Which armies will show up at Armageddon? (Rev. 19:17-21)

Rev. 16:14 says: For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.  So the answer to the question as to which armies will show up at Armageddon is: they all will!  But the Bible actually says a little more on that subject indicating armies from the earth belonging to several confederacies will be there, although all under the direction of the dragon (Satan), the beast (antichrist) and the false prophet (Rev. 16:13).

v Rev. 16:12 speaks of kings from the east coming to the battle.  These are from east of the Euphrates and might speak of those from Asia (China, India, etc.)

v Ezekiel 38-39 speaks of 2 confederacies.

Ø In our 11/28/15 blog we spoke of the confederacy involving Russia out of the far north (38:15).

Ø Ezekiel also speaks of nations that join with the northern confederacy, nations from south of Israel, such as Persia, Ethiopia and Libya (38:5) and Sheba, Dedan and Tarshish (38:13).  These nations would involve the entirety of Northern Africa and Saudia Arabia around to modern Iran.  These two confederacies will descend on Israel to plunder her (38:8-13) but will in fact be brought there by God to be destroyed (39:1-16).

v A fourth confederacy is under the antichrist, initially a 10-nation union.  Note the “10” toes of iron and clay in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Dan. 2:42), and the 10 horns of Dan. 7:24, Rev. 13:1 and 17:3.  Those passages indicate this confederacy arises out of the Roman Empire, is led by the antichrist (the little horn of Dan. 7:25 and the first beast of Rev. 13) who assumes command of all earth’s armies.  The events of Rev. 16:13f involving the demons who perform signs will apparently be such as to cause all the earth to be aligned under one leader ready to do battle with the 5^th army to gather at Armageddon.

That army is, of course, the armies of heaven (Rev. 19:14) who come with the heavenly King who comes to make war (19:11) at the supper of the great God (19:17-21).   Who is this King?  He is called Faithful and True (19:11), the Word of God (19:13) the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (19:16).  It is Jesus Christ, the Son of God from Heaven!  And the armies of heaven?  They include angels and probably Old Testament saints.  And they seem to include the Bride of Christ, fresh from the marriage supper of the Lamb (19:9-10; another indication of a church already caught up to meet Christ in the air before His return).  

It is interesting to see the aligning of nations happening today.  The thought of these confederacies isn’t a big stretch from what we see.  But what is truly important is that Jesus Christ, the Male Child of Bethlehem, Mary’s little Baby, is coming again to strike the nations!  Either come with Him, or be on the receiving end of His righteous judgment.  Those are the choices.