These are the sons of Ephraim . . . the family of the Eranites.
Numbers 26:35,36
[Author’s Note: In spite of the title, this article has as much to do with Russia as it does Iran. But the reader is encouraged to follow the links for a larger discussion of Iran’s ancient past as an Israelite and Christian kingdom. As of this writing, my country is not at war with Iran.]
Although it is difficult to see, World War 3 represents the ongoing rivalry between the Russian Empire and the Anglo-American Empire. Reaching back into the late medieval period and the time of wandering monks (Columbanus established a monastery in Kiev), these empires have collided many times through their proxies, rarely in direct conflict.
19th Century adventurer and seaman, Commodore Matthew C. Perry, upon opening Japan to western trade, offered this foreboding prophecy:
It seems to me that the people of America will, in some form or another, extend their domination and their power, until they shall have placed the Saxon race upon the eastern shores of Asia, and I think too, that eastward and southward will her great rival in future aggrandizement [Russia] stretch forth her power to the coasts of China and Siam; and thus the Saxon and the Cossack will meet. . . Will it be in friendship? I fear not! The antagonistic exponents of freedom and absolutism must thus meet at last, and then will be fought the mighty battle on which the world will look with breathless interest; for on its issue will depend the freedom or slavery of the world … I think I see in the distance the giants that are growing up for that fierce and final encounter; in the progress of events that battle must sooner or later be fought. (March 6, 1856)(Stivers, The Westward March of Christianity & the Destiny of Nations, p. 110)
Russia is a continental power extending over the largest land-mass in the world. In contrast, England is a maritime power and projects itself through its navy.
Russia is the home of vast resources, but lacks warm-water seaports to facilitate trade. It has sought expansion south to obtain those seaports (e.g. Iran, Afghanistan/Balochistan, Crimea)
England, on the other hand, is a small country and requires colonies to provide the natural resources it needs for a high standard of living.
The Americans have benefited from this rivalry. While it was France which was Britain’s nemesis during the American War for Independence, it was Russia which guarded the Americans during its Civil War.
It is a little known fact but one well established among historians that Britain sought to benefit from the civil war of its former American colonies. It actively sought to create a power base in the South (the Confederacy) to add to their power base in the North: Canada.
However, when the British fleet arrived, it was turned away by the Russians: Czar Alexander II had given orders that the Russian navy would intervene. Smarting from the recent conflict over the Crimea, it seemed to be in Russia’s best interests to spoil British aspirations. Like the French, the Russians wanted to prevent unity in the Anglo-speaking world.
The Iranians
England benefited from the break-up of the Ottoman Empire at the close of World War I. Victorious in the Middle East, British hegemony extended all the way to India. The modern states of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine (until 1948), Jordan and so on, are all the remnants of that dismembered Empire.
In the ancient world, “Iraq” would have been known as “Mesopotamia”: the land between the rivers. As for Iran, for most of recorded history, it has been known as “Persia.” It was the land to the east and north of the rivers and geographically known as “Central Asia.”
For a few centuries, Persia was known as “Parthia” and an equal power to Rome. This world power prevailed over the Persians and represented tribal kingdoms from the high country bordering the Black and Caspian Seas. Their expansion, at one point, extended into the Middle East and Asia Minor, but receded, for most of the pre-Nicene Christian era, to the Euphrates River as a natural barrier between it and Rome.
Many of the prophecies in the Book of Revelation, especially the Euphrates River and the “heavenly” armies of Jesus Christ, have to do with the Parthians. “Iran” was “Eran” of Israelite genealogy, which was named “Ephraim” in the biblical record to represent the Ten “Lost” Tribes of Israel. These were the tribes which were deported by the Assyrians out of the Northern Kingdom to the “land beyond the rivers” centuries before.
To this day, they view those of us in the West as the real barbarians.
https://2046ad.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/starpesher.pdf
https://2046ad.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/annunciation25redacted.pdf
https://2046ad.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/destiny.pdf
While for us, these nation-states are known by other names, the people that remained are of Israelite extraction and have a destiny in Bible prophecy. It is particularly grievous to see the hatred between nations which should not be so for brethren. Overcoming these impediments is the challenge of Christian missions.
The Impediments to Russia’s Destiny
There are, at the present time, two great nations in the world, which seem to tend towards the same end, although they started from different points: I allude to the Russians and the Americans. . . All other nations seem to have nearly reached their natural limits . . . but these are still in the act of growth. . . The American . . .gives free scope to the unguided exertions and common sense of the citizens; the Russian centers all the authority of society in a single arm: the principal instrument of the former is freedom; of the latter, servitude. Their starting point is different, and their courses are not the same; yet each of them seems to be marked out by the will of Heaven to sway the destinies of half the globe.
Alexis de Tocqueville in the final paragraphs of his celebrated
Democracy in America (1835)
Russia is a very large country, two and a half times bigger than the United States. Most of Russia is in Asia and is constituted by persons of Mongolian descent. I am referring to the old Russia which began in Europe around the region of Kiev.
For most of us who are ignorant of Russian history, we have believed that Russia was Christian until the Bolshevik revolution. The idolatrous demands of the state are mistakenly supposed to have originated with communism and its atheistic ideology.
Such is not the case. Russian Orthodoxy, as the Third Rome, is a continuation of Byzantine statecraft which claims to exercise authority in the name of God. God and the state are one and the same according to this Orthodoxy and is a continuation of the Roman imperial system. Its repression and cruelty are well-known to history. The Communists did not invent the torturing of religious and political dissidents. Nor did they invent the idea of a controlled society. It is a part of the imperial system which has continued since ancient times.
For more, see The Russians’ Secret by Peter Hoover and Serguei V. Petrov (Benchmark Press, Shippensburg, PA, 1999).
In light of the current conflict in Ukraine, the reader should also appreciate that there is a difference between Red Russians and White Russians. “The Reds,” of course, derived their name during the Bolshevik revolution in their attempt to impose Communism upon the Russian people. Its center is Moscow and derives its ideology and power from the totalitarian institutions of church and state as perpetuated by the Czars, which in turn, had devolved upon it, as mentioned above, to become the Third Rome.
“The Whites” were the opponents of the “Reds” which operated out of Kiev and the Ukraine, the original homeland of the Rus. It was European, Teutonic, and Israelite. Existing to the west of the former Khazarian kingdom of the medieval era, the Ukrainians have historically represented an oppressed people yearning for free institutions.
There is a third principle which shapes the Muscovite world view: in addition to its exposure to the warrior culture of the Mongols and the authoritarian social system from Byzantium, the Judaism of the Khazarian kingdom complicates Russian culture with unwanted contradictions. But none of these cultural influences promote the idea of personal freedom:
It should be recalled that Judaism, especially in its classical form, is totalitarian in nature.
(Israel Shahak, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Pluto Press, London, 1997), p. 103.
Shahak points out that Judaism – that is, Rabbinical Judaism – was forced on the Jews by the Romans in about 200 AD. Ever since, Jewish rabbis have collaborated with secular authorities to enforce their hegemony upon that unfortunate people. In every land they have dwelt, they have formed a “mafia” as a “state within a state” in order to survive. The Khazar kingdom during the early Middle Ages and north of the region between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea converted to Judaism to prevent being absorbed by its neighbors.
Consequently, the Muscovite imperial origins in Judaism, Byzantine Orthodoxy, and Mongol miscegenation have combined to create its history of totalitarianism. Communism was simply a revolt against the supernatural aspects of Judaism and that of all organized religion. Communism merely continued Russia’s long history of oppression and answers the question: “Can the leopard change its spots?”
In reference to the Gog and Magog prophecies in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39, and again in Revelation 20, George Lamsa, the 20th Century Aramaic scholar, offered this commentary:
Gog and Magog are the Aramaic names for China and Mongolia. The prince of Magog was the chief prince of Meshech (Moscow). And Tubal (Tobolsk) is a city in Siberia.
Most of the Russians are of Mongolian origin. In Biblical days the Mongols, Moscovites, and the people of Tubal were nomads who preyed on agricultural communities and, at times, fought against the civilized nations.
These powerful tribes were known to Babylonians, Persians, and the remnant of Israel who were scattered east of Persia. Moreover, the Syrians and the Babylonians traded with these nations in the Far East.
Old Testament Light (Harper&Row, 1964), p. 834
Resolving the Conflict
Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.
– Jesus in John 8:32
Consequently, only by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the power of His Resurrection can we make “the new man.” Through Jesus Christ, the leopard can change its spots.
The work of Jesus Christ destroys the power of hereditary sin. Our ethnic origins and family histories can be “sained” through the words of Jesus Christ. Some of the greatest Christians have been of Mongol and Russian descent; otherwise, the Apostles would not have spread the Gospel in the East. These “Gog and Magog” prophecies are of a spiritual nature, not a racial one. A nation becomes “Magog” when it embraces the “spirit of Magog.” Any national group can become the fulfillment of these prophecies if it chooses to follow an evil path. And conversely, if it turns to Christ and His Desposynic bishops, all racial traits can be transformed into a holy purpose.
— JWS, Palm Sunday, 2025
