Against World Powers:

Transcription

1 Against World Powers: A Study of the Judeo-Christian Struggle in History and Prophecy I. Of Gods and Men II. The Pagan Perspective III. A Unique Nation IV. Pagan Domination V. The Solution Peter D. Goodgame

2 Against World Powers I. Of Gods and Men Introduction The Divine Council The Gods of the Nations God's Nation Introduction The period of testing and judgment soon to come at the end of the age will be a brief period of time focused on mankind, but there is also a higher level of conflict that will be resolved as a final result. This higher level of conflict has to do with the angelic realm, and of the battle between the angels of light who serve the Creator and the angels of darkness who serve Satan, the powerful enemy of God who leads the angelic rebellion. This series of articles will take a step back and try to provide a perspective of human history that takes into account this spiritual and inter-dimensional conflict in which human beings have been trapped. The Apostle Paul speaks from this perspective when he describes the ultimate enemies that Christian believers must be prepared to face, in his letter to the church at Ephesus, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:10-12) According to Paul, the main opponents that believers struggle against cannot be human because they are not flesh and blood. Our opponents are in fact spiritual in nature, and of the spirit world. Paul says that these spiritual forces are the rulers, authorities, and powers of this dark world. Paul is telling us that these spiritual beings are in control of the earth!

3 This reality is made clear when we look at what happened to Jesus at the very beginning of his ministry. The Gospels record that after he was baptized and anointed by God he went into the desert to pray and to fast for forty days and forty nights, and that during this time Satan came to question Jesus and to tempt him. The temptations culminated with the following offer,...the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. All this I will give you, he said, if you will bow down and worship me. Jesus said to him, Away from me, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only. Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. (Matthew 4:8-10) Satan, this super-powerful spiritual being, made the offer because he did indeed have power and control over all the kingdoms of the world. They were his possession, and his to give away if he so desired. According to a literal reading of the book of Genesis, Satan first appeared on the scene as the tempter of Adam and Eve, and he was at least partially responsible for the initial spiritual break between mankind and the Creator. As a result of their sin Adam and Eve gained the knowledge of good and evil, but they suffered the punishment of an inevitable death and of being cast out of the Garden of Eden. Genesis goes on to describe how Eve bore two sons, Cain and Abel, and of how Cain murdered Abel and was forced to flee, after which Eve bore another son, Seth. The descendents of Seth were those who worshiped the Creator and they included Enoch (who was taken to heaven), Methuselah (who had the longest lifespan), and Noah. Cain was forced to be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, but he is credited with founding a city for his son, the first city ever built. The line of Cain, because of Cain s punishment, was less willing to serve God, and according to non-canonical sources, such as the Book of Enoch, the descendents of Cain turned instead to Satan and the fallen angels. These sources describe how a group of angels descended to the earth, took human women for wives, and taught mankind various skills including magic, warfare, metalworking, music and writing. The mating that occurred between angels and humans is described explicitly in Genesis 6:1-4, When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose... The Nephilim were on the earth in those days-- and also afterward--when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. The appearance of advanced beings on the earth, because it is a scenario found in the myths and legends of virtually every ancient culture, is used as evidence today by many writers and

4 researchers that extra-terrestrials once visited the earth. It is even theorized that these beings were responsible for the creation of modern Homo sapiens from a more primitive species, and that man s early awe of these superior beings became the foundation of primitive man s religious beliefs. These theories are provocative and sensational enough to sell a huge number of books, and they generate hours of interviews on late-night talk radio, but they are greatly flawed. The angels that interacted with mankind in antiquity are not visitors from another planet; they are spiritual beings that are, although capable of taking material form, actually extradimensional in nature rather than extra-terrestrial. They are not visitors from another planet because they have always been here. However, their natural state of existence is beyond the range of humanity s normal physical senses and outside of our normal conscious awareness. According to Jewish tradition the sons of God were created by God on the second day of creation. They were created to serve God and to act as stewards and managers of creation, but they were also created with the knowledge of good and evil, or Free Will, and from the beginning they retained the ability to disobey God and to act against His wishes and against His plan. The being known as Lucifer or Satan is the foremost created being that has chosen to oppose God. He was a son of God created perfect and beautiful in the beginning, and he served as a guardian cherub before God s throne. Ezekiel writes (28:13-15), You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you... You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Ezekiel goes on to explain that Satan s heart became proud because of his beauty, and his wisdom was corrupted by his own splendor. The prophet Isaiah tells us that Satan demanded to be honored and respected as equal with God, You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High. (Isaiah 14:13-14) Because of his vanity, pride and blasphemous ambitions Satan was expelled from his place of honor. Through Ezekiel God says, So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones... So I threw you to the earth. (28:16-17)

5 The precise moment when this occurred is not perfectly clear. What will become clear is that the break between God and Satan, and the break between God and many of the other sons of God that ended up following Satan, actually occurred gradually and in several stages, with mankind playing a key role at each stage. The Divine Council The central concept that must be understood as we move forward in this study is the concept of the Divine Council. God governs the universe and the earth through a hierarchical command structure, and the Divine Council simply refers to the meeting place before God s throne where the sons of God (those loyal to God and those who oppose God) gather to negotiate and discuss the affairs of creation. In the Council God is supreme and His final word is always law. It is from the perspective of the Divine Council that several enigmatic texts from Genesis are best understood. For instance, Genesis 1:26, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over...all the earth, or Genesis 3:22-23, And the LORD God said, The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever. So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden... These passages are both records of decisions made from within the Divine Council, and God s usage of the terms our image, our likeness and like one of us refers to God speaking among the sons of God who are the Council members. According to the narrative of Genesis 6, a small group of the sons of God descended to earth in the days before the flood and interacted intimately with humanity, teaching mankind certain skills, and also mating with human women, creating offspring known as the Nephilim. According to all sources, these sons of God that had sexual relations with human women were all eventually punished, for it was an act of clear disobedience against God. To this day these wicked angels remain chained in the deepest recesses of hell awaiting their judgment. After this episode the human descendents of Cain that had benefited the most from the humanangelic interaction, through increased knowledge and with the appearance of the powerful semi-divine Nephilim, were able to dominate virtually the entire earth. At the same time mankind became very wicked. Apocryphal sources such as the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees claim to document the specific events, while the book of Genesis simply states, The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The

6 LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth--men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air--for I am grieved that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. (Genesis 6:5-8) Because of mankind s wickedness God brought the flood and, according to the book of Genesis, Noah and his family from the line of Seth were the only righteous people left on the earth to be saved. Stories of the great flood that covered the entire world can be found in virtually every ancient mythological tradition, from the Sumerians, to the Indians, the Egyptians and the Greeks. Even Plato mentioned it in his writings of Atlantis, describing a wealthy civilization that possessed a powerful military that attacked and conquered without reason, which perished in the flood in a day and a night. After the flood humanity had a chance to make a fresh start, but mankind was still not free from interference coming from the sons of God that looked upon humanity as their possession. Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth served the Lord God, but tradition holds that Ham s son Cush was one of the first to rebel against God and fall under the influence of these sons of God. Cush s son was an even greater rebel, who is described in Genesis, Cush was the father of Nimrod, who grew to be a mighty warrior on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; that is why it is said, Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD. The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh, in Shinar. From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. (Genesis 10:8-12) Nimrod is always described in negative terms as an arrogant ruler and empire-builder who defied the Lord in heaven. He is also the leader responsible for the attempt to build the Tower of Babel, which sparked another great change in the relationship between God, mankind, and the sons of God that we know today as the fallen angels. The story is given in Genesis 11:1-9, Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly. They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth. But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD

7 said, If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other. So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel --because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth. The Book of Jasher is a non-canonical book that is mentioned in Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1:18, and it records the following about the Tower of Babel, And they built the tower and the city, and they did this thing daily until many days and years were elapsed. And God said to the seventy angels who stood foremost before him, to those who were near to him, saying, Come let us descend and confuse their tongues, that one man shall not understand the language of his neighbor, and they did so unto them. (Jasher 9:31) This separation of mankind took place at the furthest edge of mankind s historical recollection, but the fact that it was a historical event is confirmed by a number of extra-biblical sources. A record of this event is given by the third century BC historian and high priest of Babylon, Berossus, in his three-volume Babylonian History, written in Greek. Another is given in the more ancient Sumerian text known as Ninurta s Pride and Punishment, in which the historical figure Nimrod also appears, but with a different name. Both sources describe the unsuccessful building of the Tower as an act of rebellion against the gods, followed by the division of mankind and the creation of separate languages. The reference to the seventy angels in the Jasher quote above is key here, because that is the number of nations that were created at the time of the division. Genesis 10 is known as the Table of Nations, and it lists exactly seventy names, which were the different tribes of the earth that descended from Noah. Genesis 10:32 states, These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood. These seventy angels or sons of God were among those present within the Divine Council when the division of the nations occurred. They were the angels that were the most closely involved with the earth, and they had their own ideas about how the earth and mankind should be managed. For this reason, which will become clear as we progress, the division of the nations also involved the handing-over of the nations to the authority of these seventy sons of God one angel for each nation. God was finished with dealing directly with an obstinate and rebellious humanity, and so He created a situation where the nations of mankind would each be ruled over by an angelic prince.

8 The Gods of the Nations This profound change in the way in which humanity was managed is mentioned in Deuteronomy 32:8, When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. The Masoretic translation of this text says sons of Israel, but both the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scroll translations say that the nations were divided according to the number of the sons of God. An ancient Targum on this text from a manuscript called Psuedo-Jonathan states, When the Most High made allotment of the world unto the nations which proceeded from the sons of Noach, in the separation of the writings and languages of the children of men at the time of the division, He cast the lot among the seventy angels, the princes of the nations... even at that time He established the limits of the nations according to the sum of the number of the seventy souls of Israel who went down into Mizraim. As we will see, this division of the nations over to the direct authority of the sons of God created the basis of pagan religion, because these angelic powers quickly became viewed and worshiped as gods by humanity. This was another stage in the gradual break that occurred between God and the seventy sons of God that took control over the earth. However, these beings would continue to make appearances within the Divine Council to answer for their actions as rulers of humanity. The original atmosphere of harmony between God and the sons of God is expressed in Job 38:4, when God exposes Job s ignorance and frailty by asking, Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone-- while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? The book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible, predating Genesis that was written by Moses, and it gives insight into the nature of the Divine Council after the division of the nations, as well as Satan s role as God s antagonist. The book begins by describing a meeting of the Divine Council, a scene which occurs repeatedly throughout the book: Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan,

9 Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. (Job 1:6-7 KJV) God never gave up His position as Head of the Council, but the seventy angelic princes were still able to exercise a great deal of freedom in manipulating mankind s affairs. However, Psalm 82 reveals that God was not going to allow the situation to remain the same forever, and He was taking notice of the injustices that were ever-present under the rule of the gods, God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? [Selah] Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. I say, You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you shall die like men, and fall like any prince. Arise, O God, judge the earth; for to thee belong all the nations! (Psalm 82 RSV) This Psalm explains that one day the gods that are in fact sons of the Most High will be judged for their sins, be punished and die, and that ultimately the nations belong to God, who will take possession after the last judgment. God s Nation Many generations after handing the nations of the world over to the authority of the seventy angelic princes, God chose for Himself His own nation, which would be the avenue through which all nations would be redeemed back to Him. This event is recorded in Genesis 12, immediately after the division of the nations at the Tower of Babel. The LORD had said to Abram, Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. So Abram left, as the LORD had told him. (Genesis 12:1-4) Deuteronomy 32:9 explains that regarding Israel, in distinction to the Gentile nations that were divided among the sons of God, the LORD's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance. Jacob was Abraham s grandson and the father of twelve sons whose descendents became the twelve tribes of Israel. In Genesis 32:28 and again in 35:10 the Lord gave Jacob the name of

10 Israel. Several times the promises that God made to Abraham were repeated to Jacob, and he was told that All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. The nation of Israel was unique in that it was not ruled by any of the angelic authorities, but by the Creator Himself. This uniqueness became apparent through the rules that God laid down, through Moses, by which Israel was to worship their God. Pagan religious worship was characterized by many practices that included magic and sorcery, divination through oracles, worship of idols, and the use of mediums, channeling and other techniques for accessing the spirit world and contacting the spirits for guidance. On the other hand, Judaism was different in many ways. From the outset it was a religious system characterized by strict intolerance, and the worship of other gods was forbidden. The first of the Ten Commandments reads, You shall have no other gods before me, and the second reads, You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God... (Exodus 20:4-5). All dabbling in the occult or contact with the spirit world was also forbidden. Leviticus 19 records, Do not practice divination or sorcery, and Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. Leviticus 20 records, I will set my face against the person who turns to mediums and spiritists to prostitute himself by following them, and I will cut him off from his people. It also warns, A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads. God says that Israel is to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own. When Israel was on the verge of entering the Promised Land after forty years in the wilderness God spoke through Moses to His people and told them, When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the LORD your God. The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not

11 permitted you to do so. (Deuteronomy 18:9-14) In the speech recorded in Deuteronomy 4 Moses explained that the laws that Israel was to follow would set Israel up as an example for the rest of the nations. He said, Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. Moses went on to warn Israel against worshiping the gods of the other nations, the host of heaven that were allotted to them (4:19 NASB): And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. References to the host of heaven as the objects of worship by the Gentile nations are made repeatedly throughout the Old Testament. The fact that God created the host of heaven is given in Nehemiah 9:6 (NKJV), You alone are the Lord; You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and You preserve them all. The host of heaven are the sons of god that ruled over and were worshiped by all the Gentile nations, but if any Israelite worshiped them the punishment was to be death, as commanded in Deuteronomy 17:2-5 (NASB): If there is found in your midst, in any of your towns, which the LORD your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, by transgressing His covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host, which I have not commanded... then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil deed to your gates, that is, the man or the woman, and you shall stone them to death. In 722 BC, after Israel was divided into Israel and Judah, the northern nation of Israel was taken into captivity by Assyria. According to 2 Kings 17 (NASB) God allowed this to happen because the sons of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God... and they had feared other gods. Israel had......forsook all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah and

12 worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him. So the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them from His sight; none was left except the tribe of Judah. The same crime was committed by King Manasseh of Judah a few generations later, He did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD dispossessed before the sons of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. He built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, In Jerusalem I will put My name. For he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. He made his son pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD provoking Him to anger. (2 Kings 21, NASB) Yet this same host of heaven was still required to stand before God in the Divine Council, and God continued to have a relationship with these pagan angelic princes, working through them to further His plan for Israel and His ultimate plan for the nations and all of humanity. In a strange episode involving God s dealings with King Ahab of Israel, the prophet Micaiah saw a vision of the Council in which God gave a decree of death for the wicked king, and then allowed the host of heaven to offer suggestions as to how the desired result could be brought about, Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven standing on his right and on his left. And the LORD said, Who will entice Ahab king of Israel into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there? One suggested this, and another that. Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, I will entice him. By what means? the LORD asked. I will go and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets, he said. You will succeed in enticing him, said the LORD. Go and do it. (2 Chronicles 18:18-21) In the sixth century BC, as a result of another punishment from God for being unfaithful, the children of Israel were forced to endure the Babylonian captivity. During this time God continued to speak to His people through the prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. At one point during his ministry the prophet Daniel spoke to a holy angel that related to him the conflict that was taking place between God s angels and the angelic princes that ruled the nations of Persia and Greece. Apparently the holy angel was being prevented from contacting Daniel and required assistance from the archangel Michael who, although he is does not rule and is not worshiped, serves as the angelic prince and protector of Israel,

13 Then he said to me, Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia. Now I have come to give you an understanding of what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision pertains to the days yet future....then he said, Do you understand why I came to you? But I shall now return to fight against the prince of Persia; so I am going forth, and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come. However, I will tell you what is inscribed in the writing of truth. Yet there is no one who stands firmly with me against these forces except Michael your prince. (Daniel 10:12-14, NASB) At this time there was a great deal of spiritual confusion on the earth. The Gentile nations were being manipulated by spiritual powers that caused constant conflict between themselves, and Israel, the one nation that existed under a covenant with the Creator of the universe, was often found to be disobedient and rebellious against the God who protected them. It was a situation that God could not allow to last long, and the remedy was waiting to be applied. --- Back to Index Peter Goodgame November 17, 2004

14 Against World Powers II. The Pagan Perspective The Historical Nimrod Sumerian Accounts The Rise of Marduk Human Sacrifice The Historical Nimrod From the time of deepest antiquity before the flood, up until the time of Nimrod after the flood, humanity understood the hierarchical structure of the Divine Council, with the Creator at the head of the pantheon ruling over a divine but independent-minded angelic host, with humanity at the bottom. However, after the division of humanity into the hands of the angelic host the importance of the Creator became diminished and ultimately removed from the pagan system of religious worship. Another important facet of pagan religion was ancestor worship. Often powerful kings and princes of antiquity were elevated to the status of gods and took over positions within the pantheon, while retaining the hierarchical structure. The Creator was removed from the equation, while the territorial spiritual powers of the nations and the human kings of the nations were elevated and/or merged together and new pagan understandings of the divine pantheon evolved. For instance, in ancient Sumerian/Babylonian king lists there are exactly ten major kings recorded to have ruled prior to the flood, which matches up with the ten Patriarchs from Adam to Noah listed in the book of Genesis. However, in Sumerian mythology these kings are gods or demigods, or kings from heaven, while in Genesis the Patriarchs are simply human beings who enjoyed extraordinarily long life spans. In the histories of the Egyptian priest Manetho (third century BC) there is also a list of exactly ten god-kings who ruled over Egypt from a foreign land prior to the Deluge. In fact the

15 Jewish historian Josephus (first century AD) cites the work of seven Gentile historians (Berossus, Hieronymus, Mnaseas, Nicholaus, Manetho, Mochus, and Hestaeus) to corroborate his account of the flood and many other events recorded in the book of Genesis. The most famous name from antiquity after the flood, from the pagan perspective, was the Biblical character Nimrod who was responsible for the events that led to the division of mankind into the hands of the sons of God. Nimrod is credited in Genesis as being a mighty warrior on the earth and a mighty hunter before the Lord. He is known as the first empire builder and through force of conquest he established his empire over the whole of Mesopotamia. According to the Bible he first ruled from the cities of Babel, Erech, Accad and Calneh in southern Mesopotamia, and then he moved north and built the cities of Ninevah, Reheboth-Ir, Caleh and Resen. According to Josephus it was under the authority of Nimrod that mankind attempted to build the blasphemous Tower of Babel. The role of Nimrod in attempting to building a massive skyscraper to heaven makes sense only with the understanding that Nimrod was a worshiper and follower of the chief of the "sons of God" that we know as Satan. The Tower of Babel was an attempt to gain for Satan what Satan desired according to Isaiah 14:13-14, You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High. Much of humanity was forcefully united under Nimrod, and with him as the authority mankind began to build the rebellious monument known as the Tower of Babel. To remedy the situation God decreed the establishment of different languages and the division of mankind to the seventy angelic powers to manage the affairs of the earth. Instead of being united against the Creator, humanity would now be divided against the Creator, which would allow for God to continue with His redemptive plan for all humanity, through His own nation Israel. After this spiritual reorganization of humanity there emerged two trends within the religious beliefs of the ancient cultures. The first trend was the replacement of worship of the Creator with a pantheon based partly on ancestor worship and partly on the worship of the heavenly host, and the second trend was the deification of Nimrod specifically, the emergence of this new god as the personification of Satan, and his eventual takeover of the pantheon. As a result of these trends Satan himself became installed at the head of the pagan pantheon, and was thus enthroned on the mount of assembly making himself like the Most High. Before we go further, there are two modern scholars who must be introduced first, whose work is essential for understanding the pagan world of antiquity. The first is British historian and Egyptologist David Rohl, who has published four important books on the subject of the

16 origins of civilization and the correlation between ancestor worship and pagan religion. He is also the developer of the New Chronology that finally clears up centuries-old errors that have plagued Biblical archaeology and scholarship. His work offers conclusive proof for the reliability of the book of Genesis as a historical document which, despite Rohl s materialistic foundation, has created a lot of controversy within the secular academic establishment. Rohl has achieved success as a historian, as an author and as a producer of several documentaries that have appeared on BBC Television. The second researcher whose work is essential for understanding this subject is Michael S. Heiser, PhD. He is an ancient languages expert whose doctoral thesis focused on the theme of the Divine Council within Biblical studies and its relation to the pagan world. Heiser is a professor, an author and the editor of the Divine Council Study Group internet-based newsletter, and he has also taken an interest in studying the modern UFO phenomenon and its apparent close relationship with many of the themes associated with his Divine Council studies. Returning to the subject of Nimrod, David Rohl offers conclusive proof in his books Legend: the Genesis of Civilization and The Lost Testament that Nimrod was in fact the historical king Enmerkar from the ancient Sumerian King List, who also appears in three epic poems that have been uncovered and translated by archaeologists. Enmerkar was the king of the expansionist empire of Uruk (Erech) and Rohl dates his lifetime to a period beginning around the year 2850 BC. Sumerian Accounts According to the earliest Sumerian tablets, which date more than a thousand years after Enmerkar s career, the Sumerian pantheon was led by Anu the God of Heaven. Anu was the father and king of the gods and rarely if ever visited the earth. Under Anu, there were two other chief gods that served important roles and had a very close relationship with mankind. The first was Enlil, the most powerful active god of the Sumerian pantheon, and the second was Enki, also known as Ea or Eya, who was titled the Lord of the Earth. Anu s center of worship was located in a precinct within Uruk (biblical Erech ) known as the E-anna, or House of Heaven; while Enlil s city was Nippur, where the gods supposedly met when they gathered on earth for an assembly. Enki s sacred city was located in Eridu, and according to Sumerian myth this was the first city created on the earth by mankind, and the first place where the human tradition of "kingship" began. According to Rohl the cult center of Eridu, the first city in human history, is the very same city established by the banished Cain, son of Adam and Eve, for his son Enoch as explained in Genesis 4:17. After being banished from the land of his parents by God, Cain and his descendents came under the influence of Satan. Rohl writes,

17 With Enoch s arrival upon the island of Nun (Eridu) at the mouth of the Euphrates river, the Lord of the Earth, god of the fresh water springs, had a new home made for him, where generations of holy men (Sumerian en.si) could communicate with their god in the dark chamber....the famous Sumerian King List (SKL) refers to this crucial moment in history when the Annunaki (Egyptian Shebtiu) arrived in the southern marshlands of Sumer and founded the first city in Mesopotamia: When kingship was lowered from heaven, the (first) kingship was in Eridu. [SKL, column I, line1] Rohl also mentions other references to this historical event, The Akkadian legends (as well as the Mesopotamian historian Berossus) tell of a great sage, the first of the seven apkallu (Sumerian ab.gal) sent by Eya to bring the arts of civilization to Mankind. He came from the east in the company of the Annunaki. On islands in the marshlands of Sumer the Anunnaki established the first cities in Mesopotamia, and their spiritual leader the first of the apkallu set up kings to rule over the settlers. This sage s name was Uanna-Adapa the biblical Enoch. In the Sumerian tradition it was Enlil acting as chief executive who carried out the decrees made in Anu s heavenly council and he is the god held responsible by the Sumerians for bringing the flood. According to the Sumerian tradition Enki defied the council by bringing news of the impending flood to Ziusudra (the Sumerian Noah), instructing him to build an ark and thus saving humanity from extinction. Enki is also the first of the sons of Anu to descend to the earth and he is given the credit for creating Adam, known in Sumerian as Adapa. Enki s symbol was two serpents entwined on a staff, and he is also known by the Sumerians as the god of the waters, the god of the underworld (the abzu, or abyss) and the god of wisdom and magic. These facts, although Rohl is confused in interpreting this area because of his materialistic bias and naive acceptance of Sumerian myth at face value, show that Enki/Ea was actually the Sumerian representation of the god we now know as Satan. Satan s symbol is the serpent; he claimed to offer wisdom to humanity through the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden; and he is acknowledged as Lord of the Earth by Jesus in Matthew 4:8-10, John 12:31 and John 14:30, and referred to by Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:4 as the god of this world. Satan also repeatedly defied the Council, or at least the will of God as decreed in the Council and, we should not forget, Satan is also called the Father of Lies by Jesus in John 8:44. When the angelic sons of God descended to the earth they were led by Satan, and they taught the descendents of the banished Cain, as mentioned above, the arts of civilization including magic and warfare. These beings from the heavens are known as the Anunnaki in Sumerian myth and many of them, as described in many pagan myths and in the book of Genesis, took human women for wives and produced powerful children known as the Nephilim, who became the heroes of old, men of renown. (Genesis 6:4)

18 In the epic poem Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta the story begins with a reminiscence of a time when mankind was united in its form of religious worship, Once upon a time,... there was no fear, no terror. Man had no rival.... the whole universe, the people in unison... to Enlil in one tongue gave praise. The poem continues with the great king Enmerkar demanding supplies and slave labor from the northern kingdom of Aratta for a new temple to the goddess Inanna in Uruk and especially for his renovation projects for the House of Enki at Eridu. The latter was not to be an ordinary project. The text of Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta explains, Let the people of Aratta artfully fashion gold and silver....let them bring down precious stone and pure lapis-lazuli. Let the people of Aratta... build for me a great temple, set up for me a great shrine of the gods....fashion for me the Abzu like a holy highland. Purify for me Eridu like a mountain. The ancient holy site of Eridu that had first been established prior to the flood through Enoch the son of Cain, with direction from Enki/Ea/Satan and the Anunnaki angels that descended to the earth, was to be renovated and refurbished. Enmerkar began to rebuild it, but the project was not accepted by God. The epic poem Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta goes on to explain how the project brought "contention," and how it also involved the separation of mankind based on languages as recorded in the book of Genesis: Then did the contender the en... the master... the king... Enki, the contender... Enki, en of hegal, the one of unfailing words, en of cunning, the shrewd one of the land, sage of the gods, gifted in thinking, the en of Eridu, change the speech of their mouths, he having set up contention in it, in the human speech that had been one. Nimrod s task was to build a massive structure in honor of Enki/Satan and for attempting it, and for his other exploits in the name of Satan his god, later generations elevated Nimrod to the status of a god. Rohl explains Nimrod s legacy,

19 No wonder, then, that he was represented as both semi-divine hero and god. The Babylonians knew him as Ninurta, the hunter-god armed with bow, and linked him with Marduk, warrior-god and lord of vegetation. The Sumerians of Eridu themselves elevated the mortal King Enmer-kar ( Enmer the hunter ) to godhood as Asar, son of Enki. The Sumerians of the Early Dynastic times named him Ningirsu, god of war and agriculture. In the city of Lagash they built the House of Ninnu (E-Ninnu) as Ningirsu s temple and gave him the epithet Enmersi after his ancient and original name. The Assyrians recognized Enmer/Asar as their state deity, Ashur. When the author of Genesis calls him Nimrod, this is a play on words in which the name Enmer is Hebraised into nmrd ( we shall rebel ) because this king rebelled against Yahweh by building the Tower of Babel. Enmerkar/Nimrod was known as the son of Enki, he conquered in the name of Enki, and he attempted to unify mankind and build an unprecedented religious structure in honor of Enki. Recall again that another title for Satan is Father of Lies and it appears that he lives up to this name through the distorted memory of him found in Sumerian myths. Enki was not the true creator of mankind, as Sumerian myth claims; he did not bring mankind wisdom, but death, and should not be viewed as the God of Wisdom ; he did not warn Noah about the flood, because Noah was of the line of Seth and worshiped the Creator rather than Enki. The divine decree against Nimrod and the Tower of Babel was actually an epic embarrassment for Enki, and the division of mankind that followed was a major blow to his plans. However, the memory of Nimrod lived on and the priests of Enki were able to eventually capitalize on his fame and prestige. David Rohl explains what happened after the flood within Sumerian religion. The growth of individual city-states, each with their own god, was intensified after the Tower of Babel event that brought forth the divine decree that each nation would be led directly by a different member of the angelic host, After the great flood had swept over the land, the purity of the supreme-deity religion which had previously existed became weakened with the introduction of new gods and the raising up of the minor gods in the primeval pantheon as powerful city-state deities in their own right. Thus Inanna was brought down from Aratta and elevated by Enmerkar as an equal to Anu ( Lord of Heaven ) in Uruk; the moon-god Sin ruled supreme in Ur; Enki, the god of the watery abyss, was worshiped at Eridu; Utu, the sun-god, was the lord of Shuruppak, and Inshushinak ( Lord of Susa ) dominated Elamite Susiana. Enlil only remained supreme in Nippur. The oneness of early Sumerian religion evolved into a disunity of religious worship and, as a result, the ancient world became a more dangerous place. In John Gray s Near Eastern Mythology he explains that the form of government that emerged from this period was a type of theocratic communism, where the priest of the chief god of

20 the city was considered the steward or manager of the city on behalf of the god. He writes that the ruler was always regarded as the human executive of the divine king, the chief god of the city, a conception which persisted in Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine... This period was characterized by the building of ziggurats and temple-complexes in each city dedicated to their individual gods, as well as intense competition and warfare between the citystates as the gods tried to achieve mastery over their neighbors. Eventually, by a process of elimination and survival of the fittest, certain gods were able to gain dominance through their respective empires once again. According to the Sumerian King Lists, Enmerkar/Nimrod was succeeded by his son Lugalbanda, who was in turn succeeded by his son Dumuzi. Like Enmerkar, Dumuzi was later deified as a personification of Enki, Lord of the Underworld, a subject we will return to shortly. Dumuzi s son and successor was the legendary Gilgamesh, a dominant king of Uruk circa 2500 BC, who was also a demi-god, whose legendary exploits are recorded in the famous Epic of Gilgamesh, first written down over a thousand years before the Greek epics of Homer. In the Gilgamesh epic, Enlil the chief executive of Anu s court is again portrayed as a villain, while Enki (Satan) is again portrayed as the friend and benefactor of mankind. Around 2100 BC another empire was created, this time through the conquests of Sargon of Agade, from his capital of Kish, which was the cult-center of the war-god Ninurta (the now deified Enmerkar/Nimrod) in northern Mesopotamia. In the epic Legend of Sargon of Akkad (c.2300 BC) Sargon claims to have been born from a royal priestess and therefore to have divine/royal blood, and to have been reared by an enigmatic figure named Akki, the drawer of water (Enki?) and brought up in his temple as a gardener. He claims that while I was his gardener, Ishtar granted me her love, and for four and... years I exercised kingship, the blackheaded people I ruled, I governed. Sargon s empire became the greatest empire since that of Emerkar, and the Akkadian language of his empire Agade, or Akkad, became the dominant spoken and written language of the ancient Near East. Sargon claimed to rule by divine decree on behalf of the gods Anu and Enlil and on behalf of the goddess Ishtar; however after the fall of Sargon s dynasty there emerged a new god on the scene, and a shakeup took place in the Sumerian conception of the divine pantheon. This shakeup would reverberate throughout the pagan world and be recounted in different forms in the myths of many of the ancient cultures. The Rise of Marduk The Enuma Elish is the Babylonian epic tale that recounts the creation of the god Marduk and his ascendancy to become foremost among the gods of the Babylonian pantheon:

21 Ea has defeated his enemies and trodden them down. Now that his triumph was completed, in deep peace he rested, in his holy palace Ea slept. Over the abyss, the distance, he built his house and shrine and there magnificently he lived with his wife Damkina. In that room, at the point of decision where what is to come is predetermined, he was conceived, the most sagacious, the one from the first most absolute in action. In the deep abyss he was conceived, MARDUK was made in the heart of the apsu, MARDUK was created in the heart of the holy apsu. Ea begot him and Damkina bore him, father and mother; he sucked the paps of goddesses, from his nurses he was fed on the terribleness that filled him. His body was beautiful; when he raised his eyes great lights flared; his stride was majestic; he was the leader from the first. When Ea who begot him saw him he exulted, he was radiant, light-hearted, for he saw that he was perfect, and he multiplied his godhead, the one to be first and stand highest. His limbs were immaculate, the making a fearful mystery beyond comprehension; with four eyes for limitless sight, and four ears hearing all; when his lips moved a tongue of fire burst out. Titanic limbs, standing so high he overtopped the tallest god; he was strong and he wore the glory of ten, and their lightnings played round him. My son, my son, son of the sun, and heaven's sun! Ea is simply the Akkadian name for the god Enki, who we have determined is a representation of Satan, foremost of the sons of God that chose to rebel against the Creator. The house and shrine of Ea is the apsu, abzu, or abyss, located in Eridu the city on a stretch of land that was surrounded in ancient times by branches of the Euphrates River. Eridu was where the first city was established by Enoch the son of Cain before the flood and it was also where Nimrod attempted to build the Tower of Babel after the flood. Damkina is simply another name for the goddess Inanna/Ishtar, to whom Nimrod/Enmerkar built a shrine in Uruk, elevating her to a status equal with Anu the God of Heaven. The early appearance of a Queen goddess within the pantheon was a necessary early step that

22 served Enki/Ea s agenda and, as we will see, the conception of a divine mother/father couple at the head of the pantheon was perhaps rooted in ancestor worship of Adam and Eve, the first human couple. Pagan religion consistently provides a place for a Queen goddess, but Hebrew religion was entirely unique in its conception of a single masculine Creator God who had no need or desire for a female consort. The appearance of the great god Marduk, the son of Satan, is based on the historical career of Enmerkar that ended almost a thousand years before Marduk first emerged as the local deity of the city of Babylon. David Rohl explains how the legend of Nimrod/Enmerkar evolved into the story of the emergence of a new and powerful god which, although Rohl does not note, became an avenue by which Ea/Enki/Satan was able to further his agenda for domination over the pagan world. Note that in history Nimrod ultimately failed and died, but in the myths Marduk is reborn to fulfill his Satanic purpose, The epics of Dumuzi principally concern themselves with the underworld into which the Sumerian king and partner of the goddess Inanna/Ishtar descended to become god of the dead. But this Dumuzi was much more than a local Sumerian hero. He became the Canaanite deity Tammuz, worshipped by the women of Jerusalem in the 6 th century BC a blasphemy so abhorred by the prophet Ezekiel... [Ezekiel 8:14-15]. A number of ancient legends (particularly those recorded in the classical literature) make a link between Ninus (Ninurta/Nimrod) and Dumuzi. These legends claim that Ninus spouse, Semiramis the queen of heaven (i.e. Inanna), gave birth to a son, following her husband s death, whose name was Dumuzi (a word which simply means good child ). But, according to this strange story, the newborn was also the husband of Semiramis and therefore none other than the reincarnated or reborn Ninus. It is interesting to note that Dumuzi was regarded as the husband of Inanna by the Sumerians, just as Ninus and his son (conceived after his death) were both the husbands of the queen of heaven Semiramis according to the Greek tradition. Note also the similarity to the story of Osiris who is killed but then performs postmortem procreation with his spouse Isis to create his legitimate son and heir, Horus... So Ninus/Ninurta/Nimrod appears to be one and the same as Dumuzi, god of resurrection and therefore also equivalent to Marduk, the Babylonian vegetation god. It is then interesting to discover that Ashur, the principal and founding god of Assyria, was himself identified with Marduk... This Ashur lived at the city of Ninevah and was the eponymous founder of the Assyrian nation, whilst Ninus founded Ninevah as did Nimrod. It appears that we are dealing here with a single historical character who established the first empire on Earth and who was deified by many nations under four main name groupings:

23 (1) Early Sumerian Enmer, later Mesopotamian Ninurta (originally Nimurda), biblical Nimrod, Greek Ninus; (2) Old Babylonian Marduk, biblical Merodach, later simply known as Bel or Baal ('Lord'); (3) Late Sumerian Asar-luhi (a principal epithet of Marduk), Assyrian Ashur, Egyptian Asar (Osiris); (4) Sumerian Dumuzi, biblical Tammuz, Phoenician Adonis, Greek Dionysus, Roman Bacchus.... Both Marduk and Ashur had their origins in the Sumerian deity Asar (or Asarluhi) son of Enki and Damkina originating from Eridu... The new god s Sumerian name Asar was written with the sign for throne which was also one of the two hieroglyphs used to write the name Osiris. Of course, Osiris is the Greek vocalization for the Egyptian corn-god of the dead. The people of the Nile valley simply knew him as Asar. The Sumerian epic Dumuzi and Inanna tells us that the fertility-goddess Inanna married King Dumuzi (Asar) of Uruk just as the Egyptian Isis, goddess of fertility, was the wife and queen of King Osiris (Asar). According to the Sumerian King List, two generations before Dumuzi, the ruler of Uruk was the legendary Enmerkar. It was this king who brought Inanna down from her mountain home in Aratta to the Mesopotamian plain where, at the heart of the royal city, he built a magnificent temple complex for her. Now, in ancient Mesopotamian society, a sacred marriage ritual was performed at a king s coronation to ensure the fertility of the land and livestock (as well as human procreation) during the ensuing reign. The new priest-king (Sumerian en.si) of Uruk entered the dark chamber of the temple in the guise of Enki to have sexual intercourse with a priestess representing Inanna. The offspring of this sacred marriage would not only succeed to the throne but, as the son of Enki and Inanna, would also be a deity in his own right. (a) The vegetation god and mighty warrior Marduk is the son of Enki and Damkina (Inanna/Ishtar); (b) Semiramis gives birth to a reincarnated Ninus, following her husband and hero-king s death, and then marries her son as the reincarnated Ninus; (c) Isis (Iset) gives birth to Horus, the legitimate heir, after her husband King Osiris (Asar) is killed; (d) Dumuzi (the good son ) marries Inanna but the goddess has him sent into the underworld where he becomes the god of the dead; (e) Dumuzi, also called Tammuz, is thus the universal winter dying god who is reborn as the new spring vegetation;

24 (f) Osiris (Asar) becomes the god of the dead and is the Egyptian deity of new vegetation; (g) Marduk, also called Asar, is the Babylonian vegetation god. The cult worship of Marduk achieved supremacy throughout Mesopotamia through the conquests of the great Babylonian king Hammurabi in approximately the sixteenth century BC. Hammurabi is most famous for his codification of national laws, the first written and standardized set of laws in human history, but he was also concerned with religious unification as well. Under his patronage the many myths and legends of Sumerian history, including the Enuma Elish, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the legends of Sargon, were written down in Old Babylonian Akkadian cuneiform. At the same time Marduk, the city-god of Babylon, was written into the myths as the new ruler over the earth, and indeed over the entire universe, supposedly with the approval of the Divine Council of the gods. To honor Marduk, Hammurabi s empire instituted new yearly rituals and ceremonies that would commemorate Marduk s temporary defeat, followed by his rescue and triumph. One of these rituals was an eleven-day ceremony that began with the first sighting of the crescent moon in the spring that marked the start of the month Nisannu. Author Michael Baigent goes into detail regarding this ceremony in his book From the Omens of Babylon: Astrology and Ancient Mesopotamia, During those eleven days of rituals, both public and private, the rights of the king along with the stability and strength of the civilization itself were called into question and then symbolically reasserted... In Babylon the central personalities of the festival were Marduk (Jupiter), the chief god of the city, along with his son, Nabu (Mercury). Similar spring festivals are known to have been regularly held in the cities of Asshur, Ninevah, Ur, Uruk, Dilbat, Arbela and Harran far away on the route to the Mediterranean... A small number of intriguing texts that have been found reveal that behind the public events of this and other state rituals lay an esoteric explanation understood only by initiates. Their form is often simple: each succeeding event in the public ritual is followed by an explanation of its inner meaning: The King, who wears jewels on his head and roasts goats. :He is Marduk, who carried firewood on his head and burnt the sons of Enlil and Anu in a fire. The ox and the sheep which they throw alive to the ground... :That is Kingu and his seven sons when they were smitten. Other such texts detail the mystical numbers associated with each god, the plants, the metals, the precious and the semi-precious stones. These works give a brief glimpse into what must have been a rich and complicated secret tradition, accessible only to the privileged few. To ensure this, each text ends with a

25 warning. A secret of the great gods. May the initiate instruct the initiate. Let the uninitiated not see. Baigent explains that the eleven-day ritual began with four days of preparatory rites which methodically set the stage for an increasingly intense religious celebration. The first two days involved prayers from the high priest to the statue of Marduk in the temple. On the third day two other statues were constructed: one figure held a snake and the other a scorpion, and they were covered in gold and jewels. On the fourth day the seven tablets of the Enuma Elish were brought forth and the creation myth was recited by the high priest before Marduk in the temple. On the fifth day prayers were chanted to Marduk and he was addressed as the god of all the planets. Baigent remarks that one of the lines of the Enuma Elish reads, Marduk... to thee we have given kingship over the totality of the whole universe. Afterwards the king was brought in before the priest, who removed his crown and scepter, and then slapped him on the face and tugged his ears. The king was left with the impression that he only rules through the good grace of Marduk his Lord. At this point the king took on the persona of Marduk, and was viewed as being held captive in the mountain and forced to remain in the temple. On the sixth day the god Nabu, the son of Marduk who is his rescuer, appeared in the city. A statue of Nabu was placed within Nabu s chapel within the temple of Marduk. The two statues prepared on day three were then brought before Nabu and a swordsman cut off their heads and threw them into a fire. The events of the seventh day are largely a mystery but they apparently involved the rescue of Marduk from out of the mountain by his son Nabu, the scribe of the gods who was represented by the planet Mercury. On day eight, statues of the gods of the entire pantheon were brought forward and a hush of reverence fell throughout the city. On this day Marduk took over a role played previously by the god Ninurta (in any case they are both based on the same historical figure), and he is credited with recapturing the tablets of fate that are necessary for an orderly society. Marduk was then symbolically elected the head of the pantheon by all the gods. Day nine then followed which was a day of feasting and celebration for the entire city. That night the marriage between Marduk and Inanna was consummated, with the divine roles played by the king and a royal priestess chosen for the occasion. The final two days of the ceremony were then devoted to more feasting and celebration in anticipation of a fertile new year, and in honor of Marduk, the son of Satan and savior of the world. Human Sacrifice Before the memory of Nimrod ascended to the head of the pantheon through Marduk, Nimrod s memory was perpetuated through the god Ninurta of the traditional Sumerian pantheon. Baigent offers some provocative insights into this early deification of Nimrod as

26 Ninurta, who was represented by the planet Mercury and known, along with many other titles, as the Lord of Swine. Regarding the planet Mercury, it appears that this was the planet originally associated with the deified Nimrod, but with Marduk s ascendancy and correlation with Jupiter, Mercury then became represented by Marduk s son, the god Nabu. Like the Egyptian god Thoth and the Greek god Hermes, who were also represented by the planet Mercury, Nabu was also viewed as the scribe and messenger of the gods. Regarding the association of Ninurta with swine, Baigent writes, It is arguable that here we might see the origins of the biblical proscription of the consumption of pork, for, by forbidding the consumption of this meat, Ninurta is effectively insulted and rejected. Indeed, to abstain from pork could be the mark of a person who also abstains from the worship of this god. The second association appears in the book of Amos: this prophet is fulminating against his people for their widespread worship of the god Sakkut (translated as Moloch in the King James version of the Bible), a practice which he promised would bring invasion and exile. Now the cult of Ninurta, both as a war-god and as a Sun-god, spread westward from Mesopotamia, and as Sun-god he was considered specifically to embody the god of the rising Sun, he who opens the gate of sunrise. As god of sunrise, one of Ninurta s titles was Sakkut the very same opposed by Amos. We can be confident then that Ninurta s cult was well entrenched among the Israelites during the time of the prophets... When the Israelites were preparing to enter the Promised Land after their Exodus from Egypt, Moses continually warned his people to stay away from the detestable religious practices of the nations that they would be coming into contact with. These nations included the Amalekites and the Philistines to the south of the Promised Land, the Edomites, and the Ammonites and Moabites (descendents of two sons of Lot, Abraham s nephew Genesis 19:36-38) to the east, and the Sidonians, Assyrians, Arameans and other nations to the north. These nations were all located outside of the Promised Land, but they would be Israel s neighbors, and God warned Israel through Moses that they should not emulate their religious practices. One of the gods that Israel was warned about repeatedly was the god Molech (or Moloch) who was worshiped by the Ammonites as their patron deity (according to 1 Kings 11:5): The LORD said to Moses, Say to the Israelites: Any Israelite or any alien living in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death. The people of the community are to stone him. I will set my face against that man and I will cut him off from his people; for by giving his children to Molech, he has defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name. If the people of the community close their eyes when that man gives one of his children to Molech

27 and they fail to put him to death, I will set my face against that man and his family and will cut off from their people both him and all who follow him in prostituting themselves to Molech. (Leviticus 20:1-5) Although Israel was warned against sacrificing children to Molech, the Ammonites remained as neighbors. When Solomon became king of Israel, despite his wisdom and the blessings of great wealth that he received from the Lord, he was turned towards pagan practices by the seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines that he took for his own over the years. 1 Kings 11:7 records that Solomon built religious structures in honor of many pagan gods, including one for Molech, the god worshiped by the Ammonites. These structures lasted for three hundred years until the good king Josiah of Judah took up the righteous campaign of eliminating all signs and memories of pagan worship from throughout the land, as recounted in 2 Kings 23. Unfortunately, the three kings of Judah that followed Josiah turned their back on God again, and the children of Israel were handed over to the kingdom of Babylon as punishment, as predicted at the time by the prophet Jeremiah, Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me? Therefore, this is what the LORD says: I am about to hand this city over to the Babylonians and to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who will capture it. The Babylonians who are attacking this city will come in and set it on fire; they will burn it down, along with the houses where the people provoked me to anger by burning incense on the roofs to Baal and by pouring out drink offerings to other gods. The people of Israel and Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth; indeed, the people of Israel have done nothing but provoke me with what their hands have made, declares the LORD. From the day it was built until now, this city has so aroused my anger and wrath that I must remove it from my sight. The people of Israel and Judah have provoked me by all the evil they have done--they, their kings and officials, their priests and prophets, the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem. They turned their backs to me and not their faces; though I taught them again and again, they would not listen or respond to discipline. They set up their abominable idols in the house that bears my Name and defiled it. They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech, though I never commanded, nor did it enter my mind, that they should do such a detestable thing and so make Judah sin. (Jeremiah 32:26-35) Michael Baigent s association of the Sumerian god Ninurta (the deified Nimrod "son of Enki"), known as a sun-god but also represented by the planet Mercury, with the childsacrificing god Molech, is credible because other accounts from the ancient world also mention child-sacrifices to the god of the planet Mercury. Several of these accounts concern the Phoenician colony of Carthage that was established in 814 BC.

28 Carthage developed a religion that was influenced by the Canaanites, who we will get to shortly, and by the Egyptians. The chief god of Carthage was a sun-god named Baal-Hammon, who was also identified by the Greeks and Romans as a representation of their God Cronus, or Saturn. Cleitarchus, Diodorus Siculus, and Plutarch all mention in their histories that children were often offered as sacrifices to Baal-Hammon. Diodorus Siculus writes, There was in their city a bronze image of Cronus extending its hands, palms up and sloping toward the ground, so that each of the children when placed thereon rolled down and fell into a sort of gaping pit filled with fire. Diodorus also gave an account after a Carthaginian defeat at the hands of the Greeks, when the nobles of Carthage blamed their defeat on their practice of sparing their own children and offering only peasant children to their god. They then immediately offered three hundred of their own children as a sacrifice to appease the god. As the children were cast into the flames relatives were forbidden to weep, and Plutarch adds to the account saying that... the whole area before the statue was filled with a loud noise of flutes and drums so that the cries of wailing should not reach the ears of the people. The Carthaginian god Baal-Hammon was represented by a ram with two curled horns. This was the same symbol for the Egyptian god known as Amun, Ra, or Amun-Ra, who appeared late and achieved supremacy over the Egyptian pantheon by the sixteenth century BC. Amun ascended to become the all-powerful sun-god from his temple in Thebes around the same time that Marduk gained supremacy in Babylon. The Carthaginian god Baal-Hammon appears to be a god derived from a combination of the Canaanite god Baal and the Egyptian god Amun. According to Berossus, the Babylonian priest and historian, the Greek god Cronus was simply a Greek representation of Enki, whereas Amun, Baal and Zeus were all different representations of the very same new god: Marduk the "son of Enki," who came to reign supreme over the ancient pagan pantheons. The Greeks did not want to believe that Baal- Hammon was a representation of Zeus, their enlightened and benevolent god who ruled from Mount Olympus, so they wrote that he was more likely a representation of Cronus, the father of Zeus, who they portrayed in a very negative light in their myths and legends. But whether they looked to Zeus or Cronus as their benefactor, the same spiritual entity still stood at the center of their religious system. --- Back to Index Peter Goodgame November 22, 2004

29 Against World Powers III. A Unique Nation The Conquest of Canaan A Divine Decree Descendents of the Nephilim The Defeat of the Giants The Conquest of Canaan When Israel was on the verge of entering the Promised Land, in addition to the warnings about their future neighbors as mentioned above, the God of Israel also gave specific instructions concerning the nations that inhabited the land that the Israelites were to take over. This is an area of Hebrew history which secular commentators love to criticize because it involved an undeniable command from God for Israel to commit what is often viewed as an unpardonable crime: the crime of genocide. However, despite the hysterical protests that come from secular historians, the episode can be viewed in an altogether different light, if viewed with the spiritual aspects taken into account. The instructions for finally taking possession of the land that God had given to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all their descendents, were given to the Israelites by Moses in Deuteronomy 7, When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations--the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you-- and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your sons away from following

30 me to serve other gods, and the LORD's anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession... You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God gives over to you. Do not look on them with pity and do not serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you. You may say to yourselves, These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out? But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. You saw with your own eyes the great trials, the miraculous signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm, with which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear... Do not be terrified by them, for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God. The LORD your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you. But the LORD your God will deliver them over to you, throwing them into great confusion until they are destroyed. He will give their kings into your hand, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand up against you; you will destroy them. The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. Do not covet the silver and gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the LORD your God. Do not bring a detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. Utterly abhor and detest it, for it is set apart for destruction. These same instructions are repeated again in Deuteronomy 12, ending with a plea from Moses on behalf of God, Be careful to obey all these regulations I am giving you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God. The LORD your God will cut off before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess. But when you have driven them out and settled in their land, and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be

31 ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same. You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods. See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it. The seven nations that the Israelites were commanded to utterly destroy were all descendents of Canaan the son of Ham. Canaan s brothers were Cush, who founded a nation south of Egypt, Mizraim who conquered and founded a dynasty in Egypt, and Put who established a nation west of Egypt. Canaan was the uncle of Nimrod the son of Cush, and Genesis 10:18-19 explains that the Canaanite clans scattered over and possessed an area encompassing the entire Levant. A Divine Decree From a spiritual standpoint, God s decision to choose Israel as His unique nation, and His decision to give them a specific portion of land, was no secret to the rest of the host of heaven that had authority over the pagan nations. In fact, as Semitic languages expert Michael S. Heiser explains, when God reiterated his promise to give the land of Israel to Jacob and his descendents, he did so when Jacob was in vision standing within the Divine Council itself. At that time all of the pagan gods the sons of god that had already been given their own nations stood within the gathered Council and heard God s decree and promise to Jacob. Before we examine this event, which occurred in Genesis 28 when Jacob had the vision of the ladder to heaven, we must first learn about the Mount of Assembly where the meeting of the Divine Council was always held. In the Old Testament the meeting place of the Divine Council, with God in a position of authority around whom the sons of God gathered, was always held on a high mountain, or similar structure. Heiser argues that the original meeting place was at a mountain within the primordial Garden of Eden, based on Ezekiel 28:13-14, You were in Eden, the garden of God... You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God. Heiser believes that it was after just such a Divine Council meeting when Satan appeared to Eve and tempted her, bringing about the original Fall of humanity. The place of the Divine Council is also reiterated within a statement regarding Satan s ambitions in Isaiah 14:13-14, You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above

32 the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High. The building of the original Tower of Babel was an attempt to build just this sort of sacred mountain for Nimrod s god Enki. This plan was stopped by God, after which all of the nations were divided amongst the sons of god, and Satan was forced to work with, and compete with, the other national powers to achieve his ambitions. This is the period in Sumerian history that saw the rise of city-states and the building of lesser-scale ziggurats in each city dedicated to each city s god. Even today, among secular historians and archaeologists the practical purpose of the ziggurats is not clearly understood because they were not temples, they were not palaces, and they were not tombs. However, retaining for a moment the concept of the original sacred mount of assembly, one of the best theories regarding the purpose of the ziggurats comes from an article written by John H. Walton titled Archaeological Evidence for the Tower of Babel, from the Bulletin for Biblical Research, 1995, Although the function of the ziggurat cannot be identified with certainty, our study of the names, the use of the simmiltu in mythology, the use of mountain terminology, and the lack of reference to a function in the cultic practice of the people, leads us to put forth tentatively, as a working hypothesis, the following suggested function: The ziggurat was a structure that was built to support the stairway (simmiltu), which was believed to be used by the gods to travel from one realm to the other. It was solely for the convenience of the gods and was maintained in order to provide the deity with the amenities that would refresh him along the way (food, a place to lie and rest, etc.). The stairway led at the top to the gate of the gods, the entrance to the divine abode. The plains of Mesopotamia contained no mountains, and so in this area mountains had to be artificially created to facilitate the (inter-dimensional?) movement of the gods from the heavenly realm to the earthly realm. However, in other regions where mountains existed, the tops of the highest mountains were always viewed as sacred and as gateways to the home of the gods. For instance, Mount Hermon was the location where some of the fallen angels descended to mingle with humanity prior to the flood according to the Book of Enoch; Mount Olympus was the home of Zeus in Greece; and Mount Zaphon in Syria was the location of a major temple to Baal. The situation was the same when it came to God s dealings with Israel. After Abraham was called out to be the Father of God s own nation he was blessed by one of the last remaining priests of the Most High God, Melchizedek, king of Salem. The city later built on his land, known as Jerusalem, occupied the peaks of three low mountains: Mount Zion, Mount Moria, and the Mount of Olives.

33 Other holy mountains that were used by God were Mount Sinai, of course, where God met with Moses and revealed His law for the Israelites, and also Mount Nebo, where Moses was laid to rest, after which Satan and the archangel Michael fought for possession of his body (Jude 1:9). There was another holy place where God confirmed his relationship with Israel, and this place is described in Genesis 28:10-19, Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the LORD, and he said: I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it. He was afraid and said, How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven. Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz. Jacob saw a vision of a ziggurat-type stairway on which the angels of God were traveling back and forth from heaven to earth. When he woke up Jacob realized what he had just seen, and that the place on which he stood was the house of God and also the gate of heaven. He promptly consecrated the stone on which he had slept and named the place Bethel, which simply means House of God. This brings us to a quick study on the nature of the words used in Hebrew to denote God or gods in the text. Most of the controversy revolves around the word elohim, which is translated in the plural and singular in different places throughout the Bible. In recent years many researchers, such as Zechariah Sitchin, William Henry, Laurence Gardner, and others, have put forth the idea that because the shape of the word elohim is plural, this means that according to Genesis 1 mankind was not created by a singular all-powerful Creator, but rather

34 by a group of extra-terrestrials! Consider these apparently plural statements from the early chapters of Genesis: In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth... Then Elohim said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness... So Elohim created man in his own image......in the image of Elohim he created him... Michael S. Heiser addresses this controversy by simply explaining the basic rules of Hebrew grammar. It is true that the word elohim is morphologically plural (its shape is plural), but this does not mean that its meaning should always be taken as plural. Heiser writes that......as far as meaning, elohim can be either singular or plural depending on context. As anyone who has taken a language can testify, meaning is determined by context, not by a list of glosses in a dictionary (which are only OPTIONS the translator must look to context for accuracy.) More specifically, the meaning of any occurrence of elohim must be discerned in three ways: A. Grammatical indications elsewhere in the text that help to determine if a singular or plural meaning is meant. B. Grammatical rules in Hebrew that are true in the language as a whole. C. Historical/Logical context. To illustrate, consider words in English such as: deer, sheep, fish the point is you need other words to help you tell if one or more than one of these animals is meant. Sometimes these other words are verbs that help you tell. Compare the two examples: 1) The sheep is lost the word is is a singular verb (It goes with a singular subject; one wouldn t say, for example, I are lost you would use a verb that goes with the singular subject ( I am lost ). 2) The sheep are lost the word are is a plural verb (again, another word next to our noun sheep tells us in this case that plural sheep are meant). All of this is just basic grammar and every language has grammar. Biblical Hebrew has its own way of telling if elohim means ONE person or many gods. It matches the noun elohim to singular or plural verbs, or with singular or plural pronouns...

35 In the Hebrew Bible, there are roughly 2500 cases where elohim is used as a singular noun denoting the God of Israel (that figure is arrived at on the basis of grammar and logical context). It isn t a guess. These rules are understood in the many English translations, but sometimes they are not always followed exactly. A case in point is Genesis 35:1-7 when, many years after Jacob had seen his vision of the stairway to heaven, God spoke to Jacob again, and told him to return to Bethel. The text of this event helps to give a further explanation of Jacob s earlier stairway vision, 1. Then God said to Jacob, Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau. 2. So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. (3) Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone. 4. So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem. (5) Then they set out, and the terror of God fell upon the towns all around them so that no one pursued them. (6) Jacob and all the people with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan. 7. There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother. Verse 1 begins with a clear statement from Elohim (singular, with singular verbs), that God had appeared (literally presented himself ) before Jacob at Bethel in his earlier vision. At that point Jacob had received a promise from God that he was to serve the Lord only and not any of the other gods. That is why in verse 2 Jacob makes sure that none among his entourage have anything to do with any other gods before he returns to Bethel. Verse 7 is the key, and it proves that in the earlier vision Jacob had not merely viewed the stairway to heaven, but had actually stood in the presence of the Divine Council when God made His promises to Jacob concerning Jacob s descendents and the land. The above translation of the verse from the NIV Bible is incorrect, and Heiser points out that the usage of the term elohim in this case is accompanied by plural verbs, and should therefore read, because there the gods appeared [literally presented themselves ] to him, when he fled from the face of his brother. Heiser explains,

36 The interpretation/implication of this grammatical change is that BOTH God the high God of Israel and the gods of the divine council the second tier appeared to Jacob in the ladder vision... In effect, Jacob saw the entire council... at heaven s gate, the place where heaven and earth meet. And it was at this meeting when all of the heavenly host were present, when God reiterated to Jacob the promise that He was giving Jacob and his descendents the entire land of Canaan. It was a divine decree, and it was up to the independent spiritual rulers of the tribes of Canaan to lead their people away from a land that was not theirs. However, this they refused to do. Instead the land was fortified against the children of Israel, and the strongest and mightiest human beings on the earth, the giants that were descended from the mating that had occurred between sons of God and human women after the flood, were brought in to resist with force of arms the plans that God had decreed in the Council for His one small nation. Descendents of the Nephilim In the Old Testament there are several names for the giants that were descended from disobedient sons of God. The original term is Nephilim, but after the Exodus the children of Israel came primarily against two giant clans: the Rephaim, which refers to a group of giants who descended from a figure named Rapha from the city of Gath (1 Chronicles 20:8), and the Anakim, who were descendents of Anak (Numbers 13:22), who was himself descended from a figure named Arba who originally possessed the area surrounding the city of Hebron (Joshua 15:13). All of these giants were descended from divinely-forbidden human/angelic sexual relationships. As Moses and the children of Israel were getting ready to enter the Promised Land Moses put together a reconnaissance party of the best warriors from each tribe, and sent them out to explore the land. Here is what the Bible records as the result, At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land. They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Moses this account: We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan. Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, We should go up and

37 take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it. But the men who had gone up with him said, We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are. And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them. (Numbers 13:25-33) This entire group of mighty warriors, except for Caleb and Joshua, was so dismayed at the strength of the land that they explored, and so untrusting of the Lord, that they caused the entire encampment of the children of Israel to rebel against Moses, and to refuse to enter the Promised Land. The story continues, That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt? And they said to each other, We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt. Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there. Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them. But the whole assembly talked about stoning them. (Numbers 14:1-10) After viewing the faithlessness and rebellion that was coming from the children of Israel God spoke to Moses and threatened to destroy all of them entirely. At this point an unbelievable exchange took place in which Moses placed a guilt trip upon the Creator of the universe, and caused Him to change His mind, The LORD said to Moses, How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? I will strike them down with a

38 plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they. Moses said to the LORD, Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them. And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard that you, O LORD, are with these people and that you, O LORD, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. If you put these people to death all at one time, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, The LORD was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath; so he slaughtered them in the desert. Now may the Lord's strength be displayed, just as you have declared: The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion... In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now. The LORD replied, I have forgiven them, as you asked. Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth, not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it. Since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea. (Numbers 14:11-25) This was the moment when God decreed that the children of Israel would have to live in the desert for forty years, and the trip from Egypt to Canaan, which should have taken only a matter of months, lasted for an entire generation. Only Caleb and Joshua survived to lead the new generation into the Promised Land. When the Israelites were finally allowed to begin their takeover of the Promised Land they traveled north on the east of the Dead Sea. This was the land of the Edomites, the descendents of Jacob s twin brother Esau, and the land of the Moabites and the Ammonites, the descendents of Abraham s nephew Lot. Deuteronomy 2 records that at one time the Emim, the Zamzummim and the Horites used to occupy these lands, but God had destroyed and driven them away, allowing the descendents of Lot and Esau to have their own lands. According to Heiser, in Hebrew Emim means frightful ones, and Zuzim, which was another name for the Zamzummim, means mighty ones. Deuteronomy 2 explains that both of these were tribes of giants, being Anakim and Rephaim.

39 When passing through the lands of the Edomites, Moabites and Ammonites, Israel was warned not to harass them or provoke them to war because they were living on the lands that their gods possessed, and these lands were not to be taken by Israel. Israel was even ordered to pay these tribes in silver for the water and food they consumed while in their lands. The first battles for Israel began after they crossed the River Arnon that empties into the east side of the Dead Sea. They were entering the land of the Amorite king Sihon who ruled from the city of Heshbon. As they crossed the river s gorge God told them, This very day I will begin to put the terror and fear of you on all the nations under heaven. They will hear reports of you and will tremble and be in anguish because of you. At first Israel was directed to send messengers asking for peace with King Sihon, asking for safe passage and offering to buy food and water with silver. King Sihon refused this peace offer and instead his army came out to meet the Israelites at Jahaz. The Bible records, the LORD our God delivered him over to us and we struck him down, together with his sons and his whole army. At that time we took all his towns and completely destroyed them men, women and children. We left no survivors. (Deuteronomy 2:33-34) After this triumph the army of Israel continued north and faced another Amorite king, Og of the land of Bashan, who ruled a vast area from the Canaanite city of Ashtaroth, due east of the Sea of Galilee. According to Deuteronomy 3:11 he was a giant, a Rephaim, and his bed measured over thirteen feet in length. Next we turned and went up along the road toward Bashan, and Og king of Bashan with his whole army marched out to meet us in battle at Edrei... So the LORD our God also gave into our hands Og king of Bashan and all his army. We struck them down, leaving no survivors. At that time we took all his cities. There was not one of the sixty cities that we did not take from them... We completely destroyed them, as we had done with Sihon king of Heshbon, destroying every city men, women and children... So at that time we took from these two kings of the Amorites the territory east of the Jordan, from the Arnon Gorge as far as Mount Hermon. (Deuteronomy 3:1-8) After this great victory that gave Israel access to lands as far north as Mount Hermon, Moses died and was laid to rest on Mount Nebo. After this Joshua took command of the Israelites and led them across the Jordan River to conquer the city of Jericho. The book of Joshua records that after Jericho there were three major battles before the Israelites were able to enjoy a time of peace: The battle of Ai/Bethel that took two campaigns because of the sin of Achan, which gave Israel a large portion of the central Judean highlands; the battle of Gibeon in which the sun stood still, which gave Israel the highlands west of the Dead Sea except for Jerusalem; and lastly the battle of Hazor that gave Israel the entire region of Galilee up to the borders of Tyre and Sidon.

40 The battle of Hazor was the greatest and most crucial battle because Israel faced a united Canaanite alliance composed of many kings from the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Hivites. Joshua 11 says that the opposing army included cavalry and chariots and was a huge army, as numerous as the sand on the seashore. However, Israel s victory was predetermined, All these kings joined forces and made camp together at the Waters of Merom, to fight against Israel. The LORD said to Joshua, Do not be afraid of them, because by this time tomorrow I will hand all of them over to Israel, slain. You are to hamstring their horses and burn their chariots. So Joshua and his whole army came against them suddenly at the Waters of Merom and attacked them, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Israel. They defeated them and pursued them all the way to Greater Sidon, to Misrephoth Maim, and to the Valley of Mizpah on the east, until no survivors were left... At that time Joshua turned back and captured Hazor and put its king to the sword. (Hazor had been the head of all these kingdoms.) Everyone in it they put to the sword. They totally destroyed them, not sparing anything that breathed, and he burned up Hazor itself. Joshua took all these royal cities and their kings and put them to the sword. He totally destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded. (Joshua 11:5-12) The Defeat of the Giants After this major victory over the Canaanites Joshua turned against the Anakim, the giants that remained in the land, At that time Joshua went and destroyed the Anakim from the hill country: from Hebron, Debir and Anab, from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua totally destroyed them and their towns. No Anakim were left in Israelite territory; only in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod did any survive. So Joshua took the entire land, just as the LORD had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions. Then the land had rest from war. (Joshua 11:21-23) The only major city that was left for Israel to take, despite their repeated assaults, was the holy city of Jerusalem that had been ruled previously by the holy King Melchizedek. However, Melchizedek s nation had long lost control of the area and it was controlled by the Canaanite tribe of the Jebusites. A hint of the source of the Jebusites power comes from the name of the

41 long valley west of Jerusalem: it was called the Valley of Rephaim, meaning the Valley of the Giants. King David was the leader who was finally able to capture Jerusalem from the Jebusites, and immediately afterwards the Philistines gathered a large force in the Valley of Rephaim to recapture the divinely-contested city. The chief Philistine cities were Gaza, Gath and Ashdod, the cities of the giants, and David had earlier killed the giant Goliath of Gath in his youth. After the first attack from the Philistines was repulsed they came again a second time to gather in the Valley of Rephaim to attack David. This is where a hint of angelic intervention surfaces in the text that records this battle, Once more the Philistines came up and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim; so David inquired of the LORD, and he answered, Do not go straight up, but circle around behind them and attack them in front of the balsam trees. As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, move quickly, because that will mean the LORD has gone out in front of you to strike the Philistine army. So David did as the LORD commanded him, and he struck down the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Gezer. (2 Samuel 5:22-25) Altogether David and his soldiers slew five descendents of Rapha the giant of Gath, one was Goliath killed by David; another was named Soph, killed at a battle in Gob; a third carried a spear with a head that weighed seven and a half pounds; another named Lahmi, Goliath s brother, carried a spear with a shaft the size of a weaver s beam; and the fifth was described as a huge man having twelve fingers and twelve toes, who died at the hands of David s nephew in Gath after taunting Israel. It was the last time that Israel was ever troubled by super-human giants descended from illicit intercourse between human women and fallen angels. --- Back to Index Peter Goodgame November 27, 2004

42 Against World Powers IV. Pagan Domination Heathen Temptations Canaanite Religion The Baal Cycle Biblical Parallels Greek Religion Heathen Temptations Before the Israelites entered the Promised Land they were warned repeatedly not to imitate heathen religious practices and not to worship heathen gods. They were also forbidden from marrying heathen men or women on the grounds that this would only bring idolatrous temptations closer. Despite these rules and warnings, the Israelites who lived in the generation after Joshua could not resist the temptations, After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals. They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the LORD to anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. (Judges 2:10-13) This initial failure on the part of Israel to live up to their commitment to God resulted in a cycle that would face every generation and last up until the time of King David: Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the LORD had compassion on them as they groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them. But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more

43 corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways. Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and said, Because this nation has violated the covenant that I laid down for their forefathers and has not listened to me, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the LORD and walk in it as their forefathers did. (Judges 2:18-22) Gideon was one of these judges, and when he was called to rescue Israel the first thing that God asked him to do was to destroy his father s altar to Baal, cut down his father s Asherah pole, build an altar to the Lord in its place, and burn an offering to the Lord with the wood from the Asherah pole. After doing this Gideon went on to defeat the Midianites who were oppressing Israel and then he served as Israel s leader, ruling for forty years of peace. But... No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal-Berith as their god and did not remember the LORD their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side. (Judges 8:33-34) After the rise and death of several more judges another cycle began, Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines. And because the Israelites forsook the LORD and no longer served him, he became angry with them. He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites, who that year shattered and crushed them. For eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites on the east side of the Jordan in Gilead, the land of the Amorites. (Judges 10:6-8) Jephthah was the judge chosen by God to meet the Ammonite threat. He had been born from his father s relationship with a prostitute and his brothers had driven him from his own land of Gilead. Despite his humble origins God chose him, and he returned to Gilead where the people made him chief. The conflict with the Ammonites concerned the land that Israel had originally taken from King Sihon the Amorite, north of the Arnon River. The Ammonites, with an overwhelming force, were now claiming that land as their own. Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonites saying, Do you not possess what Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whatever the Lord our God has driven out before us, we will possess it. (Judges 11:24) The Ammonites had their land and their god, which were both recognized by Israel, but they had no right to the land that had been given to Israel.

44 After Jephthah defeated the Ammonites, and after several more judges, the cycle began again. This time the enemy was the Philistines, who oppressed Israel for forty years, and this time Israel s deliverer was Samson, who prevailed in the end despite his forbidden love for Delilah the Philistine woman. Samson died after he was captured by the Philistines and brought in chains to a celebration in a temple of the Philistine s god Dagon. Samson was blind and weak, but he prayed to the Lord to have his strength returned one last time, and he pulled down the two middle pillars of Dagon s temple, caving in the roof and killing himself and thousands of Philistines that had gathered to celebrate at his expense. After Samson died the last judges of Israel were Eli the priest and Samuel the prophet. Near the beginning of Samuel s period of leadership the Philistines defeated Israel in many battles and captured the Ark of the Covenant. It was brought to Dagon s temple in Ashdod and the next morning the Philistines came into the temple and saw that their great idol of Dagon had fallen on its face before the Ark of the Covenant. The next morning the same thing happened and the head and hands of the idol were broken off. Then tumors afflicted the people of Ashdod, and finally the Ark was moved to Gath. Tumors afflicted the population there as well, and the Ark was moved to Ekron, where the people refused to have it. Finally after a total of seven months the Philistines returned the Ark to Israel, with a great offering of gold. However, the Israelites continued to do evil, despite the warnings from Samuel, and they continued to be oppressed by the Philistines. Finally after twenty or so years the Israelites called out to the Lord and looked to Samuel, And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the LORD only. (1 Samuel 7:3-4) Samuel s career as Israel s judge ended after the Israelites demanded that God anoint for them a king, so that their nation could be led in the same manner as the heathen nations were led. God finally agreed to their wishes, but first He gave the children of Israel a speech and a warning about the evils of monarchy: (Of course the very custom of hereditary kingship, according to the most ancient Sumerian texts, was first instituted by the god Enki, the ancient Adversary of the God of heaven). And the LORD told him: Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.

45 Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day. But the people refused to listen to Samuel. No! they said. We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles. When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the LORD. The LORD answered, Listen to them and give them a king. (1 Samuel 8:7-22) Israel had only three kings Saul, David and Solomon before the nation was split by civil war and divided into the ten tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel and the two tribes of the southern kingdom of Judah. Good kings were rare during these days and like before the people often succumbed to idolatry. Often the Israelites were led in these forbidden practices by their own kings. There were many nations that surrounded Israel, and they all had their own gods, but by far the religion that stood out as God s greatest competitor was the religion of the Canaanites, and their most important god and goddess, Baal and Asherah. These two pagan deities are mentioned in the Old Testament more than all of the other pagan gods combined. A closer examination of this religion will help explain why Israel was so afflicted by it, and why God hated it so much. Canaanite Religion The modern understanding of Canaanite religious beliefs comes from two primary sources: 1) The assorted fragmented writings of ancient historians that have been passed down over the

46 centuries, and 2) Archaeological discoveries of ancient tablets, texts and inscriptions that date back to the time of Canaanite and Phoenician dominance in Syria and Palestine. The most important ancient historian for this area of study was Philo of Byblos who lived in the first century AD who wrote the History of the Phoenicians. His complete work has disappeared but large portions of it are included in the writings of the third century philosopher Porphyry, and in the work of the fourth century Christian writer Eusebius. The most important archeological find, and by far the most important source of primary data regarding Canaanite myth and religion, is the collection of tablets found at Ras Shamra in 1929, in the ancient port city of Ugarit in northern Syria. These tablets were found in a building that stood next to a temple of Baal that were both destroyed and buried around approximately 1200 BC, and they document the evolution of Canaanite religious beliefs up to that time. From these sources we know that the Canaanite pantheon was basically a four-tiered hierarchical structure. The first tier was occupied by the mother and father of the gods, El and Asherah. El is described in the tablets as the creator of all the gods, and the Father of Years. Scholars associate him with the Israelite God who is sometimes referred to as El in the Old Testament. God s primary Biblical title, as explained previously, is Elohim, a plural form of El that was nonetheless often meant to be understood as a singular reference to Yahweh, the Creator of the universe. In the Old Testament the terms El and Elohim are translated as God, and Yahweh (or YHWH) is translated as LORD. We will compare and contrast the Canaanite and Hebrew understandings of the Creator momentarily. In Caananite religion El was accompanied on the top tier of the hierarchy by Asherah, the mother of the gods. She was the Queen of Heaven, and she can be equated with the Sumerian goddess Inanna, the Babylonian Ishtar, and the Egyptian Isis. The second tier is occupied by the gods who are the sons of El and Asherah. The most important fact that must be noticed regarding the second tier gods is that throughout the Canaanite source material the number of the sons of El and Asherah is given as exactly seventy. Furthermore, these seventy sons of El are described by scholars as the Canaanite pantheon s active deities, whereas El is referred to by scholars as an otiose deity, meaning that although El holds a figurehead position at the head of the pantheon, he is, for all intents and purposes far removed and inactive. The third tier of the Canaanite pantheon is occupied by the messenger deities, or angels who acted subservient to the gods. Every deity had his retinue of angels who simply acted as their messengers and obedient slaves. The fourth tier was occupied by humanity, which was ruled directly by the seventy active gods. Lowell K. Handy, in his authoritative study of the Canaanite pantheon, Among the Host of

47 Heaven, explains that the division of the world according to the sons of God, which was a reality understood within Hebrew religion, was also clearly understood in Canaanite religion. He writes, The division of the world into regions of authority is ascribed to El in the narratives related by Philo of Byblos. These regions were distributed to various deities to govern under the care of and with the consent of El. Both material and immaterial regions were allocated by El. Even the realm of the dead was assigned to Mot by El. The Baal Cycle In Babylonian mythology the rise of Marduk from a position outside of the inner circle to a position at the head of the pantheon is related in the epic creation poem the Enuma Elish. Canaanite mythology is very similar in this respect because the main story, which is known simply as The Baal Cycle, relates how Baal, the son of Dagan, rises from a position outside of the seventy gods to defeat El s favorite sons Yam and Mot. These victories allow Baal to take over the pantheon and he reigns as the supreme king of the active gods and as Lord of the Earth from his palace on the top of Mount Zaphon. In Canaanite religion the role of the god Dagan is relatively obscure, but he was known as one of El s original seventy sons. Dagan was a god worshiped as the supreme god at an earlier date in northern Mesopotamia, and according to the Bible he was worshiped as the supreme god Dagon of the Philistines. There is evidence that Dagan was a northern Mesopotamian name for the original Sumerian god Enki, but in Canaanite mythology Dagan s memory had faded and was instead carried forward through his son Baal. The Baal Cycle begins with Baal and Yam both contending for the position of kingship of the gods. El turns down Baal and instead appoints his son Yam. However, Yam rules as a tyrant and the other gods cry out to Asherah the Queen Mother for relief. Asherah decides to offer herself as a sacrifice to Yam as a remedy, but Baal refuses to allow her to do this and instead challenges Yam in combat. El orders Baal to submit to Yam, but Baal refuses, and armed with two magical weapons made by the god Kothar, Baal defeats Yam and takes over as king of the gods. Baal rules as king from Mount Zaphon, but he is ashamed because he has no temple built in his name. At this point the goddess Anat comes on the scene and boldly approaches El on Baal s behalf. She predicts that El will attend to her or she will drag him to the ground like a lamb and make his grey hairs run with blood, if he doesn t give Baal a court like the sons of Asherah. When she does confront El he is frightened and refuses to come out of his seven chambers.

48 To help him in his desire for a temple Baal sends messengers to Kothar, who bribes and convinces Asherah to approach El on Baal s behalf. (El and Asherah rule as mother and father of the gods, but for some reason they occupy different residences.) Asherah visits El and seduces him, and El finally allows Baal s temple to be built. Afterwards Baal holds a great feast for all the gods, after which he sends thunder, lightning and rain, and announces his supremacy over the world. Some time later Baal recognizes his new enemy, the new favorite of El, who is Mot the god of the underworld. In the clash that follows Baal is lost and presumed dead at the hands of Mot. El mourns at this unfortunate turn of events. The goddess Anat is grief-stricken at the loss of Baal as well, and she goes off in search of him. The goddess Shapash helps her and finds Baal s corpse in the underworld. They bury Baal on Mount Zaphon, and then mourn violently. Anat mutilates herself and sacrifices seventy buffaloes, seventy oxen, seventy cows, seventy deer, seventy goats, and seventy asses as an offering to Baal. Then she accuses Asherah of rejoicing in Baal s death. Meanwhile Asherah wastes no time and appoints her son Athtar to the position of king of the gods. El consents to Asherah s choice, but after Athtar ascends to the top of Mount Zaphon and finds that he is too small to fit Baal s throne he declines the position. Shortly afterward El has a dream that Baal is alive. The goddess Anat ferociously attacks Mot and defeats him, and he confesses to the killing of Baal. Messengers from El then reach Anat, declaring that Baal is now alive. Thereafter Baal is shown returned from the dead and he is forced to fight the sons of Asherah in a violent battle. He emerges victorious and takes his place once again as king from his position at the top of Mount Zaphon. The war goddess Anat also engages in violent battles on behalf of Baal, She smites the people of the seashore, Destroys mankind of the sunrise... She piles up heads on her back, She ties up hands in her bundle. Knee deep she plunges in the blood of soldiery, Up to the neck in the gore of troops. Seven years later Mot again challenges Baal in battle, but this time the result is a stalemate. The goddess Shapash convinces Mot to submit to Baal s authority and Mot returns to the underworld. Baal finally reigns as the supreme active god of the Canaanite pantheon, which is the end of the myth of the Baal Cycle. Biblical Parallels Secular scholars believe that because the tablets that describe Canaanite religion predate what they believe to be the date of the writing of the Old Testament, that therefore every parallel

49 between Canaanite and Hebrew religion is a case of Hebrew priests borrowing from the beliefs of the Canaanites. Michael S. Heiser argues very effectively that this was clearly not the case. Whatever parallels existed between the two belief systems were not a result of absorption or religious evolution, but were instead either common understandings of historical realities, or else intentional parallels that served a definite purpose within Hebrew monotheism. The first common aspect that must be equated is the conception of El. In Hebrew religion Yahweh-Elohim is the LORD God of all creation, the pre-existent, omnipotent and transcendent Creator of the universe, and the all-powerful, all-knowing Father of all the gods. Yahweh-Elohim is often referred to as El Elohim God of gods, or El Elyon God Most High. On the other hand, in Canaanite religion we find that at least by the end of the thirteenth century BC the concept of an all-powerful Creator has been greatly watered down. El is not viewed as pre-existent, and Philo of Byblos states that the Canaanite god El ascended to his position by killing his own father. Furthermore, El is accompanied by his female consort Asherah, who is often needed to coax El into making decisions. El is also portrayed as being easily manipulated, lustful, greedy, cowardly, indecisive, and often at odds with the gods portrayed as heroes in the various mythological stories. El s role as creator is also downplayed, and he is father of the gods only through his sexual interaction that takes place with Asherah and numerous other partners. Despite these shortcomings El is still viewed by the gods as the figurehead leader of the pantheon, but his decrees in the Divine Council are not always followed. Lowell K. Handy writes that, The proclamation of El was regarded as important, even though self-interest might move a deity to disregard the decision made by El. In Hebrew religion the decrees made by Yahweh-Elohim in the Divine Council were law, and were almost always obeyed without question. Satan is the created being known as the most antagonistic to God s decrees, but his disobedience has always been paid for by the other sons of God and by the human figures he has manipulated to carry out his own agenda. This disobedience will ultimately be paid for when Satan meets his end by being thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10). In Canaanite religion El is viewed as an otiose deity, but in Hebrew religion Yahweh- Elohim is otiose only to the extent that he allows the seventy pagan sons of God a certain amount of freedom in their manipulation of and control over the pagan nations. Here is how Handy describes the role of the seventy second-tier gods of the Canaanite pantheon, which is also an essentially accurate description of the seventy sons of God from the Hebrew perspective, They basically [had] free dominion in their rules, which allowed them to fight

50 among themselves, argue with their superiors, abuse their power to thwart others (both divine and human) and even kill each other (not to mention humans). In all this, however, they remained answerable for their behavior and can be called up in judgment before El. Yahweh-Elohim may be viewed as primarily inactive in the affairs of pagan nations but when it came to Yahweh-Elohim s own nation Israel, God was very active, and He was quick to interfere in the affairs of pagan nations if they threatened Israel. In the same way Yahweh- Elohim used pagan nations as a means to punish Israel when they did wrong, or save Israel when they were threatened. In the Old Testament God used the surrounding pagan nations to punish Israel repeatedly; He used Egypt to save Israel from Assyria on one occasion; He used Babylon to punish Israel and then He used Persia to free Israel from Babylon. God also predicted the rise of Greece and Rome and their domination of Israel through their respective empires. The Canaanite characterization of El as an inactive deity is far removed from the true extent of Yahweh- Elohim s interaction with the world. The Canaanite god El may be viewed as a degenerated caricature of the true Creator of the universe, Yahweh-Elohim, but parallels also exist between Yahweh-Elohim and Baal, the chief active Canaanite god. Throughout Canaanite mythology Baal is described in terms that characterize his reign as the vice-regency of El. He rules with the authority of El (no matter how grudgingly given) and in the name of El, and all of his commands are to be viewed and followed as the commands of El. Baal is characterized as the Vice-Regent of El, and his kingdom is predicted to be everlasting and to last forever and ever. Furthermore, throughout the texts a title that is repeatedly used to refer to Baal is Rider of the Clouds. A case of both of these references is found in the following Ugaritic text (related by Michael S. Heiser), Truly I say to you, O Prince Baal I repeat [to you], O Rider of the Clouds; Behold, your enemy, O Baal Behold, your enemy you will smite, Behold, you will smite your foe. You will take your everlasting kingdom, Your dominion forever and ever. In the Old Testament Yahweh-Elohim is described repeatedly as the Rider of the Clouds (for instance Deuteronomy 33:26, Psalm 68:5, Psalm 104:1-3 and Isaiah 19:1) This is a clear case of Hebrew religion appropriating foreign terminology and using it to describe their God. It is not an accidental case of religious evolution but a clear case of the Hebrew prophets and priests telling the Canaanites that Yahweh-Elohim deserved recognition as much as and

51 even beyond that given to Baal by the Canaanites. Similarly, the Old Testament gives descriptions and predictions of Yahweh s everlasting kingdom that is inevitable and will be established in the Messianic Era (Psalms 145:13, Daniel 4:3). The Old Testament is also full of enigmatic occurrences in which a figure appears to the Patriarchs or Prophets, in human form, claiming to represent the full authority of Yahweh- Elohim and giving the commands of Yahweh-Elohim. In almost all of these instances this enigmatic representative or Vice-Regent of Yahweh-Elohim is simply referred to as the angel of the Lord. In Genesis 32:24-30 Jacob wrestled with a man, after which Jacob said I have seen God face to face... On Mount Horeb when Moses saw the burning bush he also saw the figure of the angel of the Lord, and the figure said from within the bush, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob (Exodus 3:6). In Judges 2 the angel of the Lord rebuked Israel and referred to Himself as the Lord who established His covenant with Israel. Throughout the career of King David he too was often visited by the angel of the Lord, and David always understood the angel to be speaking in the name of, and with the full authority of, Yahweh-Elohim. What these references tell us is that in Hebrew religion there did exist a position that corresponded with the position that Baal claimed for himself in Canaanite religion, which was the position of Vice-Regent of the Creator. However, the references from Hebrew religion tell us that Baal s claim that he acted and ruled as the voice of God was completely false. Baal did not act according to the will of God, but against the will of God as far as God would allow it, and in numerous times beyond what God would allow. Very simply, Baal was a very creative and skillfully camouflaged representation of Satan the Lord of the Earth who rose to a position of power over the seventy sons of God in the years after the nations were divided at the time following the Tower of Babel. One of Baal s Canaanite titles is Baalzebul, which means Lord of those that fly or Lord of the high places. This relates to Baal s claim to rule from Mount Zaphon and to be the Rider of the Clouds. It also corresponds with Paul s warning in Ephesians 6:12 that the ultimate adversary of Christian believers exists in the high places or heavenly realms. Baal s pagan title of Baalzebul was turned into the title Baalzebub by the Hebrew priests

52 and scribes, which was an intentional insult to Baal that means Lord of Dung. Baalzebub is very clearly identified by Jesus and by Israel s religious leaders in Matthew 12:24-27 as Satan the Prince of demons. Greek Religion In Greek mythology, which was developed centuries after Canaanite mythology, the concept of an original transcendent Creator of the universe was pushed away even further. The Greek myths refer to an original time when only Chaos existed. Out of this appeared Gaia, the earth deified as a goddess, and also Eros, which was simply a deification of Love or the generative force. These two produced the first true personality, the god Uranus (heaven). Then Gaia partnered with her son Uranus and produced a number of children, including the god Cronus, her youngest son. Cronus is described as the twisted thinker and most dread of children who hated his father. Other children of Gaia and Uranus included the powerful Titans, and various monsters such as the Cyclops and the Centaurs, and their daughter Rhea, who married Cronus. In his History of the Phoenicians Philo of Byblos explained how the Canaanite pantheon equated with the gods and goddesses of the later Greek pantheon. Philo equated the Canaanite god El with the Greek god Cronus. Recall that in the last chapter Baal-Hamon, the god of Carthage, was also equated with Cronus by Greek historians. It should also be mentioned that, as in Carthage, numerous Canaanite texts from Ras Shamra endorse child sacrifice as an effective way of worshiping and honoring Baal. In Greek mythology Cronus was able to overthrow Uranus and become king of the gods with the help of his mother Gaia. Afterwards he had many children from his wife Rhea, but because he was perverse and paranoid he ate them when they were born so that none could grow up and challenge his kingship. In any case, his wife Rhea was able to hide their youngest son Zeus from him, who became king of the gods after (following the pagan Oedipal pattern) killing his father with help from his mother. If El was Cronus, then Baal appears in Greek religion as Zeus, the king of the gods who reigned from Mount Olympus. Canaanite mythology does not advance to the point of Baal attacking and killing El and taking his place as the ultimate king of the pantheon, but apparently Greek mythology does when it describes the triumph of Zeus over his father Cronus and the Titans. One of the main parallels between Baal and Zeus is their common usage of the symbol of the thunderbolt they were both sky gods. A symbol that connects Zeus with the Babylonian pantheon is the planet Jupiter, which was the planet of Zeus and also the planet of the god Marduk. Greek historians also connected Zeus with the Egyptian pantheon by equating Zeus with the god Amun.

53 Another connection between Greek and Canaanite religion is the goddess Anat. She was revered by the Canaanites as a war goddess who could be counted on to stand up to El and Asherah on behalf of Baal (her half-brother or cousin) whom she mated with near the end of the Baal Cycle. According to Philo of Byblos, the land that Anat was given to rule over was the region of Attica in southern Greece, the region that is dominated by the city of Athens. Philo believed that Anat was in fact the Greek goddess of war Athena, the patron deity of the city of Athens. In his book Among the Host of Heaven, Lowell K. Handy mentions the conclusions drawn by a number of scholars regarding the close connection between the goddess Anat and the ruling god Baal in Canaanite mythology,...so dominant is the figure of Anat in the extant myths that it was thought for awhile that the narratives must have come from her cult. Even though the tablets clearly note that the narratives are concerned with Baal, Anat appears in them as the most physically powerful, or at least the most active, of all the deities represented. More recent theories hold that if these texts had their origin in the cult of Baal, Anat must have been viewed as subject to and under the control of Baal. Peterson and Woodward, in their quasi-structuralist approach, argue that the missing sections of the myth certainly showed Baal appointing Anat to her rank in the pantheon, a position where she would be under his control. Bowman concludes his study of the goddess Anat by stating that Anatu s main function was to support Balu in his efforts to maintain his supremacy in the pantheon. In Bowman s study Anat is reduced from being an independent deity to being a personified aspect of Baal ( his will ), a theory already suggested by Kapelrud. In such a reconstruction the violence engaged in by the goddess is not thought to be the activity of a goddess so much as an extension of the activities of the god Baal. This theory does much more than merely explain the relationship between Baal and Anat; it can also be used to help explain the first appearance of the Queen of Heaven goddess in the earliest myths of paganism. The true Creator stands alone, and has no desire or need for a consort, but the appearance of the great Mother Goddess does make sense if the long-term agenda of Satan is taken into account. His goal is to tear down the memory of the Creator in the minds of men, and at the same time to build himself up. The appearance of a goddess at the Creator s side diminishes God s creative abilities, humanizes Him, and makes Him appear dependent on a consort. An important fact to remember is that, according to Sumerian accounts, Inanna the original Queen of Heaven was first installed as a goddess on the same top-tier level as the Father- God Anu by Enmerkar. The historical figure Enmerkar was the same as the Biblical empirebuilder Nimrod, who lived his life as a servant of the god Enki, the ancient world s clearest

54 representation of Satan. The Mother Goddess of pagan religion has been used throughout history as a personified aspect of Satan. She is worshiped in the pagan world as the Mother of the earth and of gods and men, but the book of Revelation reveals the lie, calling her instead The Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth (Revelation 17:5). Christian author Robert Bowie Johnson Jr. agrees with this conclusion and offers many more interesting insights in his book The Parthenon Code. Johnson specializes in Greek myth and its connection with the earliest stories from the book of Genesis, and in his book he analyzes the ancient Parthenon of Athens. This structure was the very epicenter of Greek religion and culture, and the sculptures and scenes depicted within the Parthenon and through its architecture told the story of human origins according to the pagan Greek perspective. According to Johnson (who looks at Greek religion specifically through the paradigm of ancestor worship), Zeus and Hera the divine couple can be viewed as deifications of Adam and Eve, the first human couple. However, as with the Canaanite goddess Anat, Athena was the most active of the Greek deities. The temple called the Parthenon was a temple dedicated to the parthena (virgin) Athena, and in ancient times the interior of the Parthenon was dominated by a huge ivory and gold-plated statue of Athena that rose well over thirty feet up to the ceiling. According to the second century writer Pausanius, All the figures in the gable over the entrance to the temple called the Parthenon relate to the birth of Athena. Johnson s research focuses on reconstructing and interpreting this east pediment of the Parthenon, under which worshipers would pass to enter the temple. Upon it stood a line of statues of Greek gods carved in marble out of the upper gable-end wall itself. At the very center of the pediment stood Zeus, with his wife Hera on his left and the maiden goddess Athena on his right. On Hera s side were representations of five other deities, while on Athena s side representations of four. According to Greek myth, creation appeared by itself out of Chaos. Night followed Chaos, which was deified by the figure Nyx. In Hesiod s Theogony, which has many themes reminiscent of the book of Genesis, from Nyx came the Hesperides and the three Fates. The Hesperides are a group of goddesses (usually three or more) who are always shown lounging in a luxurious garden which contains a tree of golden apples with a serpent entwined around it. The three Fates are named Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, and they give men at their birth evil and good to have. They are always pictured spinning, measuring and cutting the thread of life. From the viewers perspective, Nyx (night) is shown exiting the scene on the far right of the east pediment of the Parthenon, while on the far left (Athena s side) Helios (the sun) is shown entering and illuminating the scene. Next to Helios is a statue of Herakles (or Hercules) the most famous hero of Greek myth. He

55 is a favorite of Athena, and she helped him in his famous twelve labors, the last of which was stealing three golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides. Next to Herakles the three Fates are pictured: Clotho is spinning thread, Lachesis is measuring it, but Atropos does not cut it because she is prevented by the figure of Nike which stands between her and Athena. Nike is simply a representation of the abstract idea of Victory or Triumph and a Nike is also held by the great statue of Athena that stood within the Parthenon. Nike s presence on the east pediment, and the fact that she turns away Atropos, represents Athena s triumph over the Fate of death. On the right side of the east pediment three of the Hesperides, with tree and snake, are lounging next to the departing Nyx. Between Hera and the Hesperides stand the Greek gods Hephaistos, Hermes and Atlas. Atlas helped the aged Cronus and was the leader of the twelve Titans that fought against Zeus. They were defeated and Atlas was punished by being forced to hold up the heavens forever, while the other Titans were cast into Tartarus (Hell). Hermes was the son of Zeus, and fulfilled a role as the messenger of the gods and god of wisdom, like that of Marduk s son Nabu and Amun s son Thoth. The importance of Hermes within Gnosticism and in the occult resurgence during the Renaissance will be covered in a future chapter. Hephaistos, who stands next to Hera, was the first-born son of Zeus and Hera, who was kicked out of the household because of a quarrel. Hephaistos became skilled at metalworking and later he became known as the armourer of the gods. Hephaistos appears to have much in common with the Canaanite god Kothar, who provided Baal with the weapons to defeat Yam in the Baal Cycle myth. Johnson believes that Hephaistos may represent the deified Cain, first-born son of Adam and Eve, who was banished from the family. Descendents of Cain were the first humans to have contact with the fallen angels, and Cain s descendent Tubal-Cain forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron (Genesis 4:22). The descendents of this group used their tools and weapons to build the great and wicked empire recalled in many legends as Atlantis, which was destroyed in Noah s flood. According to Greek myth Athena was born fully grown from Zeus. Hephaistos played an important role in her birth, and there are many pictures from ancient Greek art of Hephaistos using his axe to break open the head of Zeus, out of which Athena sprang, fully grown, fully armed and ready for battle. Strangely, Zeus suffered no ill effects from the episode. Recall that according to Pausanius, All the figures in the gable over the entrance to the temple called the Parthenon relate to the birth of Athena. Johnson s provocative conclusion

56 is that the birth of Athena, symbolically portrayed at the entrance to the Greek capitol s greatest temple, represents the rebirth of Satan s system of worship after the flood. Athena is the reborn Eve (who was created fully grown from Adam) who has gratefully accepted the Forbidden Fruit, gained the serpent s wisdom and the knowledge of good and evil, and triumphed over death. The idea that Athena was part of a religious system that involved at its hidden core the worship of Satan is proven through a closer look at the figure at the head of the system itself Zeus. The very name Zeus is understood by scholars to derive from an Indo- European root that means to shine or gleam brightly. Johnson quotes from another Greek scholar who argues that Zeus actually mean the moment of lighting up, which was connected not with the beginning of the world but with the time of which they themselves had historical consciousness. Zeus was also known by the name Zeus Phanaios, which means One Who Appears as Light and Brings Light. Johnson refers to 2 Corinthians 11:14 in which Paul states that Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Johnson believes that this Light, this moment of lighting up which brought human consciousness, was for the pagan world the moment when Eve triumphantly accepted the forbidden fruit from the serpent in the Garden of Eden and gained the knowledge of good and evil for all humanity. Johnson explains that Zeus is characterized in the Parthenon and throughout Greek culture as a snake, and he refers to many ancient depictions, including one found at Athens harbor that dates to the fourth century BC, that depicts a coiled, bearded snake, with the caption Zeus Melichios meaning Zeus the Easily Entreated One. Johnson quotes from an authoritative Greek scholar, Jane Ellen Harrison, an avowed atheist, who wrote the following in her study of Greek religion: We are brought face-to-face with the astounding fact that Zeus, father of gods and men, is figured by his worshipers as a snake... The human-shaped Zeus has slipped quietly into the place of the old snake-god. Art sets plainly forth what has been dimly shadowed in ritual and mythology. It is not that Zeus the Olympian has an underworld aspect; it is the cruder fact that he of the upper air, of the thunder and lightning, extrudes an ancient serpent-demon of the lower world, Meilichios. Zeus was viewed by the Greeks as the father, savior and illuminator of the human race, and his primary symbol was that of the serpent, the very same creature that was cursed by God for deceiving Adam and Eve. Within the vast collection of ancient Greek religious art the representations of the second-tier gods and goddesses are often accompanied by snakes. In fact the gigantic gold and ivory statue of Athena that stood within the Parthenon was accompanied by a figure of a large snake, with head held high on Athena s left side, rising up next to her as if it were a pet.

57 Johnson explains that the appearance of snakes alongside the many Greek deities indicates that these deities are part of the serpent s system of enlightenment and sacrifice. However, representations of the human figure of Zeus are never accompanied by a serpent. Johnson explains that this is because Zeus is not subordinate to the serpent s system he is the serpent. One of the most effective points in Johnson s hypothesis is made when he highlights the fact that in the book of Revelation Jesus refers to the Ionian city of Pergamum as the city where Satan s throne is... where Satan dwells (2:13). The most impressive structure within the entire Pergamum Acropolis, which contained a number of temples and the second largest ancient library next to Alexandria s, was a massive altar dedicated to Zeus. This great altar, called by historians the finest altar ever built, was completed in about 180 BC. The structure stood forty feet high, measured over one hundred feet long, and the stairs that ascended to the upper level were sixty-five feet wide. The most impressive aspect of the altar, however, was its intricate imagery sculpted into the frieze work that surrounded the lower level of the altar. Altogether there were almost four hundred feet of this frieze-work that some experts say marked the climax of classical Greek sculpture. The sculptures depicted the defeat of the Titans by Zeus, Hercules and Athena, and the founding of Pergamum by the son of Hercules. The magnificent frieze-work is known as the first known instance of continuous narrative in sculpture and contained representations of 34 goddesses, 20 gods, 59 giants and 28 animals. This ancient monumental masterpiece was discovered by a German railroad builder, Carl Humann, in 1875, and several years later he began to excavate and uncover pieces of the intricate frieze, shipping them to Germany. In 1930 a replica of the entire massive altar was set up, with pieces of the original frieze work, in the newly-built Pargamum Museum in Berlin. The prophetic and occult significance of the appearance of the ancient altar of Zeus, the Throne of Satan, in Berlin immediately prior to the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany will be examined in a future chapter. --- Back to Index Peter Goodgame December 3, 2004

58 Against World Powers V. The Messianic Solution Proof of Allegiance The Sheep-Herders Son The Nations Are Redeemed The End of the Gods Son of Man Son of God The Alpha and the Omega Proof of Allegiance In the ancient world the greatest bond of love and loyalty that could possibly exist was the bond between a father and his first-born son. Society was centered around the tribe in rural areas, or around the ruling family in urban areas. The head of the tribe or ruling family was always a man, and the authority to rule was always passed to the eldest son. Polygamy was the usual practice for men in positions of authority, and women were often viewed as little more than property. For this reason sons were the most cherished possession and it was through the eldest son that the name of the ruler lived on. In the years immediately following the division of the nations of the earth over to the spiritual authority of the angelic princes, religion was characterized by a period of intense competition as each ruling angelic power tried to consolidate, validate and confirm its possessions. This spiritual/political situation was facilitated only through the very type of mystical practices that were forbidden for Israel to use. Within each tribe, family or clan, there would always be priests, shamans, or mediums who would have the responsibility of accessing the spirit world, conferring with the tribe s god or gods, and making their gods' desires known to the leader of the tribe, family or city. A problem from the gods point of view was that allegiances could shift, and whole families could embrace other gods if they felt that their gods were not taking care of them. Because of this, pagan religious worship was a two-way street the clan expected prosperity and protection, while the gods demanded complete allegiance if they fulfilled their duties.

59 This was a period during which the pagan practice of child-sacrifice to the gods came into being. The greatest bond of love and loyalty existed between the leader of the clan and his eldest son, and if the ruler of the clan could be convinced to sacrifice his son to his tribal god, then that god would be convinced of the clan s loyalty to the greatest extent possible. It was a horrific practice, but it gave the gods assurance that their authority was recognized. The Sheep-Herders Son This brings us to the case of Abraham the northern Mesopotamian sheep-herder who was called out by God to be the father of the Lord s own nation. Abraham s family was originally from the city of Ur of the Chaldeans, which later relocated to the city of Haran. Scholars believe that the family originally worshiped a tribal moon god. Whoever this tribal god was, when the Lord called to Abraham through dreams and visions Abraham was impressed enough to change his allegiance to the powerful new God that was speaking to him. Abraham was a very powerful chief of his own tribe, and he was also the protector of his nephew Lot who was the head of his own family that traveled with Abraham. God directed Abraham to take Lot, leave Harran, and pitch his tent and set up an altar right in the middle of the land of Canaan in the region of Bethel. When a famine came into the land Abraham s entire clan took refuge in Egypt for a time, but then they returned again to the area of Bethel when it was over. At this point Abraham and Lot separated, with Abraham settling in Canaan near Hebron and Lot taking the Jordan Valley. During this time there was a great war between an alliance of five kings that ruled over cities including Sodom and Gomorrah south of the Dead Sea, and an alliance of four kings who came with an army from Mesopotamia. The five kings were in a state of rebellion against their Mesopotamian overlords, and the great army of the Mesopotamian kings was brought in to punish them. An interesting thing to note is that, according to Genesis 14, before the Mesopotamian force attacked the five kings they first traveled to the south and defeated the Rephaim, the Zuzim and the Emim, which were Nephilim tribes (see Part III) that lived in the Negev desert. After the four Mesopotamian kings turned north and defeated and pillaged Sodom, Gomorrah and the other rebellious cities, they also captured Lot and his family, taking them as prisoners on their return journey home. The power of Abraham as a tribal chief is shown by the fact that at this point Abraham led his own army out to attack the Mesopotamian army, defeated it, rescued Lot and his family and took much plunder. After this successful operation Abraham journeyed to the land of Salem where he was blessed by King Melchizedek who was, according to Genesis 14:18, a priest of God Most High.

60 At this point God told Abraham that He would protect him, but Abraham voiced his greatest worry, which was the fact that he had no direct heir, no son that would carry on his name. To reassure Abraham God said that a descendent would indeed come from Abraham s own body, and then God directed Abraham to look into the night sky and told him that the number of his descendents would one day outnumber the stars. Sarah was the wife of Abraham, and she knew of the promise that God had made to Abraham. However, Sarah assumed that she was too old to bear children, so she had Abraham take her Egyptian slave Hagar as a wife, who gave birth to Ishmael, who became known as the father of the Arabs. Sarah s role had to be confirmed several years after the birth of Ishmael, when three angels appeared in Abraham s camp, one of whom was addressed as the LORD. This angel spoke directly to Sarah and said that despite her old age she would give birth to a son at the same time next year, to which Sarah just laughed. After she did have the son, who was named Isaac, Hagar and Ishmael were driven away from the camp, and the Lord told Abraham that through Isaac your descendants shall be named (Genesis 21:12). Several years later God called out to Abraham and Abraham was shattered when, in his mind, it appeared that God had reneged on His promise regarding Isaac. The story is related in Genesis 22, Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, Abraham! Here I am, he replied. Then God said, Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about. Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you. Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, Father? Yes, my son? Abraham replied. The fire and wood are here, Isaac said, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Abraham answered, God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son. And the two of them went on together. When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, Abraham! Abraham! Here I am, he replied. Do not lay a hand on the boy, he said. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son,

61 your only son. Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided. The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me. To fully understand what was involved on this occasion we have to understand the nature of pagan religious practice. Abraham had given up his old gods and had accepted the authority of a new god for his clan. This new god had blessed Abraham, protected Abraham, led Abraham to victory in battle, and given land and much prosperity to him and his family. For Abraham it was not completely unexpected that his new god would demand a demonstration of allegiance in return. Child-sacrifice was a practice known by Abraham to take place throughout the pagan world and so Abraham, as much as it must have hurt him, was resigned to what he had to do. The spiritual significance of this episode goes a great deal further, however. The region of Moriah where Abraham was directed to offer his sacrifice was located in the land of Salem, ruled over by the holy King Melchizedek. In the middle of this region there were three low mountains over which the city of Jeru-Salem was eventually built. The eastern mountain became known as the Mount of Olives, the western mountain became Mount Zion, and the middle mountain within this area of Moriah became known specifically as Mount Moriah. Mount Moriah had a lower plateau on which King Solomon built the Jewish Temple, a flat plateau now known as the Temple Mount. However the highest peak of Mount Moriah was to the north of the Temple Mount, and after the Romans conquered Israel it became known as Golgotha, "The Place of the Skull, because this is where criminals were often put to death. This was the very spot on which Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac, and it was the very place where Jesus Christ was executed by crucifixion. The book of Genesis was written about fourteen hundred years before the birth of Jesus Christ, and the place where He was executed was named The LORD Will Provide by Abraham. In the pagan world the greatest test of human devotion to the gods took the form of childsacrifice. There was no greater bond of love and loyalty that could possibly be tested. It was the ultimate sacrifice to ask a father or mother to make, but it was a sacrifice that was demanded by the gods throughout pagan civilization. It was truly a horrific and terrible form of religious devotion, and throughout the Old Testament the God of Israel referred to it as a detestable and abominable practice. After Abraham passed the test, and showed that he was willing to sacrifice Isaac to God, God stopped him and reiterated to him the promise that

62 through his offspring all nations on earth will be blessed. This blessing became a reality through the Messiah Jesus Christ, whose death on the topmost peak of Mount Moriah symbolized the complete overthrow of the pagan system of worship. Instead of mankind existing in a system where the gods demanded the sacrifice of our children as demonstrations of our allegiance to them, God turned this system on its head, and sacrificed His Son on our behalf, to demonstrate His love and devotion for us. This divine sacrifice marked the beginning of the end for the wicked angelic powers that ruled over the pagan world. The Nations Are Redeemed The very purpose of Israel was to bring forth the Messiah. The Old Testament prophets predicted many things about this future Redeemer, and gave him many titles that described what he would achieve. From Israel s perspective he was anticipated because they knew that the Messiah would conquer Israel s enemies, establish peace on earth, and make Jerusalem his throne and the capital of the world. The prophet Isaiah, however, predicted that the Messiah had a purpose greater than just magnifying Israel, and Isaiah s prophecies explained how the Messiah would be a blessing to all nations, Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name... And now the LORD says-- he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD and my God has been my strength-- he says: It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth. This is what the LORD says-- the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel-- to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation, to the servant of rulers: Kings will see you and rise up, princes will see and bow down, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you. (Isaiah 49:1-7) Isaiah predicted that the Messiah would be a light to the Gentiles, bringing salvation to the entire world, and that kings and princes would humble themselves before him. Isaiah also stated that this Redeemer would be formed in the womb and born. This was a fact that Isaiah makes known in another Messianic prophecy: For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his

63 kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. (Isaiah 9:6-7) The Messiah would be born as a son, but he would grow up to reign on David s throne forever. The prophet Daniel witnessed in a vision the exact moment when the Messiah will be given sovereignty and authority over this eternal kingdom that will include all peoples, nations and men of every language. As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened... In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. (Daniel 7:9-10,13-14) There are a number of interesting facts about this scene that Daniel witnessed. First of all, it is clearly a Divine Council scene, because thrones (plural) are set in place. After the Ancient of Days takes his seat on the primary throne, then the court is seated on their thrones and the books are opened, which signals a judgment. The result of the judgment is a transfer of authority. After the flood, at the start of the pagan era, the world had been divided among seventy of the angelic sons of God, but at this point in Daniel s vision (after authority is taken from the four beasts, which we will get to later) authority over the world is handed over to the figure who appears before God s throne like a son of man, which simply means that he appeared as a human being. This transfer of authority was anticipated during the ministry of Jesus. A short time after Jesus chose his twelve disciples he appointed exactly seventy other disciples. The Gospel of Luke (10:1-24) records that these disciples were sent out in pairs and were instructed to travel ahead of Jesus to every city and every place. When they entered a house they were instructed to first say Peace be to this house, and then to give the message that The kingdom of God is near you. Jesus told these seventy messengers that if they entered a city and were not accepted into any homes then they were to announce in the streets that the kingdom of God has come near. This appointment of exactly seventy disciples was a symbolic act that Jesus made, that predicted the downfall of the pagan world order and of the seventy fallen angelic princes

64 that ruled over it, and the triumph of the kingdom of God. When the seventy disciples returned to Jesus they joyfully announced to him, Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name. Jesus responded to them saying, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Then Jesus said to all of his disciples, Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. Jesus knew that He was the fulfillment of the very purpose of the nation of Israel, and that through him the nations would be redeemed from their spiritual enslavement to Satan and the fallen angels. Jesus explained the nature of his kingdom the kingdom of God at the very end of his ministry when he was brought before Pontius Pilate by the Jewish leaders that were lobbying for his execution. Pilate asked Jesus Are you the King of the Jews? Jesus responded saying, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm... You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. (John 18:36-37 NASB) The sacrifice of Jesus created a kingdom that has gradually emerged out of humanity as a whole. It is not an earthly kingdom, but a spiritual kingdom destined for heaven. When Jesus was sacrificed he did not take possession of the earth, but he did take authority away from Satan and the other fallen angelic princes because it created a way for all humanity to be redeemed to God out of the pagan system. The sacrifice of Jesus purchased a portion of humanity, and the entire earth, but the moment when Jesus takes physical possession of the earth is still to come. The first stage was the purchase, and the second is the possession, and in between these two stages is a period of time often referred to as the Church Age, when the heavenly kingdom of God expands throughout the physical world that is still possessed by Satan and the fallen angels. The Apostle Paul explains that the true Church made up of sincere believers and followers of Jesus Christ was created in part to demonstrate the wisdom of God to all of the angelic powers, good and evil, of this world and perhaps of others. Paul wrote (Ephesians 3:10-11) that God s intent was that...through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. The cosmic battle between good and evil that is being played out on the earth today is on

65 display, and its ultimate purpose is to demonstrate the goodness, justice and wisdom of God throughout the universe. The end of this battle is described in the book of Revelation, and the transfer of authority from the fallen angels into the hands of Jesus Christ is explained near the beginning of the book. John s vision of heaven begins when he sees God the Father sitting on the throne and the twenty-four elders sitting on thrones surrounding Him (Revelation 4). In His right hand God Almighty holds a scroll that has writing on the inside and on the outside that is sealed with seven seals. This scroll is similar to an ancient Hebrew title deed that would contain the actual deed written on the inside with the owner s name written on the outside. The seven-sealed scroll is actually the title deed to the earth, and God the Father holds it in his hand until Jesus Christ is ready to take physical possession of the earth. According to Revelation Jesus earned the right to take the scroll the moment that he was slain, but he has waited to open it for almost two-thousand years. During this period it is as if the earth has been in the escrow phase, after a property is purchased but before the purchase is confirmed and the new owner takes physical possession and moves in. In Revelation, after Jesus Christ finally takes the scroll from the right hand of God the Father, the twenty-four elders sing a song: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth. (Revelation 5:9-10) Notice that the purchase was made in the past, and the kingdom was created in the past (at the moment Jesus was slain), but the reign of this kingdom on the earth is stated to be in the future: they will reign. As John s vision unfolds the seven seals of the scroll are broken one by one, and the seventh seal is explained to contain seven trumpets. These seven trumpets are then blown one by one, and when the seventh is blown heaven finally proclaims (Revelation 11:15), The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever. This proclamation signals the final phase when Jesus Christ will destroy the wicked and take physical possession of the earth. At this point the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God will finally become one and the same. The End of the Gods The prophet Isaiah described what would happen to the fallen angelic forces that currently have power over the kingdom of the world in two passages that describe the cataclysmic Day of the Lord and its aftermath,

66 The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is thoroughly shaken. The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls--never to rise again. In that day the LORD will punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below. They will be herded together like prisoners bound in a dungeon; they will be shut up in prison and be punished after many days. (Isaiah 24:19-22) Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter... And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. (Isaiah 34:1-4 KJV) Isaiah predicted that the host of heaven that are the powers in the heaven above that ruled over the pagan world will be captured, punished, and ultimately dissolved. The prophet Jeremiah wrote simply that (10:11), These gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under the heavens. The Apostle Paul encouraged the church at Corinth when he looked to the future saying (1 Corinthians 6:2-3), Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?...do you not know that we will judge angels? At this final judgment of the heavenly powers the tables will be turned, and mankind that once worshiped the fallen angels will sentence them to death. This judgment will take place at the end of the Day of the Lord, and was viewed by John who wrote (Revelation 20:4), I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. We have seen that the earth is governed according to a multi-tiered hierarchy. God possesses ultimate authority at the top level of this hierarchy, along with Jesus Christ. However, during the pagan era, direct rule of the original seventy pagan nations of the world was temporarily given over to the second-tier of the hierarchy, which was occupied by seventy of the angelic sons of God, who eventually, if not from the beginning, were dominated by Satan. These angelic powers ruled over the third level of the hierarchy which was occupied by humankind. The sacrifice of Jesus made the entire second-tier of the ruling hierarchy irrelevant, at least for that portion of humanity that accepted Jesus as the means through which to become reconciled with our creator God the Father. The Apostle Paul explains that when a human being becomes a believer in the Gospel they become a son of God. Through Jesus Christ human beings become elevated within the ruling hierarchy to the very second-tier level, becoming sons of

67 God and replacing the ruling angelic sons of God that have authority over the pagan world who also stand condemned for their mis-rule and mistreatment of humanity. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26-28) In the eighth chapter of the book of Romans Paul offers further evidence for this new situation, For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children... The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed... We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time... For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers... What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:13-39) Son of Man Son of God The title Son of Man was a title that Jesus Christ often used for himself throughout his ministry. Near the very beginning of his ministry Jesus upset the Pharisees when he healed a man and claimed to be the Son of Man who had been given authority to forgive sins (Matthew 9:6). The Pharisees considered this to be a blasphemous claim.

68 At the end of his ministry, after Jesus had been arrested and brought before Caiaphas the High Priest, Caiaphas accused Jesus of claiming to be the Christ, the Son of God. To this Jesus responded that the accusations were true just as Caiaphas had stated them, and then Jesus claimed that he was the Son of Man who would one day sit at the right hand of the Almighty, and be seen coming on the clouds of heaven (Matthew 26:64). At this point Caiaphas tore his clothes and the accusers who were gathered around demanded that Jesus be put to death. Jesus was clearly claiming to be the Vice-Regent of Yahweh- Elohim that Daniel the prophet had written about centuries earlier (Daniel 7:13-14). Jesus was making an unmistakable Messianic claim and a blasphemous claim, to be punished by death, if it was false. This brings us to the other title that Jesus used of himself, although much less often, which was Son of God. In the Old Testament there were many sons of God, which was simply another name for the angelic host of heaven that were given their temporary chance to rule over humanity. Old Testament Judaism understood the reality of these sons of God, yet they also understood that there would appear another figure who would be an entirely unique and singular Son of God. That figure was understood to be the Messiah. The two Messianic prophecies of Isaiah given above (9:6 and 49:1) both state that the Messiah would be born. The fact that this figure, who would be born as a son of man, would also be the son of God is hinted at in Proverbs 30:4, written by King Solomon, Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and the name of his son? Tell me if you know! This verse is composed of six questions. The first four ask who did this? The answer to all of them is God. The fifth question is what is God s name? God s name became known to the Israelites hundreds of years after God chose Abraham when Moses asked God s name and God told him, I AM WHO I AM... say to the sons of Israel, I AM has sent me to you (Exodus 3:14). This answer is rendered in Hebrew with the four-letter word that basically translates as YHVH. It is a name that was once unknown to Israel. The sixth question of Solomon s proverb is what is the name of God s son? This answer was unknown in Solomon s time, which is why he teases his Old Testament audience, challenging them to Tell me if you know! Another Old Testament prophecy that shows that the Messiah would be God s unique Son is Psalms 2:7-12, I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, You are my Son; today I have become your Father. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance,

69 the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery. Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Jesus is the name of the Messiah, and Jesus was identified by God as His son at the moment that Jesus was baptized as recorded in Matthew 3:16-17, As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Jesus Christ was always identified as the Son of God and never as a son of God, which would have put him on the same second-tier level of Michael, Gabriel, Satan, and the rest of the host of heaven, both good and evil. The single most important characteristic of the Messiah the Son of God that sets him apart from the angelic sons of God, and apart from the human beings who become sons of God through acceptance of the sacrifice of Jesus, was the fact that all of these other sons of God are created beings, while the essence of the Messiah is pre-existent. The Messiah was predicted throughout the Old Testament to be a manifestation of God in human flesh, and Jesus of Nazareth was confirmed as the fulfillment of these prophecies in the New Testament. The idea that Jesus, the adopted son of a carpenter from Nazareth, was in fact God Almighty is one of the hardest ideas for modern secular society to accept, but it is also a doctrine that is repeatedly confirmed in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. What follows is simply one of many Biblical proofs: The Alpha and the Omega The book of Revelation was written by John, the favorite and most faithful of Jesus twelve disciples. The book begins with a short introduction and then John addresses the seven churches that are in Asia with greetings from God the Father and from Jesus Christ. John writes that Jesus will soon be coming and that every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him... which is a quote from the prophet Zechariah that we will return to shortly. John then gives the message from God the Father (Revelation 1:8), which is: I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.

70 The description that God gives of Himself is basically the same as the answer that God gave to Moses when Moses asked for God s name. God told Moses I AM THAT I AM and in Revelation God refers to himself as the One who is and who was and who is to come. God is simply the Eternally Existent One. He existed before the universe was created and He will continue to exist after it passes away. The phrase I am the Alpha and the Omega appears in the original Greek text with single Greek letters instead of the words Alpha and Omega. They are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Here is a better representation of the text: 'I am the Α and the Ω ' says the Lord God... After the introduction at the beginning of the book of Revelation John begins his narrative with a description of how his apocalyptic vision began. John was resting on a Sunday and suddenly he heard a voice behind him that sounded like a trumpet. John turned around and saw Jesus appearing in all His glory as John had never seen Him before. John writes (Revelation 1:17-18), When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead. Then He placed His right hand on me and said: Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever... When Jesus says that He is the First and the Last He is saying that He is the same as God the Father, the Alpha and the Omega. Jesus makes this claim again at the very end of Revelation when He says (22:12-13), Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. At the beginning of Revelation the Lord God who sits on the throne says that He is the Alpha and the Omega and at the end of Revelation Jesus Christ says that He is the Alpha and the Omega, the One who has always, and will always, exist. Now, from the very last chapter of the very last book of the Bible we go to the very first chapter of the very first book of the Bible. Below is Genesis 1:1 as written in the original Hebrew and as translated into English word for word. It is a passage holy to Jews, Christians and even Muslims, that was dictated to Moses by God and written down about 3500 years ago:

71 Hebrew is read from right to left, and this text says (roughly), In beginning created God (***) the heavens and the earth. The two letter word which appears after God is always left un-translated. That is because it is not a word it is simply two Hebrew letters, an Aleph and a Tov. These letters are the first and the last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. With that in mind it seems that perhaps this verse should be translated, "In beginning created God (the Aleph and the Tov) the heavens and the earth," or with English grammar, In the beginning God the Aleph and the Tov created the heavens and the earth. In the book of Genesis God begins by making the subtle statement in Hebrew implying that He is the Aleph and the Tov, and in the book of Revelation He ends by repeating that statement in Greek, saying I am the Alpha and the Omega. Remember that when Jesus was introduced at the beginning of the book of Revelation John wrote, Look, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him. The references to the piercing of Jesus and the mourning that will occur when He returns are both taken from an Old Testament prophecy given by Zechariah about 500 years before the birth of Jesus (Zechariah 12:10), And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. In this prophecy God speaks through Zechariah about the time at the very end of the apocalyptic Day of the Lord when the leaders of Israel will lead the entire nation to repent, accept Jesus as the Messiah, and acknowledge with great sorrow their rejection and abuse of Him. Read carefully starting with verse 10 to discover exactly who Zechariah predicted would be pierced. Below is the original Hebrew text of this passage, read from right to left, translated into English word for word. It is the very same Masoretic Hebrew text, transmitted down through the ages letter for letter, which is used by the Jewish Publication Society and held sacred throughout Judaism to this day:

72 God was sacrificed on that cross for us. On this you can believe. Back to Index Peter Goodgame December 10, 2004 "You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity