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Isaiah 2:2-4; Revelation 16:12-16, 19:11-21
We are six weeks now into this undeclared war that the United States and Israel have teamed up to wage against Iran. We don’t have a lot of time for me to rant on politics this morning, so I’ll save that for next week. Though there has not been an official statement released by the Presbyterian Church in Canada, I suspect that we as a denomination would stand, as do I, in total agreement with Pope Leo XIV and his calls for a return to diplomacy amidst an observation that this warring madness in no way resembles the way of peace that we are challenged with by our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace does not come by means of strength because there is nothing to keep the strong from just taking what they want from those weaker than themselves…and that they do.
Since the beginning of this undeclared war, I have heard a few news commentators and seen more than few remarks on social media outlets wondering if or straight out positing that we are in the midst of World War III and headed towards Armageddon, that last great battle between good and evil when Jesus returns to establish the Kingdom of God, a global Christian theocracy. To speak to those thoughts, World War III…well, I think economics will soon determine how what Prime Minister Carney calls the “middle powers” get involved. I am thus far surprised that the rest of the world has not responded to Israel and the United States in like manner to how it responded when Russia invaded Ukraine, with sanctions and freezing the personal assets of key government officials and the oligarchs. But I guess nothing is fair in war and divorce.
As far as Armageddon, well, I wish we had a few hours to do this one justice, but this being a Communion Sunday we don’t. First, I’ll give you some background. There is a Populist movement in the Church in the United States and mostly among the Evangelicals. It weaves American Christian nationalism and Zionism and a fascination with End-Times Bible prophecy in the context of the Nuclear Age into a tapestry that is quite scary and…it’s likely the largest voting block in America. They believe America is God’s chosen nation to carry out his will on Earth, the New Israel one might say. They believe that the Modern State of Israel is the restoration of biblical Israel that they believe was prophesied in the Bible. For them, this was a sign that the end is near. They believe the Jewish people need to be in full control of the land of Israel so that they can rebuild the Temple so that Jesus can return. Thus, there is no questioning on their part with regard to how the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians what White Colonials did and still do to Native Americans. They are expecting an Anti-Christ to arise and cause great economic suffering in the world and a dreadful persecution of Christians that will end with the Rapture of true Christians. Finally, a great World War will erupt where all the armies on earth will gather to do battle at Armageddon which they believe to be the Jezreel Valley in Northern Israel…and then Jesus will return and defeat the Anti-Christ and his armies and lock up Satan and his minions and Glory Hallelujah there will be a thousand years of unopposed Christian rule on earth.
Well, in order for the tapestry to work you’ve got to read the Bible very literally and in particular, a mega-mess of very weird and very vague biblical prophecies which leave a lot to the imagination. But, the Revelation was not meant to be read literally. It was written to late 1st Century Christians at a time of persecution in an attempt to explain to them why they were being persecuted and to give them hope. One of the vehicles the Romans Emperors used to unify such a large bit of real estate full of many different peoples and religions was to make them worship the Emperor/Rome. Historians call it the Imperial Cult. The Romans built temples all over the empire where the people were to go and worship the emperor and pray for him or even to him as a god. There was a priesthood that looked after this. Our reading mentions a beast and a false prophet. This was John’s way of talking about the Emperor and the Imperial Cult. One of the reasons for which the early Christians were persecuted was refusal to participate in the Imperial Cult. I’ll say more on this next week.
Back to the text, if one is going to read this text literally, then one must say that when Armageddon goes down Jesus is going to show up on the battlefield on a white horse and start hacking people to pieces with a double-edged sword which he wields from his mouth. I got a problem with that. I think that what John is giving image to here is that all those who have been deluded into following the Beast and the False Prophet and their cult of followers will be brought to account by the truth of the Word of Jesus Christ. This wouldn’t be the only place in the Bible that the Word of God is called a two-edged sword.
If I were to take this a step further and apply this image to today’s world, I would and will take my lumps for saying that whenever there is a national leader claiming to rule by the authority of God coupled with a religious movement backing him up as if he were a messiah, that there is Anti-Christ. That’s the Beast and the False Prophet. Jesus will bring them to account. And it might just be the voice of the Pope that God is using to do that. The irony of it all is that there are many in that group who have often claimed that the Pope and Roman Catholicism are Anti-Christ which might have something to do with why there wasn’t a Good Friday Mass at the Pentagon this past Holy Week.
About Armageddon, the proper Hebrew pronunciation of that is Har Mogeddon, which in Hebrew means the Mountain of Mageddon. This does not refer to the Jezreel Valley in which sits the ancient city of Megiddo. Megiddo is not a mountain. In Isaiah there is reference to Har Magedd being the dwelling place of God; thus Jerusalem on Mount Zion. That being the case, I am inclined to interpret the Battle of Harmoged, if I dare call it that, in light of the Isaiah 2 passage and the image of the nations streaming to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of God, to learn the way of peace. Jesus will settle the disputes between the nations and, “They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up the sword against nation, and they will never again train for war.”
Harmageddon is anytime throughout history, and this is not the first time, that those political leaders who claim to be enacting the will of God and their cultish followers get confronted by and held accountable to the Truth, the Life, and the Way, Jesus Christ, who walked the way of peace by walking the way of the Cross. His power is found in our weakness, in humility, in compassion, in serving for when we are weak, he is strong. Unfortunately, it is a true cosmic battle of apocalyptic proportions for us humans to learn that. Amen.
