Will we see Babylon rebuilt? A study on Babylon. Chapter 4.

 A symbolic Babylon does not have to be rebuilt because it never went away. So, there must be something that defines whether this is real or symbolic.

Revelation 18:1-2 NASB After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory. (2) And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.

The peculiar thing about this sentence is that it is in the present tense. The piece of the puzzle that makes this understandable is that this is also talking about both Jerusalem and an ideology.

The NASB tries to tame the language by saying hateful birds. Since there are no hateful birds per-say, then there has to be more to the phrase; and there is. As the references in Revelation 18:2 are taken from Isaiah 13:21, then let's look there.

“But the beasts of the waste land will have their holes there; and the houses will be full of crying jackals, and ostriches will have their place there, and evil spirits will be dancing there.” BBE

Young's Literal Translation of the Bible makes this statement:

“Babylon the great, and she became a habitation of demons and a hold of every unclean spirit.”

Another of our associations is with the fallen angels/demons are those held in the Euphrates river.

Revelation 9:14-15 NASB (14) one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." (15) And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released so that they would kill a third of mankind.

The Complete Jewish Bible conveys that it, “be full of owls, ostriches will live there, and wild goats will dance there.” (Isaiah 13:21 CJB)

To the Jewish reader, there is an instant association with the restrictions seen in Leviticus, which warns them to stay away from this place - unfortunately, the place is Jerusalem.

Leviticus 11:13-16 CJB "The following creatures of the air are to be detestable for you—they are not to be eaten, they are a detestable thing: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey, (14) the kite, the various kinds of buzzards, (15) the various kinds of ravens, (16) the ostrich, the screech-owl, the seagull, the various kinds of hawks... (the list continues.)

To make this even worse.

Leviticus 11:24 CJB “The following will make you unclean; whoever touches the carcass of them will be unclean until evening,”

So let's speculate that there are none of these things in Jerusalem. While this theory may work for ostriches, it will not work for most everything else, and it is the uncleanness that is worrisome to the Jew.

Revelation 18:3 CJB "For all the nations have drunk of the wine of God's fury caused by her whoring—yes, the kings of the earth went whoring with her, and from her unrestrained love of luxury the world's businessmen have grown rich."

If what we see here in Revelation 18:3 is to be a rebuilt city, then how is that the nations have drunk of the wine of God's fury caused by her whoring? A city, cannot of itself be a whore, nor can it create on its own the atmosphere conducive to such references.

From Dr. J. Vernon McGee, “"Have drunk" (or are fallen) are the two permitted renderings—both have good manuscript authority. Both are true. The normal rendering is "have drunk." This is God's judgment on big business which denies God's authority. This is the unholy alliance of government and business. We have seen some of this in our day and, frankly, it smells to high heaven. The word for merchants means "those who travel." It is not those who produce goods or manufacture goods, but those who are brokers, engaging in business for a big profit. Business is a sacred cow that nothing must harm or hinder. This is true today, of course. Man uses business as the biggest excuse for having no time for God, yet these same men must finally stand before God. God will judge godless commercialism.”

What about this angel who is saying, fallen is Babylon the great?

If I were to guess, I would say this is Jesus Himself. Did He not show up many times under the guise of The Angel of the Lord?

He did.

Revelation 18:1 NASB After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory.

He is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.

Habakkuk 3:3-4 NASB God comes from Teman And the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His splendor covers the heavens, And the earth is full of His praise. (4) His radiance is like the sunlight; He has rays flashing from His hand, And there is the hiding of His power.

We are still talking about Revelation 18:2 where it speaks of the destruction of Babylon by saying Fallen, fallen.

Fallen is the Greek word piptō, which means to descend from a higher place to a lower; to be thrust down, or to be judged.

[If Babylon is being judged, then here it is either an ideology, a belief system, or a place with people. Since we know that Jerusalem is called Babylon, then it makes sense that the people would be fallen because Israel is part of the judgment.]

Once again, we are not directed to a physically rebuilt infrastructure, but we are directed to Jerusalem.

“She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.”

Simply look up pictures of Babylon today and it looks like a typical desert town; sparse housing, little to no shade, it looks HOT and barren. If you were part of the World Economic Forum, where would you have your team meetings? Yeah, I thought so, Davos Switzerland, a place that is lush, green, and appeals to the lifestyles of the rich and famous. NO ONE is going to go there anymore.

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Will we see Babylon rebuilt? A study on Babylon. Chapter 2.

 Difficulties with Revelation 17:18.

Revelation 17:18 NASB, “The woman whom you saw, is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.”

The woman – which we know to be symbolic, is the great city.

When we talk about a city’s greatness, aren’t we describing the beauty, the government, the art, the people, and the architecture?

While that may have been Babylon, it is no longer. There is little about the Shinar region, in the modern physical realm, that makes Babylon great, with possibly one exception, its location between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The former tyrant, Saddam Hussein, had initiated a restoration program on the hanging garden, but that came to an end with the US invasion of Iraq in the early 1990s. There is also one of Saddam’s palaces sitting atop a nearby hill, but that is also in disrepair.

In speaking of the woman, Zechariah has much to say.

Then the angel who was speaking with me, went out and said to me, “Lift up now your eyes and see what this is going forth.” I said, “What is it?” And he said, “This is the ephah going forth.” Again he said, “This is their appearance in all the land (and behold, a lead cover was lifted up); and this is a woman sitting inside the ephah.” Then he said, “This is Wickedness!” And he threw her down into the middle of the ephah and cast the lead weight on its opening. Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and there two women were coming out with the wind in their wings, and they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heavens. I said to the angel who was speaking with me, “Where are they taking the ephah?” Then he said to me, “To build a temple for her in the land of Shinar; and when it is prepared, she will be set there on her own pedestal.” (Zechariah 5:5-11 NASB)

We just saw that “they” are building that “wicked woman,” a temple in Shinar’s plain. Shinar happens to be the place where the tower was being built, and after God dispersed them all, it was called Babel. But we have a problem. Look at how the New Living Translation reads.

Zechariah 5:11 NLT He replied, “To the land of Babylonia, where they will build a temple for the basket. And when the temple is ready, they will set the basket there on its pedestal.”

They are building a temple for the basket. Perhaps our assumption should be that the woman is included in this deal, but maybe not.

The word bayith, translated temple, can mean any of several things ranging from a house to a prison.

The Bible in Basic English tells us that they are merely making a place ready and put her there in the place, which is hers.

The first piece of information we are given about this woman is that the woman is representative of WICKEDNESS. Wickedness in the Hebrew is rish‛âh and means moral wickedness. Secondly, the angel throws her back down into the basket and slams the lead lid down upon her, demonstrating God’s total lack of respect for this entity. The third thing we need to consider is these two “women” that are coming out to gather up the basket. Look at the description of the two, as they have stork wings. These are not angels, and Dr. J. Vernon McGee points out, “They had wings like the wings of a stork”—that is, powerful wings. In Scripture, the stork is not a picture of an angel. It is a dirty bird, an unclean bird.” (and therefore unacceptable to a Jew.) Emphasis mine.

Since we are plainly told in Revelation 17:18 that the woman is the great city, then what city is being spoken of?

In Revelation 16:19, we get an answer.

The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath. (NASB)

Dr. J. Vernon McGee straightforwardly tells us, “This concludes the Great Tribulation period. There is a great earthquake, and it divides the “great city,” which is Jerusalem. The earthquake divides this city into three parts. Although the center of the quake is in Jerusalem, it is not confined to Jerusalem because we are told that “the nations’ cities fell.” This tells us something of the extent and the vast destruction of the earthquake.”

We already mentioned, Rev 14:8, where it says,

“And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”

To accept Babylon as a literal rebuild, as some would suggest, I have to set aside the bible’s clear communication that Jerusalem is referred to as Babylon. And, I have to ignore what Revelation 14:8 tells us, how that Israel/Jerusalem made all the nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornications.

How is that possible that the entire world must partake of the wrath?

Israel, even before they were called Israel, never stopped following after other gods. Evidence of this can be seen as Moses leads them out of Egypt. In short order, they had set up Moloch’s tent and had Aaron build them the god Moloch, upon which they roasted their babies in sacrifice.

Another possible example of Israel’s sins (fornications.) I have learned that not only is Isaiah 53 forbidden reading, but based upon an ancient Rabbi’s assessment, the book of Daniel is considered to be so holy that it defiles the one who touches it and is therefore forbidden reading material. In both these instances, we are dealing with prophetic books from the Tanakh that expressly define Yahshua as the Messiah. So there has been a united effort to keep the Jewish people away from the truth.

The Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, tells us Babel or Babylon is the name of more than one city in the scriptures and other ancient writings.

The ISBE instructs us that Babylon is used in a literal sense and a symbolic sense. They continue by saying, “All the references to Babylon in Revelation are evidently symbolic. Some of the most important passages are Rev_14:8; Rev_16:19; Rev_17:5; Rev_18:2, Rev_18:10, Rev_18:21. In Rev_17:5, Babylon is designated as mustērion or mystery Babylon. “This undoubtedly indicates that the name is to be understood (in this instance) figuratively.” Emphasis mine.

The Greek word mustērion means a hidden thing, secret, mystery, and, according to Thayer, religious secrets confided only to the initiated and not to ordinary mortals.

I can associate this aspect of the religious secrets to the Rabbis prohibiting the reading of Isaiah53 and all of Daniel.

Will we see Babylon rebuilt? A study on Babylon.

 Isaiah13:1 NASB The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

Chapter one.

I recently attended a prophecy conference where both Dr. Mark Hitchcock and Dr. Andy Wood spoke. Both of these men have books about Babylon and take a position that says Babylon is a literal place that will be rebuilt. Dr. Mark Hitchcock has a book entitled The Second Coming of Babylon, but he did not speak on the subject during the conference; however, Dr. Andy Wood did.

I might be the only one that feels this way, but I have a tendency to listen to someone with the title Doctor in front of their name and wonder, is it appropriate that my heart and mind disagree with what they are saying.

The conference ended, and only days later, I started looking in my book collection, and there found Mark Hitchcock’s book on Babylon. As I began to reread the book, I paid particular attention to the statement that he also believes that Babylon, in some way, will be rebuilt.

Sorry, I just can’t see it, and I feel a need to ask why they do?

I heard Dr. Andy Wood at the conference speak expressly about Babylon. He reasoned that Babylon must be rebuilt, but like most other university lectures I have attended, I find it impossible to absorb the information given in such a short time and at such a rapid pace. Home, sometime later, and I have my E sword bible application active on my computer, and I just happened to have Smith’s Bible Dictionary opened. It says,

“Babylon, in the Apocalypse, is the symbolical name by which Rome is denoted. (Revelation 14:8; Revelation 17:18.)”

If I hold to the thought that Babylon is symbolic, my life will be more at ease, as neither one of these passages above, no matter the translation, speak of Rome.

So the idea that Babylon refers to Rome must come from some other source.

The common assertion is that the legs of iron, and the feet of iron mixed with clay, in Nebuchadnezzar’s statue dream somehow identify the fourth empire as the Roman empire. If that is the case, then why doesn’t scripture tell us, a little more directly, that we should be looking for Rome to fulfill the prophecies of the Revelation when Babylon and the Medo-Persian empires are clearly defined.

The Grecian empire takes a little more work. Biblical scholars and historians have concluded that the third empire was the Grecian empire under Alexander. Fortunately, Joel Richardson, in his book, The Islamic Antichrist, gives an in-depth explanation as to why we are NOT dealing with Rome when we look at the legs of iron and the feet mixed with clay. We do, however, have every reason to consider the Assyrians and those related to that empire.

By the way, one of the names of the Antichrist is the Assyrian, and the prophet Micah is one of our primary resources to support this statement.

Micah 5:5a. NASB When the Assyrian invades our land, …

Another prophetic writer that adds their voice in accord with Micah is Isaiah.

Isaiah 10:24b. NASB ...My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear the Assyrian who strikes you with the rod and lifts up his staff against you, the way Egypt did.

Isaiah 14:25 NLT I will break the Assyrians when they are in Israel; I will trample them on my mountains. My people will no longer be their slaves nor bow down under their heavy loads.

And finally, Isaiah 31:8b NASB where it says,

“And the Assyrian will fall by a sword, not of man,”

What does it mean a sword, not of man?

The answer is relatively obvious if you have read the Revelation.

Revelation 19:15 NASB From His mouth (Jesus) comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. Emphasis mine.

I do not want to take up space and time here, developing Daniel’s explanation to Nebuchadnezzar entirely because history and other sources define the statue dream, but I will give you a taste. Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar that he is the head of gold. Under Belshazzar’s rule, we know that the Medo-Persian empire conquered Babylon; and the third empire was the Grecian under Alexander’s reign.

Ah, but what happened at the death of Alexander?

You have to study Daniel 11:3-45 to find the answer to this question. This section of scripture is filled with all the intrigue of a television soap opera, and fast forwards to the Antichrist and his power play. The two final, major kingdoms, signified by the legs of iron, were both initially ruled by two of Alexander’s former generals. By the time we get to the feet, neither of the empires remained true to their Grecian blood. The Seleucid empire in the north, which engulfed Jerusalem, became primarily Assyrian - the descendants of the Babylonian empire...

If you look up the word mixed, which you find in Daniel’s explanation to Nebuchadnezzar of the toes, you will find the word Arab.

Rome comes into the picture only because:

First, Rome conquered Jerusalem; Secondly, Herod’s temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. under the Roman rule of Titus. Sadly, few take this study of the destruction of the temple to the next step, as that is where we find Josephus and Tacitus. Both of these historians recorded that the destruction of the temple can be directly attributed to Assyrian conscript troops, who refused to follow orders to quench the fires that they had started because they had an open hatred of the Jews. Since we choose to read Daniel 9:26, where it says, the people of the prince that is to come, as Titus – the Roman, instead of what the historians provided – Assyrians. With such skewed information, we only have one logical conclusion, we must be looking for the Catholic Pope as the Antichrist, and that does not work.

Our entire concept of Babylon is then tainted by the false narrative of a final, Roman, world leader/Antichrist.