Saturday, February 6, 2010

Babylon and the End of the Age




6 February 2009: Is the Babylon of the Old Testament the same Babylon New Testament Scripture refers to at the ‘End of the Age”? The purpose of this article is to point out why I do not believe the two are to be confused. The original, physical political entity known as Babylon was the original ‘World Empire’ from the Biblical perspective and other is ‘symbolic’ of the global system of government during Daniel’s 70th Week.


Yes, I hold to the interpretation that there will be no resurrection of a physical or historical Babylonian Empire. The Scriptural evidence for this interpretation is the God-given vision of Daniel regarding the statue which began with Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel’s vision of the distant future and the time of the end. That Babylon is gone forever into history and is the fulfilled prophecy of Isaiah 13:20-21.


The God-given sequence of empires thereafter is very specific with each subsequent Middle Eastern empire built upon the ruins of the Babylonian Empire: the Persian Empire, the Hellenic Empire of Alexander and its prophesied division into four rump empires, of which the Seleucid Empire and its Antichrist precursor (Antiochus IV Epiphanes) was most important, and finally the Roman Empire.


The physical destruction of Babylon, as prophesied also by Jeremiah 50 and 51, occurred over many years and was not complete until Seleucia, the new capital of the Seleucid Empire founded by Seleucus I Nicator circa 305 BC was literally built brick by brick from the ruins of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon. Any Bible prophecy student can look at a detailed map of modern day Iraq and determine that the ruins of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon lies just east of the Euphrates River near the city of Al-Hillah and Seleucia was built in the desert 20 miles south of modern day Baghdad and 70 miles to the northeast of the original Babylon along the banks of the Tigris River. Aside from the geographic differences, Babylon was an ancient Middle Eastern culture while Seleucia was very much a Western Hellenistic culture.


In addition to this we also have Isaiah 13 serving as a central prophetic theme regarding a symbolic “Babylon” and the end times “pains of a woman in childbirth” concurrent with the overwhelming fear that overtakes every man’s heart, and the darkening of the stars in their constellations, the sun and the moon which was repeated by Jesus Christ during his Olivet Discourse found in Matthew 24. Isaiah’s Babylon in this prophecy is a symbolic Babylon representing the utterly corrupt world government system of the Antichrist within Daniel’s 70th Week.


In this day and age it is very interesting to note that Israel, in the form of its military and intelligence services has returned to northern Iraq, in the region known today as Kurdistan and in ancient times as Assyria. The Israeli’s are developing an alliance with the Kurd’s and providing them with state of the art military equipment and training. What the Israeli’s receive in return is copious amounts of critical human intelligence regarding all manner of goings-on within western Iran, northern Syria and eastern Turkey. For their part the Iranians, Syrians and Turks are none too pleased with this alliance. Perhaps it is this Israeli-Kurdish military alliance that Jeremiah 51:6 speaks to with respect to Daniel’s 70th Week, for there appears to be a direct correlation between Jeremiah 51 and Revelation 17 and 18.


In the aftermath of the soon-to-be fulfilled prophecies of Isaiah 17, Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 38/39 the global dominant kingdom of the Antichrist shall arise. Since the prophetic word of Revelation came directly from the Father to the Son to John on Patmos, circa 90-95 AD, it most assuredly speaks of future events even to our age, yet given the signs of the times we know the season is upon the world and this future is within the span of this generation. That modern Iraq will fall within the Euro-centric kingdom of “the people of the prince who is to come,” that is out of the two legs standing upon ten toes. This last day’s kingdom of the Antichrist is a revival of the Roman Empire, and the inclusion of modern-day, post Saddam Iraq can be seen in the events that have occurred in the past seven years since 2003 and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Iraq is now completely an integral part of the Western sphere of influence and will play a key role in the coming post-paradigm shift of the current world order.

8 comments:

  1. most of my life my view on this has shifted back in forth. since i was a kid i always thought babylon was code for rome then i thought babylon of rev17 was symbolic and ch18 was literal. i thought AC was from europe with a capitol in rome, jerusalem and babylon but lodgic forbids it being rebuilt.

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  2. i like your statement about iraq being westernized. do you think after Gog/magog those nations listed will be taken over by europe and also westernized? i wonder bout that but is pure speculation. any thoughts?

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  3. hartdawg,

    It's not logic which forbids the rebuilding of Babylon, it is the judgment of the Lord made manifest thousands of years ago which forbids it.

    My thoughts regarding the nations you speak of in your second comment are that they will most probably be absorbed into the global governance of the kingdom of the Antichrist during Daniel's 70th Week.

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  4. It's come to my attention that I did not address the concerns of those Christian brethren who hold to an interpretation of Scripture which allows a literal rebuilding of the city of Babylon.

    For these brethren I pose the following questions.

    1. In Isaiah 13 is there one prophetic word from the Lord regarding a literal rebuilding of the city of Babylon?

    In considering this question please make sure to contrast with it the re-establishment of Israel, the rebuilding of Jerusalem and even of a third Temple on Mount Moriah. They are all clearly indicated elsewhere in Scripture as literal things.

    2. As I read Isaiah 13:22b regarding Babylon's destruction in the past, the Lord God makes quite clear from the time Isaiah wrote down this prophecy that "Her time is near to come, And her days will not be prolonged.”

    Is it not clear that a rebuilt Babylon would be a prolonged Babylon from the perspective of the Lord?

    3. There are other prophetic elements in Isaiah 14 which speak directly to a proverb that Isaiah says Jews in the future will (figuratively?) say to a deceased Antichrist and Satan (Lucifer) who indwelt him at the end of Daniel's 70th Week.

    Where in any part of Scripture does it say that Antichrist in the latter half of Daniel's 70th Week will stand or rule from a rebuilt Babylon as it does regarding Antichrist's physical presence in and his image's standing in the Holy Place of the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem, Israel?

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  5. Hello Sean
    I have been tustling with this very subject! You have confirmed EXACTLY what I see in Scripture.(only yours is better of course!)

    I am thrilled to bits with this amazingly timed confirmtion. I love you my bro. :D
    Susan UK x
    (I'm leaving the closet)

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  6. Hello again Sean
    I am still working this through, but I have also noticed that the so called rebuilding of Babylon is not on the original Tel, and I think it is just as well. God cursed the site of the city of Babylon and I think the animals listed as living there are actually demonic beings. If anyone tries to rebuild it, they invoke the curse. I don’t know if that applies to just visiting?

    Alexander the Great tried to rebuild it and he died unexpectedly at a very young age. I am not too sure of my facts on this yet, but I think at least three rulers met an early, unpleasant demise like Alexander. I know there was at least one more, but I forget who.

    In modern times, Saddam Hussein and his two sons were soundly defeated, then met with horrible deaths. He mimicked Nebuchadnezzar’s ‘mad’ period when found in his hideout – straggly hair and unkempt, and one son was definitely crackers.

    I have seen photos of the rebuilt palace and it’s a farce. His workman did not renew the foundations but built straight onto the broken walls, which began to crumble a while ago. So I most certainly hope the US is not following these foolish footsteps or she and her leaders may well meet the same fate.

    What caused my original doubt are the verses that say the smoke of her destruction goes up for ever and ever. Well that’s an impossibly long time given the earth will be remade after the millennium.

    I consider the ‘smoke’ to be spiritual in some way rather than physical? Some say the desolation will continue as a warning and a sign, but why would that be needed in glorious eternity?

    Some claim it has always been inhabited, but my late Bible teacher was most insistent that the locals really feared the site and disliked having to fetch wandering animals from it. He said they always pitched their tents well away from the Tel, and frankly I believe him because of the type of man he was. What I have seen and read supports what he said.

    God bless
    Susan

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  7. Roman Empire or Ottoman Empire? Every nation mentioned in prohecy to be judged is muslem and every one that will attack Israel, Ezk38, is muslem.

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  8. JesusfreakDon,

    Roman.

    The kingdom of the Antichrist will originate in Europe, from the ten toes of Nebuchadnezzar's statue vision interpreted by Daniel and according to Daniel's 70 Weeks prophecy (Daniel 9:26).

    However, we must step back in time to what occurs prior to the arrival of Antichrist.

    Russia is not yet an Islamic nation, but who knows, maybe Islam will take over in Russia; as it is Russia (Gog of Magog) who is clearly the leader of that confederation of currently Islamic nations.

    I have no argument with any of that, seems to be an extremely accurate assessment.

    The problem is this. Psalm 83 foretells the destruction of the currently Islamic inner ring nations around Israel, Isaiah 17 describes Damascus' destruction, Joshua 13:1-7 the Israeli conquest of all Lebanon, and then Ezekiel 38/39 we see God more than annihilating the Gog/Mago invaders (5/6ths destroyed) and raining fire and brimstone on the nations from whence they came.

    Since all of these currently Islamic nations are going to be destroyed PRIOR TO the arrival of the Antichrist and Daniel's 70th Week, that poses an insurrmountable eschatological problem for those who err by saying Antichrist will be the Muslim leader (al-Mahdi or whatever) of an Islamic empire.

    And by what stretch of the imagination do such folks envision Islam allowing the Jews to build the 3rd Temple on Mt. Moriah in the place where their Dome of the Rock and Mosque currently sits?

    Seems to me such ideas are not inspired of the Holy Spirit; they come from another non-Divine source IMHO. I pray for them always.

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