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Revelation 18

Summary

God's Revelation of Jesus Christ communicates literal truths about future events, even when employing symbolic language, and is intended to be understood plainly rather than through speculative interpretations. Many distort the prophetic meaning by imposing their own frameworks, but believers are called to approach scripture with a commitment to its intended communication. This understanding reveals specific future developments, such as the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem and the rise of a literal Babylon, which will shape the world according to God's sovereign plan.

Transcript

0:00All right. Good evening. I am probably going to take me a moment to get this thing turned on. I'm actually going to try to run this from my computer tonight. Look familiar? Yes. Let me see if this is working. It is working. Okay, well I want to take the evening to speculate on Revelation. We've gone through interpretations of Revelation, proclamations of Revelation, and it's already late, isn't it? Looked at revelations on Revelation. We've looked at a number of things. And I think there is a legitimate place to make some speculations on Revelation. And I just spent the last week at the Evangelical Theological Society. It's something that met in San Antonio this week. And it's basically where the larger body of evangelicalism, and I mean broad brush evangelicalism, anything that can really be categorized As evangelical, and many should not be, are there presenting papers. So there's, I don't know, some thousand different papers being presented, and it's really a time where the dialogue on theological issues that are facing the evangelical church are discussed and presented, and it's largely scholarly, so it's largely academia that is putting this on and presenting. So it was interesting for me to note how much interest there is in Revelation. And so I went to a lot of the different Revelation series, and it was also not surprising just how wildly different the interpretations were. And so I want to share a couple thoughts as we go through. I may reference that time, but as we look, you start seeing, okay, we've walked through Revelation, been in it a couple of years, and as you know, I have taken a futuristic standpoint. Largely, what I see in Revelation is futuristic. I have taken more of a literal approach. That is, that the symbolism in Revelation is speaking to a literal truth, though it is.

3:00The whole book is to be understood in a literal sense, but recognizing that symbolism is part of literal speech. So there's lots of symbolism, but behind that symbolic language, there is a meaning that the divine author is communicating. And so, yes, there's symbolism, but it is there to convey a meaning. You've heard me say before: I'm not pulling your leg. I'm not pulling your leg. That is symbolic language that is communicating a truth. I'm not bamboozling you. I'm not lying to you. And so that's a part of everyday speech. And so I just want to, I'll get to making some observations about certain categories of interpretations that, because I've adopted a literalistic, futuristic standpoint, that it rules out certain elements or certain possibilities. But the first possibility that we really need to deal with is the University of Texas.

4:23When you come to the harlot sitting on the beast, Is it possible that what is being spoken of there as the University of Texas is the harlot on the beast? I mean, you know. And as you keep reading, you start noticing some details, like this beast that comes out of the scene, it has two horns. You know anybody else who has two horns? Bebo. Huh? And if this woman on the beast is the University of Texas, what does that make the beast?

5:11What holds her up? Austin! Thank you! She rides the beast. She is dependent upon Austin to support her. And ultimately, we know what's going to happen. Austin's going to turn on her, destroy her, and confiscate her property and use it for. Of course, that's silly. But take it for a moment. When you make an assumption and then you apply a symbolic hermeneutic, you can start arguing just about for anything. And that's what many, many do when they approach. Sounds absurd. What I just said sounds absurd. But that is really the hermeneutic of the. Vast majority of approaches to Revelation. In fact, this last week I heard one. And this is just an example. This is scholarly. This is one of our academic experts. Scholarly puts out this paper. And he's done some archaeological research about the seven churches of Revelation, and he has discovered that there is a theater in each one of them.

6:33And so then he makes this conclusion: the language of Revelation is all about the theater. I kid you not. It's about the theater. Then his thesis was: if you put the book of Revelation in the context of the theater, it makes a whole lot of sense. And he goes on, and I listened to his case for the whole presentation. It was lengthy, and by the time he had exhausted all the oxygen in the room, there was no time for questions. Which I wanted to ask him a question. I wanted to say, sir, did you, in your research, consider the thought that perhaps the majority of the churches at Asia Minor didn't go to the theater?

7:26That they were a society that was made very well. Have been removed from that whole scene? I didn't get asked that question because there was no time. But he goes on to just elaborate one after the hallelujah choruses, the music. It's a big masquerade. There's all these costumes coming in and out and changes of scene. It's just one big thing, just one big epic drama of good versus evil. And here's the point that I want to say: that if you start with an assumption, that this is the framework, and then you adopt a symbolic hermeneutic, then all of a sudden you become the authority and you can twist and turn and pull and shoehorn the meaning of revelation into whatever paradigm you want.

8:19But then you really don't have revelation. It would be a better book called Speculation. And so, but God has revealed. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is about Him, it is by Him, and it is intended to communicate. And so, I think the only way we get there is by that the words have meaning, intended to, even if they're using symbolic language, they are pointing to a reality. And so, what I encourage you with is that whenever you're approaching the scripture, that it is intended to communicate a meaning to us. us and that we are to approach it so that we come under that meaning and understand it so that we can be shaped by it and informed by it and that it can have its work in our life so I want to lay out for you then it's easy enough as I said this morning it's easy to look at a system including my own and it's relatively easy to start picking out the difficulties the incongruities and certainly those who adopt a symbolic hermeneutic it's very easy to go through and point out incongruities gross interpretations gross exaggerations and but it's a little more challenging to then say okay well then based upon your futuristic viewpoint what are some specific what is something that we can expect in the future what does it look like as the world moves toward these future events what are some things that we can be looking for and I'll say up front I don't know what what all I don't know all the specifics but I can give some generalities that will put you in a framework you know aren't those things called tractor beams you know where Spaceship has a tractor beam and then you get sucked up in it. Well, there are certain things like you can think about based upon a futuristic understanding that gravitates to the plain meaning and a literal understanding behind the symbolism. Then it's going to put you in a category and put you on a trajectory or a spectrum of things which you would expect in the future, including locations. And so I want to talk to you about some of those, make some of those speculations tonight.

11:08One of the there are several candidates out there as to where is Babylon the Great. I think some of the ones when you get out of the absurd, like Austin and you get out of the absurd, I believe, well, maybe it's not absurd, but I think it's absurd. America, there are many who would take that. But it's more speculation. In fact, I heard another one this week. It was about, well, you know what Babylon is? It's the systemic racism in the United States. And then all of a sudden, you can go through this whole thing. Here it is. Boom, boom, boom, boom, interpreting.

11:56But I want to set out a case. That would fit in what I call this radius or tractor beam or whatever, a scope of a futuristic model. I believe that it's possible that Babylon could be Babylon. And let me explain why first, biblically, regardless of what's happening in the world, and just look biblically where I come up with this and why. And then you start making speculations: okay, well, our world today, our world, you know, what's it going to be like 100 years from now, or whatever. So, first of all, I'm going to run through these kind of quickly because I've shared some of these with you before, and I want to get to and hopefully leave time for some questions. Number one, the name Babylon is used. Babylon, ancient city on the Euphrates, on the east side of the Euphrates. It was a place of many waters, it was a place of commerce, and the word Babylon is used. So, Babylon certainly could be just a character, and I think that's more that's involved, character, but it doesn't leave out location, proximity. So, that's one reason that it's the word Babylon is used.

13:23Second, Nimrod's Babylon is where the city of man was started. If you look up there, There, you see the little dot. You see Basra, you see Kuwait, Basra, and then this place called Eridu, Sumeria. In fact, many, in fact, we had an archaeologist here that felt like that is where the Tower of Babel was originally built, and there is an archaeological site there. Ur of the Chaldeans is just a couple of, just a few miles, 20 miles or so, or a little more maybe, just north of Eridu. That's where Abram was called out of. So that's Babylonia. That's ancient Babylonia. Eridu is, as I said, the earliest city in Mesopotamia, and perhaps the world, at least that's their claim. So if you go and you research this place, there is Eridu. They call it the earliest city in the world, Mesopotamia. There are bricks that were fired, that were built. If you remember, the archaeologists that came here suggested that these possibly could be at the time of Babel.

14:43This is what Erdu looks like, just as a tell. And this is what some artists think it could have looked like when you base it in a ziggurat, right there in the middle. Tower. And as you know, God confused the language, broke up the city, and there they were scattered. And Ziggurats all of a sudden showed up in various parts of the world. You can make a whole study of that and see the dispersion and see the ziggurats. Pyramids being one example of it. They're in the Americas, they're in the East, they're all over.

15:25Number third reason, I think that it's possible that Babylon could be Babylon, certainly or in Babylonia, near somewhere in that region. Babylon's destruction in history does not fully fit the prophetic descriptions, either in Isaiah or Jeremiah. Some elements, yes, I could see that that could be fit historically when Babylon was destroyed, but some of them, as you look closely in what Isaiah and both Jeremiah say, you come away with, no, this could not have been fulfilled when Babylon was captured by the Medes and Persians. Listen to Isaiah 13:19. And Babylon, the beauty of the kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans' pride, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

16:26It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation. Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there, nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there. It will be like when Sodom and Gomorrah was overthrown. And if any of you, some of you in this room, have been to Sodom and Gomorrah, and it is a pile of heap of rubble, burn layer, it is not inhabited. That didn't happen to Babylon. If you'll remember historically what happened, the Medes and Persians came in, they dammed up the water, came in, and just took control of the city. Remember Belshazzar handwriting on the wall that night. And it's been inhabited. Yeah, it went through some really deserted times, for sure.

17:20But it has been inhabited. It was inhabited then, and it continues to be inhabited now. Many of you guys have been over there with many of the military involvement over there. Listen to, oh, and by the way, I'll just say this in Isaiah 13, 6, that the judgment on Babylon is in the context of the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord that is near. It'll come as destruction from the Almighty. In Isaiah 13, 9, Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel with fury and burning anger, to make the land a desolation, and he will exterminate. Sinners from it.

18:03For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light. The sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shed its light. These are things that haven't happened. And these are things that take place with the day of the Lord. Jeremiah, listen to what Jeremiah as he talks about Babylon's downfall, 51, 24. But I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for their evil that they have done in Zion before your eyes, declares the Lord. Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, who destroys the whole earth, declares the Lord. And I will stretch out my hand against you and roll you down from the crags, and I will make you a burnt out mountain. Speaking of nations, they will not take from you even a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations, but you will be desolate forever. That's not the case today, or in history.

19:14You remember Jeremiah as he's finishing the book. He says, Jeremiah said to Sariah, as soon as you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words. So he was to take the message to Babylon and read Jeremiah's words. And say, You, O Lord, have promised concerning this place to cut it off, so that there will be nothing dwelling in it, whether man or beast, but it will be a perpetual desolation. And as soon as you finish reading the scroll, you will tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates, and say, Just so shall Babylon sink and not rise again, because the calamity that I am going to bring upon her, and they will become exhausted. Those are the ends of Jeremiah's words. In fact, we didn't get there in Revelation today, but that's exactly what the great angel is going to do. He's going to take a millstone and he's going to throw it into the sea. He goes, just as this is what's going to happen to Babylon, just like as a stone, it goes down and it's never to be seen again. These prophecies have not been fulfilled. And so there is coming a later, makes for a case for a later judgment on Babylon to come. So then, as I work through the process of elimination, just by some plain meaning, plain language in Revelation, number one, Babylon's destruction cannot, described in Revelation, cannot refer to Rome or to Jerusalem of the past. For instance, as we read today, the We didn't quite get there, but we will read next time. The sounds of music, industry, and weddings are still being heard in these cities today. Rome and Jerusalem. The sound of the bride, sound of music, it's still there. This is promised that will never be heard in Babylon again. Never light again in Babylon. And so it cannot refer to Rome of the past. It cannot refer to Jerusalem of the past. These things, the simple meaning is just not there.

21:36And so there are many other non-conformities with Revelation. So I do recognize that many of my friends see Rome as a possibility, and I, because the word mystery, Babylon the Great, I do recognize that there is language there that allows for a non-literal. I get that. But it would have to be a Rome or perhaps Roman entity of the future. But as we look today, there's also a very strong commercial trade. It's got a huge economic industry.

22:24The ships, the cargoes, it's on the sea. Rome never had a seaport. It may have controlled, had impact and control over the kings of the earth, at least in the West, but certainly. But another reason that I think Babylon could be Babylon, or certainly in proximity to ancient Babylonia, is the stone of Daniel 2 is referring to Christ's second advent. If you remember in Daniel chapter 2, in our revelations of Revelation, remember Nebuchadnezzar sees this statue, and the head of gold is Babylon. It's clearly, Daniel tells him, the head of gold is you. And then the silver, as you walk down it, it's the Medes and Persians. And then you have bronze, the Grecian Empire, the iron, you have the Roman Empire, and then all of that, you have on this feet, clay, this other entity that is tin, that has tin kings, and clay, and mixture of iron, and this whole structure is set there at the time that the stone comes. And how do I know that that's the second coming of Christ? Because it says very clearly: when that stone hits the feet, it will crush all of these others.

24:00So that not a trace of them is found. Listen, Iraq, ancient Babylon, Iran, ancient Persia, Afghanistan, ancient media, they're still with us. Rome, all the architecture, law, there's a trace of all of these around. And so it seems that this last empire is going to emerge. And it's going to have the components of all of these, a conglomerate. And at the head of it, at the top, is the gold head. So, possibility. Certainly, I think there's a connection.

24:40Number six, the Euphrates drying up is necessary for troop movement. You remember the Euphrates, when the bowl is poured out, it is dried up. Why is that a necessary place for troop movement? Apparently, there are massive, massive amounts of troops, and those that would oppose Israel. What a strategic place for those who want to push Israel into the sea to come together. It's a very strategic military place. And then, when the Euphrates is dried up, the movement of troops goes up the Euphrates into the land. Of Israel. So the drying up of the Euphrates is closely associated with the final Armageddon battle.

25:44And so it seems that the capital city, the Babylon the Great, could very well be in proximity to that. And I'm not being dogmatic about these. I'm speculating. I'm saying this is how, this is why I think we should keep our eyes, or just keep your eyes on what's happening in the Persian Gulf, and certainly what's happening in the area of ancient Babylon. This is where the whole city of man got started, and this may very well be where the city of man concludes.

26:24But Babylon is also the place where God promised to punish Baal. Bel, also known as Marduk in Babylon, Baal, Phoenician God, same entity. This is what Jeremiah 51:44 says, I will punish Baal in Babylon, and I will make what he has swallowed come out of his mouth, and the nations will no longer stream to him. There is an entity behind Babylon, behind the worldly system. And it's in Babylon that God has promised to punish Bel. And this is Revelation 18:24. It says, And in her, we didn't get this far this morning, but in her, in Babylon, was found the blood of the prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth, those who have been violently slain, violence, violence against God, violence against God's people. It's found in Babylon. It all didn't happen there.

27:41Clearly, there's been innocent blood shed all over the globe. So, how can a statement be made? In her was found the blood of all of these. Well, I think that in the same way that you'd say Bel will be punished in Babylon. There is an entity, a mindset, a spiritual antagonist against God who destroys. And that's where God's going to judge him. So, those are just a few of the reasons as I go through, and I could list many, many more, but I do think that it's very possible.

28:32That Babylon could simply be Babylon, a case for it. So, for that to be the case, then in that vein of thought, what are some necessary developments for a futuristic understanding of Revelation to be valid? What are we looking for? If, as I have studied and have presented to you a futuristic case, what are some developments that we should be mindful of or looking on the horizon that would bear these things out? Otherwise, and I just, in our time tonight, there's a couple of them. There's a temple in Jerusalem and the rise of Babylon the Great. These are two big ones, obviously. If there is no temple ever built in Jerusalem, then the futuristic, my understanding of Revelation is off.

29:32If Babylon, if there is no rise of Babylon the Great, a literal entity, capital city that somehow embodies the world's system and in some way exerts a profound influence over the whole earth and becomes an economic powerhouse, if that doesn't happen, then my understanding of Revelation. Revelation is off. But so these are the two big ones. And obviously, there's going, well, let's just look at the temple in Jerusalem. I'll just give you a couple of texts that just in Revelation 11:1, then there was given to me a measuring rod like a staff, and someone said, Get up and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship in it. And it goes on to leave out the courts. So there is in Revelation a reference to the temple of God. In 2 Thessalonians 2:3, Paul was telling the church, it was correcting their notion. Some people had been telling them the day of the Lord had happened. And he was saying, Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. The temple. It's there. Now, this last week, Nancy happened to be with me in one of these sessions, and a guy was talking about how off this futuristic view is that I'm advocating to you. Said, for instance, it supposes that there must be a temple during the tribulation time. And he went on to say, the problem with this is that there is no place for a temple under the new covenant.

31:54And he goes on to mock what I would teach you tonight. And Nancy was like, he's mocking you. He's mocking. He's really mocking. I said, yeah, get used to it. This is kind of. And his thinking is: look, it's all got a fit. God has to, there is no more salvific purpose. Why would God prescribe a temple? Well, God's not prescribing it. This is Judaism exerting itself, building a temple. And it's rabbinic Judaism, which is still separate from Christ, apostate. They have not accepted the Messiah. And a temple during this time will be another expression of that.

32:52But the fact that it is wanting to be built, and so much thought and energy has. Gone into it, it is worth thinking about that it is possible that temple plans may come to fruition, and they are underway, and they have been underway for a long, long time. And those of you who have been to Israel know what I'm talking about. But here's a video. Hopefully, the sound will come through that'll just give you a little bit of a glimpse of what I'm talking about.

33:35Oops. Is it going? I knew that would go to. Hold on. Try it again. I thought we had it all working a minute ago. Let me try it again. It's not coming on. John, you got any ideas? I did. Play, okay. I did. But it it um it usually was just working. Let me let me let me let me just bear with me. See if this will do it. There we go. The Temple Institute's YouTube channel features more than 1,000 original videos made and viewed more than 10 million times.

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37:14In the words of the prophet Isaiah, I will bring them to my holy mountain, and I will cause them to rejoice in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be lovingly accepted upon my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. It is our mission to bring the promise of the Holy Temple to the world and to bring the people of the world to the dream and to the reality of the building of the third holy temple. Visit the Temple Institute's website, follow the Temple Institute on Facebook, on Instagram, on Twitter, subscribe to the Temple Institute's weekly newsletter, continue to enjoy and learn from the Temple Institute's YouTube videos. And when you are in Jerusalem, join us in our Holy Temple Visitor Center in the heart of Jerusalem's old city, a heartbeat away from the Temple Mount, the place of the Holy Temple.

38:08So, many of the elements and tools, and even an altar ready for sacrifice, is kosher. It's ready, it's already built, it's ready to go at any time. And now, not saying that this is it. I mean, this thing could flip around another thousand years. But the desire, and as you heard in this video, the desire, there are those within Orthodox Judaism that see themselves as the ones who need to build the temple for the world. It is their commission. That element is strong. There is a strong desire. They're in the land they want to build.

39:00I would expect that they will succeed at some point, whether it's in my lifetime or sometime down the road. It seems to agree with a futuristic view of Revelation. We've got to talk about the rise of Babylon the Great and several things about Babylon the Great, just from our casual reading, just as you read, just today, you get a sense that it's a world leader with a lot of influence over the kings of the earth. It is an economic powerhouse, port city, large port city. And it's clear that it's got to be hostile to Israel and biblical Christianity. These are just some components that you would expect. And so I want to take a moment and talk about some of the Gulf states real quickly, some of the history and geography of the Gulf states.

40:11You want to know what the original railroad looked like? That's it. A bunch of camels going across. The Silk Road, I don't know how well you can see it up here, but the Silk Road was that commerce connecting point that would link China all the way to Europe. And notice it would go. Right through Baghdad. That's right where Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon is. And so that whole Silk Road, it was the Ishmaelites were good at trade. That's what they did, and they were good at it. That's the Silk Road. Study it in history. It's a place of commerce, original railroad. Then you have the Spice Route, which also involved a lot more seafaring vessels, but also camels and a combination of ship and camel railroad. And so it was a way for the goods from the east to make it into the west. And it's a spice route. When you think for just a moment about the population center of the world, it's the 1040 window. You've heard it. There is a graphic picture of it. And it's where two-thirds of the world's population is and growing. And so that's where your mass of humanity is. Look at how do you get goods, how do you get all the goods right now from Asia into Europe? Well, you have, well, there's Baghdad, or there's the Iraq area.

41:58I'm going to show you another place. There's another sea there that's where the Red Sea or the Suez Canal. You know, many of you may know right now that's probably the biggest more ships passing through that because through that canal that goes up through Egypt into the Mediterranean Sea, and that's how goods are moved from India, China, and through the Red Sea, through the Suez Canal, and up into Europe. A good rival to that would be in the Persian Gulf, there at Babylon or in the Gulf states, certainly.

42:45And so, let me share with you. So, here's a picture of the Persian Gulf, Kuwait City. You guys all remember Kuwait? Well, maybe not. I do. Remember the Iraqi invasion, and many of you spent some time over there liberating Kuwait. There's a whole listen, this whole area was desert. As you heard Eric speak last week, this whole area was pretty much desert until providentially the Lord just wanted to bring him back. Oil. And all of a sudden, this area became wealthy, exceedingly wealthy. And so they don't. Always get along, as you know, there's a lot of wealth, a lot of independent minds, and lots of desire to control that wealth. And so, but right there is Basra, that's where the Euphrates enters into the Persian Gulf. Now, just Saudi Prince says this. He said this recently in an economic summit: the new Europe is the Middle East.

44:01The coming Renaissance in the next 30 years will be in the Middle East. And those of you who are familiar with some of the things he's been trying to do, he's been trying to make, bring these states together. He's wanting to assert the Persian Gulf's dominance, the Middle East. They have the money. If they could get it together, the new Europe will be the Middle East. In fact, this is written in an article with October and the issue with Hamas going on with Israel right now that has delayed plans because you need a relatively peaceful region to be able to build things. You don't need to be at war. And so he's not excited about war. He wants peace in order to get on with the program.

44:56The Turkish president Erdogan. He says this: Turkey and Iraq future railway, he's building a railway in conjunction with Turkey, can be the new Silk Road. So, this is the rhetoric going on. This wants to create a new Silk Road. Let me show you what. And that Silk Road, that element is already in construction. This is what's so nice about being a civil engineer. If you understand, like, okay, these temple's got to be built. Guess what? There are plans, there's blueprints, there's a lot of planning up front. You should see this coming. Same way with something like this. If you're going to compete with the Suez Canal and you're going to become the new Silk Road and you're going to start wanting to move a lot of goods and services, guess what? There's some civil infrastructure that has to be built. And so, sure enough, it is. And so, this is a $17 billion rail project that's well underway and has been. And the idea is to link Basra to Turkey. Now, let me just, I'll just go ahead and play this video, and you can listen to it, and then we'll talk.

46:17Uh-oh, where's the sound? By categories, the development of a project will transform Iraq's economy and ageing truthfully. Network after decades of war and crisis, shortening a traffic line between Asia and Europe in a bid to buy on the Suez Canal. The project to link the Grand Fowl port, which is still under construction, was announced on Saturday at a conference to court Arab investment. I don't know if it was the daughter, but I see that. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia Asoudani said the development road project aimed to achieve a sustainable global economy. Iraq's government envisions high-speed trains moving goods and passengers, links to local industry hubs, and an energy component that could include oil and gas pipelines. Officials say the development road is based on something new, a period of relative stability since late last year that they hope can be maintained.

47:25Let's just stop. Maybe it ran out. Okay. Well, we'll go on anyway. Okay, so that's linking something. That's the infrastructure that's going to connect the port in Iraq to Turkey and basically through Turkey into Europe. And so they're the same rail network. But the portfolio is a very important thing. Is what is being constructed now. It is called this Al Fa Grand Port. It's a civil project of mass proportions. It's already been contracted out. It's a firm from Korea, and Daewoo got the contract. You can listen. So it's the language, you're going to have to read because it's in Korean, I believe.

48:34And so, but I just want you to, I may interrupt this, but I want you to get a sense for the scale of this project that's already underway. Sero penguin kokuna shabe, in a cur I push her mantle my soul. Hamano saddle, chuman deco creo napan. Te more will you hover, say to project I push a man to my soul, in a cross head, will you come in? I push your men far. So you have she said, Techoson, cooks come in curly, sad to choose all, to be chigo push and give my school, I push in the shit by the corner, chiokium dependence, I push upon Chants of Bagitawana Sheway, Harmon Poinsari, Chihu Ju da I push a ball, container coming away, some baggage of her sofi, Patano was pulling your way, Hayoko straightened up. In the princess of Uso and Tancho Bay, Choose Panchi Da Container Claim Kakawi, Cole I Chubayo Nari Kumbai Just a couple things on that.

52:24You notice the heart of the oceans, that statement there. Let me read to you. Something out of Ezekiel. Ezekiel 27. This is the judgment against Tyre. And Tyre, I didn't go into Tyre tonight, but they too were a port city that is very much filled with merchandise and trading. And this is how the oracle against them speaking against them says, you were filled and were very glorious in the heart of the seas. And this language, in the heart of the oceans, or in the heart of the seas, this was characteristic of Tyre and God overthrew them. And so what they're doing there is they want the commercial traffic, not to go through the Suez Canal, but to all go right there through Iraq. And if you were here this morning, you heard much about this port city, this Babylon the Great, that had ships and seagoers and a mass amount of wealth right in the heart of the world, commerce.

53:58So it's... I just set all that out there just for you to recognize that it's possible. It's possible that this could be the general. I'm not saying that that's it, but I am saying this is the kind of thing that you would expect to come on the horizon under a futuristic, this kind of thing in that kind of region. And yes, I recognize that there's language in the text that might allow for something else. But it seems to fit very nicely. So, those disclaimers, I don't want you to leave here saying, okay, he just predicted.

54:46But I'm speculating that this would fit within what I would expect, a futuristic view. But keep your eyes on Babylon. Babylon could be Babylon. The literal approach isn't to be mocked at at a minimum. It does have a case that honors the text. And so we're out of time.