Trend Update: Mystery Babylon/Revelation, September 2014
Revelation 17:9 Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits…
From a Western perspective, popular lines of conjecture are the following. The woman is a city. Revelation 17:18 The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth. The city that sits on the seven mountains or hills is Rome. A revived Roman Empire will emerge in the end times. Some think the European Union is the end time’s empire. Others believe an apostate Catholic Church will lead the charge. Some conjecture a future leader of the European Union will be the antichrist. Others believe The Pope will be the antichrist. Rome will be the capital and the city that is Mystery Babylon.
But…Rome is not the only possibility. There are other port cities that are built on seven hills. Two other examples are Istanbul, Turkey (Constantinople) and Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Mecca is very curious. It is the home of the most religious site in Islam. However, the focus of this blog is the consideration of Istanbul.
I want to be perfectly clear. I am not stating Constantinople or modern day Istanbul is Mystery Babylon. I am encouraging people to consider this as a possibility. In light of the Israel and Hamas fighting, Turkey has offered to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians. http://rudaw.net/english/opinion/28072014
News out of Istanbul, Turkey has recently claimed the city to be the future capital of a new Arab confederation of countries. http://shoebat.com/2014/08/26/bombshell-antichrist-confederacy-announced-turkey
The political happenings in Istanbul, Turkey merit an attentive eye. Just watching…
People often forget the Roman Empire had an eastern leg which included modern day Turkey, Iraq, and Syria.
Istanbul is known as the City on the Seven Hills. The seven hills were located within the original walls of the city. Constantinople was founded on an already established city. The city was named by Constantine the Great of the Roman Empire. Constantine established the city in his namesake as the capital of the Roman Empire. The city was purposefully patterned after Rome. It was dedicated in May, 330 AD (Wikipedia).
Modern day Turkey was known as Asia Minor. Turkey is a land bridge between Asia and Europe. The area connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. The Golden Horn of Istanbul provides a spacious harbor.
Mystery Babylon is a port city. Revelation 18 confirms this city is a place of great exchange, cargoes, and trade. Ships, merchants, passengers, captains, and sailors are mentioned. Revelation 18:19 And they threw dust on their heads and were crying out, weeping and mourning, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had ships at sea became rich by her wealth, for in one hour she has been laid waste!’
Be a watchman. Here is the mind which has wisdom…
March 9, 2018 at 9:38 PM
I think Istanbul is future Babylon:
1. It’s sea PORTS are being modernized
2. It’s acting as a new or future Silk Road
3. There is massive amounts of all kinds of prostitution
4. It’s protected by one of the world’s mightiest armies
5. It’s wealthy and gaining
6. It’s unstable in government and in a strange state of secularism and Islam allowing for a new religion to dominate this division
7. It has all kinds of Christians there including Calvinists who could get martyred.
8. The possibility that a huge amount of true Christians could one day go there or be produced there remains so that one day it will become a place where a record-breaking number of Christians are murdered, and there are plenty non-Christians there to murder them.
9. It has a crazed, paranoid hostile government which is setting itself up more and more against all other countries which sets the perfect precedent for a worse one, the anti-Christ one.
10. It has nukes.
11. The whole of Turkey has many blacksmiths, all kinds of mineral resources and crop lands, which is especially important for it to have to remain strong and in power over others if there is world economic devastation.
12. Istanbul is the most populous city in Europe, and probably most diverse (Babylon)
13. Istanbul and Turkey are earthquake prone, if their civilization is wrecked severely enough their government would no doubt produce a leader who’d militarize the country to begin taking over others to prevent mass death from disease and starvation.
14. All this and more allows for Istanbul to become it’s own super-power and country and to serve as a mistress to the anti-Christ but distant and unique enough to not be taken over by Him other other foreigners and so to end up as a thorn and annoyance that will suffer retaliation from them. My guess is various citizens among them will be bribed by them to arson places in Istanbul “burn her with fire” or the homes of its leaders, or that infiltrators will do so, or both.
15. There is speculation the antiChrist will be Assyrian, there are at least 15,000 Christians in Assyria, but they have a pagan form of Christianity which is ANTICHRISTIANITY as it denies Christ was human, therefore came in the flesh, the very Biblical definition of anti-christ belief. So “the god of his fathers” would indeed not be the correct, true, traditional God/Christ, and yet would make sense for him to also reject as he, being a spiritual son of Satan would not want anything to do with the Bible or Christ.
March 10, 2018 at 8:29 AM
Leaning in this camp as well. Mecca and Rome are possible too. Time will tell.
March 10, 2018 at 8:30 AM
Excellent points by the way.
August 8, 2018 at 11:27 AM
The problem with Mecca is that it is not a port city. It is located roughly 45 miles inland from the Red Sea port of Jeddah. The problem with Constantinople (even as Byzantium) there are no records of biblical martyred saints and prophets killed there. Rome is not a port city. Mountains in scripture are often meant as kingdoms or nations. Maybe the Great City is surrounded by 7 kingdoms or nations. The blood of the saints and prophets, along with being a port city is the question needing answered
August 8, 2018 at 5:38 PM
Time will tell. Fun when people make the call.
August 30, 2021 at 3:34 PM
Interesting! I’ve been studying and teaching revelation and other end times chapters throughout the Bible. I hadn’t considered Istanbul a strong contender for Babylon.
August 31, 2021 at 12:10 AM
It’s Rome