Trying to Connect Ezekiel with Matthew

Gary continues responding to a recent sermon by Jack Hibbs where he tries to connect Ezekiel with Matthew as if they are both speaking of the same events.

The Old Covenant promises to Israel are fulfilled in the early years of the New Covenant era as exemplified in Joel’s prophecy. Peter states that events of Pentecost are its fulfillment: “but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel” (2:16), even the prediction that “your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” (2:17). “Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul” (13:1). We also see that the four daughters of Philip the evangelist were “prophetesses” (21:9). The period between Jesus’ ascension and the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70 there was a great ingathering of Jews from all over the Roman Empire.

Contrary to the above end-time scenario outlined by these and other prophecy writers, the book of Esther is a spot-on real rescue of Israel unlike the inevitable bloody holocaust that is fundamental to dispensationalism. Israel waits more than 2000 years for the promises to be fulfilled, and just before it happens, two-thirds of them are wiped out. That’s some rescue! The fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy is found in the book of Esther when the Jews—all of them—are rescued.

There is no need to manipulate the clarity of the prophetic text to find modern-day fighting implements and newly named nations to make the Bible say what it doesn’t say. For those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, the battle of “Gog of the land of Magog” is fulfilled prophecy, and the writer of the book of Esther was a witness to it. Those who believe the battle is yet to come are putting the nation of Israel at risk because they see an inevitable holocaust on the horizon.

The Gog and Magog End-Time Alliance

Jet planes … missiles … and atomic weapons. You will search in vain in Ezekiel 38 and 39, and you will not find them. You will, however, find horses, bows and arrows, shields, clubs, and chariots. If the Gog and Magog prophecy was written for a time more than 2500 years in the future from Ezekiel’s day, why didn’t God describe the battle in terms that we could relate to and understand? Why confuse Ezekiel’s first readers and us?

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Gary continues responding to a recent sermon by Jack Hibbs about the “end times.” Pastor Hibbs try to connect Ezekiel with Matthew as if they are both speaking of the same events. This is not how exegesis, hermeneutics, or history is done. Pastor Hibbs is trying to connect biblical dots with a preconceived future interpretation.

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