Armageddon-Earth's Final War
The Old Testament lists the wars and conquests of ancient Israel that God used to drive out the adulterous nations in Canaan to fulfill the promise made to Abraham: “And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God” (Genesis 17:8).
With the help of God, Israel fought some incredible wars. Remember, Joshua prayed during the battle for the sun and the moon to stand still until Israel totally defeated the five Amorite kings (see Joshua 10:13, 14); Gideon’s famous army of 300 defeated the Midianites with only their ram’s horn and a clay jar with a smoldering torch inside (see Judges 7:16-21); Jehoshaphat went to battle with a choir singing “Praise the Lord; for his mercy endureth for ever” and defeated the armies of Edom, Ammon, and Moab (2 Chronicles 20:21).
Before these wars there was a war in heaven between Christ and Satan “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven” (Revelation 12:7, 8). Since that conflict, Satan has caused more suffering, death, and pain in this world as a way to get even with Christ. Over the centuries he’s caused thousands of wars, and millions of soldiers and innocent people to lose their lives in senseless wars.
In the last century alone, the United States was involved in two world wars, developed the atomic bomb, participated in the arms race against the Soviets, fought in the Korean and Vietnam wars, fought in the Gulf War, and presently we are engaged in a war on terrorism in Iraq.
These facts may cause you to wonder if there will ever be a global war that will annihilate the human race. Christ said while on earth:“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet” (Matthew 24:6). Could Christ have been hinting about Armageddon mentioned in Revelation 16:16: “And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon” (Revelation 16:16)?
Perhaps Hollywood was on to something when it released the movie Armageddon, starring Bruce Willis, in the summer of 1998. The movie plot was that an asteroid the size of Texas was headed toward earth, and the only hope was for a group of heroes to blow it up before it hit earth. Bruce sacrificed his life by detonating the charge that blew himself and the asteroid to pieces. Sounds as if this could happen in our day, but Revelation describes Armageddon differently. However, there are several views on how this final war will unfold.
One school of thought suggests that with the high price of oil and the unrest in the Middle East that the ground is fertile for such a global war to take place that will involve every nation on earth for the main purpose of controlling the world’s oil supply. Some religious leaders are teaching that because the world has gone from one earth-shaking crisis to another, the stage is now being set for Armageddon—a war climaxing in our time, and the major issues being about protecting Israel from its enemies.
And there are others who believe that we can avoid Armageddon and the threats from nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons by diplomacy. I once heard a person say that the best way to recognize Armageddon will be after the fact. In other words, if we’re all dead the preceding war was Armageddon. All of these opinions could fit well on any given day if they were biblical. However, let us examine Armageddon from the Bible’s perspective and see if it’s a literal or spiritual battle, and who the key players will be.
Armageddon will be the climax of all wars, will be fought on earth, and everyone alive will be involved. The major issues will not be Israel’s right of existence or the price of oil, but rather our loyalty to Christ or Satan. Isaiah 14:13, 14 speaks about Satan: “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”
The word “Armageddon” is rooted in the Hebrew, which means “mount of the congregation” or “mount of the assembly.” This same expression is found in Psalm 48:1, 2:“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.”
Satan’s desire to sit upon the mount of the congregation is to subvert the authority and worship of God. That’s the primary reason why he was expelled from heaven. Down through the ages, he has worked under the disguise of counterfeit religious systems and false worship, creating a combination of truth and error.
This deception will occur at the very close of time when every human being living will have to take a side in this spiritual war, and the Bible warns “that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:24). In essence it is a contest between good and evil, a “frame of mind” tracing its roots back to the time when Satan was defeated in heaven. Satan’s intention since then has been to sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, to sit in God’s place and receive all the praise and adoration that belongs to God.
Satan’s reign of terror on earth is almost completed, but he still hasn’t given up on the idea of usurping God’s place in the universe. We can be assured that in this final war Christ will be victorious as He was in heaven, and sin will not rise again. After Armageddon Christ will return to earth in the clouds and reign as King of kings and Lord of lords. And the universe will experience uninterrupted eternal peace without the signing of a peace treaty or having UN peacekeeping troops. Since Armageddon will be a spiritual war and every person will have to take a side, there are measures we must take to ensure that we are standing on the right side.
First, we start by putting on the armor of God for spiritual warfare. The Bible says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).
Second, acceptance of Christ’s sacrifice and death that pardons our sins. With this type of relationship Satan has no authority over us when we would rather die than sin.
Last, we must shift our focus and priorities and put the emphasis in our daily lives on eternal goals and not temporal things. “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).
I’m grateful that we have a loving heavenly Father who, through His Son, has opened the future to us so that we don’t have to live our lives with uncertainty about the final war and the results. Men will continue to mediate and broker peace until Christ returns, but there will be no lasting peace in the Middle East or globally until the Prince of Peace returns to the Middle East in the clouds of glory. “And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:4).
WASHINGTON JOHNSON II, D.MIN., is projects director for Message magazine, and a chaplain in the United States Navy, assigned to Navy District Washington, D.C. |
