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KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES
"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of
God..."
FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE
Part 186
THE BATTLE
AT ARMAGEDDON
(continued)
“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” (Rev. 16:13-14).
“And
I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as
it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all
the earth” (Rev. 5:6).
You
will understand a great mystery when you see that in the book of Revelation we
are shown two sets of spirits which
are sent forth into the same areas and seek to control the same territory — the
“seven spirits of God” and the “three spirits of devils”! Right here lies the cause of the great battle
within! The seven spirits of God signify
the fullness of the spirit of the Lord raised
up within God’s people. This seven-fold
spirit is raised up to subdue, reconcile, and redeem the whole man — spirit,
soul, and body. Thus we read that the
seven spirits are “sent forth into all
the earth” — truly into all the earth that we are, as well as into
all the earth-realm where the Lord’s people dwell!
But
now there is another spirit — three unclean spirits like frogs — and this
three-fold spirit is likewise sent forth “unto
the kings of the earth and of the whole world.”
This three-fold unclean spirit seeks to dominate and
control the same territory of our lives where the seven-fold holy spirit
has come to live and reign. The message
is clear — WAR is about to break
out in the “earth” of God! These spirits
“go forth unto the kings (inner dominions) of the earth (carnal Christians) and
of the whole world (of our beings), TO GATHER THEM TO THE BATTLE OF THAT GREAT DAY OF GOD
ALMIGHTY!” Can you not see the
mystery? The seven-fold spirit (of the
perfection of God) comes into active conflict with the three-fold spirit
(complete power of the flesh, the world, and the devil) of man’s carnal,
natural life. This three-fold spirit may
also be characterized as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life, for these spirits go forth unto the “whole world,” and the
apostle John informs us that “ALL
THAT IS IN THE WORLD IS the lust of
the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life!”
There
are three things: (1) The lust of the flesh (2) The lust of the eyes (3) The pride of life.
That’s
all there is in the WHOLE WORLD!
Those
three are what “THE WORLD” consists of!
Therefore,
the “kings” of the “whole world” signify the ruling principles and powers of
fleshly desire that influence, dominate, and control the natural and soulical
religious life of man! We need to note
that Armageddon is a battle among kings.
The spirits of devils go forth unto “the kings” of the earth-realm and
of the whole world — and that is the end of those kings!
Can
we not see by this that the battle is between the flesh and the spirit, for
Paul tells us
plainly that “The flesh wareth against
the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to
the other…” (Gal. 5:17). Right there, my
friend, you have your battleground — ARMAGEDDON!
So,
you say — I would never
be deceived by the doctrines of the three frogs going forth to gather the kings
of the earth. Don’t be too sure! If you still have kings in YOUR earth, or
flesh life, kings of pride, jealousy, resentment, criticism, condemnation,
judging, presumptuousness, desire for recognition, authority or control, carnal
reasonings, vain imaginations, doubts, false doctrines, fears, anger,
frustration, lusts, worldliness, or any one of a hundred more, somewhere deep within you are
hearing the croaking of the three ugly frogs and there is that within you which
leads to turmoil and conflict. So many
people are caught up in viewing Armageddon as an external battle between
nations that they completely overlook the possibility of these kings actually
existing in their very own flesh life.
There
have been within all of us many usurping kings, possessed of the bestial spirit of
this world, who are very subtle, very
powerful warriors, and very acute disputants.
Each of us is like a huge, elaborate palace just full of these
kings! Beloved! Examine yourself — do you not find this to be
true? What mighty, powerful, persuasive,
unwearied rulerships and dominions exercise their authorities within the courts
of our bodies and souls, what strange, strong, and subtle reasonings are
there? Insomuch that the old Adamic man carries all
before him, and these lusts, these desires, these emotions, these imaginations,
these habits, these religious inclinations, these selfish and self-serving
tendencies, these ruling kings of flesh bear away the day of it, and tread down
all that stands in their way; by their false logic, their cunning sophistry,
and their powerful affection they ride rough-shod over the voice of the spirit,
over the word of God, over the ways of righteousness, and right over the
revealed will of the Lord. And this you
know is, and has been of old, and shall be, my beloved, until Jesus Christ be
revealed, until He be pleased, with His almighty power to arise within the soul
and command obedience, and that He will now manifest Himself, and comes forth
with regal, conquering power, else our lusts and thoughts and emotions make
such a noise, such a blustering, such a clamoring in the soul until Christ
cannot be heard. But when the King of kings commands all the kings to gather on the field of battle He marches
forth to command them all, to put them all to silence, answering, convicting,
and banishing every fleshly lust and every soulical sentiment, with every
vestige of self-will, and then great Babylon falls, the captivity of the spirit is
ended, and then His kingdom comes in great power and glory, and He reigns in
soul and body, becoming the King of the life!
Great is the mystery!
With
keen spiritual insight Ray Prinzing wrote: “How we desire that He REIGN IN US until every
fragment of that which would rise up against the truth is subdued, until every
desire in us is wholly purified, until every root that would defile us has been
burned out — yes, until He shall have thoroughly dealt with all of our ‘internal enemies.’ It is not the man on the street, the
raging nations around us, but our own INTERNAL REALM that needs to be fully
subdued. The kings within us that war against His will. Yes, until we are brought to that place where
we can say with Jesus our Lord, ‘the
prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me’ (Jn. 14:30). Praise God!
Then He shall be able to look upon us, and declare — not just from a
prophetic point of view, but from our experiential position in Him, ‘He hath not beheld iniquity in this
vessel.’
“We
read that, ‘There was long war between the house of Saul and
the house of David: but David waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of
Saul waxed weaker and weaker’ (II Sam. 3:1). David
prefigures in type the spiritual man of the new creation within; while all the
kings, and the house of Saul, stand in type for the carnal realm of the
flesh. ‘The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the
flesh: for these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the
things ye would’ (Gal. 5:17). There
has been a long war within us, but, praise God, the Christ life waxes
stronger and stronger, to overcome the carnal nature and bring it to an end.
“Another
example of a long war — ‘Joshua made war a long time with all those
kings. There was not a city that made
peace with the children of Israel,
save the Hivites the inhabitants of Gibeon:
all other they took in battle. For it
was of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel
in battle, that he might destroy them…’ (Josh.
11:18-20). Significant that as Joshua,
and the warriors of Israel,
came up to a city, instead of that city seeking a peaceful surrender, THE LORD
WOULD HARDEN THEIR HEARTS, they would insist on doing battle, and would be
destroyed. I have experienced betimes
that God will harden ‘a king’ within
us, our own self-will crystallizes into a firm rebellion, that He might draw
out that which is within us, until He has purged us, and IS LORD OF ALL
WITHIN. All of this serves as a parable
for our spiritual walk with God. It’s
amazing the ‘nations’ and the ‘kings’ that have been resident in us, which He
now draws out into the battle, to conquer.
For, WE BECOME OVERCOMERS IN CHRIST TO THE DEGREE THAT WE ARE OVERCOME
BY CHRIST. Thank God, ‘In the days of
these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed…it shall break in pieces and consume all these
kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever’ (Dan. 2:44).
“There
are those who search the newspapers to see how the kings of earth are lining
up, and how ‘they think’ prophecy is being fulfilled. But there is an internal working that
transcends all of that, and it is this war within us. The kings of self, the passions and
lusts of the flesh, the rudiments of the old Adamic nature — all of these must be dealt
with by His cross. Paul wrote of this
internal warfare, ‘O wretched man that I
am! who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord’ (Rom.
7:24-25). And HE, THE SON, ‘must reign, till He hath put all enemies
under His feet’ (I Cor. 15:25). Yes,
there will be a universal fulfillment of this!
The outreaches thereof stagger the imagination. But there is also an individual inworking, as He now wages this
long war in us, riding within, ‘conquering
and to conquer’ (Rev. 6:2). Praise
God, the victory is HIS, reigning supreme until He is Lord of all within
us!” — end quote.
Concerning
these hidden, internal kings the Lord says in type and shadow: “Moreover the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them, until they
that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed. Thou shalt not be frightened of them: for the
Lord thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible. And the Lord thy God will put out those
nations before thee…the Lord thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy
them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed. And He shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou
shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to
stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them” (Deut. 7:20-24).
Have
you ever been attacked by a hornet? If a
fly buzzes around we may get annoyed but we usually just swat at it to chase it
away. But it only takes one hornet to
get us stirred up and running! Well, in
the spiritual meaning of the word, the Lord says He will send the hornet among
us until all the kings that are left in our lives, and have hidden themselves
from us, run right out into the open and are destroyed. It is my conviction that these hornets
portray the same great truth and serve the same divine purpose as the “three
unclean spirits like frogs” 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! Oh, yes, these hornets, these spirits, will
stir these kings out of their hiding places!
These stirrings will cause fiery trials in the lives of the Lord’s
people, and great commotions of battle.
Every child of God will be touched in depths within their beings which
before were unknown to them. They will
feel that they are being torn asunder and the pain and anguish will be
great. It is difficult to imagine how
much pain there will be when the hornets begin to stir the kings out of their
hiding places! “War is hell!” it has
been said.
Why
is such a drastic dealing necessary?
Because God is dealing with man’s self-life, man’s fleshly nature and
ways, man’s Babylonian
religiosity, and man’s utter deception and delusion. He is striking at the root of our desires,
our opinions, our pride, and our self-confidence and self-will. Have your “kings” been stirred by hornets
lately? If you have received the call to
sonship to God, then whatever is hidden within your being is going to be
stirred in this great and terrible day of the Lord! God will expose the kings that rule in your
land so that you can see them. When the
hornet stings they will rush out into the open, into plain manifestation! The battle, my beloved, is for the
identifying of these kings so that you can see them, recognize them for what
they are, and destroy them from your life.
At this battle of the great day of God Almighty the Lord has ordered the
slaying and destruction of all that would rise up against the truth
and against the righteousness of HIS KINGDOM WITHIN!
More
than a hundred years ago Harry Emerson Fosdick penned these perceptive and
inspired words: “Prayer is a
battlefield. When a man, hungering
and thirsting after righteousness, calls God into alliance, he does so because
he has a fight on his hands. He may have
set his heart in dominant desire on godliness, but that desire meets enemies
that must be beaten. ‘No man ever became
a saint in his sleep.’ From without, the
influences of the world assail his best ambitions; from within, the perverse
inclinations of his own heart make war on his right resolutions. A fight is on in every aspiring life. Sometimes like the captain of a ship in
mid-sea with a tempest
raging and his own crew in rebellion, a man must at once steady his course amid
outward temptations, and hold a pointed pistol at the head of his own mutinous
desires. No one in earnest about
godliness has ever succeeded in describing the achievement of godliness except
in terms of a fight! ‘The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and
the spirit against the flesh,’ says Paul. ‘I buffet my body, and bring it into
bondage.’
“In
this spiritual battle, as in every other, the
decisive part of the engagement is not public and ostentatious; it is in
secret. Long before the armies clash
in the open field, there has been a conflict in the general’s office, where pro
met con, and the determinations were reached that controlled each movement of
the outward war. Even in law, ‘Cases are
won in
chambers.’ So, in the achievement of
divine nature and spiritual character there is a hidden battlefield on which
the decisive conflicts of the kingdom
of God
are waged. Behind the Master’s public
ministry, through which He moved with such amazing steadfastness, not to be
deflected by bribes, nor halted by fear of man or devil, nor discouraged by
weariness, lay the battles in the wilderness where He fought out in fasting and
prayer the controlling principles of His life.
Behind His patience in Pilate’s Court, and His fidelity on Calvary, lay the battle in Gethsemane,
where the whole problem was fought through and the issue settled before the
face of God. All public consequences go
back to secret conflicts. Napoleon sat
for hours in silent thought before he ordered the Russian Campaign. Washington,
praying at Valley Forge, was settling
questions on which the independence of his
country hung. We are deceived by the
garish stage-settings of big scenes in history.
The really great scenes are rarely evident. The
decisive battles of the world are hidden, and all the outward conflicts are but
the echo and reverberation of that more
real and inward war.
“George
Adam Smith suggested that no one had so frankly revealed the use of prayer as a
battlefield for the conquest of the soul
as ‘Chinese’ Gordon. A search of his letters
to his sister reveals the truth of this.
‘I can say for my part,’ writes Gordon, ‘that backbiting and envy were
my delight,
and even now often lead me astray, but by dint of perseverance in prayer, God
has given me the mastery to a great degree. I did not wish to give it up, so I besought Him to put that wish within me;
He did so, and then I had the promise of His fulfillment.’ Even more vividly does Gordon put his use of
prayer when he speaks of Agag — his
figure for his own selfish ambitions and pride: ‘My constant prayer is against
Agag, who, of course, is here, and as insinuating as ever — I had a terrible
struggle this morning with Agag — I had a terrible half-hour this morning,
hewing Agag in pieces before the Lord.’
“Who
can fail to see
what Gordon meant? Some impurity was in
him and he hauled it before the face of God and slew it there; some selfish
ambition, counter to the will of God, he dragged up into the light and hewed in
pieces before the Lord. Day by day he
returned to cast down unholy passions and selfish aims and to confirm every
true ambition of the spirit in the sight of God. The very fountains of his life, the springs
from which all action comes, were cleansed.
He obtained the victory!” — end
quote.
ARMAGEDDON!
“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” (Rev. 16:14-16).
God’s
people are still prone to think with carnal
minds. When they read in the
prophecies of the Bible about the gathering
of kings unto battle, and the fighting of great wars, immediately their
attention is focused on world events rather
than on the things of God. This fallacy-ridden practice has given
rise to what has been rightly termed “newspaper eschatology” — studying current
events in the arena of “this present
evil world” rather than searching the mind of the Spirit for the wisdom and understanding
God gives of the true thing He is
doing in the earth by His Spirit! The work of God is not currently outside of
us, not out there in the world of darkness with all of its plans and efforts
and shamefully fleshly activities and wicked schemes. The work of God is within His people! “For it
is God which worketh in you both to
will and to do of His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). Sons of God do not derive their theology from
the newspapers nor the television news casts. What you read and hear there is not what God is doing! Nor is it what God is talking about! That is
not where God’s work is seen! Nor is
that what God is concerned with! The
Holy Spirit of God has not come within us to show us what the world system is
up to — He has come to “take the things
of Christ and show them unto us!”
When
the Holy Spirit gives us revelation it is not to bless us with juicy tidbits of
information about the intentions, activities and movements of the government or
military machine of the United States, Russia,
Iraq, Iran, Israel, the European Union, Al
Queda, the Taliban, or any other of the nations of earth or national and world
leaders! Let us seek to abandon all such side issues and seek
diligently to concentrate
on Christ and spiritual things!
Those who will possess the mind of Christ will find in Him the source and substance of all reality and the culmination
of all purpose. We hear a great deal
today about many wonderful things. As we
draw nearer to the manifestation of the sons of God, and the full light of
God’s new day sends its illuminating rays upon our waiting souls, there will be
an ever-increasing flood of light and revelation. This we must certainly expect and accept, for
every new day brings new things, and new dispensations are sent to flood the
world with greater light and greater experience in God. But the “new things” are God’s things — not the world’s things! The “things that must shortly come to pass”
are spiritual things, divine things,
heavenly things, supernatural things — not the things of the world, the
flesh, and the devil! “As it is written,
Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man,
the things that God hath prepared for
them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His
Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (I Cor.
2:9-10). The spirit within us is not
searching out the intentions and movements of Russia,
China, Israel, or Europe
— oh, no! His revelation to John the
beloved — and to you and me, my friend — concerns the DEEP THINGS OF GOD! Isn’t it wonderful! ii
The
book of Revelation is a message from heaven about something that is taking
place which cannot be seen except in the
spirit, and by revelation. It is an apocalypse. It’s not what
men call an apocalypse, as though somehow the destruction of the world would
make it a better place. As though millions of people running in fear for their
lives from giant scorpions and swarming locusts out of the abyss, crouching in
fear from one-hundred pound hailstones falling out of the sky, drinking the blood
of dead men from their faucets, being burned to a crisp by the heat of the sun,
one-third of the human race being blown into eternity by atomic warfare — as
though all this and many more unspeakable horrors are somehow an appropriate climax
to this great story of the Bible. Such
crude, perverted ideas are so very sad!
They are so disgustingly sadistic!
It is remarkable, to say the least, that literal events such as these, should be represented by supposedly
spiritual men as THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST! Such distorted “logic” reminds me of the little
story I heard some years ago which went like this — One bright day in the
middle of the night two dead soldiers got up to fight. Back to back they faced each other, drew
their swords and shot one another. If
you don’t believe this story is true, ask the blind man — he saw it too!
Get
beyond the outer, natural, carnal understanding, my beloved brethren, and look
into the spirit, into the heart of our heavenly Father, and see that the
revelation of Jesus Christ is not something you can see with the natural eye or
touch with physical hands, for it must be revealed in you. Paul
understood this when he wrote, “…it pleased God, who separated me
from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me” (Gal.
1:15-16). If you can understand that
premise, that when John saw these scenes he was in the spirit, you will perceive the mystery of the Revelation, for
John beheld all these things from a spiritual
perspective.
There
are words and phrases, signs and symbols in the Revelation that have held and
still hold a place in Christian thought out of all proportion to their
importance to the overall vision John saw on Patmos. For some reason they stand out like snow-capped
peaks in a mountain range. Barrels of
midnight oil have been burned by zealous students trying to unravel the riddle
of “666,” “Antichrist,” “Armageddon,” or the “Millennium.” Not because of the over-riding importance of
these things in the visions of the Revelation, but because of their prominence
in Christian thought and current literature they merit special attention as we
pass through the mysteries of this book.
The fact is, the term “Antichrist” is altogether foreign to the book of
Revelation — it never
appears anywhere, not even once! And yet
we constantly hear from preachers things about a supposed “Antichrist” in the
book of Revelation! And “Armageddon”
appears only one time in the whole book, here in our present text.
The term “Armageddon” awakens in many minds a kind of superstitious
dread of some awful crisis, they hardly know what, but a dreadful day that will
make all other crises in history pale into insignificance.
This
line of thought is expressed so vividly in a letter I received from a dear
sister some years ago. She wrote: “I
read the article you sent me. I must say
that I am dumbfounded, amazed, speechless, blown-away
or any other word that you can find that describes my utter shock. I’ve never
heard anything like it before in my life!
I must say that I am a product of conventional Christianity. All of my conceptions of end-time events
leave me absolutely frozen with fear. I
saw David Wilkerson’s movie of his end-time revelation when I was 10. I have been living with this kind of death
threat hanging over my head all these years.
I become absolutely terrified when contemplating the end. I envision an Orwellian Big Brother world
laced with famine, disease, crime, untold suffering, and people being martyred
for their Christian faith. My heart
almost fails me for fear! But this is
what I have been taught. I only hope it
is not true. If your article is any indication then I
believe that you probably have an entirely different outlook on things. I have often questioned God and asked Him why
did He choose for me to live in this time when there
is absolutely no hope. All is
bleakness. I have often asked would it
not have been better for me to have been a serf governed by a feudal overlord,
been an Irish peasant during 1845 and 46 when the potatoes rotted in the
field. Would I not have been better off
to have died in the Great Plague
of London in 1665, been
in Pompeii
when Vesuvius blew. Any of these fates
seem preferable to me than living through the end-time. I have wrung my hands in anguish asking God
why. But maybe there is hope. Your article seems to imply that there
is. Maybe everything I have heard is
just man’s carnal mind attempting to interpret the spiritual mind. I hope that is so! But if these things are to come to pass as I
have imagined them then I have asked the Lord to be merciful and let me and my
family die before they take place” — end
quote.
Today,
more than ever before, shelves of all our Christian bookstores are loaded with
new books on eschatology, the second coming of the Lord, the rapture of the
church, the coming antichrist, the great tribulation, the battle of Armageddon,
and the millennial kingdom. The names of
the authors of all these works differ as do their theories on end-time events. I am neither a news analyst, nor a
prognosticator of world events. Recently
I turned on the television and began to watch what appeared to be a regular
news broadcast. The announcer was armed
with statistics about the balance of power in the Middle
East, with very refined information about armies, missiles, and
nuclear weapons. I listened to him with
some interest, thinking I was listening to some kind of news analyst, until
after about ten minutes he said, “All of this agrees with prophecy,” and he
commenced to try to tie all of these pieces of news into the prophecies of the
Bible. Well, I don’t see that it was a
Bible lesson at all — it was newspaper
exegesis!
I
have no time to waste anymore even listening to such things. My time would be better spent watching “I
Love Lucy” — at least I would derive some humor and relaxation from it! I listened and read after such for many
years. I discovered their projections
and predictions never
come to pass. Their game-plan changes
with the years as technology advances and the world power-blocks shift with the
sands of history. It is all speculation,
based on a false premise, with faulty information, erroneous conclusions, and
outright lies. Such are ministers of delusion, deceiving God’s people. God has given them a working of delusion to
believe the lie. They know not the purpose
of God nor the outcome. They are taught
by the serpent, that man-instructing snake of Eden who traduces or translates
the scriptures for them, but gives them only dusty revelations and carnal
interpretations, for that is all the carnal mind can receive. And the greater mark of their error is that
there is NO LIFE IN THEM — as the letter quoted above reveals, there is only fear and
bondage.
Now
let us return to our subject of the battle at Armageddon. The book of Revelation is the fighting book
of the New Testament. In its brief twenty-two chapters the
words “to war” and “to make war” are used fifteen times! The words are found in all the rest of the
New Testament but fourteen times. It
reveals a great significance when we see that two hundred and thirty-eight New
Testament chapters use the words fourteen times, while twenty-two chapters of
the Revelation employ them fifteen times.
This certainly indicates
a purpose deeper than the mere incidents of literary expression. None of these words appear in the four Gospels or in the
Epistles of John. And yet the author of
the Epistles of John also wrote the book of Revelation! This certainly identifies the theme of the
Revelation as one of warfare! And once we know that “though we walk in the
flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down
imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ,” — once we understand the nature of this warfare as spiritual warfare all the carnal,
traditional interpretations of the book
of Revelation are turned upside-down!
Other
basic words in the vocabulary of conflict also appear in it. The two New Testament (Greek) words for
“sword” appear in the Revelation. Luke
is the only other writer to employ both of them. Omitting
duplications, the words for “sword” appear twenty times in all the rest of the
New Testament and eleven times in the Revelation. Two words for “chariot” are used in the New
Testament and both appear in the Revelation.
“Chief Captains,” who are military leaders, are mentioned twice in the
Revelation. The fighting Parthians tied
up the tails of their war horses in compact, pointed fashion until they looked
like serpents. In one of John’s visions
he sees in type just such a picture — two hundred million war horses with tails
like serpents charge across the stage of this drama. The shape of the locusts was said to be “like
horses prepared for war.” The sound of
their wings was like the sound of many horses and chariots rushing to war. But the greatest warrior of all in the book
of Revelation is none other than God’s Christ!
Surely no one thinks that HE makes war with tanks and guns and missiles
and bombs! “These shall make war with
the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome
them: for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with
Him are called, and chosen, and faithful” (Rev. 17:14). “And I
saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was
called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war” (Rev. 19:11).
What
one word most frequently describes a massive conflict ending in catastrophe? ARMAGEDDON! Students of theology have for generations
been gripped in their imagination by the word “Armageddon.” Many these days talk about that great “Battle of Armageddon”
which is mentioned only one time in the whole Bible! They suppose this to be the final “World War,” using the
customary instruments of warfare, which will some day pit God and all His
heavenly forces against Satan and all his evil hosts in a particular spot in
the land of Israel.
Most of us have been taught to view it as the war to end all wars. Some even view it as the end of the
world!
But
is Armageddon really a superpower confrontation? Is it a war between the United
States and Russia, or between Russia,
Europe, and Israel? Or some other such scenario? Statesmen, scientists, and generals have long
warned of a “nuclear Armageddon” that could annihilate mankind from the face of
the earth. Many believed that World War
I — and later World War II — would end with Armageddon. Some today believe that Armageddon will be
the last battle between the democratic nations and the communist block. But did you know that nowhere in the Bible — from Genesis to Revelation — is there any
mention of a “battle of Armageddon”? After all,
it’s only mentioned one time in the entire Bible!
“And he gathered them together into a place called… Armageddon.” We see here that Armageddon is
described as a place, not an event.
It is the place of gathering
in preparation for battle. But
that is not the name of the battle! It
is not the battle “of”
Armageddon, but “the battle
OF THE GREAT DAY OF GOD ALMIGHTY!” Oh, yes! It is GOD’S BATTLE — THE BATTLE OF GOD’S GREAT DAY! And that is how we can know that this is a SPIRITUAL
BATTLE!
To
be consistent, if one takes the reference to Armageddon literally, then he
ought also to take the reference to the three slick, slimy frogs
literally. Both references appear in the
same passage! Yet no one ever suggests
that there will be three creatures resembling frogs literally going about over
the earth, landing at airports, conferring with the heads of state of many
nations, seeking allies and recruits for this battle. In order to follow the path of consistency as
witnessed again and again throughout the book of Revelation, we must look upon
this reference to Armageddon as symbolic imagery, as with the reference to
frogs. These are not descriptions of
national and world events, but of the outworkings of the mighty spiritual
purposes of God!
The
word Armageddon, as pointed out, appears but once in scripture. People
often pick out other scripture passages and claim that they refer to this
“battle of Armageddon,” but that is unwarranted and without any evidence or
foundation whatever. Armageddon means merely “the mount of Megiddo” — that is, the fortified hill of Megiddo. In olden times many a battle was fought near
the ancient city of Megiddo. When the people of Israel
heard that an enemy was approaching from the east, they tried to reach Megiddo first. Whoever held the city held command of the
mountain pass of Megiddo
and had a better opportunity to win the battle.
The University of Chicago
many years ago excavated the mound of Megiddo. There is evidence that the city antedated the
time of Abraham. The word meged from which part of the word Megiddo is derived means, among other things, “a fruitful
place” or “pleasant things” and the city of Armageddon
(the fortified Megiddo)
was in this way associated with the fruits of victory. Another aspect of its meaning is “rendezvous”
from a root indicating
a “pressing in” or “assembling.” It was the place of
the assembling of armies, and thus the Spirit says of Armageddon, “And he gathered
them (the kings of the earth and of the whole world) together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.”
Thus,
in Armageddon we see both the positive and negative aspects. It is a gathering
together unto slaughter on the one hand, and victory and glory on the other
hand. It is death and life. It is defeat and triumph. It is the DAY OF THE LORD! It is the GREAT DAY OF GOD ALMIGHTY! Not the day of the beast, not the day of the
Antichrist, not the day of Satan, not the day of the flesh, not the day of
world, or of sin, darkness, and death.
But beloved, this is the long-awaited day when the LORD arises upon His
people and HIS GLORY IS SEEN. It is the
day when the dragon in the sea is slain, when the false prophet is cast into
the lake of fire, when the great city Babylon
falls to rise no more, when deception, struggle, sorrow, sighing, sin, darkness,
and death all pass away and Christ becomes all-in-all! Oh, yes!
Jesus
has already passed His Armageddon! He
passed it when in the garden, in agony of soul, sweating great drops of blood,
He said, “Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my
will, but Thine be done” (Lk. 22:42). He
passed through His darkest hour of battle and arose on the other side victorious
over death, hell, and the grave!
“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also
Himself took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14). “And having spoiled principalities and
powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in
it” (Col.
2:15). “That ye may know…the mighty
power which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him
at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and
power and might, and dominion, and every name that is named…and hath PUT ALL
THINGS UNDER HIS FEET” (Eph. 1:18-21).
Christ
met all the forces of sin and evil on His own personal battlefield of
Armageddon. And Christ is VICTOR! He REIGNS — NOW! He has already overcome EVERY ENEMY! He has conquered them. They are all already under His feet. They have no more power over Him! He is above them all. Jesus doesn’t get sick, because He overcame
all sickness. He can’t die anymore, for
He arose victor over death. He can’t
sin, for He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. Satan has no power over Him for Jesus has
already had His “bout” with Satan and now holds the Universal Championship over
him! He overcame the world. He overcame the flesh. He overcame the devils. He met the kings of the earth and of the
whole world and conquered them all. He
spoiled principalities and powers and mights and dominions. Oh, yes, my friend, THAT IS ARMAGEDDON! Jesus doesn’t have any more battles to fight,
any more enemies to subjugate, for the last enemy that anyone, anywhere, ever
has to destroy is death and He has already conquered His LAST ENEMY! An Armageddon for Jesus? There won’t be any, for His is already
past. He has entered His kingdom,
possessed His possessions, and now reigns over all in the higher than all
heavens. Hallelujah to the Lamb!
The
Armageddon in chapter sixteen of the Revelation is not for Jesus. It is for all those whom Jesus invites to
come and experientially share His victory. It is for us and it is for all of
God’s precious people. It is first of
all for that “firstfruit company” of overcomers who are first to follow the
Lamb all the way and stand with Him
upon the holy hill of Zion, redeemed from the earth, from earthiness, from the
soulical and religious, with no guile or deceitful doctrines in their mouths,
the glorious mind of the Father impressed upon their foreheads, singing that
song that only those can learn who stand with Christ under the open
heavens. These are the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb. These are the first, after Jesus, to experientially appropriate the fullness of
HIS DIVINE LIFE, NATURE, AND VICTORY! There must be a people that accomplishes
this. The book of Revelation reveals the outworking
of it. This victory shall eventually be
ministered to all the Lord’s people and finally to all the peoples of the
earth. But it involves a battle. All the way. There is never any victory without a battle! And in our text
it is particularly the Lord’s people who have long been held in the bondage of
religious Babylon
— unto whom the battle comes!
The
magnitude of the victory is determined by the magnitude of the battle. The greatest battle shall give way to the
greatest victory. Be not alarmed, child
of God, if the battles are becoming fiercer, hotter, for this is the day of the Lord! The battle of the great day of God is upon
us! Armageddon is here! And this great day of the Lord is described
first of all as “a day of darkness and
gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness” (Joel 2:2). Ah, yes, Gethsemane! Travail.
Sweat. Blood. Tears.
Prayers. Sorrow. Struggle.
Death. But, thank God, the
prophet continues, “as the morning spread
upon the mountains: a great people and a
strong; there hath not been ever the like…and the Lord shall utter His voice
before His army: for His camp is very
great: for He is strong that executeth His word: for the day of the Lord is
great and very terrible; who can abide it?”
Armageddon
is the most exciting battle in all the word of God! There must come a time when the truth is revealed to us
that Armageddon is not a battle fought in the so-called Holy Land in the Middle East. Well,
it’s a lot closer than that! Rather it
is a battle fought within that Holy Land which we are. God’s people have been so duped with religious
junk food that they have missed the whole point. It’s when this stronghold of our
earth-life gets attacked by all the power of God to conquer God’s people and
make them what He has redeemed them to be!
What a gathering it is when we are gathered to our Armageddon! Hear now what the scripture says about this
gathering. “And He gathered them into…” not a place, as we have it in the King James Bible, but “into the
place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” There is the definite article in the
Greek which designates it as the place of Armageddon. Furthermore, the word place is the Greek word
topos from which we get our English
word topography. The Holy Spirit
anointed John to write it exactly that way because in the natural there is no
such topographical place called “Armageddon.”
So what is the Lord saying here?
He’s speaking a spiritual language to cause us to understand that those
unclean spirits like frogs that God’s people have listened to through unclean
doctrine have lifted up a mountain, which is a man-made kingdom and God is
making war against every man-made mountain and stronghold and He’s going to
abase it and destroy it in what He spiritually calls Armageddon, the mount of
Megiddo. For that is the place where God
in the Old Testament judged the enemies of Israel when they walked in obedience
to Him, and He in turn judged Israel there for their transgression and
idolatry. So God today is raising up an
army of sons of God to administer the word and dealings of God, making war
against the stronghold of the mountain or kingdom of the flesh. It doesn’t exist geographically. But there is a huge mountain of Babylon that God
is erasing! Great is the mystery!
In
closing, let us remember and be instructed by the following facts. The Bible nowhere identifies a specific place
bearing the name Armageddon. The name
does not appear in any ancient geographical or historical writing. The Armageddon of the Revelation has no
location on the geographical map of the world.
The place of Armageddon is nowhere, and it is everywhere. Furthermore, the term “Battle of Armageddon” is not used in reference to the place;
rather, it is called the “battle of
the great day of God Almighty.” So much
more than simply a geographical location is meant! Symbolically, as a PLACE of assemblage,
Armageddon represents an array of circumstances,
a state of affairs; it typifies a condition that exists within the life of
every child of God, which also will be extant throughout the whole church world
as God moves to bring the destruction of Babylon. That battlefield is in all the people of God in the world, and it
is also deep in the soul of each man.
Some of us today may be in the midst of our Armageddon. The field of battle has been in progress
throughout the ages, but in the purpose of God and by the power of God it moves
toward a final climax and culmination.
John in vision sees the consummation of the conflict and calls it
Armageddon.
We
find that the kings of the earth are gathered
together at this Armageddon, but the battle is not said to be fought in the Middle East with horses, tanks, soldiers, swords, guns,
airplanes, missiles,
or bombs. The battle is against the
authority, way, and will of God, and it is the BATTLE OF GOD’S GREAT DAY! God doesn’t fight His battles with carnal
weapons, God only fights with the sword
of the spirit which is the (living) word of God! And the weapons of our warfare are not carnal either,
but are “MIGHTY THROUGH GOD!” For
indeed, “We wrestle not against flesh and
blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). Let us read this from the Amplified Bible: “For we are not wrestling with flesh and
blood — contending only with physical opponents — but against the despotisms,
against the powers, against the master
spirits who are the world rulers of this present darkness, against the
spirit forces of wickedness in the
heavenly sphere.” The Phillips
translation says, “For our fight is not
against any physical enemy: it is against
organizations and powers that are spiritual.”
In the
light of the history of man for the past 6,000 years, with its endless struggle
and conflict against evil and wickedness, “The Great Day of God Almighty”
signifies the climax of that struggle in men’s lives, in which the powers of
sin, the satanic realm, and death are completely and permanently broken. The thing that makes that day “great” is not
the battle! The battle simply ushers in
the “great day.” When God finishes and
consummates all His redemptive and restorative work in His people, raising up
in the earth the man in the image and likeness of
God — WHAT A GREAT DAY THAT IS!
Armageddon
is a spiritual battle, an on-going campaign between the forces of the world,
the flesh, and the devil, and the forces of Christ and His kingdom rule
within. It’s a battle between the old
man and the new man, between the idols of the soul and the living reality of
Christ in the spirit. The chief
battleground is the mind. This is the
battle in which the light of the Spirit meets the darkness of the carnal
mind. This is a battle against the kings
of carnality and flesh, a battle waged by the pure, holy nature of the
Lamb. This is the battle of the great
day of God Almighty! And only God’s
“almightiness” can win this battle! There
is a tremendous struggle within our consciousness, within our experience,
within our state of being. Armageddon is
both an individual and corporate process.
It affects the world within us as well as the outer world we walk
in. This is the battle of the power of
the kingdom of God
in the manifest sons of God against the entrenched kings of the earth, the
rulers of the darkness of this present world, including the religious
leaders. The glory of Christ risen as
the noonday sun upon the body of Christ is the atomic weapon that destroys the
adversaries!
Many
who study this glorious Revelation are more interested in finding possible
references to modern implements of war — tanks, airplanes, missiles, lasers, and nuclear weapons — than in discovering the
deep inworkings and mighty dealings of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those
who are becoming God’s Christ. According
to John’s own witness, “The testimony of Jesus
is the spirit of this prophecy!” To ignore Jesus in favor of a war in Israel
or atomic blasts is a perversion of the spirit of Truth. It is a prophecy
to the church — God’s called out
elect! As a prophecy, it is to the
Lord’s spiritual people, the body of Christ, the
ransomed of the Lord! There is not a chance that the apostle
John, standing in the blinding glory of Christ’s majestic presence, would have
thought it important to prophesy about Cobra helicopters, space shuttles,
computers, laser tattoos, or a war on the plains of Megiddo. Nor would he have been interested in
foretelling to the saints of that day about the future of the United States
of America, Russia,
China,
the Moslem nations, or the European Community.
Not that such things are not important on some level, but the sons of
God are concerned with God’s SPIRITUAL MOVEMENT in relation to the nations, not
the carnal warfare of man’s invention!
The Revelation is concerned with matters of far greater importance and
consequences than satisfying our curiosity about the future of communism, the
western nations, Islam, terrorism, or the Illuminati.
It was written to show us what
the Father has done and shall do to save and transform His people, to glorify
Himself through His sons, and to deliver
and restore all creation unto Himself!
You will not read the fulfillment of its
prophecies on the pages of Time magazine,
Newsweek, or USA Today, but you will see them manifest
in the lives of men and women! The word
of the Lord in its spiritual meaning does not describe for us the carnal
warfare between nations. For what have
wars between nations to do with the kingdom
of God? The kingdom of God
does not come by the sword nor as a result of it, so of what importance in the
outworking of God’s kingdom on earth are the conflicts between nations and
empires? They have no meaning
whatsoever! The weapons of our warfare
are not carnal, but are mighty through God! The battles beheld in spirit by the
eagle-eyed seer of Patmos signify spiritual
combats, combats between light and darkness, between spirit and flesh, between
truth and error, between righteousness and unrighteousness, between the
precious mind of Christ and the vile carnal mind, between life and death. A man must experience this combat within
himself to become a spiritual conqueror and gain the crown of life! A war in the Middle East
has absolutely nothing to do with this!
Our Lord, in the days of His flesh, carried on such spiritual warfare in
an infinitely greater way than others, overcoming the compounded powers of the
world, the flesh, the devil — and finally death
itself! What a warfare! What a victory! How the mighty battles of the Roman Empire pale in contrast with this! The first and second World
Wars accomplished essentially nothing for humanity compared
with what Jesus won! He has opened up
the way to victory and triumph over every enemy of sin, sorrow, limitation, and
death for all who are willing to follow Him into the power of the kingdom of God! Our Lord is a spiritual conqueror! And the
book of Revelation is addressed to “him
that overcometh!” That is a military
term! “Him that overcometh” does so at
ARMAGEDDON! That should settle in every
heart what kind of warfare the book presents!
Brother Paul Mueller hit
the nail squarely on the head when he wrote: “The truth is, the Adamic nature is
responsible for all the wars from the beginning of time. What the world needs is not another literal
war, but a spiritual war that will end all wars! God knows this better than we do! His omniscient wisdom is far superior to the ideas and
opinions of the religious theologians.
He has set forth a plan by which the present warfare, which we are now
engaged in, shall destroy the man of sin and bind Satan for the age. This is indeed
a war that shall end all wars and violence in the world for the duration of the
kingdom of God
on earth!”
Every
nation has had war and destruction. The
terrorist attacks on
our nation and on other nations in recent decades have been indeed horrible, yet not even to be compared to the
horrors visited upon Europe and Japan
in the Second World War. Great empires
have risen and fallen throughout history, and none of them heralded the end of
time. Plagues, pestilence, earthquakes,
storms, and disasters of many kinds have killed millions of people in hundreds
of nations and devastated whole civilizations, but none of them brought the end
of the world. All of those things have
been happening out there in the external world since the beginning of time, but
let me tell you, none of them have anything whatever to do with the coming of
the kingdom of God! Only the nature of the Father formed in His
elect, only the full measure of the stature of Christ formed in God’s New
Creation Man, only the power of God upon His people, only the glory of God in
His manifested sons, will bring the battle into the world that will overthrow
sin, strife, error, sickness, sorrow, and death within mankind, delivering
creation from the bondage of corruption and signaling the hour of
transition into the greater glory of the
kingdom of God upon the nations of
earth! Ah, ARMAGEDDON!
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Updated
by Sharon Eby 02/27/2015 04:06:08 PM