Widening The Road to Megiddo?

Should we be alarmed by what is happening in the Middle East? As a follow through to what I wrote last year in April, "MAD-deningly Unthinkable Road to Megiddo", I ask if  the fuse has been lit to the powder keg sitting in that region of the world like never before?  To be consistent with what I had written previously, the fuse may have only been laid out but not quite lit.  Not yet.

There is a basic premise in the background that the reader will either accept or reject. But, shouldn't we accept the idea that, "The history of mankind is a history of war"?  We do not need to go too far back in the past to support that statement. In1914 WWI started and ended in 1918 but  only a generation passed when in 1939  WWII began. It didn't take long after 1945 when WWII ended when the Korean War started in 1950, thru 1953.  The Vietnam War begun within a year after that (1954) and went on until 1975.

Is the entire world bracing for another major war? Is it going to be that one  final war when humanity has at last learned its final lesson?  Either that or because there is no one left to wage another war against another after the much feared Armageddon. 

 

HAR-MAGEDON (meaning "Mount of Megiddo)

Or Armageddon which, outside of its Biblical context, is often associated with catastrophic events or end of the world scenarios. From the map above, encircled in the middle, Megiddo is an actual place in present-day Israel.  Also:

"Historically, the significance of Armageddon has evolved, with its origins tracing back to ancient texts and prophecies. The name itself is derived from the Hebrew word “Har Megiddo,” referring to a hill in modern-day Israel where numerous battles took place. This geographical location has been symbolically linked to the ultimate confrontation between divine forces and evil."

Biblically, in the New Testament, it is mentioned only once in Rev. 16:16.  Below are sort of three different takes, based on how the Bible was translated.

a.) From the King James version: "And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon".

b.) Christian Standard Bible: "So they assembled the kings at the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon".

c.) New Living Translation: And the demonic spirits gathered all the rulers and their armies to a place with the Hebrew name Armageddon.

Again, if we look at history, there were many times that human conflict had approached catastrophic levels of destruction and death as to be ascribed to Armageddon.  WWI and WWII were described as such.  Before then, people who were alive to witness the carnage of many wars in Europe, including the time the Mongols came from the East (going as far westward as Hungary), the conflicts could easily have been described as catastrophic.  Historically, if we look back for just a few centuries, Europe was the geographic stage of many wars.

Centuries B.C., however, were times of numerous conflicts, empire turnovers, enslavements, subjugation, uprooting of population and many instances of exiles that happened in the area now described as the Middle East. Powerful empires came and went in the same geographic area.  The Assyrians preceded the Persian Empire  which was defeated by Alexander the Great who led the Greek Empire. The Holy Roman Empire after that followed which covered a much wider swath of territory that included a westward thrust into Europe, that included conquest of the British Isles. The Ottoman Empire when it ended was the last notable one in modern history. All of those historical markers occurred in the same region that we are witnessing today.

There was little attention to that region in the modern era, in terms of major conflict, until the Iran/Iraq War from 1980-88, followed by the Gulf War (1990-91).  Other than the USA, there was a coalition of 41 other countries involved but that did not meet the description as the gathering of, "all the rulers and their armies to a place with the Hebrew name Armageddon". 

Today, the world watches the aerial conflict (planes and ballistic missile warfare) between Israel and Iran. This has prompted a predictable reaction from watchers of history and eschatology that perhaps this is indeed when and where it will all begin - Armageddon over the horizon.

Perhaps, the widening of the road to Megiddo is indeed in the making but I stand by what I said in,  "MAD-deningly Unthinkable Road to Megiddo" when I wrote:

"You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come" (Matthew 24:6). From today it will still take a long time before Armageddon.

"It will perhaps take a decade or more (2067, perhaps?) before Megiddo becomes the central point of conflict.  That is how long it will take for the conditions to happen  before the final war.  Meanwhile, regional conflicts and rumors of conflicts will continue.  Anti Semitism will continue to escalate here and abroad (particularly, Europe)".

One thing to remember is that even though Megiddo was  part of the geography of the Middle East all the way from ancient history, it was not until 1948 when it became part of the newly created nation of Israel.

For more context,  the reader may want to re-read, "Maddeningly Unthinkable Road to Megiddo" and "The Serpent's Trail of Dan".