Dr Paul Allen

People who obey God’s will have often been discriminated against, persecuted, and killed. This history of prejudice, ridicule, and opposition began with Cain killing Abel, upon whom the Lord God had looked with favor (Gen. 4:4–5).  From that time onwards, many of God’s people have experienced reproach and affliction in various ways (see Heb. 11:35–38). This history of opposition continues until today: the execution of Jesus, Steven, James, Peter, Paul, and countless other Christians throughout the ages being only the more explicit examples of prejudice and discrimination. This is also why Jesus returns: when God restores his perfect creatio n, he will vindicate all those who have obeyed his will throughout the ages . It is not “the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars” who will live in God’s new world (Rev. 21:8). It is “those who conquer” (v. 7), that is, the people who followed the revealed will o...

The place called “Armageddon” is mentioned only once in the Bible. John explains that demonic spirits assembled the kings of the world for battle on the great day of the Lord “to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon” (Rev. 16:16 NIV). The outcome of this battle between the forces of evil and the almighty God is described in Revelation 17:14 and 19:11–21 (and, some argue, in 20:7–10). Although not explicitly connected with the name Armageddon, a final battle between the assembled wicked nations and Israel’s God is mentioned repeatedly in the Old Testament. The battle of Armageddon brings the final defeat of the evil forces that rebel against God and resist Jesus Christ. It is not an actual military battle in Israel. A literal fulfillment would have been theoretically possible in the first century when armies fought on horses with swords and spears and arrows. However, even then it would have been impossible to picture all the people of the earth assembled at Megiddo in the...