THE POPULAR ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLE PROPHECY

BABYLON Part I

Babylon is one of the oldest cities of the Ancient world. Located 50 miles south of modern day Baghdad, It was the second most influential city on earth. Founded by a group of rebellious descendants of Noah approximately 100 years after the great flood, Babylon was a hot bed of idolatry and false religion. The Bible mentions it 280 times, second only to Jerusalem, which the Bible mentions more than 300 times. Babylon could very well be called the city of Satan, for it quickly became the sources of the world’s religious evils. The city grew in influence and in rebellion against God, and in judgement, the Lord “Confused the languages of all the earth” at the tower of Babel and caused the people to scatter ( Genesis 11:9 NKJV ).

By 600 B.C., King Nebuchadnezzar had fashioned Babylon into the pagan empire of Babylonia, a center of religion, commerce, and government. Babylonia may have been the most powerful monarchy in the history of the world. God eventual brought the children of Israel to Babylonia as punishment for worship idols. There, through the prophet Daniel, God taught the world that “there is a God in heaven who reveal secrets.” Israel’s stay in Babylon once and for all cured the children of Israel of their bent towards idolatry. But Babylon’s control and influence would not last for ever. Isaiah and Jeremiah predicted the end of its powerful reign over the world. Babylon fell in one night to the armies of Cyrus the Persian in 539 B.C. and ceased to be a world power. The city of Babylon eventually became a mound of ruins, just as the the prophets had foretold.