INTRODUCTION:  There have been many explanations of Armageddon, which have over the years been accepted and then rejected as time progresses and new evidence becomes available. The following document has involved many hours of study and research, not only in the Bible but in other sources.  I would not be offended if another explanation that answers the questions more effectively comes along. However, at this time, I believe that this is an accurate explanation for Armageddon.

The focus of this study is Revelation 16.  But first, there are some questions that come to mind when reading these texts:

·   Why is this important?
·   Why is this "event" expressed in such difficult terms; why is God so vague?
·   Why can't God give us a specific event?

Anyone who has struggled with trying to understand Revelation must wonder why things seem to be so hidden in symbols, when the book is called Revelation.

The answer, I believe, resides in this fact: God does not want us to simply pinpoint events; He wants us to understand issues. That is perhaps His primary reason for using symbols.  Or in other words - in-order for the event to have meaning we need to understand the issues.  From the Bible we get the message, some 500 times, that it is important to God for His people to be knowledgeable and He wants us to understand what He is doing.

Deut. 32:29 (NIV) "If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be!"

Hosea 4:6 (NASB) "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will reject thee: ... seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God."

Nehemiah 8:8 (NIV) "They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read."

STUDY:
Revelation. 16:16 (NASB) "... And they gathered them together to the place , which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon."

["They", being the spiritualistic mediums being spoken about in the previous verses.]

If we could discover what this word HAR-MAGEDON (or ARMAGEDDON) means we would have the key to the climax of this whole drama.

The Greek word ARMAGEDDON (HAR-MAGEDON) is simply a sound-a-like word taken from some Hebrew expression, with no Greek meaning.  If we take that sound-a-like Greek word and form the Hebrew words, we have two words. The first word is HAR, and this means mountain. There is no question about that; no Biblical Scholar will argue with that.

But, the second word "MAGEDON" can either refer to the word Megiddo, which is a city in the southern part of the plain, or the valley of Megiddo, in western Palestine. Or, it can refer to the word "MO'ED" (or MOGAD), which means assembly or gathering.

I have gone through the Old Testament and read every text where Megiddo is used, and it ALWAYS refers to a valley (plain) or the city, although the region where Megiddo, Taanach, and En Dor reside is referred to as a "hilly" region of Israel; it is never applied in scripture to a mountain. And yet throughout the years most Christians have put together Mountain and the City of Megiddo, and came up with this (nebulous) Mount Megiddo, which does not exist, nor ever has; but they have taken Mount and referred to a City. You cannot put Mount and City together that way, unless the city is on the top of a mountain. Mountain always refers to an elevation and there is no way, in going through all these verses, that Megiddo can fit with HAR if we are going to be linguistically honest.

The other word MOGAD, is from a Hebrew word YA`GAD, which means, "to gather in assembly," to get together in some kind of congregation for some kind of festival or some kind of meeting. When looking up Old Testament verses where this expression is used, the word is either used for a special festival where all the people got together around the Tabernacle or Sanctuary, and it referred either to the festival or to the point of gathering.

At first look, it does not make a lot of sense. What does it mean, "Mount of the Congregation", "Mount of Gathering"? But that is the way it is. In fact, in Hebrew literature it became to be used as an expression where it referred to the Sanctuary itself; when and where God was supposed to manifest His presence.

In the wilderness, when all the congregation got together it was spoken of as the Tent of the Assembly; God was ruler and the people were gathered around the Sanctuary. Later when Solomon's temple was built on the northern rim of the crest of Mount Olivet, anyone coming into the city of Jerusalem could see it. And what had been referred to as the Tent of the Meeting became transferred to this elevation, when they no longer carried the Tabernacle around with them in a Tent. When the Temple was put on this northern edge of the Mount of Olives, then the expression became Mount of the Congregation. And this is where God met with His people, and whenever they got together, here were God's people and God was their ruler, Ruler of the Congregation. But what does this have to do with Revelation 16:16?

When we make close inquiry into this idea we soon find this picture from Isaiah, referring to satan's original ambition.

Isaiah 14:12 - 14 (RSV)
How you are fallen from Heaven,
      O Day Star, Son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
      you who laid the nations low!
You said in your heart,
     'I will ascend to heaven;
          above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
      I will sit on the mount of assembly
          in the far north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
      I will make myself like the Most High.'


Now here is this expression "Mount of Assembly!"  If we were to translate that into the Greek sound-a-like expression we would say "I will sit upon Har-Mageddon"; Mount of the Congregation, Mountain of the people of God in the far north.  This is the symbolism that was used to refer to Solomon's temple on the north ridge in this elevated place where everyone could see it; this is where God dwelt.  But that was only the symbol for God who is in the temple in Heaven and who rules all the earth. But satan says; "I will ascend to the mount of the assembly, I will be a better ruler.  I can do a better job.  I can run a better government.  I want to ascend to this elevated place where I can be king of the mountain.

God who claimed to be ruler of His people (His congregation), from the recesses of the north, was being challenged by satan who is claiming to be able to run a better government.

And thus we have this expression from:
Psalms 48:1, 2 (RSV)
Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised
     in the City of our God!
His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation,
     is the joy of all the earth,
Mount Zion, in the far north,
     the city of the great King.

Ah, this is Armageddon. Mount of the Congregation where God rules His people. Again, we are told that satan's original claim was: "I want to be King of the Mountain". And that claim I believe he will make again under the sixth plague.

Some evidence for satan’s part in this scene:
Matthew 24:24 (NASB) "For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect."

2 Corinthians 11:14  "No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light."

2 Thessalonians 2:9 "that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders,"

Revelation 12:9  (NASB) "And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world;"

Revelation 20:2, 3, 7, 8 (NASB) "And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer…  When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth ..."

Now this is what I believe that satan does in the sixth plague.

2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4 (RSV)
"Let no man deceive you in any way; for that day will
not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the
man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition,
who opposes and exalts himself against every so-
called god or object of worship, so that he takes his
seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God."


To paraphrase this section of Revelation and the other things written about satan we might say it this way:  Fearful, supernatural sights will be revealed in the heavens created by the power of miracle-working demons.  The spirit of these demons will go forth to the kings of the earth and to the whole world, to deceive them and urge them to unite with satan in his last struggle against the government of heaven.  As a result, rulers and subjects will be deceived.  Persons will arise pretending to be Christ Himself, and claiming the title and worship, which belong to the world's Redeemer.  They will perform wonderful miracles of healing and will profess to have revelations from heaven contradicting the testimony of the Scriptures.

What is this deception? They, the people of this earth, are going to get darkness, they are given a lie, in the Fifth Plague; it is the people of God who are at fault, it is not us!  People are searching for answers and satan creates this confusion in preparation for his own presentation.

As the crowning act in this great drama of deception, satan himself will impersonate Christ.  Since the Church has long professed to look to the Savior's advent as the consummation of her hopes, now the great deceiver will make it appear that Christ has come.

Armageddon (Har-Mageddon) is the situation in which satan impersonates Christ and makes this final claim to be God, to master and rule the entire world. 

The deception has been prepared under the fifth judgment (plague), and then finally, God speaks in the seventh judgment.