Ezekiel, Russia, and Pat Robertson

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, comments on sensationalistic end-time scenarios occasioned by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Let Ezekiel mention the word rosh, and the imaginations of end-time sensationalists go wild. The Hebrew word rosh sounds enough like “Russia” to implicate Russia as the villain in sensationalistic end-time scenarios. However, as documented by credible historians and linguists, the word “Russia” is an eleventh century Viking word and as such should not be semantically linked to the Hebrew word rosh. Moreover, if we fail to understand the history communicated in Scripture, we can come up with all kinds of sensationalistic scenarios. Take Pat Robertson ranting recently about Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, citing Ezekiel. The problem is Robertson’s failure to understand the historical context of Ezekiel’s prophecies, which have nothing to do with current events in Ukraine. The historical principle of biblical interpretation keeps one from supposing—as do modern day prophecy pundits—that Ezekiel longed for a third or fourth temple when the second had not yet arisen from the ashes of the first. For Pat Robertson’s statements, see Steve Warren, “‘God Is Getting Ready to Do Something Amazing’: CBN Founder Pat Robertson on Russia and Its Place in Prophecy,” CBN News, February 28, 2022, https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/2022/february/god-is-getting-ready-to-do-something-amazing-founder-pat-robertson-on-russia-and-its-place-in-prophecy. For further study, see Hank Hanegraaff, Has God Spoken?https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-has-god-spoken/.