Unleashing the Beast

F UTURE H EADQUARTERS OF THE B EAST , I RAQ / 221

political nation and John's Babylon is a religious system. Prior to the Gulf War, I was on a plane with a rabbi from Hungary. We discussed the coming Gulf War. He believed Jeremiah alluded to that war with Iraq. The rabbi noted: 1. Jeremiah said a nation from the north would rise against Babylon (Jeremiah 50:41). The Medes and Persians that overthrew Babylon were from the east; America is called "North America." 2. Jeremiah said many kings would be raised up from the coast of the earth (Jeremiah 50:41). The largest coalition in history was raised up in the Gulf War. The rabbi then showed me in Scripture where the Babylon of Jeremiah 51 was a future Babylon, or the area of modern Iraq. He noted that the original Babylon was never destroyed in the manner we read about in Jeremiah's prophecy. Ancient Babylon slowly deteriorated into ruins and rubble. Jeremiah said that the Babylon he saw would be destroyed by a "destroying wind" (Jeremiah 51:2). He noted that "bright arrows" would be used (Jeremiah 51:11), and the "reeds would be burned with fire" (Jeremiah 51:32). The Rabbi said: During the Gulf War, America or Israel may be forced to use nuclear weapons (the destroying wind), or arrows tipped with powerful weapons that will burn the area with fire (missiles). If this prophecy does not happen in this war, it will in the future, and old Babylon will be destroyed.