Abaddon
Abbadon is an enigma. At times, he is an angel of judgment, not of satan but of God, destroying at God's bidding. Both Heaven and Hell claim him as an ally, other times as an enemy. It is clear that he is the angel who will command the monstrous horde from the Abyss that will rampage over the earth in the tribulation period as Judgment approaches. What is not clear is whose orders he will be following at what time. To hear him described by Daniel, he would be the Anti-christ, but many disagree.
The Bible has translated Abbadon into other words from the Greek and Hebrew. We have the Revelation of John to show us the original words and it is only in the original text of the Old and New Testaments that we may find Abaddon. A quick look at a lexicon shows the many passages surrounding the name of Abbadon and the only sure way to completely find him in the Bible. I have listed some here and italicized the translated word from the original Abbadon.
"For it is a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all my increase." (Of the locusts) "And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue has his name Apollyon..." "He is the king of the locusts, the locust cannot destroy but only hurt. Hell is naked before him, and destruction has no covering. He stretches out the north over the empty place, and hangs the earth upon nothing." "Hell and destruction are before the Lord: how much more then the hearts of the children of men." "Let my outcasts dwell with you, Moab; be a covert to them from the face of the spoiler: for the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceases, the oppressors are consumed out of the land. And in mercy shall the throne be established: and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle if David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness."
"Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction. The lion is come up from its thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make your land desolate; and your cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant." O daughter of my people, gird yourself with sackcloth, and wallow yourself in ashes: make yourself mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us. I have set you for a tower and a fortress among my people, that you may know and try their way. They are grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron, they are all corrupters." "Where then comes wisdom? And where is the place of understanding? Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air. Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears." (Oppressors) "All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him, it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle. The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him. The increase of his house, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath." "Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave? Or thy faithfulness in destruction?"
In the prophecies of Daniel the 8th chapter, Abaddon is mentioned by the word translated destroy, as the king understanding dark sentences. "And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand."
"And after sixty two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself; and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many". "Woe to you that spoils, (ASV destroyer) and you were not spoiled; and deals treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with you! When you shall cease to spoil, you shall be spoiled; and when you shall make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with you."
What are we to think of the locusts? Are real locusts coming from the nether regions? Moses dealt with real locusts in the plagues of Egypt and Solomon has written "The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands." These locusts have a king over them. Many have accepted them to be helicopters and with good reason given the armaments of the northern nations, but these locusts only hurt. A helicopter can't hurt anyone individually short of complete destruction unless it is in a more general sense of hurt. The locusts have been interpreted by some to represent Islam and as the mediaeval Attila the Hun, the "scourge of God."
The dilemma of Abaddon is that he does resemble the Anti-Christ but he also resembles the prophet from the Lord who will stir up the south and in some ways may be in Islam. If there are two persons fulfilling these prophecies, one from the Lord and one "anti" of the Lord, inotherwords, the Lord's servant and His counterfeit, only time will tell. We can see here that Abaddon represents destruction in a general sense and not always the same person or group of people. The scriptures suggest one man and if so, he sure is confusing.
Abaddon is the destroying angel of the bottomless pit. The word is derived from the Hebrew, abad, to be ruined or "lost," meaning the lost one, but the full name of Abaddon means "destruction". The word appears in Greek and Hebrew, but not in Latin. His name in Greek was Apollyon and used in the Old Testament to mean hell. This angel-prince of the abyss is the leader of the locusts of Revelation and is typified as the cause of wars and upheavals, the minister of death and author of havoc on earth. The term that describes him best is as an oppressor.
[359, Lex, BD, 380, 353, Job, Revelation 9, Proverbs, Isaiah, Jeremiah]
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