God leads the world to Armageddon

Why does God decree that this kingdom rise? This kingdom that is the height of blasphemy against His own name! This kingdom that destroys His church institute even, eventually, and persecutes His people! Why is this part of God's plan and under His sovereign control?

For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world…

For this purpose:

…to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Revelation 16:14, KJV

The reason is because God would lead the nations of the world to the great battle of Armageddon. That is His purpose! Look at verse 16 in addition: He (that is God) gathered them to battle. That is why He is decreeing that the East join the West and that there be this one kingdom. He will bring them to this great battle, when the nations of the world unite (and unite unto peace amongst men). Unbeknownst to them, God is gathering them unto that great battle of Armageddon at the last day.

Now we see what God has been aiming toward with this anti-Christian kingdom. God knows how it will all end and decrees how it will all end. It will end in a great worldwide civil war, a great battle, which will show that man cannot accomplish any lasting, sustained worldwide kingdom of peace apart from Him. That man cannot stay united apart from the work of grace in the heart. That man cannot become God, though he tries. That man cannot stand in separation from Him. Man will ultimately destroy himself and make plain that the only kingdom of unity and peace is one made by the Spirit of Jesus Christ in the service of righteousness, and not of sin.

So not very long after the church institute is snuffed out, and at the zenith of Antichrist power, his worldwide kingdom will break out in all-out civil war. The nations of the East, the kings of the East that had been convinced to join the nations of the West, will rebel and attack, and the whole kingdom will come crashing down.¹

Cory Griess