GOG AND MAGOG [#15978]

Do all of us need to go through the physical war of Gog and Magog in order to be zoche to the Geulah (final Redemption)? Are all of the doomsday prophecies in sefer Yechezkel (Ezekiel) able to be nullified, since they are prophecies about punishment and suffering, which can be annulled? Is the war of Gog and Magog only going to happen if the Geulah comes in its set time, but not if it comes before its time (suddenly and swiftly)? Also, the Rav has said that we are now in the intensity of the war of Gog and Magog. Does this mean that it is a spiritual World War III, as the Chofetz Chaim said, that there will be three world wars before Mashiach, and that the final world war will be the war of Gog and Magog which will end with the Geulah? Also, sefer Avkas Rochel (one of the Rishonim) brings the entire order of events that will take place at the End of Days leading up to Mashiach’s arrival, and the description there does not fit with what the Rav is saying that we are currently in Gog and Magog. Did the Rav mean that we are fighting the “internal” war of Gog and Magog, the final battle taking place in our souls?

Originally, had the generation been “entirely deserving of Redemption” (see Talmud Bavli Sanhedrin 98), the Redemption would have come swiftly and suddenly, before its preordained time, and the war of Gog and Magog would have taken place in the blink of an eye – it would have all taken place in the inner dimension, within Torah learning. But now that we were not zoche to that, we are already found in a drawn out process of the final war, and we are all going through it. This is the third world war which the Chofetz Chaim spoke about – and we are currently found in the intense part of it, and there have already been many casualties, mainly in the spiritual sense, Rachmana Litzlan. It mainly affects people on a soul level, and very little on a physical level.