In order to understand the coming End Times religion of the Antichrist, we must first get a handle on the world’s first and on-going attempt to establish a human-generated, human-centered religion. After all, Alice Bailey, prophetess of the New Age, clearly teaches that the coming of the New Age ‘Christ’ (Antichrist), will be followed by the “definite restoration of the Mysteries” that age-old religion founded near the dawn of civilization itself.[i] It’s all related. Man’s End Times rebellion has its roots in all those ancient forms of Satanic worship that have permeated societies from Egypt and Babylon to the present. If we understand its starting point we’ll be better able to comprehend how it is operating today – and how it all relates – even to things like economics & revolution.
FOUNDATIONS OF THE MYSTERIES
“And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2Thess 2:11-12)
The history of man-made religion can be traced back to a man named Nimrod. He first shows up in Genesis 10:8-9, where we are told “Cush was the father of Nimrod, who grew to be a mighty warrior on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD.” We can actually trace it back even farther. Nimrod was the great grandson of Noah through Noah’s grandson Ham.[ii] He built several cities in Babylonia, (including Babylon), and also founded more cities in Assyria, including Nineveh. His existence is testified to by the fact that besides the Bible he shows up in the ancient literature of the Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Hittites; being the central figure in the Epic of Gilgamesh. He is even written of by the Jewish-Roman historian, Flavius Josephus.[iii]
Just who was this man? Now the word Nimrod, may not be a name at all but rather an appellation derived from his chief characteristic. The root word in the ancient Hebrew means “rebel”, and rebel he was. Extra-Biblical literature tells us that he was born of the mixed parentage of ‘the gods’ and men. Genesis 6 tells us of these unnatural unions that produced “giants on the earth in those days, [before the flood] and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.” (Genesis 6:4) Many scholars believe that these “sons of God” refer to nothing less than the Fallen Angels who followed Lucifer when he rebelled against God. More on that later. In addition, get this, there is a Masonic connection. The Masons can trace their roots to the globe’s first master builder. Mackey’s History of Freemasonry names “Nimrod as one of the founders of Masonry.” [iv]
Now Nimrod became the founder of empires, (Babylon & Nineveh), the builder of the tower of Babel, (an open act of rebellion against God), and the dictator of the known world. His was an empire that exercised both civil and religious control. He introduced the black arts including “astrology, occultism and devil worship.” He married a beautiful woman named Semiramis, and together they established a religion based on the worship of themselves, – and eventually their son. It was a religion full of mystery and ceremony and secret sacred knowledge. As a unifying centerpiece, he began to build a tower that was to house an astrological / astronomical observatory at its’ peak. So when God scattered the people after their attempt to build the Tower of Babel, they took aspects of their Babylonian Mystery Religion with them to the far ends of the earth.[v] What they took with them was a strange amalgam of both the dimly remembered “revelations of God” as well as the Devil & Nimrod worshiping cultic ideas that originated in Babylon. This system is known as ‘The Babylonian Mystery Religion’.[vi] As we will see later, this manifested itself in some very interesting ways.
Just for the record: While Semiramis was busy developing her following, Nimrod was gathering one of his own, – again transferring from culture to culture with only the name changing. In Israel and the surrounding nations such as Phoenicia, Syria and Caanan; – the Babylonian god named Bel became the more well known and Biblically condemned Baal. (It is from here that we get Satan’s appellation Beelzebub, or Lord of the Flies.)[vii]
You see, the people apparently bought into this whole notion of worshipping Nimrod, Semiramis and her son, Tammuz. Banking on the remembered promises of God later recorded in Genesis 3:15; – that salvation for the human race would come from ‘the seed of the woman’; – she presented her son as the fulfillment of that prophecy. So Nimrod and Semiramis developed what you might call a ‘shadow religion’ or imitation of God’s real plan, – as best they could. Tammuz would play the role of the world’s savior. Semiramis, desired worship for herself and was presented as the ‘mother of this savior’. She became the only way to God and the “Queen of Heaven”.[viii] [ix] Through their contacts with other cultures in the region, even the Hebrews picked up the worship of this “Queen of Heaven.” Jeremiah 7:18 quotes God saying: “The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger.” Chapter 44 of Jeremiah details how the Israelites persisted in their rebellion by continuing this pagan worship. They subsequently lost the favor and protection of God for a season on account of this sin.
However it was not just the Israelites that were involved in this abomination. Statues began appearing all around the world depicting the likeness of the Queen of Heaven, all in the form of a mother holding an infant child. The worship of mother and child spread the ancient world, taking on local names. In Egypt, mother and son were Isis and Horus or Osirus. In parts of India it was Devka and Krishna. The Greeks called the mother figure Ceres or Irene or Aphrodite and Eros. Rome gave us Venus. Even Germany and Scandinavia had their versions. The cult spread as far as Japan [x]and China where the mother Shing Moo was portrayed holding her child with a halo of light around her. Now where have I seen that before?
What’s even more interesting is the whole look of the thing. This Mystery Religion introduced practices that while innovative at the time, were adapted successively by the various adopting cultures. One of the central feasts of this religious system was based on the ‘resurrection’ of Semiramis’ son, Tammuz. The story goes that he was killed by a wild boar and after 40 days raised from the dead. Temple virgins would fast those 40 days each year, in mourning over the dead son. After the days of fasting came the feast of Ishtar, (from whence we get our name Easter), which is just another name for Semiramis. During that Feast of Ishtar, colored eggs serving as a sign of fertility became part of the celebration. Son and mother were both being honored: He as savior and she as Co-Mediatrix between God and man.[xi]
Summarized below are some of the practices and characteristics of this Mystery Religion:
- The son, Tammuz was the ‘savior of the world’.
- Semiramis was the “Queen of Heaven.”
- Salvation came by following certain ceremonial rituals or sacraments.[xii]
- A period of purging followed death, ‘cleaning’ one of his remaining sins. Instead of entering paradise, the dead person would at first reside in an intermediate place where they awaited the release of their soul.
- To release the soul from this bondage, prayers for the dead were instituted as well as a system that credited donations to the Babylonian priesthood to the account of the imprisoned dead person.[xiii]
- An order of virgins were dedicated to Semiramis alone. They wore long robes and lived in community.[xiv] These vestal virgins were known as “Daughters of Nimrod,” and according to one source they got their name from the Chaldean word “NUN”.[xv]
- A black robed celibate priesthood was developed. They were marked by the ‘clerical tonsure’ or the shaving of the middle of the top of the head bald, leaving the edges to grow in a circle in honor of the Sun God. In the Old Testament this became a mark of the priesthood of Baal and was forbidden in Leviticus 19:27 & 21:5.[xvi] [xvii]
In some form or another, this strange hybrid religion manifested itself throughout the ancient world. It was headed by a supreme High Priest who took the title Pontifex Maximus, (bridge maker), – and who served as the gate or bridge between life on earth and the afterlife. This Pontiff remained in Babylon, – a kind of head of the amalgamated pagan religions, – through the life of the Babylonian and Medo-Persian Empires when the seat of power moved to Pergamos, in present day Turkey. It remained there officially until 133 BC when the leadership of this “Babylonian Priesthood” moved to Rome. Pergamos, however remained a hotbed of Satanic / pagan activity. Jesus Himself acknowledged this fact in his letter to the Church at Pergamos found in Revelation 2. In Revelation 2:13, He instructs John to write “I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is,” and later refers to the city as “where Satan dwells.”
By 63 BC the civil and religious power had merged once again, – just as in the days of Nimrod. It was in that year that Julius Caesar was made Supreme Pontiff of the Babylonian Order. From that point forward that religious office became the purview of the line of Roman Caesars until AD 376, when the Emperor Gratian refused it as an improper office to be held by a Christian. Two years later, Damus, the Bishop of the Church at Rome was prevailed upon to accept the office. Thus in the words of Clarence Larkin, author of Dispensational Truth: “So in AD 378, the Head of the ‘Babylonian Order’ became the Ruler of the ‘Roman Church.’”[xviii] So was laid the foundation for the infiltration of the Church and the Great Apostasy of the Last Days.
So what does this have to do with Economics & Revolution? This is what makes the connection between the religious nature of the means with the political goal of the end; – a New World Order / One World Government. By the fact that Masonry accurately claims the rites and purposes of the ancient Mystery Religious as its own, it announces to the world that this form of Pantheistic / Pagan / Secular Humanism is the coming religion of the Antichrist and the New World Order. This is where human religion began. And if Freemasonry has its way – it is where it is headed.
[i] Alice Bailey, The Externalization of the Hierarchy, 1957, pg 570
[ii] Dr David P Livingston, Nirmod, Associates for Bible Research
[iii] See Flavius Josephus, Antiquities 1:4:2
[iv] Image: http://trivialdevotion.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-original-nimrod-genesis-108-14.html
[v]Babylon Mystery Religion, Petersburg Gospel Center
[vi] Nimrod, Mars and the Marduk Connection, Bryce Self, (onesimus@ix.netcom.com), Edited November 1985 by Lambert Dolphin
[vii] Nimrod, Mars and the Marduk Connection, Bryce Self, (onesimus@ix.netcom.com) Edited November 1985 by Lambert Dolphin
[viii]Woodrow Kroll, from a sermon entitled The History of False Revelation, Back to the Bible, broadcast on WDCX , Buffalo, NY, 2006
[ix]7 Babylon Mystery Religion, Petersburg Gospel Center
[x] Image: The Resurrection of Tammuz… “Easter Sunday”!, Sabbath Covenant.com, viewed March 22, 2016
[xi] Babylon Mystery Religion, Petersburg Gospel Center
[xii] Woodrow Kroll, from a sermon entitled The History of False Revelation, Back to the Bible, broadcast on WDCX , Buffalo, NY, 2006
[xiii] Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, pg 169
[xiv] Woodrow Kroll, from a sermon entitled The History of False Revelation, Back to the Bible, broadcast on WDCX , Buffalo, NY, 2006
[xv] Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, pg 222
[xvi] Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, pg 222
[xvii] Fausset’s Bible Encyclopedia, pg 291 as quoted by Babylon Mystery Religion, Petersburg Gospel Center
[xviii]5 Clarence Larkin, Dispensational Truth, pg 140. I was led to this reference by Babylon Mystery Religion, Petersburg Gospel Center
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