I’m very much into bible prophecy so let me take you all on a mini prophecy course today. One of the major prophetic figures in the book of Revelation is an entity referred to as Babylon the great or mystery Babylon, depicted as a ‘great prostitute who sits on many waters’. (Revelation 17:1) Not a flattering description. The original Babylon was the capital of an empire that existed from around 1800 BC according to Google.
In more recent times, we know that the Babylonians took the nation of Israel into captivity around 600 BC under the king at the time, Nebuchadnezzar. The original Babylon in it’s time was a prosperous city that ruled over what was basically the greatest world empire at the time. This latter days mystery Babylon is also a ‘great city that rules over the kings of the earth’. (Revelation 17:18)
There are therefore many debates amongst prophecy buffs as to which modern day city is mystery Babylon. Is it Jerusalem, Rome, Mecca? Perhaps New York? My contention is for New York for which I’ll present my case here. I will mention though that I used to follow Joel Richardson’s teachings and his view is that Islam is the end times empire and therefore Mecca is mystery Babylon which I previously would have agreed with.
However my views have since changed and I need to mention this because I had endorsed this view in my book which is available here on Amazon. (shameless plug lol) But my view has now changed so I consider this post as a sort of update to my book.
So why is New York mystery Babylon? Well, New York is represented by the statue of liberty which is basically a woman who sits on many waters, right? New York is also the center of modern international trade because of their control over the US dollar which is the currency in which most international trade is denominated.
Mystery Babylon is a center of international trade where ships from all over the earth come carrying their goods and ‘all who have ships on the sea become rich through her wealth’. (Revelation 18:19) The statue of liberty sits in New York harbor where a lot of traffic of cargo ships passes everyday and this has been so since the earliest days of the US and is what made the city a prosperous and commercial capital.
A final thing to note is that there is a town or village in New York actually called Babylon. I find this very interesting. On the map of the entire world, apart from the original ancient Babylon which is in modern day Iraq, the only other place that has a town called Babylon is in New York. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
This final Babylon is supposed to be ‘consumed by fire’ (Revelation 18: 8) in the final war of Armageddon such that the smoke will be visible from afar, in a way that makes us think of perhaps a nuclear attack? And interesting to note that New York City recently sent out a PSA warning it’s residents of do’s and don’ts in case of a nuclear attack.
Anyway, this is my theory I’m just putting out there. There’s a guy who’s made a documentary called Babylon USA and I will note that according to the documentary, he says Washington D.C is mystery Babylon which is where he and I differ. However if you think of Babylon as the capital city of a land (Babylonia) then America in general represents that land of which it’s capital would be the final Babylon. I take this capital to be New York and specifically because of the presence of the statue of liberty which I take to be the marker.
It’s interesting to note that France recently sent a small scale replica of the statue of liberty to Washington D.C so maybe the guy in the documentary may still be right. If you think of America as the land in general and the capital city as the final Babylon, is it New York or is it Washington D.C? I lean towards New York.
I know prophecy is not everyone’s cup of tea so thanks for letting me indulge myself for today. I think most people are looking around at what’s going in in the world today and are like how are we not living in the last days? I think we are and in fact Athey Creek’s prophecy update for September is reminding us that we need to be Keeping Watch.