Gates of the City

This article includes Chapter 3 from my book “The Eighth Beast” and part of an exhaustive study I did and had just reposted on Nimrod, Babel, the fallen angels, and the nephilim. The purpose of Nimrod’s Failure – Chapter 3 in my book was to address the increasing of speculation being made by many that the antichrist was going to be either the release of Nimrod from the bottomless pit through the opening of some sort of time/space portal, possibly through CERN, or the return of his spirit via who knows how or by what means.  Below is part from my study –

“During this last year I have become extremely concern that many of God’s people, even His watchmen, are being affected more and more by the adversary and his minions than they are standing fast on God and His sure word of prophecy. We must not forget that the adversary comes as an angel of light… especially to Christians. Yet for some reason Christians tend to think of that verse as always applying to someone else instead of them. But we are warned by Jesus Christ Himself that if it is possible, even the very elect if they neglect the whole armor of will be deceived and possibly even defeated needlessly if they are not careful. As an aging Christian I have come to recognize that God’s precepts and truths recorded for our benefit and that we need to use them as the discerner and final authority if we are to be successful in keeping our perspective true and clear. Otherwise our faith can be diverted or destroyed by the deceitfulness of the adversary and our own presumptuous sins. For if a man thinks he knows anything, he knows nothing as he ought. Therefore I want to remind us of the following points.

1.The Word of God is always the final authority on all matters and is true absolutely.

2.Jesus defeated the devil in his cunning attempt to tempt Him into sin with “It is written” and put him to flight, so must we.

3.The devil is the father of lies and deceives the nations.

John 8:44 – …He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

4.In order to assure that the devil will not be there to interfere with the governance of those mortals who will have entered into the Millennial Reign of the Church with Jesus Christ, the devil will be bound for until the end thereof when God will once let him loose to prove the hearts of men and try their faith and love.

Revelation – 20:3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. 7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

Because the devil is a liar who has no truth in him and has deceived the nations, we must be constantly aware of that all he says and does has the same reality of a Hollywood production. All those who are functioning under his lies are merely role players, not matter how convincing they may be. Their power and authority comes from their ability to deceive as even they themselves have been deceived. All their plots and schemes and the manipulation of things of the world are no more reality than the props on a Hollywood stage. That is not to say that their ability to persecute, torment kill are not real, but rather that they and their actions are the consequences of lies and not the truth and that the end to which they labor will never be realized.

Thus as we examine the history of the world with all its myths and legends embraced and promoted by ancient cultures and apostate religions we must recognise them as such, just more props of the devil established to promote the illusion of his lies and trickery upon the world. Thus the things in this world are never really what they seem to be, but are as they appear only for the purpose of promoting the deception of the powers of darkness, that their kingdom is an extremely powerful kingdom to be feared. In truth, its only power is its ability to lure or manipulate others into evil and the bondages of sin with lies and deceit, over which the saints of God have the power and authority of the Gospel to overcome and help liberate all who will have ears to hear. For that reason, it is critical that every Christian remembers that what is written in scripture is the truth regardless what every other source in the world might be saying. For they are nothing more than convinced actors playing out their role amidst the props and dark illusions of the adversary.

These truths are fundamental and absolutely critical for Christians to keep in mind when examining things, for the adversary has gone through great lengths and considerable depth and detail throughout history in preparation to corrupt and distort as much as he can for his own advantage of deceiving the nations. I believe this is especially when it comes to Nimrod and the Tower of Babel, for the adversary would want to make the historic records about it all far more elaborate, powerful and glorious than it really was to empress and lure the hearts of the simple away from a love of the truth. Such is why throughout history many researchers, Christians included, have stated it was called “Babel” because it means “Gate of God.” As a matter of observation while doing my research, almost every secular site referencing the Tower of Babel states authoritatively that “Babel” means the “Gate of God.”  But here’s what God’s word says it means:

 Genesis 11:9 – “Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”

To start I would like to acknowledge that it is undeniably true that in Assyrian, “Babel” which was written “Bab-il,” means “gate of god.” But just because it may be factual that the Assyrian translation of “Bab-il” says it means “gate of god” doesn’t mean it’s the final truth on the matter. It is like a court room setting where a witness under oath has to tell the truth about an event or another person and is describing what they saw and heard. But that doesn’t mean what they testify to is necessarily accurate in every aspect, or what they heard and repeated truthfully was indeed the truth in regards to factual reality. For what if what they saw and heard was all staged for their deception? They may then in fact be truthful in reporting what they thought they saw and heard, but they cannot absolutely prove it so simply because they were witnesses to certain events. That is why as believers we must not walk by sight and are instructed to prove all things. Hence the standard for the believer and final proof and authority has to be the Word of God, for it alone is the discerner and by it alone comes faith that will keep us from the deception of the adversary.

All that is said because there is an undeniable conflict between what God called it and what the heathen called it. So how then are we to interpret it, as God did as recorded in Holy Scripture, or as do the heathen?

The following is from the online “Answers Research Journal.”

Distinguishing Between Babel and Babylon

“…some sources place Shinar in the north of Mesopotamia, and not in the south along with the majority view. But if Babel and Babylon really are the same place, as most people believe today, the question is how Shinar could possibly be in the north at all. Indeed, how could Babel be any place other than at Babylon? An examination of the names “Babel” and “Babylon” is in order.

“The meaning of the name, “Babel,” is defined right in the Genesis passage as “confound” (Genesis 11:9 KJV), which, in turn, is defined in Webster’s dictionary as “confuse” (Webster 1973, p. 383). This author believes that a clear and straightforward reading of this verse and application of the principles of solid hermeneutics do not leave room for any other meaning (for more on literal biblical interpretation, see, for example, Habermehl 1995, pp. 5–18). Indeed, the English translations of the Septuagint Scriptures do not use the word “Babel” at all, but simply translate the name of the place where the Tower was built as “Confusion” (NETS and Brenton LXX, Genesis 11:9).

“For a history of the name of the city of Babylon, we quote Oates (1979, p. 60):

The name Babylon—Akkadian Bab-ilim . . . ‘gate of god’—was long thought to be merely a translation of an earlier Sumerian name Ka-dingirra. But the city’s name is first found in the Akkadian form Bab-ilim, now believed to be a secondary spelling developed by popular etymology from an earlier name Babil, the meaning of which is unknown (Gelb 1955). Much later, the plural form Bab-ilani, ‘gate of the gods,’ is found.

“The modern name, Oates tells us, is the Greek form of Bab-ilani, hence Babylon. Interestingly, the modern ruins of Babylon are called Babil today (Leick 2002, p. 245).

“From all this we draw the conclusion that “Babylon” has a completely different linguistic origin than “Babel,” and a different meaning (gate of the gods) as well. This points out the error of those who say that “Babel” is translated “Babylon” (for example, Smith 1948, p. 71; Yates 1962, p. 16).

“The two names, “Babel” and “Babylon,” do appear identical in Hebrew in the biblical Masoretic manuscript, as BBL (for the actual Hebrew letters for this, which read from right to left, see Brown, Driver and Briggs 1907; Strong 1894, #894). This is because ancient written Hebrew of the Old Testament contained only consonants (although vowels were pronounced when Hebrew was read aloud); a written system of indicating vowels only appeared later on, in the Christian era. (For a history and discussion of this somewhat controversial subject, see Mitchell 2005.) When different words contained the same consonants, these words were distinguished from each other by the reader from the context, and their vowels were pronounced accordingly. This is why Babel was written as “BBL”; and since Babylon’s original name was “Babil,” it was also written BBL. Our various English translations from the Masoretic manuscript actually do distinguish between Babel and Babylon by translating BBL as “Babel” in Genesis 10:10 and 11:9, and thereafter (260 times) as Babylon. However, we need to understand that it is a linguistic coincidence that the same letters BBL are used to write both Babel and Babylon in Hebrew.

“There remains the question of why BBL (Babel) is the form that appears in the Hebrew narrative of our Bible for the noun “confusion,” since the ancient Hebrew verb for “confused” was balal (Benner 2006); we might have expected “Babel” to appear in the Hebrew Scripture as BLL. The answer here would appear to be that “Babel” is not a Hebrew word. In the same way that “Shinar” is a Semitic word related to Hebrew, we would say that “Babel” is also a word from one of the Semitic languages of the Shinar region. As an example of how similar the words can be in another Semitic language, the Aramaic word for “confusion” is balbel (Yates 1962, p. 16). “Babel” was most likely what the place of the Tower was called by the Semitic people who lived in Shinar at the time that the final editing of the Old Testament took place; although their language was similar to Hebrew, it would be a mistake to expect that their form of this place name would take the exact Hebrew spelling, since they did not speak Hebrew in that part of the world. (This also explains why the Hebrew verb balal is used for “confounding” in Genesis 11:9, because the biblical narrative itself was written in Hebrew.)

“Because scholars and theologians in recent times have somehow lost sight of this difference between “Babel” and “Babylon,” and believe that the two are one and the same (presumably because both appear in the ancient Hebrew as BBL), they therefore find it necessary to explain how “confusion” and “gate of the god” can both be correct meanings of the same word. The most widely accepted explanation is that there is a play on words in this passage, and many sources can be quoted that say this (for example, Ross 1985, p. 44; Yates 1962, p. 16). But there are other ideas. For instance, Harrison (1963, p. 89) informs us that Babylon is “the Greek form of the Hebrew word ‘babel,’ which was closely allied to, and probably derived from, the Akkadian ‘babilu’ or ‘gate of God,’” leaving out the “confusion” aspect altogether. Howard (2009) has recently attempted to come up with a new way of solving this Babel/Babylon linguistic puzzle by claiming that “Babel” meant “the door of God,” so that Babel was the door through which God came down to earth to judge men; in this, Howard confuses the issue even more. In another rather novel view, Jordan (2007, pp. 99–100) quotes Hirsch (1989, p. 212f) to say that babel, related to balal (confound) is not meant at all, but that we should read yabal (wither). Since Jordan has already established (to his satisfaction) that it was primarily a religious division that took place at Babel (2007, p. 91), he concludes that over time false religions will lose the power to grip men’s souls and men will wither; the withering will then eventually lead to scattering. This last interpretation of “babel” shows how far it is possible to wander from the straightforward reading of the scriptural text.”

 (Now back to Chapter 3 of The Eighth Beast)

The next point I will present for the reader’s consideration against an actual realization of a unified one (whole) world government under one leader, is simply that God did not allow Nimrod to complete his plans concerning the Tower of Babel.

Genesis 11:1 – And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.  2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.  3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.  4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

This passage in Genesis tells us how after the days of Noah, mankind continued to share one language and was of one speech. However, though it is a fact that scripture mentions Noah’s descendants continued to share their father’s original language, this limited detail must not be permitted to be seen as conclusive evidence that Nimrod had gain absolute dominion over all the earth.

Similarly, when verse two states “they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there,” the question that should arise begging to be asked is just who are the “they?” Are we to believe that all of Nimrod’s relatives, the rest of the sons, grandsons and great grandsons of Noah that had been dispersing since the days of Noah, suddenly reunited and went to the “plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there?” Or is this “they” an allusion to only those who formed an alliance with Nimrod in his aggressive rebellions against God and were of one mind as well to “build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth?”

Through his tyrannical means and defiant attitude to God, Nimrod had become a great ruler of the largest empire in those days, earning the reputation of the first king in the history of mankind. Because of this, many scholars of history are even persuaded that the Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient poem from Mesopotamia, is actually about Nimrod.  Even though he is a vile person, Gilgamesh, said to be two-thirds a god and one-third man, is the hero of the Epic, presented as a great builder and hunter, the strongest warrior and hero that ever lived. In the poem, Gilgamesh sets out to find and kill a horrific beast that had sent a flood which greatly troubled all mankind, promising he would kill the perpetrator and avenge the deaths of all those who had died. Eventually after a long journey, Gilgamesh finds the beast and after a gruesome battle he succeeds in cutting off its head and returns to tell all the people they no longer need to fear the beast anymore.

Though the parallels between Gilgamesh and Nimrod are many, I will only mention a few. Both the Bible and the Epic speak of great floods. Second, in the poem Gilgamesh had forcibly taken any woman he wanted, and not just a few, as did the “sons of God” before the flood in Noah’s days. It is very likely Nimrod was no different. Thirdly, Gilgamesh and Nimrod were great hunters and builders, each said to be great tyrants ruling through fear. Regardless the obvious similarity, just because there was no equal mentioned in scripture that could have successfully opposed Nimrod, doesn’t mean he had gained absolute dominion over all the tribes that had already dispersed throughout the known world.

What we can say with confidence, however, is there were many who were loyal to Nimrod which supported his tyrannical rule over the empire, consenting with one heart to “make us a name, lest we be scattered.” This indicating they did not want to be dispersed, as many of Noah’s descendants and Nimrod’s relatives would have done in obedience to God’s command given to Noah and his sons.

Genesis 9:1 – And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. 3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. 4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. 5 And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. 6 Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man. 7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

These scriptures give us sufficient reason to believe that some would have been obedient to God and had gone out throughout the earth to replenish it according to His instruction. Furthermore, the fact that they were Noah’s descendants guaranteed them a great name in the chronicles of history. Therefore, it is not likely that all of Noah’s descendants would have shared in this vision of grandeur to “build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we [too] be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”

Now for those of you who noticed, yes I did placed the word “too” in the sentence to convey my thought, that Nimrod’s descendants and those in allegiance with him did not want to replenish the earth,  but were more interested in making “a great name” for themselves. These were tyrants who willfully oppressed and exploited their fellowman in order to accomplish their arrogant vision. To such there would be no reward in “a great name” if it wasn’t a great name over and above all other existing names, meaning above all the names of Noah’s other grandsons and great grandsons dispersed throughout their lands. Pride has to vaunt itself before others, showing off its exploits in hopes of provoking envy in others. Yet regardless of Nimrod’s vision, God prevented it, electing to spoil Nimrod’s scheme of rebellion simply by confusing the language by diversifying it into many tongues, forcing them into dispersion.

It may be argued by some that God stopped it simply because it wasn’t time for the “One World Government.” If that is true, then we would also have to conclude that the One World Government is somehow part of God’s plan and not an anticipated effort which witnesses to the sinful nature, pride and arrogance of men. Likewise we must acknowledge it was because of Nimrod’s pride and the committed loyalists under him that drove them to compel the masses through enticement, manipulation and/or intimidation to engage in this monumental effort to build what they thought was going to ascend up into God’s Heaven . . . yet vainly only ascending a little into the sky.

Many believe and even contend that the Tower of Babel was more than just a mere tower, perhaps even a stargate or portal into another dimension. At the present time we (the public) cannot verify any such thing, but that doesn’t mean that some of the top leaders of the world haven’t. Regardless, what matters most is how easily God prevented Nimrod’s plans from being realized to the fulfillment of his wicked intent. God simply did not allow it to come to pass regardless the calculated planning and commitment to see it realized.

Genesis 11:4 – And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built. 6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

Even though God bore witness to their unity that nothing was impossible to them, I scarcely interpret that as God being concerned over the possibility of them reaching into His heavens. Logic demands an acknowledgement that Nimrod, though acting as a god directing his workforce to build Babel, they were still but mere little men, flesh and blood, meager little finite creatures whose existence in time and space could never threaten God’s heavenly kingdom or plan. This is evident by the ease of which God spoiled their plans and dispersed them. It is my personal opinion that what God was addressing as “nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do,” simply refers to the boundless limits to which men’s pride would take them in their moral descent of sin if left unchecked by the righteous judgments of God.

Left to rule over themselves, men will always group together around a cause or purpose that glorifies them, robbing their Creator of the glory and honor due Him alone. This was the expressed motive of the hearts of both Nimrod and the people, “let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” Their labor exhausted in trying to ascend up into the heavens was simply a vain attempt to exalt themselves, a witness to their deception that they would be able to live and succeed independent from God. Therefore it must be stressed that they were in fact deceived, and as a result were being manipulated by powers of darkness; as have all nations been throughout time. But before we assign too much power or credit to these fallen angels, who may very well be immensely more powerful and clever than mankind, they too are still minuscule little finite creatures compared to their Creator.

With incredible ease God thwarted Nimrod’s plans to establish his regional kingdom of Babel, who had boasted defiantly his independence from God and His rule of righteousness. Therefore, since God did not permit the completion of the Tower of Babel, and for reasons of other biblical principles yet to be addressed, I remain persuaded that God never will allow a globalized New World Order to come to fruition, regardless the voluminous variety of last days’ theologies out there saturating the churches. Rather like a fig tree that cast forth her untimely fruit, so shall God bring all the schemes of the wicked to naught.

Revelation 6:13 – And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. 14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

We must always let scripture interpret scripture, and be willing to examine the past, present and plausible future if we are to discern which portions of prophecy have been, are being, and are about to be fulfilled. The present flood of end time theories serves as a sound witness to the dragon’s attempt to cause the woman (who represents the saints) to be carried away from the truth which enables them to stand fast and overcome. I know that can also be an indictment against myself here, nevertheless I submit these things for the prayerful evaluation and/or refutation, with strong exhortation to all “to prove all things” and “hold fast” to that which is good and sound.

Revelation 12:15 – And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.

At this point, let’s consider one of those very important biblical principles Jesus revealed to us about kingdoms.

Matthew 12:25 – And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: 26 And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?

Having just been accused of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of the devils, Jesus refuted His accusers with the obvious principle above. Because these words were spoken by our Lord, we can be so confident of their accuracy that we too can boldly prophesy of the fall of any kingdom, city, or house that is divided. We need not any great unction from the Spirit to say such things when they have been so clearly given to us by our Lord in scripture. Divided kingdoms “shall not stand” simply because they lack what can only be achieved in truth, which is absolute unity. Sure, there can be unity among those who know not the Lord, but only in a common goal and not in a unity absolutely. For the heart of all evil is self-centeredness, and unity among such will only endure to the extent it serves their individual welfare.

Consequently, care needs to be taken in how we interpret these words of Jesus, for though He was obviously refuting their accusation regarding His casting out demons by the power of Satan, it would be foolish to assume these words are an affirmation that the kingdom of darkness is an unshakable, unified kingdom. Nevertheless, many believers assume that in his kingdom of darkness Satan enjoys the same commitment and loyalty from his minions as God does in His heavenly kingdom with the holy angels.

Matthew 24:29 – Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: 30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Hebrews 12:27 – And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:  29 For our God is a consuming fire.

The righteous precepts of God are applicable to all His spiritual creatures, be they angelic or human, as is revealed through the fact that the redeemed of the Lord will one day “judge angels,” (I Corinthians 6:3). Furthermore, His word tells us that “unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required,” (Luke 12:48). Therefore without repentance, and the intervention of God’s mercy and grace, they will all receive a just recompense and “reap” what they have “sown.” Even still, while God’s may ultimately pardon a transgressor for their sin(s) and received them back into His fellowship, ramifications for their actions often prevail causing them to endure the shame of their sins till the time when God calls them home.

Consequently, it is reasonable to conclude that since Lucifer propagated discord among the angels in heaven when he drew away the affections and loyalties of part of the angelic host from God, that his “kingdom” unquestionably suffers discord and rebellion. Therefore to believe that there exist rogue demonic spirits within the ranks refusing to faithfully serve Satan and his agenda does not require an uncomfortable stretch of my reasoning, especially when we see God re-affirming the “reap and sow” principle to kingdoms.

Revelation 13:10 – He that leads into captivity shall go into captivity: he that kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

In order to accomplish His own purposes and the end goal of glorifying His name, God has at times intervened both in the lives of individuals and the events of nations. Nevertheless, it can be seen throughout history that the righteous precepts of God are designed to administer impartially the blessings and curses upon both individuals and nations. Thus through the rise and fall of nations God determines to make known to mankind both the guaranteed instability of a nation and the uncertainty of its continuation if the people thereof resist His will. Therefore, history is an undeniable witness to what Paul stated regarding all the nations of the earth, they all have their allotted time and boundaries. All this serves to solidify my opinion that no one, man or angel, will ever be permitted to unify all humanity under any cause or banner.

Acts 17:26 – And [God] has made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.

I am sure there are some who have read this chapter that feel that Nimrod’s failure to complete the Tower of Babel is inconsequential and even perhaps trivial when considering the quest of the Luciferians to achieve their New World Order. My question to such would be simply why then was the building for the European Parliament in Strasbourg France designed to replicate the Tower of Babel? Why do they have the slogan, “Many tongues one voice,” …and whose voice are they heeding?

Ecclesiastes 1:9 – The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. 10 Is there anything whereof it may be said, See, this is new? It hath been already of old time, which was before us.

 Much of what is being preached today as eschatology is being supported upon “extra biblical” sources that should actually be called “unbiblical sources.”

Wake up people!