This final time of war will be in the hands of God. Remember that Revelation 5 shows us that it is the Lamb who unleashes the seals. Christ is in charge of history, and He will bring this trial to a conclusion, resulting in peace for all peoples. But genuine peace will not come without a terrible cost in human suffering.
The final war to be waged will be of God's design. It will serve to humble mankind to the point that people will obey God and become willing to live the way that will produce peace.
Look at the description of this time of world conflict. Revelation 8 begins with the opening of the seventh seal, containing seven trumpet plagues of unimaginable destruction upon the earth. The next chapter reports that the sixth trumpet sounds: "Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, 'Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.' So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million" (Revelation 9:13-16).
This 200-million-person army is fearsome to contemplate. But what is important to understand in this verse is God's control over the armies and the destruction marching across the face of the earth. One unmistakable message of the book of Revelation is God's control of seemingly uncontrollable events.
Verse 18 shows a third of mankind, more than 2 billion lives, snuffed out by three plagues. The only hope of human survival is the reality of Christ's intervention to prevent the destruction of the earth and its inhabitants.
As the "crisis at the close" reaches its crescendo, the heavens will open and Christ will appear on a white horse. Here, in God's message of hope, appears a fifth horseman whose ride will be decisive and final. Revelation 19:11 says He is "called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war."
Christ will wage this battle in righteousness because He alone holds the keys to death and the grave (Revelation 1:18). No other person waging battle or war in history, no matter how "just" the cause may seem, can make this claim. God's judgment upon the nations has been building over the millennia and will be executed at precisely the right time.
This ultimate battle will result in the advent of the Kingdom of God. Finally there will be lasting peace.
