Avigdor “Yanush” Ben-Gal died this week.

The former Israeli general, a tank commander, had, like so many of his colleagues, a glittering military career. Distinguishing himself in the Six-Day War, and providing key leadership under fire in the Yom Kippur War, Ben-Gal also helped plan the Entebbe raid.

His backstory is perhaps even more fascinating.

Before I get to that, I want to mention something else that happened this week, within the Bible prophecy community, and then circle back around to Ben-Gal.

A couple Bible prophecy teachers are sparring over the timing of certain prophetic passages, things obviously still future.

I am so tired of this stuff.

Our society is disintegrating, we are reaping the rotten fruit of a century of scholarly attacks on the Bible (and with it, generations of ill-equipped pastors), and oh by the way, opportunities for sharing the Gospel have never been greater.

(Thank goodness for teachers like my friend, Gary Frazier, who keep the Good News at the forefront of what they do.)

It is sadly necessary to continually remind people that we have a limited understanding of how certain Bible prophecies will play out. We just can’t know certain things. The chronology of wars predicted, the actual flow of sequences in the very last days…most of this we cannot ourselves predict with any real degree of accuracy.

Yet some insist on doing so. They immerse themselves in details of battles and international and regional alliances. They get into fights with colleagues over the timing of the Tribulation, etc.

What a disservice they do to the Body.

Can we not keep our eye on the ball? Can we not be satisfied that we are privileged to live in the final days of world history, from where the Lord will usher-in eternity? We live in the time Israel is reborn. We live in the time (painfully) in which the Church Visible is apostate.

Why engage in speculation? And usually it’s wrong speculation, to boot!

Let me be clear: I do not care to know the precise timing of the Gog-Magog War. The public “out there” doesn’t care to know it. It will happen when it happens and if we live long enough, we will see it happen on our television screens.

What people are interested in is the fact that the world is disintegrating, and individuals are rightly worried about themselves and usually, their families and friends. This is ripe Gospel timing. This is the great harvest.

At the same time, Bible prophecy teachers and some students are enmeshed in intricate timelines and personal mini-wars to prove they are right.

As I’ve said before, Israel lives right now, and in precisely the way God foretold it literally thousands of years ago. He predicted it when the Egyptians were still a dominant world power! And it is that Big Picture that we should focus on, in my humble opinion.

The international community is squeezing Israel. The international community has lost whatever moral compass it had, and condemns Israel in the most heinous terms, while giving a pass to the real bad guys.

Is not this obvious, Big Picture stuff from Bible prophecy? Read the Old Testament and you’ll have all the amazement from prophecy you need.

Why sink into the mire of ego by focusing on precise timing of future battles, etc?

Back to Ben-Gal.

He was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1936. Not a great historical place and time to be a little boy.

His family fled to the Soviet Union, but he and his sister were separated from their parents. The elder Ben-Gals later perished in the death camps, but the children made their way to Palestine.

In 1973, Ben-Gal commanded 7th Armored Corps. Two weeks before the surprise attack by Egypt and Syria, Ben-Gal sensed something was amiss. This set him apart from others in the political and military echelons.

When Syrian tanks poured over the Golan on the evening of October 7, Ben-Gal’s men met them. Against 750 Syrian tanks, 175 Israeli tanks held off the invaders, losing dozens while destroying hundreds.

Three years later, Ben-Gal helped formulate the plan that would take a strike force of commandos to Uganda, to free 105 Jewish hostages held by the Ugandans and terrorists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

A dramatic life.

Do you see the point? God moves through His history, and has miraculously preserved the Jewish people exactly as He said He would. He has raised-up His warriors for such a time as this.

Think of it: a terrified little boy flees the demonic Hitler and in later life helps save his people.

There’s your Bible prophecy.

Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked.

The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until he hath done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it. (Jeremiah 30:23,24)

The Lord has raised-up, and is raising-up, a mighty army filled with men like Avigdor Ben-Gal. He takes the vulnerable out of danger and later uses them as His instrument of punishment for the wicked.

Just as He predicted He would.

The text of the Bible itself is amazing enough. The prophecies therein are incredible and worth our time to consider. As opposed to looking at them and using our own intellects to speculate on precise timing.

Please consider sharing Big Picture Bible prophecy with people, most of whom have never opened a Bible. Talk to them about the basic structure: God has promised to preserve His people through history, so that they are in place to be His instrument of justice.

The Jews have re-entered History; they are sovereign in the land; the international community hates them; the end-times players are coming into focus.

Pretty simple.

The Gog-Magog War is coming. It will happen when the Lord has determined it will happen. Any infighting among prophecy teachers over that timing is a freewheeling adventure in Missing the Point.

Reprinted with author’s permission from Rapture Ready