"Armageddon": code word for Calvary
Jan 8, 2014 9:16:40 GMT
Post by Colossians on Jan 8, 2014 9:16:40 GMT
This material is for the teaching of the Body of Christ, however the author reserves copyright over it.
Forward
The reason for all things, is Jesus Christ: nothing else matters but Jesus Christ: nothing else occurs in heaven except praise to Jesus Christ.
All prophecy, all teaching, all exposition, is to give every bit of its breath, to the glorification of Jesus Christ.
Accordingly, the most prevalent mistake in the reading of prophecy, is to not see that Jesus Christ is not only at the centre of it, but that He is in fact the all of it. And so most look at prophecy as though it were speaking literally, and do not understand that it is rather, as God said to Miriam and Aaron, "in dark speeches" (see Num 12:8). In particular, they do not realise that all is fulfilled in the Cross.
For when Jesus said at Mt 5:17 that He had come to “fulfil” the law, He wasn’t, as many errantly think, speaking about (perfectly) keeping the law, but about bringing into consummation the entire body of writings which we now refer to as "the Old Testament" but which the Jew referred to as "the law and the prophets" or more simply, "the law".1
And thus we were afterward given in plain language a new testament which related to us all the ramifications and benefits of such fulfilment.
1 See our work: "Understanding Christ's fulfilment of the law".
___
“Plain language” we say, in all but one book: Revelation.
For God were not about to dispense with the prophetic love-language of the Spirit because the writings of the OT-era prophets were now fulfilled. No rather, He would continue it in such a way as to mirror its consummation in Christ.
For Hebrews tells us that in times previous God spoke to us by the (many) prophets, but that, in contrast, He has now in these last days spoken to us by His (one and only) Son (Heb 1:1,2); which is to say that His Son (who Himself was a ‘prophet’ – see Deut 18:15), was the summation of all the prophets, in one.
The cryptic code then, the “dark speech” that is characteristic of prophecy and which is used by God to hide the beauty of our intimacy with Christ from the prying eyes of the world, would necessarily continue on, but in one consummate-prophecy book only: God would combine the many who had gone before into one consummate word to His Bride.
Let's then look at how a certain curious ‘battle’ depicted in the 16th chapter of such book, and waged at a place called “Armageddon”, fits into this scheme of things.
________________________________________
"ARMAGEDDON": CODE WORD FOR CALVARY
“that in all things He might have the preeminence" Col 1:18
[14] “For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.”
We see here a reference to the kings of the earth coming to fight against God and His people. (We are later at v16 told the place is called “Armageddon”.)
Well would we really think that it is talking about kings all extant at one time near the end of the earth (as is commonly thought)? What about all the kings to date? Do they not also qualify as "kings of the earth"? And have they not also hated the Lord?
So then, let's see what is meant by this …
In Acts 4, Peter and John were incarcerated for their faith, by the Jewish leaders. When they were released, this is what they said:
[24] “… Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: [25] Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? [26] The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against His Christ. [27] For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, [28] For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.”
And so Peter and John have revealed to us here for the first time in scripture that the battle of Armageddon, was in fact what occurred at the Cross of Christ, whereby the Lord in fact triumphed over His enemies and “led captivity captive” (Eph 4:8).
Our own Armageddons follow in our own lives as we triumph over the 'kings of the earth' – those people in our lives who think of themselves as God and who therefore come against believers, and also those demonic spirits of the sort which Daniel refers to such as "the Prince of Persia" (Dan 10:20) which try to seduce us and bring persecution against us; but all such personal Armageddons are subsumed under the first Armageddon at the Cross, for Jesus has said:
“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you" John 15:18.
___
Accordingly note what immediately follows the "kings of the earth" statement in Revelation: not military advice, but an adjuration to keep ourselves clean:
[15] “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.”
Strange advice, one might think, for one faced with a physical battle.
But in fact it is great advice from our Commander in Chief, the Lord God Jesus Christ, for in fact:
“we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” Eph 6:12
and therefore:
"the weapons of our warfare are [(necessarily)] not carnal" 2 Cor 10:4.
So this passage of Revelation speaks of the ‘military’ power of those who trust in Christ’s work at Calvary: they are those who cover themselves in robes of the righteousness of Christ and so overcome Satan “by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony” (Rev 12:11).
For is it not written that in order to overcome the devil, we are to first of all "submit to God"? And does not such submitting consist solely of our trusting in His Son’s work and not in ourselves?
So at this point in the text our minds should still be on the Cross of Christ.
___
Now then, in the next verse Armageddon is introduced:
[16] “And He gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.”
Should our minds now leave the Cross and focus on a physical battle in a physical place? No rather, we have just reminded ourselves that both our enemies and our weapons against them, are not carnal!
___
And so therefore look at what comes next:
[17] “And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.”
What is this that “is done”?
Are not these the words of our Lord as He hung on the Cross?
Indeed:
"When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and He bowed his head, and gave up the ghost" John 19:30.
___
[18] “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 mighty an earthquake, and so great.”
And was there not a great quake immediately after Jesus died on the Cross, so that the curtain of the temple was torn in two (Mt 27:51)?
This is of course not to say that such quake at Calvary was the complete fulfilment of this quake in Revelation here, but neither was Acts 4’s reference to Herod and Pontius Pilate the full meaning of "the kings of the earth": there are simply and often 'parallel' semblances which serve to link the prophecy with its chief substance, and thus we have said that Armageddon is a 'code word' for "Calvary".
The main thing which is related here in Revelation is that the Cross was a tumultuous event as far as the universe was concerned, for everything that ever existed, existed for this purpose.
In closing …
God bless all those who are submitted to their Commander in Chief as they battle their Armageddons at work, at play, in their marriage, their pubic witness, and wherever they may be ordered to ‘fight’, and whether in health or sickness, alone or amongst friends, as prisoners or as free men.
And may He bless them by showing them how to fight: not with carnal stealth or strength (as Peter did at Gethsemane – see John 18:10,11), but by pointing the devil to Armageddon, the Cross of Jesus Christ, and declaring along with their Commander:
“It is finished” John 19:30.
Amen.
(See also extensions following.)
Forward
The reason for all things, is Jesus Christ: nothing else matters but Jesus Christ: nothing else occurs in heaven except praise to Jesus Christ.
All prophecy, all teaching, all exposition, is to give every bit of its breath, to the glorification of Jesus Christ.
Accordingly, the most prevalent mistake in the reading of prophecy, is to not see that Jesus Christ is not only at the centre of it, but that He is in fact the all of it. And so most look at prophecy as though it were speaking literally, and do not understand that it is rather, as God said to Miriam and Aaron, "in dark speeches" (see Num 12:8). In particular, they do not realise that all is fulfilled in the Cross.
For when Jesus said at Mt 5:17 that He had come to “fulfil” the law, He wasn’t, as many errantly think, speaking about (perfectly) keeping the law, but about bringing into consummation the entire body of writings which we now refer to as "the Old Testament" but which the Jew referred to as "the law and the prophets" or more simply, "the law".1
And thus we were afterward given in plain language a new testament which related to us all the ramifications and benefits of such fulfilment.
1 See our work: "Understanding Christ's fulfilment of the law".
___
“Plain language” we say, in all but one book: Revelation.
For God were not about to dispense with the prophetic love-language of the Spirit because the writings of the OT-era prophets were now fulfilled. No rather, He would continue it in such a way as to mirror its consummation in Christ.
For Hebrews tells us that in times previous God spoke to us by the (many) prophets, but that, in contrast, He has now in these last days spoken to us by His (one and only) Son (Heb 1:1,2); which is to say that His Son (who Himself was a ‘prophet’ – see Deut 18:15), was the summation of all the prophets, in one.
The cryptic code then, the “dark speech” that is characteristic of prophecy and which is used by God to hide the beauty of our intimacy with Christ from the prying eyes of the world, would necessarily continue on, but in one consummate-prophecy book only: God would combine the many who had gone before into one consummate word to His Bride.
Let's then look at how a certain curious ‘battle’ depicted in the 16th chapter of such book, and waged at a place called “Armageddon”, fits into this scheme of things.
________________________________________
"ARMAGEDDON": CODE WORD FOR CALVARY
“that in all things He might have the preeminence" Col 1:18
[14] “For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.”
We see here a reference to the kings of the earth coming to fight against God and His people. (We are later at v16 told the place is called “Armageddon”.)
Well would we really think that it is talking about kings all extant at one time near the end of the earth (as is commonly thought)? What about all the kings to date? Do they not also qualify as "kings of the earth"? And have they not also hated the Lord?
So then, let's see what is meant by this …
In Acts 4, Peter and John were incarcerated for their faith, by the Jewish leaders. When they were released, this is what they said:
[24] “… Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: [25] Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? [26] The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against His Christ. [27] For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, [28] For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.”
And so Peter and John have revealed to us here for the first time in scripture that the battle of Armageddon, was in fact what occurred at the Cross of Christ, whereby the Lord in fact triumphed over His enemies and “led captivity captive” (Eph 4:8).
Our own Armageddons follow in our own lives as we triumph over the 'kings of the earth' – those people in our lives who think of themselves as God and who therefore come against believers, and also those demonic spirits of the sort which Daniel refers to such as "the Prince of Persia" (Dan 10:20) which try to seduce us and bring persecution against us; but all such personal Armageddons are subsumed under the first Armageddon at the Cross, for Jesus has said:
“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you" John 15:18.
___
Accordingly note what immediately follows the "kings of the earth" statement in Revelation: not military advice, but an adjuration to keep ourselves clean:
[15] “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.”
Strange advice, one might think, for one faced with a physical battle.
But in fact it is great advice from our Commander in Chief, the Lord God Jesus Christ, for in fact:
“we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” Eph 6:12
and therefore:
"the weapons of our warfare are [(necessarily)] not carnal" 2 Cor 10:4.
So this passage of Revelation speaks of the ‘military’ power of those who trust in Christ’s work at Calvary: they are those who cover themselves in robes of the righteousness of Christ and so overcome Satan “by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony” (Rev 12:11).
For is it not written that in order to overcome the devil, we are to first of all "submit to God"? And does not such submitting consist solely of our trusting in His Son’s work and not in ourselves?
So at this point in the text our minds should still be on the Cross of Christ.
___
Now then, in the next verse Armageddon is introduced:
[16] “And He gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.”
Should our minds now leave the Cross and focus on a physical battle in a physical place? No rather, we have just reminded ourselves that both our enemies and our weapons against them, are not carnal!
___
And so therefore look at what comes next:
[17] “And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.”
What is this that “is done”?
Are not these the words of our Lord as He hung on the Cross?
Indeed:
"When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and He bowed his head, and gave up the ghost" John 19:30.
___
[18] “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 mighty an earthquake, and so great.”
And was there not a great quake immediately after Jesus died on the Cross, so that the curtain of the temple was torn in two (Mt 27:51)?
This is of course not to say that such quake at Calvary was the complete fulfilment of this quake in Revelation here, but neither was Acts 4’s reference to Herod and Pontius Pilate the full meaning of "the kings of the earth": there are simply and often 'parallel' semblances which serve to link the prophecy with its chief substance, and thus we have said that Armageddon is a 'code word' for "Calvary".
The main thing which is related here in Revelation is that the Cross was a tumultuous event as far as the universe was concerned, for everything that ever existed, existed for this purpose.
In closing …
God bless all those who are submitted to their Commander in Chief as they battle their Armageddons at work, at play, in their marriage, their pubic witness, and wherever they may be ordered to ‘fight’, and whether in health or sickness, alone or amongst friends, as prisoners or as free men.
And may He bless them by showing them how to fight: not with carnal stealth or strength (as Peter did at Gethsemane – see John 18:10,11), but by pointing the devil to Armageddon, the Cross of Jesus Christ, and declaring along with their Commander:
“It is finished” John 19:30.
Amen.
(See also extensions following.)