RIGHT:

Look where modern science places the roots of the world’s largest language family, Indo-European— within the geographic vicinity of Babylon!

The End Time “Great City”

The Identity Of The Babylon Of Revelation

        The book of Revelation quotes Jeremiah 50 & 51 over and over. Why? Because Jeremiah’s predictions of End Time Babylon foreshadow those of Revelation. Jeremiah prophesied of the fate of both ancient and end-time Babylon. And like most short-term and long-term prophecies, they are intermixed in the same passages.

        For example, the prophecies of the coming of Christ often included both His first and second comings in the same context. And like those Messianic prophecies, a careful reading allows us to distinguish Jeremiah’s latter day predictions of Babylon from the earlier ones.

        It is in Jeremiah’s prophecies that we find the clear statements that the Babylon of the Last Days will be located in “Chaldea,” and inhabited by “Chaldeans.” For example, read Jeremiah 50:1, 35; 51:35, 54-55. Notice that 50:4-5, 20,  places many of these predictions at the time of the final restoration of the Jews, an event which will not happen until the End Time.

        Indeed, Babylon will rise from the oil-rich sands on its original site— and SOON!

1. Sudden & Violent Fall... RIGHT...

        Jeremiah prophesied that Babylon would fall suddenly and totally, "As when God overthrew Sodom And Gomorrah with its neighbors..." (Jer. 50:40)

        Another place he says that judgment will “utterly destroy her; let nothing be left of her.” (Jer. 50:26; 51:8-11)

        But according to the Book of Daniel, this did not happen to ancient Babylon. In Daniel 5 the city was taken during a drunken feast hosted by king Belshazzar, who seems to have been the only casualty. And Daniel, the godly Jewish prophet, did not obey the Lord’s command to ’’Come forth from her midst, My people” at the final destruction of the city. Why?

        Because the night Belshazzar’s Babylon fell was not the final destruction of the city, and Daniel the prophet knew it. And so does history.

        There is a record inscribed by the Persian king Cyrus whose deputy Darius the Mede was the first to enter Babylon after the conquest in 539 by the Persians.         Cyrus entered the city shortly thereafter as the conquering king. His record of the fall of Babylon is inscribed on the Cyrus Cylinder, which has been recovered by archaeology. Now, remember the prophecy; Babylon’s final fall will be sudden, violent, and permanent.

        But that is not what happened to ancient Babylon, so it remains to happen with future Babylon.

2. No Inhabitants Forever !

        For the purposes of the LORD against Babylon stand, To make the land of Babylon A desolation without inhabitants. (Jer. 51:29)

The second prophecy says that at Babylon’s final fall, there will never again be people living on its site.

No Inhabitants Forever? That has never been the case at Babylon.

        A historical tracer points to continual habitation of some extent throughout history. Therefore Babylon must rise again to fulfill this prophecy of No Inhabitants Forever! Here is some of the evidence.

        539 BC-636 AD—[Alexander the Great] wanted Babylon to become the capital of his new empire...There was a Greek-Macedonian presence in Babylon...a...well preserved theatre in the area...as well as a gymnasium and an agora......[Later] Babylon became a provincial town with a dwindling population...The process of shrinkage accelerated under the Sassanian occupation (A.D. 226-636), until only small parts of the former settlement were occupied and the temples became abandoned.“ [NOTE: there were inhabitants in Babylon from the time of its fall in 539 BC until Alexander the Great took it from the Persians in 331 BC, and from that point until 636 AD] (pp. 271-274. "Babylon."

     G. Leick. Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City. London. Penguin Books. 2001, 2002)

        40 AD— Jewish historian Josephus writes: “Jewish high priest Hyrcanus was taken captive by the king of Parthia, who later ‘set him free from his bonds, and gave him a habitation at Babylon, where there were Jews in great numbers.’” [This happened in 40 AD]                                             Josephus, Antiquities Of The Jews, 15.2.2.

        500-1300 AD—The Jewish production and preservation of the Talmud in Babylon was active from the 6th century AD until the Middle Ages [8 centuries].

        1912 AD— Arabs were determined to have inhabited Babylon for centuries.

                             (see “Arab Tents," #3 BELOW)

        1979 to Now— The Iraqi Antiquities Department began a major excavation and restoration project in Babylon, “Babylon Revival”, [with workers living on site] Project:                     Improvement of the Babylon Site: Babylon; Director: Roberto Parapetti

3 No Arab Tents

It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation;

Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there... ((Isa. 13:20)

This third, very specific, prophecy says that not only will Babylon’s final fall wipe out all future habitation of the place, but NO ARABS will live there ever again.

4 No Recycling Of Babylon’s Bricks

        And they will not take from you even a stone for a corner Nor a stone for foundations, But you will be desolate forever," declares the LORD.

        (Jer. 51:26)

When Babylon has its final fall, never again will its bricks and stones be used for other building projects.