FRENCH CHEMIST Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot (1827–1907) was one of the great prophets of science. He had an uncanny ability to look at the state of scientific knowledge in his own time, then project that knowledge far into the future and make accurate predictions. He believed that science could bring about a utopia by the year 2000, but he also worried that scientific knowledge might destroy the human race.
He once wrote, “Within a hundred years . . . men will know what the atom is. It is my belief when science reaches this stage, God will come down to earth with His big ring of keys and will say to humanity, ‘Gentlemen, it is closing time.’”1
Those are prophetic words indeed. Less than a hundred years after Marcellin Berthelot wrote those words, atomic bombs were dropped on two Japanese cities, ending World War II. Since then, the human race has lived in fear of nuclear annihilation, waiting for “closing time.”
That day is coming. It will arrive at the end of a turbulent seven-year period known as the Great Tribulation. On that day, the most violent and decisive battle in the history of the world will take place—a conflict known as the Battle of Armageddon. You may think you know what the Battle of Armageddon will be and where it will be fought, but as we delve deeply into the book of Revelation, you may be surprised.
The word “Armageddon” appears only once in the entire Bible, in Revelation 16:16: “Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.” Though this verse does not contain a lot of information, there is much that we can and should know about this future battle.
In 1920, the Irish poet William Butler Yeats published a poem called “The Second Coming,” in which he described a “blood-dimmed tide” sweeping over the world. “Surely some revelation is at hand,” he warned, then he concluded:
Twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?2
Yeats envisions a Beast—the Antichrist—arriving on the scene at the appointed hour, ominous and dreadful, slouching toward Bethlehem to be born. Yeats was a poet, not a theologian. There’s nothing in Scripture to suggest that the Antichrist will be born in Bethlehem as Christ was.
But we have God’s Word on this: the “rough beast” known as the Antichrist will one day slouch toward Armageddon to be defeated.
A scene in Revelation 10 tells us a lot about the final days of human history. This scene takes place during an intermission between the sixth and seventh trumpet judgments. As Revelation 10 opens, we meet a mighty angel on a sacred mission. This angel comes wrapped in a cloud, which speaks of the presence and power of God. The angel also has a rainbow over his head, symbolizing God’s faithfulness to His promises. The angel’s face shines like the sun, because he has been in the presence of God. He stands with his right foot upon the sea and his left foot upon the land, symbolizing his God-given authority over the earth.
In the palm of his hand the angel holds a small, open scroll. A voice like seven thunders speaks to John. Seven, as we have seen, is the number of perfection and completion, which tells us that this is the voice of God. The Lord gives John a message and tells him to seal the message, to keep it hidden. Then God gives John another message: “Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land” (Revelation 10:8).
John takes the scroll and the angel says, “Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but ‘in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey’” (Revelation 10:9).
This little scroll is about to reveal the mystery of God and the mystery of human life on earth. John takes the scroll and eats it. Just as the angel promised, the scroll tastes sweet in John’s mouth, but it turns to bitterness in his stomach.
What does this mean? When the Bible speaks of “eating” a book, it doesn’t mean consuming the paper. It means internalizing the message written on its pages. To those who love God, the Word of God is sweet to the taste. The Psalmist tells us, “How sweet are your words to my taste, / sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103).
This scene in Revelation parallels a scene in the book of Ezekiel—but with an important difference. When God commissioned Ezekiel to be His prophet to Israel, God told him, “Eat this scroll; then go and speak to the people of Israel” (Ezekiel 3:1). So Ezekiel ate the scroll and it was as sweet in his mouth as honey. But unlike John, Ezekiel found that the scroll was also sweet to his stomach—he didn’t experience the bitterness and upset stomach that John felt. Why?
The scroll God gave Ezekiel contained a message of judgment and destruction, but it was also a message that the judgment would come to an end after seventy years of exile. The people of Israel would return to their homeland to rebuild the temple and the city of Jerusalem, and the nation would be blessed. So the Word of God, which is always sweet in the mouth, was also sweet in Ezekiel’s stomach because it was ultimately a message of hope.
But the message God gave to John was a message of judgment and destruction—and those whom God was about to judge would have no hope. They would never rebuild. They would never be blessed. So the Word of God was sweet in John’s mouth, but it was bitter in his stomach because it was a message of unrelenting doom for everyone whose sins are not covered by the blood of Christ.
While moving through the Great Tribulation, we have seen a series of cataclysms in groups of sevens—seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls of judgment. We have seen earthquakes, an eclipse of the sun, the moon turning to blood, the stars falling from the heavens, and the mountains and islands shaken out of their places.
In Revelation 16, we see the seven bowls of God’s wrath—a series of plagues much like the plagues God inflicted on Egypt in Moses’ day, only on a global scale. The first bowl is a plague of painful sores. The second bowl turns the sea into blood. The third bowl turns the rivers to blood. The fourth bowl causes the sun to blaze hotter. The fifth bowl plunges the world into darkness.
Now we come to the sixth bowl of God’s wrath, described in Revelation 16:12. The sixth angel pours out his bowl upon the Euphrates River. The river dries up, opening a clear path for an invasion by “the kings from the East.” What does it mean for the Euphrates to dry up? It means that conditions are ripe for satanic forces to be unleashed and for the Battle of Armageddon to begin.
The Euphrates is a natural boundary established by God. It has its source in eastern Turkey, flows through Syria and Iraq, then joins the Tigris and empties into the Persian Gulf. In ancient times, the Euphrates formed the western boundary of the Persian Empire. By drying up the river, God erases that natural boundary and unleashes evil forces on the world—forces called “the kings of the East.”
Who are these kings of the East? They are not human beings. As we compare scripture with scripture, it becomes clear that these kings are demonic rulers. The Bible tells us that invisible kings and princes have been assigned to nations and empires on the earth. These forces are part of the spiritual hierarchy of Satan’s kingdom. In Deuteronomy 4:19, God warns Israel not to worship spirits on the earth or in the sky: “Do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.”
There is another reference in Deuteronomy to God dividing the nations among angelic or demonic beings—but the meaning of that verse is obscured in the New International Version. It reads:
When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,
when he divided all mankind,
he set up boundaries for the peoples
according to the number of the sons of Israel.
(Deuteronomy 32:8)
That phrase “the sons of Israel” comes from the Masoretic Hebrew text. But the ancient text of the Dead Sea Scrolls reads differently; instead of “the sons of Israel,” it reads “the sons of God.” In Genesis and Job, the term “sons of God” refers to both fallen and unfallen angels. The Greek Septuagint reads “the angels of God.” Many Bible translators have chosen to follow the Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint sense: “He assigned to each nation a heavenly being” (Good News Translation), “divine beings” (New American Bible, Revised Edition), and “the heavenly assembly” (New English Translation).
It is clear that “the sons of God” or “the angels of God” is the correct sense of that verse, because the next verse reads:
For the LORD’s portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted inheritance. (Deuteronomy 32:9)
In other words, Moses is saying in these two verses that when God divided up the nations and set boundaries for the people, He assigned “the sons of God,” the heavenly assembly of angels, to the various nations and kingdoms—all except the nation of Israel. The Lord assigned Himself to be the spiritual ruler of Jacob’s nation, Israel. All other nations are spiritually ruled by an angelic “prince” or “king.” As you study everything the Scriptures have to say about these spiritual rulers of nations, it seems clear that they are fallen angels—demons—under the command of Satan.
The prophet Isaiah also refers to these invisible powers and kings:
In that day the LORD will punish
the powers in the heavens above
and the kings on the earth below. (Isaiah 24:21)
In Ephesians 6:12, the apostle Paul speaks of our spiritual struggle “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world.” In Colossians 1:16, he speaks of “things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities.”
The most profound and detailed reference to these demonic spiritual rulers is found in the book of Daniel. In Daniel 10:13, we read of the demonic prince of Persia, who detained God’s messenger and could only be overcome with the help of the archangel Michael. And in Daniel 10:20, the messenger refers to the prince of Greece—the demonic being who rules over that nation. In Psalm 82, we read of God’s judgment against these invisible kings (the Psalmist calls them “gods”):
God presides in the great assembly;
he renders judgment among the “gods” . . .
“The ‘gods’ know nothing, they understand nothing.
They walk about in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
“I said, ‘You are “gods”;
you are all sons of the Most High.’
But you will die like mere mortals;
you will fall like every other ruler.”
Rise up, O God, judge the earth,
for all the nations are your inheritance.
(Psalm 82:1, 5–8)
America has spent decades, thousands of American lives, and trillions of dollars trying to bring order and stability to the Persian Gulf region. Who dominates the Persian Gulf? Iran—the nation the Bible calls Persia. Through its many client states—Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen—the Persian nation of Iran dominates the region.
In 2015, leaders of the United States and other countries forged an agreement with Iran to prevent that nation from acquiring nuclear weapons. Our leaders and negotiators had no idea who or what they were negotiating with. I’m certain that, sitting across the table from them, was an invisible presence—the same presence that struggled with the messenger to Daniel and the archangel Michael—the demonic prince of Persia. After all these centuries, the invisible ruler of Persia is still calling the shots in that land.
God has chosen not to tell us very much about these invisible kings. He has told us just enough that we would be aware of them, but not so much that we would become obsessed with them. God doesn’t want us to be mesmerized by the kingdom of darkness. He wants us to keep our eyes fixed on Him.
As we have seen, Revelation is written as a series of themes, not a chronological narrative. For example, there is a section in Revelation 9 that relates to these events in Revelation 16. In Revelation 9:14, God tells the angel with the sixth trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” John goes on to say, “The four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind.” I believe the release of the four angels in Revelation 9 and the drying of the Euphrates in Revelation 16 are the same event.
In Revelation 9:16, John makes an intriguing statement: “The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number.” Now, I have to admit that I flunked math in school. I’m not joking; I really did. But I can use a calculator, and I worked out what “twice ten thousand times ten thousand” means: two hundred million. To put it in numerical form, John is talking about 200,000,000 soldiers.
That is a shocking number. In fact John himself finds it incomprehensible. That’s why he says at the end of that verse, “I heard their number” (Revelation 9:16). He’s saying, in effect, “I know! I can hardly believe it myself! But that’s the number I heard.”
No nation on earth has a standing army of two hundred million soldiers. In fact, when John wrote this prophecy, the population of the entire world didn’t equal two hundred million people. Today, the largest army in the world belongs to the People’s Republic of China—about two million soldiers. That’s 1 percent of the army John describes here.
I believe there can only be one explanation: the two hundred million soldiers John speaks of can only be demonic forces.
There’s another important symbol regarding the Euphrates. As you know, the Garden of Eden was located by the Euphrates; so was the Tower of Babel. The Euphrates region was the cradle of civilization, and it will be the grave of civilization. In Revelation 16, John describes what he saw immediately after the angel dried up the Euphrates River:
Then I saw three impure spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. They are demonic spirits that perform signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty. (vv. 13–14)
Three unclean spirits proceed from the mouths of Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet—the “unholy trinity” of the end times. Impure or unclean spirits are demons, and frogs are a symbol of uncleanness. In Persia, frogs were thought to carry plagues. Among the Jews, frogs were seen as messengers of Satan. These froglike demons go forth to deceive humanity, and they will fight in the Battle of Armageddon.
There is a significant intermission between the sixth and seventh bowls of God’s judgment in Revelation 16. There, the Lord inserts a parenthetical statement—and it’s a powerful one. He says:
Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed. (v. 15)
I have heard this verse quoted as a warning to be ready for the Lord’s return. But I think the Lord gave it to us as a message of encouragement. This verse always blesses me. It tells me that even though the world is plunging headlong into depravity, we can trust God. Don’t lose heart; don’t lose faith. The Lord will come like a thief, when the world least expects Him.
If the words “I come like a thief” sound familiar, it’s because Jesus made a similar statement to His disciples:
Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. (Matthew 24:42–44)
The apostle Paul used that same metaphor: “You know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2). And the apostle Peter used it as well: “The day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare” (2 Peter 3:10). We should heed every word God tells us—but when He makes the same statement four times in His Word, we really need to take notice.
The Day of the Lord will come like a thief to those who are spiritually asleep, but we who are alert and watchful know it’s going to be a great day.
The original Greek New Testament refers to the Second Coming as the parousia (“coming” or “arrival”) of Christ. The early church’s view of the Second Coming is summed up with dignity and simplicity in the Nicene Creed: “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.”3
Down through the centuries, different views of the Second Coming have emerged. One of the best-known interpretations of the Second Coming is the “dispensationalist” view that was popularized by the Scofield Reference Bible, the 1970s bestseller The Late, Great Planet Earth, and the popular Left Behind series of novels. According to this view, Jesus will return to earth not once, but twice. These two events are known as the Rapture (from the Latin raptus, meaning “a carrying off”) and the Second Coming. Although this is the most widely known view of the Second Coming among American evangelicals, it was completely unknown until the 1800s, and it is not the traditionally held Protestant view.
I want to be clear in stating that I hold to an evangelical, Reformed view, and I believe there are major problems with the more widely popularized view—but that doesn’t mean that those who hold other views of the Second Coming are heretical or unsaved. Our salvation does not depend on any particular doctrine of the Second Coming.
The popular view, the Left Behind view, is that there will be a “secret Rapture” in which all genuine Christians vanish from the world and meet Jesus in the air, and all unbelievers are left behind to go through the Great Tribulation. The “secret Rapture” notion is based on what I believe to be a misunderstanding of the Lord’s words in the Olivet Discourse (His description of the end times in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21): “Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left” (Matthew 24:40). These words describe the Rapture, when the Lord returns to take His church out of the world. But there’s nothing in the Lord’s words to suggest that the Rapture will be secret—only that it will be sudden and unexpected.
When you compare scripture with scripture, it is clear that the Rapture will be a loud and startling event. The arrival of Jesus for His church will be instantly known to the entire world. In fact, the evidence indicates that the Rapture and the Second Coming are not two events but the same event. The apostle Paul’s account of the Rapture/Second Coming is a vivid description of a very loud event, accompanied by a shout and a trumpet call:
For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. (1 Thessalonians 4:14–17)
This is consistent with the way Jesus Himself described the Second Coming in the Olivet Discourse (notice again the trumpet call):
Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. (Matthew 24:30–31)
Jesus says that, when He gathers His followers, all the people of the earth will see Him. They will mourn because they have rejected Him, just as John writes in Revelation 1:7:
“Look, he is coming with the clouds,”
and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”
So I believe that the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ are the same event. It will be the most widely viewed event in the history of the human race.
If you hold to a different view, then God bless you, we can still be brothers and sisters in the Lord and one in the Spirit. Our views on the Second Coming of Christ must not divide us. What matters is that we believe that Jesus is Lord, He died for our sins, He rose again, He shall come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom shall have no end.
In Revelation 14:6–12, three angels make a series of pronouncements. The first angel flies overhead and proclaims “the eternal gospel” (v. 6). This message goes out to every human being on earth, to every nation, in every language: “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water” (v. 7).
The door of salvation is still open, but it won’t be for long. This is the last time the gospel will ever be offered to the human race before judgment and destruction fall. In the darkest period of human history, the light of the gospel breaks through. Even now, God is not willing that any should perish. This is the only place in Revelation where the word “gospel” appears, and it is the last time the gospel is mentioned in the Bible.
Next, the second angel announces, “‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’ which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries” (Revelation 14:8). But the fall of Babylon has not yet taken place in Revelation. That will occur in Revelation 18; the entire chapter is devoted to God’s judgment against Babylon. Like so many symbols and events in Revelation, the fall of Babylon is not depicted on a chronological timetable. Instead, Babylon’s fall is a recurring theme throughout Revelation. God is not subject to time as we are. In His presence, all of time—past, present, and future—exist as one.
Some people believe that the “Babylon” in the book of Revelation is the literal city of Babylon, which lies in ruins in Iraq today, about fifty miles south of Baghdad. Many prophecy-minded Christians became very excited in the 1980s when Saddam Hussein spent billions of dollars to restore ancient Babylon to its former glory. They said, “You see? The city of Babylon is going to be central to the end times.” But the rebuilding of Babylon ended when Saddam Hussein’s regime was toppled by American-led forces in 2003. Today, the site of ancient Babylon is still a field of ruins.
I believe Babylon is a symbol of any culture or nation that sets itself against the will of God. In the context of Revelation, Babylon seems to represent the combined political-religious system of the Antichrist and the False Prophet. Whether this “Babylon” is literal or symbolic is a minor matter. We should always major on the majors, not the minors.
Next, the third angel proclaims:
If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name. (Revelation 14:9–11)
All who worship the Beast will drink the undiluted wine of God’s wrath. There will be no mercy mixed into the cup of God’s anger. There will be no more opportunities for salvation.
After these pronouncements comes a blessing from heaven:
Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”
“Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.” (Revelation 14:13)
I have often heard these words quoted at funerals, and I think it’s valid to use this verse to comfort those who grieve. In context, this verse speaks to the tremendous suffering of those Last Days. Yet embedded in this verse is an encouraging insight. Even in these final moments of the Great Tribulation, just before the gavel of God’s justice crashes down upon the earth, some people respond to the gospel—and they will be saved. They will suffer tremendous persecution. The forces of the Antichrist will hunt them down and death will be a tremendous blessing. The horrors of the Tribulation will make death seem like blessed rest.
Believers who remain loyal to the Lord Jesus will be blessed indeed. Jesus said, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me” (Matthew 5:11). Patient endurance through persecution brings God’s blessing to our lives.
In the closing verses of Revelation 14, we see that the hour for reaping has come. John sees a white cloud, and seated on the cloud is the Son of Man. He wears a golden crown. In His hand is a sickle. An angel from the heavenly temple shouts, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe” (v. 15). So the Son of Man—the Judge of the earth—swings His sickle and harvests the earth. The grapes are thrown into the winepress of God’s wrath.
That winepress has a name: Armageddon.
Here again, we see that the images and themes of Revelation are not presented to us in chronological order. The winepress and the crushing of the grapes in Revelation 14 are symbols of the same event John later describes in Revelation 16 and 19—an event that is commonly known as the Battle of Armageddon.
The word Armageddon comes from the ancient Greek word Harmagedōn, which many Bible scholars trace back to the Hebrew Har Megiddô. The word Har is a shortened form of Harar, which means a hill or mountain. Har Megiddô is a particular kind of hill known as a tell—a hill created by hundreds of years of having fortresses built, destroyed, then rebuilt on the same spot. Har Megiddô, or Armageddon, is a man-made hill made up of layers and layers of ruined fortresses. It has been the site of countless battles down through the centuries.
These fortresses stood guard over the Via Maris, the ancient trade route linking Egypt, Anatolia (Asia Minor), Syria, and Mesopotamia. Various battles of Megiddo have been fought there, including a 1457 BC battle between Egyptian forces and a Canaanite coalition, a 609 BC battle between the Egyptians and the nation of Judah (2 Kings 23 and 2 Chronicles 35), and the 1918 Battle of Megiddo, when the British defeated the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The Plain of Megiddo is inland from the Israeli coastal city of Haifa and is located about fifty-five miles north of Jerusalem.
Many evangelical scholars interpret the battle scenes in Revelation as a literal military conflict fought on the Plain of Megiddo. According to this view, the armies of many nations will gather for war and the human armies will be like grapes crushed in the winepress of God’s wrath. Revelation 14:20 says that “blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia.” This would be a battle of unparalleled violence and bloodshed. A distance of 1,600 stadia equals about 180 miles. Israel is only 263 miles long from north to south. So John envisions a lake of blood some five feet deep, extending more than two-thirds the length of the state of Israel.
But there is another view of this final battle—a view held by many evangelical theologians. According to this view, the Greek Harmagedōn is actually derived from the Hebrew Har Mo’wed, which means “Mount of Assembly” or “Mount of the Congregation,” which refers to Mount Zion. In fact, John tells us that, at the outset of this final battle, the Lord Jesus will come to earth and stand on Mount Zion (Revelation 14:1).
Does John refer to a literal geographical site called Mount Zion—or does Mount Zion symbolize a deeper spiritual reality? To answer that question, let’s first examine the historical Mount Zion. According to tradition, Mount Zion is the Temple Mount—the “Mount of Assembly,” where the congregation of Israel gathered to worship the Lord. Mount Zion first appears in the Bible in 2 Samuel 5:7: “Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion—which is the City of David.” Before King David established Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the city belonged to a Canaanite tribe, the Jebusites, and their fortress was called Zion.
If Armageddon refers to Har Mo’wed, the “Mount of Congregation” or Mount Zion, then what sort of battle will it be? Many evangelical theologians believe that the final battle of the book of Revelation will not involve human armies and weapons of warfare. Instead, these images of horrifying violence might be vivid symbols describing a battle in the spiritual realm. It would be the decisive final assault in the war Paul wrote about (Ephesians 6:12). The Battle of Armageddon is described in greater detail in Revelation 19:
I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:
KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small.” (vv. 11–18)
Here again, God’s wrath is described as a winepress. But is this a physical battle or a spiritual battle? Is it a clash between nations and armies—or between rulers, authorities, and forces of the spiritual realm?
I lean toward the belief that the Battle of Armageddon will be a spiritual battle rather than a military conflict. And let’s be clear on this: spiritual warfare is no less real, no less deadly, and no less frightening than military warfare. If anything, spiritual warfare is even more appalling, because eternal destinies are at stake—and Satan and his fallen angels are the cunning, ruthless foes.
In Revelation 16:12, the sixth angel pours out his bowl upon the Euphrates River, and the river goes dry, opening a path for invasion by “the kings from the East,” who bring a force of two hundred million soldiers with them. As we have seen, no nation on earth could field an army of two hundred million soldiers, but it is conceivable that the demonic forces of Satan may well number two hundred million demons or more. In fact, the Battle of Armageddon would almost have to be a battle between spiritual forces, not human forces, because it would be physically impossible for such a vast number of human soldiers to fight each other in the confined space of the Plain of Megiddo.
John seems to describe supernatural preparations for this ultimate battle, not military preparations. Revelation 16:14 tells us that the three froglike demons that came from the mouths of the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet “go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.” As we have already seen, “kings of the whole world” is probably a reference to the invisible demonic rulers of the nations of the world, not a reference to human leaders of nations.
There are many prophecies of this ultimate conflict in the Old Testament, and they often make the most sense when interpreted as a spiritual battle rather than a military battle. In Isaiah 13, for example, the prophet describes how the nations gather for war and the Lord assembles a host for battle. The sun and moon go dark, the heavens are shaken, and the Lord and His host destroy their enemies. Then, in Isaiah 14, the Lord tells His people to take up a taunt against the defeated king of Babylon—and it quickly becomes clear that the king of Babylon is a symbol for Satan. Here is an excerpt:
How the oppressor has come to an end!
How his fury has ended! . . .
How you have fallen from heaven,
morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!
You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to the heavens;
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.
I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
But you are brought down to the realm of the dead,
to the depths of the pit. (vv. 4, 12–15)
It seems likely that the Mount Zion the Scriptures speak of—the “mount of assembly” where the Lord will make His stand against the forces of Satan—is probably a symbol for the church. In the New Testament letter to the Hebrews, the term “Mount Zion” is clearly used as a metaphor for the church:
But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect. (Hebrews 12:22–23)
If we view the final battle of Revelation as a violent, all-out assault against Mount Zion (the church) by the cruel and hateful forces of Satan—a battle in the spiritual realm—then it takes on a whole new meaning. The demon forces seek to conquer Mount Zion, not the physical Temple Mount in Jerusalem but the spiritual Mount Zion, the church. Satan despises the church. He is beside himself with rage toward us as believers because we will inherit heaven—the paradise that Satan himself has lost. Through the church, God demonstrates His manifold wisdom to all the fallen angels and demonic rulers in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 3:10). So this ultimate battle is Satan’s final attempt to destroy the followers of Christ, which the Bible identifies symbolically as “Mount Zion.”
Again and again, we see this battle depicted in Old Testament prophecy as an assault against Mount Zion. Micah 4:11 reveals Satan’s hatred against Zion as he gathers the demon-kings of the nations for battle: “Let her be defiled, / let our eyes gloat over Zion!” In Joel 2:1 we read, “Blow the trumpet in Zion; / sound the alarm on my holy hill. / Let all who live in the land tremble, / for the day of the Lord is coming.” In Obadiah 1:15 and 17, we read, “The day of the LORD is near . . . But on Mount Zion will be deliverance.” And Isaiah 31:4 tells us, “. . . the LORD Almighty will come down / to do battle on Mount Zion”—a scene that is echoed in Revelation 14:1: “Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion.”
And here’s one of the most compelling reasons that I believe the Battle of Armageddon will be fought on a spiritual battlefield rather than the physical Plain of Megiddo: It makes absolutely no sense for Satan and his demons to gather the nations of the world to attack Jerusalem. The Antichrist already controls the physical city of Jerusalem; it’s the capital of his global empire. But it makes perfect sense for Satan and his demons to wage an all-out assault against the spiritual Mount Zion, the church.
One day, after these prophecies have been fulfilled, we will know for sure whether this was the bloodiest military conflict in human history—or the decisive final battle in the heavenly realms. Even if you and I disagree over the interpretation of these prophecies, we agree that Jesus is Lord and that He will win the battle. On that foundation of truth, we are blessedly united.
I should make one final observation. I have been referring to this ultimate battle by the name most commonly used: the Battle of Armageddon. The Scriptures, however, never refer to the battle by that name. In the Old Testament, it is usually called “the Day of the Lord.” In Revelation 16:14, John calls it “the battle on the great day of God Almighty.” For those faithful believers who love Jesus, it will truly be the great day of God Almighty. If you belong to the Lord Jesus, you have nothing to fear from this battle. In fact, you can look forward with joy and expectation to the great day of God Almighty.
Next, John reveals the ultimate fate of two members of the unholy trinity—the Antichrist and the False Prophet:
Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh. (Revelation 19:19–21)
Though the Antichrist and the False Prophet have been consigned to the lake of fire, Satan still awaits the Final Judgment. We will discuss his fate in the next chapter. For now, it’s enough to know that the Lord Jesus and the army of believers will be victorious, and the forces of the unholy trinity will be destroyed. And I cannot wait for that day!
I once read a story about an elderly man, a man of simple faith, who was reading the book of Revelation. A skeptic saw what the old man was reading and decided to make fun of him. “Hey, old-timer,” the skeptic said, “that’s a strange book you’re reading. Are you sure you understand what it means?”
The old man replied, “It means God wins.”
That’s all we need to know: God wins.
In Revelation 16:17, immediately after the final battle, the seventh angel pours out his bowl of God’s wrath upon the air. Out of the temple of heaven comes a voice from the throne, saying, “It is done!” But those words do not mean that the judgment of God has ended. Instead, we now see the final phase of God’s judgment against wickedness upon the earth.
Immediately, waves of destruction rain down upon the planet. Lightning flashes from horizon to horizon. Thunder deafens the human race. The ground shakes like no other earthquake in human history. The Richter scale can’t measure it—the power of this quake is off the charts. Jerusalem splits into three parts, and the cities of the world collapse into rubble. Mountains implode; islands sink beneath the sea. Massive chunks of hail blast the earth, killing countless human beings.
It is spiritually and emotionally painful to describe this time of judgment. I think of my friends, family members, neighbors, people I’ve talked to around the world, and I wonder—what if they are left on this earth to go through the horrors of that day?
The people who suffer the awful judgment of God’s wrath are no different from you and me—except in one regard: we accepted the Lord’s grace; they rejected His grace. It is only by the forgiving grace of God that we have escaped the judgment they will suffer. You and I are saved by the mercy of God alone. None of our good works could ever withstand the justice of a holy God.
Though I am grateful to be eternally secure in God’s hands, I grieve for all those who will be alive in those days when God’s wrath is poured out upon the earth. I grieve for all those who will go into eternity without Christ. To me, Revelation 16 is the most tragic chapter in the Bible. Here we see the ultimate collision between God’s justice and man’s disobedience.
I don’t gloat over the judgment of God. No one could take pleasure in these scenes of destruction. God Himself does not gloat over the fate of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11). He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). Yet He will not overrule our free will. If we choose judgment, then judgment it shall be.
No one has to suffer eternal separation from God. The victory over sin and death has already been won. Jesus has paid the price of our redemption—and He will triumph over Satan.
Sometimes it appears that evil is winning, but we don’t walk by sight. We see with eyes of faith. As you watch the news from the Middle East, as you hear of wars and rumors of wars, as you see an increase in beheadings and other horrors, don’t doubt the Lord’s promise. Our victory is assured. We have God’s Word on it.
In the early 1800s, before the invention of the telegraph, England had a communication system called the semaphore line. Using a system of flags and telescopes, messages could be relayed from tower to tower across the length and breadth of England.
In July 1812, the Duke of Wellington led his forces into battle against the French in Salamanca, Spain. News of the battle was delivered to the naval port in Plymouth, England. The commander of the port, Captain Robert Calder, took the message from the courier and climbed the semaphore tower. Using signal flags, he would send the message to the next tower in line, and the message would be relayed to London, two hundred miles away.
Captain Calder began transmitting: “Wellington defeated—”
Just then, the fog rolled in, interrupting the message. The bank of fog continued to shroud the port for most of the day. Meanwhile, those two words, “Wellington defeated,” were relayed from tower to tower all the way to London.
When the people of London heard of the Duke of Wellington’s defeat, they panicked. Businessmen sold their government bonds. Fortunes were lost.
Back in Plymouth, the fog lifted. Captain Calder transmitted the complete message: “Wellington defeated the French at Salamanca.” Despair turned to celebration!4
So it is with you and me. Jesus has won the victory. Satan is a defeated foe. The Battle of Armageddon has not yet been fought—yet the Lord has declared, “It is done!”
Never surrender to panic or despair. Our Lord will return like a thief, when we least expect Him. Be vigilant. Be prepared. Be faithful.
When He returns, will you be ready?