2-4
Latter Day Babylon
How this could
come up about in reality need not worry us; if it does, then we
would be guilty of seeking to fit current events into Bible prophecy,
rather than being led by the prophecy itself. The beast will arise
suddenly, from the barren desert, and will be destroyed suddenly.
It will take the world by surprise; we shouldn’t be surprised,
therefore, if we can’t perceive the signs of these things
far in advance. It may be that Iraq uses an oil stranglehold to
silence the West; Iraq has the world’s second largest production
of oil. Jeremiah 49 contains a fascinating prophecy about Babylon’s
conquests, which serves as a prelude to her sudden destruction in
chapters 50 and 51. She will take Jordan (Ammonites and Moabites,
:1-6), then Saudi Arabia (Edom, :7-22), then Syria (Damascus, :23-27),
followed by “Kedar / Hazor” (I suggest this refers to
Kuwait, :28-33), and finally Iran (Elam, :34-39). The reasons for
identifying Kedar / Hazor with Kuwait are as follows:
-
Kedar
lived “in the northern part of the Arabian desert” (Zondervan
Pictorial Bible Dictionary)- where Kuwait is situated.
-
“Hazor”
means “the enclosed place”; and “the name Kuwait is a diminutive
of the Arabic ‘kut’ or fortress” (Ahmad Mustafa Abu-Haninia, History
Of Eastern Arabia p. 47).
-
“Hazor
was located near the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf”- exactly where
Kuwait is (Finis Dake, Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible
p. 794)
-
The
descriptions of Kedar / Hazor having their wealth stolen and them
paralysed with terror is reminiscent of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait
in 1990. The riches of Kuwait were taken back to Babylon. This feature
of the prophecy (Jer. 49:28-33) could never have meaningfully been
fulfilled in the past.
-
Note
that the horn / antiChrist moves to the south [Kuwait?], to the
east [Afghanistan?] and against Israel (Dan. 8:9).
Already
Iraq / Babylon has attempted to invade Iran and Kuwait. Saddam Hussein
and his successors were all distinctly pan-Arab in their outlook.
They seek Arab unity under their leadership, however aggressively
they achieve it, with a distinctly anti-Zionist agenda for that
unity. Alternatively, it could be that Kedar is a more generic term
for the Arabic peoples. The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary
says that Kedar “helped originate the Arab peoples”.
They are called “the men of the east” (Jer. 49:28),
which is “the general designation of the Arabs” (J.P.Lange,
The Lange Commentary, Zondervan. 1976, p. 399). Whichever
way we take it, Babylon never did all these things historically-
they never invaded all the nations defined in Jer. 49, some of which
never meaningfully existed at that time. So they must be fulfilled
in our last days. And so we ask, Who is Babylon of the last days?
It seems clear enough it cannot be the Roman Catholics- there is
no sign they plan a violent invasion of the Arab world. But Babylon
in its literal sense of Iraq, lead by an antiChrist, charismatic
leader- this fits the bill admirably. In passing, the statement
is often made that the “temporal power of the papacy”
ended in 1870, according to some continuous historical views. If
this is really to be accepted, then Babylon has lost its power,
if it is to be equated with the Catholic church. Yet Babylon must
be alive and powerful in the last days to fulfil the prophecies
still outstanding. And there is no evidence that the ‘temporal
power of the Papacy’ is over at all. But this in passing.
It
seems likely therefore that ‘Babylon’ of the last days
will rise to political and military dominance in the Arab world. The
10 nations / horns / leaders which exist in the land promised to
Abraham- the “kings of the earth / land”- will give
their power to Babylon, by force and by political manoeuvre, and
this system will then invade Israel. The horns hating the
whore implies there will be inter-Arab friction apparent in the
beast system throughout its' existence. "Nation shall rise
against nation, and kingdom against kingdom" (Mt. 24:7) will
be a sign of the last days. In the AD70 context, this referred to
friction between the Semitic peoples living around Israel; and the
Lord's words are clearly an allusion to 2 Chron. 15:6, which specifically
uses the phrase about inter-Arab friction. The
fragile alliance between them will then be broken by the Lord’s
return, the horns will hate the whore and destroy her. They give
their power to the beast for but “one hour”. Daniel
seems to associate a covenant which is then broken with the latter
day Antichrist. Is. 30:27-31 speaks of the latter day Assyrian as
placing “a bridle in the jaw of the people causing them to
err”, referring to some kind of covenant / agreement which
forces others to follow their direction. The Lord’s especial
fury will be against the individual latter day Nebuchadnezzar who
leads the invasion. The future leader of Babylon, after the example
of Saddam Hussein, will see themselves as Nebuchadnezzar. Isaiah
and Micah describe the latter day invader of the land as “the
Assyrian” (Is. 10:5; 14:25; 30:31; Mic. 5:1-6). This itself
suggests we are to see the individual who heads up the invasion,
the rosh / chief prince of Ez. 38:2, as an ethnic Assyrian / Iraqi.
Dan. 8:24,25 invites us to see the same- the “king of fierce
countenance” stands up out of the area of northern Iraq /
northern Iran.
The
great, terrible beast of the last days is an aggregate of all those
that went before it. It includes the total number of heads and horns
which they featured. Likewise the whole image of Dan. 2 stands erect
in the last days, headed up by a latter day Nebuchadnezzar [note
that he personally was the head of gold, rather than the
gold representing Babylon’s empire). All the nations which
formed part of the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek and Roman empires
will be amalgamated into this latter day beast system, under the
leadership of a latter day Nebuchadnezzar. These nations include:
Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan,
Kyrgyzstan, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Portugal, Spain, France,
England, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Austria,
Hungary, the former Yugoslav republics, Romania, Albania, Turkey,
Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan- as well as
Iraq. It is chillingly significant that this list of nations is
almost identical with a list of those areas which for the first
time ever now have many true Christian converts living in them.
It could be that this is God giving them a final opportunity to
repent. It would seem that the core of the beast system will be
the 10 kings of the earth / land promised to Abraham that will be
the horns who form part of the system but then turn against the
whore finally. Daniel 7 says that the Antichrist takes three of
the other nations of the former Roman empire by force. But Dan.
8:25; 11:21 say that he will have power over the other nations by
treachery, cunning treaties and manipulation. We will only finally
understand all this when we see it happen. Dan. 8:26,27 and 12:6
tell us that the meaning of the visions are sealed until the time
of the end, i.e. when they start to be fulfilled. “The revelation
awaits an appointed time; for it speaks of the end” (Dan.
12:2). We may speculate about who and what and where, but these
things are sealed up until they actually happen- then we
will understand. It is therefore not so that these prophecies are
designed to encourage “saints of all ages”- for the
meaning of the prophecy is sealed up until the time of the end.
However, it is possible to see in the process of formulation
of correct understanding that seems to be happening in our community
that we are being prepared for the last days. Likewise the world-wide
spread of the Gospel and the return of the Jews to their land are
beginning in embryo. The vision was to be made plain, so
that a herald may run with it (Dan. 12:2,3 Heb.). The latter day
preaching of the Gospel world-wide will be motivated by this true
and thrilling understanding of latter day prophecy. We will see
our place in God’s larger plan, and respond to it. Many will
run to and fro to increase knowledge, i.e. to increase knowledge
amongst others- for running to and fro will not increase knowledge
amongst the runners (Dan. 12:4). Yet according to 2 Thess.
2, there will be a massive apostasy from the Truth in the very last
days, whilst antiChrist is enthroned. Could this not be because
so many of the true Christian community have been expecting that
antiChrist will not reign like this, that Israel will never
possibly be overrun, and that they have had to own up to having
been looking the wrong way in their decades of analysis of the Roman
Catholic church and Russia? When they finally own up to the anti-Semitism
of Britain, will it not be they will find it hard to maintain faith
in a God whom they had hitherto believed had prophesied that Tarshish
/ Britain would save Israel (1)? And yet, the Gospel
will be accepted world-wide in the final preaching of it; and when
it has gone into all nations, then shall the end come. It could
well be that a materialistic, self-satisfied, dogmatic, divisive
Anglo-saxon brotherhood is replaced in the very last days by a genuinely
international world-wide community of new believers.
Latter
day Witnessing To Babylon
According
to Rev. 17 & 18, the latter day Babylon persecutes the saints,
both Israel and the believers, and extends her power over “all
the earth”. Her leadership sits on seven mountains. All attempts
to identify these with literal hills in Jerusalem or Rome seem to
me rather futile as the prophecy states clearly enough that these
seven mountains represent seven kings (Rev. 17:9,10 RV “they
are seven kings”). And there are very few symbols in Revelation
which we are intended to interpret dead literally. The latter day
Babylon will therefore head up a confederacy of seven nations. When
the mountains flee in Rev. 16:10, Babylon loses the support base
of the coalition she leads. These kings are described in Rev. 17:18
as the kings of the land- that promised to Abraham. And within the
boundaries of that land we find seven such nations- Palestine, Egypt,
Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Iran. The appeal in Rev. 14:6-8
and Rev. 18:4 for Christian believers to “come out of her”
would imply that there are believers within those nations and that
there will be a major witness made to her- and it is surely highly
significant that there has been a great growth in conversions in
those areas in recent times! This is a sure sign that we are approaching
the time of the end. Sadly Rev. 18:24 implies that believers will
be murdered in these areas in the final tribulation- and already
the persecution and murder of Christian converts is in full swing
there. The description of Babylon sitting upon various peoples,
nations and tongues is to be connected with the same use of the
phrase in Rev. 5:9 and 7:9 to describe the world from which Christian
believers are drawn out. And significantly, the same phrase is very
commonly used in Daniel to describe the area ruled over by historical
Babylon (Dan. 3:4,29; 4:1; 5:19; 6:25; 7:14). God will make the
various nations under Babylon’s rule to “agree”
(Rev. 17:17)- there will be an unprecedented unity amongst those
nations located within the land promised to Abraham. Pan-Arabism
will triumph in the end. The resolution of the Iran-Iraq tensions
is one example of this ‘agreement’ being reached. This
union will lead to economic prosperity for the region (Rev. 18:3)-
easy to imagine, given the huge oil wealth of these areas. Babylon
will become a fake Kingdom of God; hence she is described in terms
elsewhere applied to the people and land of Israel (Rev. 18:22,23).
Babylon is arrayed in fine linen (Rev. 18:16) as a pseudo-bride
of Christ.
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