Prophecy writers for nearly 2000 years have made similar claims, of course without reference to "nuclear weapons". They claimed to hold the prophetic key to interpretation based on who the leading political power was in their day.

In the fourth and fifth centuries, Gog referred to the Goths and Moors. In the seventh century, it was the Huns. By the eighth century, the Islamic empire was making a name for itself, so it was a logical candidate. By the tenth century, the Hungarians briefly replaced Islam. But by the sixteenth century, the Turks and Sacacens seemed to fit the Gog and Magog profile with the Papacy thrown in for added prophetic juice.

In the seventeenth century, Spain and Rome were the end-time bad guys. In the nineteenth century, Napoleon was Gog leading the forces of Magog-France. For most of the twentieth century, Communist Russia was the logical pick with its military aspirations, its atheistic founding, and its designation of being "far north" of Israel. A study of history will show that when the headlines change, the interpretation of the Bible changes, especially when it comes to the Magog battle.

The interpretive history of Ezekiel 38 and 39 is prime evidence that modern-day prophecy writers are not profiling the future through the lens of Scripture but through the ever-changing headlines of the evening news.

Much has to be read into the Bible in order to make Ezekiel 38 and 39 fit modern-day military realities. Anyone reading these two chapters for the first time will come away impressed with the notion that the events describe what we today consider a battle fought a long time ago with weapons that fit the times. Those who claim to interpret the Bible literally have a problem on their hands.