The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings of the East. Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for battle on the great day of God Almighty.

"Behold I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed."

Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, "It is done!" Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. --Revelation 16:12-19a

There is a topic mentioned repeatedly in the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, about which I have never until now preached a message. It is described in the Bible from one viewpoint, then from another--and with the most stark and vivid language imaginable. It concerns the future, a time yet to be, but quickly approaching. It concerns a final, horrific world war that will engulf the earth and which is called by the name--Armageddon.

Any event so frequently and so vividly mentioned in the Bible ought to command our interest. And so for the next three or four weeks, I would like to present a series of expositions on the major passages in the Bible that describe this battle, beginning today with the text we've read in Revelation 16.

This chapter is devoted to the seven bowls of God's wrath that will be poured upon the earth near the end of the Great Tribulation period, and just to set the stage I would like to review for you very quickly the sequence of events, as I understand them, that will make up the end of the age. At any moment now, maybe today or tomorrow or this year or next, or this century or next, the Lord Jesus Christ will return in the air, in the clouds, for his Church. The dead in Christ will instantaneously be shot from their graves, be changed and transformed, and join the Lord Jesus in the sky. Then we which are alive and remain will be caught up with them in the clouds. This is the rapture of the church.

The sudden disappearance of millions of people will plunge the world into confusion. Someone recently mentioned to me a theory I've never before considered. In our generation there has been an incredible amount of speculation about alien invaders. Movies have come out one-after-another, like Independence Day, Cocoon, The Arrival, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. There was a major television mini-series recently staring Luke Perry: Robin Cook's The Invasion. We know that the devil is very involved in the entertainment industry. He is called the "deceiver of the whole world," and "the father of lies," and the "prince of the power of the air," and the "ruler of this world." Perhaps all of these dramatic portrayals of space invaders is his way of preparing the popular culture to accept a strange explanation for the sudden disappearance of billions of bodies from the planet.

At any rate, the ensuing confusion and fear will set the stage for a masterful world politician called the antichrist. He will unite the world into a single, one-world government, establish peace in the Middle East, and sign a peace treaty in Israel. The temple of the Jews will be rebuilt and the Old Testament sacrificial system will be resumed. But suddenly the antichrist will erect in the temple a false god, perhaps an image of himself, and insist that he be worshipped. The Jews, enraged, will refuse. And there will follow a three-and-one-half year period of tribulation such as the world has never seen before or will ever see again. This is the Great Tribulation. Most of the book of Revelation describes the horrendous events of that 42-month period. Near the end of that period, the cataclysmic suffering and world-wide convulsion will intensify beyond imagination as seven bowls of wrath are poured out on the earth.

That is the subject of Revelation 16: Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, "Go, pour out the seven bowls of God's wrath on the earth."

The seven bowls of wrath are the final, intense events of the Great Tribulation period.

The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly and painful sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshipped his image. The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea died. The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood...

In other words, perhaps as a result of nuclear weapons, all the people of the world are going to develop skin cancer or radiation burn or some such kind of skin disease. The oceans are going to be contaminated and all marine life will perish. The fresh water springs and rivers will be polluted and will turn a rusty red. Verse 8 goes on to say that the ozone layer will be so damaged that the sun will scorch people:

The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was given power to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.

The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.

And now we come to the sixth bowl of wrath, the prelude to Armageddon. Verse 12:

The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East.

The Euphrates is one of the greatest rivers in the world. It flows from the mountains of Western Turkey, through Syria, and right through the heart of Iraq, not far from Baghdad. It eventually unites with the Tigris to become the Shatt el Arab, and empties into the Persian Gulf. In Genesis 15 and Deuteronomy 11, the Lord specified that the Euphrates would be the easternmost border of the Promised Land. It serves as a border and as a barrier.

But this verse predicts that at the River Euphrates will become a virtual dry riverbed so that the armies from Asia can march unhindered toward Armageddon. This is not the only time in the Bible that this prediction is made. Isaiah 11:15 says: The Lord will dry up the gulf of the Egyptian sea; with a scorching wind he will sweep his hand over the Euphrates River. He will break it into seven streams so that men can cross over in sandals.

Here's something very interesting. That prophecy has begun to be fulfilled in our own generation. Think of the Mississippi. What if the early explorers of America had gazed upon that vast river, cutting through the middle of the continent, and predicted that it would one day dry up. Well, of course, it would have been preposterous for them even to imagine such a thing. Yet the writers of both Isaiah and Revelation make such a prediction about the Euphrates.

Let me read for you a little news item I found buried away in the Chicago Tribune on April 25, 1994, dateline Nicosia, Cyprus: "Iraq announced completion Sunday of a 65-mile irrigation canal in the southern marshes... The state-run Iraqi News Agency, monitored in Cyprus, quoted Industry Minister Hussein Kamel al-Majid as saying the waterway heralds cultivation of 370,000 acres of desert. Human rights groups have denounced the elaborate canal, which ends in Basra 270 miles southeast of Baghdad, because it will drain the millennia-old habitat of the marsh Arabs... Also, by diverting the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the canals are drying up vast tracts of reed-choked marshlands and forcing tens of thousands of Shiites from their homes."

One of the new Tom Clancy Op-Center books is based around the fact that Turkey has built huge dams on the Euphrates, seriously affecting water distribution in Syria and Iraq. In Clancy's mind, it could spark a conflict in the Middle East that could engulf the world.

Well, whenever, however it happens, verse 12 says that the great river Euphrates and its water will be dried up. Why? To prepare the way for the kings from the East. Other passages tell us of armies converging from other directions on Palestine. But here, we are told specifically that the armies from the East will come to engage in the battle. What is east of the Euphrates? Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China, and Japan. In other words--the armies of Asia. There are over a billion people in China. It is the largest nation in the world in terms of population, and it is the world's largest Communist country. But within a generation, the population of India is expected to overtake that of China. Asia and the Pacific Rim is the emerging economic powerhouse of the world. John Naisbitt in his book Megatrends 2000, says that today Asia has half of the world's population, but by the year 2000, it will have two-thirds.

Well, the Bible teaches that at the end of the age, at the end of the Great Tribulation, a vast army, untold millions, will march across Asia toward Armageddon, and the Euphrates River will be dried up to let them cross through Iraq without hindrance. That is verse 12. Verse 13 continues: Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

Here we have three evil, powerful rulers who will make Hitler and Stalin look tame in comparison. They are called the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. They are not hard to identify, for they have already been introduced to us in Revelation 12 and 13. The dragon is the devil--Satan. Revelation 12:9 says, The great dragon was hurled down--that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. The beast is the antichrist. Revelation 13:1-2 describes him like this: And the dragon (the Devil) stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast (the antichrist) coming out of the sea. (The "sea" in the book of Revelation is often a picture of the nations.)

Verse 3 is one of the most interesting verses in the Bible about the antichrist: One of the heads of the beast seemed to have a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was astonished and followed the beast.

In other words, there is an anti-god--Satan, the dragon. He sends his servant, the antichrist who appears to die and to rise again. And the whole world follows him.

Verse 5 continues: The beast (the antichrist) was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for 42 months (three and a half years). He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. He was given power to make war against the saints. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast--all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. He who has an ear, let him hear.

Now, that's not all. From the very beginning, Satan has envied the God of heaven. He wants to be God and he wants to be like God. So in the last days he is going to form a counterfeit godhead, a diabolical Trinity of evil. He is the anti-god. The beast is the antichrist. And in verse 11, we have the third member of this fiendish Trinity--the anti-spirit.

Then I saw another beast coming out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon. He exercised all the authority of the first beast on his behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed.

In other words, just as the role of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Christ, the role of the anti-spirit is to glorify the antichrist. Verse 13 continues:

And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven...

Do you remember when the Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost, it was like a ball of fire that fell into the upper room? The devil is doing his diabolical duplicating here.

...even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men. Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived.

This is the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, and by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 24. The setting up of this image in the temple of the Jews will trigger the Great Tribulation.

He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666.

So Revelation 12 and 13 describe for us the anti-god, the antichrist, and the anti-spirit. Satan designed a counterfeit Trinity to deceive and dominate all the earth. For 42 months, a Great Tribulation will rage against the Jewish nation. And then, the armies of the world will advance toward Palestine. Why? Well, let's go back to our primary text in Revelation 16:

Verse 13 says: Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet (the second beast).

How do you interpret the figure of speech? Frogs? Well, we don't have to speculate. The next sentence, verse 14, tells us that these frogs are spirits of demons. The writer uses the word "frog" as a symbol for a demon. Why? Well, a frog is slimy and lives in the mud and is primarily a creature of the night. In a figurative way, that describes a demon. So this passage is telling us that this Trinity of Evil speaks with demonic power. When they speak, the demons carry their words abroad and influence the kings of the earth to do their bidding.

And what is their bidding? What does this Trio of Infamy and its demonic hordes want to happen? They want to descend on Palestine and destroy the Jews and dominate the world lock, stock, and barrel. So verse 14 says: ...and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for battle on the great day of God Almighty.

This, then, is the teaching of the Bible. The Lord Jesus will come at any moment for his church, for his people. The sudden evaporation of billions of people will cause such confusion that a great world confederation will form. At the head of this confederation will be the devil, the beast, and the false prophet. That is, Satan, the antichrist, and the anti-spirit. They will erect a false image in the rebuilt Jewish temple, and the Jews will rebel. A 42-month period of Great Tribulation will ensue, such as the world has never seen or will never see again. Near the end of that horrendous period, a series of disasters will fall on the earth, as if powerful angels were pouring out bowls of wrath on the inhabitants of the planet. The Euphrates River will dry up so that the armies of the East will be able to travel unhindered toward Palestine, and the evil Trinity will summon the armies of the world toward Armageddon, gathering for the last great battle in world history.

We will continue our study of this passage in Revelation 16 next week. But for today, there is only one question left for me to ask today.

If the Lord Jesus Christ were to come in the air today, this very afternoon, to call his children home, would you be caught up with him in the clouds?

Or would you be left behind?