'Back to the Beginning' Christiane Amanpour: Journey to Armageddon With the death of solomon, the baseball says the sing dom of israel good night unravel. It ushered in a period of constant war with the veart. And it was durning this time that voices arose from the land, starting to talk about the end time. What today is called armageddon. And now, I'm about to enter armageddon. Believe it or not, the name referring to an actual place about a three-hour drive north of jerusalem. It's amazing to be here because according to the bible, we're not living in the last days. Armageddon is the greek name for this ancient city. In hebrew it's called migido. Many christians believe it's the staging ground where the armies of the righteous and the wicked gather for the final show down. The world as we know it will come to an end and we will live in a paris dice earth where he won't have to die or get sick. And what they believe might happen here, the sight gives a glimpse back to where the ideas of armageddon come from. The key to understanding the history of the country. Our guide here is israel finklestein, an archaeologist who has directed the dig here for years. You can see from all sides that it's a strategic point. It guards egypt and mesopotamia. It was once a city larger than jerusalem and hotly contested. These young, eager students laboring in the summer heat unearth history every day. This is a burial site from nearly 4,000 years ago. Is that a skeleton. There are multiple skeletons here. And jugs. This is a meal for eternity for the dead person. Migido was fought over in the region. And also, the amazing accumulation of layers. And each victor would build on top of their vanquished up foe, providing the crew with evidence. About 500 years separating? 500 years. The turbulent period of king david and king solomon. There were 400 destruction layers because of big cars. The wars brought turmoil. Rioting broke out. THINK OF AMERICA IN THE 1960s And there is always a few distinctive voices. The people are known to us now as the biblical fof fetes. It's a time when it's right in a time that is so easy to do what is wrong. The fof fete prophets cry allowed for their own rulings for the people. They also offered hope. The king of isaiah kraus for jua, and emanuel, meaning god is with us. And when that kid is young enough to be eating baby food, the enemies you are worried about will be gone. And the book of matthew picks up the prophet of eye za yanchts it's unlikely he intended it to have meaning years later, much less our own day. People don't pass on the stories of their families and their people in order for a bunch of americans, a couple thousand years later to learn about their own world. But prophets also spoke of a day when the lord would make a new covenant. The temple would be rebuilt and the land would be ruled by a righteous leader, god's anointed one. This is a cemetery outside of walls of jerusalem. And it's filled with cemeteries, jewish, christian and muslim, side by side in death, they believe the messiah will come to the valley and they want to be first in line when he raises them there the dead. The valley, is the final scene from that final fiery battle between good and evil, accompanied by a mass resurrection of souls. And half a world away in kansas city, missouri, we want to meet americans in search now. It has brought us to a strip mall in the bible belt, and a building called ihop. They are not focused on pancakes at this ihop. This is the international house of prayer. ♪ where are we right now as far as you're concerned? Have the end days started? Think we're in the early stages on of that story comes to a crescendo. Jesus is coming back to the earth. For the last 13 years, 24 hours a day, there is a nonstop prayer service here. Mike bikle says it's around the clock musical worship story from the storiry of king david. You are taking something from the bible and enacting it here today. From the old testament. It sounds odd. It is odd but it's really exciting. The ministry now boasts over 2,000 members and counting. When I was 13rks I found ihop on the internet and I met him and we dated and got married in july and we just being here together. In fact, prayer gathering like ihop have been popping up all over the united states and across the world. Are you a prophet? I'm -- does god speak to you? Yeah, but I think that god speaks to everybody -- I use the word prophet very, very sparingly. That means old testament stature. That is intense. They don't spread the goes tell every minute of every hour of every day while they wait. Will I see it in my lifetime? I don't care. But I might. They are a controversial ministry and critics say they prey on the sfruler inible. But the words remain as controversial as they were in their old day.