“The second source was Dr. Louis Bauman, one of the founders of Grace Theological Seminary. Bauman wrote a book in 1942 called Russian Events in the Light of Bible Prophecy. Based on his research, Bauman also concluded that Togarmah is ‘the Turkoman tribes of Central Asia, together with Siberia, the Turks, and the Armenians.’ ”
Bennett wasn’t sure he bought any of that. The Turks — from the Ottoman Empire onward — had maintained a fairly benign relationship with the Jews over the centuries. And of all the countries in the modern Muslim world, Turkey was without question the most moderate. Thousands of Israeli tourists flooded Turkish resort towns each year. Trade between the two countries was growing, and the Turks — who imported nearly all of their energy needs — were now exploring the prospect of buying Medexco gas and oil.
To Bennett, who had dined with Turkish president Kuzemir in Ankara a few months earlier, it was almost inconceivable that Turkey could join a Russian-Islamic invasion of Israel. But it was a question he would have to explore later, he decided.
For now, he just wanted to finish the list.
“Last one,” said Bennett. “Gomer.”
“Gomer is the toughest, I fear. I have been wrestling with it for a long time.”
“And?”
“We know from Genesis 10 that Gomer — like Magog, Meschech, and Tubal — was a son of Japheth, which puts them all into one big, violent clan. Josephus writes that ‘Gomer founded those whom the Greeks now call Galatians, but were then called Gomerites.’ Galatia, of course, is in modern-day Turkey. But there’s evidence that some of the Gomerites drifted northward over the centuries.”
“To where?” asked Bennett.
“That is where it gets a bit murky. Voltaire, as I mentioned earlier, believed Gomer migrated to France and Spain. That may be partly true, but I believe most of Gomer’s tribe headed northward into Europe. Genesis 10 identifies one of Gomer’s sons as Ashkenaz. We know for certain that the Ashkenazi people migrated to central and northern Europe, where they lived in the Rhineland Valley and the region we now know as Germany and Austria. In fact, Israelis actually call European Jews — specifically those from Germany—Ashkenazis, to distinguish them from Sephardic Jews who come from Spain, North Africa, and the Middle East.
“Now, it is true that Ezekiel does not mention Ashkenaz by name. But in 38:6, he refers to ‘Gomer with all its troops’ and then adds that ‘many peoples’ will join with Gog in his campaign, suggesting there are other nearby members of the coalition.
“Dr. Pentecost from Dallas writes that ‘there seems to be evidence to support the view that Gomer refers to modern Germany.’
“He cites a book called The Prophet Ezekiel, written in 1918 by a man named Arno Gaebelein. A leading Bible scholar, and one of the editors of the Scofield Reference Bible, Gaebelein wrote that ‘valuable information is given in the Talmud; Gomer is there stated to be the Germani, the Germans. That the descendants of Gomer moved northward and established themselves in parts of Germany seems to be an established fact.’ ”
“Back up a step,” said Bennett. “What’s the Talmud?”
“The Talmud is a collection of ancient rabbinic writings and commentary,” Mordechai said.
“And it says that Gomer is Germany?”
“It seems to, Jonathan. Look, if you are asking whether I can say with absolute certainty that Germany and Austria are part of this prophecy, the answer is that I cannot. But I must tell you that I believe they are about to face God’s judgment for the evil they did during the Holocaust, when they murdered six million Jews and unleashed their bloodthirsty storm troopers upon the world.”
“And what do you think is going to happen to them?” Bennett asked.
“Take a look for yourself,” Mordechai said, pointing him to Ezekiel 38:18–23.
Bennett found the text and began reading aloud.
When he was done, Bennett sat silently, reading the passage again to himself. Certain phrases seemed to leap off the page at him. My blazing wrath. A great earthquake. Pestilence and blood. A torrential rain of fire and brimstone.
At Mordechai’s direction, Bennett then read 39:12, where Ezekiel predicted it would take seven months for Israel to bury all the bodies. Reading further, he found Ezekiel’s prophecy that vultures and carnivores would swarm the region to feast themselves on the corpses of the slain. “You will eat fat until you are glutted, and drink blood until you are drunk, from My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you,” the Lord God said through his prophet to the birds of the air and the beasts of the fields. “You will be glutted at My table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men and all the men of war…. And all the nations will see My judgment which I have executed…. And the house of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God from that day onward.”
Was it real? Was it coming?
The magnitude of it all was almost too much for Bennett to process.
Had a twenty-five-hundred-year-old prophecy actually warned that a modern master Aryan race — led by Russians, Iranians, and Germans — would one day try to destroy the State of Israel? If so, was the rest of the prophecy true? Was fire going to fall from heaven to consume the enemies of God?
How was he supposed to take any of this seriously? He was a senior advisor to the president of the United States. He was paid to develop political strategy in the real world, not shadowbox with dead saints and ancient riddles.
Yet Bennett had to admit the parallels between what Mordechai was describing from Ezekiel and what was happening in Russia and the Middle East currently were eerie, to say the least.
And there was something else.
Something deep inside Bennett wanted to believe there was justice in the universe, that the atrocities committed by the Communists and the Nazis and the horrors committed by followers of radical Islam would be avenged in his lifetime.
But did any of this make sense?
Were the hammer and the sickle really about to fall on the Kremlin and Red Army?
Was the world really about to witness the end of radical Islam as we know it?