The Saudis’ sweeping reforms
On March 20, 2018 President Trump met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House in Washington D.C. It is the first strip made by the Prince also known as “MBS” to the USA since becoming heir to the oil kingdom’s throne in June 2017. “MBS” is hoping to gain support for his plan to offer five percent of ARAMCO, the Saudi oil producer, to western investors as well as to make investments in software upstarts and media empires. This is a Saudi royal who sees no division between commerce and statecraft, between diplomacy and investment. For Americans, the three most important items on MBS’s agenda are Saudi Arabia’s internal reforms, its new evolving role in the war on terror from Yemen to Syria and its evolving relationship with Israel. The crown Prince has introduced sweeping reforms such as allowing women to drive and for other domestic reforms sweeping through the Saudi kingdom to the chagrin of the more fundamentalist Islamic regimes in the region especially Iran and Turkey that are totally committed to Sharia law and the teaching of the Koran.
In the ‘gun sights’ of radical Islam
Perhaps the most dramatic reform is the one that has received virtually no attention in America. The crown prince has led an effort to sweep out the Muslim Brotherhood from teaching and leadership positions in elementary, middle and high schools as well as colleges and universities. The Saudis know that Iran and possibly Turkey as well has the Saudi Kingdom in their ‘gun sights’ as it were. Underlining the willingness of the Saudis to negotiate in business and commerce with the west and compromise with radical Islam is their fear of being attacked by radical Islamic regimes in the region, hence the Saudi’s willingness to trade with America. Of course President Trump also appreciates the support of the Saudis in the ongoing war with Islamic terrorism, however, if America engages in a war with Turkey in Syria then it may not be able to come to the aid of Saudi Arabia.
The Muslim Brotherhood
Inside Saudi Arabia, the legacy intellectual and financial influence left by the Muslim Brotherhood is vast. It has shaped the thought of at least two generations of Saudis, and it counts many allies among the kingdom’s 15,000 princes and even more so among its 20,000 major clerics. It also has a literal army of armed supporters. MBS is kicking a dragon and he knows it. The stakes of his fight with the Brotherhood could not be higher. If MBS succeeds, Saudi Arabia returns to pre-1979 roots, with movie theatres, women in the workplace, and the marks of a modern developing country. If he fails, he will be killed by the Brotherhood and Saudi Arabia will become more repressive than ever. The global stakes of MBS’s internal fight with the Brotherhood are large, too. If the crown price wins, nearly all Saudi funding for violent Islamic radicals ends — and if he dies, it grows to new heights.
“Go up, Elam, lay siege, Media!”
According to the Word of God it would seem that Saudi Arabia will become ‘toast’ as it were and that at the hands of radical Islam, most probably by Iran. Mecca would also burn! The Kaaba housing the black stone would also be destroyed leaving the whole Muslim world in a vacuum, one that ultimately would be filled with the coming of the Mahdi. When you see how Turkey is developing and extending its power throughout the Middle east with the man from Turkey President Erdogan setting himself up to be the supreme Caliph of the Muslim world, one can well see him in line to be the promised Mahdi of Islam. Time will tell of course. There is a scripture in the book of the prophet Isaiah which speaks about the future destruction of ‘Babylon’ by ‘Persia.’ The scripture is not speaking about Ancient Babylon that was conquered by the Persians historically. The oracle given to Isaiah pertained to the future. Isaiah prophesied; “The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea. As windstorms in the Negev sweep on, It comes from the wilderness, from a terrifying land. A harsh vision has been shown to me; The treacherous one still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys. Go up, Elam, lay siege, Media; I have made an end of all the groaning she (Babylon) has caused.” (Isaiah 21:1-2)
“A year of recompense for the cause of Zion.”
Historically Babylon was never destroyed. Over the centuries it atrophied, Saddam Hussein tried to rebuild it but failed to do it. This prophecy in Isaiah is clearly set in the future and Elam is a reference to Iran. Media today would be the Kurds. ‘Babylon’ is going to burn. The oil streams under the deserts of Saudi Arabia (Edom) will burn. The following prophecy is part of the destruction of Edom; “For the LORD has a day of vengeance, A year of recompense for the cause of Zion. Its streams will be turned into pitch (oil), And its loose earth into brimstone, And its land will become burning pitch. It will not be quenched night or day; Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation it will be desolate; None will pass through it forever and ever.” (Isaiah 34:8-10)
The LORD’S Plan
This will be God’s vengeance on Islam (Babylon) for what they have done to His people both Jews and Christians and the bloodshed of innocent men, women and children. (Revelation17:6; 18:24) Just look at Islam’s ‘bloody’ history and this includes Saudi Arabia, the very heart of the Muslim world. Even today in Saudi Arabia Christians are still beheaded for their faith. The Bible also tells us that the destruction of Babylon is heard at the Red Sea; As Jeremiah prophesied; “Therefore hear the plan of the LORD which He has planned against Edom, and His purposes which He has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: surely they will drag them off, even the little ones of the flock; surely He will make their pasture desolate because of them. The earth has quaked at the noise of their downfall. There is an outcry! The noise of it has been heard at the Red Sea. Behold, He will mount up and swoop like an eagle and spread out His wings against Bozrah; and the hearts of the mighty men of Edom in that day will be like the heart of a woman in labour.”(Jeremiah 49:20-22)
Spiritual harlotry
Teman, Bozrah and Edom are all Islamic conclaves today. These references are specific in relation to naming Edom which not only includes Southern Jordan, the home of ‘Palestinian’ Arabs, but continues into Saudi Arabia. Teman is in Saudi Arabia. This ‘City’ of spiritual harlotry is not New York or Rome (although they exhibit the character and nature of Babylon’s opulence and hedonistic lifestyle), and neither are these two cities situated in a desert by the sea. Mystery Babylon is “a city in a desert by the sea.” Babylon in scripture can apply firstly to literal Babylon, secondly, it can also apply to ‘spiritual’ Babylon and thirdly apply to the spirit of the world which is in the character of Ancient Babylon and all three are applicable in scripture and co-equally valid interpretations of Biblical Babylon.
A City in a desert
However, scripture seems to indicate that it is a literal city in the last days that has yet to be destroyed and that by fire. Its destruction “is heard at the Red Sea” we are told. The City that would fit this description would be Mecca. The fundamental Islamic world sees Saudi Arabia as ‘the harlot of Islam’ especially Iran and Turkey and all fundamentalist Islamic nations. In the end America will not be able to ‘save’ Saudi Arabia from Iranian missiles. I am persuaded by scripture and by past history that most probably Mecca will burn at the hands of Iran and that God will have put in the hearts of the Islamic regime in Iran to destroy the harlot city of Mecca. “Mystery Babylon, the Mother of harlots” is “a city in a desert that sits on many waters”. It will be destroyed by fire. (Revelation 17:16-18) Its description in Revelation chapter eighteen fits the opulence and material wealth in Saudi Arabia today and the city of Mecca trades by sea. The “many waters” on which she sits are “peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages.” (Revelation 17:15)
Intoxicated with the ‘liquor’ of oil
This ‘City’ ‘intoxicates’ those leaders of nations who deal with it and the ‘wine’ would be the oil which nations ‘drink up until they are drunk’ as it were. This city is “the mother of harlots” because she is the source of all false religion. Mecca’s religious roots go all the way back to Nimrod and the Tower of Babel. Today in Mecca you have the huge clock tower overlooking the Kaaba and they call this monolithic structure “Mt Babel.” On its highest pinnacle is the crescent moon.
The ‘Warrior’ Messiah
Islam’s roots go way back further than Mohammad. In fact ‘Allah’ the moon-god of war appears in the Bible in the time of the judges. In Judges Chapter eight verse 21 (NASB) Gideon removes the crescent ornaments from around the necks of the Midianites camels after he had defeated the Midianites in battle. What Gideon did to the Midianites the Messiah will do to Islam when He comes back. Gideon is a type of the warrior Messiah we see depicted in Isaiah Chapter sixty-three and in Revelation Chapter Nineteen. This warrior Messiah of course is our Lord Jesus. So then Allah, the Mesopotamian moon-god of war was around even in the time of the judges. The crossed swords of Islam and also the symbol of the Muslim Brotherhood clearly show the true nature of Islam. Jeremiah the prophet said’ “We applied healing to Babylon but Babylon cannot be healed!”
“For the LORD has a day of vengeance!”
Like Kemal Atatürk did in Turkey the Saudi Prince may seek to turn the Saudi Kingdom into a secular democracy that compromises with the west and seeks to align itself with more lenient western values, attitudes and lifestyles. Kemal Atatürk’s reforms for a more democratic state has long since deteriorated and we now see immerging a fundamentalist Islamic regime under the command of ‘General’ Erdogan ‘hell-bent’ on reviving the despotism that marked the former Turkish Ottoman Empire. The Shah of Iran was ousted by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 and it follows suit that the government of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman may be literally destroyed by the same Radical Islam that has taken over Turkey and Iran. Time will tell of course in these matters but God remembers what Edom did to His people Israel. As the prophet Isaiah says; “For the LORD has a day of vengeance, A year of recompense for the cause of Zion.”
P.S. For further reading see the four part study series on our website titled “Fallen, Fallen is Babylon” Here is the link to the first study; https://blowthetrumpet.com.au/fallen-fallen-is-babylon-part-1/
