World's Greatest Shame"Sun(Baal) Worship"

Let the pictures tell you the story. Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Let the pictures do the talking. Obelisks are found through out the WHOLE WORLD.

St. Peter's square, the symbol of Baal is within the symbol of Ishtar, and at the center is an Egyptian obelisk, all representing "Sun(Baal) worship".

Washington D.C, the symbol of Baal is within the symbol of Ishtar, and at the center is an Egyptian obelisk, all representing "Sun(Baal) worship".

St. Petersburg, Russia

Odessa, Ukraine

Prague Czech Republic.

London, UK Helensburgh, Scotland Westminster London, UK

Supreme Court in Jerusalem Israel

Te Aviv, Israel Haifa, Israel

Amsterdam, Holland Hyde Park Sydney, Australia

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Mecca, Saudi Arabia

Paris, France Blue Mosque In Sultanahmet, Istanbul

Panama City, Panama Warsaw, Poland Darmstadt, Germany

There is a lot to be said about this Obelisk. Let the picture do the talking. Olso, Norway Stockholm, Sweden Munich, Germany

Signers Monument Augusta, GA(USA) New York City, NY(USA) Luxor LasVegas, NV(USA)

Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Let the pictures do the talking. Obelisks are found through out the WHOLE WORLD. H4676. matstsebah, mats-tsay-baw'; fem. (causat.) part. of H5324; something stationed, i.e. a column or (memorial stone); by anal. an idol:--garrison, (standing)

image, pillar. In the following verses matstsebah has been translated as image(s)Exo 23:24 Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images. Exo 34:13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: Lev 26:1 Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God. Deu 7:5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. Deu 12:3 And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. 1 Ki 14:23 For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree. 2 Ki 3:2 And he wrought evil in the sight of the LORD; but not like his father, and like his mother: for he put away the image of Baal that his father had made. 2 Ki 10:26 And they brought forth the images out of the house of Baal, and burned them. 2 Ki 10:27 And they brake down the image of Baal, and brake down the house of Baal, and made it a draught house unto this day. 2 Chr 14:3 For he took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high places, and brake down the images, and cut down the groves: 2 Chr 31:1 Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities. Jer 43:13 He shall break also the images of Bethshemesh, that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire. Micah 5:13 Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands. Another Hebrew word is also used for "sun images" or obelisks, the word chamman. Again, here is the Strong's definitionH2553. chamman, kham-mawn'; from H2535; a sun-pillar:--idol, image. Chamman is also translated as simply image(s) in the King James: Isa 17:8 And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images. Isa 27:9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up. 2 Chr 34:4 And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them.

AN OVERVIEW OF RELIGIOUS BABYLON A.K.A. The Mother/Son Cult

I. Introduction. A. Babylon is mentioned some 289x in the OT and 12x in the NT. B. Dispensational interpreters recognize that Babylon has both historical and prophetic significance. C. It is second in importance only to the city of Jerusalem; however, the two cities stand in persistent opposition throughout the Bible. D. Jerusalem exists due to the call of Abraham and the establishment of the Jewish nation to promulgate Gods plan of salvation to the world; Babylon exists as a result of rejection of Gods plan and the negative volition of the post-diluveans. E. In that regard, it stands as the first international movement in the history of mankind. F. The internationalism is further expressed under two arms of political ideology, religious and commercial/economical. G. As such, it has not ceased to exist in one form or another since its establishment in the book of Genesis. Gen.11:1-9 H. The book of Revelation deals with Babylon in its two distinct forms, the religious and the commercial. Rev.17,18 I. Since this distinction is made in the Bible and is recognized by capable exegetes, it is appropriate to deal with these two entities on an individual basis. J. While commentaries are divided as to the interpretation of Revelation 17 and 18, many futurist interpreters have recognized that chapter 17 is dealing with the religious aspect of Babylon, while chapter 18 deals with the destruction of commercial Babylon in its political form. K. Both aspects of Babylon are seen in the initial attempt to build a city, and a tower whose top will reach into Heaven. Gen.11:4 1. The city points to the political/commercial establishment in Babylon. 2. The tower reaching into heaven denotes the religious aspect of Babylon. 3. The religious aspect is further seen in the attempt to manufacture a name (exalting the mselves above God) in order to unify the people around the new religion. L. This doctrine will focus specifically on the religious aspect of Babylon that continues to exist as a form of spiritual confusion to this very day. Vocabulary. A. Hebrew vocabulary. 1.

II.

lb,B' babhel; Babylon.

The Akkadian term, as well as the related Sumerian term, seems to be derived from babilani, which means the gate of the gods. 1

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2. The Hebrew term is likely derived from the verb ll;B' balal; a verb that means to mix or mingle together. 3. It is widely recognized that this involves a play on words that denigrates the term gate of the gods by applying the term confusion to it. Gen.11:9 4. The term is used to refer to the historical kingdom of Babylon (Isa.39:3), the city of Babylon (Dan.4:29) and as a term for prophetic Babylon (Isa.13:19; Jer.50:13) B. Greek vocabulary. 1. Babulw.n babulon; 12X, the capital city of the kingdom of Babylon, or the kingdom itself; used as a code term in the book of Revelation. 2. The term is used as a cryptic reference to the city of Rome by Peter, as is recognized by a great number of interpreters. 1Pet.5:13 III. Origin and nature of religious Babylon. A. Babylon is used throughout the Bible to refer to one of the major cities that was established in the land of Shinar. B. The land of Shinar is a general geographic term for an area that lies in modern Iraq; however, in ancient times it was known as Mesopotamia (the land between the rivers). C. Shinar (a.k.a. Sumer) was a collection of city-states around the Lower Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, four of which were unified under Nimrod to begin his kingdom. Gen.10:10 D. The chief city of this kingdom appears to have been Babylon, the founding of which is recorded in the book of Genesis. Gen.11:1-6 E. While the city definitely had a political/economic aspect, we will focus specifically on the religious aspect of the city and the doctrines that characterized this system. F. In order to understand this tradition, one must have some understanding of the mother/son cult of Babylon. 1. This religious counterfeit of the truth was originated soon after the death of Nimrod; the cult included his wife, Semiramis (who had to find a way to maintain her position), and their son, Tammuz. Gen.10:8-10, 11:1-4 2. Nimrod was an apostate who masterminded the tower of Babel and led men in revolt against the Most High God. 3. His system had two main divisions: the political/commercial (let us build a city) and religious ( and a tower whose top will reach into heaven). Gen.11:4 4. This apostasy has existed in various forms throughout history, with the final forms seen in Revelation 17 (religious Babylon) and chapter 18 (political/ commercial Babylon). 5. As we will demonstrate, the modern-day form of religious Babylon is found in the form of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) that is still quite heavily engaged in the worship of the mother/son cult. G. The events behind the cultic tradition. 2

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1. Nimrod wielded great authority and power in the post-diluvian civilization. 2. His wife, Semiramis, also occupied an exalted position due to the power and renown of her husband, who was viewed as a celebrity based on his physical prowess. Gen.10:9 3. Though Scripture is silent on the death of Nimrod, the traditional legends of the cultures that adhere to this cult are systematically unified; all consistently state that the ringleader met a violent death and was cut in pieces and/or burned with fire. 4. Thus, the cosmic system went into shock at the death of their most wonderful benefactor. 5. This originated the practice of weeping for the dead that is a common practice of the mother/son cult in every land. 6. At the death of Nimrod, Semiramis realized that she would lose her position and authority, so she forged a plan to keep her position of exaltation. 7. She began the lie that Nimrod had willingly died for mankind, crushed the head of the serpent (a counterfeit of Gen.3:15) and came back from the dead in the form of her son (reincarnation). 8. The consistent representation of this is a woman holding in her arms a baby, who is recognized to be the equal of his father. 9. To justify worship of the mother, without whom the work of redemption could not have been accomplished, she was elevated to the status of deity and given the title, The Virgin Mother. 10. The original cult then worshipped Semiramis as the mother goddess, and Tammuz as the only begotten son. 11. Ultimately the "Holy Mother", "Alma Mater" (nourishing mother), was given the highest title, The Queen of heaven. 12. She is also known as (a.k.a.) Rhea, Venus, Diana, Hera, Athena, Aphrodite, Isis, and others in various pagan religions. 13. Her husband/son is known as (a.k.a.) Nimrod, Tammuz, Tahmurs, Kronos, Ninus, Baal, Bacchus, Iacchus, Kisson, Phoronesus, Osiris, Dionysius, Marduk, and others. H. Rituals, symbols, and dates associated with the mother/son cult of antiquity (religious Babylon). 1. The word Yule is the Chaldean word for an infant or little child, and came to denote December 25th as Yule day. 2. The Mother/Son cult in Egypt and other places celebrated the birth of the son of the Queen of Heaven at the time of the winter solstice that was December 25th on the ancient calendar. 3. Part of this celebration consisted of bringing in the yule log on December 24th with great pomp and using it as the foundation for the fire. 4. The follo wing morning, a young evergreen/palm/fir tree was set up and decorated; sacrifices were then placed under the tree. 5. The day was celebrated with a great feast, which originally consisted of a boars head or goose.
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6. The festival was continued with a great deal of merrymaking and the giving of gifts. 7. The yule log symbolized Nimrod, cut down in the height of his power, then cut into pieces and burned. 8. The young tree represents the reincarnated Nimrod, back from the dead, never to die again. 9. This was the reason for the use of the conifer (evergreen) trees that serve as a symbol for the principle of life. 10. The period of weeping for Tammuz symbolized the grief of the cosmos for their dead benefactor (remember, Nimrod and Tammuz are considered to be one- in-the-same). 11. The period of weeping lasted 40 days corresponding to the modern version of lent before Easter. 12. The period of weeping was then followed by merrymaking and the giving of gifts that symbolized the joy at Nimrods rebirth and return from the dead. 13. The word solstice, from sun, means stand still, as it seems to do on the shortest day of the year as it gets nearer the southern horizon. 14. This is how December 25th came to be designated as the highest holy day of the cult, with the southernmost descent of the sun portraying the death of Nimrod, while the moving back and into spring portrayed his rebirth. 15. The mistletoe, used in the ritual, represented the pagan messiah in his role as the man, the branch. Cp.Isa.4:2; Zec.3:8 16. Let it be recognized that it was the RCC, who is the final form of the mother/son cult that instituted the observance of Christs Mass, as is evident in the very name. See the Doctrine of Holidays 17. Round cakes were also a feature of worship as an offering to the Queen of heaven. Jer.7:18; 44:19 18. In addition, the cult had a confessional where adherents were required to confess their sins to the priest. 19. The religious system of Semiramis had many secret rites with respect to the worship that were called mysteries into which new members had to be initiated. 20. When the initiates were initiated they were given a cup containing a mysterious drink made of wine, honey, water, and flour. 21. This represented the doctrines of the cult, but also made the participant quite intoxicated and was designed to prepare the participant for what he was about to see, hear and do. Cp.Rev.17:2 22. These rites involved consecrated male and female priests (temple prostitutes) that engaged in the most depraved forms of sexual immorality. 23. As one might suspect, the fornication/prostitution was both physical and spiritual. 24. The cult of the Mother/Son originated during the time of Nimrod and at the dispersion it spread into every nation, obviously under different names, but advocating the same evil.
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25. For this reason, Babylon is called the mother of prostitutes, since all the pagan religious systems of the world eventually sprang from this fountain. Rev.17:5 26. In Canaan the cult operated under the names of Ashtaroth (goddess of fertility) and Baal around 1350BC. Jud.2:13; 1Sam.7:3; 12:10 27. Even as late as Ezekiel, Israel was heavily engaged in the worship of the sun god and weeping for Tammuz. Eze.8:14-18 I. Easter: Easter is the logical offspring holiday originating from Christmas after the 40 days of mourning, then celebration. 1. The word transla ted Easter/pa,sca pascha is used 29x in the NT and all but once in the KJV it is translated correctly as Passover. 2. Only in Acts.12:4 does the KJV translate it Easter. 3. As there were more than 50 translators commissioned by King James, there were many religious factions involved and Acts.12:4 was a compromise in order to get the job done. 4. Easter was the name of a pagan vernal festival, and derived its name from the fertility goddess, Ishtar. 5. The eggs and rabbits associated with the Easter celebration were the fertility symbols of Ishtar in her cult. 6. As was becoming the policy of the RCC even before the translation of the KJV, they again adopted and Christianized the feast and festival in order to assimilate pagan cultures into the church. 7. As with the birth of Christ, there is no explicit commandment given to set aside a specific day to celebrate Christs resurrection. IV. Forms in which this false religion has manifested itself. A. Semiramis was initially included in the pagan Babylonian trinity as the holy spirit or seed of the divine son in his mother's womb. B. Within time, however, the father Nimrod was practically overlooked and worshiped only as the god- incarnate son in his mother's arms. C. In other words, the father became invisible and was no longer worshiped, whereas, the mother with the god-incarnate son in her arms became the grand object of worship. D. Numerous Babylonian monuments show the goddess- mother Semiramis with her son in arms. Hislop, The Two Babylons E. This worship of mother and child spread throughout the known world and was given different names in the various languages of the world. F. Ancient Germans worshipped the virgin Hertha with child in arms, while Scandinavians called her Disa pictured with child. G. The Egyptian mother and child were worshiped as Isis with the infant Osiris or Horus seated on his mother's lap. H. In India, the mother and child were called Devaki and Krishna, and also Isi and Iswara as they are worshiped to this day. I. In Asia, they were known as Cybele and Deoius; in pagan Rome, as Fortuna and Jupiter-puer, or Jupiter, the boy; in Greece, as Ceres, the great mother 5

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with babe at her breast, or as Irene, the goddess of peace, with the boy Plutus in her arms. J. The image of mother with child in her arms was so firmly entrenched in the pagan mind that by the time Christianity appeared on the scene, these statues and paintings were eventually renamed and worshiped as the virgin Mary with her god- incarnate son Jesus. K. Thus, the pagan mother and child entered Christianity as the Roman Catholic worship of Mary with the infant Jesus. L. In fact, in Tibet, China, and Japan, Jesuit missionaries were astonished to find the counterpart of the Madonna and child as devoutly worshiped as they were in Rome. M. Shing Moo, the holy mother in China was portrayed with a child in her arms and a halo/glory around her, exactly as if she had been fashioned by Roman Catholic artisans. V. The transformation from pagan Babylonianism to Christianity. A. Some have wondered how the practices of a mystery, pagan religion could have infiltrated the Christian church and resulted in such blasphemous practices. B. The answer begins to be found in the life of Constantine (312 AD), the Emperor of Rome who was marching against Maxentius from France into Italy. C. The legend has it that he saw a vision of a cross, or perhaps the letter c (ch), which was the initial of Christ. D. With this vision, he supposedly saw an inscription that said conquer by this that he took to be an omen for the future. E. He determined that if he were victorious he would make Christianity the legal and official religion of the Roman world. F. Since he took this as the sign of God, he had his banner and his soldiers shields engraved with the letters cr (chr) that are the first two letters of the name cristoj christos/Christ). G. He was victorious and immediately issued the Edict of Milan that made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. H. Persecution of believers had begun under Nero (64 AD) and had continued through the time of Diocletian and Galerius until about 311 AD. I. Suddenly, all persecution of Christians stopped and being a Christian became all the rage during that time; it was the new fad. J. What actually happened was that the name Christianity was given to the pagan Babylonian mystery religion along with a few necessary changes. 1. The temples now became the churches. 2. The priests and nuns became the leaders of Christianity. 3. The statues and festivals were given new names that were changed only to deceive the nave and unlearned. 4. Astarte or Cybele became Mary, and Tammuz; Baal or Bacchus became Jesus. 6

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K. During the days of Julius Caesar (63 BC) the emperor became the high priest of the Babylonian cult and wore on his crown the name Pontifex Maximus, the first part of which means the bridge maker with the second title meaning the greatest. 1. The term is actually supposed to imply that he is the bridge builder between mankind and God. 2. The title Pontifex Maximus is mentioned numerous times by the early church fathers (particularly by Tertullian), but it was not applied to a Christian bishop. 3. The early church fathers say that the Pontifex Maximus was the King of Heathendom, the evil high priest of the pagan mystery religion of Rome. 4. This became the title of the high priest of mystery Babylon and today the Pope wears the same title and calls himself the sovereign pontiff of the College of Pontiffs. 5. Although he claims apostolic succession from Peter, he is actually the successor of the Babylonian high priests. L. He is the direct successor to the Babylonian mystery cult, wearing the miter and ring of the fish god Dagon just as his predecessors did. M. The keys he wears, which he claims came from Peter and represent the keys of the kingdom, came instead from the Babylonian gods Janus and Cybele. VI. The final form of religious Babylon. A. The worship of the mother/son cult has ties to antiquity that can readily be traced through history to the current form of the mother/son cult, the Roman Catholic Church. B. The titles of Semiramis have been applied to Mary, as the cult primarily focuses on the mother in the cult and the son takes a lesser role. 1. In Egypt, the mother was called Athor, the habitation of God to signify that the fullness of the godhead dwelt in her womb. 2. In Greece, she bore the name Hestia, and among the Romans, Vesta, which is a modification of the same name meaning the dwelling place of deity. 3. Under the name, mother of the gods, the goddess queen of Babylon became an object of universal worship. 4. The mother of the gods was worshiped by the Persians, the Syrians and by all the kings of Europe and Asia. 5. In Britain, the Druid priests worshiped the Virgo-Patitura as the mother of god. 6. In Egypt, as the queen of heaven she was the greatest and most worshiped of all the divinities. 7. During and after Egyptian bondage, the Israelites repeatedly departed from the one true God and worshiped this pagan mother. 8. Nimrod was known as Baal or Lord, and Semiramis was the female equivalent Baalti, meaning my lady in English, mea domina in Latin, and corrupted as Madonna in Italian. 7

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C.

D.

E.

F.

G.

9. Among the Phoenicians, the mother goddess was known as the lady of the sea that is a title applied to Mary although there is no connection between the sea and Mary, the mother of Jesus. 10. Roman Catholics teach that Mary is a mediator, with prayers to her being an intricate part of Roman Catholic worship. 11. There is no biblical basis for this idea, yet this concept was not foreign to the ideas linked with the mother goddess of pagan Babylon. 12. She bore as one of her titles mylitta that is, the mediatrix that is the feminine form of mediator. 13. Although the RCC did not come to embrace these pagan doctrines all at once, it is clear that the desire to include pagans and their rituals in the church eventually led to a synthesis between Babylonian paganism and Christianity. The real problem with the compromise is that eventually biblical Christianity has been gradually eliminated from Roman Catholic doctrine and replaced with pagan/occult doctrines, symbols, and rituals. This is one reason why the woman that is used to represent religious Babylon is referred to as a spiritual prostitute, a designation of her spiritual unfaithfulness before the Lord. Further, she has plied her trade throughout history by fornicating with the kings of the earth in order to advance herself and secure what she perceives to be her rightful status as the sole religious and temporal power. The corrupt doctrines and practices of this organization clearly demonstrate an apostasy (a withdrawal or defection) from the historic doctrines and practices of the early church. False doctrines and practices that have been assimilated over the centuries include: The Catholic doctrine of The Immaculate Conception states that Mary was conceived without Sin (that she was born without sin) and that she never sinned. http://www.fisheaters.com/mary.html 2. The Assumption and Coronation of Mary doctrine teaches that Mary was "assumed" into heaven and that she was crowned "Queen of all things" (Queen of Heaven). 3. The Roman Catholic Church has instituted and practices the ritual system of the Mass in an attempt to regulate and dispense the Salvation of Jesus Christ. 4. The reason it is called Mass and Communion is that the sacrifice of the people is added to the sacrifice of Jesus. 5. The doctrine of transubstantiation teaches that the bread and wine supposedly change into the body and blood of Jesus Christ, suggesting cannibalism at its best. 6. They advocate a system of prayers to Mary and other dead believers that supposedly present our requests to the Lord in a better way than we and the Holy Spirit can.

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7. The Roman Catholic Church exalts tradition to the place of Scripture, declaring that Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence. 8. Prayers for the dead, worship of icons and symbols, infant baptism, special dress for the clergy that must remain celibate. Cp.1Tim.4:1ff 9. The elevation of the pope to Supreme Pontiff, who in virtue of his office possesses infallible teaching authority that results in the personal opinions of the pope becoming official doctrine. 10. The doctrine of purgatorial purification after death was first seen in pagan Babylonianism and it involved the same extortion and theft from the poor to get the dead cleansed and into a higher state. 11. Prayers and supplication were offered by the priest, but only after great fees were collected for the service. 12. The sign of the cross as used by Rome did not originate with Christianity as many assume; the sign represents the mystic letter t (tau) that corresponds to the first initial for the name of Tammuz. 13. Such things as holy water, penance, priestly absolution were part of the Babylonian system and continue to exist today in the RCC. 14. For a more detailed list of dates when these and other doctrines were declared to be part of the Roman Catholic Church see http://www.bible.ca/cath- new-doctrines.htm . Hard Copy Attached. VII. Destruction of religious Babylon. A. Revelation 17 makes it plain that the term Babylon refers to much more than a city; it stands for a system of evil that has a global reach and impact. Rev.17:18 B. In a similar fashion, Americans speak of Madison Avenue and Wall Street, which are actually streets, but also represent the center of financial and advertising enterprises in this nation. C. There is no doubt that the Antichrist and the prostitute enjoy a relationship during his rise to power during the first half of Daniel's 70th week, as seen in the positions of the prostitute and the beast. Rev.17:3 D. It is very likely that the RCC will achieve unprecedented popularity during this time when it is associated with the greatest earthly celebrity that the world has ever seen. Rev.13:3-4 E. As we know from a number of prophecies and parables, the Church Age will not come to a good end, but will be characterized by a growing apostasy in the last days. 2Tim.3:1-13; 2Pet.2:1-3; Rev.3:14ff F. The nature of this growing apostasy is now visible and is characterized by the concept of internationalism and ecumenicalismthe movement of uniting all religions together into a one-world church. G. While there can be little doubt that this system will eventually be controlled by Rome, there are a number of methods i t will employ to bring about its goals of a universal church.

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1. Eclecticism is a philosophy of religion that refuses to accept any one system of doctrine, but seeks to take the so-called best aspects from all systems of belief. 2. Latitudinarianism is a system of religions that does not care specifically about creeds of doctrines, but focuses more on the sincerity of the individual than what he believes. 3. Syncretism is a system that seeks to unite all opposing theological and philosophical position by arriving at a common denominator, a new synthesis. H. Ironically enough, with all this compromise the world religion will not be willing to tolerate biblical Christianity with its emphasis on the fact that only in Jesus Christ is the truth to be found. I. Those that hold to sound doctrine are viewed as extremists that must be marginalized or eliminated if the whole is to prosper. J. In spite of the apparent success from its political alliance with the RRE and the Antichrist, the RCC will be destroyed by that which she has so consistently pursued throughout her history. K. Once Antichrist has reached a sufficient position of power and domination on the world scene, the prostitute will become superfluous and expendable. L. In fact, the Catholic Church will be quite jealous of the switch from their worship to the worship of the dragon and the Antichrist. M. The timing for the vicious attack against the world religion, which will have its headquarters in Rome will precede the destruction of commercial Babylon. Rev.18:1 (before 37th month of Daniel's 70th week.) N. This coincides with the fact that Antichrist will declare himself to be God and will move to eliminate every institution and object of worship. 2Thess. 2:4 O. At that time the RCC will be completely destroyed, her leaders killed, her wealth confiscated, and her buildings either appropriated or destroyed by the beast and his confederacy. Rev.17:16 P. From that point forward, the greatest spiritual prostitute of human history will be no more.

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10

THE MYSTERY OF GOD SHALL BE FINISHED

MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT

A STUDY IN THE RESTORATION OF THE CHURCH

No.7

MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT

PREFACE

I am very thankful to the Lord to have finished this study. It brings to an end the long, dreary downward slide from the Churchs original experience and knowledge of the living Christ. I wish to emphasise again that the essence of Church history is simply this: the loss and restoration of the knowledge of the Son of God. In a later study I hope to dwell on this theme at length stressing that Church history is not so much the study of the loss and recovery of different doctrines, nor of different historical figures or movements, but of the fulfilment of Pauls prophetic warnings and also the consummation of the burden of his intercession in the Holy Ghost. I must acknowledge my very heavy indebtedness to A. Hislops The Two Babylons, without which this study would be a mere shadow of what it is. I have drawn very heavily upon this excellent work throughout. Reference has also been made to: L Boettner Roman Catholicism (Banner of Truth) G H Pember Mystery Babylon the Great, and the Mysteries and Catholicism (Oliphants) Assistance in considering Catholic miracles has been gained from B B Warfields Counterfeit miracles (Banner of Truth). Acknowledgements are again due to my wife for her hard work in preparing the original draft typescript in the midst of new responsibilities and to my faithful proofreader. I have taken advantage of the production of this electronic version to thoroughly revise the content stylistically whilst not altering the substance.

John L Birkin Summer 2006 Copyright 1980, 2006 John L Birkin

MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT

CONTENTS

1)

The inspiration of Babylons foundation and worship a) b) c) d) e) Introduction The need for spiritual discernment Historical Babylon The worship of Babylon The supernatural character of the Babylonian religion

2)

The world-wide spread of the religion of Babylon a) b) c) d) The great whore with the golden cup The spread of the Babylonian idolatry over all the earth The ultimate objective of the Mysteries The Babylonian origin of the religion of pagan Rome

3)

Mystery Babylon (or, The pagan origins of Roman Catholic doctrine and practice) a) b) c) d) e) f) g) h) i) j) Introduction Historical developments Baptism (infant baptism; baptismal regeneration; the sign of the cross) The Pope and his priests (the bishop of Rome as Pontifex Maximus; the keys of Peter; the College of Cardinals; the mitre and crosier; celibacy; the clerical tonsure) Easter Mary worship (Lady Day; the immaculate conception and assumption of the virgin Mary) The Mass Christmas Day Miscellaneous (Purgatory and prayers for the dead; the rosary; relic worship and pilgrimages; image worship; wax candles) Conclusion

4)

Conclusion

1 THE INSPIRATION OF BABYLONS FOUNDATION AND WORSHIP

a) Introduction Let us consider the reason why Catholicism came to mirror so perfectly the pagan religion of the Roman Empire. And a reason there most certainly was. This was no chance happening. A mastermind spiritual power was at work. This power is called in Scripture, Mystery, Babylon the great. The term mystery is found in several Scriptures. It describes the workings of a purpose and plan made known to those endowed with the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. The mystery of godliness, for example, is the working of the Holy Ghost to reveal God in human flesh. Conversely, the mystery of iniquity is the spiritual counter-strategy whereby the serpent seeks to fully express himself in flesh. Another mystery is the relationship between Christ and His Church. It is compared to that of a man and his bride (Eph 5:32). Parallel and diametrically opposed to this is a satanic counterpart, the mystery of the woman (Rev 17:7). This woman is described as, that great city which ruleth over the kings of the earth (Rev 17:18), and is identified as Babylon (Rev 14:8). It is not so much literal Babylon, however. She is also termed Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth (Rev 17:5). By this the Spirit is teaching that the distinguishing features of literal Babylon of old in some way characterise the counterfeit bride the enemy is seeking. Just as God has a pure holy virgin Church Bride, so there is a satanic harlot religious system. So, by studying the distinctive characteristics of ancient Babylon we can understand something of the satanic plan in later years. b) The need for Spiritual discernment I have repeatedly stressed in this series the need for Spiritual discernment to properly understand outward historical events. We need eyes anointed with that eyesalve which only Christ can give. The same anointing needed to fully unveil the workings of God in history to bring to fruition His grand objective is also needed to unveil the hidden operations of the evil one. Just as Paul emphasised the need of Spiritual discernment to perceive the things of the Spirit of God (1 Cor 2:14), so also it is needed to perceive the workings and purposes of the spirit of error. So, to perceive the true root inspiration spirit and identity of Babylon, the woman and of the beast ridden by the woman, the Spirit of wisdom and revelation is needed. For example, concerning the mystery of the beast (Rev 17:7), the Spirit says: Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man (Rev 13:18) And here is the mind that hath wisdom (Rev 17:9) When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the

prophet stand in the holy place (whoso readeth let him understand).... (Matt 24:15) Likewise spiritual wisdom is needed to understand the mystery of the woman. Let us illustrate: the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified (Rev 11:8) The use of the word spiritually is very significant. It means more than allegorically or figuratively. The sense is that the same spirits at work in Sodom and Egypt were also at work in Jerusalem. This is why Phillips paraphrases this passage, ... which is called by those with spiritual understanding... So, had you been able to understand aright, you would have recognised exactly the same inspiration spirits at work in Jerusalem as in Sodom and Egypt. So then, using the same principle, if we discover the nature and objects of the spirits at work in Babylon of old, we shall be able to uncover the true character of the woman described as Mystery Babylon. Let us therefore now examine: the motive for founding Babylon, and the character and worship of its early inhabitants.

Thereby great light will be shed on the spirit at work not only in those far days but also many centuries later when it seeks to infiltrate the Church. c) Historical Babylon The only Scriptural reference to Babylons early history is in Genesis 10:8-12 and 11:1-9. Though brief, however, these references are highly enlightening, especially when read in conjunction with secular historians remarks. The motivation spirit of the founders of Babylon may be clearly seen: Let us build a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth And the Lord said ... and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. (Gen 11:4-6) From ancient records it seems that the founder of Babylon was Cush, the father of Nimrod. Although not specifically stated, this would certainly not be out of line with the Biblical record. From Genesis 10:25 and 11:10-16, it is clear that the dividing of tongues took place 101 years after the Flood. In view of the length of the lives of those born immediately after the Flood (which included Cush, son of Ham), this event was certainly contemporary with Cush. If Cush were the founder of Babylon, then his son extended its power and dominion far and wide. Genesis 10:10 states that Babylon (or, Babel) was the beginning of the kingdom of Nimrod, son of Cush. This was the first appearance of the desire to conquer and rule over other men by force. Before then men had gathered only by tribes and family clans. But of Nimrod Genesis 10:8 (Amp) says: he was the first to be a mighty man on earth. So, Nimrod established a kingdom, the beginning of which was Babylon, and three surrounding cities. Thereafter he went out into Assyria and builded Nineveh (Gen 10:11, AV Marg). (Hence, Micah 6:5 calls Assyria: the land of Nimrod.)

Nimrod was also known by ancient historians as Ninus, hence the name Nin-eveh, which means habitation of Ninus. The descriptions of Ninus given by historians confirm and throw further light on the Scriptural record: Ninus, King of the Assyrians first of all changed the contented moderation of ancient manners, incited by a new passion, the design of conquest. He was the first who carried on war against his neighbours (Trogus Pompeius). Ninus, the most ancient of the Assyrian kings mentioned in history, performed great actions. Being naturally of a warlike disposition and ambitious of glory... (Diodorus Siculus). So, it seems that Nimrod shared the spirit of his father, Cush, in his rebellion against the Lord. He was the first to gather men together for warlike purposes, to build an empire over others, and to make himself a name. (It sounds just like the Nicolaitan spirit that entered the Church: organise men, then rule over them. And no wonder: it was the same spirit.) This is confirmed by Faussets Bible Dictionary, where the name Nimrod is said to mean, let us rebel. Also, the Septuagint translation of Genesis 10:9 reads, Nimrod the mighty hunter against the Lord (AV = before the Lord). This is not unreasonable for in Numbers 16:2 the word translated before in Genesis 10:9(AV) is rendered in opposition to. The determined, wilful, rebellious nature of the founders of Babylon cannot be adequately stressed. Eastern tradition pictures them as heaven-storming giants chained by God. The Greek myth of the giants war with the gods and their attempt to scale heaven is another version of the same truth. One Greek historian recounts the Babylonian account of the destruction of the tower of Babel as follows: At this time the ancient race of men were so puffed up with their strength and tallness of stature that they began to despise and contemn the gods, and laboured to erect that very tall tower A clay tablet in the British Museum reads: Babylon corruptly to sin went... Their work all day they builded: but to their stronghold in the night entirely an end God made: .... Greatly they wept for Babylon Greatly they wept (A strange echo of the lamentation in Revelation following the fall of Babylon) (Rev 18:16-19). To illustrate the extent of the rebellion of the early Babylonians, consider the great light they rebelled against. Their waywardness was not committed in times of gross darkness. They stoutly and wilfully opposed the Lord in an age within living memory of the Flood, an astonishing display of His might. Noah lived 350 years after the Flood (Gen 9:28) and overlapped Abraham by 58 years. His son Shem did not die until 75 years after Abraham entered Canaan. Yet within living memory of the revelation of the Glory of God prophesied by Enoch, men wilfully rebelled. For example, Abrahams father, born 222 years after the Flood, was an idolater (Josh 24:2) and by Abrahams day idolatry was strong. Nimrod had been

deified as the chief Babylonian deity. Such idolatry was not an unfortunate consequence of ignorance, as is so often viewed in civilised lands. It was a wilful rebellion and rejection of Light. A further indication of the arrogant rebellion of Babylon is seen in the names of its gods. Cush and Nimrod both were deified and worshipped under different names describing different aspects of their lives. Jeremiah referred to two of these when declaring the Word of the Lord against Babylon in his day: Declare ye amongst the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish and conceal not: say Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces, her images are broken in pieces (Jer 50:2). Concerning the first name, Hislop (pp 25-28) says the name Bel (or, Belus) signifies the confounder, i.e. the one who breaks in pieces or scatters abroad. It is a designation of Cush in his responsibility for the division of tongues and the scattering of men abroad (Gen 11:9). In this capacity, in the various forms and names by which he was worshipped throughout the earth, he was represented as holding a club or hammer. This should throw light on another portion of Jeremiah s prophecy against Babylon: How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken (Jer 50:23). How fitting that the mastermind inspiration spirit which founded Babylon should be rewarded according to its deeds! As for the second name, the Babylonians described Merodach as the most ancient and firstborn of the gods. In view of Cushs initiation of the grand rebellion against the Lord, this is wholly in keeping. The meaning of this name is even more enlightening: that great rebel. No wonder Jeremiah termed Babylon, the land of Merathaim (Marg = of the rebels) (Jer 50:2). Literally this means, land of two rebellions or doubly rebellious. Note some of the characteristics of Babylon described by Jeremiah, and see how deeply she had drunk in his day of the spirit of her founders: she hath sinned against the Lord (Jer 50:14) thou hast striven against the Lord (Jer 50:24) She hath been proud against the Lord (Jer 50:29) Behold I am against thee, 0 thou most proud (Marg = pride) (Jer 50:31) And the most proud (Marg = pride) shall stumble and fall (Jer 50:32)

Though Babylon should mount up to heaven and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from Me shall spoilers come into here, saith the Lord (Jer 51:53). How full a reflection of the character of her founding fathers! As a final incidental insight into the spirit that inspired the founding of Babylon, let us consider a passage concerning the beast at the end-time, the antitype of the wicked Antiochus Epiphanes:

And the King shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper until the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. But in his estate he shall honour the God of forces (lit = munitions or fortresses); and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and precious stones, and pleasant things (Dan 11:36-38). Who is this god of fortresses? After all, in ancient history no god is called by that name. But to uncover this will be to uncover the true object of worship of the end-time beast. Let us seek to do this: Though there is no god of fortresses, there is a goddess of fortresses: Diana of the Ephesians, whose image is crowned with a turret. And an ancient commentator expressly identifies her with Semiramis, wife of Nimrod. Now the renowned archaeologist, Layard, believes (as frequently happened) she was attributed with her husbands qualities. This is incidentally confirmed by the Greek poet Ovid who said Semiramis was believed to have surrounded Babylon with a wall of brick. Another ancient historian, however, says that it was Belus (= Bel, = Cush, the father of Nimrod) who, surrounded Babylon with a wall. As Cush was unable to conclude his work in the city of Babylon die to divine destruction of the tower of Babel, it seems probable that in fact it is his son, Nimrod, the first actual King of the Babylonian empire, who is the god of fortresses. Thus the true object of worship of the end-time beast is now clear: Nimrod, he who was famed for his wilful and defiant rebellion against the Almighty. Ultimately, however, endtime worship will be directed to the evil mastermind spirit who empowers the beast to fulfil his wicked designs. In other words, the great dragon, that ancient serpent himself (Rev 13:4), who was the true and grand object of the worship of Babylon. In short, the worship developed in ancient Babylon was no less than the consummation of satanic desires: to achieve worship of his own self.

To illustrate this, it is necessary to consider more fully the characteristics of the worship of Babylon. Before doing so, however, let us review progress thus far. We have seen the inspiration and motivation spirit of the founders of the literal city of Babylon, and the character of Nimrod who first established an empire from there. We have also seen the defiantly rebellious spirit of its founders and their Nicolaitan urge to enforce ascendancy over other men (cp The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them.... (Luke 22:25).) This is the key to understanding the term Mystery, Babylon the Great. Cush and Nimrod are now long dead, and physical Babylon is no more. But the spirit that inspired the city and its founders is still with us, having precisely the same objectives as it did then. A spirit does not die; nor does it lose its essential distinguishing features. All through history the same spirit has been at work, in different localities and through different human vessels, seeking to achieve the exact same purposes as in historical Babylon. The externals may vary, but the inner mastermind purpose remains the same. d) The Worship of Babylon So far we have considered the spirit of violent and deliberate rebellion against the Lord which motivated the founders of Babylon. There was far more involved here than a mere expression of satanic malice against the Almighty, however. Let us now see how:

Babylon was satanically designed as a deliberate counterfeit of Zion, the City of God; the religion of Babylon was expressly designed as a diabolical copy of God's own grand plan of redemption and restoration, with a counterfeit Messiah to divert mens attention from the True.

Let us firstly consider Babylon as a satanic counterfeit of Zion. The earthly Zion was but a reflection of the heavenly City whose Builder and Maker is God. It is no coincidence that a perennial stream issues from the heart of the temple mount in Jerusalem, the site of the Holy of Holies, the earthly type of the throne of God. This stream is a shadow of the heavenly Jerusalem in which John saw: a pure river of water of life proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb (Rev 22:1). Consistent with the satanic pattern of aping all Gods works, Babylon too had a river flowing through the midst, with the royal palace in Nebuchadnezzars day at the centre of the city, divided into two by the river Euphrates. Also like the heavenly Zion, Babylon was foursquare. Incidentally, the desire for counterfeit alternative to Gods holy city is also expressed in another form. The devil has a deep-seated longing to occupy the throne of God. Compare for example the words of Isaiah to a later king of Babylon, or rather, ultimately, to the spirit that inspired and motivated him: For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north (Isa 14:13). It is no coincidence that the unclean longing of this spirit is to ascend the sides of the north. This is the site of mount Zion within the city of Jerusalem (Ps 48:2) where Solomons temple was located. How the evil one covets the place of God. Those particularly used by the devil to carry out his plans frequently reveal the same deepseated longing. Consider, for example, the satanic masterpiece, the man of sin: Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God (2 Thess 2:4). This same inner urge leads him to, plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain (Dan 11:45). Magnifying himself above all (Dan 11:37), he longs to desecrate that place where the Glory of God was tabernacled (Ps 48:lb), the earthly throne of God, and to occupy it himself. So, when he invades the glorious land, he locates his headquarters on the holy mountain, Zion. We have briefly considered the satanic yearning to occupy the throne of God, and how Babylon was specifically designed as a counterpart to the Holy City. Let us now examine the worship of ancient Babylon, in particular its objects of worship, remembering that it was founded on wilful rebellion. Pauls words to the Romans could doubtless be applied to those living in the early years after the Flood: Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened (Ro 1:21). It is a religion characterised by the desire to rob God of His rightful place. Furthermore, it is an

almost exact parallel of Gods perfect plan of salvation to deliver man from sin: justifying, sanctifying and filling him with His Spirit, being renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him (Col 3:10). The religion of Babylon offered a false Messiah with all the attributes of the true Anointed One. The ancient Babylonians, whilst worshipping countless minor deities, acknowledged there was but one supreme Almighty Creator. In that one god were three persons, which came to be known as the Eternal Father, the Spirit of God incarnate in a human mother, and a divine Son, fruit of that incarnation. The first person of this Babylonian trinity came to be overlooked in the popular eye, with the main emphasis placed on the goddess Mother and her Son represented, as a child in his mothers arms. It is believed that the original of that mother was Semiramis, wife of Nimrod (or Ninus). Not only was Nimrod her husband, however, he was also represented as her son (Ninus = son). Mighty warrior that he was and founder of the first empire, Nimrods influence spread far and wide. But all the evidence of ancient history also points to his leading men into apostasy and active rebellion, breaking the bands of that wholesome fear of God which must have been so prevalent within living memory of the Flood. If this seems strange, consider how quickly men are satanically deceived into joining battle against God even after tasting one thousand years of the benign rule of Christ, with the evil one chained up (Rev 20:7-9). Though the exact details are shrouded in uncertainty, the circumstantial evidence also points to Nimrods having met a violent end. His death was remembered annually with greet lamentation wherever the Babylonian religion went. It is referred to by Ezekiel who was shown an awful sight in the temple: behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz (Ezk 8:14). (Tammuz is equivalent to the Syrian god, Adonis, and the Egyptian Osiris, both of whom were local variations of their grand Babylonian prototype: Ninus, or Nimrod.) According to Hislop, his death was a judicial sentence carried out by the godly Shem, who continued to proclaim the one true God in the midst of Nimrods apostasy. Despite this rude shock to the apostates, Nimrods wife, Semiramis, continued in the same spirit as her husband. For a period it appears the development of public idolatry was checked. Error merely went underground, however, and the secret Mysteries were established. In these Mysteries there were progressive levels of initiation into the full revelation of the nature of their objects of worship, under the seal of secrecy. Nimrod was deified and worshipped as the promised Seed who was destined to bruise the serpents head. It was also taught that he came back to life, reincarnated in a posthumous son of Semiramis. This son, worshipped in his mothers arms, was looked upon as invested with all the attributes and titles of the promised Messiah. It was taught that Nimrods death was voluntary for the benefit of mankind, and that from the blood willingly shed a new creation would be formed, the first having been a failure. By his death, the serpents head was crushed, and sin and the curse removed. In Greece, the same Babylonian god was termed the sin bearer; in India, the Victim-man; among the Buddhists, Saviour of the world; and in Egypt, King of kings and Lord of lords. Just as Christ is termed the Branch (Zech 3:8; 6:12), so Nimrod was celebrated as the Branch of God. Initially the mothers honour was derived from her bearing the Seed. But ultimately she practically eclipsed him, and became the favourite object of worship. To justify this, she too was deified and now said to be destined to complete the bruising of the serpents head which Nimrod had only begun.

Furthermore, it came to be taught that Nimrods birth was miraculous. She was termed Alma Mater (the Virgin Mother). The vast extent of this worship may be gauged from the surprise of Catholic missionaries who found a mother (described as a virgin) and child in Tibet, China and Mexico, where Catholicism had never entered before. The highest titles were bestowed upon this mother: Astarte (= the woman who made towers or encompassing walls); Queen of heaven , which is referred to in Jeremiah (7:13; 44:17-19, 25); The dwelling place of God aping the pure virgin Bride of Christ who is described as, an holy temple an habitation of God through the Spirit (Eph 2:20-21). She was symbolised as a dove, as representing the Holy Spirit of which she was the incarnation. Her worship became virtually universal throughout Europe and the Near East even, as seen in Jeremiah, among apostate Jews. In Egypt her worship continued even after Christianity theoretically entered. Effectively, only the name was changed. The Virgin Mary with child was worshipped with the same idolatrous feeling by professing Christians as formerly by avowed pagans. So entrenched was this error that at the Nicene Council the Egyptians held that there were three persons in the Trinity: Father, Virgin Mary and Messiah, their Son. Nor do Catholics consider this heretical. One of their most celebrated 19th C spokesmen, Newman, exulting over this remark, effectively says that if Christ be admitted to be truly God, His mother too must be worshipped as a partaker of the Godhead. No wonder that in Lisbon there was a church with these words engraved: To the virgin goddess of Loretto, the Italian race devoted to her divinity have dedicated this temple. This shows the true character of the Catholic Mary. She is not the Mary of the Bible, but the virgin mother goddess of the great Babylonian rebellion. Not only do Catholics attribute the Roman Madonna with the same titles as the Babylonian (e.g. Queen of heaven, the awful dwelling-place, tabernacle of the Holy Ghost); she is essentially the same in spirit. (Perhaps this will explain certain charismatic trends. It is why Cardinal Suenens teaches that Mary is the way to receive the infilling of the Spirit, and that she should be a basis for unity of Catholics and Protestants, in view of the Catholic sympathy for deifying Mary as the incarnation of the Holy Ghost). As a further proof that the Catholic Mary is merely the Babylonian Semiramis, consider the idolatrous images of Mary. The original madonnas have no Jewish features or complexion. They are declared by those who have personally compared both to correspond entirely with the Babylonian madonnas. How astonishing! The goddess enshrined in papal temples today is in effect none other than the Babylonian queen who set up Nimrod as a counterfeit Christ. Do not be deceived just because Catholicism employs certain Christian terms. It is sometimes said that it must be termed Christian since it holds the doctrine of the Trinity. So did the Babylonians, Egyptians and Hindus! And in the very same sense as Rome does. Although Catholicism employs names and terms commonly found in Christendom, it will be seen that they are merely masks which disguise their true origin and character: the Roman Jesus is another Jesus.; the Roman Mary is another Mary. I am going ahead of myself, however. Before analysing in detail how Catholicism effectively became the metamorphosis of the original idolatry of Babylon, I wish to demonstrate how the religion of Babylon is the root of all religions of the earth. Let us first of all examine one further aspect of the worship of ancient Babylon, however.

e)

The supernatural character of the Babylonian religion

The religion of Babylon was no mere empty liturgy and external ceremony. It was supernatural, energised by its inspiration spirit with a of living communion between men and their objects of worship. The spiritistic practices of Babylon are abundantly testified to in Scripture. Magic, astrology, sorcery, soothsaying, stargazing and divination by sticks and liver were all practised (Isa 47:12-13; Ezk 21:21; Dan l:20; 2:2; 4:7). The great extent of Chaldean spiritualism was revealed when Layard unearthed fragments of a vast work on magic in the royal library. I emphasise that Babylonian spiritualism was not an empty deceit, and its practitioners quacks and charlatans. Scripture speaks of the possibility and reality of supernatural power in the hands of evil men If there arise among you a prophet and giveth thee a sign or a wonder and the sign or wonder cometh to pass, whereof he spake unto thee saying, Let us go after other gods..; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet (Dt 13:1-3). Consider also the Egyptian magicians and sorcerers whose enchantments achieved such startling results (Ex 7: 11-12, 22; 8:7). Moses power was supreme, but that of the magicians was still real. Not only is there abundant Scriptural and historical testimony to the magical practices of Babylon. Historical evidence also suggests that it was precisely here that such practices originated. Epiphanius, for example, maintains that Nimrod established the sciences of magic and astronomy. Such magical arts were also common wherever this religion spread. The Etruscans, for instance, derived much of their religion from Babylon, and later passed it on to the Romans. It is from them that the Romans are said to have learned soothsaying and their constant reference to oracles. Interestingly, one of the powers the Etruscans taught was the drawing down of lightning from heaven, similar to the false prophet in the Book of Revelation (Rev 13:13; cp Job 1:16). There is no scope here to detail the many different magical and occult arts originating in Babylon. Let it suffice to re-emphasise that they were not simply based on illusions and deceit. The religion of Babylon had a vitality about it - it was a living communion with active demonic agencies who both supernaturally empowered their devotees and also entered into a defiling union and communion with them. Before concluding, let us consider the reality and effect of communion with evil spirits on those involved. Paul clearly warned that it was actually possible to have fellowship with devils (I Cor 10:20). This was obviously a very topical and grave danger because of the tendency of some in Corinth to maintain past links with idolatry. And idolatry is worship of and communion with demons (1 Cor 10:8,14, 19-22). No doubt it was also greatly to blame for the immorality among certain believers. It is clear from Pauls warnings that not only was there the one notorious case of incest (1 Cor 5;l-2, 913); there were also many others who were guilty of fornication (2 Cor 12;21; see also 1 Cor 6:9-11; 7:1-2; 10:8). With this background we can now consider 2 Corinthians 6:l4ff, in a fuller light. This not only warns of the dangers of mixing with unbelievers. It also enjoins separation from any form of

intercommunion with the demonic forces of darkness and idolatry (vv 14-16). Paul not only stresses the absolute incompatibility of the temples of the Holy Spirit holding any communion with the unclean and foul spirits of demons. He also indicates the effects of any such communion. Firstly there is a general warning of the danger of contamination in the words, touch not the unclean thing (v 17), even for those who have already been converted. The fullest insight, however, comes when he sums up the whole issue: Having therefore these promises (i.e. 2 Cor 6:17b-18), dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2 Cor 7:1). This verse explicitly says what was only implied before: there is a definite need for cleansing when the unclean thing is touched. Its own uncleanness is transmitted to those who touch it. Past references to the frequent connection between immorality and idolatry help explain the need for cleansing from all filthiness of the flesh. The most illuminating feature, however, is the reference to the need for cleansing from filthiness of the spirit. This is important. When there is intimate contact with unclean spirits, the human spirit of those involved is defiled. And this is the heart of my point. Not only is there a need for recognition of and cleansing from carnal sins. There are acts that defile the human spirit in addition to the flesh. These also need specific cleansing as much as any defilement of the flesh. Observe how, for example, Israel of old needed cleansing, both from their filthiness and from their idols: Then will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you (Ezk 36:25). Only Paul, however, clearly identifies how intimate contact with demons (a necessary fruit of idolatry) defiles: it pollutes in some measure the human spirit. Perhaps this will illuminate another Scripture: the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1Thess 5:23). From this verse it is evident that our spirit is as much in need of sanctification as our bodies and souls. It is also clearly implied that it is possible for our spirits not to be blameless, otherwise there would be no need for prayer for them. This explains why Paul prays for the Lord Jesus Christ and His grace to be with the spirits of those to whom he writes (Gal 6:18; 2 Tim 4:22; Phile 25). Also, from Pauls words to the Corinthians, that she may be holy both in body and spirit (1 Cor 7:34), it is evident that holiness of spirit is neither automatic nor to I taken for granted. Although I have strayed somewhat from the subject in hand, I feel it is essential that there be clear understanding of such matters in view of the prevailing haziness and uncertainty. I wish to emphasise that the defilement of the human spirit spoken of is not so much the fruit of idolatry as of intercourse with unclean spirits. The reason I mention this is to show the relevance to our own day of such matters. Contact with demons, whether via idol-worship or via any of the many expressions of spiritualism or spiritism in our land today, bears the solemn

danger of a defiling of the human spirit of the one involved. Specific cleansing from this is needed (which is more than general repentance) to enable the human spirit to function properly again without the defiling imprint of an unclean spirit. Neglect of such cleansing will lead to numerous pastoral difficulties.

2 THE WORLD-WIDE SPREAD OF THE RELIGION OF BABYLON Having considered the essential features of the origin of literal Babylon and its religion, let us consider how the inspiration spirit of these features has affected the whole earth by: showing how the Bible teaches this awful fact; illustrating from historical records the spread of the influence of Babylon to the ends of the earth; in particular, illustrating from the history of pagan Rome.

The latter is important. It shows how the paganism which deeply permeated Christianity after the Church-State union, especially that branch now termed Roman Catholicism, was in essence the very idolatry that originated in Babylon. This will be illustrated in chapter 3, by an analysis showing how detail after detail of the original Babylonian idolatry was reproduced in Catholicism. This grand metamorphosis enables Catholicism in particular to be justly termed, Mystery Babylon. a) The great whore with the golden cup The spirit of Mystery Babylon is much more that one single historical manifestation. It is a continuing quest by the same spirit to achieve a single, consistent objective in varying historical and geographical settings. Although Catholicism is the fullest expression of the working of this spirit today, it is certainly not the only expression. Furthermore, the same spirit was at work long before Catholicism ever existed. According to Revelation 17:5 (RV), Mystery Babylon is, mother of the harlots and the abominations of the earth. What is the significance of these words: mother, harlot and abomination? Abomination is frequently used in Scripture to denote a particular false god or idolatrous practice (e.g. 1 K 11:1-8; 14:21-24; 2 K 23:13). A woman in Scripture metaphorically represents a pure godly religion. So, a harlot is a defiled and debased one. A mother is a begetter or originator. Babylon then, according to Scripture, is the spring of the many varied idolatries of the earth. The spirit that inspired the foundation and religion of ancient Babylon also inspired all the false religions of the earth. Furthermore, not only did they originate in Babylon. As with Athaliah, the daughter of Jezebel, they also partook of the spirit of their mother: As is the mother so is the daughter (Ezk 16:44).

The Chaldean Mysteries are traceable to the days of Semiramis. In them she was worshipped as the great Mother of the gods. And truly she was, for from her religious system sprang up the many other daughter idolatries all over the earth of like character and spirit. It is no coincidence that John saw Babylon as a harlot mother. Semiramis has ever been a symbol of unbridled licentiousness. She left upon the Mysteries the mark of her polluted mind. Such was the nature of her religion that Babylon became famed as the grand centre not only of idolatry but of consecrated prostitution.

Now the way Mystery Babylon imparted her foul religion is symbolically described as follows: Having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations, even the unclean things of her fornication (Rev 17.4b RV). This cup is referred to in other Scriptures: She (Babylon) made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication (Rev 14.8); ... the inhabitants, of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication (Rev 17.2); all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication (Rev 18:3). Thus, Scripture clearly says that all the earth has drunk deeply of the wine from the cup of Babylon (which symbolises her idolatry). No wonder, then, we read of jubilation in heaven at the judgement of, the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication (Rev 19.2). It is no mere chance that the world-wide spread of the idolatry of Babylon is symbolised as the offering of a golden cup. Firstly, gold was the symbol used by the Lord to represent Babylon: How hath ... the golden city ceased (Isa 14:4) Thou art this head of gold (Dan 2:38b). Secondly, the cup was very significant in the Chaldean/Babylonian religion. For example, there is an idol of Venus (who represented Semiramis) holding a cup with carvings of Ethiopians (i.e. Cushites, the founders of Babylon). Pliny also refers to the gigantic cup of Semiramis that fell into the hands of Cyrus on capturing Babylon. Now, to drink a mysterious beverage of wine and other intoxicating ingredients was indispensable for those seeking initiation into the Mysteries. How apt, then, to represent this religious system as a harlot offering a golden cup full of the filthiness of her fornication. How apt also that the judgement of Mystery Babylon shall be as her sin. She shall herself be given a cup to drink: Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double (Rev 18:6). Similarly, when prophesying the doom of historical Babylon, Habakkuk proclaimed: Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that putteth thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look upon their nakedness! Thou .art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the Lords right hand shall be turned unto thee (Hab 2:15-16). So, as with Jeremiahs and Isaiahs prophecies against literal Babylon, Habakkuk also foreshadows the doom of Mystery Babylon. She shall drink of the cup she gave to others.

Significantly, Babylons foreskin shall also be uncovered. Why? To demonstrate that Mystery Babylon is an uncircumcised alien from the Commonwealth of Israel despite all her claims. Likewise, although Roman Catholicism claims to stand in the place of Christ, it has no part in Him. Instead, it is the fullest living expression of the foundation spirit of ancient Babylon. How ironic that in 1825 pope Leo Xll struck a medal showing Rome as a woman holding a cup in her right hand with the words sedet super universum (= she sitteth on the whole earth). And truly she does. Revelation 17:1 represents Mystery Babylon as seated on many waters, interpreted in verse 5 as, peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. b) The spread of the Babylonian idolatry over all the earth At the time of Christ religious teaching consisted almost exclusively of far-reaching institutions known as the Mysteries. Their rites were held in the utmost secrecy, and admission could only be gained through initiation. In the public worship of the gods open to all, the stories described of the gods were understood literally. But to the initiated there were hidden meanings behind the outward stories, which ultimately revealed the true nature of their worship. The chief objective of these Mysteries was to introduce privately, under the seal of secrecy, a most daring presumption. The Chaldean (or Babylonian) Mysteries are traceable to the time of Semiramis, who was worshipped as Rhea, the great Mother of the gods. (And truly she was! Remember, the harlot of Revelation was the mother of abominations). To achieve its objectives, all knowledge, sacred and profane, came to be monopolised by the priests, and only revealed to the initiated. From Babylon the Mysteries spread far and wide throughout every civilised nation, even deeply influencing uncultured tribes at the ends of the earth. Although varying much in outward observances and secondary matters from country to country, the Mysteries as taught in Egypt, Greece, Rome and Phoenicia were intimately connected and essentially one in doctrine. Just as the Scripture teaches, history and archaeology have concluded that Babylon was the fountain and root of idolatry world-wide. For example, speaking of arithmetic and astronomy (sacred sciences monopolised by the priests), Zonaras says they came from the Chaldeans to the Egyptians and thence to the Greeks. Now according to Pember, the Egyptian Mysteries were introduced from Babylon via India by the Aryans, who migrated there (about 2000 BC) from Babylon through Bactria. Hence the earliest form of religion among the Aryan tribes of India was probably substantially Chaldean. It was corrupted by the Brahmans, but Buddha claimed to have recovered it, professing to be a restorer of old paths. Hence Buddhism in its purest form is thought to be essentially Chaldean. It is certainly identical in its foundation doctrine. Among the sacred books of the invading Aryan tribes were the Vedas, a collection of hymns which, according to Lillie, contain the root-idea of most of dogmas and religious rites of the world. Recent archaeological investigation has also revealed clay female figures suggesting the cult of a Mother goddess, and pictures of a three-headed being, suggesting the Hindu trinity in the unity of the one supreme god. From this early Indian religious background arose Buddhism, and indeed Hinduism and Buddhism have very much in common. Spreading far abroad from India, Buddhism exerted an

extremely wide influence from the Volga River to Japan. There even appears to be an identity between Buddha and the Scandinavian god, Wodan. It also seems that Chinese Buddhism reached America, establishing itself there in the 5th C AD. Concerning the origin of the religion of the Greeks and Egyptians the archaeologists Bunsen and Layard reached substantially the same conclusion. Bunsen said the Egyptian religion originated in Asia and the primitive empire in Babel, Layard said: Of the great antiquity of this primitive worship there is abundant evidence, and that it originated among the inhabitants of the Assyrian plains, we have the united testimony of sacred and profane history. It was believed to be the most ancient of religious systems, having preceded that of the Egyptians. Another authority writes: The zodiacal signs.... show unequivocally that the Greeks derived their notions and arrangements of the zodiac (and consequently their mythology, which was intertwined with it) from the Chaldees. Ouvaroff, an expert in the Eleusinian Mysteries (i.e. those first celebrated at Eleusis near Athens), likewise concluded that the Mysteries transplanted into Greece never lost the character of their Babylonian origin. And it was not only Greece and Egypt. The distinguishing features of Phoenician idolatry also were imported from Assyria and Babylonia, as testified by Macrobius. Not only can the origin of Buddhism and Hinduism, and the religions of Greece, Egypt, Phoenicia and Rome (which derived her worship from the Mysteries of Greece) be traced to Babylon. To the ends of the earth basic similarities may be traced between the Mysteries and the manifold religions of the world. Among all early races, leading anthropologists have announced, there was a belief in one supreme God, This applies to Babylon, Egypt, Iceland, the Goths and even India, which now recognises millions of gods. This original monotheism quickly degenerated into polytheism and idolatry, however. In essence, as will be developed more fully later, the real object of pagan worship was still in effect the same, disguised under many forms. To the uninitiated there were presented many gods and goddesses. To the initiated was revealed their underlying unity and awful identity. This original supreme god was worshipped as a trinity. Not only in Babylon, but also in Assyria, among the pagans of Siberia, in India and in Japan representations have been found of their supreme god with three heads on one body. This ancient recognition of a trinity developed into the worship of the goddess mother with a child in arms. In Egypt they were called Isis and Osiris; in India Isi and Iswara; in Turkey Cybele and Deoius; in Rome Fortuna and Jupiter puer; in Greece Ceres with baby at her breast. Even in Tibet, China and Japan the first Jesuit missionaries were astonished to discover the worship of this counterpart of the Catholic Madonna and child. (In China Shing Moo, the Holy Mother, was represented with a child in her arms and a glory around her). They also found mention of a mother and child very similar to their own in pagan Chinese sacred books. Not only the mother and child, but also the remembrance of the death of the child is found over all the earth, from Greenland round to Japan. Despite considerable variations from the original, the different legends are essentially one, indicating their ultimate origin from the same source. In Egypt, Phoenicia, Greece and Rome great lamentations were made annually in commemoration of his sudden death.

In China annual weepings were made. (Interestingly Buddha is represented here as a negro. Nimrod was a negro Cushite or Ethiopian; cp Jeremiah 13:23). The Japanese, Icelandic and Scandinavian religious systems had similar lamentations.

As in Babylon, the son was represented as dying to bruise the serpents head in other mythologies such as in India, Scandinavia and Mexico. He was also represented as virgin-born long before the Christian era among Buddhists in China and Tibet. Indeed this virgin mother of the gods became an object of almost universal worship throughout Europe and Asia. She is referred to among the Persians, Germans, Druids and Egyptians among others. In conclusion, the essential features of the Babylonian apostasy spread over all the earth. It influenced the paganism of Scandinavia, Iceland, Germany, Britain, Greece, Rome, Egypt, Syria, Phoenicia, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, China, Tibet, Siberia, Mexico, the Red Indians, and even the South Sea islands! The idolatry of the whole earth is essentially one. Beyond this sinister fact, however, is one yet more sinister, The idolatries of the earth not only spring from one original fountain. They ultimately have one single grand object of worship. The multitude of gods worshipped is merely the external as understood by most idolaters. As already indicated, however, the true nature and object of the worship of the Babylonian Mysteries was hidden and revealed only to those admitted to the highest degrees of initiation. To the uninitiated, a surface meaning and explanation was given. To the initiated the full mystery was unveiled. The apparent multitude of different gods in ancient religions was in effect ultimately one. Not only was the source of the idolatry of the whole earth one; so also was the ultimate grand object of its worship. The Babylonian object of worship was essentially one, revealed in a trinity of father, mother and son. The many and diverse deities of paganism were substantially only different manifestations of one or other of this trinity, especially the mother and son. The pagan author Apuleius for example, describing his initiation, said that Isis revealed herself to him as ... the uniform manifestation of the gods and the goddesses.... whose one sole divinity the whole earth venerated, and under a manifold form, with different rites, and under a variety of appellations. Concerning the Egyptian gods, Wilkinson says that they, took the form of different deities which ... may readily be accounted for when we consider that each of these whose figures or emblems were adopted was only an emanation, or deified attribute of the same great being... To uncover the identity of that great, evil being is to uncover the whole secret network of the Mysteries, and ultimately the satanic plan still at work today. c) The Ultimate Objective of the Mysteries Although the essential features of the Babylonian religion spread eventually to the ends of the earth, as already been shown, this does not mean its true nature and inspiration were understood by the average worshipper. Indeed, popular conceptions of God were swathed in deepest superstition. Having refused to acknowledge and glorify God, they: became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image... (Ro 1:21-23) It was not always so. Darkness only came when light was refused. Paul calls the Gentiles:

aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. (Eph 2:12) Yet the term aliens (Gk = alienated) implies a time when men were once not cut off, before the Gentile apostasy from primitive Truth. The dark secret of the ultimate objective of the worlds religions were concealed, and revealed only to certain. Furthermore, the ignorance of the common people was actually encouraged. It was considered not merely useless for them to know certain truths, but actually expedient that they believe precisely the contrary. Hence the full facts were shrouded in secrecy. In progressive initiation ceremonies candidates were sworn to silence as to the true meaning of the Mysteries. Even among savage and uncivilised tribes evidence is found to this day of initiation ceremonies with sinister objectives similar to those in the more civilised parts of Europe and the Near East. Pember gives examples from the West African Fangs and the Ojibbeway Indians. They were specifically designed to bring the initiates into union with the spirits, from whom henceforth they could seek supernatural aid. And this was precisely the aim of the Mysteries of 2000 years ago. For example, one authority wrote concerning the Eleusinian Mysteries, These observances were considered the appointed means for regeneration through an interior union with the divine essence. Similarly, in the cult of the Magna Mater (=Great Mother), the whole ceremony is intended to impress upon initiates the certainty of their being united in a special way with the goddess, as in a mystic marriage. Indeed, the quest for, and experience of, union with the deity underlay all the different mystery religions. In some instances this took the form of an orgiastic ecstasy or repulsive phallic rite. It is, therefore, not difficult to understand why the Bible terms unfaithfulness to God as fornication. Pagan religions very often favoured sacred prostitution and other acts intended to represent physically the reality of the spiritual union of the worshipper and the deity. Thus a feature of the third and final stage of the Eleusinian initiation rites is a sacred marriage between the high priest and the priestess. In other instances union with the deity was symbolised by a sacred meal whereby the initiate shared in the experiences of the god, died with him, rose with him, became partaker of the divine nature and participated in his immortality. No wonder Paul wrote: I would not that ye should have communion with demons. Ye cannot drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; ye cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons (1Cor 10:21). Communion with evil spirits is an awful possibility. In his desire to attain all that God Himself seeks, the serpent seeks to bring about a perverted form of that holy communion of the Spirit so wonderfully offered to man (Phil 2:1; 2 Cot 13:14). Satans attempt to effect a union He that between false gods and their worshippers is his version of the Fathers objective: is joined unto the Lord is one spirit (1Cor 6:l7). (For fuller details see, The Pergamos Church Age, pp 3-6). Let us now look more closely at the stages of initiation in the Mysteries from different parts of the earth. Details vary somewhat but the same basic principles apply. Initiation into the secrets of the Mysteries was in stages. Every Greek, for example, could be initiated into the lesser Eleusinian Mysteries. It was generally believed that only by such initiation could salvation be obtained.

This did not mean, however, that such initiates were introduced to the real secrets of the Mysteries. This was reserved only for those few deemed worthy to progress to the final stages, which were not be revealed on pain of death. The evidence we have, however, all points to the different stages of initiation leading to a progressive unveiling and full knowledge of the objects of worship. For example, we have already seen how Apuleis, who passed through all the stages of initiation, described Isis as revealing herself as the uniform manifestation of the gods and goddesses.... whose one sole divinity the whole earth worshipped, and under a manifold form, with different rites, and under a variety of appellations. He also describes how he was subsequently enlightened by the Mysteries of the great god and parent of the gods, the invincible Osiris. For although the essence of their divinity and religion is connected, or rather is united, nevertheless there is a great difference in their initiatory rites. He later describes Osiris as the greatest of the highest of the gods. From this we see again the essential underlying identity of the many different objects of pagan worship. They were many manifestations of the one supreme god revealed in a trinity of father, mother and son. (Isis, remember, was both the wife and mother of Osiris, whose originals were Nimrod and Semiramis). The different initiation stages not only involved a progressive unveiling of the true identity of the grand god of the Mysteries. They also point to a progressive identification and communion with him. According to the spiritualistic Theosophists (which claims to continue today the ancient Mysteries of the East), the different stages of the Mysteries typified the stages of the redemption of man. These are described as baptism, crucifixion (or death to self), burial, resurrection and ascension. The concluding act is the consummation or marriage whereby the spirit and the bride are indissolubly united. What a remarkable satanic parallel of the believers union with Christ, and ultimate full communion at the wedding supper of the Lamb. So, from the available evidence, it appears that the ultimate objective of the Mysteries is the union of the initiate with an unclean spirit. Scripture makes it abundantly plain that it is possible to contact evil spirits, and to be empowered by them. The awful objective of the Mysteries, however, is to effect a foul union between demons (for such are the idols of the heathen) and men, a union designed to imitate that holy union between Christ and His Bride. Indeed the ultimate objective of false religions seems to be none other than to induce men into communion with and worship of evil spirits. Before concluding this terrible subject, let us consider one more fact. We have seen that the supreme pagan deities may be traced back to Nimrod and Semiramis in Babylon. Even they, however, were not the ultimate objects of worship. Behind them was the dark inspiration of that ancient serpent, who has ever lusted for the worship due only to the Lord. In deifying and worshipping Nimrod, effectively it was his inspirer who was honoured. As already explained in the Pergamos Church Age, sacrifice to idols is sacrifice to demons. Some, however, are so full of the spirit of their inspirer that their identities seem almost to converge. Notice, for example, how the evil one himself is addressed directly in parts of Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 even though they prophesy against the kings of Babylon and Tyre. Consider how the end-time beast has seven heads and ten horns, identical to the dragon from whom he receives his power and authority (Rev 12:3; 13:1). Consider also how worship of the beast Is equated not just with worship of devils (which is reproved in Revelation 9:20), but of the dragon, the prince of the devils (Rev 13:4).

There is a similar situation with Nimrod. He too was identified with the evil prince of the devils, as seen in the title given to his Egyptian counterpart, Osiris: the father of the gods. So, the ultimate objective of the Mysteries was to lead men to worship none other than the evil one himself, and to bring about a union and communion of spirit with him, which was a blasphemous copy of the holy relationship between Christ and His Bride. Thus may be seen the horrible and awful blasphemy of pagan religion. The majority were unaware of its ultimate objectives and of its true object of worship. Such secrets were very jealously guarded. For example, when the true identity of the guardian divinity of ancient Rome was incautiously let slip by Valerius Sotanus, a man of the highest rank, he was remorselessly put to death. It is not difficult to see why when we consider who that evil divinity really was. The Roman sun-god was worshipped under the form of a serpent called Aesculapius, the man-instructing serpent. He was also represented as a fly-destroying bird. Now the fly-destroying god of the East was the Lord of the fly He is called Beelzebub in the Bible. So, it is clear that the supreme god of Rome was none other than the devil himself. To understand the objectives and ultimate deity of the Mysteries will enable a better appreciation of the character of the worship of historical Babylon, and so of the implications of the term Mystery Babylon. d) The Babylonian origin of the religion of pagan Rome Let us now outline the prevailing religious ideas of the Roman Empire during the first few centuries of Christianity. This will explain the nature and origin of that form of paganism which so strongly entered the Christian Church after the union with the State in the days of Constantine. It has already been shown how the religion of Babylon reached Rome. Indeed, above and beyond all other nations it had had a connection with the idolatry of Babylon that put it in a position peculiar and alone (Hislop p 239). It is easy to show that the root of Roman paganism is in the early Chaldean idolatry. Long before Romulus and the founding of Rome (about 750 BC), a representative of the Babylonian Messiah had founded a temple for his worship (which was already in ruins by 900 BC) on the very site of the later city of Rome. Also, in ancient times a colony of Etruscan migrants, deeply attached to the Babylonian idolatry, had settled in the same area. These Etruscans were ultimately incorporated in the emerging Roman State. But long before that, they exercised a most powerful influence over the religious affairs of Rome. From them the Romans learned soothsaying and divination which played so great a role in their affairs. The College of Cardinals and its head, the Sovereign Pontiff, which controlled all public and private religion in Rome, became Etruscan in spirit and in practice. The evangelical Professor F F Bruce confirms that a great part of the Roman religion was of Etruscan origin. Now this origin is highly significant. The best evidence indicates that the Etruscans came from Asia Minor long before the fall of Babylon, and so at a time when its religion still swayed Asia and was infecting all lands. One example of the close link with the Babylonian religion is the great significance attached by the Etruscans to liver-reading for divining, just as practised in Babylon (cp Ezk 21:21).

According to the New Catholic Encyclopaedia, the initial pagan Roman religion was a fusion of Etruscan and Italic elements with a Roman core proper. In view of the very close links of the Italic (i.e. non-Roman ancient Italian) and Etruscan religions with the Babylonian religion, the strong influence of the spirit of this system may be seen from the very foundation of Rome. These are not the only links, however. Over the years the influence of the Mysteries became very strong in Rome. According to Walker, by the time of Christ, The great majority of those who felt religious longings simply adopted Oriental religions (History of the Christian Church, p 9). In view of what has been said earlier about the Mysteries, the obvious implication of this is an even stronger influence of the Babylonian religion in Rome. The most popular of these mystery religions were the worship of Cybele (the Great Mother) originating in Asia Minor, and of Isis, Osiris and Serapis from Egypt. The Mysteries of Dionysus (= Bacchus) were also introduced from Greece, and became very popular. (To the common man Bacchus is usually associated with drunken bacchanal orgies. The reason for this lay in the surname given to him: Lyseus. This described him as the personification, or the mystical giver, of wine. But this wine was not the fruit of the grape. It was that of the golden cup of Semiramis, and of initiation into the higher Mysteries). So then, not only was the original Roman religion essentially Babylonian. So also were those forms of the Mysteries which later played so important a part in the lives of her citizens during the early years of the Christian period. One final detail will suffice to show the close link between the Roman and Chaldean religions. Reference has already been made to the pagan Sovereign Pontiff and College of Cardinals who controlled Roman religion. This basically Etruscan institution was only a copy of the grand original, the Pontifex Maximus of the Babylonian College. Later, when Julius Caesar became emperor, these two offices, the Etruscan Sovereign Pontiff and the Babylonian Pontifex Maximus were united. So, the pagan Roman Pontiff became the direct legal descendant of the high-priest of the original Babylonian religion. Let us see how. I have already shown how Pergamos became the seat of the royal Babylonian priesthood after the fall of the latter city. At the death of Attalus III (133 BC), this priesthood was bequeathed to Rome. The office had to remain vacant for some years, however, since no citizen of the Roman Republic fulfilled the requisite condition of being both high priest and sitting on a throne. But the difficulty was solved when Julius Caesar, who had accepted the office of Pontifex Maximus, made himself Emperor, and thus united the Roman pontificate with its superior Babylonian original. As a result, the Babylonian priestly caste settled in Rome with all the implications this had for the future course and development of Roman religion. It is little surprise, then, to discover the true identity of the sun-god, the tutelary divinity of Rome. As mentioned earlier, one form in which this supreme deity of pagan Rome was worshipped was as a serpent, under the name Aesculapius (= man-instructing serpent). If this is not enough to identify him with the serpent in Eden, then one of the symbols used to represent Aesculapius ought to clinch the matter once and for all. This serpent was also represented symbolically as a fly-destroyer, or lord of the fly. There is a god in the Bible, Baalzebub, whose name means precisely this. Jesus revealed the true identity of this god, however, as being none other than the Prince of the devils, that ancient serpent, the dragon (Mt 12:24-28).

As repeatedly mentioned, the whole worship of Babylon was designed to glorify those who rebelled against the Lord, creating a counterfeit Messiah to ape Christ, leading ultimately to a worship of the dragon himself. This worship was now deeply entrenched in pagan Rome, and would provide the springboard for its reproduction in Christianity. It is astonishing to see the extent to which this purpose was achieved.

3 THE GREAT METAMORPHOSIS (or, THE PAGAN ORIGINS OF ROMAN CATHOLIC DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE)

a) Introduction In the Pergamos Church Age (in the chapter headed Where Satans seat is) attention was drawn to the inroads of paganism into the Roman Church especially following the ChurchState union. It is difficult for the modern believer to adequately appreciate the astonishing extent to which the whole spirit and character of Roman Catholicism mirrors the ancient paganism of Greece and Rome, especially since the study of Classics has almost disappeared from school timetables. It is essential not simply to mentally acknowledge but also spiritually discern this, if the reader is to understand the spiritual conflicts of the history of the Church. In lectures given in 1883 entitled The influence of Greek (i.e. pagan) ideas and usages upon the Christian Church, Dr E. Hatch, reader in Ecclesiastical History at the University of Oxford, described pagan influence in exegesis, preaching, morals, theology, worship and creed. In describing the influence of the Mystery religions, evidence was given of the changes effected upon the manner of observing baptism and the Lords supper in many important details. Hatch concluded by saying, Thus the whole conception of Christian worship was changed ... by the influence.., of the contemporary worship of the Mysteries and concurrent cults. In another lecture Hatch illustrated the stages whereby the government of nominal Christianity was transformed into a mighty organisation closely modelled on the political structures of the Roman Empire. He concluded: not only some but all the elements of the organisation can be traced to external sources. So then the nominal Church became not only the perpetuation of pagan religious doctrine and practice but also of the external political constitution of the world government. When the Church was forming her organisation under Constantine on the model of the State, the key guideline was that the head of the religious society must be in every point conformed to his prototype, the chief of the civil government. b) Historical Developments i) Gnosticism I have emphasised that satanic opposition to Gods purposes is not piecemeal and uncoordinated. There is a definite master strategy at work. Furthermore, precisely the same demon spirits were at work after the ministry of Christ as before it, with the same objectives albeit in a different outward setting. The diverse forms of demonic opposition and teaching therefore had a predetermined strategy. It is not simply the elimination of the one true religious worship that the serpent seeks. He also seeks to propagate his own particular brand of worship, the essence of which was first revealed in Babylon. An early attempt to inject pagan religion into Christianity took the form of what is usually termed Gnosticism. This is a generic term describing a loosely defined amalgam of religious ideas which were common in the Near East before Christianity. There were both Jewish and heathen varieties. It had occult, magical and spiritualistic elements traceable back to Babylonian religious ideas,

mixed with oriental theosophical elements. It took many differing shapes and forms, assimilating different elements from different sources. Its most prominent feature was the ability to absorb and combine with many differing religious expressions (cp Freemasonry and Theosophy, with which it has much in common). There was no one single type of Gnosticism. Indeed when its influence spread among Christians, chiefly from the end of the first C to the middle of the second, there were a dozen or more rival sects. Basically these attempted to fuse Christianity with pagan Greek ideas and oriental theosophy. In other words, it was an attempt to blend Christianity with the essential religious ideas of the Mysteries. An idea of the nature of Christian Gnosticism may be gained from the following description by Valentinius, founder of one Gnostic sect: The Gnostic is in possession of an occult lore. He participates in mysterious rites, and is instructed in magical watchwords and secret names... He undergoes a mystical experience whereby he apprehends the true nature of God and enters into communion with him. How striking a resemblance to the Mystery religions. During the height of its influence, Gnosticism posed a severe problem for the Church. The danger appeared to be overcome. But the cost was a greatly strengthened governmental system which paved the way for later priestly control of the laity. Although this early attempt to merge Christianity with the essence of the secret mystery religion doctrines failed, the same objective was ultimately achieved by later developments. ii) The intrusion of the paganism of the Roman Empire Despite the failure of Gnosticism to penetrate Christianity to any significant degree, the demonic assault on the Church was not without effect. During the Ephesus and Smyrna Ages there was a gradual undermining of the high wall of separation between the Church and the spirit of the world. From the second C on, the growing influence of pagan religious ideas on Christian doctrine and practice is evident in Christian writings. The term sacrament, used to translate the Greek mystery, came to be applied to certain Christian ordinances. There is no Biblical basis for this. A concept of a sacrament is purely pagan. For example, the breaking of bread and baptism: The memorial supper came to be likened unto the pagan religious feasts of the Mysteries, and to be understood in the same terms. Likewise baptism came more and more to be considered in the terms of the Mysteries where it was an initiation rite. Indeed when Constantine asked about the way of salvation, the priests described the unbaptised as the uninitiated.

In this way the meaning and purposes of these Scriptural practices came stage-by-stage to take on the role and implications of their counterparts in the Mystery religions. Increasingly they ceased to be seen as acts whose effectiveness lay in the attitude of the individual believer. Instead they became mere ceremonies, carried out by a specially ordained priesthood, whose effects worked like a magical spell. Thus the thought patterns and terminology of the Mysteries were increasingly introduced into the Church, predisposing the unstable and unwary to accept also the practices and doctrines of those same pagan religions. Especially after Constantine and the pagan influx into the Church, the celebration of the Lords

supper increasingly became a vast display of ceremonial splendour similar to a pagan temple service. Baptism, too, became cluttered with an unbelievable array of associated practices and doctrines, all derived from paganism. As the Pergamos Age progressed, and the knowledge and light of the Word dimmed in believers hearts, Nicolaitan theologians came actively to justify the ever-increasing influx of unscriptural practices and doctrines by claiming them as unwritten traditions handed down by the apostles. n a remarkable passage, Basil wrote: Of the.... doctrines preserved in the Church, there are some which we hold from Scriptural teaching, but others we received, handed down to us in Mystery-teaching, from the tradition of the apostles. And both of these sources have the same authoritative force in regard to religion. Such teaching increasingly elevated the priesthood to the same level as the pagan Mystery priests, the sole depositories of all sacred knowledge. As the worshippers progressed they were increasingly instructed in the fuller meaning of religion, in a manner increasingly likened unto the stages of pagan initiation. Whilst where was undoubtedly a tendency in the 2nd and 3rd C for a gradual assimilation of a limited number of pagan religious ideas and practices into the Church, the adulterous 4th C Pergamos union vastly accelerated the pace. All authorities agree that the 4th C saw a great influx of pagan religious influence on Christianity due to the vast number of semi-Christianised pagans entering the Church. The most significant aspect, however, was the active encouragement given to this trend by certain influential figures among the clergy (many of whom by this time were not even converted). They actually encouraged the people: to eat things sacrificed unto idols and to commit fornication (Rev 2:14), thus hastening their downfall. Most astonishing of all was the inheritance in 378 AD by Damasus, the bishop of Rome, of the title Pontifex Maximus. This made him the direct legal and lineal descendant of the high priest of the ancient Babylonian idolatry. The paganism of Rome rapidly disappeared, only to reappear in a different guise in the emerging Roman Catholic religion. One manifestation of the spirit of Babylon was destroyed; another arose to replace it. Although the external appearance differed, the underlying spirit was the same. In proportion as paganism disappeared outside the Church, it reappeared within. Pagan Rome died; papal Rome rose up in its place. The same spirit had merely undergone a circumstantial, external change. (For further details, see Study No.5, pp 7-14). It has long been known that Catholicism was baptised paganism. Many authors (including Catholics) testify to the pagan origin of different aspects of the ritual and doctrine of Rome. What has not been adequately appreciated, however, is the fact that this is the very paganism which prevailed in ancient Babylon: The essential character of her chief objects of worship, religious festivals, doctrine, ceremonies and priesthood are all derived from Babylon. The head of the system, the Pope, is in direct lineal descent from Belshazzar, the last Pontiff-King of Babylon.

Stage-by-stage over the Pergamos and Thyatira Ages, feature after feature of the ancient Babylonian idolatry came to be reproduced in that developing ecclesiastical system we today call Catholicism. Even those practices, doctrines and ceremonies with a superficially Christian and Biblical origin no longer reflected their true spirit. The Catholic Jesus was another Jesus, their Gospel another gospel and their Spirit another spirit (2 Cor 11:4).

I cannot adequately stress the extent of this metamorphosis. (Hislop especially will give some idea of this). I must confine myself to certain specific examples to try and show the amazing extent of the resurgence of the founding spirit of the ancient Babylonian idolatry. It is truly astonishing and breathtaking to realise the extent to which that spirit was able to inspire Medieval Christendom, thereby revealing the same essential features and characteristics found in the grand prototype. Even most of the very chants and music used by the Papal choir and most Catholic cathedrals and abbey churches is derived from hymns of the Chaldean Mysteries. The Catholic priest Eustace shows how the Gregorian chants were not composed by Gregory but merely collected by him from Lydian, Phrygian and other Greek and Roman tunes. Lydia and Phrygia were chief seats of the Mysteries and also famous for their music. These tunes were sacred. Among other things they were used to mourn the death of Bacchus (= Nimrod). This minor detail is symptomatic of the essence of Catholic worship. To an amazing extent it is not a worship of the Christ of Scripture, but of the Babylonian counterfeit Messiah whose spirit is wholly antagonistic to that of the Christ who walks among the candlesticks. c) Baptism i) Infant baptism Rome teaches baptism is absolutely necessary for salvation. So, infants who die unbaptised cannot be admitted to heaven. Now a key to understand all the unbiblical doctrines of Catholicism is to remember that they did not spring up in a vacuum. Their source is the inspiration spirit of pagan Rome, the same spirit which inspired the rebellious idolatry of Babylon. Hence the root of Catholicisms errors may nearly always be found somewhere in the religion first formed in Babylon, and which spread its baneful influence over all the earth. And indeed, that is the case here. By the gates of the pagan hell was a place reserved for infants who had not undergone the necessary initiation rites. ii) Baptismal regeneration Another Catholic error concerning baptism is the teaching that it brings about the new birth. This also is essentially Babylonian. Baptism was necessary for initiation into the Mysteries, and by its purifying waters pardon and new birth were said to be received. This idea was so widespread in the pagan world that Catholic missionaries were astonished to witness a Mexican infant baptismal ceremony where the child was said to be purified, cleansed and born anew. There was even an exorcism ceremony. This explains the pagan origin of the perplexing length of ceremonies associated with a Roman baptism: the candidate is first exorcised, and then the water blessed to be freed from any evil spirits so as to become a regenerating water, a purifying stream. (For the evidence of the Babylonian source of this Mexican practice, see Hislop pp 133-134. Such similarity of practice and doctrine between lands so far apart further proves the original unity of the idolatry of the whole earth.)

It is amazing how even small details of the Roman ceremony are traceable directly to a pagan source. Not only is the general concept of the Roman baptismal regeneration Babylonian, but also the peculiar detailed acts connected with it, such as the use of salt, spittle, anointing with oil, and marking the forehead with the sign of the cross. Even Catholic theologians admit such practices are not Scriptural, usually claiming their origin in unwritten tradition. Cardinal Newman, however, frankly admits holy water and many other things were, the very instruments and appendages of demon worship. Pagan temples in Rome, for example, had holy water basins long before Catholicism, and those entering were expected to sprinkle themselves. Spittle was common in paganism as a magic charm to avert evil, just as when the Catholic priest anoints those to be baptised with spittle, he calls upon the devil to flee. Let us conclude by considering to the holy water of the Roman baptism. Blessing and the plunging of a lighted torch into the font is said to consecrate these waters. This is exactly how the Greeks purified their regenerating waters. In pagan worship the torch symbolised the god of fire. iii) The sign of the cross As early as the mid 3rd C, African Christians were marked at baptism with the sign of the cross, just as Tertullian implies happened to those initiated by baptism into the Mysteries. Indeed the Roman cross is not that of the Scripture, but that used in the Babylonian Mysteries, for the same magic purposes, and honoured with the same honours. A cross is the ancient sacred emblem of Tammuz (Nimrod), the Babylonian Messiah. It was worn as an amulet over the heart, marked on priestly robes, and suspended from necklaces by the Vestal virgins of pagan Rome (just as the nuns of today). There is hardly a pagan tribe where the cross has not been found. According to the archaeologist Wilkinson, this symbol was already in use as early as the 15th C BC. He also shows how it came into common Christian use by examples on early Egyptian Christian tombstones, with an unmistakably pagan origin. (This was not the only area in which Egypt, never thoroughly evangelised, channelled rank pagan ideas into Christianity). Like the Egyptians, the great influx of Christianised pagans into the Church after Constantines conversion brought with them their fondness for this ancient symbol of their grand object of worship. Thus the sign of the cross became so extensive in so many Catholic practices. How strange, yet how appropriate, that the very symbol of the false Babylonian Messiah was marked on the forehead at the initiatory baptism of those entering the Roman fold. How very appropriate when the Roman Jesus is another Jesus, whose attributes and features are metamorphoses of the ancient Babylonian rebel, Nimrod. d) The Pope and his priests i) The bishop of Rome as Pontifex Maximus In the Pergamos Age I detailed how the Pontifex Maximus (or High Priest) of pagan Rome became historically the sole legitimate representative of Nimrod by way of Pergamos (pp 7 10), and how this title later became legally vested in the Catholic bishop of Rome (pp 13 -14). The fact that the bishop of Rome is vested with the very title of the high priest of the ancient rebellious religion of Babylon is no mere coincidence or quirk of history. Furthermore, it is

undeniable that not only was the title conveyed, but along with it came a veritable flood of pagan ideas into Christianity whose ultimate spring and source was Babylon itself. In the mercy of God it took years for many of these pagan doctrines and practices to spread throughout Christendom. Although the emperors gave the Roman bishop extensive authority over all churches in France and Italy, this was virtually nullified when the barbarian invasions destroyed the power of the Western Roman Empire. It was therefore several centuries before the tyrannical Jezebel could effectively teach all her blasphemous doctrines far and wide, imposing them upon all and eliminating any dissension. ii) The Keys of Peter To appreciate more fully that the popes title, Pontifex Maximus, is no coincidence, let us consider further attributes of his office. A constant claims of the Papacy is to hold the Keys of Peter, which are said to signify the possession of the sole right to grant admission to heaven. This is a very interesting and instructive. When Rome repeatedly proclaims unbiblical doctrines as truth, this is no simple misinterpretation of Scripture. There is an underlying spirit continually seeking to press a thought into the mind so as to further its objectives. This is why men go to such lengths to claim as truth matters that are plainly contrary to Scripture, or at best mere conjectures. Is it not strange, for example, that Catholicism is so emphatic that it was Peter who was chief of the apostles, and the first bishop of Rome? After all, the Bible states expressly that, whilst the gospel of the circumcision (Jews) was committed unto Peter, it was Paul who was the apostle to the uncircumcised Gentiles (Gal 2:7-9). Even if Peter did go to Rome, therefore, as Catholicism is so keen to maintain (and which is unproven), he had no divine jurisdiction over a Gentile city. But there was another Peter who held the highest place in the pagan priesthood. The priest who interpreted or explained the Mysteries to the initiates was called in primitive Chaldee, the real language of the Mysteries, Peter or Pether, which means, the Interpreter. This priest would communicate certain writings from the Book Petroma or Pet-Roma, i.e. the Book of the Grand Interpreter. How strange a coincidence! How amazing that Rome again uses a Biblical name, the apostle Peter, and yet their Peter is not the one of the Bible, but another Peter, just as their Jesus is another Jesus and their Mary another Mary. Not only was the pagan Pontifex Maximus named Peter the Interpreter. He was also invested with the keys of Janus and his wife/mother Cybele, two Roman deities attributed with the power of the key. (These were of course only further manifestations of the grand originals Nimrod and Semiramis.) So, as revealer of the Mysteries, the Interpreter was decorated with the keys of those deities whose Mysteries he unfolded. (Janus was commonly known in Rome as the grand Mediator, the opener and the shutter, with the key of the invisible world.) So, the keys now displayed as a symbol of papal authority are not the keys of the kingdom of heaven, of which our Lord spoke to Peter (Matt 16:19). They are those of the pagan Pontifex Maximus, grand interpreter of the Mysteries of pagan deities. They were revealed unto those initiated into their worship by a transmuted baptism which, though outwardly Christian, was in root and spirit a metamorphosis of the ancient Babylonian initiatory rite. Stage-by-stage this paganised head of ecclesiastical Christianity would lead the Lords

servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols (Rev 2:20b). Even though set forth in the name of Christianity, this would bring his subjects into communion with the very inspiration spirit of paganism. It is no coincidence that no bishop of Rome based his claim of supremacy on possession of the Keys of Peter until Damasus (366 - 384 AD). He was the first to inherit the office of Pontifex Maximus. Once he occupied the office of the grand interpreter, however, what more natural to the semi-pagans who had filled the churches of Rome since Constantine, than that he should also be entitled to the keys of Janus and Cybele. It is highly significant that from the time of Damasus the claims of the bishop of Rome reached a new crescendo, stressing that he and none other was successor to Peter. From the early 5th C, belief spread that Peter was first among the apostles. In 431 AD it was first claimed that the bishop of Rome was endued with the Keys of Peter. In the course of time, just as the statue of Jupiter came to be worshipped in Rome as the image of Peter, so the keys of Janus and Cybele came to be seen as the keys of the Catholic Peter. iii) The College of Cardinals Assisting the pope in the government of the Catholic Church are the cardinals. As there is no Biblical foundation for such an office we may well wonder at its origin. The Catholic College of Cardinals is but the counterpart of the pagan College of Pontiffs, with the Pontifex Maximus or Sovereign Pontiff at its head. This had existed in Rome from earliest times, being modelled on the original Babylonian Council of Pontiffs. The word cardinal is derived from the Latin word for hinge. Janus, whose key the pope bears, was the god of doors and hinges, and called the opener and the shutter. He was attributed with the power of turning the hinge. Without his mediation the door of heaven could not be opened. When the bishop of Rome claimed this right, therefore, those still imbued with the spirit of paganism were predisposed to acknowledge such pretensions, especially when justified by the use of Christian terminology. Thus the pope became representative of Janus, who was none other than the Babylonian Messiah. Just as the Pontiff of pagan Rome, the bishop of Rome was called your holiness. The pope receives the adoration of his cardinals just as the Babylonian king in his office of Sovereign Pontiff. So, the meaning of the unscriptural title, cardinal, is plainly understood. These are the priests of the hinge, associated with the Sovereign Pontiff as representative of Janus in whom the government of the world was said to be vested and all power in heaven, earth and sea. iv) The mitre and crosier Two distinctive adornments of the pope are his two-horned mitre and peculiarly shaped crosier, or staff. Their source is highly illuminating. The papal mitre is entirely different from that of the Old Testament priest. That was a turban. In fact, it is fish-head mitre worn by Dagon, the Philistine and Babylonian fish-god, who was identified with Janus. Such mitres were used in Nineveh, Egypt and Malta. There is even a Chinese mitre used by emperors for many centuries in their role as high priests. It is the very

facsimile of a papal mitre. If this seems astonishing, then consider the origin of the papal crosier. It is claimed this symbolises a shepherds crook. In actual fact it is simply the crooked divining-rod of the pagan Roman soothsayers! This was borrowed from the Etruscans, who derived it from the Assyrians. Chaldean soothsayers and priests were commonly equipped with such magic rods for their ceremonies. They are directly traceable to Nimrod who first bore the title of ShepherdKing. So, the papal crosier, supposedly symbolising the popes pastoral functions, is no less than the crooked magic diving-rod of the priests of Nimrod. How astonishing to see the ancient paganism continued in its new Christianised form. Even the above details do not exhaust the amazing extent to which Rome came to reflect the original Babylonian idolatry. How amazing is the likeness between the pope in all his attire, and the pagan Pontifex Maximus. Once the latter office was transferred to Julius Caesar, he would appear in all the pomp of the Babylonian costume just as the Pope of today: in scarlet robes, holding the crosier of Nimrod, wearing the mitre of Dagon, and bearing the keys of Janus and Cybele. The ancient paganism had been restored to life. v) Celibacy A distinctive mark of Catholicism is the celibacy of her priests, monks and nuns. Although practised to some degree among certain other Christian groups (chiefly Orthodox), only Rome enforces it so strictly. Of course, the Bible does speak of those which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heavens sake (Matt 19:12). Paul also spoke of those who remained unmarried to be free from the things of the world so as to attend upon the Lord without distraction (1 Cor 7). There is, however, no hint of support for insisting that all priests remain unmarried. Indeed, the so-called first pope, Peter, was married (1 Cor 9:5). Nor is there any suggestion in the Word of special groups of celibate men and women who live apart in their own communities such as do monks and nuns. As in other circumstances when Rome insists dogmatically upon ideas without Scriptural support, we ask the question: what then is their origin? The answer is easily found in Pauls warning to Timothy: in later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron, forbidding to marry (1 Tim 4:lb-3a). Here it is plainly stated that to forbid to marry (as opposed to a voluntary choice) is a doctrine of evil spirits. Rome does not offer her priests any choice. She prohibits their marrying absolutely. Now the spirit of error does not simply attack Gods work in a haphazard fashion, simply seeking to disrupt in any way possible. There is always a co-ordinated strategy, and a grand master design behind the individual parts. Forbidding to marry, therefore, is but part of an overall strategy. And what is that strategy? It is the reproduction of the counterfeit plan of salvation first manifested in the religion of Babylon. Mystery Babylon is the term describing the operations of the spirit seeking to bring about this reproduction, the fullest expression of which is found in Catholicism. Let us see how clerical celibacy fits into the strategy.

Historical records show that the origin of celibacy is in Babylon. Its invention in its most stringent form is attributed to the evil Semiramis, who presided over the Chaldean Mysteries. From there it spread as far as Tibet, China and Japan. When the worship of Cybele was introduced into Rome in its primitive form, it was brought in with a celibate clergy. How very appropriate, then, that the bishop of Rome, after becoming the legal representative of that goddess should introduce celibacy for his priesthood also. Not only is priestly celibacy traceable to Babylonian paganism. Orders of monks and nuns also existed long before the Christian era in Tibet and Japan, for example, where the Chaldean system was early introduced. Indeed, referring to the detailed duties of sacred virgins, the Peruvian explorer Prescott wrote of his astonishment, to find so close a resemblance between the institutions of the American Indian (i.e. Peruvian Incas), the ancient (pagan) Roman, and the modern Catholic. Even the very word nun is Chaldean! vi) The clerical tonsure Another distinguishing feature of Catholic priests and monks is the circular tonsure, or shaved patch on the head. This is sometimes called the tonsure of Peter. It was imposed on the clergy as the visible symbol of submission to the authority of the Roman pope. And in very fact it was the tonsure of Peter. Not of the apostle of Scripture, however, but of the pagan Chaldean Peter, or Interpreter of the Mysteries. The Babylonian Bacchus (= Tammuz or Nimrod) was sometimes shown with a tonsure. It was an esoteric symbol of his death that was lamented annually. It was also an emblem of the sun god, or the Seed (i.e. of the woman), the grand deliverer or satanic counterfeit Messiah. Since the grand god himself had a tonsure, so his priests had their hair clipped or shaven at their ordination. Wherever the Chaldean system spread, whether Egypt, pagan Rome, India or China, this tonsure is the distinguishing mark of the priesthood. So ancient and widespread was this mark that it was said of Israelite priests, They shall not make baldness upon their head. They shall be holy unto their God (Lev l9:5a). Since they were separated unto the God of Israel, they were not to bear upon them the very symbol of consecration to the abominations of the heathen. The words of Jerome (340 - 420 AD), an ardent supporter of monasticism, show clearly how the tonsure was a mark of paganism. In his commentary on Ezekiel 44:20 he wrote, by this it is clearly shown that we ought not to have shaven heads like the priest and worshippers of Isis and Serapis. How amazing - yet how appropriate - that since Catholicism is but the metamorphosis of the ancient Babylonian religion in a Christian disguise, and since the Catholic Pontifex Maximus is but the earthly representative the Babylonian Messiah, that his priests should bear the distinguishing mark of the god they represented. The serpent is a past master of taking upon himself the outward appearance of one thing, whilst in reality being something very different. No wonder then that his ministers are described as assuming the garb of apostles of Christ, and disguising themselves as ministers of righteousness (2 Cor 11:13-15 Wey). The word transform, used three times in this passage, is the key to the operation of the Mystery Babylon spirit. It means the changing of the outward fashion, without in any way altering the abiding essential character of the object in question. Satans grand objective has in no way changed from the beginning of time. It may be that the external form it took in historical Babylon had been destroyed. But his ultimate essential

purpose was unchanged. The same spirit, seeking to achieve the same objectives, was now at work behind a different outward mask, dressed in a different disguise. If the Lord grants understanding of this principle of Satans working, the reader will be well on the way to discerning the operations of the mystery of iniquity across the pages of history. Rome is but a grand metamorphosis of the whole Babylonian counterfeit system of worship. e) Easter The feast of Easter is not found in the Bible. (The word is used in Acts 12:4 AV, is a mistranslation. It should read Passover.) What then is the origin of this festival and of its English name? According to Websters dictionary, Easter is an Anglo-Saxon word derived from, the name of the old Teuton goddess of spring. Its origin is ultimately Chaldean, being derived from Astarte, one of the titles of the queen of heaven. Both Astarte, and its Assyrian equivalent Ishtar, were even pronounced identically to the English Easter. How strange that such a name should be applied to a festival associated with the suffering and resurrection of our Lord. How did it happen? According to historical records, many Christians especially in the East observed such a festival in the 2nd and 3rd C on the date of the Jewish Passover. It was called Pasch or Passover. The Church historian Socrates in a lengthy account of different Easter celebrations concluded that: the celebration of the feast of Easter began everywhere more of custom than by any commandment either by Christ or any apostle ... (There was) no law enjoined to keep this feast.... It seems to me (it) has been introduced from some old usage, just as many other customs have been established. Despite its lack of for New Testament authority, however, at least this original Christian Passover feast was devoid of the rank paganism that came in later. In addition to the Pasch observed especially in the Eastern churches, there was an alternative practice in the West on a different date. The origin of this alternative is shrouded in mystery. The fifty odd years after the death of the first apostles has been termed the age of shadows since a veil hangs over our knowledge of this twilight period. Whatever changes did take place, it is certain that the mystery of iniquity was already at work (2 Thess 2:7). In any case, serious dissension arose in the 2nd C over the date of the Easter celebration. In 197 AD Victor, bishop of Rome, demanded that all adopt the practice of Rome, and threatened dissenters with excommunication. He was restrained, however, by the protests of other bishops. Later the issue was raised again at the Council of Nicea, and the Roman practice was unanimously approved. Those who continued to celebrate the feast on the day of the Jewish Passover (called Quartodecimans) gradually faded away. To those accustomed only to acknowledge and practice the explicit teachings of Scripture, it seems strange that so much passion should focus on the date of Easter, especially when there is no explicit New Testament sanction for any such annual observance. But, once it is recognised that there was a spirit at work paving the way for the introduction of further aspects of the ancient Babylonian idolatry, the issue then becomes much clearer.

Throughout the pagan world, one of the great annual festivals was to commemorate the death and resurrection of Nimrod, under many different names in widely scattered locations. One of the distinguishing features was a forty-day Lent, or sacred fast, which seems to have its origin in the weeping for the slain god prior to his resurrection. Such forty-day Lents were held, for example, among the pagan Kurds, Mexicans and Egyptians. After the Church-State union, the general Catholic policy was to blend pagan and Christian, grafting Christian terms and ideas onto old pagan stocks. Now the spirit of error already had a pagan festival as his direct counterfeit of the events surrounding the death of the Messiah. So, as part of the policy referred to, the annual celebration of the death and resurrection of Christ was merged with that festival. From Constantine onwards, more and more of the practices associated with the Easter celebrations were absorbed from the pagan original. One example is Lent. It is evident that this practice has no Scriptural authority. Cassanius, a 5th C French monk, wrote, the observance of the forty days had no existence so long as the perfection of the early church remained inviolate. By 519 AD, however, it was decreed by a Western Church council that Lent should be solemnly observed before Easter. Throughout the Middle Ages additional attributes of the pagan Easter were incorporated into Church practice. Hot cross buns, for example, were eaten by the Saxons in honour of their goddess Easter (cp Jer 7:18, cakes to the queen of heaven i.e. Ishtar). Even the commonly known Easter egg, referred to in Catholic set Easter prayers, is but an emblem of Astarte (or, Easter). Without further detail, I trust it is now clear that even that festival generally considered one of the highlights of the Christian calendar is, in the Roman Church, nothing but a metamorphosis of the celebration of the death and resurrection of the Babylonian anti-Messiah. Not only are the pope and his ministers in direct line as representatives of Nimrod. Papal festivals also are but re-enactments of the life, death and resurrection of Nimrod, the deliberate counterfeit of that Holy One sent to restore us to the image and glory of God. f) Mary worship i) Introduction It has already been repeatedly stressed that Romes use of Christian terms does not imply that the spirit and essence of those terms is Christian. Just as the Roman Peter is another Peter, so the Roman Marys resemblance to the Mary of Scripture is only superficial. Her true counterpart is found in the normal source for so much Catholic doctrine and practice. Some idea has already been given of the identification of the Mary of Rome with the Babylonian Semiramis in chapter 1, section (d). This explains the very powerful tendency in Romanism to exalt, and even deify, Mary. The mystery of why Rome lays such emphasis upon Mary, far beyond all Scriptural warrant, is once again explained by the powerful mastermind spirit at work seeking to reproduce the essentials of the Babylonian worship in a different disguise. The Babylonian Semiramis was attributed with certain features known by the serpent to apply to Mary. For example, one of her titles was the Virgin Mother. Indeed, long before the Christian age, Buddhist priests had a tradition that a virgin would beget a child to bless mankind. With the pagan influx into the Church, Mary was progressively attributed with all the character-

istics of her Babylonian counterpart. As in Babylon, there was a trend in the Medieval Church to ascribe all the attributes of the Messiah-son also to his mother. This should help explain how Mary is so prominent in the popular Catholic mind. She is even blasphemously considered a mediatrix between man and Christ. Without quoting extensively from numerous Catholic documents, suffice it to say that the multitude of unbiblical attributes and titles blasphemously ascribed to Mary may individually be traced back to a Babylonian source. As mentioned earlier, even the very physical features of Roman and Babylonian Madonnas are identical. The halos or circles of light on her images also have pagan counterparts. ii) Lady Day One of the great Catholic festivals is Lady Day, held on 25th May. It commemorates the miraculous conception of Christ. How Rome can be so precise as to a date not divinely recorded seems a mystery. The mystery vanishes, however, when we learn that the very same day was observed in pagan Rome in honour of Cybele, mother of the Babylonian Messiah. Furthermore, the common title of Cybele in Rome was Domina (= the Lady), which is doubtless the origin of the name Lady Day. iii) The immaculate conception and assumption of the virgin Mary Do not think that the idolatry of Rome is a thing of ages long past, nor that the spirit of error once at work in the dark corridors of the Vatican has now been exorcised and replaced by an enlightened modern outlook. The same spirit that originally metamorphosed the pagan Semiramis into the Biblical Mary is still at work. In 1854 Pius IX proclaimed that Mary was born sinless. Later, in 1950, Pius XII proclaimed infallibly ex cathedra that she was carried bodily into heaven shortly after her death. Nor is this the climax. Current discussion centres on Mary as Mediatrix and Co-redemptrix. This blasphemy means that she is Mediator along with Christ; and that her sufferings, particularly when at the cross, were redemptive in the same sense as Christs. Short of explicitly saying so in so many words, there seems little else Rome can do to make Mary a member of her idolatrous trinity. This would bring to a climax the long trend of transposing every attribute of Semiramis to Mary. Whilst there is no Scriptural basis for such Roman fables as Marys sinlessness and assumption into heaven, there certainly is one in the Babylonian system. According to the 1950 pronouncement, Mary was raised from the grave shortly after death, and enthroned as queen of heaven. Her body was miraculously preserved from corruption. In the Babylonian system too, it was taught that Bacchus went down to hell, rescued his mother and took her triumphantly to heaven. Furthermore, that mother was considered to have been born without sin, that is, immaculate. The Chinese, too, had a festival based on a similar legend of a mother rescued by her son from the power of death and corruption. This festival was held in August, the same month as the Catholic Feast of the Assumption. Not only was the mother of the pagan Messiah honoured for her bodily assumption into heaven, she was also termed the Virgin mother, pure and undefiled. This related not only to the virgin birth of the false Messiah, and the sinless life of the mother. It also implied her immaculate conception, i.e. her being born without original sin. Does the coincidence of the terms used by Catholicism and paganism to describe Mary seem too great? For those who have understood the underlying spirits at work, it will not. As Hislop

wrote: There is no real reason to wonder. It was only in following out the pagan doctrine previously adopted and interwoven with the whole system of Rome to its logical consequences ... that the Madonna of Rome has been formally pronounced , in every sense of the term, absolutely immaculate. Now, after all this, is it possible to doubt that the Madonna of Rome, with the child in her arms, and the Madonna of Babylon are one and the same goddess? (The Two Babylons, pp 126-127). In keeping with the objective of the spirit of antichrist at work in Christendom (just as in the Babylonian original) Mary came to overshadow Christ. Consider the thoroughly antichrist nature of the following quotations taken from The Glories of Mary, by Ligouri, one of the greatest Catholic devotional writers, and canonised as a saint. The editor of this work describes it as, a summary of Catholic tradition on the subject it treats: Sinners receive pardon by Mary alone. Mary is our life Many things are asked from God and are not granted; they are asked from Mary and are obtained.... Mary is called the gate of heaven, because no one can enter ... without passing through her. at the command of Mary, all obey even God Mary is also the advocate of the whole human race... for she can do what she wills with God.

How astonishing to those versed in Scripture alone! The whole system is thoroughly antichrist. Although His Name is retained, Christ is replaced at every level. g) The Mass In considering the peculiarities of the Mass, we must again apply a fundamental principle: Catholic ideas and practices with no Scriptural foundation are not merely oddities of history. There is an origin, even for comparatively minor details. And so often this origin uncannily goes right back to the evil original idolatry of the whole earth, in one or other of its many manifestations. Let us illustrate by looking at a few of the features peculiar to the Roman method of remembering the death of our Lord. As may be known, the Catholic communion only offers the bread, not the wine, to the layman. This bread takes the form of a circular disc or wafer with the words I H S. Rome explains this as meaning lesus Hominum Salvator (Jesus the Saviour of men). It is odd indeed, however, that to the pagan worshippers of Isis these are the initials of the Mother, Child and Father of the pagan Egyptian trinity. The unbloody sacrifice of the mass was first introduced by the women of Arabia in the 4th C. At that time the queen of heaven, under the name of Mary, was beginning to be worshipped, and special cakes offered and eaten (cp Jer 44:19). It was well known that this practice had been adopted from paganism, and that those involved were considered heretics. They were called "Collyridians, from the Greek word for the special cake they used. Despite this condemnation, however, the offering and eating of such cakes was patronised by Rome. The peculiar emphasis laid by Catholicism on the thin round form of their wafers may also be significant. There is certainly no Biblical basis for any importance being attached to the form of

the bread used in the Lords supper. Such a thin round cake, however, appeared on all Egyptian altars. The round disc symbolised the sun god, who was also worshipped in his capacity as the bread given to nourish mens souls. Also, on the Egyptian (and Babylonian, Peruvian and apostate Israelite) altars, alongside the sacred cake there was a metal disc also representing the sun (cp 2 Chron 34:4, Marg.). How strange that Hurd, describing the ornaments of a Catholic altar, where the consecrated wafer is deposited, refers to a silver plate in the form of a sun fixed opposite to it. When describing how to partake of the wafer, Bishop Hay stresses the importance of fasting. How odd when it is remembered that Biblically the breaking of bread was part of a love feast! Paul even specifically enjoined eating before attendance if necessary (1 Cor 11:33 - 34). Fasting, however, was imperative for those who sought pagan initiation. Thus we see how once again, in the very ceremony professing to commemorate the Lords death, and our partaking of His Life, the spirit of paganism has again reappeared. The Roman communion is another communion. It is a metamorphosis of the worship of the ancient sun god, the false Babylonian Messiah, in his capacity and title of the Corn, the bread given to feed mens souls. See again how the spirit of antichrist sought to anticipate in the ancient Babylonian worship the attributes and ministry of the true Anointed One, of Whom it is written: I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world (John 6:51). h) Christmas Day No informed authority, whether Catholic, Protestant or otherwise, denies that the celebration of Christmas has no Biblical or early Church warrant. For example: The Catholic Encyclopaedia says: Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church ... the first evidence of the feast is from Egypt. Pagan customs centring around the January Kalends gravitated to Christmas. The Encyclopaedia Americana says Christmas, was, according to many authorities, not celebrated in the first centuries of the Christian Church ... a feast was established in the 4th C. In the 5th C the Western (i.e. Catholic) Church ordered it to be celebrated forever on the day of the old Roman feast of the birth of the Sol (= the Unconquered Sun)...

So, there is no command in Scripture to celebrate any special day in memory of Christs birth. Not only is there no explicit Biblical command to celebrate Christmas, it is also universally acknowledged to be a direct transfer from paganism. For example: The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge says: The pagan Saturnalia and Brumalia were too deeply entrenched in popular custom to be set aside by Christian influence ... The pagan festival ... was so popular that Christians were glad of an excuse to continue its celebration with little change of spirit and manner. Christian preachers of the West and the Near East protested against the unseemly frivolity with which Christs birthday was celebrated, whilst Christians of Mesopotamia accused their Western brethren of idolatry and sun worship for adopting as Christian this pagan festival. The Encyclopaedia Britannica says: Certain Latins, as early as 354 AD, may have transferred the birthday from January 6th to December 25th (the) birthday of the

unconquered Sun ... The Syrians and Armenians, who clung to January 6th, accused the Romans of sun worship and idolatry .. If we use our guiding principle of comparing the unscriptural practices and doctrines of Rome with paganism, we shall again find the true source of the Roman Christmas. Once again it is but a metamorphosis of one of the chief festivals of the ancient pagan Messiah, the counterfeit Christ. Consider firstly the choice of dates for the birth of Christ. Even the Catholic Encyclopaedia acknowledges that it was not December 25th. The Scriptures describe the shepherds abiding in the open fields (Luke 2:8) at the time of His birth. It was not, however, the custom for Judean shepherds to watch in the open fields later than October because of the rain and cold (cp S of Sol 2:11; Ezra 10:9,13). Jesus also taught the Jews, Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter (Matt 24:20). Since it is generally agreed that no one knows the exact time of Christs birth, how did December 25th come to be chosen? Long before the birth of Christ, a pagan festival was celebrated at that precise time in honour of the birth of the son of the Babylonian queen of heaven. In Egypt for instance the son of Isis (Egyptian title for the queen of heaven) was born about the time of the winter solstice. Even the peculiar British term for Christmas, Yule-Day, is only the term used by our pagan Anglo-Saxon ancestors to describe 25th December, the Day of the Child, observed in celebration of the pagan Lord, or Baal. This date was also celebrated in pagan Rome. It was called Saturnalia (=the feast of Saturn) and was the historical origin of the Catholic Christmas. It was the celebration of Natalis invicti Solis (= the birthday of the unconquered Sun), the celebration of the victorious rebirth as a child of the false Babylonian Messiah. i) Miscellaneous We have so far examined in detail: certain of the chief objects of Catholic worship (particularly Christ and Mary), some of the most important religious festivals (Easter, Christmas and Lady Day), two of the major sacraments (Baptism and Mass), and the most important features of the Catholic form of ecclesiastical government.

In all cases it is astonishing how the Roman Christ and Mary are but a metamorphosis of their Babylonian antitypes, and how the chief Catholic festivals originated not in Scripture but in pagan feasts commemorating the salient incidents of the lives of these two Babylonian deities. The examination of baptism revealed an astonishing parallel with pagan initiation into the Mysteries, (and thus the full knowledge of their ultimate object of worship). The Mass bore a sobering likeness to the idolatrous feast in honour of and communion with the Babylonian counterfeit Messiah. Finally, the Roman priesthood also draws its distinctive characteristics again not from Scripture, but from the pagan priesthood of the Mysteries, the guardians of the inner secrets of their religion, binding the laity inseparably to themselves. It is a truly amazing metamorphosis, both in scope and in detail, of the essential features of pagan religions, whose inspiration and origin is from Babylon. How justly then may the Roman Catholic Church be considered the most fully developed (though not the only) expression of that spirit called Mystery, Babylon the Great, otherwise called the mystery of the woman.

Very much more could be said, and further abundant detail given, but space forbids. I will conclude therefore by referring briefly to certain other distinctive Catholic practices. This will illustrate further the incredible extent of the likeness between Catholicism and paganism, and will doubly emphasise that this is no mere coincidence. It is the culmination of a single mastermind spiritual strategy. i) Purgatory and prayers for the dead The idea of purification by fire after death existed long before Christ in the Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman and other pagan religions. Built on this doctrine was that of prayers for the dead to speed their delivery from the purifying flames. Greek ideas spread through the Near East after Alexander the Greats conquests. Consequently, even modernistic Jewish rabbis began to teach sin offerings to relieve the sufferings of the dead. (This is referred to in 2 Maccabees. It explains the attempt by Rome to include this book in the canon of Scripture). Not only do pagan prayers for the dead find their counterpart in Romanism, but also the great financial cost extorted by a domineering priesthood. In India, Central Asia, Greece and Egypt the cost of prayers and special sacrifices for the dead (cp Catholic masses for the dead) was not inconsiderable. Also, in Egypt, for example, such rites for the dead were administered for as long as payment was forthcoming. ii) The Rosary This distinctly Catholic item is a string of beads used for keeping count of prayers. It came into general use early in the 13th C. It is not of papal origin, but almost universally found in pagan lands. Before its common adoption by Catholicism, it was used for counting prayers by Buddhists in China and Tibet for centuries. It was also found among ancient Mexicans, Hindus and in pagan Rome and Asiatic Greece. iii) Relic worship and pilgrimages One of the most distinctive characteristics of Catholicism is the veneration of the relics and bones of their saints and martyrs, and the miracle-working powers attributed to them. A similar worship existed in heathen lands such as Greece, and particularly in Buddhist realms where the relics of the Buddha are held in great esteem. Egypt also was filled with tombs of the various limbs of Osiris after his dismemberment. (This suggests the real origin of the veneration of relics as being part of the ceremonies in memory of the sudden death of Osiris, or Nimrod). Another peculiarity of Romanism is the regular pilgrimages to shrines holding the tombs of saints. This has no New Testament warrant, but was commonly practised among the pagan Egyptians. (Incidentally, relic worship and prayers both to and for the dead are further examples of the strong tendency within Romanism towards communion with the dead).

iv) Image worship Despite the clear testimony of Scripture against idolatry, the heathen element that entered the Church after the 4th C became so strong that opposition was overcome. Religious processions with images became a commonplace spectacle of pageantry in Roman lands. Despite their lack of Biblical authority, these processions had their heathen counterpart, of course, in Mexico, Assyria, Greece, Egypt and Babylon (cp Isa 46:6-7). Great attention is also paid to the clothing and adorning of Catholic idols, just as in pagan worship in Egypt and Greece. There is insufficient space to discuss this further, but the ultimate source of these practices is once again traceable to the original rebellion of Nimrod, his premature death and subsequent deification. v) Wax candles Another feature of Catholicism is the wide use of wax-candles and tapers in worship and processions. These were also common among Persians, Egyptians and Kurds in their worship of the sungod. In pagan Rome, too, wax tapers were lit in honour of the gods, and used in religious processions. So distinctively pagan was the practice that it was derided by Lactantius, a 4th C Christian writer. Soon after, however, it became increasingly common in Catholicism. With all Catholic peculiarities absorbed from paganism, I have sought to emphasise not just their pagan origin, but their secret underlying meaning in ancient pagan worship. For example, Catholic adoration of Mary was not simply influenced by the contemporary worship of the goddess-mother. Rather, the true heart of Catholic Mary-worship is the worship of the historical Semiramis, with all that that implies. Romanism is not a basically sound Christian body with an unfortunate number of pagan tumours attached. The essence of Catholicism is the essence of the Babylonian counterfeit Messiah worship. Let us now apply this principle to explain Romes widespread use of wax-candles. Such candles were considered essential aids to worship by the pagans of Lake Baikal in Siberia, the Molucca Islands and Ceylon. Being so widespread, it may safely be presumed that there is some mystic reason for their use. And indeed there is. The wax-candle was a hieroglyph (i.e. a sacred symbol which could be explained only by the priesthood). It symbolised the Babylonian god in his role as the enlightener, leading men from darkness into light. For reasons detailed by Hislop (pp 193 - 197), this god was termed the Word, or the Bee (which is the same word in Chaldean). A beeswax candle giving forth light in the darkness symbolically represented him. Amazing references are made to the mystery of the wax-candles, with Christ described as the celestial Bee in certain Catholic set prayers and other devotional works. (These have rarely been used since the Reformation, which led to a removal of some of Romes more obvious paganism.) Such expressions and their underlying implications are a direct transcription of Babylonian worship and terminology. Romes candles are a modern-day representations of the ancient Babylonian Messiah, blasphemously called the Word.

How very far-reaching were the words of Paul when he wrote of another Jesus being introduced into the Church. j) Conclusion

Abundant evidence has now been given of: the pagan origin of different parts of the Catholic system, and the essential identity of Catholic worship and that of the false Babylonian Messiah and his wife.

Further evidence is provided by Hislop of the origin of extreme unction, scourging and penance, justification by works, the feast of the Nativity of St John and the worship of the sacred heart. Even Catholics acknowledge that the source of much of Catholicism is purely pagan, at least in part. Cardinal Newman, for example, admits that, Temples, incense, oil lamps, votive offerings, holy water, holy days and seasons of devotion, processions, blessings of fields, sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, images etc are all of pagan origin (The development of the Christian religion, p 359). In view of the common origin of the idolatry of the whole world, it is not surprising to find many common points between Catholicism and a religion so distant and apparently distinct as Buddhism. The rosary and Madonna and Child statues have already been mentioned. Other similarities are the worship of saints and their relics, priestly celibacy, ascetic practices, monasteries, the sign of the cross, holy water, the tonsure, confession, worship of the queen of heaven, halos, certain vestments, the mitre, crosier and censer swinging on five chains, fasts, processions, litanies (= responsive prayers), image worship and the mystic fans of peacock feathers carried on either side of Popes and Lamas on grand festivals. In his autobiography Fifty Years in the Church of Rome the former priest Charles Chiniquy describes his experiences in a Catholic seminary. For years he never even studied the Bible itself. Instead he was bombarded with the dogmas and theologies of Rome, and such a deep study of the pagan classics that the spirit of the seminary was more like a Greek or Roman school of philosophy. He discovered how scapulars, medals, holy water etc (used as charms against dangers and temptations) were but remnants of pagan worship. Describing his student days, he wrote: The further we advanced in the study of pagan antiquity, the more we were forced to believe that our own religion, instead of being born at the foot of Mount Calvary, was only a pale and awkward imitation of paganism. The modern Pontifex Maximus (Pope of Rome) ... resembled the Pontifex Maximus of empire of Rome as much as two drops of water resemble one another. Had not our Pope preserved only the name, but also the attributes, the pageantry, the pride and even the garb of that high pagan priest? Was not the worship of the saints absolutely the same as the worship of the demigods of olden time? Was not our purgatory minutely described by Virgil? Were not our prayers to the Virgin and saints repeated, almost in the same words, by the worshippers who prostrated themselves before their gods ...? Was not our holy water in use among the idolaters, and for the same purpose for which it was used among us? We knew the year in which the magnificent temple consecrated to all the gods,

bearing the name of Pantheon, had been built at Rome. We were acquainted with the names of several of the sculptors who had carved statues of the gods in that heathen temple, at whose feet the idolaters bowed respectfully, and words cannot express the shame we felt on learning that the Roman Catholics of our day, under the very eyes and sanction of the Pope, still prostrated themselves before the same idols, in the same temple, and to obtain the same favours. When we asked each other the question What is the difference between the religion of heathen Rome and that of the Rome of today? more than one student would answer: The only difference is in the name. The idolatrous temples are the same: the idols have not left their places. Today, as formerly, the same incense burns in their honour...; instead of calling this statue Jupiter, we call it Peter; and instead of calling that one Minerva or Venus, it is called St. Mary. It is the old idolatry coming to us under Christian names. The spirit of Rome is identical to that of paganism. This is so inadequately appreciated. Boettner for example, quotes one Protestant theologian describing one of the errors of Rome as ... another one of those foreign growths that has fastened itself like a malignant tumour upon the theology of the Roman Catholic Church. Romes errors are certainly foreign to the Word. But they are not foreign to herself. The individual errors of Rome are not just malignant tumours fastened upon an otherwise healthy body. They are essentially part of the body. They are a normal expression of the true nature and seed of that body. Rome is not merely an accretion of error upon a basically sound foundation. The whole system is imbued with error and corrupt to the very core. Even where she uses orthodox terms, the root spirit of those terms is not that of the Word. The whole atmosphere surrounding them betrays their source. It is often said that despite her many errors Rome at least upholds certain fundamental truths of Christianity, such as the deity of Christ and so must be classed as a Christian Church. Having considered the root and spring of Romes orthodox doctrines, however, I hope that this idea has now been clearly rebutted. Despite Romes acknowledgement of Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the Gospel, these are not the Biblical Jesus, Holy Spirit and Gospel. They comes into the category described by Paul: For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or if ye receive a different spirit, which ye did not receive, or a different gospel which ye did not accept, ye do well to bear with them ... For ye bear with a man, if he bring you into bondage (2 Cor 11:4, 20a). No, Romes errors are not simply tumours. The very inspiration spirit of Rome is the spirit of error. It is the fullest living expression of the worship of ancient Babylon. How complete and how amazing a metamorphosis! Before concluding I wish to re-emphasise that Roman Catholicism is not merely an extension of the external forms and ideas of the old Babylonian religion. It is a continuation of the living spirit that originated these. It was pointed out in the chapter 1 that the religion of Babylon was supernatural. So is the religion of Rome. Catholicism (unlike many Protestant bodies) teaches that signs and wonders should still accompany the preaching of the Gospel. Indeed, one of Romes proud boasts is that in every age a multitude of miracles has been worked in the Catholic Church, and that these are divine tokens and vindications of her spiritual authority. It is extremely difficult to convey adequately the vast extent of the signs, wonders and prodigies claimed by Rome through the ages. Nor are these limited to the credulous Middle Ages. They continue unabated until the present day. Wherever we go in Catholic devotional literature, reports abound of

visions, voices and all sorts of supernatural manifestations. A flourishing literature of miracle accounts grew strongly from the 4th C onwards. It comprised an incredible bibliography of tens of thousands of every conceivable (and inconceivable) wonder. These were not simply believed by the simple people, but by the most respected ecclesiastics of the age. Many of these miracle stories had the same origin as the large influx of erroneous teachings and practices entering Christianity after the Church-State union. A whole mass of pre-Christian heathen legends and marvels reappeared in Christian clothing. The Christianised versions were often merely reproductions of the motives and even the very incidents of earlier heathen tales. Many of these are traceable back to very ancient religious tales. The Catholic tale of Barlaam and Joasaph, for example, was no less than the story of Buddha! How deeply even the emerging Catholic folklore was inspired by pre-Christian and anti -Christian tales. There was virtually a complete reproduction of the whole heathen miraclelegend mentality in the semi-pagan 4th C Church. This reproduction prepared the way for a substantial influx of all sorts of signs and wonders into Medieval Catholicism bearing a remarkable resemblance to many supernatural occurrences in the old pagan religions. As emphasised earlier, false religions may definitely be accompanied by genuine miracles. Idolatry is demon-worship, and demons possess many occult and supernatural powers. No doubt a vast number of claimed Catholic miracles are spurious. But there are instances of miraculous healings, for example, with no human explanation. It is not necessary, however, to try and explain away every claimed Catholic miracle. There is a powerful spirit of error at work in Catholicism and this spirit is fully capable of: all power and signs and lying wonders (2 Thess 2:9). The Jezebel spirit of the Thyatira church claimed to speak the Word of the Lord supernaturally (which calleth herself a prophetess). At the end time the fullness of the spirit of false prophecy is revealed in the man called the false prophet. He will be able to do great wonders and miracles (Rev 13:13-15)(cp Rev 16:1314). No wonder then that the many lesser false prophets arising at this same time are also able to shew great signs and wonders (Matt 24:24). Although there will be an abundance of miraculous events from evil sources at the end time, do not think there are none before then. Jesus warned of false prophets who did many wonderful works in His Name (Matt 7:22). Moses also warned of false prophets who could give signs and wonders that came to pass (Dt 13:1-3). He knew the reality of this from personal experience with Jannes and Jambres, the Egyptian magicians (Ex 711,22; 8:7,18; 9:11). Referring to these, Paul warned that as supernaturally equipped men rose up to withstand Moses, so in the Church there would rise up men who would resist the Truth (2 Tim 3:8). The comparison with Jannes and Jambres suggests that those of whom Paul spoke would be supernaturally empowered. So, supernatural signs and wonders, arising from demonic power, are to be expected in the Church. Their purpose is to oppose the Truth. Small wonder, therefore, that when we examine the chief characteristics of Catholic miracles, we find so many directly linked with originating or continuing erroneous doctrine. One of the strangest features of Catholic miracles is the difficulty of finding anyone who himself ever claimed to have wrought miracles. After all, the apostles knew the powers they had, and were fully aware of their authority to exercise them. Paul also wrote of those specifically endued with the gifts of healings and miracles. In Catholicism, however, people are frequently claimed to have worked all sorts of wonders, including raising others from the dead, but only after their death. The claimed miracle workers themselves were unaware of any such power or effects during their lifetimes.

Even more strange, however, (and also highly significant) is the fact that the vast majority of Catholic miracles are directly worked by some part of a dead mans body, or his belongings, or some location associated with him. The heart of Catholic miracles is the worship of relics. This is very definitely derived from heathenism. The growing practices of the worshipping and praying to dead saints and martyrs and the veneration of their remains were merely a metamorphosis and reproduction of earlier heathen practices whose origin and meaning we have already considered. It is not so much that semipagan Christians invading the Church from the 4th C onwards continued the same pagan rites unbrokenly at the tombs of the old heathen gods and heroes (although some were absorbed wholesale into the emerging Christian worship). Rather it was a continuation under a different outward form of the same spirit that inspired the old heathen worship. Based on the claimed holiness of saints and martyrs, it was believed that supernatural power was associated with their graves, or any place where fragments of their bodies were preserved. This led to an incredible traffic in the dismembered limbs and relics of the dead. The great majority of Catholic healing miracles were wrought through relics. Relic-worship is at the very heart of Romes miracle-life. Faith healing was mainly centred here to such an extent that Catholic writers, on account of the extent of associated supernatural manifestation, feel able to claim that the worship of saints and relics is one of the most divinely vindicated Catholic teachings. I have earlier noted the strong attraction in Catholicism towards communion with the dead. This is no coincidence. It reflects the nature of its inspiration spirit. Not only are relics, tombs and prayers to the dead central to its miracle-life. They are also very prominent in her religious life. Indeed, Catholic worship centres on what is in effect a relic-chest. I have shown previously how the Biblical communion table was exchanged for a heathen temple altar which became the focal point of the new ecclesiastical liturgy. Later, however, this altar (or, mass-table) became nothing less than a coffin enclosing the relics of a saint. As churches built over the tombs of martyrs came to be regarded with peculiar sanctity, the possession of relics of some saint came to be looked upon as absolutely essential to the sacredness of the building, and the deposition of such relics in or below the altar henceforth formed the central part of the consecration rite (Smith and Cheatham, Dictionary of Christian Archaeology, I, p 431). So, it has long been a rule that every Catholic altar should contain a relic. Romes mass-table, her focal point of worship, is thus inseparably bound with the dead, and communion with them. When I once heard it said that Catholicism was the highest form of spiritualism known, I considered this remark somewhat excessive. The more I have studied church history, however, the more I find this remark substantiated. I do not intend to examine the teeming multitudes of Catholic prodigies and wonders, considering how many are real. Much of the early literature of wonder-tales and legends is generally acknowledged to be purely fictitious, or transfers from existing heathen tales. Even Catholic writers dismiss many supposed historical miracles. Even when they do claim that genuine miracles have taken place, they acknowledge the often sharp distinction between Biblical miracles and what may be termed ecclesiastical miracles. Nonetheless, there is no Scriptural doubt that the spirit of error so powerfully at work in Catholicism is certainly capable of working wonders. This is particularly borne out by the nature of so many Catholic miracles, and of the doctrines they substantiate. Paul warned of an

influx of seducing spirits and of doctrines injected by demons (1Tim 4:1). Such demonic doctrines may also be supported by demonic supernatural power. Significantly, many of the early miracles associated with the emerging Catholic church were directly connected to the rise of asceticism and monasticism. And this is the very context in which Paul warned of the coming of doctrines of demons (1 Tim 4 1-5). There are whole masses of reported visions, attacks by demons and miracles associated with early ascetics. The Bible warns of the real possibility of visions which are not of God in a context of selfhumiliation as opposed to a Spirit-given humility in Colossians 2:18 (NASV): Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions inflated without cause by his fleshly mind. The great veneration given to these early ascetics led to their inclusion among the martyrs in the growing cult of dead heroes and their remains. Miracles are also closely associated with other Catholic errors such as the mass, or the blasphemous honour and role afforded to Mary. Even if such miracles were real it would be irrelevant it would only underline their demonic origin. They support doctrines which have no Biblical warrant. I hope this necessarily piecemeal review of Catholic miracles will further convey an understanding of the nature and spirit of Romanism. To rightly appreciate this system it is necessary not only to grasp intellectually the errors of its doctrine, but also to discern its inspiration spirit. Only then will there come a proper feel of the spiritual atmosphere surrounding, overhanging and permeating the whole system. It is not simply filled with doctrinal error but permeated with the spirit of error and the smell of death. Roman Catholicism is not simply a theological monstrosity; it is empowered and energised by a living spiritual agency capable of great wonders and of great deceit. It is precisely because of this spiritual power that Romanism is able to maintain sway over so many millions of minds, despite the mass of historical data available to expose its origins and errors. Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived (Rev 18: 20, 23b). The same spirit is with us today which bewitched and cast its malign spell upon the Galatians, turning them from the fullness of Christ and the grace of God (Gal 3:1). Its most complete and fullest (though by no means its only) expression is found in Roman Catholicism.

4 CONCLUSION

This study in many ways supplements the previous one. It is a fuller exposition of the effects of permitting Jezebel to teach and throws much fuller light on the expression the depths of satan (Rev 2:24). As already explained, this expression describes the effects of holding the doctrine of Jezebel, rather than being any particular doctrine. This brings to a nadir the slide begun with the doctrine of Balaam. Both this and Jezebels doctrine were basically one. The doctrine of Jezebel brings the implications of Balaam s earlier counsel to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication (Rev 2:14) to its dreadful conclusion. Communion with demons first begun with Balaam in Pergamos. It culminated in a full-scale experience of the depths of satan once Jezebel was able to enforce her teaching bringing in to an amazing extent so much of the spirit and practice of the earths original idolatry. Although Roman Catholicism most faithfully absorbed and represented the Babylonian idolatry, it deeply affected also the other major pre-Reformation Christian bodies: The Eastern Orthodox Church was especially affected, having been most closely linked with Rome. (This meant that the various national Orthodox Churches that arose in SE Europe and the Near East over the years also shared the same unhappy inheritance). The ancient independent Churches of the Holy Land and the Copts of Egypt and Ethiopia were also seriously tainted with the same evils afflicting the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The Persian (Nestorian) Church was also increasingly marred both by Nicolaitanism and also by compromise with pagan religious practice.

Periodic attempts were made to reform these ecclesiastical systems from within by sincere and godly men. But the Light of the Word was too dim for them to grasp that the very systems themselves were corrupt. The only groups not significantly affected by the doctrines of the Nicolaitans, Balaam and Jezebel were the various protest groups that rose at differing times and in diverse places. In the next study I wish to show how from this time on there is a progressive recovery of the Word. Until this point the knowledge and experience of the Headship of Christ had been progressively robbed from the Church. From this time on, however, there would be a progressive recovery of the revelation and experience of Christ, till we all attain unto ... the knowledge of the Son of God, unto to a full grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph 4:13, RV).

Pagan Rituals of Christmas

And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him..." -1 Kings 18:21,

IS IT ACCEPTABLE TO BLEND PAGANISM WITH CHRISTIANITY? Below you will find a culmination of Historic as well as Scriptural facts exposing the truth about the celebration of Christmas. I have decided to do this research because many have asked me over the years why I do not celebrate Christmas as the rest of the "Christian" World does. In his book, "Too Long In The Sun," Richard Rives draws an appropriate parallel to the circumstances in Exodus 32, a Biblical precedent which provoked God nearly to the point of destroying the nation of Israel for their sin of blending pagan worship with His own: "the golden calf was built and the celebration declared a feast to the Lord....The people had declared a celebration to honor God that he did not recognize as being in his honor." Richard Rives, Too Long in the Sun, Partakers Pub., 1996, pp. 129-30. "Hathor and Aphis, the cow and bull gods of Egypt, were representatives of sun worship. Their worship was just one stage in the long Egyptian history of solar veneration. The golden calf at Mount Sinai is more than sufficient evidence to prove that the feast proclaimed was related to sun worship. The event at Mount Sinai was just one episode in the Satanic apostasy which began at the tower of Babel. The celebration of December 25th, originally proclaimed in honor of the birth of the sun god Mithra, can only be one of the final events in the long continuing saga of Satanic sun worship." -Ibid, pp. 130-31. "Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye

defile not yourselves therein: I am the Lord your God." -LEVITICUS

18:30
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." -2 Corinthians 5:17 "No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse. And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles." -Mark 2:21-22 "Abstain from all appearance of evil." -1 Thessalonians 5:22,

THE NAME... CHRIST-MASS? "The mass is the unbloody renewal of the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary's cross...Christ, through the ministry of the Roman Catholic priest, offers Himself to God in an unbloody manner under the appearances of bread and wine." (Christ is thus crucified afresh, obviously indicating His death on Calvary was insufficient.) "The mass is the same sacrifice as the sacrifice of the cross because the Victim is the same. The purpose of the mass is, among other things, to satisfy the justice of God for the sins committed against Him." -Rev. John A. O'Brien, UNDERSTANDING

THE CATHOLIC FAITH, Ave Maria Press, Nortre Dame, Ind, 1955, p. 212
"When the priest pronounces the tremendous words of consecration, he reaches up into the heavens and brings Christ down from His throne, and places Him upon the (Roman Catholic) altar to be offered up again as the victim for the sins of man...Christ became incarnate a single time, the priest brings Christ down from heaven and renders Him present on the (Roman Catholic) altar as the eternal Victim for the sins of man-not once but a thousand times! The priest speaks and lo! Christ, the eternal, omnipotent God, bows His head in humble obedience to the priest's command...No wonder that the name which spiritual writers are especially fond of applying to the priest is that of 'altar Christus.' For the priest is and

should be another Christ." -Rev. John A. O'brien, FAITH OF

MILLIONS, Our Sunday Visitor, Huntington, Ind., 1938, pp. 243244

"There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that all the faithful ought to show to this most holy sacrament [the communion wafer] the worship which is due to the true God, as has always been the custom of the Catholic Church. Nor is it to be adored any the less because it was instituted by Christ to be eaten."--Vatican II: The Conciliar and Post

Conciliar Documents.
To those who know the Savior and Lord of the Bible, Jesus Christ, the above quotations from official Roman Catholic publications are at once sickening and outrageous! Note the following from the Word of God. "And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission." -HEBREWS 9:22 "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. " -HEBREWS 9:24-28 "Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same

sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin." -Hebrews 10:5-

18,
So, in essence the word Mass is defined as death sacrifice or "Destruction of the victim" according to the Roman Catholic church itself. So, when you say "Merry Christmas" you are actually declaring with great happiness and joy that Jesus is dead and gone. Kind of like the crucifix in the Catholic church declaring He is dead and they have proof they killed Him when they display His dead body for eons before the people. The Roman priests refuse to believe Christ IS risen and Christ WILL come again. If they did they would at least remove Him from that cross!

THE DATE... DECEMBER 25TH? "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night." -LUKE 2:8 Are we to assume the shepherds kept sheep outside in the Winter? Fact is, the sheep were brought in under cover before mid-October to protect them from the cold rainy season that would follow. Another fact is, the winter in the Judea is at the time characterized by cold, wet, rainy conditions!! Not conditions worthy of sheep. Nor will you find shepherds outside with their sheep this time of year. Therefore it would be impossible for them to actually "see" the Star in the Eastern sky because the Bible is plain here... "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold,

I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."

-Luke 2:8-11,
The key part of this passage that can easily put down the assumption that Jesus was born on December 25th is, "...there were in the same country

shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night..."
This would NOT have been done in the Winter! This is absolutely impossible! According to the information we have about Palestine, the flocks were let out in the pastures in the month of March, and brought back in November, when the rainy season began. "This proves plainly that the flocks were not yet brought home from their pastures, when the angels visited the shepherds. Some have the idea that there is no winter in Palestine, but that is a mistake, because sometimes it is very cold there, so that the lives of both men and beasts are in danger of the cold rain and hail storms of the winter."-- Horne's Introduction,

Vol.II, pp. 23,24. Concerning this, Adam Clarke makes the following remark in his commentary: "It was a custom among the Jews to send out their sheep to
the desert about the passover, and bring them home at the commencement of the first rain. [See also the book, The Two Babylons, pages 91,92. ] The first rain occured around the Jewish month of Cheshvan. That is around Oct, Nov. to us. So you see the flocks were BROUGHT IN well before Dec. 25! If everyone on planet Earth that claims Jesus as Lord would place their faith in "Whatsoever saith the Lord" we would have a LOT less Pagan activities being practiced by Christians. All too often people get offended easily by the truth that can expose the lies they have been embracing for years. But I say, stop! look! And listen! For you are not entirely at fault here. The devil is a cunning enemy, he has placed wolves in sheep's clothing before you masquerading as Christians, preachers, priests, and ministers to declare unto you the lie of Christmas. Why? So as to confuse the Truth that is held within the Word of God. And to get all the world under his control by partaking in activities of the Pagan.

"The twenty-fifth of December is supposed to be the day of the birth of Jesus Christ, and its observance has become customary and popular. But yet there is no certainty that we are keeping the veritable day of our Saviour's birth. History gives us no certain assurance of this. The Bible does not give us the precise time. Had the Lord deemed this knowledge essential to our salvation, he would have spoken through his prophets and apostles, that we might know all about the matter. But the silence of the Scriptures upon this point evidences to us that it is hidden from us for the wisest purposes. In his wisdom, the Lord concealed the place where he buried Moses. God buried him, and God resurrected him, and took him to heaven. This secrecy was to prevent idolatry." -R&H 12-9-1884 "For the very same purpose he has concealed the precise day of Christ's birth; that the day should not receive the honour that should be given to Christ as the Redeemer of the world, - one to be received, to be trusted, to be relied on as he who could save to the uttermost all who come unto him. The soul's adoration should be given to Jesus as the Son of the infinite God. "There is no divine sanctity resting upon the twenty-fifth of December; and it is not pleasing to God that anything that concerns the salvation of man through the infinite sacrifice made for them, should be so sadly perverted from its professed design. Christ should be the supreme object; but as Christmas has been observed, the glory is turned from him to mortal man, whose sinful, defective character made it necessary for him to come to our world." -R&H 12-9-1884 "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." -ACTS 17:29-31 "Even Christmas, the day observed professedly in honour of the birthday of Christ, has been made a most effective means of turning the mind away from Christ, away from his glory. " -R&H 12-9-1890

"Christmas: The supposed anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ, occurring on Dec. 25. No sufficient data exist, for the determination of the month or the day of the event There is no historical evidence that our Lords birthday was celebrated during the apostolic or early postapostolic times. The uncertainty that existed at the beginning of the third century in the minds of Hippolytus and othersHippolytus earlier favored Jan. 2, Clement of Alexanderia (Strom., i. 21) "the 25th day of Pachon" (= May 20), while others, according to Clement, fixed upon Apr. 18 or 19 and Mar. 28proves that no Christmas festival had been established much before the middle of the century. Jan. 6 was earlier fixed upon as the date of the baptism or spiritual birth of Christ, and the feast of Epiphany was celebrated by the Basilidian Gnostics in the second century and by catholic Christians by about the beginning of the fourth century. The earliest record of the recognition of Dec. 25 as a church festival is in the Philocalian Calendar (copied 354 but representing Roman practise in 336)."

-A. H. Newman, "Christmas," The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. 3, p. 47. Copyright 1909 by Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York
"A star cult, sun-worship, became (in the third century A.D.) the dominant official creed, paving the road for the ultimate triumph of Judaeo-Christian monotheism. So strong was the belief in the Invincible Sun (Sol Invictus) that for example Constantine I (d. 337), himself at first a devotee of the sun cult, found it, indeed perfectly compatible with his pro-Christian sympathies to authorize his own portrayal as Helios. And in 354 the ascendant Christian church in the reign of his pious but unsavory son, Constantius II, found it prudent to change the celebration of the birth of Jesus from the traditional date (January 6) to December 25, in order to combat the pagan Sun gods popularityhis "birthday" being December 25." -Frederick H. Cramer, Astrology in Roman Law and Politics, p.

4. Copyright 1954 by the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.

"The reasons for celebrating our major feasts when we do are many and varied. In general, however, it is true that many of them have at least an indirect connection with the pre-Christian feasts celebrated about the same time of year feasts centering around the harvest, the rebirth of the sun at the winter solstice (now Dec. 21, but Dec. 25 in the old Julian calendar),

the renewal of nature in spring, and so on." -The New Question Box -

Catholic Life for the Nineties, copyright 1988 by John J. Dietzen, M.A., S.T.L., ISBN 0-940518-01-5 (paperback), published by Guildhall Publishers, Peoria Illinois, 61651., page 554.

DID EARLY CHRISTIANS CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS? "Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church...the first evidence of the feast is from Egypt." "Pagan customs centering around the January calendars gravitated to Christmas." "...In the Scriptures, no one is recorded to have kept a feast or held a great banquet on his [Jesus] birthday. It is only sinners who make great rejoicings over the day in which they were born into this world" -Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911 Edition,

published by the Roman Catholic Church

And to settle "some" minds out there that place no stock in any boast of Catholicism, the Roman Church is not the only one that understands this simple historic fact... "A broad element of English Christianity still considered Christmas celebration a pagan blasphemy. The Puritans, Baptists, Quakers, Presbyterians, Calvinists and other denominations brought this opposition to early New England and strong opposition to the holiday lasted in America until the middle of the 18th century." -The Origins of

Christmas," Rick Meisel, Dec. 19, 1993, p. 4.

"...Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church...." -

Encyclopedia Britannica, 1946 edition

"Christmas... It was, according to many authorities, not celebrated in the first centuries of the Christian church, as the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons [eg Communion - death of Christ] rather than their birth..." "...A feast was established in memory of this event [the birth of Jesus] in the fourth century. In the fifth century the Western Church ordered it to be celebrated forever ON THE DAY OF THE OLD ROMAN FEAST OF THE BIRTH OF SOL [SUN], as no certain

knowledge of the day of Christ's birth existed." Emphasis added. -

Encyclopedia Americana, 1944 Edition

Since there is no evidence for the observance of Christmas in the Bible, the questions arise, What is its origin? and when did its celebration begin? Lector P. Walsdenstrom says: "The custom to celebrate the birth of Christ in the last part of December began first in the fourth century. Before that the sixth of January was celebrated."-- Notes to Luke 2:8. "How much the date of the festival depended upon the pagan Brumalia (December 25th) following the Saturnalia (December 17th-24th), and celebrating the shortest day of the year and the 'new sun'...cannot be accurately determined. The pagan Saturnalia and Brumalia were too deeply entrenched in popular custom to be set aside by Christian influence...The pagan festival with it's riot and merrymaking was so popular that Christians were glad of an excuse to continue its celebration with little change in spirit and in manner. Christian preachers of the West and the Near East protested against the unseemly frivolity with which Christ's birthday was celebrated, while Christians of Mesopotamia ACCUSED THEIR WESTERN BRETHREN OF IDOLATRY AND SUN WORSHIP FOR ADOPTING AS CHRISTIAN THIS PAGAN FESTIVAL" Emphasis added. -The New

Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge

"...within the Christian Church no such festival as Christmas was ever heard of till the third century, and...not till the fourth century was far advanced did it gain much observance. How, then, did the Romish Church fix on December 25th as Christmas-day? Why, thus: Long before the fourth century, and long before the Christian era itself, a festival was celebrated among the heathen, at that precise time of the year, in honour of the birth of the son of the Babylonian queen of heaven; and it may fairly be presumed that, in order to conciliate the heathen, and to swell the number of nominal adherents of Christianity, the same festival was adopted by the Roman Church, giving it the name of Christ." -The Two Babylons, p 93. ORIGIN OF GIFT GIVING... "The interchange of presents between friends is alike characteristic of Christmas and the Saturnalia, and MUST HAVE BEEN ADOPTED BY

CHRISTIANS FROM THE PAGANS, as the admonition of Tertullian plainly shows." Emphasis added. -Bibliotheca Sacra (vol 12 pp 153-155) What is the actual reason and purpose for this Pagan infiltration into Christianity? Ellen White put it best... "This compromise between paganism and Christianity resulted in the development of "the man of sin" foretold in prophecy as opposing and exalting himself above God. That gigantic system of false religion is a masterpiece of Satan's power--a monument of his efforts to seat himself upon the throne to rule the earth according to his will." -The Great

Controversy, page 50, paragraph 1 -Chapter Title: An Era of Spiritual Darkness

The giving the presents was a Roman custom. The yuletide and the yule log are remnants of old Teutonic nature worship."-- Schaff-Hersog

Encyclopedia.
"From the first institution of this festival, the Western nations seem to have transferred to it many of the follies and censurable (XXX) practises which prevailed in the pagan festivals of the same season such as adorning the churches fantastically, mingling puppet-shows and dramas with worship, universal feasting and merrymaking, Christmas visits and salutations, Christmas presents and jocularity, and Christmas revelry and drunkenness.... The Christmas holy days, which by a law of Tehodosius the Greek (emperor A.D. 383-395) were to comprise fourteen days, ...have borne so close a resemblance wherever they have been observed to the Roman Saturnalia, Sigillaria, etc., and to the yule feast of the ancient Goths, as to afford strong presumption of an unhappy alliance between them from the first."-- Ecclesiastical History, by Mosheim, Vol. 1,

page 280.
"...The very name by which Christmas is popularly known among ourselves-- yule day-- proves at once its pagan and Babylonian origin. 'Yule' is the Chaldee name for an 'infant' or 'little child;' and as the twentyfifth of December was called by our pagan Anglo-Saxon ancestors 'yule day,' or the 'child's day,' and the night that preceded it 'mother night,' long before they came in contact with Christianity, that sufficiently proves its real character. Far and wide in the realms of paganism was this birthday

observed."-- The Two Babylons, pages 93& 94. "Little children, keep

yourselves from idols."

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS? THE BIRTHDAY RITUAL The ritual of the cake, candles, wish, and presents serve to give thanks to sky luminaries for allowing the birthday celebrant to reach the annual cycle of their birth. The cake was baked for the Queen of Heaven. (Hot cross buns) It was decorated, and monogrammed with the celebrants name. The candles symbolized the sacred fire, carefully numbered for each annual cycle completed. The prayer chant and all the ritual procedures are carefully preserved, and it is a religious occasion. Witches regard the day of ones birth the most significant event in a persons life. Astrologers base everything on it. If the celebrant can blow-out all the candles, then a secret wish made to a GENIE (or JUNO if the person is female) will be granted. The birthday itself was a time of great superstition to a Pagan, so they were surrounded by their friends and relatives for protection. "In the Scriptures, no one is recorded to have kept a feast or held a great banquet on his [Christ's] birthday. It is only sinners [like Pharaoh or Herod] who make great rejoicings over the day in which they were born into this world."--Catholic Encyclopedia, 11th ed., art: "Natal Day." CHRISTMAS STEMS FROM SUN WORSHIP? The author of "The Two Babylons" identifies also the child, whose birth was so universally celebrated, with Nimrod, who built the tower of Babel, and says that he was worshiped by the name Osiris in Egypt, and Tammuz (the same one as Adonis the famous hunter) in Phoenicia and Assyria. (See page 56.) This Tammuz is also mentioned by the holy prophet, Ezekiel, who in a vision saw the women of Judah weeping for him. He is there spoken of in company with sun-worship. "It was an essential principle of the Babylonian system that the sun, or Baal, was the one only god. (Notice, "BAAL?" As in Daniels day too?) When, therefore, Tammuz was worshiped as God incarnate, that implied also that he was an incarnation of the sun."--Alexander Hislop, The Two

Babylons, Loizeaux Brothers, page 96.

"This festival has been commonly believed to have had only an astronomical character, referring simply to the completion of the suns yearly course, and the commencement of a new cycle. But there is indubitable evidence that the festival in question had a much higher influence than this--that it commemorated not merely the figurative birthday of the sun in the renewal of its course, but the birth-day of the grand Deliverer...the Sun-God and great mediatorial divinity." -Ibid pp.

94, 97.
In Egypt, the son of Isis, the Egyptian title for the queen of heaven, was born at this very time, about the time of the winter solstice. The very name by which Christmas is popularly known among ourselves - Yule day proves at once its Pagan and Babylonian origin. Yule is the Chaldee name for an infant or little child and as the 25th of December was called by our Pagan Anglo-Saxon ancestors, Yule-day, or the Childs day, and the night which preceded it, Mother-night, long before they came into contact with Christianity, that sufficiently proves its real character. Far and wide in the realms of paganism was this birth-day observed." -Ibid pp. 93, 94 In this way we trace sun-worship back to Nimrod, whose worship was universal in the old time. Again we have good reason to say: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." Fact is people... "The wassailing-bowl of Christmas had its precise counterpart in the 'Drunken Festival' of Babylon; The candles, in some parts of England, lighted at Christmas eve and used so long as the festive season lasts, were equally lighted by the pagans on the eve of the festival of the Babylonian god, to do honor to him, for it was one of the distinguishing peculiarities of his worship to have lighted candles on his alters. The Christmas tree, now so common among us, was equally common in pagan Rome and pagan Egypt. In Egypt that tree was the palm tree; in Rome it was the fir; the palm tree denoted the pagan Messiah, as Baal-Tamar; the fir referring to him as Baal-Berith.... On Christmas day the continental Saxons offered a boar in sacrifice to the sun, to propitiate her. In Rome a similar observance had evidently existed; for a boar formed a great article of Saturn, as appears form the words form Martial, 'That boar will make you a good Saturnalia.' Hence the boar's head is still a standing dish in England at the Christmas dinner, when the reason of it is long since forgotten. Yea, the

'Christmas goose' and 'yule cake' were essential articles in the worship of the Babylonian Messiah, as that worship was practiced both in Egypt and at Rome."-- Ibid., pages 97, 100, 101. THE PAGAN CHRISTMAS TREE... "The Christmas tree, now so common among us, was equally common in Pagan Rome and Pagan Egypt. In Egypt it was the palm tree; in Rome it was the fir; the palm-tree denoting the Pagan Messiah, as Baal-Tamar, the fir referring to him as Baal-Berith. The mother of Adonis, the Sun-God and great mediatorial divinity, was mystically said to have been changed into a tree, and when in that state to have brought forth her divine son. If the mother was a tree, the son must have been recognized as Man the Branch. And this entirely accounts for putting the Yule Log into the fire on Christmas Eve and the appearance of the Christmas tree the next morning. As Zero-Ashta, The seed of the woman, ...he has to enter the fire on Mother night, that he may be born the next day out of it, as the Branch of God, or the Tree that brings divine gifts to men." -The Two Babylons, p.

97.
"...the divine child born at the winter solstice was born as a new incarnation of the great god (after that god had been cut in pieces...on purpose to revenge his death upon his murderers.) Now the great god, cut off in the midst of his power and glory, was symbolised as a huge tree, stripped of all his branches, and cut down almost to the ground. But the great Serpent, the symbol of the life restoring Aesculapius, twists itself around the dead stock...and lo, at its side sprouts a young tree - a tree of an entirely different kind, that is never to be cut down by a hostile power ...and thus shadowed forth the perpetuity and everlasting nature of his power, how that after having fallen before his enemies, he has risen triumphant over them all. Therefore, the 25th of December, the day that was observed in Rome as the day when the victorious god reappeared on earth was held at the Natalis invicti solis, 'The birthday of the unconquered Sun." -The Two Babylons, p. 98. Shall we have a Christmas tree? Will it not be like the world? We answer, You can make it like the world if you have a disposition to do so, or you can make it as unlike the world as possible. -R&H 12-11-1879

"Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the ways of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good. Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord; thou art great, and thy name is great in might." -

tree

JEREMIAH 10:1-6 (ancient Christmas tree). There is nothing new under the sun Ecclesiastes 1:9

YULE TIDE AND YULE LOG: "The Yule Log tradition comes to us from Scandinavia, where the pagan sex and fertility god Jul, or Jule (pronounced 'yule'), was honored in a twelve-day celebration in December. A large, single log (generally considered to have been a phallic idol) was kept with a fire against it for twelve days, a different sacrifice to Jul being offered in the fire on each of the twelve days." -Holidays and Holy Days, by Tom C. McKenney "The Yule log was originally an entire tree, carefully chosen, and brought into the house with great ceremony. The butt end would be placed into the hearth while the rest of the tree stuck out into the room. The tree would

be slowly fed into the fire and the entire process was carefully timed to last the entire Yule season." -The History of Christmas;

http://www.ridgenet.org/Szaflik/history.htm
This is where the Twelve Days of Christmas originated, which are now counted as the twelve days between "Christmas" and Epiphany (January 12th). "Yuletide, meaning the turning of the sun or the winter solstice, has traditionally been a time of extreme importance in Scandinavia - a time when fortunes for the coming year were determined and when the dead were thought to walk the earth. For a long time, it was considered dangerous to sleep alone on Christmas Eve. The extended family, master and servant alike, would sleep together on a freshly spread bed of straw. "

-The History of Christmas;

A CATHOLIC ORDINANCE: Since there is no evidence for the observance of Christmas in the Bible, the questions arise, What is its origin? and when did its celebration begin? Lector P. Walsdenstrom says: "The custom to celebrate the birth of Christ in the last part of December began first in the fourth century. Before that the sixth of January was celebrated."-- Notes to Luke 2:8. Another author says: "The third one of the great feasts of the church, Christmas, doesn't seem to be kept during the first three centuries. In contrast to it a memorial of Christ's baptism was celebrated in the Orient as a revelation of his Messiahship and glory of his divinity called Epiphania, the sixth of January. This festival was, in Egypt, also given the meaning as a memorial of Christ's birth, and in that way they had in a certain sense a substitute for Christmas, which had not yet begun."-- Ecclesiastical History, by C.A. Cornelius, part 1, page 139. Further on, the same author says, "It began first to be celebrated in the Roman Church about 360, and from there it spread to the Orient," After he has mentioned "Saturnalia," the Roman feast of joy, which began the seventeenth and ended the twentyfourth of December with the "Sigillaria," he continues: "At last the so-called 'Brumalia,' or the winter solstice, was celebrated the twenty-fifth of December. It was also called 'deus natalis invicti solis' (the birth feast of the unconquered sun), because in that season when the short days are

gone, the sun again comes forth victorious from the gloomy night to travel on its orbit like an unconquered hero."--Ibid, part 2, page 91. This proves that the twenty-fifth of December was an annual feast celebrated in the honor of the sun. Frederick Neilsen, a Danish bishop, says, "During the first three centuries we find no trace of any feast for the birth of Christ."-- Ecclesiastical History, page 224. The commentator, Adam Clarke, gives the following information: "The Latin church, supreme in power and infallible in judgment (?), placed it on the twenty-fifth of December, the very day in which the ancient Romans celebrated the feast of their goddess Bruma.... Pope Julius I was the person who made this alteration, and it appears to have been done for this reason: the sun now began his return toward the northern tropic, ending the winter, lengthening the days, and introducing the spring."-- Notes to

Luke 2:8.
The valuable testimony of J. Murdock, D. D., is in harmony with the above: "It was Julius I (Bishop of Rome, A.D. 337-352) who first ascertained this to be the right day; and though his authority is not the best, yet it is generally admitted that the designation of the twenty-fifth of December for the festival was first made about the middle of the fourth century."--

Ecclesiastical History, by Mosheim, Vol. I, page 279.

From Johnson's Encyclopedia and other sources we also learn that Julius I, Bishop of Rome, appointed the twenty-fifth of December for the celebration of Christ's birth. All this proves very plainly, (1)that the birth of Christ was not universally celebrated by the Christians during the first three centuries; (2) that it was the Latin church which first ordained it to be celebrated on the twenty-fifth of December; (3) that it was Julius I, Bishop of Rome, who made the appointment;

(4) and that the customs at this old pagan festival were transferred to Christmas. This is truly surprising. Here are indeed reasons for a solemn search of heart, fervent prayer, and firmness of character for those who wish to be pure in the sight of God. -No Foundation in the Bible By, S.

Mortensen

By the way... Pagans and "Evergreen trees" go way back! Deuteronomy 12:2, "Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree:" 1 Kings 14:22-23, "And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done. For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree." Psalms 37:35, "I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree." Isaiah 57:5, "Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks?" Jeremiah 3:6, "The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot." "Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the ways of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good. Forasmuch as there is

none like unto thee, O Lord; thou art great, and thy name is great in might." -JEREMIAH 10:1-6 "By us...who are strangers to Sabbaths, and new moons, and festivals, once acceptable to God, the Saturnalia, the feasts of January, the Brumalia, and Matronalia, are now frequented; gifts are carried to and fro, new years day presents are made with din, and sports and banquets are celebrated with uproar; oh, how much more faithful are the heathen to their religion who take special care to adopt no solemnity from the Christians." -The Two Babylons, p. 93. Cardinal Newman admits in his book that; the "temples, incense, oil lamps, votive offerings, holy water, holidays, and seasons of devotion, processions, blessings of the fields, sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure (of priests, munks and nuns), images, and statues... are all of pagan origin." -The Development of the Christian Religion Cardinal

Newman p.359

Easter Every student of the Scriptures knows that the single reference (Acts 12:4) to Easter in the Bible is a mistranslation of pascha, everywhere else translated "Passover." The Revised Version gives the correct translation; besides, there is no mention of the pascha as being a holyday binding upon the Christian church, Paul merely mentioning it casually in passing, just as he mentions in Acts 17:23 that he noticed an inscription "TO THE UNKNOWN GOD" while walking down the street. The Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th edition, art. "Easter," declares: "There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the apostolic Fathers." The word itself comes from "Eastre," the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, and from there it goes straight back to Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of spring, of love, and of immorality. The most savage and obscene rites of all ancient devil worship occurred at this season of the year. Most of the

pagan days the church adopted carry with them some custom or practice that marks their origin, and Easter is no exception. The rabbits and eggs always associated with this day are but symbols of the organs of fecundity formerly sacrificed at this season by the savage Huns. They symbolize the power to produce offspring, and reveal but a fraction of the immorality formerly connected with paganism's great spring festival. The British Museum possesses an inscribed egg of veined marble which Sargon dedicated to the sun-god of Sippara; and even the colors we use on our eggs today were formerly sacred in sun worship. As was pointed out by Sir Isaac Newton, Easter, as well as practically every other of the church's holydays, is related to the movements of the sun or other heavenly bodies rather than to any event, occurring in the Christian church. As the "first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox," the day clearly shows its astral origin. It at that season of the year when the sun has reached the halfway point between midwinter and midsummer. Our hot cross buns at Easter time, declares Chambers in his "Book of Days art. "Semnel Cakes," were formerly by the pagan Saxons in honor of their goddess Eastre. The ceremony of the new fire, also occurring on Easter in some parts of the Christian world, back likewise to the sacred fires of demon worship, fire being consider the sun spirit upon earth. The Easter celebration of the suns return to give new life to the earth was originally almost universal throughout paganism. Among the ancient Aztecs of Mexico, says Frazer in his book, The Golden Bough," human beings were sacrificed to the sun-god on Easter day. Then, as now, the celebration was preceded by a long fast, and was followed by a feast of viands and flesh. Both the Mohammedans and the Buddhists have retained their spring festival of immorality; and to this day decent people of the East, endeavor to stay off the streets at the time of these pagan celebrations, which come at approximately the same time as the Christian

Easter. Christmas Christmas is another festival in the Christian church that antedates Christianity by hundreds of years, and that is of pure pagan origin. Like Easter, it brings with it numerous trappings that are a certain guide as to its source. Among the ancients, the mistletoe was sacred to the sun because of its yellow color, and was believed to possess miraculous healing powers. Kissing under the mistletoe likewise is pre-Christian, and was but an early step in the night of revelry and drunken debauchery with which the pagans celebrated the death of the old sun and the birth of the new at the time of the winter solstice. Holly berries were also sacred to the sun-god among the demon worshipers of the Old World. The yule log is in reality the sun log, for "yule" means sun or wheel (an ancient symbol of the sun) in some languages today, and our English word "wheel"-comes from this source. Even the lighting of fires and candles as a Christmas ceremony is but a continuation of the pagan custom of encouraging the waning sun-god as he reached the lowest place in the southern skies. Christmas, as a celebration of the birth of the sun, not the Son, was widespread among the ancients. The Arabians celebrated the birth of the moon, considered as an emanation of the sun, on December 4 To this day, the most important state observance in China occurs on December 21, the sacrifice of the winter solstice. In Rome, the pagan Brumalia occurred on December 25, long before the birth of Christ. Christmas was a holyday in Mithraism, the Persian form of demon worship. Centuries before the birth of Christ, the Egyptians likewise celebrated Christmas much as it is celebrated today. The real origin of the day, however, is in ancient Babylon, history recording the sacredness with which the winter solstice was celebrated in

the cradle of demon worship. Whence, then, we wonder, did day enter the Christian church? We find no reference whatsoever to it in the Scriptures, and in Schaff-Herzog's Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, art. Christmas," we read that there is not even sufficient data to tell the month of Christ's birth, much less the actual day. There is no historical evidence of the celebration of Christmas in the Christian Church before the fourth century A. D. The following quotation from Schaff-Herzog throws a great deal of light on how this and other pagan festivals entered the church of Christ: "How much the date of the festival depended upon the pagan Brumalia (December 25), following the Saturnalia (December 17-24) and celebrating the shortest day in the year and the new sun' . . . cannot be accurately determined. The pagan Saturnalia and Brumalia were too deeply entrenched in popular custom to be set aside by Christian influence. The recognition of Sunday (the day of Phoebus and Mithras as well as the Lord's day) by the emperor Constantine as a legal holiday, along with the influence of Manicheism, which identified the Son of God with the physical sun, may have led Christians of the fourth century to feel the appropriateness of making the birthday of the Son of God coincide with that of the physical sun. "The pagan festival with its riot and merrymaking was so popular that Christians were glad of an excuse to continue its celebration with little change in spirit and in manner. "Christian preachers of the West and the Nearer East protested against the unseemly frivolity with which Christ's birthday was celebrated, while Christians of Mesopotamia accused their Western brethren of idolatry and sun worship for adopting as Christian this pagan festival." What can be said of Easter and Christmas can also be said of many of the other holydays of the church. St. John's Day was celebrated anciently as

the time when the sun reached the highest point in the sky in midsummer, being known in Babylon as the Feast of Tammuz. What is now celebrated as the "Annunciation of the Virgin" was celebrated in pre-Christian days as the feast of Cybele, the Babylonian mother sun-goddess. The Babylonians had an assumption of a virgin, and the Chinese to this day have a similar festival to the Assumption, which they celebrate at about the same time of year.

Halloween was originally a day of rankest spirit and devil worship, though today it is considered as a holyday in many European countries. The goblins and witches, which always accompany this day in popular celebration, show unmistakably its pagan origin. Thus instead of the one holyday established and authorized by God, the Christian church has almost an innumerable number of holydays, which she has accepted from ancient demon worship. These days are not holy, and never can be. Only a divine or holy being can make anything holy. If all the people in the world should set aside next Tuesday as a sacred holiday, and should keep it faithfully till the end of the world, it would never become a holyday, particularly if it were a day formerly dedicated to devil worship, and still kept in the same manner as did the devil worshipers. These spurious, counterfeit holydays represent a compromise with paganism, an attempt on the part of the church to convert the heathen by meeting them halfway. But the Scriptures clearly teach that there must be no compromise with the evil one on any point. Paul gives the warning: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron." 1Timothy 4:1, 2.

JESUS' BIRTH

THE UNTOLD STORY

Was Jesus born in December? If not, when was he born? And in what year? Any way, what difference does it make? These are questions often asked. It is time they were answered! In late December of each year, thousands of tourists flock into the small town of Bethlehem in the Judean Hills south of Jerusalem to participate in annual Christmas celebrations there. Some make the 6-mile journey from Jerusalem on foot. Upon arrival, they crowd with silent awe into the paved expanse of Manger Square in front of the revered Church of the Nativity, built over the traditional site of Jesus' birth. Inevitably, some of these tourists arrive in Israel unprepared. They have not thoroughly studied their guidebooks. As they step off their plane, they receive a real shock! November through early March is "winter" in Israel! The weather gets cold, especially at night. Often it rains--or even snows! Yet many arrive in Israel carrying luggage bulging with summer attire, reasoning that it is always hot and arid in the Middle East. So they hurriedly purchase coats and sweaters in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem so they can make their pilgrimage down to Bethlehem. Nevertheless, most of those who stand in Manger Square on December 25 each year--prepared and unprepared alike-- fail to perceive the message being proclaimed by the very weather around them! Notice this plain testimony of your Bible: On the day of Jesus' birth "there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night" (Luke 2:8).

The shepherds were living out in the open fields, tending their flock through the night. The point? Ask any biblical scholar, or any modern Israeli: This never could have occurred in Judea in the month of December - nor even in November, or late October as far as that is concerned! In ancient times as today, shepherds brought their flocks in from the fields and penned them in shelters not later than the middle of October! This was necessary to protect them from the cold, rainy season that usually followed that date. (The Bible itself makes it clear that winter in Palestine is a rainy season; see Ezra 10:9,13; Song of Solomon 2:11.) Yet Luke 2:8 tells us that at the time of Jesus' birth, the shepherds were yet abiding in the fields--by night, at that! They had not yet brought their flocks home to the sheepfolds. Clearly the cold, rainy season had not yet commenced. Thus, on the basis of Luke's testimony alone, we see that Jesus could have been born no later than mid-October--when the weather is still pleasant at Bethlehem. A December 25 nativity is too late!

More Proof
Additional biblical evidence lends further support to the foregoing conclusion. Luke 1:24-38 informs us that the virgin Mary miraculously became pregnant with Jesus when her cousin Elizabeth was six months pregnant with a child who would later be known as John the Baptist. Jesus, then, would have been born six months after John. If we could know the time of John's birth, we could then simply add six months and know the time of Jesus' birth. Does the Bible reveal the general time of John's birth? Notice: Elizabeth's husband Zacharias was a priest at the Temple in Jerusalem. Luke 1:5 records that Zacharias was "of the course of Abia [in

Hebrew, Abijah]." In the days of King David of ancient Israel (10th century B.C.), the number of priests had so increased that they had to be divided into 24 courses or shifts, which would take turns in performing the priestly duties (I Chron. 24). Each course served one week at a time, beginning and ending on a weekly Sabbath day (II Chron. 23:8). The course of Abijah was the eighth course or shift in the rotation (I Chron. 24:10). The Talmud (collection of Jewish civil and religious laws and commentaries) records that the first course performed its duties in the first week of the first month of the Hebrew calendar. This month (called Abib or Nisan) begins about the start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. The second course worked the second week. The third week--being the annual festival season of Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread-found all 24 courses serving together, sharing the heavy duties of that special time. The third shift then took its turn during the fourth week of the year. Projecting forward, the eighth course--the course of Abijah, in which Zacharias served--worked the ninth week of the year. But Zacharias' course then stayed on at the Temple to serve the 10th week also--the week of the annual Pentecost festival--along with all the other courses. It was during that two-week period of work--near the end of spring--that the announcement by the archangel Gabriel came to Zacharias regarding his wife's imminent conception (Luke 1:8-20). When his two weeks' service was completed, Zacharias and Elizabeth went back to their home and Elizabeth conceived (verses 23-24)--sometime late in June or early July. The rest is a matter of biology and arithmetic. Elizabeth's sixth month of pregnancy would have been in December. She would have given birth three months later--in late March or early April of the following year. Six months after that, Jesus would have been born, in late September or early October--before the sheep were brought in from the fields, as we have seen! Clearly, Jesus was not born in December. Late September or early October was also the time of year that taxes were customarily paid--in the fall, at the end of the harvest. Joseph and Mary, it

will be remembered, had journeyed to Bethlehem to be taxed (Luke 2:35). The fact that there was "no room for them in the inn" (Luke 2:7) also suggests the time of the autumn harvest, because the annual fall festivals occurring at that time attracted multitudes of Jews to Jerusalem and nearby towns, filling all available accommodations.

In Revelation 12:9 we read that the "great dragon, . that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, . . . deceiveth the whole world." We have learned that this deception came into the Christian church by way of the open demon worship of the ancient Babylonians, who worshiped the sun as the incarnation of Lucifer, even addressing it in prayer as the "evil one" and the "serpent." Knowing this, how can we fail to heed the warning of Revelation 18:2-4: "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils. . . . For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. . . . Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues"!

"And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." -Revelation 17:5

Documented quotes from in and outside the Catholic church proving their Babylonian connection. A list of Pagan rituals and beliefs as is compared to Catholic rituals and beliefs Descriptions and delineations of the characteristics of Babylon derived from the Bible

Cardinal Newman admits in his book that; the "temples, incense, oil lamps, votive offerings, holy water, Holidays, and seasons of devotion, processions, blessings of the fields, sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure (of priests, munks and nuns), images, and statues... are all of PAGAN ORIGIN." -The Development of the Christian Religion Cardinal Newman p.359 The penetration of the religion of Babylon became so general and well known that Rome was called the "New Babylon." -Faith of our fathers 1917 ed. Cardinal Gibbons, p. 106 "Confiding then in the power of Christianity to resist the infection of evil, and to transmute the instruments and appendages of demon worship to an evangelical use... the rulers of the church from early times were prepared should occasion arise, to adopt, or imitate, or sanction the existing rites and customs of the populace." Development of Christian Doctrine, Cardinal Newman. p. 372 Cardinal Newman lists many examples of things of "pagan origin" which the papacy brought into the church "in order to recommend the new religion to the heathen: "in order to recommend the new religion to the heathen:" "The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; holy water; asylums [hermitages, monasteries and convents]; [pagan] holydays, processions, sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the East, images, . . . and the Kyrie Eleison."--Cardinal J. H. Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, 1920 edition, p.373 [Roman Catholic]. "The [Catholic] Church took the pagan philosophy and made it the buckler of faith against the heathen. She took the pagan Roman Pantheon, temple of all the gods, and made it sacred to all the martyrs; so it stands to this day. She took the pagan Sunday and made it the Christian Sunday. She took the pagan Easter and made it the feast we celebrate during this season . . . The Sun was a foremost god with heathendom . . . The sun has worshipers at this hour in Persia and other lands . . . Hence the Church would seem to say, 'Keep that old pagan name [Sunday]. It shall remain consecrated, sanctified.' And thus the pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder, became the Christian Sunday, sacred to Jesus"--William L. Gildea, "Paschale Gaudium," in The Catholic World, 58, March, 1894, p. 809 [A Roman Catholic weekly]. "in order to recommend the new religion to the heathen:" "The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; holy water; asylums [hermitages, monasteries and convents]; [pagan] holy-days, processions, sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the East, images, . . . and the Kyrie Eleison."--J. H. Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, 1920 edition, p.373 [Roman Catholic]. "The mighty Catholic Church was little more then the Roman Empire baptized."-- A. C, Flick, The Rise of the Mediaeval Church, 1909 edition, p. 148. From ancient Babylon came the cult of the virgin mother-goddess, who was worshiped as the highest of gods--see S. H. Langdon, Semitic Mythology, 1931 edition. This worship was taken over as Mary-worship by Rome. Heathen sun-worship on Sunday was likewise adopted by the Roman apostasy. "In order to attach to Christianity great attraction in the eyes of the nobility, the priests adopted the outer garments and adornments which were used in pagan cults." -Life of Constantine, Eusabius, cited in Altai-Nimalaya, p. 94 "The Church did everything it couldto stamp out such 'pagan' rites, but had to capitualet and allow the rites to continue with only the name of the local diety changed to some Christian saint's name." -Religious Tradition and Myth. Dr. Edwin Goodenough, Professor of Religion, Harvard University. p. 56, 57 "From the foregoing, which treats merely of the more important solar festivals, it is clear that these products of paganism are as much in force at present ... as they ever were, and that Christianity countenances, and in many cases has actually adopted and practiced, pagan rites whose heathen significance is merely lost sight of because attention is not called tot the source whence these rites have sprung. So heavy was this infiltration that Sir Samuel Dill exclaims: "Christianity is only a sect of the Mithraists." -Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, p. VII

"We know that Mithraism was a state religion of Rome at the time that the Christian church was established there. Evidently tenants of Mithraism such as Sunday worship and eating the wafer in the mass were adopted into Christianity at that time" -Jim Arrabito "666 & the Mark" In Stanley's History, page 40: "The popes filled the place of the vacant emperors at Rome, inheriting their power, their prestige, and their titles from PAGANISM." "In short, sun worship, symbolically speaking, lies at the very heart of the great festivals which the Christian Church celebrates today, and these relics of heathen religion have, through the medium of their sacred rites, curiously enough blended with practices and beliefs utterly antagonistic to the spirit which prompted them." -Sun Lore of All Ages, Olcott, p. 248 "Yet the cross itself is the oldest of phallic emblems, and the lozenge-shaped windows of cathedrals are proof that the yonic symbols have survived the destructions of the pagan Mysteries. The very structure of the church itself is permeated with (sexual symbolism) phallicism. Remove from the Christian Church all emblems of Priapic origin and nothing is left..." -The secret teaching of all ages by Manley P. Hall "When the zealots of the primitave Christian Church sought to Christianize paganism, the pagan initiates retorted with a powerful effort to paganize Christianity. The Christians failed but the pagans succeeded. With the decline of paganism the initiated pagan hierophants transferred their base of operations to the new vehicle of primitive Christianity, adopting the symbols of the new cult to conceal those eternal verities which are ever the priceless possession of the wise." -The secret teachings of all ages, Manley P. Hall p. CLXXXV "...The world, cloaked with a form of righteousness, walked into the church. Now the work of corruption rapidly progressed. Paganism, while appearing to be vanquished, became the conqueror. Her spirit controlled the church. Her doctrines, ceremonies, and superstitions were incorporated into the faith and worship of the professed followers of Christ." -The Great Controversy, p. 50 "The belief in miracle-working objects, talismans, amulets, and formulas was dear to Christianity, and they were received from pagan antiquity . . . The vestments of the clergy and the papal title of 'pontifex maximus' were legacies from pagan Rome. The [Catholic] Church found that rural converts still revered certain springs, wells, trees, and stones; she thought it wiser to bless these to Christian use then to break too sharply the customs of sentiment . . . Pagan festivals dear to the people, reappeared as Christian feasts, and pagan rites were transformed into Christian liturgy . . . The Christian calendar of saints replaced the Roman 'fasti' [gods]; ancient divinities dear to the people were allowed to revive under the names of 'Christian saints' . . . Gradually the tenderest features of Astarte, Cybele, Artemis, Diana, and Isis were gathered together in the worship of Mary"-Wil Durant, The Age of Faith, 1950, pp. 745-746. Langdon tells us that Mary worship came from ancient Babylon where the virgin mother-goddess was worshiped under the name "Ishtar." Elsewhere in the Near East, the mother-goddess was called "Astarte, Ashtoreth, Persephone, Artemis, [Diana] of Ephesus, Venus, and Isis." This goddess, considered to be greater than any god, was called by these heathen the "virgin mother, merciful mother, Queen of Heaven, and my lady" [which is what "Madonna" means in Italian]. Langdon says she was often sculptured in mother-and-infant images, or as a "mater dolorom" [sorrowful mother] interceding for men with a wrathful god. And thus ancient paganism was brought into the churches and lives of Christians.--see S.H. Langdon, Semitic Mythology, 1931 edition, pp. 12-34, 108-111, 341-344. Laing mentions several other corruptions by which the mother-goddess was worshiped by heathens, that Rome adopted into Christianity: holy water, votive offerings, elevation of sacred objects [lifting of the host], the priest's bells, the decking of images, processions, festivals, prayers for the dead, the worship of relics and the statues of saints.--see Gordon J. Laing, Survivals of Roman Religion, 1931 edition, pp. 92-95, 123-131,238-241. Two dominant elements brought into Christianity from paganism by Rome were Sun worship symbols and the religious practices of ancient Babylon] "The solar theology of the Chaldaeans [Babylonians], had decisive effect . . . [upon the] final form reached by the religion of the pagan Semites, and following them, by that of the Romans when [the Roman emperor] Aurelian, the conqueror of Palmyra, had raised 'Sol Invictus' [the invincible sun-god] to the rank of supreme divinity in the Empire"--The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 11, pp. 643, 646-647. From Palmyra he transferred to the new sanctuary the images of Helios [the sun-god] and Bel, the malaise patron god of Babylon--see Cumont, The Oriental Religions In Roman Paganism, 1911 edition, pp. 114-115, 124.

"The [Catholic] Church took the pagan philosophy and made it the buckler of faith against the heathen. She took the pagan Roman Pantheon, temple of all the gods, and made it sacred to all the martyrs; so it stands to this day. She took the pagan Sunday and made it the Christian Sunday. She took the pagan Easter and made it the feast we celebrate during this season . . . The Sun was a foremost god with heathendom . . . The sun has worshipers at this hour in Persia and other lands . . . Hence the Church would seem to say, 'Keep that old pagan name [Sunday]. It shall remain consecrated, sanctified.' And thus the pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder, became the Christian Sunday, sacred to Jesus"--William L. Gildea, "Paschale Gaudium," in The Catholic World, 58, March, 1894, p. 809 [A Roman Catholic weekly]. "The removal of the capital of the Empire from Rome to Constantinople in 330, left the Western Church, practically free from imperial power, to develop its own form of organization. The Bishop of Rome, in the seat of the Caesars, was now the greatest man in the West, and was soon [when the barbarians over-ran the empire] forced to become the political as well as the spiritual head."--A.C. Flick, The Rise of the Mediaval Church p. 168. "Whatever Roman elements the barbarians and Aryans left . . . [came] under the protection of the Bishop of Rome, who was the chief person there after the Emperor's disappearance . . . The Roman Church in this way privily pushed itself into the place of the Roman World-Empire, of which it is the actual continuation; the empire has not perished, but has only undergone a transformation . . . It [the Catholic Church] is a political creation, and as imposing as a World-Empire, because [it is a continuation of] the Roman Empire. The Pope, who calls himself 'King' and 'Pontifex Maximus' [the title of the Roman Emperor in the time of Christ], is Caesar's successor."--Adolf Harnack, What is Christianity? 1963, pp. 269-270. "Long ages ago, when Rome through the neglect of the Western emperors was left to the mercy of the barbarous hordes, the Romans turned to one figure for aid and protection, and asked him to rule them; and thus, . . . commenced the temporal sovereignty of the popes. And meekly stepping to the throne of Caesar, the vicar of Christ took up the scepter to which the emperors and kings of Europe were to bow in reverence through so many ages."--American Catholic Quarterly Review, April, 1911. [Speaking of the time, about 500 A.D., when the Roman Empire was crumbling to pieces:] "No, the [Catholic] Church will not descend into the tomb. It will survive the Empire . . . At length a second empire will arise, and of this empire the Pope will be the master--more then this, he will be the master of Europe. He will dictate his orders to kings who will obey them"--Andrea Lagarde, The Latin Church in the Middle Ages, 1915, p. vi. "From the foregoing, which treats merely of the more important solar festivles, it is clear that these products of paganism are as much in force at present... as they ever were, and that Christianity countenances, and in many cases has actually adopted and practiced, pagan rites whose heathen significance is merely lost sight of because attention is not called to the source whence those rites have spring. So heavy was this infiltration that Sir Samuel Dill exclaims: "Christianity is only a sect of the Mithraists." -Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius. P. vii

NOTICE THE LIST BELOW NOTICE HOW BABYLON INVENTED THE DOCTRINE TO WORSHIP THE PAGAN SUN GOD. THEN NOTICE THE "CHRISTIAN" CHURCH OF ROME ADOPTING 100% OF THE PAGAN DOCTRINES GIVING THEM CHRISTIAN NAMES

-[Baal-vs-The "Catholic" God]INVENTED FOR THE PAGAN SUN GOD BAAL CATHOLIC DOCTRINES OF THE VATICAN

1. The nativity of the Sun, the birth of Tammuz Dec. 25 The nativity of Jesus, Christmas Dec 25 2. The Midsummer festival held Jun 24 The Nativity of St. John held June 24 3. The assumption of Semiramus who became the mother The assumption of Mary, who became the mother of godess God 4. The mother goddess was worshipped as the Queen of The Virgin Mary worshipped as the Queen of Heaven. Heaven. Jer. 7:18 Mary, "Queen of Heaven" subdues the wrath of Christ 4.a "Queen of Heaven" is wrath suduer of the and His Father against sinners. Pagan god 5. Cakes decorated to the goddess with a "+" drawn on it. Hot cross buns Jer. 44:17,19 6. 40 days fasting for Tammuz, Ezek. 8:14 40 days of Lent 7.Pagan festival of Easter. Ezek 8:16 The festival of Easter 8. The ressurection of Tammuz at Easter and the The procession of graven images of Jesus, Mary, procession of graven images during holy week and Peter, and of the saints 9. Veneration of graven images of Baal, Ishtar, Tammuz Veneration of graven images of Jesus, Mary, and lesser gods in the heavens Peter, and of the "lesser" saints in the heavens 10. The belief of immortality of the soul and burning place The belief of immortality of the soul and burning place of torment of torment 11. The doctrine of purgatory The doctrine of purgatory 12. The belief of the dead visiting the living, feast held for The festival of all souls day held Nov. 2, and all saints all in November, (All souls day) day held Nov. 1 (All souls day) 13. Burning incense and candles Jer 11:17; Ezek 8:11 The burning of incense and candles 14. Chants and repetative prayers. Beaded prayer chains. Gregorian chants and the Rosary 15. Symbol of the cross as symbol of Sun worship. Mesopotamian cylinder seal depicted the "cross in the sky" as a symbol of sun worship. Ancient carvings of an Assyrian king has a huge cross carved on his chest. The The crucifix oldest pictures in the world from Mesopotamia has text with is explaining the "cross" in the sky as the sun. This particular find is on display at the University Museum in Philadelphia. The wearing of crucifixes and medals displayed for 16. Amulets and idols ro scare away evil spirits protection. (Scapular = main example) 17. The round disk "sun" wafer IHS symbol of Isis, Horus & The wafer used in the Eucharist is round with IHS Seb, eaten as food for the soul. Some wafers also had a engraved on it on on one side, and many have a large large "+" sign engraved on them as well to symbolize Baal. "+" engraved on the other side. 18. Painting of the child (Tammuz) and mother Paintings of the child (Jesus) and mother (Mary) with (Semiramus) with the glory of the Sun around their heads halos or of the Sun around their heads 19. Infant baptism, and sprinkling of holy water Infant baptism, and sprinkling of holy water

20. Necromancy (Talking to the dead) Mysticism (Novenas (prayers) to the dead) 21. The first day of the week kept sacred to honor the The admitted change of 7th day Sabbath to "SUN"day Persian sun god Mithra. "SUN"day 22. Title Pontifex Maximus name for chief head of the Pontifex Maximus one of the first names for the office of pagan Babylonian system of idolatry Pope 23. Janus and Cybele, holders of the keys to Heaven The pope claims to have the keys of Peter and Hell 24. The high priest kings carried on a throne to the to The Pope carried on a portable throne to the Basilica of the Temple of his god St. Peter (Sedia Gestoria) The Pope proclaims to be Christ's Vicar (replacement) 25. The Pagan high priest king believed to be the here on Earth. It is also recorded in numerous documents that the pope believes he is god on earth. incarnate of the Sun god 26. Offerings of "good works" to appease the gods Penance, indulgences, salvation by works 27. Houses for the virgin priestesses (Prostitutes) to Nuns. (Recent modern day sex scandals involving Nuns be employed at Pagan temples to "service" priests that has uncovered this well hidden reality) were not 'gay' 28. Human sacrifices burned by fire as offering to Opposers of doctrines of the Roman Catholic church appease Sun god burned at the stake Vatican and numerous Cathedrals are lietrally drenched 29. Gold was considered the flesh of the "Sungod" in gold throughout

Vatican as well as thousands of Catholic churches have gargoils on their roofs for 'protection' 31. Phallic symbol of the male sex organ placed on Largest phallic symbol in center of St. Peter's square as roofs as a sign of allegiance with Baal well as steeples on all Catholic churches St Peter's square has largest solar wheel on planet. ALL Catholic churches have numerous solar wheels in stain glass windows as well as many other areas of the church. Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris sports a very 32. Solar wheel as symbol for Baal worship can be huge one on it's face. There is a great one in ceiling as found carved into ancient as well as modern Buddhist well as the floor tiles of the monastery of St. Ignatius temples,, carved into ancient ornament representing Loyola in Spain. Numerous paintings, statues, Osiris. Stone carvings showing a whell to represent and ornaments, and letterheads of all Catholic churches Assyrio Babylonian altar. have one or more "solar wheels" depicted upon them. And the ONE WORLD CHURCH that started on June 26, 2000 uses the solar wheel as its official logo. 30. Gargoils = a pagan god of protection

33. Symbol of serpent on numerous Roman bath Symbol of serpent on numerous Catholic church in door houses handles, Papal crests, etc. 34. Atlas carries the universe on his soilders Numerous Popes depicted in paintings in same manner Symbols of the "Unicorn, Peacock, and Phoenix" used 35. Symbols of the "Unicorn, Peacock, and Phoenix" to symbolize the Christ in many churches on doors or used to signify sun god chapels as well as sanctuarys holding the 'eucharist' Crescent used to cradle Eucharist in the Monstrance of 36. Crescent moon used to signify moon goddess the Catholic church. As well as depicted in numerous "Nanna" paintings and scupltures with Mary standing within it 37. Three letters "S.F.S" within a small blaze is used to S.F.S in a small blaze is carved into the Vatican represent the universal symbol for the number "6" in the Monstrance in the Vatican museum as well as many Pagan mysteries monstrances the world over 38. Alternating rays of the sun burst used to represent Monstrance of Catholicism as well as many paintings unity of "man and woman" common in all aspects of and sculptures all depict same rays of both the "phallic Paganism. (Curved ray = female "yonic" Straight ray = and yonic" symbolism can be found literally all over the male "phallic") Roman Catholic church Carvings of "nature spirits" (fauns or satyrs) depicting a 39. Carvings of "nature spirits" (fauns or satyrs) horned, hoofed-god are found all over the Treasury of depicting a horned, hoofed-god were a common feature the Vatican beneath St Peters square as well as many in all Pagan cults Cathedrals

40. Statues of a "Madonna" found in all Pagan cults as Statues of Mary can be found in all Catholic churches well as Egyptian Madonna Isis with her son Horus, or holding baby Jesus Hindu cults with Divaki and her son Krishna 41. Statue of Zeus holds symbol of thunder and a Mary depicted in many statues holding the pagan lightening bolt to symbolise his position as a god. symbol of thunderr 42. Demi-gods holding crooked diving staff Pope carries exact same staff (serpent crosiers) representative of the serpent and lightening bolt 43. Adad, Enlil, Baal, Neptune, Poseidon and other Crosses as well as statues of Jesus and Mary in "gods" of storm and sea were depicted as carrying Cathedrals all over the world carved with tridents on tridents them. Statue of St. Peter (Actually the old Jupiter statue of Rome) as well as millions of other statues, painitings, 44. Hand gestures in the form of a trident found depicted photos, and videos of everyone from Jesus and Mary to in Jupiter, Buddah, Appollo, Hindu diety's, as well as priests, cardinals,bishops, all the Popes, Vatican guards and even lay people in the Catholci church seen holding "votive hands" in pagan temples up the three finger trident salute of pagan Rome. (Now called the salute to the Trinity) Largest pine cone sculpture in the world found in the "Court of the pine cone" at the Vatican. Pine cone is 45. Pine cones used to represent the diety of a solar also found carved into the crooked pagan staff (serpent god Osiris, Bacchus, Dionysus, as well as Mexican crosier) or the Popes of Rome. In fact the pine cone is gods, Hindu gods, and Assyrian gods found all throughout the Vatican as well as Cathedrals as decoration. 46. Oanne, Babylonian fish-god (half man half fish) was depicted by Pagan high priests by wearing a fish head mitre (head dress) upon a mans head to symbolize man Mitres are worn by all Popes of Catholcism and fish joining when "sun god" set into the ocean. (Neptune = case in point. Half man half fish) One particular Biblical diety = "Dagon" Dag=fish On=sun 47. The Roman sun-god with the alternating yonic and Almost all Catholic churches have the exact same phallic symbols surrounding his head was found carved carving above their pulpits, pillars, on statues, as well as in excavated Roman bath houses in England. It is alos carved into ceilings above altars. Some Catholic found as "Apollo" on the facade of the Pergamum churches actually have it carved into the Eucharist itself. Museum in East Berlin. 48. Statues of the Romanized Egyptians Isis with globes The Vatican has a solid gold statues of Jesus with the in hand, Hercules as a solar diety carried the very same globe in hand, plus a black marble statue called "the globe in hand, and the Persian sun-god Mithra is also black virgin of Montserrat" and a statue of a "child depicted with the globe in hand as a sign ruler of the Jesus" with globe in hand, the list goes on... Universe. 49. Coptic shells were carved to symbolize the St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican has the Pagan Universe. Roman grave stones used them to represent symbols within the papal crest upon the wall. The Coptic the Heavens. Statues of Atlas can be found carrying the shell is found over the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral in "universe" shell upon its shoulders. Pagan Rome carved London. This cosmic symbol is often used as a font for Poseidon with the shell in his head. Venus was said to holy water in Catholic churches the world over. They be born IN a coptic shell. even have statues of angels holding the pagan symbol

50. Large evil eye can be found carved on a Roman This very same evil eye within the pyramid is found on sarcophagus in the National Archaeological Museum in Roman Catholic pulpits, ceilings, altars, doors, Rome Italy. Masonic pendants have them as well. pendants, medals, etc. Hathor the "eye of Osiris" can be found all over Egyptian temple. It was commonly used as protection against evil It is also on the back of the dollar bill of the USA on the magic. left side The bronze tomb of Pope Sixtus (Pope6) has this three ringed tiara on his head. On that tiara you can also see 51. The multi-level crown was first worn by old 6 serpents upon it. All the Popes have word the tiara as Babylonian gods in 1800BC. The horned tiara was a symbol of their authority as "gods of the earth, heaven, carved atop Assyrian winged-bull cherubims. The and hell" Hence, the "three rings" upon it. The Vatican Jewish Kabbalistic solar diety wore this very same tiara, has a solid gold tiara on display in the Vatican treasury. This is the very crown the Pope will hand to Antichrist as did Krishna. when he arrives to impersonate Jesus Christ in the days ahead. Literally hundreds of thousands of statues, paintings, 52. Quetzalcoatl, the lord of life and death in the Aztec posters, lithographs, etc have Jesus as well as Mary and Toltec cultures of 1000 AD had an open chest with depicted in the same manner with what the Catholic an exposed heart displayed. This was believed to be church calls "The sacred heart." Notice that these nourishment offered to the sun gods. "sacred hearts" also have the symbols of the sun god Mithra glowing rather boldly behind them. Eagles are used as symbols all over the Roman 53. Assyrians carvings show eagles as genies hovering Catholic church. See Rev 18:2 speaks of the Vatican as over the dead. Their "book of the dead" depicts just the "hold of ever foul spirit, and a cage of ever unclean such a picture on its cover. and hateful bird."

Now do you understand WHY the Vatican is declared the "WHORE OF BABYLON?" Want to see ALL these facts and more in an animation WITH PICTURES?

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WHO AND WHAT IS BABYLON ?

Below data was compiled by... Let There Be Light Ministries Descriptions and delineations of the characteristics of Babylon derived from the Bible (See if your church exhibits any of these characteristics, and be sure to look at the possible spiritual meaning to the characteristic. NOTE: Not every characteristic needs to be seen before your church can become Babylon) 1. Abundant in treasures--Jeremiah 51:13. 2. All connected with her are made rich (not riches of heaven)--Revelation 18:19. 3. Are liars--Jeremiah 50:36. 4. Are mad (lost their reason) upon their idols--Jeremiah 50:38. 5. Beasts inhabit--Isaiah 13:21-22. 6. Believes that God does not dwell with humanity (Christ's nature before fall)--Daniel 2:11. 7. Believes they are gods--Isaiah 47:8, 10. 8. Besieges God's professed church until it falls captive--2 Kings 24:10-12, 25:1-4; Jeremiah 39:1-2. 9. Breaks bones of God's people--Jeremiah 50:17. 10. Breaks down walls of God's professed church--2 Kings 25:9; 2 Chronicles 36:19; Ezra 5:12; Jeremiah 39:8. 11. Builds city and tower whose top reaches unto heaven--Genesis 11:4. 12. Builds great image of man for all to worship--Daniel 3:1-7. 13. Burns with fire God's professed church--2 Kings 25:9; 2 Chronicles 36:19; Jeremiah 21:10, 38:23, 39:8. 14. Camps against God's professed church until is succumbs--Jeremiah 52:4-7. 15. Carries away treasures (precious truths) out of God's once faithful church--2 Kings 24:13; 2 Chron 36:7, 10, 18. 16. Carries away all the mighty men--2 Kings 24:14. 17. Casts out God's people--Jeremiah 51:34. 18. Causes God's people to be slain--Jeremiah 51:49. 19. Celebration is in her midst--Jeremiah 51:39. 20. Commands all to worship image of man at sound of music--Daniel 3:1-7. 21. Completely captivates majority of members until only a remnant remain--2 Kings 25:11-12, 22; 2 Chronicles 36:20; Ezra 5:12; Jeremiah 39:9-10, 40:11. 22. Completely removes all precious vessels which were once held by God's church--2 Kings 25:13-17. 23. Connected with hell--Isaiah 14:9. 24. Connected with Mysteries of spiritualism--Revelation 17:5. 25. Connected with scarlet-colored beast (secret societies)--Revelation 17:3. 26. Connected with ships (other churches)--Revelation 18:17. 27. Connected with spiritualism--Ezekiel 21:21. 28. Corrupts earth with fornication--Revelation 19:2. 29. Crushes God's people--Jeremiah 51:34. 30. Cuts down people as trees--Isaiah 14:8. 31. Cuts in pieces precious vessels of God's once faithful church--2 Kings 24:13, 25:13; 2 Chronicles 36:19. 32. Deals in slaves--Revelation 18:13. 33. Deals in souls of men--Revelation 18:13. 34. Deceives by sorceries--Revelation 18:23. 35. Defiles sacred vessels and precious things of God's design--Daniel 5:2-4. 36. Destroys all the earth--Jeremiah 51:25. 37. Destroys God's heritage--Jeremiah 50:11. 38. Devours God's people--Jeremiah 51:34. 39. Does evil among God's people--Jeremiah 51:24. 40. Does not consider her possible destruction (does not lay these things to heart)--Isaiah 47:7. 41. Does not glorify God--Daniel 5:23. 42. Does not remember warnings given about her destruction--Isaiah 47:7. 43. Does not want to fight outwardly--Jeremiah 51:30. 44. Does violence to God's people--Jeremiah 51:35. 45. Does what she wants to, yet believes she will see no sorrow (no punishment or judgment for her actions)-Revelation 18:7. 46. Drunken with the blood of God's saints--Revelation 17:6.

47. Dwells carelessly--Isaiah 47:8. 48. Dwells upon many waters--Jeremiah 51:13. 49. Employs reapers to harvest fields (sown with seeds of falsehood)--Jeremiah 50:16. 50. Employs sowers (to spread seeds of falsehood)--Jeremiah 50:16. 51. Fears not the Lord--2 Kings 17:25. 52. Full of astonishment--Jeremiah 25:10. 53. Full of falsehoods--Jeremiah 51:17. 54. Full of pomp--Isaiah 14:11. 55. Full of unclean birds--Jeremiah 50:39. 56. Full of wild beasts--Jeremiah 50:39. 57. Full of vanity--Jeremiah 51:18. 58. Given to pleasure--Isaiah 47:8. 59. Glorifies herself--Revelation 18:7. 60. Great majority of wise men are liars and corrupt--Daniel 2:2, 9. 61. Grows fat (on sin)--Jeremiah 50:11. 62. Has broad walls--Jeremiah 51:58. 63. Has daughters--Jeremiah 50:42. 64. Has high gates--Jeremiah 51:58. 65. Has trial (inquisition) to determine crimes against her decrees--Daniel 3:13-15. 66. Heart is lifted up--Daniel 5:20. 67. Her captains are drunk and asleep--Jeremiah 51:57. 68. Her cities (churches) are a dry land (no refreshing of the latter rain)--Jeremiah 51:43. 69. Her cities (churches) are a wilderness--Jeremiah 51:43. 70. Her cities (churches) are desolate (no Saviour)--Jeremiah 51:43. 71. Her cry (glory) is found in ships--Isaiah 43:14. 72. Her men are brutish in their own knowledge--Jeremiah 51:17. 73. Her mighty men are drunk and asleep--Jeremiah 51:57. 74. Her princes are drunk and asleep--Jeremiah 51:57. 75. Her rulers are drunk and asleep--Jeremiah 51:57. 76. Her waves (ministers--those raised up above the level of the sea or people) do roar--Jeremiah 51:55. 77. Her wise men are drunk and asleep--Jeremiah 51:57. 78. Highest leader becomes angry when his will is disregarded for God's will--Daniel 3:19. 79. Highest leader makes hasty decisions--Daniel 2:15. 80. Holds God's people captive--Jeremiah 50:33. 81. Is clothed in gorgeous apparel (but not the robe of Christ's righteousness)--Revelation 17:4, 18:16. 82. Is covetous--Jeremiah 51:13. 83. Is desolate--Jeremiah 25:10; Revelation 17:6. 84. Is filled with delicacies--Jeremiah 51:34. 85. Is full of abominations--Revelation 17:4. 86. Is full of filthiness--Revelation 17:4. 87. Is full of mingled-people (mixed-multitude)--Jeremiah 50:37. 88. Is great and mighty in eyes of world--Revelation 17:18, 18:10, 16. 89. Is intimately connected with merchants--Isaiah 47:15; Revelation 18:3. 90. Is lustful--Revelation 18:14. 91. Is naked--Revelation 17:16; Isaiah 47:3. 92. Is perverted--Isaiah 47:10. 93. Is proud against the Lord--Jeremiah 50:29, 31-32. 94. Keeps God's people captive as prisoners--Isaiah 14:17. 95. Language was confounded (confused)--Genesis 11:7-9. 96. Lifts up self against the Lord--Daniel 5:23. 97. Lives deliciously--Revelation 18:7 98. Lucifer is her king--Isaiah 14:4, 12. 99. Made up of many nations (churches) flowing (uniting) into one--Jeremiah 51:44. 100. Makes all nations (churches) commit fornication with her--Revelation 14:8, 18:3. 101. Makes all nations (churches) drink of her wine (false doctrines)--Revelation 14:8, 18:3 102. Makes all the earth drunken--Jeremiah 51:7; Revelation 17:2. 103. Makes all the earth mad (without reason)--Jeremiah 51:7. 104. Makes God's people empty--Jeremiah 51:34. 105. Makes inhabitants of earth commit fornication with her--Revelation 17:2. 106. Mind hardened by pride--Daniel 5:20. 107. Mounts up to heaven--Jeremiah 51:53.

108. Not humble of heart, even though aware of God's will--Daniel 5:22. 109. Once had (heavenly) craftsmen in her, but no more--Revelation 18:22. 110. Once had (heavenly) music in her, but no more--Revelation 18:22. 111. Once had the light of a candle in her, but no more (no more light of God's truths--candlestick removed)-Jeremiah 25:10; Revelation 18:23. 112. Once had the sound of a millstone in her (grinding out seed or hammering out the truth), but no more-Jeremiah 25:10; Revelation 18:22. 113. Once had the voice of the bride in her (was once the true church), but no more--Jeremiah 25:10; Revelation 18:23. 114. Once had the voice of the Bridegroom (Christ) in her, but no more--Jeremiah 25:10; Revelation 18:23. 115. Once had the voice of gladness (gospel of Christ) within, but no more--Jeremiah 25:10. 116. Once had the voice of mirth within, but no more--Jeremiah 25:10. 117. Once was clean and pure, but now is a cage (closed structure) of every unclean and hateful bird--Revelation 18:2. 118. Once was the habitation of God's angels, but now is the habitation of devils--Revelation 18:2. 119. Once was the hold of the Holy Spirit, but now is the hold of every foul spirit--Revelation 18:2. 120. Oppresses--Isaiah 14:4; Jeremiah 50:16, 33. 121. Persecutes by fire all who do not bow and worship image of man--Daniel 3:6. 122. Places relatives in high positions of leadership (nepotism)--2 Kings 24:17. 123. Practices abundant enchantments--Isaiah 47:8, 12. 124. Practices divination--Ezekiel 21:21. 125. Practices sorcery--Isaiah 47:9, 12. 126. Produces evildoers--Isaiah 14:20. 127. Produces other harlots--Revelation 17:5. 128. Puts on pretense of piety--Isaiah 47:1. 129. Refuses to be healed of sin--Jeremiah 51:9. 130. Refuses to let go of God's people--Jeremiah 50:33. 131. Reigns over others--Revelation 17:18. 132. Reigns without a king (being a widow, or divorced by Husband)--Revelation 18:7. 133. Replaces God's people with pagan believers--2 Kings 17:24. 134. Sins have reached unto heaven (corporate probation closed)--Revelation 18:5. 135. Sits on seven hills--Revelation 17:9. 136. Sits upon many waters--Revelation 17:1, 15. 137. Shows no mercy--Isaiah 47:6. 138. Shows no respect for age--Isaiah 47:6. 139. Sleeps a perpetual sleep--Jeremiah 51:39. 140. Smites--Isaiah 14:6. 141. Speaks with a great voice--Jeremiah 51:55. 142. Strives against the Lord--Jeremiah 50:24. 143. Swallows up God's people--Jeremiah 51:34. 144. Takes away precious things belonging to God's people--Isaiah 39:6. 145. Teaches immortality of the soul (a lady for ever)--Isaiah 47:7. 146. Teaches that she will never be destroyed (a lady or church for ever)--Isaiah 47:7. 147. The praise of the whole earth--Jeremiah 51:41. 148. Tries to be worshiped as God--Isaiah 14:14. 149. Tries to hide her nakedness--Isaiah 47:3. 150. Tries to hide her shame--Isaiah 47:3. 151. Tries to make themselves a name--Genesis 11:4. 152. Tries to prevent separation (lest we be scattered)--Genesis 11:4. 153. Tries to serve God and false gods at same time--2 Kings 17:32-33. 154. Tries to unite all into one--Genesis 11:4. 155. Trusts in wickedness--Isaiah 47:10. 156. Unites God's precious vessels (truths) with corrupt vessels (false doctrines)--Ezra 5:14. 157. Uses intimidation to bring about submission of will to worship image of man--Daniel 3:13-15. 158. Uses slime as mortar for the walls of Babylon--Genesis 11:3. 159. Waters are dried up--Jeremiah 50:38. 160. Worships false gods--Isaiah 21:9. 161. Worships idols--Jeremiah 50:2.

Why Does God's Once Faithful Church Become Part of Babylon 1. Because her precious vessels are removed--Daniel 1:2. 2. Because her precious vessels are united with Babylonian treasures--Daniel 1:2. 3. Because her shepherds (ministers) caused their sheep (members) to go astray--Jeremiah 50:6. 4. Because her sins reach unto heaven (corporate probation closed)--Jeremiah 51:9. 5. Because her strength is placed in the church, not in God--Ezekiel 24:2, 21. 6. Because highest leader becomes blind--2 Kings 25:7; Jeremiah 39:7; Jeremiah 52:11. 7. Because highest leader does evil in God's sight--2 Chronicles 36:5. 8. Because highest leader hardens neck against God--2 Chronicles 36:13. 9. Because highest leader is among thorns--2 Chronicles 33:11. 10. Because highest leader makes covenant with Babylon leaders--Ezekiel 17:13. 11. Because highest leader stiffens neck against God--2 Chronicles 36:13. 12. Because majority of leaders and ministers follow after the abominations of other nations (churches)--2 Chron 36:14. 13. Because majority of leaders and ministers transgress against God--2 Chronicles 36:14. 14. Because of a famine occurring (no word of God) in midst of church--Jeremiah 52:6. 15. Because of arrogance--Isaiah 14:5. 16. Because of evil--Isaiah 13:11. 17. Because of evil doing--Jeremiah 32:30, 32. 18. Because of iniquity--Ezekiel 24:2, 23. 19. Because of pride--Isaiah 14:5. 20. Because of worshiping false gods--Acts 7:43. 21. Because of rebellion--Ezekiel 17:12, 24:3. 22. Because of there being no bread (no Saviour) in midst of church--Jeremiah 52:6. 23. Because of transgressions--1 Chronicles 9:1. 24. Because of wickedness--Isaiah 14:5. 25. Because she allowed abominations to be practiced in midst--Jeremiah 32:33. 26. Because she allowed scum to remain within her--Ezekiel 24:2, 6. 27. Because she allowed strangers into midst--Jeremiah 51:51. 28. Because she became polluted--2 Chronicles 36:14. 29. Because she broke covenant made with God--Ezekiel 17:19. 30. Because she chose to unite with Egypt (world) which occurs just before becoming part of Babylon--Ezek 17:15-18. 31. Because she despises oath made with God--Ezekiel 17:19. 32. Because she filled land (whole structure) with sin against the Lord--Jeremiah 51:5. 33. Because she follows other gods--Jeremiah 32:35. 34. Because she forgot her resting place (Jesus)--Jeremiah 50:6. 35. Because she forgot sacredness of God's Sabbath--2 Chronicles 36:21. 36. Because she harkened not to God's instructions--Jeremiah 32:33, 36:31. 37. Because she is full of blood--Ezekiel 24:2, 6-9. 38. Because she is full of filthiness--Ezekiel 24:2, 11. 39. Because she is full of iniquity--Isaiah 14:5. 40. Because she is full of lewdness--Ezekiel 24:2, 13. 41. Because she is full of lies--Ezekiel 24:2, 12. 42. Because she obeyed not God's voice--Jeremiah 40:2-3. 43. Because she provoked God to anger--Jeremiah 32:32. 44. Because she provoked God to wrath--Ezra 5:12. 45. Because she refuses to be purged by God--Ezekiel 24: 2, 13. 46. Because she sacrificed her children to false gods--Jeremiah 32:35. 47. Because she sinned against the Lord--Jeremiah 50:7. 48. Because she trespassed against God--Ezekiel 17:20. 49. Because she turned back and not face to God--Jeremiah 32:33. 50. Because the desire of her eyes was for the church, not for God--Ezekiel 24:2, 21. 51. Because the joy of her glory was not Jesus--Ezekiel 24:2, 25. Principles and Things to Remember About Babylon 1. All inhabitants (members) are partakers of Babylon's sins--Revelation 18:4. 2. All inhabitants (members) are to receive of Babylon's judgments or plagues--Revelation 18:4.

3. All inhabitants (members) will fall in the midst of Babylon--Jeremiah 51:47. 4. All who are part of, or joined with, Babylon shall be destroyed--Isaiah 13:15, 14:22. 5. Babylon falls piece by piece--Jeremiah 51:31. 6. Babylon is likened to a destroying mountain--Jeremiah 51:25. 7. Babylon is the dwelling place for dragons--Jeremiah 51:37. 8. Babylon will fall suddenly and is completely unaware--Jeremiah 50:24, 51:8. 9. Blood is upon all the inhabitants (members) of Babylon--Jeremiah 51:35. 10. Even highest leader of Babylon will fall down and worship at feet of God's saints--Daniel 2:46. 11. Even the ungodly realized that God's once chosen and faithful church was part of Babylon because she obeyed not God's voice--Jeremiah 40:2-3. 12. God's once faithful church became connected with Babylon, but while many of His professed people were being slain because of it, God extended mercy to those who had no connection with the rebellious church-Jeremiah 39:16-18. 13. God's once faithful church makes covenant with Babylon, but after it is made, the only way the church can continue to stand is by continuing with covenant--Ezekiel 17:14. 14. God restores all His precious vessels (truths) only to those who separate from Babylon--Ezra 1:11, 5:14-15, 6:5. 15. God's true people are to be delivered from midst of Babylon--Micah 4:10; Zechariah 2:7. 16. Highest leader of God's professed church was captured and made prisoner, but finally gave up warfare and agreed to become a leader in Babylon--2 Kings 25:27-30; Jeremiah 52:31-34. 17. Kings of the earth commit fornication with Babylon--Revelation 17:2, 18:3. 18. Merchants lived on Babylon's delicacies--Revelation 18:3. 19. Message of the fall of Babylon begins the time of harvest--Jeremiah 51:27, 33. 20. Names changed when become part of Babylon--Daniel 1:7. 21. No one is forced to leave Babylon to rebuild God's church--Ezra 7:13. 22. Only health reform kept a small remnant pure while in Babylon--Daniel 1:8, 16. 23. Only those who separated from Babylon to rebuilt God's church, and who were of one accord, can be written down on the new membership list of God's church--Nehemiah 7:5-13, 8:1. 24. Only those who separate from Babylon will have God's covenant of peace--Jeremiah 32:36-44. 25. Some of those who separate from Babylon are made to wear crowns of gold--Zechariah 6:10-15. 26. Souls are held guilty of Babylon's sins if remain part of her--Jeremiah 51:6. 27. Souls are lost if they remain part of Babylon--Jeremiah 51:6. 28. Takes about three years to try and defile and corrupt God's people with Babylonian meat and wine--Dan 1:5, 8. 29. The blood of all God's servants is found within Babylon--Revelation 18:24, 19:2. 30. The least (weakest) of God's flock brings Babylon down--Jeremiah 50:45. 31. There were three different attacks against church until it was completely conquered--Jeremiah 52:28-30. 32. Those who separate to rebuild God's church are supported with freewill gifts--Ezra 7:15-17. 33. Three parts make up Babylon the great--Revelation 16:19. 34. When Babylon captures church only a poor remnant left--Jeremiah 52:16. 35. When Babylon captures church she breaks down all her walls--Jeremiah 52:14. 36. When Babylon captures church she breaks down all the great pillars supporting it--Jeremiah 52:17, 20-23. 37. When Babylon captures church she burns it with fire--Jeremiah 52:13. 38. When Babylon captures church she takes away all the precious vessels (truths)--Jeremiah 52:18-19. 39. When church becomes part of Babylon, blindness occurs (eyes put out) and cannot really see that church and membership are indeed part of Babylon--Jeremiah 39:7; Ezekiel 12:13. 40. When church becomes part of Babylon, her members become lost sheep--Jeremiah 50:6. 41. When God calls for His people to separate from Babylon, it is a new beginning (1st day of 1st month)--Ezra 7:9. Above data was compiled by... Let There Be Light Ministries (See this page... http://www.lightministries.com/id292.htm )