|
Exhibit “D”
Dick Nies—Armageddon The Sixth Plague
Buttressed by a literal darkness, this terrible darkness of their mind, this terrible interpretation of reality, which is just the opposite of light—the truth leads them to turn more directly to the people of God. Now the warfare has stopped.
Satan is not able to exterminate the people of God through the elements. Now he frenzies the people bringing this great darkness upon them which prepares them for his personal leadership.
“And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.” This symbolism here refers to the river Euphrates that fed the Babylon of old. Cyrus in his historical efforts who conquer Babylon, created a dry lake and diverted the water of the Euphrates into this dry lake thus drying the river. He then marched right into the center of the city and conquered Babylon, releasing the Israelites, sending them back to their land. Cyrus was a type of Christ. Babylon in symbolism refers to the false religious conglomerate that has fallen but continues to exist trying to rule people in an authoritarian fashion, even though they no longer have the Spirit of God.
This judgment tells us that ultimately that which supports Babylon (the beast that walks on the waters or the people that supports her). Under this plague the people will turn against these religious forces, which will make it possible for the last act of the drama to take place just before the coming of Christ. “The kings of the East” is an expression used throughout Scripture. “The king of the sunrising” refers to Christ. “The kings” refers to those who co-reign with Him. It is a symbolism that refers to Christ coming from the East at the second coming.
This drying up of the waters represents the removing of support from spiritual Babylon. It is a disenchantment of the people with religious forces. This is the last step before the coming of Christ. At this point Satan himself takes over. Out of the mouth of these various beasts that have now become defunked and need to be bolstered up. At this point Satan steps in and ultimately he will personate Christ and will lead the final forces against the people of God in a decree which is set to wipe them out at midnight.
“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 dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. And I saw three foul spirits like frogs (indicating its ugly nature) 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 demonic spirits 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.” (Rev. 16:12-15)
The religious forces have lost their luster, their punch, so the demonic takes over. They are now seen for what they really are—puppets of the satanic. Spiritism will be manifest in such a way just preparatory Satan’s personation of Christ. Through these satanic forces, Satan will come as an angel of light, claiming to be Christ. The people have become disenchanted with the religious forces that exist, they have now served their purpose, Satan wants no more to do with them. He will take over and run the battle himself. He then will assemble the spiritual forces with the kings of the whole world. He will tell them, “You can’t do it yourself. Let’s get under the banner of his pseudo Christ. This is what happens under the 6th judgment.
Lo I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” ( vs. 15) An admonition to not be caught off guard.
And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” (vs. 16) The “he” refers to Satan. In this verse we come to the major thrust of these verses. Where is this place called Armageddon? To know where this place is will give us the key to this whole drama. The word does not have any meaning in Greek at all. It’s just a name transliterated from the Hebrew. That is, it is just a sound alike word. The Greek word Harmogeddon is just a sound alike word taken from some Hebrew expression. If it is broken down into its Hebrew elements, that is if we take the sound like Greek word and then go back and form the Hebrew word we have two words. The first word is “Har” which means mountain. The second word “Megeddon” can either refer to a word “Megido” which is a city in the southern plain in the valley of Megido in Western Palestine. Sometimes it is falsely referred to as the Valley of Armageddon. It can also refer to a word “mogad” which means an assembly or gathering. In the Old Testament Megido always refers to a plain. It can never be applied to a mountain or elevation. All the words that have to do with the Hebrew word refers to either a special festival in which all the people got together around the Tabernacle or Sanctuary. The word always points to the “festival” or “appointed gathering.” This was an expression that was used in conjunction with the sanctuary itself where God was supposed to manifest His presence. When all the congregation got together this was called the “tent of the assembly.” God was ruler, the people were gathered around the Sanctuary. Later when Solomon’s temple was fixed on the northern ridge of the crest of Mt. Olives, anyone coming from the East or West to Jerusalem could see it for it was the highest point in the city. What was referred to the “tent or the sanctuary of the meeting,” became transferred to this elevation on the northern angle of the Mt. of Olives. This was when the expression “Mt. of the Congregation.” This is where God met with His people. Whenever the people got together there they were, and God was the ruler of the congregation. Referring to Satan’s claims to God originally, God speaks to him Isa. 14:12-14.
“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” (Isa. 14:12-14) Notice the phrase “mount of the congregation,” the same phrase which means, “Armaggedon,” or I will sit on Armaggedon or “Mountain of the people of God in the far North.” The symbolism that was used for Solomon’s Temple in the northern ridge, the high place where everyone could see it, this was where God dwelt, but that was only a symbol. For God who is the ruler in His sanctuary in heaven, ruled all the earth (His people). But Satan wanted that honor and wanted to ascend into heaven and exalt his throne and sit on the mount of the congregation and be like the most high, etc. What he was saying was “I can do a better job and run a better government. I want to ascend to this elevated place where I can be king of the mountain.” Do you remember as youngsters playing the game, King of the Mountain? The ideas of the game was to get some kind of an elevation, mound elevation or hill, and get it three, four, or five feet in the air. I remember playing it with 5-10 fellas. Someone would scurry up and push everyone else down. You would beat your chest and say “I’m king of the mountain.” That was until some guy hit you broadside and you went flying off the mound who then stood up declaring himself king of the mountain. They were constantly getting bumped. This is a simple illustration of what was happening back then. God who claimed to be the ruler of His people, His congregation from the recesses of the North from the Sanctuary in heaven, was under attack by Satan who tried to bump Him, claiming that he could do a better job, aspiring to be king of the mountain. Thus we have the significant expression in Ps. 48:1,2 “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.” This is Armageddon, Mt. of the congregation where God rules His people. We told that the original claim that Satan made “I want to be king of the mountain,” He will make under the 6th plague again. Look at this text: 2 Thess. 2:3,4. “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he be as God SITTETH IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD, SHOWING HIMSELF THAT HE IS GOD.” This is what Satan does under the 6th plague. What is it that he does? The following is the most profound statement that describes this play. This is taken from the Great Controversy page 624 “Fearful sights of a supernatural character will soon be revealed in heaven in token of the power of miracle working demons. (A paraphrase of the 6th plague is quoted) The spirits of devils will go forth to the kings of the earth and to the whole world to fasten them in deception. What is this deception? There going to get darkness claiming the people of God are at fault for all that is happening, not us! This is a terrible deception. And urged them on to unite with Satan in his last struggle against the government of heaven. By these agencies, rulers and subjects alike will be deceived. Persons will arise pretending to be Christ himself. In claiming the title and worship which belongs to the world’s redeemer they will perform wonderful miracles of healing, and will profess to have revelations from heaven contradicting the testimony of scripture. People are searching for the Word, searching for some answers and help. Satan creates this kind of confusion in preparation for his own presentation. As the crowning act in the great drama of deception prepared under the 5th plague, Satan himself will personate Christ. The church has long professed to look for the Savior’s advent as the confirmation of her hope. Now the great deceiver will make it appear that Christ has come. In different parts of the earth, Satan will manifest himself among men as a majestic being of dazzling brightness, resembling the descriptions of the Son of God given by John in the Revelation. The glory that surrounds him is unsurpassed by anything that mortal eyes have yet beheld. The shouts of triumph ring out upon the earth. “Christ has come! Christ has come!” The people prostrate themselves in adoration before Him while he lifts up his hands and pronounces a blessing upon them, as Christ blessed His disciples when He was upon the earth. His voice is soft and subdued , yet full of melody. In gentle, compassionate tones he presents some of the same gracioius, heavenly truths which the Savior uttered; he heals the diseases of the people, (of course he caused them and then removes his hand so they appear to be healed) and then, in his assumed character of Christ, he claims to have be changed the Sabbath to Sunday, and commands all to hallow the day which he has blessed. (What are the people going to say when Christ [at least they think it is Christ] tells them this?) He declares that those who persist in keeping holy the seventh day are blaspheming his name by refusing to listen to his angels sent to them with light and truth. This is the strong, almost overmastering delusion. A parallel statement on page 635 says: When the protection of human laws shall be withdrawn from those who honor the law of God, then will be in different lands, a simultaneous movement for their destruction. As the time appointed in the decree draws near, the people will conspire to root out the hated sect. It will be determined to strike in one night a decisive blow, which shall utterly silence the voice of dissent and reproof. Armageddon is a condition or circumstance. The Greek word Topas can either refer to a literal place or to an overall situation, in which Satan personates Christ, makes this one final claim to be God, to master and rule the entire world. The deception that was already prepared under the 5th plague of darkness when the waters are dried up, he will now take over the command himself, not through religious organizations. Just as the Holy Spirit is the guiding and controlling Spirit of the people of God, Satan then takes over his forces in one last fling. They will march on the people of God, to destroy them and wipe them out so that they cannot form and be a people presented to the world as the people of God. He prepares to lead his people to march at midnight, but what do we find? God speaks during the 7th plague. He comes out and speaks for the first time since He went into hiding. This was foretold in several passages. Isa. 42:13 says: “The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies.” Amos 1:2, “The Lord roars from Zion and uttereth his voice from Jerusalem.” Zech. 14:1-4 “Behold the day of the Lord is coming when the spoils taken from you will be divided in the midst of you. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives which lies before Jerusalem on the East, and the mount of Olives shall be split in two from East to West by a very wide valley so that one half of the mount shall withdraw northward and the other half southward. Joel 3:9-17 describes the same 7th judgment. Referring to Satan’s claims to God originally, this text is God speaking to him. Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles: Prepare war, wake up tahe mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: Beat your pplowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the wear say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves and come, all ye heathen and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat (means the judgment of God, for now God is going to speak); for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put in the sickle for the harvest is ripe: come get you down; for the press is full, the vats overflow; for there wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining (This is God taking charge of the arsenal of nature himself that up this time been controlled by Satan). The Lord also shall roar out of Zion (His mountain), and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am the Lord your god dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. We read that the 7th angel poured out his bowl into the air and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne saying, “It is done. Stop! And the deliverance we are told comes at midnight. And there were voices and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so might an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came to remembrance before God, the give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent;: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail: for the plague thereof was exceeding great. Rev. 16:17-21 This is God’s reply, stop! Now you say, “Why does God do such a horrendous thing? He has let Satan have his fling in the first 6 judgments. He has permitted all this. Now God speaks. From a very practical standpoint He comes with a loud voice and delivers His people and tells the wicked to stop. But there are two other points to be made. 1) The wicked have become so entrenched in their wickedness that they no longer can sense reality. God is going to jar their thinking one last time. In so doing, he so disrupts their thinking processes, the subtle state of their bias’ that for just a brief time they recognize the truth and confess out of a temporary freedom that has been granted them, saying, “God we really have turned against you!” The people of God they have been trying to destroy testify before the universe. They will declare: “We have been wrong.” There are times when God has to speak with a loud voice to be heard. This is one of those times. The significance of this 7th judgment when God the righteous ruler roars out of Zion from the mount of the congregation in heaven, joining the mount of the congregation on this earth, he jars the wicked into a momentary reality in which they can acknowledge that the people of God really have not been their enemies, and that God has not been against even the wicked. But it also serves another purpose. All down through the generations God’s people have asked, “God when are you going to speak?” “Why are you so long meek and mild?” “Are you forever going to let Satan control the universe and dominate the forces of the elements?” In one last demonstration God is going to convince the righteous both in this world but in the entire universe that He has never lost control. He still has control of the elements. Just because he has shown mercy for so many generations does not mean that he has lost control. He gives one last demonstration to show the majesty that he has, which Satan has claimed was his. While God will never again show such majesty, he wants to show to the universe that if he really were a tyrant, they wouldn’t have had a chance. But God uses this demonstration not to destroy. For even the righteous in the midst of all this majesty are not afraid. They look up and behold their God. That will make an impression on the universe throughout all eternity, that God is majesty as well as love. This is why it is necessary that God speaks with this loud voice. The question is asked, how long do these plagues last? What is their duration? In Rev. 18:8,10,17,19 the plagues are said to last in prophetic time 1 day or 1 hour. This seemed confusing to me for some time. A day in Jewish prophetic time is the same as on year. One hour equals 15 days one 24th of a year. Now it appears that Satan would like to have a year, but then we have this interesting statement. Volume 1 of the Testimonies, page 204. “When Jesus leaves the Most Holy, his restraining spirit is withdrawn from rulers and people. They are left to the control of evil angels. Such laws will be made the council and direction of Satan that unless time should be very short no flesh could be saved.” Satan wants a year. God says you can only have 15 days. Great Controversy page 671—“Thus for the elects sake the time of trouble will be shortened.” Shortened from what? Satan wants a year. God gives him two weeks. Ibid, page 490—“Probation is ended a short time before the appearing of the Lord in the clouds of heaven.” The most definitive statement on this was written in March 14, 1846 in the Daystar on a little press, To the Remnant Scattered Abroad. “Then Jesus laid off his priestly garments and put on his kingly robe and took his place in the cloud which carried him to the East where it first appeared to the saints on earth a small black cloud, which was the sign of the Son of Man. While the cloud was passing from the holiest to the East (from the Sanctuary to this earth where God manifests himself splitting apart the mount of Olives) which took a number of days.” Note that a expression. The synagogue of Satan worshipped at the saints feet.” We are told that in prophetic time that it will be shortened from one year (360 days) to one hour prophetic time or 15 days. We are told in various references from EGW that it would be shortened for the elects sake, then we have the expression it took a number of days. It is my judgment that this will take 15 days.
WHAT LESSONS CAN WE LEARN FROM ALL OF THIS? First of all I think we see the last great and perhaps the only full demonstration of what sin is really like when it goes to seed. The universe has never really seen the full impact of sin. We have seen touches of it, but as long as God restrains the wicked are held in check. But it must be necessary to the revelation of God that the universe would finally get a belly full. When everyone has decided there really isn’t too much point in God holding Satan in check. No one else is going to change their mind, so God gives to the universe one brief 15 day demonstration of the awfulness of what it would be like if Satan ruled the Mount of the Assembly. The universe will never forget this event. A Second lesson we can learn is that God can have a people who can live in the most trying hour of earth’s history, with the worst impact of 6,000 years of degenerative heredity. With the worst environment the universe has ever seen, and yet they will not sin by so much as a thought. That will be a demonstration the universe has never seen before. They have seen isolated individuals, but they’ve never seen what God’s people would be like, purified in a crucible. This will be another part of the last revelation. A very valuable lesson to learn from this study of Eschotology. But I think the last and most important lesson is that we learn something abaout the character of God. God who has allowed himself to be misunderstood by people on this ball of mud, because He has been so merciful that He would not allow the universe see what it was like to see or experience the full ire of the devil. I have thought many times why God did not let everyone get a belly full long ago. It is because God is to merciful, to loving to have allowed that. He does not want to overwhelm people, and has never allowed sin to go to seed. Thus He has been misunderstood. Many people today think that self-centeredness is a great way to live and God does not want them to really sense the full impact. In fact the only real demonstration up to this point has been the sacrifice of Christ. If you want to see how awful sin is, look at the cross. God will be his own guinea pig. For one last little snatch, a brief period of time (I suggest 15 days), God lets them peek through and see what it is really like. But He is not going let them even destroy themselves. I see through this study a marvelous revelation of the character of a loving God.
QUESTION: You mentioned about sin going to seed in terms of the seven last plagues. Did not sin go to seed at the death of Christ? Is this a different revelation in terms of kind or quality from the death of Christ? Was not Satan uprooted in the minds of the universe at that point? Did not God win the great controversy at the cross?
ANSWER: We see the fullest effects of the tragedy of sin in terms of a life in the death of Christ. No one will ever experience the full cup. I will point out at a later time that the reason last longer than others and why they are resurrected is not some kind of punishment that they have to fry. It is to allow them to live long enough so that they might recognize in their own clouded thinking that they have been wrong and that God has been right. It’s not forced from them, their simply allowed to live as long as they want, but lacking the buttressing power and restraining of God, they become miserable. But they reach the point where they cry out in anguish, “Just and true are thy ways of Son of God.” When they make this acknowledgement they ask for mercy. God then manifests His majesty to them very quickly turns them from matter into energy. When they get to the point where they have had sufficient understanding where they don’t want to live, God in mercy exterminates them. They have already destroyed themselves. There is not much point in having a body around. The reason Satan lasts so much longer than others is because sin has become more entrenched in his habit patterns and it takes him longer to this realization. Now notice with Christ that he gets to the point where he should have died Thursday night, the impact of the suffering, the guilt imposed upon Him, the realization of His separation from God, we are told would have killed Him had it not been for the angels the Father sent. Instead of exercising mercy, as even Satan himself gets in the final annihilation, the Father sends an angel to strengthen Him so that He might suffer on. God never uses an guinea pigs. In the sense that no one else will suffer the same way that Christ does, that was a unique even in the demonstration of sin. But what you have demonstrated here to the universe when Satan takes over, for a very brief period of time, you see the chaos and the calamity that would ensue on a global scale. God showed individually through Christ and His experience to indicate the qualitative impact of sin. But if you want to look at its chaotic effect then we have the 15 days. That’s what I think is basically the difference.
QUESTION: I have two questions that I want to ask. One has to do with the concept you gave. I really didn’t catch any buttressing from Ellen White or from Scripture as such about the idea of the wicked and the 7th plague, where in a brief moment of time they realize that God’s judgments are true. The picture I get is that it is after the thousand years where God is really vindicated, and Satan gets what he deserves.
ANSWER: May I suggest that you read chapters 39-41 of Great Controversy. Numerous references are made both from scripture and in comment about this fact. I read a plethora of material tonight somewhat apologetically. I don’t like to read that much because I don’t want to give you some kind of spiritual indigestion. I have a separate catalog in my files, but there are many. You must understand that in many of these descriptions all I have time for is to give you just an overview. However they are there. You can study them.
|