Last week we finished up reviewing God’s Plan for the future of His creation. That is how things will ultimately turn out. But don’t forget, Mankind has been in rebellion against the Creator since the Garden; and Satan and his Fallen Angels even before that. Now inherent in God’s plan is the fact that there is a purpose, that gives life its’ meaning and we must understand that all of history is the working out of God’s plan. Mankind’s purpose in all of this is centered around the revolt against the Divine Order. So all of history can be seen, and judged, in the light of man’s rebellion against God. That revolt against the divine order has continued through every generation, even down to this day. The Bible has recorded it before it happened. This generation is witnessing its unfolding.
That means that all of history is somehow connected. Nimrod’s attempt at building the Tower of Babel is part of the same struggle as the maneuverings of the global elites to usher in the era of One World Government. Rome’s quest to rule the ancient world is part of the process that is birthing a New World Order of Super Nations like the EU and the forming amalgamations of South America, Africa and a nascent North American Union. So too is the age-long struggle between Arab and Jew; – with its’ origins in the enmity that existed between Ishmael and Isaac, – the sons of Abraham. So too are our constantly evolving attempts to throw off the morality of a Creator God, establishing instead our own flawed moral code. It is the same for the story of the World Wars of the last century, the Holocaust, and the terror that threatens our very existence today.
MAN’S PLAN – I
The first thing to understand is that Man’s Plan is not some single, monolithic construct. It is the working out of a Grand Rebellion of each of the billions of folks that have ever lived on the planet – orchestrated not by human means – but rather by the First Rebel – Lucifer / Satan himself. The Bible tells us that in the Last Days this rebellion will manifest itself in a multi-faceted way during the reign of the Antichrist; a kingdom that will assert total economic, political and religious control. And we will start with this last aspect; the religious. Since nearly the dawn of recorded history Mankind has sought to establish its own religion – apart from the revelations of God. We have endeavored to justify ourselves and make our own means of salvation. Of course, this is impossible. “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.” (2Thessalonians 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.[i] 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.[ii] 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. 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.”[iii]
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.[iv] 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’.[v] 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.)[vi] 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”.[vii] [viii] Using different names this religion spread from the Middle East to Egypt to Scandinavia and India and China and Japan; throughout the entire world based upon a mother and child cultic means of salvation. 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.[ix]
- 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.[x]
- An order of virgins were dedicated to Semiramis alone. They wore long robes and lived in community.[xi] These vestal virgins were known as “Daughters of Nimrod”, and according to one source they got their name from the Chaldean word “NUN”.[xii]
- 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.[xiii] [xiv]
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’”.[xv] Thus was laid the foundation for the infiltration of the Church and the Great Apostasy of the Last Days.
[i] Dr David P Livingston, Nirmod, Associates for Bible Research
[ii] See Flavius Josephus, Antiquities 1:4:2
[iii] Albert Mackey, History of Freemasonry, pg 601
[iv] Babylon Mystery Religion, Petersburg Gospel Center
[v] Nimrod, Mars and the Marduk Connection, Bryce Self, (onesimus@ix.netcom.com)
Edited November 1985 by Lambert Dolphin
[vi] Nimrod, Mars and the Marduk Connection, Bryce Self, (onesimus@ix.netcom.com) Edited November 1985 by Lambert Dolphin
[vii] Woodrow Kroll, from a sermon entitled The History of False Revelation,
Back to the Bible, broadcast on WDCX , Buffalo, NY, 2006
[viii] Babylon Mystery Religion, Petersburg Gospel Center
[ix] Woodrow Kroll, from a sermon entitled The History of False Revelation, Back to the Bible, broadcast on WDCX , Buffalo, NY, 2006
[x] Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, pg 169
[xi] Woodrow Kroll, from a sermon entitled The History of False Revelation, Back to the Bible, broadcast on WDCX , Buffalo, NY, 2006
[xii] Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, pg 222
[xiii] Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, pg 222
[xiv] Fausset’s Bible Encyclopedia, pg 291 as quoted by Babylon Mystery Religion, Petersburg Gospel Center
[xv] Clarence Larkin, Dispensational Truth, pg 140. I was led to this reference by Babylon Mystery Religion, Petersburg Gospel Center
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