The Gathering (6th Vial)
An exceedingly plagued World of Nations suffering under Five Vials of divine wrath do meanwhile, in anger that the Day of the Lamb has come, gather and amass the strongly deluded armies of Babylon’s Empire under the balcony of the enthroned Lamb’s Heavenly Assembly of raptured saints and holy angels!
The boil-smitten, pain-stricken, poison-bellied, & sun-scorched bodies of Babylon’s World ought to be bowing before Jesus Christ at such a time as this, shouldn’t they? Instead, they roam around their darkened world hatching diabolical plans while literally, just overhead, the star-like bodies of saints are lighting up the sky with an otherworldly brilliance as the only source of illumination in Earth’s Sky (Dan. 12:3)! I say, when all of Babylon should be bowing in surrender to Christ who is presently enthroned on high, lo and behold: an angry God has determined the outworking of the 6th Vial!
“And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the BATTLE of that Great Day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” – Rev. 16:12-16 [see Rev. 17:14, 18:23, 19:19]
I repeat, at a time when Babylon’s World should wave the white flag of surrender to the Lord of Glory who is displayed above in splendor and majesty the world has never seen or imagined, lo and behold: REBELLION! How can it be? The heavenly assembly on high is healthy, and Babylon is hurt! The heavenly assembly on high is unharmed and their strength unabated, while Babylon is diseased and poisoned and increasingly hungry and thirsty! The heavenly assembly on high is unburnt and in fiery splendor, and Babylon is sunburnt! The heavenly assembly on high is shining in star-like bodies of otherworldly brilliance, and Babylon is in darkness! All of this, and the backwards people rally for war in a battle they can’t win! I mean, with Babylon’s adversary, Jesus, in plain sight and enthroned in glory in the clouds above, and with the glory of Babylon wasted by divine plagues on earth below, one would think this is the moment when the Kings of the Earth will flee to the Mountains for fear of Christ, saying, “hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the Throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb” (Rev. 6:16). Oh, but it is the contrary! Instead of scattering for fear the Babylonians are gathering for war! Instead of hiding in defeat they are preparing to fight! How can it be?
Soberly consider the foretold situation, my reader: it’s a strong delusion (2 Thess. 2:8-12). It’s the wrath of God! Signifying this, the LORD will use Devils to carry out His angry commands in that, according to Joel 3:9-14, God wants the nations to gather together for war against Himself! In fact, God is calling them (God in the Ways of God)! The omnipotent voice of God Almighty speaks, saying the following, and evil spirits arise to carry out what is commanded pertaining to the rousing of warrior-like courage among the heathen! Oh… the delusion!
“Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.” – Joel 3:9-16 (God in the Ways of God) [Isa. 34:1-2]
“For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill His will, and to agree, and to give their Kingdoms unto the Beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.” – Rev. 17:17 [see Rev. 17:14, 18:23, 19:19]
Ah, the deception (Ps. 2:1-3)! Evil spirits encouraging weak men to believe themselves strong (1 Kings 22)! Evil spirits authoring war-plans for the warriors of “the whole world” to draw near to God for BATTLE: “the battle of the Great Day of God Almighty” (Rev. 16:14)! Moreover, God holds the men and women of Babylon completely responsible for their actions (Rom. 9:19). Yes, when all is said and done God will be completely innocent of Babylon’s poor choices that lead the armies of the world to amass and gather together (“Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by Me…” - Isa. 54:15-17; God in Ways of Man). Strikingly, Babylon’s thought process is discernable in that the drying up of the Great River Euphrates (Rev. 16:12) was integral and instrumental in pushing Babylon over the brink of adamic sanity. How?
Firstly, let it be noted that the Euphrates River (which runs through modern day Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran) runs along the location of ancient Babylon. Furthermore, seeing that the first 6 Trumpets prophetically declare the rise of Spiritual Babylon by war and conquest, we can understand the prophetic implication made in the loosing of the angels of the Euphrates River for the outbreak of World War III in Revelation 9:13-21 (6th Trumpet). Today, the world as we know it is fighting over the control of both ancient Babylon and Israel’s Jerusalem. The countries around the Euphrates are oil rich, and to control them is to prosper in a world of crashing economies. The country of Israel is religiously and economically rich, and to control it is to possess a platform of authority over the religions of the world while abiding in a militarized command center of unparalleled defensive and offensive capabilities. If there were a plan concocted to take over the world from a carnal perspective, the possessing of these two ideals would be the case and point. Is it a coincidence? No.
All the evidence leads one to conclude that when the Euphrates River is brought into view in the 6th Trumpet, Babylon’s terrestrial origin, nativity, and prosperity is envisioned. Moreover, if the 6th Trumpet is Babylon’s Domination then the 6th Vial is Babylon’s Desolation. By interpreting Revelation 16:12 (the drying up of the Euphrates River) according to the prophetic pattern used in Isaiah 11:15-16, 27:12, Jer. 23:7-8, Zech. 2:9, 10:11, it foretells the wasting of Babylon in terms of the beating off and drying up of its river, and thus God is speaking prophetically concerning the stateliness and prosperity of “the Kings of the East” and their Kingdoms coming to an end. Theretofore, upon the outpouring of the 6th Vial they’ve been brought to natural and financial desolation! No doubt, national and worldwide devastation was largely in progress through the first 5 Vials, as has been observed, but the full cataclysmic fruition thereof would have taken some time and thus it wasn’t manifest until the 6th Vial.
National and worldwide devastation is a needed ingredient for the heathen to agree upon the most suicidal mission known to men! For, you see, heathen men are the more helped unto senseless courage when the proud soul is made to know its own shame and humiliation; at such a time, the sons of pride would choose death rather than life! That is, if they can’t live with the luster of human pomp and pride! Oh …the madness! Like that which was beheld in the siege of ancient Jerusalem, only worse! I mean, when men and women ate the flesh of their sons and daughters like wild animals! I mean, when the people went mad with astonishment of heart! I mean, when their eyes were evil against their own family members and they secretly devoured their own babies for meat! Even so, it was written,
“And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.” – Jer. 19:9
“The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart…so that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.” – Duet. 28:28, 34
“And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee: So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave: So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates. The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.” – Deut. 28:53-57
As you can see, my reader, the earthly siege awoke dormant capacities of beastly depravity in the people! So, what shall we expect in the heavenly siege upon Mystery Babylon the Great? For, when a wild animal is cornered… it fights! It dies fighting rather than living submitted! Even so, Babylon knows not the way of peace. In the siege, Babylon’s World is so destroyed that it becomes uninhabitable. Thus, when certain death is the expected end of inaction or deliberation, the people will choose war! When it comes down to it, the world will choose war with God rather living under His Lordship! Yes, the Gathering came about as a result of demonic influence upon the minds of men. This is true. But the lesser known fact is how the demons excited the flames of depravity in the human heart. My reader, the human elements involved in the process must not be disregarded. For, it was through Heaven Besieging Earth that men were being excited into a filthy and blasphemous dream that they could make war against God and win! The siege that should have humbled the Babylonians into submission to God did rather harden them into mad and suicidal lusts for the revival of Babylon’s glory! They want revenge for what the Lamb is doing to Babylon! They are lustfully pursuing a victory at war while invigorated by the painful memory of their pride being offended - hoping now to exact revenge for what God did to Babylon!
All things considered, my reader, we can understand the tenor of the message that the demons will communicate to Babylon’s World to bring about the Gathering. Namely, when the evil spirits (like frogs) will proceed out of the mouth of the Dragon (Rev. 12:9), the Beast (Rev. 13:1-10), and the False Prophet (Rev. 13:11-18, 19:20) to deceive the world and gather them together for war against the Lamb. Whatever hellish tale is told, it will be believed! And in believing it, the antichrist and his Terrestrial Armies will be angry with God and inspired to wage war (Rev. 11:17)! The poisonous story whispered by demons will pit man against God and ignite the fervor of vengeful wrath within mankind, and so: the Devil and his Celestial Armies of angels will be angry (Rev. 12:12), and, the antichrist and his Terrestrial Armies will be angry (Rev. 11:17) – and, worst of all: God is angry! Hence, sovereignty has decreed a head-on collision between the opposing forces in a conflict the world will never forget (Ezek. 38:18-19, Rev. 6:15-17)! So, what the heathen imagine to do in the overthrowing of the LORD and His people, God in fact calls them thereunto for the overthrowing of themselves!