“When you hear that the Russians have captured the city of Crimea, you should know that the times of the Messiah have started, that his steps are being heard. And when you hear that the Russians have reached the city of Constantinople [1], you should put on your Shabbat clothes and don’t take them off, because it means that the Messiah is about to come any minute.” 

Jewish Rabbi Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman (1720-1797) known as the Gaon [genius] of Vilna revealed this word of prophecy shortly before his death in 1797. The Rabbi could not have known what would take place in the year 2015, yet God let him know the events that would lead up to the coming of the Messiah.

On March 18, 2015, following a brief Russian military action, Crimea was formally absorbed into Russia by its President Vladimir Putin who claimed Crimea to be rightfully part of his nation. With that event, the first part of the Gaon of Vilna prophecy has come to pass. Then on October 16, it was reported that a Turkish plane downed a Russian drone on the Syrian border. And, one month later, on November 24, 2015, a Turkish F-16 shot down a Russian military jet, also along the Syrian border. Needless to say, the relations between Russia and Turkey are very strained leaving many to question when and if Russia will retaliate. Considering that Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey) was the capital of the Eastern Orthodox Church, it could be imagined that Russia might attempt to re-take Constantinople for the Church. All this, bearing in mind the close proximity of Crimea to Istanbul on the Black Sea.

Putin, a former KGB agent, frequently attends religious services at the reconstructed Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow and seeks to depict himself as a defender of “traditional values”. He accuses the West of abandoning its Christian roots on issues such as gay marriage. The Russian Orthodox Church division of the Eastern Orthodox Church has been happy to enter into an alliance with the Kremlin (Russian government). In 2012 the powerful head of the Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, publicly endorsed Mr. Putin for a controversial third term, and described the ex-KGB officer’s rule as a “miracle of God” .

Rabbi Zalman was not the only Jewish mystic to have had visions of the days before the coming of the Messiah and its connection to Russia.

• As reported by Breaking Israel News [2], the late Rabbi Haim Shvili, a Jewish mystic born in the early 1900s, made many predictions about the messianic era in his book, Reckonings of Redemption, which he wrote in 1935.… His final terrifying vision, that of a Russian-led coalition as the prophesied Gog, is unfolding on the front pages of newspapers today as we watch Russia bombing insurgents in Syria and forming alliances with Syria’s Bashar Al Assad, Iran and other rogue nations against the West.

• Based on chapters 38 and 39 of Ezekiel, Shvili predicted that the major world power involved in the war of Gog and Magog would be Russia. He specified that it would not be England, though at the time of his predictions, England was the more logical choice for Gog, being much more powerful and more active as a global power. England was also directly involved in the Middle East as part of its mandate. This prediction is even more shocking, since at the time when he wrote his predictions, and even later when they were published, Russia had been replaced by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

Shvili also noted that the War of Gog and Magog would begin in the Hebrew month of Tishrei, which begins with the Hebrew New Year, Rosh HaShanah [3]. On September 30th of 2015, right in the middle of the festival of Sukkot (also in the month of Tishrei), Russia began formal military intervention in Syria, which conforms perfectly to Shvili’s predictions.

Jewish sages have also made a connection to the coming Messiah with the destruction of Damascus, Syria’s capital city. Second century Jewish Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai predicted that when an evil ruler in Damascus [the Nero of the East] falls from power, the Messiah, son of David, will appear. Similarly, the Zohar, a mystical Jewish text, says that when the king of Damascus falls, the Messiah will come. 

“And it is a sign for you, when you see the Nero of the East fall in Damascus, the Salvation will come to Israel, and Mashiah Ben David will come…”  – Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai

It was reported on February 16th that 350,000 soldiers, 20,000 tanks, 2,450 warplanes and 460 military helicopters are massing in northern Saudi Arabia for a military exercise that is being called “Northern Thunder”. According to the official announcement, forces are being contributed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Sudan, Kuwait, Morocco, Pakistan, Tunisia, Oman, Qatar, Malaysia and several other nations. This will be the largest military exercise in the history of the region, and it comes amid rumors that Saudi Arabia and Turkey are preparing for a massive ground invasion of Syria according to the online news service, Prophecy News Watch [4]. Forces seem to be aligning according to Daniel 11 with a “prince of the North” (i.e. Russia) and a “prince of the South” (i.e. Saudi Arabia) although no major news services are carrying the story. 

On February 12, 2016, the Arab news service, Al Jazeera, reported that Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has warned that the deployment of foreign ground troops in the Syrian conflict could result in a world war. Medvedev was quoted as saying in an interview published late on Thursday by the German newspaper Handelsblatt that "a ground operation draws everyone taking part in it into a war".

Over all the news going on in the Middle East, it should be noted that on the same day that Russia commenced military operations in Syria, another momentous event was taking place at the United Nations. On September 30, 2015, Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the so-called State of Palestine and Palestinian National Authority (PA) ceremoniously raised the Palestinian flag at the UN. Abbas announced that officially, with the raising of the PA flag, the Oslo Accords [5] were dead. The PA flag is white, red, black and green, the colors of the Four Horses of the Apocalypse. An astute observer should make the connection that the “colors” were being raised for “all the world” to see at the UN during the Festival of Sukkot 2015. Could these two events that occurred at the time of the final Blood Moon of the Tetrad cycle mark the beginning of the Apocalypse?

[1] Today's Istanbul, Turkey

[2] http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/ 

[3] Begins the Hebrew year 5776, believed by some to be a Jubilee year culminating on Yom Kippur 5777.

[4] http://www.prophecynewswatch.com

[5] The Middle East peace process begain with the Oslo accord of 1993. It ended with the last negotiating sessions at Taba, Egypt in 2001. Over seven years, Palestinian and Israeli negotiators struggled to reach an agreement that could end the Middle East conflict.