Division between east and west

The battle of Armageddon revealed in Revelation 16:16 is a worldwide conflict between the eastern and western nations that make up the anti-Christian kingdom. When Revelation 16:16 says,” He gathered them together” into one place, the them is the nations of the anti-Christian kingdom. The battle of Armageddon, therefore, is a great civil war within the anti-Christian kingdom itself – a war that signals the downfall of that kingdom.

When the angel pours out the sixth vial in Revelation 16:1–21, an explanation is given as to how this war comes about. The seeds of this great battle are sown, the sixth vial says, in the very way that the anti-Christian kingdom has been formed:

And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world. Revelation 16:12–14a, KJV

The river Euphrates, upon which this angel pours his vial, is that great river running north and south from Turkey and ending in the Persian Gulf. It is used here as a symbol of the great division between the East and the West. There has always been, and always will be, two great divisions in the world, from the time of Jesus Christ’s first coming unto the second: That is, the divisions in the world between the nations of the East and the nations of the West. These represent two main perspectives on life. The West (which includes Europe and the Americas), under the influence of Christianity in its history, has built a civilization from a perspective that has been influenced by Christianity. That is not to say that the West is Christian – it is not, especially not now. And it is not to say either that there are not Christians in the East – there certainly are, many of them, now more than ever has been in the history of the world. But Western civilization has been influenced by Christianity, which spread West after the ascension of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul went west, into Europe.

Civilization developed in the West under the spread of Christianity, which continued that direction under the providence of Jehovah God. The East, however, developed under the influence of pagan religion and philosophy. Thinking is different between these two sides of the world. I travelled to the East once and you will see that there is an Eastern mind and there is a Western mind. There is a great division there. People still talk about this today – the East and the West. Even the histories of these two parts of the world have been quite separate and distinct up to this modern age.¹

Cory Griess