Pop-Up Ad about the end of the World

[Skeptic]

One of those annoying "media" ads.

Against a background of two minarets, the ad says as follows (capitals in the original):

Peace In Iraq: BABYLON REBUILT?

Is this a sign of END TIMES?

Find out from Tim LaHaye and other end times scholars.

Subscribe to the left behind prophecy club.

I'm not making this up, I swear.

(rant mode)

Hey, Mr. LaHaye: if this is the "end times" and the world is going to end in Armageddon... WHAT THE HELL DO YOU NEED MY MONEY FOR?! To buy WHAT, exactly?!? Wrath-of-God-proof bomb shelters?!? Shouldn't you be giving all this info out for free in the first place???

(/rant mode)

There is a famous cartoon from the "dot-com" heyday, showing a prophet walking with a sign: "Visit www.theendisnear.com". Life is imitating art yet again, apparently...

[Gem]

Yeah, everyone is going nuts of the War on Iraq these days, even if it's over already (or at least the major fighting).

Was it proven that Baghdad is Babylon?

Gem

P.S.: He wants money for the after life skeptic, like the Egyptian pharaohs did.;)

[aerocontrols]

Originally posted by Gem
Yeah, everyone is going nuts of the War on Iraq these days, even if it's over already (or at least the major fighting).

Was it proven that Baghdad is Babylon?



No, Babylon is approx. 50 miles from Baghdad. LaHaye knows this, of course. He's speculating that it may be rebuilt, although I understand Saddam had already done quite a bit of reconstruction there.

I feel like I should add that I read the first book of the Left Behind series. It's interesting being inside the mind of an atheist, as written by Mr. LaHaye and (checks shelf) Jenkins.

[Brown]

It is also worth noting that whoever wrote the book of Revelation was almost certainly not talking about Babylon, but Rome. There are dozens of hints to that effect. (A good layperson's discussion of this point appears in Isaac Asimov's Bible commentaries.)

Perhaps the most overt hint is that the whore of Babylon sits on "seven mountains," as Rome does. (Rev. 17:9)

This sort of disguised reference to Rome is perhaps understandable, since direct criticism of Rome was, at that time, a punishable offense.

[Frostbite]

Heh, everything in the news for the last 25 years have been signs of the End of Time for some people.

[hgc]

Revelation is a better source even than Nostrodamus for material to fit to a post hoc reading of "signs."

Brown:

It is also worth noting that whoever wrote the book of Revelation was almost certainly not talking about Babylon, but Rome. There are dozens of hints to that effect. (A good layperson's discussion of this point appears in Isaac Asimov's Bible commentaries.)

Perhaps the most overt hint is that the whore of Babylon sits on "seven mountains," as Rome does. (Rev. 17:9)

This sort of disguised reference to Rome is perhaps understandable, since direct criticism of Rome was, at that time, a punishable offense.
Are you kidding, Brown. For just this once, the literal reading is going to suffice. None of your apostate interpretation required.