The very last book in the Bible is Revelation. Revelation has a well-earned reputation of being highly symbolic in that many people cannot completely understand (even people who have written books about it.) If, while walking down a road you meet someone who claims to understand every single verse and nuance in the twenty-two chapters of this book, you might best just keep walking.
The Apostle John did not write the book in some secret, Gnostic or Da Vinci code. He wrote what he saw in his vision(s). If he saw a horse, he wrote “horse.” If he saw a scroll, he wrote “scroll.” These were familiar things to him. But how would he describe a cruise missile, or a nuclear explosion? Or an F-35? Watching fifty Challenger tanks from some great height maneuver at 30 mph might make him think of inseacts like beetles or ants. He would have no frame of reference and would have to do the best he could. When in Revelation 6:12 he wrote “the moon became as blood,” I think he was speaking metaphorically. It did not turn into red blood cells, leukocytes, eosinophils, basophils, etc. In Revelation 8:10, he sees what he calls a “star” smashing into the Earth. Like a “shooting star,” only huge. However, these are not truly stars, but meteors and (God forbid) asteroids. Does that mean the Bible is in error. Certainly not. Nor are you when you say you saw a beautiful sunset last evening. Because the sun doesn’t set. If you attempted to scientifically explain to your audience what you did see last evening as the sky darkened, you would bore them to tears. And now, more than ever, we are concerned with “near earth objects” that could collide with Earth and do the sort of global level damage John saw. The most recent example to be discovered is described here.
This is not to say that the meaning of some verses is not quite clear. For example, the first few chapters of Revelation deal with messages to seven churches which were located in what is now known as present day Türkiye. And there are other verses that God intended us to plainly understand. But what exactly is the “mark of the Beast” in Revelation, Chapter 13? Is it literally the number 666 (and what about another early manuscript that lists 616 instead?) The people in the American colonies considered King George’s Stamp Act to be the mark of the beast since you could not buy or sell without the stamp. I’ve head the argument years ago that UPC codes are the mark of the beast.
So, while some verses are shrouded in mystery, others are strikingly clear. One verse (Revelation 16:16) in particular gives us the location for the final battle on Earth. The GPS co-ordinates for this location are 32°35′4.64″N 35°11′0.58″E. This refers to Har Megiddo or as we call it, Armageddon, which is roughly eighteen miles southeast of Haifa and which appears in the featured photo of this post. It is a national park in Israel at the moment.
THE GEOLOGY OF MEDDIGO
The Valley of Megiddo is twenty-five miles long and ten miles wide. That makes it a little larger than metropolitan Chicago. Meddigo is in an area of the world that gets its share of earthquakes. There is a major fault line called aptly the Dead Sea Fault that travels down the Jordan River from southern Türkiye. It continues south through the Sea of Galilee, through the Dead Sea down to the east fork of the Red Sea (the Gulf of Akbar.) If you look at the map, you’ll see three lines between Nazareth and Megiddo running to Haifa. This is known as the Carmel Fault. But the Dead Sea Fault, while a hundred miles from Israel’s capital, still puts the City itself, the Holy Sites and the Mount of Olives under the threat of a major earthquake (predicted in Revelation 16:18 which warns that it will be the most powerful earthquake the world has ever experienced.) In Zechariah 14:4-11, the prophet either continues to add color to what John saw, or he predicts a second earth quake as Jesus approaches during the Second Coming. He writes (and this is interesting):
On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.
On that day there will be neither sunlight nor cold, frosty darkness. It will be a unique day—a day known only to the Lord—with no distinction between day and night. When evening comes, there will be light.
On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter.
Notice where Zechariah mentions that half of Mount Olives moves north and the other half south. He did not know this of course, but the Dead Sea Fault is called a “slip-strike” fault, very similar to the San Andreas Fault (and the geology between California and Israel in terms of how the fault lies (i.e., north to south) is almost identical. In this Dead Sea Faul line, the east side of the fault moves north when there is a significant earthquake while the west side of the fault moves south. Any earthquake 8.0 or higher would be sufficient to fulfill this prophecy as far as the damage alone, goes.
THE HISTORY OF MEDDIGO
Meddigo has been a central exchange in commerce and conflict throughout the centuries. The rich soil is conducive to farming. In the 15th century B.C., Pharaoh Tutmose III fought a major battle at Meddigo against the indigenous people of Canaan. Another battle occurred in 609 B.C. and led to King Josiah being deposed. In 1918, allied troops, led by General Edmund Allenby Edmund Allenby defeated the Ottoman army which led to the fall of the Ottoman empire.
The general and specific sense of Scripture suggests–if it does not unequivocally state–that the Devil hates the Jews partly because they are God’s first love, and also because it was from this tribe that Jesus was born. God and Satan are not equal, so they cannot be fairly compared or contrasted. God is, well, God. He is eternal. Satan is a created being. Because Satan cannot win in a battle against the Lord of Hosts, the only way he can hurt Him is by persecuting the people God loves. That’s not to say that the Jewish nation (Israel) does not have its faults, including blood on their hands. Very likely every nation does (including America.). Nor does it suggest that God loves only the Jews.
Revelation (16:16 passim) warns us that the nations will rise up against against Israel to wipe out that nation. The Gentile armies will assemble “together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.”
At that point, they will be destroyed by the wrath of God Almighty.
