Yes...but! November 1 2003

November 1 2003

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Bush, Boykin, Babylon and the Bible make an interesting combination. You know Bush, of course. More about him later. Boykin is not quite a household name, at least in Canada. A three star general in the American army, highly decorated, former commander of the mysterious Delta force, he now serves as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, and is in charge at the Pentagon of finding Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. This fighter man is also a soldier for his heavenly Lord. He’s been making the rounds at different church meetings and prayer groups in Southern USA, where he tells the faithful that terrorism is a conflict in which the real enemy is a guy named Satan, most perfectly represented in those two fellows, Saddam and bin Laden. America, he says, embodies the real God fighting a false idol. Sounds to me like the Crusades all over again, setting us back a thousand years.

And Babylon? It is named in the Bible about 300 times, always in a bad sense. Babylon also occupies a prominent place in a series of books, known as the ‘Left Behind’ volumes, of which fifty five million copies have been sold, not counting its newest, number 11, Armageddon, The Cosmic Battle of the Ages, which has just appeared in print. “Rapture” is the key theme here, a teaching I detest as no other. For the uninitiated, it signifies the moment when ‘true’ Christian believers will be taken up, or ‘raptured, ’ into heaven, while the godless are ‘left behind’ on this wicked earth. The implication of a wicked earth is that God failed when he created the world, so polluting it actually is a good thing. After all, heaven is the goal.

In these books a Nicolae Carpathia, heading the United Nations, is seen as the Antichrist. One of the conditions upon which this Mr Carpathia accepted his appointment as Secretary general of the U.N. was to disarm the world, move to one world currency and world government under the U.N., and relocate its headquarters to Iraq, where Babylon, in Iraq, is to be rebuilt. The authors of these books, Rev. Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, base all this on their reading of Revelation, the last and most apocalyptic book of the Bible. They write that a rebuilt Babylon will be a great city in the end times, serving as the commercial and religious capital for Antichrist. Their interpretation also indicates that, like Sodom and Gomorrah, Babylon will be destroyed in the ultimate Holy War, hence the title: Armageddon, the cosmic battle of all ages.

Back to Bush who wants to be re-elected. Of course. For this he needs the Christian Right, which composes 40 percent of the Republican Party, and is its best organized segment. By invading Iraq he not only played in the hands of the ‘Armageddon’ crowd. but also found favor with his rich backers. It is no coincidence that Babylon is surrounded by about 75 percent of the world's proven oil reserves (Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iran). With Saddam's removal, the Iraqi oil can begin to flow at full capacity, and Iraq will become a very wealthy nation.

These, so popular books, written ‘entirely based on the Bible’ - in their view - also feature the Euphrates, a river frequently mentioned in the book of Revelation. There the Bible text states that four fallen angels are being held at the Euphrates river awaiting the appointed time for them to lead forth a host of demons to destroy one-third of the world’s peoples. The “Left Behind’ authors and their supporters believe that something important and evil is occurring there in the end times.

So with Iraq- Babylon - and the Euphrates river daily on the front page in this holy war General Boykin tells his followers that God wanted Bush as president as this time.

These Fundamentalist Christians are convinced that, with events now taking place in the Middle East and centering around Babylon, the stage is being set for the armies of the Antichrist to reach Israel, and wage the final battle against Christ. Another reason why the current administration is so pro-Israel.

The “Left Behind” books, together with the study guides and childrens’ versions have a tremendous popular impact. Bush’s reluctance to call on the United Nations can be explained here, because he doesn’t want to be seen aiding the Antichrist. For these people, even adhering to International Law is frowned upon: it translates into submission to the Antichrist.

Bush, Boykin, Babylon and the Bible. A dangerous mix when the Bible is interpreted as a book of history, past or present or an indicator for the future. The Bible is none of that. In essence it is a book of love: love for all creatures, and love for creation, humanity’s permanent home, never to be abandoned in favor of a fictitious heaven.