Revelation 16:13-16 “And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. (14) For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. … (16) And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.”
During the time that the wrath of God is poured out on the earth a large part of the earth’s population will be killed. Although scripture does not reveal to us just how many will die, it does reveal that more than one third of mankind will be killed over that three year period, for in just one of the judgements we see that an angelic army of two hundred million horsemen will invade the earth, and in that judgment alone one third of mankind will be killed by fire (Revelation 9:13-19). And so we see that these angels will literally invade every nation on earth for the sole purpose of destroying people. The nations of the earth will attempt to respond militarily (Joel 2:1-11), but even modern weaponry, both conventional and nuclear, will prove to be completely ineffectual against the supernatural power of angelic beings. And so the outcome of that one sided conflict will result in the armies of every nation of the earth being completely annihilated, along with an estimated two billion people that will die as a result of this particular judgement. But there are also other accounts in the book of Revelation which refer to further deaths that will take place during that time as well. Nevertheless, although a large part of the earth’s population will be killed during the time of the outpouring of God’s wrath, we see that the majority (approximately two thirds) will still be alive on the earth at the end of that time. After God’s wrath is completed Satan and the Antichrist will know that the Lord Jesus will be about to return to the earth to set up His millennial reign. And so they will endeavour to prevent the Lord Jesus from doing so, by preparing a vast army to oppose Him and His saints when He does come back to the earth. The above passage of scripture describes Satan (the dragon), the Antichrist (the beast) and the false prophet gathering an army of people to the location of Armageddon to fight against the Lord Jesus and His saints. It is estimated that the size of that army will be approximately three hundred million in number. This is not taking into account the number of Satan’s angels which will be waiting for the Lord’s angels in the spiritual realm just above the valley of Megiddo. Nevertheless, even though Satan and the Antichrist will gather a vast army against the Lord Jesus on that day, they will be no match for the Lord and His angels.
Michael E.B. Maher
Comments