Greg Laurie - America and Armageddon

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TOPICS: America, Armageddon, End times, USA

The story is told of the great composer, Johann Sebastian Bach. He was known to sleep a lot, and his kids had a surefire way of waking their dad up. They would go to a piano and play a composition. I guess that's what you do when you're the son of a composer. They would play the composition all the way through. He would still be sleeping, and they would get to the end and not play the last note. Every time, Bach would get up out of his bed, walk over, sit down at the keyboard and hit the final chord. It just drove him crazy. Here in Revelation, in effect, God is playing the final chord. But something is missing from this prophetic puzzle. Let me restate it, someone is missing. Who? Well, the United States of America.

You know one of the more interesting things about Bible prophecy is not who it mentions, but also who doesn't mention in the last days. At this moment in time, America is still the greatest superpower on the planet. That, of course, could change in time as you're aware with the emergence of China and other shifts that are happening globally. But right now, we are still the reigning superpower. But yet, as we look at the end-times events, you really don't find America in them. You see Israel clearly. You find Iran there. You find Libya there. You can make a pretty good case for finding Russia and even China. But I can't find any passage that clearly identifies the United States of America. So, where are we? How could a nation of our stature and our size and our significance not be mentioned in the prophetic scheme? Well, I'll talk about that in a few moments. But first, let's understand where we are here in Revelation 15. We're in heaven. And we're viewing what is coming to the earth from a heavenly perspective. And we get a better handle on the why of judgment.

Let's read Revelation 15, starting in verse 1. John writes, "Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete. And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, playing harps of God. They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, 'Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints! Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. And all nations shall come and worship before You, For Your judgments have been manifested.'" We'll stop there.

So, who are these people singing this song? These are believers who have come through the tribulation period. They've been martyred for their faith, and they're before a sea of glass mingled with fire. Now, that either symbolizes the fiery trials they went through on the planet or the fact that they were martyred. Or this may be referencing the fact with this water and fire mingled together that judgment is about to come on the earth. Perhaps it's referring to both, reminding us that God takes it personally when his followers are attacked. Now, as we come back to our account, we find that these believers have prevailed over the Antichrist, verse 2, how? By not taking his mark and holding on to the very end. Listen, it is my firm conviction that Christians will not go through the Great Tribulation Period. I don't think we'll go through any of it. I think will be removed before the tribulation begins, why? The Bible says God has not appointed us to wrath, but to attain salvation to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Think about it. Well, God sent Judgment during the days of Noah. First he got Noah and his family safe in the ark and the door was shut. And as the water came down, the ark went up, but Noah and his family were delivered from the Judgment that came upon the earth. Take this story of Lot and his wife. God got Lot and his family safely out of Sodom before the Judgment fell. The Tribulation period is God's Judgment coming on the earth. God does not pour his judgment on his people, you see. And so, we will not be here for this Tribulation period. Having said that, Christians will go through tribulation and not only will we have tribulation, we'll be persecuted just like these folks were, maybe not to the extreme they were persecuted, but we will face persecution. Look at Revelation 16:1, "I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, 'Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on earth.'"

Listen, there's a temple in heaven. Heaven is a real place for real people. CS Lewis made this statement, and I love it. "All the things that ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of heaven, tantalizing glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear". Lewis concludes, "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. Earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy, but to arouse it to suggest the real thing," end quote. He just nailed it with that. But now we come to Revelation 16, verse 12, and we're looking at the final battles coming upon the planet, the battles of Armageddon. I'm going to tell you where that word "Armageddon" even came from. By the way, it's only mentioned one time in the Bible.

So, let's read Revelation 16, verse 12, "Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon". Now, we know the dragon is Satan. "And out of the mouth of the beast," we know that's the Antichrist. "And out of the mouth of the false prophet," that's the religious leader guru type sidekick of the Antichrist. Verse 14, "They're the spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty".

Now, in the middle of all of this, Jesus gives us a personal word. Verse 15, "'Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.'" And then verse 16, "And he gathered them together in the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon," Armageddon. Now actually, Armageddon is a place. It's from the root word "megiddo" and we get the word "Harmageddon" from it. It's a location, but we know this as a word that speaks of finality. Whenever someone invokes Armageddon, it means something big and epic and destructive, signing a peace agreement with Japan and bringing World War II to a close. General Douglas MacArthur standing on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo made this statement and I quote, "We've had our last chance. If we do not now devise some greater inequitable system, Armageddon will be at our door," end quote.

President Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States was astounded by the complexities of the Middle East after he took office. And on May 15, 1981, President Reagan scribbled in his diary these words, "Sometimes I wonder if we're destined to witness Armageddon," end quote. I wonder what General MacArthur and President Reagan would think of what's happening in the news today. Again, Armageddon is talking about the location of the final battles which will happen in the Valley of Megiddo. I've stood at the Valley of Megiddo. It's a massive plain, many biblical battles were fought in that place, such as Gideon defeating the Midianites, and Deborah and Barak fighting their enemies. But why is Megiddo the location of the final conflict? Well, maybe we get a clue from one of the greatest military figures of all time. You've probably heard of him, his name was Napoleon Bonaparte. And standing at Megiddo in 1799, he made this statement, and I quote, "All the armies of the world could maneuver their forces on this vast plain. There is no place in the world more suited for war than this. It is a natural battleground for the whole earth," end quote.

So, there you have it. Now, there is demonic power behind this conflict. Verse 13 mentions unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast. You know, I was in a pet store the other day, and they have a lot of lizards and snakes and some amphibians, some frogs. They had a frog that was like this big, it was like this big. And it's not an aggressive frog, but it is so creepy looking. You know, so these are like spirits like frogs, these demon spirits motivating them to go and fight this massive battle. You know, the devil is behind the war in our world today, and now the church is gonna be removed. I mean, think about how bad things will be when there's not the presence of Christians speaking up for what is true. This is how all hell is able to break loose so quickly.

Hey, everybody, Pastor Greg here answering your questions. I got a direct message on Instagram. They say, "Hi, Greg, can you answer a question for me please? Did God create hell? I just can't understand why he would create a place where people who don't believe in him would go and suffer for eternity. It doesn't seem very loving. Praying for your ministry, Jane". Thank you, Jane. Okay, this is all good question, did God create hell? Yes, he created hell, but let's understand who it was created for. Hell was not created for people. According to Jesus, hell was created for the devil and his angels. Now Satan, a high-ranking angel, rebelled against God. He led other angels into this rebellion with him, and that is the future of Satan. God wants everybody to go to heaven. And the Bible even says, "God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance". And God showed his desire for us to come to heaven by sending his Son. I mean, what could be a bigger sacrifice for a father than to give his own son up to die on a cross in our place so we could be forgiven? Look, if a person ends up in hell, they'll have no one to blame but themself.

It was CS Lewis who once said, "The gates of hell are locked from the inside". God is effectively giving a person what they wanted in life. If they don't want God, and they don't want forgiveness, and they don't want Jesus, well, they don't have him. They'll have to practically climb over Jesus to get in there. But if they're bound and determined, they can go to hell. But when it's all said and done, they will have sent themselves there, not so much God sending them there. God wants people to be forgiven because he loves us. But having said that, there are people who have committed horrible crimes, atrocities, sins. And we'll all say, "Well, they'll get there in the Judgment Day". So, most of us think that there should be a hell for someone. God doesn't want anyone to go there. That's why we need to tell people about Jesus, so they don't have to go to hell, so they can go to heaven. You can get to heaven by believing in Jesus and receiving the gift of eternal life. Hope that helps.

Look back historically at the atheistic communist governments and how many of their own people they have killed. Historians say at least 100 million people have been murdered by atheistic communist regimes. Think about this. If the atheistic Joseph Stalin believed that he would stand before a holy God, do you think he would have done what he did? Do you think he would have been as cruel as he was? As Dostoevsky said, quote, "If God is not, everything is permitted," end quote. If there's no God, if there's no afterlife, if there's no final Judgment, why would a person not do whatever they wanted to do? Mao Tse-tung did it in China. Hitler did it with Nazi Germany. Stalin did it with Russia. And now the Antichrist will do it on the level like no one has ever done it before. So, now we have two superpowers facing off in the Battle of Armageddon. The forces of the Antichrist, that's ten nations confederated under him, and another force identified as the Kings of the East.

This is big. This is bigger than Godzilla versus King Kong. This is the biggest battle of all time, and they come to the Euphrates River. We were first introduced to this last days superpower called the Kings of the East in Revelation 9:16 which says, "The number of the army of the horsemen was 200 million". Question, what nation on earth could field an army of 200 million? There's only one answer and that's China. I'm not saying that China is certainly the Kings of the East, but they're the only nation that could field an army of 200 million people.

Understand when John wrote this on the Island of Patmos 2.000 years ago, there were not 200 million people on the face of the whole earth and that he's speaking specifically about an army of 200 million. The population of China is 1.98 billion, and the population of America is around 318 million. China announced in 1997, they could raise an army of 352 million soldiers. So, they get put 200 million on the battlefield and have 152 soldiers left to defend China. We don't know, we'll see. Well, maybe we'll won't see. I don't expect to be here. If I'm seeing it, I'm seeing it from heaven along with you. But that brings us to the question I raised in the beginning. Where is the undisputed superpower, the United States of America? How could a nation of our stature and size not even be mentioned in the prophetic scheme? Okay, so let me offer a few ideas.

Number one, and I don't like this idea, but I have to put it out there. The United States may not be mentioned because our country is decimated by a nuclear attack. Now, we know they're just arsenals of nuclear weapons. We know that there are rogue nations like Iran and North Korea who have threatened to use those nuclear weapons or somewhere around 1700 to 27.000 nuclear weapons. No one really knows with certainty and if they do, they're not really telling us. But clearly, there is enough firepower to blow our planet up multiple times. Is it possible one of these weapons is launched against the United States? I hope not but if it was, that would explain our absence from the last-day scenario.

Another possibility, this is far more likely, America's simply declines as a world power. We know historically nations rise and fall. Every nation has a beginning, middle, and end. The might of ancient Babylon only lasted 86 years. The powerful Persian Empire did better. They went on for 208 years. The glory of Greece was eclipsed after 268 years. Mighty Rome ruled for nine centuries. And the United States, well, we're moving on in the years, but we could be getting closer to the end than we may think. Isaiah 40, verse 15 says, "All the nations of the world are but a drop in the bucket". So, we might just decline as a world power. It's possible we could be one of the nations united behind the Antichrist. I certainly hope not, but I can't rule it out as a possibility.

Here's a third option, and I have to say this is my favorite choice. America may not be mentioned in Scripture because a great spiritual awakening happens, a revival spreads across our country. That's not to say a revival would eliminate us as a world power, but if one were to sweep America, we would have a godly influence in our time left, right? So, if we were raptured and millions of Americans suddenly were caught up to heaven, certainly that would affect our country. Think about it. People in the military, people in the economy, people in commerce, just suddenly taken, suddenly removed, that would certainly cause a country to potentially collapse. Listen, America has spiritual roots. The only other nation in the world that we are like is the nation of Israel that was established by God. I believe God wanted America to exist.

Imagine a world without the United States of America. Imagine what could have happened in World War II when Hitler, with his military machine, was marching across Europe, England in our sights, other nations that they'd already conquered like Norway, even France, and it would have continued on. Who knows what would have happened to so many Jewish people. We already know six million of them were murdered by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, but America stepped in. Some would say we should have stepped in sooner. But when the Japanese attacked us at Pearl Harbor and we entered the war and declared war on the Empire of Japan, and then Germany declared war on us, we went in with everything we had. It changed the world. What would the world have looked like if America had not stepped in at that critical moment in time? God raised this nation up. Against all odds, this nation came into being in 1776.

Is there really any hope for America? Will our streets ever be safe again? Will we see good prevail over evil again? Is it going to end up that way? What is gonna happen? It is my choice that America basically has two options before her, revival or Judgment, revival or Judgment. So, we need to choose revival. You say, "I don't even know what you mean when you say revival". It means to choose God. It means that we say, "Lord, we need a spiritual awakening in our nation, and we need it now. And let that revival begin with me". Judgment is coming to the earth. We know that. That's what we see in the Book of Revelation. It's not a matter of if, it's only a question of when. But my hope is before this Judgment that we read about in the final book of the Bible comes, that we will have at least one, maybe two, maybe three spiritual awakenings. We've had four great revivals in American history. The last was called the Jesus movement, the Jesus revolution. It's been over 50 years since that awakening. Don't you think it's time for another one?

Let's pray to that end. Let me close with a verse we already read. It contains the words of Jesus to you and me right now. In the middle of all that Scripture is saying about Armageddon, Jesus says in Revelation 16:15, "Behold, I'm coming as a thief. Blessed is he that watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and see his shame". So, this is a Word to us. In the middle of all of this Jesus is saying, "Listen to this. I'm coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches". What does it mean to watch? It means to be awake. This is a reference to the Rapture. In the Rapture, Jesus comes as a thief in the night. We don't know when the Rapture is. It can happen at any moment. But then the Second Coming, we know in that is. It happens at the end of the Tribulation period after the battles of Armageddon, and I'll get to this in the future.

So, when he says, "I'm coming as a thief," it means "I'm coming to you unexpectedly if you're not ready". So, it really comes down to this, he'll come like a thief to the unsuspecting. He'll come like a friend to those who are watching and waiting. Let's say that somehow we knew that Jesus was coming back at 3 o'clock in the morning tomorrow. Now, I think all of us would have our Sunday smiles and "Come quickly Jesus" attitude around 2:45, don't you? But we don't know when he is going to come. He could come tonight. He could come tomorrow. He could come in a week, in a month, in a decade. We don't know. But we know this, we should live every day as though it were our last day because someday it will be, either the day Christ comes or the day when our time is up. So, we need to be awake.