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18
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, NOVEMBER
18,
1986
Formed of "iron and ceramic clay" (Dan. 2:43),
it
will not be a perfect
union. The total homogenization of the various European peoples,
so
desired by these policy-makers, will meet considerable resistance. Yet
the same verse in Daniel indicates there will be considerable mixing of
populations--"they will mingle with the seed of man." Nevertheless, there
will still remain
10
leaders who will relinquish their respective national
authorities to a single individual (Rev. 17:12).
There should be no doubt now that a European super-state is on the rise
and that it will have a great--albeit short--impact on the world scene in
the years immediately ahead of us,
Perhaps it is more than coincidence that at the very time the Babylonish
system is being revived, an attempt is underway to restore the ancient
city of Babylon as an archeological monument. In Hong Kong recently I
noticed the following REUTERS dispatch in the October 7 SOUTH CHINA
MORNING POST, headlined "Babylon Rising From Ruins to Inspire Iraq."
Iraqi archaelogists and foreign labourers toil in scorching
heat to restore Babylon's crumbling ruins to their lost
splendour
..
..
For Iraqi leader
Mr
.
Saddam Hussein,
reconstructing King Nebuchadnezzar's once-mighty capital is
more than a project to attract tourists--the aim is also to
inspire his people in the costly and grueling war with Iran....
"The President has signed an open cheque to reconstruct the
ancient city and revive the marvellous shape it had before the
Persian aggression which destroyed it more than 20 centuries
ago," Babylon Governor
Mr.
Arif Gita Suheil said. He...said
the Government had spent an initial 8.5 million dinars [about
$27 million1 in the last year on a huge "tourist city" rising
near
-
the site,
90
km
south of Baghdad.
Mr.
Suheil said hotels,
restaurants, recreation centres, playgrounds, theatres and
cinemas--many designed to echo ancient Babylonian
architecture--would cluster in "the biggest tourist city in the
Middle East." The rebuilding of Babylon is based on ancient
Sumerian and Babylonian inscriptions and drawings.,..
Notice that there is no attempt to restore Babylon to be inhabited.
Tourist facilities are to be built nearby.
Of
course, if this
archaeological revival attempt is not to be, the Gulf War could stop all
progress
.
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau