<p>16:14 <em>For they are spirits of demons, who work signs- </em>I suggested on :13 that the reference is to propaganda spread worldwide by three separate jihadist agencies, which stir up a frenzy, a mania, which John understood as the Gospel records do in terms of demon possession, a way of expressing madness. They work signs, false miracles, as noted on 13:13 and :14. So far, chapter 16 has been full of allusion to the plagues upon Egypt; and Egypt therefore becomes a prototype of the beast system. Some of the plagues upon Egypt were countered by false miracles from Pharaoh's magicians, pointing forward to the false miracles which will be claimed by the beast system of the last days.</p><p><em>These go to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together to the war of the great day of God the Almighty</em>- The &quot;whole world&quot; could refer to the world of the land promised to Abraham and its environs. But given the power of communication media today, there may well be a global reference. Radical Islam may pressurize the whole world system to give at least token support to their battle. The &quot;war&quot; or (Gk.) battle is that for which the jihadist locusts of 9:7,9 are prepared- by the propaganda from the three sources of :13. This is the final battle against the Jews and Christians in the land spoken of in 11:7; 12:17 and 13:7, a kind of &quot;final solution&quot;. But it is effectively a gathering together to battle against the returned Lord Jesus (19:19; 20:8). The same word for war / battle is used in all these references.</p><p>The previous invasions of Israel by her neighbour typify those of the future, and they also mention this 'gathering together':&nbsp; Sisera's forces did this (Jud. 4:13), as did those of Ammon (Jud. 10:19;&nbsp;1 Chron. 19:7), the Amorites (Jud. 11:20), the Arab powers with Assyria in Hezekiah's time (Mic. 4:11), Gog's forces (Ez. 38:7), the Arab-Canaanite tribes (Gen. 34:30) and especially the Philistines (Jud. 16:33;&nbsp;1 Sam. 13:5,11; 17:1; 25:1; 28:1; 29:1; 2 Sam. 23:11). This is quite some emphasis.&nbsp;Thus while we can expect to see greater potential Arab unity developing around the Israel issue and perhaps a common allegiance to a charismatic 'Nebuchadnezzar' figure for a brief period, their complete meeting of minds will not be until the final push against Jerusalem.</p><p>We need not be concerned that this appears to happen after all the judgments upon the beast system which we have read of earlier in this chapter. Revelation is a kaleidoscope of images; it is simply not chronological. We are now being given to understand <em>how</em> the situation came about whereby the beast system is so permanently judged and destroyed, as explained in the preceding verses.</p>