New Babylon

New Babylon is a fictional city depicted in the Left Behind series of books by Timothy LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, which is partially based on the Dispensational interpretation of the biblical Book of Revelation. The term is also used to refer to the real-life rebuilding of the ancient city of Babylon.

Background
New Babylon in the Left Behind series of books is a glittering, modern metropolis built over the ancient city of Babylon in Iraq. The city had been in development for many years preceding the Rapture, and its rise was mostly - if not entirely - funded by global financier Jonathan Stonagal.

Rise of New Babylon
During the first three books in the series, newly-installed Global Community Supreme Potentate and Antichrist Nicolae Carpathia takes several courses of action to cement his global power and centralize it in New Babylon. The city also becomes the center of media|, commerce, and government as well as the one-world religion of the Enigma Babylon One World Faith. After the process has been completed, Carpathia settles in New Babylon as his new home and the seat of his New World Order. The Global Community headquarters there is a modern 18-story skyscraper.

The End of New Babylon
During the next seven years, the world is plunged into the period which the Bible refers to as the "Tribulation".

As later biblical judgments occur, New Babylon becomes a dark place where the presence of evil is clearly felt and seen. The GC Headquarters is destroyed in the "wrath of the Lamb" earthquake at the end of Nicolae but is replaced by an even more grandiose GC "Palace". As Carpathianism is instated as the one-world religion, statues of Carpathia are also built around the city. When Carpathia decides to launch the final battle of Armageddon, New Babylon quickly suffers its final judgments.

In the last books of the series, the city is plunged into a darkness so intense that it causes people bearing Carpathia's loyalty mark to suffer horrible pain and chew their tongues. God finally destroys New Babylon with fire in the span of only one hour, and the city is never rebuilt again.

The Real Babylon
The events described above are as seen in the Left Behind series, a fictional series of novels about the end of the world. However, the ancient city of Babylon has already been rebuilt to some degree by the former Iraqi government headed by Saddam Hussein1 (This city has been partially destroyed and rebuilt a number of times over the last 2,000 years). Many believe that New Babylon will arise once the current conflict in Iraq subsides.

There is an ongoing debate about the prophecies in the Bible that point to New Babylon as a real future city. Some believers, such as Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, and others believe Babylon symbolically represents governments and religions opposing God. Anti-Catholics often claim Babylon refers to the Roman Catholic Church. Many evangelical Christians accept these prophecies as literal. The Left Behind series follows this view, and so the events described (not the characters), while wholly fictional, are similar to the events that certain dispensationalist prophecy scholars and eschatology students (along with the Christians who follow them) believe that will literally happen in the future.

Of interesting note, an article published in The New York Times in July 2006 states that the United Nations and Iraqi government have plans for restoring Babylon, making it a gem of a new Iraq as a cultural center complete with shopping malls, hotels, and maybe even an amusement park.