Armageddon-the Beast Overwhelmed

by HORNE, G. E. | Category: The Coming Again Of The Lord Jesus Christ: | Aug 1954

Many important events in connexion with the coming of the Lord Jesus .Christ have been dealt with in this magazine during the present year. This month it is intended to draw attention to the activities and overthrow of a very sinister character who will arise between the time of the Lord's coming to the air for the Church, which is His Body, and His return to earth to set up His kingdom. This person is variously designated in Scripture, "the Beast," "the Antichrist," "the Man of Sin," "the Son of Perdition," In Daniel 7 he is referred to as "the little horn" which came up among the ten horns on the fourth beast. This last of the four beasts, we understand, represents the Roman Empire which, we believe, will be revived at the time of which we write. There we are told that he will make war with the saints (not the saints of the present dispensation) and wear them out. He shall also "speak words against the Most High."

Undoubtedly this little horn is identical with the first beast of Revelation 13, of whom it is written that he will open his mouth for blasphemies against God, and will make war with the saints and overcome them. In this chapter is brought before us what has been referred to as a trinity of evil-the dragon (Satan), the beast, and a second beast, called elsewhere the false prophet. As God has given all authority to the Lord Jesus, His King, so Satan will give to the beast "his power and his throne, and great authority." The aim of the false prophet will be to gain adherents for the beast; to make men worship him, even as the Holy Spirit is here to-day to draw men to Christ. The false prophet will be able to do great signs, and by lying wonders will deceive men. The antichrist will sit in the temple of God, which will be rebuilt in Jerusalem, setting himself forth as God. So deceived will men be that they will admit this blasphemous claim. Because of their rejection of all offers of salvation, and receiving not the love of the truth that they might be saved, God Himself will send them a working of error that they should believe this lie (2 Thessalonians 2). The beast will make a covenant with the Jews for one week (seven years) which he will break at the end of three and a half years (Daniel 9). This covenant will evidently give the Jews liberty to re-commence or continue their temple services, but in the middle of the period he will "cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease," and the abomination of desolation to be set up there instead. This, we understand, will be the image of the beast mentioned in Revelation 13. Ml men will be ordered to worship this image, and to receive a mark on the right hand or forehead. Those who have not this mark will not be permitted to buy or sell. Refusal to worship will be punished by death. This will commence the great tribulation, which will rage for three and a half years. So fierce a persecution will it be that of it the Lord Jesus said, "such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever shall be" (Matthew 24.21).

The ten kings who will form the revived Roman empire, signified by the ten toes of the image of Daniel 2, and by the ten horns on the fourth beast of Daniel 7, will agree to give their power and authority unto the beast (Revelation 17. 18), to acknowledge him as their supreme head, and so, as they judge, make war impossible. This object men will evidently think has been attained, for they will say, "Who is like unto the beast? and who is able to war with him?" They forget that this earth belongs to the Lord. There can be no lasting peace until Christ, the Prince of Peace, God's King, shall come. "When they are saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them" (1 Thessalonians 5.3). Then shall the Stone, cut out without hands, smite the image upon his feet, and break it in pieces. The God of heaven shall put an end to man's rule here, and set up a kingdom which shall stand for ever (Daniel 2).

After the war in heaven, in which Michael and his angels will defeat the devil and his angels 8;nd cast them down to earth, he will have great wrath, "knowing that he hath but a short time" (Revelation 12). Strenuously will he work with the beast and false prophet to prepare for the great conflict at Armageddon.

Out of the mouths of these three, unclean spirits will proceed, spirits of demons working signs, going forth to the kings of the whole world to gather them together unto the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. The place of rendezvous will be Har-Magedon, or as it is more generally called, Armageddon (Revelation 16). This is in the north of Palestine, in the plain of Esdraelon, where great battles have been fought in the past, and which is said to be an ideal place for the deployment of large numbers of troops.

" When the sixth angel shall pour out his bowl upon the great river Euphrates, it will be dried up so that a way will be made ready for kings coming from the far east, perhaps from such places as China, Japan and India. The ten-kingdom confederacy will, we presume, be composed of the western nations. In Ezekiel 38 and 39 - we read of great hordes coming from the uttermost parts of the north, which will probably include Russia. It is evident that these hordes are making for Palestine, and what more likely than that Armageddon is their destination? There it is said, "So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God, from that day and forward" (Chapter 39.22). Is it not at Armageddon that Israel will learn this truth?

There will be a vast concourse of armies, all nations being represented.

An invitation will be given to all the birds that fly in mid heaven by an angel with a loud voice, "Come and be gathered together unto the great supper of God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit thereon, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, and small and great."

The heaven will be opened. The Lord Jesus will come forth on a white horse in righteousness to judge and to make war. How different from most wars, which have so often been waged in oppression and injustice! (Revelation 19).

He is called Faithful and True, titles He has so well earned. His eyes are described as a flame of fire. Nothing will be hid from their penetrating gaze. Upon His head will be many diadems, for the kingdom of the world shall become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ (Revelation 11. 15). His garment is sprinkled with blood, the blood of His enemies (Isaiah 63.8). His name is called The Word of God, for it is He who has fully declared God.

Out of His mouth proceeds a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations. This, no doubt, is symbolic of His all-powerful word. "With the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked" (Isaiah 11.4). "He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. And He hath on His garment and on His thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords" for "all kings shall fall down before Him, all nations shall serve Him" (Psalm 72.11).

Following the Lord will be the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen white and pure (Revelation 19.14). These are those who were faithful while on earth, "called and chosen and faithful" (Revelation 17. 14).

As we read of John seeing in vision "the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat upon the throne, and against His army, we are surely reminded of the language of the second Psalm :"Why do the nations rage, and the peoples imagine a vain thing?

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together,

Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,

Let us break their 'bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision.

Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure:

Yet I have set My king upon My holy hill of Zion."

How wicked, how futile for the devil and men to think that they can frustrate the purposes of God! "None can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou? He doeth according to His will

in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth" (Daniel 4.35).

From Zechariah 14 we learn to what extremity Israel will be brought in that day, probably on account of refusal to worship the beast and his image. All nations will be gathered against Jerusalem; "the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished: and half of the city shall go forth into captivity." Then shall the Lord appear for their deliverance. Summarily will He deal with this vast host. The ring-leaders-the beast and false prophet-shall be taken; caught red-handed in rebellion, they will be cast alive into the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone; the first occupants, so far as we know, of that dreadful place. The remainder will be killed with the sword that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord, and all the birds will be filled with their flesh. The great instigator of the movement, the devil, will be bound, and imprisoned in the abyss for a thousand years, during the Lord's reign upon this present earth.

HORNE, G. E. | Aug 1954
The Coming Again Of The Lord Jesus Christ: