3: ENTER THE PATRIARCHS
We are not totally aware of what Satan knew and didn't know, and how he planned his counter-attack on the design of God. But if God revealed to Adam that the "seed of a woman" will bruise the "head of the serpent" (Genesis 3:14-15), is there any doubt that Satan has a grasp of the horrible possibilities of his future?
Rather than despair, though, he decides to use these eventualities for his own purposes. Anticipating the things God will do, it seems that he creates a similar system of things to deceive those who will only seek God with half a heart, or not at all.
So, as a prostitute, "Babylon" offers a measure of satisfaction, for an affordable price.
Looking very much like the One with Whom he had spent ages watching up close, he begins to reveal a series of "mysteries" to the not-so-bright earthlings. He is still "revealing" such nonsense in our day, to a none-the-brighter populace.
Knowing there is to come a "seed," and guessing, or perhaps also knowing, that the Divine will be involved, he creates, several times over, replicas, previews, of this event.
You will remember that he has already "missed it" by killing Abel. It is quite possible he really has no idea as to the "Seed's" true identity. So he spreads through these mysteries the confusion he is experiencing?
Around these "mysteries" grow others, and yet others, different in every land, yet always recognizable as Babylon. Also recognizable, by the discerning, as having been deliberately forged by an expert counterfeiter.
For example, Nimrod, according to Hislop in his research called Two Babylons, is attached to one Semiaramis. Ovid, a Roman poet, contemporary with Jesus, says that Semiaramis was the first queen of Babylon, and surrounded the city with a wall of bricks. (Vol. ii,Metam., lib. iv, Fab.Pyramus and Thisbe)
Nimrod is a mighty man of the earth, a political figure, if you will. His wife is both beautiful and powerful. What better people to be raised to the level of gods? (Genesis 10)
And when they have a son! The seed of woman is now on the earth, implies Satan. Is he outrightly lying here, or does he really not know?
Whether deceived or deceiving or both, Satan begins here the outright perversion of the make-up of the Heavenly family. Since on earth we often think of distant father, looming mother, and little son, it is implied throughout Babylonian history , into our own day, that God the Father is unapproachable, that there is essentially a God "the Mother", and that she is the way to the Son-God.
The truth of course is that the only female that participates in heavenly things is the wife of The Lord God, identified as the people Israel by the prophets, and the Bride of Christ, known as the Church. The Son looms so far over the Mother in the Biblical story as to be not worthy of mention. (This we will document later, however.) And the way to God the Father has been made accessible by God the Son, Christ Jesus. It is of utmost importance that all who would understand the difference between Satanic and God-given revelation recognize these critical distinctions.
Knowing, perhaps, how people worship their memories more than realities, Satan arranges for an early death for Nimrod. Then he begins to spread, through his channels, the word that Tammuz, their son, is actually Nimrod reincarnated!
One of Satan's messengers is Semiaramis herself, who further announces that her deceased partner (now offspring) is the god of the sun.
Lies, big enough, told often enough, can finally be passed off as truths. Hitler didn't think that one up.
In time, Semiaramis also dies, and is accepted as a goddess. Later, the story circulates about how her son rescued his mother from the infernal powers in hell, and carried her with him in triumph to heaven. With this story we see the clever weaving of Satan's own threads into the story. Not only is he going to copy the True; he also adds the false, the absolute fantasy, to cloud even further the thinking of would-be servants of God.
c. 2000 B.C.
For hundreds of years, Babylon and old Babylonia continue to grow. Political and spiritual powers rise together, inseparable, as Babylonian politics and religion will ever be, seemingly unnoticed and unhindered by a holy God who has already destroyed a world for seemingly much less offense.
The major Biblical event of these early Babylonian (Chaldean) days is the call and promise of God to a man living in the midst of all this idolatry: Abram, later Abraham. (Genesis 12)
Through God's own way of communicating, He convinces Abraham's family to travel west, to present day Israel. Here is the first indication that God's people will forever be called out of Babylon.
Then, much is made of a son to be born (Isaac), then another (Jacob, who is sent back to "Babylon", then called out again, Genesis 28-32), then a family (Israel).We meet Joseph (Genesis 37-50), who is forced into the Egyptian version of Babylon's mysteries, but who ultimately is aware that he must come out with the Israelites (Genesis 50:25). And even during his involvement with paganism, notice the provision he makes for God's people to be separate within Egypt. (Genesis 47:6)
Then there is Moses, whose exodus is the classic example of God's people being separated from this present evil world.(Exodus 1-20)
Slow, prodding work this, for such an all-powerful God, while the world marches on to destruction under the guidance of Satan and the prostitute.
Is this all you will do, God? Can you not stop this madness more quickly? Don't you see what's happening? God's reply, of course, is that He knows perfectly well what He is doing, how long it will take, who will be used. His ways are simply not ours.
4: THE SYSTEM DEVELOPS
The father, the son, the mother-wife are the beginning of Satan's duplications of God's plans. As indicated above, early on he introduces also the idea that, since the father is so awesome and unapproachable, the mother and her baby ought to be the prominent features of worship. From this concept flow more of the system of mysteries:
• the deification of the child
• various magic tricks
• total control by a group of men called "priests" who alone will be initiated into the fullness of the mysteries
• a time of confessing of faults, where the ordinary people will tell their wrongs to the priests. Thus will be created total manipulation by one group over another
• the blood of a divinity needed for atonement
• eventually, an overshadowing of the son by the mother
• sensual perversions in worship
• long processions of worshipers bowing down to statues
• clothing and crowning of statues
• the worship of "relics": pieces of hair, bones, or personal belongings of the "gods"
• a string of beads used to recite prayers
• special feast days tied in with the gods (for example, the "birth of the sun" each year is around the end of December. Both the sun and the son [Tammuz] are honored the same day!)
• and of course, a special "lady day" to honor Semiaramis
• and, to announce the birth of the coming son, an annunciation festival on March 25 (which just happens to be nine months before December 25!)
• mother-and-child statue worship
• crying statues
• weird "happenings" of various "holy ones"
• the presence of obelisks, temples, towers
We will cover some of these items in detail later. They can be further researched in Hislop (see above) and in Woodrow's Babylon, Mystery Religion.
Now, Bible students will recognize portions of this list as some of the very essentials of the Christian faith! But in the same list is introduced a series of beliefs and practices that have their origins in none other than the mind of the beautiful (but fallen) angel.
Are you listening? Thousands of years before the institution in Rome that would be made in Babylon's image, and far from the Divine record given us in Holy Scriptures, thus far from the mind of Almighty God, there existed many of the items on this Babylonian agenda, the grand mixture of the ages!
Perhaps even now the Spirit of God is striving in your heart, telling you to consider well your attachment to what you have valued in the area of religion. But we must continue.
As to the gods' names (borrowed from Hays' In the Beginnings and others): In early Babylonian culture, Anu is the god of the sky, Enlil god of the earth, and Enki god of the waters (also known as Ea.) These three, of equal rank, are joined by a second triad: The sun (Utu or Shamash), the moon (Nanna or Sin), and the planet Venus (Inanna or Ishtar, whence our holiday "Easter.")
Now this Ishtar, who becomes the goddess of love and fertility, descends to the underworld and returns each year, coinciding with the yearly renewal of agricultural life. Dumuzi, later called Tammuz, her husband/son, stays in the underworld, a substitute for her.
Slowly one named Marduk, who as we pointed out, is probably the Biblical Nimrod, deified, replaces the earth god Enlil; his worship is centered at Eridu, believed then to be the starting place of humanity.
By 2000 B.C. Abraham's contemporary Hammurabi, great ruler of ancient Babylonia, makes Marduk his chief god, based on the handed-down tradition that he (Marduk) has overcome the forces of evil.
5: TO ASSYRIA
c. 900 B.C.
Through the original Babylon's years, men of God come and go, kingdoms rise and fall. But Babylonian worship covers the old world. Satan's Kingdom is firmly entrenched on the planet. And it is recognizable in any generation , not only by the items listed above, but by the following clear markings: (borrowed from Saggs, op.cit.)
1) Polytheism. 4000 gods are known by name! Ritualistic prayers are formulated to address many of them. (As prayers to "saints" in our day.)
2) Animism/Pantheism. The deification of nature, the worship through inanimate objects (statues etc.).
3) Superstition. The invoking of certain formulas, amulets, names, to cast out demons. Even the suggestion that there are "good" demons, "good" witches, astrology, omens, etc.
4) Immorality /Amorality. The whims of the gods, not unchanging standards of righteousness, are the norm.
5) Slow methodic initiation to the mysteries. (As in catechism today).
The Bible difference is obvious to true believers: We serve, worship, and pray to one God, through His Son , Jesus Christ. No images are raised to Him. His unequal but real enemy is Lucifer, who has no power in our lives not granted to him. The unchanging words of Scripture guide us in every generation. And we can go from darkness to light in a moment's time by the process of regeneration.
Strange things are happening behind the scenes, attempting to do damage to the patient work of God unfolding during this time. We assume Satan fears any sign that his temporal-spiritual power might be threatened. Esau's challenge to Jacob (Genesis 27), the mixing of the blood line leading to Messiah with a Moabite and a prostitute(Joshua 2:1, Matthew 1:5,Ruth 1-4)...none of these things stop the true Seed that God intends to bring into the world.
The flood of prophecies that surround King David incite some of Satan's most obvious efforts, as he tries to nail David to a wall through King Saul's spear. But God's workings, still relatively small by our thinking, go on. David is in fact promised an Ancestor Who will sit on his throne, and rule all. (I Samuel 18, 19; II Samuel 7:1-17)
The enemy is still undaunted.
Babylonia's first phase comes to a low ebb around 900 B.C., and the ever-present Assyria, led by Shalmaneser, overcomes the city of Babylon in 858.
Now, though we follow a chronological one-after-the-other domination of the world by various powers, there is great overlapping both geographically and in time. Babylonia and Assyria cover much of the same territory, and their ancestries, as we have seen, both point to Nimrod. (Genesis 10)
Not only that. Persia, Greece, and even Rome, who will in turn take the baton of paganism, can trace their histories well into this Babylonian/Assyrian epoch. With trade and travel, war, and other connections of ancient peoples, there is no mystery about why all of them come up with the same religious patterns.
Though the city of Babylon is removed from power around 900 B.C., Babylonian worship continues to control the known world. In Nineveh, the new capital, for example, the Sumerian Inanna is worshipped as Ishtar. She, (according to Saggs, op. cit., p. 334)
"was worshipped in most periods and places, from at least protoliterate times in Erech [built by Nimrod] down to the century before the Christian era in Babylon."
Saggs quotes a Sumerian religious text which says,
"Ishtar is the lady of lands...she fixes destiny...the gods assemble before her...my lady pronounces the judgment of the land in their presence..."
He continues:
"As with Our Lady in the Catholic Church [he here rushes to explain that no suggestion is made that the parallel extends further. I hope to show later that it does indeed...] Ishtar existed under many local manifestations, felt by worshippers to be in some way distinct, so that one finds Ishtar of Nineveh, Ishtar of Arbela, etc...She was highly honored outside her homeland amongst the Hurrians and the Hittites...sent as far afield as Egypt, for the benefit of the Pharaoh."
Saggs further indicates that she was both goddess of war and of sexual love, that is, the beginning and ending of life. She also revealed herself to man as the Morning Star and the Evening Star (the planet Venus).
In the light of the "manifestations" of the "queen of heaven" in our day, we must pause to consider seriously whether the ancient religionists just made all this up, or whether there is indeed a spirit among us who continues to deceive. As the evidence against Babylon piles up, the answer to this question should become clearer.
While we speak of Ishtar, we must consider deeper this prominent feature of Babylonian ways. Today we call it the "cult of the virgin, " and seem to feel it is an end-time phenomenon. Not so, says E.O. James in The Ancient Gods, p.77ff:
"although the hierarchy of higher gods who reigned in heavenly splendors in the celestial realms and sent down rain to nourish the earth...were conceived...as 'glorified non-natural men,' it was...the life-producing mother who was the dominant figure in ancient Near Eastern religion...(when) the function of the male...became more apparent and vital,...the mother-goddess then was assigned a spouse to play his role as the begetter...From India to the Mediterranean...she reigned supreme, often appearing as the unmarried goddess...When the birth cult was brought into relation with the season cycle and its vegetation ritual...the Earth-goddess was conceived as the generative power in nature as a whole...she assumed the form of a many-sided goddess, both mother and bride..."
Saggs gives us one of many prayers to "our lady" :
"O heroic one, Ishtar; the immaculate one of the goddesses, torch of heaven and earth, radiance of the continents, the goddess 'Lady of Heaven'...O Ishtar, you are (the supreme god) you rule the heavens...how good it is to pray to you, how blessed to be heard by you!...have pity on me, O Ishtar..."
I think I've heard something like that before.
Marduk is now Asshur, as in the name Assyria. Marduk/Asshur is known as "the Lord" or "Bel", as in Isaiah 46:1. And his son is Nabu, mentioned also by Isaiah as Nebo.
Woodrow, (op. cit., p. 21), mentions that it is perhaps in Nineveh that we first find the rosary, the ancient string of prayer beads used to this day by Babylonian religions around the world. On a sculpture of that ancient town, one can see two winged females each holding a rosary.
It is not surprising then to see such devices used by Mohammedans, Buddhists, Phoenicians, Brahmans, Vishnu worshippers, etc. And in the light of Babylonian emphasis on the virgin, it is likewise not a shock to hear that Catholic rosaries are constructed around a 10-to-1 ratio of prayer to Mary over against prayers to the Father God.
So, the Assyrian culture assimilates the new religion. Or does the old religion assimilate the new culture? Yes, in both cases. He that is joined to a harlot is one with her, says God and common knowledge. This joining of religion with culture (today we call it "church and state") will be another defining thread of Babylon.
In years to come, "all things to all men" will be the slogan, syncretism the philosophy. Not as the later apostle to the Gentiles will live it, a humbling of his nature to bring persons to God, but an actual chameleon-like blending designed to hide one's true character and thus avoid detection and rejection. A mind-set of "helping God" by making religion digestable, fashionable, popular.
Here we must exit Nineveh, capital of Assyria, Satan's new seat. Nineveh becomes the "Babylon" of earth, and merits the same condemnation from God as Babylon receives. You will find a piece of those feelings in Nahum 3:1-7. Satan must move again, though he is never really far from Babel.
6: BACK TO BABYLON.
721 B.C.
The stunning defeat of Assyria's might by Israel's mightier God is chronicled for us in Scripture (II Kings 18:9-19:37), but her victory over Israel is recorded also. The history of the ten tribes who gave in to Satan's worship is ended. (II Kings 18:9-12)
We can say that God ordered this "solution" to the "Jewish problem." Or we can say that Assyria was anti-Semitic. But in any case, this lust for Jewish blood will continue as a signal of false religion in the world. Christian blood will be added to the menu at a later date.
Let's stop a moment and listen to two of God's messengers in this time period, named Isaiah (early 700's B.C.) and Jeremiah (early 600's B.C.). God gives them some insights about Babylon's future that will be critical to our understanding of the subject. Turn to Isaiah 13...
As you can see, the context of this chapter on Babylon's demise is the judgment of the last days, still future even today! And Isaiah says that Babylon will never be inhabited again following its final judgment!
Now I must refer you to a work by Charles Dyer called The Rise of Babylon, in which he documents that, though Babylon, the ancient city, that is, fell onto hard times, it never totally vanished, it never fulfilled Isaiah's words perfectly. He tells the details, also, of the current rise of the city of Babylon! [per 1992]
Now examine Isaiah 14 with me...
Did you know that not all of the proverbs were recorded in the book by that name? Here is one given by the Holy Spirit to the prophet Isaiah, regarding the "king of Babylon," in verses 4 through 27. If you read very closely, you will see that the terms "King of Babylon," "Lucifer," and "The Assyrian," seem to refer to the same person.
The king of Babylon is called the "ruler of the nations," and is condemned to hell. In the same breath Lucifer is said to be fallen from heaven after weakening the nations and exalting himself to Divinity! Apostles John and Paul would call him the antichrist! But then the two are seen as one, Satan and the king of Babylon being "the man who made the earth tremble."
Babylon's doom is foretold again, and then the term "Assyrian" is introduced, seeming to refer to the same person, the one who has "oppressed the whole earth." He too is condemned.
(For a further examination of this concept see Goodman's Assyrian Connection)
Then there is Isaiah 21...
What a fascinating prophecy is in this short chapter. One cannot help but see Revelation 17 and 18 in these words. In verse one, we are taken to a wilderness (Revelation 17:3) by the sea (Revelation 17:1), and in verse 9 we are informed that Babylon is fallen, is fallen.
Have you ever wondered why "is fallen" is repeated? Are there two destructions of "Babylon" coming?
Isaiah 47 tells of a sudden judgment "in one day," which Babylon has not yet received. but it is prophesied again in Revelation, this quick end. And 48:20 warns those not involved in God's wrath to flee, as in Revelation 18:4.
Next, Jeremiah. Chapters 50-52 are given over to specific judgments of Babylon. Some may argue that portions of these prophecies are fulfilled. But there is no question that other portions are not.
Note 50:4,5. The context again seems to be the end times! 50:13 claims total and permanent desolation. This has not happened. 50:40 compares her judgment to that of Sodom and Gomorrah (think of it, sudden, permanent). Try to find Sodom and Gomorrah today! 50:41 says her judgment is to come about by many kings raised up from the ends of the earth!
51:7 is a vital verse for us, and I have alluded to it already. Babylon is here called a cup (as in Revelation 17:4) in the Lord's hand, being poured out to contaminate the entire earth, to make it senselessly drunk and worthy of the judgment that will come.
51:8 speaks again of a sudden falling of Babylon. 51:13 says Babylon is by many waters (as does the Holy Spirit in Revelation 17:1,5). 51:25 calls Babylon a "mountain" (kingdom) that destroys the earth, but that is doomed to such failure that not one stone will be used to build other cities. In fact, the fallen rocks of old Babylon have been used extensively in other building projects. God cannot lie. This prophecy has not been fulfilled!
51:64 says plainly that Babylon will sink and not rise. Not only is old Babylon coming back to life in this very day (more later on this), but God repeats this very promise in Revelation 18:21.
This mystery called Babylon may be more than you have ever realized.
586 B.C.
Babylonia, soon to be revived as neo-Babylonia, is likewise decidedly against the descendants of Abraham, and captures what Assyria leaves (Judah). (II Kings 24-25)
The reader of Scripture is faced regularly with what seems to be this contradiction of Divine vs. human workings. Pharaoh is putty in the hands of God, then hardened by Him, then punished for doing the very thing God wants Him to do. So with Babylonian and Assyrian rulers and their descendants to this present day. Though one may be used of God to fulfill some destiny God has put in his hands, let him know that to touch Israel -or the church - is still to touch the apple of God's eye (Zechariah 2:8); to be against Israel is to invite certain destruction upon oneself and one's nation. (Genesis 12:3)
May our hearts never be hardened enough to come against that which God loves.
The switch from Babylonia to Assyria to Babylonia again is all taken in stride by the harlot religion, who is equally satisfied to ride one or the other to power. Harlots cannot complain if the bills are being paid. And in Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon, next headquarters for the "mysteries," there is plenty of money and the resultant power that Satan needs to broadcast his political and religious views.
Babylon's surroundings are considered to be among the greatest wonders the world has ever known. Built not far from the original site of Eden, Satan uses this city to counterfeit God's might with a tower, and God's Throne Room with the great Temple of Marduk, a.k.a. Bel.
Nebuchadnezzar himself: one of the greatest rulers of all history, abounding in genius, and a man saturated with the mysteries, to the point of even being open to the voice of Daniel's God.
An insight into the religiosity of the age is given to us by the author of A History of the Ancient World:
"the assertion of a contemporary tablet is that 'there are altogether 53 temples of the great gods, 55 shrines for celestial divinities, 180 altars to the goddess Ishtar, 180 to the gods Nergal and Addad, and 12 other altars to various deities.' "
After Nebuchadnezzar, Nabonidus disagrees with the Marduk priesthood and builds a temple to the moon god, Sin. In 450 B.C., the Greek writer Herodotus visits Babylon, after its Persian take-over. He makes reference to Bel, the Babylonian Zeus, and that the Royal Palace had been built in antiquity by Semiaramis.
The temple of Marduk which he witnesses is described as having 12 gates, the principal one being at the eastern wall. Notice how closely Satan parallels information found in Ezekiel 41 ff and Revelation 21, both of which describe God's true temple.
But in spite of it all, Satan's plan goes into ruins as Babylon sinks farther and farther into the abyss of history, falling to Persia, to Greece, and worst of all, to time.
Let me trace the final days of Babylon before we go back and pick up the chronological thread. Here we follow the research of James MacQueen in his Babylon.
Alexander the Great has plans to rebuild Babylon, and to equate himself with its former grandeur, even as modern men have tried to re-create the Roman greatness.
Syrian kings rule the city by 300 B.C. Wrecked by wars, Babylon must be rebuilt 40 miles to the north by Seleucus. In 275, Antiochus I, successor and son of Seleucus, continues building Marduk's temple on the original site. Interestingly enough, he chooses to refer to himself as the "King of Babylon."
Though the city is desolate except for the temple, the loyal priests of Marduk continue their devotion, while other later rulers likewise retain the title.
Timarchus of Miletus (B.C. 164), Antiochus VII (B.C. 130), Hyspaursines (B.C. 127), and Himerus (B.C. 122), whose Parthian countrymen once more destroy the city, all are "King of Babylon."
Quoting Dyer, op.cit., pp.126-127:
"...large sections of Babylon were no longer inhabited. Babylon still existed, but the city was only a shell of its former glory. Josephus provides an interesting piece of information about Babylon in the century before Christ. In 40 B.C., the Parthians extended their empire west to Syria and joined forces with elements in Judah who were trying to remove from power Hyrcanus, the pro-Roman Jewish high priest. Hyrcanus was captured, mutilated, and deported to Parthia. Josephus records that the king of Parthia later treated Hyrcanus kindly and 'set him free from his bonds, and gave him a habitation at Babylon, where there were Jews in great numbers.' "
Yes, there was a Babylon even in the Christian era, and a Marduk Temple. Finally, by the second century, the city is in ruins. Again, Dyer, p. 128:
"...when Trajan visited Babylon in A.D. 116 he saw nothing but 'mounds and stones and ruins.' But Pausanius wrote that the temple of Bel (Marduk) and the walls were still standing, though most of the city was abandoned...One traveler who visited Babylon during the Middle Ages was a Jew known as Benjamin of Tudela. He journeyed through the region in the twelfth century and then wrote an account of his travels. Benjamin made two important observations: first, he reported that ten thousand Jews lived in the village of Al Hillah six miles from Babylon; second, he noted that the Jews had an active 'Synagogue of Daniel' in Babylon one mile from the ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's temple, probably the temple of Marduk."
As old Babylon retreats, awaiting its judgment, a modern counterpart rises and plants itself on seven hills in Italy. For 2000 years men of discernment will see Babylon only in her. But I ask such readers to step back to the days of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, there to see the whole picture which the Bible unfolds. We will continue this discussion when dealing with John's prophecies.
Have you noticed through all of this that Satan cares not one whit that people believe in "God," as long as those people are not so narrow as to say that He is the only God, or that this God has a Son named Jesus, and that only through the blood of this Son can be found salvation? But "believe in God"? Go for it! Satan hates atheism as much as Christians do! He desires the praises of earth's people himself , and wants to be the god of this world. If the world becomes atheistic, it won't believe in Satan.
That puts the fall of communism [such as it was, 1992] in a different light. As thankful as we might be for it, the new stress on freedom of religion gives Satan an open door too.
