THE REVELATION OF BABYLON THE GREAT: THAT GREAT CITY (DUBAI)
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The Book of Revelation makes it abundantly clear that Babylon the great is a literal city (c/p. Rev. 14:8; Rev. 16:19; Rev. 18:2; Rev. 18:4, Rev. 18:10, Rev. 18:16). As the text of Revelation 18 likewise makes clear, this literal city will not only become the world's great commercial center, but is also the world's great shipping port city assessable to all the nations of the earth—which leaves out Jerusalem, which is an inland city and not a port city...and hardily a place of opulence. In Isaiah 13:19-20 God pronounces a curse on the historical city of Babylon: that its glory [and terraced gardens] was to be overthrown as Sodom and Gomorrah; and that it was never to be inhabited again. As a second witness, the Lord repeats this curse on historical Babylon in Jeremiah 50:39-40. Saddam Hussein, who saw himself as a modern-day reincarnation of King Nebuchadnezzar, is arguably the only man who could conceivably have rebuilt historical Babylon on its original or any other site in Iraq; but he is now dead.
To further complicate this: in the 5th Chapter of Zechariah, Zechariah prophesies that the "woman of wickedness" would yet build it a house in the land of Shinar...which is, again the land of Babylon: modern Iraq. But, what is clear is that Rev. 17:9 speaks of a spiritual mystery-Babylonian kingdom that has existed throughout seven historical "mountain" kingdoms [which had flesh-and-blood kings housed in literal cities]; and in Rev. 18:1-4 God speaks of a literal and immensely opulent city that will infect all nations and kings of the earth, which he warns His people in Rev. 18:4 to come out: of before He destroys it in one hour. There is presently on no city on the earth that could compel all the kings and merchants of the earth to do business with it; and at the same time corrupt the comers with wickedness, and whose kings and merchants will weep and mourn at her destruction. I strongly suggest that there is one under construction across the gulf from the land of Shinar, which by far and away will become (at least physically) the finest city on the earth, bar none; and one who I also strongly suggest that Satan is constructing for his man—the Antichrist. This city is Dubai: the capital of the United Arab Emiratis. See Dubai and Dubai Projects for a glimpse at its magnificence. And, after viewing the construction underway in Dubai (and what is yet to be built), the text of Chapter 18 will literally come alive with a far greater revelation of the end times as they unfold. [See also: Two Babylons/One City.]
©
2009-2009 Walter James Taylor