ARMAGEDDON
Armageddon is generally thought to be the
great final battle on earth. It is also generally thought to
be a devastating conflict between armies on the earth, between
east and west.
We have shown in our book on the National Sunday
Law, which
is available for downloading on these web pages, that the only
English version of the Bible that can be trusted to be accurate
is the King James version. Except for the King James version,
all the well-known English translations of the Bible came from
corrupted manuscripts such as the Vaticanus Codex B and the Siniaticus.
Even the New King James version has been corrupted by these manuscripts.
The old King James version is the best version of the Bible that
accurately shows what Armageddon is.
The only place in the Bible that mentions
Armageddon is Revelation 16, verse 16. Chapter 16 of Revelation
describes the Seven Last Plagues, and Armageddon is mentioned
in the description of the sixth plague. Let us read the Bible
verses that describe the sixth plague.
Revelation 16:12-16: “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. Behold,
I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his
garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he
gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue
Armageddon.”
(Our book, Earth’s
Final Hours, shows in great detail what the drying up
of the river Euphrates means and who the dragon, the beast, and
the false prophet are. This entire book is available for downloading
on these web pages. A description of the “battle of the
great day of God Almighty” can be found on these web pages
at How the World
Will End.)
Let us now look at Armageddon. Revelation
16:16 says, “He gathered them together into a place called
. . . Armageddon.” Some think “Armageddon” means
Mount Meggido, but there was never a mountain called by this
name. No geographical location was ever known by the name Armageddon.
This place called Armageddon, therefore, must be symbolic.
A careful study of verses 14 through 16 will
show the meaning of this term clearly. Verse 14 mentions the
battle of the great day of God Almighty. Next, verse 15 refers
to the righteous: “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is
he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked,
and they see his shame.” Christ is speaking in verse 15,
and He personally gives His people a gentle warning to be on
their guard when Satan masquerades as Christ. Verse 16 says,
“And he gathered them together into a place called in the
Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” Who does the “he” in
this verse refer to? It has to refer to the person who is speaking
in the previous verse, the “I” in verse 15. Who does
the “them” refer to? It must refer to the righteous
about whom Christ is speaking in verse 15. The meaning of verse
16 becomes clear when one realizes who the personal pronouns
refer to in this verse. Let us read verse 16 and indicate the
proper meaning of these pronouns: “And he (Christ, who spoke
in verse 15) gathered them (the righteous of verse 15) together
into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” Armageddon,
therefore, refers not to the battle of verse 14 but to Christ
and the righteous of verse 15.
Armageddon, therefore, are the places all
over the world where Christ gathers the righteous to escape the
wrath of the wicked and to wait for the return of the Lord. As
the persecution over Sunday observance versus Sabbath keeping
increases to fearful intensity, the righteous escape to the hills
and to the mountains, where they find refuge among the munitions
of rocks, as Isaiah 33:15-17 says. “He that walketh righteously,
and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions,
that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth
his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing
evil; He shall dwell on high: his place of defense shall be the
munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall
be sure. Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall
behold the land that is very far off.” The land that is
very far off, of course, is heaven.
Armageddon does not refer to a war or to
a specific place, but to the hills and mountains and other secluded
places all over the world where the righteous gather in small
companies to escape the persecution by the wicked and to wait
for the return of the Lord. This is why, search as they will,
scholars cannot find the specific place called Armageddon.
The devil has a reason for deceiving everyone
into thinking that Armageddon is a battle. As he does with every
other Bible subject, the devil will have a counterfeit Armageddon,
and it will be a battle. Satan will make the world believe that
Bible prophecy has been fulfilled by this Counterfeit Battle
of Armageddon. This deception about Armageddon will be part of
his deception when he masquerades as Christ to make it appear
as if Christ has returned at the expected time.
The present terrorism in the world, with
the destruction of the World Trade Center's twin towers and the
reaction it is producing in the United States and the middle
east is probably the beginning of Satan's counterfeit battle
of Armageddon. As the world inches toward war with the proliferation
of weapons of mass destruction by terroristic nations, the upcoming
war could reach massive proportions, including the use of nuclear
weapons. The world will call this the Battle of Armageddon.
The seventh plague is the end of the world
and the return of Christ.