It is hard to imagine that one day -- the Iraq we are helping to rebuild will burn up in smoke. In fact, even the light of a candle will not shine in Babylon because God will abandon it. In Verse 23, God says: "...and the voice of the bridegroom and the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee." If you study the Bible you will know the "bridegroom" is Jesus Christ. Right now, saved people are the children of God -- but one day, we will become the Bride of Christ and we will partake in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb of God.
The remaining part of Verse 23's passage says: "...for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived." helps me to understand that the Antichrist will come from Iraq. It is further clarified that the Antichrist is the one that "deceives the nations" because Revelation, Chapter 20, Verse 3 says: "And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season." There is no doubt this scripture is referring to the Antichrist, who is yet to come to power at the time of this writing
