ANOTHER correspondent, the past week, has added himself to the long list of those who seek for an explanation of these two chapters of the prophecy of Ezekiel. We think these chapters are to be treated the same as the following prophecy including chapters 40-48, in which Ezekiel offers to Israel a remarkable sanctuary. This being a subject which has largely engaged the attention of different writers among S. D. Adventists, they have reached very satisfactory conclusions in reference thereto. It can be very clearly shown that these last-named chapters are a conditional prophecy, never fulfilled, because the conditions on which its fulfillment rested were never complied with by the people. See the work on “The Sanctuary,” pp. 162-166.
Review and Herald, February 6, 1883
Why, we ask, are not chapters 38 and 39 a prophecy of the same kind? There is nothing that we can see between chapters 39 and 40 to show any change in the nature of the prophecy, or that one should be regarded or treated differently from the other. This, therefore, we set down as being, like the other, a conditional prophecy, never carried out because Israel did not open the way by doing on their part what was required of them.
It was, doubtless, a plan by which all the enemies of God’s people, under the names of Gog and Magog, were to be destroyed, and would have been, had Israel been ready for the carrying out of God’s plan in this respect.
It is a noticeable fact that the only places in which Gog and Magog, representing peoples, are mentioned, are these two chapters of Ezekiel and Rev. 20:8, in which latter text the words include all the wicked gathered for their final destruction. There must, therefore, we think, be some necessary connection between Revelation and Ezekiel. As brought to view in Rev. 20, the destiny of all the wicked is now unconditionally fixed, is certainly presented. But God could, and we believe would, have worked out his purposes through other channels and by other means, ages ago, if his chosen people had fully carried out his will. We incline to think that one of these other channels is described in Ezekiel 38 and 39.”
