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Matney: Sept. 11 and spiritual Babylon

On the banks of the Euphrates River, in what is now modern-day Iraq, ancient man began to build a tower with occultic purposes. In order to stop this evil, according to Genesis 11, God diversified their common language into many different languages. And, since the workmen could no longer understand each other, the work on the tower ceased. The different languages sounded like incoherent babel, and the Tower of Babel became known as Babylon.

What started out as a small ziggurat or tower in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, came to represent man’s government, greed and gods in the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible. Read all of Revelation, Chapter 18, to see what Babylon represented.  

So, on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, as I watched the hijacked planes hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center followed by smoke billowing from the towers and the boats watching from a distance in New York Harbor, I was immediately reminded of Revelation Chapter 18:



“Babylon the Great has fallen. In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin! Every sea captain, and all who travel by ship, the sailors, and all who earn their living from the sea, will stand far off. When they see the smoke of her burning, they will exclaim, ‘Was there ever a city like this great city?’ They will throw dust on their heads, and with weeping and mourning cry out: ‘Woe! Woe to you, great city, where all who had ships on the sea became rich through her wealth! In one hour she has been brought to ruin!’ With such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again.”

This passage, describing the fall of biblical Babylon, almost seems like it could be describing the fall of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Notice these parallels.

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Babylon the Great Revelation 18                     The World Trade Center

Port city (vss.17,19)                                          New York City is a deep-water port city

Tower & babel of languages (Gen. 11)            City of Towers and hundreds of languages

Violence brings it down (v.21)                         Violent terrorist attack

Sudden, 1 day, 1 hr. (vss. 8, 10, 17, 19)           Hit at 8:45 a.m. – fallen by 10:28 a.m. (< 2hrs)

World trade (vss. 11-12)                                  World Trade Center

Fire, smoke (vss. 8, 9, 18)                                Fire and smoke

Sea merchants mourn (vss.11,15,17,19)           Ships at sea                     

Now, I do not believe that the 9/11 attack was the fulfillment of Revelation 18, but I do believe it is a harbinger of things to come on a world-wide scale and it holds a spiritual lesson for us today. I wrote a poem that summarizes what I believe the message of 9/11 is.

From New York City a sign was given,
The terrorists’ attack of 9/11.
The falling towers, a sign of things to come,
What the Bible calls the fall of Babylon.
World trade will cease and nations fail,
Stock markets will crash on a worldwide scale
Come out My people before it’s too late
If you’re caught in Babylon, it will seal your fate
See the smoke filling the sky,
Hear the merchants wail and cry
The harbor boats and mighty ships
At a distance mourn the apocalypse
O Babylon, world system of power,
Your fall has come in just one hour
From New York City on 9/11,
Love sent a warning from the God of Heaven:
Don’t heap up treasures for these last days,
In a tsunami of time, they’ll be swept away.
Man’s towers are falling, they cannot stand
God’s Spirit is calling, the end is at hand
Come out My people before it’s too late
If you’re caught in Babylon, it will seal your fate

The only way to come out of Babylon is to put your faith in Christ Jesus and be born again into a new kingdom. We can’t stop using the economic system of the world, but we can invest our time, talent and treasure into God’s eternal system. If we don’t, we become enslaved by Babylon.

Revelation 18:11-13 reads, “And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore: merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet, every kind of citron wood, every kind of object of ivory, every kind of object of most precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble; and cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and bodies and souls of men.”

This sounds like the stock and commodity markets, and human trafficking in a world without God. These verses inspired me to write a song titled, Babylon.

Verse One

“Let us build a city and a tower,
A testimony to man’s mighty power.”
Thus, with the arrogance of man,
The story of Babylon began
Trading in silver stocks and gold,
Commodities, oddities, bodies and souls,
Babylon’s system is very corrupt,
Its destruction will be so abrupt

Verse Two

Don’t trust in money don’t trust in man,
His economic towers will not stand
One by one like dominoes,
Babylon’s towers are brought low!
The reign of terror then will end,
Millennium peace will then begin
No more crying, no more greed,
No more dying, no more need!

Chorus

Rejoice, rejoice, lift your voice and rejoice!
The sun is setting over Babylon,
A bright new day is ready to dawn
The kingdoms of this world will then become
The Kingdom of God and His Holy Son
Rejoice, rejoice, lift your voice and rejoice!

Friends, we can rejoice; there’s a new world coming. Greed, violence, disease and death will forever be defeated. Escape the falling towers of Babylon by running to the Lord Jesus. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it and are safe, Proverbs 18:10.


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