America’s Last Soldier Has Left Iraq - But Is Babylon’s Story Just Beginning?

After more than two decades of American military involvement, the final U.S. forces have departed Iraq.

The withdrawal closes another remarkable chapter that began with the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, continued through America's first withdrawal in 2011, and reopened when ISIS conquered huge portions of Iraq and Syria and forced American troops back into the country in 2014.

There are plenty of reasons to wonder what happens next.

Iran and its allies have celebrated the American departure as a strategic victory. Iran-backed militias remain powerful inside Iraq, while ISIS has never completely disappeared. Iraqi security forces must now shoulder greater responsibility without the permanent American military presence that once stood behind them.

But for students of Bible prophecy, Iraq raises an entirely different question.

About 50 miles south of Baghdad lie the ruins of Babylon.

This was the capital of Nebuchadnezzar. It was the empire that conquered Jerusalem, destroyed Solomon's Temple and carried the Jewish people into captivity.

Yet Babylon doesn't disappear when the Old Testament ends.

It returns dramatically in Revelation 17 and 18.

And that raises one of the most fascinating questions in Bible prophecy:

Is Babylon destined to rise again?

Christians have debated that question for generations, including conservative dispensational prophecy scholars who agree on much of the end-times framework but don't necessarily agree on every detail concerning Babylon.

John F. Walvoord, the longtime president of Dallas Theological Seminary and one of the most influential dispensational theologians of the 20th century, distinguished between the two Babylon's depicted in Revelation.

He viewed Revelation 17 primarily as religious or ecclesiastical Babylon--a vast apostate religious system associated with the final world order.

Revelation 18, however, describes something different: an astonishing political and commercial power whose influence reaches kings, merchants and nations across the earth.

And here Walvoord entertained a remarkable possibility.

Walvoord noted that Isaiah 13 and Jeremiah 50-51 describe Babylon suffering a sudden and devastating destruction. Yet historical Babylon declined over a long period. It wasn't suddenly obliterated when the Babylonian Empire fell.

Walvoord therefore concluded that, in several respects, a rebuilt Babylon provides the simpler literal fulfillment of those Old Testament prophecies and Revelation 18. He also allowed for the possibility of Rome functioning as an ecclesiastical center while rebuilt Babylon becomes the political and commercial capital.

That interpretation has been taken even further by contemporary prophecy scholar Mark Hitchcock.

Hitchcock argues that Babylon began as both a literal city and a center of organized rebellion against God. From Babel onward, Babylon represents mankind attempting to build civilization apart from its Creator.

But Hitchcock doesn't believe that symbolism eliminates geography.

He believes Revelation ultimately takes us back to the place where the story began: literal Babylon in modern Iraq.

Under that interpretation, Revelation 17 describes a final religious system centered there, while Revelation 18 reveals Babylon as the political and economic center of Antichrist's world system.

In other words, Babylon could be both a city and a system.

At the moment, ancient Babylon looks nothing like Revelation 18.

UNESCO describes the location about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad as an archaeological site containing ancient walls, gates, palaces and temples. Approximately 85 percent of the property remains unexcavated.

Saddam Hussein famously tried to resurrect some of Babylon's former grandeur. Beginning in the 1980s, his government reconstructed portions of the ancient city, sometimes placing modern bricks directly over ancient foundations and stamping them with Saddam's name.

His ambitions were unmistakable. The slogan of the 1987 Babylon International Festival reportedly proclaimed a renaissance stretching "from Nebuchadnezzar II to Saddam Hussein."

But Saddam's reconstructed Babylon was nothing remotely resembling Revelation's global commercial powerhouse.

If Hitchcock and others are correct, that transformation remains future.

There is another possibility that shouldn't be dismissed.

Babylon may primarily describe the culmination of the worldwide system that began at Babel.

Look at Revelation 17-18.

Religion is involved.

Political power is involved.

Kings are involved.

International commerce is involved.

Merchants become extraordinarily wealthy through it.

The nations participate in it.

And when Babylon suddenly collapses, economic powers around the world mourn.

That sounds much larger than one archaeological site in Iraq.

But these interpretations don't necessarily contradict each other.

Washington is simultaneously a city and shorthand for American political power. Wall Street is a physical location and a term representing an enormous financial system.

In the same way, a future Babylon could conceivably be a literal headquarters for a worldwide religious, political and economic order.

Then comes the question many American Christians ask.

Could Revelation actually be describing the United States?

At first glance, some parallels can sound compelling.

America possesses enormous economic power. Global merchants depend heavily upon American consumers and financial markets. American culture reaches virtually everywhere. Wealth, luxury, materialism and moral rebellion are certainly present.

Some interpreters have consequently identified America--or even New York City--as Mystery Babylon.

Hitchcock strongly rejects that conclusion.

He argues that Revelation identifies Babylon as a specific city and attaches characteristics to it that don't comfortably fit America, including its association with the killing of God's prophets. Hitchcock instead expects a literal Babylon in Iraq and says he does not believe America is identified in Revelation 17-18.

That's an important distinction.

America can display characteristics of Babylon without being the Babylon of Revelation.

A nation can embrace materialism, pride, sexual immorality and rebellion against God without Scripture therefore identifying that nation as Mystery Babylon.

The Bible never explicitly calls the United States Babylon.

In fact, Hitchcock makes a different observation that may be even more sobering.

He doesn't believe America is clearly identified anywhere in end-times prophecy.

For a nation that currently exercises enormous military, financial and cultural influence, that absence raises obvious questions.

Perhaps America's influence declines. Perhaps international power simply reorganizes around different centers. Prophecy scholars have proposed numerous scenarios.

But Scripture doesn't tell us precisely why America isn't clearly identifiable, so humility is required.

We shouldn't turn speculation into prophecy.

And that brings us back to today's remarkable development.

American soldiers are leaving the country containing ancient Babylon.

Iranian influence remains substantial. Iran-backed militias remain. ISIS remains a concern. The Middle East's balance of power continues shifting. America may have withdrawn its troops, although Washington retains enormous economic influence over Iraq, including through the financial arrangements surrounding Iraqi oil revenues.

The American withdrawal does not start some identifiable prophetic countdown.

But we're still left with something extraordinary.

A city that much of the world considers a relic of ancient history occupies a remarkably prominent place in the Bible's description of the final period of human government.

And if the literal interpretation is correct, Babylon's greatest moment may not be behind it.

Perhaps the most fascinating part of the entire story is how Revelation ultimately contrasts two cities.

Babylon represents mankind's rebellion, wealth, false religion and civilization organized independently of God.

Jerusalem represents something entirely different.

Revelation 17 and 18 describe Babylon in all its glory--and then its catastrophic destruction.

Just a few chapters later, Revelation 21 and 22 introduce another magnificent city: the New Jerusalem.

Hitchcock describes the contrast as man's city versus God's city. Babylon disappears. New Jerusalem remains.

America may be leaving Iraq.

Whether Revelation's Babylon ultimately proves to be a literally rebuilt city, a worldwide system headquartered there, or is best understood primarily as a symbol of the final anti-God world order remains debated even among conservative Bible scholars.

But Babylon's ultimate fate isn't debated.

The system appears powerful.

Its merchants become wealthy.

Its rulers believe themselves secure.

And then it falls.

That may ultimately be Babylon's greatest prophetic lesson.

Human empires rise. Political systems change. Nations accumulate extraordinary wealth and military power. Civilizations convince themselves that what they have built will endure.

Babylon once did exactly that.

And according to Revelation, Babylon will do it again.

But Babylon doesn't get the final word.

Christ does.