Satan's Great Counterfeit

(Part One)

Adam Obeyed Satan and Became His Servant

Satan is a "DECEIVER of the whole world" (Rev. 12:9). Adam and Eve OBEYED Satan in the Garden of Eden and thereby became his servants. "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to OBEY, his servants ye are to whom ye OBEY, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness" (Rom. 6:16). It is in memory of Adam's TURNING ASIDE from the right way that the pagan priests of Baal supplicated their god to hear them (1 Ki. 18:26) by LIMPING (turning aside) at the altar, for LIMPING (turning aside) is the exact meaning of the Hebrew word rendered "leaped". We must "Prove all things: Hold fast that which is good" (1 Th. 5:21).

The Pagan Gods Were Merely Deified Mortal Men -- Ancestor Worship -- As "Men Began to Profane God's Name" (Gen. 4:26) (c. 3725 BC)

Genesis 4:26 is mistranslated in the KJV. It says "then began men to call upon the name of the Lord." Yet we know Seth "was a virtuous man" (Jos. Ant. 1:71) and Abel was murdered for his righteous piety (Gen. 4:4) before this time. The verse should read, "then men began to profane God's name" or "to call themselves by the name of the Lord." The word halal denotes also to profane as in Leviticus 19:12. How? Perhaps sun worship or ancestor worship.

Hesiod says that "the gods were the souls of MEN who were afterwards worshipped by their posterity, on account of their extraordinary virtues" (Hesiod, Opera et Dies 1:120-125). Hermes Trismegistus asserts that "Aesculapius, Osiris and Thoth were all holy MEN, whose souls were worshipped after their death by the Egyptians" (Herm. Apud. Mede's Apost. of Later Times 1:4). The Egyptian priests expressly taught "that Cronus, Osiris, Horus, and all their other principal deities were once mere MEN, but that after they died their souls migrated into some one or other of the heavenly bodies, and became the animating spirits of their new celestial mansions" (Plutarch De Iside, p.354). Diodorus Siculus says that "Osiris, Vulcan, and other cognate deities were all originally SOVEREIGNS of the people by whom they were venerated" (Diodorus, Bibl., book 1, pp.13-15). Herodotus also relates that the Egyptian priests admitted that their gods had once been KINGS of Egypt and that the last God king was Horus, the son of Osiris, who had deposed Typhon (Herod. 2:144).

Seth became THOTH, born of the forehead of SET, whom all tradition says invented astronomy and discovered the Sothaic astronomical period of "600 years" for the return of the celestial orbs to their same places (Josephus 1:2-3). Noah became URANUS. Tubal-Cain, the metal-smith, became VULCAN, the god of the forge (Gen. 4:22; Dio. Sic. 5:74). Naamah, his sister, became MINERVA; or NEMESIS (Gen. 4:22) the goddess of retribution and revenge. Jubal, "the father of all such as handle the harp and organ" (Gen. 4:21) became APOLLO, the god of music. Enoch became ATLAS who invented astrology (p.375, Eusebius Prep. For Gospel). Japheth, son of Noah (Gen. 6:10) became JAPETUS, one of the Titans; or JUPITER, father and king of the gods. Ham, the son of Noah (Gen. 6:10) became CRONUS; or AMUN, the god of Ethiopia, Egypt and Libya. In Egyptian mythology, Ham's son Phut (Gen. 10:6) became PTAH or PHTHA, god of craftsmen and architects (called PYTHIAS in Greek). Misor (Mizraim) is Sanchoniatho's ISIRIS (OSIRIS) since brother of Chna, the first Phoenician (Ancient Fragments, p.9 by Cory) who was known also as ZEUS (p.109, Eusebius, Prep. For Gospel). Mizraim's son called Naphtuhim (Gen. 10:13) became NEPTUNE, god of the sea. Nimrod became MARDUK, the god of Babylon. Asshur became THOR, the hammer-wielding god associated with thunder storms. Javan is JANUS the ancestor of the Greeks. Raamah, son of Cush (Gen. 10:7) became the Hindu god RAMA. Etcetera. "The reputation of a man is like his shadow; it sometimes follows and sometimes precedes him; it is sometimes longer and sometimes shorter, than his actual size." -- French proverb

Ten Antediluvian "Kings" Were Corrupted By Fallen Angels and Cannibalistic Giants Starting in 3500 BC

There were TEN generations from Adam to Noah (Gen. 5:1-32). Sanchoniathon, though he makes no mention of the Flood, enumerates TEN generations (p.41, Cumberland). "In Chaldea Berosus (also Polyhistor and Abydenus) enumerates TEN antediluvian kings (from Alorus [Adam] to Xisusthrus [Noah]). The legends of the Iranian race commence with the reign of 'TEN Peisdadien kings, men of ancient law, who lived on pure homa (water of life), who preserved their sanctity.' In India we meet with the nine Brahmadikas who, with Brahma, their founder, make TEN, and who are called the TEN Petris or Fathers. The Chinese count TEN emperors, partakers of the divine nature, before the dawn of historical times; and finally the Germans and Scandinavians believed in the TEN ancestors of Odin, and the Arabs in the TEN mythical kings of the Adites, the primordial people of their peninsula." (Lenormant, Ancient History of the East, vol. 1 pp.12-13)

Rebellious angels ("sons of God" -- Job 1:6; 38:7; Ps. 82:6) DISROBED (oiketerion) from their heavenly bodies. This term is used only twice in the Bible (2 Cor. 5:2 & Jude 1:6). "And the angels who kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day" (Jude 1:6). "These angels then assumed human form (Gen. 19, Mark 16:5, etc.) and appeared as males when they DESCENDED (Heb. "Jared" means "descend") in 3500 BC. Then they had sexual relations with human women in Genesis 6:1-4. The children from these unions were giants. Jude 14-15 quotes 1 Enoch 1:9 which says, "Behold, he comes with ten thousand saints". But more than that, Jude 6-7 and 2 Peter 2:4 allude to the SEXUAL LUST of fallen angels for human women paralleling Enoch who says: "And when the angels, the sons of heaven, beheld them, they became enamored of them, saying to each other, Come, let us select for ourselves wives from the progeny of men, and let us beget children” (1 Enoch 7:2). The resulting children are called nephilim in Hebrew (fallen ones) or gigantes (giants) in Latin and Greek. "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah ... GOING AFTER STRANGE FLESH" (Jude 7). Evil angels before the Flood left their proper abode (i.e. heaven) and came to Earth and had children by human women. For this reason, these particular angels have now been bound in Hell ("Tartarus" -- used by Enoch and 2 Peter 2:4). The resulting children became the Nephilim – a cross between angels and the human species. They were the mighty TYRANTS of "the world that then was." The mixing between fallen angels and women was so extensive that by the time of the Flood only Noah (Gen. 6:9) was found to be "perfect in his generations" (i.e. PUREBRED IN HIS ANCESTRY). "All flesh" had "corrupted" its physical genetics (Gen. 6:12). These angels taught humans "potions and spells" (SORCERY), "to make swords and armour" (WAR), "COSMETICS" and jewelry (LUST), "ASTROLOGY", "DIVINATION" and "LEWDNESS" and after this, "the giants began to devour the flesh of men" (CANNIBALISM) (Synkellos Chronography 1:12-13, 25). The birth of the giants, according to 1 Enoch, is the reason for Noah's Flood -- to destroy the angel-human HYBRIDS. Greek "mythology" records that the Titans were a threat to the rule of Zeus and so Kronos and many Titans were banished to Tartarus. The Titans were the antediluvian Nephilim.

Cush Caused Chaos at the Tower of Babel -- He Bred Giants and Practised Cannibalism -- Resulting in Confusion of Tongues

Evechous (Cush) was the first Chaldean king after the deluge (Syncellus, p.90). Saturn (Cronus or Cush) is said to have obtained the kingdom of Coelus or Ouranos (Noah's world empire), by the consent of his brother Titan (Shem or Set), on the condition that he did not bring up any more male children, and that, in order to conceal them, he DEVOURED them as soon as they were born. We know that it was the universal custom for the priests to EAT the sacrifices. "Are not they who EAT of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?" (1 Cor. 9:12-13; 10:18). In order to saftisfy his demon gods, and probably in obedience to their teaching, he offered his sons in sacrifice to them, and since he was the sacrificing priest, ATE the sacrifice thus offered. HUMAN SACRIFICE and CANNIBALISM originated with Cush (p.37, Sanchoniathon) and spread to the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Hindus, Mexicans and Celtic nations. The author of Nimrod says, "The tyrant Zoroaster (Nimrod), of the line of Cham (Ham), was one of the founders of the Tower of Babel; he sacrificed innumerable victims to the demons" (Nimrod, vol.1, p.146). Therefore we find that the sacrifice of the FIRSTBORN to the Sun-god Osiris (Nimrod) was one of the most notorious of the Egyptian rites (Transactions Victoria Institute, vol.14, p.113). Baal and Moloch were other names for Nimrod. The Greek story of Saturn devouring his CHILDREN goes on to say that Rhea (Naamah), the wife of Saturn (Cush), in order to save her CHILD, gave him a stone instead of Jupiter (Nimrod), when he was born. Jupiter, like Osiris, was the son of Saturn. Since babies were first killed, then burned, it was not difficult to deceive the father. She presented Cush with a stone bound in swaddling bands to represent a CHILD. (Hesiod Theogonia, lines 485, etc. pp.,38,41). When Shem discovered the birth of Nimrod, he made war against Nimrod and overpowered him (Lempriere, Titan). Cush lost his kingdom and escaped to Latium, Italy 

The first two kings of the Egyptian monarchy, Menes "the Thebanite" (in south Egypt near Ethiopia) (Cush or Mizraim) and Athoth (Nimrod), were also the first two kings of Babylon, and founders of a great Cushite Empire. They began a dynasty of Theban kings (p.81, Sanchoniathon). Menes (Cush or Mizraim) was worshipped as a god called Meon (Nu. 32:38; 1 Chr. 5:8; Ez. 25:9; Jer. 48:23). Meon was the first king of Lydia and Phrygia (Diodorus; p.468, Sanchoniathon). Manes was the founder of the Lydian monarchy (Herodotus, p.45). Minos was the first king of Crete also. Every nine years he made king Aegeus pick seven young boys and seven young girls to be sent to the labyrinth to be EATEN by the Minotaur. All these "Menes" were the same person (p.471, Sanchoniathon). Cush was also known as Belus, Hermes, Cronus, Seb, Saturn and Janus. Berosus calls the founder of the first dynasty of Chaldea Evechous (man of Cush -- p. 349, Lenormant). Nimrod was known as Ninus, Osiris, Tammuz, Bel Merodach, Marduk, Bacchus and Mars. According to Herodotus, "The priests said that Menes was the first king of Egypt" (Hist. 2:99). According to Syncellus, "The first king (of Egypt) was Mestraim, also known as Menes" (p.127, Chronography). Diodorus and Eupolemus also call Misraim by the name Menes. Josephus calls the first Pharaoh, the founder of Memphis, Minaeus. The Turks call Memphis by the Hebrew name Mitzir rather than to the Greek Menephis (p.452, Sanchoniathon) (see also Herodotus 2:99). There is a passage of Eupolemus which states that Belus or Cronus (derived from the root Keren, a horn, his Phoenician title) was the father of Canaan, Misr, Cous (or Chum) and of another son (Praep. Evang. 9:17 p.419), who must have been Phut who succeeded to the Chaldean office with the title of Belus (or Baal meaning lord, his Chaldean title) after his father died. But Ham was the first Belus or Cronus. Eusebius well says, "It must be confessed the ancient writers have very much confounded these ancient names with one another." 

But this empire was overthrown. Manetho wrote, "There was a king of ours whose name was Timaus (Tammuz -- Cumberland's Sanchoniathon, p. 359-360). Under him it came to pass, I know not how, that God was averse to us, and there came in a surprising manner men of ignoble birth out of the eastern parts, and had boldness enough to make an expedition into our country, and with ease subdued it by force, yet without our hazarding a battle with them. (This parallels the overthrow of Osiris by Typhon, who overcame him "not by force or open war" -- Wilkinson's Egyptians 4:330-332) So when they had gotten those who governed us (Tammuz and his father) under their power, they afterwards burned down our cities and demolished the temples of the (false) gods (cp. Num. 33:52; Deut. 7:5, 25-26), and used all the inhabitants in a most barbarous manner, nay, some they slew and led their children and wives into slavery. The whole nation was called Hyksos, that is, Shepherd Kings" (Manetho, from Josephus, Contr. Apion 1:14-15) whose domination is said to have lasted 518 years (Against Apion 1:14-15) from Shem who was the first Shepherd king till Apophis who was the last. "The king Apepi (Apophis) chose the god Sutekh (Set or Shem) as his Lord, and did not serve any other god in the whole land" and also commanded a vassal king to repudiate his gods (Sallier Papyrus in Br. Museum). Thus Apophis warred against Osiris (Plutarch S.36; Cumberland's Sanchoniathon, p.165). Syncellus says that it was a tradition, "received by the whole world," that Joseph ruled the land in the reign of King Apophis or Apepi" (Brugach, Hist. of Egypt, 1:260). Therefore Apepi (Agag) was being grateful to the God of Joseph and Shem who saved Egypt from famine. Incidentally, the Israelites who later joined these Shepherd Kings in Egypt were also "shepherds" (Gen. 47:3). 

"For many ages men lived under the government of Jove (Jehovah) without cities and without laws, and all speaking one language. But after Mercury (Hermes means "son of Ham" -- Cush) interpreted (divided) the speeches of men, the same individual distributed the nations. Then discord began" (Hyginnius, p. 114). Thus the name of Cush became synonymous with "CONFUSION" -- Chaos. Proof that Cush was also known as Bel can be found in Jeremiah 1:2 where we read, "Bel is confounded" or "CONFUSION is CONFUSED." This father of the gods, also known as Janus, says, "The ancients called me CHAOS." (Ovid, Fasti book 1, verse 104; vol.3 p.19). "CHAOS is CHAOTIC" (Jer. 1:2). 

"There were FALLEN ONES in the earth in those days (before the Flood), and also after that (after the Flood), when the sons of God (the FALLEN ANGELS) came in unto the daughters of men (temple priestesses) and they bare children to them; the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown" (Gen. 6:4). How did this happen? Is there any secular historical confirmation? According to Herodotus, on top of the tower of Belus at Babylon was the temple of Belus (Cush) in which was "a handsome couch and table of gold." "No mortal" he says, "passes the night there, except one woman chosen by the god (FALLEN ANGEL) out of the whole nation. He adds that the priests "assert that the god (FALLEN ANGEL) himself comes to the temple and reclines on the bed in the same manner as the Egyptians say happens at the temple of Thebes in Egypt, for there also a woman lies in the temple of the Theban Jupiter, and both are said to have no intercourse with men." So also he says that the priestess of the oracle at Paterae in Lycia is "shut up during the night in the temple with the god." (FALLEN ANGEL) (Herodotus 1:181-182). The purpose of these tower temples may have been to BREED nephilim GIANTS -- "greater in power and might" (2 Pet. 2:11). "The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day" (Jude 6). They "went after strange flesh" (Jude 6). Greek "mythology" is full of accounts of affairs between gods and mortals. Babel originally meant "Gate of God." Pausanius mentions in his Attics finding men's bones in Milesia that were 15 feet long. Anciently Milesia was called Anactoria after the Anakim (p.477-478, Sanchoniathon).

The resulting CONFUSION produced certain strange races of GIANTS in Palestine, the Rephaim, Enim, Anakium and Zuzim. They were not Canaanites, as there is no mention of them in the geneologies in Genesis 10:15-19. They were the result of intercourse between fallen angels and women of Canaan. They were irredeemably evil since "the man that wanders out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the Rephaim" (Pr. 21:16) and the woman "which forsaketh the guide of her youth and forgetteth the covenant of her God, inclineth to the Rephaim" (Pr. 2:17-18). Spiritually dead. "The Rephaim shall not rise" (Isa. 26:14). The KJV doesn't do justice to these verses. Look in a Hebrew-English Interlinear. 

HUMAN SACRIFICES were offered to Baal and the word "CANNIBAL" is derived from Cahna Bal -- the priest of Bel (Cush). Cush was the originator of HUMAN SACRIFICES. Belus (Cush) was the first king of Babylon and Assyria (Cory's Fragments, pp. 65, 70-71). "The tyrant Zoroaster, of the line of Cham (Ham), was one of the founders of the Tower of Babel; he sacrificed innumerable VICTIMS to the demons" (Nimrod vol.1, p.146). "It was the custom among the ancients in time of great calamity, in order to prevent the ruin of all, for the rulers of the city, or nation, to SACRIFICE to the avenging deities the most beloved of their CHILDREN as the price of redemption" (Sanchoniathon, from Porphyry, Cory, Fragments pp. 16-17). Aristomenes sacrificed 300, one of whom was the Spartan king, to Jupiter. The Carthaginians, when defeated by Agathocles, offered 200 youths to Saturn. 20,000 human victims annually polluted the altars of Mexico. Elian records a happy mother's joy at sight of a divine crocodile devouring her honored child. The Druids offered several human victims inclosed together in a vast statue composed of wicker.

Nimrod (Marduk) Was An Ethiopian Giant and A Tyrant Who Rebelled Against God

Varro reckons the interval between the Flood (2304 BC) and the first Olympiad (776 BC) to be about 1600 years (p.84, Sanchoniathon). Josephus also says that "more than one thousand three hundred years" elapsed from Menes (Cush or Misraim) until Solomon (Ant. 8:6:2). If Solomon was born in 990 BC, then 1300 years before that, brings us to 2290 BC. and Cush or Misraim reigned 62 years making Nimrod's accession about 2228 BC. More precisely, several independent methods of reckoning place the beginning of Nimrod's reign at 2234-2233 B.C. (Garnier's Worship of the Dead, pp. 280-285; see also Pliny NH 7:56 and Rawlinson's Herodotus vol. 1, essay 6, pp.434-435). Callisthenes, a relation and disciple of Aristotle, who accompanied Alexander the Great on his eastern expedition, was told by the priests of the temple of Belus in Babylon, that they had preserved a series of Chaldean astronomical calculations, which extended over a space of 1903 years before that time. Alexander conquered Babylon in 330 BC. These records therefore must have begun 2233 BC. From Ninyas (son of Nimrod and Semiramus) to Sardanapalus, the Assyrian Empire continued 1360 years (Diodorus Siculus 2:77). Since Sardanapalus died in 747 BC, that would place Ninyas reign at 2107 BC. There were in fact two Assyrian Empires: Ninyas to Sardanapalus was the first. It was divided between Arbaces of Media and Belesis of Babylon; and from then till the destruction of Nineveh by Nabopolassar was the second. Diodorus Siculus 1:29 says that after the time of Menes (Misraim) 52 kings reigned a space of over 1400 years (actually 1370 years from Menes to Sesostris according to Sir John Marsham's tables of the Theban Kings) where nothing historically noteworthy occurred. That time period ended with Sesostris or Shishak raiding Jerusalem (2 Chr. 12:9) in the fifth year of Rehoboam (926 BC) since Diodorus says Sesostris performed the most illustrious actions, far exceeding all before him (1:34). For Herodotus says "the other kings, they gave no account of their deeds, nor ... were in any degree of renown, except one, the last of them, Moeris" (2:100-104) -- who constructed a lake. Moeris was the immediate predecessor of Sesostris. Then Herodotus talks in detail about the conquests of Sesostris. Josephus agrees that Sesostris was Shishak (Antiq. 8:4 p.368). 

Syncellus (and Ctesias -- 400 BC) says the reign of Ninus or Nimrod (Athothes) was 52 years. Manetho gives Athothes (Nimrod) a reign of 57 years, and Eratosthenes gives him a reign of 59 years. If we subtract 57 years from 2234 BC we get 2177 BC for Nimrod's death and the accession of Shem as Shepherd king. Scaliger, speaking of the Babylonian kings, says that "Belus reigned sixty-two years, Ninus fifty-two years, and Semiramis, called Rhea, on account of her manifold atrocities, forty-two years" (Cory, Fragments, p.76). In accordance with this, we find in the list of Egyptian kings, that both Manetho and Eratosthenes give Menes, like Belus, a reign of sixty-two years, and Athothes, who must be the same as Ninus, is given a reign of fifty-seven years by Manetho and fifty-nine years by Eratosthenes (Egyptian Dynasties, Cory, pp.84,94). Semiramis was slain, in the forty-second year of her reign, by her son, for courting him in her embraces (Justin 1:1-2).

The Semitic root "marah" (MR) in Hebrew means BITTERNESS as well as DISOBEDIENCE. From this root is derived "marad" (MRD), or REBELLION, which is the original both of Nimrod (the Babylonian Nin-Mir-Rud), or (NMRD), as well as Marduk/Merodach (MRDK). Nimrod (or Marduk) conquered all nations as far as Libya (Bryant, Mythology vol.2, p.377). This means that Egypt was included since it was between Babylon and Libya. Nimrod protected the Sumerians (Miller's Ancient History in Bible Light, p.51) from wild animals by building walled cities (Gen. 11:4). One such city was NINEVEH meaning "the habitation of NIN" (Gen. 10:11). "Ninus is Nimrod" (Appollodoros, Fragments 68). Diodorus and Pompeius also confirm that the biblical Nimrod was Ninus, the first of the kings of Assyria (Babylon included). He also protected the Egyptians by building THEBES. "Osiris having married Isis, in many ways promoted the good of that (Egyptian) kingdom, but especially by building the chief city thereof, called by the Greeks Diospolis (THEBES), but called by the Jews 'Hamon No,' and erected a temple to his parent, whom the Greeks called Zeus and Hera, but the Egyptians Ammon, and the Jews Hamon and HAM" (History of Sanchoniathon, p.99). In the Jerusalem Targum it is said, "he was a hunter of the chidren of men in their languages, and he said unto them, Depart from the religion of Shem, and cleave unto the institutes of Nimrod."

Josephus says, "Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an AFFRONT and CONTEMPT of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, -- a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it was through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into TYRANNY, -- seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a CONSTANT DEPENDENCE upon his power. He also said he would be REVENGED on God, if he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would BUILD a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach! and that he would AVENGE himself on God for destroying their forefathers!" (Ant. 1:4:2)  

Notice EIGHT PARALLELS between Nimrod and Gilgamesh. Just as (1.) Nimrod or Gilgamesh was "11 cubits tall" (16 feet) (tablet 1) -- a "GIANT" (Gen. 10:9 Septuagint), (2.) a "king of URUK" (tablet 1) or Erech (Gen. 10:10), (3.) "two-thirds god and one third man" (tablet 1) (one of the NEPHILIM -- Gen. 6:1-4) (4.) "OPPRESSING his people" (tablet 1) (a tyrant -- Gen. 10:8-9) (5.) by "FORCING men to labor" (tablet 1) on BUILDING projects ("builded" -- Gen. 10:11) and (6.) "RAPING WIVES on their wedding nights" (tablet 1) ("they took them wives of all whom they chose" -- Gen. 6:2). (7.) He HUNTED lions (tablet 9) -- a "mighty hunter" (Gen. 10:9), and (8.) claimed to have VANQUISHED the one who sent the Flood (tablet 5) according to the Epic of Gilgamesh. He was "against the Eternal" (10:9). 

Ninus and Semiramis were the first rulers of the Babylonian Empire (Cory's Fragments p.66). "Ninus is Nimrod" (Appollodoros, Fragments 68). "The wife of Ninus and his successor in the kingdom was Semiramis" (p.431, Eusebius, Prep. For Gospel). He became the HUSBAND of his MOTHER (Bunsen's Egypt vol.1, pp.438-439; Rawlinson's Herodotus vol.1 essay 10, pp. 625,626). Persians say he (Ghemschid - Nimrod) married the daughter of a demon implying Semiramis had a Nephilim father, and that from this marriage sprang "the BLACK and IMPIOUS RACE" (Smith's Dict. of the Bible, "Giants"). Egyptian tradition shows that their god Osiris (Nimrod) was BLACK (Plutarch's De Isid, et. Os. vol.2, p.359), not reddish like the Misraim population generally. He was clothed in LEOPARD skin (Bunsen vol. 1, p.425). The name "Nimrod" means "subduer of the LEOPARD " -- from Nimr, a "LEOPARD", and "rod" "to subdue." This name seems to imply that Nimrod subdued the LEOPARD and used it in hunting (Hislop, p.44). In India hunting with leopards has been a custom (Wilkinson vol.3, p. 171). Persian legends show that Hosang (Cush) the father of Tahmurs (Nimrod) who built Babylon, was the "first who bred dogs and leopards for hunting" (Sir William Jones' Works vol.4, pp. 341,353). The Egyptian high priest's robe of office was the LEOPARD'S skin. Nimrod, by the same spotted covering, is identified as being the Greek god Bacchus (Bar = son + Chus = Son of Cush). Leopards were employed to draw Bacchus' chariot. He was represented as attired in leopard skins and his priests were attired in the same manner or with the spotted skin of a fawn. This latter seems to have come from Assyria (Vaux's Nineveh, ch. 8, p.233). 

Diodorus Siculus said, the rites of the Egyptian Osiris and the Grecian Bacchus are the same, and those of the Egyptian Isis (Semiramis) and Greek Ceres (Semiramis) exactly resemble each other (Bibliotheca book 1 p.9). Nimrod instigated the discord and the apostasy after the Flood. "He was a MIGHTY (Heb. "gibbor" meaning "TYRANT" or "GIANT") hunter BEFORE (Heb. "paniym" means "AGAINST") the Eternal" (Gen. 10:8-9). Nimrod was AGAINST God. The Septuagint calls him a GIANT. Conspiracy and sedition were carried on by Nimrod (Epiphanius book 1 vol. 1, p. 7). He was a "hunter" of men's souls (cp. Jer. 16:16). 

Diodorus Siculus says, "Ninus, the first of the Assyrian kings mentioned in history, performed great actions. Being naturally of a warlike disposition, and ambitious of glory that results from valour, he armed a considerable number of young men that were brave and vigorous like himself, trained them up a long time in laborious exercises and hardships and by that means accustomed them to bear the fatigues of war and to face dangers with intrepidity" (Diodorus, Bibl. vol.2, p.63). Trogus Pompeius says, "Ninus, king of the Assyrians, first of all changed the contented moderation of the ancient manners, incited by a new passion, the desire for conquest. He was the first who carried on war against his neighbors, and he conquered all nations from Assyria to Lybia, as they were as yet unacquainted with the art of war" (Justin's Trogus Pompeius, Hist. Rom. Scrip. , vol. 2, p.615). Nimrod invented MAGIC arts and ASTROLOGY used them to impress his converts (Epiphanius Adv. Heres. 1:1:1: p.7; Justinius Historia book 1 volume 2, p.615).

The Dagon-Oannes (FISH-GOD) MITER, worn by the pope, began in Babylon. Sacred temple prostitutes called NUNS originated in Babylon (Her. 1:199). The church STEEPLE with BELL began as phallic worship in a high place. Semiramis parallels "a woman" (church -- Eph. 5:23) who now sits on seven hills (Rome -- Rev.17:9,18; Pliny NH 3:66) and has the number 666 (Filii Vicarvs Dei) (Rev.13:8). She has Protestant-daughter harlot churches (Rev.17:5). Her Babylonian cardinals wear bright RED GARMENTS (Dan. 5:16; Ez.23:14-15) or are BLACK-ROBED Baal-worshippers (Zeph.1:4) wearing vestments (2 Ki.10:22). Forbidden to marry (CELIBATE) and eating fish on Friday rather than meat (1 Tim.4:3), called "FATHER" as a religious title (Judges 17:10; 18:19; Matt.23:9), cutting bald TONSURES upon their heads (Lev.21:5), they worship the "QUEEN OF HEAVEN" (Jer.44:17-19) using HOT CROSS BUNS (Jer.7:18-20), GRAVEN IMAGES (Ex.20:4; Deut. 4;16) and PICTURES (Num.33:52). They kiss Baal STATUES (1 Ki.19:18) and carry them around (Isa.46:6-7). They give money for their dead in PURGATORY (Deut.26:14) and recite "VAIN REPETITIONS" (Matt.6:7) such as "Hail Mary." But only Jesus is mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5; Heb. 4:14). After CONFESSING every thought to an instructor who asks VILE QUESTIONS to the young and innocent which frequently cause their ruin, they are sprinkled with holy water. Why confess to a priest (cp. James 5:16)? Why worship angels (Col. 2:18)? God is our Rock -- not Peter (Ps. 18:31). They celebrate ISHTAR SUNRISE SERVICES (Ez.8:16) and pollute God's name with their X-Mass (Ez.20:39) and X-MASS TREE (Jer.10:1-5). They weep for Tammuz at LENT (Ez.8:14) and have changed God's festivals and oppressed Jews and Protestant Christians (Dan.7:8,25). God says, "Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the CHALDEANS; for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms ... But these two things shall come to thee ... in one day: the loss of children (Protestant Reformation in 1517), and widowhood (Loss of Papal States in 1870) (Isa. 47:5,9).

Nimrod Taught Serpent Worship (Demon & Satan Worship)

Demons are envious of good men, detering them from righteousness, lest by men's perseverance in good conduct, those men should attain a happier result from Destiny than the demons did. Eve may have been seduced by mistaking a serpent for an angelic seraph since "seraphim" means "fiery ones" (angels -- Isaiah 6) and Isaiah also uses "saraph" to describe a "fiery flying serpent" that is not an angel. Serapis, the king of Hell, is from Sarph, Celtic for a serpent. Some angels were called Seraphs, from flying serpents of a shining appearance. The Egyptian Cneph was figured as a serpent with a hawk's head to denote his sagacity and vigilance. In fact, Satan is an apostate seraph, the genuine Serapis, an obsolete god of Egypt in the time of Herodotus and deemed by Porphyry the Prince of Demons. (Eusebius Praep.) He "deceiveth the whole world" (Rev. 12:9) out of envy so that men depart from virtue and good conduct and commit vice.

Sanchoniathon says, "Taautus (i.e. Thoth) first consecrated the basilisk and introduced the worship of the Serpent tribe, in which he was followed by the Phoenicians and Egyptians. For this animal was held by them to be the most inspirited (spiritual) of all the reptiles, and of a fiery nature ... as Taautus has laid down in the sacred books, upon which account this animal is introduced in the sacred rites and mysteries" (Cory's Fragments pp.17-18). When Nimrod got the Sumerians and Egyptians under his control in cities, they "changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like ... CREEPING things" (Rom. 1:23). They worshipped the SERPENT remembering the Garden of Eden in which the SNAKE had "enlightened" mankind in the knowledge of good and evil just as the sun enlightens the physical world.

Satan is "the god of this world" (2 Cor. 4:4) and 'the prince of this world" (John 14:30). He showed Christ "all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them" and then said, "All these things will I give unto thee, for that is DELIVERED UNTO ME, and to whomsoever I will give it. If therefore thou wilt WORSHIP ME, all shall be thine" (Luke 4:5-7). Satan is described as "that OLD SERPENT" which "deceiveth the whole world" (Rev. 12:9). Babylon was the central seat of Cushite idolatry, as implied by the the apocryphal book of Bel and the Dragon, where it is said, "In that same place was a great DRAGON which they of BABYLON worshipped." (1:23) "It is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols" (Jer. 50:38). The same word which denotes "DIVINATION" in Hebrew, Arabic and Greek, also denotes "a SERPENT" (Deane, p.228). The etymology of the word "Ethiopian" (Cushite) appears to be "the race of Ophe," or "race of the SERPENT," from "ethnos" or "ethos" (race) and "ophis" (serpent). The Arabians call the Ethiopians "Nagashi" (serpents) from "Nahash" or the Indian "Naga" a SERPENT. If this is literally true, then they are claiming Nephilim descent from the giants like Nimrod (Gilgamesh) (Gen. 6:1-4). The children of Israel did burn incense to the brazen SERPENT that Moses had made (2 Ki. 18:4).

On the capture of Babylon by Cyrus, the Chaldean priesthood fled to Pergamos, where Aesculapius has ever since been worshipped under the form of a SERPENT (Barker and Ainsworth's Lares and Penates of Cilicia, ch. 8, p.232; Hislop, p. 278-279) -- "where Satan's seat is" (Rev. 2:13). From BABYLON, the sacred SERPENT of the Canaanites was called "Oph," "Ob," "Oub," and "Eph". In Hebrew, the word for "FAMILIAR SPIRIT" in Deuteronomy 18:11 is "Oph". The word for "WIZARD" in Lev. 20:27 is also "Oph." Also the WITCH of Endor is called an "Ob" or "Oub." When the Canaanites were "scattered abroad" (Gen. 10:18) they took this SERPENT-worship to AFRICA, as did the Cushite (Ethiopian) race also. SERPENT-worship still exists in AFRICA to this day and, until recently, human victims were required to be offered. In Egyptian hieroglyphics a SERPENT is the symbol for God or King (p.306, Ancient History of the East by Lenormant). The title of the Egyptian kings -- "Pharaoh" -- is a compound of Aphe (SERPENT) and Ra (sun), by which they claim descent from the Sun and SERPENT god. The name "Amenoph," by which some of the Theban kings were known, is a compound of Amon (Sun) and Ophe (SERPENT). The headdress of many pharaoh's includes a snake.

In GREECE, at Delphi, Apollo was worshipped under the form of a PYTHON, and a hymn was sung to it every seventh day. The symbol for Mercury was a Caduceus -- a winged wand entwined by SERPENTS. "In the vicinity of Thebes there are sacred SERPENTS not at all troublesome to men. They are very small, but have two horns on the top of the head. When they die they are buried in the temple of Jupiter, to whom they are said to belong." (Herod. 2:74) "The god enters in the form of a SERPENT" (Ovid Metam. 15:670). In ROME at the time of great pestilence, Aesculapius, the child of the Sun was brought to Rome in the form of a huge SERPENT and became its guardian deity (Ovid Metam. book 15:736-745; Lactantius, De Origine Erroris p. 82 and 2:16:108; Hislop pp. 236-237, 280). In consequence of the worship of the SERPENT god in Rome, SERPENTS became sacred, so that in nearly every house a SERPENT of a harmless sort was kept, and they multiplied so fast that they became a nuisance (Pompeii, 2:114-115; Hislop. p.237). In MEXICO a huge figure of a DRAGON was placed on the summit of the pyramid temple on which human victims were sacrificed to the sun. It is said that 50,000 victims were sacrificed every year. At Topira, in PERU, there was a temple with a vast image of a SERPENT with its tail in its mouth, like the Egyptian representation of the SERPENT of the sun. A man was sacrificed to it every year. Satan was a murdered from the beginning (John 8:44). In INDIA, Juggernaut is the Indian Moloch, and like him, required human victims. He was sometimes worshipped under the form of a seven-headed DRAGON, and the "Naga," or five-headed hooded SERPENT, is constantly represented as the object of special adoration in Indian scriptures. Buddha was also represented by a SERPENT, and a SERPENT was the sign of his worshippers. In CHINA the great DRAGON was the banner of the Empire, and indicated everything sacred in it. It was the symbol of royalty, and was sculptured in all temples. They believe their good fortune depends upon the great DRAGON. They call him the father of happiness and erect temples to him. In BRITAIN, the Druids worshipped the SERPENT. The Celtic Hu was called "The DRAGON Ruler of the World," his car is represented as drawn by SERPENTS, and his priests were called ADDERS. The word for "royal palace" or "church" is BASCILICA which comes from BASILISK meaning a royal SERPENT. BASCILICAS and pagan temples became churches and cathedrals (see Worship of the Dead by Garnier, pp. 235-242). Truly "Babylon hath been a golden cup in the hands of the Lord, to make all the earth drunken. The nations have drunken of her wine, therefore the nations are mad" (Jer. 51:7).

But SERPENT worship has been disguised. The names on the idols have been changed. "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works." (2 Cor. 11:13) Neither give place to the devil" (Eph.4:27) by worshipping statues of "Mary" and praying to images of "saints". That is actually DEMON worship. Buddism teaches that the idol, or other symbol, which has once become the habitation of a god, will always remain so. Spiritualists find that chairs, tables, etc., which have been used as mediums of communication with spirits, are always more susceptible of their influence than similar articles which have not been so utilized. Augustine quoted Hermes Trismegistus as stating "that visible and tangible images, (i.e. idols), are, as it were, only the bodies of the gods, and that there DWELL IN THEM CERTAIN SPIRITS which have been invited to come in them, and which have power to INFLICT HARM, or to FULFILL THE DESIRES of those by whom divine honours and services are rendered to them" (De Civitate Dei 8:23). Paul also said, "the sacrifices of pagans are offered to DEMONS" (1 Cor. 10:20). Moses confirmed this by saying "they shall no more offer their sacrifices to DEVILS" (Lev. 17:7; Deut. 32:17; Ps. 106:37; 2 Chr. 11:15). "These SPIRITS lurk UNDER the STATUES and consecrated IMAGES. These inspire the breasts of their prophets with their afflatus, animate the fibres of the entrails, direct the flight of birds, rule the lots, give efficiency to oracles, are always MIXING up FALSEHOOD with TRUTH, for they are both deceived and they DECEIVE. They disturb their life, they disquiet their slumbers. Their spirits also CREEPING into their bodies, secretly terrify their minds, distort their limbs, break their health, excite diseases, to force them to the worship of themselves, so that when glutted with the steam of the altars, and the piles of cattle, they may unloose what they had bound, and so APPEAR to have EFFECTED A CURE. The only remedy from them is when their own mischief ceases; nor have they any other desire than to call men AWAY FROM GOD, and to win them from the understanding of the true religion to superstition with respect to themselves; and since they themselves are under punishment, to seek for themselves COMPANIONS IN PUNISHMENT whom they may by their misguidance make SHARERS IN THEIR CRIME" (Cyprian on "The Vanity of Idols"). So also Clement of Alexandria, speaking of the Pagan oracles, says, "It is evident, since they are DEMONIAC SPIRITS, that they know some things both more QUICKLY and more PERFECTLY (than men); for they are not retarded in their learning by the heaviness of a body, and therefore they, as being spirits, know WITHOUT DELAY, and WITHOUT DIFFICULTY, what physicians attain after a long time and by much labour. It is not wonderful therefore if they know somewhat more than men do; but this is to be observed, that what they know, they do not employ for the salvation of souls but for the DECEPTION of them, that by means of it they may indoctrinate them in the worship of FALSE RELIGION".

The fear of the Eternal is the beginning of wisdom (Ps. 111:10). But Nimrod "emancipated" the people from the fear of the Eternal. Nimrod was the first DESPOT after the Flood to form a religious, economic, social and political civilization contrary to the Bible. His Babylonian apostasy excluded God. His followers' minds were "not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Rom. 8:7). They practiced ABORTION and CANNIBALISM by eating "the sacrifices of the dead" children (Ps. 106:28). They also practiced obscene PHALLIC WORSHIP, SACRED PROSTITUTION and CELIBACY. Then God scattered these people (Gen. 11:8).

As Plutarch says, "First Tammuz (Nimrod) was worshipped as the bruiser of the serpent's head ... Then the DRAGON himself, or SATAN, came to receive a certain measure of worship ... and last of all the DRAGON, or Teitan or SATAN, became the supreme object of worship, the Titania, or rites of Teitan, occupying a prominent place in the Egyptian Mysteries" (De Iside, vol. 2, p.362,364). "The SERPENTS were the supreme of all the gods ... No wonder that it came at last to be firmly believed that the Messiah, on whom the hopes of the world depended, was Himself the "seed of the SERPENT"! (Eusebius Proeparatio Evang., vol.1, p.50). "In Greece ... Bacchus (Tammuz) was brought forth in consequence of a connection on the part of his mother with the father of the gods, in the form of a 'speckled SNAKE'. Thus the (devil) ... got himself almost everywhere recognized as in every deed 'the god of this world'" (ibid.). In Pergamos was "Satan's seat" after Belshazzar's time (Hislop, p.240). Its serpent worship took the name of Aesculapius, "the man-instructing SERPENT" (Macrobius Saturnalia book 1, p.650). This Devil-worship was transferred to Rome when Pergamos became a part of the Roman Empire.

Remarkably, the name Saturn (Nimrod) in Chaldee (Babylonian) is STUR and S=60, T=400, U=6 and R=200 -- totalling 666 -- and the original name of Rome itself was Saturnia -- the city of Saturn. This city was originally founded by a representative of the Babylonian messiah who fixed his temple as a god, and his seat as a king, on the very same Capitoline Hill, which later became famous for Roman worship. This is vouched alike by Ovid, by Pliny and by Aurelius Victor (Hislop, pp.269-270). Plutarch informs us that a revolution occurred in Saturnia which caused the graven images of Babylon to be abolished and the erection of any idol prohibited. The city had lain in ruins many years before the days of the twin founders of Rome, and the same prohibition continued for upwards of two hundred years after Rome was built. Virgil asserts that Lateinos ("the Hidden One"), to whom the Romans or Latins trace their lineage, was represented with a glory round his head to indicate he was a child of the sun. Saturn was equally worshipped as a child of the sun which shows the two names are synonymous. Roman historians invariably affirm that Latium, the province in which Rome is located, received its name from Saturn "lying hid" there (Ovid's Fasti and Virgil's Aeneid book 8) and so the Romans on their own testimony show that Lateinos is equivalent to "the Hidden One" (Saturn) -- the Babylonian Nimrod. Was he was hiding from Shem who eventually executed him and abolished his idolatry? Was this was the revolution mentioned by Plutarch? The truth may be hinted at in the fact that Apennine Mountains were anciently called the Nembrod (Nimrod) Mountains.

A woman "possessed by "a spirit of divination" -- literally "a spirit of Python" -- lost her power which "brought no small gain to her masters" when Paul cast the demon out (Acts 16:16-40). Israelites were commanded to put to death wizards, witches and those possessed of familiar spirits (Ex. 22:18). "And if they say unto you, seek unto them whose speech is in their belly (demon possession), and those that speak out of the earth (ventriloquists? -- Isa. 29:4), those that utter vain words, that speak out of their belly, should not a people seek unto their God" (Isa. 8:19; Septuagint Version). In the temple of Isis at Busiris the goddess herself, according to Diodorus Siculs, appeared to the sleeper in a dream and prescribed remedies. "Numbers are thus cured after they have, through the malignancy of their diseases, been given up by their physicians, and many persons who have been absolutely deprived of sight, or disabled in any other part of the body, are restored to their previous soundness as soon as they have recourse to this goddess." (Dio. Sic. 1:25). Do demons have power to heal? No, they simply release what they themselves have bound, to make it appear like a cure. As Cicero argues, "Would that oracle at Delphi have ever been so celebrated and illustrious and so loaded with such splendid gifts from all nations and kings if all ages had not had experience of the TRUTH of its predictions? Let this fact remain -- which cannot be denied, unless we will overthrow all history -- that that oracle has told the TRUTH for many ages" (Cicero, De Div. 19).

According to Isaiah 45:19, God has "not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth." He speaks "righteousness."The oracles of the heathen gave their answers in secret -- from the depths of some dark cavern, and in such doubtful language as would very often deceive those who consulted them. A Druidess told Diocletian he would be emperor when he had slain Aper, a Boar. Many boars he slew without success, till he recollected that Numerian's father in law was named Aper. Cambyses was told he should die at Ecbatan. He avoided the Median city, but died at Ecbatan in Syria. Croesus , king of Lydia, also found the oracle's truth to be DECEPTIVE even though correct. Croesus, who disliked the growing power of Persia, consulted the oracle of Delphi about going to war with Persia, and enquired how long the empire of Lydia would last. The answer was, "That the war would subvert a great empire, and that Lydia should subsist till a mule came came to possess the throne of Media." Croesus considered this to be an assurance of the perpetual duration of his kingdom. But Lydia was the empire to be subverted, and Cyrus was the mule; inasmuch as he was born of parents of different nations, the mother a Mede and daughter of Astyages king of Media; and the father a Persian -- subject to the Medes. (Herodotus 1:53-86) Plutarch writes that "Araxes king of Armenia being promised success against the Persians if he would sacrifice his two daughters, slew those of Miesalcus, an Armenian Lord; but flying from his resentment was drowned in the Helmus, from him named Araxes."

"There was an opening or gulf in the earth at Delphi, now called the Adytum of the Temple; about this the goats straggled as they were feeding: for at that time they of Delphi had no religious regard to the place. It often happened that when any goat came near the gulf and looked down, it would begin to leap and dance, uttering strange sounds quite different from its natural voice. A shepherd, astonished at the sight, drew near to examine the place, and looking down, began immediately to do as the goats had done; for as they were moved by some kind of frenzy so he was inspired with a spirit of prophesy. For these reasons the place was pronounced to be the seat of an oracled, and many who desired knowledge of future events were attracted thither." (Diod. Sic. 16:6)

"The place where the oracle is delivered is said to be a deep hollow cavern, the entrance to which is not very wide. From it rises an exhalation which inspires a divine frenzy. Over the mouth is placed a lofty tripod on which the Pythian priestess ascends to receive the exhalation, after which she gives the prophetic response in prose or verse." (Strabo 9:3)

But God doesn't speak "in secret, in a dark place of the earth" (Isaiah 45:19). He speaks "righteousness."

Can demons predict the future? No, they simply influence future events to some extent and therefore get it right some of the time (Deut. 13:1). Thus it came about that one of the commonest symbols of the SUN-GOD is a disc with a SERPENT around it (Bunsen's Hieroglyphics, vol. 1, p. 497). The conditions required for receiving a prophecy and magical powers wielded by the pagan priesthood and the Buddhist ascetics, are ABSTINENCE from MARRIAGE, wine and MEAT which Paul says is giving "heed to SEDUCING SPIRITS and the doctrines of DEVILS" (1 Tim. 4:1-4). Remarkably, the Roman Catholic Church has adopted CELIBACY and ABSTINENCE FROM MEAT as the highest forms of holiness.

Nimrod Taught Sun (Fire) Worship

Appollodorus said, "Ninus taught the Assyrians to worship FIRE" (Muller, frag. 68, vol. 1 p.440) to whom babies were offered in sacrifice. Children were made to pass through the fire to Moloch. There was a golden image of the SUN in the temple of Belus in BABYLON (Maimonides, More Nevochim, p. 426) and a similar image of gold was found in the temple of Cuzco in PERU (Prescott, Conquest of Peru 3:41). Brilliant metal reflectors, or "SUN Images," were placed over the altars of Baal, the SUN god of the CANAANITES (2 Chr. 34:4). Similar disks of the SUN were also placed for worship in the EGYPTIAN temples, and in a grotto near Babian, in Upper EGYPT, a representation has been found of priests worshipping an image of the SUN placed above the altar (Maurice, Indian Antiquities 3:309; Hislop, p. 162). Amenophis III and his family are represented worshipping an image of the SUN (Wilkinson, Plate XXIII). The obelisks and minarets and spires of Christian churches were originally symbols of the SUN'S rays, and also of the Phallus, as representing the same principle of generation.

In EGYPT, "The thin, round, cake occurs on all altars" (Wilkinson's Egyptians 5:353 note) representing the SUN'S disk and the seed. Round cakes were offered on all the GRECIAN altars and were called "Popana" (Grecian Antiquities, Potter and Boyd 2:4:217). ISRAELITE women offered cakes to the Queen of Heaven called Ashtoreth (Jer. 7:18). In ROME they were called "Mola" -- a word derived from immolare, "to sacrifice". This sacrifice was said to "efface the sins of the people" (Pollux in Onom 1:1:25).

Churches meet together on a counterfeit rest day called SUNDAY. This is the "Lord's day" since Baal means "Lord." "Constantine's famous edict (321 AD) definitely enrolled SUNDAY among the holidays of the Roman state religion. The change from Saturn's day to SUNDAY must have further commended the planetary week in Christian circles, where the Lord's day ... beginning the week, had long been observed as the day on which Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, rose from the dead. Thus a pagan institution was engrafted on Christianity" (Webster's Rest Days, p.222). What was Constantine's own religion? "Constantine ... persevered till he was near forty years of age in the practice of the established religion (paganism) ... But the devotion of Constantine was more peculiarly directed to the genius of the SUN ... The SUN was universally celebrated as the invincible guide and protector of Constantine." (Gibbon's Decline & Fall, pp.636-638). What were the words of Constantine's famous edict of 321 AD? "On the venerable day of the SUN let all magistrates and people ... rest" (Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, article "Sunday Legislation").

Churches honor saints with HALOS around their heads. But the heads of all the images of Buddha, Kwanyin and other deities are surrounded by the “AUREOLE,” or “HALO,” which was also a particular symbol of the SUN god in other nations. It was placed round the heads of the images of the gods and heroes in ROME and GREECE, and also round the heads of the Roman Emperors, to whom divine honors were paid after death. It was regarded as the token of the divinity of the person represented, that is to say, of his being a son of the SUN god, as implied by the lines: — “Twelve golden beams around his temples play, To mark his lineage from the god of day” (Dryden, Virgil, book 12. pp.245-246; vol.3, p.775; Hislop p.237).

“The ceremony of TONSURE was an old practice of the priests of Mithra (the sun god of Persia), who in their TONSURES represented the SOLAR disk.” (Maurice, Ind. Antiq. Vol.7, p.851). The priests of Isis likewise shaved their heads (Lempriere, Isis and Isiaca). So did those of Osiris (Macrobius, book 1, cap. 23); so did those of Pagan ROME (Tertullian vol.2, Carmina, pp.1105, 1106). “The ARABIANS acknowledge no other gods but Bacchus and Urania, the Queen of Heaven, and they say their hair is cut in the same way as Bacchus’ is cut. Now they cut it in a CIRCULAR form, shaving it round the temples (Herodotus 3:8). Sakya Muni is said to have shaved his head and directed his disciples to do so in obedience to a command of Vishnu (Kennedy, Buddha in Hindu Myth, pp. 263,264; Hislop, pp.221-222).. Hence their title, “The shaved heads.” The antiquity of the custom is shown by the commands given to the Israelites forbidding it (Lev. 19:27-28; Deut. 14:1).

Babylonians celebrated the birth of the Unconquered SUN at the winter SOLSTICE (December 25th) just when the SUN begins to wax strong again (Giesler's Ecclesiastical History, vol.2, p.42). The son of Isis was born at the winter SOLSTICE (Wilkin's Egyptians, vol.4, p.405). Horus was born on the winter solstice, December 25th (Plutarch De Iside, 2:377-378). Osiris was identified with Apis, the sacred bull, and was worshipped as "Sar Apis" or Serapis" (Wilkinson, 3:87,89) who was identified with the Sun (Macrobius, Saturn 1:25; Wilkinson 3:97). "Yule" was the Chaldee name for "infant" long before Christ's time. Jesus never commanded us to celebrate His birth -- which occurred before winter (Luke 2:8). The mother of Adonis (Nimrod) was changed into a tree (Jer. 10:1-4). While in this state she was said to have delivered her "divine" son (Ovid Metam. book 15:500-513). This makes the son "a branch" (cp. Jer. 23:5) -- another counterfeit. Thus people acknowledge Nimrod as their "savior" who "saved" them from following God's laws at the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:6). What blasphemy.

Lady Day is celebrated on March 25, nine months before the "savior" was born to celebrate the "miraculous" conception. It honored the Babylonian "messiah" long before Christ's time (Ammianus Marcellinus book 23 ch.3, p.355). Churches celebrate Easter (Assyrian name of Semiramis was Ishtar) SUNRISE services to honor the rising SUN and face east at its rising. "An egg of wondrous size is said to have fallen from heaven into the river Euphrates ... out came Venus, who afterward became the Assyrian goddess" (Hyginus' Fabulae, pp.148-149). This Ishtar Egg (or "Ashtaroth" -- Judges 2:13) commemorates the birth of Semiramis. Jesus never commanded us to celebrate His resurrection this way. At communion, many churches still serve ROUND wafers with a SUNBURST image on them that came from pagan SUN-worship. Yet our Lord said, "I am that bread of life" (John 6:48) and he "broke it" (Luke 22:19). The unbroken wafer is adored in Rome. They actually pray to a biscuit: "Bread-corn of the elect, have mercy upon us" is one of the appointed prayers of the Roman Litany addressed to the wafer host.

The Feast of the Nativity of St. John is set down in the Papal calendar for the 24th of June -- Summer SOLSTICE. The very same period was equally memorable in the Babylonian calendar for one of its grand original festivals -- to commemmorate the death and reviving of Tammuz, or Nimrod (Stanley's Sabean Philosophy, p.1065). Tammuz actually means "perfecting fire" (tam ["to make perfect"] + muz [fire]) (Hislop p.245 note). In Ireland they leap through the St. John fires (Toland's Druids, p.107) just as Israelites caused their children to "pass through the fire to Molech" (Nimrod) (2 Kings 23:10; Jer. 32:35; Ez. 20:31). John in Latin is "Joannes" and Nimrod was called "Oannes" (Bunsen's Egypt, vol. 1, p.707) so they appeared superficially similar allowing a clever counterfeit.

"The early Christians had at first adopted the seven-day week with its numbered week days, but by the close of the 3rd century A.D. this began to give way to the planetary week. The use of planetary names (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc.) attests the growing influence of astrological speculations introduced by the converts from paganism" (Webster's Rest Day, p.252). Yes, as Pope Gregory advised, the Roman Catholic Church should MEET THE PAGANS HALF WAY and so bring them into the Church (Bower's Lives of Popes, vol.2, p.523). No wonder then that the woman (church) sitting on the beast in Revelation 17:3 has the name "Mystery Babylon The Great, The Mother of Harlots" (17:5).

Instead of asking how the pagan nations served their gods, and participating in their customs, God says, "Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God" (Deut. 12:30-31). "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20:3). "Why call you me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46). I hate, I despise your feast days, and ... your solemn assemblies ...Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity" (Amos 5:21-27). "Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you" (Gal. 4:10-11). "My sabbaths they greatly polluted ... I lifted up My hand that I would scatter them among the heathen" (Ez. 20:8,13,23). Israel "worshipped all the host of heaven and served Baal ... therefore the Eternal was angry with Israel and removed them" (2 Kings 17:16-18). "Our fathers would not obey ..." (but instead worshipped) "the host of heaven ..." (so were transported) "beyond Babylon" (Acts 7:39-43). "These things were our EXAMPLES ... they are written for our ADMONITION" (1Cor. 10:6-11).

Shem (Melchizedek) Executed Nimrod (Marduk) for Idolatry

At the Tower of Babel different ethnic groups were given different languages. Since nobody could understand eachother, Nimrod, Semiramis and Horus were each given a different name in each different language. What thereafter appeared to be polytheism was actually just the same ruling family of Babylon under multiple names. Many nations around the world -- Japan, China, India, Scandinavia, Ireland and Iceland -- each WEEP for their dead god (Marduk, Osiris, Balder, Tammuz, Bacchus, Nin, Mithra) hoping for him to be restored to life. This practice is still found today in the LENT season. Bacchus actually means "the BEWAILED One" or "LAMENTED One" (Hislop, pp. 55-57). Even Israelites in their time wept for the death of Tammuz: "There sat women WEEPING for Tammuz" (Ez. 8:14).

Shem was regarded as the foe of Osiris and all the gods of Egypt (Bunsen's Egypt 1:456). "When the false prophet named Thammuz (Nimrod) preached to a certain king that he should WORSHIP the seven STARS and the twelve SIGNS of the ZODIAC, that king ordered him to be put to a terrible death ... And hence arose the custom every year, on the first day of the month Thammuz, to mourn and to weep for Thammuz" (Maimonides, More Nevochim, p. 426). 

Who executed this giant Nimrod? His name was "Sem" (Wilkinson, vol.5, p.17) who killed him "by the power of God" and then cut his body into pieces (vol.4, pp.330-332) or tearing him limb from limb (p.81, Sanchoniathon). Shem was also known as "Sheth" (Num. 24:17). Typho was called Seth (Epiphanius, Adv. Haeres., book 3). Plutarch gives to Typhon the titles of "Seth" and "Smy", and the latter in Greek would be "Smu" which is evidently the same as "Semu". Therefore, another account reads: "Set, the brother of Osiris, rebelled against him and cut his body in pieces" (Rawlinson's Egypt and Babylon). Both Seth and Shem are synonymous and mean "the appointed one" (p.65, Hislop). He was called Sydyc (Melchizedek -- p. 47. Sanchoniathon). Just as Nimrod was torn in pieces in Babylon by the hand of Shem when his body was dismembered and the pieces distributed throughout the cities of Nimrod's dominion, so also Orpheus was torn to pieces in Thrace, and Bacchus was torn to pieces in Greece, and Osiris was torn to pieces in Egypt. "Osiris ... was killed by Typhon (Shem) his brother ... who ... divided the body into twenty-six parts ... Isis ... wife of Osiris, avenged the murder ... having slain Typhon (Shem) ... became queen of Egypt ... found all except one part of the body of Osiris ... and gave them to the priests throughout all Egypt to be worshipped." (p.59, Eusebius, Prep. For Gospel) This was the beginning of RELIC WORSHIP. "The member which had been cast into the river by Typhon was deemed worthy by Isis of divine honors no less than the rest. For she set up an image of it in the temples (OBELISK or STEEPLE) and instituted worship ... as the Greeks received their orgiastic rites and Dionysiac festivals from Egypt, they also worship this member in their mysteries, and in the initiatory rites and sacrifies of this god, and call it Phallus." (p.60, Eusebius, Prep. For Gospel) This was the beginning of PHALLIC WORSHIP.

As further proof that Typhon was Titan, or Shem, it is related by Plutarch that when Typhon was subsequently conquered, he fled away and begat Hierosolymus and Judaeus (Plutarch De Iside, S. 31; Cumberland's Sanchoniathon, p.108). That is Hierosalem, or Jerusalem, and Judea. This is a mystical way of saying that he was the founder of Jerusalem and the ancestor of the Jews. This tends to identify Shem with Melchizedek, whose name means "righteous king," and who was king of Salem or Jerusalem. As "priest of the Most High God" (Heb. 7:1), he was evidently the origin of the name Jerusalem, or Hierosalem, "Hieros" or "Hiereus" meaning "priest."

Typhon overcame Osiris "not by force or open war, but, having entered into a conspiracy with SEVENTY-TWO of the LEADING MEN of Egypt, he got him into his power and put him to death, and then cut his body into pieces and sent the different parts to so many different cities throughout the country" (Wilkinson's Egyptians 4:330-332). This agrees with Diodorus who reported that Egypt was divided into SEVENTY-TWO Nomes and each had a JUDGE (Diodorus 1:48-58; Hislop, p.64 note). Ancient Greeks recognized Shem as Typhon of Egypt and he was also recognized as such by Herodotus (485-425 B.C.) and Plutarch (46 B.C.). Plutarch says that Shem was a fair person with a red complexion. “TYPHON HAD RED HAIR” (De Iside et Osiride , 362. xxx). Shem (Typhon -- a derogatory name applied to him by the Egyptians) “was red in complexion” and “had red hair.” For an account of Nimrod’s death at the hands of Shem (Typhon) see Diodorus of Sicily, Vol. I, Book 1, para. 21, and para. 88. Notice the following interesting quote: “RED oxen, however, may be sacrificed, because it is thought that this was the colour of TYPHON (Shem), who plotted against Osiris [another name for Nimrod] and was then punished by Isis [Semiramis] for the death of her husband. Men also, if they were of the same colour as Typhon, were sacrificed, they say, in ancient times by the kings at the tomb of Osiris; however, only a few Egyptians are now found RED in colour, but the majority of such are non-Egyptians” (Diodorus of Sicily, Book I, para. 88). "Typhon RED in complexion, and Horus FAIR, and Osiris DARK-skinned" (p.96, Eusebius, Prep. For Gospel).