What About Babylon? End Times Can't Start without Babylon Being Rebuilt

Could this be Babylon

I happen to believe that we are very, very near to the return of Christ. The rapture, the 2nd coming and the millennial kingdom are all seemingly possible within a decade or so. Except for Babylon.

There can be no doubt that many precursors for the end of this age are now in place. Elements that were not in place in the year 1900. No just one or two, but dozens of the necessary components spoken of by the prophets in both Old and New Testaments, and by Jesus, himself, are in place.


I have studied the scriptures and those who have ably interpreted these same scriptures. Tim LaHaye, Dr. Beshore, and others have slightly differing analysis, but ultimately they are very close. The remaining piece that is needed to create a clear path to the rapture is the rebuilding of Babylon.

So what is going on in Babylon. We heard rumors and even had a major news channel devote time to the idea that Saddam Hussein was spending billions to rebuild Babylon. If you do a bit of internet research, you would see a tiny bit of evidence that the UN has some interest in rebuilding Amazon. This would make some sense as it would tie the "One World Government" to the place that is supposed to eventually be its headquarters. 

But unless I'm missing something huge, Babylon is still a ruin. And unless a whole list of Bible scholars have totally missed the point, Babylon has to be rebuilt as a major, even the major, city of government and commerce in the World before the beginning of the rapture.

Now we have seen some great cities created in a very short time. China has built dozens of huge cities in the last couple of decades, going from 500,000 to 2,000,000 population in that time. Moreover, the country is now the richest, per capita, in the world, and boasts a skyline filled with futuristic buildings like no other city.

Could Babylon be rebuilt even faster? Undoubtedly. This blogger believes that the rapture will occur by 2036, and probably well before. But the Babylon problem is the biggest obstacle to that result.

Could this be Babylon

Some have posited that the Babylon of the end times is metaphorical. Others have suggested that it need not sit on the same pile of rubble. Maybe Mecca is Babylon? These ideas are certainly possible, but would stretch our usual methods of interpretation of scripture.

Which brings us back to my personal time line. If Jesus were to come in the air for his flock in 2030, which would be 2000 years after his death, Babylon has 14 years to be rebuilt. Other writers are thinking the timing is 2023 or 2028. This shortens the timeline for getting going on Babylon Rising.

Are We in the Last Days? I Mean Like the Really Last Days?

from http://www.biblerays.com/seven-7-dispensations.html

What are the "signs of the times?"

There are many signs that we are nearing the end times, and there are plenty of smart folks who will give you long lists of what the Bible says, and make the case that these prophetic statements are being fulfilled. Maybe the most startling of these is the return of the Jews to statehood in Jerusalem as of 1948. The Bible says that the Jews would be scattered and then gathered again to Jerusalem in the end times.

There are those who claim we are having more earthquakes and wars, not to mention rumors of wars. We certainly are spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth. However, I have two that may not be as obvious.

First, dispensationalists divide all of time into 7 millenia.  One of those was to be two thousand years of the church age, or two thousand years after Christ. Thus we had many folks who believed that the year 2000 would usher in the next phase or the beginning of the end times. Others looked at issues regarding the Roman calendar and the actual year of Christ's birth and said the time would have been 1997 or there about.

I wonder if the 2000 years would be measured from Christ's death rather than his birth. This would put the time forward either 33 or 36 years depending on how old Christ was at the time of his crucifixion.  This would leave 2030 as the most likely date.

The other sign of the time would have to do with man's pride. I will define pride for these purposes as man believing he doesn't need God, that he is capable of handling life on his own. I would offer that there has never been a time in history when the average man has had less of a sense of a need for God or the things of God. Even some people's perception of heaven doesn't seem to be that much better than what they now enjoy. Between affluence and scientific accomplishments, most people living in advanced cultures surely trust men, and the inventions of men, more than God.

Throughout all history, God has acted when pride has been rampant, whether Babel, Nebuchadnezzar, the Israelites in the wilderness, or Cain, not to mention the Devil and a third of all the angles.

As our human capabilities seem to be increasing almost exponentially, humans seem to consider the source of all these wonders to be human, rather than God. This pridefilled age begs for God to act.

Therefore, I am not Prophesying, but rather prognosticating. The signs of the time would point to a soon return, like really soon. The time that seems to match up with the dispensationalist analysis would be around 2030. This would also be within the "generation" of the Jews return to Israel.

Give me your thoughts on this opinion.