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ESPAÑOL: ¿Desempeña Rusia un papel en los tiempos del fin?

Many believe we are entering the end of the end times. With that some wonder what countries, if any, will have a role to play.

In recent years, Russia has been in the news from its brutal attack on Ukraine to more recent concerns about the possible release of a plague from one of its biological laboratories.

The Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute located in Siberia was constructed under the old Soviet Union to create bio weapons. The lab continues to function with Russia claiming it is now focused on fighting plagues.

According to reports, a 28-year-old lab worker by the name of Darya Shipilova accidentally broke a test tube and caught what some believe was the pneumonic plague.

Pneumonic plague is a severe lung infection caused by the Yersinia bacteria and can be spread between people. A person can die within 24 hours without treatment.

Shipilova died within days of her hospitalization.

The Kremlin responded that there had been no accident at its facility.

As a result of this breach, five hospitals and 200 people were put in isolation. These actions suggest a serious breach at the facility. Those actions speak louder than the Kremlin’s words.

As we study the Biblical end times, it clears that plagues will make an appearance.

Jesus warned of apocalyptic plagues prior to his return stating, “and there will be massive earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines…” (Luke 21:11).

Notice how Jesus said that these plagues will show up in various places, meaning it will not all be concentrated in the Middle East.

In his vision of the end times recorded in the book of Revelation, the Apostle John warns that one of the four horseman of the Apocalypse mentioned in Revelation 6 is called death and Sheol. Riding a greenish grey horse, it will bring death through plagues and famine (verse 8).

In a recent article, Israel365 News reported on the plague incident in Russia and particularly that country’s possible connection to the end times.

Israel365 News is an orthodox Jewish site. Though they don’t accept Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, they believe a Messiah is soon coming.

As part of their end times theology, they believe that God will unleash plagues similar to what during Israel’s exodus out of Egypt.

Berkowtitz writes that when God sent the fifth plague, the Hebrew word ‘dever’ was used to describe the pestilence in Exodus 9:3. This is the same Hebrew word used in Exodus 38:22 to describe the pestilence that quote “God will unleash on Gog, the invader from the far north whom generations of Bible readers have identified with Russia.”

Perhaps the clearest Biblical reference to Russia’s role is found in Ezekiel which speaks of a nation called Gog that will play a role in Armageddon, the last end times battle against Israel.

One verse even provides the geographical location of Gog stating it is in the “remote parts of the north” (Ezekiel 38:15). The ASV describes Gog as being from the “uttermost parts of the north”.

The verse tells us that Gog is located in the farthest north that a country could be.

There are only two nations today that occupy the Earth’s arctic, Canada and Russia.

And of the two, Russia certainly fits the bill as it has been aggressive in the Middle East including supporting Iran.

Of course, it wasn’t named Russia 2,500 years ago when Ezekiel uttered that prophecy. It probably wasn’t even a single country at that point, but rather a conglomeration of small tribal groups.

But Ezekiel, who received visions, was seeing how it would appear centuries in the future. If it was Russia, he had to find or make up words in Hebrew that would resemble what he was seeing or hearing in Russian.

Berkowitz writes:

“Ezekiel identifies the enemy as “Gog, of the land of Magog, nesi rosh Meshech v’Tuval” (Ezekiel 38:2), which some read as “the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal. The 19th-century Hebrew scholar Wilhelm Gesenius linked Rosh to the Russian people and Meshech to Moscow.”

Where that is true or not, another prophet, Daniel, also had visions of the end times. But he described the countries involved using animals.

One country had the appearance of a bear that would devour many nations.

⁵ And behold, another beast, a second one, resembling a bear. And it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth; and thus they said to it, ‘Arise, devour much meat!’ (Daniel 7:4 NASB)

The bear has long symbolized Russia and the old Soviet Union.

We saw that on display during the 2008 Euros, when Russian supporters unfurled a massive flag which covered nearly a full section of seats emblazoned with a bear and the words “Forward, Russia” as a show of support for the Russian soccer team.

Over the past century the old Soviet Union and now its latest rendering, Russia, have aggressively tried to dominate other countries.

While these coincidences don’t automatically mean that Russia will be a major player in the End Times, the country’s actions certainly make it a contender.