Jan 27, 2011

In Revelation 11:15 John heard voices saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever" [for the Ages of the Ages, acc. to The Emphatic Diaglott].

This statement is positioned after the great earthquake brings about the fall of "the city" in verse 13. This event is repeated in Rev. 16:18, where the great earthquake brings about the fall of Babylon.

I believe that we are drawing near to the collapse of this city today. It is following the general pattern seen in the collapse of the old city of Babylon at the hands of the Kings of the East. What happens to Iraq, I believe, will be the precursor to the collapse of the Western banking system.

We have other clues about the fall of Babylon. Daniel 2:35 attributes its fall to the "stone" that was cut out of the mountain without human hands. This stone then became a great mountain and soon filled the whole earth. The stone is Christ Himself and the mountain is His Kingdom. The Kingdom includes Christ as the Head but is positioned upon the Body of Christ.

Daniel 4 is another picture of the fall of Babylon, this time seen in terms of the king of Babylon himself. In fact, the revelation of Daniel 2 and 4 both emerge out of King Nebuchadnezzar's dreams. The difference is that Daniel wrote chapter 2, telling us of the dream, while Daniel 4 was actually taken from the written records of Nebuchadnezzar himself. In other words, Daniel 4 was written by the Babylonian king himself. It is his personal testimony, written in Aramaic, the language of Babylon.

In the dream, the king saw a beautiful, verdant, and fruitful tree. Then a "watcher, a holy one descended from heaven" and made a decree against this tree to defoliate it and to chop it down. "Yet leave the stump with its roots in the ground" (4:15).

Daniel said that the king was this tree, and he would be driven from the throne for "seven times" (4:23). He prophesied further in verse 26,

(26) And in that it was commanded to leave the stump with the roots of the tree, your kingdom will be assured to you after you recognize that it is Heaven that rules.

Twelve months later (4:29) the prophetic dream came to pass, and the king went mad and was driven from the throne. Finally, we read in verse 34,

(34) But at the end of that period I, Nebuchadnezaar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation.

Verse 37 concludes,

(37) Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise, exalt, and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.

The primary lesson from this is that all nations--even Babylon--are under God. "All authority is from God" (Rom. 13:1), and no earthly king has been given sovereignty. There is only one Sovereign, and it is the One who created all things, including all nations. The goal of this prophecy was to force the king of Babylon to recognize His sovereignty.

We know that Jesus Christ has been anointed as King of the earth, and when modern Babylon falls, it will be forced to acknowledge Him as its King. The legal precedent has already been established in the days of Nebuchadnezzar. Mystery Babylon is only an extension of the original Babylonian Empire, so the decree of its king still stands. Though the modern rulers of Babylon have again usurped sovereignty, acting as if they are the highest power in the earth, the day will come when they too will be forced to recognize Jesus Christ as the true King of the earth.

Because Babylon functioned as an absolute monarchy, where the king's word was law, Nebuchadnezzar's precedent-setting decree established the fact that Babylon was for all time under God. This gives us today the right to declare Babylon to be under Christ and, in essence, a Christian Nation. The purpose for its overthrow is to subject it to Christ. "The kingdom of this world has become the Kingdom of the Lord and of His Christ."

Through the agency of King Cyrus, the "messiah" (Is. 45:1), He is subjecting Babylon to Himself. The political structure of Babylon will be cast into the sea (Rev. 18:21), for it had been a great "millstone" around the necks of the people. When the millstone is removed, the citizens of Babylon will be set free and will become citizens of the Kingdom of God. Hence, as Isaiah 13:20 says, Babylon will never again be inhabited. This does not mean that all the people will be dead, but that their citizenship will be transferred from Babylon to the Kingdom of God.

When the Kingdom of God forecloses upon Babylon, it takes all of its assets in payment of debt. Those assets include all of its people and territory.

Though Scripture often speaks of the overthrow of Babylon in violent terms, we must take notice that in history, Babylon fell to Darius the Mede without a fight. It fell intact. Isaiah 13:17 prophesies of the overthrow of Babylon, saying, "Behold, I am going to stir up the Medes against them." Jeremiah 51:30 tells us, "The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting, they stay in the strongholds; their strength is exhausted." In other words, the Babylonian army would not fight the Medes when they took Babylon.

These are patterns for today as well. It is God's battle. He is the One who has sent the "watcher" from heaven to chop down the Babylonian tree. A watcher is one who stands guard on the wall. The watcher is also the angel of those who stand watch on the walls here on earth. Their calling is determined by their "guardian" angel, and they do the earthly work that the angel does in the spirit.

Hence, we were led to petition the Divine Court on November 29, 1993 that the Babylonian tree would be chopped down as in Daniel 4. We understood that this would involve a 7-year time period and also a 12 month time period before we would see it manifest in the earth. And so, a year later was the so-called "Republican Revolution," the mid-term elections in which Washington would be "de-Foley-ated." Speaker of the House, Tom Foley, was beaten by George Nethercutt of Washington.

Nethercutt means "a lower cut." In other words, this time the watchers were going to cut down the Babylonian tree to its roots, instead of leaving a stump. When Babylon falls this time, it will never rise again. Speaker of the House Tom Foley pushed through the GATT treaty, which was passed on Nov. 29, 1994. Then he gave a speech about how great we were in passing this bill, and then he resigned from office. This followed the precise pattern of Nebuchadnezzar in Dan. 4:29-31,

(29) Twelve months later he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon. (30) The king reflected and said, "Is not this Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?" (31) While the word was in the king's mouth, a voice came from heaven saying, "King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared: sovereignty has been removed from you."

Like the Babylonian tree, Washington de-Foley-ated. He bragged about his accomplishments and then resigned.

Yet it took 13 full years for the prayer campaign to end. Final victory took place Oct. 7, 2006. Perhaps we will also see a seven-year period until 2013 before the Babylonian leaders formally recognize Jesus Christ as King. As "watchers," we will see and observe what God does to establish His sovereignty in the earth.