Armageddon quotes

The Greek word “Armageddon” translates and means “a symbolic name” (see Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, Greek word #717). It is made up of the combination of two Hebrew words; “har” (#2022) which means “a mountain or range of hills”, and “megiddow” (#4023) which is a place in Palestine. This Palestinian valley of Megiddo is not very big, and therefore cannot possibly contain vast armies battling each other! Thus the word “Armageddon” is really just a symbol, and does not represent a literal place where a huge war occurs.

2) Armageddon is indeed connected with a ginormous conflict and battle. Yet this battle and controversy will not be fought with literal weapons, such as guns, tanks, aircraft, or armed forces. But it will be fought, has already begun to be fought, and will continue to grow in intensity until every person in the world becomes involved!

“And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” Revelation 16:13-16.

This great battle is fought between two main forces: God, Christ, and His clean or righteous followers, versus the Devil, evil spirits, and his unclean or wicked followers. Thus Armageddon is a symbol describing this great controversy and conflict raging between God and Satan -- between truth and error. This spiritual battle will involve every person, and each must decide whom to follow – either Christ and truth, or the devil and error; and the end result will be either eternal life with Christ, or eternal destruction with Satan.

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.” Revelation 12:7-8.

3) What represents these frogs which came out of the mouth of the Dragon, Beast, and False Prophet? A frog is an unclean amphibian (Leviticus 11:9-11). Frogs remain motionless and appear harmless, until an unsuspecting insect or small creature comes close enough, and then the frog opens its mouth and shoots out its tongue, grabbing and pulling them into their mouth to be eaten. And very few ever escape from being destroyed.

“This unusual combination of tongue and saliva allows a frog to catch insects, mice or even small birds faster than you can blink – five times faster, in fact. Once captured, the prey is yanked back toward the frog’s mouth at a force up to 12 times greater than gravity....the frog’s super-soft tongue stretches out like a bungee cord and splats against an insect. The tongue wraps around the insect and covers it with sticky saliva before the victim knows what hit it....When the slobbery tongue smacks its prey, the saliva becomes more liquid and spreads into all the cracks and crevices of its prey.

“As the frog retracts its tongue, the saliva thickens, making it harder for the prey to separate from the tongue....Once tongue and prey are inside the frog’s mouth, the saliva regains its watery properties. Then the frog’s eyeballs dip back into the mouth to scrape the meal off the tongue and down the throat.” LA Times, February 3, 2017, Science Section, article: What Makes A Frog’s Tongue So Sticky?, by Sean Greene, at http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-frog-tongues-saliva-20170203-story.html, accessed 9-21-17.

The Dragon, Beast and False Prophet, like frogs, also appear harmless, but each uses their quick tongue to speak soft pliable words calculated to catch unsuspecting prey. Or in other words, they speak pleasing false doctrines, which catch people off-guards, but which binds them and pulls them within such unrighteous entities, and without God’s divine power to aid them, few if any ever escape from being destroyed.

God had told Adam and Eve that “in the day that thou eatest thereof [of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil] thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17). But Satan spoke unclean words declaring that you can disobey God’s commandment and not die, but still live forever! Or in other words, the immortality of the soul. And this great deceptive false doctrine of the immortality of the soul has brought millions into the bondage of error. And people, states, governments and nations will sadly continue to be held in bondage to these false teachings of the Devil until “all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, [are caused] to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name”(Revelation 13:16-17), and all who refuse to do so “should be killed” (Revelation 13:15).

But some will refuse to follow the Devil’s lies, because the Bible states that “here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).

So the Dragon represents Satan, and this first unclean spirit that comes out of his mouth represents his lying teachings of spiritualism and paganism, especially the immortality of the soul.

Revelation 13 describes a Beast which arose out of the ruins of pagan Rome, united herself with paganism in order to increase her membership, and that ruled for 1260 prophetic days (Revelation 12:6), or 3 ½ prophetic years (Revelation 12:14), or 42 prophetic months (Revelation 13:3) each totaling 1260 literal years (see Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6). This Beast can be none other than the Roman Catholic Church (see our tract on The Beast for more information at http://www.lightministries.com/Tracts/id171.htm).

Roman Catholicism exalts the organized church above the individual conscience, and when there is a conflict between traditional church creed and the Bible, church tradition always assumes predominance over God’s word of truth.

“The [first] objective [or formal] principle (of Protestantism) proclaims the canonical Scriptures, especially the New Testament to be the only infallible source and rule of faith and practice, and asserts the right of private interpretation of the same, in distinction from the Roman Catholic view, which declares the Bible and tradition to be co-ordinate sources and rule of faith, and makes tradition, especially the decrees of popes and councils, the only legitimate and infallible interpreter of the Bible." The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIII, "Protestantism", Section I, 1 - Sola Scriptura ("Bible Alone"), Nihil Obstat, February 1, 1912 by Remy Lafort, D.D., Censor, Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York, at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12495a.htm, accessed 9-22-17).

"Like two sacred rivers flowing from paradise, the Bible and divine tradition contain the word of God, the precious gems of revealed truths. Though these two divine streams are in themselves, on account of their divine origin, of equal sacredness, and are both full of revealed truths, still of the two, tradition is to us more clear and safe." Catholic Belief, by Joseph Faa di Bruno, p 45.

"If we must choose between the Holy Scriptures of God, and the old errors of the church, we should reject the former." Johnan Faber (a defender of the Papacy) cited in History of The Reformation, by Merle d'Aubinge, book 11, Chapter 5, Paragraph 9.

"From this we may understand how great is the authority of the church in interpreting or explaining to us the commandments of God - an authority which is acknowledged by the universal practice of the whole Christian world, even of those sects which profess to take the holy Scriptures as their sole rule of faith, since they observe as the day of rest not the seventh day of the week demanded by the Bible, but the first day. Which we know is to be kept holy, only from the tradition and teaching of the Catholic church." Henry Gibson, Catechism Made Easy, # 2, 9th edition, vol. 1, p. 341-342.

"Sunday is founded, not of scripture, but on tradition, and is distinctly a Catholic institution. As there is no scripture for the transfer of the day of rest from the last to the first day of the week, Protestants ought to keep their Sabbath on Saturday and thus leave Catholics in full possession of Sunday." Catholic Record, September 17, 1893.

"The arguments...are firmly grounded on the word of God, and having been closely studied with the Bible in hand, leave no escape for the conscientious Protestant except the abandonment of Sunday worship and the return to Saturday, commanded by their teacher, the Bible, or, unwilling to abandon the tradition of the Catholic Church, which enjoins the keeping of Sunday, and which they have accepted in direct opposition to their teacher, the Bible, consistently accept her (the Catholic Church) in all her teachings. Reason and common sense demand the acceptance of one or the other of these alternatives: either Protestantism and the keeping holy of Saturday, or Catholicism and the keeping holy of Sunday. Compromise is impossible." James Cardinal Gibbons, in Catholic Mirror, December 23, 1893.

7) Paul commends the noble Bereans because “they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11). Paul never asked the believers to accept doctrine based only on Apostolic authority. This is because God's word is the only supreme authority for all true religious beliefs, and not any traditional church creed, council or commandment of men.

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

“To the law (Bible) and to the testimony (Spirit of Prophecy - Revelation 19:10): if they speak not according to this word, [it is] because there is no light in them.” Isaiah 8:20.

“Then said Jesus to those...which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31-32.


	"LET THERE BE LIGHT" Ministries home \| Sermon Quotes Bible Spotlight - ON ARMAGEDDON quotes 1) “And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” Revelation 16:16. The Greek word “Armageddon” translates and means “a symbolic name” (see Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, Greek word #717). It is made up of the combination of two Hebrew words; “har” (#2022) which means “a mountain or range of hills”, and “megiddow” (#4023) which is a place in Palestine. This Palestinian valley of Megiddo is not very big, and therefore cannot possibly contain vast armies battling each other! Thus the word “Armageddon” is really just a symbol, and does not represent a literal place where a huge war occurs. 2) Armageddon is indeed connected with a ginormous conflict and battle. Yet this battle and controversy will not be fought with literal weapons, such as guns, tanks, aircraft, or armed forces. But it will be fought, has already begun to be fought, and will continue to grow in intensity until every person in the world becomes involved! “And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” Revelation 16:13-16. This great battle is fought between two main forces: God, Christ, and His clean or righteous followers, versus the Devil, evil spirits, and his unclean or wicked followers. Thus Armageddon is a symbol describing this great controversy and conflict raging between God and Satan -- between truth and error. This spiritual battle will involve every person, and each must decide whom to follow – either Christ and truth, or the devil and error; and the end result will be either eternal life with Christ, or eternal destruction with Satan. This battle began long ago in heaven. “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.” Revelation 12:7-8. This final battle between truth and error is also portrayed in Revelation Chapters 12, 13, 14, & 18, and all humanity have entered into this battle today. 3) What represents these frogs which came out of the mouth of the Dragon, Beast, and False Prophet? A frog is an unclean amphibian (Leviticus 11:9-11). Frogs remain motionless and appear harmless, until an unsuspecting insect or small creature comes close enough, and then the frog opens its mouth and shoots out its tongue, grabbing and pulling them into their mouth to be eaten. And very few ever escape from being destroyed. “Frogs...can nab a fly with remarkable speed – but the real secret of their bug-catching prowess is in the saliva. “Sticky frog saliva is a non-Newtonian fluid. That means it can behave as both a liquid and a solid. “This unusual combination of tongue and saliva allows a frog to catch insects, mice or even small birds faster than you can blink – five times faster, in fact. Once captured, the prey is yanked back toward the frog’s mouth at a force up to 12 times greater than gravity....the frog’s super-soft tongue stretches out like a bungee cord and splats against an insect. The tongue wraps around the insect and covers it with sticky saliva before the victim knows what hit it....When the slobbery tongue smacks its prey, the saliva becomes more liquid and spreads into all the cracks and crevices of its prey. “As the frog retracts its tongue, the saliva thickens, making it harder for the prey to separate from the tongue....Once tongue and prey are inside the frog’s mouth, the saliva regains its watery properties. Then the frog’s eyeballs dip back into the mouth to scrape the meal off the tongue and down the throat.” LA Times, February 3, 2017, Science Section, article: What Makes A Frog’s Tongue So Sticky?, by Sean Greene, at http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-frog-tongues-saliva-20170203-story.html, accessed 9-21-17. Watch YouTube video of this process at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFlHHG57V2U The Dragon, Beast and False Prophet, like frogs, also appear harmless, but each uses their quick tongue to speak soft pliable words calculated to catch unsuspecting prey. Or in other words, they speak pleasing false doctrines, which catch people off-guards, but which binds them and pulls them within such unrighteous entities, and without God’s divine power to aid them, few if any ever escape from being destroyed. 4) Who represents the Dragon? “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world”. Revelation 12:9. The Dragon represents the Devil or Satan. And what statements of erroneous belief and false doctrine have originated out of Satan's mouth? “Ye shall not surely die”. Genesis 3:4. God had told Adam and Eve that “in the day that thou eatest thereof [of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil] thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17). But Satan spoke unclean words declaring that you can disobey God’s commandment and not die, but still live forever! Or in other words, the immortality of the soul. And this great deceptive false doctrine of the immortality of the soul has brought millions into the bondage of error. And people, states, governments and nations will sadly continue to be held in bondage to these false teachings of the Devil until “all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, [are caused] to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name”(Revelation 13:16-17), and all who refuse to do so “should be killed” (Revelation 13:15). But some will refuse to follow the Devil’s lies, because the Bible states that “here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12). So the Dragon represents Satan, and this first unclean spirit that comes out of his mouth represents his lying teachings of spiritualism and paganism, especially the immortality of the soul. 5) Who represents the Beast? Revelation 13 describes a Beast which arose out of the ruins of pagan Rome, united herself with paganism in order to increase her membership, and that ruled for 1260 prophetic days (Revelation 12:6), or 3 ½ prophetic years (Revelation 12:14), or 42 prophetic months (Revelation 13:3) each totaling 1260 literal years (see Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6). This Beast can be none other than the Roman Catholic Church (see our tract on The Beast for more information at http://www.lightministries.com/Tracts/id171.htm). Roman Catholicism exalts the organized church above the individual conscience, and when there is a conflict between traditional church creed and the Bible, church tradition always assumes predominance over God’s word of truth. “The [first] objective [or formal] principle (of Protestantism) proclaims the canonical Scriptures, especially the New Testament to be the only infallible source and rule of faith and practice, and asserts the right of private interpretation of the same, in distinction from the Roman Catholic view, which declares the Bible and tradition to be co-ordinate sources and rule of faith, and makes tradition, especially the decrees of popes and councils, the only legitimate and infallible interpreter of the Bible." The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIII, "Protestantism", Section I, 1 - Sola Scriptura ("Bible Alone"), Nihil Obstat, February 1, 1912 by Remy Lafort, D.D., Censor, Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York, at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12495a.htm, accessed 9-22-17). "Like two sacred rivers flowing from paradise, the Bible and divine tradition contain the word of God, the precious gems of revealed truths. Though these two divine streams are in themselves, on account of their divine origin, of equal sacredness, and are both full of revealed truths, still of the two, tradition is to us more clear and safe." Catholic Belief, by Joseph Faa di Bruno, p 45. "If we must choose between the Holy Scriptures of God, and the old errors of the church, we should reject the former." Johnan Faber (a defender of the Papacy) cited in History of The Reformation, by Merle d'Aubinge, book 11, Chapter 5, Paragraph 9. 6) One of the greatest false doctrines to come out of the mouth of the Roman Catholic Church is the belief that God’s seventh-day Sabbath has been changed to Sunday! "From this we may understand how great is the authority of the church in interpreting or explaining to us the commandments of God - an authority which is acknowledged by the universal practice of the whole Christian world, even of those sects which profess to take the holy Scriptures as their sole rule of faith, since they observe as the day of rest not the seventh day of the week demanded by the Bible, but the first day. Which we know is to be kept holy, only from the tradition and teaching of the Catholic church." Henry Gibson, Catechism Made Easy, # 2, 9th edition, vol. 1, p. 341-342. "Sunday is founded, not of scripture, but on tradition, and is distinctly a Catholic institution. As there is no scripture for the transfer of the day of rest from the last to the first day of the week, Protestants ought to keep their Sabbath on Saturday and thus leave Catholics in full possession of Sunday." Catholic Record, September 17, 1893. "The arguments...are firmly grounded on the word of God, and having been closely studied with the Bible in hand, leave no escape for the conscientious Protestant except the abandonment of Sunday worship and the return to Saturday, commanded by their teacher, the Bible, or, unwilling to abandon the tradition of the Catholic Church, which enjoins the keeping of Sunday, and which they have accepted in direct opposition to their teacher, the Bible, consistently accept her (the Catholic Church) in all her teachings. Reason and common sense demand the acceptance of one or the other of these alternatives: either Protestantism and the keeping holy of Saturday, or Catholicism and the keeping holy of Sunday. Compromise is impossible." James Cardinal Gibbons, in Catholic Mirror, December 23, 1893. 7) Paul commends the noble Bereans because “they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11). Paul never asked the believers to accept doctrine based only on Apostolic authority. This is because God's word is the only supreme authority for all true religious beliefs, and not any traditional church creed, council or commandment of men. “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” John 5:39. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17. “To the law (Bible) and to the testimony (Spirit of Prophecy - Revelation 19:10): if they speak not according to this word, [it is] because there is no light in them.” Isaiah 8:20. “Then said Jesus to those...which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31-32.