-----------THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON-----------

By Jerry W. Bernard

In the second year at Baylor University,
I walked from my dorm,across the campus
to Waco Hall. There were several thousand people packed into the auditorium. Since I
was an hour early for class, I thought I would look in through the door and see what
the excitement was all about. I had to squeeze in between other students to see the platform. The music was the best I had
ever heard, and the speakers were so impressive. Many students were moved and changed. The talk spread throughout the campus.


Independent churches from all over Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana,and Mississippi had sent their ministers to one of the first of many Pre-millennial Conferences in the 1950s. This one on Baylor's campus launched a revolution among Evangels, who would now hold to a Pre-millennial view of a soon coming Lord. Attending the conference were great speakers such as Dr. Charlie Jackson, Dr. Joe Boyd, Dr. Jack Hyles, Dr. J.Harold Smith, Lester Roloff, and many others who spoke on the Pre-millennial view of the coming of Christ. The atmosphere was electric.


Bill Harvey sang "There Waits for Me a Glad Tomorrow,"and it seemed that heaven came down and filled everone in that place.Each speaker had it down perfectly as to what would happen.They were so convincing that we students began to question our misinforned teachers. We were not told of this view in our classes at Baylor. Our professors ask us not to attend the conference. It came out, months later, that Mrs. White,the wife of the President of Baylor University, believed like the speakers in the conference.


An awakening moved across the Baylor campus. Students stood up in class and bravely ask the professors to explain things about the future Coming. We questioned what the Waco speakers pointed out about
the great battle called "Armageddon" occurring in our future. They had explained
that armies from all over the world would gather in the valley of Megiddo to fight againgt the Lord Jesus Christ and His Raptured Saints.


They explained that Christians would have already been "Raptured" from off of the
earth in a secret fashion. The "Raptured Saints" would return seven years later with the Lord and fight in the great battle at Armageddon. They futher explained that the Lord would defeat the armies of the world and then go to Jerusalem with His Saints
and sit on the Throne of David,reigning for one thousand years to bring peace to a sin-soiled,war-wrecked world.


This war was discussed in class under much heated debate. The subject was dismissed because camps were divided, not
only on campus, but over the Southlands of America in Southern Baptist Churches. Revolution had begun again over dates and
manner of His Coming. Material began to be
written,for no one had talked about the subject of the Second Coming on such a scale. Everyone had questions. This was not going away.


Now, you had to wear a label.. Car bumper signs were sold by the thousands,
saying "Are You Ready?", "This Car Has a Rapture roof", "In an Hour When You Think Not," etc. "What do you believe ?" was an
introductory interrogation on everone's lips.
The Scofield Bible notes became "the text book"of the fanatics. The authors who had written on the subject in the past came out of the woodwork. The forgotten Dispensationalist was respected again. The Futurists were winning the debate that had gained much headway around the beginning of the 1900s A.D. in England.


For thirty years I led the music in City Wide Crusades,Independent and Southern Baptist Churches that leaned towards Pre-millennial views of the Second Coming,
I had learned every aspect of those views.
The soon Coming of the Lord gave impetus to soul winning,and soul winning was my priority. The Churches were expected to turn in a good report of many baptised converts
each year. This was the standard for a church that was and blessed by God. My job
as an evangelist was to bring in the lost and
convert them with the Gospel and good news that the Lord is coming soon."Be ready".


After I left Baylor University in 1958. I
attended a conference at the Miller Road
Baptist Church in Garland Texas, where I
listened to Bill Harvey sing and Dr. Tom Landers, Dr.John R.Rice,and Dr. Bob Jones
Sr.., speak on the subjects of "The Rapture,"
"The Battle of Armageddon," and "The Millennium." Dr. Rice also spoke on the subject, "Tears in Heaven." I will never forget that conference, The subjects were bone-chilling.


They spoke of the Coming as something that we could not afford to go through if we missed the Rapture. We must all be ready for the Secret Rapture of the Saints which would occur seven years before the Resurrection and Reign. At the Revelation
the battle begins.


I determined in that conference that I would gather every verse in the Bible on the subject and spend the rest of my life warning people of the awful impending judgment that was soon to occur before the Coming of the Lord. That was over forty years ago. The verses I used from Zechariah,Jeremiah,and Ezekiel were written over 2,500 years ago. This began to seem odd that for almost 2,ooo years, Christians should look for the "soon Return,Rapture,and Revelation" of the Lord... and it didn't happen in their generation.


I did not want to foolishly believe something for my generation that was not going to happen. So, I started my own private study of the subject. Did the Bible
teach that a battle would occur in the valley of Megiddo? I looked through my notes on
the subject. The most quoted and famous passage was Revelation 16:14-16, The writer,John, described it graphically.


"They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs and they go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them for
the battle on the great day of God Almighty,
Behold, I come like a thief. Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed. Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is
called Armageddon." (Rev.16:14-16)


I discovered footnotes in my Bible that
pointed out the fact that Armageddon should
be translated "mount of Megiddo." That would not be a valley as I had been told. I
also noticed that the kings of the earth assemble at Armageddon, the mount. However,they would not fight there. They assembled at Armageddon to make war on
Jerusalem (16:16),many miles away.


The book of Revelation makes no mention of a war in the valley of Megiddo.
In fact, I could never find the words, "Battle of Armageddon", in my Bible. Zechariah 14:2 was another verse that speakers used:
" I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it." All of this seem to have a familiar ring to it. However, none of the verses fit conference speakers' conclusions.


It was later that I read the account of Josephus, the first century historian who told of " a great day of God Almighty "
(16:14 ) in 70 A.D. , when the Roman
forces from all nations assembled at Armageddon to make war on Jerusalem
(16:16). Neither the Bible nor Josephus
described a battle taking place at Armageddon,the mount, or the valley adjoining it.

Both accounts say that the armies assemble there to fight against Jerusalem,
many miles away. Josephus was a Jewish General,who was defeated in the first battle
of the Jewish-Roman war in 67 A.D. Becauseof many good things about Josephus,the Ruler of Rome commissioned
Josephus to become an historian for the Roman Empire and give detailed information on the activities of Titus and his Roman Army against the Jews. This account went on for three and one half years, until Jerusalem was completely destroyed to the
ground.


Josephus had recorded how Titus, the Roman General and son of the Emperor,led
his troops out of Egypt,north along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea,bypassing
the region of Jerusalem, and how he came to the vicinity of Caesarea, which borders
Mount Megiddo. Titus and his famous Roman legion waited there for other troops
to arrive from beyond the Euphrates River to the northeast and from Rome to the north-
west. Once the troops were assembled,Titus gave instruction and marched on Jerusalem.


Just like the prophecies foretold, the battle
happened at Jerusalem, not Armegeddon.
The kings of the earth (made up of all nations) assembled at Mount Megiddo for plans for a swift and brief battle against Jerusalem. It took three and one-half years to complete. This agreed with the prophecies of Zechariah 14 and Revelation 16, Matthew 24,Luke 21,and Mark 13.


The Battle of Armageddon is not something for us to look for in our future.
It belongs to the past with all the other events that brought an end to Judaism,
Jerusalem,and their related prophecies.
In 30 A.D., Jews foolishly belived that the time had come for them to throw off the Roman yoke and become the Kingdom of
Prophecy. Like Moses of old, miscalculation
without God proved disastrous. Jesus, on
His way to the cross,had said to the weeping women," Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, weep for yourselves and for your children."


Jesus knew the immense judgment and
destruction that was to come upon them
and their children. It occurred in the span of
40 years,70 A.D. From the earliest days,
generations have been taught inaccurately that the battle at Armageddon would occur in their life-time. However,Armageddon belongs to the closing days of Judaism in the first century. This fulfilled Jesus' prophecies in Matthew 23:34-39 concerning
the fate of national Israel which occurred in
that generation (Matthew 24:3).

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Contact Jerry W.Bernard at PO Box 202,
Montros,Calif. 91021-0202

e-mail BibleStudy@jerrybernard.com

http://www.jerrybernard.com