ARMAGEDDON

THE FINAL BATTLE OF THE NATIONS AGAINST GOD

The battle of Armageddon will confront the nations against God. The target of the battle, which the world will lose and God will win, however is not as clear, and there are several interpretations. One of them is that the battle is against Israel and the Jews; another, that it is against Jerusalem, which is what Revelation 16:16 tells when it talks of the battle with that name, the only time in the Bible that we read it like this. The other interpretation is that it is a battle against Yahshua - Jesus Christ in his return with all His saints.

Armageddon, in any case, is a battle that will take place at the end of time, and that time seems to be near. Recent events, like the last resolution of the UN against the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, show how little in favour of Israel, the leaving president Obama has been, for many it is becoming the preparation of that battle. If to this we add the cruel conflict that Syria is living, more in detail at Aleppo, close to the fulfilment in Damascus, city pending destruction, according to Biblical prophecy, and the conflicts that can be foreseen about Temple Mount and the conflict between Israel and Palestine, as well as the extreme persecutions against Christians, in murder on one side, and against our faith values, the apostasy around the world on the other, the breeding ground is ready for the last stage of the battle of battles.

ARMAGEDDON. ORIGIN AND LOCATION

Armageddon, according to most Biblical teachers, comes from the Hebrew form: har-Megiddo “mount of Megiddo. It is also identified with “mount of slaughter” (in most Bible Dictionaries). Also, Megiddo is known as Valley of Jezreel –where more than 200 battles have taken place already, in some of them kings of Israel died and of nations that where their enemies, and others, like that of Gideon against the Midianites, Judges 6:33– it identifies with the valley between the hills of Megiddo, and both names are related to the great valley of Esdraelon; valley, not mount.

The geographic location, in case of interpreting the place as a valley or hills of Megiddo, is about 75kms north from Jerusalem, within the boundaries of the tribe of Issachar, and just in the area latter known as Samaria, very close to the Sea of Galilee, and a bit south between the mounts Tabor and Carmel –close to the place of the victory of Elijah against the 450 prophets of Baal, 1Kings 18– and very close also and a bit south from Nazareth. It would be Origins and Eusebius who, together with other fathers of the Church would see a symbolic interpretation, this means, they would see Armageddon as an event and not as a physical place, although they would popularize the interpretation of mount of slaughter. However the truth is that a mount Megiddo does not exist, nor has ever been mentioned in the Old Testament.

But, what if the correct interpretation was another, derived from another etymology of the word Armageddon, like some of the mounts around Zion, in Jerusalem, where Jesus Christ - Yahshua will come in victory? If we concentrate if the indication of the author of the Biblical Text of Revelation 16:16, John tells us that it is in Hebrew that the word in the Septuagint Greek version has been translated as Armageddon. If we take the Hebrew words that make the name we find something different to mount Megiddo: har=mount and gedhudh=assembly of armies.

Something like “mount where the armies will gather” a war on a mount. This information and interpretation is reference to a code name for the place of the victory of the Messiah in His glorious final coming, a reference to what the prophets of the Old Testament call in all prophecies Mount Zion, which is also a reference to the entire area of mounts of Jerusalem. The same description of the same event we find in Isaiah 29:1-8, a Text that really touching when read with reference to Ariel, name of Jerusalem and of Mount Zion. In Mount Zion is where the Biblical prophetic hope rests. In the same way Ezekiel 39:11-13 describes the event with more details, like the sepulchre of Gog and Magog. Also Joel 3:1-17 describes the judgment of Yahweh over the nations in the Valley of Josaphat, in all our maps as Valley Cedron, exactly the valley between Temple Mount and Mount of Olives. And Zechariah 12:2 and all the chapter tell about the nations against Judah, which stands for the Jews and Israel, by the hand of Jerusalem, describing to detail about the punishment to those nations for fighting against Jerusalem and God’s plan, in chapter 14:12.

THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON

Armageddon is the final battle where all the nations fight against God. In this battle of Revelation 16:14-21, we read in verse 19 that part of the outcome is that the great city was divided in three parts, and the same description “great” is applied in the context to Babylon. We also know that the Bible talks of the “great city” in Revelation 11:8 and it calls it Sodom and Egypt, and it specifies that it does so, in a spiritual way, and it adds that, in that “great city” our Lord was also crucified, therefore Revelation may well be revealing that Jerusalem is also known with different symbolic names like Sodom, Egypt and Babylon (city that has prostituted with religions, that did not receive the Messiah, and which’s fig tree was cursed by Christ and it dried) but that has a glorious future awaiting her; not in vain we are asked to pray for Jerusalem, with love, in Psalm 122.

To such extreme humanity will go against his Creator, against his own Father in that battle. If, as all the Biblical Texts point to, Armageddon could be in the mounts of Jerusalem, the reference to a place that will be created and called “valley of mounts” after Mount of Olives brakes in a form of cross, a valley that will reach Azal, according to Zechariah 14:5. If this is so, it is then that the entire prophetical message gains the bigger sense and all the pieces fit, like it always happens in the Bible, the prophetical Word of God.

This battle against God includes a fight against Jesus Christ – Yahshua, against Israel, against the Jews and against Jerusalem which is the holy city for Christianity, and also for that reason it is also the battle against the Church. In Romans 11:25, Paul tells us that the restoration of Israel is a mystery, but he warns Christians themselves that we should not be arrogant. We know of how much anti-Semitism there has been and there is in the world, including the Church, but Paul tells us that when the fullness of the gentiles has entered, all Israel will be saved because it will come from Zion the Redeemer who will take away the impiety from Jacob, like Isaiah tells in 51:17-23.

We know that Israel has been taken off his promised land during 2.000 years, since the year 70a.C. when the troops of Titus, roman general destroyed it and threw out the Jews. But we also know that the prophecy is, that at the end, they would be restored in their land, as it happened in 1948 as an independent nation and part of the UN, but that was after suffering the Nazi Holocaust, in which the German leader of the National Socialism exterminated 6 million Jews. Now, a year only to reach the first generation, which is 70 years according to the Bible, Israel awaits –whether they know it or not– the great final battle, and it will then be when, at the end of the times of the gentiles, Luke 21:25, that they will say before the coming of the Messiah what He already prophesised: “Baruj Haba Beshem Adonai” Blessed is who comes in the Name of the Lord; Matthew 23:37-39, Psalm 118:26.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ARMAGEDDON AND ISRAEL, THE JEWS AND THE NATIONS AND BETWEEN ARMAGEDDON AND JESUS CHRIST – YAHSHUA AND HIS CHURCH IN HIS RETURN

If Armageddon is only related with Israel, a battle of all the nations against Israel, then it would be a partial battle, because it would not focus on Jerusalem, nor in Jesus Christ. Romans 11. In Ezekiel 37:1-14 we find the most impressive spiritual description of the restoration of the nation of Israel in the story of the valley of the dry bones.

If Armageddon is only related with Jerusalem, a battle of all the nations against the Holy City, it would also be a partial battle, because it would not include the people of Israel, the only nation created by God. Revelation 16:16.

Armageddon really is the final battle of all the nations against God. And this view includes the nation of Israel, the Jews, Jerusalem, and specially Yahshua – Jesus Christ in His return with the Church, as King of kings of all the nations; and not even all the nations together, nor all the armies of Satan could stop it because this is God’s plan, Creator of all the prophetical history of humanity. However, it looks as if the Church does not appear in the place, but come with Jesus Christ to the place and to the event, and it does so in victory.

The world political situation that we are living, will create, without a doubt, many headers in the news, both in the secular as in the prophetical. However, only the prophetical signs, are the map to follow to avoid being troubled or deceived our of time. From them, we find that some fulfil, like that since the establishment of the estate of Israel it has suffered hate and persecution, and now the nations, including US seem to abandon their support to leave her on her own, but before God. Also the city of Jerusalem seems to be a currency for the different governments of the world and of the UN as if it belonged to them, nor realizing that it is the city of God. In the same way, the church is being persecuted in all the world and massacred without much being done, as the west has abandoned the faith in a great manner. Few prophecies remain to be fulfilled.

It is not in a mere rational way that we should understand the conflict of Israel and Jerusalem together with the Church, but spiritual and in obedience to God, because all the nations will be tested in this. Israel, Jerusalem, Yahshua – Jesus Christ and the Church are the plan of God and the world will lose in their stubbornness against God.

But there is a hope, that of a new world, a new Jerusalem and a new state of things for the Church that will include the entire Body of Christ, whether of Jewish of Gentile origin.

When, is a question that will depend on who it will affect. If we believe that the Church will not be in this event, or it will, and whether it will happen before or after the Great Tribulation, it will be the matter to study by each of us in the Bible and in prayer.

CONCLUSION

Armageddon is the final event in the rebellion of man against His Father, His Creator and His Saviour. However, if the event will take place while the Church is on earth or not, is the debate that the Revelation of the Word of God also provides us in the first letter of Paul to the Thessalonians 4:13-18, theme known as the Rapture of the Church.

We must live joyfully in the Holy Spirit until the end comes, because our hope is in the resurrection and the rapture for a new and eternal beginning. Let’s focus our lives in two purposes with the same target: The Great Commission to make disciples preaching the Gospel and the good works, because both give glory to God in Yahshua – Jesus Christ. Let us live, then, like Jesus Christ teaches in Matthew 25:31 to 46, because in His return, our Lord Jesus Christ will judge the nations like that. And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached to all the world, for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come. Matthew 24:14. Let us sing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb in Revelation 15:3 and 4, because the victory is of Jesus Christ, and all the nations finally will come and worship Him, because His judgments have been manifested.

The closing is Revelation 1:7: “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen”.

If you have not yet received Yahshua – Jesus Christ as Saviour, read: Do you know Jesus Christ?