The many references to the desolator and the desolations are indicative of the
Fierce Persecution
which will follow. This will be at first directed against "the remnant," the large numbers of Jews who will repudiate allegiance to the beast and to the false prophet, many doubtless having been converted to their coming Messiah through the testimony of two witnesses who will be sent from God to the nation. "They shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth" (Rev. 11. 3-13). The success of their ministry will apparently arouse the bitter antagonism of Satan and his human instruments. The breaking of the covenant with the people as a whole indicates that an effort will also be made to crush the entire nation. Thus the latter half of the seventieth week will be the time of "Jacob's trouble," "a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time" (Dan. 12. 1), though the unprecedented tribulation will not be confined to the Jews only.
Armageddon and After.
The bitter antagonism of the man of sin, and his colleague, the false prophet, against God and His people will culminate in the gathering together of all the forces of the Empire in Palestine in final conflict for the complete domination of the world. This tremendous event is thus indicated by the apostle John: "And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits, as it were frogs: for they are the spirits of devils (correctly, "demons"), working signs; which go forth unto the kings of the whole world, to gather them together unto the war of the great day of God, the Almighty" (Rev. 16. 13, 14).
In reality the issue at stake will be the supremacy of Christ or of Satan in the earth. The objective will be neither territorial conquest nor naval supremacy, nor commercial predominance. The war of the beast and the ten kings under him is against the Lamb (Rev. 17. 14). This the second Psalm had foretold: "Why do the nations rage, and the peoples imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against His Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." The issue is not uncertain: "He that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision."
The Scene of the Conflict
is Har-Magedon, commonly known as Armageddon (Rev. 16. 16). The name, which is associated with Megiddo, a locality famed in Old Testament history for its decisive battles (Judges 5. 19; 2 Kings 23), doubtless stands here for a wider area, stretching, as we shall see, from the north to the south of the land.
The combatants, the conflict and its conclusion, are described by John in vivid language of terrible grandeur in Revelation 19. 11-21: "And I saw the Heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He that sat thereon, called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon his head are many diadems; and He hath a name written, which no one knoweth but He Himself. And He is arrayed in a garment sprinkled with blood: and His name is called the Word of God. And the armies which are in Heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure. And out of His mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. And He hath on His garment and on His thigh a name written, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.