Revelation 16:15

(Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.)

There is no need to write this in parentheses as in our version. This warning of the Second Advent of Christ has the utility of emphasizing the spiritual nature of the conflict and the individual responsibility of Christians not to be taken unaware. This forbids our looking for any great deployment of world armies in this "war." Absolutely nothing in this whole passage justifies the notion of massive world armies deployed in some gargantuan military conflict. The war in view here is taking place in the hearts of people.

Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments ... This verse is the order of the day for the soldiers of Christ. It is not preparation for a literal battle of some kind, but a matter of prayer and watchfulness, and of "keeping" one's garments of purity, morality, and fidelity to Christ. That a soldier metaphor is employed here seems certain. Bruce relates how:

According to the Mishna, the captains of the temple in Jerusalem went their rounds of the precincts at night, and if a member of the temple police was caught asleep at his post, his clothes were taken off and burned, and he was sent away naked in disgrace.[42]

There could be another hint of the same thing in Revelation 3:17,18. "The kind of spiritual preparedness that Christ requires is the discernment which cuts through the deceptive propaganda of Satan and his henchmen."[43] Of course, the great thrust of these verses is that, "the battle of the war" (Revelation 16:14) is a daily one in which "Christians are themselves engaged."[44] It is a war going on in people's hearts. What then is signaled or symbolized by Armageddon? See below.

[42] F. F. Bruce, A New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1969), p. 657.

[43] Robert H. Mounce, op. cit., p. 301.

[44] A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 396.