What Is “Armageddon”?
Dr. Mark Hitchcock (of Faith Bible Church) recently stopped by the Credo House to teach a course on the book of Revelation. Because Dr. Hitchcock’s class was a 27-part seminary-level course he talked a lot about every facet of Revelation, including defining some crucial terms for us.
This is the second in a series of videos where Dr Hitchcock helps us get a basic understanding of some of the special terminology associated with Revelation.
Watch Dr. Hitchcock’s first video where he defines the word eschatology in less than a minute.
Video Transcript
Yea, Armageddon, again, is one of those words… probably most people that don’t know anything about prophecy have heard the word Armageddon.
In our popular culture today it just kind of means something devastating, a disaster.
You know there’ll be a terrible hurricane and someone will just say it was Armageddon.
They kind of use it in that way.
But Armageddon is an actual place. It’s a geographical location up in the northern part of Israel.
The word “har” (Ἁρμ) in Hebrew means “mound” or “hill”. And, so it means “mount Megiddo” or the “hill of Megiddo”.
And that’s a location up in northern Israel that overlooks what’s called the Jezreel valley.
The Jezreel valley is about 20 miles long, about 14 miles wide.
Napoleon himself said it was the ideal battlefield on the earth.
And the Bible says that at the end of time and the end times that all the armies of the world are going to be gathered there to this place called Armageddon in the land of Israel.
The Bible doesn’t tell us why they’re gathered there. So we don’t know for sure.
But that will be the place where armies are gathered when Jesus Christ returns at His second coming.
So Armageddon and the second coming of Jesus are the two events really that culminate this current age.
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3 replies to "Armageddon – What is it? Mark Hitchcock Gives the Definition"
One of those things I am afraid to talk to people about. Have a cousin with lots of questions about this. One is: Is the 14×20 mile valley able to hold just one army of 200,000 chinese soldiers, and how many more soldiers from the rest of the world’s armies would it fit….standing one by one , do they fit? Has anyone done calculation?
Another of his questions was: If God will reign over us, where is our free will? I did try to answer this last one, but I just want your take on it!
Hi Tio,
Your friend has some interesting questions. I don’t know if 200,000 soldiers would fit in a 14×20 mile valley. What do you think? Where did the number 200,000 come from?
The second questions shows a lot of variety. You and your friend must have had quite the discussion. I would recommend that you take a look at Michael’s post: http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2010/03/a-calvinists-understanding-of-free-will/
Thank you so much for your interest in this topic. We actually recorded a 30 lecture series with Dr. Hitchcock in which he goes through the entire book of Revelation. We’re working on editing the video and should be able to make it available in the next few months.
Ted,
According to him there is mention of the number 200,000 somewhere in the Bible, I haven’t heard of this before. But China has boasted that she has the capacity with her army. I only mentioned one nation’s possible arm forces number to be conservative. Since I really don’t like eschatology I haven’t even read Revelations, kind of scared of that book!
The second question is also from the same person. About two years ago he visited mom, he was a the time not going to church but after I talked to him about Apologetics and answered all of his general objections about Christianity. Now that he has been in church for about year and a half and was recently involved with a missionary trip, I was surprised to find him still having these type of questions so any help I can get in this area will help. I will read that post.
Thanks,
Tio