Article May 21, 2018 Issue

Armageddon and the revealing of unstoppable good

Michelle Boccanfuso Nanouche

Google the word Armageddon and you may find that the top news searches cover serious world threats, from fears about climate change to rising and falling anxiety about some nations’ nuclear weapons programs. One might presume it’s only a matter of time before some apocalyptic event takes us out.

One factor that may contribute to the looming fear that the end of the world is upon us, is the common misunderstanding of the Bible’s book of Revelation—also called the Apocalypse. Revelation is commonly viewed as a dark book detailing how God’s wrath will ultimately destroy those who oppose God and His Christ. But, there are other ways to understand what constitutes an apocalypse. While “annihilation” may be a contemporary definition, the word actually comes from the Greek apokaluptein, meaning “uncovering, revealing.” Mary Baker Eddy found that the Bible, when understood from a spiritual standpoint, gives us a road map for the ultimate destruction of evil and the salvation of humanity through the full revealing of the power of Love, the unstoppable goodness that is God.

The Hebrew word for Armageddon, which could be considered a synonym of the word apocalypse, is used only once in the whole of the Scriptures—in Revelation—and while its original meaning is unclear, scholars’ best efforts indicate that it means the “mountain of Megiddo.” Megiddo is an Old Testament location where many decisive battles were fought. Interestingly, some feel that its mention in Revelation is more symbolic than literal. One Bible commentary states that the name Megiddo is “indicative of battle ... and intimates the complete overthrow in store for the dragon and the kings of the earth, which is described later on (Revelation 19)” (Spence-Jones, Henry Donald Maurice, Joseph S. Exell, and Edward Mark Deems, eds. The Pulpit Commentary).