Babylon and the New World Order

If the trends of our present age continue, a world order dominated by socialistic ideas will emerge. In time, the realignment of nations will bring on the reign of antichrist.

I am no prophet. I repudiate those who speak in the name of the Lord today and are consistently wrong in everything they predict. I refuse to guess or trust my own changing spirit to come up with messages for God’s people.

For you see, God has already spoken. What I will share with you from Revelation 17 and other such chapters, is God’s truth. It will come to pass. And if the reset we see after America’s 2020 fall continues, it may start looking like the end very soon. Heed God’s Word.

Revelation 17 (NASB, 1995.)

The seventeenth chapter of Revelation has been discussed and fought over so often that men wish to ignore it today. But that is unfortunate. Revelation 17 tells us of

• the final world religion.
• the identity of Babylon.
• the antichrist’s identity.
• the ordering of world empires.
• the order of events of the end times.

Certainly it is worth a little examination of Revelation 17 to enlighten us on these subjects, yes? Let’s try it.

As the curtain opens on this chapter (17), it is evident that a bit of backtracking is about to take place. For, by the end of chapter 16, all the great cities of all the great nations have fallen. Babylon, a world empire and world religion, has fallen. Islands and mountains are no more. Hailstones are falling on the residents of earth as one final blast of judgment.

John is then beckoned by an angel who participated in that awful scene and asked to look more closely at Babylon and the entity she has ridden to power, before they met their cataclysmic end. A sea of mysteries is suddenly uncovered, and we do well to see what John saw.

After all, the Holy Spirit has told us in the very first verses of the book, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it” (Revelation 1:3). So read with me, hear, and heed.

First there is a description of a prostitute sitting on many waters. She is defined in verse 18 as “the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.” Straightforward enough, I think. We Christians have shied away from “naming names”, but is there any other great city in John’s day – “reigns” is present tense – that could meet such a description but the city of Rome?

Did not Rome do awful damage to the Christian Church in John’s day and thereafter? Did not pagan Rome pose many threats to the Church for centuries? Did not pagan Rome melt into Papal Rome with its burning of Scriptures and their translators? Did not Rome consign to the flames those believers who spoke against her in those long years we call the Dark Ages? Dark because the Word of God was held back from God’s people and the world?

Has all this been explained any better? Why should we try to hide something that is as clear as can be here in God’s Book?

The woman sits on many waters, on many nations, but zoom in a little and you will see (v. 3) that she is aided in her world conquest by a scarlet “beast.” An animal with seven heads. And ten horns. He is soon to be explained, but not before the woman herself gets a close-up.

Beautiful attire. Purple. Scarlet. The colors of royalty. Colors of bishops and cardinals of the Roman church, some have said.

Extraordinarily rich. Is there a religious power on earth more worthy of this description than the Roman church/state headquartered in the Vatican? Though listed as a religious organization, the earthly side of Vatican City is the 18th wealthiest nation in the world, on a per capita basis.

The church is rich in its art, its land, its gold, its edifices, its investments, its political connections. Every source that tries to describe wealthy religious institutions puts Roman Catholicism at the top of the list.

She carries a cup filled with things and practices that God hates, things that damn men to eternal punishment. Jeremiah had a vision of the original city of Babylon (Jeremiah 50-51) of which John’s revelation is an echo:

“Babylon has been a golden cup in the hand of the Lord, intoxicating all the earth. The nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are going mad. Suddenly Babylon has fallen… (vs 7-8)”

And then the describing angel departs from the image of a city we thought we knew, and talks about a Babylon in Jesus’ day. This New Testament era Babylon is “drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses – martyrs – of Jesus.”

John is puzzled. We are too. Weren’t you talking about the old city of Babylon, angel? The one that came against your people Israel? How is it that this woman is tied in to the killing of Christians?

We read on.

Did I speak of the “original” Babylon? Did I give the impression that all the Old Testament talk of Babylon is simply that, Old Testament?

I have become more and more convinced that there is only one Babylon, re-named and superimposed on city after city, the final manifestation of which is none other than the city of Rome.

Jeremiah said with John, a little later in Revelation, that Babylon will fall suddenly. But the “original” Babylon did not fall suddenly. Hundreds of years after the Medes and Persians captured her, she was alive and well, even into and after the time of Jesus.

If we look at the bigger picture, we could say that Babylon has never fallen at all. She lived on in Medo-Persia. In Greece. In Rome. Rome pagan. Rome Papal. A kingdom still with us today.

For this we need help from Daniel. Remember the statue of Nebuchadnezzar, that foretold the kingdoms of earth after him? The statue represented Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and a ten-nation confederation flowing out of Rome that would culminate in the coming of Christ to establish His own kingdom (Daniel 2).

If Rome was “Babylon” in the first days of the Roman Empire, why is it not still Babylon, now and until the end?

While America was thoroughly engaged in disputing and defending a fraudulent election, on November 10 there was a meeting of the Mediterranean Union. Nothing sinister here. Nothing spectacular. But proof that Rome still lives, that the Roman Empire can arise at any time God sees fit. A report of the meeting from ec.europa.eu:

“The UfM Trade Ministerial Conference stressed the importance of ensuring that Mediterranean partners can take full advantage of opening markets. The newly launched trade and investment initiatives supported by the EU and implemented by partner organizations – the International Trade Centre, the International Labour Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development – will contribute to that aim. Worth a total of €11 million, they will strengthen the impact of trade and investment on job creation in the Southern Mediterranean and encourage inclusive economic development.”

Executive Vice-President and Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis stated:

“The Mediterranean region has been well-known throughout history for its thriving trade in knowledge and goods. I am pleased to see that the current pandemic did not stop this, and that we agree that vibrant regional trade can play a vital role in economic recovery in the EU and the broader Euro-Mediterranean region. “

UfM Secretary-General Nasser Kamel said:

“Today’s meeting demonstrates the common will of 42 countries to work together in these areas and illustrates the UfM’s action-driven methodology which turns our political mandates into concrete initiatives through a multi-partner regional dialogue.”

Summary: Lots of big money being generated in the region. Lots of interdependence. Lots of power. Keep your eye on this region.

Rome/Babylon rises before us. The answer to a dream of world domination, world unity. Be ready.