SOUND THE ALARM! (Part 1)
One of the first things you learn when you begin military boot camp is to stay awake when you are on guard duty: NEVER FALL ASLEEP ON GUARD DUTY! The Sergeant of the Guard or Officer of the Day may come strolling through your post about 4:00 in the morning and you had better be alert and sound the alarm! Dozing off or not sounding the alarm comes at a painful price!
After I got out of boot camp back in the days before the Vietnam War, a young Marine on guard duty at Camp Pendleton had an interesting experience. A civilian car drove through his post early in the morning and the guard yelled – "Halt. Who goes there?”
The car kept going with his lights off so the young PFC cranked a live round into his M-1 and shot out one of the tires. Then he sounded the alarm – “Sergeant of the Guard . . . post number 3!”
By the time the Sergeant of the Guard got there, the young Marine had a Marine officer spread eagled against his car . . . and the officer just happened to be the Officer of the Day . . . "just out checking the security of the guard posts”!
The young Pfc. was called into his Company Commander’s office the next day . . . and PROMOTED to Lance Cpl. “Good job, Marine! You did the right thing!”
There IS a time to SOUND THE ALARM!
One of the most amazing and mysterious prophecies in the entire Bible is found in the eighteenth chapter of Revelation. The prophecy describes an end-time city that is called “Babylon” . . . and the identity of the city is pretty much ignored by most Bible teachers. After all, whoever this Babylon is must be “over there somewhere” in the Middle East and it doesn’t have anything to do with us over here! Oh?
Maybe we would be wise take a closer look at that prophecy. The Lord doesn’t write things down in His Word just to fill pages in a book and to be ignored. The prophecies concerning end-time Babylon were put into the Scriptures for a reason. The Lord issued a serious warning to the Prophet Ezekiel and to us today:
“Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore, hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from Me.” (Ezekiel 3:17-20)
We are to be watchmen on the wall and there is a time to SOUND THE ALARM!
A BRIEF PREVIEW OF END-TIME BABYLON:
The Bible describes a powerful end-time city and the nation as “Babylon” and “The Daughter of Babylon.” Babylon will be the youngest of the great nations, born from a motherland, composed of a mixed multitude, a literal melting pot of all nationalities. Babylon is depicted as the most-wealthy of all nations, the world center of manufacturing, commerce, and agricultural production. Her location is to the west of Jerusalem, “beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.” This end-time society will also be a great consumer of the world’s products with merchant ships filling her many harbors. The land will be fully developed and mapped with many cities. Air travel and military security are some of her greatest assets.
Babylon and her people, who were once recognized as the “lady of kingdoms,” will become preoccupied with pleasures, luxuries, and higher education. She will also become arrogant in her attitude toward the Lord of heaven. She will give herself to drugs, occultic practices and great immorality. Perversion will become her accepted lifestyle. The sins of her national leaders will be exposed for all the world to see. The rumor of coming terrorism will cause multitudes to flee from her cities and seek shelter in their own homelands. The once “glory of kingdoms” will come under the chastening hand of the Lord Who Himself made her great.
WHO IS THIS BABYLON?
Many scholars and Bible teachers believe that Babylon will be the rebuilt city where King Nebuchadnezzar once ruled his impressive empire. The city will supposedly be suddenly and miraculously rebuilt and become one of the greatest cities in the modern world . . . a global economic center . . . the consumer of products from all over the modern world.
There are a couple of problems with that thinking:
#1 The rebuilding of Babylon hasn’t even begun . . . and the rebuild would put a timeline on the events that will occur during the Tribulation. This would therefore put a timeline on the coming of Jesus for His born-again Bride . . . the event that we refer to as the Rapture of the Church. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, 1 Corinthians 15:51-52)
#2 Whoever this end-time Babylon is, it will be a great seaport city with merchants coming from all over the world. End-time Babylon is not pictured as a city perched out in the middle of the Iraqi desert fifty miles south of Bagdad!
The pronouncements of coming judgment upon end-time Babylon should capture our attention, or at least tickle our curiosity. Since it is described in the Book of Revelation, it will obviously be a major player during the time of the Tribulation and if you believe that we are living in the latter days before the Rapture of the Church and the onslaught of the Tribulation, Babylon must obviously exist somewhere in the world today.
WHICH BABYLON?
There are a multitude of prophecies in both the Old and New Testaments that describe this mysterious end-time city and the nation that it represents.
Historically there are several different “Babylons” identified throughout the Scriptures:
#1 ANCIENT RELIGIOUS BABYLON: The first “Babylon,” of course, is the oldest, which I refer to as “ancient religious Babylon.” The original city was established by Nimrod and was characterized by the “tower whose top may reach heaven.” The followers of Nimrod began the cult that still exists today as they worshipped Nimrod’s mother Semiramis whom they called the “The Mother of god.” Details of God’s judgment upon this ancient society can be found on the pages of Scripture in Genesis, chapter 11.
#2 HISTORICAL BABYLON: Historical Babylon was the first great world empire which came to the zenith of its power under the leadership of King Nebuchadnezzar. Eleven years before the devastating destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, Daniel and a number of other young promising Jews were taken to the city of Babylon during what is called the First Deportation (597 BC). It was there that God propelled Daniel to national leadership and influence in the King’s palace, and God gave him many wonderful opportunities to be a spokesman and witness of the greatness of the one true God, Jehovah.
#3 SADDAM’S REBUILT BABYLON: Some Bible students believe that all the prophecies about Babylon have already been fulfilled or are related to the destruction of a future rebuilt city in the desert sands of Iraq. Before Desert Storm, there had been a modern rebuilding effort that had taken place by Saddam Hussein, the infamous “Butcher of Baghdad” who envisioned himself as the reincarnated King Nebuchadnezzar.
Saddam made quite an impressive attempt to rebuild the famous city of Babylon, but the restored city was anything but the great economic and military power that is described in the eighteenth chapter of Revelation. Whoever the modern-day Babylon is will impact the rest of the world, economically, politically and militarily. With the fall of Saddam and his tyrannical government, it is uncertain what the future of his ancient “city” will be, but it is doubtful that it will ever equal the splendor or power of the city under ancient King Nebuchadnezzar or that is presented in the Book of Revelation.
#4 END-TIME, RELIGIOUS BABYLON: Revelation, chapter 17 deals with end-time religious Babylon which will permeate and control the religious world when the false messiah, anti-Christ, will come to power. Attempts are even now being made to bring the world under the control of a “New World Order” part of which will be religious unity (better understood as religious tyranny). It is interesting that the Lord called this end-time religious system “Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.” Revelation 17:5 The fact is, God is not very impressed with man-made religion!
A study of the seventeenth chapter of Revelation reveals that this powerful religious system may be beautiful in the eyes of the religious world but it will be a harlot in the eyes of God; that is, she will sell the truth for political power and her “lovers” will be the kings of the world. This great center of religious Babylon will be built on seven hills and most Bible scholars believe that the location is the city of Rome.
#5 END-TIME POLITICAL and ECONOMIC BABYLON: The “Babylon” that is found in the eighteenth chapter of Revelation plus a number of Old Testament prophetic books will be the economical center of the world. It will be a great consumer of products that come from nations all over the world.
There are so many descriptions of end-time Babylon that we will devote the next section entirely to the subject and present each description briefly point-by-point as they are given to us in the Scriptures, beginning with those found in the Book of Revelation. Note: we will refrain from trying to make a positive identification of this great city and nation destined for judgment and let the Biblical descriptions speak for themselves.
CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE: Part 2 - The Description of End-Time Babylon
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