The Battle of Armageddon

Revelation 19:19-21 The Battle of Armageddon

Recap: Main Focal Points

· The Marriage Supper of the Lamb taking place during the Tribulation Period

· The Revealing of the Bridegroom who is prepared for war. John gives the description which represents the very things that Christ did while he walked the earth during his ministry.

· The invitation given by the angel to birds of the air to gather at Megiddo Valley for the battle to come.

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Now there are three main acts here in the last few verses of chapter 19 that we will examine in detail. First we see …

The Assembling Army at Armageddon (vs 19)

· Now there has been a lot of devastation that has been poured out on the earth during the tribulation period. This has been judgment on humanity for rebelling against God.

· Many people who have lived during this time period have been deceived by the propaganda of the False Prophet and the evil leadership of the Antichrist.

· They believe the cause of their problems lies within the Jewish nation of Israel. So, the Jewish race is systematically being hunted down and executed.

· Remember, the Jewish person is the main focus during the time of Tribulation. This final seven years are the final seventieth week that we learned about in the book of Daniel.

· As the Antichrist realizes that his time and power is drawing to a nigh, he implores the leaders of the world to join with him on this massive assault of Israel and ultimately against Jesus.

· This has always been the desire of Satan, to rid the earth of the Jewish race. Now I believe that the motivation for the antichrist to do this is:

1. To rid the earth of a people that God promised to protect; showing humanity that God doesn’t keep his promises.

2. To remove the presence of God from the world.

· For the antichrist to fully claim this world, he would need to defeat God at his Word. To prove his wrong would make God a liar, and thus nothing that God has said could be relied upon.

· So, the antichrist will convince these leaders to join him on an assault on God.

· Nations who want the judgments to end, accept the invitation and ally themselves with the antichrist for this climatic battle.

· Now, we may think how could anyone be foolish enough to battle God and to destroy a race of people. Remember the devil is very convincing.

· Remember the devil’s first appearance in scripture? It was in the form of a snake. The devil didn’t come with force, what did he come with? Subtlety. He convinced Adam and Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit.

· The devil is a deceiver and has been since the beginning, and people throughout the times have been fooled into believing these lies and giving in and acting on those lies.

· Note what Jesus said about the devil and his servants in Matthew 24:24 “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.”

· The devil is so convincing that he is capable of deceiving those who have accepted Jesus, however, he is unable too because Jesus has kept them from this happening.

· So, at this gathering, the antichrist comes, he is called the beast and he has convinced the armies of the world to come.

· Their mission to make war.

· Now there is an unseen war that is taking place right now, and friends this unseen war is becoming visible.

1. The ungodly things that governments and nations are supporting.

2. The push away from the Bible and Christ.

3. The movements and hatred that are becoming more and more apparent.

· I believe in a sense, that God is withdrawing his hand from this world, and because of this we see the steady decline of godly morals and the rise of evil.

· This ungodly and deceived people join to make war against Jesus. And that is happening today to a degree.

· Now, these nations and people know who they are coming against. They see him that sits on the horse, they see the army. They see all of this and they come with all of their weapons to fight against Christ.

The Antichrist Arrested at Armageddon (vs 20)

· So, we have seen the assembling army at Armageddon, now we see in verse 20, the antichrist arrested at Armageddon.

· Now once again, we are taking the literal view of scripture here. At the end of our study, we are going to look at other views if this book for comparison.

· What happens here in this verse, well as the antichrist has amassed his troops, before the battle can really begin, he is taken into custody.

· John does not share with us how the beast was taken, but we can theorize on what takes place here.

· Now before we get to that, we see that the antichrist has come to this battle along with the false prophet.

· They are both there, ungodly government and false religion have come together to oppose God.

· Now false religion has directed our attention to trust in fallen government, the prophet that we are told about here, has demonstrated amazing powers.

· Remember, there is demonic power in false religion. Just as the magicians were able to replicate some of the plagues in Egypt, even today, there is supernatural forces at work within false religions.

· This is perhaps why so many are deceived and follow these religions.

· So, here with the false prophet you have the false religions of the world, rolled up into this man, and he is there opposing God.

· But you also have fallen government here, all of the corruption, all of the backdoor deals to benefit some agenda, the discrimination and provoking of hatred, here is rolled up into this one man the antichrist.

· Here are the leaders of sin, they stand before the Lord, defiant, lusting for power, they have broken God’s law, they are criminals. They violate themselves for Satan. And thus they are arrested.

· The Lord likely sends angels to apprehend these two evil factions.

· They are both taken. Just as Elijah was taken in a fiery chariot up to heaven, here these two are taken to a fiery prison.

· There is no courtroom or holding cell for these two, they are seized and immediately thrown into the Lake of Fire.

· Now the Lake of Fire is a different place than Hell. We sometimes refer to both places as being the same, but actually they are two separate places.

· God’s prisons are designed for the transgressor. Now, think about it like this, because we really get this wrong a lot.

· Hell is not the place designed for the devil and his angels. We say that because we misread Matthew 25:41 “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.:”

· Hell is a place of torment, but it is not the final destination. It is the Lake of Fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels.

· Now understand, when an unrepentant person dies right now, they go to hell. But they are awaiting the final judgment.

· This is not the case though for the Beast and the False Prophet. There is no holding cell of hell for these two. The crimes that they have committed receive the ultimate punishment.

· A never-ending death sentence.

· You ever think about death? It isn’t something we like to think about, but as a Christian dying is not so bad. Let me rephrase that though, the process in which we die may not be pleasant. Well that is what these two will be enduring the process of torment.

· While hell is a place of darkness and gnashing of teeth, flame and torment, the Lake of Fire if far worse.

· We will learn more about the Lake of Fire in chapter 20.

The Annihilated Adversary at Armageddon (21)

· So the Antichrist and False Prophet are arrested and sent to Lake of Fire. What about the rest? Well we see the final act of Armageddon and that is the Annihilated Adversary.

· Those that gather with the Antichrist are not free to go once their commander has been taken from them.

· Basically, they have no knowledge or ability to fight against God. Remember the Antichrist and False Prophet were able to do miraculous things, these armies are there as the sin stained henchmen of the Antichrist.

· There garments are filthy, their souls polluted, these armies represent the opposite of the saints. These sinners are the unrepentant who blindly follow Satan into battle against God, only to meet their ultimate doom.

· All of these who have come are slain. Death by the sword. But the sword is not the sword that we would assume it to be. This sword is not something that is crafted in a forge.

· This sword is symbolic, because the sword is the Word of God.

· His word cuts like a knife, it parries attacks, it is unbreakable and unmistakable. His word only has to speak to defeat his enemies.

· And that is what we see here. Those who oppose God, who oppose Jesus Christ, will be defeated by the Word of God.

· Now that is what we have in our hands right now, though we do not speak the word of God to bring physical harm, we find that it has a spiritual effect.

· The scripture is the only weapon that is needed when fighting against the foe. We see the Lord allude to that throughout the scripture.

· Here, in the literal sense, Jesus speaks to these before him and they are destroyed.

· It is now that the meal has been completed for the birds, the fowls of the air that have gathered at the invitation of the angel, now have their meal laying before them.

· They come and begin to fill their bellies of the flesh of the dead.

We look at Revelation in a literal sense, and we see the horror that comes from it. But just as we see the literal interpretation, we can see the symbolic interpretation as well. There is much debate among many theologians and students of the Word that what we read is not how it seems on the surface. That there is much more to what we read, and that much of what we see is happening in a sense today.

There is some truth to that argument. Ultimately though, those who oppose God will meet a final death that will separate them from God forever. Like we mention before, at the conclusion of this great book, we will address some of the other viewpoints for comparison and thought.