The Whore and her Mother: 9/11, Babylon and the Return of the King

by Raymond McCullough

  The second angel announces that “Babylon is fallen” – the news of America’s destruction that will shock the world; while the third angel gives us a very clear warning against following the ‘beast’, who is about to be revealed. After this, the earth is reaped and the Messiah’s kingdom comes into being.

  We will also find that Yeshua (Jesus) makes a similar statement in Matthew 24, where he talks a lot about his return:

  Matthew 24:14 This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

  So, the time-scale is the same. Once the message of the gospel gets out to every nation, things rapidly draw to a close. In fact, there will be only seven years to go! But we’ll come to that in a minute.

  The ‘times of the Gentiles’

  This time that we are currently living in, since the crucifixion, is referred to by the prophets as ‘the times of the Gentiles’ (the nations). The ‘times of the Gentiles’ began with the crucifixion of Yeshua and will end when every nation, tribe and language has had an opportunity to hear the gospel.

  Yeshua prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem, which took place in 70 CE:

  Luke21:20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognise that her desolation is near. 21 Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city; 22 because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. 23 Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people; 24 and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

  After the fall of Jerusalem the Jewish nation were driven from the land and scattered around the world – until recent years. Yeshua used the phrase ‘times of the Gentiles’ to refer to a definite period of time, of unspecified length, which will eventually be ‘fulfilled’ – in other words, it will come to an end. When it comes to an end, is ‘fulfilled’, the end will come!

  Paul (Shaul), in his letter to the Romans, also refers to the ‘fulness of the Gentiles’, meaning when the full number of the Gentiles are added. When this occurs God will turn his attention to Israel.

  Romans 11:25-26 Blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. Then ALL ISRAEL shall be saved.

  The ‘times of the Gentiles’ is a prolonged hiatus in the Messianic time-scale, which is tied up with the destiny of the nation of Israel. The exact time of the Messiah’s first coming was revealed to the prophet, Daniel, after he had spent three weeks fasting and praying for the answer.

  Daniel’s ‘Seventy Weeks’

  The prophet Jeremiah before him had foretold that the Jewish captivity in Babylon would last for 70 years. Daniel then sought the LORD about this and was given a very specific answer by the angel, Gabriel, who was sent to enlighten him.

  Daniel 9:20 While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and making my request to the LORD my God for his holy hill- 21 while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. 22 He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. 23 As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision.

  24 “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place. 25 Know and understand this: from the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the Ruler, comes there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26 After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood; War will continue to the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”

  The seventy ‘weeks’ is literally seventy ‘sevens’ – in other words, 490 years from Cyrus’ decree to Nehemiah to go and rebuild Jerusalem. We only use the word ‘weeks’ for convenience because this prophecy is well known as this. Daniel was certainly not expecting to see the Messiah appear after only a year or so!

  This period, which relates specifically to the nation of Israel, is divided unequally into two parts by a very important event – after 483 years “the Messiah will be put to death” and then immediately follows the ‘times of the Gentiles’. This leaves one ‘week’ – seven years – of Daniel’s 70 Weeks prophecy then to be fulfilled, once the ‘times of the gentiles’ are completed. As Yeshua said:

  Matthew 24:14 “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”

  When the ‘times of the Gentiles’ come to an end, then we have only seven more years until Daniel’s word is completed and the Messiah comes to set up his kingdom.

  As The Revelation states, the ‘times of the Gentiles’ will end with the fall of Mega-Babylon, and then the man-beast who exalts himself will be revealed and take over the whole world. We return again to the ‘times of the Jews’ (or, more accurately, Israelites) for the last ‘seven’ of Daniel’s prophecy.

  Daniel 9:24 “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.

  So, thankfully, the man without law, the ‘beast’, has only seven years to rule! His time will be short, but eventful!

  27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”

  After his inauguration before the world by the leaders of the ten powerful nations, almost the first action of the man-beast will be to make a seven-year covenant “with the many”. We are not told specifically that this is a covenant with Israel, but the structure of the sentence, and the following statement that he will “put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering” does seem to relate specifically to Israel.

  The first half of his rule will be spent consolidating his position, “trampling over the whole earth.” The whole world will now be in the grip of this arrogant dictator. Then “in the middle of the week”, as Daniel says, he will “put a stop to the temple sacrifices and offerings.”

  Daniel’s last ‘week’ is divided into two equal halves by the stopping of the temple sacrifice in Jerusalem – something which has not been happening since 70CE! The three and a half year period following this event are referred to many times by the prophets:

  Will the Jewish temple be rebuilt?

  It would seem that it will be at this point in time that the temple will be rebuilt. There can be no sacrifices or grain offering unless a Jewish temple exists in which to carry out these offerings.

  Preparations are already well underway for the possibility of this happening. Cohanim priests are being located around the world and trained in how to offer sacrifices.

  The gold and other vessels have been created, ready to carry out the various temple duties. The golden Menorah has been created and is on display
in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem. Cornerstones have been quarried and shaped ready to begin the construction.

  The only problem is that the site already contains two Moslem mosques – the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque – and is presently under control of the Moslem Wakf. Jews (or Christians) are not even allowed to pray on the Temple Mount at present.

  How will the Anti-Christ be revealed?

  1 There will be some survivors after the fall of Babylon – but nothing will remain to sustain them in that land anymore. They will flee from enemy patrols and return to their own lands.

  2 Jews and Israelites who did not heed the warnings of their own prophets will repent, turn to the LORD, and seek to return home to Israel, “their own resting place”.

  3 The Messiah will not come until the ‘man opposed to God’s law’ is revealed. Then we have seven years to go!

  4 He will not be revealed until ‘he who hinders is taken out of the way’, i.e. until Mega-Babylon is fallen. As he and his ten nation alliance are the main instruments of her destruction, his existence will necessarily be kept secret until after the event.

  5 As it is the Anti-Christ ‘beast’ who instigates the destruction of Mega-Babylon, the two cannot be one and the same thing! Babylon rides upon the beast, until the beast turns and completely destroys her.

  6 Revelation 14 gives us a quick summary of the end times; the gospel will reach every nation, tribe and language; Mega-Babylon will fall, and then the Anti-Christ will be revealed.

  6 The ‘times of the Gentiles’ are completed with the fall of Babylon and revelation of the Anti-Christ. Yeshua said,“Then the end will come”.

  7 He exalts himself and is defined by his opposition to anything that is called God, therefore the title, ‘Anti-Christ’. Incidentally, a good reason why he will not be a Moslem, either!

  8 His covenant “with many” will result in the Jewish Temple being rebuilt in Jerusalem, though after 3 1/2 years he will call a halt to the sacrifices.

  9 His rule will be the last seven years of Daniel’s ‘Seventy Weeks’ prophecy, though he only has authority to blaspheme God and to trample the holy city for forty-two months, i.e. three and a half years. As Daniel says, “He will rule for only a short time.”

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  12 The mark of the beast

  Revelation14:9 A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, 10 they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” 12 This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus.

  The ‘beast’, or Anti-Christ, will cause everyone under his rule to receive a mark. God’s wrath will be poured out upon all those who receive this mark, therefore NOT a good idea to receive it? Well, it certainly isn’t – but there’s more to it than that. Refusing to receive the mark will bring dire consequences from those who govern under the beast. That is why:

  12 This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus.

  Revelation 13 gives more details of the beast and this mark:

  1 The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. 2 The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. 3 One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. 4 People worshipped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshipped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?” 5 The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. 7 It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. 8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear. 10 “If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity they will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword they will be killed.” This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.

  11 Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. 12 It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. 13 And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. 14 Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honour of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15 The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. 16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. 18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.

  The man-beast Anti-Christ has characteristics of the leopard, the bear and the lion; reminiscent of the lion, bear and leopard of Daniel 7, which represented the empires of ancient Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece. He receives great power and authority from the dragon, or Satan.

  He is an arrogant narcissist. He wants the whole world to worship him and he will set up the apparatus for this to be carried out. He appears to have been fatally wounded, then healed, causing the world to be ‘filled with wonder’ at him.

  His right hand man, the false prophet, will do great signs and wonders to deceive and convince the world that they should worship the beast. Those who don’t know any better will be forced to fall down before an image of himself, on pain of death, if they refuse!

  Not only that, but they are forced to receive a mark to signify that they worship the beast. Without this mark no-one will be able to buy or sell. The scarcest commodity will be food, and without the mark no-one will be able to buy any food.

  How can we live, then, if we refuse to accept the mark? The short answer is that many will not! They will be executed for refusing this mark, as an example to others. Even if they are far enough away from the beast’s kingdom (the ten nations we’ve talked about) to escape death, we will need to trust in God’s miraculous provision and protection simply to survive.

  Many people believe that the ‘mark’ refers to the insertion of an RFID chip under the skin to identify and keep tabs on each person, in the same way that we do with our pets at the moment. Those rich people who are afraid of their children being kidnapped have used this technology on their offspring, so that they can be tracked if the worst happens.

  As this chip can store data, it could be used to replace the credit card so that no-one could buy or sell without it. This may be what it means – but I really don’t know the answer to that. It would seem significant that the provisions of the March 2011 Healthcare Bill, just introduced in the United States, require an RFID chip to be inserted in each US citi
zen within three years, in order to store their medical and financial data!1

  666 – the number of the beast

  The mark represents the name of the beast, or the number of his name, which, we are told, is 666! There has been so much crazy speculation over this number and what exactly it means. All kinds of people have been found to fit this number, by substituting numbers (gematria) for the letters of a name and then adding this up to get 666.

  Suggestions have included the emperor Nero, Mohammed, and the Roman Catholic papacy. Personally, I think such people are adding two and two and getting five!

  Here is a thought. Where is the very first place to look for this number? Would that not be in the Hebrew scriptures themselves? Does this number ever appear anywhere else, apart from The Revelation? Yes, it does – three times, in total. The number appears in the books of Kings and Chronicles, both stating the exact same information:

  1 Kings 10:14 (2 Chronicles 9:13) The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents.