Thanks! Yeah, you’re totally right—Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth* really pushed this whole idea that Gog and Magog are Russia. In the book, he claimed that Ezekiel 38-39 was predicting a future attack on Israel, led by Russia and a bunch of other nations.

Lindsey thought “the far north” in Ezekiel meant Russia because, well, Russia is north of Israel. He connected Magog to the Soviet Union (since it was during the Cold War) and said Russia would be a big player in the end times. He also tied other countries, like Persia (which is now Iran) and Libya, into the mix, saying they’d team up with Russia to go against Israel.

The book came out when everyone was worried about the Cold War, so people really latched onto the idea. It made this interpretation of Russia being part of Gog and Magog super popular, even though it’s mostly based on modern stuff!