And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water was thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out
of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth
of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles
which go forth unto the kings of the whole world,
to gather them to the battle of that great day
of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief.
Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth
his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see
his shame. And he gathered them together into
a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
Revelation 16:12-16
Why pour out the vial from God upon the river Euphrates? Bablyon is located on the river Euphrates and Babylon is always seen, and by their history, a place of false religion, a place of false gods, a place where God of the Bible is hated. Out of this city, Babylon, comes forth false teaching, a river of false religion, and false religious beliefs. The river of false religion becomes dried up and the kings of the east prepare to go out and claim what they believe is for them to take, mankind, to make them follow them, to adhere to their rules (does this not sound like Islam? Yes!). I am not saying that this verse makes Islam alone the ones who is being spoken about here in this verse but the illustration fits all who are teaching falseness. Out of their mouths comes all sorts of evil things: i.e., frogs, always according to Scripture a symbol of what God will not allow His people to eat, they are dirty. All this comes from the beasts and false prophets. They are the spirits of the devil, Satan and they go out to overcome the kings of the earth, the whole world (Is this not the goal of Islam? Yes!). They, those false teachers of false religion may speak of peace, but they speak, as the Indians would say, with forked tongue, or out both sides of their mouths. This is true of those so-called Christian preachers and teachers who teach doctrines of man over Scriptural truth. God is gathering them to a great war, the last day when He comes to bring to an end all the lies, false teaching, false religion, false gods, to an end and this is called Armageddon.
What is this Armageddon? First, some historical facts. Armageddon points to a place in Israel called Megiddo an ancient city in Northern Israel on the plains of Esdraelon. This is also called the Valley of Megiddo a place where lush vegetation grew and the site of the world's earliest battle and we have a detailed account of this batter. Wars were fought in this valley for control and is a natural battleground and has three major roads into Israel: 1. Along the eastern mountain ridge. 2. Along the sea. 3. Along the western mountains. These were international highways. More important it was from these mountainous regions all traffic could be monitored. Many battles fought in this valley and those battles were decisive. To use this valley as an illustration as to the Great War of God whereby He decisively overcomes and destroys His enemies is a good illustration.
Now, we are to walk and watch and keep our garments, that is to not allow false teaching to make us naked before our God, and before all who will see us. We must remember, that is if we are Authentic Christians these words: "Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14). There is never a time that a person should not be holy. The question is: Are we, are you? No holiness, no see God! Simple and scary! This means we must examine ourselves and see what type of person we are and if we are the one that God calls holy. We may go to great lengths and never reach true holiness. A person may have good morality, and is respectful, a person of good conduct, one who keeps good company even with godly people but these things do not make you holy. A person who is holy is one who is a being of one mind with God as described for us in Scripture. A holy person is one who entirely agrees with God, that is, this person is not divided or has doubts about Scripture and God. It is not that a person has concerns, and this is ok for if you have concerns then you are attempting to come to the truth, but those concerns are not to lead you into false religion. A holy person is one who denies himself/herself and is uncompromising in denouncing sin. A holy person does not seed praise of men. A holy person will shape themselves and his/her course in life.
Armageddon is given as not only a warning but also to tell us that God will not forever endure sin. The choice is ours: follow God or follow man and we know in advance how God deals with sinful man, with sin. We have the Great Flood to teach that God does not forever allow sin to have its way, and now we have God manifesting to us that He will not continue to allow sin and will bring the Bride of Christ into a new world, and have a new body, that is bringing a man's soul to once again not be corrupted by sin. We have all this pointed out for us in these verses and in this book of Revelation. Choose!
And the LORD said, I will destroy man
whom I have created from the face
of the earth; both man, and beast,
and the creeping thing, and the
fowls of the air; for it repenteth
me that I have made them.
Genesis 6:7
Praise God for His warnings
Richard L. Crumb
No comments:
Post a Comment