Zechariah 012 – Babylon’s Rising, Pt. 2

Zechariah 012 – “Babylon’s Rising Pt.2”

By Dr. Andy Woods – 01/05/2022

Zechariah 5:11

 Well alright, good evening Everyone. If you could take your Bibles and open them to the book of Zechariah, chapter 6 and verse 1 (Zech 6:1) and so, it’s been a couple of weeks since we have been in the book of Zechariah. Happy New Year to everybody by the way and we’ve done chapter 1, verses 1 through 6 already, cause this is our second quarter, I guess, studying this.

Structure

1. Introductory call to repentance (Zech 1:1-6)
2. Eight night visions (Zech 1:7–6:15)
3. Question and answers about fasting (Zech 7–8)
4. Two burdens (Zech 9–14)

So we’ve covered the introductory call to repentance by the prophet Zechariah and then we’ve gone through his eight night visions. Eight visions he received in a single night and all of these visions have in common, and they have within them an incentive to get the community that had just returned from the exile, busy rebuilding the temple and typically the way Zechariah does it is he gives them, as the Spirit allows him, a glimpse of the future temple, a glimpse of God’s future program for the nation and he gives them that glimpse as sort of an incentive to get them busy building the temple in the present because the temple is a big deal in the outworking of God’s program.

Eight Night Visions (Zech 1:7‒6:15)

1. 1. Riders & horses among the myrtle trees (Zech 1:7-17)
   2. Four horns & four craftsmen (Zech 1:18-21)
   3. Man with the measuring line (Zech 2)
   4. Cleansing of the High Priest Joshua (Zech 3)
   5. Lampstand & olive tree (Zech 4)
   6. Flying scroll (Zech 5:1-4)
   7. Woman in the basket (Zech 5:5-11)
   8. Four chariots (Zech 6:1-8)
   9. Conclusion: crowning of Joshua (Zech 6:9-15)

And so the last time I was with you, I think it was mid-December, we had finished vision number seven, which is the woman in the basket.

So, you might recall, and I just want to make a few comments on it cause I got… you guys don’t remember but I remember, I got kind of rushed at the end and I didn’t have a chance to really share everything that I wanted to share but Zechariah, 5, verses 5 through 11 (Zech 5:5-11), there was a woman in the basket. The woman is named Wickedness. She’s put in this basket and a lid is placed over her and a lead covering where she can’t get out and it’s in that vision, it’s at the very end of chapter 5 that we learn that in God’s timing the woman is going to be let out of the basket and she’s going to build a temple one day in the land of Shinar. So, it’s a vision really of wickedness in God’s end time program, leaving the nation of Israel and instead, evil is going to be headquartered in Shinar. 3:07

Zechariah 5:5-11

• Woman (wickedness)
• Ephah (commerce)
• House (Temple-2 Sam 7; religion)
• Shinar (Gen 10:10; 11:2; Dan 1:2)

So you’ll notice there in verse 11, I’ve got the word Shinar underlined. So, what do we know about Shinar? Well, we know a lot about Shinar.

Charles L. Feinberg – God Remembers:A Study of Zechariah (Wheaton: Van Kampen, 1950, p. 91.

“The first mention of Shinar in the Bible is in Genesis 10:10. (It is found in all six other times: Gen. 11:2; 14:1, 9; Isa. 11:11; Dan. 1:2; and here). In all instances where it occurs it is used as a definite geographical designation. Strictly speaking it covers more than Babylon but is it is employed to denote this land.”

Charles Feinberg says: The first mention of Shinar in the Bible is in Genesis 10:10. It is found in all six other times… He’s got all the verses there (Gen. 11:2; 14:1, 9; Isa. 11:11; Dan. 1:2) and then it says… In all instances… meaning that Shinar is a technical word. A technical word is a word that always means the same thing everywhere it’s used.

Feinberg says: In all instances where it occurs it is used as a definite geographical designation. Strictly speaking it covers more than Babylon but it is employed to denote this land… So, where is Shinar?

Shinar is what the Greeks called Mesopotamia, Shinar is a Hebrew word, Shinar equals Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia is basically where civilization started. So, it’s kind of interesting that where civilization started is where civilization is going to end, according to Zechariah’s prophecy. Where did civilization start? Mesopotamia. Meso between, Potamia rivers. You could recognize that word Potomac. Mesopotamia, between the rivers, between the Euphrates and the Tigris, which today is modern day Iraq. It’s the exact part of the world where the Tower of Babel once stood. Genesis, 11, verse 2 (Gen 11:2) tells us that the Tower of Babel was in Shinar. It is the part of the world where the children of Israel, much later on in biblical history, were taken into the captivity for seventy years

In fact, when we read the book of Zechariah, the children of Israel had just come out of that captivity and they were taken 350 miles to the east to a place called Shinar which is Mesopotamia, between the rivers, modern day Iraq and so Charles Feinberg says of Zechariah, 5, verse 11 (Zech 5:11):

Charles L. Feinberg – God Remembers: A Study of Zechariah (Wheaton: Van Kampen, 1950, p. 93.

“Now, the prophet Zechariah foretells that in the last days all wickedness, with idolatry particularly in mind (see Matt. 12:43–45), that will be existent in Israel at that time will go back forcibly to the place of its origin, Babylon, the great apostate religious system. Such is the meaning of being settled on her own base. When we come to the book of Revelation all of this is clearly set forth in chapter 17 and 18. Not only the evil in Judaism, but that in Christendom as well, will wind up and culminate in that abominable system called mystical or mystery Babylon. The greatest sin in Israel, even wickedness itself, was idolatry. It will come to it’s settled abode at the very place of its inception (Rev. 18:24).”

Now, the prophet Zechariah foretells that in the last days all wickedness, with idolatry particularly in mind, that will be existent in Israel at that time will go forcibly to the place of its origin, Babylon, the great apostate religious system. Such is the meaning of being settled on her own base… You know, the woman comes out of the basket, she’s settled on her own base to build the temple in the land of Shinar and then Feinberg says… When we come to the book of Revelation all of this is clearly set forth in chapter 17 and 18. Not only the evil in Jerusalem, but that in Christendom, will wind up and culminate in that abominable system called mystical or mystery Babylon. The greatest sin in Israel, even wickedness itself, was idolatry. It will come to its settled abode at the very place of its inception, Revelation, 18, verse 24 (Rev 18:24)… So what he’s saying in this particular vision is evil is going to be taken out of Israel and it’s going to be centralized and headquartered somewhere and where it’s going to be headquartered is in Shinar, which is a technical word meaning modern day Iraq, ancient Babylon; and that’s kind of interesting because that’s where evil started. 7:35

As you know from the Tower of Babel there was only one language on the earth at the time and so the sin that was taking place at the tower of Babel was spread all over the world when God took the language and confounded it, preventing the builders of the Tower from cooperating with each other. So, as we tried to explain in prior studies, what was happening at the Tower of Babel was basically the worship of the Mother and the Child.

This comes from Alexander Hislop’s book “The Two Babylons” and he’s putting this together from Babylonian tradition and he’s trying to figure it out what were they doing at the Tower of Babel; and in his conclusions basically what he said is: Nimrod, who’s mentioned in the Bible, his name means revolt or rebellion… And you’ll see a reference to Nimrod by name in Genesis, 10, 8 through 10 (Gen 10:8-10). He’s married to a woman named Semiramis. The two of them have a child named Tammuz. Tammuz is killed by a wild animal and was miraculously brought back to life under, you know, occultic powers, much like how the antichrist in the future is going to appear to receive a fatal wound and come back from the dead under the dragon’s power; and so once this happened, according to Alexander Hislop, everybody started to worship the mother and the child. They started to worship Semiramis and they start to worship Tammuz. So Babylon or the Tower of Babel, was a political system, it was a city but it was also the headquarters of a religious system and so when God confounded the language so that the builders couldn’t cooperate with each other, what happened according to Hislop is everybody took a piece of that religious understanding into the whole world and Hislop says, no matter where you go in the world, you can find remnants of this mother-child system, it’s just the names get changed from place to place. So when Assyria the mother was called Ishtar, the child Tammuz. In Phoenicia, the mother was called Astarte, the child Baal. In Egypt the mother is called Isis, the child is called Horus. I mean, different names but it’s the same old stuff. Greece it was Aphrodite and Eros, Rome it was Venus and Cupid and you see the different names in Asia, India; and Hislop is almost like a swear word in Roman Catholic circles because he traced the system into Roman Catholicism and he argues in this book the “Two Babylons”, that the worship of Mary and Jesus in Roman Catholicism is not the Mary and Jesus of the Bible. It’s actually anchored in this mother-child system and then later on in biblical history, that system goes into the borders of Israel and that’s why God is so upset with Israel and sends them into the deportation to rid them of the system. So, you’ll see references in Jeremiah, 7, verse 18 (Jer 7:18); Jeremiah, 44, verse 17 (Jer 44:17); Ezekiel, 8, verses 14 and 15 (Ezk 8:14-15). As you look at that verses some time, you’ll see references to Tammuz and you’ll see references to the Queen of Heaven. The Queen of Heaven is the mother and the child is Tammuz and God wanted Israel to be different than all the other nations and what happened is she became just like everyone else and so God sent her into the seventy years of discipline. 12:03

So, what I’m trying to say is, evil itself started from Shinar and that’s how it spread all over the world and what Zechariah is predicting is in God’s timing evil is going to be taken out of Israel and it’s going to recycle back to where it all started. So, here is a quote from Clarence Larkin’s book commentary on the book of Revelation, he says:

Larkin, The Book of Revelation, 151.

“The river Euphrates, on which the city of Babylon was built, was one of the four branches into which the river that flowed through the Garden of Eden was divided, and Satan doubtless chose the site of Babylon as his headquarters from which to sally forth to tempt Adam and Eve. It was doubtless here that the Antediluvian apostasy had its source that ended in the flood. To this centre the ‘forces of Evil’ gravitated after the Flood, and ‘Babel’ was the result. This was the origin of the nations, but the nations were not scattered abroad over the earth until Satan had implanted in them the ‘Virus’ of a doctrine that has been the source of every false religion the world has ever known.”

The river Euphrates, on which the city of Babylon was built, was one of the four branches into which the river that flowed through the Garden of Eden was divided, and Satan doubtless chose the site of Babylon as his headquarters to sally forth to tempt Adam and Eve. It was doubtless here that the Antediluvian apostasy had its source that ended in the flood. To this center the “forces of Evil” gravitated after the Flood, and “Babel” was the result… and he’s talking here about the Tower of Babel; and he says… This was the origin of the nations… So the nations of course had their start at the Tower of Babel, that’s where you get different language speaking groups, different cultures, you don’t have anything like that before God caused the dispersion but his point is the nations weren’t created until this virus that I’m trying to describe here, this mother child cult or system, was in place and was exported into every nation. That, by the way, is what the harlot of Revelation, 17, verse 5 (Rev 17:5) is called the mother of harlotry, the source of harlotry. So, in other words, evil is going to be centralized back to where it all started. So, Larkin says: …but the nations were not scattered abroad over the earth until Satan had implanted in them the “Virus”… See, we are all talking today about a physical virus, how about a spiritual virus? The mother-child system was planted by Satan at the Tower of Babel and it went into every culture. So he says:  The nations were not scattered abroad over the earth until Satan had implanted in them the “Virus” of a doctrine that has been the source of every false religion that the world has ever known…

And it’s kind of interesting, they make reference here to the Garden of Eden and the four rivers that came out of Eden and I don’t really know whether… you know, I don’t wanna be dogmatic on it, because I don’t know how much the flood altered the topography of the earth but I have a sneaking suspicion that the Garden of Eden was located in Shinar also and the reason I think that is it mentions in Eden the Euphrates and the Tigris. So, if that’s the same Euphrates and Tigris that we know, then the garden of Eden was located in that part of the world as well; and of course, it’s from the Garden of Eden that original sin came forth to the human race and then after the flood, this is the exact location where Nimrod was building this tower to heaven, to make a name for himself. They were trying to make a name for themselves and God says no; and God confounded the language and the builders couldn’t cooperate with each other and the mother-child system spread into the whole world. So it’s really a notorious and infamous part of the world and if Zechariah’s vision means what it says and says what it means, what it says is evil is going to relocate there. Obviously, evil spreads throughout the earth but it’s got to have a headquarters, and it’s going to be headquartered in the land of Shinar and I’m getting all of this from verse 11, Zechariah chapter 5, verse 11 (Zech 5:11). The woman comes out of the basket in God’s timing and she goes right back to the land of Shinar, which is a technical word for Mesopotamia or modern day Iraq. 16:46

So with all of that being said, prophetically, I think the source of evil in the world is not going to be headquartered in the west as many, many people think. It’s not going to be headquartered in Rome, but it’s going to be headquartered in the east, in modern day Iraq or Babylon; and of course, the antichrist is going to come forward and he’s going to have a global empire. Daniel, 7 says that, the world is going to be divided into ten regions but those, that system that he’s bringing forth it has to have a headquarters, it’s got to have a capital and so the world capital of it, if I’m understanding my Bible correctly, is not going to be Rome, it’s going to be modern day Iraq. If you follow one of my friends, who does a podcast Kim Duarte, she does a podcast called “Life Clips” and she wanted to talk to me about my book on this and so we did a podcast on it at the very end of last year. She has some really interesting footage that she grabbed from different YouTube channels and websites of a young man and I forgot his name, but he is actually going through Babylon and he’s showing that this is what Sadam Husein, you know, was trying to rebuild and it’s really interesting as he’s going through the buildings that have been sort of destroyed through the Gulf War and all these kinds of things, how close Sadam Husein was in rebuilding the whole thing and so if you’re looking for some interesting footage of somebody that has been over there recently, I would encourage you to look at her podcast, I don’t think she’s on YouTube but I think she’s on Rumble and you can find it under “Life Clips” and she played a lot of that footage as she was interviewing me and I didn’t really know she was going to play that footage and I was pleasantly surprised, you know, to see all that. 19:13

So this is another piece of the prophetic jigsaw puzzle of Babylon’s future and even before we got to Zechariah chapter 5, the Holy Spirit has already given us other clues that Babylon is going to be rebuilt, before the book of Zechariah was even written. One of those clues is how Babylon was overthrown by the Persians. Babylon was overthrown by the Persians in the handwriting on the wall chapter in the Bible in Daniel chapter 5; and remember how that happened? Belshazzar, the last reigning king of Babylon was partying as if there was no tomorrow and he thought he was invincible because of the walls around the city and he became so arrogant that he took the vessels from the temple  that his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken in the deportation and he begin to pour alcohol into those vessels and they did it as acting as if they were gods themselves and God doesn’t exist and we can take His vessels used in the temple and use them for profane purposes and Daniel chapter 5 records what happened, this is in 539 BC; and my professor Harlod Hohner, who was a biblical chronologist, who could tell you anything chronologically, he could probably tell you the exact second Adam, you know, got his belly button supposedly, but he says: This happened… it’s amazing how detailed Hohner was… October 12th, 539 BC, Saturday night… (hahaha) and I took a biblical chronology class with him and listened very carefully how he reached his conclusions and most of the information I forgot but I do remember that day he says: This happens Saturday night, October 12th, 539 BC, that’s when the handwriting on the wall chapter took place… So, Belshazzar is just, you know, acting as if God doesn’t exist and all of the sudden this hand appears and starts to write on the wall where they were having this party; and it’s kind of interesting that excavations of Babylon had found a room that would have been a suitable place archeologically for a banquet like this all the way back in ancient times. So, the hand wrote on the wall: Mene, mene, tekel ufarsin… which means basically: numbered, numbered, divided; and of course, what does it mean? Numbered, numbered, divided, I mean, that doesn’t mean much, so they had to bring Daniel who was an old man out of retirement I guess cause he had a great reputation for interpreting dreams and that kind of thing and Daniel says, here is the interpretation: This very night your kingdom is going to be divided, it’s going to be given to the Persians… excuse me, yeah… your kingdom, Babylon is going to be given to the Persians and you yourself are going to be killed… and of course, exactly what Daniel said would happened, happened, October 12th, Saturday night, 539 BC… And essentially what happened is the Babylonians who thought that they were invincible, you know, tunneled under the walls of Babylon because they diverted the river Euphrates and they went… the Persians went under the walls and they captured the Babylonians and there wasn’t even a battle. There was no proverbial shot even fired and those Babylonians fell into the hands of the Persians when they thought they were at their most invincible point. 23:49

So, it’s kind of interesting when we think we’re the most invincible, that’s actually when we are the most vulnerable. It kind of reminds me of how prideful our nation was, prior to 911 and it’s like… really? Did they do that with box-cutters? I mean, did they really just take down our twin towers? I mean, I thought we were invincible and the truth to the matter is we are not invincible at all, that’s why the Bible talks about… Unless the Lord, you know, builds the house, the laborers labor in vain, unless the Lord stands guard over the city, the guardsmen guard in vain… So this is basically what happened to the Babylonians and so they were fired… they were defeated without even a conflict.

Isaiah, 13-14

• Day of the Lord (Isa 13:6-9)
• Cosmic disturbances (Isa 13:10-13)
• Global judgment (Isa 13:11-12)
• Sodom and Gomorrah (Isa 13:19)
• Complete and final desolation (Isa 13:20-22)
• Universal peace and rest (Isa 14:5-8)
• Israel’s regeneration (Isa 14:1-4)

Henry Morris, Revelation Record, 348.

Now, Isaiah when he predicted Babylon would fall, back in the 8th Century, this happened in the 6th Century, says that when Babylon falls, it would be like the day of the Lord, there would be cosmic disturbances, there would be global judgment, the destruction would be just like Sodom and Gomorrah, which is, you know, from the book of Genesis chapter 19, Sodom and Gomorrah was overthrown instantaneously and cataclysmically by God. When Babylon falls, she’ll never be rebuilt and when Babylon falls, the world would enjoy universal peace and rest and when Babylon falls, Israel would be regenerated; and most, very sadly, most Old Testament scholars will tell you that Isaiah, 13 and 14, given in the 8th Century was fulfilled in Daniel, 5, and I’m here to tell you that’s impossible if you care about literal interpretation. If you don’t care about literal interpretation and you think you can make the Bible say whatever you want it to say, oh, it’s just hyperbole, then you can make that argument, but virtually none of Isaiah, 13 and 14, happened in Daniel chapter 5. One of the things Isaiah predicts is God says when Babylon falls I would make man scarcer than pure gold and mankind than the gold of Ophir… I’m sorry that didn’t happen when Babylon fell to the Persians in Daniel, 5. Isaiah, 13, and verse 20 (Isa 13:20) says, it will never…. concerning Babylon, once it falls: It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation; Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there… Isaiah 13, verse 20 (Isa 13:20) says that and here’s a picture from 1908 roughly of Arabs pitching their tent in modern day Iraq.

ARAB TENT HOME at Babylon 1899-1908 – “It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation; Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there” (Isaiah 13:20)

https://www.bibleprophecyaswritten.com/2-arabs/

So obviously, Isaiah, 13, verse 20 has never been fulfilled. Obviously, Isaiah, 13, verse 12 (Isa 13:12) has never been fulfilled and as much as people try to make it sound like, move right along folks, nothing to see here… Isaiah, 13 to 14 has already been fulfilled in Daniel, 5, the more you look at the details, the more you see that that simply could not be. 27:36

This is why the prophet Isaiah in his oracles against the nations, chapters 13 through 23, has not one oracle against Babylon, but two. Now, here Isaiah is dealing with all of these nations judged by God and Babylon is the only nation that gets two oracles. Once in chapters 13 and 14 and another one in chapter 21; and at some point you have to ask yourself how can Babylon get two oracles and all these other nations get one oracle. The answer is: Cause Babylon is going to be destroyed twice. She was defeated by the Persians in Daniel, 5, that’s what Isaiah, 21, is talking about, but she’s going to be destroyed a second time. She has to come back to life so that all of the meticulous details that God predicted in Isaiah, 13 and 14, can be fulfilled. So, even before you get to Zechariah chapter 5, you have the prophet Isaiah describing the destruction of Babylon in such a way that it’s never happened before like that and so the assumption is: God can’t lie, it’s impossible for God to lie, God says what He means and means what He says. So therefore, Babylon has to be brought back to life. She has to become the center of the new world order, so she can be destroyed in the events of the tribulation period; and you’ll see Babylon destroyed in the tribulation period in Revelation, 16, verse 19 (Rev 16:19) in the seventh bowl judgment; and it’s not just Isaiah that talks about the destruction of Babylon, it’s Jeremiah. 29:44

Jeremiah, 50-51

• Sudden destruction (Jer 51:8)
• Complete destruction (Jer 50:3, 13, 26, 39-40; 51:29, 43, 62)
• No reuse of building materials (Jer 51:26)
• Believers flee (Jer 50:8; 51:6, 45)
• Israel’s regeneration (Jer 50:2, 4-5, 20; 51:50)

Dyer, “The Identity of Babylon in Revelation 17–18 (Part 2),” 443-49.

In roughly the 7th Century, Jeremiah is predicting the fall of Babylon as well and once again, like Isaiah’s writings, Jeremiah’s description of the destruction of Babylon does not fit what happened Saturday night, October 12th, 539 BC in the handwriting on the wall chapter. Jeremiah says: When Babylon falls, it will be sudden, it will be complete. In fact, it will be so complete that people won’t even use Babylon’s building materials again, believers will flee… Now, October 12th, Saturday night, 539 BC, Daniel, 5, handwriting on the wall chapter, believers didn’t flee, one of them was named Daniel. He didn’t flee. He continued serving in the empire of Persia. So he basically served through four different administrations. A high ranking government official, he served through two Babylonian kings, Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar and he also served through two Persian kings, Darius… first Cyrus, I guess, and then later Darius. I might have those last two inverted but there’s two of them. Darius and Cyrus. So, Daniel never fled; and Jeremiah says when Babylon falls, believers are going to flee Babylon, and then Jeremiah also predicts that when Babylon falls, Israel is going to be regenerated. I mean, that’s what Isaiah predicted also. That obviously never happened. 31:40

So, here are some notes that we have from history.

Herodotus, Histories, 1:191 (450 B.C.)

“…he (Cyrus) conducted the river by a channel into the lake…and so he made the former course of the river passable by the sinking of the stream. When this had been done, the Persians who had been posted for this very purpose entered by the bed of the river Euphrates into Babylon, the stream having sunk so far that it reached about to the middle of a man’s thigh…those Babylonians who dwelt in the middle did not know that they had been captured…”

Here’s Herodotus. Herodotus is writing about 450 BC, so he’s writing within a century of Babylon’s historic fall to the Persians and he’s describing how the Persians conquered the Babylonians in Daniel 5. He says: …he …Cyrus… conducted the river by a channel into the lake and so he made the former course of the river passable by the sinking of the stream. When this had been done… see what the Persians did, is they just diverted the Euphrates River water which allowed them to go under the walls of Babylon, which the Babylonians thought were impregnable and they conquered Babylon without even a battle, when this have been done… the Persians who had been posted for this very purpose entered by the bed of the river Euphrates into Babylon, the stream having sunk so far that it reached about to the middle of a man’s thigh… and look at this last sentence here… those Babylonians who dwelt in the middle did not know that they had been captured… So there wasn’t even a battle and isn’t that like God, right? As Belshazzar is at his most arrogant pinnacle, God creates a situation where his empire falls in that night exactly what Daniel said it would happen as he interpreted the handwriting on the wall without even a battle. So when you’re most secure, as far as God looks at things, you’re probably at your greatest place of insecurity. That’s why we need to find our security, where? In the Lord. 33:42

Then we have the Cyrus cylinder.

There’s a book called “Ancient Near Eastern Texts” It goes by the name ANET, I have it in my office, if you ever want to come look at it. I’ve given that offer out many times and I haven’t have any takers yet, but it’s… basically what it’s is translations of ancient and inscriptions into English where we can read them; and one of the things that is translated is something called the Cyrus Cylinder and this is Cyrus bragging about how easy Cyrus the Persian, how easy it was to conquer Babylon and by the way I should throw this in, when you look at Isaiah, 44, verse 28 (Isa 44:28) very end of the chapter into chapter 45 verse 1 (Isa 45:1) you’ll see God calling out the name Cyrus, two hundred years before it happened. God says: I’m going to use Cyrus to bring the nation back from the captivity… And you have to understand how radical of a prediction that is. I mean, that would be like two hundred years ago, someone saying, Ronald Wilson Reagan is going to become president of the United States, you know, long before he was born and then Pow! It happened, just like God said. This is why liberals, they cannot handle the book of Isaiah, they don’t know what to do with that. So what they try to do is they try to pretend that Isaiah didn’t write that section. So someone obviously wrote that after the fact, so it’s called the Deutero-Isaiah Theory or the Trido-Isaiah Theory and the problem with it is the Dead Sea scrolls discovery where they found the Isaiah scroll and it doesn’t give any hint that someone other than Isaiah wrote that section. So what people want you to believe is, well, the theory became popular and it died off so by the time the scroll was discovered nobody in Israel believed the theory anymore, which is crazy but it’s very interesting how Isaiah called Cyrus’ name out two hundred years before it happened;

James Pritchard – The Ancient Near East Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 315-16.

Without any battle… sparing Babylon… any calamity….I am Cyrus…king of Babylon….When I entered Babylon…under jubilation and rejoicing…troops walked around Babylon…in peace, I did not allow anybody to terrorize (any place) of the [country of Sumer] and Akkad. I strove for peace in Babylon…and in all his (other) sacred cities….I returned to (these) sacred cities on the other side of the Tigris, the sanctuaries of which have been in ruins for a long time, the images which (used) to live therein and established for them permanent sanctuaries.

I (also) gathered all their (former) inhabitants and returned (to them) their habitations. Furthermore, I resettled… unharmed, in their (former) chapels, the places which make them happy. May all the gods whom I have resettled in their sacred cities ask daily Bel and Nebo for a long life for me…all of them I resettled in a peaceful place… ducks and doves,…I endeavored to fortify/repair their dwelling places . . .

and Cyrus, who Isaiah called out by name, boasted on the Cyrus Cylinder, which is translated in ANET, without any battle, sparing Babylon, any calamity, I am Cyrus king of Babylon, when I entered Babylon under jubilation and rejoicing, troops walked around Babylon in peace… It doesn’t sound like there was any battle, does it? And if there’s no battle then, Jeremiah, 50 and 51 was never fulfilled neither was Isaiah, 13 and 14 fulfilled, unless you want to just say details don’t matter as modern scholarship, unfortunately does. Cyrus boasts: I did not allow anybody to terrorize any place of the country of Sumer… that’s Babylon… and Akkad. I strove for peace in Babylon and in all his other sacred cities. I returned to these sacred cities on the other side of the Tigris, the sanctuaries of which have been in ruins for a long time, the images which used to live therein and established for them permanent sanctuaries. I also gathered all their former inhabitants and returned to them their habitations. Furthermore, I resettled unharmed, in their former chapels, the places which make them happy. May all the gods whom I have resettled in their places ask daily Bel and Nebo… Babylonian deities… for a long life for me, all of them I resettled in a peaceful place, ducks, doves and I endeavored to fortify and repair their dwelling places… Now, the thing to understand about Cyrus is he was used by God, his name was called out two hundred years in advance but he was a non-believer, because Isaiah, 45, verse 4 (Isa 45:4) of Cyrus says: …Though you did not know Me… So God is so sovereign that He can actually use an unbeliever to accomplish His will and because he was a non-believer, he was a polytheist, he believed in many gods, he was not monotheistic and the reason he didn’t terrorize Babylon, when he conquered it by surprise, is he didn’t want the Babylonian deities mad at him. So, he’s talking here in this Cyrus Cylinder about how he went out of his way to not terrorize anything. Let’s make them all happy, let’s keep them all under their little chapels or whatever and maybe they’ll pray that I live a long life. So my point is, when you read the Cyrus Cylinder, there’s no cataclysm, that Jeremiah predicted and then Isaiah predicted, absolutely none. There’s no war, there’s no battle and one of the things it’s predicted is when Babylon falls, she will never be rebuilt again. 39:51

Here’s a list of things that have happened in Babylon post-Daniel, 5.

Babylon’s History After 539 B.C.

• Herodotus gives Babylon’s measurements (450 B.C.)
• Alexander the Great visits and dies in Babylon (323 B.C.)
• Seleucus seizes Babylon (312 B.C.)
• Strabo pronounces Babylon’s hanging gardens as one of “seven wonders of the world” (25 B.C)
• Babylonians present on Pentecost (Acts 2:9)
• Talmud promulgated from Babylon (A.D. 500)
• Haukal mentions Babylonian village (A.D. 917)
• Babylon known as “Two Mosques” and “Hilah” (A.D. 1100)

Hitchcock and Ice, The Truth Behind Left Behind, 109

Herodotus gave measurements of Babylon in 450; Alexander the Great visited and died in Babylon in 323; Seleucus seized Babylon 312; Strabo announced Babylon’s hanging gardens as one of “seven wonders of the world” 25 BC; There’s even Babylonians present to hear Peter preach on the day of Pentecost, Acts, 2, verse 9 (Acts 2:9); The Jews developed a legal code for Babylon called the Babylonian Talmud, AD 500; and it continued on as a village and later became known as the “Two Mosques and “Hilah”. So my question is, if Isaiah, 13 and 14, and Jeremiah, 50 and 51 have already been fulfilled in the handwriting on the wall chapter, why is it that both of those prophets predict that when Babylon falls, she will never be rebuilt, she will never be inhabited nor will any Arab pitch his tent there, how could those prophecies have been fulfilled when you have all of this post 539 BC activity in Babylon. In fact, you can probably get on the internet right now as I’m talking and you can find people doing things in Babylon even now as I speak. My point is Isaiah, 13 and 14, and Jeremiah, 50 and 51, have never been fulfilled.

Dr. John Walvoord –The Nations in Prophecy, 63-64

“As far as the historic fulfillment is concerned, it is obvious from both Scripture and history that these verses have not been literally fulfilled. The city of Babylon continued to flourish after the Medes conquered it, and though its glory dwindled, especially after the control of the Medes and the Persians ended in 323 B.C., the city continued in some form or substance until A.D. 1000 and did not experience a sudden termination such as anticipated in this prophecy.”

John Walvoord writes: As far as the historic fulfillment is concerned, it is obvious from both Scripture and history that these verses… Jeremiah, 50 and 51, Isaiah, 13 and 14… have not been fulfilled literally. The city of Babylon continued to flourish after the Medes conquered it, and though its glory dwindled, especially after the control of the Medes and the Persians ended in 323 BC, the city continued on in some form or substance until AD 1000 and did not experience a sudden termination as anticipated in this prophecy…

If God can’t lie and words mean things and God gave us a book not to confuse us, then you have to have somewhere in history for Jeremiah, 50 and 51 to be fulfilled and the only place it fits is in Revelation, 17 and 18, which is a description of Babylon coming back to life and being the headquarters of Satan’s system.

That’s why this chart here, that I found in the writings of Charles Dyer, shows you all of the prophecies in Jeremiah, 50 and 51 that show up in Revelation, 17 and 18. The golden cup; the dwelling of many waters; intoxicating the nations; the name Babylon; persecuting the saints; Babylon being analogized to a stone sinking into the Euphrates, which happens quick, it’s found in both sections; sudden destruction; destruction by fire; final uninhabitability; when Babylon falls, she’ll deserve it; God’s people will flee and heaven will rejoice. So what the book of Revelation is saying is Revelation, 17 and 18, is the time period when Jeremiah, 50 and 51 will be fulfilled. You can’t cram Jeremiah, 50 and 51 back to the handwriting on the wall chapter because the details are going in a completely opposite direction. 44:14

Larkin, The Book of Revelation, 158.

“…and this is in exact harmony with the words of Isa. 13:19. ‘And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah;’ and the Prophet Jeremiah makes the same statement. Jer. 50:40. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was not protracted through many centuries, their glory disappeared in a few hours (Gen. 19:24–28), and as ancient Babylon was not thus destroyed, the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah cannot be fulfilled unless there is to be a future Babylon that shall be thus destroyed. In Rev. 16:17–19, we are told that Babylon shall be destroyed by an Earthquake, attended with most vivid and incessant lightning and awful thunder.”

So Clarence Larkin says: …as ancient Babylon was not thus destroyed, the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah cannot be fulfilled unless there is to be a future Babylon that shall be thus destroyed… That’s my point, and see, we haven’t even gotten to Zechariah, 5 yet. Zechariah, 5 hasn’t even been written yet. Even before you get to Zechariah chapter 5, you have two prophets on the books, one from the 8th Century roughly, one from the 7th Century roughly calling for the destruction of Babylon in such a way that it has to come back to life so it can be destroyed exactly like God said in bowl judgment number 7. So then, we finally come to the book of Zechariah where Zechariah had his eight night visions in which year? 519 BC. So he is writing twenty years after the handwriting on the wall chapter. See, you might want to massage if you could Isaiah, 13 and 14 and Jeremiah, 50 and 51 and try to make some case that it was fulfilled in Daniel, 5 but you can’t do that with Zechariah because Zechariah wrote twenty years later. I mean, Zechariah is writing when Babylon already is in the hands of the Persians, twenty years in the rear view mirror.

Newton in his commentary says:

Newton – Babylon: Its Future, History, and Doom, 1890, p. 64.

“That this event predicted in this remarkable passage remains still unaccomplished, is sufficiently evident from the fact of Zechariah’s having prophesied after Babylon had received that blow under which it has gradually waned. Zechariah lived after Babylon had passed into the hands of the Persians . . .”

That this event, predicted in this remarkable passage… That’s our woman in the basket… remains still unaccomplished, is sufficiently evident from the fact of Zechariah’s having prophesied after Babylon had received the blow under which it has gradually waned. Zechariah lived after Babylon had passed into the hands of the Persians… So look at the details the Holy Spirit is giving us concerning Babylon’s future: (a) Isaiah, 13 and 14; (b) Jeremiah, 50 and 51, both of which were never fulfilled in Daniel, 5; (c ) Zechariah, 5 verse 11; which leads us into (d) Revelation, 17 and 18, where the city comes back to life and it’s destroyed in bowl judgment number seven. 47:00

Does it make sense as far as current events are concerned that the capital of the world would be located in modern day Iraq? Henry Morris in his Revelation commentary says:

Morris – The Revelation Record, 349

“Computer studies of the Institute for Creation Research have shown, for example, that Babylon is very near the geographical center of all the earth’s 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.”

Computer studies of the Institute for Creation Research have shown that Babylon is very near the geographical center of all the earth’s land masses. It is within navigable distance of the Persian Gulf and 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… Now, what he is saying here is Babylon would be a great place for a world capital geographically. By the way, where is most of the world’s oil supply? Middle East.

So, this chart is little dated but if the antichrist were to set up shop in Iraq, which is what I think is going to happen and he were to annex the surrounding countries within a heartbeat, he would control 60% of the world’s oil supply and of course, that kind of thing would bring the United States to his knees, given the policies of the current administration which have moved us away from energy independence to energy what? Dependence. I mean, whatever you think about the change of leadership that’s happening in our country, that.. Gosh, to me it is one of the most tragic things I’ve ever seen happen in such a short period of time, by the way, through executive orders, where you sign a piece of paper and all of the sudden, we’re not energy independent anymore and then we’re all sitting around scratching our heads wondering why the price of everything keeps going up, including the price of gasoline, etc… I mean, what is happening now is making us dependent on the Middle East, that’s where the oil is; and the antichrist shows up, sets up shop in Iraq, annexes the surrounding nations and it controls the world just like that. So what I’m showing you, is that, what I am articulating here or trying to articulate, it’s a credible scenario current events wise; and almost every time you turn around, the United Nations is drawing attention to Iraq. Here’s an article that says: Iraq celebrates naming Babylon an UNESCO world heritage site.

Iraq Celebrates Naming Babylon a UNESCO World Heritage Site – QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA of Times of Israel – July 6, 2019

“BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq on Friday celebrated the UNESCO World Heritage Committee’s decision to name the historic city of Babylon a World Heritage Site in a vote held in Azerbaijan’s capital, years after Baghdad began campaigning for the site to be added to the list…The 4,300-year-old Babylon — now mainly an archaeological ruin and two important museums — is where dynasties have risen and fallen since the earliest days of settled human civilization. King Hammurabi wrote his famous code of laws in Babylon, while Nebuchadnezzar sent his vast army from the city to Jerusalem to put down an uprising and bring the Jews back as slaves.”

Now, here’s an absolutely fascinating article… I learned of this article from my friend Brandon House who has this included in one of his books and basically it’s a couple of professors at the Army War College and I don’t know if they are Christians or not, I don’t know if they are believers or not, I don’t know if they know anything about Bible prophecy or not but they’re involved in this sort of discussion about the United Nations and where it should move to; and personally, I’m sort of happy people are talking about getting it out of our country, but that’s another sermon for another day. So they’re trying to figure out well… if the United Nations moves, where should it move? And lo and behold, there’s this whole article that they do where they’re saying: Iraq could be a great place and they give all these reasons, nothing… there’s no Bible references cited, all these sort of practical reasons why, you know, the… Iraq would be a great place to move the UN to. 51:31

“Want Middle East Stability? Move UN to Iraq”

“The idea of moving U.N. headquarters seems to resonate with many….Where should it go? Try Iraq…In order to maintain its fledgling democracy, Iraq needs international commitment, an inducement to stop factional violence, and a stable form of income not subject to the terrorists’ reprisals…New York is an expensive city, and representation at the U.N. is currently a costly endeavor…The remaining big spenders should have a positive effect on the Iraqi job market and improve the overall economy of the entire region, which might in turn reduce the tendency …”

Cynthia E. Ayers and David W. Cammons, “Want Middle East Stability? Move UN to Iraq,” Newsweek, April 9, 2007, posted at: Http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/needtoknow/2007/04/want_middle_east_stability_mov.html

So, we’re living in this time period where cities, particularly in that part of the world spring up almost overnight. I found this article here and it’s entitled “A Prince’s $500 Billion Desert Dream: Flying Cars, Robot Dinosaurs and a Giant Artificial Moon” doesn’t that sound fun?

A Prince’s $500 Billion Desert Dream: Flying Cars, Robot Dinosaurs and a Giant Artificial Moon

“Saudi Arabia’s crown prince turned to U.S. consultants for help imagining a massive new city-state in a barren section of his kingdom. What emerged was a Jetsons-style world of automation. SHARMA, Saudi Arabia—This seaside corner of northwest Saudi Arabia is so barren that the only abundant resources a group of consultants could identify were sunlight and ‘unlimited access to salt water.’ But Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman didn’t see a wasteland when he landed in his helicopter here a few years ago. He saw the future — and hatched a plan for a $500 billion city-state to cover 10,000 square miles of rocky desert and empty coastline to attract the ‘world’s greatest minds and best talents’ to the world’s best paying jobs in the world’s most livable city.”

Justin Scheck, Rory Jones, and Summer Sawww.wsj.comid, “A Prince’s $500 Billion Dollar Desert Dream,” online:, 25 July 2019.

And it says: Saudi Arabia’s crown prince turned to U.S. consultants for help imagining… Well, they like that word, reimagine, don’t they?… for help imagining a massive new city-state in a barren section of his kingdom. What emerged was a Jetsons-style world of automation… and the article goes on and it just describes this city that was built in Saudi Arabia almost overnight. Now, actually, I may have… yeap… and then of course, you have the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Look where Dubai is and look where Iraq is.

They’re pretty close to each other, aren’t they? Dubai is another example of a city in that part of the world, a flourishing city.

Let me backup for just a minute. I was struggling to remember the name of this city where this Saudi Arabian crown Prince wants to build this city, is Neom, N-E-O-M, Saudi Arabia; and then in Saudi Arabia is not that far from Iraq. Then in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai, there’s what Dubai looks like today and that’s another city that came up almost overnight.

So, it’s really interesting to me that as we’re looking at this in the Bible, we’re seeing examples in our world of cities in that region that pop-up almost overnight when there was nothing there before but desert sand. It’s like the Lord is trying to get our attention or something. I think what the Lord is saying is: Look how easy my word could be fulfilled, because that’s what Zechariah, 5 is predicting. The woman is let out of the basket and she goes back to Shinar to build this for a pedestal to be built for her; and then, and I think this is the last thing I’ll cover here. You have something called the Abrahamic House, have you seen this? You can go online and you can google this and it’s like a…. they take you on like a visual tour on these three houses.

These three houses are also built in the UAE, United Arab Emirates, and it’s called the Abrahamic House or Houses because Abraham is the tie that binds, right? Because Abraham is respected, the thinking goes, by the three great faiths of the world. The name Abraham is respected in Islam, the name Abraham is respected in Christendom, the name Abraham is respected in Judaism and so that’s why they’re all focusing on this name Abraham because they’re trying to tie together all of the faiths of the world, especially the three great faiths that we know of, Islam, Christendom and Judaism. 55:31

So, you might remember from the Trump era, Jared Kushner and his work with the Abraham Accords, you’ve heard of that, right? Why was the name Abraham selected? Because that’s the common name that the Jews can agree with and the Muslims can agree with. So Abraham is the tie that binds. So you go online and you look at this Abrahamic House and basically what it is are three houses and each house represents one of those three great faiths and the whole point of this is, look at what… look we have everything in common and the Pope, of all people, when he wants to have a kind of a world religions gathering, he doesn’t have these gatherings, and there’s been about three of them that I’ve known of recently, he doesn’t have them in Rome, Vatican City, he wants to have them here in the Middle East. So, I have this news clipping here related to this Abrahamic House and it says: A one world religion headquarters is set to open in 2022… Hey, guess what? we’re in 2022 now. The headquarters will be called the Abrahamic Family House and it’s been built in the Middle Eastern City of Dubai. The headquarters is being done in collaboration with Pope Francis… You know, the Pope doesn’t want it in Rome, he wants it in the Middle East… this headquarters, the headquarters is being done in collaboration with Pope Francis, Sunni Muslim leader, Sheikh… and I’m not even going to try to pronounce that last name… after they both signed a global peace covenant called the “Document of Human Fraternity for World Peace” The stated purpose of the Abrahamic Family House is to bring understanding and tolerance among the faiths… So that’s why the name Abraham is chosen, cause Abraham is the tie that binds… The One World Religion Headquarters will have three buildings; one building each representing the mosque, the church, and the synagogue… Interestingly, though… However, the church is not permitted to have a cross on the building as a method of identifying it, as it is illegal to display a Christian cross on a building in the United Arab Emirates… Connected to this construction project will be an interfaith council to oversee projects which aim to advance tolerance… So, I am saying that the Abrahamic Family House is the final capital of the antichrist? That’s not what I’m saying, what I’m saying is, it’s interesting that when they’re looking for a headquarters of this whole thing, they keep picking locations, not in the west, but in the east. That’s exactly what your Bible says would happen, because the United Arab Emirates is not that far geographically from Iraq, which is going to be if Zechariah chapter 5, verse 11 (Zech 5:11) has been interpreted correctly, that’s going to be the headquarters of the antichrist. So the new world order is being built. I mean, I think that’s where all of this mask mandates, you know, the jab and tracking devices and the world economic forum, I mean all this craziness that we’ve seen for the last two years, what it all is, really at the end of the day, is a giant push into globalism. I’m not saying that COVID is unreal, because I personally know people that have died from COVID related issues. What I’m saying is there’s a much bigger virus than COVID, which could very well have been manufactured as a biological weapon. The virus to keep your eye on, is not COVID, just COVID. It’s the apparatus that’s being erected to supposedly curb COVID and the apparatus that’s being erected is one world government. You have to understand something, that never before in the history of mankind, that I know of, has a single thing like we’re seeing now with COVID united the whole planet. I mean, I’m just shocked at how fast it’s happened and I’ve been studying prophecy for a long time. I am shocked, I can’t believe how fast global regulations are coming into place, travel regulations are coming into place, because of COVID. So if you want to watch a virus, look at the world government that’s being constructed as I speak, but the new world order needs a headquarters so as you watch these global elites, it’s like they’re trying to figure out where are we going to have a headquarters for this whole thing… I know, the Middle East would be a great place. Saudi Arabia, Dubai, the Abrahamic Family House, those are all the suggestions that they’re coming up with; and what I’m trying to say is that’s exactly what Zechariah, 5, verse 11 said five hundred years before the time of Christ; and it has to happen this way for Isaiah’s prophecies to be fulfilled, Jeremiah’s prophecies to be fulfilled, Zechariah’s prophecies to be fulfilled, it’s all fulfilled in Revelation, 17 and 18 with the opening or the pouring out of the seventh trumpets judgment, that’s when Babylon falls. Babylon can’t fall cataclysmically until she becomes the headquarters of the entire world. 1:02:14

So, what I was going to do tonight, is I was going to review Zechariah, 5 briefly and then cover chapter 6 verses 1 through 8 (laughs). So that was my introduction (laughs). No, we’ll…. I have to change what I wrote on the website. So, Ann when you post this, just call it Zechariah, 5, verse 11 forget the chapter 6, verses 1 through 8 which we’ll do next time.

Alright, it’s 8:02, you guys are… you guys feel free to take off if you need to do that…