Oh, but the idea of any caliphate is going to perish with the Gog/Magog invaders. Have you noticed, all the countries named with Persia, the militarized Islamic countries? I don't think there will be an Islamic caliphate. They get toasted.
I don't wanna highjack the thread, but my contention all along has been that the mentions of ancient weapons in Ezekiel 38 don't fit well with thinking it was talking about modern warfare. I was talking about this with a woman a few days ago and she tried to spiritualize the words in Ezekiel 38:4-5, by saying:
Horses - `cuc` meaning moving rapidly.
Shields -`meginnah,` meaning a protector.
Bucklers - `tsinnah,` meaning something piercing.
Swords - `chereb,` meaning a cutting instrument.
My response was that for one she was using root words provided in Strongs etymology rather than the actual words themselves, and that the wording used in the LXX was pretty clearly referring to ancient weaponry:
My reply:
Verse in the Greek: καὶ συνάξω σε καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν δύναμίν σου, ἵππους καὶ ἱππεῖς ἐνδεδυμένους θώρακας πάντας, συναγωγῇ πολλῇ, πέλται καὶ περικεφαλαῖαι καὶ μάχαιραι
ἵππους καὶ ἱππεῖς = Horses and horsemen. This can hardly be read as anything other than what it was literally referring to. The horse was an important part of ancient warfare, but was already ceasing to play any significant role by WWI. They were still used by some armies in WWII, but only the outdated ones, or those on their last legs.
θώρακας = Breatsplates. This is the same exact word as is used in Ephesians 6, in reference to putting on the breastplate of righteousness. Since the application in that passage was to the full compliment of armor worn by the Roman soldier, the meaning is pretty clearly defined.
πέλται καὶ περικεφαλαῖαι καὶ μάχαιραι = Shields and helmets and swords. The last two are again the same words used in Ephesians. The word πέλται referred to a small light shield, as opposed to the heavy shields used by the Romans, but it was clearly a handheld shield nonetheless.
To make these words out to be referring to anything else - modern weaponry of some sort - would be a stretch, IMO. The judgement of Gog and Magog can therefore only refer to one of two things: Either something that happened in the ancient past, or something that will happen in the distant future after the earth has forgotten about war for a thousand years and then starts to pick it up again. Since there is no convincing case for the former, I still have to go with the latter.