Mystery Babylon and the doom of her New World Order

By William Mencarrow

“And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.” — Rev. 6:12. 

In Rev. 16:12 the Apostle John uses the Euphrates River symbolically. He writes that the Euphrates River is “dried up.” Since so much of Revelation is symbolism based upon history, past and future, what does “the great river Euphrates” symbolize? 

The answer is found by asking another question: What did the historic Euphrates River as described in the Old Testament do for the historic Babylon? The answer is that the Euphrates River was Babylon’s sustenance, the source of life. It gave the people fresh water to drink. It provided fresh water for the livestock. It watered the most fertile cultivated farmland in the world, which produced the crops that fed the livestock and fed the people.

The Euphrates River was Babylon’s source of life.

In B.C. 538 the army of the Medes and Persians commanded by Cyrus was encamped around Babylon trying to breach her walls. So proudly confident were the Babylonians in their fortress city that on this night (no doubt no different than any other night) her king and subjects were drunk. They dismissed Cyrus and his army as no threat at all, no different than other armies who had tried and failed to conquer Babylon. Babylon’s walls were made of solid rock 320 feet high and 80 feet thick! Nothing had ever been invented that could scale or break through those walls. And no army could sustain a siege that could starve Babylon, because of her abundance of food and water, thanks to the Euphrates River running right through it, guarded by impenetrable gates sunk deep into the mud. Everyone in the world knew that Babylon was unconquerable. No doubt the Babylonians thought, “let Cyrus and his army wear themselves out trying – the fools!”

Everyone in the world believed that Babylon was unconquerable – except Cyrus. On the very night that Daniel wrote about in Daniel chapter 5, Cyrus decided to withdraw his troops from around the walls of Babylon and station them a few miles away. Why? Because he had a brilliant idea that no one had ever thought of before, including the Babylonians. He knew that the Euphrates River, which went under the walls of Babylon on one side and out the other, was the lifeblood of the city. It watered the crops, the animals, and the people. Without it Babylon would dry up and starve to death. 

So Cyrus put his army to work; not on trying to breach the walls, as the Babylonians expected, and many other armies had tried, but on diverting the river out of its bed and into an old dry riverbed that went, not into Babylon, but around it.  By doing this, the level of the Euphrates River, which ran through the center of Babylon, gradually decreased. But it was so slow that few noticed! Eventually, one night, at the height of Belshazzar’s drunken feast as recorded by Daniel in chapter 5, the water level was low enough for Cyrus’ men to quietly dig through the mud around the bottom of the gates and open them. Then they poured into Babylon, killed the king (“In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.” – Dan. 5:30), and conquered the city.

The Lord had foretold what would happen concerning Babylon and the Euphrates River. To Babylon He wrote “I will dry up thy rivers.” – Isa. 44:27. He said of Cyrus, “I will…open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut.” – Isa. 45:1. This was written over 150 years before Cyrus conquered Babylon! The Lord told Isaiah exactly how Cyrus would conquer Babylon – over 150 years before it happened. And He even instructed Isaiah to record Cyrus’s very name over 150 years before he was born! He called Cyrus “my shepherd” and “anointed” (Isa. 44:28; 45:1).

It is also recorded in secular history that Cyrus and his army dried up the Euphrates River in order to conquer Babylon.  When Cyrus conquered Babylon, he freed the Jews – just as the Lord had promised, recorded many years before in the Bible. When Cyrus conquered Babylon he issued a decree to let them leave.

In the British Museum you can view the sixth century B.C. Cyrus Cylinder. It was discovered by archaeologists in 1879 in the ruins of Babylon. It describes how Cyrus conquered Babylon. It is an ancient secular document that recorded what the Bible says about the destruction of the Babylonian empire and the Jews’ return to Palestine from their Babylonian captivity. 

Just as the literal Euphrates River watered the literal Babylon, the symbolic Euphrates River of Revelation waters spiritual Babylon, the papacy. It is its vital sustenance. And the Lord is telling us in Rev. 16:12 that He will dry up that source of life, and thus spiritual Babylon will dry up and die. Spiritual Babylon’s life support is dried up to prepare the way for the “kings of the east,” to deliver God’s people.

The majority of historic Protestant commentators (even most of the proto-Reformers, those who wrote decades before the Reformation) believed that the spiritual Babylon of the New Testament represents the papacy.

What is the symbolic Euphrates River in the book of Revelation that is the source of life for the spiritual Babylon in the New Testament? Again, to find the answer we must ask another question: historically, from where does the papacy derive its power? One source is its vast wealth. Another is its control of its people, mentally and often physically. Another is its political power, which once controlled almost all of Europe and is today much more influential than most people recognize – which makes it all the more effective. The 1599 Geneva Bible says that the water of the Euphrates in Rev. 16:13 refers to “the strength of Babylon…the riches, strength, pleasures and commodities of Rome, the second Babylon.”

Do not think that the pope is just a feel-good spiritual leader, someone world leaders occasionally fly in to visit for a grinning photo. The pope is a key player in global politics, although he hides behind the curtain. Yet he has tremendous power over the nations. Think about this: How many religions have ambassadors in almost every nation on earth and representatives in intergovernmental agencies? The answer, of course, is none, except Roman Catholicism. As of this writing (2024), the Vatican has diplomatic relations with 182 of the 195 countries in the world.

Ask yourself:  Why?
Occasionally the curtain is pulled back a bit and the world is shocked to see the power of the papacy. One example is when the world learned of Pope John Paul’s II orchestration of the Solidarity strike in Poland which, among many other influences, lead to the re-alignment of communism around the world (it was the fall of the Soviet Union, but not the fall of communism; just the Soviet version).

“…and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.”

We have seen that the Old Testament “kings of the east” at least in part refers to Cyrus. What do the “kings of the east” who deliver God’s people in Rev. 16 represent in predictive prophesy? Rev. 1:4-6: “John to the seven Churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”

I Pet. 2:9 says, speaking of the elect in Christ, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood.” Who are the “kings and priests unto God and his Father” (Rev. 1:6)? Believer, you are! The body of Christ, the elect, are the kings and priests of Christ; those who have remained true to the faith once delivered unto the saints,  Jude 1:3, those who have not bowed the knee to false Gospels.

Many believe Rev. 16:12 has a further meaning that encompasses Islam as well. The Calvinist Dutch Bible (Statenvertaling) of 1637, in a comment translated by Dr. Francis Nigel Lee: “Some here (in this verse) understand the thus-named actual River Euphrates, on both sides of which the Turks and Persians and similar nations of the East have their territory…would still unite with one another in a Pan-Islamic Jihad or holy war apparently against the West.”

The Euphrates today runs through Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Iraq, all of which are overwhelmingly Islamic nations. 

Remember, this comment from the Statenvertaling was written in 1637! It could be in today’s headlines. Applying this verse also to Islam, as does the Statenvertaling, does not take anything away from the understanding of the verse as also applying to Rome. It likely also applies to Islam, prophesying an unholy alliance of Rome and Islam, with the humanist secular powers, against all of Christ’s elect.

Now you may be thinking, “the Vatican and Islam joining together? That’s ridiculous!” I agreed, until I studied these verses. But please do not take my word for it. Just look up “vatican islam” on the internet.
Please consider these articles published by the Berean Beacon.

Pope Francis Courts Islam to Oppose Christ’s Gospel
Pope Francis Covers Up His Promotion of Islam
Islamic Ecumenism Deceives and Attacks Christians
The Papacy and Islam

Reuters reported that Islamic religious leaders representing Sunni, Shi’ite, Sufi and other branches of Islam met with the pope. It was billed as the first of many annual meetings of a new “Catholic-Muslim Forum,” the goal of which is eventual union with Rome. This conclave with the pope followed a meeting of Islamic leaders with the leaders of the mainline U.S. Protestant denominations and Anglicans to discuss issues involving eventual unification. At the same time the king of Saudi Arabia visited the United Nations to promote a parallel “interfaith dialogue” for the express purpose of the unification of all world religions. This is happening, just as the Bible says it will – and it is happening before our eyes.

The Best News!
One-world government, one-world economy, and one-world religion, is not a possibility – it is a certainty. This is the best news you could hear. Why? Because the Bible tells us that these are signs of Christ’s coming at the Last Day. Not that He will return when these things happen, but that they must happen, then quickly fall apart, then most of the people of the world will be converted to Christianity, and then He will return to usher in the Last Day. These things must come to pass to prepare the way for the kings of the East, God’s people, elect Jews and Gentiles, who will flood the world with the proclamation of the Gospel and the Christianization of all nations – including the conversion to saving faith in Christ of many in the Islamic nations, many apostate Protestants, and many pagans, atheists, and Jews — this will all be what the Lord calls the “fulness of the Gentiles”: “that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” – Rom. 11:25.

I believe Scripture teaches that one civil government and one anti-Christian religion for the whole world is the short-term future. I also believe Scripture teaches that this global monstrosity will dry up and die, and then God’s people will bring the Gospel to all nations, making Christ’s enemies His footstool, and all nations will respond and become Christian, that is, Biblically faithful (not that every person in the world will sincerely confess saving faith in Christ, of course.) This is what is meant in Heb. 10:12-13, which speaks of Christ: “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.” I Cor. 15:24: “when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.” I Cor. 15:28: “when all things shall be subdued unto him.”

How will this be accomplished? It may very well be that the Lord will  ordain one-world government that the globalists, spiritual Babylon, will build. But this will not last long. It will dry up and die. Then Christ’s people will seize the structure and use it to God’s glory. What we see now, the beginnings of one-world government, may very well be the structure that the Lord has ordained, once He has willed it,  for bringing the nations into His will.

All these demonic things — socialism, communism and fascism – and the results of them, which is loss of liberty, persecution of Christians and all the rest that comes with global government, including one demonic religion for the entire world, will come to pass. But the end is not yet. Anti-Christian globalism is doomed; Christian globalism will take its place. The Lord is building it even now. He has given His enemies a strong delusion (Ex. 10:20; II Thes. 2:11; cf. I Kg. 22:22; Rom. 1:28; I Tim. 4:1), and He has ordained that they create the very structure that His children will take over and use for the global proclamation of the Gospel which will bring all the nations to Christ.

Let me repeat that: The Lord has given His enemies a strong delusion, and He has ordained that they create the very structure that His children will take over and use for the global proclamation of the Gospel which will bring all the nations to Christ. Christian, do not despair when you see the advances of the globalists. Instead, rejoice! The globalists are the unwitting servants of the Lord. They are building the machinery we will use to globalize the Kingdom of God.