“And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs” (Rev. 14:20).

The great winepress of God is the area around the holy city of God. It extends from north northwest to south southeast of Jerusalem, from Mt. Megiddo, known as Armageddon (Rev. 16:16), to Bozrah (Isa. 63:1-4). Tactically, the Scriptures seem to suggest that the Antichrist will launch an attack simultaneously from both the north and the south. The center of the battlefield will be the narrow Kidron Valley, called the Valley of Jehoshaphat, located just east of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. According to the Spirit of God, the area of the battlefield is said to be “a thousand and six hundred furlongs,” a distance of exactly two hundred miles.

Christ will crush the Antichrist’s forces of evil with merely a spoken word and the brightness of His coming. When He tramples His enemies in His almighty power, their blood will stain His garments (Isa. 63:2-4; Rev. 19:13). The blood from this innumerable host of godless unbelievers and their horses will run high to the horses’ bridles, according to the Apostle John, writing in the Spirit. Many commentators shrink from taking a literal interpretation here, saying it is utterly preposterous. We feel, however, more comfortable taking God at His Word. On average, an adult male has about five quarts of blood. Millions upon ten millions of men would bleed a deep river of blood. Interestingly, the Spirit emphasizes that the winepress is “trodden without [outside] the city” of Jerusalem in direct connection with the blood rising to the horses’ bridle. In all likelihood, the blood will probably run the deepest in the valley of Jehoshaphat (Kidron Valley), which is a rocky, mountainous ravine that’s about 20 miles in length.

Responsibility: Only the believer in Christ can fully understand the seriousness of the coming wrath of God. Many of the unsaved are clueless, and Satan would like nothing better than to keep it that way. We must therefore bear in mind that, if an unbeliever refuses to receive God’s gracious offer of reconciliation and foolishly rejects Christ as his personal Savior, he must be warned about the bloodbath that lies ahead.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

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