The Middle East—Site of Armageddon?
“ARMAGEDDON”—what does this Bible name signify? Introduced each time by a meaningful cover, a series of informative articles on this topic is being featured in the four issues of The Watchtower for January and February 1985. It is hoped that these Scriptural discussions will comfort you with knowledge as to what is the real ARMAGEDDON.
“AS THE world races toward its final hour of struggle, the important city to watch is not New York, Moscow, Paris, Peking, or Cairo. The city to watch is Jerusalem!” So declared theologians John F. and John E. Walvoord in their book Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East Crisis.
Many are indeed casting a nervous eye at both Jerusalem and the troubled region in which it is situated. Says the Times of London, “The Middle East is becoming more frightening.” Some fear that a future U.S.-Soviet confrontation there is almost inevitable. By January 1984, relations between the rival superpowers had so deteriorated that the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved its famous “doomsday clock” (a symbol of how near the world is to nuclear annihilation) to three minutes before midnight. Declared the Bulletin: “We thus stand at a fateful juncture, at the threshold of a period of confrontation, a time when the blunt simplicities of force threaten to displace any other form of discourse between the superpowers. This is an appalling prospect.”
A growing number of fundamentalist preachers, theologians, and TV evangelists, though, applaud these developments. Escalating Middle East tensions have worked to give seeming credence to their startling predictions that Armageddon is soon to take place in that vicinity! And by sounding the alarm in books, lectures, and television productions, they have gathered a considerable following.
These commentators quarrel over the exact sequence of events. But a typical ‘Armageddon scenario’ goes like this: The starting of the ‘doomsday countdown,’ they say, was the establishment of the State of Israel. They therefore feel that the so-called rapture is imminent. According to them, soon true Christians will suddenly disappear from the earth—being snatched up to heaven. During the ensuing seven years of “tribulation,” many evangelists even predict that the nation of Israel will be converted to Christianity. Most of the human race, though, will supposedly be brought under the spell of a charismatic dictator (the “Antichrist”) who will lead a ten-nation coalition. Even Israel, they believe, will align itself with him. But a confederacy of Arab nations and others, led by Russia, will make a surprise invasion of Israel. God will miraculously halt this invasion, say these fundamentalists. Soon to follow, however, will be another attack from the “Antichrist,” triggering all-out war in the Middle East—Armageddon.
Perhaps this sounds quite plausible to some. After all, the Bible does predict a gathering of nations for war at “Armageddon.” (Revelation 16:14-16, King James Version) But does the Bible really indicate that this event will take place in the Middle East? And what significance does the location of this battle have?
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