What Is Armageddon

The Bulletin gives away the title, What is Armageddon? It has nothing to do with Mother's Day weekend. Okay. I thought I would mention that, first of all.

What is Armageddon? I remember Melvin Rhodes, probably three years ago, referred to a bestseller that had just come out, written by Mark Stein. Some of you may be familiar with Mark Stein. He has written a number of books. He has a website. He's a conservative talk show host. He pinches for Rush Limbaugh sometimes. And the book that had just come out, I have not read this, but the title. The title was After America. The subtitle was Get Ready for Armageddon. Armageddon is a term that we hear. There are people around us oblivious to the peril in which we live. They do not have the same concern for where events are going, and they do not have the same hope that we have, looking to the kingdom of God. I pulled out of the Donson Memorial Library that is in my office. This is lesson 7 of the old 58 lesson Bible correspondence course. In my handwriting when I was young, it says November 1968. That's when I received it, because I started taking it that previous spring when I was 15 years old. But by this time I was 16, and I was going through them. It has a section here on what is Armageddon. Let me read from this. I forget who was the key author. Dr. Meredith's uncle, C. Paul Meredith, was highly involved. Dr. Hay was highly involved. But it says we are hearing more and more today about Armageddon. World leaders and scientists frequently use this term when they speak of the inevitability of nuclear warfare and the annihilation of mankind. Yet few know what Armageddon really is. World War I mentioned when World War I broke out. We are coming up on the 100th anniversary of the shot heard around the world. Can you imagine that? It was 1914. The 100th anniversary. What is that? June? Wasn't the first week or so of June? It was kind of like shooting an old black powder musket where you flint and spark and you wait for a little while and then finally the ball is shot out. So there was about a week time when all these domos were falling and the world ended up in what we know today as World War I, the Great War. And of course, there were those who proclaimed this is Armageddon. And then 20-30 years later, there were those when World War II broke out saying it was Armageddon and it was not. I want to go back to a prophetic area today. It's been a while since I've discussed an area of prophecy. Another quote, General MacArthur, Douglas MacArthur, the occasion there on September 2, 1941, on the deck of the USS Missouri, Tokyo Bay. The signing of the official papers of unconditional surrender and then he broadcast over the radio later. And part of his message was that we have had our last chance and few new war, as that man did. Then he said, if we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door. Some of us are old enough to remember that Ronald Reagan once in a while would refer to Armageddon. He certainly was a product of another age and had that on his mind from time to time.

Those around us either talk about Armageddon or put it out of their mind and ignore what it is. And the Church of God, as we read in Revelation, is given the testimony of Jesus Christ, which is the spirit of prophecy. And we've been given a framework of where things are going to go.

As we look at increasing tensions in the Ukraine, we have those looking there. Is this World War III? Well, it is not. I'm not a prophet, so I might be wrong. We don't know where it's going to go. But now, World War III, as we've understood it, is going to be this final clash between a European beast power and some forces to the east. And a lot has to happen first. But when we hear the word Armageddon, what does it mean to us? What is Armageddon? Armageddon is not the Great Tribulation. Now, let's turn to Revelation 6. And I think most of us are seasoned students of prophecies, so I'm going to make some assumptions here.

We realize that when Jesus spoke during His ministry from the Mount of Olives, we have what we've called the Olivet Prophecy. Matthew 24 was one chapter. You had parallel in Mark and in Luke. But the disciples came wanting to know what would be the signs of Your coming. And He began giving them one criterion after another. There would be false religion. And for 2,000 years we've seen that flourish and spread and proliferate around the world.

There would be wars and rumors of wars, He said. And that too. Some of those prophecies, some prophecies is what we've called telescoping, like a highway cone where it's small and then it telescopes, or a megaphone that a cheerleader's squad might use.

The further you go, the greater it expands, the greater the scope. And so warfare, it seems like it's the natural state of human nature, is to be at odds with and warring with other peoples who see things a little differently.

It brings in famines and it brings in pestilence and it brings in natural disasters. But then Jesus spoke to a time when there would be great tribulation. So let's look here in Revelation 6, verse 9. Here we're looking at the opening of seals. Revelation has the seven seals and we'll just break into number 5. Verse 9, when He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the Word of God and for the testimony which they held.

And they cried out with a loud voice saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth. Then a white robe was given to each of them, and it was said to them that they should rest a little longer until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed, as they were, was completed.

The tribulation is the fulfillment of the fifth seal. Again, for sake of time, you know Jesus referred to it, Matthew 24, verses about 21-22. And that's where He said, unless the days were cut short, no flesh will be saved. And we know the Moffat translation says, no flesh will be saved alive. The tribulation... Boy, what a long listing we would get into if we tried to just enumerate everything that happens in that final three and a half years.

The final three and a half years, which is largely Satan's wrath upon humanity. Then the final year, that's the day of the Lord, which then you add on top of that God's wrath on rebellious humanity. The three and a half years, we have Satan's wrath, we have the fall of national Israel, we have the rise of a European system, a beast power, we have the flexing of the muscles of a false counterfeit church, we have the protection of the church, however God works that out, we have the work of two witnesses, or a list would go on and on and on if we would just focus on what happens during that final three and a half years.

But Armageddon does not equal the tribulation. Also, Armageddon does not equal the day of the Lord. It is not the same as the day of the Lord, or one of the prophets refers to it as the year of the Lord's recompense. That final year is God's wrath. So as we continue down, and chapter 6 is largely, it's one of the chronological areas, which most of Revelation falls into with insets here and there. But after, well, we just read about the fifth seal, then the sixth seal is open in verse 12, and this is referring to the heavenly signs. There was a great earthquake.

The sun became black as sackcloth of hair. The moon became like blood. Now, the latest good news I just received yesterday, there is a question and answer in the back on the four blood moons, the lunar tetra, that first day of Unleavened Bread was the first one, first day of Tabernacles, and then the same next year. And John Hagee and others are making a lot of money writing books about four blood moons. But, I mean, this has been predicted for so long. You can go to the NASA website, and they are easily calculated.

What's happening with lunar eclipses is not the heavenly signs. It is not. And we need to just realize that. But there is a time, though, you see, heavenly signs, when God Himself supernaturally and divinely intervenes in the affairs of human beings, and the very heavens themselves are shaken, and the sun will give her light, and the moon looks like blood. Stars of heaven fell to the earth. Well, but down to verse 17. Get through the sixth seal, and then the final seal isn't yet ahead. Verse 17, for the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand? Well, you have a little bit later.

Chapter 8 goes into the opening of the seventh seal, and it begins to open up the specter of seven trumpet plagues that take place during that final year. Then the final trumpet introduces seven final plagues or bowls of judgment that are poured out in the presence of the Lamb. So Armageddon is not the day of the Lord. It's not the day of the Lord. Armageddon also is not a battle of any kind. Now, the world is confused about that.

They refer to World War I. Oh, Armageddon's on us. World War I. People talk about, you know, if we don't change our ways, then Armageddon. MacArthur said Armageddon will light our door. But Armageddon is not a battle of any type. Armageddon is a staging point. It is a gathering place. A gathering for armies. The battle doesn't take place there, although many battles have taken place at that area around the little place called Megiddo. The armies gather there and move southward down towards Jerusalem, and that's where the battle of the great day of God Almighty takes place.

So Armageddon, in the biblical usage, and it's only you referred to one place in the Bible, Armageddon is not a battle. Let's go over to Revelation 16. And in chapter 16, we have gotten to the end of the trumpets. The seventh trumpet has sounded, and now we're having an explanation of the seven last plagues, or the seven bowls of judgment, depending on the translation that you have. Chapter 16, we have the various plagues that are poured out. And if we get down to verse 12, 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.

Well, there has been a historical precedent for that. If you remember the story of the fall of Babylon the first time, Cyrus and those of the Medes and the Persians, the forces under his control, actually diverted the waters of the Euphrates. It was, in that sense, dried up where it went through the city of Babylon, and the soldiers went in on the dry riverbeds.

And they had, of course, people inside opening gates so they could make it up into the city. And that's where Daniel chapter 5 ends. But there will be, that was a forerunner, there will be some type of a signal like the drying up of. I mean, this is probably, it's a different day and age, how warfare.

A river, a flood stage even, won't stop armies today. But that is a sign that these forces from the east are going to start moving. Now, it speaks of the three unclean spirits. Let's skip on down. Verse 14, they are the 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. So that's the name of the battle, the final battle, but it doesn't take place at the place called Armageddon. Let's look at verse 16. The one place, the only place, we have the word Armageddon in the Bible.

Verse 16, and they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon. Marginal note in my Bible, literally Mount Megiddo, a city in the Valley of Jezreel. Now, if you have in the back of your Bible a Bible map, I have one that's... I wish I was having trouble trying to get a few slides together to have up on the wall to point to. It just didn't work. I don't have a teenager in the house anymore, and so I go so far technologically and I hit a wall. But if you have something just showing like the Holy Land and the Days of the Kings, or the Days of Joshua, up here, if you can see this one, of course, Dead Sea, Jerusalem, but way up here, Sea of Galilee.

Okay, come down south and west from there, and you have this Valley of Jezreel or Plain of Esdrilon. Two names referring to the same area. You basically have this long valley from modern Haifa. If you look there, you've got Mount Carmel just above it.

You have that kind of that inlet, that cove that's where the city of Haifa is today. And if you're ever able to go there, along Plain up that valley toward the southeast, and about halfway across over toward the Jordan Valley, you've got a little, at least mine has a little dot called Megiddo. You can find, in fact, this whole correspondence course has some photos of it.

You have this long plain, and then there is largely this man-made mound out there. It's been built up and destroyed. In fact, there have been so many battles, approximately 34 battles, historians say, have been waged right there or in those environs. I've got a quote here from where it went. Napoleon, Bonaparte, even. Yeah, Napoleon. Looking at, see, remember, before he came to the fore, as he did later, the French army was through the Middle East.

He was down the Great Pyramids, went inside. That's when they were recognizing his military genius. He was up in the Holy Land. But he saw the Valley of Jezreel, and he said, it is, quote, the most natural battleground of the whole earth. So you have this mountain range below it. You have mountains like Mount Tabor just above it. Long plain, this cone-shaped mountain, heavily fortified. Mention a number of places in the Bible.

I'll refer to some of those here in just a moment. All right. But Har Megiddo, the Hebrew, the hill or the mount of Megiddo. I found online a quote from Professor Eric Klein wrote a book on the battles, plural, the battles of Armageddon. And he said, Armageddon is a corruption of the Hebrew, Har Megiddo. It literally means the Mount of Megiddo. Now, it is approximately 55 miles north, northwest from Jerusalem.

It is in an open plain. It is a very strategic plain. There is a pass that comes through the mountains to the south. Comes out at Megiddo. It has a long history. In fact, it was interesting to me that in doing a search a couple of days ago and did a search on battles at Megiddo, you know, Google search second thing listed was something from United Church of God. Wrong copy here. This is written by Gerald Ost. Just a little one-page article. And he refers to battles from back in the days of Egypt battling a Canaanite coalition at Kadesh. Thutmose III did battle right there. That goes back in the 1400s BC. He referred to some of the biblical. You have the story of Deborah and Barak and the battle. And you read Judges 4 and 5, especially the Song of Deborah, the latter part of chapter 5. And it will refer to the plains there near Megiddo. The big battle took place there. A couple of chapters later, or the next chapter, you've got the story of Gideon. And a great battle there was in this area of the Valley of Jezreel, plain of Esdrilon, city of Megiddo. You have a couple of tragedies that took place. King Saul and his sons were killed right in that area. Years later, King Josiah of Judah was killed right in that area in fighting against the forces of Pharaoh Niko of Egypt. So you've got a lot of biblical events take place there. But again, the ancient battle of Egypt, Thutmose III, and the Canaanites. And then you have, more recent times, you have World War I. The British forces under Edmund Allenby, General Allenby, fighting some of the remnants of the Ottoman Turkish Empire there. And it's interesting to read that Allenby studied the victory of Thutmose III so long before, followed some of the same patterns, and lo and behold, it worked again. Worked again. And then with the Israeli War of Independence in 1948, you also had a battle there. So one battle after another, again, historians feel, or they can identify 34 battles that took place right there.

Now, I've got too much material today, but I just dealt with a lot of it right there. Let's, I think it would be helpful for us to review some of the order of end-time events. Now, we can't start from all of that prophecy and come forward in a window of time. So let's pick it up with the Tribulation. The Tribulation will be the last three and a half years. There are people wanting to get bug-eyed about four blood moons for this lunar tetrod coming up, or that we're into now. Sorry, Tribulation hasn't started yet. Because while I read, it'll be a time of trouble beyond anything the world has ever dreamed of. So this lunar tetrod, and actually, you study those tetroids. Some of them who have written about that, there are over 100 evangelical ministries who have made a big thing out of them. And they'll look back at, well, Columbus discovered America in 1492, and then the next two years you had a lunar tetrod. Well, if it's after the fact, I don't know what it foreshadowed or predicted. With the Israeli War of Independence in 1948, the next two years you had a lunar tetrod. So again, it's after the fact. Six-day war, you had that in June 1967, and a lunar tetrod had just started. So there had been one in an oven bread, and there was to be another one, tabernacles, and two the next year. So, again, largely after the fact of the actual war. But the Tribulation is not the Day of the Lord, although it includes that last year. The Tribulation is not Armageddon. Let's go back to Matthew 24 this time. Matthew 24.

And we remember, verse 3, the disciples went to Jesus privately. Another count tells us it was Peter, James, John, and Andrew. They want to know the sign of your coming and the end of the age. And so he gives them false religion, wars, famine, pestilence, natural disasters, etc.

Verse 9. They will deliver you up to Tribulation and kill you. And you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. Then verse 21. For then there will be great Tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world unto this time known nor ever shall be.

Now, Luke's account adds the specter that you'll see Jerusalem surrounded by armies. Verse 22. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved. But for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened. So we do have the promise of God. He will not allow man to exterminate himself with the battles of the time of the end. The Tribulation. Now, what we have here, we probably have, we should view that as being dual. You're going to have the Tribulation largely upon national Israel, and then spiritual Israel of the church. So we have to remember that.

Let's, now, let me just refer to this Scripture.

Jeremiah 30, verse 7.

And I'll just read the key part. Jeremiah 30, verse 7, it says, It is the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it. Thank God for that. Jacob's name was changed to Israel, and you had the tribes of Israel. And the time such as the world has never seen will largely be upon those descendants of Israel toward the end, which, of course, means a lot more than the little country called Israel.

The Tribulation involves a national downfall of national Israel. It involves captivity for those who survive. We have prophecies that tell us that when Christ returns, the angels go and they regather the Israelites from the four corners of the earth. And the return of Christ is time to save Israel from being destroyed as a people completely. Now, let's go to Jeremiah 4. Jeremiah 4 is one of many examples. We could go to Isaiah. He talks about how your cities will be destroyed. But we have unpleasant prophecies to focus on. You and I are products of a nation that has largely ridden high on the earth for my whole lifetime. From the 50s and the 60s and the 70s all the way until times are changing. And it's not the country that veterans of World War II put their lives on line for. Things are changing. Jeremiah 4, he is seeing, he's actually there at Jerusalem with the House of Judah. He's seeing the Book of Lamentations. He writes about what he sees as it finally all comes crumbling down. But just notice some of the high points here. Jeremiah 4, oh my soul, my soul, I am pained in my very heart. My heart makes a noise in me. I cannot hold my peace because you have heard, oh my soul, the sound of the trump of the alarm of war. He understood what it meant when he heard that sound. Now let's skip a bit further. Verse 23, I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form and void. And the heavens, they had no light. You know, those without form and void, those are the same words that are used back in Genesis 1 as far as the earth, as God began to prepare the earth for the creation of life. It was without form and void. And once again, so much of the world is going to become that way. Verse 24, I beheld the mountains, and indeed they trembled, and the hills move back and forth. Who knows what all that may involve? I think we, you know, man has used every weapon he's ever devised in time. I fully expect the earth will see at least some type of limited nuclear exchange. I think that perhaps what happens to the nations of end time Israel will be so devastating. Of course, there are many other...you've got your EMPs, your electromagnetic pulse weapons. You've got conventional warfare, which is just horrible what man has now. Maybe it'll be so horrible that it seems like as you get the beast power and the east locking horns later, they hold back from some of the devastation. But the mountains tremble, the hills move back and forth. Verse 26, I beheld indeed the fruitful end was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down, and the presence of the Lord by his fierce anger. For thus says the Lord, the whole land shall be desolate. Yet I will not make a full end. For this shall the earth mourn, the heavens above be black.

The whole city shall flee from the noise of the horsemen and bowmen, and climb up on rocks. Every city shall be forsaken, and the man shall dwell in it. This is just one example of the warfare, the destruction, the devastation that this earth will see. As Satan, you see, the tribulation Satan the devil is pouring out his wrath upon humanity, who after all are created in the very image and likeness of God, and he knows where God's plan is going.

The tribulation. Alright, that's number one. Number two. You have conflict between the European beast system and the men of the east. Europe and the east. That's the biblical term. Europe and the east. Europe has been the key from the Middle Ages forward. We've had one resurrection after another of the remnants of the whole of the... Well, the Roman Empire then became the Holy Roman, the church-led, church-allied Roman Empire. And it rose up there in the days of Charlemagne, and it rose up there in the days of Otto, and the Hapsburgs, and Napoleon, and Mussolini, Hitler. And as we understand, there's one more to come. One more to come. Revelation 13, we couldn't even get started if we'd go there. But here John sees this beast coming out of the sea, representing this sea of mankind. And this beast with the seven heads and the ten horns. If you tie it in with Daniel, it's this composite beast. It has parts of all the above. You've got one head as Bible on, the next one's Medo-Persia, the next one's Greece. But remember, after Alexander, it actually became four different empires. It's Medo-4, and then you've got one that's unnamed by Daniel. But it doesn't take three guesses to come up with Rome. And so it has parts of all the above, but it's going to have these ten successive stages. And then there is this last one. There's one at the end that's going to rear its head. And Satan's going to build his house one more time. But Satan's going to build a house over among forces to the east as well.

We have some of the trumpet plagues of Revelation that describe, when you get to the last three, whoa, whoa, whoa. You've got a description of warfare as you have the European beast making the same mistake Napoleon made, the same mistake Hitler made. I mean, you study World War II, everything was going Hitler's way until he just couldn't stand it, and he had to send his army toward Russia. And the Russian winner, they came limping back. He lost so much there, Napoleon as well. And those of Europe are going to have to strike out toward the east one more time. But, you know, Revelation talks about there are numbers over there where ultimately you're going to have the fielding of a 200 million man army. There were those, I don't know if any of you served time, probably not old enough to have served time in Korea. But I've heard men who were there and essentially tell the story. You shoot one and twelve, stand up behind where he fell. Just the sheer numbers as the Chinese crossed the Yalu River. Just sheer numbers. So you have this conflict between the west and the east. And the west, by that I mean Europe, because Israel's going to be out of the way. Now, number three, we will have a time when the beast power invades the Holy Land. Let's go back to Matthew 24.

Matthew 24, and let's read verses 15 and 16. Verse 15, therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the Holy Place, who so reads, let him understand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Now, the abomination of desolation refers back to writings of Daniel. Daniel spoke of an abomination that maketh desolate. There is a historical forerunner. There was a time of Antiochus, as you follow it through Daniel 11, there is a time when Antiochus Epiphanes, Antiochus IV desecrated the Holy Land. You remember the story, extinguished the temple lights, killed pigs, caught the blood, spewed it everywhere through the Holy of Holies, placed a bust of Jupiter Olympus in the Holy of Holies. Of course, that led to, sometime later, the Maccabean family priests revolting under Judas and rekindling the lights, cleansing the temple, and restoring. But there was a time when the sacrifices were taken away. That will happen again. But also, we have...

Okay, I'm getting ahead of my story here.

We have here the beast invading the Holy Land. Remember the parallel of Count Luke? You will see armies surrounding Jerusalem. Then you know it's near. It's just about here.

Daniel 11, the end of the chapter.

Daniel 11, and remember this is that long continuous prophecy starting in the days of Daniel, all the way across history.

Gaps here and there, but he picks it up a little later. And in verse 40, at the time of the end, and this is where we're introduced to these power bases of King of the North, King of the South. Well, King of the South is about to meet their end.

King of the South shall attack him. The King of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind with chariots, horsemen, many ships. He shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through. He shall enter the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown. But he shall escape out of his hand, eat him, Moab, the prominent people of Ammon. There's a reason for that that we can't go into today. He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

Verse 44, but news from the east and the north shall trouble him. So, you see, we have at a time, we have a power base called the King of the North. And the last many times in history it's been in Europe. But we have some type of a power base to the south. And we're still left to ponder and to puzzle, who is it, what is it? We used to have it all figured out, and then Gamal Abdul Nasser died on us down in Egypt. So it wasn't him, but Egypt has often been a key. Some type of a coalition, maybe it's a religion. Maybe it's a religion. But there will be a battle between north and south. And the south is going to get run over by Butch Creek. Well, then, verse 44, news from the east and the north shall trouble him. Therefore, he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many. He shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain. Yet he shall come to his end, and no one will help him. Well, the beast invades Palestine.

Before we leave that thought, let's notice verse number four is that the false prophet sets himself up as if he is God. Second Thessalonians 2.

So, again, we're giving kind of a survey, an overview of some of the events of the order. And we've got to go way down there until we get to anything around Megiddo. But Megiddo is just a gathering place for an army. The false prophet sets himself up as God. False prophet is a term from Revelation. The beast, then you have the image of the beast. You have this false prophet. At the end, it says the beast and the false prophet are thrown into the lake of fire. So, this chapter is important. Second Thessalonians 2, verse 3. Let no one deceive you by any means. And there's a warning for us. Keep our nose in the board of God. Keep the framework of prophecy close at hand.

There will be those who will try to get us to derail us, get us looking in the wrong places.

For that day will not come unless a falling away comes first. And the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Now that leads us to the question, at the time of the end, will there be a temple rebuilt, or will there be a holy place? Apparently, it's difficult to nail it down from the Greek word that is used. We do know there will be the restoration of sacrifices, and that denotes a holy place. But this man of sin, the son of perdition, will have a place where he is seated and is viewed as being God on earth, seeking and receiving worship. Do you not remember that when I was still with you? I told you these things. Let's go to verse 8, Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming. Alright, that's as far as we'll read there. But a religious leader, a Christian, we should say, religious leader, proclaims himself as being God on the earth, and we are getting well into the tribulation. Number 5, we have the heavenly signs occur. Let's look at Joel 2. Joel 2.

And we will read verses 30 through 32.

Joel 2. He has just spoken of the time when God would pour out His Spirit on all flesh. Verse 32, And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke, The sun shall be turned into darkness. Now, Mr. Holiday in the newsletter recently reminded us of back in, when was it? The volcano there at Krakatoa. Colored the sunsets of the world for so many years. And then the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. So this is right down the wire. We're getting down toward the end of the tribulation. The day of the Lord is that last year, and there are heavenly signs, divine interventions, that take place where the heavens themselves are shaken. The earth is shaken. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls. And thank God there will be a remnant who will be spared. So, heavenly signs, sixth seal, take place. It introduces the day of the Lord, the time of God's wrath, to intervene in human affairs, so humanity does not destroy itself from the earth.

Number 6, the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord commences.

Let's check again Matthew 24.

Matthew 24 verses 29 and 30 this time.

This ties together the two. The heavenly signs and the day of the Lord. Verse 29, immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be dark and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from heaven, the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven. And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And then it goes on to the angels, the sound of that final trumpet and the gathering of the elect. The day of the Lord. We read earlier the last verse in Revelation 6. After the heavenly signs, the day of the Lord is coming. And so the day of the Lord is God's wrath. The seventh seal then opens up in the seven trumpet plagues, described in Revelation 8 and 9. The final trumpet plague announces the kingdoms of this world, or become the kingdoms of a God and of His Christ, it will reign forever and ever. But it also introduces seven final plagues, final bowls of judgment. First four on the creation, latter three on humanity. All right, the day of the Lord commences, but as we get toward the end of those trumpet plagues, we have even greater conflict between some of the great power bases of the earth. Number seven, the beast attacks the east. I'll just use those terms. The beast, power base in Europe, will attack toward the east. How far east? We can only imagine, but you have vast numbers in China and India and in so many countries over there.

Revelation 9.

Revelation 9. And here, we break into the point of the fifth trumpet plague sounding, and that's the first woe.

Star falls from heaven.

All right, verse 3. Revelation 9. Verse 3, locusts came out of the earth. To them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They weren't to touch the grass, the green things, the trees of the earth.

Only touch those who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. Verse 5, they were not given authority to kill them, those who were sealed of God. But to torment them five months, their torment was like the torment, I think, I should say more in general, humanity surviving to this point. Torment was like the torment of a scorpion, and it strikes a man. And that does not feel good, if you've ever been stung by a scorpion. In those days, men will seek death and will not find it. Well, again, I won't follow all the way through here. It goes on describing John in his day, describing probably things he saw in vision he could not understand. And so he talks about locusts, and he talks about crowns of something like gold, and faces like face of men, and hair like women's hair, and teeth like lion's teeth, and breastplates of iron. And he talks about the sound of their wings, like the sound of chariots, which John would be familiar with.

And, verse 11, they had a king over them. The angel of the bottle of spit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek his name Apollyon. One law is passed. Again, as we have all through our decades in the church, as the church has pieced it together, and I believe we're spot on. We're looking here at a time when the power from Europe is going to attack toward the east. But then, it's not going to be a knockout blow. And those of the east are going to counter-attack, and that's where we come to the sixth trumpet plague, the second woe. And so that's number eight. Number seven was the beast attacks the east. Number eight, the men of the east counter-attack. And that's where we go here. Verse 13, sixth angel sounded. Verse 14, release the four angels that are bound with the great river Euphrates. Euphrates there in Mesopotamia seems to be kind of a dividing line between west and east. And whatever has been held back is going to be freed up to come charge again. The end of verse 15, they were released to kill a third of mankind. Verse 16, the number of the army of the horsemen was 200 million.

Again, describes what he sees with his own limited experience. The plagues that are poured out. Verse 20, the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent or worked their hands, that they should not worship demons, etc. So you have number eight, the men of the east counter-attack. We have sheer numbers. And the warfare described seems to indicate more of a conventional type rather than thermonuclear or EMP or whatever. Maybe the world had a feel of it a bit earlier. We have a lot of little nations that are run over. The beast has already gone down through the Middle East, and now you're going to have those from the east coming in. You're going to have these little nations just run over. You've got minor prophets, and some of the major prophets talk about Syria and Palestine, the Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, and they just get run over. This will be what we could truly call World War III. And I understand there are those out there who essentially they're projecting we're coming up to World War IV or V, depending on how you would consider that. Okay, then we get to point number 9, and that's where we have the remnants of man's armies gathering at Megiddo.

Because there is this threat from out of this world, literally, they see the sign of the returning Christ. And those forces that remain who have been locked in battle with each other are going to recognize we've got bigger problems. There's something coming from out of this world. Now, my entire life, and you go back further, I don't know if any of you remember, maybe some of you were living whenever, who was it, wrote that story, went out over the radio without a disclaimer. Orson Welles. The Martians, and all the description it went through. For our entire lifetimes, we've been programmed that there will come this attack from somewhere out there in space. And I believe we're programmed by Satan the Devil that humanity will recognize a threat from without and they'll forget about their differences and whatever they have, they're going to turn it against the returning Jesus Christ and the angelic host to no avail. We read the end of the book and man loses. God wins. And hopefully in the end, man wins as well. We read Revelation 16 already. They gathered at the Valley of Jezreel, also known as the Plain of Esrail on it. Jezreel one direction is kind of a higher point and then the other way you've got another river going down toward the Jordan River and that's the Plain of Esrail on it. The valley of Jezreel, the area of Magetta, will be a staging point, a gathering point. But the armies won't stay there. They'll move down toward Jerusalem to battle the returning Jesus Christ. Now, we're getting there. Forces of the East and the Beast combined decide the returning Christ. Number 10, Christ destroys the armies of man. Christ destroys the armies of man. Now, Armageddon, we just skipped over it fast. It was just a staging point. They're going to move down toward Jerusalem. The Valley of Jehoshaphat is where it's prophesied that blood will run up to the horses' bridle. Now, Kedron Valley, east of the Temple Mount, or between the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives, way up in the far northern reach of that valley is a little village called Shefat. And generally, it's guesstimated that probably that valley is the valley of Jehoshaphat. But wherever there'll be blood running through the horses' bridles, and that's a lot of blood, a lot of bloodshed. Zephaniah 1. I should have given you that half hour ago to find. Zephaniah 1.

Go backward. Malachi, Zechariah, Haggai, Zephaniah. Zephaniah 1. Verse 14. Verse 14, The great day of the Lord is near, yet is near, and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter, and the mighty men shall cry out. That day is the day of wrath, the day of trouble and distress, the day of devastation and desolation, the day of darkness and gloominess, the day of clouds and thick darkness. The day of trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities against the high towers. I will bring distress upon men, they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the eternal Lord God. Their blood shall be poured out like dust, their flesh like refuse. Zephaniah 2. Verse 2. Before the decree is issued, or the day passes like chaff, before the Lord's fierce anger comes upon you, before the day the Lord's anger comes upon you. Seeketh all that you make of the earth. Zechariah 14. Zechariah 14. Just before Malachi. Last book of the Old Testament. Zechariah 14. Verse 1. Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. I will gather all nations to battle against Jerusalem. The city shall be taken, the houses rifled, the women ravished. Half the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go and fight against those nations as he fights in the day of battle. You can follow this story on down. His feet stand on the Mount of Olives. You get further down there. Verse 12. This is a plague with which the Lord will strike the people who fought against Jerusalem. And it says, Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet. Apparently Christ returns with the glory, the big dimmer switch turned way up. And they are in the presence of the glorified Jesus Christ. Their eyes dissolve in their sockets. Tons shall dissolve in their mouths. And, anyhow, fighting one against another. And that leads us to number 11, which is number last. Yay! We got there! Christ reigns from Jerusalem. The kingdom of God begins. Remember Daniel's... well, Nebuchadnezzar's image and Daniel's interpretation that God gave him. All the way back to Daniel 2. These four... the series of four ruling empires. That image he saw, Daniel said, You, Nebuchadnezzar, are the head of gold. Then there would be this band of silver, the Middle Persian, the bronze. All the way down to the legs of iron, the feet with iron mixed with miry clay. But you see, that chapter is not just about four kingdoms. It's about five. There was a stone cut without hands that dashes the feet of that image and it all crumbles. And that stone becomes a great mountain, representing the kingdom of God. And Jesus Christ reigning forever and ever. Let's close in Luke 21.

We live toward the end of time.

I know that people for thousands of years have thought that, but we have to think that too. As Paul wrote there to Romans, he says, Now it is closer, is nearer, than when we first believed. And it certainly is. But the climax that society may erroneously refer to as Armageddon, may be just over the horizon. Jesus had spoken in all that prophecy about the Gospel being preached all the world. He had warned the church, the elect, beware, don't you be deceived. But notice here toward the end of Luke 21. Luke 21 verse 34, There's a warning there. There is so much going on out there. We had earthquakes in where? Pakistan and Mexico this week. We had, it was kind of sobering, my brother and I, sitting there in our motel room one morning. Had Fox News on, and here's a wildfire in Logan County, Oklahoma. We had a fire in the middle of the day. We had a fire in the middle of the day. Here's a wildfire in Logan County, Oklahoma, which is most famous for what? I was born there. I own a piece of a farm there. So I'm checking, okay, oh good. Gave Seward Road and whatnot, and I said good. It's a dozen miles from my sister and the farm.

So much going on out there. It's easy for people to look in all the wrong places. Yeah, I'm interested in the NFL Draft, too. But let us not follow the draft at the expense of keeping our eyes on what's going on in the world around us.

Lest your hearts be weighted down with carousing, drunkenness and cares of this life in that day come on you unexpectedly, for it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore and pray always that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things. That will come to pass and to stand before the Son of God. So be vigilant, be awake, stay aware, keep your nose in the Word of God, not only for instruction on how to live, but also to know what's coming at us. Study and pray and ask God that you be counted worthy to escape. Have a wonderful Sabbath, everyone, and enjoy your potluck!