how suggestive if the character and purpose of human kingdoms it is, that the first king

was a rebel and the first kingdom began at Babylon! The line of Divine purpose was to

flow and develop through Shem, that is evident by a comparison of the generations given

in Gen. 10: and 11:  Nimrod was therefore the next great satanic attack upon that

purpose, and from its first mention in Genesis until its final mention in Revelation Babel

or Babylon has been the seat of all the rebellion and opposition to the Divine purpose.

Before we proceed to the more detailed account of the origin of the name Babel, as

given in chapter 11:, we will endeavour to show how the great rebel has been foisted upon

mankind in the endeavour of Satan to usurp the glory and the kingdom of the Son of God.

Bunsen states that the religious system of Egypt was derived from "the primitive empire

of Babel". Birch, dealing with the Babylonian cylinders, is quoted by Layard as saying,

"The zodiacal signs. . . . show unequivocally that the Greeks derived their notions and

arrangements of the zodiac (and consequently their mythology, that was intertwined with

it), from the Chaldees". Ouvaroff in his work on the Eleusinian mysteries states that

these mysteries were transplanted from Egypt, which in turn received them from the East,

"the centre of science and civilization". Not only did Egypt and Greece derive their

religion from Babylon, but so also did the Phoenicians, so Macrobius says in his

Saturnalia; and wherever man is found and religion is professed, beneath the superficial

differences of names and ritual lies the one great primitive lie originated at Babylon and

linked with Nimrod.

Egypt, under the titles Isis and Osiris; India under the titles Isi and Iswara; Asia as

Cybele and Deoius; Pagan Rome as Fortuna and Jupiter-puer (the boy Jupiter); Greece

as Ceres, the great Mother with the babe at her beast; China as Shing Moo with her child

in her arms; and Papal Rome as the Madonna and child, all these and many more are the

result of the original idolatry set up at Babylon to turn the minds of men away from the

first promise of the true Seed of the woman to Satan's counterfeit. The Babylonians

worshipped Semiramis under the name of the great Goddess Mother, and it was from her

son that she derived all the glory and claim to deity. By a strange process the husband of

Semiramis came to be worshipped as the seed (her son), and that son and husband was

NIMROD himself. Babylon, both in Old and New Testaments, stands forward as the

great symbol of Anti-God, even as Nimrod usurps all the titles and prerogatives of Christ.

(For fuller details as to these titles, the reader is referred to that master-work, The Two

Babylons by Hislop).

Let us now trace the story of Babylon, to see its place in the order of things. Babylon

does not come into the page of Scripture (after the two references of Gen. 10: and 11:)

until the time of Israel's deposition draws near. God's king, David, and God's city,

Jerusalem, had been chosen, but until David's greater Son should reign the purpose of

God must flow in other channels.  Universal sovereignty goes back by Divine

appointment to Babylon, to be retained in Gentile succession until Babylon and

Babylonianism should be destroyed. Read Daniel for this. Isa. 13: contains "the burden

of Babylon", "And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees'

excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah". In chapter 14: 4,

the king of Babylon is addressed, and what is said is prophetic of the future antichrist