Mark Hitchcock - Russia Rising: Tracking the Bear in Bible Prophecy

Visit Tyndale online at tyndale.com.

Visit Tyndale Momentum online at tyndalemomentum.com.

TYNDALE, Tyndale Momentum, and Tyndales quill logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. The Tyndale Momentum logo is a trademark of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Tyndale Momentum is the nonfiction imprint of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois.

Russia Rising: Tracking the Bear in Bible Prophecy

Copyright 2017 by Mark Hitchcock. All rights reserved.

Cover photograph of fighter jets copyright disq/Shutterstock. All rights reserved.

Cover photograph of Moscow skyline copyright Dmitry Molchanov/Shutterstock. All rights reserved.

Cover photograph of sunset copyright by Adina Voicu/Pixaby.com. All rights reserved.

Cover photograph of code copyright by Pete Linforth/Pixaby.com. All rights reserved.

Cover designed by David Carlson, Studio Gearbox

Interior designed by Dean H. Renninger

Published in association with the literary agency of William K. Jensen Literary Agency, 119 Bampton Court, Eugene, Oregon 97404.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

The King of the North: The Northern Confederacy was originally published in John F. Walvoord, The Nations in Prophecy (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1967). It is reproduced with permission by JFW Publishing Trust, PO Box 797687, Dallas, Texas 75379. All rights reserved.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Tyndale House Publishers at , or call 1-800-323-9400.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Hitchcock, Mark, date, author.

Title: Russia rising : tracking the bear in Bible prophecy / Mark Hitchcock.

Description: Carol Stream, Illinois : Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2017. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017027217| ISBN 9781496429650 (hc) | ISBN 9781496428073 (sc)

Subjects: LCSH: Bible Prophecies Former Soviet republics.

Classification: LCC BS649.R9 H588 2017 | DDC 220.1/5 dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017027217

Build: 2021-04-21 22:35:14 EPUB 3.0

To my first granddaughter, Cameron Joy Hitchcock, who brings unspeakable joy to my life and to our entire family. May our gracious God bless you and keep you all the days of your life.

A BEAR WILL NOT ASK ANYONE FOR PERMISSION.

VLADIMIR PUTIN

During the 1984 presidential campaign, candidate Ronald Reagan used a television commercial thats become known for its compelling opening line There is a bear in the woods.

The ad featured a grizzly bear wandering menacingly through a forest while the narrator said, There is a bear in the woods. For some people, the bear is easy to see. Others dont see it at all. Some people say the bear is tame. Others say its vicious and dangerous. Since no one can really be sure whos right, isnt it smart to be as strong as the bear? If there is a bear.

A man appears in the closing scene, and the bear takes a step back. The captivating ad concludes with a picture of Reagan and the tagline President Reagan: Prepared for Peace. Reagan took the Bear seriously, and in December 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, no longer dominating Eastern Europe.

Fast-forward almost thirty years, and no one doubts theres a bear in the woods. Russia is back. The Russian bear has roared out of hibernation and into the headlines. The Bear is back but what does that mean for our world?

The movie The Revenant depicts one of the most savage, vicious scenes in cinematic annals. Not far into the movie, frontiersman and fur trapper Hugh Glass (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) unwittingly gets between a mother grizzly bear and her cubs. Without warning, hes slammed to the ground by the charging grizzly. It happens so quickly he doesnt have time even to turn and raise his rifle. The ferocious mauling is so brutal and unrelenting, its difficult to watch. Glasss broken, lacerated body is left near death. The lesson is clear: get between a mother grizzly and her cubs, and the result wont be pretty.

Since 1991 and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Putin and others of his ilk have felt like a mother bear robbed of her cubs, willing to maul anyone who stands in the way of restoring Soviet greatness. Putin, a former KGB lieutenant colonel, became Russian prime minister in August 1999 and president in May 2000. He was reelected in 2004, then bowed out for his pupil Dmitry Medvedev to assume the presidency. But Putin ran successfully again in 2012. Theres no sign now that he will ever step down again. Forbes ranked Putin as the worlds most powerful person for the fourth year in a row in 2016.

During his 2005 State of the Nation address to parliament, Putin lamented that the demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.

The obsession has gone so far that the Kremlin is commissioning new statues of Joseph Stalin, one of the twentieth centurys worst mass murderers. This is certainly a chilling window into the current Russian psyche.

Putin seizes every opportunity to stoke smoldering resentment within Russia and to draw attention to the perceived threats against his nation in order to take more and more aggressive actions to reestablish the empire. With every passing day, the Bear gets more bellicose. Putin has launched a crusade to rebuild the empire that fell along with the Berlin Wall.

President Obama promised a Russian reset in 2009 when he took office, but the opposite has occurred. US-Russian relations have relapsed into a Cold War 2.0, and some say the current situation is even worse than the Cold War. Slowly and subtly Europe and the West have sleepwalked into a new era of danger and instability. In just a little more than a decade, the unthinkable has become a reality. Russia, seemingly finished after its defeat in the Cold War, now is emerging as a prospective great power challenging the West.

Russia is on the march. General Sir Richard Shirreff, the former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, said of Vladimir Putin, [he] is calling the shots at the moment.

That the Russian bear is on the prowl is clearly evidenced by the steady stream of world headlines:

Russias Rising Empire

NATIONAL REVIEW, AUGUST 9, 2016

The Russian Bear Is Rising

HUFFINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 2, 2016

Beware: The Russian Bear Is Getting Bolder

WASHINGTON POST, DECEMBER 1, 2016

Russias Rising Role in the World

FOREIGN POLICY NEWS, DECEMBER 30, 2016

Russian aggression has moved into a new phase that threatens international order and stability. General James Mattis, the US defense secretary, has called Russia the worlds top threat, and Senator John McCain agrees, calling Vladimir Putin the premier and most important threat, more so than ISIS.