How it Ends: Part 4 Armageddon

What if the events leading up to the Battle of Armageddon are not just ancient prophecies but a roadmap for understanding future global upheaval? Explore Daniel 11 and Revelation with us as we look at the final year of the tribulation. Witness the rise of rebellion against the Antichrist from the Kings of the East, leading to a cataclysmic showdown at Megiddo. The earth will reel from natural disasters and wars, yet mankind remains unrepentant. Join us to uncover the spiritual battle behind the chaos and the symbolic significance of the angels' bowls and demonic spirits influencing world leaders. 

Transcript

 15253141-untitled-episode

Done

Speaker Names

Speaker 0

•  
•  

00:08

Welcome, everyone. This is Russ Scalzo Chronicles of the End Times. It's good to have you listening in today as we continue our series on how it Ends. This is part four. Today, we're going to talk about the battle and how it shapes up, and we're going to begin that in Daniel, chapter 11, verse 40. 

•  
•  

00:31

At the time of the end, the king of the south will engage him in battle and the king of the north will storm out against him with chariots and cavalry and a great fleet of ships. He will invade many countries and sweep through them like a flood. He will also invade the beautiful land. Many countries will fall, but Edom, Moab, and the leaders of Ammon will be delivered from his hand. He will extend his power over many countries. Egypt will not escape. He will gain control of the treasures of gold and silver and all the riches of Egypt, with the Libyans and Nubians in submission. But reports from the east and the north will alarm him. He will set out in a great rage to destroy and annihilate many. He will pitch his royal tents between the seas at the beautiful holy mountain. Yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him. 

•  
•  

01:27

So, let's paint this picture as best we can. This is the end of the tribulation, somewhere in the seventh year, towards the end of the seventh year we're not sure when all the armies will begin to move. This is a logistic nightmare. Sometimes, when we read the Bible, you know, we just read a paragraph or a chapter, and you know, we knock it out in 10 minutes or whatever, but we don't realize the space of time that we're reading about. So, during this period of time, the reign of the Antichrist, the world is on the edge of being completely destroyed. The wrath of God has been poured out, millions upon millions have died, the waters are poisoned, and the sky is filled with clouds of dust from volcanoes and fires around the world. The sun is partially blocked out from the dense atmosphere due to the fires and the destruction, and adds to that, the wars. 

•  
•  

02:26

The first part of the Antichrist's reign was a pseudo-peace. We talked about that in part three. But in the second half, with the wrath of God falling, the two prophets coming against the Antichrist and warning the rest of the world, which I'm sure will be covered by every media outlet there is, the whole world will then know that they need to repent, and at the time he's running out. When the two prophets' ministry is complete, the Antichrist kills them. But on the third day, they ascend into heaven in front of the whole world, and the Antichrist is now fighting for his life. Other countries have come up against him. They are rebelling. They don't want him ruling over them. Maybe they don't want to be in the economic system anymore there are so many things that could be the reason for it, but they are rebelling against him, and he is defeating many of the nations. But according to this scripture in Daniel, he begins to get information that there are troop movements coming from the north and the east, and these nations are China, Russia, North Korea, and India. All these nations are coming against him, and they're about to cross the Euphrates River and make their move to the fields of Megiddo. 

•  
•  

03:41

We have to try to imagine the state of the earth at this point. If Jesus Christ doesn't come back at the time that he is designated, there'll be no world to come back to. We know the type of weaponry we have now. What will we have 10 or 15 years from now? What part will AI play? We can only imagine. Either way, the nations will have more than enough to turn the earth into a cinder orbiting the sun. So, we see these nations involved From the south. It's Egypt and it's Africa, all the nations of Africa, some of the Muslim countries. This is another reason why I don't believe that the Messiah could possibly come from a Muslim nation. 

•  
•  

04:25

At three different times in chapter 16, they curse God and will not repent. They know God's responsible, and they hate him for it. They have found their king, and they want to stay with him. Let's take a look. The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun and the sun was given power to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat, and they cursed the name of God. Who had control over these plagues? They cursed the name of God. What is the name of God? It's Jesus. The third commandment is Thou shalt not use the name of the Lord, thy God, in vain. We have no problem today using the name of Jesus in vain. 

•  
•  

05:05

There are many names of God, as we see through the Bible. They're his attributes or at least some of his attributes. He has so many. But we know that God is our shepherd, our provider, our healer, our banner. He sanctifies. He's our peace, our righteousness. When Jesus was praying in the garden, he said Father, I have given them your name. The name you have given me. That is very powerful. Paul tells us that all the fullness of the Godhead dwelled in Jesus Christ, knowing all the other names of God, those attributes of God, are important to us. It gives us faith and strengthens our souls, but the name of God is Jesus. 

•  
•  

05:49

Then again, in verse 10, the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done. The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings of the east. Then, I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs. They came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty. Let's just jump ahead a little bit in chapter 16 and look at the third time that they curse God, verse 21. From the sky, huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men, and they cursed God on account of the plague of the hail because the plague was so terrible. 

•  
•  

06:58

Here we see that the spiritual battle is wide open. There's nobody wondering if God exists if he's the creator of the world. That's all over. It's now open and brutally honest. We don't want you, God; we like the God that we have here. We want to stay here. You can't have your earth back. That's why they go against to fight God. They hate God. They're seething with anger and rage against him. At this point on the timeline, it's Satan and the world he's trying to claim and the people that he's ruling over against the Almighty, who's coming to claim his creation and his people. So, let's break this down. 

•  
•  

07:39

John sees three evil spirits, unclean spirits, and he says they look like frogs. They came out of the mouth of the dragon and of the beast and of the false prophet. Frogs were worshipped as pagan gods by the Hindus, the Buddhists, and many others. Many report that the frog is the most primitive and universally worshiped of all pagan gods. If we look back at Egypt, they had the plague of frogs because Egypt worshiped the frog as a god. The Lord has a way of turning these things around on people. You've heard me say many times idols that they worshiped weren't just carved out of wood and stone and make-believe. Nearly every one of these false gods that they worshipped behind them was a demon, and here I think we see the proof of it. Now you get to see who's actually inside these beings, and they go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty, and they go forth, and they perform miraculous signs. Now, you might say I thought God was the only one who could do that. God is allowing this to take place. He has used the devil through the centuries to do his bidding, and this is no different. So the great river Euphrates is dried up. Now, if you know anything about the river Euphrates, you might say, well, you know, the water level is pretty low there. Now, from what I see from what I read, there are major dams in Turkey that have prevented the water from coming down as it naturally would.  After all the wars and all the destruction, it's not hard to believe that those dams are no more and the Euphrates is back to full strength. That those dams are no more and the Euphrates is back to full strength. 

•  
•  

09:28

If we drop back to chapter 9, we look at some of the plagues, fire, smoke, sulfur, lakes and rivers, and streams being poisoned and turned to blood. It says in verse 20 that the rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, wood, and idols that cannot see, hear, or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality, or their thefts. We also see in chapter 9 and verse 13 that the sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the horns of the golden altar, that is, before God. It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates, and the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. The number of the mounted troops was 200 million. I heard their number. 

•  
•  

10:30

Now, one thing we have to realize is that the book of Revelation, in many instances, is not in chronological order. So this battle of Armageddon, a third of mankind will be wiped out. Who are these four angels? There's some conjecture no one knows for sure that these could be four fallen angels, the four princes that Daniel mentions, who ruled over Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. Whoever they are, they are very powerful and wicked. But what we do know is they've been kept ready for the very hour, day, month, and year. So it's pretty safe to say that the date of the Battle of Armageddon is set in heaven, and, like Jesus said, the Father knows it. 

•  
•  

11:17

The price for spitting in the face of grace is extremely high. Before we knew Jesus, we didn't care much about sin. It didn't really bother us. Yeah, we sin even now as Christians, but if we don't stay close to the Holy Spirit, then we won't have that check in our spirit, and we say, oh, this is so bad; this is really not sin. We could talk our way out of anything, but for a holy God, there's only one remedy for sin, and that's the blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore, if it wasn't needed, why would he go through what he went through? 

•  
•  

11:49

We are seeing that God does send judgment. It's not something that is popular, it's not something we like to talk about, it's not something that's going to fill our churches with people, but if we live in the reality of who God is, then we have balance. We can see how important the cross is and Jesus' sacrifice, and the fact that he went out of his way to be called the Son of man. He went out of his way to relate to us on every level, and he's still crying out today. Why am I pausing to say this? It's because we need to fully understand, to the best of our ability, through the power of the Holy Spirit, how important holiness is when we start talking about God.  He is pure. Therefore,  sin he cannot tolerate. So his love compelled him to send Jesus so he could be with us. So those on the earth at this point have rejected his love, his sacrifice of his son, rejected his invitation to come and live with him. At this point, they've all taken the mark of the beast, and when you take the mark of the beast, the spirit enters you and you are branded. That brand tells you that you belong to Satan. Like the false church that eventually marries and supports the Antichrist. Everything looks great in the beginning.

•  
•  

13:06

Let's take a quick look at the four horsemen. They paint a picture not only of the last days but also of the present. What happens when we make a deal with the devil or walk away from God and think we're going to do our own thing and disregard the laws and warnings that God put there to protect us? 

•  
•  

13:29

The first rider comes with the bow. Yet he has no arrow. We already covered that, it's a false peace. The second rider comes, and he takes peace from the earth to make men slay one another. We are already seeing that. Those who wish to destroy the family and children cause chaos and encourage hate and division to grow. They are being used to take peace from the earth. The next one talks about a pair of scales and how pestilence and war create starvation and food become scarce. And when the next seal opens the fourth one it's a pale horse named Death, and hell and Hades were following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by the sword, famine, plague, and wild beasts of the earth. This is the fruit of rebellion. What a contrast to what God wants to do and what he will do during the millennial reign, when the lion will lay with the goat and the lamb, and a child can reach out and touch a snake or walk with a lion without worrying about being harmed. 

•  
•  

14:39

But once the false peace fades away and begins to evaporate, what are we left with? We're left with no peace. We're left with hate, which causes war, a lack of food, and the death of many. There are fires everywhere. A third of the earth is burned up, a third of the sea is turned bitter, and drinking water is turned bitter. Many people die to scripture. One-third of the population that is left will be wiped out. 

•  
•  

15:15

Let's take a look at Isaiah, chapter 24, verse 20. The earth reels like a drunkard. It sways like a hut in the wind, so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls, never to rise again. And that never to rise again means it will never be what it was because the earth is not going to be destroyed, but the earth will be different. It will not be under the same system, it will not be run by the nations, and that's what the Holy Spirit is talking about here. So, in the middle of this whole mess, we have the state of Israel, which is still in existence at this point. 

•  
•  

15:57

There are some pretty heavy-duty things in the Word of God, things that a lot of people don't read, and I understand. The Old Testament is sometimes hard to get through, but it's so important that we read it all, and one of those is in Zechariah, chapter 14, starting with verse 2. He says I will gather all nations to Jerusalem to fight against it. The city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city. Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights in the day of battle. So Israel is being devastated because it's in between like it has been in history between the kings of the south and the kings of the north. They were like the middle ground. They were like the interstate. All the armies took it, invading one way and then invading another, trampling down poor Israel in the middle. 

•  
•  

16:51

And this will be no different.  Daniel, chapter 12 reads, When the power of the holy people has finally been broken, all these things will be completed. So, what can we take from that? The holy people are God's people. They are considered holy because God has chosen them. So we can take from this that there is resistance similar to the book of Maccabees. The Jews fought against Antiochus IV, who was a type of Antichrist, and so in the same way, there will be a band of people that will take arms against the Antichrist. But when they're finally defeated, the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, will intervene. 

•  
•  

17:34

As we read in Daniel, chapter 11. He will pitch his royal tents between the sea and the beautiful holy mountain. Some versions say seas, but most believe it should be singular, not plural, between the sea and the beautiful holy mountain, which we know is Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. This also coordinates with the fact that the plain of Megiddo is just to the north. With the fact that the plain of Megiddo is just to the north. There, he will take his stand and send his army forward to the plains of Megiddo. Russia and other nations are coming down from the north, while China, Korea, and India are all moving down from the east. 

•  
•  

18:16

How long this battle is, we do not know. In Daniel, chapter 12, we see that there are some extra days on to what Revelation says is the last part of the week 1,260 days, it says in verse 11, from the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days. So, we have a total of 75 additional days. There are many explanations concerning this, but the one that makes the most sense and is the most accurate scripturally is the extra 30 days from the 1,260, which is the last half of the tribulation week, could involve the war itself and, sometimes we read the scriptures, and we just jump from verse to verse not aware of the time that has to go by for all this to actually take place. 

•  
•  

19:23

So, we have these armies coming together in the middle of that war, Jesus comes back, and as he comes, the armies of the world turn their attention to him because their hatred for him is so great. But the Lord will destroy them. He will destroy them by fire and by his sword, which is the word of his mouth In Isaiah 66:16. For with fire and with his sword, the Lord will execute judgment on all people, and many will be those slain by the Lord.  So, we have the battle of Armageddon, the armies of the West led by the Antichrist, against the kings of the East. The battle for planet Earth is on. The coming of Jesus Christ with the armies of heaven will include those who have been raptured, the tribulation saints, and all who have died in the Lord. 

•  
•  

20:22

Now, what about the additional 45 days? The prevailing thought among theologians is that those 45 days will be the days in which God judges the nations, that's, the sheep and the goats Jesus talked about. He will divide the nations because he's judging the nations now: those that stood with Israel, those that were against Israel, those that persecuted and killed the tribulation saints, and those who tried to help them. They're going to be judged during that 45-day period because the scripture clearly says blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days. That means you've made it. You've survived the wars; you survived the Antichrist. You did not take the mark of the beast because there's no coming back from that. You've made it through the judgment of the nations, and now the millennial reign will begin and the actual coronation of Jesus on the earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 

•  
•  

21:32

We're going to turn to Zechariah, chapter 12. This is an amazing piece of scripture. It is why I believe this day we're going to read about will happen on Yom Kippur, because Yom Kippur is the most solemn of all the celebrations of Israel and of the Jewish people. It's a time of repentance and reflection, and I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and grieve bitterly for him as one who grieves for a firstborn son. On that day, the weeping in Jerusalem will be great, like the weeping of Hadad-Ramon in the plain of Megiddo. Hadad-Ramon are two Syrian deities, and it's also a place near the town of Megiddo, where Josiah received a fatal wound. Josiah was a beloved king, the last good king. What a powerful scripture. So, those who did not follow the false Messiah, those who ran for their lives and escaped his wrath, now see Jesus. They repent of their sins, and they weep because they realize that they have missed out on the Messiah. But now they have him and all his promises will come back to them, very, very powerful. 

•  
•  

23:06

Now, we're going to look at Zechariah 14. On that day, his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Jerusalem. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, the king of Judah. Then the Lord, my God, will come and all his holy ones with him. So, we're getting different perspectives on the coming of Jesus Christ.  He lands on the Mount of Olives. There's a valley that's created, and those who seek him run to him.  Israel and the Jewish people come and accept their Messiah, weeping over him. What an incredible scene. 

•  
•  

24:08

And that day is going to be so different than any other day Because it says on that day there will be no light, no cold, no frost. It will be a unique day, without daytime or nighttime, a day known to the Lord. When evening comes, there will be light. It will be a unique day when Jesus comes back, and the Lord will be king over the whole earth. It goes on to say that then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up, year after year, to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.  There's so much here. We could go on forever, but the scene is one of great joy and new freedom. The earth itself stops moaning and groaning and is finally set free, as we read in Isaiah about the earth moaning and groaning under the guilt of its rebellion, the guilt of its rebellion. Here it is set free, for Paul writes in Romans we know that the whole of creation has been groaning as in pains of childbirth right up into its present time, waiting to be delivered by the Lord Jesus Christ. There's so much more that can be said. We could spend days and weeks on all the scriptures that pertain to the coming of Jesus Christ, but I encourage you to look into them yourself and study them, for they are encouraging in the day in which we live. I encourage you to continue to pray for this country and for a move of the Holy Spirit, which we desperately need. 

•  
•  

26:01

This has been the longest podcast I think I've done, and I hope you've had time to walk through it with me. The next podcast is going to be on the Millennial Reign. We're going to have glorified bodies. What is going to be our duty? What is the millennial reign going to look like? A thousand years of peace with Jesus Christ on the throne. This is Russ Scalzo for Chronicles of the End Times. Keep looking up. The King is coming. 

00:00 / 26:36