Iraq Trivia Email -- Fact Or Fiction?

American Soldiers Pose At A Statue Of A Lion At The Ruins Of The Ancient City Of Bablyon. Notice Saddam's Abandoned Place In The Background.

If you have been receiving email for very long, someone has probably sent you 22 claims about Iraq in the Bible. The claims of the email are in bold and my response to them is in non-bold print.

1. The Garden of Eden was in Iraq.

We don’t know for sure. Only if the Tigris and Euphrates river, after the flood, are the same riverbeds as before the flood. That is all conjecture and very unlikely. It is more likely that there was a Tigris and Euphrates before the flood and when the sons of Noah discovered these new rivers they named them after old ones that existed before the flood. It is probable that the post-flood topography was very different and that new river beds were formed by the run off of the flood. If it is the same river, we should buy land there because the Bible says there is gold there (pre-flood).

2. Mesopotamia, which is now Iraq, was the cradle of civilization!

True, depending on your definition of civilization. It is where the first major city after the flood was built. Babel. But as you know, it didn't last long. Certainly the nations spread out from there. (See Genesis 11:9)

3. Noah built the ark in Iraq.

Maybe. We don’t know where Noah lived. See Answer #1.

4. The Tower of Babel was in Iraq.

True. Babel was located in what is now modern day Iraq.

5. Abraham was from Ur, which is in Southern Iraq!

True. Ur was located in what is now Southern Iraq.

U.S. soldiers look out across the desert from the ziggurat in Ur, the birthplace of Abraham.

6. Isaac's wife Rebekah is from the city of Nahor, which is in Iraq.

False. The “City of Nahor” is also called Haran and it is located in the modern country of Turkey, 24 miles south east of city of Sanlurfa. (Genesis 24:10)

7. Jacob met Rachel in Iraq.

False. He met her in Haran, which is located in the modern country of Turkey. (Genesis 29:4)

8. Jonah preached in Nineveh - which is in Iraq.

True. The ancient site of Nineveh is part of Mosul, the second largest city in modern Iraq.

Soldiers walking through ruins of ancient Ninevah (Mosul, Iraq)

9. Assyria, which is in Iraq, conquered the ten tribes of Israel.

True – partially. Assyria borders partially encompassed the Northern part of modern day Iraq along with several other modern countries. At its height of power, Assyria had more land in other places than what is now modern Iraq.

10. Amos cried out in Iraq!

False. Amos was from a small town named Tekoa near Bethlehem. He prophesied against Israel in the north and several other countries. To my knowledge he never went to Babylon or Nineveh

11. Babylon, which is in Iraq, destroyed Jerusalem.

True. Babylon was located in what is now modern day Iraq.

12. Daniel was in the lion's den in Iraq!

False. This event happened during the Persian Empire, not the Babylonian Empire. Susa, the capital of the Persian Empire, was in what is modern day Iran. We deduce that the capital is where the lions den was because the King was able to retire to his palace in the capital where he did not sleep and then be back to the lions den by morning. (See Daniel 6:18-19)

13. The three Hebrew children were in the fire in Iraq (Jesus had been in Iraq also as the fourth person in the fiery furnace!)

True. This happened in Babylon, which is in modern day Iraq.

14. Belshazzar, the King of Babylon saw the “writing on the wall” in Iraq.

True. This happened in Babylon, which is located in modern day Iraq.

15. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, carried the Jews captive into Iraq.

True. And after the Babylonians, the Persian Empire spread the Jews all over the ancient world as slaves while others were allowed to go back and resettle Israel.

16. Ezekiel preached in Iraq.

True. He was in Tel Abib near the Kebar River according to Ezekiel 3:15, which is located in what is now Southern Iraq.

17. The wise men were from Iraq.

Maybe but not all of them. Some of them may have been from what is now modern Iraq, but also from many other places too. Some of the nations that would be from were foretold in prophecy.

Isaiah 60:6, “Herds of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah. And all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the LORD.”

Bible Name Modern name
Midian Saudi Arabia
Ephah Saudi Arabia
Sheba Ethiopia

18. Peter preached in Iraq.
False. When he says “Babylon” he is metaphorically referring to Rome, which is where he really was.

I Peter 5:13, “The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you; and so doth Marcus my son.” Rome was like Babylon of old. Peter lived some 550 years after the destruction of Babylon. There was no one in Babylon in Peter’s day. Jeremiah prophesied of her years before Peter. Jeremiah 51:37, “Babylon will be a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, an object of horror and scorn, a place where no one lives.” And so it is to this day. Though Saddam tried to rebuild it, no one dared live there. Locals believe it is haunted. As soon as the U.S. local ousted Saddam, Iraqis destroyed the rebuilt Babylon and sacked the palace he was trying to rebuild. Babylon is again laid waste and uninhabited as it was in Peter’s day.

A Picture of The Ruins of Babylon Taken By An American Soldier In Iraq

19. The “Empire of Man” described in Revelation is called Babylon, which was a city in Iraq!

True. Again Babylon is metaphorically used to represent an oppressive one-world government like the real Babylon once was. (See Revelation 14:8, 16:19, 17:5, 18:2, 18:10, 18:21)

20. Israel is the Nation most often mentioned in the Bible. But do you know which nation is second? It is Iraq!

False. Iraq was not a country at this time the Bible was written and is never mentioned in the Bible.

21. However, that is not the name that is used in the Bible. The names used in the Bible are Babylon, Land of Shinar, and Mesopotamia. The word Mesopotamia means between the two rivers, more exactly between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The name Iraq, means “country with deep roots.” Indeed Iraq is a country with deep roots and is a very significant country in the Bible.

False. Iraq is not mentioned in the bible and of the nations that covered the modern land of Iraq, none of them had the exact same borders and most of them were about five times larger than modern day Iraq and covered many other nations as well such as Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and so on…

22. And also... This is something to think about! Since America is typically represented by an eagle. Saddam should have read up on his Muslim passages...The following verse is from the Koran, (the Islamic Bible) Koran (9:11), For it is written that a son of Arabia would awaken a fearsome Eagle. The wrath of the Eagle would be felt throughout the lands of Allah and lo, while some of the people trembled in despair still more rejoiced; for the wrath of the Eagle cleansed the lands of Allah; and there was peace. (Note the verse number!) Hmmmmmmm?!

False. This passage is not in the Koran! The Koran is a book of lies and false teaching. It contains no prophecy. Mohammed never claimed to foretell the future or do any miracles. He just claimed to be a prophet and if you didn't believe it his armies would kill you. He had an Osama-theology.

Whoever wrote these alleged truths was trying to make modern Iraq appear to be of some prophetic or Biblical importance. These kinds of distortions are often used by false teachers to promote the twisting of prophecy for sensationalized “end times” books which make a lot of money. Some would try to portray the war in Iraq as prophesied in Scripture and of spiritual importance to the end of the world. And they would be wrong.

Christians should be careful passing on emails like this. They can be full of distortions, half-truths, and lies. And certainly we don’t want to bear false witness via email. Always try verifying things before passing them on. And if you have some doubts about something, explain that to the people you forward it on too so they know you are not sure the email is true.

Some Websites that help verify the veracity of such emails are:

Snopes

Urband Legends

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