Page 9 - The Road from Babylon to Zion

Some have supposed that Babylon refers to the actual Babylon of the Old Testament.
The ancient city lies in the country of Iraq, and although it has been an uninhabited
ruin for centuries, some have advanced the notion that Saddam Hussein is having
Babylon rebuilt and that it will be populated once again. The ancient city is the site
of much excavation and archaeological work today. But it will not be inhabited, nor
will it rise to a glorious position such as she once knew in the world. The climate has
changed. Bodies of water have dried up. What was once a fertile region is now a
barren wasteland due to the judgment of Yahweh. Furthermore, we have Yahweh’s
word that the ancient city of Babylon will never be inhabited again.

Jeremiah 51:36, 37, 41-43, 61-64
Therefore thus says Yahweh, "Behold, I am going to plead your case
And exact full vengeance for you; And I will dry up her sea and make
her fountain dry. Babylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of
jackals, an object of horror and hissing, without inhabitants... How
Sheshak has been captured, and the praise of the whole earth been
seized! How Babylon has become an object of horror among the
nations! The sea has come up over Babylon; She has been engulfed with
its tumultuous waves. Her cities have become an object of horror, a
parched land and a desert, a land in which no man lives and through
which no son of man passes... Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, "As soon
as you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words aloud,
and say, "You, O Yahweh, have promised concerning this place to cut it
off, so that there will be nothing dwelling in it, whether man or beast,
but it will be a perpetual desolation.' And as soon as you finish reading
this scroll, you will tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the
Euphrates, and say, "Just so shall Babylon sink down and not rise again
because of the calamity that I am going to bring upon her; and they will
become exhausted.'" Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

People imagine many vain things, but these scriptures should be sufficient to let all
know that the ancient city of Babylon will not rise again as some mystical phoenix
from the desert to once more ascend to glory. Yahweh’s judgment on ancient Babylon
is final. Her ruins stand now as a somber warning against spiritual Babylon and her
impending judgments and plagues. She too will be broken beyond remedy, never to
rise again. We must conclude that the Babylon of Revelation is not speaking of the
ancient city being rebuilt.

Others have supposed that Babylon represents Rome and the Roman Catholic
Church, and there is much to support this argument. The following scripture reveals
more about the character of Mystery Babylon.