"The Ultimate Reason Why Iraq Can NOT be Mystery Babylon" by R.A. Coombes

The Messianic kingdom of Israel under Jesus Christ will not include the same little border areas of present-day Israel. The Messianic Israel will have Jerusalem as its capital city with her eastern boarder extended to include that ancient site of Babylon
itself! Yes, Israel’s Messianic borders on the eastern side will extend all the way to the Euphrates River itself! It will encompass most of ancient Babylonia.

See Genesis 15:18, where God states to Abraham the boundaries of the “promised land.” These Promises enunciated by God to Abraham would be the Messianic Kingdom boundaries. We also find two other places in the Pentateuch (a total of 5 passages) where God states again that the eastern boundary Messianic Israel as being the Great River, Euphrates. The Messianic passages are found in Exodus 23:31 and Deuteronomy 1:7-8, 11:24 and Joshua 1:4. These passages clearly state that a large chunk of present-day Iraq will be part of the Messianic Kingdom.

This means that most of IRAQ CAN NOT be destroyed and uninhabited forever because the Messianic promises make it clear that the Jews will inhabit this area in the millennial, Messianic Kingdom. Thus, Babylon-Iraq cannot be destroyed forever, yet the Babylon prophecies clearly state that Babylon is a nation and the entire nation is destroyed forever. It is never to be inhabited again. It eventually sinks beneath the ocean waves, in a second of two distinctly different judgments that transpire at two different points of time.

Jeremiah 50 and 51 make it clear that the prophecies pertain to all of Babylon’s cities and countryside or in other words the nation known as Babylonia. 

The prophecies are not limited to a single city called Babylon.

Now keep in mind what the prophecies state about the final condition of “mystery” Babylon/Future Babylon. The prophecies indicate that Mystery Babylon will remain uninhabited by humans. For how long will Babylon remain uninhabited? The answer is, forever! Jeremiah hammers home the fact that the consequential results are both a fiery aftermath of desert-like conditions with no one living there, yet also prophesying that the sea would come up over her and would sink beneath the waves. This matches also with Revelation 16:17-21 and 18:21, which speak of angelic actions that destroy Babylon with it remaining uninhabited forever. See also Jeremiah 51:42, 53, and 64 for ocean references. The Babylon judgment results are contrary to God’s Messianic promises for that land. Therefore, we can only conclude that Babylon, that is Mystery Babylon has to be located somewhere else than Iraq.

Another aspect of this involves the sinking aspect. Remember, Messianic Israel’s borders include the Euphrates river and Abraham’s homeland. Yet IF Iraq is Babylon and the prophecies describe her sinking forever under the waves – what happens to the Euphrates River and Abraham’s ancestral home as being part of Messianic Israel? Answer: It would no longer exist and the prophetic verse terms would be violated. God’s promise then would not be fulfilled. Ultimately under those terms, the Babylon is Iraq theory becomes blasphemous and injures the character of God’s Word and His promises to Abraham and Israel.

No matter whether Babylon’s destruction results in her becoming a desert forever or a seabed forever, one thing is clear from the prophecies. No one lives there again. It is desolate and no one even enters the area. It is not safe for a human to traverse. It
sounds like a nuclear radiation problem, doesn’t it? There is a greater problem though. How can the Messianic prophecies indicate most of Iraq is a part of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and it is unclean, unholy, untouchable, and uninhabitable? The answer is that it cannot. Thus, we must conclude that Iraq is not Mystery Babylon. Interpretations cannot contradict other scriptures and prophetic scriptures at that.

IF, the prophecies are clearly dealing with Iraq and ancient Babylon, then God has made one very wicked, sinful error in His prophecies. I don’t think so! We are not asserting that He has sinned. Neither are we asserting God is wicked. We are only trying to point out that should those who make such a prophetic claim for Iraq being the Babylon must face up to the consequences of seeing that assertion reach its end conclusion concerning God’s character. They will find that such a theory makes God out to be a sinner. Why?

If Babylon is Iraq then He, God, will have been wrong in His prophecies. Because the prophetic judgment texts would clearly be in contradiction to the Messianic promises made to Abraham. We know that God is incapable of such an error because He does not make mistakes. Thus, “mystery” Babylon is not the lands of ancient Babylonia now known as modern-day Iraq. Instead, “mystery” Babylon must be a different nation located elsewhere on the planet Earth.

The Messianic kingdom is a vibrant, fully-engaged, living Kingdom. While He could easily restore Babylon and clean up the aftermath effects, He chooses not to do so, as per the prophecies, hence we have the prophecies’ strict and multiple references to Babylon being uninhabited and even in at the bottom of the ocean. The future “mystery” Babylon is simply not Iraq and ancient Babylon because that ancient area is to be part of the Messiah’s kingdom and thus, not destroyed forever as the Babylon prophecies indicate and assert. This means that ancient Babylon is not the future “mystery” Babylon. It is not the land to be uninhabited forever because portions of Iraq and ancient Babylon will one day be a vibrant, living part of the Messianic Kingdom.

The unholy “mystery” Babylon is simply not a part of what is present-day Iraq. No, the unholy “mystery” Babylon is located far, far to the west. The “spirit” of the MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS moved progressively westwards. It settled for a time in each of the succeeding empires that were established west of each other including Greece, Egypt, and Rome. In 1492, that Spirit prepared to move westwards to North America and became well established by 1776, growing into its maturity as a nation called “America.” The Spirit of ’76 is the Harlot Spirit of Babylon – Ishtar, the Chief Goddess of ancient Babylon.

Thus, we find that Iraq simply fails the scriptural test to be “mystery” Babylon of prophecy, for this theory contradicts Messianic prophecies. The “mystery” Babylon cannot be Iraq and ancient Babylon.