And he gathered them to the place that in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon. Rev. 16:16.
Texts such as Matthew 24, 2 Thessalonians 2, and Revelation 13 speaks about a great end-time deception. According to Revelation 16:16, the place where it occurs is Har-Magedon, Mount Carmel. In the original event at Mount Carmel Elijah takes on the prophets of Baal. It was a showdown between two claims as to who was God--Baal and Yahweh. After a time of failure by the prophets of Baal (and a whole lot of mocking from Elijah), Yahweh responds of Elijah's simple prayer and sends fire from heaven to confirm that He is the one and only true God.
But the end-time version of the Carmel confrontation has one problem. The fire from heaven falls on the wrong altar! Instead of confirming the identity of the true God, the evidence of the senses will imply that the counterfeit trinity is the real thing. It will be a devastating shock to the human race.
Imagine the following scenario, one that many believe today. You get up from a restless sleep and peer past the living room curtain into the street. A jet-black 2007 Corvette has jumped the curb across the street, skidded across the lawn, and wiped out most of Charlie's prize petunias before embedding itself into a retaining wall. Homer is out inspecting the wreck and the damage to the retaining wall. But he can find no sign of Charlie or of any occupants of the Corvette, which is too heavily damaged for anyone to have extricated themselves from its remains.
It turns out that this is only one of several such mishaps on your block. As neighbors cluster around the wrecks you notice that none of the born-again types are around. Charlie talked a lot about a "rapture" in which all the born-again Christians vanish, leaving chaos behind. You remember him telling you to watch some TV evangelist, but you never got around to it.
Now is a different story. You flip on the satellite TV and turn to the Christian Broadcasting Network. Chaos fills the screen, people milling back and forth. Finally one of them comes to the anchor desk to inform you with a trembling voice that apparently the "rapture" has come. One of the televangelist vanished in midsermon. Airplanes have been crashing in midflight, minus pilot and/or copilot. The entire world has come to a standstill!
Would an event like that get your attention? Would you wish that you had spent a little more time studying your Bible and a little less on soap operas and the latest game show? And this scenario is probably mild compared to whatever the real thing will be. However it turns out, the end-time Mount Carmel experience will be very disorienting. It will deceive many.
Lord, help me to trust Your Word rather than my feelings. I want to be prepared for whatever may come.
Texts such as Matthew 24, 2 Thessalonians 2, and Revelation 13 speaks about a great end-time deception. According to Revelation 16:16, the place where it occurs is Har-Magedon, Mount Carmel. In the original event at Mount Carmel Elijah takes on the prophets of Baal. It was a showdown between two claims as to who was God--Baal and Yahweh. After a time of failure by the prophets of Baal (and a whole lot of mocking from Elijah), Yahweh responds of Elijah's simple prayer and sends fire from heaven to confirm that He is the one and only true God.
But the end-time version of the Carmel confrontation has one problem. The fire from heaven falls on the wrong altar! Instead of confirming the identity of the true God, the evidence of the senses will imply that the counterfeit trinity is the real thing. It will be a devastating shock to the human race.
Imagine the following scenario, one that many believe today. You get up from a restless sleep and peer past the living room curtain into the street. A jet-black 2007 Corvette has jumped the curb across the street, skidded across the lawn, and wiped out most of Charlie's prize petunias before embedding itself into a retaining wall. Homer is out inspecting the wreck and the damage to the retaining wall. But he can find no sign of Charlie or of any occupants of the Corvette, which is too heavily damaged for anyone to have extricated themselves from its remains.
It turns out that this is only one of several such mishaps on your block. As neighbors cluster around the wrecks you notice that none of the born-again types are around. Charlie talked a lot about a "rapture" in which all the born-again Christians vanish, leaving chaos behind. You remember him telling you to watch some TV evangelist, but you never got around to it.
Now is a different story. You flip on the satellite TV and turn to the Christian Broadcasting Network. Chaos fills the screen, people milling back and forth. Finally one of them comes to the anchor desk to inform you with a trembling voice that apparently the "rapture" has come. One of the televangelist vanished in midsermon. Airplanes have been crashing in midflight, minus pilot and/or copilot. The entire world has come to a standstill!
Would an event like that get your attention? Would you wish that you had spent a little more time studying your Bible and a little less on soap operas and the latest game show? And this scenario is probably mild compared to whatever the real thing will be. However it turns out, the end-time Mount Carmel experience will be very disorienting. It will deceive many.
Lord, help me to trust Your Word rather than my feelings. I want to be prepared for whatever may come.
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