(From 2006)
Any day now, many Biblically informed people expect to see a headline about
a revival of old Babylon to accompany the constant deluge of Iraq stories.
Hearts beat rather quickly during the prime Saddam years, when the dictator was
giving out that he was in some way the new (or was it the old?) Nebucadnezzar,
and that his Babylon would rise to world prominence again. He was well on the
way to developing his Babylon-centered theme park when several inconvenient
truths dawned on his land. Shock and awe and George Bush, to name a few.
So what's the big deal with Babylon, anyway? It's just a historic wonder, not to be considered a part of anything remotely modern, and definitely not future, right?
Not so fast, not so fast. There are two ways to look at the
Bible's Babylon "doctrine." And maybe both of them are involved in
this horrendous war.
Babylon was a real city. A real empire. Bible students recall how this great power was used by God to come against His own people, Israel. But Babylon overstepped its bounds and allowed pride to enter the mix. God vowed that Babylon would have to go. And go it did, right?
Again, slow down. It aint
necessarily so.
God had promised an immediate destruction. But the city hung on for
many centuries after the Medo-Persians took over the Empire. The conquering
armies of many nations that followed used Babylon as one of their headquarters.
In Jesus' time the city still existed and was indwelt by many Jews.
God cannot lie. Or exaggerate. The city lost power but not existence.
Through Saddam's ingenuity it is still with us. But Revelation 17-18 foretell
the immediate fall of Babylon as still in our future! Will the old
city rise again?
But you say, we all know that "Mystery Babylon" is none other than
the Roman Church. In our day, yes. Back up through the Middle Ages, still yes.
And Imperial Rome, and Greece, and Medo-Persia, and Assyria, they all wore the
robes of Babylon at one time. There were seven heads to the Revelation beast, you will
recall.
What if, in the final flow of world history, Islam and Europe unite and form
a power that has two capitals, two "Babylons"? It is clear that
a Babylon on seven hills (Revelation 17)can only be Rome, but the unfulfilled prophecies
of Isaiah and Jeremiah call us to have an open mind. The mystery is great.
Let's not say we understand it until all the questions are answered.
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