Armageddon Isn't Something to be Afraid Of

or how to use Apocalyptic Imagery Properly 

A lot of people who have never properly studied Revelation are once again talking about Armageddon. I get it. War is scary so it can be comforting to pretend that all of this is part of some divine plan. But this is not what Armageddon is about.

In response, I offer the following section from chapter 10 in my book Upside-Down Apocalypse: Grounding Revelation in the Gospel of Peace, Herald Press, 2022. (p. 163-169).

Read the full article on Substack.

The Battle of Armageddon

Armageddon is a word that people seem to love. Surprisingly, it shows up only once in Revelation (Revelation 16:16). This presumed battle is part of the section that we refer to as the seven bowls. These are a retelling of a sort of the seven trumpets, which are a retelling of the seven seals, both of which we explored earlier. But if you can remember all the way back to the sixth trumpet, we read about a great army massing for a battle with God (9:13–19). However, that battle never happened. Instead, John was told not to write down what the voices of the seven thunders called for, and we were redirected to the witness of the Christ community that overcomes through nonviolence.

With the sixth bowl, we read about a similar scenario as all the kings of the earth prepare for a battle at a place called Armageddon. Armageddon is a compound of two Hebrew words, har and Megiddo. Har means mountain; Megiddo was a small town about sixty miles north of Jerusalem. Armageddon, as a word, simply means the mountain of Megiddo. But there are a couple of fascinating things here.

The first is that there is no such thing as the Mount of Megiddo…

continued on Substack.