All of us are daily bombarded by news in the newspapers, television, books and websites, about Iraq. The book entitled “Iraq—Babylon of the End Times?”, is very interesting from the point of view of Christians who like to see the connection between Scripture and current events. Indeed, the aim of this book, is to study such connections and to determine the relationship between Saddam Hussein’s literal Iraq city of Babylon and biblical prophecy. In this book., there is also some exploration of central biblical passages that describe end time events, especially in the books of Ezekiel, Daniel and Revelation. I find this book to be balanced and biblical in its interpretation of the Bible passages relating to the end times. This is borne out when the authors brought out three important points:

1. We must be careful that we do not fire out shot gun of prophetic “Christian” judgment blindly into the international community by accusing certain nations of being involved in a coalition to invade Israel.
2. Christian believe in the second coming of Christ and we wait expectantly for the glorious event. However, for years, “prophecy” experts have been saying that the end is just around the corner. This doom and gloom attitude often causes Christians to withdraw into little pessimistic groups and to lose interest in evangelism and mission work that our Lord has caller us to. Jesus never called us to doom and gloom pessimism.
3. The message of the Bible is one of hope. The Gospel is spreading across so many countries. There are so many missions and outreach works, in many countries too. Should we respond to this with hopeless despair? No, lets send more missionaries!

The book brings out in clear and persuasive arguments as it sheds light on such questions as:

1. Are the political enemies of America, the biblical enemies of God?
2. How accurate is the biblical interpretation of certain popular ‘end-times’ series?
3. What is the significance of Saddam Hussein’s self identification with Nebuchadnezzar?
4. According to biblical prophecy, must Babylon be rebuilt and destroyed again?
5. Are the modern day Iraqis related to the ancient Babylonians?
6. Could Daniel’s “revived Roman Empire” refer to the European Union or the United Nations?

This book was reprinted in May 2003, most probably around the time when America was preparing to invade Iraq - because it concluded with this statement, that “what is very probable is that the United States may find herself in the very near future, burdened with difficult and costly task of replacing Saddam Hussein’s evil regime and trying to restore peace, order and sanity to the millions of people in that troubled country. We as Christians should approach this difficult task with grace, the love of Christ, and the Gospel, along with some solid socio-economic and medical help, rather than with end-time charts and conspiracy theories.”

The authors are C. Marvin Pate and J. Daniel Hays - both professors at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas, USA.

Love in Christ,
Dn. N.J. Gong

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