The War Scroll, document
1QM of the
Dead Sea Scrolls is an account of the
Armageddon. The scroll pretty much dictates exactly how the war of all wars is played out.
Rules for
procedure,
prayer and such are detailed. Because of the great attention to detail, the scroll is quite lengthy. I'll just focus on the main bits here.
The scroll opens with a description of the initial attacks that the
Sons of Light (
the good guys : Team
God) will launch against the
Sons of Darkness (the
bad guys: Team
Belial). Nations that will fight eachother are named.
Israel and her allies are pitted against nations of
covenant breakers, and are to
annihilate every last one of them. It then begins to chronicle the ensuing battles, which span forty years. Details are given about the ranks, trumpets, banners, weapons, shields, strategy, encampments, battles, and religious obligations in the war. There are lots of details. Lots and lots of details. The general
gist throughout is that, remaining
holy, God's people will
persevere and
vanquish the
unrighteous.
As we near the end of the scroll, we come upon the last
battle, broken up into engagements of which three are won by the good guys and three by the bad. The part of the scroll containing the accounts of the first three battle engagements was
preserved, but nothing of the next three engagements remains. Decomposed. Gone forever :( . The story picks up again at battle engagement number
Seven. This is the
tie breaker, folks. This is "when the Great Hand of God shall be lifted up against Belial and against all the forces of his dominion for an
eternal slaughter."
The Lord smites the bad guys. The Children of God are
victorious;
evil is forever destroyed. The victors celebrate by saying prayers of
thanksgiving.
The morning after, they gather on the
battlefield to survey all the
dead bodies and praise the God of Israel. This is where the last bit of remaining scroll ends. The rest has long since deteriorated into
dust.