What Is
ARMAGEDDON?
by Herbert W. Armstrong
Just what is
"Armageddon"? Will it be World War III? Will the armies of the
WE HEAR a great deal, nowadays, about
"Armageddon." Yet few know what it is!
Like most other topics of Biblical
prophecy, what is popularly taught on this subject has been accepted without
question by nearly everyone. And, as in most other questions, the people
have
been turned away from the truth and have unthinkingly
embraced fables.
When World War I first broke out, many
began excitedly to proclaim: This is the Armageddon war!" Again, many
confidently proclaimed that World War II was the war that would end at
Armageddon.
A popular conception now is that
Armageddon" is the prophesied last battle of a coming war between the
democratic Western World and Communist Russia. It will supposedly be a battle
between atheistic Communist Russia on the one side, attacking
And at the precise instant of this final
colossal battle, the second coining of Christ is to occur.
But is this common conception true?
What IS "Armageddon"?
The word "Armageddon," strange
as it may seem, occurs only once in all the Bible It is found in
Revelation 16:16. Let's look at it. Begin with the 13th verse of this chapter:
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon,
and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
For they are the spirits of demons, working miracles, which go forth unto the
kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle
of the great day of God Almighty. (Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he
that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest lie walk naked and they see his
shame.) And he [another translation is "they'' I gathered them
together, into a place called in the Hebrew tongue, ARMAGEDDON [marginal
reading "Har Magedon"]."
First, notice that "Armageddon"
is a Hebrew word, not an English word. Actually, the Hebrew word is
"Har Magedon" or "Har Megiddo." In the Hebrew, the H's are
usually not pronounced, and so are often omitted in the spelling in English.
The Hebrew prefix "Har" means
"fortified," or "fortified hill." Between World War I and
World War II the British fortified
Secondly, notice the battle in question is actually
stirred up, no, by men or nations alone, but by spirits - three
spirits - and they are unclean spirits or demon spirits. (The word
"devils" in the King James Version ought to be rendered demons.) These
spirits INFLUENCE" the leaders of the nations - deceiving them - stirring
them to this battle. These unclean spirits come out of the mouths of the
DRAGON, the BEAST, and the FALSE PROPHET. What is the Bible definition of these
three powers?
The Three Unclean Spirits
The DRAGON is interpreted by the Bible as
the devil or Satan (Rev. 12:9). The BEAST according to the Bible is the political
leader of the Babylonish system, pictured in Daniel 7, Revelation 13 and
17. The BEAST is yet to appear in
The FALSE PROPHET is the religious or
ecclesiastical leader who shall, in the near future, be associated in a
mutual working agreement with this final restoration of the
The three unclean spirits come out of the
mouths of these three - the devil, the "beast" and the "false
prophet." In I Kings
"
And now, thirdly, notice the NAME
of the battle to which the spirits cause the armies of the nations to be
gathered. This is most important! The text does not speak of any "BATTLE
of Armageddon" at all! It is the "BATTLE OF THE GREAT DAY OF GOD
ALMIGHTY."
"ARMAGEDDON" is the place where
the armies gather. But the
The "Great Day of God Almighty"
is, of course, the great "DAY of the LORD" as it is spoken of in so
many prophecies in both Old and New Testament Scriptures. And what is the
"Day of the Eternal"?
"The great day of the Eternal is near
that day is a day of WRATH, a day of trouble and distress, a day of waste-ness
and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds
and thick darkness" ( Zephaniah 1:14.15). "The day of the Eternal's
anger" we read in Zeph. 2:2.
Notice that the battle of the Great Day of
God Almighty comes as a climax to a time when the whole earth has been rendered
waste and desolate by the wholesale destruction of war.
"Alas for the day! for the day of the
Eternal is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it
come.'' The Almighty sends it! It is the Great Day of God Almighty! It is a day
of DESTRUCTION - and God sends the destruction!
"Behold, the day of the Eternal
cometh . . . For I will gather all nations against
Is It the TRIBULATION?
Is this Great Day of the Eternal, then,
the prophesied "Great Tribulation"?
No! It follows the Great
Tribulation. Notice Joel 2: 31: "The sun shall be turned into darkness,
and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible DAY OF THE
ETERNAL come." The DAY OF THE ETERNAL is the time of the plagues sent
from God. It is the time of His WRATH, the time of his supernatural intervening
in this wholesale slaughter and destruction by man. But God will not send this
PUNISHMENT upon a sinning world until lie has WARNED THEM. First, He will send
terrific supernatural SIGNS in the sun, the moon and the stars. There shall be
great tidal waves, earthquakes, convulsions of nature that shall throw men -
who know not God and these prophecies - into frantic terror, thinking the
"WORLD IS COMING TO AN END" (Rev. 6:12 - 17; Luke 21:25 - 26).
All this follows the Great
Tribulation. You will find the final Great Tribulation described in Matthew 24.
(Remember, the tribulation during the Dark Ages was merely a forerunner of this
AGE-END GREAT TRIBULATION.) Notice verse 29, of Matthew 24: "IMMEDIATELY
AFTER the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon
shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers
of the heavens shall be shaken."
First comes the
Tribulation; then supernatural signs; then the Day of the Lord.
Notice this same sequence described in Revelation 6:12-17. In this scripture
the Day of the Eternal is the Day of God's WRATH.
"PEACE!" to be Proclaimed
Now notice an amazing fact, revealed by a
New Testament prophecy - a fact very few have grasped! It is found in I Thes.
5:1 - 3.
"But of the times and the seasons, brethren"
- notice that Paul is writing to the "brethren" - "ye have no
need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that THE DAY OF THE
LORD so cometh as a thief in the night."
Paul is not speaking of the second coming
of Christ, but of the "day of the Lord" - the time of the
DESTRUCTION God will send upon sinners to separate them from their sins. Now
continue the prophecy:
"For when they" - the word
"they" refers to the leaders and rulers of the world. Paul is writing
to the brethren about the affairs of this present world - "when they shall
say PEACE and safety; then sudden DESTRUCTION cometh upon them, as travail upon
a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
Notice. It shall come suddenly, unexpectedly.
It is the time prophesied by Isaiah: "Howl ye:
for the DAY OF THE ETERNAL. is at hand; it shall come as
a destruction from the Almighty . . Behold the DAY OF THE ETERNAL cometh,
cruel both with WRATH and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and He shall
destroy the sinners thereof out of it. . . and I will
punish the world for their evil" (Isaiah 13:6-11).
First, "THEY" - the world rulers
- shall proclaim PEACE! and safety! Just before the
terrible DAY OF THE LORD. "Peace!" is to be proclaimed. There shall be
no real peace, but world rulers shall proclaim it! And
then what? And then, as soon as PEACE is proclaimed, then the sudden
DESTRUCTION of the plagues of the DAY OF THE ETERNAL shall fall upon them. That
is the time of GOD'S wrath.
Great Tribulation Conies First
The "Great Tribulation" must
come PRIOR to the DAY OF THE LORD. Immediately after the Tribulation,
said Jesus, the terrible supernatural signs shall occur - in the sun, the moon,
the stars earthquakes, tidal waves, convulsions of nature. These catastrophic
occurrences in nature are to occur before the DAY OF THE ETERNAL (Joel
But what is the "Great Tribulation''?
Most people have taken it for granted that
the Tribulation is the time of God's wrath - the DAY OF THE ETERNAL. But it is not.
It precedes the Day of the Eternal. Jesus' Oliver prophecy explains
it. This prophecy reveals the succession of events up to now. The disciples had
asked Jesus what would be the sign of His coming, and of the end of the age
(Mat. 24:3). And He had replied that first would come false preachers proclaiming
a false gospel, yet coming in the name of Christ; then wars culminating in the
present series of World Wars and the Cold War - kingdom and nation against one
another; third, famines; fourth, pestilence's. These are just beginning to
stalk the world.
"All these," said Jesus,
"are the beginning of Sorrows." Then what next?
"Then shall they deliver you up to be
afflicted, and shall kill you," Jesus foretold. "And ye shall be
hated of all nations for my name's sake" (Mat. 24:9).
Notice, Jesus used two pronouns -
"THEY" and "YOU." "Then THEY shall deliver YOU up to
be afflicted, and shall KILL you." Remember this: In New Testament
language the pronoun "YOU," unless otherwise clearly defined, refers
either to truly converted CHRISTIANS, or to NATIONAL
In this particular case, comparison with
the account in Mark 13 and Luke 21 makes it evident that Jesus used this
pronoun in a DUAL sense, including both Spirit-begotten CHRISTIANS and
flesh-born Israelites as nations!
The limited national trouble which
befell
This is described more plainly in modern
English in the Moffatt translation of Luke's account of this same prophecy:
"For sore anguish will come upon the land and wrath upon this people; they
will fall by the edge of the sword, they will be carried prisoners to all
nations, and Jerusalem will be under the heel of the Gentiles TILL the Times of
the Gentiles expire" (Luke 21:23-24)
This is speaking of WAR - of national invasion
and captivity. The CLIMACTIC MAJOR fulfilment of this prophecy is YET to occur,
just shortly before the Day of the Eternal's WRATH.
This is speaking of the final GREAT
Tribulation. It will be a time of WAR and national INVASION and CAPTIVITY of
God's nation
The Great
Tribulation is not, as so many erroneously assume, the time of God's wrath. It
is the time of Satan's wrath. The Great Tribulation is Satan's last persecution
and martyrdom against the true begotten sons of GOD.
Notice that the tribulation, the next
prophesied major occurrence, is to come when "ye therefore shall
see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the
holy place" (Mat. 24:15). This is described in Luke's account of this same
prophecy as "
So, together with the martyrdom of
Christians and the invasion of
When our people - who are called War-mongers
by the Gentiles - have been defeated and taken into slavery, then the Gentiles
will be proclaiming "PEACE!" But there will be no real peace! Notice
what happens after the three and one-half years of tribulation when the
Gentiles will be deluded into thinking "peace" and
"safety":
For Satan's fiendish persecution and
martyrdom of God's saints, GOD shall take vengeance. God will step in and
supernaturally intervene.
First, as a WARNING, shall come the terrible SIGNS! - signs in
the sun, the moon, the stars - the convulsions of the earth and the heavens
(Mat. 24:29).
And then shall follow the DAY OF
THE LORD!
The DAY OF THE ETERNAL will quickly come -
the time of God's wrath - the time of the PLAGUES. The "trumpet"
plagues and the "Seven last plagues" are God's judgment upon
the great ecclesiastical empire ruled by the false prophet. This false system
is the power which caused the martyrdom of saints in ages past; this is the
power that will line up with the revival of the
TEN Nations to Unite in
This great ecclesiastical system is
pictured as a fallen woman astride the "beast." This woman is called
"
The "beast" which the woman
rides is the
The fascist armies,
remember, will have poured into
During their reign, the true Word of God
will not he permitted to be preached ( Amos
And now notice!
"These" - these newly crowned
kings forming the revived
Christ is the "Lamb." But He
does not appear as "Lord of lords, and King of
kings" until His SECOND COMING!
Then Comes God's Wrath
Jesus shall come at the outpouring of the
seven last plagues of the DAY OF THE LORD - the very climax of the great
and terrible "day." He shall come at the time when God's final
judgments are being poured out upon this fornicating ecclesiastical system.
At that time Jesus Christ shall return to
RULE! "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and
of His Christ; and HE SHALL REIGN FOREVER!" (
But the "beast" and the
"false prophet" shall FIGHT against Christ! They shall fight
desperately to retain their foul system.
And the
Who shall fight whom? Will
Note it!
"And I saw the beast [the coming
fascist dictator in
Then who compose these armies? Just one
Scripture tells: "When the Son of man shall come in His glory,
and all the holy angels with Him . . ." (Mat. 25:31). The HOLY
ANGLES from heaven are Christ's army! A SPIRITUAL host is coming
to take over! It is CHRIST and the ANGLES that fight the wilful rebellion of
mortal men.
"And the beast was taken, and with
him the false prophet . . . These both were cast alive into a lake of fire
burning with brimstone" (Rev. 19:20).
THAT is the "
It shall mark the turning point in history
- the beginning of PEACE - real PEACE on earth, and good will toward
men!