Part 5 to "The OVERNIGHT Reemergence of Babylon the "GREAT CITY"
Must Babylon be a GIANT SEAPORT CITY?
Babylon "the Great" does not require Babylon to be a massive Seaport City.
Babylon is not itself a Giant Seaport City, but it Controls Global Seaports from a distance across seas and continents.
This whole 7-part series is Original Research using primary and secondary sources. copyright bibleprophecyaswritten 2020
"the kings of the earth...saying ... ' the great city, Babylon, the strong city! ... such great wealth '
... all the nations were deceived by your sorcery." (Revelation 18:9-10, 17, 23)
Must Babylon be among the Great SEAPORT cities?
It is NOT required that Babylon be a Giant SEAPORT city—but rather a city in CONTROL of the World’s Giant Seaports. Babylon will control all shipping —not because of its shoreline— but because of its long-distance CONTROL of Global Ports! Once the Antichrist takes Power, it could start INSTANTLY.
The above is based on this BIBLICAL PREMISE:
If the Antichrist were in power today, wherever he were headquartered, he would have absolute Authority, Power, and Control over ALL the Seaports shown below — the world's busiest!
"... and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him."...
"And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to
be given a mark on their right hand, or on their forehead, and he provides that no one should be able to
buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark," (Revelation 13:7, 16-17)
It follows, then, that if the Antichrist is headquartered in Babylon of Chaldea,
THAT Babylon (not a "Replacement-Babylon") will Control Global Seaports.
Here are the 20 busiest ports
on the planet; key to world trade
"An estimated 90% of world trade is facilitated by maritime shipping, and as trade volumes continue to increase, the world’s busiest ports continue to grow larger and more efficient to meet demand... Only five of the top 20 ports in the world are now located outside of East Asia. The Port of Los Angeles is the only U.S. entrant in the top 20, and only three European ports made the cut.
Today, trade is more likely than ever to flow through the South China Sea."
05 Feb 2019, Nick Routley,
Creative Director & Writer,Visual Capitalist, [emphasis mine]
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/02/visualizing-the-world-s-busiest-ports
RIGHT: Two pictures showing the classic view of "Seaport-Babylon's" sudden destruction to the terror of the witnessing portside ships
The belief common among expositors for millennia has been that Revelation 18 can only be depicting a Giant-"Great City"-Babylon located on a Giant massive-scale Seaport, trafficking the world's mercantile ships.
Then, according to Revelation 18, the ships and passengers crowded into this massive port would, within visible eyeshot, but at a distance from the shoreline and docks, witness the sudden destruction of Babylon.
For example, we read...
"...Babylon seems to be some city along a great river, crowded with the ships of the merchants of the earth...
"One thing cannot be denied: the muddy Tiber River, flowing through Rome, could never carry the enormous maritime traffic portrayed in chapter 18..."
Wilbur M. Smith, Revelation, The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, Charles F. Pfeiffer & Everett F. Harrison, eds., Moody Press, Chicago, 1962, p. 1516-17
This view (here by one of our great Bible prophecy expositors, Wilbur Smith) is entirely understandable in the context of the last 1900 years. But technology and systems had so radically changed as the world moved into the 21st century that the prophecy actually becomes easier to understand in the context our modern techno-age.
Many have believed that BABYLON must be a
MAJOR SEA-PORT CITY.
But today we see that Babylon’s future control of MAJOR SHIPPING PORTS does not depend on its Shoreline!
"...for in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste!’
And every shipmaster and every passenger and sailor, and as many as make their living by the sea,
stood at a distance,[ the Greek
word-form for "distance" is sometimes related to "a far country"; Luke 15:13; 19:12]
and were crying out as they saw the smoke of her burning, saying,
' What city is like the great city?’
"And they threw dust on their heads…weeping and mourning, saying, 'Woe, woe, the great city,
in which all who had ships at sea became rich by
her wealth, [ "her" (Babylon), because the Authority and Power of the Antichrist, emanating from his Throne centered in Babylon, controls the Wealth of the Entire Planet !!! ]
for in one hour she has been laid waste!’ "
(Rev 18:17-19
BELOW: "from a distance... afar off" —How it works TODAY
"From a Distance" (Rev 18:10, 15, 17
New Possibilities Today !
Are the ships of the world backed up and crowded into Babylon's 'Giant Seaport', their occupants watching with their 'two-eyes' the visible spectacle of Babylon's destruction?
Or, is there another explanation?
1. RIGHT: President Bush on Air Force One watching live news coverage of the terrorists destruction of the World Trade Center Towers in New York City on Sep 11, 2001...
—from more than a thousand miles away.
"And the kings of the earth…
standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, 'Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’ (Rev 18:9-10
Sailors “at a distance”
RIGHT: Two scenes of U.S. Navy Sailors aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Ship-- 400 miles away at Newport News Virginia Navy Shipyard—
watching LIVE the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York City on Sep 11, 2001
USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, Sep 11, 2001
PDF, department of the navy - Naval History and Heritage
www.history.navy.mil › archives › d › pdfs › 2001
"The merchants of these things, who became rich from her, will stand at a distance because of the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning..." (Rev 18:15
"And every shipmaster and every passenger and sailor, and as many as make their living by the sea, stood at a distance…crying out as they saw …her burning..." (Rev 18:18
ABOVE: President Bush watches live the collapse of at least one (possibly both) of the World Trade Center Towers while circling above Sarasota, Florida in Air Force One —1,184 miles away !
TIMELINE PRES BUSH DURING 9 11 ATTACKS ON WORLD TRADE CENTER https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_for_the_day_of_the_September_11_attacks
LEFT & ABOVE:
The scene they watched on LIVE-TV — "from a distance...afar off"; precisely, 400 miles — on 9-11-2001. This fits the Rev 18 scenario.
PDF, department of the navy - Naval History and Heritage
www.history.navy.mil › archives › d › pdfs › 2001
IF THE "KINGS OF THE EARTH" STAND AT A DISTANCE (Rev 18:9-10); surely they are not all gathered together in 'the port of Babylon' within "eye-shot" distance, but rather are at a distance in their own countries), WHY NOT, THEN, ALSO THE MERCHANTS OF THE EARTH "STANDING AT A DISTANCE" (Rev 18:17-18) from the Ports around the world?
Today's technology makes that entirely possible.
Revelation 18 merchants MUST HAVE sea access to BABYLON — NOT THE CASE TODAY
Must Babylon be an accessible port-side City for global shipping to fit the Revelation 18 prophecy?
RIGHT: Satellite changes visibility-distance
The Persian Gulf has 33 ports and harbors in 8 countries. Yet shipping activity in the Persian Gulf is "seen from a distance" of 6,818 miles from Washington DC military intelligence on a daily basis. We read in the following report,
U.S. PERSIAN GULF SHIPS MONITORED FROM 6818 MILES AWAY IN WASH DC
This is how the US military is protecting the Strait of Hormuz. (story below)
"And every shipmaster and …as many as make their living by the sea, stood at a distance…"
Rev 18.17-19
"Iranian small boat threats, limpet mines and Tehran-backed forces armed with cruise and anti-ship killing missiles are just a few of the threats to the shipping channel in the Persian Gulf that supplies nearly one-fifth of the world’s global crude oil.... Iran is believed to be behind a number of attacks ...on commercial ships operating in tight waterways in the Middle East...the U.S. has also cobbled together an international maritime security ring — that now includes seven nations — dubbed Operation Sentinel....is a maritime security framework...and provide a persistent maritime presence... [stopping] unsafe activity directed against commercial shipping .”
These satellite surveillance photographs show the modern meaning of what it means to "stand at a distance", "afar off" (Rev chapter 18) and view activity in cities and ports and shipping activity TODAY —indeed "afar off" across continents and seas and international boundaries.
From the DISTANCE-WITNESSING of the 9-11 event in New York City, to the DISTANCE- WITNESSING of shipping events in the Persian Gulf, Rev 18 gains new clarity.
1. Satellite surveillance honing in...
3. and in... transmitting the videos almost 7000 miles to the Pentagon in Washington DC where, "standing at a distance", the military identifies the ships, their locations...
2. and in...
4. and their activity as Iranian boats harass the American ships in the Persian Gulf.
Photo 2009 Planet Labs, Inc [photos theirs; graphic design mine]
In this series on "The GREAT CITY" of Revelation 18, modern realities actually clarify
how a prophecy reality that cannot be — Babylon of Chaldea — CAN BE !
To deny that Babylon of Chaldea could Control ALL of the Global SEAPORTS is to deny that
the Antichrist — IF he were headquartered at Babylon of Chaldea — could have Global Authority over the "buy and sell"-Worldwide-Economy
(Rev 13:16-17; 18:17-19
[The] great merchants of the earth... are those who have their employment in shipping-related industries,
since Babylon [on the Euphrates] is the central focus of all trade and repository of global wealth.
Henry Morris, The Revelation Record, Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, IL, 1983, p. 369.
NEXT, part 6, "Babylon REPLACED?"
NOTES and POSTSCRIPTS:
1. The OVERNIGHT RISE Of The GREAT CITY
COMPLETE SUMMARY STATEMENTS
SUMMARY STATEMENT OF This Entire Series
( Summary of the 7 Propositions listed below, each of which encapsulates a subject of this 7-Part series )
Babylon of Chaldea has Survived, slowly rebuilding for a thousand years, awaiting its destiny as
the Throneroom of the Antichrist, the City Chosen by HIM to enforce HIS Authority and HIS Ownership
of the Global Sovereignty, Wealth, and Trade ceded "Overnight" to HIM by the Nations;
Babylon awaits its destiny as "the Great City"—perishing with its Final Fall at the Return of Christ.
(Jeremiah 50-51; Revelation 17-18)
(The "Great" in the "Great City" is the result of its status as the base-city
for the "Great Authority" of its chief occupant, the Antichrist)
Below are 7 Summary Statements concluded from the Biblical, archaeological and historical evidence presented in this series. Each of the 7 statements corresponds respectively to the 7 Parts of this series, where we will present the evidence that,
1. Babylon of Chaldea (Iraq) has Survived to fulfill its prophesied date with destiny.
Photographs of Conditions said to be impossible after Babylon's Final Destruction prove Babylon has Survived.
2. Babylon has been rebuilding, inconspicuously, and unnoticed, for centuries.
Beginning in the midst of Babylon's ruins, the Literal Stones of Babylon have for 1000 years been recycled and redistributed to expand and build up the city of Hillah --essentially Rebuilding Babylon.
3. Revelation's title "Babylon the Great City" does not require Babylon to be a Super-Large city.
Babylon is "Great"--not because of Great Size--but because of its Great Authority derived from its status as the throne-room City of the Antichrist.
4. The description "the Wealthy City" does not require Babylon to be a city of long-standing wealth.
Babylon becomes the global icon of extreme Wealth, not from Old-wealth, but from Overnight Wealth, bequeathed and bestowed by the Nations.
5. Babylon "the Great" does not require Babylon to be a massive Seaport City.
Babylon is not itself a Giant Seaport City, but it Controls Global Seaports from a distance across continents and seas.
6. Babylon of Chaldea has not been "Replaced" any more than Israel of Mt. Zion has been Replaced.
Babylon has a Biblical-Chaldean GPS Identification of 32.32º x 44.25º which excludes any other city as a Replacement Babylon.
7. Babylon, Iraq, has a prophetic-time appointment that parallels that of Israel.
Babylon of Chaldea has a Date With Destiny prophetically scheduled to coincide with the New Covenant Salvation of Israel at the End Time. (Jer 5-:1-5
If the evidence sustains these 7 points, where is the need for a metaphorical Replacement to the plain, common sense, literal understanding of the word "Babylon"?
HISTORY TO MOVE BACK TO THE EAST
"Back East...man got his start in the East. The Bible says that man was placed in 'a garden toward the east, in Eden' (Benesis 2:8). For the early millennia of man's history, the focus remained in the East. The great empires were all located there"
Mark Hitchcock, The Second Coming Of Babylon, 2003, Multnomah Publishers, Sisters, OR, p.43.
"...in the most recent decades, something incredible has begun to happen. Power and world attention has begun to return to the East. With little warning the East has risen again as a major player."
Mark Hitchcock, The Second Coming Of Babylon, 2003, Multnomah Publishers, Sisters, OR, p.44.
"The Bible says that the Middle East is the stage for the key events of the end times. The East is back. And it is herre to stay.
Mark Hitchcock, The Second Coming Of Babylon, 2003, Multnomah Publishers, Sisters, OR, p.45.
The GOSPEL in Revelation:
The 5th verse from the beginning,
Jesus Christ...To Him who loves us, and released us from our sins by His blood, (Revelation 1:5
The 5th verse from the end,
"... And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost." (Revelation 22:17
The Book Of Revelation, apocalyptic and foreboding, is actually "FRAMED" by the GOSPEL OF SALVATION in Jesus Christ. Here's how you can be saved...