The Battle of Armageddon?

The battle to end all battles is supposed to be in the valley of Jezreel in the nation of Israel. Just ask those silly Futurists. But is that what the Bible really says.

12 The sixth angel poured his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. 13 And I saw, issuing from the mouth of the dragon and from the mouth of the beast and from the mouth of the false prophet, three foul spirits like frogs; 14 for they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. 15 (“Lo, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is he who is awake, keeping his garments that he may not go naked and be seen exposed!”) 16 And they assembled them at the place which is called in Hebrew Armageddon. Rev. 16:12-16

If this is your first time actually reading the prophecy, I’m sure it looks pretty weird, and a lot more obscure than you were led to believe.

The kings of the earth are assembled by three frog spirits, to a place called Armageddon. The first problem is that there is no place in the Hebrew called Armageddon. All scholars are pretty much agreed that this is a truncation of the Hebrew Har-Megedo. Har meaning mountain or large hill, and think that it refers to Tel Megiddo an archeological sight in modern Israel. Tels are the ruins of ancient towns on top of small hills. Megiddo overlooks the Jezreel Valley where all these Futurists commentators will tell you the last battle is to occur. However, did you see anything about a battle, up there in the text? It just says the kings are assembled there. Since when do kings fight battles? The last one that comes to mind was Henry V. Nothing is here about armies, nothing here about fighting. Just a warning that when we see this happening we need to keep your garments on. Meaning that we need to be spiritually ready to go.

We historicists teach that the River Euphrates represented the Ottoman Empire a.k.a, The Porte. This Empire fell apart during WW1, at which time most of the Porte was put under French or British mandates. In the 1950s and 1960s, these nations of the Middle East and North Africa one by one gained their independence.

Now speculation is always a dangerous thing to do. trying to figure out the prophecies before they are fulfilled is shown quite clearly in Church history as a fool’s errand. It is always best to wait for the newspapers or even the history books, before deciding what a prophecy meant. The information we have available today is often incomplete, and of course, could change.

So let’s just parse the word to get an understanding of what are we are looking for? Har means “mountain” so we need to look for someplace high and lifted up, either physically or socially. Megiddo means “to cut.” In Hebrew “cut” can mean to use a knife to make an incision, but it can also mean a division of troops. Archeologists tell us that Solomon kept a cut of troops (i.e. a division) at Megiddo. Ancient Megiddo was of strategic importance. It is literally at the crossroads of the ancient world. To travel between Asia, Europe, and Africa by land you must go past Megiddo. The other importance to Megiddo is that it was also a place of Baal worship, where the worshipers would ritually “cut” themselves.

And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. 1Kings 18:28

Two possibilities present themselves here. We are to be looking for someplace important or actually high and with military or religious significance. The only thing right this moment that seems to maybe fit the bill is the UN. But time will tell. Something else could just as easily pop up on the stage of history, as a gathering place for kings.