A Rebuilt Babylon in Prophecy? Don't Believe It

Monday, 16 February 2009 22:55 |

Rebuilding Babylon in Prophecy?

Don’t Believe It

By R.A. Coombes

Author of: "America, The Babylon"

Among some Prophecy watching websites, there is excitement that Iraq’s ancient Babylon is about to be rebuilt. This excitement is based upon supposedly grand UN plans for rebuilding the city and making it the world’s capital.

This is simply false.

There are UN plans for aiding in a project to resurrect the city as an “archaeological” tourist site, much as Saddam had envisioned. However, there are no plans to make it a “living” city or the world’s capital. The plans that are real, call for turning the archaeological site into something like Williamsburg, Virginia or Jamestown, Virginia. Both of those sites have restored the old ruins but no one actually lives in those sites. It is all there simply for show.

Despite such limited plans, ignorant Bible Prophecy watchers and a few prophecy commentators with so-called scholarly credentials point to these news stories about UN and USA funding and claim Babylon is about to be rebuilt and will fulfill the Biblical prophecies of Revelation 17 and 18.

Drawing such conclusions is false for numerous reasons.

As noted, the Iraqi and UN plans do not call for ancient Babylon to be a habitable, prospering city as it was 2,500 years ago. Furthermore, there are at least 60 reasons why Iraq’s ancient Babylon site cannot be the same future Babylon of Prophecy. See our previous article: “

60 Reasons Why Iraq Can Not Be Mystery Babylon”

https://aoreport.com/mag/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=82&Itemid=47

Probably, the most compelling reason why Babylon’s ancient Iraq simply can not be the future Babylon – often misidentified as “Mystery Babylon” is because much of Iraq, including ancient Babylon is to be a part of the Messianic Kingdom of Jesus Christ. On that basis, the Messianic prophecy contradicts the “Babylon” prophecies. The Messianic Kingdom, all of it, will be inhabited and prosperous and ruled from Jerusalem.

Often overlooked by many Bible Prophecy “experts” are the prophecies concerning the future borders of Israel when Jesus Christ returns and establishes new borders for Israel’s Millennial Kingdom that will finally fulfill the promises made to Abraham and his descendants.

Israel’s future borders (the Messianic borders) will be extended eastward to encompass much of what today is called Iraq. The area will include all of the old Hittite and Chaldean Empire. Joshua 1:4 notes that it will include “ALL” of the land, which means the ancient site of Babylon and all of Babylonia are to be part of the new Messianic Israel. Anthropologists and archaeologists now believe that the Chaldeans of Babylonia were originally were the Hittites. The Hittite empire, at the time of Abraham had conquered and owned Babylon and much of its outlying territories west of the Tigris River.

The Messianic Kingdom Promise

God clearly spells out to Joshua what He had earlier promised to Abraham.

Joshua 1:1-4

Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying,

Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.
Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.

From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, ALL THE LAND of the H-I-T-T-I-T-E-S, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.

Note that God Tells Joshua and He clearly indicates the entire Hittite Empire including Babylon – by the use of the phrases “ALL OF THE LAND” of the HITTITES. Notice that the word “ALL” must then also include the Hittites’s possession of Babylonia and Babylon. Why?

Not only is the promise made to Abraham in Genesis 15:18-20 [and the Hittite empire is mentioned (which included Babylon)] but again in Deuteronomy 1:6-8 to Moses and again to Joshua in Deuteronomy 11:24.

Genesis 15:18-20
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,

Deuteronomy 1:6-8

Verse 6. “The LORD our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount:

Verse 7. “Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates.”

Verse 8. “Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.”

And Deuteronomy 11:24

Verse 23. “Then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.

Verse 24. “Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be.

The Babylon prophecies indicate that once the judgment hits it will be uninhabited. There are such predictions in Isaiah 13 as well as in Jeremiah 50 and 51 plus Revelation 18: 21-24.

Isaiah 13:19-22

Verse 19. “And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.”

Verse 20. “It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.”

Verse 21. “But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.”

Verse 22. “And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.”

Jeremiah 50

Verse 3. “For out of the heavens where God abides, comes strangers (aliens) which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.”

Vers 12b. “…behold, the hindermost (the last) of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

Verse 13a. “Because of the wrath of the LORD it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate:…”

Verse 21. “Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: waste and utterly destroy after them, saith the LORD, and do according to all that I have commanded thee.

Verse 23. “How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!”

Verse 32. “And the most proud shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up: and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all round about him.”

Verse 38. A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.

Verse 39. “Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.

Verse 40. “As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the LORD; so shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein.”

Jeremiah Chapter 51

Verse 25b. “I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.”

Verse 26. “And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the LORD.”

Verse 29. “And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.”

Verse 43. “Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby.”

Verse 62. “Then shalt thou say, O LORD, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.”

From the some of the passages shown above, there are descriptions of desert-like conditions and while these passages indicate desert-like conditions, such desert conditions are not indicated as lasting forever. There are verses indicating that no humans live in the land ever again. It will be uninhabited forever. Yet there are other verses that describe an entirely different kind of destruction. Other verses describe a ‘water’ judgment.

Jeremiah 51: 42, 55, 64 describe Babylon’s “water” judgment.

Verse 42. “The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.”

Verse 55. “Because the LORD hath spoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered.”

Verse 64a. “And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her:”

Combine Jeremiah’s prophecy with two additional passages from Revelation.

Revelation 16:17-20

Verse 17. “And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.

Verse 18. “And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.”

Verse 19. “And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.”

Verse 20. “And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.”

This passage deals describes in part, the seventh and final bowl judgment which is poured out just as The Lord Jesus Christ is about to descend in a triumphant Second Coming.

Verse 18 indicates that a “mega earthquake” or “super earthquake” racks the entire planet. It is an earthquake unlike any before in human history. We know this for two reasons.

#1. The word “great” is the Greek word “megala” which means “super” in power and size and scope.

#2. the phrase “such as was not since men were upon the earth” signals that this is unlike any earthquake mankind has ever seen in human history. It is an earthquake of “epic” or “epoch” proportions.

It is an earthquake of epic proportions that reshapes the entire planet. It is an event of global proportions and not a localized or regionalized event.

There is no specific description of what happens to Babylon, but verse 19b strongly implies that God has not forgotten to finish his judgment on Babylon as part of His overall judgment on the entire world.

We note this because as soon as John finishes mentioning that Babylon also came into God’s memory, John says “every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. John finishes his description of the “mega-quake” or super earthquake of epoch proportions to note that even yet again, God has not forgotten to include Babylon.

Why would anyone think He would forget Babylon? Because people might think that since Babylon had already been destroyed once, by fire God might not include it again in this final bowl judgment. If you’ve destroyed a land once, by fire, what more is there to be done in terms of destruction?
The answer is – to sink it. Sink the land and transform the land that was once Babylon and turn it into a sea bed, or an ocean bed. This is what Jeremiah’s 3 verses that we already noted is pointing towards. Revelation 16: 17-20 simply acknowledges that Babylon is part of this final, seismic judgment on the globe.

This is not the final word on Babylon’s demise. Revelation 17 and 18 further describes the overall reasons for Babylon’s special judgment.
The passages in Revelation chapter 17 describe the nature of Babylon and its connection to Satan and to Satan’s protecting angel that guides, leads and protects Babylon. This angel is the same one that provided similar services to ancient Babylon.

It is the rebel angel who manifested itself as a feminine goddess to ancient Babylon – and was called by the ancient Babylonians – Inanna (in Shumerian dialect) or Ishtar (in the Akkadian or Chaldean dialect)

This angel manifested itself for worship and provided a false salvation program of ‘holy sex’ as a means of salvation. As a result, the ancient Babylonians gave her many titles among the most prominent was the title of “MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS.” Revelation 17: 5 denotes the identity of this angel by referring to the infamous Babylonian title.

Chapter 17 then relates this Satanic trinity and its relationship to Babylon including in verses 12-16 Babylon’s relationship to the “Beast” or “Antichrist.” Those passages indicate that the Antichrist comes to power by a vote of the 10 “horns” in the same one hour time frame as the fiery destruction of Babylon.

Verse 16, is badly mistranslated and misleads readers into thinking that the Antichrist and the 10 horns destroy the harlot woman and her city. This is not so. The verse, in its original Greek grammar describes the destruction of the super-power nation known by its code-name, “Babylon” and the “fire” eats and destroys the “flesh” or the material make up of the super-power nation code-named Babylon.

We know this because of verse 18, which states that the woman is identified as being the super-power nation, Babylon.

Then in chapter 18, we see the material and physical details of Babylon and what happens.

The chapter begins by describing before the judgment, what precedes the judgment. Verses 1 and 2 reiterate the certainty of judgment and the fact that Babylon is a Satanic forward operations base, although that concept is not properly translated into English from the original Greek.

Chapter 18, verse 4 then describes – The Rapture of The Church which takes place just before the final decree of judgment is announced on Babylon.

“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”

The verse may not seem like a “Rapture” verse, again because the Greek nuances in the original text are obscured by English translators. The verse is written in the Greek rules of Grammar called “Imperative Mood.” This means the words written are an “Absolute Command.” There is a single verb that is repeated twice but translated only once as “Come out of her”

The actual Greek text should say, “Come UP and OUT and move towards the speaker.” Where is the speaker who shouts out the command? That speaker just happens to be “from or in Heaven.” Thus the command is to come out and UP into heaven towards the speaker. If this is not a description of the Rapture, then what else is the Rapture? It is also a Pre-Tribulation Rapture event. We’ll prove that claim as we look further into the chapter.

The timing of this Rapture event, precedes the decree and command to execute judgment against Babylon. It precedes the fire judgment described earlier in chapter 17 verse 16 because the two chapters are not linear in time. Chapter 18 is describing the same as chapter 17 but only from a different contextual perspective.

Chapter 17 looks at Babylon primarily from or in the spiritual realm while chapter 18 looks at it primarily from the physical or material realm.

We see that Divine decree of impending judgment issued in the follow up verses of 5 through 8. However verse 6 throws a ringer into the mix.

Verse 6 tells us that God will strike Babylon with 2 judgments.

“Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.”

Notice the word “double.” The word is used three times, indicating that there is more than one, singular judgment.

The first judgment is then described in verses 11 through 20 as a fire judgment. Verses 8, 9, and 18 directly mention this fire and smoke judgment. These verses coincide with the Isaiah and Jeremiah descriptions of the fire judgment.

Revelation 18: 10, 17 and 19 indicate that this fire judgment occurs in one hour of one day. It is the same event as found in the previous chapter 17 and verse 16.

It is also the same one hour which is mentioned in chapter 17 verses 12-14 in which the Antichrist comes to power by a vote of the 10 horns.

Thus, the Rapture of 18:4 is in reality a PRE-TRIB RAPTURE! It occurs prior to the rise to power of the Antichrist. The Rapture precedes the first fire judgment that occurs in one hour of one day. It also then precedes the second judgment which occurs either simultaneously to the Second Coming or just before the Second Coming.

The second judgment is then described in Jeremiah 51: 42, 55, 64 as a water judgment and a sinking so that the sea or ocean waters come up over Babylon and she sinks beneath the waves, never to rise again.

We get a similar description in Revelation 18:21 whichdescribes a different judgment action than what was described earlier in chapter 18. Verse 21 coincides with the description previously revealed in Revelation 16:17-20 and the Jeremiah water/sinking judgment.

Revelation 18:21

“And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.”

Note that an angel takes an action and ‘missiles’ something large into the sea adjacent to Babylon. In regards to the result of that action, the verse describes the direction of Babylon’s demise – “down.” The verse implies a ‘sinking’ action. The next phrase in the verse describes the result. The result is that Babylon shall not be found any more, not at all.

Verse 21b thus describes Babylon as not being able to be found with the implication that it is under the ocean.

Verses 22 and 23a further describes the after-effects to Babylon’s final demise indicating Babylon is to never be inhabited.

And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;

And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee:

This then indicates the total demise of Babylon as not merely a city but also as a super-power nation. Revelation 17:18 tells us that Babylon is NOT a city but a super-power nation, by virtue of the Greek words for Babylon as being “hey polis, hey megala” which translates as “Super-Power Empire” or “nation.”

The judgment description also indicates a total incompatibility with the Messianic prophecies indicating Babylon’s territory is part of the Messianic Kingdom. The Messianic kingdom is a living, thriving kingdom throughout to fulfill the prophetic descriptions given to Abraham and his descendants.
It doesn’t include a burned-out, worthless portion of land nor land that has become a sea bed.

So, on the basis of the Messianic prophecies that includes Babylon and Babylonia and comparing that aspect with the Babylon judgment prophecies, the two concepts are totally contradictory to each other and completely incompatible.

Since the US invasion of Iraq, another factor has come into play regarding the silly notion that ancient Babylon would be rebuilt and be able to meet all of the prophetic criteria of a the prophesied Babylon.

This new factor involves radiation poisoning. US military forces used huge amounts of “depleted uranium” ammunition that consisted of bombs, tank shells, mortar shells and rifled ammunition. The Pentagon has downplayed the environmental hazards of this ammunition and in fact has done its best to rig research results on the basis of protecting national security, but the facts are that after 2 US wars, Iraq is an environmental catastrophe.

Radiation poisoning is responsible for huge leaps in birth defects amongst the Iraqi population.