Summary
The ultimate root of war is sin. Sin begins when man no longer has peace with God. Once man no longer loves God, who is infinite Love, Compassion, Mystery, and Beauty, it will be all the more impossible for man to love his fellow men, who are imperfect sinners. But love of God is lost most especially when men abandon the Gospel. And why might men abandon the Gospel? Perhaps because the message of the Gospel becomes confounded. And that confounding comes from division of Christ’s disciples. Hence, in a real sense, the origin of great worldly wars of modern times finds its root in Christian Division. And just as the OT Schism was between North and South, so the NT Schism is between East and West. Hence, out the “spiritual kings from the East”, cometh forth the origins of ultimate world war!
A frog can live in land OR water. The devil seduces humanity, by spewing a frog from its mouth, that it can live with or without the land, or foundation, of God's religion, yet in reality,without the land, or foundation of truth and grace, man will drown, unlike the frog. Too, the Egyptians deified the frog, though it is immeasurably beneath them, and, in like fashion, fallen humanity deifies itself before God, who immeasurably above him.
Armageddon: What Really Causes Strife? Deeper than “Kings from the East”
Apocalypse 16:
And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon that great river Euphrates; and dried up the water thereof, that a way might be prepared for the kings from the rising of the sun. [13] And I saw from the mouth of the dragon, and from the mouth of the beast, and from the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. [14] For they are the spirits of devils working signs, and they go forth unto the kings of the whole earth, to gather them to battle against the great day of the Almighty God.
So far, only literal extremes are seen here for the Kings of the East: China by many Futurists, or Fundamentalists, and the Parthians (a kingdom that was a threat to pagan Rome), by the preterists. But what about idealism, or spiritual historicism? Let us probe it.
The true origin of any international tribulation is sin, which is separation from God. Once man is separated from God, that is, at war with God, that is, lacking peace with God, so then man cannot have peace with his fellow man. Why? Because if man cannot love His Maker, an infinite Being of Love who is a Family of Immeasurable Reckless Love, who is immeasurable mystery and beauty, how much more impossible will it be for man to love his fellow man, who is very sinful and imperfect.
But man has not peace with God to the degree that he does not accept the Gospel. Hence, when the Gospel is totally lost, man is in position for incomparable strife.
But how does man lose the Gospel? Alas, per they mystical words of the Sacred, Eucharistic Heart of Our Lord, according to the loving witness of his beloved disciple, Saint John!
John 17:
[17] Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth. [18] As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. [19] And for them do I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. [20] And not for them only do I pray, but for them also who through their word shall believe in me;
[21] That they all may be ONE, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be ONE in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. [22] And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them; that they may be ONE, as we also are ONE: [23] I in them, and thou in me; that they may be made perfect in ONE: and the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast also loved me.
Behold, this mystical text reveals a central mystery of the Eucharist, of communion, of unity: the efficacy of the Gospel in the world is intrinsically bound up to Christian unity. Hence, to the degree that Christian unity is ruptured, the world will have difficulty believing on the Son, which in turn, as we have seen, ruptures humanity's peace with God, which then gives way to strife in humanity. And so we are back to Armageddon.
But behold, in the Old Testament, the epic rupture of the unity of the Jewish Kingdom was between North and South, the North separating in schism from the true kingdom of Judah in the South, taking with it, the majority (10 of 12) of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, leaving the true kingdom, but remnant of 2 tribes, in the South.
Behold, then, what of the NEW Testament? Not North and South, but EAST and WEST! The first great apocalyptic rupture of Christian Unity occurred between East and West, and similarly, the East were the Schismatics and took the majority of the Apostolic Sees, 4 of 5, leaving only the singular See of Peter behind in the West, yet the true Kingdom.
Hence, the mystical meaning of apocalypse, that the rivers are dried up to prepare the way for the “Kings of the East” in the sixth bowl of wrath, can be seen in this: that the ultimate seed of the great loss of peace in humanity, leading to the modern godless times, is the first great loss of Christian unity between East and West, a type of division of the NEW Testament Kingdom!
For a deeper analysis, let us look at the beast, dragon, and false prophet imagery, as well as the frogs, next.
Addendum
Beast and False Prophet: Effectively, if the dragon is the father of lies, the beast is like the incarnation of these lies in human history in any age that is largely opposed to God. The False Prophet then images these lies themselves, like a diabolical Trinity. Too, there is meaning in the shore, the sea, and the earth. We have seen that the earth is like a foundation, the Church. The sea is a place of chaos, heresies and lies, tossing man to and fro. The shore would seem to be somewhere in the middle: part lies, part truth. In this view, the devil hides behind half-truths to confound the world, much like extremes of right and left, each of which has some good and some bad.
From this, total godless indifference arises, the beast from the sea. This would image the objective reality of godlessness. It has no foundation, only lies, and in the end, it will be tossed and drowned to its death. This is in contrast to the second beast, the false prophet, which, again, can be seen as the lies themselves. Here, too, the lies are seen in their SUBJECTIVE presentation by the dragon, the DECEPTION. The dragon presents his lies, or the second beast, as arising from the earth, or foundation. Hence, that the false prophet takes his stance on the earth presents the idea that the supreme lies of the dragon, or the lies of the fall (Do not listen to God, decide for yourself what is true, do as you wish, and live for the Creation rather than the Creator, or materialism [desire the fruit made by God rather than God Himself]) are a supreme foundation for prosperity and peace, on the “earth”, when, in reality, the end of such is the OBJECTIVE first beast, in the SEA, where the passions of man and his selfishness will toss him into tribulation and ruin. That the deception takes root in humanity is seen in the world that says, “Who is like the beast, and who Is able to wage war with it?”, i.e,, “Behold, we have a supreme materialistic power and grandeur, and we have no need of God or religion. What will stop us from the ultimate paradise, or utopia?” See also, Babel, where God says, “There will be nothing they shall not be able to do.”
The frogs, or unclean spirits, emerging from the mouths of the diabolical trinity in the sixth bowl of wrath also fits here: frogs were considered divine by the Egyptians. Hence, man, looking down upon a mere animal, elevates in delusion the animal to a place higher in the hierarchy of existence than himself. Too, the frog has a peculiar a nature: it is amphibious, that is, able to live on land or water. From the standpoint of our earth, sea analogy, we see that man can only truly live in peace and prosperity to the degree that he founds his societies on the truth and grace of God, the ultimate foundation of which is the Church, in her teachings and sacraments. This, again, is like the earth, the only literal place that human beings can actually survive. In the ocean, man, unlike the frog, will die objectively, both because of no true foundation, and secondly, the water stifles his capacity to breath the breath of life, and so perishes. Yet, the frog CAN live in water. This heralds back to above: The dragon effectively tells man, with the false prophet, that he can live in the water, that is, without God’s truth and grace. He directs him to follow the first beast of the sea, while telling him, in the lies, that it is nonetheless firmly standing upon the earth. Here, then, is what humanity does to itself relative to God. Man, who is infinitely beneath God in the hierarchy of existence, considers himself a frog relative to God, of higher divinity than Him! And, that, like a frog, he can live in the land OR the water. He can have the earth of religion if he LIKES, but he ultimately does not NEED It. He can live in the water. Again, this is a supreme lie, since the water ultimately brings death. Herein, then, the seduction of the diabolical trinity is made manifest.
Dragon, Beast and False Prophet, Armageddon: Minor Tribulation (any tribulation following intrinsically from godlessness). Ditto, as above, the seduction of the frogs tells humanity they can preserve the foundation of peace and prosperity without regard for God and His truths and laws, and merely with materialistic power and dominion, with merely secular means. The CCC corroborates this, in saying that the modern form of secular messianism is a perverse lie of antichrist (see a section of the creed on the Second Coming). Hence, whereas the decadence and illusory prosperity in the godless Whore can last for a time, eventually the negation of God’s morality and truth brings corruption, and man, not having peace with God, all the more becomes an enemy of his fellow man. Hence, all the more has every corrupt empire or godless society suffered collapse.
See also, the ten horns in Apocalypse 17, who burn up the whore and eat her flesh. Some tradition sees in the ten horns of the beast and dragon the ten commandments, which they make war with. Too, godless, materialistically grandiose but perverse societies have seated themselves upon the negation of God, and hence also of the foundation of God’s Law, the Ten Commandments. For a time, this harlot society that does not want spousal relationship with her CreaTOR, but rather only a brute, superficial using of the CreaTION, prospers and enjoys the degrading abuse of the pleasures, possessions, and egotistical accomplishments of this world. But later, as mentioned, the negation of the ten commandments brings corruption and selfishness, which disturbs the peace of the society. Finally, at its peak, it brings about the collapse of the kingdom: economically, politically, socially, morally. Hence, again, the ten horns of the beast, upon which the woman is seated, burn her up and consume her flesh. Here, these intrinsic results of leaving God behind, “carry out the will of Christ” by allowing the world to see the true fruits of its blindness. In this way, the Lamb conquers both the Woman and the ten “kings”, for in the fall of the Whore, the society sees the fruits of the antithesis of the Decalogue, and comes back to God.