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A Question Settled Never to Rise AgainThe Watchtower—1974 | June 1
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and he will go out to mislead those nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war. The number of these is as the sand of the sea.
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A Question Settled Never to Rise AgainThe Watchtower—1974 | June 1
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Who are the ones the Devil misleads? They are persons from among perfected humankind who become rebellious. They are “as the sand of the sea,” meaning that they appear to be numberless. This does not imply that the majority of mankind will rebel along with the Devil. The Bible uses this expression with regard to a number indefinite but large enough to make an impression of a big crowd.—Compare Joshua 11:4; Judges 7:12.
The misled ones are called “nations,” not in the sense that national or racial divisions exist among earth’s perfected population. Rather, it indicates that these rebellious ones separate themselves from the loyal majority, refusing to recognize Jehovah’s sovereignty and attempting to establish an earthly sovereignty of their own, like a national sovereignty. They may even be disunited among themselves, as is generally the case with selfish people grasping for power. So they may have diverse group sovereignties. They are united in one thing, however; that is, in opposing Jehovah’s sovereignty, just as the nations had done a thousand years earlier in the war of Har–Magedon that destroyed the old system of things.—Rev. 17:13, 14.
These “nations” are said to be in the “four corners of the earth” because they are far off from God’s sovereignty. In a spiritual sense they are far away from those who are loyal to God. God does not become “all things to everyone” in their case.
Their being termed “Gog and Magog” is to describe the spirit they have and the action they take, like that of “Gog of the land of Magog.” The prophet Ezekiel, centuries beforehand, had pointed out that Gog (the Devil), by means of a crowd of people making up the political and military forces of the nations, would attack Jehovah’s people. This took place when Jehovah’s people had been spiritually restored and were dwelling in peace, without literal walls, but trusting in God as their protection. It is now a thousand years since that crowd was destroyed at Har–Magedon. But now a comparable attempt is made. So it is not by a resurrection of people of the Gog-and-Magog nature that the war is waged against God’s sovereignty. Rather, the same spirit manifested by the Gog-and-Magog crowd of a thousand years previous is aroused in some of the perfected humans.
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