03 Armageddon
Discovering Revelation • Sermon • Submitted
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Mention Zuriel book — local author wrote an interesting historical fiction about our world from the perspective of a fictional angel he’s named Zurich. It’s an interesting read, even for my kids, and connects some concepts from the Bible in a way that I think you’ll enjoy. You can take one home at no cost, but if you find the book interesting, it would help if you dropped a few dollars in the mail to the author, he’s got a slip of paper with his address inside the book.
Good evening - and welcome back to Discovering Revelation!!!
Tonight, we’ve got a great evening planned for you - we’re going to start digging just a little bit deeper into Bible prophecy.
Q&A
Q&A
But first, tonight it’s time to dig into our Bible questions.
Rules
1. It’s got to be a Bible question. I will try to answer all the Bible questions submitted, and if I don’t know the answer, I’ll just tell you.
2. If we get a lot of questions, I will prefer those that deal with the subject material we’ve already covered.
3. If we’re going to address a question in a future meeting, I’ll tell you that and if it’s still not clear after we’ve covered it, please ask the question again.
4. This seminar is meant to be enjoyable for everybody, no matter your background . . . and so if a question comes in that looks like it was designed to preach at individuals in the room, or designed to make someone feel uncomfortable or unwelcome, I will simply ignore it, because that’s not the point of the question box.
Question 1. So many people read the Bible, and they come to different conclusions. How could we possibly hope to know what it actually says?
TRUE: a lot of people do come to different conclusions. But to a large extent, that’s because people tend to cherry-pick the data to support their own point of view. But if you read the whole Bible, that tendency starts to disappear.
There’s a story in the book of Acts where Paul sends for the elders of the church in Ephesus, and he warns them about false teachers who would come to misguide them after he leaves - and this is what he says:
Acts 20:27 "For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. 28 Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.”
Our SAFETY in reading the Bible lies in studying the WHOLE COUNSEL of God - not just parts of it. And when you do that, you suddenly discover just how clear and reliable the Bible is.
“The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever." [Isa 40:8 NKJV]
Question 2. Given the number of things that Daniel gets right in advance, it would seem that the book must have actually been written after the events, and then maybe someone passed it off as being ancient.
Well, some people have certainly tried to make that claim, because if Daniel WAS written 600 years before Christ, that has a lot of personal ramifications. It would mean that God is real, and that you have to figure out how you’re going to relate to Him. But let me address the idea that Daniel was written after the fact.
1. Let’s give the critics the benefit of the doubt and pretend that it WAS written four hundred years later, which is when some of the critics say it was written. It would still be pretty amazing, because it still got the future right - it predicted the breakup of Rome, the rise of the western European nations, and a whole lot of other things that we’re going to look at in the next few nights. So it still doesn’t eliminate fact that whoever wrote this book actually saw the future.
2. The authors of the New Testament and Jesus Himself accepted the book of Daniel as authentic. In Matthew 24:15, Jesus says “let whoever reads Daniel, understand.” And the author of Hebrews 11:33,34 states plainly that Daniel was real, and really DID go into the lion’s den.
3. One of the eight Daniel manuscripts found at Qumran (which is where we found the Dead Sea scrolls) is dated back to at LEAST 125 years before Christ, and it was obvious that it was already in wide circulation and widely accepted at the time.
4. The Septuagint was a version of the Old Testament scriptures that was translated into Greek in the middle of the 2rd century BC - and Daniel was among those books being translated - so it was clearly widely accepted as scripture.
5. The prophet Ezekiel mentions Daniel at least three times, and Ezekiel dates all the way back to the Babylonian captivity.
Honestly, this idea that the book of Daniel was written centuries later is just wishful thinking on the part of those who hope it isn’t true - and that’s actually hard to understand, given the amazing promises God makes about His coming kingdom.
Upcoming Meetings
Upcoming Meetings
Okay, let’s talk about our next few subjects:
Our subject tonight: “Armageddon.” Walk into any religious bookstore, and you’ll find a dozen books about the earth’s final battle - but the problem is, you’ll also get a dozen different scenarios. So tonight, we’re just going to turn to the pages of the Bible and see what God says on the subject.
Then Monday night, we’re going to look at the biggest theme in Bible prophecy: “The Man of Revelation.” This subject is so important - so central - that if you don’t understand this, you really can’t understand the rest of the book.
We’re going to look at chapters 4 and 5, where John actually sees the throne room of God in vision - and we’re going to answer one of the most important questions in the universe.
Remember, no meetings on Tuesday or Wednesday, but then on Thursday night, we’ll be talking about “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” Our subject will be Revelation chapter 6, so you might want to read ahead a little bit and be ready.
Who, exactly, ARE these four mysterious riders? When should we expect them? We’re going to look at that on Thursday night, and I’m going to show you something that comes as a surprise to a lot of people, but it’s a principle that was widely held all throughout Christianity for more than 1800 years.
Then on Friday night, our subject is “The Time of the End,” and you’ll notice it’s PART ONE. We’re going to look at one of the most amazing prophecies in the Bible. No man knows the day or hour that Jesus will come, but the Bible DOES speak about a “time of the end,” and it clearly shows us we can know when planet earth has entered its very last phase.
This is one of the most important - most overlooked - prophecies in the Bible. And it’s such a good topic that . . .
. . . we’re going to spend two nights on it. Part two is on Saturday night.
Then on Sunday night, we’re going to look at the Second Coming of Christ in a message called “The Appearing”. What will it actually be like the day that Jesus comes? Right now, you can walk into any Christian bookstore and find dozens of books on the Second Coming, but there seem to be wildly different ideas as to what the Second Coming will look like.
So what we’re going to do on Sunday night is deal in certainties: we’ll look at five things we can know for sure about the Second Coming, and it’s a picture I think you’re going to find amazing.
Tonight’s topic: the Battle of Armageddon. Tonight will be very practical - we’re going to look at key principles of prophetic interpretation, and then we’re going to apply them to Revelation 16.
Prayer
Prayer
Let’s pray: “Heavenly Father, I want to thank you again for the privilege of opening a Bible and having the freedom to read it. Thank you for the people who are here tonight to study Your Word. I ask that You would take a coal from heaven’s altar and touch my lips, so that I could be faithful in sharing Your thoughts instead of mine. And tonight, when we hear You speak, we promise that we will follow - for we ask it in Jesus’ name, amen.”
Armageddon: it’s a word I KNOW you’ve heard before. You hear about it in the movies - and on the news - and it scares a lot of people.
But nobody’s quite sure what it means. When people hear about “Armageddon,” it conjures up a lot of different images. Over the years, we’ve asked people what “Armageddon” means, and we’ve gotten all KINDS of different answers.
In fact, a friend of mine actually did a survey and asked people one simple question: “What is Armageddon?” And you wouldn’t believe the answers he got.
Some people said that Armageddon is going to be a great military conflict that takes place when Russia teams up with the Arab states to attack Israel, and with recent activities in the Middle East, this is a theory that is enjoying some popularity again - when Putin got involved in Syria, people really sat up and took notice.
It was also really popular during the First Gulf War, when Saddam Hussein said that he was going to drop SCUD missiles on Jerusalem, and there were rumors that he was trying to rebuild the ancient city of Babylon.
This is a very popular idea . . . but it’s not the only one on the block.
There are other people who say that Armageddon is going to be a nuclear disaster. This was really popular during the Cold War, when people were living in fear of some lunatic finally pushing the big red button and ending life as we know it.
And of course, the Cold War is over, and the Soviet Union imploded - but when we discovered that rogue states like Iran and North Korea have nuclear programs, it kind of bolstered this theory in some people’s minds.
Some people are worried about the tensions between Pakistan and India, because they’re BOTH nuclear nations. And other people are worried about terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS, who might just get their hands on nuclear material and walk into New York City with a dirty bomb.
Some people say that Armageddon is a nuclear catastrophe - and if it’s not outright nuclear war, it might be a nuclear accident - like what happened at Fukushima or Chernobyl, but only bigger.
And again, it’s not the only idea on the block . . .
Some people are pointing to overpopulation, and they talk about how a shortage of food and water could lead to a worldwide crisis. People will literally start fighting for survival, and it will go worldwide.
And if you think about it, maybe they have a point. It took thousands of years for the earth’s population to hit one billion people. It only took another 100 years to hit two billion. Now it only takes a few years to add a billion people - and by the year 2050, some say we might have as many as 11 billion people competing for limited natural resources—though others estimate global fertility rates will decline and population growth may stagnate in the 8 or 9 billion range.
Could overpopulation and its resulting fight for resources be the start of Armageddon? Some people think so - but again, it’s not the only idea on the block:
Some people say that Armageddon starts with a global pandemic - a superbug that we’re powerless to control. It will be something like Ebola or SARS or COVID, only worse.
Maybe you’ve noticed that Hollywood is tapping into this fear all the time. In recent years, they’ve made more and more movies about global pandemics: 28 Days Later - The Stand - I Am Legend. They all have one thing in common: a disease that changes and absolutely destroys the human race - and the survivors are pitted against the victims in an epic battle for survival.
And of course, those are just zombie movies, but they DO highlight this collective fear we have that someday, we’re going to be powerless to treat disease. Hospital deaths from drug-resistant bacteria have risen sevenfold in the last few years. The miracle of antibiotics is less of a miracle with every passing day, because we overused them, and now the bugs have learned how to survive.
So some people say Armageddon hits when medical science fails us. But again, it’s not the only idea - not by a long shot:
Some people say Armageddon is going to happen when an asteroid smashes into the planet, and they point to all these massive craters as proof that it’s happened in the past. If a big one hits, we’re going to have nuclear winter, and a breakdown in human civilization.
Maybe you remember that Hollywood made a movie about this a few years ago, starring Bruce Willis. There was an asteroid headed for earth, and they sent up astronauts to try and blow it up before it hit. Guess what they called that movie? Armageddon.
But of course, it would never happen, right? Scientists have ruled out one large asteroid named Apophis that they thought might hit the earth in 2029. They’re now saying that the earth is safe from asteroid collision for the next 100 years. Except for the reality of all the asteroids that are yet to be tracked. In 2018 space.com reported there are an estimated 17,000 asteroids that could come close to or hit the earth that we have yet to track. In fact, we’ve only been able to track some 8,000 of the roughly 25,000 objects that intersect with earth’s orbit—that leaves two thirds unaccounted for.
And even if a rock DOESN’T hit the planet, some people are still worried about drastic changes to the weather. Some people say it won’t be a rock; they say its global warming - climate change. The ice caps are melting, and the ocean is going to flood the coastal cities - and who knows what kind of pandemonium THAT’S going to cause?
Everybody out there seems to have a different opinion, but they all have one thing in common: this uneasy sense that it’s no longer business as usual here on planet earth.
Maybe you remember how people thought the end would come in 2012 - and they pointed to a Mayan calendar as proof, because it reached the end of its cycle on Dec 21, 2012. Other people pointed to Nostradamus, who supposedly predicted that something really BAD was going to happen that year - and of course, it... didn’t.
Go back to 1999, and you’ll remember some people predicted global catastrophe when the clocks rolled over to the year 2000. Remember the Y2K crisis? People said that computers wouldn’t be able to handle it, and the power grid would go down, and medical equipment would fail, and we’d all be thrown back into the Dark Ages - and we’d need martial law to survive.
Other people say that Armageddon happens when aliens invade our planet - and they point to the “Battle of Los Angeles” back in 1940 when mysterious lights suddenly appeared over the California coast, and the army actually fired on them. Given the fact that it was 1940, it was probably the Japanese, but facts seldom stop a conspiracy theory.
So we’ve got people who are absolutely convinced that the world’s leaders are actually “reptilians” - reptile aliens disguised as human beings - and they’re waiting for the war of the worlds to start.
There are hundreds of theories - ask twenty people what Armageddon is, and you’ll get twenty different answers. We asked the question in the streets of Brazil once, and we even had a man say, “Oh! Armageddon! I know what THAT is! It’s that new cream for athlete’s foot!”
Everybody has a different opinion, and you KNOW they can’t ALL be right. So the question is, what IS Armageddon? Out of all those theories, is there a right one? Is there any way that YOU can know what it means?
And here’s another question: does it matter? Is Armageddon even something that you need to think about?
Well, let me ask this: if it DIDN’T matter, do you think that God would put it in the Bible? Do you think He would feature it so prominently if it wasn’t important?
Probably not.
So why is it there? Does God use Bible prophecy just to scare people? Just to make them afraid to step out of line?
I think you already know the answer: of COURSE NOT. There’s no question that Bible prophecy deals with some really sober subjects - it doesn’t sugarcoat the future. It doesn’t gloss over the huge disaster we created when we chose to rebel against God.
The Bible tells it like it is - it shows us our REAL condition. But then God always holds out hope. He says, “Here - this is what you look like, and this is where you’re headed - but I’ve got something better. I have a solution.”
And that’s the part nobody ever seems to talk about. We love to scare people - we love to make movies about the end of the world, but we always seem to skip right past the part that God wants all of us to understand: Revelation actually speaks peace!
He’s telling us what’s going to happen because He cares. And somehow, all these books on Bible prophecy seem to miss that.
And maybe that’s because we’ve forgotten HOW to study this stuff. Our ancestors in the Christian faith knew about it, but in the last few generations, we’ve lost track of the basic principles.
For hundreds - even thousands - of years, there was actually widespread agreement on Bible prophecy. And then, about 160 years ago, we started adopting all these divergent theories, and now we have a lot of confusion.
And like you might expect, when people SEE a hundred different theories, they throw up their hands and give up. “Obviously, it can’t be all that important!” or, “it’s too complicated for most people to understand.”
But the thing is, it is important. If Bible prophecy isn’t important, then the BIBLE isn’t important, because a HUGE portion of the Bible IS prophecy. There’s no getting around it:
Something like 1 out of 8 verses in the New Testament makes reference to the Second Coming of Jesus or alludes to it.
The famous preacher Dwight L. Moody once sat down to count all the mentions of the Second Coming in the Bible, and he found more than 2,500.
Biblically speaking, the Second Coming is a VERY important subject - it’s kind of the central point - the grand climax. Bible prophecy is not a small subject.
And I know what you’re thinking: “I’ve met SO many people who get into Bible prophecy, and then they lose their minds! It makes them crazy!”
I agree - I’ve met those people, too. Some of them are really scary. But did the BIBLE do that to them, or were they kind of going off the rails BEFORE they got their hands on the book of Revelation?
I don’t know if you’ve read Billy Graham’s autobiography - Just As I Am - but if you have, you might remember an unbelievable story near the beginning of that book.
When Billy Graham was a kid, his mother decided that she was going to read the book of Revelation - she found it fascinating. But when her pastor found out, he rushed over to the house and urged her to stop reading it.
“Mrs. Graham, why in the world are you reading THAT book?”
“Well, it’s because it describes the return of Jesus, and when I read it, it gives me a lot of hope.”
“Well, I want you to stop, Mrs. Graham.”
“Whatever for?”
“Well, it’s because * if you keep reading that book, you’ll go crazy!”
Now why would he say that? It’s probably because he’d met a lot of unstable people who read Bible prophecy and then started acting weird. And I’m guessing you’ve met them, too . . .
. . . people like David Koresh. There’s no question he was drawing inspiration from the book of Revelation. He thought he was a sinful Messiah, and a lot of people got hurt.
But let me ask you: was the problem Bible prophecy, or was the problem David Koresh?
What about Charlie Manson? Back in 1969, he WANTED to start the battle of Armageddon in the streets of Los Angeles. It’s the reason he murdered Sharon Tate. And obviously, he was NUTS. Just listen to his parole hearings, and it becomes obvious.
But again, was the problem Bible prophecy, or was the problem Charlie Manson?
Is it possible, that even WITHOUT the Bible, the world would still have people like David Koresh and Charles Manson?
Of course we would! The non-Christian world ALSO has these kinds of problems.
Famous atheists like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins are always blaming religion and the Bible for the violence in our world - but the problem isn’t God - and the problem isn’t the Bible - the problem is PEOPLE.
Let me ask you: if the Bible is the problem, then why has the worst violence in the history of the planet been perpetrated by people who DON’T read the Bible?
Stalin killed millions. Hitler killed millions. Pol Pot killed about a million. And they didn’t use the Bible to do it. It had nothing to do with the book of Revelation.
Folks, the problem isn’t God, the problem is PEOPLE.
And it’s perfectly SAFE to read the book of Revelation. In fact, let me show you something: God WANTS you to read it, and He WANTS you to understand it . . .
Pay attention carefully as we read this verse, because this is important.
Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near. (Revelation 1:3)
Did you catch that? If you read the book of Revelation, God guarantees that He’s going to bless you for it. In fact, He blesses three specific things:
He says that He’ll bless you if you READ it, and in the original context, that actually means read it out loud and share it with other people!
And He says that He’ll bless you if you HEAR it - and that means more than letting it bounce off your eardrums. It’s kind of like your mother used to say, “Do you HEAR me?” In other words, “Do you UNDERSTAND me?”
And then He says that He’ll bless you if you “KEEP those things” that are written in the book, which means He’ll bless you if you live by what you learn.
Now let me ask you: does that sound like God doesn’t want you to read this? Of course not.
But you’ll still hear people saying that you CAN’T understand, because the book of Revelation is a “sealed” book that nobody will ever understand. But the book itself says THAT’S not true, either.
Listen to this - this is down at the end of the book. The angel is talking to John:
10 And he said to me, “Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand.
According to the book of Revelation itself, did God seal the book - yes or no?
No, He didn’t.
Look at the very NAME of the book of Revelation. In the original Greek, it’s “APOCALYPSIS,” and it means “the unveiling” - “the revealing.”
It’s not called “the concealment,” it’s not called “the hidden book,” it’s not called “the mystery of the ages,” it’s called “Revelation” - the revealing.
There is no question that God intends for YOU to understand what is in this book. You CAN understand Revelation, and you CAN understand the book of Daniel. In fact, Jesus once said that explicitly…
This is Jesus, speaking to His disciples about last-day events.
15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand),
Whoever reads, let him what? Understand!
Do you see it? Jesus fully expected you to understand.
So here’s the question of the night: if GOD wants you to understand it, then why do so many people have trouble?
I remember when I first started reading the book of Revelation. It was weird: it had candles, and churches, and bowls full of the wrath of God, and a strange beast crawling up out of the sea - and honestly, it didn’t make much sense.
It was hard.
But the reason it was hard is because most of us have lost track of basic principles - stuff that everybody used to know. Maybe it’s because Christianity has become consumer-based in the 21st century - we want to be entertained, and it’s been a long time since Christians, as a body, have had to do deep Bible study.
I don’t know. But I DO know this: as you and I get closer to the Second Coming of Christ, it’s going to become more and more important to understand this stuff. Don’t forget: one of the biggest themes in Bible prophecy is deception, and the only way to NOT be deceived is to KNOW what this book says.
So tonight, if you’ve never seen them, let me give you just a few basic principles that will bring the book of Revelation to life.
Principle number one: always make an effort to explore the history surrounding a passage. For example, when you’re reading Matthew chapter 24, it really helps to know that Titus came in AD 70 and destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem. That’s called historical context.
Principle number two: you also want to read what comes before and after a passage to make sure that you’re understanding the intended meaning of the author. If you DON’T do that, it’s really easy to take a passage OUT of context and make it say something the author never intended. Several times I’ve heard a sound-bite from a politician in the news and then gone back and listened to the whole speech and thought, “they totally missed that person’s meaning!"
Let me give you an example, and it’s kind of a famous one. There’s a verse in the Bible that says, “Judas hanged himself.” That’s a biblical and historical fact. And if you go to another passage of the New Testament, you’ll find Jesus saying, “Go and do thou likewise.”
Now what would happen if you lifted those two verses OUT of context and strung them together? You would get a theological disaster, and somebody’s going to get hurt.
So you always want to read what comes before and after a passage you’re dealing with.
And principle number three: not only do you want to read the chapter and book, you want to read the WHOLE Bible. Always weigh the meaning of a passage against the weight of evidence found all through the Bible. If your interpretation is right, it should agree with all the other authors in the Bible.
I guess what it boils down to is this: always read the WHOLE BIBLE. I know it’s a lot of work, but it’s the only way you can be absolutely sure that you’re getting it right. And, to be honest, it’s not so much work that everyone couldn’t do it. In fact, my eight year old daughter is working her way through the Bible. If the average reader spent just 15 minutes a day reading the Bible, they would read the Bible from cover to cover in less than a year.
Let me give you an example of what happens when you DON’T read the whole thing.
Let’s say that I wrote this letter to my spouse. “Dear Joelle, I wanted to see you today. I am so irritated, because my car broke down at 1 p.m. and now I will not see you. Love, Jason”
It’s kind of sad, right? It demonstrates that I REALLY wanted to be there, but I can’t.
Now let’s suppose that I give this letter to a kid who promises to deliver it to my spouse, but he drops it in a puddle, and some of the words are wiped out:
"Dear Joelle,
I wanted to see you today, I am so irritate… at .... you.
… Jason”
It completely changes the meaning.
If you don’t read the whole thing, you’ll always get the wrong idea. And the same thing happens if you don’t read the WHOLE Bible: you almost ALWAYS get the wrong idea. I’m not saying you have to read and understand every word in the whole Bible before you can understand anything in prophecy. I’m just saying that you can’t just take a part of a sentence, or even a paragraph and come up with your own conclusion. You need to study that statement or paragraph in the broader context of the chapter, and book of the Bible, as well as in comparison with what other writers in the Bible say about the same subject.
This is why guys like Richard Dawkins grow to hate God. They read PARTS of the Bible - the hard parts - the parts that deal with war, and violence - but that’s ALL they read. Or at least, it’s all they’re willing to talk about. They rip it out of context to paint a horrible picture of God, but it’s only part of the story.
And if you only tell PART of the story, you’re probably going to get the WRONG story. Here: let me give you a real-life example of how this happens . . .
Back in 1910, a preacher by the name of George W. Hensley read THIS verse in the book of Mark.
18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
Now that’s a REAL verse. That’s a promise that Jesus made to the disciples. “If you happen to get bit by a snake while you’re working for Me, you’re going to be fine!”
But Pastor Hensley read it differently - he took it as a command: you SHALL take up serpents.
And so that’s what he did. He brought a big box of snakes to his meeting, and he dumped it out on the floor, and he told people to pick them up and handle them, because their faith would keep them safe.
It was the beginning of the snake handler movement, and every year, somebody always gets hurt. Why? Because they didn’t have enough faith? No, because they didn’t read the whole Bible and get the context.
They SHOULD have read the stories of Jesus. They should have read about the devil tempting Jesus in the wilderness.
“C’mon, Jesus, throw yourself off the Temple. Nothing’s going to happen; the Bible says that angels will come and take care of you!”
Now, you should probably notice that the devil knows how to quote the Bible. He’s probably spent more time reading it than all of us put together - and he can make it say just about anything he wants . . . if he takes it out of context.
So notice what Jesus said to the devil when he suggested to throw himself off the temple as an act of faith:
7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”
Jesus puts it back in context. He compares the devil’s suggestion to the rest of the Bible, and He points out the difference between FAITH and PRESUMPTION - and He makes it absolutely clear: the only safe place to stand is an “It is written.”
Does that make sense? Good. Let me show you another principle found in the book of Isaiah.
God is dealing with a rebellious nation of Israel, and He describes how He chooses to speak to people. Back in verse 9, He asks, “Whom shall He teach knowledge? and whom shall He make to understand doctrine?” And this is the answer in verse 10:
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little.”
There’s a basic principle here: God doesn’t always give you ALL the information, all at once. Sometimes, He feeds it to us in bite-sized pieces so that we can digest it easily: “precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, and there a little.”
So YOUR job is to go and get all the pieces. Read the WHOLE Bible and look at all the lines. Study all the precepts. Gather all the information, and then make a decision based on the weight of the evidence.
It’s kind of like doing a jigsaw puzzle: you can’t really see the big picture until you’ve put all the pieces together. So before you make a decision, read the WHOLE BOOK. Put the puzzle together.
It’s really just that simple. Now, there are just two more principles that I’ll share with you, and then we’ll practice using them in Revelation 16.
The first one is really going to make a difference - this might be the most important principle you learn tonight: roughly two-thirds of the language John uses in the book of Revelation is borrowed from other parts of the Bible.
If you read something in Revelation, and it doesn’t make sense, look for that same language, or that same symbol, in the rest of the Bible - and more often than not, the other passage will spell it out.
This is particularly true of the book of Daniel. It’s kind of a companion book to Revelation. If you find something in Revelation that doesn’t make sense, look for it in the book of Daniel - and if something in Daniel doesn’t make sense, look for the same symbols in the book of Revelation.
So, quickly, here are the big principles we’ve learned:
One: always read the whole Bible - the whole book, the whole chapter - and get the context.
Two: always let the Bible explain itself.
Okay - now we’re going to take those principles and put them into practice. We’re going to study the battle of Armageddon . . .
You find it in Revelation 16, and I really want you to pay attention to the details.
emphasis bolded portions
12 Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared.
13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
Now I want you to remember these three characters, because they’re going to prove to be very important for our study later on: the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet.
14 For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
15 (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”)
Read through first sentence, pause and ask:
Does anybody know who comes as a thief? Jesus! This is a reference to the Second Coming.
Finish reading, click and keep reading.
16 And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
So there you have it: the battle of Armageddon. But what does it mean?
Well, let’s examine the evidence and make a list of the things we already know:
We know that it’s describing a global spiritual deception, because the “spirits of demons” go into all the world performing miraculous signs.
We also know that it talks about kings who come from the east.
It mentions the Euphrates River drying up.
It has somebody who says, “I come as a thief,” and we know - from the rest of the Bible - that’s a clear reference to the Second Coming.
And then it has this strange word, “Armageddon.” For some reason, John suddenly switches to the Hebrew language, even though the rest of the book is written in Greek. For ONE WORD, he goes to his native tongue.
And THAT Hebrew word is a very important clue . . .
It’s actually a compound word: it’s “Har Megiddon,” and it literally means “the mountain of Megiddo.”
So why would John mention “the mountain of Megiddo”? Let me show you something very important:
Megiddo is a small valley in the north of Israel, about 20 miles long, and its bordered by three prominent mountains.
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You’ve got Carmel to the north, which is where Elijah had his famous contest with the priests of Baal. All of Israel had started worshipping pagan gods, and the prophet Elijah calls them back on the top of Mount Carmel. It's a showdown between the faith of the Bible and religious confusion.
Down to the southeast, you’ve got Mount Tabor, a mountain that many Bible scholars believe is the place where Jesus was miraculously transformed into His glorious appearance. Have you heard of the Mount of Transfiguration? This is where it probably happened.
And on that day, not only was Jesus suddenly transformed into a glorious appearance, there were two important people who appeared right next to him. You had Moses - someone who had already died, and Elijah, who went straight to heaven without HAVING to die.
This mount of transfiguration experience was a small picture - a tiny glimpse - of the Second Coming.
And then, farther south, you have Mount Gilboa, which is the place where Saul went to visit a spirit medium, against God’s instructions. It’s a place where you have overtones of the spirits of demons working miracles.
So in a way, the stories that happened on all three mountains kind of make sense when you read the 16th chapter of Revelation.
Historically speaking, Megiddo is a VERY important place.
It was the crossroads of the ancient world. If you wanted to go from Africa to Europe, chances were, you would pass through this valley. You could also take a road to the Middle East. It was a place with a lot of traffic, and as a result, it was also a place where a LOT of armies met.
This was the scene of a lot of violence.
It was here that Deborah and Barak defeated the armies of Sisera.
It was also here that Joshua defeated the kings of Canaan.
And those were physical battles with real armies, but it was also a place where people fought spiritual wars.
It was in a place called Endor, over on the eastern edge of the valley, that Saul visited a spirit medium and ended up losing his life because of it.
And it was up to the north, on Mount Carmel, that Elijah had his showdown with the priests of Baal.
Megiddo is a place of conflict, and it’s a place of decision.
So here’s the big question:
Why does John mention THIS place in the book of Revelation? What is God trying to tell us?
Well, when you compile all the evidence and look at it, it becomes obvious. John is pointing us back to some stories in the Old Testament in order to make a point.
And which stories is he pointing to?
Tonight, I want to take you back in time a little more than 2,500 years to visit ancient Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar is already dead, and his grandson Belshazzar is on the throne.
And unfortunately, Belshazzar is a slacker. He’s not half the man his grandfather was, and he absolutely does NOT believe in the God of Israel. We know, from Daniel chapter 4, that Nebuchadnezzar died a believer in God, but that didn’t make a difference in his grandson, Belshazzar’s life.
It only goes to prove that God does NOT have any grandchildren. You have to have your OWN faith. Let’s read the story now, from Daniel chapter 5 - and I really want you to pay attention to details:
slides x 2 (vessels)
1 Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and drank wine in the presence of the thousand. 2 While he tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave the command to bring the gold and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple which had been in Jerusalem, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.
The young king is throwing a party - and of course, LOTS of kings threw parties - but this one was different, because . . .
. . . there was a massive army from the EAST parked outside the city.
Now you’ve already studied Daniel chapter 2, so who do you think it was?
It was Cyrus, the Persian general - and that means it’s time for the chest and arms of silver to replace the head of gold. The time has come for the fulfillment of prophecy, but inside the city, Belshazzar doesn’t believe it:
“Conquer Babylon! Impossible! The walls are too high to climb, and they’re too thick to tunnel your way through. We have enough food inside the city for twenty years, and we have all the water we need for a lifetime, because the river Euphrates runs right under the wall and through the heart of the city.”
The Babylonians were so sure that nothing could possibly happen that some historical records actually have them throwing food off the city walls to taunt the Persians.
“You think we’re worried? Look! We have food to spare!”
And inside the city - just to prove a point - Belshazzar throws a party, because what could possibly be wrong if the king feels like partying? It was a matter of demonstrating confidence . . .
. . . and then, to REALLY make a point, he calls for his servants to bring in the spoils of war - the stuff that Nebuchadnezzar took on the battlefield.
“Look, just relax. Nobody can conquer us - look at all this stuff we have! Our gods are obviously bigger than anybody else’s - we even have the stuff from the Temple in Jerusalem.”
And then suddenly, the room falls quiet.
A bloodless, severed hand suddenly appears in the air and starts writing on the wall:
“MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.”
The room is quiet.
Nobody is shouting - nobody is bragging. The party is over.
The king is terrified: “What does it mean?”
So they call for the Chaldeans, completely forgetting that the Chaldeans were powerless when Nebuchadnezzar called for them. And then someone remembers Daniel. “Your majesty, there used to be a Hebrew prophet who dealt with this kind of stuff for your grandfather.”
“Go and get him!”
So they go and get Daniel, who is now an old man.
“Daniel, I understand you were able to interpret dreams for my grandfather. Can you tell me what THIS means?”
And of course, he could:
"Numbered, numbered, you are weighed in the balances and found wanting. Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
The dream of the statue was right. The head of gold was going to pass away, and the Persians had now arrived to take its place - right on schedule.
And that’s because nothing in this world is going to last forever. Eventually, it all comes to an end.
The last party will be finished. The last bar will be closed. The last investment scheme will be over, and the last lie will be told. The last political campaign will be fought, the last dishonest deal will be made.
And then it will be over.
Eventually, everything gets weighed in the balances, and GOD judges - not with our flawed human perspective, but through the lens of omnipotence and absolute truth. It’s all in the meaning of Daniel’s name: “God is my judge.”
The last moment comes for everybody.
And when it does - when it’s YOUR final moment, what is God going to find? That’s important to know, because I promise: you’re not going to fool God.
You might fool your neighbors, you might even fool the people at church. You can fool your coworkers, you can fool your friends, and you can fool your family. But I guarantee you’re not fooling God.
Eventually, you will have to OWN your life.
That was the night that Babylon fell, and let me tell you how it happened...
On his way to Babylon, Cyrus learned something valuable when he lost his favorite horse. He was crossing the Gyndes River when the current suddenly swept his horse away and it drowned. It made him so angry that he decided to destroy the river.
He made his army dig 180 channels on each side of the river, diverting so much of the water that eventually, the Gyndes River was only ankle-deep. “Now my GRANDMOTHER can cross this!” he said.
Then he arrived at Babylon, where the walls were too big for his army - and he noticed something VERY interesting. Way back when, in the early days of Babylon, a queen by the name of Semiramus wanted to go sailing, but she didn’t have a body of water big enough. So she diverted the Euphrates River into a shallow basin and created a man-made lake.
He could see where it happened, and all he had to do was open the channel one more time, and literally drain the river. When that was done, he had a virtual highway right into the city along the dried-up riverbed.
The only obstacle he faced was a line of walls down both sides of the river, with gates that locked. But that night, everybody was so drunk, they forgot to lock the gates, and Cyrus was able to march right into the city.
And here’s the remarkable part: it was all predicted in the book of Isaiah more than 100 years before Cyrus was even born. It even mentioned him by name. Listen to this:
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27 Who says to the deep, ‘Be dry! And I will dry up your rivers’; 28 Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, And he shall perform all My pleasure, Saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,” And to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.” ’
1 “Thus says the Lord to His anointed, To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held— To subdue nations before him And loose the armor of kings, To open before him the double doors, So that the gates will not be shut:
It was all predicted, well in advance: God NEVER gets it wrong. He really CAN see the end from the beginning. Now let’s review the details of the story . . .
In Daniel 5:
Cyrus (who comes from the east!) dries up the Euphrates River, so that:
the kings from the east - the Medes and the Persians - can march on the city of Babylon.
The book of Isaiah calls Cyrus “God’s anointed,” and the literal word in the Hebrew is “mashiyach” - Messiah. Not that Cyrus WAS the long-looked-for-Messiah; but that he would perform a role of deliverance by allowing Israel to return to Jerusalem. In a way he was a symbol for Jesus who would deliver mankind from sin.
And of course, after the conquest of Babylon, God’s people are able to return to the Promised Land.
Now look at all the evidence, and it SHOULD be ringing a bell for you. Let’s go back to Revelation 16 and read it again:
Read and emphasizing the details.
12 Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared.
The Bible is really the story of two cities, all the way from Genesis to Revelation. You’ve got Jerusalem, the city of God, and you’ve got Babylon, the city of religious confusion.
In the Old Testament, it’s two LITERAL cities, but in Bible prophecy, they are spiritual concepts.
John is using Babylon as a symbol for last-day religious confusion. The very word “Babylon” MEANS confusion. The root word is “BABEL,” and it’s where we get words like “baby,” which is someone who can’t speak clearly, and “babble,” which is what an ADULT does when he or she gets drunk.
John is telling the story of last-day SPIRITUAL Babylon, a city that no longer literally exists. And he makes that REALLY clear a few verses later. Here - let me show you a verse that we didn’t read earlier, and I think it will become obvious why it’s so important to read the whole thing:
Read the verse, and emphasize the word “Babylon.”
19 Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.
Do you see it? The battle of Armageddon isn’t REALLY about a tiny little valley in the Middle East. It’s USING that valley to describe last-day spiritual confusion. This isn’t a prophecy about Israel, it’s a prophecy about Babylon.
This is the story of God defeating last-day spiritual Babylon so that you and I can finally go to the heavenly Promised Land.
John is using the collapse of Babylon - the defeat of Babylon - to describe the ultimate collapse of all human government. This is a prophecy about God bringing human rebellion to an end. This is a parrallel prophecy to Daniel 2’s stone that crushed the metal image into dust.
And in this case, who do you think the King from the east is?
It’s Jesus. The real Messiah.
27 For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
The prophecy said, “I come as a thief.” This is the story of the Second Coming of Jesus. JESUS is the King who comes from the east. Cyrus was called “God’s anointed,” because he pointed forward to Jesus, who IS God’s anointed.
Do you realize what this means?
Armageddon isn’t really about a tiny piece of real estate. This is a conflict that involves the whole world, but that little valley of Magiddo is only 20 miles long.
This isn’t a battle in the middle east. This is a spiritual struggle. This is the human race wrestling with the lies of the “spirits of demons.”
It’s not about Russia. It’s not about Israel. This is actually about your heart.
That’s why it’s really about the MOUNTAIN of Megiddo, not the valley of Megiddo itself. Har Maggedon, means the Mountain of Megiddo.
Remember: there are three mountains.
You’ve got Mount Tabor - where the Transfiguration on the Mount takes place. It’s a tiny picture of the Second Coming of Christ.
You’ve got Mount Gilboa, where the Israelite king falls for the lies of the spirits of demons.
But then you’ve got Mount Carmel, and that’s the big one. Mount Carmel is the mountain of decision.
In this one little passage John is borrowing language from Isaiah, and Daniel and directing our minds to the the story of Elijah.
Remember: back in Elijah’s day, all of Israel was rebelling against God. They were worshipping Baal, because a pagan queen had married the king of Israel. And that illicit marriage between the truth and paganism led all of Israel astray.
So God calls a prophet to set things straight - because He ALWAYS calls a prophet - or even a prophetic movement - to call His people back.
And exercising the height of courage - taking his own life in his hands - Elijah marches up to the top of Carmel and challenges the priests of Baal to a showdown.
They build two altars, and the challenge is simple. Whichever god sends fire from heaven to burn the sacrifice is the TRUE god. So the priests of Baal went first. All day long, they prayed, and they sung, and they shouted, and they even cut themselves with knives to prove how sincere they were.
And nothing happened. Because Baal is not a real god.
At the end of the day, Elijah takes his turn. And to make it obvious that God is real, he even soaks his altar with water, making it even more impossible.
And then he simply prays - and fire falls down from heaven and actually consumes the whole altar.
That’s the story John wants you and me to remember - the showdown on the mountain of Megiddo. And the main point is what Elijah says at the end of the story:
21 And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word.
There’s the real issue. This is what John’s original audience in the first century would have been thinking when they heard about Armageddon. It’s not about real estate - it’s not about geopolitical issues. This is a battle for your heart - it’s a decision that comes to the whole human race, and tonight, it comes to you.
Tonight, it’s your turn to choose. This is a message from God’s heart to you, because He’s worried sick that when this world collapses, you’re going to go with it. He’s worried that when worldly kingdoms pass away, you’re still going to be clinging to them. That you’re going to be deceived by signs performed by spirits of demons.
So because He knows that heaven wouldn’t be the same without you, He’s asking you - right now - how long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him.
And you know, I can’t for the life of me think of a single good reason somebody WOULDN’T want Jesus.
Why wouldn’t you want Him?
He heals the sick. He identifies with the poor, and the outcast, and the prostitute, and the leper.
The Bible says He “went around doing good.” And then He gave His life so that one day, YOU can beat death.
Armageddon is a prophecy about the final decisions being made on planet earth - and that includes YOUR decision. This is all about YOU - where you’re going to put your allegiance.
It’s a spiritual conflict, being waged right now for your heart and mind.
And after this mountain of decision moment, Jesus comes. Let me show you how the greatest battle in the universe finally ends:
Revelation 19:15-16
“Now I saw haven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges
“and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was
“clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white
“horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He himself treads the
Read through to “strike the nations.”
Let me pause right there. It says that Jesus has a sword coming out of His mouth. That’s the Word of God. Hebrews 4:12 says the Word of God is a sharp two-edged sword. And that means, when Jesus comes, it won’t matter what I said, it won’t matter what YOU said - it won’t even matter what your PASTOR said.
The only thing that matters on that day is the Word of God.
Finish reading, click and keep reading.
“winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
Wait a minute - God is angry?
Well of course He is! He has SEEN what sin and rebellion have done to you. He has seen the way you suffer. He has felt your pain, and He has noticed every tear you’ve ever shed. And He KNOWS it wasn’t supposed to be like this.
So of COURSE He’s angry about sin, because it’s caused untold pain. And the day that Jesus comes back, that all comes to an end.
So let me ask you again: what reason could you possibly have to say NO to Jesus?
Tonight, it’s time to make a decision . . . and maybe you’ve noticed, but we’re running out of time. The moment is now, and the decision is yours.
Let’s Pray
Let’s Pray
Prayer: “Father in heaven, it’s amazing how no detail has ever escaped Your attention - not even the future. And we can see that Jesus is coming soon, and tonight, we find ourselves on the mountain, faced with a decision. Where will we cast our allegiance?
“Tonight, our heads are all bowed, and our eyes are closed, but You can still see this room. And Lord, right now, we’re going to raise our hands so the angels can see it, too - if YOUR heart belongs to Jesus, just raise your hand and let heaven know. If your decision is the New Jerusalem, and not Babylon, then let them know.
“Lord, thank you for the people tonight who have chosen You. I know it’s putting a smile on Your face. These are the people Jesus will come for - and most of all, Lord, please come soon. For we pray it in Jesus’ name, amen.”
Thanks for coming - good night - we’ll see you tomorrow, when we study The Man Of Revelation.