The Restoration of Babylon

 We can't say for sure what the future holds for the actual city of Babylon which is in Iraq.  The word Babylon certainly appears many times in both OT and NT but there is disagreement as to what that word represents based on when, where and how it was used.

Sometimes the word actually means the historical ancient city of Babylon.  This is the place that Nebuchadnezzar had his kingdom centered and where the Jews got hauled to along with the prophet Daniel.  

Some point out that the word Babylon, as used in the NT, is a reference to the entire global system that is under the control of the spirit of the antichrist.  It's kind of a code-word for the Satanic system that governs the world.  Think about it like this:  When you hear on the news that "Wall Street had a great day!"  Do you think, "I sure wonder what happened to that street in New York that made it have such a great day?"  No!  You know that when they say "Wall Street" they are referring to the financial system that centers around the valuation of stocks and bonds.

Some believe that the Antichrist will actually set up his capitol in Babylon and it will be destroyed when Christ returns at the 2nd Advent.

We can say that all of this could certainly be true and all of it has some scripture to support that thinking.

So today on Google News there is a headline story that they chose to put on the front page and it is about Babylon.

Mentioned in the sacred texts of all three Abrahamic faiths, the ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon, in modern-day Iraq, is today undergoing a revival. Two World Monuments Fund (WMF) projects are nearing completion and much-needed cultural tourism is returning.

One project mitigates groundwater damage to the north retaining wall of the Ishtar Gate. The second is a restoration of the Temple of Ninmakh, dedicated to the Sumerian mother goddess. The team hopes there will be an official reopening for the temple this autumn, after which it will be available for gatherings such as weddings and concerts, as well as for the Babylon Festival, a celebration of international cultures that takes place every spring.

Largely funded by the US embassy in Baghdad, the restoration of the temple and the north retaining wall are part of the Future of Babylon Project, initiated 15 years ago, which aims to document, waterproof and stabilise structures throughout the 2,500-acre site. (The US embassy cancelled funding for a planned walkway spanning the site of the Ishtar Gate in July due to budget cuts.)

Visitor boom

The completion of these two projects coincides with a boom in tourism. Even in the midday heat, when tour guides refuse to emerge from their office, visitors from Romania, Russia and Iran enthusiastically explore attractions including the largely intact Lion of Babylon, the processional way and the museum next to a reconstructed Ishtar Gate.

The return of heritage tourism is one of Iraq’s few recent success stories. Even as sectarian tensions simmer and the electrical grid has yet to be restored 22 years after it was destroyed in the US invasion, Babylon is being reborn.

“We’ve had record numbers of visitors this year,” Raad Hamid Abdullah, Babylon’s antiquities and heritage inspector, tells The Art Newspaper. In 2024 Babylon hosted 43,530 Iraqi tourists and 5,370 foreign tourists, an increase from 36,957 Iraqi visitors and 4,109 foreigners in 2023, he says.

“Now even locals from the adjoining city of Babil are coming,” Abdullah says. “It has once more become a popular place for family gatherings and wedding parties,” he says, adding proudly, “Babylon is a symbol of Iraq.”

Babylon, the survivor

Around 80km south of Baghdad, comprising both the ruins of the ancient city as well as surrounding villages and agricultural areas, Babylon is a survivor. From its peak as the Neo-Babylonian capital under King Nebuchadnezzar II through to the Iraq War, when American and Polish troops ran roughshod over its ruins and a decade later, Islamic State (Isis) threatened its very existence, the ancient city has witnessed empires come and go.

Babylon has survived decades of looting and ongoing environmental challenges. Construction, too, has taken a toll over the years. In 1927 the British ran a railway line through the site, and in the 1980s Saddam Hussein built a highway through part of it, along with a palace for himself, complete with helipad. There are still three non-functioning oil pipelines, two built in the 1970s and 1980s and a more recent third one—work on it was blocked after Iraq’s General Authority for Antiquities and Heritage filed a lawsuit in 2012. Babylon was only recognised as a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2019.

Now the Egyptian architect Ahmed Abdelgawad, an expert in mud brick buildings, is working with the WMF to train locals in the traditional art that befits the Temple of Ninmakh, named after the mother goddess associated with creation, birth and healing who breathed life into humankind via small clay figures in their likeness.

Years of war-related damage and neglect combined with poorly executed mid-century “reconstruction” methods resulted in serious structural problems at the temple. Corrosion caused by the intrusion of increasingly salty groundwater is the product of prolonged droughts and soil erosion in climate-vulnerable Iraq.

Here;  How the restoration of ancient Babylon is drawing tourists back to Iraq - The Art Newspaper - International art news and events

Why would the US Embassy in Baghdad be funding the restoration of an ancient, demonic temple in Babylon???  The Sumerian Mother Goddess?? 

That is super strange.

Now here's another interesting piece for today.  I just received an email from Harpazo TV and has this listed as a new show on their site;

This week on Hope for Our Time, Tom Hughes interviews Pastor Andy Woods. Prophecy is unfolding before our very eyes. The Bible warns of a coming global system, and at its center will be a city unlike any other—Babylon. Scripture foretells that Babylon will rise again as the Antichrist’s capital, a hub of power, deception, and corruption that will dominate the world before its sudden destruction.

Now come on!  That's interesting!  Google puts up a story on America funding the restoration of Babylon on the very same day I'm sent a new story from Bible believers saying that Babylon will be the Antichrist's capital!!

As we say often these last days, YOU CAN'T MAKE THAT UP!!