Revelation 19:17-19

17  And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;

18  That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.

19  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.

This is the classic battle of Armageddon. It occurs after the destruction of “Babylon the Great” that took place at the outpouring of the seventh vial. This really is not a battle at all. It is a slaughter of all of the enemies of God on earth.

All the armies of the world are gathered against Jesus and His saints by Satan and by his lying spirits. The armies gathered by Satan will all end up being food for the vultures. Lying spirits come out of the mouths of the Dragon, the Beast and the False Prophet to deceive the whole world and the armies that destroy Babylon. These lying spirits somehow convince the kings of the earth to move all their armies against Jerusalem. The real question is why would the world dare to fight against the God of heaven? The answer might be be that the lying spirits somehow manage to convince the kings of the earth that the God of Heaven is not almighty and can also be stopped from setting up His kingdom on earth by enough military force (like the counterfeit kingdom of god at Babylon was at least partly overthrown by worldly military force). When these armies fight against the Kingdom of the real God of creation they will all come to their destruction.

This leads me to believe that when Satan is cast out of heaven he really intends to destroy the entire human race so Jesus will have no one alive for His Kingdom. Revelation 12:12 says he “comes down in great wrath knowing his time is short”. Why then does Satan even bother to play God and to set up the kingdom of the Beast? Obviously if he knows his time is short he also knows he will be defeated.

The counterfeit kingdom of god called “Babylon the Great” apparently is only a façade used by Satan to bring about the destruction of the human race. Even after the destruction of the counterfeit kingdom that Satan set up and knew that God would destroy, Satan deceives all the armies of the world to move against Jerusalem where he also knows that they certainly will be destroyed.

Jesus alluded to this plan by Satan to destroy mankind when he said unless He shortened the days of destruction caused by Satan no flesh would be saved on earth.

Matthew 24:22  And except those days should be shortened,  there should no flesh be saved: but for  the elect’ s sake those days shall be shortened.

The following passage in Joel describes the call to arms for this war againt God:

Jol 3:9  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:

10  Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

11  Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD.

12  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.

13  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.

14  Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

15  The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.

16  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.

17  So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.