Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church Lee Swor, Pastor

Transcription

1 Mt. Pleasant Bible Institute Study to shew thyself approved unto God (2 Tim 2:15) Dr. Joseph Speciale, Instructor A ministry of the Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church Lee Swor, Pastor

2 Mt. Pleasant Bible Institute Bible Prophecy (Pt.3)

3 MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues Revelation 17:15

4 Babylon. First appearance of BABYLON in Revelation; appears 6x (v.8; 16:19; 17:5; 18:2,10,21) Rev 14:8= the INTRODUCTION of Babylon (the Great) Rev 16:19= the CONDEMNATION of Babylon the Great Rev 17= the IDENTIFICATION of Babylon the Great Rev 18= the DESTRUCTION of Babylon the Great If one was reading Revelation 14:8 for the first time without reading ahead to Revelation 17, there is nothing in the immediate context that would initally lead the reader to believe that this BABYLON is any thing other than the BABYLON of the OT To believe otherwise, one must have a comprehensive understanding of the OT prophetic scriptures related to Babylon in light of its current condition Babylon was the first of the four great Gentile empires (Dan 2:31-38; 7:4) during the times of the Gentiles (Luke 21:24) Babylon was the instrument of God s judgment against Judah and the nations round about Judah (Jer 25:9)

5 Babylon took the Jews into captivity and dominated the nations round about for 70 years (Jer 25:11) God promised to bring judgment against Babylon after the 70 years, and that judgment would consummate with Babylon becoming a PERPETUAL DESOLATION (Jer 25:12) Jer 25:9, Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations. 11 And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 12 And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. The first deportation of Jews into Babylonian captivity took place in 606 BC; exactly 70 years later in 537 BC, Babylon fell to Cyrus and the armies of the Medes and Persians (Isa 13:17; 44:28-45:1; Jer 51:11,27-28; Dan 2:39a; 5:30-31; 7:5)

6 The Babylonian EMPIRE was no more, but the CITY of Babylon remained prominent through the beginning of the Greek empire (Dan 2:39b; 7:6) Alexander the Great purposed to make Babylon the capital of the Eastern part of his empire but he died at Babylon in 323 BC and his purpose was never fulfilled The Greek empire was divided up among the four generals (i.e.- Cassander, Lysimacus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus) following Alexander s death because he had no son to succeed him at the time (Dan 11:4) Note: Alexander s wife Roxana was pregnant with a son (Alexander IV) at the time of his death but no one knew it was a son so the kingdom was divided among regents. When Alexander IV came of age (14) to claim the power of his father s throne, Cassander had him and his mother Roxana assassinated through poisoning in order to hold on to his power and maintain the status quo. Decades of fighting followed between the rival factions, most notably between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies, and Babylon was often caught in the middle The constant warfare destroyed much of the city and emptied it of most of its inhabitants so that by 275 BC Babylon was considered insignificant as a city Babylon continued to exist as an increasingly marginal city with a relatively large Jewish population into the first century AD under Rome (1 Pet 5:13) The rise and spread of Islam beginning in the 7th century AD brought more conflict to the region and finished off Babylon

7 Muslims chose Baghdad, located about 55 miles NE of Babylon, to became a great Islamic capital rather than seeking to rebuild Babylon Due to centuries of DESTRUCTION and DESERTION, Babylon slowly but surely became the utter DESOLATION it is today just as the Lord said it would (Isa 13:19-22; Jer 50:3,12-13,23,26,39-40; 51:11-12,25-26,28-29,37) Any and all attempts to rebuild Babylon have failed, the most notable is that of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussien in the 1980s Saddam heralded himself as a reincarnation of Nebuchadnezzar and believed he had a divine calling to rebuild Babylon and restore it to its former glory The devastation of two USA led invasions of Iraq (1991 and 2003) and Saddam s ultimate capture and execution ended this ambition As indicated in the verse-by-verse studies of Isaiah 13 and Jeremiah 50-51, there are details regarding the activities and judgment of Babylon that have not yet been fulfilled It is clear that these details will be fulfilled by the BABYLON (THE GREAT) of the book of Revelation, but what is not as clear is the identity of this Babylon In the beginning of this study, the various theories regarding the identity of Babylon the Great were outlined and one of the most popular is that it is the city of ancient Babylon rebuilt on the Euphrates river in Iraq

8 There are variations of this view but the most popular one is that there are two Babylons in Revelation: (1) the religious Babylon of Revelation 17, which is Rome; and (2) the political/commerical Babylon of Revelation 14,16,18 which is a rebuilt Babylon in Iraq One of the arguments against this view is that there is not enough time left to allow for the construction of a city as vast as Babylon was, much less for it to become the political and commercial capital of the world Even with modern technology, an unlimited supply of Arab cash, and laborers working around the clock, it would take MANY YEARS just to construct such a city It would also take MANY ADDITIONAL YEARS and/or dramatic changes in geopolitics and the global economy for it to become the political/commercial capital of the world This argument ignorantly assumes that when the Antichrist comes to power all things continue as they were, which they WILL NOT (Dan 7:25) The Antichrist comes with Satanic power and the ability to perform signs and wonders (2 The 2:9; Rev 13:1-2), so it is not inconceivable that a city could be built virtually over night The major issue with the view of a rebuilt Babylon is that it appears to contradict scripture regarding the judgment of Babylon

9 The judgment of God brought Babylon to its current DESOLATE state, and the Lord promised that Babylon SHALL NOT RISE from the evil he brought against it, but that it would be DESOLATE FOREVER If Babylon were rebuilt, it WOULD RISE from the judgment of desolation God brought upon it- and that WILL NOT happen Jer 51: And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words; 62 Then shalt thou say, O LORD, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever. 63 And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates: 64 And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah. If this is a correct assessment, then the BABYLON (THE GREAT) of Revelation cannot be a rebuilt version of the ancient city

10 Babylon is fallen, is fallen. IS FALLEN, IS FALLEN appears 3x (14:8; 18:2; Isa 21:9) and all refer to BABYLON or BABYLON THE GREAT The first appearance clearly refers to the fall of OT Babylon to the Medes and Persians (Elam) Isa 21:2,9 2 A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease. 9 And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground. Even though the fall of Babylon is announced in the past tense, it did not actually occur for another 180 years When scripture prophesies about a future event in the past tense it is highlighting the CERTAINTY of it s fulfillment Since Isaiah 21:9 announced the FUTURE fall of OT BABYLON in the past tense, and OT Babylon is a type of Babylon the Great, it is reasonable to conclude that Revelation 14:8; 18:2 announce the FUTURE fall of BABYLON THE GREAT in the past tense

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