We see in Scripture that God seems to prefer to use the forces of nature, or the actions of men or nations, to intervene in the history of the world and to fulfill prophecy. That is, His Work is brought about in a way that only believers, for the most part, are aware that He is its Author. Unbelievers are allowed to continue to think the event was caused by accident and coincidence; that it was fortuitous.
In Ezekiel 38-39, however, God says that the whole world will know that He, God Himself, has destroyed Gog and his allies for His Glory. In my mind, that implies that God will use His awesome power to intervene directly, obviously, in history at that point so that even unbelievers will know that God Himself, not rockets, A-bombs, airplanes, tanks, and soldiers, destroys 5/6 of the invaders on the “Mountains of Israel.”
What is your thinking about this?
I see it in the sense that Israel’s victory will be so dramatic, unexplainable in human terms, that people will intuitively know that it could only have been accomplished by God’s direct intervention. Staunch unbelievers will continue to deny this, just as they’ll deny the source of the judgments that will follow.
In fact, it’s really their continued denial of God’s existence that makes the end times judgments necessary. If all the world came to the Lord in repentance after Ezekiel 38, there would be no need for the Great Tribulation. Satan would have no followers to fight for him against God.