Babylon, Last Days revival
"With a mighty voice he shouted: 'Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!' " (Rev
18:2).
The whole prophetic narrative of the Bible is in many ways a
tale of two cities: Babylon and Jerusalem. There are times when Babylon
masquerades as Zion -- a false city of God with a false Messiah leading her. And
there are times when Zion in her apostasy has appeared as Babylon. But in the
final conflict of the last days, these two cities will be literally pitted
against each other. Zion will briefly succumb under the might and pride of
Babylon, to rise again in eternal glory. It was in Babylon where Nimrod first
built the tower of Babel, the first organized rebellion against God; and it was
there that God first entered into open judgment of flesh and humanity en masse.
And it is here likewise that His purpose with sin and His true people will
likewise be fulfilled. Babylon was also called Su-anna, "the holy city". Yet
"the holy city" is Jerusalem, thus making Babylon a fake Zion. Herodotus says
the city was square, just as new Jerusalem.
Unfulfilled Prophecies: "Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the
glory of the Babylonians' pride, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and
Gomorrah" (Isa 13:19). And yet Babylon was never suddenly overthrown like Sodom
and Gomorrah in their fiery destruction. It was conquered by the Medes and
Persians and fell into decline, but it was not violently destroyed. Likewise:
"The Lord will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and
settle them in their own land... They will make captives of their captors and
rule over their oppressors... On the day the Lord gives you relief from
suffering and turmoil and cruel bondage, you will take up this taunt against the
king of Babylon: How the oppressor has come to an end! How his fury has
ended!... All the lands are at rest and at peace; they break into singing" (Isa
14:1-4,7).
When Babylon is ultimately destroyed, Israel will finally be
at Peace and will dwell in safety. Israel has been a nation since 1948, but not
for one day has the nation of Israel known real peace or ease. It has never been
able to claim all the lands God promised the Israelites, and Israel's Arab
neighbors have been a constant threat and danger.
There is the assumption by many that all the OT prophecies
about 'Babylon' were fulfilled in the overrunning of Babylon by the Medes.
However, there are many details of those prophecies which did not have a total
fulfillment, and thus what the Medes did as but a partial, incipient fulfillment
of what is going to come in the last days. This also requires that 'Babylon' be
understood as literal Babylon -- for it was against her that the prophecies were
uttered in the first place. And quite clearly, the prophecies of Revelation
against 'Babylon' are extensions of those of the Old Testament. We therefore are
encouraged to see the 'Babylon' of Rev as the Babylon of the prophets -- ie
literal Babylon.
Unfulfilled details, which require a latter day fulfillment:
- Literal Babylon decayed due to the ravages of time, whereas Babylon was to
fall "suddenly" in her prime (Jer 51:8; Rev 18: "one hour"). This must be future
in its fulfillment. Rev. 18:22; 14:8 both speak of "Babylon is fallen" as
applying to a latter day scenario. And yet these words come directly from Isa
21:9 and Jer 51:8, prophecies about literal Babylon being destroyed suddenly --
a destruction which is clearly future, seeing the city was never so suddenly
destroyed in the past. The suddenness of the destruction is a keynote of these
prophecies.
- It is not true that Babylon has been uninhabited "forever".
"The city of Babylon has never ceased to exist. Although its name was changed on
two occasions, it has never been totally unpopulated. Hillah presently has
250,000 citizens and was built almost entirely of bricks from the parts of the
old city of Babylon" (Joseph Chambers, A Palace For The Antichrist 146). Note
too that the Babylonian Talmud was written by Jews living in Babylon in the 6th
century AD. 1 Pet 5:13 implies there was even an ecclesia there in the first
century.
- "For the Lord will have mercy upon Jacob, and will yet choose
Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with
them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the people shall take
them [the Babylonians], and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel
shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they
shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over
their oppressors" (Isa 14:1,2). This passage has never been fulfilled yet. It
will be in the last days; and at this time, as Is. 14 goes on to detail, Babylon
[literal Babylon, in the context] will fall.
Other prophecies about the sudden destruction of literal
Babylon -- which can only be latter day in their application -- are also the
basis for the words of Rev about latter day Babylon. Consider: (a) "Thou that
art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I
am, and none else beside me: I shall not sit a widow, neither shall I know the
loss of children" (Isa 47:8), compared with: "How much she hath glorified
herself, and lived deliciously...for she hath said in her heart, I sit a queen,
and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow" (Rev 18:7). (b) "But these two things
shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood"
(Isa 47:9), compared with: "Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death
and mourning" (Rev 18:8). (c) "Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the
monthly prognosticators, stand up" (Isa 47:13), compared with: "For by thy
sorceries..." (Rev 18:23).
The Babylon of Rev is the Babylon of Jeremiah and Isaiah,
literal Babylon, which awaits her full punishment. This conclusion is
strengthened once it is appreciated how the harlot Babylon of Rev 17, loud,
gaudy, decked with jewelry and painted face, is replete with reference to
Semiramis, the goddess / mother of Nimrod, and one of the patron gods of literal
Babylon.
The antichrist is a mimic of the true Christ; his kingdom is a
parody of God's Kingdom. And the King of Babylon claiming "I am and none else
beside me" are the very words of Yahweh -- the King of Babylon is clearly to be
identified with the man of sin, who sits as God in God's temple (2Th 2). But the
similarities run deeper. The Babylonian epic of creation is a parody of the
Genesis account; the flood has its counterpart in the epic of Gilgamesh; and the
Code of Hammurabi, an early ruler of Babylon, was clearly an anti-law of Moses.
And Saddam Hussein's supporters greet him as the Messiah of the Arab world
(Chambers 45). Now Saddam may pass off the scene, but the point is that a
similar charismatic leader could arise and be the antichrist.
The accounts of the latter day invasion of Israel all feature
a single charismatic individual, who will be destroyed personally by the Lord
Jesus at His coming. This is Paul's "man of sin", Daniel's aggressive king of
fierce countenance, Ezekiel's Gog, the chief prince. It is also the person
referred to by Micah: "And this man [Messiah] shall be the peace, when the
Assyrian shall come into our land" (Mic 5:1,2). The Lord Jesus will save His
people in the latter days from an "Assyrian". It has been shown that Assyria and
Babylon are used almost interchangeably in Scripture. Gog was a Jew who
apostatized and went to live in Assyria / Babylonia, according to 1Ch 5. This is
why he has the appearance of spirituality; and he may even be an Arab Christian.
2Th 2 describes him as "the son of perdition", exactly the phrase used about
Judas, the false disciple of Jesus. Notice how Tariq Aziz [Iraqi foreign
minister at the time of writing] and other leading members of the Iraqi cabinet
are in fact Arab Christians, not Muslims.
(Adapted from LD, by DH)
