are fighting for the New World Order. Give me your perspective. I think we also need to recognize that Vladimir Putin was also one of the alumni of the Global Young Leaders that came through the World Economic Forum. It's interesting. I urge your listeners to go to the Global Young Leader portion of the World Economic Forum website.

There's over 1400 alumni and people who are at the top positions in finance, in media, in government, practically every area that are gatekeepers in our life, including cultural and entertainment. And it's interesting to see who some of these characters are. We see that with Putin, that he is one of them. But there's also, for instance, a journalist in Ukraine who also was one of these young global leaders. And she's been actively calling for the United States and the European Union to get engaged in establishing a no fly zone over Ukraine.

We saw just recently in Canada with Prime Minister Trudeau and the deputy prime minister, Christina Freeland, and half of the cabinet of Canada, all of whom are graduates of the World Economic Forum Young Global Leader program. It's almost as though a go button was pushed because the main event that is happening in the world today is the destruction of Western democracies in the world. It is the rise of global authoritarianism and it is the stripping away of civil liberties of the citizenry.

That's a mouthful, but that's exactly what's happening. We already have nations that are authoritarian, China, Russia, the 57 Muslim nations, all of the other dictatorships. They're already authoritarian.

What isn't authoritarian were the Western democracies. But now what we're seeing happening at exactly the same time, some through the pretense of COVID through authoritarian measures that were taken, but now through war being pushed forward in the Russian Ukrainian region. This is a very different time.

I agree with you. The time clock has leapt forward in advancing the movement because it's go time. I'm going back in time just a few months. And you and I ministered together at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, California, in September. And you spoke that day and you talked about Pax Americana is over. And the turning point clearly was Afghanistan. And I just want to revisit that for a moment because Afghanistan seemed to change the dynamic. Now, having said that, Mr. Putin may have had this in mind a year ago, 10 years ago, but then the opportunity clearly arose post Afghanistan with a very weak man in the White House.

Why don't you go back to that time? Because it seemed that we've got an America now that, look, our generals are more concerned, as you and I have talked, with transgenderism than they are on protecting our nation. Clearly, the world's leaders are seeing that and they're seeing that America is not going to intervene. And we really aren't.

I'll say more about that later. But Afghanistan seemed to be a major turning point. It is a major turning point, but you have to go back prior to that to the election of 2020. It was absolutely imperative to those who believe in a global governance system, which the World Economic Forum has made their top agenda. It was imperative that Donald Trump not have a second term in office. The American voters had to be denied their choice because they needed a weak America. As we all know, goal number three of the World Economic Forum is that the United States of America is no longer a superpower. With Joe Biden, what we have seen is two things that have happened simultaneously. Number one, America has lost its status as the economic superpower of the earth.

Our economy has been hollowed out and devastated by the Biden agenda. Number two, in August, we saw the destruction of America as a military superpower. That's what superpower status is. You can't have military superpower status without economic superpower status. We lost our economic superpower status first to China. And second, in August, we had the worst military defeat after the conclusion of our longest war, which is 20 years in Afghanistan. Eighty four billion and the finest weapons in the world being left on the ground. But also we spent two trillion dollars between Iraq and Afghanistan.

Those resources that we built up, that is now in China's purview and also in the purview of other bad actors in that region. When we had this terrible defeat in August, was anyone fired? Was there any reform of our military?

Was there any review? There was absolutely nothing. It was celebrated. It was a victory.

It was a victory from Joe Biden. It's a part of the delusion, and it's like there is an iron curtain that has descended willfully from our mainstream media, the tech media. So people in the United States and across the world are unable to get the truth anymore about what's happening in our world. But the fact is, 2021 was an extremely terrible year for America because we lost our superpower status. And because we were a superpower, we enforced globally what is known as Pax Americana. We kept the peace globally because America is a force for good in the world. When we removed America as the economic and military political superpower house in the world, that did not go unnoticed by Vladimir Putin, Chairman Xi in China and all the other bad actors of the world.

They took their opportunity. And that's what we're seeing happen in this invasion in Ukraine. The globalist water war.

They love it. The destabilization of a war. And we don't know where this is going. Play a little clip there of author Jeff Kinley, who speaks extensively, as does Mark Hitchcock, Dr. Ed Hindson and others on the coming Gog Magog conflict, where the power to the uttermost north of Israel is going to come down. But we believe that's to be Russia going to come down and seize the wealth of Israel.

We're going to talk about that in part two of my programing folks with Pastor Barry Stagner. But going back to my comment, Michelle, the globalists, they love the instability of a war. It stirs everything up, makes everything uncertain.

It stirs everything up. And people need to realize with wars, number one, they're extremely expensive. Our Treasury was bankrupted through the Iraq and Afghanistan war. Two trillion dollars. That's the entire American budget for a year.

So we just went over that. There has been no recouping, no trying to repair our military or get us back into position. It was complete and utter failure by our intelligence community. When you have a war, you don't just decide one afternoon, oh, I guess we're going to go to war.

It takes months and months of planning. I mean, I could go for three minutes just giving what you need to do to be prepared for war. The United States is not prepared to engage in war. But Russia was because they had time sufficient to make their decisions. So what was the purpose of trying to bring the EU in to this effort?

Because Russia knew that the EU couldn't stand by. So did China. They wanted to take weakened Western democracies, weakened by the COVID authoritarianism that these nations have gone through. Our economies were wiped out.

Small businesses have collapsed. A weakened Europe and a weakened United States are being invited to come in and be Ukraine's defenders. This is to China's advantage. This is to Putin's advantage to take weakened Western democracies bankrupt us in war, but also exhaust us in war. And if the United States gets involved, it's two against one because it's Putin and China. China's the silent partner here. They're crouching in the corner, but they know that we're the number one enemy of China. We, the United States, are the number one enemy of Putin and Russia. So if they can bait us to come into this effort and it's sickening to see how people have been sucked into this to think that we should run back in and we should be equipping and training and having no-fly zones, this is the economic forum. George Soros, many of the people who were these groomed young global leaders all saying, oh yes, the United States, oh yes, weakened European Western democracies. You need to get involved in this.

And so again, you step back and say, what's going on here? Who would benefit? Why are they having us be involved? It is all about collapsing the wealth, the influence of the United States of America to ensure that we are no longer in the superpower status. I submit that we are no longer a superpower. I say that with great sorrow because we were the global strong horse.

That had to happen for the end time eschatological roadmap that the Bible lays out. You can't have a superpower when you really need a global power and a global government is coming. If you join me late, you're listening to Understanding the Times Radio. I'm Jan Markell. I am on the line from Regent University, Michelle Bachman. She's Dean of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University. You hear on this program, oh my goodness, one of my most frequent radio guests.

And I would have to say one of the audience's most favorite radio guests. Michelle, we've watched Russia bomb innocent people with cluster bombs and other weaponry that's actually been banned. And they make these weapons because America buys their oil until Tuesday of this past week. Again, we were buying Russian oil and financing the Putin regime and financing the bombing of these innocent civilians.

And the horror scene played out day and night on our media and very often in real time. Finally, Mr. Biden pulled the plug on this after pressure from all sides on the right and the left. Yes, we financed China's military. We built them up and now we're building up Russia's military because of energy dependence and in China's case, because of economic dependence upon manufacturing, all designed to weaken the United States of America. The truth is the United States of America is the leading energy reserve in the entire world. There is no other country that has more energy resources from every different capacity than the United States of America. Donald Trump, as president, made the United States completely energy independent.

Remember, we were paying two dollars a gallon for gasoline. Joe Biden came in and he made energy production in America illegal and he capped it off and he stopped projects and he's stopping these leases on energy fields. So what has he done? He's begged the OPEC countries, the Muslim countries and also Russia to allow us to be dependent upon them. He has stripped out the wealth that was created from energy production in America, but he's also put us into dependency. No sane president would do what the Biden administration did. They've embraced a culture of economic death and they've embraced a culture of military ruin and destruction. And we're here looking at the tattered remains of just 15 months of the Biden administration.

I've heard you say, it was another interview, you said people who are calling the shots for the Biden administration have to be terribly evil people because everything they're doing results in destruction. One intelligent lapse after another. And it's stunning when you look from the borders to healthcare to you name it, things are being systematically destroyed on a daily basis. It's just stunning. It is. It's a culture of wickedness and a culture of death.

It is pure evil. What is coming out of the Biden administration? I don't say that in a partisan sense. I defy anyone listening to this conversation to point to even one policy that has built up America or benefited the American people. We were literally having our greatest days under Donald Trump. We were breaking stock market records every day.

African-Americans had the best life they'd ever had economically. The same with Hispanics under Donald Trump. Now under Joe Biden, we are looking at two years of lockdowns, two years of breaking the backs of small business, which is 85% of the American economy. We are broken in ways that could take decades to build back. But if you look at what the Biden administration's goals are, they could care less that people are broke, sick, can't get what they need. Instead, what they're doing is continuing to run as fast as they can through the tape to destroy the United States of America before the midterms, because they know they have full power now through November. So they're putting every wicked policy in place that they can to take us down and to put us into a place of enslavement. That's where we are today. We are enslaved to energy countries that have evil designs against the United States.

And it wasn't that way under Donald Trump. This was a politically willful decision by the Biden administration to destroy America, but also to harm the American people in our way of life. I just want to read three short paragraphs here. It's an item written by Hal Lindsey.

Hal, of course, wrote the infamous book, Late Great Planet Earth, which so influenced me as a young person. And the title of his article, again, just a couple of paragraphs here, folks, Is Putin Sane? Because that's the question a lot of people are asking. What has gotten into Vladimir Putin? Of course, he's a communist, folks, and communism is an extremely destructive satanic system.

But Hal writes this. A few days ago, New York magazine ran a headline that asked publicly what people have been asking privately for months. Is Vladimir Putin sane? The New York Times recently noted that Putin has fundamentally changed amid the pandemic. They say the shift seems to have, quote, left him more paranoid, more aggrieved and more reckless, close quote.

People who speak with him regularly, including the president of Finland, say he's not the same person. And Hal goes on. What happened? Romans one happened. Putin suppressed the truth in unrighteousness. He exchanged the truth of God for a lie. He did not see fit to acknowledge God. Therefore, God gave him over to a depraved mind.

A depraved mind or as the King James version says, a reprobate mind means in part a mind that can no longer think in its own best interest. I'll conclude here. The Romans one effect is not confined to Putin. The things that brought on his change are widespread among most of the world's leaders and not just political leaders, but also leaders in entertainment, education, religion and business. How does a nation survive in such a world? Through virtue and strength.

Proverbs 14, remembering that corruption begets weakness and weakness invites corruption. How do individuals survive in such a world? By turning to God, the Father through Jesus Christ. We don't have to be alone. We can walk hand in hand with the God who brought the universe into existence with the power of his word. Remember the wisdom of first Peter five seven, casting all your care upon him.

He cares for you. I think, Michelle, the point is that how is written here this Romans one mentality? Yes, Vladimir Putin is consumed with it. Yes, the current administration in Washington is consumed with it. But, you know, if you and I right now were to look at the capitals of the world, you name it, no matter what capital of the world we were to pick, we would see leaderlessness. We would see a political system in whatever country we want to pick. Number one, it would lack proper leadership, it would be unstable, and it would probably be contributing to the world's instability because we have no global leader. We have no stable Washington. That tees up the nations of the earth looking for a man.

That's right. So we are in the beginning stages of massive global instability. We don't know how long this will go on.

It could go fairly quickly or it could take a little bit more time. But we are in the period of time and history of massive global instability. Remember, again, every day of our life, when we woke up every listener on this show today, you woke up knowing that the United States of America was the global superpower on earth, and we held Pax Americana. With that no longer being the case. Now you have leaders with reprobate minds all across the world who are grabbing whatever they can for themselves.

Here's another interesting fact that we should keep in mind. We are in the midst of a demographic death spiral. Russia is running out of Russians. The Russian people are not reproducing. In Ukraine, one example, the population of Ukraine in 1990 was 51 and a half million. Today their population is 40 million.

Usually you don't go backwards, you go forward. Ukraine has lost 20% of its population just since the fall of the Soviet Union. Why? Because people are not reproducing. When you have uncertainty and chaos in your future, people don't invest in the future.

The best way to invest is to have children. That's true all across Europe. Now it's happening in the United States of America. So Putin needs children. He needs Russians. He's looking for these countries that have Russians he could gather together and bring into his nation. The same is true for Communist China with their disastrous one child policy. They need people too. So we're seeing a number of different factors, including a reprobate mind.

But all of these factors together resemble exactly what the Bible predicted for this time in history. And that's why it is the story of our day, the rise of authoritarianism and the massive stripping away and destruction of the rights of the citizenry, including here in America through these authoritarian means. Joe Biden unbelievably just reinstituted in a letter on the White House website his emergency powers. He put emergency powers back in.

Remember when Justin Trudeau did that in Canada? That gave him the power to freeze people's bank accounts. Joe Biden just instituted these emergency powers. Everyone should call your congressman and your senator and demand that they insist that Joe Biden rescind his emergency powers. What can he do with those emergency powers?

He could once again wave a magic wand and we could have stolen elections again this fall with his emergency powers and all of the other authoritarian measures that they've put into place to make our lives miserable and to make us bankrupt in these last two years. That has to end. Michelle, you have a fascinating event coming up. It's going to be Tuesday, March 29th from 12 to 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. And that's going to be at Regent University. But anyone can watch at no cost at regent.edu forward slash globalism.

Give me a minute of a commercial. I want people to write on their calendar now, remember, tell all your friends, Tuesday afternoon, 12 to noon Eastern Time, March 29th at regent.edu, r-e-g-e-n-t dot edu. We're doing a five hour deep dive on the exact topic that Jan and I are talking about right now. It is the rise of global authoritarianism and the stripping away of protected civil liberties. We're going to have a powerful explanation on the history of the rise of socialism. We'll have Leo Holman and another doctor talk about World Economic Forum deep dive.

We'll go through an archive of the last two years of rising authoritarianism because this is the destruction of Western democracies. And we'll wind up with a biblical perspective. We'll lay the table for all of these geopolitical events that have happened. We will catalog them.

They'll be fascinating speakers. And then we'll end up with the biblical perspective where we explain all of this. So we're getting this in a half hour time. But what we're going to do is expand it in an understandable, very informative format for five hours. It will also be archived at the regent.edu website so people can see it later.

It's free of charge. And we invite everyone to participate. It's going to be fabulous. It'll be interactive with live students, live speakers, and then people can interact online as well. But it'll be available for anyone so that you could then refer other people, you know, when people want to know what's going on in the world.

They can take a look at this in a deep dive and know biblically what is just about to happen around the corner. Well, you're having my good friend Dr. Ed Hindson as well. I believe he's closing the event off again. That's Tuesday, March 29th, 12 noon to 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. You can live stream it regent.edu forward slash globalism.

One more time regent.edu forward slash globalism. And if you can't catch it that day, just look for the archived programming after Tuesday, March the 29th. Michelle, we set this little interview up very quickly and that's because, well, I wanted your perspective.

I've heard you in some other interviews and I felt you were really nailing some of the issues that are so relevant for right now as we speak, the war in Eastern Europe, etc. And you're going to be here for a whole hour during the month of April. You'll be here in studio with me. Things will have further unfolded at that time so we can dig a little more deeply into things. But I thank you for giving up time. I know you're right there at Regent University as we speak.

Thank you and maranatha. When I come back, Pastor Barry Stagner joins me. We'll look a little more carefully at the biblical angle and the prophetic angle of what is happening in Eastern Europe. Where is it going? What's the time frame?

We'll examine that and a lot more in my part two programming. We hope you'll stay in touch with us online through OliveTreeViews.org. You can call us central time at 763-559-4444. That's 763-559-4444. Write us through the mail at Olive Tree Ministries in Jan Markell, Post Office Box 1452, Maple Grove, Minnesota 55311.

That's Post Office Box 1452, Maple Grove, Minnesota 55311. In this unstable, chaotic world, it is groaning to be free from the curse of sin. Thank you for trusting, understanding the Times Radio and Olive Tree Ministries. We are carrying a new and timely product produced by Pastor Billy Crone, a DVD set entitled, Are You Ready for the Rapture?

A nine DVD set. Laugh, mock, and scoff all you want. But if there's one thing the Bible is clear about, millions of people, specifically Christians, will suddenly disappear from this planet in an immediate flash of events. They will be raptured straight into heaven itself by the Lord Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, most of our world not only ignores this profound biblical truth, including God's warning to not be left behind, but sadly, even those who profess to be Christians today act like it won't happen anytime soon.

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Sign up online. Now let's wrap up today's conversation with Pastor Barry Stagner. The focus may now be on Ukraine, but as Amir said, and often says, and rightfully so, listen, Bible prophecy is winding down to one geographic area of the world comprised of some 8000 square miles, and that is the nation of Israel. This is really what is driving the force.

And when you find that someone is motivated by evil, you can be sure that Satan is behind it. Without question, Israel is the end target of all of these things that are going on. But Mike, there's another element that I think to be interesting, especially with the fact that Ukraine and Russia have long been considered the breadbasket of Europe. They're a major supplier of food.

And if you look again at the rider on the Black Horse in Revelation Chapter 6, there is an extensive global famine that takes place there. And the BBC just ran an article yesterday about the impact economically that the Ukraine invasion will have on the world. That is, number one, energy bills, petrol and plane ticket prices will jump with Russia being the second biggest exporter of crude oil. Brent crude has already jumped to over 100 bucks. It rose in futures 60% in one day. A 60% in oil futures rise in one day. It says that food prices are going to be affected and the ripple effects of the Russian invasion will hit shopping baskets around the world. Russia and Ukraine export one fourth of the world's wheat products and half of the world's sunflower-based products, including sunflower oil. Investment markets are going to take a hit.

The BBC article says, and it just goes on and on and on with the economic impact, including cars being more expensive, Russia being one of the world's largest suppliers of metals used in car manufacturing, things such as nickel and other things that are used in the manufacture of cars. This is a big deal and it potentially has prophetic implications that reach into the tribulation period. And as I said, this hook in the jaw, I think is very, very possible that the hook is in the mouth of Gog and it's about to be set by the Lord because it's the Lord that's going to draw them down from the north and create this invasion. And I think that's about to happen because Satan and the Lord are about to throw down in battle during the tribulation period. And of course, we know the Lord's gonna win. I think the prophetic implications of this are huge and we need to be looking up. Our redemption is nigh because the Antichrist can't rise to power until we're in the Father's house with Jesus. Welcome to part two of my programming.

I'm gonna bring on my guest for this segment in just a moment. I'm reading something from a pastor in Lviv in Ukraine asking and thanking us for prayer. He says the rockets disappear in the air without reaching our homes and no one knows where did they go. Enemy tanks run out of fuel.

Russian troops get lost and ask our locals for food and for directions. That is definitely God because we are dealing with the second strongest army in the world. Thank you for your prayers.

Obviously, there are miracles going on, but also enormous destruction, devastation, and people hurting. Joining me now is Pastor Barry Stagner. You just heard a clip from him from an online presentation. He is senior pastor of Calvary Chapel, Tustin, California. And I have ministered with him for several years sharing conferences and speaking at his proximity conference. He was to be at our Understanding the Times conference in 2020, which was canceled due to COVID restrictions at that time.

Along with Amir Sarfati, Pastor Stagner and I do some online live prophecy updates. I'm continuing the theme of trying to understand just where Russia is going now that it has become a vicious bear and not a hibernating bear. Are its sights ultimately on the mountains of Israel, Ezekiel 38.8? I think so. Who joins in on that and what is the timing of that war?

Let me clarify again that the conflict in Ukraine is not Gog and Magog or the war of Ezekiel 38.39. Could it be leading to that? Absolutely, it could be.

We're not saying it is, but it could be leading to that. Pastor Barry Stagner, welcome back to the program. Thank you so much, Jan.

Always a privilege to be on with you. Just a couple of things here. Why don't we talk about the hook and the jaw, the hook that's going to bring down the enemies of Israel in Ezekiel 38.39, participants again.

We know that to be Russia, Turkey, Iran, some North African nations. What do you think about the hook? I think the hook has some economic associations with it because that is what the protesting nations of Sheba and Dedan are going to inquire the invading forces about the motivation.

Have you come to take plunder and booty? Really, that's what we're seeing the precursors to of what's going to be fulfilled during the tribulation. Jan, I think one thing that we always have to recognize is that the church isn't going to see any portion of the tribulation, but the mentality, the moral attitude cannot develop during the tribulation. The tribulation just isn't long enough. It has to be something that is brought into the tribulation period, and therefore there are precursors to the events that will reach their ultimate fulfillment during the tribulation. And because of the things we're seeing now and the players that are involved and the military engagement that we're now seeing, it is very possible that we are on the cusp of the twinkling of an eye experience the church will have and the rider of the white horse in Revelation 6-1 coming out of the world scene covenant in hand.

Just some quick bullet points. And again, we're not suggesting that the conflict in Ukraine is Gog and Magog. It can't be, but certainly you would agree it could be a precursor, could be a lead up to it, correct?

Absolutely. And Jan, I think that's important what you just said, because we're given the geographic area of the battle theater of the Ezekiel invasion, and it's a hook in the jaw that draws them down from the north into the land of Israel. The scope of the battlefield is also defined for us being some 1600 furlongs long, which would basically be the distance from Dan to Beersheba, which is the length of Israel. And again, this also distinguishes this battle from the battle of Armageddon. We have a limited number of engagement nations, and we have a very definitive outcome that's defined there, things associated with these nations, where they come from, what their associations are with one another, and what the outcome of the battle is, which is completely distinct from that of what we call the battle of Armageddon. Yeah, this is not Gog and Magog, but some of the participants are very definitely engaged in the geographic regions, in part are represented in what's happening in Ukraine right now.

It is significant. Ukraine is the bread basket of the world, it's called, and if in fact it's going to be left in shambles, and we don't know that it is. The war is certainly weeks old, but it could end abruptly. I don't think that's going to happen. As a matter of fact, some are saying it could be a 10-year war.

Well, we'll see. But if Ukraine is the bread basket of the world, if in fact Book of Revelation, we've got the four horsemen, one of them is talking about a famine during the tribulation, Ukraine and Russia export about a fourth of the world's wheat products, it seems like we're seeing the stage being set here. Well, we really are, and you pair that up with the other elements. There's interesting things, as we all know, there's so much nonsense out there in the media, so much conflicting information we've been hearing about the fact that part of the motivation was to keep them from joining with the European Union or NATO. Interesting to see what's happening there, especially with the application to join the EU, and just watching so many of these elements that will, again, have their ultimate fulfillment during the tribulation.

And the consequences or the ripple effect of this is, without question, going to be global, and it is going to impact all of us, especially at the place that is one of the most costly visits in day-to-day life right now, and that's to the gas station. So you look at Russia's need to feed the monster, so to speak, and it comes generally from the vast majority of their gross domestic product is related to energy. I'm going to play another clip here. It happens to be Jeff Kinley, and folks, I opened the program with a clip of Jeff, and he's being interviewed again, because a lot of people are saying, you know, what's happening in Eastern Europe at this point, somehow leading up to the invasion that Russia and a bunch of allies are going to be perpetrating on the nation of Israel. One of the big questions is, where do people find Russia in Scripture? So let's start there. Is Russia in Scripture? And then let's talk about Ezekiel, because I know that's where you're going to go from here.

But take us through that. Why Russia? From a biblical perspective, anytime you have directions given in the Bible, then you always start with Israel being the center or the navel, if you will, the center of the compass. And it speaks about these nations coming from the uttermost parts of the north. And of course, if you just do a straight line north of Israel, you're going to land in the middle of Russia. So that's one reason. Another is because the word rosh is used in Ezekiel chapter 38.

And of course, there's different opinions as to what that means. But I think the most plausible explanation is that it just simply refers to Russia, because it's referring geographically to it, and even the name itself. When you get down to Magog, it says there'll be this war of Gog and Magog. I know that Josephus, the Jewish historian, identified that area as the area of the Scythians, where they lived, which is really modern day Russia. It really includes Ukraine. Really, you've got rosh as Russia and part of Russia being Magog.

And all that just really fits. And most scholars today, Billy, are pretty united on the fact that Magog does include Russia and at least parts of the former Soviet Union. And that portion of Ezekiel, when you look at Ezekiel 38 and 39, this idea of Gog from Magog. Gog would then be a world leader, really the leader of Russia, in this case, essentially, pending Russia is Magog. Is that correct? Right.

Yes. The word Gog just simply means chief or ruler or head. He's the kind of the top dog of the organization, if you will. And so, yeah, he would be identified as the leader. Barry Sanger, just some bullet points here based on Ezekiel 38, 39. Israel, number one, is dwelling securely, likely only under the Antichrist. The context is the last days. The invasion comes from the uttermost north. It's an overwhelming invasion and no one helps.

Some nations sit on the sidelines and scold, but they don't get involved. Gog gets involved and allows Israel to win. Your thoughts on all of this, that I want to ask you when you think the timing is. It's interesting.

I appreciate what Pastor Jeff and Billy were saying. Let me just throw a little curve ball in there. When you draw a line directly from Jerusalem north on a flat map, you're going to go through Moscow. You go through the heart of Russia. But if you were to take a piece of thread and put it on top of a globe and run from Jerusalem to the North Pole, that line would go right through Ankara, Turkey. Here you've got these two major players, one being the former capital of the Eastern leg of the Roman Empire. No matter how you slice it, and I appreciate he mentioned the Rosh issue, whether that's a proper name or a noun, but either way, you've got two countries, no matter which you believe to be leading the charge, you draw a line to the North Pole. It goes through Ankara, Turkey, they're named. You draw a line due north on a flat map and you're going to see Moscow involved. To see these nations, Russia with their economic motivations and wanting to control the flow of natural gas and petroleum products into Europe, and Turkey recently making these overtures towards re-establishing at least a conversational relationship with Israel.

Behind the scenes, both are motivated by one thing, and that is the European natural gas market. But Jan, I think the outcome of this war, and possibly, and I want to just underscore that possibly, is that the Ezekiel war invasion starts before the rapture of the church. The rapture of the church takes place during that invasion period. And then the final element of it, because of how the outcome of the war is dictated and determined by God himself, for me that puts that of necessity inside the tribulation period, because we're not living in a time of God responding with his direct wrath. People now today experience a consequential wrath of God, the universal law of sowing and reaping, but the direct wrath of God in the form of catastrophic events is limited to that seven year tribulation period. Possibly it begins before the rapture, the rapture happens after it starts, but the end game I believe would land somewhere inside the early portion of the tribulation. Many believe that Damascus, Syria will be obliterated first. That's based on Isaiah 17 one. Some say, well that happened in history.

I don't know that it was ever left uninhabitable in history, but there is coming a time when it will be left uninhabitable. Some feel that's going to be an event that will actually trigger Ezekiel 38-39. What is your thought on that? I would agree with that, I think, especially with the fact that we see multiple players from the Ezekiel war scenario now inside of Syria. There's a Russian military presence there. There's a Turkish military presence there. There's Iranian or the Persians who are militarily present there. Turkey has established relations with Libya and Sudan, who are the other two players in that five nation invasion.

And what's on the news all the time? Damascus, Israel strikes near Damascus. I think it makes sense that this standalone prophecy, which I would say was not in the seventh century BC fulfilled by Sennacherib and his invading forces simply because there's a Damascus today.

Yes, exactly. Ceasing from being a city means exactly that. It will never be a city again. That hasn't happened yet, even though there's been obviously attacks. Look at Jerusalem. How many times has it been invaded and overrun through the centuries?

I think this standalone prophecy in Isaiah 17-1 is going to play a part, a motivating factor in that invasion of Israel in Ezekiel 38-39. If you just join me, you're listening to Understanding the Times Radio. I'm Jan Markell. I have on the line from Southern California, Pastor Barry Stagner. You can learn much more at his website. He is pastor of Calvary Chapel, Tustin, California. Cctustin.org.

Cctustin.org, if you want to ask him some questions. He's speaking and hosting various prophecy conferences around the country, frankly around the world. Barry, just quickly, I actually brought this out.

You and I spoke together at Behold He Comes back in September at Calvary Chapel, Chino Hills, California. I brought out the fact that obviously it was not new news. It had just happened. Eighty five billion dollars in U.S. military equipment left behind in Afghanistan, which could in fact play a military role in Gog and Magog, could it not? Oh, absolutely. There are some who see portions of the nation's name, there's including the Stan States, as it's called.

The Stan, that's right. The southern steps of Russia. That would include Afghanistan. Interestingly, Jan, that that potentially implies the horrific scenario that the United States has armed the nations that will invade Israel to a degree.

That was a catastrophic move, no matter, hey, it sucks that it made no sense whatsoever. And one of the elements of why we're seeing what we're seeing in Ukraine right now is a weak leadership position in the United States and this diplomacy sanctioning. And they have their purpose and role.

There's no question about that. And of course, we should try and pursue a diplomatic solution to this. But there's a time, as Solomon said, there's a time for war.

There's a time to stand up and defend yourself and your allies. We have now, sadly, an administration where those who do have the itchy trigger finger aren't intimidated by the people and places of power here in the U.S. or to a degree, even in Israel right now. Reading a couple of lines here, Joel Rosenberg writes in his online newspaper, Christians, don't stop praying for the full liberation of Ukraine and the reestablishment of peace and security in Europe. Don't stop praying for the Lord to restrain Putin and thwart his evil intentions. The world hasn't been this close to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis 60 years ago. That is an ominous thought, Barry Stagner, that indeed with Putin and again, we talked about it first half of my programming, Putin seems to be out of his mind somehow with anger.

We don't know what. Yes, he's brought us back to the brink of nuclear war. Did you ever think in 2022 we knew it'd be a chaotic year, but nuclear war? Really, Jen, thinking back on when we were all younger, we used to have duck and cover drills in school. And here in California, everything was the last Friday of the month.

They used to play air raid sirens as scare the daylights out of you if you would forgotten what day it was. But to be talking about these things again with them as a potential reality is frightening. And considering the fact that I was reading an article and forgive me, I can't think of the lady's name, but she has worked under both Democratic and Republican administrations. Her qualifications are she is the world's foremost expert on Vladimir Putin. And she was asked by the person doing the interview if she thought he would use nuclear weapons.

Her answer was without hesitation. Really? And she made the point that this guy seems to have gone off the rails.

Yes. For some reason, she has never, ever in all her years of studying Putin, see him be emotionally driven. And he seems right now to be driven by emotion and anger and wrath and all these things. Evil thoughts come into the mind.

That's right. Satan is obviously behind them. Yeah, it's an interesting time to be alive. Reading two short paragraphs from Haaretz, that's an Israeli newspaper, talking about the effect here on Israel, which really is going to have an effect on every listener ultimately here. And the two paragraphs, if Russian military aggression forcibly kicks out Ukraine from the world food market or even just temporarily delays sewing, harvesting, processing and supply, it will create a tsunami effect on a global scale. This will hit not only Israel, but the entire arc of states from North Africa to the Persian Gulf and South Asia, all consumers of Ukrainian exports. And then it concludes, all this will lead to the fact that in the event of a major war against Ukraine, the increase in the cost of living, the reference here is to Israel, will make our current complaints about rising prices look like child's play that can be applied to the whole world. And then it concludes, we are on the verge of the biblical seven years of hunger with the sharp rise in food prices. Again, very stagnant. That's apocalyptic language in two paragraphs of Haaretz newspaper.

Yeah. And Israel is still looking for their Messiah, looking at language like this coming out of Israel and especially the mention of seven years of famine and things that may be more traditional than biblical, but they know that there's a tough time coming, seeing that we seem to be on the cusp of it. It's curious to watch the tentacles on this thing spread out, the potential for the global famine, Ukraine, as we've talked about being the bread basket and Russia as well, and all of the elements of just the basic food stuffs that come from there. When you parallel that with the wheat and barley of revelation chapter six, those are two major products that come out of Ukraine by name, wheat and barley.

They're within the top five producers and exporters of both of those products. And basically revelation six says those things will be in scarce supply and extremely expensive. And Jen, one of the other things I think that's so interesting about how all this is developing is we've seen the dysfunctional family of the EU and become an operating family unit because of this and all the things they bickered about and argued over, like having a military arm that represents the whole of the EU instead of individual nations.

And now you've got nations dedicating hundreds of millions of dollars to the military cause of the European community. This is a geographic region from which the Antichrist is going to rise up, the revived Roman empire. That's what I think is so fascinating and exciting about this is it's not just, oh, this could be this or this could be that. It's like every area related to last day's Bible prophecy is advancing right now. We need to be looking up. Thank you. Even the concept of the new world order plays in here.

I'm just playing a clip. It happens to be a Ukrainian member of parliament. And she's saying, look, we're fighting for the new world order. For the rest of us that aren't Ukrainians. I think the world, quite frankly, Kira is surprised by the will of the Ukrainian people to stand up and fight. Are you?

Well, I'm not surprised. We have been fighting Putin for the last eight years. And we had three revolutions in our country when we did not agree with what was going on with the direction of where we're moving in. But right now it's a critical time because we know that we not only fight for Ukraine, we fight for this new world order for the democratic countries. We knew that we are the shield for the Europe. We knew that we are protecting not only Ukraine, we are protecting like all the other countries that would be next if we fail.

That's why we just cannot fail. Well, again, that's Ukrainian member of parliament Kira Rudich. She stated in an interview with Fox News that she and her fellow Ukrainian citizens are not only fighting Russia to save their own country, but to save the new world order that includes all the other democratic countries. Your thoughts on that, Pastor Barry, and then we want to hit your upcoming emphasis here on three sixteen. But give me your thoughts on the globalism push here.

Well, I think it's fascinating because really a portion of what she was saying is what is going to feed into the global worship of the Antichrist. People are tired of ideological driven wars. People are tired of religious based wars. They're tired of the nation rising against nation. They're tired of the ethnic tensions.

They're tired of all these things. And the solution seems to be let's just all have one global economy, religious system and all the things that we're seeing pushed forward through the Great Reset and other efforts through the World Economic Forum. But Jan, I think as we both know, behind all this is the devil.

Yes. And the end game is not the Great Reset or the World Economic Forum. The end game is the Antichrist. That's right. The mentality necessary for him to govern the whole of the world and to receive worship and worship meaning to prostrate and submit has to be developed and be developing before he ever comes to power.

That's right. You have a campaign coming up. And how appropriate because we're in I'm going to say Earth's final hours. We don't know how long before the Lord's glorious return. And my goodness, what really matters is whether spending eternity, let's put it that way, because eternity spent in the wrong place is unthinkable. Eternity spent with the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven is why you and I do what we do. But talk to us a little bit about your 3-16 mission.

I'm down to a couple minutes. Jan, it's actually something that was birthed out of our high school ministry at the church. And let me first say everything related to it has nothing to do with our church. It's all about Jesus. And what we are doing is challenging Christians everywhere to take over social media and to post either the words of John 3-16 or to quote the words of John 3-16 or explain John 3-16 and basically take what has been used for so much against us and take it back and use it for God's glory. And there is a website that you can go to. It's 3-16, the numbers, 316mission.info.

And there's some downloadable graphics and things like that. But when our high school group started presenting this out to other churches, we just want to make sure that it is focused on Jesus and not on any church that's not promoting our church. There's nothing anywhere that has our church's name on it or any other church for that matter.

But it's exalting the name of Christ. And my hope is that secular media reports that the church took over the Internet on 3-16 of 2022. And that's why we're calling it 3-16 mission. 3-16, that's the date of March 16th.

So March 16th, 2022, share John 3-16 in a time where the world is desperate for hope. Oh, my goodness. Thank you.

Very well said. Just a quick heads up here. I'm going to look at some additional aspects of this war next week with Pastor Billy Crone. Volodymyr Zelensky may not be the person you think he is. He is a part of the globalist cabal and we'll look clearly at that next week.

And just exactly what does it mean? You know, folks, we have talked quite frankly about some discouraging things today. And I am reminded that we need to be encouraging one another. That is actually a biblical command found in Hebrews 10. We're to encourage one another and all the more as we see the day drawn near and the day of the Lord, His return and that time the earth will be in turmoil. And so we see that has come to pass. My goodness, for the last many decades, even a couple of centuries.

But now it's accelerating. So before the day is over, would you encourage a weary soul today? And there are so many weary souls and you will make their day, I promise you, if you'll just give them an encouraging word. I want to thank you for listening and we're going to talk to you again next week. All gifts are tax deductible. God knew of today's events before the beginning of time. He knew you were going to play a primary role in these final days and He's orchestrating all we see transpiring so that everything falls into place.