Revelation 16:12-16 “Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. (13) 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. (15) "Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame." (16) And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.”
We have seen in the previous section that at the Lord’s second coming, the people of the earth will attempt to hide themselves from the Lord’s presence. That response will not be applicable to all people of the earth however, for the above quoted passage of scripture speaks about an army that will be gathered together at the place called Armageddon. And so we see that unlike the rest of mankind, this army will not flee from the Lord’s presence, but rather they will be gathered specifically to oppose the second coming of Jesus Christ. So who are these people? I discuss this topic in detail in the first four books in my series “End of the Ages”; nevertheless for background purposes we will briefly discuss the topic in this section as well. Through the prophet Daniel, the Lord revealed to us that there will be four main kingdoms on the earth when the Lord Jesus returns; and one of those kingdoms i.e. the fourth shown to Daniel, will be the kingdom of the anti-Christ which is in fact the kingdom of Islam (Daniel 7). And so it is the kingdom of Islam that will oppose the second coming of Christ, and it is their army that will be gathered at Armageddon to do battle with Him. This passage teaches us that three demons will come out of the mouths of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet, and those demons will go out into the fourth kingdom to gather their army in preparation for the upcoming battle. The dragon in this passage refers to the devil, the beast refers to the anti-Christ and the false prophet is the third person mentioned. It is important to note that two armies will be assembled to oppose the Lord Jesus at Armageddon. The first army will be constituted from the fourth kingdom i.e. this will be an army of men, and they will be located in the physical realm on the earth. The second army will be all of Satan’s angels and demons, and they will be located in the spiritual realm just above the earth (2 Samuel 5:24). This is the reason why the men in the anti-Christ’s army will not flee, as other men will, at the sight of the Lord’s return; because they will be convinced of victory when they see the massive angelic army stationed above them. Although scripture gives us little to no insight as to the size of the second army, it does give us some insight as to the size of the first army i.e. the army of the fourth kingdom. So how large will the army of men be? In order for us to calculate their number, we first need to speculate on the date of the Lord’s second coming. Based on events that must still be fulfilled, we can confidently say that the Lord Jesus will not return before the turn of the century, nevertheless it is entirely possible that the Lord will return either at the turn of the century or very soon thereafter. And so for the sake of expediency we will use the date of 2100 AD as the date of the Lord’s return. It is estimated that the earth’s population will be approximately 11.2 billion people by that date[1]. Nevertheless there are certain events which will take place before the Lord returns, which will reduce that number quite substantially. Firstly, approximately 500 million people will perish in the global nuclear war that will take place between now and then. Secondly, as we have already mentioned, a combination of approximately 2.2 billion children and saints will be taken from the earth before the Lord returns. Thirdly, approximately 2.8 billion people (one third of the earth’s population) will be killed during the three years of God’s wrath being poured out. That would leave approximately 5.7 billion people on the earth when the Lord Jesus returns. Of that number, one quarter or approximately 1.4 billion people will make up the fourth kingdom. Of that number, approximately 300 million men will be of fighting age, and thus be drafted into the anti-Christ’s army. An army of 300 million men explains why this passage refers to the Euphrates River being dried up so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared; the reason being that an army of that magnitude could not possibly cross over bridges, because even with the widest bridges available to them, it would still take years for 300 million people to cross over any river obstacle. As an aside, it is because the anti-Christ’s kingdom will be comprised of the Islamic states that most of their army will need to travel to Armageddon from the east. And so we see that although this passage only refers to the Euphrates River being dried up, obviously all other rivers that this army will need to cross will also be dried up at that time. Although a gathering of such a vast number of people in one location is hard for us to grasp, it is nevertheless not entirely without some precedent. For example on 4th February 2019, 50 million people gathered in India to celebrate a religious festival[2]. So what about the size of the second army, i.e. Satan’s army of angels and demons? Scripture teaches us that one third of the angels fall into Satan’s kingdom (Revelation 12:4). And so although we cannot know their number, it must nevertheless be in the billions. As an aside, it is important to note that every angel and demon in Satan’s kingdom will be present at the battle of Armageddon. That means that all demons dwelling in humans at that time will be forced to leave their human hosts to join Satan’s army. And so we see that all people throughout the earth that are demon possessed and oppressed, will be set free at that time.
Revelation 19:17-19 “Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, "Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, (18) that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great." (19) And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army.”
We have already seen that the army of the anti-Christ will be the largest ever assembled in the history of mankind; nevertheless there is another truth we need to understand about the army at Armageddon. As we have already mentioned, before this event, God’s wrath would have been poured out on the earth over a period of three years. And so by the time God’s wrath has been completed in the earth, the earth’s infrastructure would have been completely destroyed. There is one particular judgement which will take place during the outpouring of God’s wrath, which is pertinent to our discussion in this section; an angelic army of 200 hundred million will go throughout the earth to destroy mankind’s entire infrastructure in the earth, including all forms of modern weaponry available to man, both military and private (Revelation 9:13-16). A passage of scripture that describes this event declares that “A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns; the land is like the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; surely nothing shall escape them” (Joel 2:3). And so we see that by the time this angelic army has completed its task they will have destroyed all modern infrastructure, resulting in mankind being reduced to technologies that were last used in the first century. The outcome of such devastation is that there will be no modern weaponry available to the army of the anti-Christ. The above quoted passage of scripture confirms this truth to us, for in this passage the angel invites the birds of heaven to come and eat the flesh of those destroyed in the battle of Armageddon, i.e. the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them. The beast in this passage refers to the anti-Christ and it describes his armies gathered together to make war against the Lord Jesus and His army. And so we see that the army of the anti-Christ will not be equipped with modern weaponry such as tanks and artillery, etc. But rather it will be an army riding on horseback and equipped with weaponry such as swords and shields, etc. So what about Satan’s army of angels and demons? Satan’s army will confront the angelic army that will accompany the Lord Jesus on His return (Matthew 25:31). This will not be the first time these two armies would have clashed however, because as we have already mentioned, a number of years before, Michael’s angels would have defeated Satan’s angels when they expelled them from their realm in heaven. The difference on this occasion however, is that all of Satan’s demons will also be present, whereas in their previous confrontation only Satan’s angels would have been present. So how does an angelic battle unfold? The short answer to that question is that we don’t know. What we do know is that their weaponry for example, consists of swords (Number 22:23), battle-axes (Ezekiel 9:2) and bows (2 Samuel 22:35). Although the weapons mentioned may sound similar to manmade swords, battleaxes and bows, nevertheless they are profoundly different, for scripture teaches us that their weapons are fiery (Genesis 3:24 & Psalm 7:13). We also know that some angels ride on horseback (Revelation 6:4) and some ride in chariots (Zechariah 6:2). We also know that even though angels are immortal (Luke 20:36), they can nevertheless experience pain (Matthew 25:41). And so based on that information, we can assume that a physical confrontation does take place when angels clash; and even though they cannot die, their fiery weapons can and do inflict pain on their opponents. And so it is entirely possible that when they can no longer endure the pain inflicted by their adversaries, that the defeated army eventually concedes to the victors.
Michael E.B. Maher
[1] https://www.un.org/en/desa/world-population-projected-reach-98-billion-2050-and-112-billion-2100
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