Armageddon as the Battlefield

The name Arma-geddon consists of two words, "Arma" and "Geddon". The word "Arma" is derived from the word Armor, Armature, anything serving as a defence; defending arms; weapon of war. The word "army", which means a body of man armed for war; a host, is related to Arma.

The word "Geddon" is derived from two sources. There is a city at the foot of Mount Carmel, noted for scenes of carnage, called Megiddo. That points to the place where the prophets of Baal were slain by the people, when Elijah at the end of the 31/2 years' drought had convinced it that the prophets had led it away from Jehovah, the God of Israel. The place was after that noted as a place of admiration.

The other source from which the name "Geddon" is derived is the hebrew name Gideon, the son of Joash. And we think that the act Gideon carried out stands as a shadow of the final battle at Armageddon. We read of that wonderful act in Judges 6th and 7th chapters.

Three different nations gathered themselves together to con sume the harvest of the children of Israel, and those nations were so many that the children of Israel fled before them to the mountains and lived there in the dens and caves. Their enemies meant to root them out entirely.

Under those deplorable circumstances the people cried to the Lord, and He sent an angel to help them out of their distress. The angel appeared unto Gideon and said to him, "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor." Then Gideon answered:

"0, my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? but now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. And the Lord looked, upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midiani tes: have not I sent thee? And he said unto him, 0 my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manas seh, and I am the least in my father's house." Judg. 6. 13-15.

The children of Israel, although they were so terribly oppress ed by the heathens, they still adhered to the worship of Baal. And even the father of Gideon had an altar to the honor of Baal erected on his premises. The angel told Gideon to throw down the altar of Baal and to cut down the grove by it. Then he bid him to build an altar to the God of Israel on the top of the rock and to sacrify to Him on the same altar. Gideon did as he was told, during the night, and in the morning when the people of the place noticed what was done and found that Gideon was the actor, they demanded that he should die. And when they pressed Joash to deliver out his son, he answered them: "If he (Baal) be a god, let him plead for him self." Then Gideon was called Jerubbaal, the destroyer of Baal.

Then the angel told him to gather the people for the battle and he assembled 32,000. The angel told him they were too many, and if the Lord would give them victory over their enemies, they would take the credit to themselves. Hence the angel told him how he should choose from them all a certain class that would be worthy to take part in the victory the Lord would give them. He was to tell the gathered multitude, that "whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead." There return ed 22,000. Then Gideon had ten thousand left.

The angel said again:

"And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go. So he brought down the people unto the water: and the Lord said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself ; likewise every one that boweth upon their knees to drink water.

He tested them by the water and 300 remained with him. This shadow we think was thrown from the battlefield of Armageddon, because the water will then play a great role in the development of the battle of the Lord. It is namely at the end of 33 years of the drought the final battle takes place. How we know it? We read the prophecies, and by connecting link by link the prophetic chain in the dual plan of God, we see how it will turn out.

The New covenant as well as the Old, has its time of the Elijah. It was at the close of the prefiguring time of Elijah the people turn ed from the altars of Baal to that of Elohim, the God of the cove nant. The two individuals Christ calls "my two witnesses" will prophesy, i e. carry on theit prophetic mission 31/2 years, but at the end thereof, at the closing up of the period in which no rain has fallen, the Beast arising from the "bottomless pit" (the source from which the armies of the nations and the implements of war are called forth) "shall make war against them, and shall overcome them and kill them."

That battle we understand will be carried out at Armageddon. There is a chosen class which stands with those witnesses. The drought, as the fulfillment of the prophecy of God, has brought them to the understanding that God has a great purpose in bring ing about the condition in which they all will be placed at that particular time.

The dual plan of God reveals that the means He uses to separ ate the people from Baalism also serve His purpose to bring forth the class of His servants which finally shall fill the positions as priests and kings in the kingdom of Christ. The great drought will bring such results that the yet unfulfilled prophecies will be come realities.

The word of God became flesh in Christ, and it must likewise become flesh in those of His people which shall reign with Him in His kingdom. Hence the prophetic word that yet remains to be carried into effect, becomes developed in and by that particular class.

The great day of God is set apart for the purpose that His word shall be accomplished so to control the human race. One class comes under the leading influence of the Spirit of God and they became actuated by the prophetic word, applicable at that very time. The other class, particularly the leaders of the people, which by their words and doctrines mold the minds of the people, develop into that part of the prophecy which foretells the opposition the

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prophetic word as the message it brings to the world, has to meet at the time God sets it in motion.

This is shown in the movement that took place at the time Christ was on the earth the first time. While He was by the Spirit of God led to fulfil all that was written about Him, His opponents fulfilled all that was foretold about His persecution and sufferings. Paul refers to that when he in Acts 13. 27-29 says:

"For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him, And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain, And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre."

Christ said concerning the fulfillment of the prophecy at the time when all the word of God shall be accomplished, comparing it with what the Jews did when the prophetic movement tested them: "For if they do this things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" If those that read and believed the prophetic word could abuse and crucify Him whom God sent to them, what shall then they do which discard the prophecies, when their time of testing comes Y It is much foretold concerning the opposition of the pro phetic movement, which belongs to the morning of the great day of God. And what took place in the evening of that day, constitute a shadow of the movement in the morning of the same great day.

The works of the Spirits.

Paul gives a description of the time in which we now live in 2 Tim. 3. 1-8:

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of god liness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith."

We read in Genesis 6. 1, 2 that the sons of God took the daught

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era of men for wifes because they were fair. That was also a shadow cast from our time. The sons of God were those who believed in God and separated from the evil, which those that discarded God and His ways did. We have witnessed how for about fifty years ago many claimed to be the sons and daugthers of God and they also then tried to live a separate godly life. But now the mission-houses and churches are more of a love making place than anything else. The daughters of the Midianites entered into the camp of the children of Israel and then a large portion of the people forgot the words of the covenant and sanctioned the deeds of the young men. So it goes in our time everywhere.

The religious confession drags down the young men and women in hypocrisy. The word of God has no controlling power over the mind and the confession is only a society-mark by which those in side of the religious society as well as those outside of it, are allured to think that they are humble children of God. As a general thing, when the word of God, spoken in the spirit and truth, touches them, they get angry and raise their spirit against it, and against those that bring it to them as a message. The spirits which control their minds and actions are opposed to the truth of God and His spirit.

The Revelator says that he saw the three unclean spirits, com ing out of the mouth of the dragon (militarism), the mouth of the beast (the organized property-domain), and out of the mouth of the false prophet (the collective body of preachers which control the peoples' minds by false doctrines), and those spirits work miracles and go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to "the battle of that great day of God Almighty."

In coming out from the mouths of the three different subjects they looked in their mission work to John like frogs. John was controlled by the Spirit of God and saw the things that was reveal ed to him as they appeared to the Spirit. The frog has a mixed or twofold nature, it has the power to live in the air and in the water. A true symbol of the religious hypocrites, they seem also to have a twofold nature; they can unite with the world in all its works and at the same time confess and act as if they were the true followers of Christ.

The doctrines issuing out from the three mouths means a mix ture corresponding with the nature of the subjects they go out from. From the dragon's mouth comes the military command that molds those who are affected by it to soldiery. They become mold ed so to appear like military officers and men, rank and file.

From the mouth of the beast, the collective body of property

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owners, comes the doctrine that tends to gather property in an organized or collective way; it becomes the possession of the organiz ed body.

From the mouth of the false prophet, the collective body of all the false preachers, issues the religious part of the frog-movement. Thus the sum of the whole is this: It is a religious movement cor responding with the general religious profession, which gather property in the name of the organization, and it acts under mili tary command and developes in rank and file. In that shape it goes out to the kings of the earth, i. e. it seeks kingly favour in all the different countries.

As everything has its forerunner, we may ask, has not even that peculiar movement that eventually will affect the whole world, its forerunner?

The Salvation Army, which has developed in the last fifty years, what does that resemble and what is its mission? Is it not a military organization that gather property under its name and is not its mission of religious character, which seeks the favour of the kings of the earth'? Read their history and see! And do not their acts in the exercises of their religious ecstasy correspond with the movement of the frog? They lie on their knees, and all at once jump up and fall down again, like the frogs do. For instance when they shoot off what they call "the cannons of Calvary". They lie on their knees, and at the command they all at once make a jump on their knees and make a noise so to imitate the firing of a cannon. An act that seems to us to be a direct mockery of the crucified Redeemer. No one can inspire to such acts but the unclean spirits which now are at work to lead those they can control, to gather for the battle of Armageddon.

The salvation part, which that army is engaged in, having a

display of "saving souls", as they call it, has influenced the rest

of the religious organizations to accept it as a religious movement.

But at first sight it makes a most disgusting impression. The

spirits however have such powerful control of both their speech and

action that they smoth it all down as if it were a work of the Spirit

of God. And thus they conquer both the religious classes and the

rest, away up to the kings of the earth. And they heap property

collected from the poor of millions worth in every country. For

instance, in the city of Stockholm, Sweden, the gathered property

of the Salvation Army was in 1910, taxed for one million and six

hundred thousand kronor. The most of it is collected from the poor.

The development of the Salvation Army into the rank and file

gives it admission to the kings and the ruling classes. "The ge

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neral" represents something great, and hence his voice is heard at the courts. And, coming in contact with the leading authorities, the Salvation. Army has become a favoured object. And by its profession of "saving souls" it is in full harmony with the religi ous world.

When Christ comes to gather to Him those that really belong to Him and take the earth from the ungodly nations in order to establish His own kingdom, there need to be a coupling or copulat ing force that unites the religious and civil powers in their move ment to meet and oppose Christ and to mark that movement as antichristian. There we understand the Salvation Army will and is by the spirits prepared to serve. Every thing is beforehand developed so to fit in where it belongs in due time. We notice now on the war scene how the Salvation Army becomes mixed up with the military movement both at home and abroad. Used to beg from the people, they come in the name of the Red Cross and appeal to people everywhere to give them money, clothing or whatever they may gather up. Now if that were done without mixing religion or the name of Christ with it, we would not mention it. It is the reli gious part we cannot sanction because it does not correspond with Christ and His doctrine to go begging in His name. God never sent any beggars.

The Image of the Beast

Christ puts in the following words in connection with the de scription of the works of the unclean spirits: "Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame."

Behold, that means, Give attention to; look out! My coming is like a thief's coming in the night, when all are fast asleep. "Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments." That admonition from the Lord indicates that all are in danger of being allured by the surrounding influences. Even those that have be­come cleaned by obeying the truth are in danger of getting their garments, the deeds of righteousness, soiled. It is by the word of God, when it enlightens the mind and the individual develops it in his deeds, that he becomes clothed with it. It environs him as a clean and beautiful garment. That Christ comes like a thief means also that He intends to take away something that the world to its

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great sorrow will miss. He says in Matt. 24. 40, 41:

"Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left."

He will gather to Him the righteous wherever they may be found. He has said that "the Son of man shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Matt. 24. 30, al.

The angels means messengers, both human and angelic. The sounding of a great trumpet we understand to be a proclamation of "the gospel of the kingdom", for it shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come". Matt. 24. 14.

The gospel of Mithras has led away from the gospel of the king dom, because Mithras kingdom is in the celestial above. Hence, the same gospel that Christ Himself and His apostles proclaimed will now again sound. And the closer we come to the advent of Christ, the higher will the gospel trumpet sound. And it is that sound that gathers the righteous to Christ as the great King comes to take possession of His Father's estate, the whole earth. And just that proclamation and gathering will bring the nations under the guidance of the unclean spirits to the battle of Armageddon. The field of that battle comprises the world. Christ also says about the harvest of the Son of man, that "the field is the world." Matt. 13. 38.

"And he (Christ) gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon." Christ gathers those that are controlled by the unclean spirits to the place where the final battle will be fought. This of course can not be carried out everywhere. It must occur, like the battles of the nations, in a certain for the occasion suitable place.

The shadow of this peculiar battle we see in the act carried out by Gideon and his chosen men. They took their position during the night by a hill, and at the time signified by Gideon they all blew their trumpets and cried: "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon". That was a mighty trumpetsound.

They had covered lights,,and as they gave the trumpetsound they uncovered their lights which amazed their enemies. Then the Lord confused the great army of the three heathen nations and they fled horrorstricken and the children of Israel won a great victory.

That is an encouraging shadow to those that are called to take

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part in the battle of Armageddon. It is of the same battle the Lord speaks in Rev. 17. 14, where He says of the kings of the earth in connection with the beast that arises out of the bottomless pit: "These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall over come them; for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings; and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful."

The question: How can the nations be engaged in battle with the Lamb of God? If we carefully consider the history of Christ as subject to the persecution of the leaders among the Jews, we find the answer. They rose up against Him because they did not believe He was the true Messiah. He was to them the Antichrist, an im postor that falsely claimed to be the Messiah or the anointed king.

In the Messianic movement pending, the very same condition will prevail. Christ is not personally seen, but His followers, chosen from the great crowd, like the men Gideon chose, realize His pres ence and act under His inspiring spirit. Their gospel-proclamation that the King of heaven shall set up His kingdom, stirs the nations and they look upon the movement as antichristian and hence they unite and go to war against it in order to make an end of it. And the leaders of the churches and the different missions, like the Jewish priests, declare it to be the work of the devil. The "Lamb" signifies the innocent and unspoiled condition of the Lord and His followers. A lamb and a ravenous beast in battle with each other, and the lamb and those with it come out victorious. What a great wonder t

In Rev. 19. 11-21 we find a symbolic description of the same great battle between the nations and the Son of man. John saw heaven opened and a white horse came forth and the Rider thereon comes to judge and make war. The opened heaven signifies that God is about to reveal His judgment on man and the works of his hands.

"The armies of heaven" signifies both the righteous then on the earth and the angels of God, they will all take part in the judg ment-works of God when He closes His dealings with the Gentiles.

The Rider on the white horse, whose name is called "The Word of God," is enveloped with a vesture dipped in blood. Many of His followers have been killed, but as to the final victory, He has a name written on both his vesture and 'His thigh: "The King of kings and the Lord of lords."

His name is "The Word of God", the word of God united with the human nature, first Christ, and then His followers in the camp for the kingdom which the gospel of Christ sets forth. The

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prophetic word of God will be accomplished in the ultimate struggle between the powers of the world, led by the deceiving spirits, and the true followers of Christ, who are led by the Spirit of God to understand, believe and to become actuated by the yet unfulfilled prophecies, that Christ can control them in that great act.

He then becomes revealed as the Messiah, the King anointed for the everlasting kingdom, to be raised on the earth. The disci ples that were with Him at the evening of the day of God, expected to see and to realize that kingly power. But the time was not then come. But at the closing up of the time of the Gentiles, what they then expected will now occur. So that we that now live and stand in the faith, we are favored with the grand kingly work of our blessed Lord, and if we live at the time of the final battle, we will realize a greater salvation then those that followed Christ at His first coming.

If we read on in the 19th chapter we see what will become of those that raise themselves against the fulfillment of the words of the prophecies. The jewish nation and its destruction stand as a warning example. But it will go still worse with the nations, be cause the judgment of God follows right on the battle of Arma geddon.

Now by turning to the temple of the New covenant, if we fol low it up as it is revealed in the prophetic word of God, we find the struggle of the end yet clearer presented. It is that temple that causes the nations to rise in their wrath in order to destroy it.

The Kingly Train on the Way to New Jerusalem

The key of David and the door placed before the Philadelphian branch, are so closely connected as any important door and its key are related to each other. The key opens and shuts the door. The key of David is a kingly key and opens the door to the kingly throne, and the place for that throne is in the city of Jerusalem. In the prefiguring development it was the kingly key of David that gathered all the tribes of Jacob together to the throne of Israel. Christ is the heir to that throne; and when He gathers the seed of Abraham to Him, He will use the key of David to open the way.

The gathering movement leads out from the kingdom of Baal, and if the door is not steadily kept open, the representatives of Baal and especially the followers of Jezebel will block the way. Hence the blessed promise: "Behold I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it."

The way through the door leads to the new Jerusalem where the kingly throne will be raised. Hence the Lord says to the Phi ladelphian branch that he will write the name of that city on the overcomer. Before we follow the train through the door to the king dom and its Capital, we will review the development of both the old and the new Jerusalem.

The prefiguring Jerusalem.

We are first reminded that the covenant God made with Abra ham included the city God would build, a city that has foundations. That city was not the old or prefiguring Jerusalem, for Abraham never saw that, and it was built, not by God but by His people. But Abraham saw a sign of the city God will build and realized a blessing from it.

When Abraham returned from the war with the kings that brought his relative Lot prisoner with them from Sodom, he met Melchizedek, the king of Salem, and he brought with him bread and wine and blessed Abraham and said: "Blessed be Abraham of the Most high God, possessor of heaven and earth." That blessing came from Salem and its king and priest.

Salem signifies peace, the center of peace and righteousness. The king and priest of Salem at that time was undoubtedly Shem, the son of Noah, who lived five hundred years after the flood and who prefigured the Son of God as the true king in the final Salem, that God builds.

The place Salem was finally captured by the Jebusites, which the children of Judah tried to drive away, but they could not. Jos. 15: 63. But David, when he had gathered under his sceptre the tribes, he drew up around the mountainous place and took posses sion of it. From that time it was called Zion, the strong hold of David. He built a fort about it.

The ark of God had been captured by the Philistines at the time king Saul was slain, and had not been restored to Israel from that time. David brought it up from Gibeah and placed it in the tabernacle, which was put up on mount Zion. 2 Sam. 6. 16, 17. Then the city of Jerusalem was built round about it.

The name "Jeru" signifies revenge. Added to Salem, the centre of peace, would mean that the breaking of peace, or destroy ing peace, will be revenged by the city. When Gideon had torn down the altar of Baal the Baal-worshippers sought to kill him and required that his father should deliver him into their hands. Then his father said: "If Baal is God, let him revenge himself." And then Gideon was called Jeru-Baal. Judg. 6. Jerusalem, like Zion and the temple, will be revenged for all the evil the nations have brought upon it.

We may ask: Is not the present world war the beginning of the revenge of Zion? Read Isa. 34. 1-9 and see! Concerning the revenge of the temple, read Isa. 66. 5, 6 and Jer. 51. 10,. 11. King David says concerning Jerusalem:

"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusa lem above my chief joy. Remember,, 0 Lord, the children of Edom

in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof. 0 daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroy ed, happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be,'that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.' Ps. 137.

The son of David, according to 2 Sam. 7. 5-13, shall build the house of the Lord. That son is Christ. The house or temple Solo mon built was a shadow or a prefiguring work. The temple goes before the city and constitutes finally the very centre of the city. Now we follow up the building of the new Jerusalem, and we think it is high time that we may rightly understand it, because the signs signifies that the time has come for it to be built. The four hundred years' period, that the old city has been in the hands of the Mohammedans, is now ended, hence the shifting of hands.

Paul says that the time shall come when the things which are in heaven and the things which are on the earth (which originate from God), shall be united into one. His words are as follows:

"Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: In whom also we have obtained an inherit ance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." Eph. 1. 9 —11.

That union comprises the unity of man and angels, the Father and the children in one and the same house, and that house shall be built by the Son, the son of David. We must have that union in mind when we look for the building of the new Jerusalem. It is by the key of David he brings it forth. He begins with the temple. He says to the Philadelphians that the overcomer shall be made a pillar in the temple of God, and that the name of the new Jerusalem will be written on him.

We must also keep in mind that all the different parts, piled together in the prefiguring temple, were made ready in the separated state, where they as material for the building were taken.

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