The Battle of Armageddon

Armageddon is a compound words consisting of “Arm” and “geddon”. “Har” or “Ar” is a Hebrew word for ‘mountain’ and ‘Megeddon” or “Magdo” was the name for an important city in the past which is now located 55 miles to the north of Tel Aviv and about 15 miles off the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Hence, this word signifies the Magdon Mountain. In the Bible, it is said that:
“At that time, all the armies of the world will gather in one place which is called “Har Majdoon” in Hebrew (which literally means the Majdu Mountain).
The Jews and also the Christian fundamentalists are all of the opinion that a huge army of about two hundred million soldiers will be dispatched to this area to meet the last battle of fate (Armageddon).
In the twelfth chapter of the Torah, the case of Zachary’s journey points to the battle of Armageddon and its signs and consequences without mentioning this name that is ‘Armageddon’ and, afterwards, in chapter 13 of the same book, sentences 9 and 10 announce that two third of the Jewish population will perish during this world and the remaining one third of their population survive and will be purified and attain their redemption. The evangelical Protestants are of the opinion that no real peace can be established in the world and in the Middle East unless and until Jesus Christ reemerges. He will appear and will sit on the David’s Throne in Jerusalem and fights the enemies of Israel.
Bishops and priests such as Jerry Fall, Vali Faqih, Haul Lindsey, Patrick Robertson and the other figures from the evangelical church are of the opinion that the Bible prophecies point to the occurrence of a nuclear war and the natural disasters and economic crises and social chaos and turmoil around the world and following these events Jesus Christ will come once again. They emphasize that to accelerate the re-emergence of the holy Jesus, the conditions and the ground for these events must be arranged!
The followers of the Evangelical Church and Lutherans also believe that at this point, Jesus riding on a white horse, will return to earth and following him there will be horsemen consisting of believers that ascend from the clouds downwards accompanying Jesus Crist.
Jesus Christ will enter the battlefield victoriously, he restores the ancient temples of the Jews and begins the rule that will last for one thousand years, he will show a new heaven and a new earth, and the devil will be silenced for eternity.
The remaining book written by Tim Hague which describes such beliefs and has been already published in twelve volumes, has a total circulation of more than fifty million editions.
Bishop Haul Lindsey in his own book associates the preceding elements of the Armageddon with the following events:
1. The establishment of Israel.
2. The return of the Jews around the world to the Promised Land.
3. Rebuilding "the Solomon's Temple" at the place of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
4- The widespread attack of the infidels (Muslims in this case) to Israel.
5. The commandment of the aforementioned attack by a dictator who is worse than Hitler, Stalin, and others.
6. A major part of the world will surrender in front of the dictator who has a peculiar enmity towards the Jews.
7. One hundred and forty four Jews will convert to Christianity and each one of them, like Bill Graham (the well-known American evangelical bishop) makes many efforts in promoting the religion of Christ, so much and so that the other nations of the world will convert to Christianity.
Bishop Lindsay goes on to say that, the occurrence of the nuclear war "Armageddon" causes a massive environmental and human disaster, and due to a divine miracle, only those who believe in the reappearance of Jesus Christ will survive this human tragedy of Armageddon and the dead bodies of the others will burn in melted iron. These events will all take place in a flash of a moment and after seven days, Jesus Christ will return to Earth with the other believers and a one-thousand-year-old government will be established on earth with incessant peace and justice until the day of resurrection.
The protestant Christians, not only have faith in the imminence of this event, but also deem it their duty to fulfill the conditions and provide the necessary grounds for such events to happen.
What makes the issue more complicated and dangerous is that the aforementioned belief is not only common among the gullible members of the general public, but also the top decision-making officials in the United States have seriously advocated this idea. As Ronald Reagan, while he was a presidential candidate in the United States of America, claimed that the Holy Christ has taken his hand to guide the Armageddon Battle. In other words, he would always be ready to start a world war for fulfilling his duties respecting the divine providence which is prefigured.
Bishop Lindsey, in his book, which was entitled as “the new future world” which was a best-seller after the Bible in the United States and up to 18 million copies of the book were sold until the year 1994 had this to say about the Armageddon Battle:
God has bound us to participate in the nuclear war “the Armageddon”. Consider two hundred million soldiers from the eastern countries with millions of other fighters, led by the enemies of Christ, and Jesus have gathered in the battlefield and in the first place, Jesus Christ will perish those who have infected his city, the city of Jerusalem, and afterwards he will destroy millions of fighters who have come together in Armageddon.
Perhaps, in this massacre, the currents of blood of men and animals which flows on the ammunition and over dead bodies will go on to a distance of two miles from Jerusalem and reaches the height of the war horses.
Lindsey adds:
As the Great War of Armageddon reaches this stage, almost all of the enemies have been killed and the great and glorious moment arrives and Jesus saves humanity from total destruction. At this time, the Jews who have survived this ordeal will accept and convert to Christianity.
The belief in this war which is basically supported by the Jewish faith and the Torah has profoundly described it in Chapter 38, the part dealing with a journey of Ezekiel. The details of this event are spoken widely and is taken seriously by the prominent religious figures from both the evangelical and fundamentalist Christians.
The American bishop Jimmy Swaggert said in a television show which was broadcast on September 22th 1985:
We do not need to reach any consensus with the Soviet Union ... the Armageddon war is coming up. The war will happen in the desert of Megiddo ... and soon the time will come. They can sign any peace treaty they want, but it will not have any use. The European problems will not be solved, and will be worse ... until and unless Christ the Redeemer arrives.
He has also traveled to Palestine where, during an interview with evangelical Christians living in Jerusalem, he has explained how cataclysmic events will occur in these areas.
In addition, in 1983, Bishop Jerry Falwell visited the same places to inform Christians of the Holy Places in Palestine, along with 630 members of the evangelical Christians in the form of a pilgrimage tour with a flight from New York to Tel Aviv. He also visited the "Megiddo" region that is the promised place where the war would supposedly occur.
His trip also included meetings with political and religious leaders. For example, he met with Moshe Arens who was the Israeli Defense Minister at the time (who was born in the US and was a former Israeli ambassador to the United States).
During the meeting, Arens said to Falwell and his companions that the attack on Lebanon in 1982 was done in accordance with God's will, and it was inspired by the holy war in the Old Testament. The attack on Lebanon, stressed the biblical prophecy and the message which is possibly meant here is that that the "Megiddo" battle is imminent.
In December 1984, Falwell while describing his journey, said the following words about the battle of Megiddo:
This word “Megiddo” creates fear in the hearts of the people, but after all this war will happen and God will shake the world up and down.
He said:
These formal agreements and treaties which have been created and signed in Camp David between Egypt and Israel by the mediation of our government will not last long. Of course, we pray for the achievement of peace in Jerusalem and we certainly have respect for those who have signed these treaties, but I know and you know too that the Middle East will never see real peace unless Jesus Christ sits on the throne of David in Jerusalem.
Another bishop who is named Bill Graham emphasizes that the event “Megiddo” is about to happen soon. In 1970, he warned that the world is rapidly moving towards the Megiddo war, and even today's generation might as well be the last generation of history.
According to a survey which was done in 1984 in the United States, about 35% of Americans say that the meaning of this sentence of the Bible, which says: "The earth will soon be destroyed by fire" is that we will soon set the planet earth on fire in the “Armageddon” event with nuclear weapons.
Polls taken in 1988 have also shown that more Americans have come to believe in this matter.
The Time magazine (the largest weekly magazine in the US) has announced that more than half the people in the US believe that the current human civilization will be destroyed by a disaster that will occur over the next century (the 21st century) by the humankind.
Grace Halsell writes: the Divine School in Dallas is the center for spreading the belief that: God has made us obliged to destroy our planet. Many of the priests who today in more than a thousand churches across the United States propagate these notions have graduated from the same school.
In the states of Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the largest number of the churches exist which are promoting this idea. The number of the Christian fundamentalists in the United States of America who believe in the issues of “Armageddon” is about fifty million.
Halsell adds: in the late sixties and early seventies (in the twentieth century), the Rev. Herbert Armstrong managed to persuade thousands of his followers to give all of their properties to his church which he called “the universal church of the god” as the world is on the brink of destruction and extinction.