And he gathered them together into a place called........
Armageddon
Revelation 16 : 16
Armageddon - from the Hebrew har megiddo ("mount of Megiddo"), the location identified in the Book of Revelation as the venue for humanity's apocalyptic finale. The fields surrounding the ancient city of Megiddo are a battlefield upon which God's chosen people have fought many times before.
Megiddo is one of the oldest continuously occupied archaeological sites in the world. Strategically positioned at the crossroads between the great civilizations which would arise to the east and west, Megiddo's commanding location and fortifications allowed it's inhabitants to exercise control over the important trade route which linked Egypt to Syria and Mesopotamia.Located on a strongly fortified hilltop overlooking the south-western edge of the plain of Esdraelon, about 9 miles west of modern Jezreel, Israel, the city has been destroyed and rebuilt at least six times.
The earliest documented battle in history occurred near Megiddo in the 15th century B.C. The Egyptians, led by the "Napoleon of the Nile", Pharaoh Tuthmosis III, defeated a confederation of rebellious Canaanite kings and besieged the city until it yielded and agreed to pay tribute. Around the 13th century BC after Moses had led the Israelites out of Egypt, the chosen people began battling the Philistines, Egyptians and Assyrians for control of the land that had been promised by God to their ancestors.
The Israelite Conquest
The Broken Covenant
Book of Revelation
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Further Resources
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The Israelite Conquest
Joshua killed the king of Megiddo, then a royal city of the Canaanites, during the Israelite conquest of the Canaan. Control over the city of Megiddo and its lucrative trade revenues was granted to the tribe of Manasseh, although the city itself would not be conquered until it was overrun and sacked by the armies of David. By the beginning of the first millennium BC the Israelites had completely triumphed and the tribes divided the Canaan into the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah.
Another Israelite victory occurred when Barak and the prophetess Deborah rallied the warriors of the northern tribes and led the Israelites to victory over the resurgent Canaanite armies of Sisera by "the waters of Megiddo". But one of the most demoralizing defeats for God's chosen people, the death of the great religious reformer King Josiah, also took place at Megiddo shortly before God's wrathful punishment of the Jews with the Diaspora.
The Broken Covenant
In the mid-6th century BC the Assyrian empire conquered the northern Kingdom of Israel and sent the ten northern Israelite tribes into slavery and exile. The southern Kingdom of Judah pledged to pay tribute and taxes to the Assyrians to avoid the same fate. The Judeans observance of the laws that had been given to Moses rapidly began to dissolve. Josiah's grandfather King Manasseh and his father King Amon were required to worship the Assyrian gods and to allow a revival of the same idolatrous cults that Moses had faced almost 600 years before. Josiah was eight years old when he was crowned King after his father was assassinated by his own servants.
It was during Josiah's reign that Deuteronomy, the books of Moses and the Exodus, were "discovered" while the Temple was being renovated. As King Josiah matured into manhood he had a growing realization that the Israelites had broken their Covenant with God. Fearing God's wrath for the Israelite betrayal of the Covenant, he became committed to the official reestablishment of the Law of Moses and the eradication of idolatry. Josiah declared independence from the weakening Assyrian empire, which was distracted fighting a prolonged and ultimately losing war against the Babylonians.
Despite the return of Judah to the doctrine of Moses, the prophetess Huldah foretold to King Josiah her vision of God's planned revenge for the breaking of the Covenant - the total destruction of both the Kingdom and the two remaining Israelite tribes. In 607 B.C., King Josiah led his troops to Megiddo to confront the army of Pharaoh Nechoh II of Egypt and prevent it from reinforcing the Assyrian empire in an allied effort against the Babylonians. The archers of Pharaoh Nechoh's army fatally wounded the reformist King. He died at Hadadrimmon, a few miles south of Megiddo.
Within the next twenty years the same Babylonian empire that Josiah's action indirectly aided would fulfill God's promise of retribution against the Israelites. Around 586 BC the Babylonians sacked the holy city of Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple. The prophet Jeremiah led many in fleeing to Egypt. The Babylonians sent all of the captured Judean nobility, craftsmen, and merchants into exile. The Israelites would not control their promised land again for over 2500 years.
The Book of Revelation, written in the first century after the death of Christ, contains the prophecy of Saint John the Divine about "the things which shall be hereafter" and the apocalyptic events leading up to the Judgment Day. Revelation promises that in the face of the defeat of God's saints at Armageddon by the combined military forces of the East, South, and North, Jesus will return to defeat His enemies and deliver His people. The wrath of God promises to be exceedingly dreadful for the non-Christian world. Numerous catastrophic disasters will be inflicted upon the heathen world's population for their disobedience of God's laws. Billions of people are fated to die horribly in these tribulations before the battle of Armageddon even begins.
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Apocalypse and Armageddon
The Apocalypse which will precede the Battle of Armageddon begins with the opening of the Book of Life, sealed with seven seals and containing the secret purposes and methods of Divine Providence - the counsels of God. The seals will be opened one after the other as the whole mystery of God's counsel and conduct is finished in the world. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse will appear as the first four seals of the Book are broken open. One quarter of the earth's population will be destroyed by the reign of war, famine, plague and death caused by these Four Horsemen.
The White Horseman heralds a time of false prophets and spiritual digression. This Horseman goes forth under the guise of Divine favour, and is destined to conquer much of humanity. His prophets and ministers, preaching on the worldwide scale now available with modern technology, will proclaim that the "end is near" and advocate a heretical gospel based on false premises and deception. Satan and his false ministers will rise to rule the world spiritually.
Rev 6:2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
The Red Horseman will have the power to take the peace from the earth. The world's leaders will appeal to their weapons of mass destruction, and entangled themselves in war. Recent advances such as the modern police state and intercontinental ballistic missiles carrying nuclear weapons will enable the sword of war carried by this blood-colored Horseman to bring the systematic persecution of all of the truly faithful and a judgment of a desolating worldwide war as men are set upon the task of killing one another.
Rev 6:4 And there went out another horse [that was] red: and [power] was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
The Black Horseman will bring disease, epidemics and famine to the whole world, allowing superstition and ignorance to spread in the resulting chaos. Darkness and woe will descend on the Christian world, the famine will be both physical and spiritual as God withholds mankind's daily bread for both the body and the soul. The corrupt upper classes controlling the world economy will prosper as the world's poor will be forced to pay excessive prices for the necessities of life.
Rev 6:6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and [see] thou hurt not the oil and the wine.
Death, the King of Terror, will arrive on a pale, corpse colored horse and bring great misery and utter devastation to the unbelievers and heretics. The very minions of Hell, the state of eternal misery, will follow this Pale Horseman to Earth and cast hundreds of millions of souls unprepared into the great Pit which leads directly to the bowels of Hell. One quarter of all humankind will perish as the power of God's wrath unleashed on the world by these Four Horseman.
Rev 6:8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
The fifth seal provides a brief respite from the punishments as God acknowledges the Martyrdom of the Saints before unleashing more of his wrathful revenge in the following Great Tribulation. God promises to avenge the martyr's precious suffering and hears their plea to pronounce judgment upon their earthly persecutors.
The sixth seal is opened and the whole of the Earth will be shaken by a great earthquake as God unleashes his righteous wrath. Few will be spared the horrors to come. The magnitude of this quake and the extent of the destruction it causes will be such as there will be no question that it was divinely inspired. All of mankind, even the rich and the strong and the brave, will tremble with dread and terror as a darkness descends around them.
As the seventh and last seal of the Book of Life is opened a Divine silence will descend upon the Earth. The Day of the Lord has arrived. The 144,000 servants of the Lord, 12,000 from each of the original twelve Israelite tribes, will be honored with a seal to protect them from the severe tribulations that will follow.
Seven angels will appear with seven trumpets and make ready to proclaim the judgments of God upon the earth and the seas, the waters and the heavens, and, ultimately, upon all of mankind. The trumpets will be sounded one at a time and each will cause more unfathomable catastrophic punishments to occur. The judgments will increase in both severity and duration as the time of the Second Coming draws closer. Thunder, lightning, and an earthquake break the silence as Judgment Day arrives.
The first trumpet's blast will cause a hail of blood and fire to rain down from the heavens. One-third of the Earth's forests and fields will catch fire.
The second trumpet heralds a catastrophic asteroid impact in an ocean. One-third of all life in or on the Earth's seas will perish as a result and the seas will fill with blood.
The third trumpet announces the arrival of another celestial body. It will be named Wormwood, and it will fall from the heavens and poison one-third of the world's drinking water supply.
The fourth trumpet's note will cause both the day and the night to become darker by a third. The sun, moon, and stars are dimmed by a acrid and suffocating atmospheric haze that will envelope the Earth.
There is a brief pause before the fifth trumpet. A heavenly messenger proclaims woe to those who have survived the first four trumpet blasts because the next three voices of the trumpets will be even more horrorific.
The fifth trumpet signals the beginning of the first woe: The Bottomless Pit will open and a great swarm of "stinging locusts" will boil out. Led by Abaddon, the King of the Demons of the Pit, these locusts will torment mankind for five months, during which time men will be driven to attempt suicide to end their suffering.
The sixth trumpet call will release an army of "two hundred thousand thousand" demons led by the four fallen angels bound in the Euphrates river. The ensuing war will kill one-third of the world's remaining population.
The Beast and the False Prophet will rule the world after in the aftermath of the seventh trumpet. The Beast, a tyrannical, idolatrous, and persecuting power, will arise "out of the sea". The False Prophet will act under the guise of religion to deceive men into worshipping the Beast, who will perform miraculous tricks. They will require all men to worship the Beast, and to receive a mark on the right hand or on the forehead.
When the vengeance of God descends onto the Antichrist and his followers the results will be devasting and final. Seven angels, the ministers of Divine wrath, will pore out plagues from seven golden vials upon the world. All things - the earth, air, sea, rivers, cities - are condemned to ruin, all accursed for the wickedness of the people. After a brutal 42 month reign of punishment and torment, the Beast and his False Prophet will assemble all of the world's remaining armies on the plains surrounding the ancient battlefield of Mediggo and ready them for the ultimate war between good and evil on Judgment Day - the battle of Armageddon. |
