Is the Middle East about to explode into the Psalm 83 War?

On this week's episode of Christ in Prophecy, Dr. David Reagan and I asked this question of Bill Salus who heads the ministry Prophecy Depot. Bill is a radio host and the author of three books on Bible prophecy, with the latest titled Psalm 83: The Missing Prophecy Revealed, which is also available as a DVD series.

Most Bible prophecy experts seem to believe that the next major prophetic war in the Middle East is likely to be what Ezekiel 38 & 39 calls the War of Gog & Magog, which will feature a Russian led attack on Israel. But, Bill believes otherwise. He believes the next end times war prophesied in Bible prophecy is going to be the war described in Psalm 83, which we may be witnessing the very beginnings of right now. The following are his reasons why.

Psalm 83 War

Bill Salus: I think we are so close to the Psalm 83 prophecy being fulfilled and some of the other prophecies that we can get some pretty good clues as to what is going to happen fairly soon. Throughout the Scriptures, we can watch the geopolitical events unfolding before us. I think we are about ready to see something break wide open in the Middle East.

Psalm 83 is an ancient prophecy written by Asaph 3,000 years ago at a time when Israel was experiencing unprecedented conditions from the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant. They were a people in their own land. They were winning wars. They were talking about building their Temple. They had their anointed King David.

And then, Asaph is given this prophecy from God that's nothing short of a genocidal attempt on the Chosen People and a confiscation of the Promise Land. It was a very specific prophecy about the ten populations that would confederate one day to come against Israel to destroy her.

Asaph's prophecy has not found fulfillment yet. When we try to understand who these Psalm 83 enemies are today, we find out that they are Israel's enemies that share common borders with Israel, including the terrorist population inside of those Arab countries. It's a very timely prophecy, especially now that Israel is threatened by Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Muslim Brotherhood. Amazing when you think that this prophecy concerning a specific Arab confederation was written 3,000 years ago!

In my book I do coin the term "inner circle" for those Arab countries that share common borders with Israel and the terrorist populations within, and they are clearly not listed in Ezekiel 38 & 39. I then coin the term "outer ring" for those peripheral Ezekiel 38 & 39 nations that come upon an Israel that is dwelling securely. Today at this point, Israel is not dwelling securely.

Not the War of Gog & Magog

Israel's border nations were intentionally omitted from Ezekiel 38 & 39 because they are not involved in the War of Gog & Magog. It's not like Ezekiel, when he wrote Ezekiel 38, was not familiar with the populations of Psalm 83 — the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, etc. As a matter of fact, in one way or another, Ezekiel wrote about all ten populations found in Psalm 83 exactly 89 times in his 48 chapters found in the book of Ezekiel, but he did not include those border populations once in Ezekiel 38 & 39.

We've got so many other differences between Ezekiel 38 and Psalm 83. There are different purposes between the battles. For instance, in Psalm 83, the border nations come together to form a crafty council, for they want to take the pastures of God for their own possession. In other words, they want one more Arab state, if this is to find fulfillment today. These Muslims want to call it Palestine. On the other hand, in Ezekiel 38 & 39, Russia is coming, not for the land, but after great plunder and great booty.

There are also different defeats. We are told in Ezekiel 38:16-39:6 that it is the Lord, not the Israeli defense forces nor America, but the Lord clearly is stepping divinely in with fire and hailstones to destroy the enemy armies in the War of Gog & Magog. The Lord Himself stops the nations Ezekiel describes. But, in Psalm 83, we find that the Israeli Defense Forces are being called upon to defeat the Arab enemies around them. I'll point out here that the Israeli Defense Forces today exist in fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

There are also different populations. Those Ezekiel 38 & 39 countries have to come through the inner circle lands to even get to Israel. Are all the nations circling Israel going to allow the Iranian and Turkish armies through? Not likely!

Some people try to lump the border nations into Ezekiel 38:6 where it says there are "many peoples with thee." But, that is really quite a stretch. Ezekiel was very specific about Meshech and Tubal and everybody he listed, so you'd think he certainly would have thrown in by name the Philistines and the Edomites.

Timing-wise, I think the Psalm 83 war will occur before the War of Gog & Magog. That's pretty easy to understand why because of one of the descriptions we are given in Ezekiel 38:8-13. In those verses we find several very important things to identify, the chief being that Israel today even exists. Are they dwelling securely in the midst of the land, in the latter days upon the mountains of Israel, without walls, bars, nor gates? Does Israel now possess great plunder and booty, because that is the very thing that Russia covets and so forms a coalition of Islamic nations to come after it in Gog & Magog?

Israel is not dwelling securely at present, without walls, nor bars, nor gates. In reality, they are building a 450 mile wall right now. So, Israel is not dwelling securely in their land. They have check points and security gates throughout Israel. And so, at this point in time, I don't see that Israel dwells securely. Contrary to what a lot of people think that the Hebrew word yashab betach meaning "dwelling securely" means "a confidence on their own ability to defend themselves militarily." No, when you really look at the Hebrew words and their biblical uses in the past with precedent, you find that it's really a security that is accomplished militarily through defeating one's enemies.

I think in Ezekiel 38 we find out how Israel's security happens. There around verses 24-26 it says that Israel will dwell securely when those who share common borders around Israel, that despise Israel having judgment executed upon them, then they shall dwell securely, yashab betach.

[Note: This segment is the first excerpt of our interview. In the following segments on the War of Psalm 83 with Bill Salus, he'll fend off the criticism that Psalm 83 is merely an imprecatory prayer, that it has found past fulfillment, and that Psalm 83 is not tied into other end time wars.]