Nimrod, the Tower of Babel and Revelation

After studying and teaching on the Whore of Babylon in Revelation, I believe the Lord showed me a connection between Babel, the Tower of Babel and Nimrod. I concluded that Babylon came to be a reference to any government/economic/religious system that sets itself up against God.

In John's day, this was Rome. This explains the similarities in Revelation to ancient Rome. However, I reject the idea that Revelation essentially describes only events in our past. Instead, I believe it describes a recurring theme.

This is why Revelation should be understood as "already/now/not yet." In deed, we are told in Rev 1:18 that John was being shown what was, is and will occur.

I also concluded that Nimrod was the first and thus, the archetype antichrist. Once I understood this, the Babylon in Revelation made far more sense. It was Babel, Babylon in Daniel's day, Rome of John's day and future Babylon(s).

Similarities to the Nimrod story, Daniel's prophecies, allusions to the Nero myth (in Rev. 13) and various similarities to Rome; and the fact that some events clearly have yet to occur attest to this. Thus, again, the "already/now/not yet" framework.

Further, essentially, there are three forms of Babylon, which sometimes are at odds with one another. These are the governmental, economic and religious manifestations. These frequently are joined together. But in Revelation we see the eventual division between the religious Babylon and the governmental one.

So, like Nimrod, the final antichrist will be a world leader (or at least a leader of a major part of the world) who will use religion to rule economically and politically (similar to Hitler).

Eventually, his hatred of the religious Babylon (the Whore... a pseudo Christianity, perhaps Islam) will be manifest, perhaps as he holds himself up as the one to be worshiped (perhaps the Islamic Mahdi, who has stunning similarities to the Christian antichrist).

He will essentially be doing what Nimrod did: seeking to set himself up as a replacement for the true God and establishing an earthly utopia.

The antichrist will also be a mighty hunter who will spill the blood of Christians, all of whom will refuse to accept his leadership. Thankfully, just as God did to the first Babel and Nimrod, God will do to the final ones... He will destroy them and set up His Kingdom.

There may be a further parallel to the Genesis account in that, just as God established His earthly kingdom via Abraham (a contemporary of Nimrod), Isaac and Jacob after the fall of the tower and Nimrod, so to will He establish His Kingdom after the final Babylon and antichrist fall.