This name appears only once in the Bible in Revelation 16:16 with the pouring of the sixth angel’s bowl of Elohim’s wrath on the world.  It is a word that is synonymous with the last military conflict of the present age.

The name is derived from the Hebrew words “Har Megiddo” meaning “Hill of Megiddo”.  The only place known by this name is about fifty miles north and a little west of Jerusalem on the plains of Esdralon overlooked by the hills of Megiddo.  It was, in Bible times, the scene of many bloody battles the most famous of which is the confrontation between Gideon and his 300 men versus the vast hordes of Midian (Judges 7:1 - 25).

In fact, that ancient altercation is a type of the on – coming global conflict.  On the one hand, little Israel was pitted against the numberless Midian hordes. Only by the express intervention of the divine did Israel prevail. Also, the name “Gideon” means “sword of God” and thus “Armageddon” carries with it the significance of the presence of the power of God with all his angelical hosts on the battle field in defense of His people, Israel. Midian, on the other hand, is representative of the collective forces of the nations that will come against Israel at the end of the Age.

What are some of the reasons for this coming global war?

Several reasons come to mind:

a) Because of Israel’s apostasy rebellion and sin, God visited his wrath upon the Jews for a time–span of 2,520 years, beginning with the Babylonian exile in 606 BC and ending in 1914 AD.  During this extended period of chastisement, the Jews found themselves subject first to the Babylonians, then to the Romans and finally, to the Mohammedans.  The royal crown of Judah was cast down three times (Ezekiel 21:27). Similarly, the Gentiles (who are equally guilty of rebellion and sin) must also suffer three times to even the score (Jeremiah 51: 24, Jeremiah 25: 15 – 17).  If God punished Israel (the Jews) for idolatry, then divine justice demands that the same cup of wrath be administered to the idolatrous Gentiles too.  The divine principle:  “For the Jew first, then for the Gentile too…” holds true (compare with Romans 1:16).

So, beginning with the First World War in 1914 to 1918, the Gentiles have drunk from the cup of divine wrath twice (the second sip being the Second World War that was fought between 1939 and 1945).  We can therefore say that God has avenged Himself on the atrocities committed against his people by the Babylonians and the Romans.However, He still has to administer the third sip from the cup of his wrath by avenging Himself against the Mohammedans.  This future retribution will be the Third World War (or Armageddon) and will chiefly target the Arabs (i.e the Mohammedans). Please read Isaiah 63: 1 -3, Isaiah 34: 4 -5, and Joel 3: 1-4, 19 e.t.c.

b) The second reason for Armageddon is linked to the first. It is stated in Joel 3:1-4. Elohim is gathering the nations to the Valley of Jehoshaphat (which name means “The Lord Judges” in the Hebrew tongue). But why is this judgment being visited on the Gentiles?  The prophet Joel states two reasons:

i)  “…for they scattered the people among the nations and;

ii) … divided up my land.” 

Is the Gentile world guilty?   The answer is an emphatic YES on both accounts.  First, the Jews today are to be found in almost all countries of the world due to the Babylonian, Roman and Mohammedan dispersions. It is also true that they have, over the years been persecuted, dispossessed, and ordered out of virtually every European nation into which they sought refuge in their millennia long wanderings. These scatterings are well documented, for example, in Acts 18:2, we are told that the Roman Emperor Claudius had ordered the Jews out of Rome. Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain similarly drove the Jews out of that country in 1492 in a very cruel purge that is known in history as the Spanish Inquisition. This Anti-Semitic pattern is repeated over and over again in Russian pogroms, Polish ghettoes, Siberian gulags and even the 20th century Nazi Holocaust. For Jews, it has meant constant movement without any real rest. Yes, the Gentiles are guilty of scattering Elohim's people all over the earth.

Secondly, the current sliver of land called the State of Israel is but a small fraction of the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This modern Jewish state covers a paltry 22,000 square kilometers. Says the Bible: “On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites…” (Genesis 15: 18 – 21).  This divine promise was later repeated to Isaac and Jacob (Exodus 32: 13).

Going by the Biblically appointed boundaries, it becomes quite clear that large chunks of present day Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Egypt are actually Israeli territory.  The whole of Lebanon is part of Israel!  However, the Arabs (who by the way, occupy a whopping 13 million square kilometers of territorial land mass!) are not even content with this massive land grab, they want to further carve out of Israel another Arab state to be called Palestine (the name coming from the Roman Emperor Hadrian in his 135AD attempt to obliterate the name of Jerusalem and Israel from the map. Though the Philistines were a minority in that kingdom of ancient Israel, Hadrian in his virulent hatred of the Jews adopted the name 'Palestine' rather than use the Biblical name Israel). This anti-Semitic streak was taken up by the British in continuing this Latin name during their 1917 to 1947 League of Nations ordained Mandate over the Holy Land).

The Arabs are further claiming that Jerusalem (which they call Al–Quds) is to be the capital city of their “future Palestinian State”.According to the Prophet Nehemiah however, the Arabs “… have no share, or any claim or historic right to Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:20).

In fact, whereas the Bible mentions Jerusalem 806 times, the Koran mentions none of the 16 Arabic names for Jerusalem. Not even once!

How is it then, that such patently ancient Israeli towns such as Bethlehem, Jericho and Hebron are now claimed to be Palestinian?It is this Arab affront and total disregard for Bible geography that fuels Elohim’s fury against the children of Ishmael (Ezekiel 24: 28, Obadiah 18, Malachi 3: 1-4).  And so divine judgment on Edom and all that support him appears inescapable. The Arabs, by the way, occupy a whopping 13 million square kilometers of territorial land mass, from the Atlantic seaboard of Morocco all across north Africa and into the Arabian peninsula, the all the way to the Persian Gulf! Given this implacable hatred and injustice how can these people escape divine wrath?

c) The third reason for Armageddon is fueled by mankind’s pride as manifested through the philosophy of humanism, the anti–Christ spirit and humans generally operating as if there is no “God that rules over the kingdoms of men” ( Daniel 4: 25 – 26).  Mankind is today guilty of Nebuchadnezzar’s sin, and so like the proud Babylonian king, they will be brought to a position of acknowledging that Heaven rules.

Through the so-called “theory of evolution” – they have edited God Almighty (the Creator) out of his own creation. The Apostle Paul puts it this way “… the wrath of God is revealed from heaven  against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness…because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God has shewed it unto them…For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse…for although they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful but became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools… (Romans 1:18-22). .  Therefore the lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of mankind brought low. In that Day, only God shall be exalted as mankind is force-fed humble pie.

Through the cesspool of humanism they are now destroying divine institutions like marriage and family, the divine codes of living in such areas like diet, dressing, human interrelationships, morality and worship. Mankind now worships at the altar of a god called science. They have encroached onto forbidden territory and are interfering with the biological make–up of animals and plants through genetic engineering, stem cell research, Artificial Intelligence, creation of humanoids and other biological aberrations etc. They are also busy creating deadly biological weapons such as the HIV AIDS Virus, the SARS Virus and the recent Wunan Corona Virus currently ravaging China. They are bent on becoming gods and upsetting the divinely ordained geophysical and ecological balance of nature among many other schemes. In today’s generation, the words of Solomon could not ring more true: “…this only, have I found. God made mankind upright, but they have gone in search of many schemes” (Ecclesiastes 7:29). Like Eve of Eden, their curiosity will be mankind’s undoing. Therefore, God’s wrath is also about cutting down proud man to size. “And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity, I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible” (Isaiah 13:11, KJV).

In addition, “They have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant.  Therefore a curse consumed the earth, its people must beer their guilt…” (Isaiah 24: 5, NIV). Our drunken tottering world simply cannot swerve out of the fast approaching hurricane of Elohim's wrath!

Who are main protagonists in this swiftly nearing apocalyptic conflict? 

“I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal and will bring to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel” (Ezekiel 39:1-2 NIV).  This passage of scripture introduces us to one of the key players.

Gog, the chief prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal is none other than the powerful Russian nation. We are able to infer this from the table of nations in Genesis chapter ten. We are able to see that these are the peoples descended from Japhet and generally migrated northwards past the Caucasus into the vast steppes of what was known as the USSR. Even the name of their capital, Moscow, seems to have been named for Meshech.  In modern history and politics the Russians have been active as a major world power and even hold a veto card within the United Nations Security Council. Though now a little weaker after the end of the Cold War and the breakup of the Soviet Union, the huge Russian bear is still very powerful and is  becoming increasingly more active in Middle Eastern politics. 

Since Israel’s rebirth in 1948, the Russians have been involved in supporting the Arabs in their grouse against Israel.Russian military training, intelligence, hardware and weapons have always formed a sizable component of Arab Middle Eastern war architecture.

Together with the Russian bear are Persia (Iran), Ethiopia (black Africa), Phut (Libya) Gomer (the Germans and all Germanic speaking peoples), “the kings of the east” namely India, China,Uzbeks, Japanese, Indonesians, Malays, Koreans among other peoples of  Mongoloid stock  (Revelation 16:12) would also be part of this conflict (probably under the aegis of the United Nations).

"Beth Togarma" (the house of Togarmah) is generally associated with the Turks, Armenians, Oighurs, Khazars, Georgians and other Turkic peoples.

The other chief players are of course the Arabs (in their various national identities). Says the prophet Joel: “Now what have you against me, O Tyre and Sidon (the Lebanon) and all you regions of Philistia (the Palestinian territories) (Joel 3:4).  “Egypt will be desolate, Edom, a desert waste…” (Joel 3:19, NIV).

It is abundantly clear that the entire world (probably under the auspices of the United Nations) will be gathered at the Valley of Jehoshaphat (Joel 3:1- ).

It will be a war unlike any other. Jerusalem is described as a cup that will send the surrounding peoples reeling. It will also be a stone that will injure anyone trying to move it (Zechariah 12:3). Judah is described as a "brazier in a wood pile, like a flaming torch among sheaves". Such will be the courage, valor and astonishing combat capabilities of the Israeli Defense Forces!  The astounding Israeli victories over insurmountable odds in 1947-8, 1956, 1967 etc are merely a preamble to what is going to happen in that final Middle Eastern conflict. The feeblest of the Israeli soldiers will be like ancient King David, while the strongest will be like the angel of the LORD (Zechariah 12:8). God will totally destroy the armies of the nations in his wine press of fury (Joel 3:13).

The blood from this divine wine press will flow for over 300 kilometers (Revelation 14:20). Already various prophets have sent out invitation cards to huge flocks of birds of prey and carrion eaters inviting them to a feast in which they will eat the flesh of generals and other mighty men of war (Ezekiel 39:17-20, Revelation 19:18). 

Yahshua appears as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5, Joel 3:16) commanding the forces of heaven directly on the battlefield (Isaiah 63:1-6, Zechariah 14:1-4). He will be fulfilling his own Matthew 23 prophecy concerning Jerusalem: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kills the prophets and stones those sent to you. How often I have longed to gather your children together as a chicken gathers her chicks under her wings but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate....for I tell you, you will NOT SEE ME AGAIN UNTIL you say 'blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord' "(Matthew 23: 37-39, NIV, emphasis mine).

After bringing the war to a close, Yahshua then officially inaugurates his one thousand year reign on the earth (Daniel 7:27, Revelation 11:15 etc). Mine prayer is that I be part of this Pax Judaica. I hope you too my dear reader shall be found worthy to be a citizen of that most peaceful of all kingdoms.

Elder Ken Chang'andu