“And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against His army” (Revelation 19:19).

The end of World War I, the “war to end all wars,” as it was once called optimistically and utterly unrealistically, came finally on November 11, 1918, called Armistice Day at the time, and Veteran’s Day in the years since World War II. We consider our nation a peace-loving nation, yet we have been involved in the War of Independence, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the American Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and currently the strange War against Terror, not to mention a number of local skirmishes (Tripoli, various Indian “wars,” Bosnia, etc.) and the Cold War.

It is probably true that there has been at least one local war going on somewhere in the world every year since history began. But one day a war to end all wars will really take place, the great War of Armageddon. This is the war mentioned in our text which also contains the next-to-last mention of war in the Bible. At that time, drawing nearer day by day, Satan will muster all the armies of the nations for one final great assault against Christ and the armies of heaven.

The battle will not last long. All the devil’s hosts will be instantly slain by the verbal sword of the Man on the white horse, and Satan thrown into the abyss of Hades.

Yet there is still one more “battle” (same Greek word as “war”) when Satan is released for a time and allowed to “deceive the nations” once more. He will “gather them together to battle” against God one final time (Revelation 20:8). But the fire of heaven will destroy them, and the nations shall never “learn war any more” (Micah 4:3). HMM