6. The Battle of Armageddon.
The Battle of Armageddon! What extravagant
speculations have been indulged concerning it! What unscriptural theories have
been entertained respecting it! To begin with; this appears from the term
employed. Nowhere in the Bible do we read of "The Battle of Armageddon." The
Scriptural expression is "The Battle of that great day of God Almighty" (Rev.
16:14). This Battle of the great day of God Almighty will bring the
Tribulation period to a close and will witness the return of Christ to the
earth to usher in the Millennium. This "Battle" is the subject of numerous
prophecies, several of which we shall briefly examine.
The Battle of that great day of God Almighty will
terminate the most blatant movement of all in the impious career of the
Anti-christ. After he has thrown off the mask, denied both the Father and the
Son and openly defied Heaven, he will seek to exterminate everything which
either directly or indirectly, witnesses to God. His first effort in this
direction is brought before us in Rev. 17:16 - "And the ten horns which thou
sawest upon the Beast (the "ten kings" vs. 12), these shall hate the whore, and
shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with
fire" - in other words, completely abolish her. Who this "whore" is we learn
in the previous verses. It is "Mystery, Babylon the Great, The Mother of
harlots and abominations of the earth" (vs. 5). It is the Papacy, which
before this time will have succeeded in gathering within its fold the whole of
apostate Christendom. After the Rapture of the Church, the whole of
Christendom will render allegiance to the Pope who will still claim to be
Christ's "vicar" on earth. Then it is that "the whole" of the three
measures of meal will be completely leavened (Matt. 13:33). At first,
Christendom (the "Whore") will be supported by the Beast (Rev. 17:3), but at
the end he will turn against her and cause his ten satellites to bring about
her destruction. Having accomplished the destruction of the one system in
Europe which still professed the name of Christ, the Son of Perdition will then
turn his attention toward Palestine where the last witness of God on earth
will be found. The godly remnant of the Jews will still refuse to worship him.
This enrages the Beast and he gathers together his forces and leads them
against the Holy Land in a determined attempt to annihilate those who dare to
defy him, in fact it would seem from several Scriptures that the Gentiles
headed by the Man of Sin will aim at the complete destruction of all of David's
descendants. Unknown to himself, however, he will be but carrying out the
eternal purpose of God- "Now also many nations are gathered against thee (the
daughter of Zion), that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon
Zion, But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they
His counsel, for He shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor"
(Micah 4:11,12). The time for God to take vengeance on the nations who have
flocked to the banner of the Anti-christ has come, and He employs the Beast to
concentrate his forces so that He may pour out His wrath upon them - "Proclaim
ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the
men of war draw near; let them come up: Beat your ploughshares into swords, and
your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble
yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round
about: thither cause thy might ones to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen be
wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to
judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle for the harvest is
ripe: come, get you down: for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their
wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. The
sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem;
and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of His
people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall ye know that
I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem
be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more" (Joel
3:9-17).
But to go back a little. Unknown to himself, it
is the Lord, who shall cause the Anti-christ to assemble his forces in
Palestine where they shall both meet their just doom. But at first the evil
project of the Beast will appear to succeed. He besieges Jerusalem and
captures it - "Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be
divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem
to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the
women ravished: and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the
residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city" (Zech. 14:1,2).
Jerusalem falls and its people are led forth captives. The success of the
Anti-christ seems complete. The last witness against the Beast now appears to
be silenced. But his triumph will be short-lived. As the above prophecy
continues, "Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those
nations, as when He fought in the day of battle. And His feet shall stand
in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem" (vss. 3,4).
The Anti-christ has now to meet One with whom he cannot cope, yet, incredible
as it may appear, he will make the attempt. Just as of old, Pharaoh gathered
his chariots together and went forth against Israel, though he knew that
Jehovah was with them, so shall his great Anti-type gather his forces to
"make war with the Lamb" (Rev. 17:14). The last desperate movement of
the Beast will be a determined effort to prevent the Lord Jesus returning to
the earth itself. It is to this Psalm 2 refers - "Why do the nations
tumultuously assemble, and the people meditate a vain thing? The kings of the
earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the
Lord, and against His Christ, saying, Let us break Their bands asunder, and
cast away Their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the
Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath,
and vex them in His sore displeasure. Yet have I set My King upon My holy hill
of Zion" (vss. 1-6). God is about to set His King upon Mount Zion, and the
Anti-christ will gather all of his forces together in the vain attempt to
frustrate the Divine purpose. At the head of his armies, the Beast marches
forth in open hostility against God - "And he gathered them together into a
place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon" (Rev. 16:16) which is explained
in Rev. 19:19 - "And I saw the Beast, and the kings of the earth, and their
armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and
against His army." The daring challenge of the Beast is accepted. The heavens
open and Christ appears in flaming fire (cf. Matt. 24:27) ready to take
vengeance. As it is written, "In that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome
stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in
pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. In
that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and
his rider with madness: and I will open Mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and
will smite every horse of the people with blindness. In that day shall the
Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem (i.e. the "residue" of 14:2); and he
that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David
shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them. And it shall come to
pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against
Jerusalem" (Zech. 12:3,4,6-9). How all this will be accomplished we shall see
under our last heading, namely,