Who is the Beast from Revelation? Daniel 11: 37-38 He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the one desired by women, nor will he regard any god, but will exalt himself above them all.  (38) Instead of them, he will honor a god of fortresses; a god unknown to his fathers he will honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly gifts.        At first, the Shiite leader will exalt himself above every god but as time goes by, he will turn to a “god of fortresses”.  That particular god is known in Revelation as “the beast”.  There have been various theories over the decades attempting to identify the beast.  However, while studying the history of the Middle East, I stumbled upon a perfectly logical explanation, using multiple parts of the Bible with no myths or math.  It not only links Daniel and Revelation but also Abraham (Genesis 15) to Revelation, completing the big picture from beginning to the end.  Since Satan and Babylon come to their end in Revelation, after long histories, it stands to reason that the beast has a long history too.        The identity of the beast is found by connecting the above verse to Revelation 18.  It sounds almost too simple to be true but it was rather hidden when Daniel 11 was “sealed”.  The term “fortresses” can mean “walls” just as the “temple fortress” was the “Western Wall” in verse 31.  From substitution, they will honor a “god of walls” with “gold and precious stones”.  From Revelation 18, they will also re-build Babylon with gold and precious stones. (Revelation 18:16)  Therefore, the Shiites will honor a “god of Babylon’s walls”, which happens to be Marduk, the patron god of ancient Babylon, depicted on its walls. (left-top)  Not to overlook the obvious, Marduk even looks like a beast. (left-bottom)  I admit, the beast in Revelation can get confusing because the descriptions sometimes sound like Marduk and other times sound like the kingdom as a whole.  Still, I think the beast is Marduk and the final empire will be worshipping him.  Connection with Abraham       Marduk originated in ancient Babylon, which has connections to Abraham because Abraham was allied with three Amorite brothers in Canaan.  They even helped Abraham when he defeated the Mesopotamian kings and rescued Lot.  Some decades later, Babylon was started and ruled by a dynasty of Amorities, who migrated from Canaan.   Genesis 14:13 “Now Abram was living near the great trees of Mamre the Amorite, a brother of Eshkol and Aner, all of whom were allied with Abram.”  Genesis 14:24  (after defeating Mesopotamian kings) “I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten and the share that belongs to the men who went with me--to Aner, Eshcol and Mamre. Let them have their share." Genesis 15:16 In the fourth generation, your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”           If the “sin of the Amorites” was important enough for God to mention during a prophesy about Abraham’s descendants, then it was pretty important!  Rev. 17 calls Babylon the “Mother of Prostitutes and of the Abominations of the Earth.”  That would imply that the Amorites did something dreadful and the first of its kind.  In fact, they did.  The Amorites, throughout Canaan and Syria, would have known about Abraham’s God because of the miraculous victory over the four Mesopotamian kings when they abducted Lot. (Genesis 14)  Furthermore, the three Amorite brothers went with him. (above)  About 5-6 decades later, some Amorites migrated to Mesopotamia and started the first Babylonian Empire.  Abraham’s victory probably helped them because there was no central power in Mesopotamia at that time.  Likewise, Babylon was of no political importance and remained so until the sixth king, Hammurabi, reigned from 1793-1750bc (left).  Yet, war and destruction was nothing new but the Amorites went a step farther and created a new mythology for the region.  Mesopotamia already worshipped multiple gods but they all had something to do with nature such as the sun, moon, water, etc.  Also, in the old mythology, an account of the flood was always given. [more]  They may have gotten rid of the flood story but I imagine it was hard to explain why Noah was 600-years older than everyone else.  Sometime after Noah’s death, the Babylonians were the first to remove the flood story and create a god that had nothing to do with nature.  They wrote the Enuma Elish,  which described Marduk as the “god of gods” and Babylon as his sanctuary. [more]  I have read that some people compare the beginning of the Enuma Elish to the beginning of the Bible because the earth had no form.  Indeed, the Bible was probably written slightly later but it was handed down by word-of-mouth from Noah and Abraham, way before God gave it to Moses.  Like I pointed out, the Amorites had the perfect opportunity to steal the beginning from Abraham, not the other way around.  I think it was this deliberate theft and alteration of God’s Word that earned the Babylonians their dreadful title.  When you think about it, the “sin of the Amorites”, from Genesis, created the “beast” from Revelation, (Marduk), which gives everything a sense of Biblical completeness. Babylon & Marduk through the ages       The first Babylonian Empire was defeated by the Hittites in 1595 BC but Marduk was revived in the 7th century BC by the second Babylonian Empire.  It was started by Nabopolassar, an Assyrian soldier of Chaldean descent, who rebelled and took Babylon.  The Babylonians formed an alliance with the Persians and defeated the Assyrian-Egyptian alliance and eventually conquered the entire Middle East.  Nabopolassar’s son, Nebuchadnezzar II was a skilled warrior who built Babylon into the most spectacular city of its day (left).  It was Nebuchadnezzar who built the walls with alternating images of Marduk and a bull. (see above)  Marduk has the distinction of being the patron god of Babylon when Nebuchadnezzar defeated Judah and burned the Temple, built by Solomon.  Yet, Babylon did not remain spectacular because God does not tolerate arrogance. Jeremiah 50: 10-13 The Lord declared, “Babylonia will be plundered and all who plunder her will have their fill because you rejoice and are glad, you who pillage my inheritance … [Babylon] will be the least of nations — a wilderness, a dry land, a desert.  Because of the LORD's anger, she will not be inhabited but will be completely desolate.”       As such, the Persians invaded Babylon in 539 BC and ended the second Babylonian empire.  Following that, the Greeks and Seleucids occupied the city to some extent.  However, when the Parthians defeated of the Seleucids in 130bc, the city remained uninhabited and steadily declined.  Until it was re-discovered in 1899, it was covered with sand and lost, just as God prescribed. Further Support       That leads me to my next supporting fact confirming Marduk as the beast.  Revelation 17 describes Babylon as a woman, riding on the beast.  Then an angel tells John, “The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction.(Revelation 17:8a)  First of all, that does not sound human to me.  Secondly, as I indicated above, Babylon was uninhabited when John was writing Revelation so Marduk “was not” at the time.         A forth case for Marduk as the beast comes from the re-building of Babylon  (Revelation 18), in which Marduk has already begun to appear.  Saddam Hussein began the symbolic re-building prior to the 2003 invasion.  New bricks were added directly on top of the original bricks, as seen in Nebuchadnezzar’s throne room. (far left)  He completed the palace, which he called “Saddam Hill”, but it was symbolic because he never actually stayed there. (middle left)  He also completed the coliseum and a replica of the Ishtar Gate. (near left)  Naturally, construction was halted in 2003 and the site exists today as a tourist attraction.  However, it is a good start for the antichrist to continue from, following the rapture.  (see news below)       Perhaps the most startling development is the new Iraqi 25,000-dinar note, in which Marduk’s head is engraved in a watermark on the back. (left)  It is the largest bill for public circulation but it has nothing to do with Saddam Hussein because all the money was redesigned after his fall from power.  Personally, I think it is strange when a whole nation prays to Allah five times a day but has a pagan god on the back of its money.  Surely, it is just a symbol of their ancient Babylonian heritage but I think it shows how easily the Shiites will accept Marduk after they abandon Allah. Number of the Beast     I think the number 666 has more than one meaning or associations.  One big meaning is God’s “Timeline of 37’s”, which I explain on a different page.  (See Number of the Beast.)     Another association is Babylon because they had a unique number system, based on the number 60, rather than 10 like we have now.  It’s kind of a mystery why they chose 60 but it could have had something to do with astronomy because the Babylonians were some of the first avid astronomers.  In fact, we still use their system for dividing time into 60 minutes, and degrees of a circle into 360 degrees (6 times 60).  ‘Sixty’ is a convenient number because the first 6 numbers (1-6), all divide into it evenly, but I’m not sure if that factored into their thinking. (pun)  Perhaps they were dividing the circle into 360 parts because they were close to figuring out the 365 day calendar.  (Note:  That was centuries before anyone knew that the world was round.)  Perhaps they were studying the heavens, to learn more about God, but decided it was more advantageous to create their own, Marduk, who was the ‘patron god of Babylon’.  click any to enlarge click to enlarge section of Nebuchadnezzar's throne room "Saddam Hill" palace replica of Ishtar Gate click any to enlarge Iraqi 25,000-dinar note with Marduk's head in the watermark click to enlarge Artist rendering of Babylon looking east with Ishtar gate Artist rendering of Babylon looking west with tower of Babel and temple complex to Marduk (called Esagila) Babylon in the time of Hammurabi click to enlarge
section of wall for ancient Babylon Old likeness of Marduk Marduk in battle
   You might think it’s a stretch to say that people would adorn ancient walls with costly stones.     However, they might (after the rapture) if they were desperate for another ‘god’, and they thought there was magic in Babylon, which many do. Babylon awaits tourists' return Al-Monitor [independent] – May 8, 2015 Quote: Journalist and writer Tariq Hussain told Al-Monitor, “Some Iraqis believe that the city of Babil has been deformed by an earthquake that turned it upside down. They also believe that God punished the city for corruption that had spread in 539 BC [Revelation 16:19], which led some [religious] scholars to forbid praying on its land.” On the other hand, Hussain noted, as had the history teacher, “Some people visit the city because they believe there is magic in its stones.” Poet and writer Riad al-Gharib said, “Babil’s intellectuals are interested in working to restore the city's glory through reviving tourism … In the center of the ancient city, the Lion of Babylon, a symbol of the strength of Babil, still stands in its original place … News on Babylon
Saddam Hussein's tomb destroyed, but Babylon is safe as ISIS targets antiquity CNN [USA] – (article from March 16, 2015 - updated with video above)  Quote: One of Hussein's former palaces still peers down over the city.   But it continues to be source of great pride for Iraqis who see themselves as the heirs of the world's oldest civilization. CNN / Ben Wedeman video - June 19, 2015  (also on article)    Ben Wedeman reports from Babylon, where the World monuments Fund is trying to remove bricks that Saddam Hussein placed and restore parts of Babylon to it’s condition before the war.     America gave $500,000 for the restoration, perhaps because they used Saddam’s palace as a base of operations, in 2003, but that wasn’t the historical part.    Nevertheless, it shows how easily money could be poured into restoration, after the rapture.  (A lot of construction can be done in a short period of time if enough money becomes available.)    In fact, people could be so desperate, for any kind of hope (or magic), that they bring costly stones, etc, to Babylon, for luck.     It could be the place where the false prophet preforms miraculous signs and wonders. Yet, it will be destroyed again, when God says so.  ‘World Monuments Fund’ already restoring Babylon Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.  Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. © Copyright 2010 - 2017   All rights reserved. Other “Post-Rapture” Pages: see “sitemap” for a complete list   -  Home 1. Tribulation ‘Initial’ Events (Daniel 11: 32-35) 2. Rise of Antichrist (Daniel 11:36) 5. Bowls & Armageddon     (Daniel 11: 44-45) 3. Who is the Beast? (Daniel 11: 37-38)  4. Kingdom of the Beast (Daniel 11:39-43) 7. Battle with gog & magog    (Ezekiel 37 & Revelation 20) 6. Jesus’ 1000-Year Reign (Revelation 20)  The Two Witnesses (Revelation 11)  Man of Lawlessness (2 Thess. 2)  Will people be saved after the rapture       Third Jewish Temple?    Daniel 12      The Trumpet Call vs. The Trumpet Plagues
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