Saturday, November 19, 2016

Mystery Religion of Babylon

In this study we look at the mysterious religion that is the foundation of many occult religions exists in modern day secret organizations.
Scriptures:
  • Genesis 10:8-12
  • 2 Chronicles 33:1-5
  • Genesis 6:4
  • 1 Kings 11:7
  • Deuteronomy 16:21
  • Revelations 1:20
  • Deuteronomy 17:2-5
  • Judges 1:28-29
  • Judges 2:1-3
  • 2 Kings 17:13-17
  • Jeremiah 44:15-18, 30
  • Zechariah 5:5-11

Review of The Tower of Babel

  • The Tower of Babel was built to:
    1. Reach the Heavens
    2. Make a name for themselves
  • There are still remains of towers called ziggurats that were built in the time of ancient Babylon
  • The ziggurats were built to bring “gods” down to earth with the hope of obtaining some type of favor from the “god”
  • Therefore to reach Heaven meant to get in contact or communication with Heaven
    1. Similar to reaching someone on the phone
  • It was a gateway to Heaven
    1. A method of communicating with or bringing down spirit beings
    2. Angels
    3. Demons
  • God did not approve of the tower
  • To stop the Tower from being built God made the people different speak different languages
  • The different families all worshiped their own gods
  • Paul tells us that these so called gods are actually demons
  • Nimrod was the king who ordered the construction of the Tower of Babel
  • Nimrod was the emperor of the whole world at that time
  • Nimrod was potentially a Nephilim
    1. hybrid of half human half angel created when the angels fell
  • Nimrod married his mother Samirieas/Semiramis who reigned as queen
  • Nimrod and Semiramis were both worshiped as gods and went by many names in many cultures

About Babel

"Babel" is composed of two words,
  • "bab" meaning "gate" and,
  • "el," "god." Hence, "the gate of god."

Correction:
Babylon wasn’t the first city.  Enoch  was the name of the first city.  Genesis 4:17  (named after Cain’s son)
  • Cain built the first city
  • Seems like all of the early city builders were in defiance to God

The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 53 miles south of Baghdad.

Nimrod Became a Giant

Genesis 10:8-12
8Cush was the fatherc of Nimrod, who became a mighty warrior on the earth. 9He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.” 10The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Uruk, Akkad and Kalneh, ind Shinar.e 11From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir,f Calah 12and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah—which is the great city.
  • Nimrod was the king who built the Tower of Babel


Genesis 10:8 (NASB)
Now Cush became the father of Nimrod; he became a mighty one [gib-bōr] on the earth.

gibbor
  • same root as gibborim which was the word “giant” used in the description of the Nephilim in Gen 6
  • men of renown

Genesis 10:8 (Septuagint)
8And Chus begot Nebrod: he began to be a giant upon the earth.

Become a “man of renown”
  • They were men of renown because they were giants

Genesis 10:8 (International Standard Version)
He became a fearless hunter in defiance of the LORD. That is why it is said, "Like Nimrod, a fearless hunter in defiance of the LORD."

The Mystery Religion


We discussed last week that Nimrod and his wife/mother were worshipped as Baal and Asherah.

2 Chron 33:1-5
1Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. 2He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. 3He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had demolished; he also erected altars to the Baals and made Asherah poles. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. 4He built altars in the temple of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “My Name will remain in Jerusalem forever.” 5In both courts of the temple of the Lord, he built altars to all the starry hosts. 6He sacrificed his children in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, practiced divination and witchcraft, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.
  • They sacrificed children, practiced witchcraft, sought omens, consulted mediums, bowed down to the starry hosts
  • This is the foundation of occult and satanic worship of today

What did he mean when he said  “My Name will remain in Jerusalem forever.”

Practices of the Religion

Seeking Omens

An omen (also called portent or presage) is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change. People in the ancient times believed that omens revealed a divine message from their gods.

These omens include natural phenomena, for example an eclipse, abnormal births of animals and humans and behavior of the sacrificial lamb on its way to the slaughter. They had specialists, the diviners, to interpret these omens.

Divination

The practice of seeking knowledge of the future or the unknown by supernatural means

Child Sacrifice

“He sacrificed his children in the Valley of Ben Hinnom” (2 Chron 33:6).  This was a valley to the east of Jerusalem.  King Solomon built altars to Chemosh and Molech here.

1 Kings 11:7
On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites.

  • They practiced child sacrifice.

Moloch was a bronze statue of a bull heated with fire into which the victims were thrown.


They sacrificed children to the two horned god Molek/Molech.   Molech is identified with Satan.  


Interesting that we debate if abortion is murder:
  • Fundamentalist Christians say yes
  • For Satanists, abortion counts as murder in their rituals
  • The one topic Christians and Satanists agree upon

Worship of a Bull / Calf

In Egyptian mythology, Apis or Hapis is a sacred bull worshiped in the Memphis region. "Apis served as an intermediary between humans and an all-powerful god (originally Ptah, later Osiris, then Atum)."[1]
 --Wikipedia
  • Osiris was the Egyptian name for Nimrod
  • They worshiped Nimrod as a god

Asherah Poles

An Asherah pole is a sacred tree or pole that stood near Canaanite religious locations to honor the Ugaritic mother-goddess Asherah.  The asherim were also cult objects related to the worship of the fertility goddess Asherah.

Deuteronomy 16:21
"You shall not plant for yourself an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of the LORD your God, which you shall make for yourself.
  • These were trees that represented Asherah

Obelisk


It was also represented as an obelisk.  An obelisk is a phallic symbol of pagan worship found throughout Babylonia.
  • And Washington DC all over the world

Washington Monument

  Worshiping the Stars

The Ziggurats were aligned to a particular star or constellation.

Revelations 1:20
20The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angelse of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
  • Stars represented angels
  • Each star/constellation  represented a different angel/demon.
  • These demons were fallen angels not disembodied spirits.

Worship of Nimrod and Semiramis (and Legend)

When God confounded the languages Nimrod was known by different names in the different languages.

Nimrod was known as a hunter.
  • Orion (constellation)
  • The Centaur (Greece)
  • Gilgamesh (Mesopotamia)
  • Appollo

Sun God and Goddess of Love


They were worshiped as the sun god and the goddess of love:
  • Baal and Ashtarte
  • Ashtoreth (Asherah) and Tammuz (Phoenicia / Canaan)
  • Aphrodite and Eros (Greece)
  • Venus and Cupid (Rome)

False Messiah


The prophecy of the coming Messiah has been known long ago as told in the stars.  Semiramis tried to imply that Nimrod/Tammuz was that coming one.

Satan counterfeits everything of God.

Nimrod married his mother Semiramis.  After he was killed (by Shem), his ex-wife became pregnant and said that their son Tammuz was Nimrod resurrected.  

The three were worshiped as mother, father and (resurrected) son:
  • Nimrod, Tammuz, Semiramis (Babylon)
  • Isis, Osiris and Horus [the sun god] (Egypt)

Mother and Child


Worshiped as mother and child as:
  • Artemis and Diana (Ephesus)
  • Devaki and Krishna (India)
  • Mother Shing Moo and her child (China)

Mother of Heaven

Semiramis was known  as The Mother of Heaven or The Queen of Heaven.  She eventually became the the center figure of worship in many of the resultant pagan religions.

In Revelation she’s known as “the Mother of Harlots”


Israel Warned Not to Worship Baal


Deuteronomy 17:2-5
2If a man or woman living among you in one of the towns the Lord gives you is found doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God in violation of his covenant, 3and contrary to my command has worshiped other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the stars in the sky, 4and this has been brought to your attention, then you must investigate it thoroughly. If it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, 5take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death.
  • Now we better understand this penalty of death

How Israel Fell Into Baal Worship

Judges 1:28-29
It came about when Israel became strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they did not drive them out completely.
29 Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who were living in Gezer; so the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them.
  • God instructed the Israelites to drive the Canaanites out of the land
  • The Israelites kept them as slaves (which is what Noah expressed as a curse)
    .

Judges 2:1-3
1The angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land I swore to give to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, 2and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.’ Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? 3And I have also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; they will become traps for you, and their gods will become snares to you.’ ”
  • God had warned the Israelites that they would get caught up in the religion if the people lived among them
2 Kings 17:13-17
13The Lord warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: “Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your ancestors to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets.”
14But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their ancestors, who did not trust in the Lord their God. 15They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statutes he had warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, “Do not do as they do.”
16They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal. 17They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sought omens and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.
  • Israel repeatedly fell into worship of the  Mystery Religion of Babylon

How The Israelites Got Under Babylonian Rule

Jeremiah 44:15-18, 30
Then all the men who were aware that their wives were burning sacrifices to other gods, along with all the women who were standing by, as a large assembly, including all the people who were living in Pathros in the land of Egypt, responded to Jeremiah, saying,
16 "As for the message that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we are not going to listen to you!
17 "But rather we will certainly carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths,  by burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, just as we ourselves, our forefathers, our kings and our princes did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then we had plenty of food and were well off and saw no misfortune.
18 "But since we stopped burning  sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have  met our end by the sword and by famine."
…
30Thus says the LORD, 'Behold, I am going to give over Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt to the hand of his enemies, to the hand of those who seek his life, just as I gave over Zedekiah king of Judah to the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was his enemy and was seeking his life.'"
  • They were sacrificing to Semiramis now [the queen of heaven]

The Religion Exists Today

This mystery religion has gone by many names in many different cultures.

American Holidays

The Catholic church says that the holidays of Christmas and Resurrection Sunday were placed on the same days as the pagan holidays to overshadow them and replace them.

Origins of Easter

Legend has it that after Semiramis died, she ascended into heaven and was returned to earth inside a large egg which fell into the Euphrates river. The egg was pushed ashore by a dove and she emerged from the egg as Astarte or Ishtar (in English, Easter). To show her gratitude to the dove, she turned it into an egg-laying rabbit, all signs of fertility

Origins of Christmas

After Nimrod's death, his so-called mother-wife, Semiramis,  propagated the evil doctrine of the survival of Nimrod as a spirit being. She claimed a full-grown evergreen tree sprang overnight from a dead tree stump, which symbolized the springing forth unto new life of the     dead Nimrod. On each anniversary of his birth, she claimed, Nimrod would visit the evergreen tree and leave     gifts upon it. December 25th, was the birthday of Nimrod.  This is the real origin of the Christmas tree."
-The Plain Truth About Christmas
            by David J. Stewart

Other holidays that have their origins in this religion include:
  • Valentine’s Day (Cupid)
  • Groundhog Day

Secret Societies

  • The religion has been maintained through the secret societies
  • It is the basis of:
    • Western occultism
    • Satanism
    • New Age
    • Witchcraft
    • And most directly Luciferianism
      • Is not Satanism
      • Refers to Lucifer as the “light bearer”

The Last Days

Zechariah 5:5-11
5Then the angel who was speaking to me came forward and said to me, “Look up and see what is appearing.”
6I asked, “What is it?”
He replied, “It is a basket/epaph.” And he added, “This is the iniquityb of the people throughout the land.”
7Then the cover of lead was raised, and there in the basket sat a woman! 8He said, “This is wickedness,” and he pushed her back into the basket and pushed its lead cover down on it.
9Then I looked up—and there before me were two women, with the wind in their wings! They had wings like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between heaven and earth.
10“Where are they taking the basket?” I asked the angel who was speaking to me.
11He replied, “To the country of Babyloniac to build a house for it. When the house is ready, the basket will be set there in its place.”
Epaph - a measurement of a bushel basket of dry goods. This was the largest dry goods measurement in the Old Testament.
  • The woman in the basket/ephaph symbolizes the mystery religion.  
  • God is going to allow the rise of the Mystery Babylon Religion in the end times.
  • It could be in the literal location of the old Babylon (Iraq), or that could be a metaphor
Revelations 17 and 18 speak of the final conquest over Babylon in the end times.

Conclusion

This Mystery Religion of Babylon was created by Nimrod and Semiramis almost 3,000 years ago.  This religion was set up to oppose God and to entice people to turn away from God.  The spirit behind this religion is satan himself.

Babylon spiritually symbolizes the city of man or the city of Satan. One way to look at the Bible is a tale of two cities Jerusalem and Babylon. Both began in Genesis and both end in Revelation.  The Mystery Religion is the seed of the serpent, and it opposes the seed of the woman - Christianity.

We have unveiled some of the characteristics and rituals of the religion, so that you might now be able to identify its offspring and choose wisely when the time comes.
Presenter: Michael Leadon


References

Babylon the Great Harlot by Zac Poonen
http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=3075&forum=36


The Final Triumph
  by Zac Poonen 

TWO BABYLONS” 
  by Alexander Hislop

Babylon Rising: And The First Shall Be Last
 by Rob Skiba
Nimrod and the post-Flood Nephilim

Flood Myth

Noah: The Truth Bigger Than You Thought


SEMIRAMIS IN THE BIBLE

Zechariah’s  Vision of the Women and the Ephah



Extra Verses

Stars As Angels


Revelations 1:20
20The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angelse of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Revelations 12:3-4
3Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born.

Becoming a Giant


Jubilees 8:1-4 (Apocrypha)
  1. In the twenty-ninth jubilee, in the first week, [1373 A.M.] in the beginning thereof Arpachshad took to himself a wife and her name was Rasu'eja, the daughter of Susan, the daughter of Elam, and she bare him a son in the third year in this week, [1375 A.M.] and he called his name Kainam.
  2. And the son grew, and his father taught him writing, and he went to seek for himself a place where he might seize for himself a city.
  3. And he found a writing which former (generations) had carved on the rock, and he read what was thereon, and he transcribed it and sinned owing to it; for it contained the teaching of the Watchers in accordance with which they used to observe the omens of the sun and moon and stars in all the signs of heaven.
  4. And he wrote it down and said nothing regarding it; for he was afraid to speak to Noah about it lest he should be angry with him on account of it.

Stars

Amos 5 (NIIV)
25 "Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?
26 You have lifted up the shrine of your king, the pedestal of your idols, the star of your god —which you made for yourselves.
27 Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus," says the LORD, whose name is God Almighty.


1 Corinthians 15:40-41
40There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
Psalms 147:4-5
4He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.
5Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
his understanding has no limit.
  • They wanted to make a name for themselves
  • They wanted to be stars
  • They wanted to be sons of God
Jeremiah 19:13
13The houses in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled like this place, Topheth—all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs to all the starry hosts and poured out drink offerings to other gods.’ ”
Deuteronomy 4:19
19And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.

  • The stars were appointed to all the nations
  • These stars that they worshipped represent spiritual beings


Psalms 148:1-3
1Praise the Lord.a
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights above.
2Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
3Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all you shining stars.

The Future Stars

Genesis 15:5
He took him outside and said, "Look up at the sky and count the stars--if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."

Stars usually represented divine leadership in the bible.  In biblical days stars were used to navigate - to give direction.  Stars often represented guidance

Link to the Pyramids

The Orion correlation theory (or Giza–Orion correlation theory) is a hypothesis in alternative Egyptology. Its central claim is that there is a correlation between the location of the three largest pyramids of the Giza pyramid complex and Orion's Belt of the constellation Orion, and that this correlation was intended as such by the builders of the pyramids. The stars of Orion were associated with Osiris, the god of rebirth and afterlife, by the ancient Egyptians.
 -Wikipedia

Israel Worshiping The Mystery Religion


Romans 11:2-5
God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?
3 "Lord, THEY HAVE KILLED YOUR PROPHETS, THEY HAVE TORN DOWN YOUR ALTARS, AND I ALONE AM LEFT, AND THEY ARE SEEKING MY LIFE."
4 But what  is the divine response to him? "I HAVE KEPT for Myself SEVEN THOUSAND MEN WHO HAVE NOT BOWED THE KNEE TO BAAL."
5 In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's  gracious choice.

Sons of God

Job 38:4-7
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
 Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
 Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 On what were its footings set,
 or who laid its cornerstone—
7 while the morning stars sang together
 and all the angels[Sons of God] shouted for joy?
  • The sons of God were there before creation
    • They’re not humans
  • Many ancient cultures believed the stars were divine beings

God’s Name Reigns Supreme

1 Chronicles 17:20-21
20“O LORD, there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 21“And what one nation in the earth is like Your people Israel, whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people, to make You a name by great and terrible things, in driving out nations from before Your people, whom You redeemed out of Egypt?

Isaiah 47
Zephania 1:2-6
     2“I will completely remove all things
           From the face of the earth,” declares the LORD.
     3“I will remove man and beast;
           I will remove the birds of the sky
           And the fish of the sea,
           And the ruins along with the wicked;
           And I will cut off man from the face of the earth,” declares the LORD.
     4“So I will stretch out My hand against Judah
           And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
           And I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place,
           And the names of the idolatrous priests along with the priests.
     5“And those who bow down on the housetops to the host of heaven,
           And those who bow down and swear to the LORD and yet swear by Milcom[Molek],
     6And those who have turned back from following the LORD,
           And those who have not sought the LORD or inquired of Him.”

Milcom
from melek for Molek; the national idol of the Ammonites
  • Satan to whom they sacrificed their babies

Goal of the Mystery Religion Rituals

Reincarnation
  • This is what the pyramids were for
  • This is what the Egyptian Kings/pharaohs were trying to do
  • They wanted to get reincarnated into their sons

Origins


The Book of Enoch claims that these were the practices taught to humans by the Sons of God before the flood.

The book of Jubilees claims that they persisted after the flood because they were written on a rock and found by Canaan.  Canaan is the great grandfather of Nimrod.  
  • Canaan > Ham > Cush > Nimrod  

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