November 2005

QUESTION #1: There are many computer software Bible study programs, and some of them are quite expensive. We have been researching the programs that are available and were just wondering if you recommend any particular one.

ANSWER: You will be pleased to know that one of the best computerized Bible study programs is absolutely free and is available online. It’s the Blue Letter Bible Project, and you’ll find it at www.blueletterbible.org. It has searchable Bibles (many translations), commentaries, study tools, maps, and much more. You can look up verses in both Hebrew and Greek, with word-for-word literal translations, dictionaries, and concordances.

In the Old Testament, the BLB even includes the LXX (that is, the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures), although this feature will only help you if you read Greek. CJF Ministries has supported the Blue Letter Bible Project over the years, and we use it virtually every day in our routine work here. We are happy to recommend it to all of our friends.

Another helpful (and inexpensive) resource is the Online Bible (www.online-bible.com) from our friend Larry Pierce in Canada. The Online Bible Deluxe CD has an enormous amount of information on it, all of which is searchable.

If you require more sophisticated software and perhaps a wider array of available resources, and you don’t mind paying top dollar, then check out Logos Bible Software (www.logos.com), which is preferred by many serious Bible scholars and researchers, or QuickVerse (www.quickverse.com).



QUESTION #2: You said on the radio that the Battle of Gog and Magog as described in Revelation 20:8 will take place at the close of the Millennium. But doesn’t Ezekiel 38:2-3 indicate that the Battle of Gog and Magog will occur during the Tribulation Period? If you are right about the Millennium being literal, doesn’t that present a discrepancy of more than 1,000 years between these two Prophets—Ezekiel and John—in their respective descriptions of this future battle?

ANSWER: Not at all. Ezekiel and John are talking about two different battles—and you are right: They occur a little more than a thousand years apart. Both are called Gog and Magog because they involve invasions of Israel by Japhetic powers from the north. So in Ezekiel 38, we have the first battle of Gog and Magog; and in Revelation 20, we have the second battle of Gog and Magog.

If you have difficulty with this, let me ask you a question. In what year did the Battle of Manassas take place during the Civil War? Was it (a) 1861, (b) 1862, or (c) both? The answer is (c) because two battles took place in Manassas, Virginia, roughly a year apart. Civil War historians often refer to them as First Manassas (July 21, 1861) and Second Manassas (August 28-30, 1862).

You see, it’s not unusual for different battles or wars to share names—like World War I and World War II. This is the case with the two battles of Gog and Magog described in the prophetic Scriptures.