Is it Armageddon?

I cannot be sure, but I seem to recall that Scott Morrison’s attitude to global warming ran something like, ‘it doesn’t matter much, Jesus is coming back soon, and the world as we know it will change.’ The world as we know it, filled with sin and other bad stuff will be no more, the faithful will be safe in the New Jerusalem…

Interestingly, the Trump appointment to be the US ambassadore to Israel is Mike Huckabee, a man who is also looking forward to that end times event, the return of Jesus. In his previous administration Trump moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem, acknowledging Biblically-based Israel’s claim to that city as its legitimate capital, not Tel Aviv, preparing the way for the final apocalypse. Scott Morrison thought it a good idea and wanted the Australian Embassy moved there too.

The term Armageddon is mentioned several times in the Old Testemant, but only once in the New, in Revelation 16 verse 16.

The lead up to that verse is an account of seven angels pouring out God’s vengeance on those opposed to him, from verse 1, Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth,” and so they did, the first bowl gave those who had the mark of the beast, the devil’s followers broke out in festering sores, the second, turning the sea to blood, the third turned the rivers and springs to blood, the sun became hotter, scorching people who refused to repent and glorify God, and so on, almost like Egypt when the Israelites wanted freedom from their enslavement in the Old Testament. Oh He is a vengeaful God.

Now I don’t know when all this is to happen, it has been promised, or should that be ‘dreamed’ about 2000 years ago, but the text goes on, ‘Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so they don’t go naked and shamefully exposed.”

And now, finally, we get the Armageddon bit…

Verse 16: Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

The next bit is thunder bolts and lightening, very, very frightening, marking the victory of God over the godless.

In looking at events in the Middle East since 1917, but leading up to what appears to be a bit of a crescendo, it can almost be imagined that this is really happening. God’s people reclaiming the promised land, Christian Zionists preparing the way supporting that move, and actively working toward the Israelis accepting Jesus as their Lord, as predicted by the apostle Paul also about 2000 years ago, as being a prerequuisite for Jesus to come back, trumpets blazing and the sun rising in the west.

Armageddon, means ‘Hill of Megiddo’ which was an important town in ancient Palestine, in Northern Israel, 30km from Haifa and to the north of Jerusalem. It was a town on the trade route between the various Empires through the ages, sitting on the main access between Greece, Turkey, present day Iraq and east from there, Iran which was the seat of the Persian Empire and Egypt, and used as a stopping point during the Mesopotamian Empire as it traded with disparate regions. To the south was the city of Gaza, also a major trading stop between Egypt and the Middle East and Europe.

The importance of the Hill of Megiddo is probably worth noting, since the location was known and was used a s meeting place for the various travellers and traders. Also, importantly, a strategically important place since it was on a hill, overlooking the northern plains of Israel and to the west, the port of Haifa.

With the rise and fall of the empires, the region changed hands from Egypt, Greece, Babylonian, Persian, Mesopotamian, Roman…  right up to the recent times, the Ottoman Empire up to the end of WWI and then a British protectorate, finally handed ‘back’ to Abraham’s decendents in the Balfour Declaration, confirmed as one of the first acts of the newly formed United Nations.

So the idea that the ‘kings’ should meet there is not beyond imagination. It could become the site for a peace settlement, or at least discussions to see whether that is remottely possible.

Adding to the interest is the current state of the Middle East. It has not really been a peaceful part of the world for quite a while now; the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the negotiations dividing up the various bits between what was to be Russia, France and Great Britain, but the Russians bailed out, having their own situation to sort out, what to do with the Czar and who will rule that Empire and to ensure the political differences are settled.

The division of Syria, Iraq, Palestine and other bits of the Ottoman Empire was done to extract wealth, not for the people who actually lived their but their new colonial masters. It seems that all the major powers have an interest in that part of the world, and now with the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria, the increasing spread of the Israeli ‘defence’ activity taking over more of the Golan Heights, the spread into other parts of the region with missiles and drones dropping their lethal loads, the attacks on Lebanon and so it goes, the region is in turmoil.

Religious turmoil also marks the region. Not just Judaism versus Islam, it ia also the various branches of Islam which are carrying on a seemingly endless ‘holy war’ on each other. The ‘true believers’, God’s People have no interest in quelling that conflict, it is in their interest, the firmly held beliefs are hard to shift, and those not marked for salvation will be destroyed. Those with the mark of the devil, of the anti-Christ or whatever term is favoured, Islamists, but the true believers will be on their way to the New Jerusalem which will arise from the ashes of the current one, marked for destruction.

I find all that quite scary, scary that these beliefs appear to be believed, that they are so instrumental in the geoploitical order of today, who to support in the destruction of … sorry, defence of …

The absolute devastation of places such as Gaza, parts of Lebanon, the Syrian cities bombed to smithereens by Assad and his best buddy, Vlad, the terror of a re-emerging ISIS, the continued instability of Iraq, the displacement of millions of innocents who no longer have anywhere to call home.

And no one cares, because it will all end soon, the seven horsemen of the apocalypse are mounting their charges, the angels are getting ready to pour the vengeance of God onto the region, the trumpeter is practicing for the final call… But what if that is all just mythology?

What if this is just an endless war as differnt religious adherents square off with messages of hatred sent with bombs and missiles, what if  the trumpets don’t sound, the sun continues to rise in the east and the city of Jerusalem stays as it pretty much is, that Gaza remains uninhabitable but no one cares, that islamophobia and antisemitism continue with the vile hatred for no other reason than differnt books are read, different dress code apply, but beneath those live real people, humans, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, grandparents, musicians, artists, writers... peope just like you, just like me.

Another quote from that ‘Holy Book’, somewhere it says “God is love.”

If so, why is there so much hatred spouted in His name.

Trying to make sense of it all befuddles my brain.

Also by Bert Hetebry:

How equal is equal?

Democracy: Swings and Merry-go-rounds

Convenient generalisations

Let’s not look at Africa

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