The Rise of
Babylon
In the segment
about the Seven Trumpets, we
examined the global crisis that
will cause Babylon to form. An
overwhelming fear of God’s
wrath during the first four
trumpets will bring world leaders
together in ways that are
unimaginable now. Earlier in this
segment, we also examined the
rise of Babylon and the identity
of the seven heads and we learned
that they represent the seven
religious systems of the world.
Before we further investigate the
sudden rise of the leopard-like
beast, a recent event occurred
that illiterates how quickly
Babylon could rise from a
multitude of nations.
As I am writing
this segment, the world is
experiencing a sudden financial
crisis. Consider this abbreviated
report written by CNN
correspondent, Kathleen Koch, on
October 18, 2008:
WASHINGTON (CNN)
– President Bush announced
Saturday that he will host the
first of what could be several
summits of world leaders to
discuss the global response to
the financial crisis. President
Bush and French President Nicolas
Sarkozy discussed the summit
Saturday in Maryland. “It is
essential that we work
together because we’re
in the crisis together.”
Bush said at Camp David,
Maryland, with French President
Nicolas Sarkozy and European
Union President Jose Manuel
Barroso. “Together we
will work to modernize our
financial systems,” Bush
said. “We must resist the
temptation of financial
isolationism…” (Italics
mine)
If world leaders
can quickly come together to
repair a broken economy, what
will they do when God’s
wrath breaks out against the
whole world? What will world
leaders do when our
infrastructures are destroyed and
1.75 billion people die because
of God’s wrath? Desperate
circumstances require extreme
solutions and this explains how
the rise of Babylon will be
“astonishing.” The
whole world will think, at first,
that Babylon’s rise and
efforts to appease God are
appropriate, but global approval
will soon fade. With these
thoughts in mind, please consider
Revelation 13:2-8:
“The beast
I saw resembled a leopard, but
had feet like those of a bear and
a mouth like that of a lion. The
dragon [Lucifer] gave the
beast his power and his throne
and great authority [over the
world]. One of the heads of
the beast [Catholicism] seemed
to have had a fatal wound
[February 1798], but the fatal
wound had been healed. The whole
world was astonished [and
overwhelmed at God’s wrath] and
[they innocently] followed
[the demands of] the
beast.” (Revelation
13:2,3, insertions mine) I
believe the healing of the fatal
wound means the Catholic Church
will be elected as the leader of
Babylon to facilitate the
attempted recovery.
“Men
worshiped the dragon [that
is, they unknowingly obeyed
Lucifer] because he had given
authority to the beast, and they
worshiped the beast [they
obeyed the laws of Babylon] and
asked, ‘Who is like the
beast? Who can make war against
Him?” [Who can resist
this global endeavor for
appeasing God’s wrath?] The
[leopard-like] beast was
given a mouth [by the devil] to
utter proud words and blasphemies
[defying and insulting God’s
demands] and to exercise his
authority for forty-two
months.” Revelation
13:4,5, insertions mine) The
leopard-like beast has no
authority over the world other
than these forty-two months.
“He [the
leopard-like beast] opened his
mouth to blaspheme God, and to
slander his [holy] name
and his dwelling place and those
who live in heaven.” (Revelation
13:6, insertions mine) This
phrase means Babylon will declare
the Ten Commandments null and
void. Babylon will arrogantly
claim that it has the highest
authority in all religious
matters and opposition will not
be tolerated.
‘He [the
leopard-like beast, a hand puppet
of the devil] was given power
to make war against the saints
and to conquer them.
And he was given authority over every
tribe, people, language and
nation.” (Revelation
13:7, italics and insertions
mine) This includes the
“great” nations of
China, India, Russia, and the
United States of America.
“All
inhabitants of the earth will
worship [obey] the [leopard-like]
beast – all whose names have
not been written in the book of
life belonging to the Lamb that
was slain from the creation of
the world.” (Revelation
13:8, insertions mine)
Millions
of Sleeping Christians Are About
to be Ambushed
Look at Revelation
12:17: “Then
the dragon was enraged at the
woman and went off to make war
against the rest of her
offspring…” This
war is described seven verses
later: “He was given
power to make war against the
saints and to conquer them. And
he was given authority over every
tribe, people, language and
nation.” (Revelation
13:7) Lucifer will persecute the
saints for forty-two months. The
chronological flow from
Revelation 12:17 to Revelation
13: 1-8 is very clear, but
millions of Christians totally
ignore this linkage. Religion is
so blinding. Christians who
believe in a pre-tribulation
rapture think they will be in
Heaven, even though the Bible
clearly says the dragon will make
war against the “remnant of
the woman.” On the other
hand, people who believe the
leopard-like beast and the
forty-two months of persecution
took place during the Dark Ages
are just as misguided. Regardless
of which position you take, the
devil is armed and ready to make
war on God’s people, and
hundreds of millions of
Christians are asleep. They do
not have a clue that they are
about to be ambushed.
To put this ambush
in perspective, let us review
four items that were examined in
the segment on the Seven
Trumpets:
1.
The first four trumpets judgments
described in Revelation 8:2-13
will produce death and
destruction on a scale that
exceeds human measurement and
calculation. These judgments will
occur during the first thirty to
sixty days of the Great
Tribulation. Because these
judgments will be global, most
survivors will seriously question
whether survival on planet Earth
will continue. These judgments
will destroy thousands of cities.
Earth’s infrastructures will
be in ruins and twenty-five
percent of Earth’s seven
people (1.75 people) will die.
2.
During the first four trumpets,
the inhabitants of Earth will be
traumatized by two painful
observations: First, they will
tremble at the reality of
Almighty God and the power and
scope of His wrath. Second, they
will observe that God’s
wrath fell on cities and places
that were known for their
wickedness. Since very few people
understand the book of Revelation
now, most survivors will
logically think that more
judgments from God are imminently
forthcoming. This anticipation
will induce urgency, and this
urgency will move the leaders of
the world to rapidly and
radically transform the
world’s governance.
Desperate situations require
extreme solutions. During the
fourth trumpet, darkness will
cover the middle third of our
planet and during this darkness,
world leaders will quickly agree
on the formation of a crisis
government whose mission will be
to reduce sinful behavior and
appease God’s wrath. The
crisis government is Babylon, the
leopard-like beast of Revelation
13.
3.
The need for a crisis government
will be compelling. Everyone will
be afraid of God and no one will
argue against appeasing
God’s anger. Almost everyone
will assume that more destruction
is forthcoming unless something
is done quickly! The religious
and political justification to
form Babylon will be simple:
“Mankind must immediately
appease God through repentance
and worship or all mankind will
perish.” This justification
and the mayhem of the moment will
require martial law.
Constitutions will be set aside
and religious freedom will become
a memory.
4.
Jesus will turn the world upside
down with the first four trumpet
judgments. He will put the
religious leaders of the world in
positions of power. God’s
greatest frustration is not with
political leaders, but with
religious leaders who claim to
know Him. Religious leaders will
be given higher positions of
higher authority than political
leaders because religious leaders
will claim (and billions of
people will believe) that they
know the will and ways of the
Almighty God! (Of course, their
actions will prove otherwise, but
their ignorance will take a few
months to unfold.) This
“fruit basket upset”
will enable religious leaders to
get what they want. They will
insist on the creation of many
“sin-less” laws and
bewildered politicians will have
no choice but to enact and
enforce them. As political
leaders survey the extent of
death and global destruction
caused by the first four
trumpets, they, too, will realize
that God targeted places that
were well known for wickedness.
This fact will motivate them to
do whatever the religious leaders
think best. Sinful behaviors of
all kinds will be declared
“illegal.” Morality
will be legislated and offenders
will be severely punished –
all this to avert more of
God’s wrath.
Babylon
Gets Organized
In a vacuum of
darkness, fear, foreboding, and
global uncertainty, I anticipate
the Roman Catholic Church will
step forward with leadership. The
pope will invite religious
leaders and political leaders
from all over the world to a
worldwide summit. At a minimum,
three amazing decisions will come
from this summit that would
otherwise be unthinkable. Here is
a sample:
1.
The council will agree that (a)
God is angry because the
world’s behavior is
degenerate and decadent, and (b)
all nations must unite as one
family, improve their behavior,
and appease Almighty God.
Amazingly, everyone will see the
problem and agree on the
solution. In concrete
terms, the solution will consist
of legislative producing
repentance, reformation, and
worship.
2.
Everyone at the council will
realize that God’s anger was
directed at notably wicked
places. Therefore, the political
leaders of the world will agree
to submit to the directives of
Babylon because God’s wrath
could break out against any
nation or even the whole world
again.
3.
The leaders of the world will
create an executive committee of
religious leaders from the seven
religions of the world. (This
committee will be something like
the Security Council in the
United Nations, except it will be
religious in nature and far more
dictatorial.) The pope will
be selected as the leader of this
council for several reasons.
First, his selection will be the
moment the deadly wound is
completely healed. Second, the
Roman Catholic Church is uniquely
prepared to lead Babylon because
it is both a spiritual and a
political organization having
diplomatic relations with more
than 170 nations on Earth. Keep
in mind the pope will not be
elected for the purpose of
promoting or imposing Catholic
doctrine on the nations of the
Earth. The diversity of the
world’s religions will not
permit this. Rather, the mandate
the pope and his council will
have is to oversee and direct a
global effort to appease God.
Actually, for all
the good the leopard-like beast
intends to do, it will quickly
become a hand puppet of the
devil. “The dragon [the
devil] gave the [leopard-like]
beast his power and his throne
and great authority.” (Revelation
13:2, insertion mine) Babylon
will be a “human glove”
which mankind will create to
appease God, but the devil will
use it to persecute the woman.
Consider this illustration: If
you put your hand into a glove
and then you hit someone with
your gloved hand, who or what is
responsible for the pain you
caused, the glove or your hand?
When the world exalts the rule of
religion over politics and
creates Babylon, the devil will
quickly enter through the back
door to take control of the
world.
The devil is
waiting for Babylon to be formed
because he has been preparing to
make war on the saints for a long
time. (Revelation 12:17) Soon,
his chance to destroy them will
come. Jesus closes this portion
of the story by saying, “he
who has an ear, let him hear [what
the Spirit says]. If anyone is
to go into captivity [for his
faith in Me], into captivity
he will go [don’t worry
because I will give you strength
to endure]. If anyone is to be
killed with the sword [because
of his faith in Me], with the
sword he will be killed [but,
don’t worry because I will
set you free from your fear].
This calls for patient endurance
and faithfulness on the part of
the saints. (Revelation
13:9,10)
