This is a real qestion. need real answer: RAPTURE?

Question

In revelation's 17-19 it sounds like 9-11 is being described. The prostitute that sits on the water: Statue of Liberty? The Great City of Babylon: NY? Iraq was once babylon but no more...read the scripture please "what once was is no more" The Tower receives DOUBLE the punishment so she can not be widowd? Tower Of modern day Bable? Merchants? Trades? The great city of all nations of the world? Thats Not Iraq , That sounds like us. Ships in the sea will look upon the city in smoke and cry oh great city what other city is like this? Merchants and trade will be affected? Dust apon there Heads? Then in REV:19 It sounds like The Muslums Cry Out To the Lord In praise for Vengence ummm Is'nt that exactly what happened in the Middle east? They celebrated In all arabic nations? Am I missinturpiting this? By the Way Babylon is also in NY. Heres the Links!! Please tell me Im wrong.

http://www.citytown.info/New-York.htm

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=73&chapter=17&version=31

Answer 1

Huge question requires a huge answer. By way of introduction:

Some understand BABYLON as organized humanity in opposition to GOD -- (which would include false religion). Humanism IS a religion!
Babylon is humanity immersed in its own commerce, materialism, and entertainment.
Babylon is an entire WORLD SYSTEM in rebellion against God.
Genesis 11 ~ And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."
Daniel 4:30 ~ King Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?"
Many believe that there are TWO Babylons -- distinguishable from one another: Religious Babylon & Commercial Babylon

So, Babylon represents organized humanity in opposition to God -- the Bible's emphasis is on the religious & spiritual root (which is the underlying cause.) Initially, in Revelation the Babylon Harlot is many faceted: "the mother of harlots". When the Beast/Antichrist seizes absolute power-- exalting himself & blaspheming God-- Babylon becomes a single, unified abomination -- judged by GOD.

If you choose to email me, I can send you a lengthier explantion.

Answer 2

Megatron, in order to understand the Book of Revelation, you MUST understand the Old Testament. 99.9% of EVERYTHING that's in Revelation is explained there.

First of all, Babylon cannot be in the USA. Revelation tells us Babylon is an actual city, built on 7 hills, that houses false religion. Many folks believe the Vatican fits this description; you might want to look into this possibility. Read Zechariah 5, which explains how Babylon was born (Shinar is the Hebrew name for Babylon) and gives us our first view of the "Whore of Babylon."

Secondly, 9/11 could not have been described in Rev. Chapters 17 through 19, because none of the stuff that's supposed to happen first has happened: the Rapture, the rise of the Antichrist, the rise of a one world government headed by the Antichrist, the 7-year peace treaty between Israel and the rest of the Middle East (see Daniel 9), etc. etc.

Thirdly, Rev. 19 cannot refer to Muslims, because this is a "great multitide in heaven." Jesus said "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6). Since Muslims reject Jesus Christ as God's Son, they are unable to get into heaven unless they repent, turn from Islam, and convert to Christianity.

The Book of Revelation is very difficult and a person who doesn't have a strong background in OT teachings will easily fall into error. Study the OT faithfully, then the NT; after at least a year, you'll probably be ready to read Revelation.

I hope this helps. Peace.

Answer 3

First, the book of Revelation is a prophecy of what will come upon THE WHOLE WORLD (Rev. 3:10), not just a couple of buildings in one city of one nation.

2. The Statue of Liberty is not a whore, nor does she sit on "many waters." She is a symbol for liberty. And though liberty, justice and law have all been perverted in this country (as well as the rest of the world), the symbol for such remains pure. The kings of the earth do not commit fornication with a statue. Most fornication in the Bible is represented as between a religion and a governments.

3. The only two places that are refered to symbolically as 'Babylon' in the Bible are Jerusalem and Vatican City.

4. Neither NY nor the U.S. is drunk with the blood of the saints. Nor can these places be considered the mother of these abominations -- the corruptions of NY and U.S. are continued from "old world" practices.

5. Revelation discribes a resulting devistation from the fall, but neither NY nor the U.S. are greatly affected economically or militarilly, etc., by 9-11.

6. etc., etc., etc....

Sorry, but you are wrong.

However, 9-11 could very well be a warning of the distruction that will come if we don't repent.

And it may also be that God uses Islam as the sword of his retribution, but that does not mean, by any stretch of the imagination that Islam is righteous or blessed by God; God often uses the Devil to bring about his punishment (ex.: when God used the original Babylon to capture Israel -- he later punished Babylon).

Answer 4

I think September 11 may have been the beginning of the trials, but its not time yet for full commencement of the tribulation. The whole rapture thing is confusing. For one thing, there was the Left Behind books which gave an incorrect concept of the rapture, making it appear as though all believers would be "taken up" before the tribulation started. This is not what the bible tells us, its nothing more than wishful thinking. The bible tells us about the "taking up", but it tells us it will happen before the final wrath, not before the tribulation. We are told we'll be saved from the wrath, never the tribulation. Think about it, if all believers disappeared before the tribulation, who's heads would be getting lopped off? Left Behind was a good book series, but quite a lot of it was just off from what we're actually told. The bible tells us Christ will come back once, not twice, and it would have to be twice to have a pre-trib rapture. Sorry, just doesn't work out.

The New York thing doesn't work either, because even though September 11 was a horror, New York is still the center of commerce, it was not destroyed.

Answer 5

I think it is New York and Washington. Note Babylon is twice fallen, 'is fallen, is fallen'
Yes and it is the Islamic Beast that hates her

That is my theory

The Muslims want to wipe Israel off the map and to do this they need to knock America out of the equation

9/11 was is just a warning, how much of a ******* warning do you need, the core Muslims want to nuke the US, why does Iran want to build a nuclear weapon?

Also note the 'American Empire' so to speak has comparsions with the Roman Empire of old. An EAGLE was the symbol for Ancient Rome as it is now for the US.

GOD'S elect are taken out of her. I don't like the word Rapture but that doesn't happen until the 7th trumpet. The book calls for you to Endure Until The End to receive a crown of life.

A Global Economy is close to being in place now, soon hard currency will be abolished and we'll pay for everything with our card. The Global Religion of the Anti-Christ will be Islam. I predict that these thing to come to pass within 50 years.

Answer 6

Well, biblically speaking it does sort of sound like that, however, the bible states that Babylon will be destroyed so completely that there will be no inhabitants and that it will never again be rebuilt. There are obviously many people still living in NY and there are already plans to build something on that site. I will, however, concede that the situation in the middle east does give me some cause for speculation as to just how close we might really be.

Answer 7

Revelation was written in Apocalyptic style.

Babylon = all nations & people who reject God

There are no specific prophecies for a so-called end time in Revelation. Specific prophecies to nations applied only under the Old Covenant when God was working with a nation.

Today, salvation is open to all races and Christians dwell in all countries.

There have, are, and always will be, people trying to fit world events in with scriptures such as Revelation, Matthew 24 etc.

Answer 8

Interesting analogy, I'd love to see what AskDon and others would say on this.

I would not rule it out that Babylon is now New York. But I go back to (sorry I don't have the scriptures on this), but there is an army from the North, South, and East in Armageddon, why is there no army from the West????

Answer 9

honey I hate to tell you this but you are right in one of my answers the other day I made a comment about this also the end is coming quickly if you read Revalations and look at this world you can see that besides the so called "coincidents" with 9-11 there are false prophets the natural desaters the world is slowly ending by heat melting the frozen waters of the ocean ,earthquakes cracking open the earths surface hurricanes flooding the earth war and everything else going on in this world America is becoming like Sodom and Gahmorrah and just keep in mind what happened to them they had sins such as sexual immorality, homoseseuality drugs and sins America is guilty of they turned their backs on God and so have We if youre not a christian I pray that you would become one soon for the way this world is going it wont be here much longer

Answer 10

Revelations was intentionally written in confusing language. Parts of it might sound like 9/11. Parts of it probably sounded like the fall of Rome, the sacking of Byzantium, the Bubonic Plague, the Great Fire in London in the 17th century, the Blitz in WWII... do you get the picture?

If it helps you feel that you have some idea of what's going on in the world then go for it. But I wouldn't use that interpretation as the basis of faith.