Tuesday, October 31, 2006

History Channel: Ancient Babylon is now known as modern-day Iraq

In that one statement, they got it right. The hypothesis that Jeremiah's ancient prophecies of doom on Babylon may be playing out in modern-day Iraq has not escaped the attention of the History Channel. An episode of Decoding the Past: Prophecies of Iraq [link to archived site updated 08-29-08] will run on Monday, November 13th at 11am and again at 5pm. [link to archived youtube videos updated 09-01-10:]



The producers, however, give nod to those who say the prophecies deal strictly with the ancient capital city, also called Babylon: "It was one of the greatest cities ever depicted in biblical text. Hebrew prophets of the Bible all predicted its destruction -- as many as 150 years before it happened. And, when in 539 BCE, Babylon fell to Cyrus the Great of Persia, the prophets were thought to have been proven correct."

As I've noted already, however, Jeremiah's prophecy is explicit in its description of doom upon the entire "land of the Chaldeans" and all her "cities... and... environs", not just upon the single city. And this argument has not gone unnoticed by the History Channel: "Ancient Babylon is now known as modern-day Iraq, and eerily similar parallels exist between the prophecies of Babylon and the events of the late 20th and early 21st centuries--including both Gulf Wars and the downfall of Saddam Hussein. Is it possible that Biblical prophecies are playing out in modern times?"

I, of course, say yes, and am exploring those similarities between Jeremiah's curse on the land of Babylon and the events of the current coalition occupation of Iraq and its subsequent near-future events here in this weblog. My position is based on the premise that Jeremiah's decrees are against the "whole land" of the Chaldeans -- Iraq as a nation -- and not meant at all for just the one-time capital city long gone.

But I fear the idea remains stuck in the head for many, for the History Channel continues: "But scholars and academics have long debated the question of whether these ancient predictions were meant for the city of Babylon of more than 2,500 years ago, or whether they referred to a different Babylon, a future Babylon to be rebuilt where the old city once stood."

I say, forget the city once called Babylon, and forget a future rebuilt city on its ancient site, and take Jeremiah for what he said -- he is talking about Babylon the kingdom, the "land of the Chaldeans" (Jer. 50:1) -- now Iraq the nation -- and not just about the capital city of that ancient kingdom also called Babylon, a city now gone. He is talking about the "inhabitants of Chaldea" (Jer. 51:24), the whole region, not just the inhabitants of one ancient city. He is talking about "the land of the Chaldeans", not one city. He is talking about the "cities" and "all (the) environs" (Jer. 50:32) of Babylon, not just the one-time city called Babylon.

When people can come to take Jeremiah as if he said what he meant and meant what he said, then they may be able to figure out what he was talking about. It was the land of Babylon, not the city of Babylon. Like the state of New York, not just the city of New York. Like the country of Kuwait, not just the city also called Kuwait. There is more beyond Manhattan, however that may come as a shock to some.

I look forward to watching the History Channel's offering, but expect to be disappointed. Then I won't be disappointed.

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Sunday, October 29, 2006

The king of the kingdom of Ararat of the Medes

There are 20 to 25 million Kurds, by some estimates, scattered over parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Armenia, but up to half live in southeastern Turkey. They comprise the largest ethnic group out of Turkey's total population of 63 million, and in many of Turkey's southeastern provinces, they form a majority of the population (Joshua Black, Princeton, 2004).

On October 21, 2006, the Turkish Daily News reported that more than 3 million of those Turkish Kurds had signed a declaration proclaiming loyalty to jailed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, even though Ankara sees him as the "country's number one terrorist." Ocalan, a brutal Maoist revolutionary who often targeted civilians, had been captured in 1999 by elite Turkish forces in Nairobi, Kenya, with intelligence assistance from the U.S. and Israel, while under Greek diplomatic protection. After his return to Turkey, he was quickly sentenced to death by hanging, but the Ankara government subsequently repealed the death penalty so as to conform to human rights standards of the European Union, to which Turkey hopes to join, and the death sentence was commuted to life in prison.

Although Ocalan has been serving his life sentence in isolation as the only inmate on the prison island of Imrali, he still weilds a strange influence over the PKK, issuing calls for unilateral ceasefires which are routinely obeyed, the last given as recently as October 1, 2006, even though Ankara has not only ignored the peace overtures, but has stepped up its efforts to crush the rebel forces.

While the Kurdish guerrilla forces in Iraq and Iran are known as the Peshmerga, those rebel Kurds fighting in Turkey call themselves the Hezen Parastina Gel, the People's Defense Forces. Ankara not only sends its own forces on search and destroy missions into the mountainous hideouts in southeastern Turkey, it has asked the new Iraqi government and the United States to lend assistance in rooting out PKK members using northern Iraq as a sanctuary.

Yet in October of 2005, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, suggested Ankara give a general amnesty to PKK rebels as a way to end the fighting. The European Union has also made improving Kurdish rights a condition to Ankara's membership process. Turkish Kurds of southeastern Turkey simply trying to go about their lives hope the government will likewise give up violence and begin to provide needed concessions to legitimate Kurdish grievances.

There is even an international movement started by intellectuals and civil rights organizations to free Abdullah Ocalan, and in May of 2005, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg ruled that Ocalan's trial by Turkish authorities was "unfair."

Whether it is a freed Abdullah Ocalan or simply his successor, there is no doubt the Turkish Kurds are willing to follow a charismatic leader in the fight for Kurdish rights in southeastern Anatolia, the region in which Ankara has invested heavily through the building of dams, the Ataturk dam being the most noteable, so as to develop the area for agriculture and other economic development for the betterment of the republic. But with the success of Iraqi Kurds in setting up a thriving autonomous state in northern Iraq, the Turkish Kurds may now be looking for more than simply concessions.

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Monday, October 23, 2006

Snapshot of present "kings of the Medes"

If the war between Iraq and Kurdistan is on the horizon, then the rising of "kings" -- rulers, national leaders -- of the "Medes" -- the Kurds -- who are in power at that time must also be imminent. As mentioned in the last post, a prominent Kurdish leader, Jalal Talabani, currently holds not only his long-standing position as Secretary General of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), a "democratic resistence movement" struggling to "realize Kurdish... aspirations" against Iranian oppression, he is also the President of the new Iraqi government formed by the recent elections held under coalition occupation. This position however, in the parliamentary form of government, is mostly ceremonial in nature. Talabani's real power lies in his comand of the PUK militia forces which secure the southeastern Kurdish region situated closest to Baghdad.

Jalal Talabani
"Uncle Jalal" Talabani


But Talabani's PUK is not the only Kurdish rebel organization operating in northern Iraq. An even more dominant force has been the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) under the leadership of Masoud (Massoud) Barzani, son of the revered Kurdish rebel leader the late General Mullah Mustafa Barzani.

KDP leader Masoud Barzani
Masoud Barzani has led the KDP for decades

In 1998, Talabani and Barzani stopped their in-fighting and signed a peace agreement sponsored by the U.S. In 2002 they further joined forces, later supporting the coalition invasion.

Kurdish girl carries poster showing Talabani and Barzani
Kurds depict the two leaders over the Kurdish flag

According to the BBC, the KDP under Barzani commands "tens of thousands of armed militia fighters", known as the Peshmerga, which word means "ready to die." Nearly 80,000 Peshmerga fighters were armed by the U.S. in early 2003, according to the Kurdistan Observer.

Kurdish peshmerga fighters in Kirkuk
Peshmerga milita members

The greatest achievement of Masoud Barzani so far, however, has been his elevation to the position as President of the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq. While his nephew, Nechirvan Barzani, runs the government as Prime Minister, it is Masoud who receives visitors such as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Following their meeting, Masoud Barzani and Secretary Rice held a joint press conference. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets with Barzani

There remains one faction of Kurds, the largest segment in fact, yet to be mentioned: the Turkish Kurds. While the PUK under Talabani and the KDP under Barzani fought alternately both for and against Iran and Iraq, and have now consolidated and are expanding their authority over the Iraqi portion of Kurdistan, including over Kirkuk's oil wealth, a conflict continues to rage on the Turkish border between Ankara's military and a rebel Kurdish group, the Workers Party of Kurdistan (PKK), once led by the now-imprisoned Marxist, Abdullah Ocalan.

I will explore this fascinating conflict that may soon reveal the king of the Medes of the "kingdom of Ararat" in the next blog post.

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Wednesday, October 11, 2006

The LORD has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes

As if ultimate uninhabitable desolation from a flood and resulting parched desert wasn't enough, Iraq must first suffer a humiliating military defeat at the hands of the "kings of the Medes" (Jer 51:28) -- "Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers! The LORD has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose is against Babylon to destroy it; for it is the vengeance of the LORD... 'Surely I will fill you with a population like locusts, and they will cry out with shouts of victory over you'" (Jer 51:11, 14).

If the Iraqis are the "Chaldeans", by perspective of presently living in the region aligning with ancient Babylon, who then are the "Medes"? They would be those modern people living in the region aligning with ancient Media -- none other than modern day Kurdistan, and its people, the Kurds. In fact, according to Prof. Mehrdad R. Izady of Cambridge, "Medes are claimed regularly by the Kurds and pronounced by others to be the ancestors of them." As the professor notes, "what little remains today of the old Medians and the name 'Mede,' is found densely concentrated in southeastern Kurdistan -- the site of the rise and twilight of the Medes. In fact there are still some Kurdish tribes and clans who carry the evolved forms of the name 'Mede.'"

While the professor does not believe it "matters" that "Kurds along with a few others can make this claim" to be descended from the Medes, it does matter from the standpoint of the prophecy of Jeremiah. It means the Kurds, who were gassed by Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, will be "destroyers (who) come to (Babylon) from the north... For the destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon, and her mighty men will be captured, their bows shattered; for the LORD God is a God of recompense, he will fully repay" (Jer 51:48, 56).

So significant is this military triumph by the Kurds over the Iraqis that the entire prophecy begins with the proclamation, "Declare and proclaim among the nations... Babylon has been captured... For a nation has come up against her out of the north; it will make her land an object of horror... Both man and beast have wandered off, they have gone away!" (Jer 50:2-3). "Against the land of Merathaim, go up against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod. Slay and utterly destroy them... The noise of battle is in the land, and great destruction." (Jer 50:21-22).

This war between Iraq and the Kurds is repeated: "Lift up a signal in the land, blow a trumpet among the nations!... Summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz; appoint a marshal against her... Consecrate (these) nations against her, the kings of the Medes, their governors and all their prefects, and every land of their dominion." (Jer 51:27-28).

These three designations of the Kurds reflect the three main factions of the people of Kurdistan -- the Turkish, Iraqi and Iranian populations. See this map of Kurdistan from the Kurdish National Congress of North America:



Next post, I'll look at who are filling the shoes of the kings of the Medes even at this present moment; it may be surprising to some to discover the current President of the new Iraqi government is none other than Jalal Talabani -- "Uncle" Jalal to the Kurds -- the founder and Secretary General of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan!

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Monday, October 09, 2006

"A drought on her waters; she has been engulfed with tumultuous waves"

Iraq shall be ultimately uninhabited, because she will become a "parched land and a desert" (Jer 51:43). And she will become a desert, because Jeremiah decrees a "drought on her waters, and they will be dried up!" (Jer 50:38). And again: "I shall dry up her sea and make her fountain dry" (Jer 51:36). And what is Iraq's "sea" and "fountain"? It is the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. These two rivers are interconnected throughout Iraq by an "elaborate network of canals" that control flooding and provide irrigation for agriculture in the alluvial plain between them. The Iraqi dams not only provide hydroelectic power, but also act to divert the rivers' water into lakes and channels to protect the cities from flooding.

Flooding. "The sea has come up over Babylon; she has been engulfed with its tumultuous waves. Her cities have become an object of horror, a parched land and a desert, a land in which no man lives, and through which no son of man passes" (Jer 51:42-43). And so Jeremiah is told by God: "(A)s soon as you finish reading this scroll, you will tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates" (Jer 51:63).

It is interesting that the locals call the reservoir behind the Ataturk Dam on the Euphrates in southeast Turkey "the sea." This dam is "one of the world's largest earth-and-rock fill dams, with an embankment 604 feet (184 m) high and 5,971 feet (1,820 m) long" according to the Ataturk Dam website. Here's a picture of this earth-and-rock fill dam:











There used to be an earth-and-rock fill dam near where I live. It was called the Teton Dam. It "failed abruptly" on June 5, 1976. Here's a picture of it collapsing:



There is a fantastic slide show of the entire failure in progress at this site: "Teton Dam Failure." The downstream communities of Rexburg, Wilford, Sugar City, Salem and Hibbard were severely affected, with Sugar City being literally "wiped from the river bank" and 80% of Rexburg destroyed.

This is what the site looks like today, 30 years later:



Ironically, the Bureau of Reclamation built the dam for "flood control."

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Friday, October 06, 2006

The final outcome: complete desolation

So what is the prophecy of Jeremiah 50-51 concerning the land of the Chaldeans, all her cities and environs? It begins and ends with this: "[T]here will be no inhabitant in it..." (Jer 50:3). This climactic finale is repeated throughout the two chapters: "She will be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a parched land, and a desert. Because of the indignation of the LORD she will not be inhabited, but she will be completely desolate..." (Jer 50:13). And again: "It will never again be inhabited or dwelt in from generation to generation, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah with its neighbors... No man will live there, nor will any son of man reside in it" (Jer 50:39-40). And again: "[T]he purposes of the LORD against Babylon stand. To make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitants... And Babylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, an object of horror and hissing, without inhabitants" (Jer 51:29, 37).

Chapter 51 ends with one final decree of calamity upon Babylon: "So Jeremiah wrote in a single scroll all the calamity which would come upon Babylon, that is, all these words which have been written concerning Babylon... 'Thou, O LORD, hast promised concerning this place to cut it off so that there will be nothing dwelling in it, whether man or beast, but it will be perpetual desolation'" (Jer 51:60,62).

That total desolation so that the "land of Babylon" -- modern day Iraq -- is "without inhabitants" has never in all of history ever happened. That land has always had thriving populations. That is why I take the futurist view that it is yet to happen, and that with the U.S.-led invasion, the prophetic events described in the rest of the prophecy are already well under way.

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Iraq is Babylon of Jeremiah 50-51

That is what this blog is about. Jeremiah 50-51 is a prophecy against Babylon. Not the ancient city, which no longer exists, but against "the land of the Chaldeans" (Jer 50:9). It is a prophecy against "Chaldea" (Jer 50:10). It is against "the king of Babylon and his land" (Jer 50:18). It is against "the land of Merathaim... and against the inhabitants of Pekod..." (Jer 50:21). It is against the "cities, and... all (the) environs" (Jer 50:32) of the land of Chaldea -- modern day Iraq.

C. Marvin Pate and J. Daniel Hays say no, Iraq is not the Babylon of the "end-times", in their 2003 book, "Iraq; Babylon of the End-Times?" by Baker Books, because they claim the prophecy refers narrowly and only to the capital city of Babylonia, and its destruction by Antiochus I c. 270s B.C.E. (pg 37).

However, the words of the prophecy themselves define the prophecy as relating to the "land" of the Chaldeans, and their "cities" -- not just one city -- and "all... environs" of the Chaldeans. "Her cities [plural] have become an object of horror, a parched land and a desert, a land in which no man lives..." (Jer 51:43). It is not just talking about the one-time capital city of Nebuchadnezzar's empire, it is referring to the "whole land" (Jer 51:47).

This blog is going to explore the explicit decrees of destruction against the land of Babylon, and how the current U.S.-led occupation of Iraq has begun to fulfill those decrees, and what we can expect to happen in sequence if this current conflict is the literal fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy.

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