Armageddon as the measure of an election
I am still as much concerned as ever about the Battle of Armageddon; but I am not so much concerned about the General Election.
Armageddon belongs to the vision of the sixth bowl in Revelation. Evil spirits gather the world’s kings for the great divine battle (16:13–14); verse 16 names their gathering-place Armageddon. In the King James Version, Revelation 16:12–16, the place-name and the battle occur in separate verses: Chesterton’s phrase condenses them rather than quoting a biblical title. The allusion gives political ideals an ultimate horizon against which a particular parliamentary contest can seem provisional. It does not supply a prediction of the end of the world or identify an election with a specific prophetic event.
The next sentence’s baby leaping at a mere mention also resembles Luke 1:41–44: the unborn John leaps when Elizabeth hears Mary’s greeting. There is a possible comic transfer of sacred recognition to infant party enthusiasm. But Chesterton places his baby on his mother’s knee, not in her womb; this remains a suggestive echo, not a demonstrable quotation. Both readings use Gutenberg #10’s modern electronic King James text, rather than an inspected 1611 printing; neither establishes which Bible edition Chesterton had in mind.
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