“And the sixth Angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue ARMAGEDDON…

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” (Rev 16:12-16, 19:19).

Armageddon. The word “Armageddon” appears but once in the Bible (Rev 16:16).

The origin of this word has been variously formed, and variously translated. It is Nwdgm rh har-megiddon, “the mount of the assembly;” or Nwhdg hmrx chormah gedehon, “the destruction of their army;” or it is wdgm rh har-megiddo, “Mount Megiddo,” the valley of which was remarkable for two great slaughters: one of the Israelites, 2Kgs 23:29, the other of the Canaanites, Judg 4:16; 5:19, But Mount Megiddo, that is Carmel, is the place, according to some, where these armies should be gathered.

In Bible day, the town of Megiddo occupied a very marked position on the southern edge of the Plain of Esdraelon, and commanded an important pass into the hill country.

This locality was the great battle-ground of Palestine, on which were fought many of the famous battles of Old Testament history.

It was a town belonging to Mannaseh Jos.17:11 And Manasseh … inhabitants of Megiddo and her towns, even three countries.

Deborah fought here , Judges 5:7, that I arose a mother in Israel.

Josiah was killed in this battle, and he was a reformer, (2 kgs.23:29-30.)

It was originally a Caananite cities, it took a long time to take possession of it and it was rebuilt by Solomon

(1kigs9:15).And this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.

But here, in Rev 16:14 -16, we find that the kings of the earth and of the whole world are gathered together unto Armageddon “to the battle of the great day of God, or of the great DAY OF THE LORD.

THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON

But what is the battle of Armageddon?

Up till this moment, it’s been very ridiculous how men have tried to conjecture up the reality of this war.

In the past years, some eager but obsolete seers and self-inspired prophets have gone on to indicate certain happenings on the earth as the supposed war of Armageddon.

At one time it was Austerlitz, at another Moscow, at another Leipsic, and then the Waterloo with regards Napoleon Bonaparte.

The watchtower and tracts society again, interpreted Ps 90.10 as the length of a generation to be 80 years, and since 1914 plus 80 equals 1994, they predicted Armageddon would occur around that year.

No Armageddon, But again, in 1995 they said, Armageddon is not coming, and that Armageddon has been delayed so the end of the world was no longer near.

In 2018, John Hagee in His Book, “Earth’s Last Empire”, predicted the soon coming war of Armageddon in the middle East.

And thus they have gone on, and will go on, confounding and being confounded by the predictors because they are looking at the wrong directions for its fulfillment.

The Book of Revelation

What is this Book really all about?

Is it some dragon and the Antichrist?

Is it all just about Israel of old?

Almost all phases of Christianity have one thing or the other to say about this Book.

There are those who say the Book is already fulfilled in AD 70 because Israel is the Babylon the great mentioned therein, therefore it’s already a fulfilled Book and so we have nothing to do with it.

Yes! The word says “ the things that shortly come to pass” surely for the seven churches that he was writing to, he sure visited them, but does that exclude the fact that the Book is an ongoing continuous fulfilling Book?

For the author himself is ever living and knowing that he wrote to his Body the church.

The promise of giving the tree of life to the overcomer, must it end with those Churches in Asia?

Is the tree of life an old tree that has passed away or that is Christ himself?

In fact verse 3 says “3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.”

And we know that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of Prophecy. So the prophecy here should be about Jesus.

So does it mean it was only the seven churches that should have been blessed by reading or understanding this prophecy or that it can extent to us today.

Rev. 1:18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. (KJV).

Is he living today a past event?

Again, he describes himself as:

“Rev. 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty”

Is this coming, just to only the seven Churches or just the destruction of Israel in AD 70? Can’t we see that this is an ever-continuous coming to all men that ever lived from Adam that they might be redeemed as well?

“As in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive”? (1Cor 15:22 ).

Why am I bothered about this?

Simply because the title of this Book revealed something beyond a fulfilled eschatology as we can commonly see.

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John”

…I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. (Rev.1:1,18.)(KJV)

So this is a revelation of a person and not just an event. Not just a historical account of one man that lived and died, but never rose again. This man lives forever therefore, his words lives forever to all ages past and even future.

It’s about a person and not just a Jerusalem event or an Antichrist to be revealed in the future, neither is it about world events.

If we can’t see anything more revealing and useful to us today, then we should have nothing to do with the four Gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John because they are the historical account of Jesus’ life, therefore they are all fulfilled Books.

So then, this book is presenting to us the divine truth about the war of all ages.

Essentially what we are about to get into is what I would called “Kingdom Escathology” which unveils the ultimate dealings of God in Christ in all ages for the goal of redemption of all men and the Christ’s rule amongst the Nations, as ” the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of our lord and of His christ , His Body”. (Rev.11:15)

To be continued…