What is the War of Armageddon?

The War of Armageddon: What is It?

If you listen to the news, you've probably heard of Armageddon. What is Armageddon?

What is the Tribulation?

Are these words without context to you? Or maybe you’ve heard that Armageddon or the Tribulation is something awful? Does the word Armageddon inspire a vague sense of dread you can’t define but you don’t know why?

You may have heard the term “the Battle of Armageddon”. It’s much more than a battle. It’s part of the events of what is called the Tribulation.

What is the Tribulation? The Tribulation— full name “the Tribulation of Jacob— is a seven year period of time in which God’s judgement falls upon the Earth. It is divided up into two parts of three and a half years each and the second half is called the “Great Tribulation” because of the terrible events that happen. During the first half of the Tribulation, a dictator that the Bible calls the AntiChrist will rule the world with an iron— but beloved— fist. He’ll represent fulfillment of prophecy to every group that is waiting for a “Messiah-like person” to come and repair the world’s woes: the Mahdi to the Shi’ites, an Ascended Master to the Buddhists, Hindus and New Agers and so on. He'll be the IT that everyone has been waiting for. He'll be what many hoped Obama would be. He'll be the charismatic leader and supremely competent as a problem solver.

The AntiChrist will actually be able to solve many of the world’s most pernicious problems. Economic, religious, ethnic, you name it, he has a workable solution. He'll be the master repairman. That is, until the midpoint of the Tribulation when he will declare himself to be god and it all comes unraveled. You can imagine the reaction of the Islamic nations alone to such a declaration— he’ll be considered a prophet until then, but to declare himself equal to or to claim to actually BE Allah will be an unforgivable blasphemy and they will instantly go to war with him.

Which brings us to Armageddon:

What is Armageddon? In a nutshell, it’s the last and greatest World War. The Bible’s books Revelation, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah and others describe tremendous military campaigns in the Near East and Middle East by hundreds of millions of troops by at least four major power blocs of nations that ultimately meet their demise in Israel’s Jordan Valley. Part of this war takes place at a location called Har Megiddo, or the Hill of Megiddo.

The first major combat takes place between the AntiChrist’s forces and the “King of the South” who appears to be from Arabia or nearby nations. We’re not told much about the Tribulation’s “King of the South” as he appears in verse 40 or what he does. The second major invasion is by Gog, the “King of the North”, who leads a contingent of Iranian, Eastern European, West Asian and north African peoples against the Near East and Middle East. The third is by an army from east Asia and from the AntiChrist’s armies of Europe. All of this comes to an end in Israel.

Daniel 11, verses 40 to 45 gives a short synopsis of the King of the North’s campaign:

40 "And at the time of the end shall the king of the south contend with him;” the first “him” is the AntiChrist, who was described in the prior four verses “and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass through.

41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall be delivered out of his hand: Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.

42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries; and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

44 But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him; and he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to sweep away many.

45 And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the sea and the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.” (American Standard Version, 1901, here and following Scripture)

Ezekiel chapter 38 also speaks of Gog’s great invasion of verses 40 to 45 but is much longer and gives additional details. One key detail it yields is what nation leads this invasion. Gog from the land of Magog. (“Magog” may literally mean “Land of Gog”.) Thanks to historians Herodotus and Josephus and others, we can trace Gog’s lineage to the Russians of today.

“But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him; and he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to sweep away many.” Revelation 9: 16 to 18 explains why this is: it describes an army of of 200 million coming from the east, which would be a bit disturbing to a military leader who is more than a thousand miles from his nearest supply railhead in Iran. Plus, what do you think the military of the AntiChrist, which would now be to the north— from the path of invasion in the verses above, the King of the North apparently received the tidings while in Egypt and so Europe would be north of him— will do when the AntiChrist receives word that his oil supplies from the middle East have just been cut? And other minor considerations, such as an invading army on his doorstep? These tidings from the north that the King of the North has received word likely include the intelligence that the AntiChrist’s forces are either mobilizing or are on the way. Most likely both, as most militaries have forces that can be immediately called to action and reserves that require time to mobilize. The old Soviet Union of the 1980s could put ten million in the field, but their plans required six months to complete the recalling and rearming of their C and D Divisions while their A Divisions could move within a week and sometimes within hours. (The 1985 West German Whitebook lists 195 divisions west of the Urals for immediate call up, but this included all of the Warsaw Pact).

Two hundred million may seem like an amazing number, but close to one hundred million fought in World War II when the world’s population was one sixth of what it is today. Given the armies that were fielded in World War II and the probable desperation of the situation during the Tribulation, at least 20% of the population of each nation involved will be under arms and perhaps 25% (or even more) in the case of China, which has an entire generation now 40 years old with a ratio of 9:1 men:women due to the One Child Only policy. That’s millions of extra potential troops if these events happen soon.

(And you GenX Christian guys thought you it was bad with 4:1 practicing Christan men:women in Oregon. Imagine what it’s like to be a 40 year-old man in China.)

The first part of Ezekiel's account of Daniel 11:

1 And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, set thy face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him,

3 and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal:

4 and I will turn thee about, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords;

5 Persia, Cush, and Put with them, all of them with shield and helmet;

6 Gomer, and all his hordes; the house of Togarmah in the uttermost parts of the north, and all his hordes; even many peoples with thee.

Ezek 38:1-6 (ASV)

These events must happen soon. Prophecy gives which nations, listed by their forefathers, must make these campaigns take place. Neither ethnic Europeans nor Russians will be able to do it within in two generations, tops, perhaps even one generation, because their birthrate is so low. Their populations are crashing. The EU is in the process of being taken over by Islamic minorites from Africa and Turkey— Ishmaelites, Edomites and Beth Togarmahites, respectively— due to their high birth rates, much like the U.S. is being taken over by Mexico's 50+ million illegals and their explosive birthrate.

The Netherlands is already 10% Islamic and that number is rising fast. Germany has more. The Slavic nations of the CIS who are descended from Magog, Meschech and Tubal will shortly be overwhelmed by Turkic peoples descended from Beth Togarmah. Prophecy does not state that Ishmaelites/Edomites and Beth Togarmahites come from Europe. Nor does it say that Beth Togarmah comes alone from the uttermost north, either. Ezekiel 38 states "Gomer, and all his hordes", so Gomer must still be around. That won't be much longer with the trends of the last 30 years.

Something has to happen soon.

Now, for those military buffs, someone is now saying “China and India EACH could field and equip an army of 200 million with modern arms.” It’s true. However, but by the time of Revelation 9, there will have been a lot of judgements by God that have killed billions. Two hundred million is probably all of the able bodied men of military age that the nations now called China, India, Pakistan, Burma and so on, are able to muster.

Anyone who can hold a rifle will be going to the Jordan Valley, including many who would not normally have been accepted into military service in peacetime, with various injuries or illnesses. These nations will probably will see this as a “last throw”, a war for survival or for last resources like the middle east oil or even vengeance upon the dictator that steered them so wrong. Perhaps for all of those reasons. We are not told in Scripture why they do it, just that they do.

The End of the War

Their end is a horrific one. Revelation 14:20 states “And the winepress are trodden without the city, and there came out blood from the winepress, even unto the bridles of the horses, as far as a thousand and six hundred furlongs.” The Greek is 1600 stadia or 200 miles— the length of the Jordan River Valley, from north to south. By this time, combat has taken place all along the Valley and it’s filled with men slugging it out with armored vehicles, artillery, chain guns, machine guns, rifles, pistols, grenades, rockets, missiles, jets, helicopters, gunboats on the river, lasers, particle beams, accelerator cannons and weapons that our perverted imaginations haven’t even thought of yet.

Until something drastic happens. Someone starts using their last option and so everyone else responds in kind. Zechariah 14:12 states “And this shall be the plague wherewith Jehovah will smite all the peoples that have warred against Jerusalem: their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their sockets, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.” Whether this an intense neutron bombardment or blasts of ionizing radiation from nukes or other weapons, the armies are now killed en masse. If it’s radiation from one source or another, it would explain how the blood from 300 or more million men literally flows and collects as mentioned in Revelation 14 as it could not clot. Just burying the bodies will take seven months of effort by the entire populace of Israel and then a period after that by crews searching for them as stated in Ezekiel 39. No Hollywood film can capture the horror of this.

None of this will happen until the Lord comes to take his Church away, which is popularly called “the Rapture” from a term meaning “to snatch” in 2 Thessalonians. No Christian believer will have to go through the Tribulation.

I’m glad that I won’t be there to see the invasion and the results of it. Those last three prophecies alone are chilling. I’m not looking forward to writing about it, should the Lord have me continue to write my book series— one must visualize a scene before writing about it. These won't be pleasant work, to say the least. The greatest irony is that, before I read Revelation for the first time in 1992, I didn’t even believe in the Rapture, thinking that “prophecy nuts” were at best a harmless curiosity.

Want to miss out on the violent and gruesome events mentioned above? Be granted new life by accepting God’s free gift of Salvation. It’s called being Saved. How do you do that? Your local Calvary Chapel and other churches can tell you how. Ask the Lord to guide you to the right place and to show you that He’s real. Billy Graham Ministries ( Billygraham.org ) and Campus Crusade ( www.ccci.org ) have links right on their home pages to internal pages with instructions on how how Jesus Christ can save you. “How to Know Jesus” and “How to Know God”, respectively.

God bless America. God bless Israel.