will remember and put faith in the words of the prophet spoken under stress of a similar invasion against Jehovah’s worshipers: “Do not you be afraid or be terrified because of this large crowd; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.” (2 Chronicles 20:15) Their trust in the Almighty God will not be misplaced. He will make it His battle, for the fight is really, not against them, but against Him their God. Now he is truly angry, and he is fully justified in expressing his anger!

49. (a) What is that “place” referred to in the Bible as Har–Magedon? (b) At his appointed time, whom does Jehovah use to carry out the war against his earthly enemies?

⁴⁹ Now the “great day of God the Almighty” has arrived, and it is the time for the “war” that will mark that day for the vindication of Jehovah’s universal sovereignty. That figurative “place,” that explosive stage of hostilities between God the Almighty and Gog’s forces, called in Hebrew Har–Magedon, has been reached. (Revelation 16:14, 16) Not Jehovah’s Christian witnesses on earth, but Jehovah himself starts the battle against the earthly enemies now drawn up in battle formation. Jehovah signals to his Grand Field Marshal, the Warrior King Jesus Christ. Immediately acting upon the signal, in the name of Jehovah he and his heavenly forces plunge into the battle as if riding upon war horses. The war of universal importance that follows, and what happens to the worldwide lineup of military forces under the present-day Gog of Magog, are pictured for us in the last book of the inspired Holy Scriptures.

THE WAR AT “HAR–MAGEDON”

50. In an advance report on the war at Har–Magedon, what description did the apostle John give of those who would be fighting on the side of righteousness?

⁵⁰ The battlefield is symbolically called Har–Magedon. The time is located after the fiery destruction of Babylon the Great by the symbolic “ten horns . . . and the wild beast.” (Revelation 17:16 through 19:9) Like a war correspondent for some newspaper or newsmagazine, the apostle John gives us an advance report on the war at “Har–Magedon,” writing: “And I saw the heaven opened, and, look! a white horse. And the one seated upon it is called Faithful and True, and he judges and carries on war in righteousness. His eyes are a fiery flame, and upon his head are many diadems. He has a name written that no one knows but he himself, and he is arrayed with an outer garment sprinkled with blood, and the name he is called is The Word of God. Also, the armies that were in heaven were following him on white horses, and they were clothed in white, clean, fine linen. And out of his mouth there protrudes a sharp long sword, that he may strike the nations with it, and he will shepherd them with a rod of iron. He treads too the winepress of the anger of the wrath of God the Almighty. And upon his outer garment, even upon his thigh, he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.”​—Revelation 19:11-16.

51. (a) Why will great faith be needed on the part of the witnesses of Jehovah on earth at that time? (b) What is the “sharp long sword” that protrudes out of the mouth of the King of kings?

⁵¹ These “armies that were in heaven,” under the command of the King of kings, will not make themselves visible to the embattled nations on earth. So it will take faith on the part of the harmless, unarmed witnesses of Jehovah on earth to believe that these heavenly armies will come to their rescue in their direct need. Yet those invisible armies will make their activity in battle felt by all the nations under the leadership of Gog of Magog, Satan the Devil. The King of kings will “shepherd” the nations “with a rod of iron,” and they will feel it as they are shattered like earthenware vessels of a potter. He is the Word of God, and so the “sharp long sword” that protrudes out of his mouth is the words of judgment that issue out of his mouth for the execution of the nations; and what his mouth says will be executed upon the nations, striking them fatally.

52. (a) How will the experience of the nations be like that of grapes in a winepress? (b) Jehovah’s wrath will be expressed by what means, as it were, according to the Scriptures?

⁵² Since the King of kings “treads too the winepress of the anger of the wrath of God the Almighty,” this signifies that the nations will be squashed, as it were. To fit the picture, they will be dumped like ripe grapes into the tremendous “winepress” where the “anger of the wrath of God the Almighty” will be brought to bear upon them with crushing effect. The King of kings and his heavenly armies on horseback will join in the crushing work, the treading of this symbolic winepress. The form that the symbolic treading will take will correspond with how Jehovah God the Almighty says that he will express his wrath and fiery fury against the hordes of Gog of Magog, as it were with earthquake, pestilence, a flooding downpour, hailstones, fire and sulphur, with much bloodshed.​—Ezekiel 38:18-22; compare Joel 3:9-16; Revelation 14:18-20.

53, 54. (a) Who, obviously, will be the victor in the universal war at Har–Magedon? (b) Even before the conclusion of the war, what invitation is extended to “all the birds that fly in midheaven”?

⁵³ How can the multination armies in battle array under their spiritual Gog of Magog expect to stand their ground against the King of kings and Lord of lords, who fights for the universal sovereignty of the Most High and Almighty God, Jehovah? Never, even as a United Nations organization and as nuclear-powered nations, can they possibly do so! Who the victor in the universal war at Har–Magedon will be is a foregone conclusion. The corpses of the enemy dead with which God the Almighty causes the battlefield to be strewn provide what is called “the great evening meal of God” for all the carrion-eating birds that fly in midheaven. Before ever the war is fought to a conclusion, a heavenly angel arrayed with sunlight is pictured as extending an invitation to all these birds to come to the grand meal that God spreads for them at Har–Magedon. Concerning this, our news reporter John says:

⁵⁴ “I saw also an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice and said to all the birds that fly in midheaven: ‘Come here, be gathered together to the great evening meal of God, that you may eat the fleshy parts of kings and the fleshy parts of military commanders and the fleshy parts of strong men and the fleshy parts of horses and of those seated upon them, and the fleshy parts of all, of freemen as well as of slaves and of small ones and great.’”​—Revelation 19:17, 18.

55. (a) Why is it not upon the “wild beast” and the “false prophet” that the birds are invited to feed? (b) In Ezekiel’s prophecy, what creatures besides the birds are invited to the feast?

⁵⁵ We note that “all the birds that fly in midheaven” are not invited to feed upon the carcasses of the political “wild beast” and the political “false prophet.” (Revelation 13:1-8, 11-13; 16:13) The picture here drawn is strictly that of a battlefield strewn with the carcasses of the fighting forces of an army. It is not a picture of the pursuit of a savage wild beast and of a military attack upon a lone “false prophet.” In the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of the attack by the forces of Gog upon Jehovah’s restored people in their spiritual paradise, more than the “birds of every sort of wing” are invited to feed upon the carcasses of the defeated enemies, “All the wild beasts of the field” are also invited to feed upon the “flesh of mighty ones,” upon “horses and charioteers, mighty persons and all sorts of warriors.” (Ezekiel 39:17-20) Jehovah’s disdain and contempt for those crushed by his heavenly armies in the “winepress of the anger of the wrath of God the Almighty” are shown by letting the carcasses of the slain enemies lie unburied as carrion food for birds and beasts.

56. How does Revelation chapter 17 depict the combined earthly forces under Gog of Magog in their attack against Jehovah’s King?

⁵⁶ The entire combined visible organization of Satan the Devil will be in the fight. The combining of the earthly forces under Gog of Magog against Jehovah’s King of kings is pictured as an attack by a lone, collective “wild beast” with its seven heads and ten horns. This scarlet-colored “wild beast” is pictured as first destroying Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion. Concerning the antireligious political rulers that are pictured by the ten horns of the collective “wild beast,” it was said to the apostle John: “These have one thought, and so they give their power and authority to the wild beast [to the United Nations]. These will battle with the Lamb, but, because he is Lord of lords and King of kings, the Lamb will conquer them. Also, those called and chosen and faithful with him will do so.”​—Revelation 17:13, 14.

57. (a) What is the significance of the fact that the Lamb is called “Lord of lords and King of kings”? (b) Who will be the objects of that assault by the “wild beast” that represents the United Nations?

⁵⁷ The fight of a seven-headed, ten-horned wild beast against a lamb seems like an unequally matched warfare. But the symbolic Lamb in this prophecy is Jehovah’s appointed Lord of lords and King of kings, superior therefore to all the lords and kings that are combined in the symbolic “wild beast,” the 138-member United Nations. Being earthly, they cannot see the Lamb with their human eyes so as to fight directly against him. But they can see on earth in the flesh the anointed remnant of “those called and chosen and faithful with him.” Because these represent the King of kings and Lord of lords, the member nations of the United Nations battle with him by warring expressly with the anointed remnant of his Kingdom joint heirs. Associated with this faithful remnant are the unnumbered members of the “great crowd,” who firmly take their stand on the side of Jehovah’s universal sovereignty and who follow the Fine Shepherd, Jesus Christ the royal Son of Jehovah. So those disciples belonging to the “great crowd” also share with the anointed remnant the onslaught of the antireligious United Nations.

58. What kind of conquest will take place at that time (a) on the part of the King of kings? (b) on the part of his earthly subjects?

⁵⁸ The symbolic “ten horns” and the scarlet-colored “wild beast” will fail to destroy all the faithful representatives on earth of the King of kings. As in the prophetic picture of the attack by Gog of Magog, they will fail to wipe out the spiritual paradise in which the “called and chosen and faithful” and the “great crowd” find themselves under protection of the King of kings. (Revelation 7:9-17; 12:17) With his celestial angelic armies the King of kings will literally conquer the battling “ten horns” belonging to the world organization of the “wild beast.” On earth “those called and chosen and faithful with him [the King of kings]” will conquer by Christian faith, never renouncing the right of the King of kings to rule all the earth, never denying the universal sovereignty of the King of Eternity, Jehovah God. (Revelation 15:3) The “great crowd” of fellow inhabitants in the spiritual paradise will likewise refuse to compromise and to yield to the claim of the ten-horned, seven-headed “wild beast” to world domination over all the earth.

59, 60. (a) May some who conquer by faith nevertheless die at the hands of the enemy at that time? (b) What hope will strengthen them to prove their loyalty to Jehovah’s sovereignty in this way? (c) Is there any possibility that the anointed remnant and the “great crowd” will be completely wiped out by the enemy at that time?

⁵⁹ Some of those who conquer by faith may be permitted by God the Almighty to prove their loyalty to His universal sovereignty by suffering death at the hands of the violent opposers of Jehovah’s Messianic kingdom. This, however, will not signify their being executed by Jehovah’s angelic armies under his Field Marshal, Jesus Christ.

⁶⁰ These faithful martyrs for divine sovereignty of the universe will die faithful, as vindicators of Jehovah’s rightful rule by Christ. They will die within Jehovah’s favor and appreciation. They will not be cast into the “second death” of everlasting destruction as symbolized by the “fiery lake that burns with sulphur.” (Revelation 19:20; 20:10, 14, 15; 21:8) They will die unconquered as Jesus Christ himself did, with the strengthening hope of a resurrection from the dead in God’s due time. (Revelation 2:10; 14:13; 20:4, 6, 11-13) However, the full membership of the anointed remnant will not be killed off by the battling opposers of Jehovah’s Messianic kingdom. Also, Revelation 7:9-14 assures us that other survivors of this climax of the “great tribulation” will be the unnumbered members of the “great crowd.” Individuals may be permitted to die, but not the remnant and “great crowd” as a whole.

ANNIHILATION OF THE KING’S OPPOSERS

61. At Revelation 19:19-21, what description does the apostle John give of those who are executed at Har–Magedon?

⁶¹ Those on earth who are executed as unfit for everlasting life, in the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon, are reported on by the apostle John in Revelation 19:19-21. In that advance-news report, John writes: “And I saw the wild beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage the war with the one [the King of kings and the Lord of lords] seated on the horse and with his army. And the wild beast [Satan’s worldwide political system] was caught, and along with it the false prophet that performed in front of it the signs with which he misled those who received the mark of the wild beast and those who render worship to its image [the United Nations]. While still alive, they both were hurled into the fiery lake that burns with sulphur. But the rest were killed off with the long sword of the one seated on the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth. And all the birds were filled from the fleshy parts of them.”

62. To what extent will irreligiousness characterize the nations at that time?

⁶² By the time of the waging of this war at Har–Magedon, Babylon the Great will have been killed off. This is why the destruction of that world empire of false religion is not here described. By this time also when total irreligiousness pervades the nations, there will have disappeared any “kings” who might for a while weep because of not being able to commit fornication with Babylon the Great any longer, likewise any “traveling merchants” that wept and mourned because of no more being able to do selfish commercial business with her, also “every ship captain and every man that voyages anywhere, and sailors and all those who make a living by the sea,” all of whom weep and mourn because they can no longer ply their selfish trade with Babylon the Great. (Revelation 18:9-19) Such ones, if they want to survive after the destruction of Babylon the Great, will be obliged to turn radically antireligious, with the exception of worship to the political “image” of the seven-headed, ten-horned “wild beast” to which Satan the Dragon gave power, authority and a throne.​—Revelation 13:1-8; 14:9-11; 16:2.

63. Does the destruction of the world empire of false religion by the earthly rulers indicate love for God’s Messianic kingdom on their part, and how do they show this?

⁶³ So at the time for the fulfillment of the battle vision of Revelation 19:19-21, the symbolic “wild beast” and the “kings of the earth and their armies” have disposed of Babylon the Great in expression of their hatred of that religious “harlot.” She never did represent Jehovah’s theocratic government, not even that part of her called Christendom did so. Destruction of Babylon the Great as false religion does not bespeak, however, any love on the part of the “kings of the earth and their armies” for God’s Messianic kingdom. Those earthly kings and their armies hate that kingdom because of love for their own political sovereignty over all the earth. So now, with Babylon the Great gone, they can concentrate on waging the war against Jesus Christ and the heavenly kingdom that he operates.

64. (a) Why are the remnant and the “great crowd” offensive to the “kings of the earth and their armies”? (b) By what means can the enemies of Jehovah’s people be expected to war against them?

⁶⁴ The surviving remnant of Christ’s anointed joint heirs and also the “great crowd” of their loyal companions have made themselves the target of the worldly nations because of having proclaimed in all the inhabited earth the good news of the Messianic kingdom for a witness to all the nations down to the end. (Matthew 24:14) Such advocates of Jehovah’s universal sovereignty are offensive, obnoxious to the “kings of the earth and their armies.” So they express their hostility to the invisible King of kings by waging war with what political, military, judicial, economic means that they have at their disposal. Exterminate them! will be the slogan of the “kings of the earth and their armies.” The heavenly King of kings will count their hostile action against the anointed remnant and the “great crowd” as being against himself. At the precisely timed signal from the Supreme Commander, Jehovah God, he and his angelic armies will charge into the battle against the God-defying enemies on earth.

65, 66. (a) How is the unity of God’s earthly enemies broken up at Har–Magedon, as described at Revelation 19:20? (b) What is indicated by the fact that the “wild beast” and the “false prophet” are “still alive” when this action takes place? (c) What is indicated by the fact that they are hurled into “the fiery lake that burns with sulphur”?

⁶⁵ The first move is to break up the unity of the earthly enemies. This means breaking to pieces the world political system as symbolized by the “wild beast” out of the sea. With the dissolution of that comes the breaking up of the Eighth World Power, the United Nations as the global organization for world peace and security, which was symbolized by the “image of the wild beast,” and also the Seventh World Power, namely, the Anglo-American Dual World Power, as symbolized by the “false prophet.” Hence, the apostle John tells us:

⁶⁶ “And the wild beast was caught, and along with it the false prophet that performed in front of it the signs with which he misled those who received the mark of the wild beast and those who render worship to its image. While still alive, they both were hurled into the fiery lake that burns with sulphur.” (Revelation 19:20) These political organizations being “still alive” when this action takes place, it indicates that these worldly organizations of today will still be functioning when the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon starts. Both the world-dominating “wild beast” and the Anglo-American “false prophet” will be caught in the midst of their destructive efforts against the anointed remnant and the “great crowd” within their spiritual paradise. Disorganization of them will follow, and, instead of destroying the remnant and the “great crowd,” these political organizations of God-defying men will be annihilated for all time to come. Their violent death will be a “second death” from which there is no reorganization. So they are pictured as being hurled into the fiery “lake that burns with sulphur.”

67. When will Satan the Devil and his demons join the “wild beast” and the “false prophet” in that “fiery lake”?

⁶⁷ Thus it is seen that, even at the time of the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon and before the abyssing of Satan the Devil and the beginning of Christ’s reign of a thousand years over mankind, there is an enforcement of the “second death” upon those who wage war at Har–Magedon against the King of kings and his Messianic kingdom. The penalty of the “second death” is symbolized by the “fiery lake that burns with sulphur.” In God’s due time, after the close of Christ’s thousand-year reign, the man-made political organizations pictured by the “wild beast” and the “false prophet” will be joined in that “fiery lake” by Satan the Devil and all his demon angels. (Revelation 20:10) That will be the “everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.”​—Matthew 25:41.

68. With the removal of man’s visible old order, what will be the grand prospect of the survivors?

⁶⁸ Thus with the violent passing away of religious Babylon the Great and the political organizations pictured by the seven-headed “wild beast” and the “false prophet,” man’s visible old order will give way to God’s new order for the earth. It will be the hardest period of human history through which to live. (Matthew 24:21, 22; Daniel 12:1) Yet there will be survivors of it on earth. Happy will these be who survive into God’s blessed new order!

Chapter 15

Disaster for Fighters Against God’s New Order

 1. What will come to its end at Har–Magedon?

IN THE “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon the Devil’s visible organization on earth will be destroyed. This will signify the violent end of the governmental organizations established by worldly men under the unsuspected supervision of Satan the Devil, (Revelation 13:1, 2; 16:14, 16; John 14:30) Just as might be expected, the rulers and the supporters of those human governments battle against God’s Messianic kingdom at Har–Magedon.

 2. What will happen to those who operated and supported those organizations?

² What about the political rulers and their backers and subjects who made those governmental organizations function? They must suffer destruction with their political organizations that they have operated in defiance of God’s Messianic kingdom as proclaimed by Jehovah’s Christian witnesses world wide. Their destruction is the thing signified by what the Revelation to John says about the outcome of the battle: “But the rest [that is, the kings of the earth and their armies] were killed off with the long sword of the one seated on the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth. And all the birds were filled from the fleshy parts of them.”​—Revelation 19:21.

 3. As shown at Revelation 19:17, 18, who are included among the dead ones on the battlefield at Har–Magedon, and what kind of destruction is it in their case?

³ The “birds that fly in midheaven” fill themselves from the decaying flesh of the slain kings, military commanders, strong men, horses, cavalrymen, freemen and slaves, great ones and small. (Revelation 19:17, 18) Their active support of the war against the King of kings is far worse than a mere failing to do something helpful toward Jesus Christ and his faithful disciples. If anything, these are all symbolic “goats” as portrayed in Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats. By the symbolic “long sword” that proceeds out of the mouth of the warring King of kings, they are ordered to depart into the “everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.” At the swordlike orders that proceed out of the King’s mouth, these “cursed” fighters against God and his Christ will “depart into everlasting cutting-off,” a wiping out of existence as an eternal punishment.​—Matthew 25:31-46.

 4. In view of what is known about the fiery Gehenna outside of ancient Jerusalem, why might a question be raised as to what is said about the disposal of carcasses at Har–Magedon?

⁴ That is why the apostle John did not see the carcasses of these goatlike slain ones buried in graves in hope of a resurrection for them from the dead. But why are all these dead bodies not “hurled into the fiery lake that burns with sulphur,” the lake that is mentioned in Revelation 19:20? We recall that in the Jerusalem of the days of Jesus and his apostles, the dead bodies of executed criminals who were considered as being so vile that they were not worthy of a resurrection were hurled over the southern walls of the city to land in the Valley of Hinnom, into “Gehenna,” to be consumed there in the incinerating fires mingled with sulphur. Or, if the bodies did not land directly in the sulphurous fires, they would lie exposed in the warm neighborhood to be consumed by the maggots that would breed and swarm and wriggle all over the bodies. Just as Jesus said: “And if your eye makes you stumble, throw it away; it is finer for you to enter one-eyed into the kingdom of God than with two eyes to be pitched into Gehenna, where their maggot does not die and the fire is not put out.”​—Mark 9:43-48.

 5. What is unusual about the fact that the “wild beast” and the “false prophet” are hurled into the lake of fire “while still alive,” and, evidently, what does this indicate?

⁵ Since the bodies of condemned criminals that were pitched into the fires of the Valley of Hinnom (or, into Gehenna) were dead bodies, it is remarkable that when the symbolic “wild beast” and the “false prophet” are hurled into the “fiery lake that burns with sulphur,” it occurs that, “while still alive, they both were hurled” there. (Revelation 19:20) Evidently this means that they come to an abrupt end. While still actively in operation, those political organizations are suddenly halted, disintegrated, dissolved, forever, with no vestiges, no remains of them around. They leave no carcasses of themselves on the battlefields for scavenger birds to feast upon, picking their bony skeletons clean.

 6, 7. (a) As for persons who war against the Kingdom at Har–Magedon, how is their everlasting destruction pictured? (b) How does the Bible describe the means for disposing of the flesh of all the dead bodies?

⁶ However, the everlasting destruction of persons warring against the Kingdom at Har–Magedon was pictured in another way. How? Well, with the dead bodies of these opposers and fighters against Jehovah’s universal sovereignty he purposed to make a gory feast for “all the birds that fly in midheaven.” (Revelation 19:17, 18) The bodies of the slain will not molder in honorable burial places. Unburied, their flesh will be picked away clean to the bone, beyond identifying the bare skeletons. Because of the multitude of the slain, it will be a huge feast for the scavengers. Directing his words to the King of kings, the Lord Jesus Christ who was foreshadowed by ancient King Melchizedek, King David said in Psalm 110:5, 6: “Jehovah himself at your right hand will certainly break kings to pieces on the day of his anger. He will execute judgment among the nations; he will cause a fullness of dead bodies.” Or: “smashing their skulls, he heaps the wide world with corpses.” (Je) Quite evidently there will be many more bodies strewn over the earth as a result of the war at Har–Magedon than there will be scavenger birds enough to dispose of them all in a reasonable time for human health reasons. So it is reasonable to expect that God will dispose of excess bodies by other means.

⁷ We remember that, in the corresponding prophecy of the attack of Prince Gog of the land of Magog and his hordes upon the restored remnant of Jehovah’s people, the “birds of every sort of wing” will be assisted by “all the wild beasts of the field” in disposing of the dead corpses of the defeated fighters against God. To these scavenger creatures, it is prophetically said: “‘And you must get satisfied at my table on horses and charioteers, mighty persons and all sorts of warriors,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.” (Ezekiel 39:17-20) So, instead of having their bones eaten clean of all decaying flesh by the maggots at the Valley of Hinnom (or, at Gehenna), the carcasses of the slain enemies at Har–Magedon will, as it were, be eaten clear to the bone by nature’s sanitation force, the carrion-eating birds and wild beasts.

 8-12. (a) In Ezekiel 39:11-20, what provision for the disposal of the bones of the onetime opposers of the Messianic kingdom is described? (b) What is indicated by the fact that this burying is said to go on for “seven months”?

⁸ What a well-deserved, contemptible end for all these opposers of Jehovah and his Messianic kingdom at Har–Magedon! But what about their bones that are