About a year after the Iraq War began, an anonymous chain email circulated about out how "no other nation, except Israel, has more history and prophecy associated with it than Iraq."

There were these 19 examples given in the email showing Iraq's tremendous biblical significance:

1. The garden of Eden was in Iraq.

2. Mesopotamia, which is now Iraq, was the
cradle of civilization!

3. Noah built the ark in Iraq.

4. The Tower of Babel was in Iraq.

5. Abraham was from Ur, which is in
Southern Iraq!

6. Isaac's wife Rebekah is from Nahor,
which is in Iraq.

7. Jacob met Rachel in Iraq.

8. Jonah preached in Nineveh - which
is in Iraq.

9. Assyria, which is in Iraq, conquered
the ten tribes of Israel.

10. Amos cried out in Iraq!

11. Babylon, which is in Iraq, destroyed
Jerusalem.

12. Daniel was in the lion's den in Iraq!

13. The three Hebrew children were
in the fire in Iraq (Jesus had been in
Iraq also as the fourth person in
the fiery furnace!)

14. Belshazzar, the King of Babylon
saw the "writing on the wall" in Iraq.

15. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon,
carried the Jews captive into Iraq.

16. Ezekiel preached in Iraq.

17. The wise men were from Iraq.

18. Peter preached in Iraq.

19. The "Empire of Man"
described in Revelation is
called Babylon, which was a city in Iraq!

As the email pointed out, Iraq is second only to the nation of Israel in number of mentions in the Bible, referred to under the names of Babylon, Land of Shinar and Mesopotamia (which literally means "between two rivers"—specifically the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers).

The name Babylon, which originates from the Tower of Babel in Gen. 11, appears 160 times in the Book of Jeremiah alone.

What makes the current events in Iraq so fascinating is knowing how heavy Babylon plays into future Bible prophecy regarding the "end times" tribulation period and the rise of the Anti-Christ, whose world religious-political empire will be headquartered in Babylon.

Just the other week in his Sunday morning Bible study, my church's associate pastor, Alex Kurz, made reference to Babylon once again becoming a city of luxury and commercial traffic, as prophesied in Rev. 18.

"This is the economic Babylon," Kurz explained, quoting Rev. 18:2. "It's not the 'Great Whore' of Chapter 17. This is the city of commerce which is located in modern-day Iraq, which makes interesting all of this interest today in making Iraq a democracy.

"Think about what happened to Germany after World War II. It became an economic power in Europe. What happened to Japan after WW II? It became an economic power in the Asia-Pacific region. What might happen in modern day Iraq if it truly becomes a democracy?

"In fact, the purpose is to have a stable economic center in Iraq. Babylon is in Iraq. I'm not saying prophecy's being fulfilled—this all might fall apart and they'll have to start over years from now—but why the interest in Iraq? I just find it highly interesting."

Through New Testament accounts, we know Peter was in Babylon when he wrote I Peter and I Peter is a book aimed at Jewish believers living in the coming Tribulation. These scattered tribes will be found in Babylon, as Rev. 1 confirms. When Peter and James write to the scattered, they actually identify for the reader the areas involved.

The Book of Revelations instructs the scattered believers to get out of Babylon before the wrath falls. It provides the information for their escape from the horrific effects of the 70^th Week of Daniel, which begins with the Anti-Christ signing a covenant with Israel.

In his 1989 book, "A Dispensational Synopsis of the New Testament," Bible scholar Charles F. Baker writes of this time period, outlined in Revelations, "Another mighty angel shouts from heaven, 'Babylon the great has fallen.' God's people are warned to come out of her. The merchants, ship owners, and the rich lament for her when they see the smoke from her burning. This indicates that Babylon in this chapter (Rev. 18) is viewed more as a commercial center of world trade. The eternal doom of Babylon is announced as an angel takes up a stone like a mighty millstone and casts it into the sea, causing Babylon never to be seen again."

Specifically on Rev. 17, Baker writes, "Babylon is represented as a great prostitute riding on the back of the scarlet-colored Beast, namely, the Anti-Christ world ruler who has a mysterious name written on her forehead: 'MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.' She is the world apostate religious system, drunk with the blood of the martyrs, supported by the Beast during the first half of the Tribulation. Many details about the Beast and the woman will become clear when the fulfillment occurs. The Beast will turn on the woman and destroy her."

Obviously this is all amazing demonstration of God's way of having things come full circle, so to speak.

As Chicago-area preacher Don Cote, associated with my church, Shorewood Bible Church, Rolling Meadows, Ill., recently assessed, "Around the Babylonian vicinity there's a tripod area that was the very center of the Garden of Eden. Isn't it interesting that (the human race) is going back to that? Abraham and his family—his father, his grandfather—they came up out of Babylon."