Word of Salvation – Vol. 26 No. 07 – November 1979

 

Harmageddon – The Last Struggle

 

Sermon by Rev. C. Vanderhorn on Rev. 16:16

Scripture Reading: Revelation 20

Psalter Hymnal: 184, 327, 76, 260, 135, 42, 444

 

Billy Graham said not all that long ago, “I don’t think the END will be that far away, I think it is very near”. You may agree or disagree – but when do you think the end of the world, as we know it now, will be?

Another 500 years, 200 years, 100 years, 50 years, 10 years, 5 years? We don’t really know do we! But you instinctively feel that it won’t be all that long. The way it goes with the population explosion, the shortage or food in 3rd world countries. The way it goes with pollution everywhere, the shortage of energy – you really think the end of it all is in sight.

We are by no means the first people to think so. Right from the day of the apostles, Christians have thought along this line.

The Christians in Thessalonica with all the persecution going on believed: in a few months time, at the very most a year, Jesus will come back and destroy our enemies, we won’t bother about work anymore. But they came home from a cold shower. Paul scolded them: No one knows when the Lord will return, it will be sudden and unexpected. In the meantime you better go back to work. If you don’t work you wont’ eat, there is no dole money for you.

In the Roman empire there was only one recognised religion. Everyone was expected to worship the emperor, Nero; he was the son of the gods! The Jews were tolerated as a necessary nuisance. The Christians were outlawed. In the year 64 A.D. many Christians died for their faith in Jesus. There was savage persecution in many parts of the Roman Empire.

The Church knew from the preaching of the Apostle that before Jesus would return a terrible struggle would take place between the Christian and Non Christian people.

They concluded; “The Lord’s return is around the corner.”

Whenever the Church of Jesus went through periods of persecution and suppression it thought that the last battle, the battle of Armageddon was near and that the Lord would come very soon.

In our times, the expectation of the last battle, the battle of Armageddon and the Lord’s speedy return is in the air.

— Jehovah Witnesses talk about it whenever they come to your door.

— Christadelphians make a big thing of it.

— David Wilkerson of Cross and Switchblade has received visions about the end.

— Hal Lindsey, Late Great Planet Earth, likes to speculate how biblical prophecy will be fulfilled at the end of times.

— We are thinking about the end too.

The “last things” is frequently the subject of Fellowship group discussions. You will have heard sermons about it. Maybe you have done some reading on the subject recently.

Much has been said and written about the book of Revelation – the things that are to take place. Much of it is useless, empty speculation that does not help the church of Jesus to understand the message of Revelation.

It certainly is a mysterious book. It is full of strange bold images.

— Mysterious number 666.

— The Dragon with 10 heads and the woman.

— The Beast and prostitute.

— The 1000 year reign of Christ.

— The battle of Armageddon.

— Babylon.

Do you take these things literally? Or do they symbolize something?

I believe that the message of Revelation MUST be understood not in a literal but in a symbolic way. It is a vision.

Another point…

When you read, of 7 angels, 7 trumpets, 7 bowls, an angel with a key and a chain, as in Rev.20, 4 different horses – don’t take them as events that must happen one after the other. Instead, read each of these portions of the book of Revelation as parallel accounts.

We read in Revelation about 4 horses, 7 angels, 7 trumpets, 7 bowls, Rev. 20. Each of these accounts takes us through the history of the church from the first coming of Jesus to the second coming of Jesus.

Let’s together look at one of these accounts to find out what happens. Take Rev.20. Before I say anything about it I want to make this point: we must read Rev.20 in the light of Gen.3:15 the struggle between the seed of the woman and the snake. A picture of this struggle keeps coming back throughout the Bible. What we read in Rev.20 is the last stage of that struggle.

Read Rev.20:1-3…

The vision we just read is about the period of the Kingdom of God – starting when Jesus was born and continuing to His second coming.

– The ‘Angel’ is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ.

– He alone has the key: “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.” Matthew 28:18. “He has the Key of death and of hell”. Rev.1:18.

– Jesus explicitly states that he has bound the strong. “But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his belongings unless he first binds up the strong man”. Matthew 12:28,29. These references, and there are many more, all speak of the same fact – binding, limiting, controlling the devil’s action.

This has already happened.

The liberating power of the gospel has been able to penetrate every country on earth – setting people free in the most unlikely places. The reason why the Devil, in a limited way, is allowed to continue is because God is very patient to all people whether they care for him or not.

Read Rev.20:4,5.

What did the apostle see in this vision? John was in the spirit, and what he saw in his vision was not necessarily with his eyes alone. He must have been able to look right through their bodies. He saw SOULS – These were “overcomers”, if we may call them such. Those who were faithful to the gospel. Promise after promise is given to the “overcomers”.

We just list two of these.

“If any man serve me, let him follow me, and where I am, there shall my servant be also”. John 12.

“To him who overcomes I will give the right to sit with me on my throne just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne”. Rev.3:21.

This being with Christ, sitting on the throne with Christ, ruling with Christ, is described as the first resurrection in the vision of John.

The point of the vision is that this first resurrection has already happened If you believe in Jesus then you’re raised to new life.

In Romans 6:1-4 Paul speaks about it in the clearest possible language; if you are united with Christ, if you are one with Christ, if you with all your heart believe in Christ then you have died with him and you have been raised with him to a new life. The resurrection John speaks of is the same as the resurrection Paul refers to. And that has already taken place.

Read Rev.20:7,8.

At the close of time, just before it, there will be a massive turning against Christ, Christians, the Christian Church.

It will be carefully inspired by the devil and Satan. The spirit of the antichrist has always been around, never far away. But for this last time his influence will be really spine-chilling.

Paul speaks about it in 2Thess.2:3-10…

The man of Lawlessness must come.

Son of destruction.

He displays Himself as God.

He takes God’s place.

The mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but it is restrained till now. Just before Jesus comes back this principle of antichristian lawlessness will fully emerge to rear its ugly head. This concentrated outrage against the gospel and God’s order of creation is what the battle of Armageddon is about.

Remember what I mentioned about parallel passages in Revelation. Well Rev.16:16, The battle of Armageddon is parallel to Rev.20:7,8. And it is not a physical battle in a certain locality somewhere with one army attacking another. Today battles are not fought on battle fields, but battles are fought with remote controlled missiles and nuclear warheads, destroying a whole city in a swoop.

The battle of Armageddon is a spiritual battle against the Kingdom of God and God’s order in creation.

This place where the Kings meet is in Hebrew called Armageddon – translated into English it means Mt.of Megiddo.

Near this mountain of Megiddo a number of historic battles where fought in the past…

— Deborah, the judge of Israel – fought with the Canaanites.

— Gideon – fought Amalekites

— Saul – fought the Philistines

― Josiah – fought Pharaoh Neco

― Manasseh – fought the Canaanites

Why should the name Armageddon appear to describe the last ferocious battle between the seed of the woman and the devil? The reason why has to do with the meaning of the name Megiddo it means attack, invade, penetrate by an enemy. So the battle of Armageddon is an enormous spiritual outburst of anger, frustration and hostility against God’s rule in the world.

Don’t think of it exclusively as the antichrist burning down churches and persecuting Christians. That is part of it but not the whole.

The battle of Armageddon will also be against God’s rule in creation. There is no better way to illustrate what this battle against God’s rule in creation means than with an example. Do these names mean anything to you…?

“The Animal Farm”, George Orwell

“1984”, George Orwell

“The Brave New World” Aldous Huxley

All three are pictures of a future world. If your memory is good you’ll see what happens there. There is a spiritual battle against God’s rule in creation when foetuses are chemically modified to make them suitable for special jobs and nothing else. There is a spiritual battle against God’s rule in creation when permanent relationship between man and wife are abolished. There is a spiritual battle against God’s rule in creation when sex is totally divorced from Love, when people are forbidden to have babies, when peoples behaviour is constantly modified through chemicals, when you are not free to be yourself, when everything people do is directly against God, love for God or your neighbour. A spiritual battle of universal proportions ― “Armageddon”. We are moving close to it with the governments of the world, becoming increasingly totalitarian.

Read Rev.20:10

The battle will end in defeat of all those spiritual forces when the “Lord” comes on the clouds of heaven.

wanted by few

expected by few

hoped for by few

But listen to the witness of Scripture about the outcome of the battle of Armageddon.

From Luke: “The same day that Lot left Sodom fire and sulphur rained from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.”

From Paul: “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels and blazing fire and punish those who do not know God.”.

From Peter: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, the elements will be destroyed but we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth – the home of the righteous.

The Lord Jesus, the King of God’s Kingdom will be victorious over the snake, the devil and all his subjects.

Let us pray and pray often, that this DAY may come soon.

But are you ready for this coming spiritual battle? Are you prepared for the pressure an antichristian society will put upon you? You overcome Satan by the Blood of the Lamb. Scripture warns us: many will drop out during this battle. If you have given your heart to the Lord you are in good hands, even then.

AMEN.