"...the great city, Babylon..."Revelation 18:10
The KEY to the "GREAT CITY"
1. Revelation does not require the Great City to be the largest, or most populous, wealthiest, or strongest city, etc.
2. The Great City is where the Center of Power is located.
3. The Great City is not itself the Center of Power, but it is where the Center of Power is located.
4. The Center of Power is the Antichrist.
Graphic RIGHT:
1. The Great City has 'derivative' power.
2. It derives its power from the Center Of All Power--the Antichrist.
3. The Great City is the headquarters of the Ruler who has All Control over the world.
4. He has all political, economic, military, and religious Power and Control. (Rev 13:4-7)
5. That Control is centered in a Person--Not in a City.
6. Wherever that Person (the Antichrist) locates his headquarters- large city, small city, town, village or tent-city-- that "city" becomes the Great City.
7. Revelation 18 says five (5) times that Babylon
is the "Great City".
The WHOLE WORLD Will Be Under His TOTAL CONTROL
It is important to remember that this, too, is a 'derivative' Control...
And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. (Rev 13:2)
1. Therefore, with power and authority "given" to him, the Antichrist will be the worldly source of absolute Authority, Power and Control.
2. Fundamental to the Great City is to understand where the Absolute Authority, Power and Control comes from...
"...and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him [not the Great City]…. And all who dwell on the earth will worship him [not the Great City]… And he [not the Great City] causes all… to be given a mark … and he [not the Great City] provides that no one should be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark…" Revelation 13:7-17
3. The city only REFLECTS the Authority, Power and Control of the Antichrist.
4. But that's what makes it the Great City.
Graphic LEFT: Revelation 13:7-17 makes clear the Bible's statement on the total political, religious, military, and economic Authority of the Antichrist worldwide. Notice the Universal Authority, Power and Control by the circled words like "every" and "all".
BELOW: An illustration of how a city (or resident-airplane) is made "Great".
(This is an illustration only. I do NOT believe the Bible teaches the Antichrist
will come from America! Please keep this in mind as we proceed. Thank you.)
RIGHT:
1. The president, who has sole authority over the world's most powerful nuclear arsenal (coded within a "black suitcase"), has this ultimate power within reach at all times.
2. When the 911 attacks occured on the World Trade Center in New York City, and on the Pentagon in Washington D.C. September 11, 2001, president George Bush was not in Washington D.C., but at a function in Florida.
3. The Center of Power for the entire world was normally Washington D.C., where the center of the presidency (White House, and the black suitcase) and the entire U.S. government is located.
4. But for a few days the Center of Power-- residing with the most powerful man, the president (the black suitcase) of the most powerful country in the world, from the "Great City" of Washington DC-- for a few days that Center of Power was on Air Force One, the presidential airplane, as it scurried about in the skies awaiting an assessment of the nature of the attack on America at the World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon. Air Force One, not Washington DC, was, at that time figuratively the Great City.
LEFT:
An example of a man who is the Center of All Power can be seen in the president of the United States (as we said before, this is only an example--I do not believe the Bible supports the Antichrist coming from America). I use this example only because of its familiarity today. In order to be effective with this example, we must do a 'what if?' exercise.
1. What if the following scenario happened in the U.S., remembering that the president, who has sole authority over the world's most powerful nuclear arsenal (coded within a "black suitcase"), has this ultimate power within reach at all times.
2. What if the checks and balances of the U.S. government--the Congress and the Supreme Court-- were removed?
3. What if the elective process of who occupies the White House, the Executive Branch, the presidency, were removed?
4. What if the Judeo-Christian Moral traditiion of the U.S. were cast off?
5. What would be left? An absolute Dictator with a black suitcase!
6. That will be the position of the Antichrist--a man who is the Center of All Power.
BELOW:
1. As pointed out above, today the "Great City" (Center of Power) in the world is Washington DC.
2. If the president were to set his headquarters in the largest U.S. city, New York City, or in number 47 on the scale, Tulsa, that place would be the Great City.
3. But it is Washington D.C-- not the largest metropolitan city in the world. Not even in the U.S., where it is the 20th largest city. In the world Washington D.C. is number 82. There are 81 cities in the world which are larger than Washington. So what makes Washington the most powerful city in the world? Because, ultimately, that is where the man with the black suitcase is. New York City is far larger, and the leading economic city of the world. But the economic authority and power, and therefore the control, is in Washington. America is the world's leading superpower. But its capital city, Washington D.C., is the Center of Power. That makes Washington, only number 82 among the world's largest cities, a Great City.
RIGHT: Source Information
(graphic added
is mine)
DEMOGRAPHIA WORLD URBAN AREAS
14th ANNUAL EDITION
(Built Up Urban Areas or World Agglomerations)
April 2018
http://demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf
BELOW:
1. Jerusalem is the only other city in the Bible called the "great city" (Rev 11:8). But Jerusalem, being the 600th largest city in the world, has 599 other cities which outrank it in terms of size. So how is it that Jerusalem, like Babylon, is called the Great City?
2. Since Jerusalem is chosen by God as "THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING" (Mat 5:35), then, again, it has to do with where the Center of All Power has placed His name. Since God is the Center of All Power over all of creation, and since He has placed His Name on Jerusalem, then number 600-ranked Jerusalem is the Great City.
3. Likewise, since the Antichrist, for a short time, and at a worldly level, reigns as the Center of All Power on the entire planet, wherever he centers his headquarters, that city will be known as the Great City--be it a monster city like Tokyo, or a village or a hamlet--or a restored ancient city like Babylon.
4. The prophecies name that Great City "Babylon", unless Replacement Theology extends also to Babylon. (In that case one could pick Rome (#114) or Tulsa (#749) or any city that one feels could Replace Babylon--or even a country like America. And one could ignore the "labels" Scripture places on the "Great City"--"labels" like "BABYLON".)
RIGHT: Source Information
(graphic added
is mine)
DEMOGRAPHIA WORLD URBAN AREAS
14th ANNUAL EDITION
(Built Up Urban Areas or World Agglomerations)
April 2018
http://demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf
BELOW--BABYLON of CHALDEA, IRAQ--THE GREAT CITY of Revelation 18:
1. Babylon is not the Great City because of size, population, or location.
2. Babylon is the Great City because it is the base-city of the Antichrist who has all authority, power, and control.
3. Thus, from within Babylon flows all authority, power, and control.
4. If the Antichrist made a village his base headquarters, that village would be the Great City because from within it would come all authority, power, and control.
Since the Antichrist has total political, economic, military, and religious control, then wherever he sets his headquarters--be it Tokyo, New York, Omaha, or Tulsa--all political, economic, military, and religious control will flow from within that city, and it will be the Great City. The Bible says Babylon will be the Great City!
What makes the Great City?
Not size.
Not strength.
Not location.
What makes the Great City is its function as the headquarters of the Antichrist.
Babylon is not the Source.
Babylon is the Site.
The Antichrist has all authority and power, and therefore all control, over...
political functions
military functions
economic functions
religious functions
Wherever there are kings, armies, buying, selling, worship, ships, ports, resources, riches, goods, services, food, water, etc., the Antichrist has control.
Therefore, wherever the Antichrist sets his headquarters, control is extended (enforced, exercised) from there.
Whatever city, town, or village is the site of the Antichrist's headquarters, all control is extended worldwide from there-- that is the site of the Great City.
BELOW: 1829 Map of Babylon (my outline of active archaeological boundary in red; map created by Captain Mignon of Great Britain). Note the magnified part showing the town of Hillah which the great Mid-East archaeologist Austin Henry Layard says began on the mounds of Babylon and was created largely by using the STONES of Babylon. Note that the diagram shows that Hillah began on the east side of the Euphrates and then grew over to the west side, both parts connected by a bridge of boats. Hillah was, and remains, an outgrowth of Babylon.
BELOW LEFT: Hillah in an 1867 map in a popular and reputable French travel magazine. Note Hillah built up on both sides of the Euphrates.
BELOW RIGHT: In the 1828 "Mignon Map" the Bridge of Boats" can be seen connecting the eastern and western banks of the City.
HILLAH-CITY , an OUTGROWTH of BABYLON:
"A few black tents and flocks of sheep and camels were scattered over the yellow plain. They belonged chiefly to the Zobeide, an ancient tribe renowned in the history of the conquering Arabs under their first caliphs, and now pasturing their flocks in the wilds of Babylonia. From Amran, the last of the great mounds [at Babylon], a broad and well-trodden track winds through thick groves of palms. About an hour's ride beneath pleasant shade brings the traveler to the falling gateway of the town of Hillah [eastern Euphrates bank]. A mean bazaar, crowded with Arabs, camels, and [donkeys], leads to a bridge of boats across [western bank of] the Euphrates. The principal part of the town [Hillah], containing the fort and the residence of the governor, is on the opposite [western] side of the river."
Austen H. Layard, Discoveries Among the Ruins of Nineveh And Babylon, Harper & Brothers, Publishers, New York, 1871, p. 414. (Austen Henry Layard was one of the greatest explorers and archaeologists of Mesopotamia; emphasis mine)
Chronology of the Rise of BABYLON-HILLAH:
1. In the 10th century, the town of Al Jami'ayn was founded on the eastern bank of the Euphrates.
Encyclopedia Britannica; https://www.britannica.com/place/Al-Hillah
2. In 1101 AD a new town, Hillah, was founded near Al Jami'ayn. The location of that town is in modern-day Hillah now.
Encyclopedia Britannica; https://www.britannica.com/place/Al-Hillah
3. Hilla was already in the early eleventh century a permanent settlement and not a mere encampment…it gradually merged with and replaced the former Jami'ayn;
Clifford Edmund Bosworth, The New Islamic Dynasties, Columbia University Press, New York, 1996, 36, p. 87.
4. "Amidst the heaps that marked the site of Babylon herself there rose the small town of Hillah."
AUSTIN HENRY LAYARD, Discoveries among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, NEW-YORK: G. P. PUTNAM & CO., 10 PARK PLACE, 1853, Pg 428.
BELOW: The 1829 Mignon-Map of Babylon with an overlay from Google Earth (the light section extending southward from the original town of Hillah). The alignment is remarkable and a witness to the skill of Captain Mignon's early research. Note the growth of Hillah after nearly two centuries. The next map will pick up from here.
BELOW: Hillah is highlighted (still unable to show its full extent) by the lighter portion of Google Earth as it extends around and south of Babylon on both sides of the Euphrates. Babylon itself has active archaeological paremeters on both the east and west sides of the river, and the red line boundary only shows the active archaeological area, as their is strong evidence from both ancient historical sources and modern research that Babylon exceeded the area noted in red, as far south as Borsippa, and perhaps as much as 25 miles to the north of the Babel Mound.The City of Hillah is acknowledged to have been founded upon the rubble of Babylon around 1100 BC and raised up with the actual STONES of Babylon.
Today, a traveler wanting to see Babylon is directed to Hillah by way of the Babylon Railway or the Bagdad highway.
More Questions about the GREAT CITY
1. Must Babylon be a Giant City?
2. Must Babylon be a Great Sea Port?
3. How will "ships at sea" be able to see Babylon's Destruction?
Revelation 11:7-11 foretells the worldwide observation and reaction--within a three-and-one-half day period--of an event in Jerusalem during the Tribulation. How could such be imagined as literally occurrence twenty centuries ago when the Book Of Revelation was written? TODAY, IT IS HAPPENING!
SEEING FROM AFAR "The GREAT CITY" DESTROYED as it happens in "one hour"
One reader, Teresa Poppelwell, was working with the UN in Herat, in western Afghanistan, on September 11, 2001, specifically “in a meeting with the Taliban discussing how the UN could assist drought-affected IDPs [internally displaced persons] from Ghor province.” And then: "We returned to our guest house and watched CNN coverage of the plane that had flown into the first tower just minutes before. There were approximately 10 of us in the room. No one spoke. The sun was setting over the garden walls when the second plane hit. Shortly thereafter we were escorted to our UN offices to grab essential items like hard drives from our computers. We spent the night with Taliban guarding our guesthouse (sitting in the roof with AK47s) who then escorted us to the airport around 10 am the next morning. We waited for the UN plane to arrive."
The Atlantic, 9-13-16
https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2016/09/from-around-the-world/499883/
"The September 11 attacks of 2001, in addition to being a unique act of terrorism, constituted a media event on a scale not seen since the advent of civilian global satellite links. Instant worldwide reaction and debate were made possible by round-the-clock television news organizations and by the internet. As a result, most of the events listed below were known by a large portion of the planet's population as they occurred."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_for_the_day_of_the_September_11_attacks
Published on Aug 31, 2011 "Live TV coverage from the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US. The dramatic live images broadcast around the world stunned viewers and often left the presenters themselves breathless."
[Source: package contains footage courtesy CNN, Fox (US), ABC (US), WUSA (US), TCN (US), NHK (Japan), AZT (Mexico), CBC (Canada), BBC World, CCTV (China), and Iraq Satellite Channel]. Footage made available at: http://www.archive.org/details/911
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HcX3iffQcI
NOTES:
."Babylon, long dead and now risen from the dead, yet never really dead."
Henry Morris, The Revelation Record, Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, IL, 1983, p. 354.
"Even in the midst of all the terrible plagues of the tribulation, it is business as usual for the merchants of the world."
Henry Morris, The Revelation Record, Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, IL, 1983, p. 354.
This movement of the commercial capital of the world back to Babylon, together with its religious and political capitals, was foreseen long ago by the prophet Zechariah, in his 'ephah' (Zec. 5:5-11). The ephah was the primary volumetric measure (roughly equivalent to a bushel) and was often used as a symbol of commerce in the ancient world.... ...Babylonian mercantilism and covetousness."
Henry Morris, The Revelation Record, Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, IL, 1983, p. 354.
"The woman in the ephah, however, along with the entire symbol, obviously depicts the theme of commerce and the spirit of covetousness. Something similar to this scene--that is, winged women carrying the standard of weights and measures--has often been used around the world as a symbolic emblem of international commerce...Zechariah's vision thus clearly foretells a time when the center of world finance and commerce will be removed from its bases in New York and Geneva and other great cities and transported quickly across the world to a new foundationand headquarters in the land of Shinar. The land of Shinar, of course, is simply a biblical term for Babylon, and has been ever since Babel was first erected there (Gen. 11:2; Isa. 11:11; Daniel 1:2)
Henry Morris, The Revelation Record, Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, IL, 1983, p. 355.
TIMELINE, SEQUENCE, AND SOURCE OF BABYLON-EXTENSION CITY...HILLAH
HILLAH SEQUENCE OF EVENTS LEADING TO FOUNDING AND GROWTH
1. In the 10th century, the town of Al Jami'ayn was founded on the eastern bank of the Euphrates.
Encyclopedia Britannica; https://www.britannica.com/place/Al-Hillah
2. In 1101 AD a new town, Hillah, was founded near Al Jami'ayn. The location of that town is in modern-day Hillah now. Encyclopedia Britannica; https://www.britannica.com/place/Al-Hillah
3. Hilla was already in the early eleventh century a permanent settlement and not a mere encampment…it gradually merged with and replaced the former Jami'ayn;
Clifford Edmund Bosworth, The New Islamic Dynasties, Columbia University Press, New York, 1996, 36, p. 87.
4. "Amidst the heaps that marked the site of Babylon herself there rose the small town of Hillah."
AUSTIN HENRY LAYARD, Discoveries among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, NEW-YORK: G. P. PUTNAM & CO., 10 PARK PLACE, 1853, Pg 428.
5. [Hillah] was built (c.1100) largely of material taken from the nearby ruins of ancient Babylon. It is a port and the main cereal market of the middle Euphrates area.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/places/asia/iraq-political-geography/al-hillah
6. Here the Arabs have for more than twelve centuries been occupied in digging and carrying away the bricks, with which chiefly Coufa, Bagdad, Mesjid, Ali, Mesjid Hussein, Hillah, and almost all the towns in the neighbourhood have been built.
Claudius James Rich, Esq., Narrative Of A Journey To The Site Of Babylon In 1811, edited by his widow, 1819, Duncan and Malcolm, Paternoster Row, London, Introduction xl.
7. Hillah ["Amidst the heaps that marked the site of Babylon herself there rose the small town of Hillah", Layard's journal, 1853, p.428] may contain about eight or nine thousand inhabitants. ... The houses, chiefly built of bricks taken from the ruins of ancient Babylon ...
Discoveries among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, p. 395.
Author: Austen H. Layard
NEW-YORK: G. P. PUTNAM & CO., 10 PARK PLACE. 1853.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/39897/39897-h/39897-h.htm#fna_203
8. ...[there is] part of a building which stood in the midst of old Babylon.
This ruin has for ages been the mine from which the builders of cities rising after the fall of Babylon have obtained their materials. To this day there are men who have no other trade than that of gathering bricks from this vast heap and taking them for sale to the neighboring towns and villages, and even to Baghdad. There is scarcely a house in Hillah which is not almost entirely built with them; and as the traveller passes through the narrow streets, he sees in the walls of every hovel a record of the glory and power of Nebuchadnezzar.
Discoveries among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, p. 412.
Author: Austen H. Layard
NEW-YORK: G. P. PUTNAM & CO., 10 PARK PLACE. 1853.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/39897/39897-h/39897-h.htm#fna_203
“Group of inscribed fragments of bricks at Hille” (Haynes in his journal)
Wolfe Expedition, John Henry Haynes, 1884, Al-Hillah, Babil, Iraq, Cornell University Library Collections of Antiquities
9. Al Hillah, city (1965 pop. 84,717)...provincial capital of central Iraq on a branch of the Euphrates River. It was built (c. 1100) largely of material taken from the nearby ruins of ancient Babylon. It is a port and the main cereal market of the middle Euphrates area.
The New Columbia Encyclopedia, Columbia University Press, 1975, New York, p. 67.
10. "For hundreds of years people living on the banks of the River Euphrates in Iraq had dug into the mounds of ancient Babylon for the hard baked bricks used in the old buildings. Most of the villages along that part of the river, and the town of Hillah, were largely built with Babylonian bricks. Yet, although the ruins were pillaged in this way, the city was so great that much remained...This great mass of mud-brick had been a rich quarry for the local brick-hunters."
Alan Millard, Treasures From Bible Times, 1985, Lion Publishing, Belleville, MI, p. 135, 137.
11. ...many towns and cites have been built from the ruins of Babylon, among them Four Capital Cities, Seleucia, built by the Greeks; Ctesiphon, by the Parthians; Al Maiden, by the Persians; and Kufa, by the Caliphs. Hillah was entirely constructed from the debris, and even in the houses of Bagdad, Babylonian stamped bricks may be frequently noticed.
Clarence Larkin, Dispensational Truth, 1918, Rev. Clarence Larkin Est., Glenside, PA, p. 142.
12. For centuries, people in the area saw Babylon as a source of solid bricks to take away to build homes in the city of Hilla and surrounding villages. Over time, townspeople removed an entire top layer of the Ishtar Gate and threw away the ornamental glazed blue bricks that were later reclaimed to make up part of the reconstructed gate in Berlin's Pergamon Museum.
In Iraq, A Race To Protect The Crumbling Bricks Of Ancient Babylon, A U.S.-funded conservation project is shoring up the brick walls of the ancient city. The hope is that Babylon will qualify for UNESCO World Heritage status.; Jane Arraf, Posted on November 24, 2018, Copyright 2019 NPR
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/npr/2018/11/24/669272204/in-iraq-a-race-to-protect-the-crumbling-bricks-of-ancient-babylon/
13. Birth of Hillah: Built up upon Babylon STONES
In the 10th century, the town of Al Jami'ayn was founded on the eastern bank of the Euphrates. The location of that town is in modern-day Hillah now. In 1101 AD a new town was founded near Al Jami'ayn. Bricks were taken from Babylon to build houses and so Hillah expanded. During the 18th century, the town became an administrative center in the Ottoman Empire
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Hillah
The following 3 accounts are quotations from C. J. Rich's highly regarded early work at Babylon in 1811.
"There are two paths near this ruin [the Kasr, i.e., Nebuchadnezzaer Palace], made by the workmen who carry down their bricks to the river side, whence they are transported by boats to Hillah."
Ancient Cities Of The World, The Great Cities Of The Ancient World, In their Glory and their Desolation, by Gheodore Alois Buckley, B. A., Geo. Routledge & Co., 2 Farringdon St., London, 1852, p. 30.
Accessed at: https://books.google.com/books?id=Xw6PQdAHvfcC&pg=PA30&lpg=PA30&dq=There+are+two+paths+near+this+ruin,+made+by+the+workmen+who+carry+down+their+bricks+to+the+river+side&source=bl&ots=WX0-HtDCyd&sig=ACfU3U3gQ0f-Vmw2naTAp7n2Wyry6YPf5Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjNub_EzJ_kAhUogK0KHXBnAx8Q6AEwA3oECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
14. "Amidst the heaps that marked the site of Babylon herself there rose the small town of Hillah",
Layard's journal, 1853, p.428
15. Note this 165-year span of documenting the founding and buildup of Hillah from Babylon Stones.
1853— There is scarcely a house in Hillah which is not almost entirely built with [Babylon Stones]; and as the traveler passes through… he sees in the walls of every [building] a record of the glory and power of Nebuchadnezzar.
Discoveries among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, p. 412; Author: Austen H. Layard; NEW-YORK: G. P. PUTNAM & CO., 10 PARK PLACE. 1853. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/39897/39897-h/39897-h.htm#fna_203
2018—For centuries, people in the area saw Babylon as a source of solid bricks to take away to build homes in the city of Hillah …
UNESCO World Heritage status.; Jane Arraf, Posted on November 24, 2018, Copyright 2019 NPR
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/npr/2018/11/24/669272204/in-iraq-a-race-to-protect-the-crumbling-bricks-of-ancient-babylon/
For MORE on Hillah through the centuries, see Tim LaHaye, “Revelation Illustrated And Made Plain”, revised ed., Zondervan, 1979, page 239-42,; gives an account of Clarence Larkin's account of the history of occupants in Babylon, and continues with info on the dominance of Hillah as an outgrowth of Babylon.
BABYLON-HILLAH CONNECTIONS...
1. It is the capital of "Babil" Province.
2. It is located adjacent to the ancient city of Babylon.
3. It's University: University of Babylon.
4. It's transport system to Bagdad--"Babylon Railroad" .
5. It's central neighborhood: "Babil".
6. It was built (c.1100) largely of material taken from the nearby ruins of ancient Babylon.
(Al Hillah, The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed., Copyright The Columbia University Press)
7. Iraq's southern city of Hilla is home to nearly half a million people [Babylonia, and the parameters of Babylon-city itself, is obviously inhabited].
(https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/hilla.htm)
8. Hillah was founded as a literal brick-and-mortar outgrowth city of Babylon-- "Amidst the heaps that marked the site of Babylon herself there rose the small town of Hillah."
AUSTIN HENRY LAYARD, Discoveries among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, NEW-YORK: G. P. PUTNAM & CO., 10 PARK PLACE, 1853, Pg 428.
9. "HILLAH", "BABYLON" names and addresses are used interchangeably, as noted for example in this web address (highlights are mine).
https://depositphotos.com/135007462/stock-photo-panorama-babylon-ruins-and-former.html
"Panorama of partially restored Babylon ruins and Former Saddam Hussein Palace, Babylon, Hillah, Iraq"
For example, ""Images for hillah iraq" at the following web address show mostly pictures of Babylon...
https://www.google.com/search?q=hillah+iraq&rlz=1C1CHWA_enUS646US652&oq=hillah+iraq&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i59j35i39l2j0l4.12086j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8