What if the prophesied deadly War of Gog and Magog doesn’t have to happen? That’s the startling question raised by rabbinic scholar Rabbi Mendel Kessin in a recent Torah lecture entitled The Significance of May 12th and May 14th 2018.
Rabbi Kessin reminded his listeners that, “God can change the form or Gog and Magog,” and claimed that today’s United Nations serves the same purpose as Gog and Magog, which is to destroy Israel.
He referred to Zechariah’s warning that the Nations will try to destroy, not just Israel, but the Jews in Jerusalem. The Nations of the world, in the form of the United Nations, will attempt to deny the Jews Jerusalem specifically because Jerusalem is the Jews’ major spiritual city.
when all the nations of the earth gather against her. In that day, I will make Yerushalayim a stone for all the peoples to lift; all who lift it shall injure themselves. Zechariah 12:3
He referenced the fact that when President Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, 139 nations in the United Nations voted against that.
Rabbi Kessin’s most astonishing claim is that, “If the United Nations is Gog and Magog, that would mean that we will not have a War of Gog and Magog.”
In other words, since the purpose of the War of Gog and Magog is to deny the Jewish claim to Israel and to Jerusalem specifically, that already played out in the United Nations. “If it already happened, then it’s not going to happen again,” he said simply.
Citing the kindness of God, Rabbi Kessin explained that, “What the Ribbono Shel Olam (Master of the World) did was He split the War of Gog and Magog into three parts.” The first part was World War I, “which destroyed hundreds and hundreds of Jewish communities. The second phase was World War II, and Hitler united an enormous part of the world against the Jews. In other words, God and Magog already happened, twice, in two stages. The brutality that was supposed to be at the End of Times was given in the second stage. Gog and Magog is not the same as what would have been had God not split it into three parts.”
Rabbi Kessin continued explaining, “The major claim of Gog and Magog is that Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) doesn’t belong to you (the Jewish people). Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) doesn’t belong to you. But there’s something happening on May 14th, which is the 70th anniversary of the Jewish state on the English calendar. It’s incredible that there’s going to be an Embassy of the United States in Jerusalem.
“By making the Embassy in Jerusalem and declaring Jerusalem to be the capital, that legitimizes the entire Eretz Yisrael, that Eretz Yisrael belongs to the Jews. When America will open up the embassy in Jerusalem, that means that Edom (Esau) now recognizes that Israel [meaning the Jewish people] is the legitimate owner of Eretz Yisrael. They are making a statement that Jerusalem belongs to the Jews.
“There’s a whole bunch of Nations that say they are going to do the exact same thing the US does. Once that happens, you’re going to see a rush – 10, 15, 20, 40, 50 ,80 [nations moving their embassies to Jerusalem]. It all started with Trump, America, with Edom/Aisav (Esau), It means that the world now recognizes that Israel, and especially Jerusalem, belongs to the Jews.
“If that’s the case, there can no longer be a Gog and Magog, can there? Because the whole idea of Gog and Magog against the Jews is that, ‘Hey. Jerusalem belongs to us.’ In other words, if the Nations of the world move their embassies to Jerusalem, it’s the end of the claim. If all the countries, slowly, are going to put their embassies there, that’s an admission by every country that Jerusalem is the capital. It takes away their whole claim. So then if that’s the case, there’s no Gog and Magog.
“What [President Trump] has done is single-handedly stopped Gog and Magog. That means we are literally at the threshold of the Messianic era.”
Further, Rabbi Kessin explained that, “If Jerusalem has all the embassies, Jerusalem will rise among the Nations.” We are witnessing the reversal of the punishment against Jerusalem, expressed in the Book of Lamentations, which describes Jerusalem sitting alone.
Alas! Lonely sits the city Once great with people! She that was great among nations Is become like a widow; The princess among states Is become a thrall. Lamentations 1:1
“Jerusalem is about to leave its galus (exile). All this on May 14th. It’s almost like a fantasy, that the War of Gog and Magog will not happen and that Jerusalem is about to rise into what it really is – the greatest city on earth,” Rabbi Kessin concluded.
