Meaning of ‘Armageddon’

This great battle takes place, according to Revelation 16:16, at a location in the Hebrew tongue called Armageddon. Armageddon is simply the Hebrew word har along with the place Megiddo. Har is the Hebrew word for mountain and Megiddo is the name of a mountain. Armageddon is simply Mount Megiddo. Mount Megiddo is a hill, really, in the Plain of Megiddo in northern Palestine. It is a place where many significant battles took place in the Old Testament. But this great final battle that takes place at Mount Megiddo, according to the text, does not literally take place (more than likely) at Mount Megiddo. The reference there is symbolic, not literal. It is symbolic of the fact that this great battle is between the two great divisions of powers in the world.

In 2 Chronicles 35:1–27, Pharaoh, king of Egypt (that great Old Testament nation) goes up to fight Babylon (that other great Old Testament nation) at the Euphrates River (that dividing between East and West). In 2 Chronicles 35:1–27, the king of Judah, Josiah, goes out to fight Egypt and Pharaoh as he is meeting Babylon. Pharaoh says to Josiah, I don't want to fight against you; I came to fight against Babylon. Josiah attacks anyway and is very easily defeated by Pharaoh, and Pharaoh goes on to fight against Babylon. Two great powers, Egypt and Babylon, meet at Megiddo in 2 Chronicles 35:1–27 – a fit symbol of the fact that the East and the West will be battling in the great battle of the anti-Christian kingdom.¹

Cory Griess