Articles
The Battle of Armageddon - What Is It?
This question is asked in view of Revelation 16:16 which mentions the place "Armageddon." The Jehovah's Witnesses sect and others claim that this, along with Revelation 19:11-21, is a prophecy of a literal battle that is to take place between Christ and his followers and the kingdoms of the earth.
Let us notice what the word means. The English word is derived from the combined Hebrew term Har-Magedon. It means "the mountain of Megiddo," and refers to a famous battlefield located on the Plain of Esdraelon that runs south and east of Mount Carmel. It was there that Deborah and Barak defeated Sisera and his army (Judges 5:19). It was there that Josiah was slain 2 Kings 23:29-30). It was referred to as a place of great mourning (Zechariah 12:11). Just as Marathon was remembered by the Greeks as a place of great victory, and Waterloo was remembered by the French as a scene of great defeat, so Armageddon has become emblematic of any decisive battlefield.
In the highly figurative language of John, which characterizes the book of Revelation, he is referring to the battle between truth and error that began in the First Century, and even now is raging, which will be consummated with the final victory over wickedness when Christ returns for his victorious saints. It is singular indeed that the Jehovah's Witnesses who presently refuse to bear arms, anxiously await the time when they believe Christ will bear arms against the wicked in the "Battle of Armageddon." Of course, inconsistency is the fruit of false teaching.
