Iraq Revived As Mystery Babylon? A Book Review

Wednesday, 12 November 2008 12:38 |

Iraq Revived As Mystery Babylon?

Some Prophecy Interpretations Die a Hard Death

A Book Review of

"The Second Coming of Babylon"

by Mark Hitchcock

Reviewed by

R.A. Coombes - Author of:
-

"America, The Babylon"

The Second Gulf War (GW2) is over now and the United States military has conquered Iraq. That war did include some fighting near the ancient ruins of Babylon but at this moment of writing, we have heard no reports of damage to the archaeological site. We suspect there was none or very little damage because there was very little left to damage. Ancient Babylon was never "rebuilt" like Charles Dyer and others tried to claim. Saddam Hussein had put up small portions of a few walls at key points on the city, and had dug out the foundation stones of a few key buildings, but without roofs. Nothing on site was built to stand or last but for a temporary time. Visitors to the site from last year indicated that most of what had been built to accommodate tourists was in serious disrepair.

Then the United States came along and conquered "Babylon" and thus making itself the New Babylon. Of course, folks who subscribed to the Iraq = Babylon theory cannot bring themselves to consider the possibility that America is Babylon and always was Babylon since 1776. There are many reasons to avoid such a conclusion. One reason to ignore America as being Babylon is because one can quickly be labeled as unpatriotic or worse. Another reason to ignore the idea that America is Babylon is that if you are an author or TV minister your American monetary donations from "patriotic" red-blooded Americans will dry up in a hurry if you assert that America is the evil Mystery Babylon. Another reason is that powerful, political, antichrist forces in control of America do not want Christians (including those in America) to realize that the USA is Mystery Babylon. Such a revelation might interfere with their operations. All are good reasons to ignore the issue of America as being Mystery Babylon. Of course, those who reject America as being Mystery Babylon do so at their own peril.

What amazes this researcher is that even before GW2 was begun there were a few prophecy "experts" proclaiming that Iraq was Mystery Babylon and would soon be rebuilt as the new international capital of the world. One such theorist is Mark Hitchcock who has written a book entitled: "The Second Coming of Babylon." The book was published by Multnomah and copywritten in 2003. Another book just coming out is "Beyond Iraq" authored by Mike Evans and published by White Stone Press. This book came out the same time that Hillary Clinton's book came to market and Evans paid for a full page ad in the USA Today Newspaper that helped boost his book to the Number 2 position on Amazon.com's best-seller list ahead of Hillary's book.

Both books believe and promote the concept that Iraq is Mystery Babylon. We have not yet read Evan's book, as it just hit the shelves a few days ago. We did try to get as much information as possible about Evans material but the advertising for it just gives us nothing to work with. In terms of reviews there is a page giving glowing testimonials about the author himself from a lot of famous people - many of whom we believe are members of the Illuminati.

We have heard rumbling rumors that Mike is also one of 'them' - Illuminists, and posing as a Christian like we've heard of so many other Evangelical, Fundamentalist leaders. We are familiar with Evans previous works and theology and frankly, if he were on my side, I'd be concerned that I was on the wrong side myself. Evan's endorsing your viewpoints could be the "kiss of heresy" or worse.

One thing I've found about Evans is that he is no student of the Biblical texts. His new book is only 160 pages in paperback. What kind of bozo garbage is that. The subject is so complicated that it has taken 600+ pages in 2 volumes for me to deal with the issue of Mystery Babylon. Unfortunately, 2 volumes was not enough and I'm now working on a third volume to cover all that has transpired since Volume 2 was written. The third volume will primarily pertain to how GW2 has enhanced the theory that America is Mystery Babylon. So how someone can just pop a 160 page book out with little or no in-depth textual analysis and claim that is all that is needed is a bit suspicious. In this author's considered opinion Mike Evans is merely another pulpit-pounding, fire-breathing, propagandistic moron at best, and at worst he may be an undercover agent of Satan's Antichrist forces.

Regardless, we'll get a hold of Evan's book and review it for you in a future article. Meanwhile, we have been able to read Hitchcock's book. The Second Coming of Babylon hit the bookstore shelves just before the GW2 started.

Like Evan's book Hitchcock is long on rhetoric and very, very short on meaty textual analysis. In fact, I don't recall a single example of analyzing any Hebrew or Greek words. There's a lot of quoting of the Bible from either the New American Standard Bible or The Living Bible (now called The New Living Translation) - which is nothing more than a re-hashed paraphrase of the Living Bible of all things.

For crying out loud, how can any serious student of the scriptures analyze and use the worst possible vehicle for serious scriptural analysis, a modified "paraphrase" masquerading as a translation is beyond my ability to grasp. It can only be for reasons of stupidity or duplicitousness and in the case of Mr. Hitchcock its hard to know which one to choose.

Author, Mark Hitchcock gives us 172 short pages to present his theoretical reasons why Iraq must be Mystery Babylon. We found that in those 172 pages that there is nothing of textual substance nor merit to support his argumentative tenets that Iraq is Mystery Babylon. In point of fact, Hitchcock blatantly ignores the dozens of textual identifiers that tell us the character traits of Mystery Babylon.

Mark's first error is to claim that the boundaries of modern Iraq are equal to the ancient empire of Babylon. This is incorrect and could be nothing further from the truth. There are different boundaries for different times in the various empires of ancient Babylon that span nearly 2,000 years. Hitchcock also fails to note that Iraq is made up now of various tribes in Iraq that were not associated with the Babylon of prophecy.

On page 25 Hitchcock makes the assertion that modern Iraq will be rebuilt as a great commercial center and barely cites Revelation 17 and 18. He totally ignores that most of the Revelation 18:11-13 passage which cites so many commodities that only can apply to the United States of America. In no way could we expect Iraq to meet and exceed by far measure (for at least several generations to come) the historical world records of commercial consumption set by the United States of America. It is also hard for us to believe that Iraq could become the key consumer and world marketplace for virtually every commodity on earth. Yet, Hitchcock blithely ignores the textual matters on this aspect.

Hitchcock likens the prophecies about Babylon to being renamed "New Babylon" much as we name New - York and New - Mexico. That would be all nice, well and good but it is merely future speculation without any textual merit nor evidence within the existing framework.

Hitchcock does not assert that Iraq is NOW Mystery Babylon. Instead he admits that Iraq, in 2003, is not even close to meeting the prophetic description found in the Old Testament and New Testament prophecies pertaining to a future Babylon. What Hitchcock apparently fails to understand is that the Old Testament prophetic descriptions (as well as the New Testament) of the end time Babylon as a SUPER POWER nation not just commercially but militarily, politically, culturally and technologically. He either fails to understand this or else he has merely ignored it in order to support a theory.

Hitchcock cites Dr. Walvoord in a quote referring to the fictitious character, "Semiramis" whom we now know never existed and for whom there is no Biblical mention. Yet Hitchcock cites Walvoord who cited the now exposed and disgraced Alexander Hislop (author of: "A Tale of Two Babylons" written 100+ years ago). Hitchcock tries to link a non-existent person, a myth to Biblical prophecy via the now proven, error-ridden work of Hislop.

The failure to understand Babylon's religion, because of Hislop's misleading, error-ridden research and conclusions has left the American church oblivious to America's title as the real "Mystery Babylon."

The only thing that Hitchcock seems to get correct is that Mystery Babylon is NOT just a city. That grasping of fact is more than we can say for so many other commentators that present their theories on Mystery Babylon's identity.

Hitchcock asserts that Babylon will be rebuilt in a short amount of time but gives no scriptural support to back up that supposition. He asserts that the world will look with awe as Babylon, the city rises from the ashes of time to take her place on the world stage. Such a notion can also be construed as merely wishful thinking.

When Hitchcock mentions Isaiah 13, 14 and Jeremiah 50, 51 he does not even notice the identifying character traits embedded in the texts. Again also with the Revelation passages, Mark totally overlooks the identifying character traits. Perhaps he merely assumes that Babylon-Iraq will in the future meet all of those requirements including her military control of outer space. Somehow, that just doesn't match up with the current facts nor the future trends. Right now, Iraq is in ashes and total chaos that will take generations to rebuild. In fact, at the moment it appears the United States is set to make Iraq a colony for quite a long time.

While it is nice and appropriate to have faith in God's written Word, one needs to do so without jumping to premature conclusions. Never once in 172 pages of his book are any of the characteristics of the prophecies examined at all let alone in the original Hebrew or Greek language that the prophecies were written in originally. Such a condition strikes this reviewer as nothing short of amazing.

Hitchcock spends few words on the destruction that befalls Mystery Babylon. He also makes the mistake that assumes the destruction comes by human handiwork. On page 79 he indicates the mistaken notion that many nations will be involved in Babylon's destruction. He does this despite the fact that the texts themselves describe angelic action upon Mystery Babylon. Isaiah 13:1-4 talks about the "sinless ones" doing the destroying. Revelation 16: 17-21 and Revelation 18:21 make it crystal-clear that Angelic action is responsible.

Hitchcock fails to even once mention the various Hebrew idioms which indicate Messianic linkage to the time of Babylon's demise. He misses the most important and obvious timing references such as "cheblai shel meschiach."

Hitchcock's main premise is that Babylon MUST BE REBUILT. He assumes it will be rebuilt in the same land as ancient Babylon rather than it moving westward out of the ancient empire boundaries as Isaiah 18 and Zechariah 5 indicates. He is blind to the notion that a New Babylon full of 'mystery' will move across an ocean to a "NEW WORLD" that will create a New Babylon as part of a New World Order.

Can we give Hitchcock any credit at all? Yes. Kudos to this author for at least recognizing that Isaiah 13, 14 and Jeremiah 50, 51 have yet to be fulfilled. This is more than we can say for preterist commentators. He also recognizes the fact that it will occur in conjunction with the "Day of the Lord" and "signs in the heavens." He also recognized the fact that Babylon remained a city until about 1,000 a.d.

On page 90, Mark gives 7 reasons why Babylon must be rebuilt, but none of these means it must reappear in must be in the nation that we now call Iraq. On page 94 he presents the Zechariah 5 passage regarding the woman in the basket. He fails to realize that the woman is the Goddess Ishtar, the Goddess who held the title of Mother of Harlots (as found in Rev 17:5) which is a critical blunder that leads to a dead-end conclusion. His big point is that the passage indicates the woman was to be taken to a location where a temple would be built for her. Well, there were and still are temples to Ishtar in Iraq even to this day. But the text indicates a new temple would be built with a pedestal for her to stand on, which indicates as an idol.

The largest idol representations of Ishtar ever built and still proudly standing are those of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor and atop the US Capitol Dome as the Statue of Freedom. Both were designed and sculpted by Freemason artists who were representing as they tell us, the goddess Libertas of Rome. In America, the Babylon (both volumes 1 and 2) we meticulously document that the Goddess Libertas of Rome was actually the early Roman version of Ishtar of Babylon whom the Romans initially borrowed for only a few of her mystery doctrines primarily that of liberty and freedom.

Later, Libertas became Venus. We could go on and on about how Hitchcock has missed the boat on this aspect of the Zechariah imagery but that is better left for you the reader to investigate separately in "America, The Babylon" through both volumes. Of course, he is either totally ignorant of the massive amount of data about America's Babylonian heritage. In fact, it seems America is more mired in Ishtar/Baal mystery dogma in the government of the United States than that of ancient Babylon, but it is primarily a behind the scenes or hidden connection.

Perhaps the biggest error Hitchcock has made in regards to assuming that Iraq will build a New Babylon is the fact that the old site, or anywhere else in Iraq simply couild not support a huge "MEGA" city -- as the original Greek text states it. He also misses the point that the Mega-city of Revelation 17/18 is a PORT City and that Iraq does not have the geographical capability for a true world-class port city. The only port it has now is a small, shallow port that only services small
(and we mean very small) freighters. Iraq has no port facilities to accommodate any of the world's oil tankers. Revelation 18 makes it quite clear that Mystery Babylon is a BIG port city and a major sea-trading nation. Iraq's primary source of international trade is by land (mostly landlocked) or by air. Yet, Hitchcock fails to mention this aspect.

The very best way to analyze the books out by Hitchcock, Evans and also the Tim LaHaye books in the Left Behind series (LaHaye also indicates Iraq is Babylon in his novels) is to read Volume 2 of America, The Babylon and especially the chapters that explain Why Iraq cannot be Mystery Babylon. That chapter gives 56 reasons why Iraq cannot be Mystery Babylon and those reasons have never been refuted by anyone because they cannot be refuted.

If you'd like to read more about the reasons why Iraq can not be Mystery Babylon, visit the book website for "America, The Babylon" by clicking here.

If you were looking for a book that could provide sound exegetical reasoning that gives the Iraq is Babylon theory some really concrete support keep looking and save yourself the $12.95 and don't buy Hitchcock's book. However, if you have read "America, The Babylon" and carefully verified the material research for yourself and you have some extra money to waste for a few good laughs, then by all means pick up Hitchcock's book: "The Second Coming of Babylon" by Mark Hitchcock, published by Multnomah Publishers Inc.