Armageddon: The Battle Over Worship

The Battle of Armageddon, like the mark of the beast, has been speculated about incessantly.  The word itself conjures images of destruction, terror and utter devastation.  From the best-selling Left Behind novels, to an endless string of Hollywood movies, people have conjectured and guessed about this cosmic clash of the ages.  As with the true "mark of the beast" all such theories have erred, not understanding that the true cosmic conflict spanning the millennia is over worship.  The Battle of Armageddon is but the final campaign in the long-running warfare which started when Lucifer boasted that he would sit on the Mount of the Congregation, Mount Mo'edim.

The very word Armageddon reveals the nature of this battle.  It is an unusual word, used only once in scripture.  While Revelation was not written in Hebrew,(1) the word is actually a combination of two Hebrew words.  The first is har (#2022) which simply means "mountain."  Scholars are divided as to the second word in the combination.  Some believe it is #4023: Megiddo, which was a place in Palestine.  The problem with this interpretation is that when one goes to where Megiddo was there is no mountain there!  In fact, there is just a valley: "the Valley of Megiddo."(2)

Other scholars believe the second word is #4150: mo'ed.  This is the more consistent choice.  Armageddon, har mo'edim, is the same Mount Mo'edim which Lucifer claimed he would possess, sitting on the Mount of the Congregation, receiving all worship.(3)  This is the climax of the entire conflict and it is fought, as always, on the battlefield of worship.

Immediately after the whore riding the beast is identified as "Mystery, Babylon the Great" a fourth angel appears, repeating the warning of the second angel.  This time, the warning is given powerfully with a strong voice:

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory, and he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.  For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her . . . And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. (4)

By using the counterfeit calendar of the hidden god, "all nations have drunk of the wine" of Babylon.  No one is left out in this severe indictment.  However, the offer of mercy still lingers and the invitation is given to those whom God tenderly calls "My people."  The heart of infinite love desires that His people have a clear understanding of the issues so that all who will, may choose to follow Him.  The calendar reform needed today is a return to true, Biblical time-keeping.  Sabbath reform necessitates calendar reform.(5) 

It is very easy for those who have been blessed with great spiritual light to get puffed up, thinking that they have all the truth necessary for salvation.  However, Isaiah 58 is emphatic: God's people are in error: "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins."(6) 

The Sovereign of the Universe is appealing for someone to show His people their sins!  It is clear that those so lovingly called "Mypeople" do not think that they are doing anything wrong, as the next verse explains: "Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God."(7)  However, despite an outward display of religious observances, something is seriously wrong: they have forsaken the ordinance of their Maker. 

The ordinance forsaken is worship on the true Sabbath.  This is the sign of loyalty that has been abandoned.  Many Sunday-keeping Christians sincerely believe the Sabbath was given only to the Israelites.  Aside from the fact that the Sabbath was given at Creation before Israel was a people, Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles,(8) pointedly declared that all who accept Christ are heirs of the promise as though they were descended from Abraham.(9)  Thus, the requirements to inherit, obedience to the divine statutes, are the same for Gentiles as for Israelites by blood.

As has been shown, Israel's repeated apostasies were centered around the worship of Saturn, the hidden god.  Modern Israel, both literal and spiritual, has continued in that apostasy; "they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant."(10)  The Sabbath was established by the Creator Himself as the sign of loyalty to His kingdom:

Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD that sanctifies you.  You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you.  Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.(11)  Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD.  Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.  Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.  It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.(12)  

When the divine ordinance is forsaken, religious rites become mere forms which lack all spiritual blessings.  In Isaiah 58, the people demand, "Why have we fasted . . . and You have not seen?  Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?"(13)  When their religious experience is dead, they blame God, accusatorily asking, "What's up, God?  How come You have not been paying attention to our worship?  Haven't you noticed everything we have been doing to worship You?  Now where are the blessings You promised?"

The Father responds that what He is looking for is a religion of the heart which will then bring the rewards the people are seeking.(14)  At the heart of it all, however, is a return to true worship by restoring the ordinance that has been forsaken: restoring worship to the true seventh-day Sabbath by the genuine Biblical calendar.  It is the last generation that is given the high calling of restoring the Sabbath to its rightful place, standing before the world, sharing this wonderful truth.  "And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The Repairer of the breach, The Restorer of paths to dwell in."(15)

This is the privilege given to the last generation: the opportunity to honor their Creator by restoring to the world knowledge of the only calendar by which the true Sabbath can be found.  What immediately follows is one of the most beautiful promises in all scripture, based on condition of obedience:

If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father.  The mouth of the LORD has spoken.(16)

If a person will surrender his will, keep the true Sabbath day holy and thus honor his Maker, he shall be fed with the heritage of Jacob, his spiritual father.  Nothing could be a more hope-inspiring, appropriate promise to those who have spent their lives ignorantly directing their worship to the hidden god.  The name Jacob means "supplanter," a fit name for a man who received the birthright by passing himself off as his brother to his elderly, blind father.(17)  The word "supplant" means: "to take the place of [something]; to supersede, especially through force, scheming, or treachery; to remove or uproot in order to replace with something else."(18)

It is the "house of Jacob" that receives the call to acknowledge their transgression.  The true Sabbath is a sign that the great Creator God sanctifies His people.  It is not possible to be sanctified on a counterfeit holy day.  So, the hidden god has treacherously positioned his own worship days, supplanting the true seventh-day Sabbath.  All who have worshipped by the counterfeit calendar have, ignorantly or knowingly, cooperated with the hidden god and been supplanters, themselves.  This prophecy in Isaiah was given centuries after Jacob had received his divine inheritance: a new name, symbolic of a forgiven, purified character.  That his old name is used in this context is significant, because it contains a promise for modern supplanters.

When Jacob returned to Cannan, after having spent two decades with his uncle, he learned that Esau was coming toward him with a small army, doubtless bent on revenge for Jacob's theft of the birthright blessing years before.  It was the climax of Jacob's life.  After sending his family and the animals across the brook, Jabbok, "Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day."(19)  Neither man won, and as the day began to dawn, Jacob realized that he had been wrestling with the Angel of the Covenant.(20)

When he realized with Whom he had been wrestling, he begged a blessing. "And He [the Angel] said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.  And He said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and has prevailed."(21)  The supplanter's name was changed from one which was a reminder of his sin, to a new name, indicative of his new, transformed character.  "Israel" means "a prince of God."

This is the honor offered to all who will forsake the worship of the hidden god which has supplanted the worship of the Creator.  The word "angel" simply means "messenger."(22)  All who hear the message of warning about the Biblical calendar, wrestle with God: "Is this true?  How can it be so?  I do not want to be led astray!  What if . . .?  What if . . .?"  Finally, in surrender of the will, "not mine, but Thine be done," they conquer as did Jacob.  And like Jacob, they are forgiven, being accounted princes, princesses, sons and daughters of the King of kings.

The call to come out of Babylon is being given to the world today.  Every area of life is affected: employment, schooling, church and family relations, etc.  Because the entire world is immersed in Babylonian time-keeping and worship, all must be willing to stand alone.  There is no organization to which the called out ones come.  Like Elijah on Mount Carmel, they must stand alone with this wonderful truth, willing to meet opposition in the strength of One who is mighty to save. 

Christ said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me."(23)  As the truth of the seventh-day Sabbath and the genuine Biblical calendar swells, allwho truly desire to honor their Creator are heeding the call.  "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold, and one Shepherd."(24)  Roman Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Sunday- and Saturday-keeping Protestants, Hindus, Buddhists, and more; the Good Shepherd has His sheep scattered throughout the world.  All who are truly His are hearing and responding to the call to come out of Babylon.(25) 

The invitation has now come to you.  How will you respond?  Will you heed the call of mercy, choosing to "count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus"(26) our Lord and Saviour?  There is time to study and be grounded in the truth, but no time for vacillation and wavering indecision.  Immediately after the call is given for the final time by the fourth angel in Revelation 18, the judgments on all who stay in Babylon are poured out.  It will be "a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time."  However,"at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book."(27)

After showing the triumph of the Kingdom of Heaven over the kingdom of the hidden god, Lucifer, Christ leaves a last message for His people.  The reassuring but urgent words are to you:

Behold, I am coming quickly!  Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book . . . I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.  Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city . . . Surely I am coming quickly.(28)

"Amen.  Even so, come, Lord Jesus."(29)

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(1) Revelation 16:16 explicitly states: "And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon."  Were Revelation written in Hebrew, such a statement would have been redundant.

(2) See 2 Chronicles 35:22.

(3) "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation [mo'edim], in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High."  (Isaiah 14:13, 14.)

(4) Revelation 18:1-5

(5) See Appendix H.

(6) Isaiah 58:1

(7) Isaiah 58:2

(8) Romans 11:13

(9) "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:29).

(10) Isaiah 24:5

(11) This is not a divine directive for modern Sabbath keepers to go stone Sabbath breakers.  Rather it is affirming that Sabbath observance is still required.  "The wages of sin is death" and none who persist in Sabbath breaking will receive the gift of God which is "eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23).

(12) Exodus 31:13-17, NKJV

(13) Isaiah 58:3, NKJV

(14) Isaiah 58:4-11

(15) Isaiah 58:12

(16) Isaiah 58:13-14, NKJV

(17) See Genesis 27.

(18)Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, Second ed., (New York: New World Dictionaries/Simon and Schuster, 1983).

(19) Genesis 32:24, NKJV

(20) Genesis 32:26, 29-30

(21) Genesis 32:27 and 28

(22)The New Strong's Expanded Dictionary of Bible Words, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publ., 2001) #4397 and #4398.

(23) John 10:27

(24) John 10:16

(25) There is a growing movement within Islam to lay aside the traditions of the clerics and return to the Koran alone, using the luni-solar calendar.  Ramadan means "the hot month; parched; dryness."  Although the modern Muslim calendar is strictly lunar with Ramadan 11 days earlier every year, originally it was luni-solar with Ramadan being tied to the hot season.

(26) Philippians 3:8

(27) Daniel 12:1, 2

(28) Revelation 22:7, 12-14, 20a, NKJV

(29) Revelation 22:20b-21