Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-08-04
ARMAGEDDON AGAIN-By Frederic j. Haskin

plumber. He said that to take Megiddo was
like taking a thousand towns since all the
important chiefs of the country were in
side it, and he proceeded to starve out the
city by guarding every possible entrance. FL
naly, Megiddo surrendered The princes
and warriors filed out of the gate and
agreed to pay Thotmes yearly tribute The
city was then sacked, perhaps burned, and
valuable works of art and the jewels and
gold of a remarkably wealthy city carried
off to Egypt, as we'll as such trophies the
scepter royal tent, and furniture belonging
to the King of Kadesh Thotmes had it
all recorded and went on to other uncon-
quered regions.
This was only one of the numerous battles
fought at different times at this strategic
spot.
Some years ago, 1903, German Palestine
Society sent an expedition to the city, now
a ruin, to explore the old foundations and
see if any relics of the battles were left
buried there. For nearly three years the
scientists worked, with the result that
traces of seven cities were found in diff
ferent strata below the present surface. The
oldest city, they believed, flourshed back in
the neolithic, or stone, period. Pieces of
walls skeletons, temple and palace ruins, a
seal marked as the property of "Shema, the
servant of Jereboam," king of Israel, all
helped to identify the times when different
civilizations held the important fortress.
Ruins St1lI HOl0 SecfCCS
The expedition had to give up its work
before the possibilities of the site were ex-
hausted And later the war put stop to
any but unitarian digging in the near east.
So the ruins of Armageddon are looked upon
as still holding many secrets.
The reference to Armageddon in the book
of Revelation has been taken by some scho-
ars to mean that the last war of the world
is to be fought in this old traditional bat
tie ground. The book, written as if the
events prophesied had already happened,
says that the kings gathered together in the
place called Har-Mageddon.
But of late years the term Armageddon
has been taken more as a symbol. Some
students of the mysteries of Revelation still
hold that the recent war was the prophesied
war of Armageddon, and that Belgium
where the fighting was begun met the con-
ditions of being the Armageddon referred
to in the prophecy.
Some of the Interpreters have been able
to apply almost every mysterious reference
in the book to the recent war; even to nam
ing the beasts of the visions as the nations
in the conflict, and comparing the reference
to blood up to the brides of the horses to
the fact that the dead were sometimes piled
four and five deep, about the height of a
Bride after some battles in the World War.
They found it significant to point out that
the verse about hailstones weighing tai
ent-the heaviest measures of weight
known in Bible days-coming down from
heaven upon men could be applied to the
heavy bombs and shells of modern war
fare.
However, other scholars disagree with
this and insist that the Armageddon de-
scribed is spiritual conflict. Here again
they disagree and, some think the prophecies
refer to events expected to happen soon
after the book was written, and others in
sist with equal positiveness that the era de-
scribed has never come.
Disarmament is step toward new,
waress age. Whether it will be perma
nent success, leaving the World War indeed
the last war, or whether the world is to be
the scene of battles for years to come, there
seems to be no modern prophet to fOretell.