Spartan Sprinter 1
Formerly known as Shaun
Thanks Athenasius, you're able to thoroughly communicate the doubts i also had about this and articulate it better.The remainder of the questions should be out next Monday (LOL ithink it might be Sunday for Northern hemisphere timezone) and he's going to address the second seal timing and the simultaneous rapture and Ezekiel timing as wellI moved our discussion over into here, on Andy Wood's idea of when the GM takes place. Sorry for the repeat.
My problem with Andy's time frame, tying the Gog Magog invasion to the Second Seal, and why I don't agree (but it is plausible) is what do you do with the Antichrist?
Andy's timing has the AC arriving on the scene with the First Seal-- making that peace agreement with Israel that kicks off the Tribulation. That part nearly everyone agrees with, it's the normal view. AC arrives in the First Seal as the first horseman.
The problem with Gog Magog invading at the time of the Second Seal, is the fact that according to Ezek 38, NOBODY comes to defend Israel, and the ONLY nations that even speak up are Tarshish, her cubs and Sheba and Dedan. THOSE ARE NOT WHERE THE AC COMES FROM.
So now with Andy's theory we have the AC making a peace covenant with Israel (and that is the thing that kicks off the Tribulation) BEFORE the Second Seal war (the second horseman) BUT ANDY puts GOG MAGOG in AFTER this peace covenant is signed.
So with Andy's theory we have a sudden invasion of Israel, who is living in a false sense of security (which Andy theorizes is due to them signing on with the Antichrist who guarantees their peace) and when they are invaded NOBODY comes to help, and GOD ALONE delivers them. This is not something that anyone at the time will get confused about, God sets it up so that Israel HAS to see that it is GOD and GOD ALONE who is their deliverer. Same with the other gentile nations-- this is God's signature act showing who HE IS to all.
So if God sets it up so that He alone gets the credit, and the only nations that question are Tarshish, cubs, Sheba and Dedan then where is the ANTICHRIST in this? He is a no show. I say it is because the Gog Magog takes place BEFORE the peace covenant that sets off the Trib. But Andy says it's after this peace covenant.
So now we have a no show with the AC, and Israel is now supposed to trust the AC for the next 3.5 years or so till the midpoint of the Tribulation when their eyes are opened as a result of the Abomination of Desolation.
You can't have it both ways. Israel wouldn't trust the AC after that no show IF Andy's theory is correct.
What is more logical is this sequence of events:
Rapture followed by a brief time but not too long because in Ezek 38 the nations (gentiles) Don't KNOW GOD and God is making Himself known to them but also mainly to Israel now. So there are no Christians among the nations at that time
Gog Magog occurs shortly after the Rapture, making it impossible to ignore God whether Jew or Gentile. EVERYONE now knows God, the true God, who destroyed Gog Magog is the REAL God, and He is the God of ISRAEL. People start getting saved again
NEXT the Antichrist rises --this could also be a very brief time-- and Israel still isn't trusting God so they sign his covenant because they don't want to get caught like that again, Gog Magog being fresh in their memory.
Signing the covenant kicks off the Tribulation. 7 months of body burying and 7 years of burning weapons are not simultaneous with the Tribulation, but they begin with the day after Gog Magog, and continue thru much if not all of the Tribulation. They could easily go beyond into the Millennium because Andy's point about Babylon burning thru the Millennium is correct. There is no reason why weapons couldn't burn for a bit into the front end of the Millennium
But the thing that prevents me from agreeing with Andy's point about the Gog Magog event being the Second Seal war is that places the AC agreement for peace before a war that the AC doesn't show up for. Which breaks that covenant right after it's made, and makes the trust the Jews have in the AC for the first half of the Tribulation kind of weird.