Chapter Thirty-Two/God's Anger Brought to a Finish -"It Has Come to Pass!" - Continue

 Once again, Jehovah acts unmistakably toward mankind, this being signaled by "lightnings and voices and thunders." (Compare Revelation 4:5; 8:5) Mankind will be shaken in a way that has never happened before, as if by a devastating earthquake. (Compare Isaiah 13:13; Joel 3:16) This blockbuster shaking will shatter "the great city," Babylon the Great, so that it splits into "three parts"-symbolic of its collapse into unredeemable ruin. Also, "the cities of the nations" will fall. 'Every island" and "Mountains"-institutions and organizations that seem so permanent in this system-will go. "A great hail," much greater than that which afflicted Egypt during the seventh plague, will pummel mankind painfully." (Exodus9:22-26) This punishing downpour of congealed waters like pictures unusually heavy verbal expressions of Jehovah's judgments, signaling that the end of this system of things has arrived at last! Jehovah could well use literal hail too his destructive work. - JOB 38:22, 33.

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Chapter Thirty-Two/God's Anger Brought to a Finish - "It Has Come to Pass!" - Continue

 This and the previous six plagues give the sum total of Jehovah's judgments against Satan and his system. They are a declaration of doom for Satan and his seed. When this final bowl is poured out, Jehovah himself proclaims: "It has come to pass!" There is nothing else to say. When the contents of the bowls of God's anger have publicized to Jehovah's satisfaction, there will be no delay in executing these judgments proclaimed by these messages.

John continues: "And lightnings and voices and thunder occurred such as not occurred since men came to be on the earth, so extensive an earthquake, so great. And the great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell; and Babylon the Great was remembered in the sight of God, to give her the cup of wine of the anger of his wrath. Also, every island fled and mountains were not found. And a great hail with every stone about the weight of a talent descended out of heaven upon the men, and the men blasphemed God due to the plague of hail, because the plague was unusually great." - REVELATION 16:18-21. 

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Chapter Thirty-Two/God's Anger Brought to a Finish - "It Has Come to Pass!"

 "And the seventh one poured out his bowl upon the air. At this a loud voice issued out of the sanctuary from the throne, saying: 'It has come to pass!" - REVELATION 16:17

"The air" is the final life-sustaining medium to be plagued. But this is not the literal air. There is nothing about the literal air that makes it deserving of Jehovah's adverse judgments, any more that the literal earth, sea, freshwater sources, or sun deserve to suffer judgments at Jehovah's hand. Rather, this is "the air" Paul was discussing when he called Satan "The ruler of the authority of the air." (Ephesians 2:2) It is the satanic "air" breathed by the world today, the spirit, or general mental inclination, that characterizes his whole wicked system of things, the satanic thinking that permeates every aspect of life outside Jehovah's organization. So in pouring out his bowl upon the air, the seventh angel expressed God's wrath against Satan, his organization, and everything that motivates mankind to support Satan in dying Jehovah's sovereignty. 

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Chapter Thirty-Two/God's Anger Brought to a Finish -The Gathering to Armageddon - Conclusion

 The name Har-Magedon means "Mountain of Megiddo." But rather than being a literal place, it represents the world situation into which all nations are gathered in opposition to Jehovah God and where he will finally destroy them. This is global in extent. (Jeremiah 25:31-33; Daniel 2:44) It is similar to "the great winepress of the anger of God" and "the low plains of the decision," or "the low plain of Jehoshaphat," where the nations are gathered for execution by Jehovah. (Revelation 14:19; Joel 3:12, 14) It is also related to "the soil of Israel" where the satanic armies of Gog and Magog are destroyed and that location" between the grand sea and the holy mountain of Decoration" where the king of the north comes "all the way to his end" at the hands of Michael the great prince. EZEKIEL 38:16-18, 22, 23; DANIEL 11:45-12:1. 

When the nations have been maneuvered into this situation by the croaking propaganda originating with Satan and his earthly agents, it will be time for the seventh angel to pour out the final bowl of the anger of God.

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Chapter Thirty-Two/God's Anger Brought to a Finish - The Gathering to Armageddon -Continue

 The need for Christians to stay awake becomes even more pressing as the next verse of Revelation comes closer to fulfillment: "And they [the expressions inspired   by demons] gathered them [the earthly kings, or rulers] together to a place that is called in Hebrew Har-Magedon." (Revelation 16:16) This name, more commonly rendered Armageddon, occurs only once in the Bible. But it has fired mankind's imagination. World leaders have warned of a possible nuclear Armageddon /Armageddon has been linked also with the city of Megiddo, the site of many decisive battles in Bible times, and some religious leaders have therefore speculated that the final war on earth will take place in that limited area. In this, they are far wide of the truth.

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 Jesus here warns that something similar can happen today. The priests and the Levites foreshadowed Jesus' anointed brothers. (1 Peter 2:9) But Jesus' warning applies by extension to the great crowd too. The outer garments here referred to identify the wearer as a Christian witness of Jehovah. (Compare Revelations 3:18; 7:14.) If any allow the pressures of Satan's world to lull them to sleep or into activity, they are likely to lose these outer garments-in other words, lose their clean identification as Christians. Such a situation would be shameful. It would put one in danger of losing out completely. 

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 Jesus warned of the kind of pressures that this world, saturated with propaganda, would put on Christians. He said: "Pay attention to yourselves that your hearts never become weighed down with overeating and heavy drinking and anxieties of life, and suddenly that day be upon you as a snare . . . keep awake, then, all the time making supplication that you may succeed in escaping all these things that are destined to occur, and in standing before the Son of man." (Luke 21:34-36) "That day" is "the great day of God Almighty." (Revelation 16:14) as "that day" of the vindication of Jehovah's sovereignty approaches, it becomes ever more difficult to cope with the anxieties of life. Christians need to be alert and watchful, staying awake until that day arrives.

What, though, is implied by the warning that those found sleeping would be shamed by losing their "outer garments"? In ancient Israel, any priest or Levite on guard duty at the temple had a heavy responsibility. Jewish commentators tell that if anyone was caught sleeping on such duty, his garments would be stripped from him and burned, so that he was publicly shamed. 

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Chapter Thirty-Two/God's Anger Brought to a Finish - The Gathering to Armageddon - Continue

 With so much satanic propaganda around, the next words that John records are indeed timely: "Look! I am coming as a thief. Happy is the one that stays awake and keeps his outer garments, that he may not walk naked and people look upon his shamefulness."  (Revelation 16:15) Who is coming "as thief"?  Jesus himself, coming at an unannounced time as Jehovah's Executioner. (Revelation 3:3; 2 Peter 3:10) While still on earth, Jesus also likened his coming to that of a thief, saying: "Keep on the watch, therefore, because you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. On this account you too prove yourselves ready, because at an hour that you do not think to be it, the Son of man is coming." (Matthew 24:42, 44; Luke 12:37, 40) Echoing the warning, the apostle Paul said: "Jehovah's day is coming exactly as a thief in the night. Whenever, it is that they are saying: 'Peace and security! then sudden destruction is to be instantly upon them. "Satan even now maneuvering the nations toward making that false proclamation of "Peace and security!!" -THESSALONIANS 5:2, 3. 

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 The propaganda comes from "the dragon" (Satan) and "the wild beast" ("Satan's earthly political setup), creatures that we have already met up with in Revelation. What, though, is "the false prophet"?  This is a newcomer in name only. Previously, we were shown a wild beast with two horns like a lamb that performed great signs before the seven-headed beast. This deceptive creature acted like prophet for that wild beast, even causing an image to be built to it.  (Revelation 13:11-14) This wild beast with two horns like a lamb must be the same as "the false prophet" mentioned here. Confirming this, we read later that the false prophet like the symbolic wild beast with two horns, "performed in front of the [seven-headed wild beast] the signs with which he misled those received the mark of the wild beast and those who render worship to its image." - REVELATION 19:20. 

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Chapter Thirty-Two/God's Anger Brought to a Finish - The Gathering to Armageddon

 John tells us: "And I saw three unclean inspire expressions that looked like frogs come out of the mouth of the wild beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. They are, in fact, expressions inspired by demons and perform signs, and they go forth to the kings of the entire inhabited earth, to gather them together for the war of the great day of the Almighty." (Revelation 16:13, 14) In Moses' day, Jehovah brought a loathsome plague of frogs on Pharaoh's Egypt, so that the land began to stink." (Exodus 8:5-15) During the Lord's day, there has also been a disgusting froglike visitation though from a different source. It consists of Satan's "unclean inspired expressions, "clearly symbolizing propaganda designed to maneuver all human rulers, "kings into opposition to Jehovah God. Satan thus makes sure that they are not swayed by the pouring out of the bowls of God's anger but are firmly on Satan's side when "the war of the great day of God the Almighty" begins.

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