{"id":19002,"date":"2019-09-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-29T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/revelation-053-babylon-the-bookends-of-history-part-2\/"},"modified":"2019-09-29T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-29T05:00:00","slug":"revelation-053-babylon-the-bookends-of-history-part-2","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/revelation-053-babylon-the-bookends-of-history-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 053 – Babylon: The Bookends of History (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[490],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19002","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-revelation","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Revelation 053 - Babylon: The Bookends of History (Part 2)","sermon_date":"20190929","sermon_month":"9","sermon_year":"2019","sermon_notes":7102,"sermon_slides":7103,"sermon_mp3":7104,"sermon_id":"929191213552768","series_or_event":490,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"17\u201218","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nBabylon: The Bookends of History, Part 2\n\nRevelation 17-18\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 53\n\nLet\u2019s take our Bibles\u00a0 if we could and open them to the Book of Revelation, which is easy to find.\u00a0 Amen!\u00a0 Revelation chapter 17 and really verse 5.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is Babylon: The Bookends of History, Part 2.\u00a0 And as\u00a0 you\u2019re turning there I want to thank Gabe Morris for filling in last week and Jim McGowan for filling in on Sunday School and I\u2019m planning on being here every single Sunday till the end of the year and then some after that.\u00a0 [clapping]\u00a0 But it\u2019s always encouraging when you have such capable people to fall back on as Bible teachers. So thank you Gabe and Jim.\u00a0 Let\u2019s give them a round of applause too.\u00a0 [clapping]\n\nWe are entering a section of the Book of Revelation that I believe is one of the least understood passages in the Book of\u00a0 Revelation.\u00a0 It could be very well one of the most misunderstood, most misinterpreted chapters you find anywhere in the Bible.\u00a0 And so consequently before I just jumped right in and started to trying these chapters verse by verse, which we will do, most likely beginning next Sunday morning, I wanted to sort of stop and pause for a minute and give you some back\u00adground on the subject of Babylon because unless you understand what prior Scripture says about Babylon, unless you have the chorus of the Old Testament singing in your ears as you read these chapters you won\u2019t be able to make heads or tails of these chapters.\n\nSo this background on the subject of Babylon really has seven parts to it and we had made it all the way to Roman numeral five last time.\u00a0 But the whole subject of Babylon you\u2019ll recall begins there with Roman numeral 1, The Tower of Babel, (the tower or BAbel as some would call it), which was man\u2019s first attempt at world government.\u00a0\u00a0 It was being built, there are two things to really under\u00adstand about this, and this session that I\u2019m going to do this morning with you is largely build on what I did in the prior sermon on this.\u00a0\u00a0 So if you didn\u2019t get a chance to hear that I would encourage you to go back into our archives on the Sugar Land Bible Church website and listen to that.\u00a0 And I think if you take these two sessions and put them together you\u2019re going to hear something coming from this church that you may have never heard before because these chapters are so misconstrued by so many people.\n\nThe basic thesis that I\u2019m operating from is the following:\u00a0 Babylon means Babylon, isn\u2019t that heavy?\u00a0\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t mean Jerusalem, it doesn\u2019t mean Rome, it doesn\u2019t mean a one-world religious system although that\u2019s part of it.\u00a0 It means Babylon!\u00a0 And the journey really starts at the Tower of Babel where the man\u2019s first attempt at world government took place.\u00a0 And in the Genesis story it\u2019s very clear that that attempt at world government was taking place in a land called Shinar, which we can identify today as between the Euphrates and the Tigris, modern day Iraq.\u00a0 That\u2019s where rebellion first started and God, through the confounding of the language at the time stopped that project dead in its tracks.\n\nAnd when God stopped that project dead in its tracks it had a reverberating consequence to the entire world.\u00a0 The sin that was taking place at Babel, something that we called last time the Mother-Child Cult, a religious system which exported into the whole world.\u00a0 Every nation that has ever existed in some way or some sense can trace its origins back to this Mother-Child system.\u00a0 And because there were not nations at the Tower of Babel the disruption of the language created the different nations and ethnicities and all of them took this religious system into their common groups wherever they went.\u00a0 And we went through that.\n\nAnd so the Tower of Babel, two things to understand about it, number one, it was a building project taking place in a specific geographical area, the land of Shinar.\u00a0 And number two, it truly was the mother of all harlotry.\u00a0 Mother is source, \u00a0your source; from that location this harlotry spread every-where.\u00a0 There\u2019s only one entity on the planet that could qualify to be the mother of all harlotry and that\u2019s the Tower of Babel, for reasons I\u2019ve explained.\u00a0 Only the Tower of Babel had a universal reverberating impact globally because of the confounding of the language into languages.\u00a0 Everyone else is but a daughter harlot, an absorber, but not the mother or the progenitor.\n\nThe second stop on this bus ride, and these two sessions are sort of the kinds of one that you need to really put your thinking caps on because we\u2019re going into an awful lot of detail that you don\u2019t typically get in a local church.\u00a0 But the second stop on this bus ride are the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah.\u00a0 Isaiah 13 and 14 and Jeremiah 50 and 51.\u00a0 And\u00a0 you might recall that we looked that we looked at those a couple of Sunday\u2019s ago.\u00a0 Those chapters deal with the destruction of Babylon.\u00a0 And we made the point that the way these chapters describe Babylon\u2019s fall in no way, shape or form\u00a0 mirrors the past events of history.\u00a0 Babylon never fell cataclysmically, she never fell suddenly, she never fell to the point where she would be desolate forever.\u00a0 That simply has never happened.\n\nAnd most commentators, when they get to these chapters they just say well, you\u2019ve got to make them allegorical or symbolic.\u00a0 The problem is God\u2019s Word means what it says and says what it means\u2026 Amen!\u00a0 God cannot lie!\u00a0 And so in order for these chapters to be fulfilled and Babylon to be destroyed exactly the way God said they would be Babylon has to be brought back to life so she can be destroyed in the specific manner spoken of in these prophecies.\u00a0 That\u2019s why as we move through Revelation 17 and 18 there are countless references to those two chapters.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost as if John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is saying here it is, here\u2019s the place in history where Isaiah and Jeremiah\u2019s long awaited prophecies will be fulfilled.\n\nThe third stop on this tour through the Bible is the prophet Zechariah, chapter 5 and verses 5-11 and we read those verses if you recall, it\u2019s the story of a woman, she\u2019s put in a basket, a lead covering is placed over the basket.\u00a0 And at a specific point in time she\u2019s going to be let out of that basket and she\u2019s going to build a system of commerce and religion in a specific part of the world and that specific part of the world, Zechariah 5:11, is guess where.\u00a0 Shinar.\u00a0 [Zechariah 5:11, \u201cThen the angel who was speaking with me went out and said to me, \u201cLift up now your eyes and see what this is going forth.\u201d]\n\nShinar is exactly where the nation of Israel went into captivity.\u00a0 More important than that it\u2019s the exact part of the world, modern day Iraq, where the Tower of Babel, man\u2019s first attempt at world government against the purpose of God, that first attempt took place.\u00a0 So where everything began according to these prophecies you\u2019re starting to see (hopefully) is the same place where everything will end.\n\nWe made the point that the woman in that basket is the same woman that you read about in Revelation 17.\u00a0 We went through those parallels.\u00a0 And so this woman that you read about in Revelation 17, this harlot, this woman that rides the beast, that woman exists largely because she was sprung out of the basket at the right time to try to complete what God disrupted in Genesis 11, to try to build a (what we would call) a new world order, a one-world system of economics, politics, and religion, a very system that you\u2019re seeing coming together right now in our world.\u00a0 And yet it\u2019s located in a specific place of the earth; the headquarters of it are a specific place of the earth, Shinar, or what today we would call modern day Iraq.\n\nArthur Pink, you might recall, makes this point, the prophecy or a vision of Zechariah 5 contains that germ which is afterwards expanded AND developed in such detail in Revelation 17 an 18.\u00a0 That\u2019s clue number three.\n\nNow you move into clue number four and it\u2019s interesting how these clues are developing, and we haven\u2019t even gotten to our principle passage yet, Revelation 17 and 18.\u00a0 These are just things that the Holy Spirit expects the reader to have in mind when they read these chapters.\u00a0\u00a0 Clue number four is this reference to the Kings of the East.\u00a0 Somehow, some way a vast army, Revelation\u00a0 9:14 and Revelation 16:12, sixth trumpet, sixth bowl, judgment both speak of it and an army is being summoned from the east.\u00a0 [Revelation 9:14, \u201cone saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, \u2018Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.\u201d\u2019\u00a0 Revelation 16:12, \u201cThe sixth angel<\/em> poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east.\u201d]\n\nAnd in the Bible when you do a word study on \u201ceast\u201d east always means Babylon.\u00a0 It\u2019s always referring to that area between the Euphrates and the Tigris, really that part of the world where human history started.\u00a0 And I think these armies are being summoned from that part of the world because that\u2019s yet another clue, that\u2019s clue number 4, but that area of the world is destined to be the headquarters of the antichrist yet future.\n\nSo the clues have been building and finally we got to Roman numeral V, the end time harlot where we learn that there is going to be a system and a city built in that part of the world, and that city\u2019s name is what?\u00a0 It\u2019s Babylon!\u00a0 Revelation 18:10, among many verses that we could quote, says,\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cWoe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Now at this point people have a choice as to what to do with that name \u201cBabylon.\u201d\u00a0 The vast majority of commentators out there simply wave a magic wand and change the meaning of the word\u2014Babylon\u00a0 means whatever you want it to be.\n\nI even had one fellow send his book and the point of the book is Babylon in Revelation 17 and 18 is New York City, and the harlot is the Statue of Liberty.\u00a0 And the guy kind of wrote me a letter that he enclosed with the book boasting on the fact that he has like a thousand footnotes to back up his view.\u00a0 And I thought to myself, well you\u2019d better have a thousand footnotes because you\u2019re on the wrong continent, first of all.\u00a0 New York City, whatever you think about it, at best would be a daughter harlot, but NOT the mother of all harlotry.\u00a0 You see that.\u00a0 And when we go through the Book of Revelation, and I\u2019ve tried to make a point of this as we\u2019ve gone through the book, every time you see an area of geography it always refers to a literal place.\u00a0 So why would Babylon be any different?\u00a0 And I believe the slide that I closed with last time was this one here, as you go through these chapters you start to see these references over and over again.\u00a0 And the only logical place they fit is in what the Bible describes concerning literal Babylon.\n\nNow here is what is being done in the minds of most commentators today. What they say is this: yeah, that\u2019s all true Andy, but when you look at verse five you\u2019ll see the word \u201cmystery.\u201d\u00a0 In fact, notice, if you will, Revelation 17:5, it says, \u201cOn her forehead a name was written, \u2018Mystery: Babylon the Great\u2019 the mother of harlots, and of the abominations of the earth.\u201d And in their minds they think \u201cmystery\u201d means mystical.\u00a0 Mystery means symbolic and so the very, very best interpreters that\u00a0 you have\u00a0 out there, even someone that I think as highly of John Walvoord believe that he doesn\u2019t have to follow the literal intent of the word Babylon because of the word mystery.\n\nHe writes in his Revelation commentary, a very good commentary which I recommend to you, although I don\u2019t agree with what he\u2019s saying here.\u00a0 \u201cThe city here according to verse 5 is a mystery, not a literal city.\u201d\u00a0 Here is another commentator, S. S. Bruce, he writes the following concerning Revelation 17:5.\u00a0 \u201cThe title written on her forehead, \u2018Mystery,\u2019 Mystery indicates that the name she bears is not to be\u00a0 understood literally but allegorically.\u201d\u00a0 Watch this!\u00a0 \u201cBabylon the Great is read but Rome is meant.\u201d\n\nLet me say that again.\u00a0 \u201cBabylon the Great is read but Rome is meant!\u201d\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t say Babylon here, it really says Rome and I\u2019m just going to wave a magic wand over that word and turn the word Babylon into Rome, not Babylon in the east but Rome in the west and I can do that because of the use of this word \u201cmystery\u201d which means mystical.\u201d So if you believe it\u2019s mystical Babylon or mystery Babylon then you can make it Rome, you could make it New York City, you could make it Las Vegas, you could make it Jerusalem, you can turn it into whatever you want to turn it into allegedly because of this word \u201cmystery.\u201d\n\nNow look very carefully at this slide here.\u00a0 On the upper portion of the slide you have the King James Version and the NIV [New International Version].\u00a0 Some of\u00a0 you may use the NIV,\u00a0 you might be NIV positive and notice that the word \u201cmystery\u201d in the harlot\u2019s title on her forehead is capitalized.\u00a0 You see that?\u00a0 So if you are using the NIV or the KJV you\u2019re going to think that the title on her forehead is Mystery Babylon, because Mystery is capitalized, making it part of her title.\n\nBut look at the bottom of the screen; you see the New American Standard Bible?\u00a0 See the difference, \u201cmystery\u201d is not capitalized, meaning that \u201cmystery\u201d is not part of her title, as the NASB translated or rendered it, they give her title Babylon the Great, and according to that lower translation \u201cmystery\u201d is just something that God is now revealing about Babylon.\u00a0 Now when you look at these two titles by these different translations and every translation, none of them are inerrant because they\u2019re just English translations.\u00a0 I actually use all of them at different junctures, maybe not the NIV so much but I\u2019m a KJV guy, or NASB guy.\u00a0 But you look at this very carefully and you say well no wonder everybody\u2019s confused about this.\u00a0 It says one thing in the KJV and something totally different in the NASB.\n\nSo here\u2019s the issue; which one of these is correct?\u00a0 Well here\u2019s the deal, the name Babylon the Great is used five other times in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 Let me give\u00a0 you those verses\u00a0 if I could; just jot these down because we don\u2019t have time to read them all.\u00a0 Revelation 14:8, Revelation 16:19, Revelation 18:2, Revelation 18:10, and Revelation 18:21.\n\n[Revelation 14:8, \u201cAnd another angel, a second one, followed, saying, \u201c Fallen, fallen is Babylon \u00a0the great<\/strong>, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.\u201d\u00a0 Revelation 16:19, \u201cThe 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. King.\u201d\n\nRevelation 18:2, \u201cAnd he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, \u201c 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.\u201d\u00a0 Revelation 18:10, \u201cstanding at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, \u2018Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Revelation 18:21, \u201cThen a strong angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, \u201cSo will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence, and will not be found any longer.\u201d]\n\nApparently it\u2019s possible to translate it both ways.\u00a0 You either put \u201cmystery\u201d in her title which argues for an allegorical interpretation, \u201cmystic Babylon.\u201d\u00a0 Or \u201cmystery\u201d doesn\u2019t go in her title, arguing for a more literal interpretation.\u00a0 So here\u2019s the issue; which one is right.\u00a0 Well I think NASB translators have it right.\u00a0 Now I know that\u2019s disappointing to people that are KJV only, there\u2019s a lot of people\u00a0 out there that think the King James Version is the version the Apostle Paul used.\u00a0 And I think it\u2019s a very good translation, I like it; it\u2019s not perfect.\u00a0 So why would I think the NASB has it right and the KJV has it wrong?\u00a0 Because every other time that the references to Babylon the Great, five other times her name is given, she is never called, EVER, mystery Babylon.\u00a0 She\u2019s always called Babylon the Great.\u00a0 So if you turn her into mystery Babylon you translate that word in a way that she is never given that title anywhere else.\n\nSo the word \u201cmystery\u201d in and of itself\u201d (in my opinion) does not give the interpreter the right to allegorize, to deliteralize the passage.\u00a0 What it\u2019s saying is Babylon\u2019s role in the end times is a mystery.\u00a0 Remember what a mystery is?\u00a0\u00a0 The Greek dictionary defines a mystery or a must\u0113rion<\/em> as something now disclosed previously hidden.\u00a0 Paul the Apostle, in Colossians 1:26 uses the word \u201cmystery\u201d in the same way, something hidden but now revealed.\u00a0 [Colossians 1:26, \u201cthat is<\/em>, the mystery which has been hidden from the past<\/em> ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints.\u201d]\n\nIn other words, when John penned this word on the harlot\u2019s forehead in the Book of Revelation it was never his intention to get the reader to understand that really it\u2019s mystical Babylon, symbolic Babylon; it\u2019s simply Babylon the Great and she has a role in the end times which has never been revealed thus far.\n\nNow if I\u00a0 haven\u2019t confused you yet let me make another attempt at it.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice what the mystery is; the mystery or the new truth that\u2019s being disclosed here is not the fact that Babylon is going to have a dominant role in the end time.\u00a0 That\u2019s already been disclosed in prior passages that we\u2019ve studied, Zechariah 5 and the others.\u00a0 What it is revealing is the interaction between the woman and the beast is a mystery.\u00a0 That\u2019s never been disclosed because as you go through Bible prophecy you start to see these two strands of prophetic truth developing.\u00a0 You see the empire of the beast, probably originating in Europe, described in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7.\n\nThen you have other strands of prophetic truth that say now wait a minute, there\u2019s another role that\u2019s going to be played here by Babylon in Iraq.\u00a0 Those two strands of prophetic truth are on the horizon, they are developing as you look through the pages of God\u2019s Word how are these two strands of prophetic truth resolved?\u00a0 That\u2019s the mystery!\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s never been disclosed before because what we learn in this chapter is the antichrist coming from Revived Europe, Daniel 2, Daniel 7, eventually is sending the world power at some point is going to become jealous perhaps, of the city Babylon, which is reigning over the kings of the earth and he will attack it and destroy it.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Revelation 17 is speaking of and that\u2019s the mystery.\u00a0 A woman rides the beast is the mystery. Babylon trying to get the upper hand over the antichrist\u2019s system and yet the antichrist doesn\u2019t like it and he turns on the city.\u00a0 That\u2019s a mystery.\n\nSo the term \u201cmystery\u201d was never designed by the Holy Spirit to communicate that Babylon doesn\u2019t mean Babylon.\u00a0 It\u2019s describing a prophetic interaction that\u00a0 you have no resolution to if you didn\u2019t have Revelation 17 and 18 in your Bible.\u00a0 But there\u2019s two images here, a woman rides a beast; the woman is the city of Babylon; the beast is the antichrist!\u00a0 Babylon in some way seems to even get a larger role over the antichrist, making him jealous, causing him to turn on her.\u00a0 And the reason John is going into all this as he\u2019s mentioned there back in chapter 16 with the seventh trumpet, the destruction of Babylon, now he\u2019s giving us a non-parenthetical chronological insertion and he\u2019s saying let me tell\u00a0 you how it\u2019s all going to pan out.\u00a0 That\u2019s the mystery.\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s never before been revealed or disclosed.\n\nArthur Pink, in his book, The Antichrist<\/em>, has it 100% correct on this.\u00a0 We believe that the English translators have misled many by printing on their own authority the word \u201cMYSTERY\u201d in large capital letters, thus making it appear that this was part of the woman\u2019s name.\u00a0 This we are assured is a mistake that mystery is connected with the woman herself and not with her name is clear from verse 7, where the angel says unto John, \u201cI will tell you the mystery of the woman and the beast that carries her.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s the mystery.\u00a0 If you want to know what the mystery is it\u2019s the interaction between the beast and the city of Babylon.\u00a0\u00a0 You can see how mystery applies to both entities.\u00a0 It\u2019s never designed to communicate the idea that Babylon is somehow allegorical Babylon, mystery Babylon.\n\nSo what am I trying to say?\u00a0 I\u2019m trying to say this:\u00a0 Babylon means Babylon!\u00a0 That\u2019s the point.\n\nAnd having said all of that, most likely you\u2019ve been sitting in church for a long time and you\u2019ve never heard this before; you\u2019ve heard every other theory out there, and I want to walk through here Roman numeral VI, the inadequate theories that don\u2019t deal adequately with the subject matter at hand.\u00a0 And each theory fails because they will tell you that Babylon doesn\u2019t mean Babylon.\u00a0 They de-literalize the word.\u00a0 Each theory fails because they take a daughter and turn it into a mother.\u00a0 There\u2019s only one mother, that\u2019s the Tower of Babel where this rebellion started where apparently it will end that exported apostasy and abominations into the whole world.\u00a0 Rome never did that.\u00a0 Rome shows up too late on the world team for that to happen.\u00a0 Jerusalem never did that.\u00a0 Las Vegas never did that.\u00a0 San Francisco never did that.\u00a0 Washington D.C. never did that\u2026 well, I\u2019ll have to think twice about that one!\u00a0 [Laugher]\n\nIt\u2019s describing the mother, not the daughter.\u00a0 All these other theories are talking about a daughter, which looks similar at points but it\u2019s just a daughter.\u00a0 There\u2019s only one mother in this whole thing and that is the Tower of Babel.\u00a0 So let\u2019s look at some of these inadequate theories.\u00a0 Number one, people say oh, this is just a religious system, that\u2019s all it is.\u00a0 Look at verse 18, is verse 18 in your Bible, of chapter 17.\u00a0 Just look at it, open your Bible, us there a verse 18 there?\u00a0 Is anybody\u2019s verse 18 missing?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think so.\u00a0 Verse 18 is the most important verse in that whole chapter because that\u2019s where the angel tells you what the woman is.\u00a0 And most people just ignore verse 18 and yet how can you do that when that\u2019s the interpretation.\u00a0 It\u2019s like trying to get directions somewhere and drive somewhere and not paying attention to the map.\n\nRevelation 17:18 says, \u201cThe woman you saw is the great city\u201d the woman with Babylon the Great on her forehead is an actual city.\u00a0 Revelation 18:10 says the exact same thing, \u201cWoe, woe to the great\u201d what? \u201ccity, Babylon the Great,\u201d same Greek word, it\u2019s the Greek word polis<\/em>, you might recognize the word metropolis, polis<\/em> added to the end of that word metropolis, meaning a city.\u00a0 And most people, when they interpret this, and I don\u2019t know why it is, I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s blinders, I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s something in the subconscious, but they chop off verse 18 and they don\u2019t interact with it.\n\nAgain, John Walvoord, I\u2019ll mention him in just a minute, but first E. W. Bullinger, says, \u201cIt is indeed surprising how any mistake could have been made in the identification of this woman. For the Holy Spirit first shows us her very name upon her forehead. Then, in verse 18, He tells us as plainly as words can tell anything, that \u2018the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.\u201d\u00a0 Chapter 16 verse 19, 17 verse 5 identifies this city with Babylon.\u00a0 God says it is a \u2018city.\u2019 He does not say a system<\/em> or a religion<\/em>, but a \u2018CITY.<\/strong>\u2019\u201d\n\nIt is indeed surprising how any mistake could have been made in the identification of this woman. For the Holy Spirit first shows us her very name upon her forehead. Then, in verse 18, He tells us as plainly as words can tell anything, that \u2018the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth\u2019, and chap. xvi. 19, as well as xvii. 5, identifies this city with Babylon. God says it is a \u2018city.\u2019 He does not say a system<\/em> or a religion<\/em>, but a \u2018CITY.\u2019\u201d<\/strong>\n\nNow notice this quote from John Walvoord, who again is a mentor, one of the greats, and the reason I quote John Walvoord is not to pick on him but just to show you that the best of the best make this error.\u00a0 He writes, \u201cBabylon, ecclesiastically symbolized by the woman in Revelation 17<\/u>,\u201d aha, he doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s a city, he thinks it\u2019s just a religious system, \u201cproposes a common worship and a common religion through uniting in a world church<\/u>.\u201d\u00a0 Not a city, a church.\u00a0 \u201cThis is destroyed by the beast in Revelation 17:16 who thus fulfills the will of God (Revelation 17:17)<\/u>.\u2019\u00a0 And then he starts to move into Revelation 18 and he just chopped off which verse in his refutation?\u00a0 The very last verse in the chapter, which is the most important verse because it tells you who this woman is.\u00a0 Why would he do that?\u00a0 Because he is under what many of us are under and have to struggle with, presuppositions or blinders.\u00a0 He believes in his heart of hearts it\u2019s just a religious system and so verse 18 is sort of an inconvenient truth.\u00a0 And so you just skip right over it.\n\nI can show you countless commentators of very high repute who do this over and over and over again.\u00a0 You say well, Andy, is this a city or is this a system?\u00a0 And the answer is yes.\u00a0 It\u2019s the city of Babylon which is the headquarters of the system.\u00a0 It\u2019s just like the tower of Babel; remember the tower of Babel, it was an actual city on planet earth and yet it was the headquarters of the Mother-Child system.\u00a0 When I use the word Wall Street what do you think of? A financial system.\u00a0 But did you know that Wall Street is an actual street in New York City?\u00a0 It\u2019s a city, an actual place on planet earth which is the headquarters of a financial system.\u00a0 How about Hollywood?\u00a0 What do you think when I say that word?\u00a0 (Maybe you shouldn\u2019t think too much about that.)\u00a0 It\u2019s a system of marketing, it\u2019s system of media and yet Hollywood is an actual place on planet earth.\u00a0 How about Madison Avenue?\u00a0 That\u2019s a system of marketing but Madison Avenue is an actual place on planet earth.\u00a0 How about Vatican City?\u00a0 Everybody thinks of Roman Catholicism but Vatican City also is an actual place on planet earth.\n\nAnd this is what John is seeing here.\u00a0 Yes, he\u2019s seeing a system but he\u2019s not shy on the fact as to the geographical area where this system will be located.\u00a0 So simply arguing that this is a religious system doesn\u2019t interact at all with the very last verse in the chapter.\n\nThe second view that\u2019s out there is people think this is the city of Jerusalem.\u00a0 Why would they think that?\u00a0 Because Jerusalem all the way through the Old Testament when she is wayward against God is called a harlot.\u00a0 Ezekiel 16, Ezekiel 23, Hosea chapter 9, the whole Book of Hosea really, Hosea 9 and verse 1.\u00a0\u00a0 And so because it says \u201charlot\u201d on her forehead it\u2019s Jerusalem.\n\nHank Hanegraaff, in his book The Apocalypse Code,<\/em> this\u00a0 does not mean misunderstanding some\u00adthing he said on the radio, this is something in his book, and he writes this:\u00a0 What has puzzled me over the years is not the identity of \u201cthe great prostitute,\u201d but how so many could mistake her historical identity...In biblical history only one nation is inextricably linked to the moniker \u201charlot.\u201d And that nation is Israel! Anyone who has read the Bible even once has flashbacks to the graphic images of apostate Israel when they first encounter the great prostitute of Revelation. From the Pentateuch to the Prophets, the image is repeated endlessly. Perhaps the most gut-wrenching portrayal of Israel is the prostitute found in Hosea.\u201d\u00a0 [Hank Hanegraaff,\u00a0 The Apocalypse Code: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Find out What the Bible Really Says About the End Times and Why It Matters<\/em> (Nashville, TN: Nelson, 2007), 118, 19-20.]\n\nThis fits with his replacement theology, that God is through with Israel, and after all she is a harlot and God is going to wipe her out or destroy her.\u00a0 In fact, Hanegraaff\u00a0 believes God already destroyed Israel in A. D. 70.\u00a0 He believes this, the Book of Revelation, is a prophecy written in thee 60\u2019s largely fulfilled in the events of A.D. 70.\u00a0 Why does he think that?\u00a0 He thinks \u201charlot\u201d means Jerusalem; \u201charlot\u201d means Israel!\u00a0\u00a0 And yes it does many times mean that in the Old Testament.\u00a0 But what about Isaiah 23:17, where Tyre, modern day Lebanon, a Gentile city, is called a what?\u00a0 A harlot.\u00a0 [Isaiah 23:17, \u201cIt will come about at the end of seventy years that the Lord will visit Tyre. Then she will go back to her harlot\u2019s wages and will play the harlot with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.\u201d]\n\nWhat about Nahum, chapter 3, verse 4 where Nineveh, the city that Jonah fled from and was commanded to preach to, a Gentile city, is also called a harlot. [Nahum 3:4, \u201cAll<\/em> because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the charming one, the mistress of sorceries, who sells nations by her harlotries and families by her sorceries.\u201d]\u00a0 So yes, Jerusalem is called a harlot many times in the Bible but so are Gentile cities.\u00a0 So why would it be a big deal to have Babylon in modern day Iraq also called a harlot?\u00a0 What\u2019s interesting is as you go through the Bible the name \u201cJerusalem\u201d is mentioned 800 times.\u00a0 The name Babylon is mentioned 300 times, all the way through the Old Testament.\u00a0 In fact, Babylon is where the nation of Israel went into captivity to; those cities were always kept separate.\u00a0 They\u2019re always kept independent.\n\nSo why would John, at the end of the Book of Revelation take those cities, which are always separate, always independent, and merge them together?\u00a0 That\u2019s an impossibility!\u00a0 Beyond that, how could the Book of Revelation be fulfilled in A.D. 70 when it\u2019s very clear from church history, going back to Irenaeus, that the Book of Revelation was written in A.D. 95.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t A. D. 95 after A. D. 70, by a quarter of a century?\u00a0 How could a book written 25 years later be a prophecy about something that happened 25 years earlier?\u00a0 Do you follow?\u00a0 So this idea that somehow Babylon equals Jerusalem, whether it\u2019s from the preterist angel, meaning\u00a0 past, the angle that Hanegraaff is coming from, or any other angle, just doesn\u2019t make any sense.\u00a0 So it\u2019s not a religious system, it\u2019s not Jerusalem.\n\nNow by far the most popular interpretation out there is that Babylon equals Rome.\u00a0 Most Christians have been taught that, probably their entire lives.\u00a0 Babylon is not in modern day Iraq in the east; Babylon is actually a code name for Rome in the west.\u00a0 Why do people think that?\u00a0 Go down to Revelation 17 and notice verses 9 and 10.\u00a0 \u201cHere is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, [10] and they are seven kings;\u201d now people see those words \u201cseven mountains\u201d and what they think it means is seven hills, it\u2019s the seven hills of Rome they say.\u00a0 Ancient Rome, even to some extent modern day Rome, being laid out on seven hills.\u00a0 And they think that that therefore is speaking of Rome.\n\nFirst of all, does it say seven hills there?\u00a0 Look at that, it doesn\u2019t say seven hills, it says seven what?\u00a0 Mountains.\u00a0 The Greek word there is ora<\/em>, there\u2019s a completely different word for hill.\u00a0 And I\u2019m very much in favor of literal interpretation except when the Bible wants to be understood allegorically and this is the case where the text specifically says \u201cthe seven mountains\u201d represent something else.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 Because I have verse 10, \u201cAnd they\u201d the seven mountains, \u201care seven kings.\u201d\u00a0 So it\u2019s not even supposed to be calling our attention to seven hills or seven mountains; these seven mountains represent seven kings.\u00a0 Now as you go through prophetic material what you\u2019ll see, Daniel 2:37-38, that king and kingdom are used synonymously.\u00a0 [Daniel 2:37-38, You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory; [38] \u00a0<\/sup>and wherever the sons of men dwell, or<\/em> the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them<\/em> into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold.\u201d]\n\nIt\u2019s like when I say today the Trump, Donald Trump did X.\u00a0 I\u2019m using \u201cTrump\u201d as a synonym for the White House or the executive branch of government, for a decision made by the United States of America.\u00a0 So we switch from king to kingdom very quickly.\u00a0 That\u2019s exactly what you have going on here in Daniel 2:37-38 where Nebuchadnezzar is called a king whom God has given the kingdom.\u00a0 See the switch?\u00a0 Who are these seven mountains?\u00a0 We\u2019ll be talking about them as we go through these chapters but they are not the seven hills of Rome; they are seven kings representing seven kingdoms which have been intoxicated throughout history by the Babylonian system.\u00a0 Egypt, Syria, Medo-Persia, Babylon, Greece, Rome, and then finally the Revived Roman System under the anti-Christ.\u00a0 More on that later.\n\nBeyond that, how many images do you have in Revelation 17?\u00a0\u00a0 A woman named Babylon rides the beast and that\u2019s exactly what it\u2019s going to look like because I found it on the internet.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have one image in Revelation 17, you have two.\u00a0 Watch this very carefully.\u00a0 Revelation 17:3, \u201cHe carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 Now the woman is Babylon, the city.\u00a0 The \u201cscarlet beast\u201d she is riding and what does the scarlet beast have on, that particular beast?\u00a0 Seven horns representing seven mountains (later) and seven kings.\u00a0 Do you follow what just happened here?\u00a0 The seven mountains don\u2019t even go with the woman named Babylon.\u00a0 They\u2019re not even attached to the woman named Babylon.\u00a0 They\u2019re attached to the beast that she is riding.\u00a0 And so therefore it is a total error to connect these seven mountains or allegedly seven hills with the woman; they actually belong to the beast.\n\nSee, these are all things that no one tells you when they give you their interpretation of Revelation 17 and 18.\u00a0 And what people say is well, Brother Andy, Brother Woods, come on, calm down here, we all know that Babylon is a code word for Rome because the Apostle Peter writes in 1 Peter 5:13, \u201cShe who is in Babylon sends\u00a0 you greetings.\u201d\u00a0 And we all know that Peter didn\u2019t die in Babylon, he died in Rome.\u00a0 The problem is what if that verse means what it says?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that amazing that I have to spend hours on a sermon just to tell people the verse means what it says?\u00a0 What if Peter was actually in Babylon when he wrote that?\u00a0 Ever thought about that?\u00a0 Then this whole code theory disappears.\n\nDid Peter actually make it to Babylon?\u00a0 Let me ask you a question.\u00a0 Where was the nation of Israel taken into captivity?\u00a0 Babylon.\u00a0 Did you know that most of them stayed there and did not come back into the land following the end of the seven year captivity?\u00a0 Read Nehemiah, read Ezra, and you\u2019ll see that.\n\nQuestion: Peter is the apostle to the Gentiles or the Jews?\u00a0 The Jews!\u00a0 If Peter is the apostle to the Jews would it not have been logical for him to make a trip to Babylon, where most of the Jews were, to minister to them?\u00a0 In fact, according to Acts 2:9 there were actually people on the day of Pentecost from Mesopotamia (Babylon), Jews, who came to Jerusalem which Jews had to do at certain feast days, to listen to Peter\u2019s sermon on the Day of Pentecost.\n\nBeyond that Josephus makes a very interesting reference, he talks about a habitation at Babylon where there were Jews in great numbers.\u00a0 Why can\u2019t I assume that Peter made a trip there and therefore in 1 Peter 5:13 when he says, \u201cShe who is from Babylon\u201d greet you, why can\u2019t that be taken literally?\u00a0 [1 Peter 5:13, \u201cShe who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings, and so does<\/em> my son, Mark. NASB]\u00a0\u00a0 And people don\u2019t want to hear that because they\u2019ve built this elaborate code system from the 1 Peter reference that a plain reading of the Bible destroys.\u00a0 You wouldn\u2019t believe the headaches I went through on my dissertation trying to get that through and passed; nobody wanted to believe it--- Andy, don\u2019t you know that there was desolation in that part of the world, Strabo in his geography A.D. 25 talks about it.\u00a0 Really?\n\nHave\u00a0 you read Strabo?\u00a0 What does Strabo actually say?\u00a0 \u201cStrabo, who died in A.D. 25, is cited in \u00a0proof that by this time no city was left.\u201d\u00a0 Lange says, \u201cThis is an instance of how easily a lax quotation or assertion may falsify an author and an issue which once done other writers follow easily.\u201d \u00a0One writer makes a mistake and all the other writers follow that first writer, like [can't understand word].\n\nWhat Strabo says is: \u2018And now indeed [Seleucia] has become greater than Babylon, which for the most part<\/em> has become deserted\u2019.\u00a0 [G. H. Lang, The Revelation of Jesus Christ: Select Studies<\/em> (London: Paternoster, 1948), 302.] So Babylon never became completely deserted according to Strabo.\u00a0 That\u2019s a misreading of Strabo.\u00a0 There have always been Jews living in Babylon and so Peter could easily made a journey there to visit them.\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t Peter want to be understood literally at the beginning of his book, when he talks about Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia; do you take those words literally or are they a code?\u00a0 Those are actual places.\u00a0 Why would Peter all of a sudden at the end of the book use another geographical reference and say oh, sorry, just go on with the code.\u00a0 We would never read 1 Peter 1 that way, why would we read 1 Peter 5 that way?\n\nHenry Morris writes this:\u00a0 \u201cAt the very least, it would be confusing to John\u2019s first century readers, as well as to later generations, for him to write so much about Babylon when he really meant Rome (Paul was not afraid to speak directly against Rome in his writings, so why should John be?) or \u2018the false church\u2019 (all the apostles , including John, wrote plainly and scathingly about false teachers and false doctrines in the church and would not hide their teachings by symbols).\u201d Or codes in other words.\u00a0 \u201cIt must be stressed that Revelation means \u201cunveiling,\u201d not \u201cveiling.\u201d In the absence of any statement in the text to the contrary, therefore, we must assume that the term Babylon applies to the real city of Babylon\u2026\u201d\u00a0 [Morris: The Revelation Record, 323<\/em>]\n\nThat\u2019s what it means in the Book of Revelation and that\u2019s what it means in 1 Peter chapter 5.\u00a0 So why does everybody think that Babylon means Rome?\u00a0 It goes right back to Martin Luther who figured out that if you called the Pope the antichrist that would preach; people liked that!\u00a0 And so he (and I have the quote here) Martin Luther, John Calvin, I have the quote here which is a lengthy quote, which I don\u2019t have time to give you, started this practice of demonizing their opposition by referring to Vatican as Babylon and referring to the Pope as the antichrist.\n\nIn other words, Calvin and Luther, who were so careful in their exegesis of the text on the doctrines of the Reformation, sola fide<\/em>, faith alone; sola Christus<\/em>, Christ alone, sola gracias<\/em>, grace alone.\u00a0 I mean, they were just as clear and laborious on those doctrines as\u00a0 you could possibly be and they gave us the great Reformed proof, the five solas.\u00a0 When it came to the Book of Revelation though they were real sloppy; they got angry at the Roman Catholic system that they were in rebellion against so they started to call the Pope the antichrist and they started to call the Vatican or the city of Rome Babylon.\u00a0 And so that\u2019s what\u2019s stuck with us today; that\u2019s what everybody thinks but it\u2019s rooted in very sloppy exegesis.\n\nDave Hunt, who I adore, wrote a book called A Woman Rides the Beast<\/em>, which is a great book, by the way, against the doctrines of Roman Catholicism.\u00a0 It is a lousy book on how to exegete Revelation 17 because Dave Hunt has brought back into evangelicalism through that book, which became a best seller, this idea that Babylon really means Rome.\u00a0 This is not Rome\u2026 well then, this is the Revived Rome of some kind.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got no problem believing in a Revived Roman Empire coming out of Daniel 2 and Daniel 7.\u00a0 But how many images do you see there in Revelation 17?\u00a0 A woman, image one, rides the beast, image two.\n\nYes, Revived Rome coming out of Europe obviously is going to play some kind of role in the end times; no doubt about that.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not the end of the picture.\u00a0 There\u2019s another strand of prophetic truth, the resurgence of the city of Babylon in the last days, and how those two strands of prophetic truth are resolved is the unveiling of the mystery in Revelation 17.\u00a0 By far, other than the Rome view, one of the most popular interpretations of it you have of this is the two Babylon views.\u00a0 Ecclesiastical Babylon, chapter 17; Political Babylon, chapter 18.\n\nBack to John Walvoord.\u00a0 Babylon ecclesiastically symbolized by the woman in Revelation 17 proposes a common worship and a common religion through uniting in a world church.\u00a0 This church is destroyed by the beast in Revelation 17:16 who thus fulfills the Word of God, Revelation 17:17.\u00a0 What verse did he leave out there?\u00a0 Verse 18, which tells you who the woman is; it\u2019s not a religious system alone, it\u2019s a city.\n\n[Revelation 17:16, \u201cAnd the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. [17]\u00a0<\/sup>For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled. [18] \u00a0<\/sup>The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.\u201d]\n\nHe goes on and he says, \u201cBabylon politically symbolized by the great city of Revelation 18 attempts to achieve its world domination by a common market and a world government.\u00a0 These are destroyed by Christ at His Second Coming.\u00a0 [Rev. 19:11\u201321).\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 [The Revelation of Jesus Christ: A Commentary<\/em> (Chicago: Moody, 1966), 267.]\u00a0\u00a0 Bullinger, The Apocalypse or \u201cThe Day of the Lord\u201d<\/em>, 509]\n\nHere\u2019s what the vast majority of dispensationalists believe on this: Revelation 17 is a religious system destroyed halfway through the tribulation period.\u00a0 Revelation 18 is a different entity, it is a commercial and political system destroyed at the end of the tribulation period.\u00a0 Two different Babylon\u2019s, two different destructions; \u00a0Ecclesiastical Babylon, chapter 17; Commercial Babylon chapter 18.\u00a0 Non-literal Babylon, chapter 17, literal Babylon, chapter 18.\u00a0 The Babylon of chapter 17 is destroyed halfway through the tribulation period.\u00a0 The Babylon of chapter 18 is destroyed at the end of the tribulation period.\u00a0 Chapter 17 is about religion; chapter 18 is about commerce and politics.\n\nWe\u2019ve got a big problem here folks; he just took the word \u201ccity\u201d which is used in both chapters and interpreted them differently.\u00a0 Did you catch that?\u00a0 Walvoord, the best of the best, in terms of prophecy scholars, says, \u201c\u201cThe city here according to verse 5 is a mystery, not a literal city<\/u>...\u201d And then he turns right around later in his commentary and gets to Revelation 18 and says the city in chapter 18 is literal.\u00a0\u00a0 Wait a minute, it\u2019s the exact same Greek word, polus<\/em>.\u00a0 Why would one be\u00a0 non-literal and the other is literal.\u00a0 The answer is he\u2019s trying to make a system work because this is the way he was taught it, going back to the Scofield Reference Bible.\n\nThe Scofield Reference Bible has two Babylon\u2019s and two different destructions. Walvoord has come up with a view that is in harmony with the Scofield Reference Bible and in the process he\u2019s allegorizing the same word used back to back in different chapters.\u00a0 You follow that?\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s very clear when you look at chapter 17 verse18 that it\u2019s the word \u201ccity,\u201d polus<\/em>.\u00a0 The same exact word, chapter 18, verse10 is city, polus<\/em>.\u00a0 Remember what Bullinger said?\u00a0 He does not say a system or a religion but a city.\u00a0 I mean, if you read through these chapters and you miss the point of this being a city and you just focus on the religious aspect\u00a0 you\u2019ve missed the whole point of what God is communicating here.\n\nRemember how this section started, Revelation 17:1, \u201cThen one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me saying, \u2018Come here, I will show you the judgment of the harlot who sits on many waters.\u201d \u00a0Chronologically the Book of Revelation has been moving; we got to the seventh bowl, Babylon was destroyed, and now we have one of our five (anybody remember) NCP I\u2019s, Non-Chronological Parenthetical Insertion giving us information about Babylon\u2019s fall which just happened with bowl number seven.\u00a0 That\u2019s why this section is in our Bible.\u00a0 So why would Revelation 17, which is describing something that just happened at the end of the tribulation period and all of a sudden completely back up in the sequence and take you back towards the beginning of the tribulation.\u00a0 That wouldn\u2019t make any sense because the very angel that brought the destruction of Babylon now tells John, let me tell you a little bit about Babylon, the city which just fell.\n\nAs we go through these chapters I\u2019m going to try to make the case that there\u2019s a lot more that binds these chapters together than what divides them.\u00a0 They\u2019re called the same names, they\u2019re both called \u201ccity.\u201d\u00a0 They both have the same clothing, they\u2019re both holding a cup, they\u2019re both fornicating with kings, they\u2019re both drunk with immorality, they\u2019re both persecuting believers, they\u2019re both destroyed by fire and they\u2019re both destroyed by God.\u00a0 What\u2019s the point?\u00a0 Chapter 17 and 18 is the exact same city.\u00a0 Now chapter 17 says let me tell you about the religious side of the city.\u00a0 Chapter 18 says let me tell you about the commercial side of the city.\u00a0 But it\u2019s the same city!\u00a0 It would be like going to any city in the United States and giving people a description about it, here\u2019s what the banking is like, here\u2019s what the economics is like, there\u2019s a religious aspect, here\u2019s what it\u2019s like, here\u2019s a housing aspect, but it\u2019s the exact same city.\u00a0 It\u2019s the very city that launched its rebellion against God in Genesis 11, that God shut down.\u00a0 And now Satan is given one more chance to do this.\n\nHow about current events?\u00a0 Do current events fit at all with what I\u2019m talking about?\u00a0 I mean, you mean to tell me that Babylon is going to enjoy a resurgence and be restored as a worldwide city in the last days?\u00a0 Aren\u2019t you doing newspaper \u00a0exegesis, where you\u2019re reading current events back into the Bible?\u00a0 All of these interpreters that I have here, look at the dates.\n\n---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nEarly Babylon Interpreters\n\nGovett (1813-1901),\n\nNewton, (1853),\n\nNewell (1935)\n\nBullinger (1909)\n\nSelss (1909, Larkin (1919),\n\nPink, 1923,\n\nJennings (1937),\n\nPember (1941)\n\nCooper (1942),\n\nLang (1948),\n\nDyer (1979).\n\nIce, \u201cBabylon in Bible Prophecy,\u201d 5, www.pre-trib.org<\/a>.\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nAll of them have almost the identical view that I have of Babylon.\u00a0 And yet Govett has that view in 1813-1901.\u00a0 Newton, 1853, Newell (1935)\u00a0 that was long before the modern day crisis in the Middle East.\u00a0 It comes from just a simple reading of the Biblical text.\u00a0 Is it not interesting that our attention has been moved eastward.\u00a0 We used to fight our wars, World War I, World War II, in Europe and isn\u2019t it interesting how things began to cycle eastward, Korea, Vietnam, and where is most of our attention today as we look at the news?\u00a0 In the Middle East, what the Holy Spirit has been saying that what began in that part of the world is going to end in that part of the world.\n\nHow about the geography?\u00a0 Does the geography of that area there in Iraq, support a world capital in that part of the world.\u00a0 Henry Morris writes, \u201cComputer studies of the Institute for Creation Research have shown, for example, that Babylon is very near the geographical center of all the earth\u2019s land masses. It is within navigable distances of the Persian Gulf and is at the crossroads of the three great continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. Thus there is no more ideal location anywhere for a world trade center, a world communication center, a world banking center, a world educational center, or especially, a world capital! The greatest historian of modern times, Arnold Toynbee, used to stress to all his readers and hearers that Babylon would be the best place in the world to build a future world cultural metropolis.\u201d\u00a0 [The Revelation Record, 349]\u00a0 <\/em>\n\n\u00a0<\/em>That\u2019s what the Bible says would happen.\u00a0 Where is most of the world\u2019s oil supply today?\u00a0 Do you realize that if the antichrist were to come to power in Iraq and annex the surrounding countries within a nanosecond they would control the whole economies of the world and sixty percent of the world\u2019s oil supply?\u00a0 Black gold, which is necessary for the economies of the world to run.\u00a0 All these current events point in the direction of what the Bible says would happen one day.\u00a0 And you run into these types of headlines: Iraq tries to get Babylon on the World Heritage List.\u00a0 Iraq celebrates naming Babylon a UNESCO World Heritage Site.\n\nOr how about this one, this comes from a professor at the Army War College writing an article that the United Nations Building should be moved out of New\u00a0 York City (I\u2019m in favor of that by the way, get this thing out of here).\u00a0 Well, where do you want to move it to?\u00a0 We want to move it to Iraq; he writes a whole article explaining why Iraq would be the perfect place for the United Nations building.\u00a0 Oh come on, Andy, if we got to sit around and wait for Babylon to be rebuilt the rapture is a long way off.\u00a0 I mean, I look at Babylon today and it really doesn\u2019t represent a world capital, and we didn\u2019t have to sit around and wait for that to happen before the rapture can occur, because after all, the rapture occurs in the tribulation period comes right after.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 That\u2019s how we\u2019ve got our prophecy charts drawn.\u00a0 Are you sure about that?\n\nLook at this chart, from my friend, J. B. Hixson.\u00a0\u00a0 He\u2019s got the rapture and then he\u2019s got a period of preparation before the tribulation period starts.\u00a0 Did you know that the older the commentators are the more they saw that time gap?\u00a0 Bollinger said there could be thirty years between the rapture and the beginning of the 70th<\/sup> week of Daniel.\u00a0 Clarence Larkin said there could be 25 or 50 years.\u00a0 So if they\u2019re right why can\u2019t Babylon be built in that gap after the rapture?\u00a0 Do you follow.\n\nBeyond that, people argue there\u2019s no way a city could be built that rapidly.\u00a0 Well, remember the Chicago fire from the previous generations.\u00a0 Some of you may not want to answer that because it\u2019ll indicate how old you are.\u00a0 Do you realize how fast the city of Chicago was rebuilt following the fire.\u00a0 Clarence Larkin talks about that.\u00a0 How about the modern city of Dubai (which by the way is not that far from Iraq) sometimes called the internet city.\u00a0 Do you realize how fast that city was built?\u00a0 I mean, we\u2019re not living in a time era anymore where you have to sit around and wait for a vast amount of time for cities of great influence to be rebuilt as these pictures of Dubai demonstrate.\n\nI ran into this newspaper article while I was preparing recently, Neom, Saudi Arabia, a prince\u2019s five hundred billion desert dream, flying cars, robot dinosaur\u2019s, and a giant artificial moon at the tune of five hundred billion dollars and it was built in a very short period of time.\u00a0 You shouldn\u2019t fall for the argument that,\u00a0 you know, gosh, we\u2019ve got to wait for Babylon to be rebuilt, it\u2019s going to be a long time before the rapture.\u00a0 First of all, cities can be built very rapidly and beyond that there could be a period of time following the rapture before the 70th<\/sup> week of Daniel starts, when Babylon will be rebuilt.\u00a0 There are all kinds of ways that this can happen.\n\nCome on, Andy, modern day Iraq, Babylon, they don\u2019t even have a harbor, I mean, isn\u2019t Revelation 18 talking about a city that is destroyed and the seafaring merchants of the earth mourn?\u00a0 How could that be modern day Babylon, they don\u2019t even have a harbor there?\u00a0 Well, this was a problem that Saddam Hussein had.\u00a0 This article says this: \u201c\u201cIt was unacceptable to Saddam [Hussein] that a country as great as Iraq did not have a long coastline. Over and over he talked about the necessity of building a Navy and becoming a seafaring power. Iraq\u2019s isolation from the sea was a cruel accident of history, he believed, and one that had to be rectified\u2014a theme he continued to dwell on after his invasion of Kuwait.\u201d\u00a0 [Elaine Sciolino, The Outlaw State: Saddam Hussein\u2019s Quest for Power and the Gulf Crisis<\/em> (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1991), 191-192.]\n\nOne more newspaper clip.\u00a0 \u201cActually,\u201d this writer says, \u201cthe Tigris and Euphrates Rivers converge in southern Iraq and enter the Persian Gulf in Iraqi territory. The problem has been that Iran and Kuwait squeeze Iraq into a bottleneck at the mouth of the rivers and Iraq\u2019s attempts to forge a harbor there have been thwarted by the hostile refusals of those two countries. But suppose international pressures were brought to bear upon Iran to allow Iraq access to the Shatt al-Arab waterway all the way to Basra and cooperation could be coerced from Kuwait to open up the area around its little island of Bubiyan and Warba.\u201d\u00a0 [Dan Hayden, Iraq: In the Crosshairs of Destiny: What the Bible Says About the Future of Iraq (Altamonte Springs, FL: Advantage Books, 2008), 115.]\n\nA commercial port and harbor for ships could become a reality for Babylon in a relatively short period of time. With modern dredging equipment, a deep channel waterway could be opened from the Persian Gulf all the way to Babylon. With its location on the Euphrates River, ships and sailors could indeed have access to this future queen of modern cities. The Antichrist ruler, with his political and economic power and global influence, could easily make that happen. So, as you can see, a harbor in Babylon is not at all out of the question.\u201d\u00a0 [Dan Hayden, Iraq: In the Crosshairs of Destiny: What the Bible Says About the Future of Iraq (Altamonte Springs, FL: Advantage Books, 2008), 115.]\n\nLook, I don\u2019t claim to be a prophet but I\u2019m a Bible reader and I think what the Bible says is Babylon means Babylon!\u00a0 And there are all kinds of scenarios that could easily come into play whereby that city will return to life, it will become a worldwide capital that will dominate the world in the end times.\u00a0 Do you realize that when\u00a0 you went through commentaries prior to 1948 there were people that said in their commentaries Israel has to be born again as a nation and do you realize which utter contempt and ridicule such commentators were treated\u2026 what a ridiculous idea.\u00a0 I mean, you mean to tell me the Jews are going to come back into their own land after two thousand years of dispersion.\u00a0 You\u2019re taking everything too literally.\u00a0 Right?\n\nWhat I\u2019m suggesting is the exact thing is about to happen with Babylon, because God means what He says and says what he means.\u00a0 He said Israel is going to come back as a nation, it seemed completely crazy and yet here we are, Israel is alive and well politically.\u00a0 Babylon, a literal construction our interpretation of these prophecies, demonstrates that Babylon is destined to become a world capital and I\u2019m not at all surprised to see the same thing could very well happen, even in our own lifetime.\n\nThe Book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 1 and verse 9 says, \u201cThat which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done\u00a0 is that which will be done because there is nothing new under the sun.\u201d\u00a0 In the very part of the world where the first world capital existed under Nimrod at the tower of Babel that God disrupted is the exact same part of the world where Satan is going to be given one last chance to rule planet earth through a reincarnation of the tower of Babel in the exact place where the original tower of Babel stood in the land of Shinar.\u00a0 What has been will be again.\u00a0 History is cyclical.\n\nYou say well what\u2019s the point of application.\u00a0 I guess the only point of application I would draw is this: God is in control of the patterns of history. God is sovereign, everything that He says will be fulfilled, and things are recycling back to where they started.\u00a0 And if God has everything so under control why are you so worried about the things going on in your life?\u00a0 I mean, isn\u2019t God sovereign over history\u2026 AMEN, PRAISE THE LORD\u2026 well then God is sovereign over my child today.\u00a0 There is nothing to take God off guard.\n\nAnd our exhortation to folks here at Sugar Land Bible Church is to trust in the Savior, Jesus Christ, who stepped out of eternity into time to bear a penalty in His own body that we could never pay.\u00a0 He died on the cross, he said \u201cIt is finished!\u201d\u00a0 He resurrected from the dead and He ascended back to the right hand of the Father.\u00a0 And all He asks us to do is to enter into a relationship with Him that God, whose sovereign over history is to believe or to trust in the One whom He has sent, Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And that\u2019s something you can do now in the quietness of your own thoughts and heart and mind as the Holy Spirit places folks under conviction.\u00a0 Trust in Jesus and be aligned with the One who is in control of history.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something you need more explanation on I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\n\nAnd now that we have finished this background on the Babylon, as I\u2019ve probably babbled on a little too much about Babylon, we will be prepared to now look into Revelation 17 and 18, which we will do next Lord\u2019s day.\u00a0 Shall we pray.\n\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for Your truth, Your Word,\u00a0 Your control over history. Help us to rest and trust in\u00a0 You and walk with\u00a0 You in\u00a0 Your sovereign design, not only for the world but also for our individual lives.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. \u00a0We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026.. Amen!","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t