Nearly five thousand years ago, after the flood of God’s judgment on a wicked world, a man built a city in the land of modern-day Iraq (or Babylon). This man was the ringleader of ... (Read more below.)
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(A Note About Fire Worship: Fire (or sun) worship comes from Babylon originally and it is still practiced today. The Yazidi (or Yezidi) people of Iraq (modern-day Babylon) worship a sun-god. Their religion is similar to ancient Zoroastrianism (pg. 54) (i.e. sun-god worship of Babylon). In this religion, the people pray toward the sun, dance around bonfires, jump through fire, and worship the sun-god "Mirtha" (which originates from Tammuz). In the Zoroastrian religion (Chap. II; Sub-Sect. V; The Deification of the Child [Baal]; pg. 54), people worshiped the sun-god with fire, claiming that the fire was sacred and somehow connected to the power of the sun. Fire was thought to cleanse or help cleanse sin. In some Catholic countries people will jump through fires on "St. John's Eve." This also goes back to Zoroastrian fire-sun-worship (as Hislop shows in The Two Babylons, pg. 106 and pg. 54).
Mystery Religion: The Antichrist and the Zoroaster (Part 1 of 2)
(Click here to read part 2 of 2.)
Nearly five thousand years ago, after the flood of God’s
judgment on a wicked world, a man built a city in the land of modern-day Iraq
(or Babylon). This man was the ringleader of an apostate religion: a religion
that twisted the truth of God’s Words and distorted the plan of salvation God
told Adam and Eve in Genesis 3.
The serpent in the Garden of Eden told Eve that eating fruit
from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would give her wisdom and that
she would never die. He told her a half-truth (a deception); for Adam and Eve
did die, but they truly did get the knowledge of good and evil. This knowledge
of sin has not helped us, their descendants at all. Because of Adam and Eve’s
rebellion in eating that forbidden fruit sin entered the world and their
sin-nature passed onto their descendants (us).
God was not going to let the human race perish without giving
them a savior, Jesus Christ, the seed of the woman who would bruise (or crush)
the serpent’s head (Satan’s head). Jesus Christ (the seed of the woman) was
promised to the early patriarchs to save the human race (mankind) from its sin
and to give mankind eternal life in Heaven.
Satan, who had possessed the serpent, wanted to create a
counterfeit religion that would also claim to have a messiah (or savior) who
was supposed to be “the seed of the woman” (see Genesis 3).
To do this, Satan had to be very crafty and subtle. He could
not bring this apostate religion out in the open because godly men, like Noah
and Noah’s son Shem, would intervene. After the flood of Noah (when God judged
the whole Earth with water), Noah’s sons and grandchildren and great-great
grandchildren began to multiply in number. Many moved into the land of Shinar,
near the area of modern-day Baghdad, Iraq. In this fertile, Mesopotamian region
the first post-flood civilization was founded. Its capital was later called
Babylon. In this great city, a tower of brick and mortar was being constructed
(likely a ziggurat). Everyone spoke the same language because they all were the
same family: they were related closely.
Nimrod, who the Bible calls “a mighty hunter”, became the
main leader behind this effort to rebel against God and build a tower unto
Heaven. Their goal was to exalt themselves above the one true God, the Creator.
We find that Nimrod started the worship of the “host of
heaven” (the sun, the moon, and the Zodiac) (see Zephaniah
1:4-5). People in pagan religions worshiped the constellations,
the moon, and the sun, which God forbids.
Exodus 20:5-6
3 Thou shalt have no other gods
before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any
graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is
in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself
to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation
of them that hate me;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands
of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Nimrod, the head of this idolatry, was taken by his godly
uncle Shem and some other patriarchs. They found him guilty of idolatry and
many other gross sins (such as murder) and had him put to death. Nimrod’s body
was cut up into pieces and sent to important cities that followed Nimrod’s
apostasy. This was a warning to them not to follow in Nimrod’s path. In Egypt, Osiris was said to be killed by Set (or Seth) and his body was cut up into
pieces (click to see the Appendix note #7).
After God confused the languages at the Tower of Babel,
people grouped together in families with the same language and dispersed across
the earth. People who spoke ancient Chinese moved into China. Europeans moved
into Europe. Africans moved into Africa. Egyptians brought Nimrod’s system of
idolatry with them when they moved from Babylon.
The ancient Egyptians taught that their god Osiris was killed
and cut into pieces by Set (or Seth, a name they wrongfully gave Shem). Egyptians
taught that the dead Osiris was reincarnated into the form of his son, Horus,
and that Osiris, Isis (his wife), and Horus formed a trinity to be worshiped.
In this system, however, the mother and child were mostly worshiped.
Mother-Child
Worship and the "Zero-ashta"
Mother-child worship came from Babylon and reached into many
countries. In ancient Assyria, Rhea (the “mother” of the “gods”) and Ninus (the
son) were worshipped; in Egypt, Isis and Horus; in India, Isi and Iswara; in
Greece, Ceres (the "Great Mother") and her child; in Rome, Fortuna
and Jupiter-puer (or Jupiter, the boy) (see #1); and in ancient
Canaan, Ashtoreth and Baal (Tammuz) were worshiped.