Question: In Genesis 11:1-9 Nimrod builds the Tower of Babel in the land of Shinar. In Zechariah 5:5-11, the city needs to be rebuilt on its base. What keeps that city from being rebuilt now...? | thebereancall.org

TBC Staff

Question: In Genesis:11:1-9 Nimrod builds the Tower of Babel in the land of Shinar. In Zechariah:5:5-11, the city needs to be rebuilt on its base. What keeps that city from being rebuilt now? The river still runs by there to make it a hanging garden city. I know Rome fits the description to many people in some ways, but I wouldn't confine myself to that possibility alone when I read other scriptures that apply to Babylon. Many people believe that the "temple" that the Antichrist will desecrate is the Dome of the Rock. That is not a temple, it's a mosque. What do you think?

Response: The Dome of the Rock could not be desecrated by the Antichrist because it is already an abomination to God, so there is nothing to desecrate—and certainly nothing in Babylon. We are clearly told that Antichrist will "sit in the temple of God..." (2 Thes:2:4), and that could only be the Jewish  Temple rebuilt on Temple Mount. It must  happen. We have shown why the Muslims will want the Dome moved to Medina where it belongs, making way for the Temple. (See Judgment Day )

Could the ruins of Babylon in Iraq (now under reconstruction) become the headquarters for the Antichrist? Anything is possible. It would, however, seem highly unlikely that Antichrist would establish his headquarters in such an inconvenient place. There is not and never will be a deepwater port on the Euphrates next to Babylon. Yet upon her destruction, sailors and ship owners made wealthy by Babylon's demand for goods of all kinds (who are apparently coming and going in and out of her port at the time) can see the smoke of her destruction (Rv 18:17-19).

There were originally no chapter divisions between Revelation 17 and 18. Both concern the same city. Some of the same descriptive elements given in Revelation:17:2,4 are repeated in 18:3,9,16. And the description given in 17 identifies the woman as Rome/Vatican/false worldwide church of the last days-not as a rebuilt Babylon in Iraq. (See TBC Jul/Aug '93 and A Woman Rides The Beast)