Truth or Tradition Part 2 New Living Translation (NLT) As we saw last week, our lives are heavily influenced by man's traditions and mandates in our search to justify ourselves before God. In the search for God we have sinned by wanting to please Him in our own ways or in traditions learned through religion seemed as legitimate ways of pleasing God. Today I would like to bring a teaching that will help us understand the roots of many beliefs that disagree with the word of God, and how the church has been deceived for a long time. I would like to begin with this story told in the book of Genesis: Genesis 10:1 This is the account of the families of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the three sons of Noah. Many children were born to them after the great flood. Genesis 10:6-9 The descendants of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. 7 The descendants of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The descendants of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan. 8 Cush was also the ancestor of Nimrod, who was the first heroic warrior on earth. 9 Since he was the greatest hunter in the world, his name became proverbial. People would say, This man is like Nimrod, the greatest hunter in the world. The Bible describes Nimrod as a powerful man, who built many cities and is believed to be the first world empire in all of human history. But we also know that Nimrod was a wicked and evil man, who revealed himself against God and established idolatrous worship and forcibly subdued the people of the East. Nimrod = Ninus = Man hunter Nineveh = City of Ninus Babel = Babylon We also know of Nimrod that he had a wife named Semiramis and that Nimrod dies murdered and dismembered and thrown to a river. Mythology tells us that his wife Semiramis collected all parts of his body except for his reproductive member that was eaten by a fish. That's why Nimrod gets another name: Dagon, which means half man half fish. Dagon is the diminutive of dag and means fish. The Babylonians believed that a being, part man and part fish, emerged from the sea and appeared in Babylon at the beginning of its history. Representations of this fish god have been found among the cultures of Ninive... " -Uses and Customs of the Bible, James Freeman This same story tells us that Semiramis takes control of the kingdom after her husband died and that she declared herself the goddess of "Rhea" or mother of the gods the queen of heaven since Nimrod had already been declared as a god, the sun god. Semiramis becomes pregnant after her husband dies and she declares that this son is the reincarnation of her dead husband and that his conception has been through the rays of sun (his husband being the sun god). His son Tammuz is called the reincarnation of his father and therefore a sun god. Tammuz then dies suddenly at age 40, stroked by a boar (a pig).
As part of the idolatrous worship of Tammuz there was a lament over the death of Tammuz. The women (usually) grieved for their death for 40 days representing the age at which they died, in which they ate only fish and at the close of the 40 days they ate pork as an indication of the form of their death. Ezekiel 8:12-16 Then the Lord said to me, Son of man, have you seen what the leaders of Israel are doing with their idols in dark rooms? They are saying, The Lord doesn t see us; he has deserted our land! 13 Then the Lord added, Come, and I will show you even more detestable sins than these! 14 He brought me to the north gate of the Lord s Temple, and some women were sitting there, weeping for the god Tammuz. 15 Have you seen this? he asked. But I will show you even more detestable sins than these! 16 Then he brought me into the inner courtyard of the Lord s Temple. At the entrance to the sanctuary, between the entry room and the bronze altar, there were about twenty-five men with their backs to the sanctuary of the Lord. They were facing east, bowing low to the ground, worshiping the sun! The Bible tells a story later in Genesis 11, where in that same city that was built by Nimrod, the city of babel, a tower was built. God then sees an imminent danger in what they were building and then He confuses the language of the people so that they could not understand each other and scattered them all over the world so that they cannot fulfill their purposes. The kingdom of Nimrod was the beginning for all idolatry and rebellion against God, and those inhabitants who worshiped different gods were scattered throughout the world. That s what we have in the history of diverse cultures. Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, Mexico "The Pyramid of the Sun of Teotihuacán, in Mexico, was erected between the 50 and 200 years of the B.C. It was built with adobes covered with stone, with the board-slope system and reaches a height of 61 meters. A ceremonial staircase leads to its summit, where a temple stands. " Bridgeman Art Library, London / New York / Tom Owen Edmunds Microsoft Encarta Query Library 2005. From two thousand years B. C., there were already groups of human beings in remote parts of the earth, some with well-developed organizations and economies. For example, in the Western Hemisphere: -The Olmec people, ancient town of the southern Gulf of Mexico that originated the oldest civilization in Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America), and whose splendor dates from approximately 1500 to 900 B.C. (Microsoft Encarta 2005 Query Library 1993-2004 Microsoft Corporation). The Mayans date from fifteen hundred years B.C. The Incas, from one thousand one hundred years B.C.
-How do you explain the presence of so many human beings in such places on earth centuries before Christ? The answer is found in Genesis 11:9. God himself scattered them over the face of the whole earth. It says: the face of ALL THE EARTH. - How to explain the intriguing similarity between the pyramids of Babylon and Egypt with those of Central and South America, separated by thousands of kilometers of seas and lands? Here is an entirely reasonable explanation of the writer: Human beings, scattered from Babel over "the face of the whole earth," they carried in their minds the design and purpose of the "tower of Babel." The "tower of Babel" was not a cylindrical or quadrangular structure, but a "ziguret", that is to say, a pyramidal construction. Both the pyramids of Egypt and those of the Western Hemisphere imitate the ancient Sumerian architecture of the "tower of Babel," astonishing to confirm the truth of Genesis 11:9. Taken from http://www.editoriallapaz.org/nimrod_semiramis_babel.htm Another interesting fact is the fact that worship of the sun god appears in all these civilizations and even civilizations and empires after these. The worship of the sun god is found, for example, in Egyptian mythology. The sun god is called Osiris, his wife is called Isis and his son Horus. According to Egyptian mythology, Osiris (Nimrod) was guilty of corrupting the religion of Adan, his wife's name was Isis (or Semiramis). Osiris was killed and her body was cut into numerous pieces to spread throughout Egypt, Isis had the courage to gather all the pieces of her husband to resurrect him from the dead and later his son Horus was born. Later, Horus took revenge for the death of his father. In addition, Horus also wanted to become the governor of Egypt. Horus was worship throughout the Egyptian territory. She is one of the superior deities and certainly one of the oldest. In the land of Canaan including the Israelites worship the sun god who s name was Baal (Nimrod) and Ashtoreth or Ashtarte (Easter in English) the same Semiramis. As described in the Bible: Judges 2:11-14 The Israelites did evil in the Lord s sight and served the images of Baal. 12 They abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They went after other gods, worshiping the gods of the people around them. And they angered the Lord. 13 They abandoned the Lord to serve Baal and the images of Ashtoreth. 14 This made the Lord burn with anger against Israel, so he handed them over to raiders who stole their possessions. He turned them over to their enemies all around, and they were no longer able to resist them. 1 Samuel 7:3-4 "Then Samuel said to all the people of Israel, If you want to return to the Lord with all your hearts, get rid of your foreign gods and your images of Ashtoreth. Turn your hearts to the Lord and obey him alone; then he will rescue you from the Philistines. 4 So the Israelites got rid of their images of Baal and Ashtoreth and worshiped only the Lord. And so other cultures adapted the cult to the sun god and the goddess of the sky in their own names and traditions. Semiramis + Tammuz --- Babylon
Isis + Horus -------------- Egypt Shingmoo or Holy Mother --- Chinese Herta (virgin + baby in arms) - Germanos Disa ------ Scandinavian or Nordic (Norway Sweden) Otter ---- Etruscans (pre romans) Tonatzin ----- Aztecs Indrani + Chitragupta - Indues Virgo Paritura ----- Druids (England) Aphrodite + Ceres --- Greeks Nuna ---- Sumerians (pre Babylonians) Inanna or Nana --- Sumerians (pre Babylonians) Venus or Fortune + Jupiter ---- Romans Devaki + Krisha ---- Indus Isi (Great Goddess) + Iswara ---- Indus Cibeles + Deoius ---- As Ashtoreth + Baal ----- Canaan (Palestine) Queen of heaven - supposed virgin wife of Baal-Canaan (Israel) I would like to focus on one of these adaptations of the sun god, Mithras. Mithras is a god known from antiquity, mainly in Persia and India. Originally it was a Sun god. This one is represented to as a young man, with a cap, killing with his hands a bull. The worship of the god Mithraism became the predominant religion of the Roman Empire between the 1st and 4th A.D. Mithras, like other sun gods, is said to have been born on the winter solstice at the end of December around December 25. Legends tell that the winter solstice, because it is the day when the sun hides sooner, is affected by the fact that the sun god was sick but will be recover or reincarnate. As when Nimrod supposedly reincarnated in his son Tammuz the day of his birth. Mithras and Tammuz are not the only ones who claim to have been born on December 25; Also Osiris, Horus, Hercules, Bacchus, Adonis, Jupiter, and others. When it became evident that the days were getting longer, there was great rejoicing because of the promise that the days would lengthen. Then, the central idea of the winter solstice - the return of light - was instituted as a day of great celebration. In ancient Rome, and more in ancient Babylon, this festival was characterized by drunkenness, wild festivity and orgies that began with an innocent kiss under the mistletoe and then led to the justification of all kinds of sexual excesses, perversions and abominations. Mithraism remained until the 4th century AD. When mysteriously disappeared almost at the same time that Christianity was declared by Constantine as the new religion of the Roman Empire. Who was Constantine? Constantine was emperor of the Romans, and was a devotee of Mithras; A worshiper of the sun god. He was educated in the worship of the Sun God (Sol Invictus), whose symbol he carried and whose worship was officially associated with that of the emperor. During his reign, his kingdom was divided religiously among the worshipers of Mithras and Christian worshipers who grew in number and influence throughout the territory of the Roman Empire. Constantine's
response was to authorize Christian worship and establish it as the official religion of the empire by substituting Roman official paganism. Constantine converted to Christianity after he supposedly had an encounter with Jesus Christ through a dream, but far from being a Christian practitioner of the truth, forced Christians to accept the pagan practices of the sun god. As a result of all this, church controversies turned into violent protests. This is why Constantine call up the First Council of Nicaea to work on doctrinal problems. The council of Nicaea compelled all believers in the Messiah to abandon all biblical worship practices including the observance of the Sabbath, Passover, the feast of tabernacles, and every appointed time. Constantine made it illegal for pure foods to be consumed and forced everyone to eat unclean things like pork. He changed all the customs of holy days, and this is what every antichrist has done. For example we can read from the Maccabees, Antiochus Epiphanies when he did exactly the same. The prophet Daniel speaks of this Daniel 7:25 He will defy the Most High and oppress the holy people of the Most High. He will try to change their sacred festivals and laws, Many of the believers in the Messiah who obeyed the commandments, worshiped on the Sabbaths, kept the appointed times, and refused to renounce the scriptures were killed. They paid with their lives. In the fifth century, the Western Church ordered that the birth of the Messiah to be celebrated on the day of the ancient Roman feast of the birth of the sun to preserve its pagan traditions. They simply changed the name of their sun god for the name of Jesus our Messiah. Paul predicted of this time as follows: Acts 20:29-30 I know that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. 30 Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following. It should be noted that the apostles and the early church observed and kept the Sabbath and the festivals established in the law and not the festivals that we Christians are currently celebrating. Adaptation of Pagan Symbolism in Christianity: What comes to represent exactly an obelisk? At the moment it is understood that, originally these obelisks were associated with the cult to the god "Sun". The pagans, noting that the sun gave life to plants and man, worshiped him as a God, the great bestower of life. Moreover, as they also noted that through sexual intercourse life was produced, the phallus, male reproductive organ, was also recognized as a symbol of life and, therefore, a symbol of the sun god. Hence the meaning of the obelisk as a phallic symbol of worship to the sun god, creator of life. The cross Some observe the similarity of the layout of the Plaza and the Cathedral of San Pedro with the symbol of the "crossed cross", and of the figure of eight points (that can be seen well from an
aerial view), with the symbol of the Babylonian gods Ishtar and Shamash. Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of love and war, was associated primarily with sexuality: her worship involved sacred prostitution. The symbol called "Mirror of Venus" is used to represent the Roman goddess Venus, which is also used to represent the planet Venus, and in biology is applied to refer to the female sex. Etymologically, Venus could come from "vanas," which in Sanskrit means "adorability," "desire," "longing," suggesting a proto-european "wen-wish" relationship. Venus was the goddess of love, beauty and fertility, and is the assimilation of the Sumerian Inanna, the Babylonian Ishtar, the Phoenician Astarte, the Israeli Ashteroth and the Greek Aphrodite. Finally, as we are leaving the architectural, we find that it is customary for the papal pallium to carry the image of the "cross patada" (because of its widening in the "legs"). This type of cross in different variations has precedents in the cultures of Mesopotamia, With other meanings. For example, the following depiction of King Shamshi-Adad V (824-811 BCE), with a cross kick (smoothed and rounded), which was the alternate symbol of the sun god and justice Shamash" Pastor Claudia Londono