Have you noticed something? Russia is back in the news. And here to talk about that fact and several others that are all affiliated with Russia

and Bible prophecy is author, lecturer, pastor, Mark Hitchcock. Mark, welcome to prophecy watchers.

Well great. It's good to be with this. It's my first time to be with you guys, so it's a real privilege.

It's great to have you here.

Thank you. And Mark, you have just completed a book and it's called Russia Rising.

Talk about something that's in the news. Russia had sort of slid back to the back pages of the newspaper for a number of years, but

not lately.

Suddenly Russia is rising, as you say in the title of your book.

Oh, no, that's right.

I mean, you know, I was watching someone not long ago in the news and they said Russia, Russia,

Russia, you know, everything's about Russia. And of course, you know, with the breakup of the Soviet Union back in the news and they said Russia, Russia, you know, everything's about Russia. And

of course, you know, with the breakup of the Soviet Union back in the early 1990s,

everybody thought that the Russian bear had gone into permanent hibernation. You know, Russia

had kind of gone into eclipse. And of course, we've seen a lot of aggression, you know,

with Georgia, with Crimea and the Ukraine. There have been

a lot of aggression, all the hoopla around the elections, the presidential elections, and

you know tampering with that. And so Russia is everywhere. And they really are extending

their footprint throughout the Middle East and really attempting to do it throughout the world.

You know, chapter one of your book is entitled, There's a bear in the woods, and, you know, that's kind of a

fanciful way of symbolizing Russia, but it's biblical because there is a bear in scripture.

Well, there is. And what's so fascinating to me is about the Bible. To me, this is a great proof of the inspiration of the Bible. About over 2,500 years ago, the Jewish prophet, Ezekiel,

writes about a group of nations that's going to attack Israel in the end time. And one of those

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