A fascination with the end-of-the-world propelled this verse into the forefront of our cultural consciousness. Bruce Willis' 1998 move, 'Armageddon' brought in over $200M at the domestic box office. From the WWF to our common lexicon, the word 'Armageddon' is embedded deep into our way of life.
But what is it? Do Christians truly understand Armageddon?
Armageddon literally means 'Mt. Megiddo' and Megiddo is a site in modern day Israel. It is actually a valley where many famous battles occurred. The first major battle was with the Egyptian king, Thutmose III who fought against the Canaanites in 1468BC. The last battle was in AD 1917 with the British conquest of Palestine.
There is no Mountain named Megiddo; however nearby is Mt. Carmel, where Elijah fought the prophets of Baal. History records dozens of locations for this end-of-the-world battle. From the Mississippi river valley, to the Ukraine, France and different locations in the Middle East.
While some commentators have done extensive work to show the specific geographical location of this final battle, others see it in more symbolic terms -the decisive battle where God defeats His enemies.
My opinion is that the geography and lexical clues are sufficiently vague enough to warrant much humility on identifying a specific location. However the point of Revelation 16v16 is to show that God will triumph over his enemies. Whether God does this in a battle that takes place in France, the Ukraine or in Wisconsin -really doesn't matter..., what matters is that God's Team Wins!
2 comments:
How nice it is that we are on the winning side!
When I was in Israel in 2008, we visited the site called the Valley of Meggido. Even after all these thousands of years of development in Israel, this area remains a large open field, which I find amazing! It's as if the field is sitting there just waiting for the Battle of Armageddon to start!
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