The last forty-five days of the timeline are the Day of the Lord, the day of God's wrath, when seven plagues are poured out from seven vials. Five have been seen; the sixth brings the armies of the world to Armageddon.
When the seventh trumpet sounded, the kingdom of the earth became the Lord's. That came after thirty days, the "one hour" in which the ten kings ruled with the Antichrist (the beast). Christ then takes authority over the whole earth and destroys all the wicked on it.
The Euphrates Dries Up
At the sixth vial the great river Euphrates dries up, so that armies can cross with ease. The way is opened for "the kings of the east", those who come from the rising of the sun.
And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
— Revelation 16:12
Three unclean spirits like frogs, coming from the mouths of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet, work miracles and gather the kings of the whole world to the battle of the great day of God Almighty, at the place called in Hebrew Armageddon. In the middle comes a warning: the Lord comes as a thief, and blessed is the one who watches (Revelation 16:13–16).
The Kings of the East
Who are these kings? They belong to the sixth trumpet, where a great war kills a third of mankind and the horsemen number two hundred million.
The Antichrist rules many nations because they signed the covenant (karaar), made after a war in which Russia and its allies (Iran, the African Union, and peoples around the Black Sea such as Ukraine) attacked Israel. They lost to Israel and its allies, America and Europe, and terms were forced on them. So the nations on both sides are bound by the covenant and keep still.
Asia is not fully covered. China and India, which keep apart from others' affairs, may remain outside both war and covenant, and may turn on one another. That would be the war of the sixth trumpet: perhaps three billion dead, if the world then numbers nine billion.
The victor, with a vast united army, may then cross the dry Euphrates near the close of the forty-five days and march on Jerusalem, where the Antichrist sits in God's temple as God, and which may be his capital. The army expects an easy conquest. It does not know that the Lord already reigns.
The Winepress of God's Wrath
At Armageddon the Lord himself meets this army. Isaiah pictures him in garments stained like those of a man who has trodden grapes.
I have trodden the winepress alone… for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments…
— Isaiah 63:3
Excavated winepresses show the picture: grapes trodden by foot on a platform, the juice running into a vat. Revelation 14:17–20 uses the same image. The vine of the earth is cast into the great winepress of the wrath of God, trodden outside the city, and blood rises to the horses' bridles and flows for a hundred kos (an old measure of distance).
How the armies will be crushed we do not know: an earthquake, perhaps, or a landslide. Armageddon may be shaped like a winepress, perhaps with a gorge through which the blood pours out.
The Ten Kings Make War with the Lamb
When the eastern army has fallen, the ten kings remain: the ten horns of the beast, ten nations of Europe joined in an alliance like the European Union or NATO. They took the beast's authority, kept the Antichrist for the time being, and ruled with him for thirty days.
Their first act was to turn on the great harlot, the whole system run on the number 666, and shut it down. Kings, merchants and seafarers who lived from it mourned their lost trade, while heaven praised God for judging her (Revelation 19:1–5).
The ten kings still believe the kingdom is theirs. Unaware that it has passed to the Lord, they gather to fight.
These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings…
— Revelation 17:14
The Marriage of the Lamb and the Rider on the White Horse
Revelation 19 shows the victory. The Lord God Almighty reigns and the marriage of the Lamb has come: his wife has made herself ready in fine linen, which is the righteous acts of the saints. The marriage supper is God's word, his plans for what comes next, shared with the church around the time of the sixth plague so that she knows what to do in the kingdom that follows.
Then heaven opens and a rider appears on a white horse, Faithful and True, his robe dipped in blood. His name is the Word of God, and he treads the winepress of God's wrath. The sharp sword from his mouth is not a literal blade but his word, which strikes the nations down.
Behind him ride armies in fine linen, white and clean. They are his bride, the church, and together they destroy the ten kings.
And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords.
— Revelation 19:16
So many fall that no one is left to bury them, and the birds are called to the great supper of God. The beast and the false prophet, the two beasts of Revelation 13, are seized and cast alive into the lake of fire. They are the first to go there, and are not even held in hell, a kind of prison, until the final judgement. All the rest are slain by the sword of his mouth.
Takeaway
At Armageddon the nations that gather against Jerusalem meet the Lord's judgement, and Christ, with his bride behind him, wins by the word of his mouth. We are to learn from these prophecies, stand firm in the word, walk in the Lord's way, and be ready to meet him when he comes, so that we are among those who come with him and not among those who remain on the earth.