The New Babylon

Babylon is mentioned almost 300 times in the bible.  It is mentioned in the past and is also referenced as being in power in the future.  By examining the practices employed during the Babylonian empire we establish characteristics to look for in the New Babylon (New World Order) of Revelation.

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Scriptures:

• Rev 18:2-7; 20-21
• Genesis 11: 1-8
• Genesis 9:1
• Genesis 10:9

3 major events that introduced evil into the world were:

• The serpent in the garden causing Adam and Eve to fall
• The interaction of the Sons of God with humans in Gen 6
• marrying the daughters of man
• The Tower of Babel

The Mystery Religion Review

• We looked at the religion practiced in the days of the Tower of Babel which is referred to as:
• The Babylonian Mystery system/religion  
• Baal worship
• And many other names
• Nimrod, the great-grandson of Noah, and builder of the tower was worshiped as the head of the religion along with his wife Semiramis
• We examined the passages related to Baal worship to see what practices the religion contained
• We saw that the religion consisted of:
• Witchcraft
• Seeking omens
• Divination
• Child sacrifice
• Worship of a bull or calf
• Worshiping the stars
• Sun and moon worship
• The worship of a mother figure
• The presence of  Asherah poles and obelisks
• Similar to what we see in Washington DC and at the Vatican
• Because the languages got split at the Tower of Babel, Nimrod and Semiramis became known by many names including:
• Baal and Ashtarte
• Aphrodite and Eros (Greece)
• Venus and Cupid (Rome)
• Nimrod was worshiped under many names including:
• The sun god
• Orion
• Gilgamesh
• Appollo
• Over the years Semiramis has been worshiped as:
• Ashtoreth
• Asherah
• The Mother of Heaven
• Mother Earth
• Queen of Heaven
• Ishtar / Easter
• Freedom
• Liberty
• The Holy Spirit
• Nimrod, Semiramis and their son Tammuz were worshiped in Egypt as
• Isis, Osiris and Horus
• Much of the Old Testament is the story of Israel turning away from God and returning to the practices of the Mystery Religion
• Many American holidays have their origin from the Mystery Religion including:
• Christmas
• Easter
• Some places where we can see influences from the Mystery Religion include:
• The Occult
• Satanic worship
• Luciferianism
• Some secret societies
• New Age practices
• We read in the book of Revelation that Babylon will rise up and be defeated in the end times

<pics from Egyptian museum>

The Mystery Religion

The religious practices of the Mystery Religion did not necessarily originate in Babylon.  

• They could have existed prior to the flood and have been re-instituted at Babylon.
• Some say it goes as far back as Cain
• Others say that it is the secret knowledge that the serpent gave Adam and Eve of how they could be like God

The term “Mystery Religion” means that the true meaning and purpose of the religion is hidden from non-members.  

• They use symbols to communicate information
• Each symbol has a double meaning: one  that they tell non-initiates, and a hidden meaning that only the initiated know.

The secret knowledge isn't given to everyone.  

• You have to become initiated and work yourself through various degrees of knowledge before the meaning and purposes are revealed to you.  
• The truth of the religion is hidden from lower level members.  
• There is a process of enlightenment.  
• Oaths of secrecy have to be taken
• sometimes with the penalty of death.  

Most mythological systems and false religions have their roots from this Mystery Religion of Babylon.  Some organizations that practice the Mystery Religion claim to be Christian organizations outwardly.

The New Babylon

Rev 18:2-7; 20-21

2 And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.
3 "For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality."
4 I heard another voice from heaven, saying, "Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues;
5 for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.
6 "Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her.
7 "To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, 'I SIT as A QUEEN AND I AM NOT A WIDOW, and will never see mourning.'
…

20 "Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her."
21 Then a strong angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, "So will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence, and will not be found any longer.

• We see in Revelation that the defeat of Babylon is one of the final events before Christ returns
• Babylon is also a city and a woman
• In revelation the church and Jerusalem are also referred to as women.  
• Here though it’s not a godly woman, so it won’t be a church headed by God.  
• It's a religious system set in opposition to God

Babylon is mentioned almost 300 times in the bible

• It is second in importance only to Jerusalem as a city

Revelation refers to Babylon in the future tense showing that.

1. An element of Babylon remains today
2. The system will regain power in the end times

Now let's  study Babylon, to examine its characteristics to see what to look out today and in the times to come.

The Tower of Babel

Genesis 11: 1-8
1 Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.
2 It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
3 They said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly." And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.
4 They said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."
5 The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
6 The LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.
7 "Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another's speech."
8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city

• They wanted to make a name for themselves
• The people had the “same languages” and the “same words”
• They were unified
• They wanted to prevent themselves from being scattered over the whole earth
• They wanted to build a city
• They built a tower to worship something other than God
• God didn’t allow them to succeed in their plan

Building a City

Genesis 9:1

  1And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

• God didn't want humanity to congregate together
• God was against having a king because ungodly kings eventually want to be worshiped

Remember Cain set up the first city

There are side effects to people settling in one place

• When people stay in one place they deplete the natural resources
• They create trash and waste

The Babylonians had to invented agriculture

Babylon is credited for having achievements in:

• Mathematics
• Law
• Astronomy

Osiris/Nimrod is said to have taught Egypt

• Agricultural
• Religion
• Gave them laws

Historical Account of Babylon

“Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah: a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it was through his means that they were happy; but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny; seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence on his own power. He also said, “He would be revenged on God, if he should have a mind to drown the world again: for that he would build a Tower too high for the waters to be able to reach; and that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers.”.”

 -- from Flavius Josephus of the Antiquities of the Jews

Some of the methods used by Nimrod include:

• Nimrod turned the people against God
• He taught them that they could achieve happiness through their own effort without God
• He kept them in dependence of his power

One Language

Why was a unified language so powerful?

1. It allowed them to be united
2. There could be a single government with a single ruler

End Time Correlation

• With the advent of the internet and all of the recent technological advances we can communicate globally now
• Websites are in multiple languages
• Social networking is connecting the world
• 1 out of every 6 people on the planet is on Facebook
• The media dictates our thoughts and opinions

A Single World Government

• Babylon set up a government  

• A government introduces a hierarchy of leadership
• the masses report to human authorities who in turn reports to a higher human authorities

• In the case of Babylon it was ultimately Satan himself was at the top

If the people spoke one language they could be under one rule and be forced to worship one leader.  

A Legal System

With a government came a legal system with laws to govern the people.

King Hammurabi a successor of Nimrod is accredited to being the first ancient king to set up a sound legal system.  

• He put into practice 282 laws concerning family, town and business life.   
• He is renown for his law code carved in stone
• It is said that these laws are what allowed him to unite not only Mesopotamia, but also the surrounding lands.

“Unification was accomplished when Hammurabi gave the cities his laws and enforced them.   His code (or laws) were a unified system of dealing with crime and punishment.”

 -- Babylonian Life and Mythology at schoolhouseteachers.com

A Central Economy

• They could all pay taxes to one government

A Single Religious System

• Historians tell us that Nimrod declared himself
• King
• High priest
• of the Mystery Religion
• God

• We saw this in Nebekenezer, Caesar, and the Bishop of Rome

The People Were United Against God

Genesis 10:9

He was a mighty hunter before [lip̄-nê] the LORD; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the LORD.”

lip̄-nê

face, faces, in the presence of

“He was a mighty hunter ‘in the face of’ or ‘in opposition of’  the Lord”

Genesis 10:9 (International Standard Version)*

He became a fearless hunter in defiance of the LORD. That is why it is said, "Like Nimrod, a fearless hunter in defiance of the LORD."

The religious system was set up in defiance to God.

Current Day Equivalents

Hierarchical Religious System

• Religious hierarchy that replaces God with man

• Adding in human intermediaries to God
• Involve religious leaders in the process of salvation
• Confessing your sins to a person instead of to God
• Churches that have to report to a higher governing body
• Blind obedience to religious leaders without regard to the bible
• Follow the leaders without questioning
• Questioning or disagreement is not tolerated
• Praise of human religious leaders

• Satan wants to create a hierarchy of power where the knowledge comes from the top

Happiness Without God

Ultimately the Babylonians created a goal for their society that God was opposed to.

They wanted to pursue their own accomplishments.

An example of present day societal goals that don’t include God are the social justice focus:

• A mindset that all we need to do is to do good works to achieve a happy society
• A belief that non-violence, justice, compassion, inclusion, welcome and love are all that is needed
• Concern for the environment, endangered animals, trees
• A devaluing of the importance of biblical morality
• Change focus from God centered to social centered
• Replace religion with a social plan

Redefinition of morality

People say we should follow “the Jesus of the bible” and not the one created by the church

• Just focused on loving everyone and on the poor
• Golden rule - do unto others as you’d have them do unto you
• They leave out the first commandment of loving God

“Morality is not properly the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we make ourselves worthy of happiness”  --Immanuel Kant (philosopher)

• The purpose of morality is happiness
• There is no absolute right or wrong
• Happiness is the new righteousness

These goals are not wrong, except that they take God out of the equation

Achieving Unity

How can unity be achieved by the New Babylon?

Make the pain of separation so great that the people beg for unity.

• Disgust over race wars will encourage the races to unite
• Police brutality
• Trump
• Disgust over religious wars will force us to unify and put religious differences aside
• Islamic and Jewish war
• Isis / Religious terrorists
• Disgust for unequal treatment will cause people to fight for equality for everyone
• One percent
• Gay rights

As the violence and inequality increases, there is a greater chance that people will accept unity.

Violence and chaos is not the goal, it is the means to achieving the goal.

The plan: chaos leads to unity

Conclusion

The builders of the Tower of Babel put in place a plan to unify the whole earth.  The problem was that they were not seeking God, but seeking to satisfy their own goals in opposition to God.   The unity of the people and the languages allowed them to rule over the entire land. God intervened, and in one instant, He disrupted their plan by confusing the languages of mankind.   The enemy has been working to reinstate the system which he almost created some 5,000 years ago.

By studying the original plan, we have identified the following traits of the system that the enemy is devising.  You will likely notice some characteristics that are common practice in churches today but were unheard of 100 years ago.  Other characteristics may seem unimaginable at this time.

6 Characteristics of the New Babylon ( New World Order):

1. A spirituality focused on human merit instead of Christ’s sacrifice
1. You can receive salvation by your own merit without God
2. A works based system of salvation
2. Replacing the bible with a focus on people’s psychological and emotional needs
1. Focus on man’s hopes, dreams, desires and needs
2. Focus on self ambition
3. Needs based theology
3. A new morality focused on caring and social justice
1. Replaces religion with a social plan
2. Focus on peace, love, equality and acts of service
3. A denial of absolute truth
4. Happiness replaces righteousness
4. A focus on religious unity
1. Combining all religions
2. “Any path to God is acceptable”
3. “Whatever you call god is the same as our God”
5. A single unified hierarchical church leadership system
1. All churches report to a single human organization (or person)
2. Religious leaders take the place of God
3. The flow of information is passed down the hierarchy
4. You must go through the religious leaders to obtain salvation
6. The religious system is combined with the political system
1. Both the churches and the government report to the same body
2. A single individual holds the highest political and government office
3. Civil punishment for not worshipping the god defined by the unified religious system

If you control the religion, the civil laws, and the definition morality then you control society

• You control the masses
• Outward behavior is determined by inward beliefs

The author C. S. Lewis writes in his book Mere Christianity:

“As long as people are unified and left to their own devices, the result will be a swift descent into degradation. Some will seek power and seek to rule over all of the others.

The moment you have a self at all, there is a possibility of putting yourself first - wanting to be the centre - wanting to be God, in fact. That was the sin of Satan: and that was the sin he taught the human race. Some people think the fall of man had something to do with sex, but that is a mistake...what Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they 'could be like Gods' - could set up on their own as if they had created themselves - be their own masters - invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come...the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”

• Keep this list in mind as you listen to sermons and you hear about new Christian projects.  
• Keep this list in mind when you watch the news and current events.  
• You may be surprised at what you discover.

Presenter: Michael Leadon

Summary of The New Babylon

• We read in Revelation that the last event before the coming of Jesus will be the rise and defeat of a new Babylon
• We looked at characteristics of the original Babylon and the builders of the Tower of Babel to ascertain some of the characteristics that the New Babylon will exhibit
• We read the account of the historian Flavius Josephus where he made the following points about, the builder, Nimrod:
1. Nimrod turned the people against God
2. He taught them that they could achieve happiness through their own effort without God
3. He kept them in dependence of his power
• We saw that the people had one language which 1) allowed everyone to communicate, and 2) allowed one ruler to rule over them
• Babylon is credited to having set up the first sound legal system
• It also had a single religious system and the king was worshiped as a god
• We concluded that the New Babylon would have the following 6 traits:
1. A spirituality focused on human merit instead of Christ’s sacrifice
• A works based system of salvation
2. A new morality focused on caring and social justice
• Replaces religion with a social plan
• Focus on peace, love, equality and acts of service
• A denial of absolute truth
• Removed the concept of good and evil
• Happiness replaces righteousness
3. Replacing the bible with a focus on people’s psychological and emotional needs
• Focus on man’s hopes, dreams, desires and needs
• Focus on self-ambition
• Needs based theology
4. A focus on religious unity
• Combining all religions
• “Any path to God is acceptable”
• “Whatever you call god is the same as our God”
• “Your truth is true for you, but not for me”
• Unity becomes more important than truth
5. A single unified hierarchical church leadership system
• All churches report to a single human organization (or person)
• Religious leaders take the place of God
• You must go through the religious leaders to obtain salvation
6. The religious system is combined with the political system
• Both the churches and the government report to the same body
• A single individual holds the highest combined  political and government office
• Civil punishment for not worshiping the god defined by the unified religious system

Being a Christian will be politically incorrect.  

Unity within the church is important, but we cannot compromise the truth of the bible to be unified with the world.   If we adhere to the truth then by definition we will be in opposition to the world.   Just because the world’s language will no longer be evil doesn’t mean that we are supposed to merge with it.

We discussed that one method to achieving unity could  be by purposely setting up two opposing sides in conflict with one another to eventually achieve a middle ground after the dust settles

• Liberal vs conservative
• Jew against Muslim
• Black against white
• Christian against Atheist

Temple of Understanding

You can see that this has already gotten underway within the United Nations.  The UN is comprised of multiple Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that focus on things like:

• Climate
• Population
• Education
• Food and agricultural
• World literacy
• Employment

They have an NGO for social justice called the: Department of Economic and Social Affairs

• In 2006, they held a forum on: Social Justice in an Open World

They have a NGO focused on religion called The Temple of Understanding.

The mission of The Temple of Understanding is to achieve peaceful coexistence among individuals, communities and societies through interfaith education.

Adrian Rogers said “It is far better to be divided by truth than to be united in error”

Jesus will bring peace and unity.  We shouldn’t settle for a peace and unity without Jesus.

 
Extra Material

Making A Name For Yourself

Nimrod Was a Giant

Genesis 6:4

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days--and also afterward--when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes [gibbor] of old, men of renown [shem].

shem = name (Hebrew)

So it literally translates “They were giants of old, men with a name”

Nimrod wanted to become what the Nephilim were

• If we take this literally then Nimrod had a goal to become a Nephilim

Nimrod’s Peculiar Genealogy

Genesis 10:7-9

The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan.
7 The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and Sabteka. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.
8 Cush was the father of Nimrod, who became a mighty warrior on the earth.
9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; that is why it is said, "Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD."

• All of the genealogies speak of the son(s) of ____
• Nimrod is unique in that it says that Cush was or became the father or ancestor of Nimrod

Archeologists tells us that Nimrod [Gilgamesh]  claimed to be ⅔ god and ⅓ man

Genesis 10:8 (NASB)

Now Cush ‘became the father of’ [yalad] Nimrod; he became a mighty one on the earth.

yā·laḏ

1. to bear, bring forth, beget, gender, travail  
2. Could also mean was the ancestor of

Genesis 10:8 (Hebrew Bible)

Now Cush fathered Nimrod, he began to be a mighty one [giant] on the earth

So Nimrod’s could have began to become a Nephilim

Nimrod wanted to achieve greatness by his own process.

The End Time Correlation

Nephilim

Luke 17:26-27

26“And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: 27they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

• We understand this to mean that Nephilim will be on the earth in the last days before Jesus returns

The parable of the weeds in Matthew 13 tells us that we won’t be able to distinguish the wheat from the tares in the end times.  This let’s us know that the Nephilim of the end times won’t be giants because they won’t be distinguishable from everyone else.

We don’t need to look for giants in the end time.

We don't need to look for the Nephilim we just need to look for the system.

Universal Language

Gen 10:31

31These are the sons of Shem by their clans and languages[lashon], in their territories and nations.

Genesis 11:6

6The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language[saphah] they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.

Secrets Were Passed Down From Before the Flood

The book of Jubilees (Apocrypha) states that one of Noah’s descendants, Canain, found writings from the fallen angels (Watchers) from before the flood which gave the secret information that God didn't want them to have.  

• Dividing the languages could prevent this from happening if God wiped out man again
• This could be how the Mystery Religion survived the flood
• This is believed to be why the Mystery Religions use symbols, so that it’s language independent

The Nations Were Divided

Each nation had their own language

Genesis 10:31-32

31These are the sons of Shem by their clans and languages[lashon], in their territories and nations.

32These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.

Each  “nation” had their own god

After God separated the languages and nations, each nation had their own God

2 Kings 17:29-31

29Nevertheless, each national group made its own gods in the several towns where they settled, and set them up in the shrines the people of Samaria had made at the high places. 30The people from Babylon made Sukkoth Benoth, those from Kuthah made Nergal, and those from Hamath made Ashima; 31the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire as sacrifices to Adrammelek and Anammelek, the gods of Sepharvaim.

So we know that:

Before the event

• They were building a gateway to “Heaven”
• They were trying to use the gateway to communicate with spiritual beings
• They all spoke the same language
• They could do “whatever they set their minds to do”

After the event

• God didn’t destroy the tower
• Dividing the languages and peoples resolved the issue
• Each nation had their own language
• Each nation had their own god
• They were still worshiping and communicating with supernatural beings

So what problem did splitting the languages solve?

Before the flood, all people could attempt to contact all spiritual beings.

After the flood, they had one (or two) specific ones assigned to them

This implies that in addition to the peoples languages being split the “angels” languages were split as well.  Each angel (Son of God - bene elohim) was assigned to a specific nation.

The answer would be if the “they” who have one language is not just the people, but also who the people are communicating with.

• The spirit beings (angels) and the people all spoke one language
• There was one language in the world

Deuteronomy 32:7-9

7Remember the days of old;

consider the generations long past.

Ask your father and he will tell you,

your elders, and they will explain to you.

8When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,

when he divided all mankind,

he set up boundaries for the peoples

according to the number of the sons of Israel[God]*

*Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls (see also Septuagint) sons of God

So the thing that solved the problem of “nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them” was that they could now only “reach” the specific angel that was assigned to them.

They Could Communicate With Spirit Beings

The bible uses a different word for language before the flood than after…

Before the flood there was a universal language that was understood by all of the earth’s population.  

• This would also be the angels that all created beings used - including angels.
• Scholars refer to this language as paleo-Hebrew.

We discussed in the lesson on The Tower of Babel that the phrase “a tower that reached heaven” could mean that they wanted to build a tower that allowed them to communicate with heavenly beings.  These heavenly beings would have been beings other than God.  

So the confusing of the languages could have made it more difficult for humans to interact with these other beings - angels/demons.

Josephus

Nebuchadnezzar wrote that the original tower had been built in antiquity: "A former king built the Temple of the Seven Lights of the Earth, but he did not complete its head. Since a remote time, people had abandoned it, without order expressing their words. Since that time earthquakes and lightning had dispersed its sun-dried clay; the bricks of the casing had split, and the earth of the interior had been scattered in heaps."

References

The Final Triumph
  by Zac Poonen 

TWO BABYLONS” 
  by Alexander Hislop

Babylon Rising: And The First Shall Be Last

 by Rob Skiba

Babylonian Life and Mythology

https://schoolhouseteachers.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Babylonian-Life-and-Mythology-Lesson-8-Nimrod-and-Hammurabi.pdf