Mystery Babylon – The Great Harlot
Revelation
17:1-6
17 And there came one of the
seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me,
Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth
upon many waters:
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Mystery Babylon and the Tower of Babel
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The name, Mystery Babylon carries
with it a sense of wonderment and intrigue. What is the “mystery” of Mystery
Babylon? Babylon was an ancient city located some miles from Baghdad in modern
Iraq. It later became an extensive empire that controlled the Middle East and
beyond, but, what is this “Mystery Babylon”?
The land of Mesopotamia is called
the “Cradle of Civilization”. It was here, in the land of Shinar, or Babylon,
that Nimrod set up the tallest tower in the ancient world: the Tower of Babel.
Babel, a city founded by Nimrod, according to Genesis 10:10, was the center of
a world government that served Nimrod, the mighty hunter. This kingdom centered
in Babel was started sometime after Noah, his wife, and Noah’s three sons and
their wives arrived with enough animals to repopulate the world. Nimrod was the
great-grandson of Noah and the son of Cush (see Genesis 10). He started a
religion of sun-worship that led people away from the true God, the Creator, to
serve and worship the creature (the sun, the moon, stars, etc.).
According
to the writings of many ancient historians, traditions, and numerous facts, we
have learned that Nimrod started a religion that spread throughout the whole
world, as a result of the division of tongues (or languages) that happened at
the tower of Babel, when God confused the languages. Prior to this dispersion,
people everywhere had the same language.
Genesis
11:5-9
5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower,
which the children of men builded.
6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they
have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be
restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
7 Go to, let us go down,
and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's
speech.
8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the
face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9 Therefore is the name of
it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the
earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all
the earth.
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The Phoenix Bird known to the Mysterious
(including Masons) can be found in this Cathedral. |
“Ye shall not surely die,” whispered the
serpent. That is the first lie. If we disobey God, that is sin. Romans 6:23
says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Sin produces death,
spiritual and physical. Spiritual death is being cut off from God. Physical
death is being cut off from the land of the living.
The next lie Satan told the Earth as recorded in the
Scriptures can be said as, “You are all gods, so is it bad that some of you
should be worshipped as gods?” The truth is, we have an ability to discern the
difference between good and evil, but we will die like men.
Psalm 82:6-7
6 I have said, Ye
are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.
7 But ye shall die like
men, and fall like one of
the princes.
We are
still human and mortal and not to be worshipped. God forbids the worship of
anyone and anything but Himself. God told the children of Israel these words,
which are the Ten Commandments that apply to all.
Exodus 20:1-3
20 And God spake all these
words, saying,
2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of
the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
God
takes this serious. Those who broke this commandment (who didn’t repent) were
to be stoned to death according to Old Testament law. Of course, this law has
been fulfilled by Jesus Christ, who died for our sins on the cross of Calvary
(1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
The Structure of
Mystery Religion
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| Notice the woman on his mitre with the halo? |
God was not pleased with Nimrod and
Semiramis’ idolatry. According to the research of Alexander Hislop and others,
Nimrod’s grand-uncle, Shem, and a group of patriarchs felt called by God to put
to death the wicked Nimrod. They cut up his body into pieces and sent the
pieces to various places as a warning to others (see Hislop, pp. 62-64). After
this, the worshippers of Nimrod and Semiramis made their religion more
secretive and mysterious.
Thus, it was known as mystery religion. This religion
was arranged in a pyramidal design with the “Pontifex Maximus” (Hislop) as the
top. The next level included other “pontiffs”. Then, down the pyramid were
various clergy--including “priests”-- and finally the common people. The common
people were never allowed to understand what the priests knew unless they went
through the training to become a priest. This pyramidal system can be found in
the structure of the Catholics, Masons, and other “Mystery” organizations.
Alexander
Hislop, the author of the well-known work, The Two Babylons, wrote: “The
College of Cardinals, with the Pope at its head, is just the counterpart of the
Pagan College of Pontiffs, with its "Pontifex Maximus," or
"Sovereign Pontiff," which had existed in Rome from the earliest
times, and which is known to have been framed on the model of the grand
original Council of Pontiffs at Babylon.”
This
“Council of Pontiffs at Babylon” is the system set up by Semiramis after the
death of Nimrod. In this system, the bottom-of-the-barrel commoners went to a
priest to make a confession of his or her sins, exactly the way Catholics do
today. This practice has its roots in Baal worship and is found in nearly all
the Mystery Religions.
Hislop writes that:
“…a mysterious power was
attributed to the clergy, which gave them "dominion over the faith"
of the people--a dominion directly disclaimed by apostolic men (2 Cor 1:24),
but which, in connection with the confessional, has become at least as absolute
and complete as was ever possessed by Babylonian priest over those initiated in
the ancient Mysteries. The clerical power of the Roman priesthood culminated in
the erection of the confessional. That confessional was itself borrowed from Babylon.”
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Confessionals were around in ancient Babylon.
Semiramis and her people started them in order to
gain control over the people. We need to repent from
sin and not just confess it to someone. |
Babylon
held its power by getting people to confess their sins to priests who never
confessed their sins to the people. This is unbiblical and wrong. James 5:16
says, “Confess your faults one to
another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” We confess our faults to
those we have wronged and we need to repent before God. In Babylon and in
Catholicism, the priest does not confess his sins to the people, but they
confess their sins to him, putting them under his control.
Having
the fear of the priest knowing one’s secret sins holds people under his power.
The next method of control involved seeking God, or not seeking God. The
priests told the people in Babylon that they had the answers from God, and so
also Catholic priests do the same. But, the people were never encouraged to
seek God and find out what God had to tell them. In Jeremiah 29:13, God says, “And
ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”
James 4:8
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your
hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Amos 5:4
For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and
ye shall live:
But, the
Catholics and the Babylonian Baal worshippers did not encourage people to seek
God. They could not hold sway over the people if the people were seeking God
for themselves. Rituals, mass gatherings (masses), repetitive prayers to “the
queen of heaven”, and going to confessionals were what Babylonians, and other
Mystery religions performed in order to know they were going to Heaven.
“Queen of
Heaven” or “Queen of Deception”
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Notice the trident on the baby's head?
This belongs to Neptune, the Roman god.
This is only found in pagan circles.
You cannot find anything like this
being promoted in the Bible. |
Now, who was the “queen of heaven”? Many
ancient cultures have a goddess who they call “the queen of heaven”. In
Babylon, the woman and her son were called Ishtar and Tammuz. In India, they
were named Isi and Iswara. The Chinese called her Shing-moo with child. The
Scandinavians named the mother and child Frigga and Balder. The Greeks called
them Ceres or Irene and Plutus. The Phoenicians named them Ashtoreth and Baal.
Babylonians gave them the nomenclature Ishtar and Tammuz. Egyptians worshipped
the mother and child as Isis and Horus (Veith).
Semiramis
took her son, the son of Nimron, and called him a god. She also called herself
a god and men worshipped her. Her religious system of Baal worship embraced all
kinds of sin, including orgies, pagan revelry, and other perversions, not to
mention idolatry. The very fact that she married her own son, Nimrod, shows her
depravity.
The
Catholic Church and Paganism
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| Notice the all-seeing-eye behind his head? |
As the
tribes of mankind spread out through the Earth, the pagans brought Baal-worship
with them. This system was in place during the time of the Roman Empire and
after it. When Constantine, one of the last Emperors of Rome, came into power,
Christianity had grown tremendously and had spread across his empire. Paganism
was still firmly entrenched. To solidify his power base, Constantine, a
sun-worshipper, needed to have a single religion to preside as head over. The
German historian Heggtveit writes:
“Constantine labored at his time
untiringly to unite the worshippers of the old and the new faith in one religion.
All his laws and contrivances are aimed at promoting this amalgamation of
religions. He would by all means melt together a purified heathenism and a
moderate Christianity…His injunction that the ‘Day of the Sun’ should be a
general rest day was characteristic of his standpoint…Of all his blending and
melting together of Christianity and heathenism, none is more easy to see
through than this making of his Sunday law. The Christians worshipped their
Christ, the heathen their sun god; according to the opinion of the Emperor, the
objects for worship in both religions were essentially the same” (Edwardson).
This can
be argued to be the foundation for the Roman Catholic Church. It was from this
point forward that lukewarm “Christians” compromised with the pagans to form a
new conjoined religion. But, as many researchers have shown, it was merely
Babylonian-based paganism dressed up to look somewhat like “Christianity”. For
instance, “Pontifex Maximus”, the title used by popes today was also used by
Roman Emperors long before Constantine’s reign (Hislop, pg. 206).
Other examples of the pagan roots of the
Catholic Church can be found in their buildings. The all-seeing-eye of Horus,
found in masonic lodges, and on the back of the dollar bill, can be found in
the masonry and imagery of Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches (which are
really Catholic churches formed after the Roman Empire was divided in two). You
will even find masonic imagery on the walls of Catholic Churches. Phoenix
birds, satanic pentagrams (five-pointed upside down stars), masonic square and
compass symbols, and pagan tridents can be seen in some Cathedrals throughout
Europe and even in South America.
The halo,
or nimbus, that sits behind the heads of many statues and paintings in the Catholic
Church can be found on the statues of Greek and Roman gods. Apollo is depicted
with a halo around his head. Circe, another Roman god, has a halo, as does the
Catholic Mary. What is the significance of a halo or nimbus?
George
Clarke, author of Pompeii, writes: "This glory was called nimbus, or
aureola, and is defined by Servius to be 'the luminous fluid which encircles
the heads of the gods. It belongs with peculiar propriety to Circe, as the
daughter of the Sun. The emperors, with their usual modesty, assumed it as the
mark of their divinity; and under this respectable patronage it passed, like
many other Pagan superstitions and customs, into the use of the [Catholic] Church."
Christmas, Yule-day,
and Saturnalia
Other pagan associations are found in the
holidays, such as Christmas. How can Christmas be pagan? After all, isn’t it
about the birth of Jesus? Or, is it?
Christmas
is sometimes called “Yule-day.” Yule, is the Chaldean word for an “infant” or
“little child” (Hislop). Pagan Anglo-Saxons celebrated Yule-day long before
Christian influences came to England. The day called “Christmas Eve” was called
“Mother-night”. They worshipped the female sun goddess and a male moon god
during the December 25th period (Hislop, pg. 94). This was the
celebration of the winter solstice and the worship of the Babylonian sun god
Baal, who was considered to be an incarnation of the sun (Hislop, pg. 96). The
Roman’s celebrated this same festival as the feast of Saturn, or Saturnalia (Hislop).
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Odin is sometimes pictured as riding a horse
through the sky.
Perhaps he inspired a concept for Santa Claus.
He has a long, grey or white beard.
Apollo is known for riding a chariot through the sky.
Pagans have decorated trees to
worship Baal for a long time. |
Some
similarities to how Christmas is celebrated today include candles, the yule log
in the hearth, a Christmas tree, wreaths, red and green colors, and the date
(25 of December). The burning yule log symbolized the dying god (Nimrod / Baal)
before he was to rise from the dead reincarnated in the form of his son,
Tammuz. The standing Christmas tree symbolized this reincarnation and coming
back to life (Hislop).
During this sun-worshipping feast,
drunkenness and immorality were prevalent in ancient Rome and elsewhere. People
sacrificed geese and pigs to Baal (or the equivalent deity). These same animals
are found in many European dishes on Christmas Day (Veith, Festivals).
What is
more, Santa Claus has some attributes of pagan deities. Santa is said to ride
across the sky in a sleigh. The Egyptian sun god Osiris was born on the winter
solstice (identical to Baal). He was said to ride on a chariot through the
heavens, and Helios, the Greek sun god, rode in a chariot across the sky. In more
northern cultures, reindeer pulled the chariot. The East is not to be left out.
The Hindus had a god called Sûrya, who also rode across the sky in a
horse-drawn chariot (Veith, Festivals). (Christmas is said to be about Jesus Christ, but it is not. CLICK HERE to see what the Bible has to say about Jesus Christ.)
Easter and
Ishtar
Like
Christmas, Easter comes from pagan origins, as should be no surprise. Easter is
the same as Astarte, Ishtar, Beltis, the “queen of heaven” (Hislop). Ishtar is
a name found on Assyrian monuments (Hislop), proving that Ishtar is Assyrian.
The
feast called Ishtar or Easter occurred each spring on a Sunday, near the time
of the vernal equinox. With the pagan influences surrounding them, compromising
Christians moved the time of the Passover (as recorded in the Bible) to the
time Easter was celebrated, (Goubej) and linked the two together.
One
powerful symbol of paganism is stamped over Easter, the Easter egg. How could
an egg be pagan?
Hyginus,
the “keeper of the Palatine library at Rome” (Hislop) writes in his book called
Fabulae: "An egg of wondrous size is said to have fallen from heaven into
the river Euphrates. The fishes rolled it to the bank, where the doves having
settled upon it, and hatched it, out came Venus, who afterwards was called the
Syrian Goddess” (Hyginus). Venus, as we’ve seen, is the same as Ishtar (or
Semiramis).
Another
Easter symbol was the rabbit (Goubej).
The rabbit is known for producing a lot of offspring in a short amount of time
and can be thought of as a fertility symbol. These fertility symbols were to celebrate
the goddess of fertility, Ishtar, Ashtaroth, Isis, Semiramis, the mother of
Nimrod, who called herself the “queen of heaven”. This same person is adored by
the Catholics as “Mary, the queen of heaven.” This is blasphemy against God,
for God the Creator alone is to be worshipped (see Exodus 20:4-5). God does not
want us to worship graven images (such as statues of Mary or Saints) (see
Exodus 20:4-5).
Exodus
20:4-5
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;
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| A statue of the "queen of heaven." |
Catholics and
Protestants both accept Christmas and Easter as legitimate festivals to
celebrate Jesus Christ. Knowing now that they were based on pagan festivals, a
follower of Christ needs to evaluate why he or she celebrates them. (I took a
long time to change my beliefs, but after looking into it more, I realized how
pagan these celebrations really are. I encourage you to seek God and to see
what God’s Word has to say about all of this.).
If you, the reader, are a Catholic, I encourage you to take time away from the Church
and seek God with all your heart and get a copy of the Bible and read it (I
encourage you to read the King James Version). God wants to have a relationship
with you through His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, God the Son. The priests
of medieval Europe kept the common people from reading the word of God. They
read it in Latin, but not in the common language. They kept people from reading
the scriptures or having it translated into their own languages. Why? You may
find out if you seek God and read the Bible. The Bible tells us how to be saved
through Jesus Christ (Romans 10:9-10, Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23), how to know
God’s name (Psalm 9:10), how to experience true peace, and so on.
If you are a Protestant Christian, I encourage you to seek God with all your heart and
read the Bible. In it are the words of life. God wants to have a relationship
with you. Seek him fervently, seek to know God. Jesus Christ has died to pay
for your sins and has risen from the dead. Seek to know him better and He will
reveal Himself to you. If you have sins
you need to repent from, repent from them. They keep us from seeking God. Seek
God and God will give you a heart after His heart. God said this of King David:
“I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall
fulfil all my will” (Acts 13:22).
If You Would Like to Have a Relationship with God, Be an Adopted Child of God, and Go to Heaven…
God loves us so much that He sent His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins and shed His precious blood to pay for all of these sins (John 3:16 and 1 Corinthians. 15:3-4). And He rose from the grave on the third day (1 Cor. 15:4).
The Bible says this about Jesus and Salvation:
John 14:6 (bold added)
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
1 Timothy 2:5 (bold added)
“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;”
Acts 4:12 (bold added)
“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
HOW TO GET SAVED and KNOW GOD:
- 1. If you repent (turn away) from your sins (Acts 3:19),
- 2. and believe and confess aloud that Christ has paid for your sins with his precious blood and has risen from the dead (Romans 10:9-10),
- 3. and have made Him your Lord and Savior (again Romans 10:9-10) you are saved.
- 4. Now seek God with all your heart. Seek to know Him and you will (Jeremiah 29:13).
John 17:3 says: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."
_-_Foto_G._Dall'Orto_28-5-2006.jpg/440px-Istanbul_-_Museo_archeol._-_Diocleziano_(284-305_d.C.)_-_Foto_G._Dall'Orto_28-5-2006.jpg)
Daniel 2:33 says: “His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.”
