[Steve Myers] What is Armageddon? There seems to be so many ideas out there written in books, we've seen movies with those titles. But most importantly, what does the Bible have to say about Armageddon?
Now when you think of that word, so oftentimes what comes to mind is the end—the end of the world, annihilation, total confusion, the world concluding, it is over. That's what most people think of when they think of Armageddon. And yet, that's not what your Bible says.
Did you know the word Armageddon is just mentioned one time in the Bible?
Revelation 16:16 —now here's what it says, it says, "He gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon." And so we have armies coming together at Armageddon. What are they doing here? Why are they coming together? Well, the armies are coming together for control. These armies want control of the world. And so as these armies come together, where are they coming together? They're coming together at Armageddon.
In the Hebrew, 'Armageddon' is actually two words (Har-megiddo). And those two words mean 'the hill (mountain) of Megiddo." And so instead of thinking of Armageddon as an event, we need to think of Armageddon as a place. What does the Bible say it's a place for? It says it's a place for gathering. Those armies are gathered together into the place of the hill of Megiddo. So it doesn't talk about a war being fought right there. It talks about the armies gathering there.
In fact, if we back up just a little bit it tells us very clearly in verse 14 that the kings of the earth and the whole world it says, "Gathered them together to the battle of that great day of God Almighty" (Revelation 16:14). And so technically instead of the battle being called Armageddon, that's where they're gathering. The battle is actually called in the Bible "the battle of that great day of God Almighty." That's the name of the battle. And it isn't at Armageddon—that's where the armies gather.
Where's the battle going to take place? Well, that battle is going to move—not at Armageddon—but from that gathering place to Jerusalem, where Jesus Christ is returning.
We can find that just a couple of chapters later in chapter 19, in verse 11 it talks about Jesus Christ coming and returning on a white horse. And as He returns it says, "The armies of heaven were with Him," down in verse 14 of chapter 19 (Revelation 19:11-14). And Christ then makes waste of those armies and quickly they are disposed of. And so that battle of the great day of God Almighty, Jesus Christ will totally annihilate those armies and He will finish that battle. And He will return to earth and establish His kingdom.
So when you think of Armageddon, instead of thinking the end, maybe what we ought to do is think of the beginning, think of the beginning because we find that we're going to have the beginning of peace. We're going to have the beginning of prosperity. We're going to have the beginning of the establishment of the government of God on earth. Finally, we'll have an end—we'll have an end to war. We'll have an end to jealousies. We'll have an end to all of those things that lead to conflict and we'll have the beginnings of peace.
That's what we can look forward to, the time when Jesus Christ returns and establishes the Kingdom of God.
