Mythos and legend have a way of becoming true. If only true that they
are believed and practiced, they are true to the people. So it is with the
Babylonian mythos, We know there is truth here because the Bible references
events and results from the story. We know that some of the story grew bigger
than life, yet bigger in this case is only to make the application of the
resulting religion and worship that much more evil.
… I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet beast,
full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was
clothed in purple and scarlet, decked with gold and precious stone and pearls,
having a cup of gold in her hand full of abominations and the unclean things of
her and of the earth's fornication, and upon her forehead a name written, Mystery,
Babylon the great, the mother of the harlots and of the abominations of the
earth. Rev 17
This story covers all the years of history from the flood to the end
of the tribulation. For all of time GOOD has been to Know and obey God. EVIL
has been the work of those that deny and attempt to usurp the authority of God. Please look with me at a story in two parts
but one story, good and evil and the right of people to choose the path they
will follow. “Evil” is the story of the
beginning of all the “wisdom” that said “good is in men and the way by self
aware knowledge they may overcome the flesh of this life, evil, and rise to be
as God.”
I
will offer a time line to help you follow my thinking, you may agree or not
this is only the order as I see it. This
is not about me or my writing so I will simply include the articles of others
when I find one that I feel clearly carries the story.
Satan
chose to “rise up and be as God”
Creation
Adam
& Eve Eat of the Tree
Mankind
deep in sin
The Flood
Nimrod,
a king, takes a Queen, seeks “wisdom” to rise up and be god.
Zoroaster
(either Nimrod or the Queens Son) made
a “wisdom” religion opposed to God and teaching how to rise up and be god.
Epic of Gilgamesh, just a retelling of this story, but on
tablets in one of the oldest writings.
NOTE:
there are now two systems of pagan
thought:
Polytheism, pantheon of gods for every need and purpose
Monotheistic, “faith wisdom” (pistis sophia)
Hebrews
disobey God and go into exile in Persia
They
learn and accept the teachings of Zoroaster, The beginning of Jewish Mysticism
The
Teachings are spread to other parts of the world by moving and trade. Egyptian
Mysticism is started.
Christ
and Christianity
Gnosticism
appears as just the latest version of
the ancient mysticism. Secret wisdom that will allow one to “rise up free of
evil flesh and in spirit be as God.”
This
is a very important discussion because it so totally fills all the teachings
and beliefs of all people of all time. And Yet it is not always presented as
evil. All to often the “wisdom” is desired and used as “ANOTHER WAY OF
SALVATION”. Yes the Church and modern
religion is full of the ancient mystic teaching. Calvinism is based on Gnostic
thought. New age is reworded mysticism.
Total depravity as it relates to man totally evil and can’t know God
because all FLESH is evil is the ancient mysticism properly stated.
I
feel that a good example of this error being practiced is seen in the “Oral Traditions”
This
is a simple question, What were the “Oral Traditions”?
I am
asking, were the traditions the work of good men of God seeking to teach God’s
law? Or were they a mixed teaching of many mystic and ancient cults that were
offered by Satan to deceive men? Taught by men who for special Knowledge,
Position and Power followed a secrete teaching of a higher knowledge that would
free them of evil flesh and allow them to come to God by their own works. Do they go all the way back to Babylon?
Mat_15:2 Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?
for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
It was commanded to wash the hands before meals,
it was one’s duty to do it after eating. The more rigorous did it between the
courses. The hands must be immersed. Then the water itself must be “clean” and
the cups or pots used must be ceremonially “clean.” Vessels were kept full of
clean water ready for use . So it went on ad infinitum. Thus a real
issue is raised between Jesus and the rabbis. It was far more than a point of
etiquette or of hygienics. The rabbis held it to be a mortal sin. The incident
may have happened in a Pharisee’s house. AT Robinson.
How much of this is an interpretation of OT law
which did not require such a washing and how much comes from the tradition
based in the Dualism that all material flesh is evil. Not washing had become
considered sin.
Mat_15:3 But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
Tradition
is not good or bad in itself. It is merely what is handed on from one to
another. Custom tended to make these traditions binding like law. The Talmud is
a monument of their struggle with tradition. There could be no compromise on
this subject and Jesus accepts the issued. He stands for real righteousness and
spiritual freedom, not for bondage to mere ceremonialism and tradition. The
rabbis placed tradition (the oral law) above the law of God. AT Robinson
The Oral Tradition of the Jews had been shaped by
their contact with the Persians (Zoroastrian Dualism) when in captivity and the
fact that not one of the kings of Israel
and only one in Judah
had obeyed God and led the people to God. We often think of Israel as “God’s People” but they
did not live up to the promise. They followed idols and handed down traditions
that came from ancient mystic cults, they failed to follow the Law or obey God.
The Meaning of “A Tradition”.
We most often see this word “Tradition” and think of the
teachings of the religious leaders. Maybe the Talmud, or Writings of Rabbis, But what are these based on. Do not jump to the conclusion that they are
from interpretations by pure teachers of the Word.
Without reviewing the details of each separate idea I want
to see a progression of thought that is apposed to God and the Bible message. It has a purpose and a plan and is I feel ONE CONTINUOUS MESSAGE. Its purpose is for
Satan to offer man the “Faith Wisdom” {pistis sophia} and have
us all follow him in trying to ascend to the place of God, a view that says we
can come to God by our own knowledge. Its author is Satan, he has a plan and it
is a good one at least it has worked for many years. One of the first if not
the first of these religions is that of Babylon,
the kingdom of Nimrod and his Queen, Samiramis. I
cannot say how much of the legend is true but most of the mystic religion is
based on the story, so true or not it is the basis of mystic religion. Another of the most ancient forms of this is
the Chaldean Mystic Numerology, a system of reading meaning and power from the
letters of words and related numbers.
Another is the structure that came to be Persian and Parsi (Indian)
Dualism and in time developed into a monotheistic, Zoroastrian Dualism of good
and evil 1500 to 1200 BC. Around 1500bc
Zoroaster developed his religious structure based on these ideas. The relation
of this religion is very important because the legends say
Zoroaster is Nimrod or his son.(3.)
This means the link between Babylonian
mysticism (the thinking of the young man) and Zoroastrianism ( the knowledge of a mature
system and thinking) is simple they have the same author/ source. At
this early point the Babylonian mysticism under Nimrod/Zoroaster included magic
and power of demons, using this power is said to be what caused Nimrods death. Chaldean, Persian, Babylonian, Egyptian,
Jewish, Greek, and Roman each of these civilizations share, develop, and spread
the Ideas of Mystic Numerology and
Dualism of good and evil and a secret knowledge that can overcome evil flesh
and rise the one of knowledge to God by his works and knowledge. There is an important split in the
presentation of the occult religions.
First there is the widely reported and better known pantheon
of gods that each nation or culture had and worshiped. This was a religion for
the common person to see and hold to, something they could do to be
“Religious”. To a large extent it requirements were used to control the masses
of people. The “practice” side greatly effected
the behavior and belief of the people it had an enormous impact on nations and
culture of the world.
Second and not so well knows was the secret “Faith Wisdom” {pistis sophia} which was
passed along to a select few that were able to understand the meaning of the
teachings. The word mystic means secret.
This was the Zoroastrian Mysticism that led to Egyptian Mysticism, Jewish
Mysticism, and later Gnosticism.
It started when Satan by his beauty and knowledge thought to
rise up and be as God. In Gen 3:5 Satan
offered Eve enlightenment and knowledge that would allow her to rise up and
become as God. In fact every one of the traditions is based on knowledge that
will allow the person to overcome the evil of flesh and rise up to God by their
own ability of self aware thought and power. Satan still trying to do the one
thing he wants most, to be like God worshiped and loved.
When
Israel
went into captivity they were directly influenced by the Persian (Zoroastrian)
ideas and they adopted many of the teachings in their traditions. Cyrus the
Great was relatively liberal. While he himself ruled according to Zoroastrian
beliefs, he made no attempt to impose Zoroastrianism on the people of his
subject territories. The
Jews most
famously benefited from this; Cyrus permitted them to return to
Jerusalem from exile in
Babylon, and rebuild their temple. This act
of kindness made a huge impact on Judaism. Zoroastrian philosophy powerfully
influenced post-Exilic Judaism. It is the foundation of Jewish tradition and mysticism.
Darius the Great was famously pious and showed the same general tolerance for
other faiths as his predecessor Cyrus. He also showed kindness to
Israel. His piety is expressed in religious
inscriptions left on his tomb.
Like most of the mystic religions the “Faith Wisdom”
teachings were passed down to ONLY an elite that “Could Understand the
Meaning”. These teachings were not
accepted by the masses and had to be kept secret passed along orally.
There are many sources of the
specifics of these teachings and they are all very similar. Where these
traditions that developed by the time of Christ no more than the Mystic Dualism
of the secret Traditions that became Jewish Mysticism, Gnosticism, and
Allegory? Remember, these were secret teachings and we
have only a little real data on them, SO YES I am “Reading Between the Lines”
still I feel this idea is worth considering. Is it reasonable that Christ would
have been so hard on a specific literal keeping of the LAW? Was there more to the “traditions” in these
verses (Mt 15:2) than we may have thought?
Then too we have the Egyptian mysticism and allegory that saw the words
as symbols and meanings (from Chaldean Mystic Numerology) and they were free to
“interpret” the Bible as they wanted. Philo was one of the teachers in this
movement. When ”we” read the ancient
mystic writings they seem meaningless to us, WE DON’T READ ALLEGORY.
Here is some of the Article that started my Question. (emphasis is mine)
The horizon must be taken here as wide as
possible; for the question as to the origin of theology can only be answered by
surveying all the relations into which the Christian religion has entered in
naturalizing itself in the world and subduing it. When ecclesiastical dogma has
once been created and recognized as an immediate expression of the Christian
religion, the history of dogma has only to take the history of theology into
account so far as it has been active in the formation of dogma. Yet it must
always keep in view the peculiar claim of dogma to be a criterion and not a
product of theology. But it will also be able to show how, partly by means of
theology and partly by other means-for dogma is also
dependent on ritual, constitution, and the practical ideals of life, as well as
on the letter, whether of Scripture, or of tradition no longer
understood-dogma in its development and re-expression has continually changed,
according to the conditions under which the Church was placed. If dogma is
originally the formulation of Christian faith as culture (all of the ancient
mystic, dualistic, “Faith Wisdom {pistis sophia}”, Jewish Tradition, and Greek
philosophy) understood it and justified
it to itself, then dogma has never indeed lost this character, though it has
been radically modified in later times.
This conviction had to be immediately
tested by the Old Testament, that is, the task was imposed on the majority of
thinking Christians, by the circumstances in which the Gospel had been
proclaimed to them, of making the Old Testament intelligible to themselves, in
other words, of using this book as a Christian book, and of finding the means
by which they might be able to repel the Jewish claim to it, and refute the
Jewish interpretation of it. This task would not have been imposed, far less
solved, if the Christian communities in the Empire had not entered into the inheritance of
the Jewish Traditions, propaganda which had already been greatly influenced by
foreign religions (Babylonian and Persian, see the Jewish Apocalypses), and in
which an extensive spiritualizing of the Old Testament religion had already
taken place. This spiritualizing was the result of a philosophic view of religion,
and this philosophic view was the outcome of a lasting influence of Greek
philosophy and of the Greek spirit generally on Judaism. In consequence of this
view, all facts and sayings of the Old Testament in which one could not find
his way, were allegorised. "Nothing was what it seemed, but was only the symbol
of something invisible. The history of the Old Testament
was here sublimated to a history of the emancipation of reason from
passion."
This necessary allegorical
interpretation, however, brought into the communities an intellectual
philosophic element, a gnosis, which was perfectly distinct from the
Apocalyptic dreams, in which were beheld angel hosts on white horses, Christ
with eyes as a flame of fire, hellish beasts, conflict and victory. In this
γνωσις, which attached itself to the Old Testament, many began to see the
specific blessing which was promised to mature faith, and through which it was
to attain perfection. What a wealth of relations, hints, and intuitions seemed
to disclose itself, as soon as the Old Testament was considered allegorically,
and to what extent had the way been prepared here by the Jewish philosophic
teachers! From the simple narratives of the Old Testament had already been
developed a theosophy, in which the most abstract ideas had acquired reality,
and from which sounded forth the Hellenic canticle of the power of the Spirit
over matter and sensuality, and of the true home of the soul. Whatever in this
great adaptation still remained obscure and unnoticed, was now lighted up by
the history of Jesus, his birth, his life, his sufferings and triumph. The view
of the Old Testament as a document of the deepest wisdom, transmitted to those
who knew how to read it as such, unfettered the intellectual interest which
would not rest until it had entirely transferred the new religion from the
world of feelings, actions and hopes, into the world of Hellenic conceptions,
and transformed it into a metaphysic.
(Jewish encyclopedia.)
Satan
has a PLAN!!
Satan failed to over throw
God and is condemned and he knows it. He goes about on earth to deceive as many
people as he can and he has a good plan. From the most ancient times the idea
of good vs evil has been known. Satan created and taught men to believe
mysticism dualism and magic as a way they could rise up free of evil flesh and
be god
There is a progressing system
here from Satan to Nimrod who became known also as Zoroaster and Tammuz and Adonis, yes
following Satan these four famous names are the same character in the story.
The mystic traditions are all part of the plan to teach men they could become
“as god” by knowledge from the religious system they taught.
In Satan’s system the TRUE
ALL POWERFUL GOD is not knowable by man. A lesser god made the world in an
error. Man was made in an error and mistakenly given a spark of the divine
light. Because of the mistake all of the world and man were created evil. Satan
used a man (Nimrod/Zoroaster), he gave a vision to start a religion that on the
surface sounded good, but, went far beyond the surface good and included
mysticism, magic, and the knowledge cults in its development. These errors came
from Babylonian folklore, Zoroastrian Dualism, Buddhist ethics, Egyptian
Mysticism, Greek Philosophy, Jewish Tradition and Mysticism, Manichean, and
Gnosticism.
Zoroaster is said to have
received a vision from Ahura Mazda, the Wise Lord, who appointed him to preach
the truth. He said he saw many problems with the polytheistic religion, so many gods and no
one would be committed to any. It was at this point he started to present a
monotheistic religion to focus the allegiance of followers to one god. Zoroaster
began preaching his message of cosmic strife between Ahura Mazda, the God of
Light, and Ahriman, the principle of evil. According to the prophet, man had
been given the power to choose between good and evil. The end of the world
would come when the forces of light would triumph and the saved souls rejoice
in its victory. This dualism was part of an evolution towards monotheism in the
Middle East. Zoroaster's teaching became the
guiding light of Persian civilization.
BC1500
The idea here is that man, by knowledge, can ascend beyond the evil of
flesh and come to pure spirit of god by himself.
This is the origin of “All Flesh Is Evil and total depravity” only the spirit
is good. It was the Mystic secret
knowledge given by Satan to deceive the world.
“But especially does “Wisdom of Knowledge” that is “Faith Wisdom {pistis sophia}”, testify
to the antiquity of the Mystic Wisdom. Of Chaldean origin... Gnosticism was
Jewish in character long before it became Christian... Gnosticism that
is,(wisdom of Knowledge) seems to have been the first attempt on the part of
the Jewish sages to give the empirical mystic lore, with the help of Platonic and
Pythagorean or Stoic ideas, a speculative turn; hence the danger of heresy…of
which the systems of Philo show many pitfalls...
“Jewish Gnosticism unquestionably antedates Christianity, for
Biblical exegesis had already reached an age of five hundred years by the first
century C.E. Judaism had been in close contact with Babylonian-Persian
ideas for at least that length of time, and for nearly as long a period
with Hellenistic ideas. Magic, also, which was a not unimportant part of the
doctrines and manifestations of Gnosticism, largely occupied Jewish thinkers.
There is, in general, no circle of ideas to which elements of Gnosticism have
not been traced, and with which the Jews were not acquainted.” (Jewish
Encyclopedia)
Closely connected herewith is the doctrine that the
pious are enabled to ascend toward god even in this life, if they know how to
free themselves from the trammels that bind the soul (good) to the body (evil).
Thus were the first mystics enabled to disclose the mysteries of the world beyond.
According to Anz, l.c., and Bousset, …the central doctrine of Gnosticism—a
movement closely connected with Jewish mysticism—was nothing else than the
attempt to liberate the soul and unite it with god.
(Jewish Encyclopedia)
Please
understand this is the whole point. The modern world rejects the creation, and
free will of man. Without these points there is no bible message. God did
not create sin. Man was given a choice and made the wrong one. The cause
for sin is mans choice, A choice to DISOBEY God. The only SIN is to disobey
GOD. There are two sides {God=Good} or
{self, world, what I want = Evil}, the question is which do you choose. Satan is actively enticing the mind of men to
do as he had done, “With Knowledge you can be as God” !
Here
is Satan’s Plan.
3:1
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God
had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of
every tree of the garden?
3:2
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of
the garden:
3:3
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath
said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
3:4
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
3:5
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be
opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
3:6
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was
pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of
the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he
did eat.
3:7
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and
they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
I
hope I have made my point on the beginning of sin and I am not going to cover
the story of Eve and the Serpent told here, I hope to look beyond these stories
we have all heard so often and point out some new Ideas. I hope to show a
comparison of Satan’s method in the garden and today in out world.
First an incomplete thread of truth, this
is only part of what God said.
3:1
God said, Ye shall eat of every tree of the garden?
In
her answer Eve added to what had been said. God had not said anything about
touching the tree.
Second Satan offers
a misleading idea to further his point.
Ye
shall not surely die:
Then
he adds an appealing reason to do what she wanted to without God.
3:5
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes
shall
be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Choose
to possess the enlightened knowledge, your choice makes you a god.
Third we see a progression of
disobedience, incremental movement to sin.
the
woman saw
it
was pleasant to the eyes
be
desired to make one wise
she
took of the fruit
and
did eat
gave
also unto her husband with her;
and
he did eat.
The
outline we have here is the modern method to deny God, the bible, and moral
right and wrong. Satan devised this outline in the garden; he and his servants
still use it today. Please understand this is not a small thing, there is a
plan to the Liberal Agenda, and it is an Old Plan.
1st Misstate the facts to SOUND the way
you want them, use a thread of truth as a foundation.
2nd Offer
a misleading idea to further the point, make your point, add your
position or opinion.
3rd In small increments keep making the claim
and moving public thought to your way of thinking.
There
is a story that all the demons and Satan were trying to decide how to make this
plan work best and a little demon cried out “WAIT” he wanted to be heard. When
Satan heard “Wait” he exclaimed, “THAT IS IT”, “You have the best Idea of all”, There is no
hurry just WAIT, Put off the decision, state what we want over and over.
Modern
Man says there is no GOD. Evolution
The
world JUST HAPPENED by chance.
Man
has no Free Will, we are only a more self-aware animal. Naturalism
All
of nature is equal.
Do
not eat other animals they are just as valuable as man.
Man
as the highest self aware animal answers only to man. Humanism
Moral
Right is what “I” want right now.
Wrong
is anything that keeps me form what I want.
If
God did not create the world and man in His image there is no absolute
authority for moral law, Man is free to be god and answer to only himself.
Modern
Liberal Humanist want to eat of the tree; “in the day ye eat thereof, then your
eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” They do
not want an absolute, almighty, all knowing, GOD to whom they must be obedient.
Modern
Liberal Humanist cannot believe in God, if they did they would have to answer
to Him and keep His commandments. They could not be god and make the rules.
This
is the choice we have to make, will I accept God and his promises or shall I
choose to be enlightened and not need god because man is god.
The
Enlightenment of the 18th century was this very comparison, Educated
People rejecting the God of the medieval church. They rejected the Bible and
its God. Enlightened man had moved beyond the need for God. He was free, by his
own reason and now the master of all he understood.
Enlightened
man rejected creation of the world as told in the bible, even though many
scientist and leaders of the time rejected Darwin
as poor science, and Darwin
admitted that he had never proven or fully explained the theory. There was a
large group of humanist Philosophers that accepted even promoted Darwin’s theory. They had
made up their minds before the discussion started. They did not accept the idea
of God. These theories were the lie. They denied God, they denied the creation,
the enlightened man did not want an all knowing, all powerful God that he had to
answer to and obey.
The
men of this period of thought made a choice the wrong one. They made up their
minds there was no God. Man was a product of natural events. With their minds
made up, they went on to prove the point.
A mind yielded to Satan is controlled by Satan and can use and follow
his outline with skill.
They told a partial truth.
Man
Changes, and change in nature are normal.
They offer a misleading idea to
further the point.
God controlled
how the world evolved.
They progressively, repeatedly promote the idea of humanism.
For
many years now in little steps they have progressively pushed the theory of
evolution. They knew it was an unsound and unproven theory but it fit what they
wanted. The theory has slowly been moved from an illustration of the flow of
life; to a theory of how all life came to be; to scientific fact. And it has
been incorporated into almost every idea in our lives.
Evolution
is the best argument against Historic Christianity as a way of belief. Prove
God did not do what the bible says He did and there is no Bible, God, or
absolute power, truth, right, wrong. Man is his own master, the highest self
aware animal that lives a little while on earth then is no more.
This
evolution vs. creation argument is not a minor disagreement. It is the
foundation of the historic Christian system of belief and values. We have a
choice, look at the world around us all the wonders of creation and know God
created all this for us, or believe the entire world just happened by chance.
The
Bible, what does it mean? Why do we have the bible?
The
bible is God’s word to us. The educated liberals try to say men over many years
and from many places wrote stories these were told and handed down.
They told a partial truth.
men
over many years and from many places wrote stories.
They offer a misleading idea to
further the point.
The
bible is just mythology, stories of men.
Liberals deny, discredit, and laugh at the bible. Over the years they teach the wisdom of men. The
bible is degraded to the point it is unacceptable to reference it or quote in
public.
Satan
is still working the Plan, he has not given up.
Please do not be mistaken Satan is very active in the affairs of
men. The plan allows men to choose to
serve “Human self” instead of God. Natural man disobeys God and puts man before
or instead of God.
Romans
1:18-24
21 For even though they knew God, they did not
honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their peculations,
and their foolish heart was darkened. 22
Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible
God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed
animals and crawling creatures. 24
Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so
that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a
lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
Knowing
the enemy is important because he is real and will continue to accuse until he
has been thrown down by Michael and his angels in the future. If the Bible records the over throw of
Satan and stopping him from accusing our brethren, “for the accuser of our
brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night.”
It stands to reason that accusing the brethren IS what Satan is doing. Satan’s
plan is real, his purpose is deadly serious, and he is in the world today.
(Rev_12:7-12)
Satan is active in this
story. Satan is the one with the plan and is ACTIVELY seeking to deceive
mankind. He wants to be worshiped, admired, and in control. Today Mysticism,
Dualism, and Gnosticism are active in our world, an example is The New Age
Movement.
SEMIRAMIS,
QUEEN OF BABYLON
by Bryce Self
http://ldolphin.org/semir.html
Any effort to
trace the origins of the myth, legend, and lore of goddess-worship will
eventually lead one back to a single historical figure---Semiramis, wife of
Nimrod and queen of Babylon.
Before we can
begin to deal with Semiramis though, we must (as with any historical figure)
gain at least a general understanding of her cultural and temporal setting.
Since I have found in my researches that neither proven scientific truth nor
gleanings of fact from the body of ancient legends in any way contradicts a
proper understanding of biblical revelation, I will use the scriptural
framework of history as a basis upon which to reconstruct the story of
Semiramis the woman.
When Noah and
his family left the ark after the flood, they settled first at the northern
feet of Ararat facing what is today Georgia,
USSR.
From here, these eight souls began to spread out into the surrounding districts
of northern Iran and Syria, as well as eastern Turkey. After a considerable period
(perhaps 5 to 6 hundred years), the families of Noah's descendants began to
scatter a bit more widely due to increasing population, and perhaps some degree
of rivalry or even enmity between the families of Japheth, Shem, and Ham. In
this way we find that within about half a millennium the entire "fertile
crescent", as well as the Nile valley, the Anatolian and Iranian plateaus,
Arabia, and Ethiopia have
been sparsely settled---but with a decided majority of Noah's descendants
living in the lower regions of Mesopotamia (which would come to be called Sumer and Akkad).
Modern
archaeology has confirmed the fact that the first inhabitants of these areas
were homogeneous in both race and culture, and the most reliable researches
indicate that it was from here that population, animal husbandry, metallurgy,
agriculture, and "citification" spread throughout the earth. The
scientific and scriptural views are in exact agreement upon the origin and
spread of races and civilization---the only point of difference is the time
scale involved! Whereas the scriptures clearly indicate the existence of all
these elements of civilization long before the flood; orthodox science, by it's
denial of the bible is required to construct a mythical stone age several
millennia long in order to account for the same phenomena.
It was in Mesopotamia that the first cities were built after the
flood, and the first of these was quite naturally named after the very first
city built by man before the flood---Enoch. Due to vagaries of linguistic
permutation, this name has come down to us as Erech or Uruk in Sumeria. In all
there were seven major cities built near the head of the Persian
Gulf, leading to the name "Land of the Seven Cities"
commonly found in the early mythologies of the world. These seven cities are
enumerated in Genesis as those which were conquered by Nimrod, establishing the
world's first empire. The earliest Babylonian legends tell of a conquering
people who came up out of the Persian Gulf and
established an empire from these cities. This seems to fit well with what we
know of the movements of Nimrod in his early career. He was a native of Ethiopia
and was widely traveled among the few populated areas of those days. When he
set out to build himself an army of conquest, he recruited from his
"cousins" the descendants of Sheba and Dedan who had come up through
Arabia to settle on the Asian mainland at the Straight of Hormuz and on the
Indus river in what is now Afghanistan (these people were the Dravidians who
were driven southward into India by the later Aryan invasion). After raising
his army, Nimrod ferried them up the gulf in the world's first naval armada,
and conquered his empire. The best estimates place the time of the conquest as
about 4000 to 3500 BC, and about 1000 years after the flood of Noah.
In the midst of
the tumult of war Nimrod and Semiramis met--and in none too savory
circumstances, for tradition states that she was an inn/brothel keeper in the
city of Erech---leading one to speculate upon the nature of their initial
acquaintance. Semiramis was a native of Erech, which as evidenced by it's name
seems to have been built by a Hamitic family (Ham's wife was said to have been
descended from Cain who built the first Erech in honor of his son). The name
Semiramis is a later, Hellenized form of the Sumerian name
"Sammur-amat", or "gift of the sea."
The initial
element "sammur" when translated into Hebrew becomes "Shinar" (the biblical name for lower Mesopotamia), and is the word from which we derive
"Sumeria". This one tarnished woman then, had such a lasting impact
upon world history that not only do we call by her name the land from which
civilization flowed, but God himself through the sacred writer has let us know
that its distinguishing characteristic was that it was "the Land of
Shinar," or Semiramis. Very little has come down to us through the
millennia concerning Semiramis' rise to power, but it is safe to assume that it
was initially upon Nimrod's coattails that she rode, although later in life as
well as throughout history her influence overwhelmingly obscured that of her
husband. Of course, it would not do to have an ex-harlot upon the throne, so
the "polite fiction" was invented that she was a virgin sprung from
the sea at Nimrod's landing, and hence a suitable bride for the emperor(thus
the title Semiramis which has totally obscured her original name).
Semiramis was
the instigator in forming the false religion aimed at supporting their rule,
and of course her suggestion fell upon open ears. The religion she invented was
based primarily upon a corruption of the primeval astronomy formulated by
Noah's righteous ancestors before the flood. In the original this system
depicted by means of constellations the story of Satan's rebellion and the war
in the heavens, his subversion of mankind, the fall of Adam and Eve, the
promise of One to come who would suffer and die to relieve man from the curse
of sin then be installed as Lord of Creation, and the final re-subjugation of the
cosmos to God through Him.
These eternal
truths were corrupted by her (rather, quite obviously, by the evil one
controlling her) into a mythic cycle wherein the great dragon is depicted as
the rightful lord of the universe whose throne has been temporarily usurped by
One whom we can recognize as the God of the Bible. The serpent creates man in
his present miserable state, but promises that a child would one day born of a
divine mother---which child would supplant God, become a god himself, and
return rulership of the Earth to the serpent. These fables were based upon the
then widely-known story of the constellations, and were introduced under the
guise of revealing the hidden esoteric knowledge concealed in them (regardless
of the fact that the original was quite straightforward).
Although this
esotericism was the second element in Semiramis' cult, it only masked the
actual goal which was the worship of the "heavenly host," which the
Bible equates with Satan's army of fallen angels. Satan was quite willing to
receive worship "by proxy", hence the third major element of the
mystery religion was emperor-worship. This religion was propagated by a
hierarchy of priests and priestesses, to whom were assigned the task of
initiating the populace at large into it's ascending degrees of revelation,
culminating at the highest level in both direct worship of Satan and
demon-possession.
Although Nimrod
was a brilliant strategist, he made a fatal blunder when he allowed Semiramis
to retain full control over this religious hierarchy, and through it the minds
and hearts of the people; for when a schism occurred between them she was able
to turn it from a tool of support into a deadly weapon. The rift between
husband and wife occurred when the queen bore an illegitimate son, and the king
threatened her with both dethronement and exposure of her true origin.
Semiramis, of course would not allow this to take place, and devised a plot to
overthrow Nimrod.
During the
course of the New Year's festivities at which the advent of Nimrod's rule was
celebrated, there was a certain feast exclusively for the royal family and the
upper echelons of the priesthood. During this feast, which included
"courses" of psychedelic and hallucinogenic drugs, a year-old ram was
traditionally sacrificed by being torn limb-from-limb while still alive, and
it's flesh eaten raw. This ram symbolized the old year passing into the heavens
to allow room for the new year. A new-born lamb was then presented which,
symbolizing the new year, would be kept and fattened for the next year's
ceremonies. This year Semiramis directed the ritual according to the formula,
with the exception that when the time came for the ram to be slaughtered, it
was the king who was torn to pieces at the hands of the drug-crazed priesthood
and Semiramis' bastard son was installed as king. Thus Nimrod, the mighty
hunter, died a horrible death as a trapped beast himself.
Semiramis named
her son Damu (from the Sumerian "dam," or blood), which in the later
Babylonian language became Dammuzi, in Hebrew Tammuz, and in Greek Adonis. Of
course, Semiramis assumed the regency for her infant son, and ruled as absolute
monarch for 42 more years. In order to avoid having to kill her son on the next
New Year's Day, she instituted an annual nation-wide sports competition, the
winner of which would have the "honor" of taking Damu's place and
ascending into heaven to become a god.
Semiramis was
not unopposed in her arrogation of the regency, however, or her rule as a
woman. The military arm of the government was divided into two camps for and
against her, and a short war ensued which ended when the populace (roused by
the priesthood) not only refused to support the "rebels" but actively
opposed them. In the course of this war, though, things became so close that
Semiramis was forced to build a system of walls, towers, and gates around Babylon to defend herself.
She was thus the first to build fortifications and her crown afterwards was in
the form of the turreted walls of Babylon.
To oppose the accusations of "mere" womanhood laid against her, she
had herself deified as the mother of the god Damu (since only a god can beget a
god) , and installed as "The Queen of Heaven" pictured in the
constellation Cassiopeia, which the ancients had intended as a corporate representation
of those people faithful to God who will be enthroned by Him after the end of
the age.
In spite of her
cleverness, though, she also sowed the seeds of her own destruction. As she
raised her son, she imbued him with divinity in the eyes of the priests and
people as the means of retaining control as the divine mother without seeming
to aggrandize herself. As Damu grew he became used to having every whim
instantly gratified by a subservient, indeed groveling, populace. For safety's
sake he had a personal bodyguard/companion group which he was never without,
and which formed an elite corps of soldiery loyal and accountable to him alone.
Upon coming to maturity and demanding of his mother to be installed as king,
she not only refused him this--but, seeing him now as a challenge to her rule,
slated him for the same death she had meted to his father. Damu caught on to
her scheme, and pre-empted his "assumption" by slaying his mother
with his own sword, and putting down any priestly protests by purging the hierarchy
of all who would not vow allegiance to him. Thus Semiramis died after reigning
as queen over Babylon
for 102 years.
These events
laid the groundwork for all of the pagan religious systems of antiquity, as
well as many alive today. Semiramis, in particular was the model and original
of every goddess and female cult figure in the ancient and modern worlds
(either directly or by derivation); and thus it essential to know her story in
order to discern what is factual legend and what is merely myth.
by Bryce Self
onesimus@ix.netcom.com
4/28/84.
BABYLONIAN
RELIGION
By Harry A. Ironside
e-sword commentary
As we go back
into the dim twilight of history with Scripture, we learn that the founder of
Bab-el, or Babylon,
was Nimrod, of whose unholy achievements we read in the 10th chapter of
Genesis. He was the arch-apostate of the patriarchal age. He is described as a
"mighty hunter before the Lord" -- "a hunter of the souls of
men," the rabbis said. Going out from the presence of the Lord, he
impiously sought to gather a multitude about himself, and in defiance of the
express command of God to spread abroad upon the face of the earth, he persuaded
his associates and followers to join together in "building a city and a
tower which should reach unto heaven."
Not surely as
some of us were taught in our childhood a tower by which they might climb up
into the skies to escape another possible flood, but a tower of renown, rising
to a great height, to be recognized as a temple or rallying center for those
who did not walk in obedience to the word of the Lord. With all the effrontery
of our modern apostates, they called their city and tower Bab-El, the gate of
God; but it was soon changed by divine judgment into Babel, Confusion. It bore the stamp of
unreality from the first, for we are told, "they had brick for stone, and
slime had they for mortar." An imitation of that which is real and true
has ever since characterized Babylon
in all ages.
Nimrod, or
Nimroud-bar-Cush, as he is called on the monuments, was a grandson of Ham, the
unworthy son of Noah, whose character is revealed in his exposure of his
father's shame. We know that Noah had brought through the flood the revelation
of the true God, for he was a preacher of righteousness, and his utterances on
more than one occasion show that he had the prophetic gift. Ham on the other
hand seems to have been all too readily affected by the apostasy that brought
the flood, for he shows no evidence of self-judgment, but the very opposite. So
Noah passes over his unworthy son and utters a curse upon Canaan, Ham begat a
son named Cush,
and he became the father of Nimrod, the apostate leader of his generation.
Ancient lore now
comes to our assistance, and tells us that the wife of Nimrod-bar-Cush was the
infamous Semiramis, the First. She is reputed to have been the founder of the
Babylonian mysteries and the first high-priestess of idolatry. Thus Babylon became the
fountainhead of idolatry, and the mother of every heathen and pagan system in
the world. The mystery-religion that was originated there spread in various
forms throughout the whole earth, and as we shall see in a few minutes, it is
with us today. It is identical with the mystery of iniquity which wrought so
energetically in Paul's day, and shall have its fullest development when the
Holy Spirit has departed and the Babylon
of the apocalypse holds sway.
Building on the
primeval promise of the woman's Seed who was to come, Semiramis bore a son whom
she declared was miraculously conceived, and when she presented him to the
people, he was hailed as the promised deliverer. This was Tammuz, whose worship
Ezekiel protested against in the days of the captivity. Thus was introduced the
mystery of the mother and the child, a form of idolatry that is older than any
other known to man. The rites of this worship were secret. Only the initiated
were permitted to know its mysteries. It was Satan's effort to delude mankind
with an imitation so like the truth of God that they would not know the true
Seed of the woman when He came in the fullness of time. To this Justin Martyr
bears definite witness.
From Babylon this
mystery-religion spread to all the surrounding nations, as the years went on
and the world was populated by the descendants of Noah. Everywhere the symbols
were the same, and everywhere the cult of the mother and child became the
popular system. Their worship was celebrated with the most disgusting and
immoral practices. The image of the queen of heaven with the babe in her arms
was seen everywhere, though the names might differ as languages differed. It
became the mystery-religion of Phoenicia,
and by the Phoenicians was carried to the ends of the earth. Ashtoreth and
Tammuz, the mother and child of these hardy adventurers, became Isis and Horus
in Egypt, Aphrodite and Eros
in Greece, Venus and Cupid
in Italy,
and bore many other names in more distant places. Within 1,000 years,
Babylonianism had become the religion of the world, which had rejected the
Divine revelation.
Linked with the
central mystery were countless lesser mysteries, the hidden meaning of which
was known only to the initiates, but the outward forms were practiced by all
the people. Among these were the doctrines of purgatorial purification after
death, salvation by countless sacraments (such as priestly absolution),
sprinkling with holy water, the offering of round cakes to the queen of heaven
(as mentioned in the book of Jeremiah), dedication of virgins to the gods
(which was literally sanctified prostitution), weeping for Tammuz for a period
of 40 days prior to the great festival of Istar (who was said to have received
her son back from the dead); for it was taught that Tammuz was slain by a wild boar
and afterwards brought back to life. To him the egg was sacred, as depicting
the mystery of his resurrection even as the evergreen was his chosen symbol and
was set up in honor of his birth at the winter solstice, when a boar's head was
eaten in memory of his conflict and a yule log burned with many mysterious
observances.
The sign of the
cross was sacred to Tammuz, as symbolizing the life giving principle and as the
first letter of his name. It is represented upon vast numbers of the most
ancient altars and temples, and did not, as many have supposed originate with
Christianity. From this mystery-religion, the patriarch Abraham was separated
by the divine call, and with this same evil cult the nation that sprang from
him had constant conflict, until under Jezebel, a Phoenician princess, it was
grafted onto what was left of the religion of Israel in the northern kingdom in
the day of Ahab, and was the cause of their captivity at the last. Judah was polluted by it, for Baal-worship was
but the Canaanitish form of Babylonian mysteries, and only by being sent into
captivity to Babylon itself did Judah
become cured of her fondness for idolatry. Baal was the Sun-God, the
Life-giving One, identical with Tammuz.
When Christ came
into this world the mystery of iniquity was everywhere holding sway, save where
the truth of God as revealed in the Old Testament was known. Thus, when the
early Christians set out upon the great task of carrying the gospel to the ends
of the earth, they found themselves everywhere confronted by this system, in
one form or another; for though Babylon
as a city had long been but a mystery, her mysteries had not died with her.
When the city and temples were destroyed, the high-priest fled with a company
of initiates and their sacred vessels and images to Pergamos, where the Symbol
of the serpent was set up as the emblem of the hidden wisdom. From there, they
afterwards crossed the sea and immigrated to Italy, where, they settled on the
Etruscan plain.
There the
ancient cult was propagated under the name of the Etruscan Mysteries and
eventually Rome
became the headquarters of Babylonianism. The chief priests wore mitres shaped
like the head of a fish, in honor of Dagon, the fish-god, the Lord of
life-another form of the Tammuz mystery, as developed among Israel's old enemies, the
Philistines. The chief priest when established in Rome took the title Pontifex Maximus, and
this was imprinted in on his mitre. When Julius Caesar (who was an initiate
like all young Romans of good family) had become the head of the States, he was
elected Pontifex Maximus, and this title was held henceforth by all the Roman
emperors down to Constantine the Great, who was at one and the same time, head
of the church, and high priest to the heathen. The title was afterwards
conferred upon the bishops of Rome,
and is borne by the pope today, who is thus declared to be, not the successor
of the fisherman-apostle Peter, but the direct successor of the high priest of
the Babylonian mysteries, and the servant of the fish-god Dagon, for whom he
wears, like his idolatrous predecessors, the fisherman's ring.
During the early
centuries of the church's history, the mystery of iniquity had wrought with
such astounding effect, and the Babylonian practices and teachings had been so
largely absorbed by that which bore the name of the church of Christ, that the
truth of the Holy Scriptures on many points had been wholly obscured, while
idolatrous practices had been foisted upon the people as Christian sacraments,
and the heathen philosophies took the place of gospel instruction. Thus was
developed that amazing system which for a thousand years dominated Europe and trafficked in the bodies of souls of men,
until the great Reformation of the 16th century brought in a measure of
deliverance.
(Rev_17:1-17)
By
Dr. Seiss e-sword commentary
GREAT BABYLON
THE NAME CONNECTS WITH THE PRIMAL APOSTASY AFTER
THE FLOOD—NIMROD, HIS QUEEN SAMIRAMIS, AND THEIR INVENTIONS-
THE WORLD'S INTOXICATION WITH THEM-
THE HARLOT'S OWN DRUNKENNESS WITH THE BLOOD OF SAINTS—
Rev_17:
And he bore me away in spirit into a wilderness,
and I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet beast, full of names of blasphemy,
having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was clothed in purple and
scarlet, decked with gold and precious stone and pearls, having a cup of gold
in her hand full of abominations and the unclean things of her and of the
earth's fornication, and upon her forehead a name written, Mystery, Babylon
the great, the mother of the harlots and of the abominations of the earth.
We have already twice heard of Great Babylon, and
calamity to her; once in Rev_14:8, by
anticipation; and once in Rev_16:19,
where her sins were said to have come into remembrance, and the cup of the
fierceness of the wrath of God to have been administered to her. The
particulars of that visitation, as well as the whole character and relations of
this mystic personage, are given in the chapters upon which we now enter. As
the first reference was somewhat anticipative, so these further accounts are
somewhat retrogressive, and go back to exhibit in all its length and breadth
what in the previous chapter was only synoptically stated.
The subject itself is one of great prominence in
the Apocalypse, as in all the prophecies; but it has proven about as difficult
as it is conspicuous. The first point is the evident correlation and contrast
between the Woman here pictured and another Woman described in the twelfth
chapter.
Both these Women are mothers; the first
"brought forth a son, a male [neuter, embracing either sex], who is
to rule all the nations;" the second "is the mother of harlots and of
the abominations of the earth."
Both are splendidly dressed; the first is
"clothed with the sun." Her raiment is light from heaven. The second
is "clothed in purple, and scarlet, decked with gold, and precious stone,
and pearls." All her ornaments are from below, made up of things out of
the earth and the sea.
Both are very influential in their position; the
first has "the moon," the empress of night, the powers of darkness,
"under her feet;" the second "hath rule, or kingdom, upon the
kings of the earth."
Both are sufferers; against the first is the
Dragon, who stands watching to devour her child, and persecutes and pursues
her, and drives her into the wilderness, and sends out a river to overwhelm
her, and is at war with all her seed that he can find; against the second are
the ten kings, who ultimately hate her, and make her desolate and naked, and
eat her flesh, and burn her with fire, whilst God in His strength judgeth her,
and visits her with plague, death, and utter destruction.
Both are very conspicuous, and fill a large space
in the history of the world, and in all the administrations of divine
providence and judgment. That they are counterparts of each other there can
hardly be. a reasonable doubt.
The one is a pure woman, the other is a harlot.
The first is hated by the powers on earth, the
second is loved, flattered, and caressed by them. Where the one has sway,
things are heavenly; where the other lives, it is "wilderness."
The one produces masculine nobility, which is
ultimately caught away to God and to His throne; the other produces effeminate
impurity, which calls down the fierceness of the divine wrath.
The one is sustained and helped by celestial
wings; the other is supported and carried by the Dragon power,-the Beast with
the seven heads and ten horns.
The one has a crown of twelve stars, wearing the
patriarchs and apostles as her royal diadem; the other has upon her forehead
the name of the greatest destroyer and oppressor of the holy people, and is
drunken with "the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that have
been slain upon the earth."
The one finally comes out in a heavenly city, the
New Jerusalem, made up of imperishable jewels, and arrayed in all the glory of
God and the Lamb; the other finally comes out in a city of this world's
superlative admiration, which suddenly goes down forever under the intense
wrath of Heaven, and becomes the habitation of demons, and a hold of every
unclean spirit.
These two Women, thus related, and set over one
against the other as opposites and rivals, must necessarily be interpreted in
the same way. As Antichrist corresponds to Christ as a rival and antagonist of
Christ, so Great Babylon corresponds to the Woman that bears the Manchild, as her
rival and antagonist.
"The Woman clothed with the sun, having the
moon under her feet, is the Church of the Patriarchs, and of the Prophets, and
of the holy Apostles"--that is, the Church from the days of Adam and Eve
on to the last victory over the worship, name, and mark, of the final
Antichrist.
What then can this rival Woman be but the
organized Antichurch, the pseudo-church, the Bride made out of Satan, the
universal body and congregation of false-believers and false-worshippers?
As Christ has had a visible Church in all time,
embodying the wisdom and spirit of heaven, and maintaining the confession of
His truth and worship,
So has the Devil had a corresponding following in
all time, embodying the sensual and devilish wisdom and spirit, and maintaining
the profession and teaching of Satan's lies.
And as the first Woman denotes the one, so the
second Woman denotes the other. The proofs of this will appear as we consider
the particulars of the case.
1. One of the most
characteristic features of this Woman is her harlotry. The Angel calls
her "The Great Harlot," and she wears on her forehead as her name,
"The mother of the harlots, and of the abominations of the earth."
Harlotry is the standing symbol in the word of God for a debauched worship,
idolatry, and false devotion.
2. This conclusion is rendered
the more necessary by the name which this Woman has written upon her forehead.
How could she be "the mother of the harlots and of the abominations of the
earth" if her existence does not date back to, and above all include, the
great harlotries and abominations. The imagery, therefore, goes back to the
beginnings, out of which all false systems, and false worships, and
abominations of the earth have come.
3. Accordingly, also, we have
in the very front of this Woman's name a designation which carries us back to
the commencement of the whole ill-condition of things in this present world.
Turning to these chapters of national origins, we
learn that the beginning of the kingdom of Nimrod, the grandson of Ham,
was Bab-el, or Babylon, in the land of Shinar, whither the then inhabitants of
the earth, who were as yet of one language and one speech, journeyed together
from the East. This implication is, that they came thither under the leadership
of Nimrod, whose name means a rebellious panther, and that under him
began that first great work of rebellion against God which brought the
confusion of tongues, and inaugurated the original of all the subsequent harlotries
and abominations of mankind. Against the command and known intent of the
Almighty, it was there undertaken to "build a city and a tower whose top
might reach unto heaven," and to make themselves a name that they might
not be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth. It appears, also, that from
the hunting and slaying of wild beasts, and with the armed forces grouped
around him in that business, Nimrod betook himself to the subjugation and
enslavement of men, compelling them into his service and daring schemes. Thus
he "began to be a mighty one in the earth, the organizer of an arbitrary
imperialism over against the patriarchal order and the divine institutes. The
Arab records tell us that he was the first king, and thus the beginner of all kingcraft
and tyranny which have since so much oppressed the world. It is said of him
that he professed to have seen a golden crown in the sky, that he had one made
like it, and that he put it on his own head, and thus claimed to rule in the
name and as the earthly impersonation of the powers of the sky, either as Orion
or the Sun.
The Bible says that it was further arranged for
the people to make for themselves "a name,"--a Sem,
token, sign, banner, ensign, or mark of confederation, fellowship, and
organized unity, as an undivided people, lest they should become dispersed over
the earth into separate societies. (Compare Jer_13:11; Jer_33:9; Eze_39:13; Zep_3:20.)
Against God they had determined to hold together, and they wished to have a
badge, standard, something by which they could be known, and in which they
could all glory and rejoice as the centre and crown of their unity. That Sem,
or Sema, was to be a mark of consolidated greatness, a loftiness and pride to
them; that is, in the language of the time, a Sema-Rama. Thus we have the name
of the mythic Semiramis, the Dove-Goddess, which was the ensign of all the
Assyrian princes, and which figures so largely as Ashtaroth, Astarte, the
heavenly Aphrodite, and Venus. Semiramis is said to have been the wife of Nimrod;
so that the Sem, or token, of the Nimrodic confederation was probably the image
of his wife, with a dove upon her head, with wings spread like the horns of the
new moon. This, in the language of the time, would be called Sema-Rama, because
the great Sem, name, or token, of the combination against being scattered
abroad. The symbol of such a name or confederation would naturally and almost
necessarily take the place of a god, and become the holy mother, the great
heavenly protectress, the giver of greatness and prosperity to those rallying
under it.
So again, Nimrod called his first and capital
city Bab-el, which, in the language of the time, means The Gate of God;
of course not the God of Noah and Shem, for the whole proceeding was in known
and intended antagonism to the true God and His will and commands.
Hebraistically, and by way of accommodation to the judgment which Jehovah there
inflicted, Babel
is made significant of confusion (Gen_11:9),
but in the original application of the name it means The Gate of God.
Thus, in the very name of the place, we have the intimation and proof that
these Nimrodic proceedings were not only the organization of a new and
oppressive style of government, but with it, as an essential part of it, the
inauguration of a new and idolatrous religion, the parent apostasy of the
postdiluvian world.
The Bible says that Nimrod was a mighty hunter
before the Lord. The Targum of Jonathan interprets this to mean that he was
a mighty rebel before the Lord, the mightiest rebel before the Lord that
ever was in the earth. The Jerusalem Targum reads it that he was mighty
in sin before the Lord, a hunter of the sons of men, exhorting them to
leave the judgments of Shem and adhere to the judgments of Nimrod. Hence it was
the proverb concerning every notorious adventurer in wickedness and oppression,
As the mighty Nimrod in rebellion and sin before God. Jarchi accordingly
understands the record to be, that Nimrod was a most brazen offender, who did
not fear or hesitate to withstand God to his very face. And every intimation
concerning him shows that he was the Heaven-defying founder of a new system of
rule and worship, instituting a government by brute force and earthly wisdom
and policy, and a religion which quite abolished the true God, and set men to
the adoration of the sun (Nimrod), moon(Samiramis), and stars (her son Damu),
impersonated in himself, wife, relatives, and chief consociates, and
represented in the idol standards of his kingdom.
Semiramis was the instigator in forming the false religion aimed
at supporting their rule, and of course her suggestion fell upon open
ears. Bryce Self
It is a mistake to suppose that idolatry was the
gradual growth of well-disposed but unenlightened human thinking. Its rise was
sudden. It was conceived in intentional rebellion. It was the invention of a
proud and tyrannous ambition at war with Jehovah's commands. It was brought
into being to counteract the will and worship of the true and known God. It was
the creature and handmaid of power for the deification of "the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life "in the place of the
Creator. And it originated with old Babylon, and
Babylon's first
king, the great rebel Nimrod
Whatever changes or additions came, it still was
old Babylon, which ever abides, potent through
all the ages, and known to the judgment angels as "Babylon the great, the mother of
the harlots and of the abominations of the earth."
4. It is further said of this
Woman that "the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk from the wine of
her fornication." Ancient lore now comes to our assistance, and tells us that the
wife of Nimrod-bar-Cush was the infamous Semiramis, the First. She is reputed
to have been the founder of the Babylonian mysteries and the first high-priestess
of idolatry. Thus Babylon
became the fountainhead of idolatry, and the mother of every heathen and pagan
system in the world. The mystery-religion that was originated there spread in
various forms throughout the whole earth .
Bryce Self
The cup held out is golden. The cup is one;
and in all the varied systems of false faith and false worship which taint our
world there is held out and received but one and the same essence, and that
essence is the harlotry of old Babylon. It is most direct in Paganism; but it
is in Mohammedanism, in Papalism, in the degenerate Catholicism of the Eastern
churches, and in all the heretical isms, infidelities, and mere goodishnesses
which afflict our Protestant Christianity as well. So true is it that Great
Babylon, the mother of the harlots and of the abominations of the earth, hath
made the inhabitants of the earth drunk with the wine of her fornication.
5. This Women is also herself
drunken-"drunken from the blood of the saints, and from the blood of the
martyrs or witnesses of Jesus." "In her was found the blood of
prophets, and of saints, and all that have been slain [as martyrs] upon the
earth. It is very certain, and beyond dispute, that all the persecution and
slaying of saints, and prophets, and witnesses for God that have ever occurred
upon earth, past or present; ancient or modern, stand charged against the
mystic kingdom of idolaters, false religionists, and such as accepted
fellowship with spiritual harlotry. Persecution of God's prophets or people is itself
a mark and evidence of spiritual whoredom. It shows alienation from God and His
true worship. And wherever such presentation finds place, or saints are
sacrificed for their faith, there this great Harlot is in living and visible
force and presence, whether among Pagans or Jews, Mohammedans or Christians,
Catholics or Protestants. It is the old Nimrod the SUN god and Samiramis the
MOON goddess over again, tyrannously enforcing murderous will against the will
and commands of God.
6. Again, this mystic Woman sits
upon many waters, which waters the angel says "are peoples, and
multitudes, and nations, and tongues." There is a vastness and
universality in these terms, and in the extent of these symbolic waters
extending over many peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues, there are many
many more peoples, and far greater multitudes, and numbers of nations, and
tongues which make up the seat, dependence, and support of this great Harlot.
At one period or another she has been found sitting on every people, and
nation, and tongue, since the tongues or multitudes of men have been
sundered.
End notes and References.
2. Web
pages that tell this story:
3.
Title: ANF08. ANTE-NICENE FATHERS 08
Schaff, Philip (1819-1893)
(Editor)
Chapter XXIX.--Fire-Worship of
the Persians.
"First among whom is named a
certain king Nimrod, the magic art having
been handed down to him as by a flash, whom the Greeks, also called
Ninus, and from whom the city of Nineveh
took its name. Thus,
therefore, diverse and erratic superstitions took their beginning from
the magic art. For, because it
was difficult to draw away the human
race from the love of God, and attach them to deaf and lifeless images,
the magicians made use of higher efforts, that men might be turned to
erratic worship, by signs among the stars, and motions brought down as
it were from heaven, and by the will of God. And those who had been
first deceived, collecting the ashes of Zoroaster,--who, as we have
said, was burnt up by the indignation of the demon, to whom he had been
too troublesome,--brought them to the Persians, that they might be
preserved by them with perpetual watching, as divine fire fallen from
heaven, and might be worshipped as a heavenly God.
This fire-worship the Persian Magi did not pretend to have
invented; but their popular story carried the origin of it up to the days of
Hoshang, the father of Tahmurs, who founded Babylon (WILSON, pp. 202, 203, and
579)---i.e., the time of Nimrod. In confirmation of this, we have seen that a
fragment of Apollodorus (Muller, 68) makes Ninus the head of the
fire-worshippers. Layard, quoting this fragment, supposes Ninus to be different
from Zoroaster (Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 443, Note); but it can be
proved, that though many others bore the name of Zoraster, the lines of
evidence all converge, so as to demonstrate that Ninus and Nimrod and Zoroaster
were one. The legends of Zoroaster show that he was known not only as a Magus,
but as a Warrior (ARNOBIUS, lib. i. p. 327).
