Obama h as
many Czars–Putin has Czar’s Palace,
Yes Vladimir, There Really is a Magog Santa Claus,
Who Flies over the Land of Magog on Christmas Eve,
Distributing crony Capitalistic gifts to good Magogites,
And one day chalaza gifts in many sizes will come Down,
Ending the Celebration of Christmas as We Know It Today.
December 26, 2010
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Ezekiel 39:6-8 – And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the Lord. [7] So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. [8] Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord God; this is the day whereof I have spoken.
Revelation 8:6,7 – And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. [7] The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
Revelation 16:16-21 – And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
[17] And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. [18] And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. [19] And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of
the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. [20] And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. [21] And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.
Begin Excerpt from The Daily Star – Lebanese News
The Russia house, Vladimir Putin style
By David Ignatius
Friday, December 24, 2010
You can see the sprawling, Italian-style palace on the Black Sea in satellite photos. There’s a fitness spa, a hideaway “tea house,” a concert amphitheater and a pad for three helicopters. It’s still under construction, but already the cost is said to total more than $1 billion.
And most amazing of all, according to a Russian whistleblower named Sergey Kolesnikov, it was mostly paid for with money donated by Russian businessmen for the use of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The funds have come “mainly through a combination of corruption, bribery and theft,” charges Kolesnikov, a businessman who until November 2009 worked for one of the companies he alleges was investing money for Putin.
Kolesnikov lays out the story of this 21st-century czar’s palace – and the secret funding network that is paying for it – in a remarkable open letter to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. This letter was delivered Tuesday to the Russian United Nations mission in New York, and a full English translation is available online at corruptionfreerussia.com. It’s one of the most detailed allegations I’ve seen of the links between Putin and Russia’s “crony capitalism.”
“The corruption is pervasive, and it is disgraceful and crippling for our great country,” writes Kolesnikov, citing a recent Transparency International study claiming that corruption in Russia, overall, totals $250 billion to $300 billion annually. He calls on Medvedev to “show to our entire nation that everyone is equal before the law, even prime ministers.”
A spokesman for Putin declined to comment. One Russian source speculates that the Black Sea palace may be used to entertain guests during the 2014 Winter Olympics nearby in Sochi.
Kolesnikov is one of those brave souls a journalist meets occasionally, who decides to expose what he sees as wrongdoing, regardless of the personal risks. I met him this month and reviewed his notes and other documents supporting his charges. The Russian businessman, who became wealthy through various ventures, including a medical-supply company called Petromed, appears to have nothing to gain personally by attacking Putin – and much to lose. That boosts his credibility in my eyes.
The financing of Putin’s hideaway, as Kolesnikov explains it, is a complicated story that centers on a man named Nikolai Shamalov. He is an old St. Petersburg friend of Putin’s, with whom he shared a dacha cooperative property there during the 1990s. A December 23, 2009, story in Novya Gazeta named Shamalov as one of Putin’s 13 influential business “friends.” An attempt to reach Shamalov through Putin’s spokesman was unsuccessful.
Kolesnikov says he began working with Shamalov in 2000 after Putin became president. The initial plan was to use contributions from Russian businessmen to purchase medical equipment for clinics in St. Petersburg, with 35 percent of the contract payments diverted to offshore accounts. Millions of dollars worth of medical equipment was indeed purchased but more than $148 million of these donations allegedly wound up under Shamalov’s control, according to the open letter.
In 2005, Kolesnikov told me, he was asked by Putin’s friend to form an investment company called RosInvest. The ownership was hidden by anonymous “bearer shares,” with the bulk held on Putin’s behalf, Kolesnikov says he was told by Shamalov.
The palace project began in 2005 with the acquisition of state land near Praskoveevka. Shamalov eventually owned this “Project South,” as it was known, through several front companies, the letter alleges. Kolesnikov says he regularly reviewed invoices and other financial records, and that by October 2009, projected spending had reached $1 billion.
Kolesnikov says Putin was briefed regularly on his hidden wealth. “Two or three times a year, during eight years, at Shamalov’s direction, I prepared financial summaries for him to personally update President Putin on his investments,” he alleges in his letter. “Immediately following each of these meetings, Shamalov would provide me with Putin’s comments and instructions for the use of the funds.”
It’s a fact of life that in many nations, political leaders divert a share of private business deals for their own account, and Russians have gossiped about such corruption for the past two decades. What’s unusu al is to h
ave such a detailed, on-the-record allegation. Today’s Russia is a place where whistleblowers can end up dead.
The reason Kolesnikov decided to come forward, he writes, is that the costs of corruption “sap the very fiber of our people and our country.” Whatever the history of the palazzo-on-the-sea, the larger point is surely right: Corruption is undermining Russia, and the only way it will stop is if brave people protest, and leaders take action.
Syndicated columnist David Ignatius is published twice weekly by THE DAILY STAR.
End of Daily Star Excerpt
Begin Exposition of Ezekiel 38:1-6
Ezekiel 38:1,2 – “And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, [2] Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him.” Gog (high extension) appears for the first time in Ezekiel. He is the Antichrist of whom so much has been written. Please note that he is identified as the “chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.” Many commentators, especially in the last 100 years, have not identified him as the Antichrist, but have identified him as the ruler or chief prince of the land of Magog, which I do not believe Scripture justifies. Before the 20th Century, most identified him as the Antichrist. In verse 2 Ezekiel is told to set his face against two separate things, a person and a place. The person is Gog (Antichrist), and the place is the land of the descendants of Magog where it existed in Ezekiel’s day. If we do not locate the territories of Magog, Meshech, and Tubal as they existed in Ezekiel’s day, then we can have no idea as to where the Antichrist will soon rear his head, or the area from which his attack will be launched.
Why? – Because more than 2500 years have slipped by since Ezekiel wrote his prophecies, and the bloodlines of all three men been distributed across the entire planet. In order to correctly identify the area, from whence the Antichrist will attack Israel, we must identify where the descendants of Meshech and Tubal were residing in 500 and 600 B.C. Why? Because the Antichrist is not the chief prince of Magog, he is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. He will come from the area where their descendants were settled in 500 and 600 B.C.
I will attempt to use two different sources to locate where the descendants of Meshech and Tubal were clustered at the time of Ezekiel’s writings. The first is found in the 27th chapter of Ezekiel, and the second is from the Assyrian monument stones of that period. Ezekiel 27:3 – “And say unto Tyrus, O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles, Thus saith the Lord God; O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty.” Tyrus (Tyre) was a seaport on the southern coast of what we know today as Lebanon, which is directly north of Israel. Tyrus built its first great sea wall to protect its harbored ships more than 3000 years ago, and was a thriving seaport in Ezekiel’s day. Its ships carried merchandise from the countries of the east across all the Mediterranean, and even as far north as the shores of the English Channel.
Zidon (Sidon) was also a sea port, and less than 20 miles separated the two cities. The wise men of Tyrus were the navigators of the ships, and the men of Zidon were the deck hands, as portrayed in Ezekiel 27:8 – “The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy mariners: thy wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee, were thy pilots.” Now, bearing all this in mind, let us look at Ezekiel 27:13 – “Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market.” Meshech and Tubal were warlike tribes, who often took their captives (persons of men) and the vessels of brass they had captured, or hammered out themselves, and carried them to the NEAREST seaport for trading. The captives were, of course, loaded on the ships and sold as slaves in foreign ports of trade. Why the NEAREST seaport? Because, in Ezekiel’s day, travel was by foot, donkey, camel, and horse. People always carried their trading goods to the nearest port, particularly slaves.
Therefore, I conclude that Meshech and Tubal must have roamed in the area we know today as Syria, Lebanon, northwestern Iraq, and southern Turkey. Meshech and Tubal are the Mushki and Tabali of the Assyrian stone monuments. In the time of Sargon and Sennacherib (700 B.C.) the territory of Tubal adjoined southern Cilicia, while that of Meshech filled the highlands to the east of Tubal. Considering the locations derived from the Bible and stone tablets, it appears that the Antichrist, as the chief prince of the area once occupied by Meshech and Tubal, is likely to arise, and eventually to attack Israel, from Syria or Lebanon. And, since Lebanon is virtually controlled by Syria, it appears Syria is the best guess for his homeland.
But what about the land of Magog – Where were the Magogites settled in Ezekiel’s day?
Ezekiel 38:1-3 – “And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, [2] Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, [3] And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:”
Up to this point I have made a case to establish, both from the Scriptures and the Assyrian stone monuments, that the descendants of Meshech and Tubal, at the time Ezekiel wrote his prophecies, were primarily located in what we know as Syria and Lebanon. I also established that the prophecy is again a person, Gog (Antichrist), and against a land, the land of Magog. I am convinced that the Antichrist will attack Israel from Syria. So – What about this “land of Magog” – Where were the Magogites located at the time of Ezekiel’s writings? Flavius Josephus, the noted Jewish historian makes the following statements concerning the Magogites in Antiquities of the Jews, Chapter VI, under the title, HOW EVERY NATION WAS DENOMINATED FROM THEIR FIRST INHABITANTS: “Japhet, the son of Noah, had seven sons.” “They called the nations by their own names.” “Magog founded those that from him were called Magogites, but who by the Greeks were called Scythians.” The Greek writers of the Classic Age said the Scythians occupied the area which today we identify as stretching from Moldova eastward across the Ukraine, southern Russia, and into Kazakhstan, then southward into Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan – Roughly the area north of the Black Sea, between the Black and Caspian Seas, and the area
northwest, north, and northeast of the Caspian Sea. I do not believe the nations in this area will join in the initial attack against Israel, but I am certain they will come down for the final battle of Gog’s war, which is the Battle of Armageddon. The Battle of Armageddon, found in Revelation 16:16, is the final battle in Gog’s war, which began 3 and ½ years earlier.
Verse 3 fails to include the “land of Magog,” and is a message directly pointed, and personally addressed, against the Antichrist Gog, who once again is identified as the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Popular writers in the last century brought a teaching into play that is simply not true. They said the word “chief” was “rosh” in the Hebrew language, which is true. But they said it meant “Russian,” which is not true.
The Russian and Hebrew language have never overlapped in history to support such a claim. He is not a Russian prince. He is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, most likely having a Syrian father. The word “rosh,” in the KJV, is translated as “chief” 90 times, as “head” 349 times, as “top” 75 times, as “beginning” 14 times, as “company” 12 times, as “captain” 10 times, as “sum” 9 times, as “first” 6 times, as “principle” 5 times, as “chief man” 4 times, and as “ruler” on two occasions. At no time, in all of history, could it legitimately be identified as someone who is a Russian.
I am convinced the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal will come from northwestern Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, or southern Turkey, and I will be very much surprised if his father is not a Syrian. He will be the leader of a multilateral Arab force that will carry out a surprise attack against Israel from the north.
I believe this is spoken of in Revelation 17:12,13 – “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. [13] These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.”
Although he will have the support of ten Arab nations, I believe the nations directly involved in the initial attack will be Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran from without, and the Palestinians from within. I believe the other nations, which will then immediately become involved in the Jihad, are most likely to be Turkey, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Sudan.
I have established a case to show that the Antichrist is likely to arise in Syria, and will launch his initial attack again Israel from that position. Although he will have the support of ten Arab nations, I believe the nations directly involved in the initial attack will be Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran from without, and the Palestinians from within. I believe the other nations, which will then immediately become involved in the Jihad, are most likely from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Sudan. Now, let us continue from Ezekiel 38:4 – “And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords.” This portrays a man overtaking a fleeing beast, putting hooks into its jaws, then turning and pulling it along a path the man desires to lead it. The Antichrist will have no choice in this matter. God will create political and economic circumstances whereby he must come down at exactly the appointed time. I protest the efforts of some commentators to take the weapons of Ezekiel’s day, and attempt to carry them into our day and time. Suppose God had inspired Ezekiel to write 1020 tanks, 923 MIG JETS, 3283 katyusha launchers, 12000 katyusha rockets, 723 SAM shoulder held launchers with 4673 SAM’s, and 2073 flamethrowers. The readers of Ezekiel’s day would have laughed him to scorn.
I am persuaded that God meant for our final generation to picture a great, mighty, army, fully armed to the teeth with all the known modern weapons of warfare.
Verse 5 names three of the peoples from which the Antichrist will draw his initial attacking horde: “Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:” Persia was basically the peoples east of the Euphrates, which today would be Iran and Iraq. Libya corresponds with the location of modern day Libya.
And Ethiopia in Ezekiel’s day was made up mostly of what we call Sudan today. Once again the point is made that they will be fully armed for all out war.
Verse 6 continues to name the peoples of Ezekiel’s day from which he will draw his support, and by knowing where they lived at that time, we can at least attempt to identify those nations that occupy these areas today: “Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.” Quite frankly, I have searched, and researched, the writings of many historians, both ancient and modern, and, in the end, knowing that honesty is the best policy, I can only say that there is a wide diversity of opinion. Up to this point, as regards the locations of Magog, Meshech, Tubal, Persia, Libya, and Ethiopia, I have presented a case from both the Scriptures and historical records, which I believe is substantial. But in the case of Gomer, and the house of Togarmah, as to where they were settled in Ezekiel’s day, I can only give a rough approximation. The house of Togarmah and the descendants of Gomer were sandwiched between the Magogites (Scythians) to the north, and Meshach, Tubal, and Persia to the south. They stretched from west to east across modern day Turkey into the area south of the Caucasus Mountains, and through extreme northern Iraq and Iran.
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