HomeARC ML 1618
THE WRATH OF GOD & THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON! GP 1618 Comp.5/83
--Parts 9 & 10 of the Book of the Future!
(Compiled by Apollos from the writings of Father David.)
1. AFTER THE RESURRECTION TAKES PLACE & ALL THE SAVED ARE SUPERNATURALLY RAISED INTO THE AIR TO MEET JESUS IN THE CLOUDS, then the horrible Wrath of God will be poured out upon the Antichrist forces left behind! The Church will have been supernaturally released & rescued out of the Great Tribulation of this wicked World & will be in Heaven with Jesus having a wonderful party, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, while there's Hell on Earth as God dumps His judgements upon their wicked enemies who were left behind!
2. WHEN OUR TESTIMONY HERE IS FINISHED, THE LORD WILL HARVEST ALL THE GOOD GRAIN THAT HE POSSIBLY CAN & will gather it & take it into His garner upstairs.--Farmers always keep their harvested grain upstairs in the barn, to keep it away from the pigs & the rats & the varmints & dampness. The Lord will tell His angels, His reapers, "Gather the wheat into My barn!" (Mt.13:30.) And then, according to Revelation Chapter 14, after His grain is safely gathered into His Heavenly garner, He's going to cast the grapes of wrath, all of the Antichrist forces, into the winepress of His indignation! (Rev.14:14-20.)
3. THE MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB WILL BE GOING ON UP IN HEAVEN, WHILE THE WRATH OF GOD IS GOING ON DOWN ON EARTH!--We'll be having Heaven in Heaven while the Christ-rejecters are having Hell on Earth! When His children are finally all in & He's taken us all to be with Him & gotten us out of this filthy old World, away from all the demonic devils running around loose, torturing & persecuting & tormenting us & causing us all kinds of tribulation, then God's going to pour out His judgements on'm, the awesome Seven Vials of the Wrath of God!--Wait'll you read it!--Whew!
4. GOD'S GOING TO DEAL WITH THE ANTICHRIST & HIS EMPIRE IN VERY MUCH THE SAME WAY THAT HE DEALT WITH PHARAOH & THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN EMPIRE OF OLD DURING THE TIME OF MOSES!--He'll really sock it to'm & really wipe'm out! He wiped out Egypt's riches, their wealth, their leadership, their armies, their chariots, their arms, nearly everything they had, & Egypt was left totally helpless & powerless. Their forces were completely wiped out & drowned in the miraculous flood of the Red Sea, as God's children miraculously passed from the Great Tribulation into the Promised Land!
5. AFTER CATCHING HIS OWN OUT OF THIS WORLD & INTO HIS HEAVENLY BRIDAL CHAMBER, GOD'S GONNA POUR OUT HIS JUDGEMENTS & HORRORS & WRATH UPON THE ANTICHRIST FORCES to punish'm & to sock it to'm with what they deserve!--Until the final Wrath of all, when Jesus Himself, along with His resurrected, glorified, Heavenly forces, returns on majestic white chargers out of Heaven, an invasion from Outer Space, to win the supernatural, catastrophic Battle of Armageddon which wipes out the forces of the Antichrist completely, as we take over the World!
6. AS WE NOW READ ABOUT THIS HORRIFIC PERIOD OF THE FINAL JUDGEMENTS OF GOD, His time of Wrath upon the wicked, remember, it does not occur until after the Rapture, after Jesus has come & gathered together His Saints, His Church, the born-again believers, & taken us all to the Great Marriage Supper of the Lamb in Heavenly places with Him.--Then, having removed His Own from this anti-Christ, Gospel-rejecting World, He metes out His mighty final plagues & judgements upon sinful, wicked, unrepentant, rebellious man who has refused the Truth of God & chosen to believe the lies of the Devil!
THE VIALS OF WRATH!
7. IN REVELATION CHAPTER 16, WE ARE GIVEN A VIVID PICTURE OF THE HELL THAT'S GOING TO BE UNLEASHED ON THIS EARTH AFTER JESUS CHRIST HAS DESERTED IT & removed His Church, when God releases His judgements upon the World-kingdom of the Antichrist. In Revelation 15, the introductory Chapter to this event, we see that these final judgements will be delivered by "seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the Wrath of God." (Rev.15:1.)--Now, for the actual plagues:
8. "AND I HEARD A GREAT VOICE OUT OF THE TEMPLE saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, & pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the Earth. And the first went, & poured out his vial upon the Earth; & there fell a noisome & grievous sore upon the men which had the Mark of the Beast, & upon them which worshipped his Image." (Rev.16:1,2.)--This first plague is poured out upon the Earth & the men who had followed the Beast, the followers of the Antichrist who accepted his Mark & worshipped his Image, develop sores, horrible sores! Maybe the different types of skin cancer that so many people are getting nowadays are a forerunner of the sores that will fall upon the followers of the Beast, the wicked who are left behind to partake of the judgements of God!
9. "AND THE SECOND ANGEL POURED OUT HIS VIAL UPON THE SEA; & IT BECAME AS THE BLOOD OF A DEAD MAN; & EVERY LIVING SOUL DIED IN THE SEA." (Rev.16:3.)--Now, some of these plagues had already been brought about by the judgements of God on the kingdom of the Antichrist during the Tribulation, under the Seven Trumpets of Revelation, Chapters 8 & 9, but they were only partial at that time: A third was destroyed, a third of the waters became blood, a third of the trees were burned up & so on. But this time, under these final Seven Vials of Wrath, the destruction seems to be total, horrible! It says the sea became blood, apparently all the sea, & everything that lived in the sea died!
10. "AND THE THIRD ANGEL POURED OUT HIS VIAL UPON THE RIVERS & FOUNTAINS OF WATERS; & THEY BECAME BLOOD. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, & wast, & shalt be, because Thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints & prophets, & Thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true & righteous are Thy judgements!" (Rev.16:4-7.)
11. THE THIRD ANGEL WILL POUR OUT HIS VIAL UPON THE RIVERS & FOUNTAINS & THEY'LL BECOME BLOOD! There'll be no way for the wicked to get a drink of water, there'll be nothing to drink but blood! And the angel says they're worthy of it because they shed the blood of God's prophets & His children & His people, so they deserve to drink blood!--What a vengeance!--How the blood of the martyrs is avenged! Those that cried from under the altar in Heaven in Revelation Chapter 6, "How long, O Lord, how long until You avenge our blood upon our enemies?!" (Rev.6:9,10.)--Well, here it is! And God kind of stretches it out, He doesn't just kill them off the easy way, quickly, with some kind of an annihilation or sudden end!--That would have been too good for them!
12. "AND THE FOURTH ANGEL POURED OUT HIS VIAL UPON THE SUN; & POWER WAS GIVEN UNTO HIM TO SCORCH MEN WITH FIRE. And men were scorched with great heat, & blasphemed the Name of God, Which hath power over these plagues: & they repented not to give Him glory!" (Rev.16:8,9.) God is going to cause the intense heat of the sun to be multiplied, it says in another place, sevenfold! (Is.30:26.)--So that man will be scorched with its fire! But still the wicked refuse to repent & turn to the Lord!
13. "AND THE FIFTH ANGEL POURED OUT HIS VIAL UPON THE SEAT OF THE BEAST; & his kingdom was full of darkness; & they gnawed their tongues for pain. And blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their pains & their sores, & repented not of their deeds!" (Rev.16:10,11.) Here is the picture of the wicked, left on the Earth, deserted by God & His children, who were caught up into Heaven to be with Jesus.--Left to their sufferings & their torments, their tortures & their plagues, licking their sores, drinking blood, scorched with fire & now finally in darkness!--Groping around in such thick darkness that they can't even find their way!--How horrible!
14. THE CURSES & PLAGUES & HORRORS WILL BE SO BAD THAT MEN SHALL GNAW THEIR TONGUES FOR PAIN & shall seek death but not find it, & yet repent not of their sins!--Think of that!--So typical of the genuinely thoroughly hard-hearted wicked who hate God & hate Christ!--In spite of the judgements of God, they will still not repent of their sins, will still not cry out to God for mercy nor ask for forgiveness, but will continue to reject Jesus & refuse to believe & still go on in their wicked ways in the midst of all that horror & Hell on Earth!
15. IMAGINE!--SORES, BLOOD TO DRINK, SCORCHED WITH FIRE & IN DARKNESS! I can hardly imagine any curses or sufferings that could be worse than these horrible plagues that God pours out upon the wicked Christ-rejecting followers of the Antichrist!--These sinful, fierce, devilish fiends who have persecuted His children, killed His prophets, made war with His saints & caused us to endure Great Tribulation!
16. IT'S GONNA BE HELL HERE & HELL HEREAFTER FOR THE WICKED!--For those who insist on being unrepentant & rebellious against God! Isaiah foresaw this time of Wrath & prophesied: "Behold, the Day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath & fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: & He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven & the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, & the moon shall not cause her light to shine." (Is.13:9,10.)--It's gonna be so smoky & dark they won't even be able to see the sun or the moon or the stars!
17. "AND I WILL PUNISH THE WORLD FOR THEIR EVIL, & THE WICKED FOR THEIR INIQUITY; & I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, & will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. Therefore I will shake the heavens, & the Earth shall remove out of her place, in the Wrath of the Lord of hosts, & in the day of His fierce anger! And it shall be as the chased roe, & as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, & flee every one into his own land!" (Is.13:11-14.)--There won't be any place to go for some of them, there won't be any refuge. There will be no place to flee because the whole Earth will become a disaster area under these awful judgements of God!
THE SIXTH & SEVENTH VIALS!
18. "AND THE SIXTH ANGEL POURED OUT HIS VIAL UPON THE GREAT RIVER EUPHRATES; & the water 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, & out of the mouth of the Beast, & 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 Earth & of the whole World, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." (Rev.16:12-14.)
19. THE SIXTH ANGEL DRIES UP THE GREAT RIVER EUPHRATES TO PREPARE THE WAY FOR THE KINGS OF THE EAST & THE ARMIES OF THE EAST. In fact, the kings & armies of the entire Earth will be summoned together for one last great battle--still in violent rebellion against God & His angels & His hosts, & still trying to conquer the Earth, even in their anger & their torment & their pain & their torture!--Still reviling & cursing God & creating even more destruction in a final horrible war called "the Battle of that Great Day of God Almighty"!--Summoned together by the evil spirits of Satan himself & the Antichrist & his False Prophet!--Next verse:
20. "BEHOLD, I COME AS A THIEF. Blessed is he that watcheth, & keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, & they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon." (Rev.16:15,16.) Aha!--Now we see what's about to happen under these last two devastating Vials of God's Wrath: Armageddon! You've probably heard of the Battle of Armageddon at some time during your life. With almost every great new war, World War, that has come, people have wondered if Armageddon had finally arrived! But those were only little previews, little samples of the final horror of this final great worst of all wars at the End of the Age of Man!
21. "ARMAGEDDON" LITERALLY MEANS THE "HEIGHT OF MEGIDDO", which is a big round mountain in the middle of the Valley of Megiddo in central Israel between Haifa & Jerusalem. On maps it is called either the Valley of Jezreel, or the Plain of Esdraelon, & in the middle of it you'll find a place called the Ar-megiddo or the Height of Megiddo. And it is around this mount that the "Battle of that Great Day of God Almighty" will rage!
22. THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON ACTUALLY TAKES PLACE UNDER THE SEVENTH VIAL OF THE WRATH OF GOD.--However the wicked forces & armies of the Antichrist are assembled together from all around the World under the Sixth Vial, & then the battle is evidently fought & great hailstones fall from Heaven & a very great earthquake occurs under the Seventh Vial. So it's after they have gathered together under the Sixth Vial & are converged into this Valley of Megiddo surrounding the Height of Megiddo, Armageddon, that the seventh angel will pour out his Vial into the air!
23. THEN JESUS INSERTS A WARNING HERE TO YOU & ME & ANYONE WHO WANTS TO ESCAPE THESE HORRORS: "WATCH OUT, I COME AS A THIEF!--You'd better be ready!--You'd better be ready for the Rapture, the Resurrection, when I come before all this, if you want to escape all this Hell!" And He says you're to watch & keep your garments.--What garments are these?--That suit, coat & tie you're wearing?--That lovely dress you're wearing?--Of course not! He's talking about the "robe of righteousness & the garments of Salvation" (Is.61:10), not natural clothing! He says, "lest ye be found naked". That means lest you be found without His Salvation, without His robes of righteousness, without being saved! (See Zech.3:4; Mt.22:10-13; Rev.3:5,18; 19:8.)
24. "AND THE SEVENTH ANGEL POURED OUT HIS VIAL INTO THE AIR; & THERE CAME A GREAT VOICE OUT OF THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN, FROM THE THRONE, SAYING, IT IS DONE! And there were voices, & thunders, & lightnings; & there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the Earth, so mighty an earthquake, & so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, & the cities of the nations fell: & great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His Wrath. And every island fled away, & the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of Heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent (about 100 pounds!): & men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great!" (Rev.16:17-21.)
25. UPON THE POURING OUT OF THIS SEVENTH VIAL, A VOICE FROM THE THRONE SAYS, "IT IS DONE!"--Meaning, "This is the End!"--The last scene of this horrible horrific drama of all the damage that man has wrought on Earth! This is his last horror scene, this last horrific battle, warfare being man's favourite sport!--War being man's most ardently pursued occupation, creating the most possible destruction!--Man's inhumanity to man!
26. ONE GREAT FINAL EARTHQUAKE IS GOING TO DESTROY ALL THE HELL-HOUSES OF SATANIC POWER CALLED CITIES, those horrible cancers on the body politic of man, those cesspools of iniquity in which man prides himself--his cities! God's gonna throw them all to the ground! Isaiah also envisioned this great final utter destruction of the City System at the time of the Battle of Armageddon when he spoke of "the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall"! (Is.30:25.)
27. JOHN'S APOCALYPTIC VISIONS OF THE SIXTH & SEVENTH VIALS HERE IN REVELATION ARE PARALLELED BY EZEKIEL'S DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON IN EZEKIEL 38 & 39. He says that there's going to be a great shaking when God finally decides to judge the Antichrist after he has taken over Israel. We know from Daniel 11 & Revelation 11 & 13 that the Antichrist will be there for 3-1/2 years, Jerusalem being his headquarters from where he'll run the World. But after he's caused so much trouble, persecuting the people of God, the children of God, Christians, Jews & Muslims the World over, God finally has to put a stop to him!
28. SO AT THE END OF THAT GREAT TRIBULATION, AT THE END OF THAT TERRIBLE TIME, GOD HAS LET THE ANTICHRIST GO FAR ENOUGH, He's fed up with him & it's time to judge him, time to stop him!--"For in My jealousy & in the fire of My Wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel!" (Ez.38:19.) When the judgements fall on the Antichrist & his Worldwide kingdom, his anti-God, anti-Christ, anti-religious kingdom of which he's tried to make himself God, God's going to send great earthquakes to Israel, because it will be his capital.
29. "SO THAT THE FISHES OF THE SEA, & THE FOWLS OF THE HEAVEN, & THE BEASTS OF THE FIELD, & all creeping things that creep upon the Earth, & all the men that are upon the face of the Earth, shall shake at My presence, & the mountains shall be thrown down, & the steep places shall fall, & every wall shall fall to the ground." (Ez.38:20.) This sure sounds like part of the Wrath of God, doesn't it?--A mighty earthquake!
30. "AND I WILL PLEAD AGAINST HIM WITH PESTILENCE & WITH BLOOD; & I will rain upon him, & upon his bands, & upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, & great hailstones, fire & brimstone." (Ez.38:22.) What did we read about in Revelation that was a part of the Seventh Vial of the Wrath of God?--Mighty hailstones over 100 pounds each! "Thus will I magnify Myself, & sanctify Myself; & I will be known in the eyes of many nations, & they shall know that I am the Lord!" (Ez.38:23.)
31. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW BAD THIS WAR'S GOING TO BE, THIS FINAL WAR, THE WAR OF ARMAGEDDON, this direct confrontation between the forces of God & His angels against the forces of the Devil & his people, you'll find it right here in the next Chapter, Ezekiel 39! But for now, let's go back to Revelation for a bird's-eye view of the forces, logistics & tactics used in this awesome Battle!
32. AS YOU RECALL, IN THE LAST CHAPTER OF THIS BOOK WE COVERED THE THRILLING, BEAUTIFUL, VICTORIOUS ACCOUNT OF THE MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB AS OUTLINED IN REVELATION CHAPTER 19. And as we explained, the Marriage Supper for the Saints & the Wrath of God for the wicked are two concurrent events, both taking place at the same time, immediately after Jesus comes & rescues & raptures His children out of this World.--Thus we'll have Heaven in Heaven, while those who are left behind will have Hell on Earth!
33. IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING ITS DESCRIPTION OF THE GLORIOUS MARRIAGE SUPPER FOR THE SAVED, this 19th Chapter of Revelation gives a magnificent picture of this Supernatural Battle, God's final judgements upon the Antichrist kingdom, the grand finale of the Wrath of God, a marvellous picture of the glorious victory of Christ & His saints & His Kingdom over the kingdom of darkness at the conclusion of the Wrath of God period! John writes:
34. "AND I SAW HEAVEN OPENED, & BEHOLD A WHITE HORSE; & He that sat upon him was called Faithful & True, & in righteousness He doth judge & make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, & on His head were many crowns; & He had a Name written, that no man knew, but He Himself. And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: & His Name is called The Word of God." (Rev.19:11-13.)
35. ALL WE'VE READ ABOUT SO FAR IN THIS CHAPTER IS REJOICING & A BEAUTIFUL, WONDERFUL TIME WHICH THE SAINTS ARE HAVING UP IN HEAVEN AT THE MARRIAGE SUPPER. But now, to continue events, what happens? Who does John see coming on a white horse?--Who is called Faithful & True?--Whose Name is called The Word of God?--This is definitely Jesus, as plain as day!--"The Word that was made flesh, & dwelt among us." (Jn.1:14.)
36. HERE IS JESUS CHRIST, CROWNED WITH MANY CROWNS, no longer coming as a Saviour, no longer coming as a babe in a manger, no longer coming with mercy.--Now He's coming with righteousness & with judgement & to make war! He is coming now as a great Warrior & a Judge to make war, as King of kings & Lord of lords!
37. "AND THE ARMIES WHICH WERE IN HEAVEN FOLLOWED HIM UPON WHITE HORSES, clothed in fine linen, white & clean. And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: & He shall rule them with a rod of iron: & He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness & wrath of Almighty God. And He hath on His vesture & on His thigh a Name written, KING OF KINGS, & LORD OF LORDS!" (Rev.19:14-16.)
38. HERE WE HAVE THE VERY END OF THE WRATH OF GOD & ITS COMPLETE FULFILMENT & THE FINAL END OF IT ALL: THIS GREAT INVASION FROM OUTER SPACE by the Lord & His saints, His hosts, to conquer the World & set up His Kingdom! "And the armies which were in Heaven followed Him upon white horses."--He's not coming by Himself! When the Wrath of God has been wreaked on the wicked below, we are all going to climb on our fine white stallions, our Heavenly horses, & we're going to ride with Jesus as His "Ghost Riders in the Sky"!
39. WE'RE GOING TO COME RIDING OUT OF THE SKY WITH THE LORD, AN INVASION FROM OUTER SPACE!--Aliens now to this World!--Man is terrified of & is always worrying about an invasion of aliens from Outer Space. Well, that's a natural fear & instinct that God has put into the wicked & the unbelievers, because that's just what's going to happen! But we are going to be the aliens!--This World is not our home, we're just passing through!
40. "AND OUT OF HIS MOUTH GOETH A SHARP SWORD, THAT WITH IT HE SHOULD SMITE THE NATIONS!" (Rev.19:15.)--What's He going to smite them with?--His Word! "The Worlds were framed by the Word of God!" (Heb.11:3.) If He can make the whole World & the whole Universe just by speaking the Word, how much more He can smite the nations by His Word! "And He shall rule them with a rod of iron!"--When Jesus died on the cross, He was God in the hands of men! But this time it's not going to be God in the hands of sinful wicked man, it's going to be sinful wicked man in the hands of an angry judgement God, Who's gonna sock it to them & give them what they deserve!
41. "AND HE TREADETH THE WINEPRESS OF THE FIERCENESS & WRATH OF ALMIGHTY GOD! And He hath on His vesture & on His thigh a Name written, KING OF KINGS, & LORD OF LORDS." (Rev.19:15,16.) This picture of the grand finale of the judgements of God, with Christ coming & casting the wicked into the Great Winepress of God's Wrath, is even clearer back in Chapter 14 of Revelation, where we read about the two great Harvests.
42. WE COVERED THE FIRST HARVEST IN OUR LESSON ON THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST, where we saw "A white cloud, & upon the cloud One sat like unto the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, & in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the Temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in Thy sickle, & reap: for the time is come for Thee to reap; for the harvest of the Earth is ripe. And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the Earth; & the Earth was reaped." (Rev.14:14-16.)--Obviously a picture of Christ's great Second Coming & the gathering together of His Own unto Himself!
43. BUT FOLLOWING THESE VERSES ON THE RAPTURE COMES AN ALTOGETHER DIFFERENT HARVEST, which has to do with those who miss the first one!--"And another angel came out of the temple which is in Heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; & cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, & gather the clusters of the vine of the Earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. (Rev.14:17,18.)
44. "AND THE ANGEL THRUST IN HIS SICKLE INTO THE EARTH, & GATHERED THE VINE OF THE EARTH, & CAST IT INTO THE GREAT WINEPRESS OF THE WRATH OF GOD! And the winepress was trodden without the city, & blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand & six hundred furlongs (200 miles!)." (Rev.14:19,20.)--The slaughter at Armageddon is going to be so horrible that blood is going to run for 200-&-some miles, in some places even as deep as the horses' bridles!
45. THE PROPHET JOEL ALSO FORESAW THIS GATHERING OF THE WICKED AT ARMAGEDDON to be cast into the winepress of God's Great Wrath when he prophesied: "The Lord shall utter His voice before His army."--Us!--His Heavenly hosts, charging down from the sky with Him at this great battle!--"For His camp is very great: for He is strong that executeth His Word: for the Day of the Lord is great & very terrible; & who can abide it? Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: Beat your plowshares into swords, & your pruninghooks into spears. Assemble yourselves, & come, all ye heathen, & gather yourselves together round about." (Joel 2:11;3:9-11.)
46. "PUT YE IN THE SICKLE, FOR THE HARVEST IS RIPE: COME GET YOU DOWN; FOR THE PRESS IS FULL, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision; for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision!" (Joel 3:13,14.) The slaughter & carnage in this "day of the Lord" at Armageddon will be so extensive, so bad, that as we return to Revelation 19 we see that God will then invite His garbage men, His scavengers, the vultures & buzzards of the World, to come & have a great feast upon the kings & captains & armies of the Antichrist!
47. "AND I SAW AN ANGEL STANDING IN THE SUN; & HE CRIED WITH A LOUD VOICE, SAYING TO ALL THE FOWLS THAT FLY IN THE MIDST OF HEAVEN, COME & GATHER YOURSELVES TOGETHER UNTO THE SUPPER OF THE GREAT GOD." (Rev.19:17.) Is this referring to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb?--The Marriage Supper of the Lamb has already taken place! Now we're all on white horses invading from Outer Space, invading the Earth, & this is a different kind of supper! This angel is inviting all the vultures & all the scavengers & all the fowls of the air to come & eat up the remains of our anti-Christ enemies!--Pretty horrible, you say! Well, it is, but so are the wicked who were destroyed! They'd been persecuting God's people, slaughtering & martyring & torturing them & everything else, & they're going to deserve it!
48. SO HE INVITES THE CARRION-EATING FOWLS OF THE AIR TO COME & FEAST UPON THE BODIES OF THESE TERRIBLE PEOPLE who rebelled against God & who even tried to fight God to the very end!--Even after all of His judgements, even after He did so many mighty miracles & caught His people away out of their graves & off the surface of the Earth into the sky to be with Him in Heaven!--They hate Him all the more & fight Him all the more! So this angel cries out to all these foul fowls, "Come & gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, & the flesh of captains, & the flesh of mighty men, & the flesh of horses, & of them that sit on them, & the flesh of all men, both free & bond, both small & great!" (Rev.19:17.)
49. AGAIN, EZEKIEL'S DESCRIPTION OF THIS HORRIFIC BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON REMARKABLY PARALLELS JOHN'S, where God says, "Speak unto every feathered fowl, & to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, & come; gather yourselves on every side to My sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, & drink blood! Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, & drink the blood of the princes of the Earth...Thus ye shall be filled at My table with horses & chariots, with mighty men, & with all men of war, saith the Lord God!" (Ez.39:17-20.) Now back to where we left off in Revelation:
50. "AND I SAW THE BEAST"--THE ANTICHRIST--"& THE KINGS OF THE EARTH, & THEIR ARMIES, GATHERED TOGETHER TO MAKE WAR AGAINST HIM THAT SAT ON THE HORSE"--JESUS--"& AGAINST HIS ARMY." (Rev.19:19.)--Can you imagine? How stupid can the wicked get?! How crazy can even the Devil be? He makes a last-ditch stand to try to fight God & His forces even though by this time we are as powerful as the angels of Heaven! We have supernatural resurrection bodies, supernatural powers, & we can even ride our Heavenly horses out of the sky!
51. BUT HERE ARE THE WICKED, GATHERED TOGETHER AT ARMAGEDDON, UNDER THE DEVIL-MAN, THE ANTICHRIST, TO TRY TO FIGHT THE VERY FORCES OF GOD!--How foolish!--How ridiculous!--How presumptuous! "These shall make war with the Lamb"--Jesus--"& the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of lords & King of kings: & they that are with Him"--us--"are called, & chosen, & faithful!" (Rev.17:14.)
52. THESE GOD-DEFIANT, REBELLIOUS, IDIOTIC FOLLOWERS OF THE DEVIL, OF THE ANTICHRIST, HAVE ENOUGH NERVE & ARE STUPID & DUMB ENOUGH TO TRY TO MAKE WAR WITH JESUS HIMSELF & His forces, His resurrected children, His followers, His Christians! And that's where they go too far, because He is the Lord of all lords & the King of all kings, & therefore they are utterly defeated!
53. OUT OF HEAVEN WILL COME THE GREAT HOSTS OF HEAVEN WITH JESUS CHRIST IN THE LEAD ON A WHITE HORSE TO DESTROY THE ANTICHRIST & HIS KINGDOM IN THIS GREAT SUPERNATURAL BATTLE, & WE WILL TAKE OVER THE EARTH! PTL! We're gonna come riding out of the sky on great white horses & destroy them & their Satanic kingdom of Hell on Earth, & then we're going to set up the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, the Kingdom of God, & restore the Earth to the beauty of the Garden of Eden again!
54. WE'RE GOING TO REALLY CONQUER'M ALL & TAKE VENGEANCE ON THE ANTICHRIST & HIS KINGDOM & his trade-marked people, those Mark of the Beast people, & all the enemies we've had, & we're going to get our revenge in that day. We're going to get vengeance in that day against our enemies! But it's going to be a righteous vengeance!--They're going to get what they deserve & we're going to give it to'm!
55. "BEHOLD, THE LORD COMETH WITH TEN THOUSANDS OF HIS SAINTS, TO EXECUTE JUDGEMENT UPON ALL, & to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, & of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him!" (Jude 1:14,15.)--The word translated as "convince" here in our Bibles is "exelegho" in the original Greek, which literally means to "convict fully" or to "punish"!--And boy, are they gonna get punished!
56. "AND THE BEAST WAS TAKEN, & WITH HIM THE FALSE PROPHET THAT WROUGHT MIRACLES BEFORE HIM, with which he deceived them that had received the Mark of the Beast, & them that worshipped his Image. These both were cast alive into a Lake of Fire burning with brimstone." (Rev.19:20.) At last the fiendish Antichrist gets his just deserts!--PTL! He & his chief propaganda minister, the False Prophet, are taken from this Battle of Armageddon & are tossed directly into Hell, into the Lake of Fire!
57. "AND THE REMNANT WERE SLAIN WITH THE SWORD OF HIM THAT SAT UPON THE HORSE, which sword proceeded out of His mouth: & all the fowls were filled with their flesh!" (Rev.19:21.) What happens to all of these vicious Mark of the Beast people, the Antichrist's bestial people, his bestial followers who have persecuted & tortured God's children & have caused us so much trouble & have pursued & imprisoned & tortured & slaughtered Christians?--God is going to send us down from Heaven after the Coming of Christ & we are going to slaughter them! "For he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.--Here is the patience & the faith of the saints!" (Rev.13:10.)
58. "IT IS A RIGHTEOUS THING WITH GOD TO RECOMPENSE TRIBULATION TO THEM THAT TROUBLE YOU; & to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, & that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, & from the glory of His power; when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, & to be admired in all them that believe." (2Th.1:6-10.)
59. JESUS WILL COME CHARGING OUT OF THE BLUE ON A MIGHTY WHITE CHARGER in a mighty invasion from Outer Space, & He'll just utter His Word like thunder, sharp as a sword, & it will slaughter His enemies!--Those that have resisted & rebelled against Him, & have troubled & tortured & tribulated His children! He says, "I will render vengeance to Mine enemies, & will reward them that hate Me! I will make Mine arrows drunk with blood, & My sword shall devour flesh! Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people: for He will avenge the blood of His servants, & will render vengeance to His adversaries, & will be merciful unto His people." (Deut.32:41-43.) PTL!
60. THE ANTICHRIST FORCES ARE SLAUGHTERED BY THE SWORD WHICH COMES OUT OF THE MOUTH OF CHRIST, which obviously symbolises the Word of God. He uses His Word as a sword & slaughters them, & it's a bloody, horrible slaughter, evidently, because all the fowls of the heavens feast on their flesh! So they're going to be actually, literally killed by the Sword, by the Word! For "He shall smite the Earth with the rod of His mouth, & with the breath of His lips shall he slay the wicked!" (Is.11:4.)--There is nothing that cures the Devil & his crowd like the Truth, the Word of God!
61. "OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE" (HEB.12:29), SO THE SWORD OF HIS WORD PROCEEDING OUT OF HIS MOUTH IS EVIDENTLY GOING TO BE LIKE FIRE TO DEVOUR HIS ENEMIES! "For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, & with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, & His rebuke with flames of fire! For by fire & by His sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: & the slain of the Lord shall be many!" (Is.66:15,16.)
62. THIS BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON IS GOING TO BE A VERY GREAT BATTLE & A VERY GREAT SLAUGHTER, & is surely the fulfilment of the wicked being cast into the winepress of the Wrath of God that we just read about in Revelation 14! And according to those verses, the blood is going to run over 200 miles & in some places will be up to the horses' bridles, or around four feet deep! In all of man's violent, sordid history, there has never been a disaster that great!--There's never been a war with so many dead!
63. "AND THE SLAIN OF THE LORD SHALL BE AT THAT DAY FROM ONE END OF THE EARTH EVEN UNTO THE OTHER END OF THE EARTH: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground." (Jer.25:33.)--Such is going to be the horrible holocaust of the wars & judgements of God upon the Earth & its wicked!
64. SO THAT WHEN THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON IS OVER & THE BLOOD HAS RUN SO DEEP, there will be so many bodies left that the Scripture tells us it will take "men of continual employment"--a fulltime job--seven months just to bury the dead in Israel alone! (Ez.39:14.) The stench & stink will be so bad that it says it will "stop the noses of the passengers" (Ez.39:11), & it says that as they search along finding the last bodies, they'll put up little signs or markers showing the grave diggers where there is a body still remaining (Ez.39:15)--& there won't be too much remaining of some bodies after seven months of lying out in the hot sun with the vultures & carnivorous animals feeding upon them!
65. AND ALTHOUGH THE SLAUGHTER & CARNAGE RESULTING FROM THIS BATTLE WILL BE UNPARALLELED by any wars or disasters before it, it will not be total.--There will still be some remaining who will survive it. Even of the armies of the Antichrist, the Lord says He will spare one sixth of them. (Ez.39:2.) And as for the wicked nations that these forces come from, many will be destroyed by the horrors of the judgements of the Wrath of God--the earthquake, the great hail & all these horrible horrors that take place under the Seven Vials of God's Wrath--but some will survive. God will have mercy on some & they will survive!
66. THE LORD WILL NOT ANNIHILATE EVERYBODY DURING THE WRATH OF GOD, NOR AT ARMAGEDDON WHEN WE RETURN & WIPE OUT THE FORCES OF THE ANTICHRIST & his followers.--Otherwise, if they all died at Armageddon, where would all of the people & all of those nations come from that we're going to rule over in the Millennium?--You'll see in the next Chapter of this book, which is a detailed study on the Millennium, the one-thousand-year Golden Age Kingdom of Christ on Earth, that there are going to be lots of survivors!--Probably the most worthy & deserving, & maybe even a few of the most unworthy, just to show that they'll never change! But this is another big study which we'll cover in detail in the following Chapter.
67. BUT AT THIS MIGHTY BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON, WE NOT ONLY CONQUER SATAN & HIS FORCES, but we also take over the World, to rule & reign & run it the way it should have been run to begin with, & would have been if man had not believed the Devil's lies & disobeyed God & gone his own way! God's going to take over the government of this World & He's going to turn it rightside-up & run it the way it ought to be run, & we're going to help Him! So the Battle of Armageddon is going to be the biggest revolution that has ever happened!--It's going to be the battle in which we tune in, turn on & take over! Praise God!
IS WRATH RIGHT?
68. SOME PEOPLE SAY, "OH MY, GOD IS A GOD OF LOVE!--HE'D NEVER DO ANYTHING LIKE WHAT YOU'VE DESCRIBED HERE!"--Well, if He's not a God of justice, He couldn't be a God of mercy & love! If He's not a God of right & wrong & there's no difference between good & evil, then He's not God at all! And if He IS a God of justice, then there HAS to come a time for Him to METE OUT His justice & His judgements.--And thus it happens!
69. SO TO YOU WHO ASK, "HOW COULD A GOD OF LOVE DO SUCH HORRIBLE THINGS TO PEOPLE?"--I'D LIKE TO ASK THIS QUESTION IN RETURN: How could such horrible people do such terrible things to a God of love & His children of Love? How could such horrible people treat the God of Love & the Saviour Jesus in such a horrible way? That's the greatest mystery of all to me!
70. I THINK IT'S MUCH MORE UNDERSTANDABLE THAT SOME PEOPLE TODAY DESERVE SUCH HORRIBLE PUNISHMENTS & such a horrible fate & such horrible suffering, Hell on Earth & Hell Hereafter!--That they really deserve it! They've earned it & they've asked for it by rejecting Jesus Christ & the Love of God!--And by the horrible, cruel, merciless way they have treated others!
71. IN FACT, THESE VIALS OF WRATH & ARMAGEDDON ARE ONLY THE BEGINNING! This is only the Hell they're gonna get on Earth--Wait till the Hell afterwards! It's gonna be Hell here & Hell hereafter for those who insist on being unrepentant & rebellious against God!
72. IF YOU FIGHT GOD TOO HARD, GOD WILL FIGHT YOU! He is usually merciful & gives you a little time to repent, with maybe just a little spanking to encourage you to be sorry. And if you don't repent, He'll usually give you a harder spanking. But if you still don't repent, if you fight & resist & rebel even more, then He starts fighting you!--BOOM!
73. AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN SOON TO THE ANTI-CHRIST WICKED OF THIS WORLD!--They will not only refuse to voluntarily yield themselves to the Prince of Peace, but in the last thrill of their violent defiance of Christ & His Kingdom, they're actually going to send armies & try to literally fight & wage war against Him!--Think of that!--The Battle of Armageddon! They'll fight against Him to the last ditch!
74. SO WHEN CHRIST FINALLY TAKES OVER it's going to have to be with force & with power, "with great power & glory"!-- The wicked just don't understand anything else! So God says He's going to destroy them which destroy the Earth" (Rev.11:18)--including you, if you refuse to surrender to God and His Love & His Son Christ Jesus, the one & only Prince of Peace!
75. WE WARNED YOU, way back in the first chapter of this book, that if you don't want Jesus, if you refuse the Love of God & the Light of Jesus, His Truth & His way, then you have nothing but darkness & horrors of Hell to look forward to! If you reject & refuse to take Jesus into your heart, this Wrath of God is the kind of Hell on Earth you're going to go through!--Plus Hell hereafter! That's not a very bright picture I'm painting for you, is it? Well, I didn't paint it, God did!
76. HE IS THE GOD OF LOVE! IN FACT, "GOD IS LOVE!" (1Jn.4:8.)--And He "is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2Pe.3:9.) So if you don't know Him & you want to enjoy Heavenly happiness now & forever & miss this coming Hell on Earth & Hell hereafter, then receive Jesus & His gift of Eternal Life by asking Him into your heart!
77. WHICH WILL IT BE FOR YOU? The happy ending of God's wonderful, beautiful Heaven on Earth?--Or the Hell on Earth of those left behind to suffer the judgements of God & the Battle of Armageddon & the horrors of Hell brought on by Satan & his Antichrist? Which will it be for you?--That awful ending, that Hell of an ending, Hell on Earth?--Or the beautiful Millennium, Heaven on Earth, when Jesus & His children will rule & reign for a thousand years!
78. WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON? Who are you going to be with?--Those who are going to be weeping & wailing & gnashing their teeth as they see their World destroyed in which they were rebellious & stupid & ignorant & defiant & disobedient to God?--Or are you going to be with those who rejoice over the coming new beautiful Garden of Eden, the Garden of God, the soon-coming thousand-year Millennial Heaven-on-Earth rule of Jesus Christ & His children?--The choice is up to you!--Take Jesus today!--Tomorrow may be too late!
REFERENCES
The paragraph numbers of "The Wrath of God & the Battle of Armageddon!" compilation are listed below, giving the original ML or RD references where their contents may be found.--All unlisted paragraphs are Bible verses, the sources of which are given in the text.
1. 1194:24,27
2. 1266:112,113
3. 1500:173; 1180:67
4,5. 1245:94,95,99
6-13. 1191:19,26,41-46
14. 912:54
15. 1191:45
16. 1191:48; 1197:154
17. 1197:155,156
18-20. 1191:7,49,55
21. 1498:125
22. BP12:20; 1191:55
23-26. 1191:50,56,60
27,28. 1503:59,60
29. 1503:61; BP12:18
31. 1503:69
33. BP12:1
34. 1194:4
35-36. BP11:1
37. 1194:5
38. BP12:21; BP11:2
39. 1194;30
40. BP11:3; 1187:64
41,42. BP5:9
44,46. 1453:10
47. BP11:6
48. 1194:36
50. 1500:162
51. 1191:57
52. 1192:18
53. 695:64; 1194:32
54. 1491:98
57. 1503:72
58. 1509:2
59. BP12;10
60. BP5:3
61. BP6:6
62. BP5:2; 1428:45
63,64. 1453:11,12
65. BP5:11
66. BP1437:19
67. 1196:15; BP3:15
68. BP12:10
69,70. 1191:70-72
71. 1191:47
72. 544:11
73. BP1:8
74. 246:19
75. 1191;47,48,66
77,78. 1197:156,164
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
