January 22, 2009
Steve Collins
At my website’s homepage is an article entitled “Is Babylon the Great about to Collapse…Ushering in a New Beast System?” This blog is an update to that article, given the rapid deterioration that is occurring in global economies and banking systems.
Revelation 17 prophesies re: a global system called “Babylon the Great” which is also called the “Great Whore.” This chapter depicts a global financial system which has been riding a metaphorical beast with “seven heads and ten horns.” Revelation 18:3 identifies Babylon the Great as a latter-day alliance of the “kings of the earth” (global political leaders) and the “merchants of the earth” (multinational corporations), accurately predicting the globalist entities that now govern the globe’s political/economic systems. The beating hearts of Babylon the Great’s global economic system are the central banks and the large money-center banks which create money “out of thin air” to keep the debt-balloons inflated so Babylon’s economic system can continue. As you are know, these beating hearts of Babylon (the banking systems) are starting to show signs of an imminent “heart attack” which could kill the system.
The global financial crisis in the banking system is spreading and getting worse. Today’s issue of USA Today had an article (see first link below) about the desperate state of the British banking system and nation as a whole. The British pound is dropping steadily on world markets as world investors realize the dire state of British banks. This article made the incredible statement that just one British bank, the Royal Bank of Scotland, has loans and assets on its balance sheet which “are greater than the UK’s entire $2.1 trillion economy.” This bank’s balance sheet is in very bad shape. Think about this. Just one British bank has problems which have metastasized to such an extent that its problems could overwhelm the balance sheet of the British nation. Other British banks are also in dire shape. The British Central Bank is so desperate that it cut British interest rates to the lowest level since the year 1694, but no recovery is in sight. The second link below examines the possibility that the nation of Great Britain may be going bankrupt. The USA Today article refers to some British banks as “dead banks walking.”
The US banking system is also in dire straits. In the third link below, the International Herald Tribune cites Nouriel Roubini, an economist who predicted the current banking/financial problems, as saying “the US banking system is effectively insolvent” due to economic losses in the US banking system of “$3.6 trillion” which far exceed the banks apparent capital of “$1.4 trillion.”
President Obama’s new administration could spark some optimism in US markets because he comes into office with so much real charisma and helpful media sycophancy. However, he has no magic wands to change the dire economic realities facing the nation. More mega-bailouts and stimulus plans are expected. This will greatly expand debt creation and deficit spending in the USA to solve a crisis brought on by too much debt and too much deficit spending. This approach sounds rather like trying to help a heroin addict “kick the habit” by feeding him larger doses of heroin. Expect greater problems to result.
It seems to this observer that the nations’ political, banking and financial elites are willing to sacrifice the USA and its taxpayers in order to save the banks and Wall Street types whose reckless and profligate practices motivated by “greed gone wild” created this crisis in the first place. At some point, the American citizens, who outnumber the elites perhaps “a million to one” will demand of their government that the culpable banks and Wall Street types be sacrificed to save the nation and its people. If this happens, Babylon the Great’s global monetary/banking/financial system could collapse, fulfilling the prophecy of Revelation 17 and 18. If it does collapse, Revelation 17:9-13 reveal Babylon the Great’s system will be replaced by a new global system led by the “beast.” If this occurs, we are truly near the end of this age because Rev. 13:1-7 reveals that the beast’s global stem will last only 3 and 1/2 years before it too falls–replaced by the utopian global government of Jesus Christ who will reign with his saints on earth for 1,000 years (Rev. 20:1-4).
It is my view that the global beast system, when it arrives, will be initially welcomed by the world as his new system will likely be an improvement over the collapsed system of Babylon the Great that enslaved the world with excessive debt. Since the modern banking system is based on the old Babylonian banking system [see my article “What Kind of Captivity?” for documentation] of lending money at interest (usury), it is hard to see that Babylon the Great’s system has truly fallen unless some new banking system is implemented that does not rely on usury. An alternative now already exists, and it is called Sharia Banking.
You can do a websearch on Sharia banking, but it is an Islamic banking system which does not lend money at interest (because usury is forbidden in the Koran). It is also worth noting that usury is strictly forbidden in the Jewish and Christian religions as well (Exodus 22:25, Leviticus 25:36-37, Deut. 23:19-20, Nehemiah 5:7-10, Ezekiel 22:12, etc.), but modern Jews and Christians have ignored their own scriptures. When a world figure emerges who appeals to many different nations, religions, language-groups, etc. (Rev. 13:7), he will implement a new economic/commercial system (Rev. 13:16-18). If Sharia banking is a part of that new global system, it would create a new banking system consistent with the world religions of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Such a system would appeal to many nations in a new global economic system under the beast. While the beast system will eventually morph into a malevolent, intolerant system (Rev. 13:6-7, 15), its origins may appear quite benign and positive. Indeed, Matthew 24:24 warns that the false commercial/religious system of the beast and anti-Christ will be so appealing even to Christians that even the “very elect” could be deceived into thinking it was a good system.
Revelation 17:9-18 prophesy that nations called “seven heads and ten horns”‘ will eventually destroy Babylon the Great’s system near the end of our age. Verse 11 also has a cryptic reference to the seven heads including an “eighth” entity of some kind. Babylon the Great’s system has “ridden” the western world for many. many centuries, and some see the seven heads as various “revivals” of the Roman Empire through history (Rome being the inheritor of Babylon’s original governmental system, as Daniel 2’s prophecy confirms). This long-term historical view may prove correct. Another possibility exists, which calls for a current application of this prophecy. The western world’s system is dominated by the G-7 nations, which have been expanded to the G-8 nations with the inclusion of Russia. However, Russia’s inclusion is rather tenuous due to its increasingly anti-western stance under Vladimir Putin. The “ten horns” would likely be the ten tribes of Israel who are the leading nations of the modern western world. This would also fit the symbolism of Daniel 2’s prophecy because the final “ten toes” of the great image in Daniel 2 (picturing the progression of world empires throughout history) indicates the final world system will be a fractious alliance of the “iron” nations (the nations and regions of the old Roman Empire) allied to the nations characterized as “potter’s clay” which is revealed in Jeremiah 18:6 to be a biblical symbol for the ten tribes of Israel. The “ten toes” of Daniel 2:41-43 and the “ten horns” of Revelation 17 are both in existence just prior to the climax of our age, so they must represent the same nations.
We do not yet know what might trigger the fall of Babylon the Great’s system, but at some point it will be terminated with extreme prejudice as Revelation 17:16 prophesies it will be “burnt with fire” by the angry nations previously “ridden” by Babylon the Great’s system. While I am making no predictions that we are entering the time when Revelation 17’s prophecy will be fulfilled, believers need to realize that this process might be unfolding in front of our very eyes. Revelation 18 is a prophecy with much detail about the process via which Babylon the Great will collapse. I invite you to read my aforementioned report on the possible collapse of Babylon available at my website’s homepage for a detailed examination of Revelation 18’s prophecy. Revelation 18 prophesies that after two great “falls” in a major seaport city which is also a hub of international merchandising, commerce and trade (think the events of 9/11?), a situation will develop in which the global multinational corporations (the “merchants of the earth”) mourn because “no one buys their merchandise any more” (verse 11). In other words, there will be a precipitous, global drop in retail sales. As anyone who follows the news realizes, that is happening NOW. Famous retail giants are going bankrupt, out of business or retrenching with store closings and mass layoffs of employees. Revenues of state and local governments are tanking, leading to severe budget crises in an ever-increasing number of state and local governments. Mall retailing spaces are shutting their doors. The drop in retail sales is worsening the banking crisis as commercial, residential and personal loans increasingly go into default.
Let’s watch this increasing global financial trauma very carefully. It is possible that we are seeing the death throes of the Babylon the Great system and the birth pangs of a new, global “beast” system.
