162 17 The King Fights at Armageddon
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With the Gentile Times ending in 1914 C.E., “the Court” properly takes away the authority of “their rulerships,” though there is “a lengthening in life given to them for a time and a season”—until judgment is actually executed on them at Armageddon.—Daniel 7:12; Revelation 16:14, 16.
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At the same time you place yourself in line to be one of the “great crowd” that will inherit everlasting life on an earth made glorious. (Revelation 7:9-17) But first the Kingdom must “come” to fight Armageddon’s war! What will Armageddon mean for mankind and our earth?
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Section heading: The King Fights at Armageddon
“Let Your Kingdom Come.” 1981. p. 162
AS WORLD War II drew to its close, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur said: “Men from the beginning of time have sought peace. . . . Military alliances, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be by the crucible of war. The utter destructiveness of war now blocks out this alternative. We have had our last chance. If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, our Armageddon will be at our door.”
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Some 35 years later, how were the nations making out with regard to this “last chance”? The Times of London, England, had this to say under the headline “West Germans Fear Armageddon”: “The spectre of war has returned to haunt West Germany as the international situation seems to be slipping inexorably out of control.” And in an article entitled “World Stumbles into a Darkness,” the editor of the Miami Herald, U.S.A., asked his readers whether it had dawned on them “that Armageddon isn’t just some allegory that you read about in the Bible, it’s real,” and added: “Anyone with half a logical mind can put together the cataclysmic events of the past few years and see that the world is at a historic threshold. . . . It will change forever the way men live.”
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True, mankind stands at the threshold of great changes. But do we now face Armageddon? What is meant by Armageddon?
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Interestingly, Armageddon is different from what most people think. For the Bible describes the war at Armageddon, not as a cataclysmic war among earthly nations or blocs of nations, but as “the war of the great day of God the Almighty.” It is God’s war against “the kings of the entire inhabited earth”—meaning the rulers who refuse to submit when God’s kingdom ‘comes’ to cause his will to be done on earth. (Psalm 2:6-12; Daniel 2:44)
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Revelation, chapters 16 to 18, tells us much about developments on earth just prior to the war at Armageddon.
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As a prelude to the war at Armageddon, we are shown an angel pouring out a bowl “of the anger of God.”
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Are you one of these who are praying even now for God’s kingdom to “come” at Armageddon?—Romans 12:1, 2; compare 2 Chronicles 20:5, 6, 12-17.
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Yes, you may be an eyewitness and a survivor of that catastrophic war at Armageddon. You may be an observer as the “King of kings,” accompanied by the angelic armies of heaven, fights in vindication of Jehovah’s sovereignty.
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In that day of Armageddon, you may find security, not in any material possession, but in standing firmly on the side of Jehovah and his “King of kings.”
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For at Armageddon, the King seated upon the symbolic white horse “judges and carries on war in righteousness.”
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Alas for the U.N., its supportive governments and their amassed military might! Let them assemble at Armageddon “to wage the war with the one seated on the [white] horse and with his [heavenly] army”!
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When the war at Armageddon is finished, Satan, the wicked instigator of man’s misrule of the earth, will himself be seized, bound and hurled into the abyss “for a thousand years.”
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1, 2. What have people of the world been saying about Armageddon?
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3, 4. How does the Bible view of Armageddon differ?
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21. Who will assemble at Armageddon, but why in vain?
22. How do God’s prophets describe the fight at Armageddon?
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SEQUENCE OF EVENTS LEADING TO ARMAGEDDON
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? “King of kings” destroys nations, armies at Armageddon
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At Armageddon, those would-be ruiners of the earth will themselves be brought to ruin.—Revelation 11:15, 18; 14:19, 20; 19:11-16.
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Our God, Jehovah, has warned us to keep wide awake to what he is about to accomplish at Armageddon.
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As the smoke of Armageddon’s battle clears, Jehovah’s visible organization will still be here, ready for use in whatever way he directs. And may we be counted worthy, also, to be here individually!—Zephaniah 2:3; Psalm 25:8, 9, 20.
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This suggests the joyful prospect of human marriage and the bringing forth of children in righteousness for at least a time after Armageddon. (Genesis 9:1, 7; 10:1-32; Matthew 24:37)
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It is reasonable to expect that such faithful ones who endured persecution “that they might attain a better resurrection,” along with integrity-keeping ones of the “other sheep” who today may die before Armageddon, would experience an early resurrection into the “new earth.”
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However, if you are one of the “great crowd” of Armageddon survivors, where will you fit into this picture?
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1. (a) What is the reason for having confidence in mankind’s future? (b) What will Armageddon mean for ruiners of the earth?
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7. After Armageddon, what will remain?
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