Because of the latest developments in Syria, prophecy prognosticators are coming out of the woodwork . . . again. The same thing happened in 2011 when prophecy hobbyists were claiming that Isaiah 17 was being fulfilled right before our eyes. Here’s an example from a video that was uploaded on July 21, 2011:

Damascus in Isaiah 17 is going to be destroyed in 1 day. This is about to occur in our lifetime in just a matter of months. It’s in the news and everywhere you look! This is going to fulfill one of the biggest biblical prophecies of all time! Be ready for Christ’s Return after this occurs! I hope this gives you hope of His coming!

Notice the time reference: “in just a matter of months.” That was more than two years ago making it a false prophecy about a true prophecy that was fulfilled nearly 2700 years ago.

Never learning and people forgetting, the claim is being made again that the events prophesied in Isaiah 17 about Damascus were never fully fulfilled in history, and like clockwork, naïve Christians are getting sucked in.

The topic has even gotten attention from the mainstream media. TIME magazine picked up on the story. So did the Huffington Post, Mother Jones, and USA Today among other media outlets. Glenn Beck’s The Blaze has an extended article on the topic: “Why Some Believe These ‘End Times’ Bible Verses Could Hold the Key to the Syrian Crisis.”

Not all end-time prognosticators teach that the Damascus prophecy is being fulfilled in our day. Surprisingly, Dr. Charles Dyer, who is a professor at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, argues that Damascus “was destroyed in the 7th and 8th centuries” B.C. I say surprisingly since in 1991 he wrote The Rise of Babylon: Sign of the End Times in which he claimed that present-day Iraq is the Babylon of Isaiah 13 and Revelation (16:19; 17:5; 18:2, 10, 21). He maintained that Saddam Hussein’s building program was proof that Babylon would rise from the desert sands in fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

Dyer’s book even had Saddam in a Nebuchadnezzar look-a-like pose with the following caption:

SADDAM HUSSEIN and the ancient world conqueror Nebuchadnezzar. Not only do they look alike, but their mission is the same — to control the world. And the symbol of this world domination is an ancient city [Babylon]. . .

It’s obvious that Dyer has taken a different approach when it comes to the Damascus prophecy:

“Isaiah 17 predicted the destruction of the city, along with the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel… Damascus was captured by Assyrians in 732 BC and the northern kingdom of Israel fell when the capital city of Samaria was captured by the Assyrians in 722 BC.”

And 100 years later, the prophet Jeremiah also predicted the fall of Damascus, which had been rebuilt, he added. “His message was fulfilled when the city was captured by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.”

In addition to Dyer, dispensational author Mark Hitchcock, who sees prophetic fulfillment in everything that’s going on today, makes a strong case that the Damascus prophecy has been fulfilled. After offering a helpful critique of some speculative interpretations of the Isaiah 17prophecy, Hitchcock offers this cogent commentary:

I believe it makes more sense to hold that Isaiah 17 was fulfilled in the eighth century BC when both Damascus, the capital of Syria, and Samaria, the capital of Israel, were hammered by the Assyrians. In that conquest, both Damascus and Samaria were destroyed, just as Isaiah 17 predicts. According to history, Tiglath-pileser III (745–727 BC) pushed vigorously to the west, and in 734 the Assyrians advanced and laid siege to Damascus, which fell two years later in 732.⁽¹⁾

It’s unfortunate that Hitchcock couldn’t leave well enough alone. At the end of the chapter he writes, “Having said that, I do believe that events today in Syria point toward the fulfillment of biblical prophecies that have not yet come to pass.” He claims that “the stage is being set for a Middle East peace treaty prophesied in Daniel 9:27.”⁽²⁾ There is no mention of a Middle East peace treaty in Daniel 9:27, an antichrist, a gap of nearly 200 years, a rebuilt temple, a covenant with the Jews, etc.⁽³⁾

Even Tim LaHaye’s Prophecy Study Bible concludes that the Isaiah 17 prophecy was fulfilled when “God used Tiglath-pileser of Syria to destroy Damascus in 732 B.C.”⁽⁴⁾ Notice the word “destroy.”

The same is true of the comment on the passage found in The Apologetics Study Bible:

“Damascus continued to be a city in the OT era (Ezk 27:18), the NT (Ac 9:19-27), and today. This does not negate Isaiah’s prophecy, which referred to the destruction of Damascus as the powerful capital of Syria during the Syro-Ephraimite War. His words were consistent with his prophecy about the fall of Damascus in 7:7-8 and 8:4, and his announcement that Assyria defeated Damascus and exiled its inhabitants to Kir (2 Kg 16:9). After many years in ruin, it later became a small city in the Assyrian province of Hamath. Isaiah was not claiming that it would remain a ruin for all time.”⁽⁵⁾

I’ve written numerous articles about how modern-day prophecy writers twist and distort prophetic texts that end up being used by skeptics to call the authority of the Bible into question. Biblical skeptic Tim Callahan follows the arguments of today’s prophecy watchers and concludes along with them that the prophecy has not been fulfilled, thus, making it a false prophecy. He writes, Damascus “has been sacked numerous times, to be sure. But the prophecy explicitly states that it would cease to be a city forever, and the prophecy is explicitly wrong. Curiously, neither Gleason Archer⁽⁶⁾ nor Josh McDowell⁽⁷⁾ mentions this failed prophecy.”⁽⁸⁾ The reason is quite clear as why they don’t. The Hebrew text does not include the word “forever” in 17:2. More about this issue below.

Here are six contemporary examples from evangelical, Bible-believing prophecy writers who claim — like the skeptic Callahan — that the Damascus prophecy found in Isaiah 17 (and Jer. 49:23–27) has not been fulfilled:

• Joel C. Rosenberg: “These prophecies have not yet been fulfilled. Damascus is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth. It has been attacked, besieged, and conquered. But Damascus has never been completely destroyed and left uninhabited. Yet that is exactly what the Bible says will happen.”
• “Jan Markell, founder and director of Minnesota-based Olive Tree Ministries, says the Syrians’ use of chemical weapons makes her think about Isaiah 17, which foretells the complete destruction of Damascus, which hasn’t happened in thousands of years.”
• Harry Bultema: “The judgment that will strike Damascus is that it will be no longer a city but aruinous heap. This prediction has yet to be completely fulfilled, for in Jeremiah’s day it was a flourishing city, and even today is said to be the oldest city in the world (cf. Genesis 15:2 where Damascus is already mentioned). According to II Kings 16:9 Tiglath-pileser captured it and killed its king Rezin; but he did not make it a heap.”⁽⁹⁾
• Thomas Ice: “Most commentators contend that Isaiah 17:1–3 was fulfilled in 732 b.c. at the conquest of Tiglath-pileser⁽¹⁰⁾. However, Tiglath-pileser did not totally destroy the city, but merely captured it, as has happened numerous times throughout its history.”
• Britt Gillette: “In the very near future, Damascus will once again play a major role in human events. The prophet Isaiah provides us with God’s commentary on a future conflict between Damascus and Israel, and in so doing, he reveals certain prophecies which have been partially fulfilled in the past. However, the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah 17 remains in the future.”

You get the picture. According to the above comments, the belief among futurists (mostly but not all dispensationalists) is that Isaiah 17, and its counterpart in Jeremiah 49:23–27, have not been completely fulfilled because Damascus is still in existence. How can a prediction about cities that would become a “heap of ruins” still be in existence today?

Forever and Ever?

The first item that needs to be discussed in the addition of “forever” to the Isaiah 17:2 that is not found in the majority of Bible translations. The TIME magazine article offers this translation ofIsaiah 17:1–2: “See, Damascus will cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins. Her towns will be deserted forever.” I’ve checked numerous translations, and only a few include the word “forever.” The Revised Standard reads “her cities will be deserted forever,” while the New American Standard version includes a marginal note based on the Greek Septuagint (LXX) translation that includes the phrase “forever.”

The inclusion of the word “forever” is based on the Septuagint (LXX) Greek translation of Isaiah 17:1–2 that reads as follows:

1. See, Damascus will be removed from among cities

and will become a ruin,

2. abandoned forever, to be a fold and resting place for flocks,

and there will be no one to drive them away

The translations that do not include the word “forever” follow the Hebrew text. The LXX uses the phrase εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα (eis ton aiōna = “into the ages”) to translate a disputed Hebrew word. The “forever” translation is based on the Hebrew word “Aroer” which in other contexts is the name of a city.

The Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament considers the word עֲרֹעֵר to be a proper noun, a place, a particular city named “Aroer” — “a Biblical town on the north bank of the River Arnon to the east of the Dead Sea, in present-day Jordan.” There are three cities in the Bible named Aroer, “one in the territory of Judah (1 Sam. xxx. 28), one at the southern extremity of the land of Israel east of Jordan (Jos. xii. 2, xii, 6), a third farther north and near to Rabbah (Jos. xiii. 25, Num xxxii. 24).”⁽¹¹⁾

I checked numerous commentaries and found several⁽¹²⁾ that follow the LXX translation and others⁽¹³⁾ that mention the LXX variation but do not follow it. So why the difference in translation? How does the city “Aroer” become “abandoned forever” in Greek? A little knowledge of the Hebrew alphabet is necessary in order to understand why the LXX translators came up with εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα (“into the ages,” i.e., “forever”) in Isaiah 17:2. The Hebrew letters r (r) and d (d) are similar in shape. The resh (r) is rounded while the daleth (d) is squared on their right corners. Soarō ‘ēr (עֲרֹעֵר = Aroer) becomes ‘adê ad (עַד עַד) for the LXX translators. The double use of the Hebrew עַד is translated as “forever and ever” elsewhere in Isaiah (e.g., Isa. 30:8; 32:14, 17; 34:17;59:21).

Other than the LXX, there does not seem to be any reason to adopt changing the Hebrew letters. These comments from the Pulpit Commentary are interesting and might shed light on the historicity of the city of Aroer as it relates to the Damascus prophecy:

Sargon’s annals tell us of a “Gal’gar,” a name well expressing the Hebrew ערער, which was united in a league with Damascus, Samaria, Arpad, and Simyra, in the second year of Sargon, and was the scene of a great battle and a great destruction. Sargon besieged it, took it, and reduced it to ashes (‘Records of the Past,’ 50. s.e.). There is every reason to recognize the “Aroer” of this verse in the “Gargar” of Sargon’s inscriptions. They shall be for flocks (comp.Isaiah 5:17; 7:25). It marked the very extreme of desolation, that cattle should be pastured on the sites of cities. None shall make them afraid; i.e. “there shall be no inhabitants to make any objection.”

John N. Oswalt notes that the Hebrew construction “the cities of Aroer” constitutes “a very special wordplay”⁽¹⁴⁾ that ‘adê ad (עַד עַד) does not give. So it’s most probable that the Hebrew is correct and the LXX’s reworking of the Hebrew is based more on an interpretive hunch than actual manuscript evidence.

Contextually, Isaiah does not use עַד in places that describe the ultimate destiny of cities. This means that its use in Isaiah 17:2 would seem to be out of character with how עַד is used elsewhere in Isaiah and translated as “forever” (Isa. 9:6; 26:4; 30:8; 45:17; 57:15; 64:9; 65:18). Isaiah prefers to use the Hebrew word olam when he’s describing the destruction of an enemy or city (14:20; 25:2; 32:14; 34:10).

Compare Isaiah 25:2 with 17:2 and notice that the Hebrew word olam is used for the word “forever” for an unnamed city:

For You have made a city into a heap,
A fortified city into a ruin;
A palace of strangers is a city no more forever [עֹלָם/olam],
It will never be rebuilt.

We know from the history of the period that a number of cities were destroyed never to be rebuilt, for example, Babylon:

And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride,
Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation;
Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there,
Nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there  (Isa. 13:19–20).

The use of olam in a context that is very similar to what’s found in Isaiah 17:2 may be one of the reasons that the majority of translations stay with the Masoretic Hebrew text arō ‘ēr (עֲרֹעֵר) instead of the LXX variation עַד עַד since עֹלָם (olam) is the preferred word used by Isaiah when the destruction of cities and nations are in view.

So if the Hebrew is followed, there is nothing in Isaiah 17 that indicates that Damascus and its surrounding cities would be destroyed “forever.”

Timing

“When” a prophecy is said to be fulfilled is very important to know in determining what events fulfill the prophecy. Time indicators can tell us if the prophecy is going to be fulfilled in the distant future or in the near future. Sometimes a prophecy’s fulfillment is open ended. The New American Standard has “Damascus is about to be removed from being a city” (Isa. 17:1). According to Oswalt in his commentary on Isaiah, the Hebrew construction “hinnēh . . . mûsār is a participial construction indicating imminent action, ‘Behold, Damascus is on the point of being removed.’”⁽¹⁵⁾

Joel Rosenberg, who believes that Isaiah 17 is a prophecy that has not been fulfilled, appeals to other chapters in Isaiah in an attempt to make his case that the Damascus prophecy is like Babylon, never really fulfilled:

In Isaiah 13, we read about the coming judgment/destruction of Babylon. But the context makes it clear that the prophecies will happen deep in the End Times, just prior to the Second Coming of Christ. In Isaiah 13:6, for example, we read, “Wail, for the Day of the Lord is near!” In Isaiah 13:9, we read, “Behold, the Day of the Lord is coming.” Both of these references indicate that the prophecies concerning the destruction of Babylon will occur in the last days leading up to the “Day of the Lord,” an eschatological biblical term that refers to the actual, literal, physical return of Christ to earth at the end of the Tribulation.

How can a prophecy state that “the Day of the Lord is near” (Isa. 13:6) when, according to Rosenberg, the prophecy hasn’t been fulfilled yet? John Walvoord, who Rosenberg quotes approvingly, makes a valuable comment about the multi-faceted character and application of the “day of the Lord: “The ‘Day of the Lord’ is an expression frequently used in both the Old and New Testaments to describe any period of time during which God exercises direct judgment on human sin. The Old Testament records a number of times when Israel endured a day of the Lord, lasting a few days or, in some cases, several years.”⁽¹⁶⁾

“Day of the Lord” is not code for “deep in the End Times, just prior to the Second Coming of Christ.” Consider these extended remarks by dispensational prophecy writer Ronald Showers on the meaning of “day of the Lord”:

The Day of the Lord refers to God’s special interventions into the course of world events to judge His enemies, accomplish His purpose for history, and thereby demonstrate who He is — the sovereign God of the universe (Isa. 2:1–2; Ezek. 13:5, 9, 14, 22–23; 30:3, 8, 19, 25–26).

Evidence for this significance of the Day of the Lord is found in references in the Scriptures to past Days of the Lord. The Bible indicates that there have been several past Days of the Lord in which God exercised and demonstrated His sovereign judgment on other nations. He raised up Assyria to judge the northern kingdom of Israel during the 700s B.C. (Amos 5:18,20), Babylon to judge the southern kingdom of Judah during the 600s and 500s B.C. (Lam. 1:12; 2:1, 21–22; Ezek. 7:19; 13:5; Zeph. 1:7–13; 2:2–3), Babylon to judge Egypt and its allies during the 500s B.C. (Jer. 46:10; Ezek. 30:3), and Medo-Persia to judge Babylon during the 500s B.C. (Isa. 13:6, 9).⁽¹⁷⁾

Notice his statement about the judgment of Babylon in Isaiah 13, thus, contradicting Rosenberg’s claim that the Babylonian judgment is yet in our future.

Isaiah 13 is a description of a localized judgment of a world power that existed long ago. Who did God raise up to judge Babylon? “Behold, I am going to stir up the Medes against them” (13:17a). There are no Medes today. We know from Daniel that Darius the Mede conquered Babylon (Dan. 5:30–31).

To claim that after 2700 years the Damascus prophecy has not been completely fulfilled is to question the integrity of the Bible as skeptic Tim Callahan has done. “Being removed” does not necessarily mean “being removed forever.”

A Heap of Ruins

If the Hebrew text is followed, the cities, including Damascus, are not said to be a “heap of ruins” forever, only that they would be destroyed and become a “heap of ruins.” Consider language about the judgment of Jerusalem by the Babylonians:

“Thus says the Lord GOD, ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the center of the nations, with lands around her. But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations and against My statutes more than the lands which surround her; for they have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.’ Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Because you have more turmoil than the nations which surround you and have not walked in My statutes, nor observed My ordinances, nor observed the ordinances of the nations which surround you,’ therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Behold, I, even I, am against you, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. ‘And because of all your abominations, I will do among you what I have not done, and the like of which I will never do again’” (Ezek. 5:7–9).

As compared to every other nation, Israel’s judgment would be worse (“I will do among you what I have not done”), and that would have to include the judgment on Damascus and her surrounding cities. And yet, we know that after 70 years of captivity (Jer. 29:10; also 2 Chron. 36:21-23; Jer. 25:12; 27:22; Dan. 9:2; Zech. 7:5). God restored the people of Israel to their land and Jerusalem as a city even though its judgment was parallel with that of Damascus in Isaiah 17:3–6:

The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,

And sovereignty from Damascus
And the remnant of Aram;
They will be like the glory of the sons of Israel,”
Declares the Lord of hosts.

Now in that day the glory of Jacob will fade,
And the fatness of his flesh will become lean.

It will be even like the reaper gathering the standing grain,
As his arm harvests the ears,
Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain In the valley of Rephaim.

Yet gleanings will be left in it like the shaking of an olive tree,
Two or three olives on the topmost bough,
Four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree,
Declares the Lord, the God of Israel.

Mark Hitchcock makes the following good point:

When we read Isaiah 17:1–2 and 17:3–7 together, we are forced to conclude that at the same time Damascus suffers devastation, Israel will also fall. . . . Isaiah 17 was fulfilled in the eighth century BC when both Damascus, the capital of Syria, and Samaria, the capital of Israel, were hammered by the Assyrians.”

The same is true of Jeremiah 49:23–27. Hamath (Isa. 10:9; Jer. 39:5; Amos 6:2) and Arpad (2 Kings 18:34; 19:13; Isa. 10:9) are no more. Where are “the fortified towers of Ben-hadad” (Isa. 49:27; 1 Kings 15:18-20; 2 Kings 13:3)?

The Historical Record

A study of the historical record indicates that Damascus became a heap as Isaiah predicted. Consider these examples:

• The Encyclopedia Britannica (11^th ed): “Tiglath-Pilesar invaded Syria, and in 732 succeed in reducing Damascus. . . Except for the abortive uprising under Sargon in 720, we hear nothing more of Damascus for a long period.”
• International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: “Damascus had now lost its political importance, and for more than two centuries we have only one or two inconsiderable references to it. It is mentioned in an inscription of Sargon (722–705 BC) as having taken part in an unsuccessful insurrection along with Hamath and Arpad. There are incidental references to it in Jer 49:23 ff and Ezek 27:18; 47:16 ff.”
• Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible: “[T]he city’s doom was predicted by Isaiah (8:4; 17:1), Amos (1:3–5), and Jeremiah (49:23–27). Rejecting God, Ahaz of Judah turned for protection to an alliance with the Assyrians, whom he bribed with the temple treasure. The Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III (‘Pul’) agreed and marched against the Syro-Israelite confederation. After defeating Israel he attacked Damascus, plundered the city, deported the population, and replaced them with foreigners from other captured lands. Damascus was no longer an independent city-state.”
• William Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible: “Under Ahaz it was taken by Tiglath-pileser, (2 Kings 16:7, 8, 9) the kingdom of Damascus brought to an end, and the city itself destroyed, the inhabitants being carried captive into Assyria. (2 Kings 16:9 ) comp. Isai 7:8 and Amos 1:5.  Afterwards it passed successively under the dominion of the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Macedonians, Romans and Saracens, and was at last captured by the Turks in 1516 A.D.”
• “The conquest of Damascus by Tiglath-Pileser III (733-732 BC) is the final result of the Assyrian intervention against the anti-Assyrian coalition of Rezin of Damascus and Pekah of Israel against Ahaz of Judah. Rezin and Pekah tried to capture Jerusalem, capital city of the kingdom of Judah, but they failed (about 735–734 BC). Tiglath-Pileser III came to the aid of Ahaz of Judah, who promptly asked for the help of the Assyrian king. He finally destroyed the power of Damascus, by besieging the city, forcing king Rezin to surrender, as well as by conquering the whole region once under the control of Damascus. Rezin of Damascus died during the siege, according to the Bible (II Kings 16:9). After the conquest by Tiglath-Pileser III, Damascus was no longer the capital of the independent and rich kingdom of Aram.”⁽¹⁸⁾
  

Contemporaneous with what happened to Damascus, “in that day the glory of Jacob will fade” [lit. “be made thin”] and the fatness [Isa. 10:16] of his flesh will become lean” (Isa. 17:4). This most likely refers to the famine that followed the siege and deportation of the northern tribes (2 Kings 16:9).
Damascus was utterly destroyed in fulfillment of what was predicted in Isaiah 17. The destroyer himself —Tiglath-pileser — said so in his Annals:

“I took 800 people together with their property, their cattle (and) their sheep as spoil. I took 750 captives of the cities of Kurussa (and) Sama (as well as) 550 captives from the city of Metuna as spoil. I destroyed 591 cities from the 16 districts of Damascus like ruins from the Flood.”⁽¹⁹⁾

Tiglath-pileser “destroyed” Damascus — made it a “heap” — just like Isaiah predicted. The Bible is true, and all modern-day prophecy writers who claim that the Isaiah 17 passage has not been fulfilled have unwittingly aligned themselves with skeptics and promoters of war because prophecy demands it.
Endnotes:

1. Mark Hitchcock, Middle East Burning: Is the Spreading Unrest as Sign of the End Times? (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2012), 176.()
2. Hitchcock, Middle East Burning, 178.()
3. See Gary DeMar, Last Days Madness: Obsession of the Modern Church, 4^th ed. (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, 1999), chap. 25.()
4. Tim LaHaye, gen.  ed., Tim LaHaye Prophecy Study Bible (Chattanooga: AMG Publishers, 2000), 707, note on 17:1–14.()
5. Gary Smith, “Isaiah,” The Apologetics Study Bible, gen. ed. Ted Cabal (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2007), 1015, note on 17:1.()
6. Gleason L. Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1982).()
7. Josh McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict (San Bernardino, CA: Here’s Life Publishers, 1979).()
8. Tim Callahan, Bible Prophecy: Failure or Fulfillment? (Altadena, CA: Millennium Press, 1997), 60–61.()
9. Harry Bultema, Commentary on Isaiah (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publishers, 1981), 184.()
10. For example, Peter A. Steveson, A Commentary on Isaiah (Greenville, SC: BJU Press, 2003), 142.  See also, John D. W. Watts, Word Biblical Commentary: Isaiah 1-33, rev. ed. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005), 293.()
11. J. A. Alexander, Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah, 2 vols. in 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan (1875) 1953), 1:333.()
12. For example, George Buchanan Gray, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Isaiah, I-XXXIX (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1912), 298()
13. For example, John A. Martin, “Isaiah,” The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, eds. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck (Victor Books/Scripture Press, 1985), 1064.()
14. John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah: Chapters 1–39, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1986), 348, note 3.()
15. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah: Chapters 1–39, 348, note 1.()
16. John F. Walvoord, Prophecy: 14 Essential Keys to Understanding the Final Drama (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1993), 114–15.()
17. Ronald Showers, “The Biblical Concept of the Day of the Lord,” Israel My Glory, April/May 1992, 30.()
18. Davide Nadali, “Sieges and Similes of Sieges in the Royal Annals: The Conquest of Damascus by Tiglath-Pilester III,” KASKAL Rivista di storia, ambienti e culture del Vicino Oriente Antico, vol. 6 (2009), 138.()
19. Brent A. Strawn, Sarah C. Melville, Kyle Greenwood, and Scott Noegelm “Neo-Assyrian and Syro-Palestinian Texts II,” Ancient Near East: Historical Sources in Translation (Blackwell Sourcebooks in Ancient History), ed. Mark W. Chavalas (Wiley-Blackwell, 2005), 333.()

source  http://americanvision.org/9371/isaiah-17-damascus-bible-prophecy-has-been-fulfilled/

ANOTHER WARNING EVEN WORSE I DREAMED ABOUT SEVERAL YEARS AGO:

What I am about to write will no doubt surprise some of you and probably several will think I have gone off the deep end. But with the study I have been conducting several years, I can no longer agree with what many are putting out there regarding a pre-trib battle scenario; specifically the whole Psalms 83 - Isaiah 17 - Ezekiel 38-39 Scenario.

Just to fill those of you in who may not really be up on this idea, here is the proposed idea in a nutshell…

1. Israel is surrounded by enemies
2. Israel, through the IDF defeats the immediate surrounding enemies, wins and gains the land.(Psalms 83)
3. This then triggers the destruction of Damascus (Isaiah 17)
4. Which in turn triggers the Gog Magog War (Ezekiel 38-39)

It is a nice scenario, in fact I have written on it myself agreeing with it. But I cannot agree with it any longer.

I got an email recently from a gentleman asking about a book called Isralestine by Bill Salus. In fact, I have been getting a lot of questions about the book as well as questions about a pre-trib Gog Magog War with everything going on in Syria. I hope to address all of that in this article.

The Psalms 83 idea which originated with Bill Salus is fairly new idea, well Gary Stearman wrote about it back in the mid 1990’s and I assume that the idea did not fly that well because he did not write about it again until recently.

To be frank what Salus has promoted is what has been called a “political fairy tail” and one that has literally ripped scripture out of context. What he did was find three words in Eze 37:10 "exceedingly great army" and then backwards engineered this grand idea that is when he came across Psalms 83 his “ancient blueprint.” This idea does not stand to solid scrutiny and in fact twice Salus has entered debates and twice he refused to defend his position.

Now this is not an intentional “hit piece” on Salus, what I intend to show is the flawed logic in this whole pre-trib Psalms 83 - Isaiah 17 - Ezekiel 38-39 Scenario. The fact that it is with the Psalms 83 idea that Salus wrote about is what “begins” this new and expanded scenario.

Psalms 83 – A Petition To God

Nowhere in reading Psl 83 do we see the intervention of man as proposed by Salus. Instead we clearly see that in this chapter it is God who intercedes on the behalf of Israel. When you clearly read Psl 83 for what it is, you literally see it as a petition to God asking God to personally intervene and not through the works of man or the IDF as Salus claims. In fact if people would just sit and actually read the entire Psl 83 chapter one would see that. But what amazes me is that no one is really willing to crack open the bible, instead what I am witnessing is what I call “parroting the parrots.” Many have clutched on to this idea as “gospel” because of all the “facts” and footnotes. Where actually it is mere words of men and their books, and not what scripture truly states.

The problem that I have with this entire psl 83 - Isa 17 - Eze 38-39 is that IF this takes place, why does Christ need to return in seven years when Israel can do it themselves?

Israel destroys her neighbors as Salus promotes

Israel destroys Damascus with a proposed nuke as many out there propose

Israel wins the Gog Magog war and burns weapons for seven years.

This is what is being taught and people are buying it.

This, Then That…Then The Rapture… The Real Problem

HERE IS A REAL PROBLEM….It is a fact that many people are using this scenario as a means to predict the timing of the rapture. Sure many will not come out and actually say it openly and boldly stated. Instead it is alluded to and I have heard this idea come from many teachers out there. In fact Tim LeHaye even promotes the idea in the opening scenes of his “Left Behind” movie with Kirk Cameron.

What is being alluded to and even being taught by some is that all we have to do is watch for this sequence of events to take place and then we know the rapture is at hand.

Folks, this is highly un-biblical for no man knoweth the hour. In fact it is this same sort of argument that the Mid and Post tribbers give…What do they say? “We just gotta wait it out.”

Why do we as pre-tribbers condemn the Mid and Post Tribbers when we ourselves are promoting a sequence to predict the rapture just like they are? Isn’t this a double standard?

There is absolutely no sign associated to the Rapture; it is a stand alone event that must take place prior to the tribulation.

Victorious and Emboldened Israel Kowtows to a European?

The many people who are standing on this idea, they are overlooking a major point.

Israel will own everything from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates River, from Turkey to Egypt and to the victor goes the spoils.

Now, I know many Israelis and they are a hard tenacious sort of people. In no way will they gain that much land, power and resources and in turn give it over to some guy from Europe claiming to be the messiah.

The obvious outcome of this scenario, which no one seems to really see is that the Israelis will be emboldened because it was God who stepped in on their behalf. They will see this scenario as a fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham. If any of you have met Israeli's you know that they are a hard, shrewd people and you know that what I say is true. They will stick to their guns because they have God on their side and the whole world knows it.

But again we are discussing a scenario here and it is this sort of logic that people do not think about.

What most people jump to is that this scenario opens the door for the Antichrist to come in and claim the spoils, and “allow” Israel to rebuild the temple. Why does Israel need permission when they own it already and Islam is wiped off the face of the earth?

So out of this, if this took place according to how some of these teachers are presenting and if you take it to the logical conclusion, again I have to ask "Why does Christ need to return in seven years to "rescue" His people when they can basically do it themselves?"

In fact why is there a need for Armageddon when the nations that Israel goes to war with have been destroyed by them (IDF) already?

When we read the scriptures addressing the Day of the Lord / Armageddon, why is it that all the countries mentioned are all Muslim Middle East countries? Not one is a European country.

There is a problem here…God was supposed to wipe out the nations spoken about in Psalms 83 - Isaiah 17 - Ezekiel 38-39 Pre-Trib Scenario already. I mean that is what is being taught out there right?

Am I to understand that all these countries come back to power and strength in just seven years? That is impossible, even with 1/6 of an army that is left (eze 39). It takes a minimum 18 - 20 years to secure a minuscule amount of the country’s young to equip a minimal army to fight again after all have been wiped out according to the scenario. How can these numbers be attained in just seven years and ready to go to battle at Armageddon?

And here is another point, during this time it is God’s Judgments’ taking place, scrolls, bowls, trumpets, these are wiping out a third of mankind. How can the enemies of Israel regain their numbers to fight again in just seven years?

Are you following the logic as well as seeing the flaws in the whole Psalms 83 - Isaiah 17 - Ezekiel 38-39 Pre-Trib Scenario.

Some of you are going to say that the whole world will be against Israel, but I have to point out that Israel in this scenario is victorious and owns ALL the land from Egypt over to the Euphrates and to the north of Turkey and the Mediterranean sea. They are victorious.

Why do shrewd, stiff does necked Israeli's need to give it all up when they have no more enemies? They own it all and can do anything they want. The Arab / Muslim threat is now eliminated; at least that is what is being taught. Is it the EU that will rise up and invade Israel? If that is the case, where in scripture can one point to where they (EU Countries) are named like all the rest of Israel's enemies in the last days?

See it is this sort of logic that people are not thinking about. People are not playing the scenario completely out to its logical end. Folks, the God we serve is one of logic and reasoning. Instead there are people out there that have this fairy tale idea that the AC will step in and Israel will kowtow to this guy from Rome.

See if Israel is victorious, there is no one to ask permission to re-build the temple, no need to grovel up to the west because they own the oil, they don't need anyone's permission because they are victorious and the world knows it.

Folks, do you realize the stigma that Israel will have with the world if this is the
correct scenario?

Just look at the 6 day war…after that took place no country in their right mind would invade Israel. The world saw that Israel was God's chosen and that her army was the biggest and baddest military in the land.

If the Psalms 83 - Isaiah 17 - Ezekiel 38-39 Pre-Trib Scenario would take place again as those who teach, no country in their right mind will mess with Israel at all. Because if they do, they run the risk of the same thing happening to their country that happened to Jordan, Lebanon, Persia, Ethiopia, Egypt, ect ect ect. that the Psalms 83 - Isaiah 17 - Ezekiel 38-39 Pre-Trib Scenario promotes.

Do you see the logic?

Another fact is that the religious Jews are growing in numbers and that the secular Jews are dwindling. So having religious Jews in power that maintain a Zionist attitude, no way will they give up all of the land and spoils when they don't need to.

The problem with this Psalms 83 - Isaiah 17 - Ezekiel 38-39 Pre-Trib Scenario is that it does not hold up to what scripture teaches. In the last days Israel is not victorious; in fact she is a burdensome stone. She is surrounded by her enemy; she is the center of the world with the temple mount being the prize. 

Scripture does not teach a victorious Israel like those that teach Psalms 83 - Isaiah 17 - Ezekiel 38-39 Pre-Trib Scenario. Like I stated before, I used to teach this also, that is until I started to really read scripture in light of scripture and not in light of what I have been taught by men or by the books I have been reading.

What I believe is that the Gog Mag - Armageddon- Day of the Lord is all one in the same that take place at the end of the Tribulation. I have been conducting a mountain of research; in fact here are fourteen reasons why Ezekiel 38 & 39 is Armageddon. I welcome anyone to prove these all of these statements incorrect using proper literal context, solid hermeneutics, logic and reasoning in light of scripture and not what some guy wrote in a book.

Why I believe that Gog Mag - Armageddon are possibly one in the same 

(1) Not one statement in these two chapters (38-39) mention a war in Israel before Armageddon [or after]. There is only one major battle addressed in scripture and it is the Day of The Lord.. AKA Armageddon.

(2) The battle of Armageddon is the only war predicted by the prophets that could possibly be referred to in these chapters (Ezek. 38:17). Armageddon is mentioned many times by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, and other prophets before the days of Ezekiel (Isa. 1:25-31; 3:25-26; 13:1-16; 24:21; 63:1-6; Jer. 25:30-33; 30:11,20-24; Joel 2-3; Oba. 1:15-21; Mic. 1:3-4; 2:12-13; 5:5-15; etc.).

(3) The destruction of Gog and his armies (Ezek. 38:18-23; 39:1-6,17-20) compares with similar statements about Armageddon in Joel 3; Zech. 14; Rev. 19:11-21.

(4) Gog will not fall upon the open field until Armageddon (Ezek. 39:3-5; Rev.19:11-21).

(5) The great supper for the fowls and beasts will only be at Armageddon (Ezek.39:4,17-20 with Mt. 24:27-28; Rev. 19:17-21).

(6) The presence of God (as pictured in Ezek. 38:18-21; 39:1-6,17-24) will not be until Armageddon (Isa. 63:1-6; Zech. 14:1-5; Rev. 19:11-21).

(7) The supernatural destruction of Gog and his armies (as described in Ezek. 38:21-23) will not be until Armageddon (Isa. 63:1-6; Joel 2-3; Zech. 14; Rev. 19:11-21).

(8) God will not magnify and sanctify Himself and set His glory among the heathen (as stated in Ezek. 38:23; 39:21-24) until He comes at the second coming of Christ -- at Armageddon (Zech. 14:1-21; Mt. 24:29-31; Rev. 19:11-21).

(9) Gog will not bring the many armies of the nations into Israel to be destroyed until the time of the second coming of Christ, at Armageddon, as referred to in Ezek. 38:18-23; 39:1-7 and proved in Zech. 14:1-5; Rev. 16:13-16; 19:11-21.

(10) The great earthquake of Ezek. 38:20 will not take place until the seventh vial and the second coming (Zech. 14:1-5; Rev. 16:17-21; 19:11-21).

(11) God's presence will not destroy Gog and his army until the second coming, at Armageddon (Ezek. 38:20; 39:2-7 with Zech. 14:1-5; Rev. 19:11-21).

(12) Gog and his army cannot be destroyed in a war in Israel before the second coming, at Armageddon, to fulfill Ezek. 38:18-23; 39:1-7,17-20, and then be destroyed again at Armageddon to fulfill Isa. 63; Joel 2-3; Zech. 14. We must therefore recognize all these passages as referring to the same destruction -- at Armageddon (Rev. 19:11-21).

(13) The burial of Gog and all his armies destroyed in the fulfillment of Ezek. 38-39 will be at the second coming of Christ (Ezek. 39:11-16 with Dan. 7:11; 2Th. 2:8-12; Rev. 19:11-21).

(14) It is at the second coming of Christ that God's glory will be set among the heathen and Israel will be completely gathered and blessed (Ezek. 39:21-29; Zech. 14; Mt. 24:29-31; Rom. 11:24-29; Rev. 19:11-21).

Ok… getting off my soap box now. Hope I gave everyone some food for thought and
that they will really look into what I have presented here with earnest and not just blow it off because it goes against what has been taught and read in books.

If you feel that I am not correct, then please contact me with the evidence you have to present.

In the end we must remember that we serve a God of logic and reasoning, therefore His ways are the ways of logic and not of feelings or emotions. We must look at scripture through the lens of scripture allowing the Holy Spirit to interpret for us. We have got to stop putting square pegs into round holes and this silly backwards engineering and ripping scripture completely out of context like we have done.

I wish to thank T.E. Mitchell for his help with the research with the 14 points; I hope to introduce him as a Prophezine regular contributor in the future.

SOURCE  http://www.prophezine.com/index.php?option=com_content&id=633:the-world-at-war-with-syria-the-whole-pre-trib-psalms-83-isaiah-17-ezekiel-38-39