IRAQ ???


Events of recent days have caused us to focus again on Iraq, and more particularly on BABYLON.

The elections in the United States, the  world market as reflected  on Wall Street and general world conditions merit little, if any, Biblical reference yet the events that surround the decline and destruction of Babylon in Revelation 17 & 18 are the longest Biblical account of a secular event in the history of the world.

I watched the news today, September 19, 1996, as the story was told of the first U.S. Troops leaving by air to Iraq. The questions, "Why are they going?" And "How long will it take?" may well need a Biblical answer.

Let me state my personal position on Revelation. I willingly make the admission that I may well see imperfectly in a defective mirror ( 1 Corinthians 13:12); but to hold to a literal and futuristic view of the apakolupsis is the only means of understanding the picture drawn.

This literal viewpoint may allow for a glimpse of a religious system in chapter 17 of Revelation, but demands a belief in a literal rebuilding of Babylon in chapter 18.

The drying up of the river Euphrates ( Revelation 16:12-16 ) fits well the futility of fighting the Divine conflagration described in chapter 18:17-24. 

This land is basically of bitumen which is a slime making substance of high volatility. The oily sand of a land that is so hot and dry that water must actually be cooled before swimming pools may be used, is capable of sustaining a blaze at the slightest spark.

Some complain that we are abrogating the prophecies of Isaiah 13:19, 20 and Jeremiah 50:39, 40.  This is not our intent.  Could it not be possible that these truths await a final and complete fulfillment?

The rebuilt and restored Babylon may well be for commercial interests and not designed as a place of dwelling.

The flight of Jewish persons as prophesied in Zechariah 5:5 - 11 is to do wicked business under the speed typified by the stork.  These are admonished to leave as God identifies them as "my people"  in Revelation 18:4.

All other references are to those who sell or prostitute themselves "bodies and souls" (Revelation 18:13) and those who are there to perform diversionary works of so-called arts (Revelation 18:22) and crafts (Revelation 18:22) and with those who do menial tasks necessary to basic needs such as are typified by the act of a miller.  Is this not type of rebuilding the stated purpose of one Saddam Hussein?
I suggest that real background knowledge can be gained in the reading of "The Two Babylons" by Alexander Hislop and J.A. Seiss' lectures XXXVIII-XLI in his book "The Apocalypse" as reprinted by Zondervan in the middle 1960's.  The laborious reading is fruitful.

Holding firmly to a pretribulational catching away of the Blood-bought as the opening act of God in bringing all things to a triumphant and just ending (Revelation 22:12 & 20), I need to alert all that "the day of the Lord" may encompass several years or even decades.  Therefore, we should fully expect to see such events as has the world in total confusion as events that are in God's carefully and fully designed pattern of time and space.

I need to make further comment that has to do with the wealth and the source of such wealth.  We need to turn our attention to two words that shine clearly in Revelation 18.  They are "sorcery" in verse 23 and "mourn" in verse 11.  "Sorcery" is pharmakeia in N.T. Greek.  It carries with it the addition of drug usage with charms and magic.  The word "mourn" is from pentheo which is a word that describes a mood-adjusting drug that erases grief.  The total picture is one of traffickers taking their own products because the sorrow of a lost market is unbearable.

I need to include a paragraph on the real or imagined move by big business toward a position of depersonalization of the individual worker.  The low position of "...bodies and souls of men" in the list of lamented losses (Revelation 18:13) may indicate a definite shift in that direction.  If the conduct of Saddam Hussein is a type, we are dealing with a society that will kill a consultant who dares to disagree while horrified other confidants establish his rulership and will indiscriminately expose the populace to toxic fumes.  All of these heinous acts are in accord with his middle-east Moslem conscience.  

As surely as Nimrod saw ancient Babylon as "The Gate From Heaven", future Babylon will be the gaping mouth of Hell.

As I see our government closing the door on an eleven trillion dollar supply of fossil fuel, I see us slipping into an ever-increasing dependence to make commercial ties tighter with middle-eastern undesirables by Biblical standards.  Please do not consider this opinion as political, but as an opinion that must transcend party preferences.

"EVEN SO, COME, LORD JESUS!"