So some of my favorite prophecy teachers have taught for years that the army of Gog and Magog that comes against Israel in the end times (Ez 38:3-6) is in fact a Russian army. During the cold war I am sure this was especially popular. However some research on where Gog and Magog would have been located at the time of Ezekiel’s revelation has led me to believe that this is actually a reference to Turkey and not Russia at all. The reason people believe Gog and Magog is Russia is because Josephus in his historical writings around 70AD wrote:

“Magog…who by the Greeks are called Scythians”

A quick search on the general location of the Scythians will render a map that is largely made up of Russian territory. So it is Russia right? Not so fast. So the Scythians were traveling nomadic people who moved quite a bit throughout what we know of their history. And while they would have been somewhere in Russia around Jesus’ time, where were they during Ezekiel’s time about 600BC?

You will see above that about Ezekiel’s time, the Urartu Kingdom was overthrown by what seems to be the Scythians aka Magoginites aka Gog and Magog. So this will greatly help us pin down the location of Gog and Magog during Ezekiel’s time, which is actually not an easy task as they moved quite a bit, without this nugget. Here is a map of Urartu:

As you will see in this map, Urartu was 80%+ located in Modern Turkey when the Scythians, who are also known as Gog and Magog, conquered them. We can then assume this is much more likely what the Word meant when spoken by Ezekiel in Ezekiel 38:3-6. Turkey, Iran, Sudan, Libya, and co will come against Israel and you can already see this as a real possibility if you look at the global landscape.