An Interview on Bible Prophecy with Dr. Charles Dyer

Editor’s Note: Dr. Charles Dyer is an author, Bible teacher, pastor, radio host and tour guide. His latest book has just come off the press from Dispensational Publishing House, called Future Babylon: The Biblical Arguments for the Rebuilding of Babylon. Dyer was previously featured in our regular interview series called A Dispensational Discourse. In this Prophetic Principles article, we explore several key areas in greater depth, and he also describes how he originally became fascinated with the Biblical subject of Babylon—on which he is one of the world’s leading experts.

So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written:

MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT,
THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS
AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS
OF THE EARTH.

I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement. (Rev. 17:3-6)

When asked how he developed an intense interest in the subject of Babylon, Charles Dyer responded by saying that it all began when he presented his instructor with “the most pathetic senior paper I ever wrote.”

“I picked the topic thinking I knew the answer,” he said. “I got into the text, and I could not make the text fit what I thought the paper ought to be. The professor challenged me to look at the text again.”

That occurred at Washington Bible College, but it was a valuable lesson learned for Dyer, who next revisited the subject of Babylon as he was finishing his master of theology degree at Dallas Theological Seminary.

“Four years later I needed to come up with a thesis topic,” he stated. “I was sure there had been a lot of theses on Babylon, and there had not been.”

Since that time, the subject has never been far from Dyer’s consciousness.

He has studied the issue of Babylon extensively, has written several books on it, and was the only American who was able to attend the First and Second Babylon Festivals, held in Iraq in 1987 and 1988, respectively. He did not realize at that time, of course, what a central role the nation of Iraq would have in United States politics for the next three decades.

“When I wrote my thesis, I thought I had really come across something,” Dyer said.

Dyer finished that thesis in 1979—the year that Saddam Hussein came to power.

“One year later he started rebuilding Babylon,” Dyer explained. “When I got to go over there and see what he was doing, I thought, ‘Yes, this really makes sense.’”

Dyer has a unique combination of gifts that he has used skillfully to train many for the ministry and to edify the body of Christ. In addition to being a scholar with a focus on Babylon and a skilled Bible teacher, Dyer also has vast experience as a college and seminary administrator.

He presented a stern warning regarding the future of theological education as we have always known it.

“We could be seeing the end of Christian higher education,” he said. “Christian schools are so dependent on government aid that they would go out of business if they did not have access to grants and loans. With that comes strings, and my prediction is that at some point that will also include sexual orientation and gender identity. If, right now, they said that to participate in federal funds they have to recognize students without regard to gender identity, could they do it?”

“Colleges are facing a major crisis,” he said. “They probably do know that now.”

Dyer believes that there will be increasing difficulties over the LGBT agenda for faithful Christian colleges that desire to retain their accreditation.

“Whether it is the federal government or accreditation, they are going to be facing problems from either one or both,” he said. “Most undergraduate schools will have to decide, ‘Do we go under financially, or do we give up our Biblical moorings?’”

Dyer does believe that there are creative ways to face these threats, however, that may be successful.

“By using a technology model, education can be made less expensive,” he said. “Leveraging technology, with scholarships and private loans, at that time they can say to the federal government, ‘We don’t need your money?’”

Dyer also thinks that the solution may ultimately be found in “good churches” that have the strength and vision to take it upon themselves to preserve and advance the cause of Biblical education in this culture.

“The rapture would solve all the problems—otherwise we end up going into the dark ages again.”