I have never been big on this sort of thing in the past, but have started to realise how serious the global situation is and couldn't help running into too many scriptural parallels. I'm certainly not out trying to distort scripture to fit with the present day. However I think it is prudent to watch the signs, and when they become rather obvious to act. And I think that is starting to happen. Obviously, many past generations have thought this was happening in their day, and the probability is that I'm just as wrong as they were. However it is still prudent to act. Had I been in Germany in the 1930's, saw Hitler and thought "he's the beast", and fled Germany to avoid him, I would have been wrong about the prophecy but still very glad I had fled. So in that spirit, cautiously having a bit of a look to see whether things do line up or not:
I don't pay too much attention to claimed modern prophets, but do pay attention to the scripture lining up with current events. Economic crashes are happening on a regular 7 year cycle, in September. Global financial crash in 2008, stock market crash in 2001, minor blip in 1994, Black Monday in 1987, the pattern continues further back... It just so happens that these crashes occur at the exact end of the seventh Hebrew Sabbatical year, the time for remission of all debts. Sometimes the crash is down to the day. This 7-year cycle is well known by secular economists also, but hasn't been linked by them to the Sabbatical year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5M7NngNW70
What is even more interesting is that if the Sabbatical pattern is repeating, the year of Jubilee, when land is returned, may be also. The Jews were given Israel in 1918 - the year after the previous Sabbatical year. If this was the year of jubilee, the Jews took Jerusalem in the 6-day-war exactly 49 years later in 1967, the next year of Jubilee. The third year of Jubilee will start this September, will Israel be involved in another conflict that returns them to more of their inheritence, maybe the Temple Mount, over the next year? Looking at the state of the Middle East that is entirely plausible, and would set the stage for the rebuilding of the Temple and further prophetic fulfilment.
What is really fascinating about the economic pattern is that the crashes are getting worse. We're due for the next crash, if the pattern repeats, this September. And the rumours are currently about the bonds market crashing - in other words, government debts. We've had the stock market crash in 2001, financial institutions picked up the slack. We had the financial institutions crash in 2008, governments took on their debt. If we have another crash, it will be governments defaulting on their debt. And that would likely cause a complete global shakeup. The US dollar is the reserve currency of the world. If America defaults, the dollar will be abandoned. This is inevitable at some point, mathematically. It will be replaced by something else, probably a new invented global fiat currency.
Other countries are already moving away from the US dollar, particularly China and the countries it has very large transactions with such as Russia. A new international financial institution has just been set up, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, led by China and including most of the major countries in the world - except the USA who deliberately kept out of it. If the dollar falls, it wouldn't take much for this alliance to come up with a new global currency, either completely new or based on the Chinese yuan. And if the dollar falls, the USA will be economically destroyed, and such a major economic crash would inevitably lead to conflict, either internal, external, or more likely both.
Remember Babylon and the Beast are two separate things. I am not suggesting the USA is the beast. In Rev 17 we see that Babylon is associated with the beast, but the 10 horns / leaders who give their power to the beast hate Babylon. In my reading, the beast turns on Babylon and destroys it.
Not ancient Babylon - it's not a seaport, certainly doesn't rule over the nations of the earth, would take a massive global change to do so. Anything is possible in the distant future, but the distant future is not something for us to bother with considering today.
Not China - Babylon seems to have once been a religious, Godly city / nation that turned against "it's inheritance", opposite of China. But China may have something to do with the beast.
Not Rome - the "seven hills" in the original are actually "seven mountains / continents", which doesn't fit Rome, a different word was commonly used for Rome's hills.
From my reading of scripture and current events, I can see the following plausible next events. I am not prophecying this, just joining the dots into a plausible scenario. I'm not citing sources, this is my off-the-top-of-my-head summary of loads of stuff plus my musings:
September this year, international US dollar bond market crashes. Dollar abandoned as global reserve currency progressively over next year or so. Major international resentment towards the USA because so many countries had their national reserves in US bonds, which the USA has defaulted on, wiping out the national reserves of much of the world. Economic crash = internal hardship, rioting, internal conflict. Obama "just happens" to already have loads of troops actively exercising in the major problem states (operation Jade Helm), and these are used to quell the riots. Moves towards civil war, American troops withdrawn from overseas to fight internally. Abandoning Israel.
Arab nations unite and march on Israel while America is busy. Israel wins the war, takes the temple mount. Dome of the rock "accidentally" blown up in the conflict, temple rebuild begins.
Alternative global reserve currency leads to a global financial institution or nation with control over every nation. Founded by 10 principal leaders who give their power to it. This is, or is led by, the beast. This control is accepted peacefully, as a good thing. But the authority creeps. Global reserve bank leads to a global retail bank, which issues accounts to individuals, but rather than sending out new contactless cards they use the same technology as implanted contactless microchips for "security" reasons.
The Beast / China / Russia etc realise the USA is still dangerous because with the regular troops busy the only way it can influence global events is through its nuclear capability. Belligerent US leader actually threatens this over something. Beast launches pre-emptive nuclear strike to wipe out the American nuclear threat and ensure global security = final destruction of Babylon.
Now, none of that might happen. But, it's horribly plausible...
