V. Babylon – Chief of Nations
In Daniel 2, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has a night vision. This dream is of a statue. The statue is mighty and great. Then, a stone is cut without any hands from a mountain. This stone (other versions call it a pebble) strikes the statue on the feet. The statue then crumbles. The statue was made of five parts. The head of gold represented Babylon. The arms and chest were of silver, and represented Medo-Persia. The abdomen and loins were of brass and represented Greece. The legs were made of iron and represented Rome. The feet were made of iron and clay, and this is the Antichrist’s kingdom.
The fact that the head is Babylon is not a fluke. This isn’t comprised of nations strongest to weakest. This isn’t a statue to describe the first empire down to the last great empire. What is being expressed in this statue is the continuum of Satan’s nation. What I mean by Satan’s nation is that he has placed his name upon it. Whether it is called Babylon or whether it is called Greece, it is a full embodiment of the kingdom of Satan. These four kingdoms (and fifth coming soon) are mentioned both in order of history as well as from precious to common – most glorious to inferior.
Note as well that gold is the softest of all these metals while iron is the strongest. This also displays that they get more and more militant and aggressive. Gold is malleable. Iron is less malleable. Iron and clay is not malleable. What this represents is the degree of intervention that God is able to perform. That does not mean that God is no longer sovereign, but that the hardness of the hearts increases until the Antichrist sounds a lot like Satan in the flesh.
I said that this statue displays that the same satanic antichrist spirit rules these kingdoms. We come to Daniel 7, and we read of four beasts that come out of the water. The first best is a lion – king of the jungle – that represents Babylon. The second beast was a bear, which represents Medo-Persia. The third beast was a leopard, which represents Greece. The last beast is not identified. It sounds like some sort of dragon. It represents the Rome, but ultimately the Antichrist Kingdom.
When we turn our attention to Revelation 13, we see a beast that comes out of the sea. Reference this with the four beasts that came out of the sea in Daniel 7. This beast has ten horns and seven heads – which is the description given to Satan in Revelation 12. This is one reason why some think that the Antichrist is Satan in the flesh. The beast resembles a leopard, but has feel like a bear, and a mouth like a lion. Does this sound familiar?
We reach Revelation 17, and we find a woman that rides a scarlet beast. The scarlet beast is Satan’s nation. We know because the same information about the ten horns and seven heads is mentioned. We can reference this detail with those ten toes on the statue in Daniel 2. The horns represent 10 kings. We find this elsewhere in the book of Daniel as well. But the woman riding the scarlet beast is called Babylon in Revelation 17. How is it that Babylon is the final kingdom when Daniel 2 says that it should look more like Rome? How is it that after Babylon has been gone for millennia that somehow it appears at the end of the age as the Antichrist Kingdom?
The answer is simple. I’ve already given you the information you need to connect the dots. Babylon is the head of the statue. The rest of the statue, it doesn’t matter what kingdom it is, is Satan’s nation. To that extent it wouldn’t matter if this nation were called Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, or the kingdom of the beast. But the name Babylon is given to it for a very specific reason. Babylon in the prophetic Scriptures has a certain characteristic to it. It is the nation that is used to bring judgment upon Israel. It is a symbol of the immanent kingdom of the north that brings judgment upon Israel, but ultimately will be destroyed by the coming of the Messiah on the Day of the Lord.
It is true that Satan is the one influencing all of the nations. This nation, however, is not merely influenced by Satan. This is Satan’s kingdom. This is the literal and physical locality of Satan’s reign. I don’t personally believe that the Antichrist is Satan in the flesh, but I do see the parallel that others are drawing. To an extent, the question does arise as to how Satan is able to have his own kingdom on this earth. To another extent, it seems obvious. This is a mystery, and it is one that we need to search out.
If Babylon is only a nation mentioned in the Old Testament as the rod of God’s chastisement, then why do we find her again at the end of the age? Babylon continues in spirit. That Babylonian spirit is carried throughout the empires of the world until if finally rests upon the Antichrist’s kingdom. Babylon is actually first mentioned in Genesis 10. Shinar is the Hebrew metaphor for Babylon. Babal is the Hebrew word for confuse, and it is the word from which Babylon comes. It is directly related to Babel.
The spirit of Babylon runs through the world today. It is that antichrist spirit mentioned in 1 John, and as John had expressed: there are many antichrists. As the quote by Art Katz at the beginning of this chapter says, antichrist doesn’t necessarily mean, “opposed to Christ.” The deeper understanding of that word is that antichrist is what purports to be Christ, and is not. Anything that rises up and calls itself the messianic hope, but is not the messianic hope, is antichrist. That doesn’t have to mean a person. America, in the mind of many, is a place of freedom and hope. But freedom and hope come from God or not at all. America is a Babylon of sorts.
This kind of understanding helps us in the prophetic texts. When we read Revelation 17-18, we find Babylon. That doesn’t necessarily mean the literal Babylon from ancient times. Literal interpretation might be what is expressed. Metaphor and symbol are not always wrong, though. Satan has placed his name upon this nation. That nation, though it was called Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome at other times, is the very nation that the devil rules. I’m not willing to make any speculation of what nation it might be that will be the Antichrist’s kingdom. We know there are 10 nations involved, and ultimately the whole word follows the beast, but it is too soon to authoritatively decipher what nations and where the Antichrist will rule.
Rome
The Roman world had at its root a governmental system that denied God. The whole nation was built up by a Senate, or proconsul, that had one purpose: the perpetuation of Rome. On that basis, Roman civilization was considered the greatest civilization of all. They conquered other nations out of pride. This national pride ran deep. Laws were put in place to uphold peace, but when morality and law is subjective, and pride and conquest are the root of your nation, peace is impossible.
Anarchy broke out and made common life difficult. Even in the most pristine of society, in the classiest areas, violence plagued the streets. The reason is straightforward. When God is rejected by a nation, and in His place they put man-made gods (whether of Diana, Mars, Aphrodite, or the State itself), the result is amorality. Morals cease to exist. Our world is coming ever closer to the same.
The government decided it needed to do something different. They established a one-world dictator: Augustus. Under the rule of the Caesars, Rome was brought again into “peace.” It wasn’t long before the Caesar was considered to be a god. All dictators move from being considered human to being considered a god. It is the end result of glorifying your government and worshiping the Sate. In the same way that the Caesars were considered gods, the Antichrist will be considered god. A human god is no god, though. Therefore, Rome fell.
When someone became a Christian in Rome, they not only opposed the established religions, but also opposed the entire culture and State founded upon those religions. To become a Christian was to say there is only one God, and His name is Jesus Christ. No longer would you bow to worship the Emperor. No longer would you uphold or condone the worship of the gods in the temples. This brings an interesting question: how did Judaism survive?
The words of the Pharisees ring out true to this day: “We have no king but Caesar,” John 19:15. Christians of the early Church met in the synagogues. Where else would they meet? It wasn’t long before their (the Christians’) emphatic demand that you worship the one true God and Him only became problematic. The Jews had been able to keep from being obliterated by subjecting themselves to the rules of the State. When the Christians started proclaiming that this is sin, it brought all eyes upon those Jewish people. So the Jews ran them out of the synagogues. Now the Jewish people were secure and the Christians were left without any kind of protection.
For many, becoming a Christian meant your death. You cannot both oppose the State and be allowed to live in that State. Christians were deemed unfit to live. With that kind of struggle, the early Church flourished. Only a couple centuries later, Constantine made Christianity the religion of Rome. However, the religion that Constantine set up was not the religion held to by Christians. Christians said that you should serve the Lord God only. Constantine continued in worshiping the gods of this world and all that they could offer him.
For this reason, Rome eventually faded into the history books as a great world empire, but no longer is remembered in its details. Christianity, however, has never failed. What is the difference? When you are founded upon worship of the State, man-made gods, and the perpetuation of those gods, you have a poor foundation for society. Society cannot live on the grounds of false gods. They will only destroy each other. It takes a bigger God with a better wisdom to lead a society. Ultimately, the society was not worshiping man-made gods, but the kingdom of darkness. Behind every “god” is a demonic power. Worship of those demonic powers leads to living from their wisdom. Living from their wisdom does not promote existence, but destroys it.
Antichrist
The day is coming when the Antichrist will be established and a one-world government will be strived for (if not obtained). This kingdom is all four of the previous world empires combined. It is a hybrid. The antichrist kingdom needs to be understood as Satan’s “theocratic” kingdom. It isn’t enough to seek to understand it as a one-world government in opposition to God. This kingdom is satanic in every aspect. The whole of its existence, from beginning to end, is to perpetrate Satan’s desires.
We read in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, 2 that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. 3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4 who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? 6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9 even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10 and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
Paul speaks about a mystery here. There is a mysterious man of sin that must be revealed. By his revelation, the mystery of iniquity is fully understood. Someone is restraining this man of sin (the Antichrist). He cannot come until that restrainer is taken out of the way. Some have reasoned that this restrainer is the Holy Spirit, and so we must be raptured out in order for the end to come.
This can’t be true. We’ve already looked at Revelation 13:2, where the beast that comes out of the water looks like it might be Satan. However, I am not one who believes that Satan can be incarnate. I think there is something else going on here. Ezekiel 28:2, 6-9, and 12-19 says:
2 Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord God;
Because thine heart is lifted up,
and thou hast said, I am a God,
I sit in the seat of God, in the
midst of the seas;
yet thou art a man, and not God,
though thou set thine
heart as the heart of God:
6 therefore thus saith the Lord God;
Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of
God;
7 behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the
terrible of the nations:
and they shall draw their swords against the
beauty of thy wisdom,
and they shall defile thy brightness.
8 They shall bring thee down to the pit,
and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the
midst of the seas.
9 Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God?
but thou shalt be a man, and no
God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee.
12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God;
Thou
sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
13 Thou
hast been in Eden the garden of God;
every precious stone was thy
covering,
the sardius, topaz, and the diamond,
the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper,
the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold:
the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes
was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
14 Thou art the
anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so:
thou wast upon the holy mountain of God;
thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
15 Thou wast perfect
in thy ways from the day that thou wast created,
till iniquity was found in thee.
16 By the
multitude of thy merchandise
they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast
sinned:
therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God:
and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub,
from the midst of the stones of fire.
17 Thine
heart was lifted up because of thy beauty,
thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness:
I will cast thee to the ground,
I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
18 Thou
hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities,
by the iniquity of thy traffick;
therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee,
it shall devour thee,
and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth
in the sight of all them that behold thee.
19 All
they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee:
thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any
more.
Notice that the beginning of this says that the prince of Tyre (or Tyrus) is being addressed. The second verse explains it quite well. We’re talking about the actual ruler of Tyre, for God says, “yet you are a man, and not God.” But then we reach verses six through nine and it seems like God is speaking to Satan. There is a mystery that is taking place here. Satan is being addressed, but the message is to the king of Tyre. They are one and the same. There is a literal and physical king, but that literal and physical king is also Satan. Notice what Isaiah 14:4, 12-20 says:
4 that thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say,
How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!
12 How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
how art thou cut
down to the ground,
which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart,
I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God:
I will sit also upon the mount of the
congregation,
in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will be like the most High.
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell,
to the sides of the pit.