Procreation: A Gift From God

Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
(Psalms 127:3 KJV)

When the Lord created Adam and Eve, He implanted within them the power of  procreation. Procreation is the inherent ability to bring another human being into existence at any time a man and woman chooses to do so, unless the Lord wills otherwise.

We living today were not created by a direct act of God. We were born of our parents, just as our parents were born of their parents before them, and so on.

In the Book of Genesis, it is clearly stated, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:27 KJV) and “This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created” (Genesis 5:1-2 KJV).

There is a truth found in Scripture in the Book of Genesis. Unfortunately, most believers and theologians overlook this passage. It is written, “And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth” (Genesis 5:3 KJV).

God clearly created Adam and Eve in His image and His likeness. Adam and Eve were innocent and perfect. This was before sin corrupted them after the fall of man. However, Seth was not directly created by God, as was his father Adam. Rather, Seth was procreated by the gift of procreation that the Lord had placed within Adam and Eve.

Neither Seth, nor any of our offspring are created in the image or likeness of God, this is because of sin. God is perfect and cannot sin. We are not. This is why Adam and Yeshua is refereed to as “the first Adam” and “the last Adam” in Scripture. In his epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul wrote, “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:45-47 KJV).  The Apostle Paul also said, “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence” (Colossians 1:15-18 KJV). The Apostle Paul said “all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” This certainly discredits anyone who wishes to disregard Yeshua as a “created” being.

Our children are not directly created by God as were Adam and Eve. Rather, our children are “procreated” by the inherent power of procreation that Almighty God has placed within us, a gift that has been passed on from parents to their children throughout human history.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:12-21 KJV).

One can only wish that other believers would understand this truth. If they did, perhaps they would regard the gift of procreation as a holy gift, given by God only for the pleasure and enjoyment of a man and woman legally and morally married in the sight of God. If the power of procreation was acknowledged and respected as a holy gift from God, there wouldn’t be all of the sexual immorality that is sweeping the world today. The ignorance among mankind, and especially over the perversion, defilement, depravity, and abuse of such an awesome gift from our gracious God. The power to procreate should be respected and held in purity, cleanliness, and holiness by every human being.

Yeshua said, “And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:4-6 KJV).

The power to procreate was given by the Lord only to mankind, animals, birds, fish, and other earthly living creatures. Since the Lord bestowed such power upon mankind, the Lord can intervene in the use of that power at any time He chooses to do so.

The Word of God gives us several examples of the Lord “closing the womb” so that certain women could not have children. In the Book of Genesis, we read, “Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai” (Genesis 16:1-2 KJV), “So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children. For the LORD had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham’s wife” (Genesis 20:17-18 KJV) and “And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. And Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God’s stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?” (Genesis 30:1-2 KJV).

Likewise, we read that, “But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion; for he loved Hannah: but the LORD had shut up her womb. And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb” (1 Samuel 1:5-6 KJV).

The Apostle Paul wrote, “(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform” (Romans 4:17-21 KJV).

Those are several passages in Scripture in which God chose to close the womb. However, we also find God opening the womb several times throughout Scripture.

On the Book of Genesis we read, “And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren” (Genesis 29:31 KJV) and “And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb. And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach” (Genesis 30:22-23 KJV).

The birth of Samuel is God’s answer to the prayer of a childless woman; he is also the answer to Israel’s need for a prophet who will give God’s guidance to his people in their transition from the period of the judges to the period of the kings. It is written, “And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the LORD, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the LORD remembered her. Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD” (1 Samuel 1:19-20 KJV).

Likewise, the Virgin Mary was told by an angel that she would conceive and bare a son, the Messiah of Israel. It is written, “And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:26-33 KJV).

Throughout most of human history, when a Godly woman could not have a child, she went to the Lord in fervent prayer.

When Eli and Hannah desperately wanted a child, they took their request directly to God. It is written, “So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the LORD. And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore. And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head” (1 Samuel 1:9-11 KJV).

This principle was echoed by Yeshua, who said, “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him” (Matthew 6:6-8 KJV) and “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” (Matthew 7:7-11 KJV).

When a Christian woman cannot conceive today, they make an appointment with a physician who specializes in infertility for a battery of tests. It would appear that society has their priorities completely backward. As a society, we need to prioritize our relationship with God.

Yeshua HaMashiach summed it up best when He said, “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Matthew 6:25-34 KJV).

The Woman Rides A Beast

The Lion of Babylon, large and splendidly carved in basalt, reminds us again that the lion was the symbol of the goddess Ishtar. In the sculpture, the lion's back has marks indicating that it was meant for a precious saddle upon which the goddess Ishtar would stand.

And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
(Revelation 17:1-6 KJV)

The Lion of Babylon is an ancient Babylonian symbol. The Lion of Babylon symbolically represented the King of Babylon.

The Star of Venus also called the Star of Ishtar is an ancient symbol originating in Iraq used as early as 2000 BCE that represents the planet Venus, historically to represent the Babylonian and Assyrian Goddess Ishtar that are connected with Venus, as well as being historically used by Phoenician culture to represent Venus and the goddess Astarte (a counterpart of Ishtar).

For additional information concerning the Archaeology of Ancient Babylon, please see this link.

Nimrod according to the Book of Genesis and Books of Chronicles, the son of Cush and great-grandson of Noah and the king of Shinar. He is depicted in the Tanakh as a man of power in the earth, and a mighty hunter. Extra-Biblical traditions associating him with the Tower of Babel led to his reputation as a king who was rebellious against God.

Ishtar was the god of love and war above all associated with sexuality: her cult involved sacred prostitution; her holy city Uruk was called the “town of the sacred courtesans”; and she herself was the “courtesan of the gods”. Ishtar had many lovers; however, as Guirand notes,

“Woe to him whom Ishtar had honoured! The fickle goddess treated her passing lovers cruelly, and the unhappy wretches usually paid dearly for the favours heaped on them. Animals, enslaved by love, lost their native vigour: they fell into traps laid by men or were domesticated by them. ‘Thou has loved the lion, mighty in strength’, says the hero Gilgamesh to Ishtar, ‘and thou hast dug for him seven and seven pits! Thou hast loved the steed, proud in battle, and destined him for the halter, the goad and the whip.’ Even for the gods Ishtar’s love was fatal. In her youth the goddess had loved Tammuz, god of the harvest, and—if one is to believe Gilgamesh—this love caused the death of Tammuz.”

The Epic of Gilgamesh can be downloaded at in Adobe PDF format at this link.

The name of Semiramis came to be applied to various monuments in Western Asia, the origin of which was forgotten or unknown. Ultimately every stupendous work of antiquity by the Euphrates or in Iran seems to have been ascribed to her, even the Behistun Inscription of Darius. Herodotus ascribes to her the artificial banks that confined the Euphrates and knows her name as borne by a gate of Babylon. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World are also known as the Hanging Gardens of Semiramis.

Like Ishtar, the Greek Aphrodite and Northwestern Semitic Astarte were love goddesses who were “as cruel as they were wayward”. Donald A. Mackenzie, an early popularizer of mythology, draws a parallel between the love goddess Aphrodite and her “dying god” lover Adonis on one hand, and the love goddess Ishtar and her “dying god” lover Tammuz on the other. Some scholars have suggested that,

“The myth of Adonis was derived in post-Homeric times by the Greeks indirectly from Mesopotamia (Assyria and Babylonia) through the Western Semites, the Semitic title ‘Adon‘, meaning ‘lord’, having been mistaken for a proper name. This theory, however, cannot be accepted without qualifications.”

Joseph Campbell, a more recent scholar of comparative mythology, equates Ishtar, Inanna, and Aphrodite, and he draws a parallel between the Egyptian goddess Isis who nurses Horus, and the Babylonian goddess Ishtar who nurses the god Tammuz.

For further study on Ancient Babylon, I highly recommend the following website.

• Mystery Babylon

Although the late Alexander Hislop‘s, “The Two Babylons or The Papal Worship Proved to be the Worship of Nimrod and his Wife” has received much bad press and has been denounced in Catholicism, I highly recommend it. It can be downloaded in Adobe PDF format at this link.

The Queen of Heaven is a title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary by Christians, mainly of the Roman Catholic Church, and also, to some extent, in the Anglican, Lutheran, and Eastern Orthodox churches, to whom the title is a (disputed) consequence of the Council of Ephesus in the fifth century, where the Virgin Mary was proclaimed “theotokos” (“God-bearer,” “birthgiver of God” or the “one who gives birth to God” among other translations), a title rendered in Latin as Mater Dei, “Mother of God“.

In the Roman Catholic tradition “Mariology is Christology developed to its full potential.” Mary and her son Jesus are very close but not identical in Catholic theology. Mary contributes to a fuller understanding of her Son, who Christ is and what He did. A Christology without Mary is erroneous in the Roman Catholic view, because it is not based on the total revelation of the Bible. Traces of this parallel interpretation go back to the early days of Christianity and numerous saints have since focused on it.

The development of this approach continued into the 20th century, e.g. in his 1946 publication “Compendium Mariologiae”, the respected Mariologist Gabriel Roschini explained that Mary not only participated in the birth of the physical Jesus, but, with conception, she entered with him into a spiritual union. The divine salvation plan, being not only material, includes a permanent spiritual unity with Christ. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) wrote,

It is necessary to go back to Mary if we want to return to that “truth about Jesus Christ,” “truth about the Church” and “truth about man”.

The Prophet Jeremiah wrote about the “Queen of Heaven” in reference to a pagan goddess know as Ishtar. He wrote, “Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?” (Jeremiah 7:17-19 KJV).

Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying, As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto thee. But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine. And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men?
(Jeremiah 44:15-19 KJV)

The relation between the Christian title and similar pagan cults is one reason why the Protestant Churches usually avoid such titles as “Queen of Heaven“. The title Queen of Heaven was used in antiquity by various religious systems. In particular, it was used by the prophet Jeremiah, probably in reference to Asherah, a goddess worshipped as the consort of Yahweh in ancient Israel and Judah and in the Temple of Yahweh in Elephantine in Upper Egypt. The only Biblical use of the title “Queen of Heaven” is in Jeremiah denouncing the idolatrous worship of Ashtoreth.

The Prophet Ezekiel was shown similar abominations by Hashem, “And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me. Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber. And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy. And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain. Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry. He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations. And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall. Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door. And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about. And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up. Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth. He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do. Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD’S house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD’S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east. Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose. Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them” (Ezekiel 8:1-18 KJV).

This wickedness has been with us since the Tower of Babel and was instituted by Nimrod (The Original Antichrist), Semiramis and Tammuz. The Virgin Mary and Yeshua are representative of Semiramis (Ishtar) and Tammuz. Taken as a whole, Nimrod, Semiramis and Tammuz represent the “unholy trinity.”

Furthermore,  Praying to the dead is strictly forbidden in the Bible. It is written, “When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee” (Deuteronomy 18:9-12 KJV).

• http://www.gotquestions.org/praying-to-the-dead.html

Saint John the Divine wrote, “And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men. And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all. The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city! And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate. Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her. And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth” (Revelation 18:1-24 KJV).

The picture on the back of the Greek €2 coin is that of the Goddess Europa, who according to Greek mythology, rode on the back of a bull. As far as I understand, the bull was actually Zeus in disguise, and in the story he throws Europa off his back and rapes her.

For additional currency with more images of the Beast in official European literature and coinage, see this link.

Sean Reichle wrote, “What goes around comes around, so if what you’re facing hasn’t come full circle, it’s still on the move!” The Book of Genesis is the first book in the Holy Bible and the Torah. After the Great Flood (sorry Wikipedia, it is no myth), sin entered the world again through Nimrod. How fitting that sin will end with Nimrod in the Book of Revelation.

Master of the Moon

Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD’S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.
(Jeremiah 51:7 KJV)

The Fertile Crescent, nicknamed “The Cradle of Civilization” due to the birth of various kingdoms within its borders, is a crescent-shaped region containing the comparatively moist and fertile land of otherwise arid and semi-arid Western Asia.

In current usage the Fertile Crescent has a maximum extent and a minimum extent. All definitions include Mesopotamia, the land in and around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The major nation in this region is Iraq, with small portions of Iran near the Persian Gulf, Kuwait to the south and Turkey in the north. More typically the Fertile Crescent includes also the Levantine coast of the Mediterranean Sea, with Syria, Jordan, Israel, and Lebanon. Water sources include the Jordan River. At maximum extent, the Fertile Crescent also may include Egypt and the Nile Valley within it. The inner boundary is delimited by the dry climate of the Syrian Desert to the south. Around the outer boundary are the arid and semi-arid lands of the Zagros Mountains to the east, the Anatolian Highlands to the north, and the Sahara Desert to the west.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertile_Crescent

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a pagan as a follower of any polytheistic religion. It would be fair to extend this definition to the worship of any false god(s) or goddess(s), those without any religion, and those who worship any god other than Yahweh (YHWH), the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

• http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pagan
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytheism

Immediately following the Great Flood, Noah and his family were blessed by God and told to, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” (Genesis 9:1).

Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood. The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah. And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations. And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan. And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan. And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city. And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
(Genesis 10:1-12, 11:1-4 KJV)

Instead of accepting God’s blessing and obeying His commandment, people settled on the plains of Shinar and began to establish a kingdom and build a tower (Tower of Babel) in direct opposition and disobedience to God’s wishes and commandments.

The Tower of Babel is historical account of a unified humanity using all its resources to establish a city that is the antithesis of what God intended when he created the world. The Tower of Babel is a symbol of human autonomy, and the city builders see themselves as determining and establishing their own destiny without any reference to God.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel

The Ancient Babylonian enterprise was all about human independence and self-sufficiency apart from God. The builders believed that they had no need of God. Their technology and social unity give them confidence in their own ability, and they have high aspirations, constructing a tower with its top in the heavens. Contrary to God’s plan that people should fill the earth, the city-building project is designed to prevent the population from being dispersed over the face of the whole earth.

Nimrod’s hunting was not just for animals, but for the souls of men. He sought to turn people away from God. The Jerusalem Targum has Nimrod saying, “Depart from the judgement of God, and follow the judgement of Nimrod.” Genesis informs us that Nimrod was building his own kingdom. He was establishing a centralized society in much the same way as the leaders United Nations and the European Union are today. His government would control resources and the workforce. A self-sufficient society, under one leader, with no need for God. Nimrod’s kingdom was to be a satanic counterfeit of the coming Messianic Kingdom, for he had established himself as mankind’s savior. Nimrod is Satan’s first attempt to raise up a human universal ruler of men. There have been many subsequent attempts, such as Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, Muhammad Ibn `Abd Allāh Ibn `Abd al-Muttalib and Adolf Hitler. Satan will finally succeed in his attempts with the rise of the the Antichrist.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebuchadnezzar_I
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler

The Corpus Christianum and Judaism have been influenced and corrupted by the adoption of the rituals and practices of Babylon’s Mystery Religion. The Torah specifically forbids this where it is written, “When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it” (Deuteronomy 12:29-32 KJV).

The Book of Exodus also says, “Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee” (Exodus 23:24; Exodus 23:32-33).

The influence of Babylon’s Mystery Religion doesn’t end with the corruption of the Corpus Christianum and Judaism. As previously stated, Mystery Babylon is the basis for any and all other religions in the world. The Apostle John wrote, “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration” (Revelation 17:1-6 KJV).

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesopotamian_religion

Abrahamic religions are the monotheistic faiths emphasizing and tracing their common origin to Abraham or recognizing a spiritual tradition identified with him. It is said that there are three major Abrahamic religions. These  are reputed  to be, in chronological order of founding, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Judaism regards itself as the religion of the descendants of Jacob, a grandson of Abraham. It has a strictly unitary view of God (YHWH), and the central holy book for almost all branches is the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), as elucidated in the Oral Torah (Mishnah, Talmud and Midrash).

Christianity began as a sect of Judaism in the Mediterranean Basin of the 1st century CE and evolved into a separate religion, the Christian Church, with distinctive beliefs and practices. The Christian Bible (Tanakh and B’rit Chadashah) is usually held to be the ultimate authority, alongside Sacred Tradition in some denominations (such as Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy).

Islam arose in Arabia in the 7th century CE with a strictly unitary view of God (Allah). Muslims (adherents of Islam) typically hold the Qur’an to be the ultimate authority, as revealed and elucidated through the teachings and practices of Muhammad.

Less well-known Abrahamic religions, originally offshoots of Shi’a Islam, include the Bahá’í Faith and Druze.

Although Islam claims to be a Abrahamic religion and monotheistic, it is neither. It may make references to some Patriarchs from Judaism and Christianity, but in almost all cases the backgrounds and personal attributes of these characters are not in harmony with the Tanakh or B’rit Chadashah.

• Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry: Islam
• Answering Islam: A Christian-Muslim Dialog

Almost all scholars agree that Babylon was the source of all pagan religions in the world. Nimrod was the human father of idolatry and paganism. Even to this day, the earth is still held tightly in the Mystery Religion of Nimrod. Alexander Hislop taught that mythological persons like Adonis, Apollo, Bacchus, Cupid, Dagon, Hercules, Janus, Mars, Mithra, Moloch, Orion, Osiris, Pluto, Saturn, Vulcan, Zoraster, and many more, were all Nimrod.

A star (or stars) and crescent featuring in some combination form the basis of symbols widely found across the ancient world, with examples attested from the Eastern Mediterranean and Central Asia. The star and crescent appear in combination in finds from in and around ancient Israel. It has been associated with the Moabites (14th or early 13th – 6th century BC), as the symbol or symbols appear on what are thought to be Moabite name seals. Crescents appearing together with a star or stars are a common feature of Sumerian iconography, the crescent usually being associated with the moon god Sin (Nanna to the Sumerians) and the star (often identified as Venus) with Ishtar (Inanna to the Sumerians). However, in this context, there is a third element often seen, that being the sun disk of Shamash. Academic discussion of a star or stars together with crescents in Sumerian representations does not always clearly indicate if they appear in isolation (the “star and crescent” as such) or as part of a triad of symbols, “the three celestial emblems, the sun disk of Shamash (Utu to the Sumerians), the crescent of Sin (Nanna), and the star of Ishtar” or “the crescent of Sin (the moon god), the star of Ishtar and the ray of Shamash”. All of the gods mentioned in connection to the star and crescent symbol are either Nimrod or his mother and wife (Nimrod married his mother) Semiramis (Queen of Heaven). Nimrod and Semiramis, were the prototypes for all pagan gods and goddesses that permeated all subsequent cultures and societies.

The Arabs, before the time of Muhammed, accepted and worshiped, after a fashion, a supreme god called Allah. Interestingly, not many Muslims want to accept that Allah was already being worshipped at the Kabba in Mecca by Arab pagans before Muhammad came. Some Muslims become angry when they are confronted with this fact. The name Allah, as the Qur’an itself is witness, was well known in pre-Islamic Arabia. Indeed, both it and its feminine form, Allat, are found not infrequently among the theophorous names in inscriptions from North Africa.

In Old Testament times, Nabonidus (555-539 BC), the last king of Babylon, built Tayma, Arabia as a center of Moon-god worship. Scholars have noted that South Arabia’s stellar religion has always been dominated by the Moon-god in various variations. Many scholars have also noticed that the Moon-god’s name “Sin” is a part of such Arabic words as “Sinai,” the “wilderness of Sin,” etc. When the popularity of the Moon-god waned elsewhere, the Arabs remained true to their conviction that the Moon-god was the greatest of all gods. While they worshipped 360 gods at the Kaaba in Mecca, the Moon-god was the chief deity. Mecca was in fact built as a shrine for the Moon-god.

Allah is Al-Ilah, which is related to Enlil, Baal, Baili, and to many other false gods. So Allah, contrary to popular belief, was not invented by Muhammad, the Muslim prophet, but in fact existed before his birth. Muhammad’s father’s name was Abdullah, abd in the Arabic language refers to a slave/servant therefore Abdullah means servant of Allah. In an allegory, a poem was written centred on Gilgamesh (Nimrod). The goddess is addressed and scolded for trying to kill Gilgamesh.

“Tammuz, the lover of thy youth. Thou causest to weep every year. The bright-colored Allahu bird thou didst love. Thou didst crush him and break his pinions.”
(James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, Vol. IX, Unabridged Edition, The Scapegoat)

The Allahu bird in Islam symbolizes the Archangel of Death. As with everything else in Islam, it is a culture founded upon death and conquest, not peace as Muslims claim and would like everyone to believe.

Archaeological evidence proves that the symbol of the crescent moon and the star and the name of Allah were in use as far back as 2,500 BCE, 3,100 years before the founding of Islam.

The Holy Bible teaches that God cannot be tempted by evil and neither tempts anyone with evil. Evil is understood as referring to immorality and sin. Specifically, immorality and sin is the transgression of the law. The law defines all sin and immorality in the Torah.

King David wrote, “For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity” (Psalms 5:4-5 KJV).

The Apostle James wrote, “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:13-17 KJV).

The Prophet Habakkuk wrote, “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?” (Habakkuk 1:13 KJV).

In stark contrast, the Qur’an teaches that Allah is the author of evil. “Lo! the hypocrites seek to beguile Allah, but it is He Who beguileth them. When they stand up to worship they perform it languidly and to be seen of men, and are mindful of Allah but little; Swaying between this (and that), (belonging) neither to these nor to those. He whom Allah causeth to go astray, thou (O Muhammad) wilt not find a way for him: O ye who believe! Choose not disbelievers for (your) friends in place of believers. Would ye give Allah a clear warrant against you?” (Qur’an Surah 4:142-144).

The Torah teaches that God cannot lie. It says, “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19 KJV).

The Apostle John recorded Yeshua’s words when he wrote, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44 KJV).

Islam teaches and condones the practice of Taqiyya. In summary, Taqiyya means religious dissimulation. It is a practice emphasized in Shi’a Islam whereby adherents may conceal their religion when they are under threat, persecution, or compulsion. This means a legal dispensation whereby a believing individual can deny his faith or commit otherwise illegal or blasphemous acts while they are under those risks.

The Apostle Matthew recorded Yeshua’s words and wrote, “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33 KJV).

The Qur’an teaches, “He is Allah, the One! Allah, the eternally Besought of all! He begetteth not nor was begotten. And there is none comparable unto Him” (Qur’an Surah 112:1-4). The “Oneness of Allah” is taught in every sect and offshoot of Islam. The inscriptions on the outside of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem make many blasphemous statements concerning God and Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ).

The Apostle John wrote, “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also” (1 John 2:22-23 KJV).

Coincidentally, the Dome of the Rock was built over the wrong rock. This fulfilled many prophecies including the prophecy recorded by the Apostle John when he wrote, “And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months” (Revelation 11:1-2 KJV). Not only does God’s prophetic words always come true, but in some ways we can see that He has a sense of humor.

There can only be one truth. The Qur’an contradicts itself many times. The Tanakh and B’rit Chadashah have no contradiction or errors as they are the infallible Word of God. Allah is not God, Muhammad was not a prophet and the Qur’an is not holy. All things come full circle, and all false religions were born in Babylon. It is written, “So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:16 KJV).

Seven Deadly Sins

The Seven Deadly Sins, also known as the Capital Vices or Cardinal Sins, is a classification of objectionable vices (part of Christian ethics) that have been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct Christians concerning fallen humanity’s tendency to sin. The currently recognized version of the sins are usually given as wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony.

In the Book of Proverbs, King Solomon stated that God (YHVH) specifically hates six sins and that seven are an abomination unto Him. While there are seven of them, this list is considerably different from the traditional one, with only pride clearly being in both lists.

These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
(Proverbs 6:16-19 KJV)

Another list, given this time by the Apostle Paul in his epistle to the Galatians, includes more of the traditional seven sins, although the list is substantially longer.

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
(Galatians 5:19-21 KJV)

The traditional list of the Seven Deadly Sins developed in Catholicism. The Seven Deadly Sins do not belong to an additional category of sin. Rather, they are the sins that are seen as the origin of the other sins. Hence, they are called “Deadly Sins” because they engender other sins, other vices.

So which list is correct? The traditional list or the one in Proverbs or Galatians? Actually, none of these lists are correct. Each and every sin or transgression of the law are the same in the eyes of God. The penalty for any sin is the sentence of death.

The Apostle James (the brother of Yeshua) wrote, “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law” (James 2:8-11 KJV).

The law was considered an interdependent whole, and any infraction constituted a breaking of the law as a whole. Yeshua said, “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:18 KJV). Therefore the transgression of any part of the law makes one accountable (a legal term for liable or guilty) for the whole law.

In his epistle to the Romans, the Apostle Paul wrote, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 KJV) and “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23 KJV).

No one can stake a claim to righteousness based on his or her own obedience, for all people have sinned and fall short of what God demands. Those who give themselves to sin will die both physically and eternally, whereas Christians are assured of eternal life. Wages implies that the punishment for sin is what one has earned and what one deserves. Free gift is the opposite of something one deserves.

Paul continues, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)” (Romans 5:12-17 KJV).

God has provided a plan for salvation and redemption through Yeshua’s sacrifice and atonement. Paul writes, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed” (Romans 10:9-11 KJV).

If you confess with your mouth does not mean that a spoken affirmation of one’s faith is a “work” that merits justification, but such confession does give outward evidence of inward faith, and often confirms that faith to the speaker himself. Paul does not mean that people need to believe only this individual event with no understanding of Yeshua’s death, but rather they need to believe in the resurrection along with the whole complex of truth connected with it, particularly Yeshua’s sin-bearing death in mankind’s place, followed by his resurrection that showed God the Father’s approval of Messiah Yeshua’s work. Saving faith is not mere intellectual agreement but deep inward trust in Yeshua at the core of one’s being. Paul cites the writings of the Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 28:16-22) to emphasize that trusting in Yeshua (not works-righteousness) is the pathway to salvation. Shame refers to the humiliation that those judged on the last day will experience when they are sent to hell.

When speaking to Nicodemus, Yeshua said, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God” (John 3:16-21 KJV).

The Prophet Isaiah wrote, “Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages” (Isaiah 49:8 KJV).

In his second epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul wrote, “For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2 KJV).

By quoting Isaiah to summarize his own appeal to the Corinthians, Paul identifies his apostolic ministry with Isaiah’s prophetic role of calling Israel to repentance and perseverance in view of the coming day of redemption and judgment. Paul declares that this time of salvation has already arrived in Christ.

When the Apostle Paul wrote, “behold, now is the day of salvation,” he announced a special and important quality of divine grace. It is time-sensitive. It is always a matter of today. It is always a matter of here and now.

The Nephilim: Can Fallen Angels Procreate?

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God [B’nai Elohim] saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants [Nephilim] in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God [B’nai Elohim] came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
(Genesis 6:1-4 KJV)

The sons of God (B’nai Elohim) is a term that appears throughout the Tanakh (Old Testament). In Genesis and many apocryphal books we read that they “took them wives of all which they chose” from the daughters of men and produced a hybrid offspring known as the Nephilim. This doctrine used to be taught in most seminaries. It is now a doctrine that has gained much interest and debate. The subject of this article is the question of if fallen angels can produce offspring. It is beyond the scope of this article to debate the Nephilim hybrid issue. There are many great resources that debate this issue at length. I suggest Rob Skiba, Michael Hoggard, Chuck Missler, Gary Stearman, Steve Quayle and Tom Horn.

• Got Questions: Who or what were the Nephilim?

Most of those who are opposed to the fallen angels that sinned and produced offspring use one passage in the Brit Chadashah (New Testament) Book of Matthew which says, “The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. And last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Matthew 22:23-32 KJV).

Those who use this passage in the Book of Matthew claim that Yeshua’s answer indicates that the angels in heaven are without gender and cannot reproduce. Clearly, this passage does not state that angels are without gender. Nor does it state that they cannot reproduce. To use this passage to suggest that angels are without gender and incapable of procreation also creates another problem. It would suggest that all believers will become “transgender” or “transhuman” after death

Carmen Welker (therefinersfire.org) states that, “Angels are HOLY beings. Sex is not in the equation because they are all about YHWH, not themselves. Sex is a human desire which fulfills the command for mankind to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). Nowhere in the entire Bible will you see YHWH giving that command to angels, nor do we ever see that the number of angels increases or decreases.”

• The Nephilim: Human, or Supernatural?

The problem with Carmen Welker’s conclusion is that the fallen angel doctrine does not speak of holy angels, it speaks of fallen angels that intentionally sinned against God (YHWH). Furthermore, angels are all masculine (demonstrated later), which is one reason why we never see the number of angels increase. Even the Prophet Daniel distinguished between holy and fallen angels in the interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Daniel 4:1-37).

I will not bring the books of the apocrypha into this article as they are not currently canonized in Scripture in most of the world (although some of them used to be and some of them still are in canonized in parts of the world). There are plenty of additional references throughout the Tanakh and Brit Chadashah that clearly indicate that the fallen angel doctrine is correct and that this is exactly what the Book of Genesis is referring to in the passage (Genesis 6:1-4).

Almost all believers I know believe that the Bible is the inerrant and infallible Word of God. I personally believe this is true as well.

• Wikipedia: Biblical Inerrancy
• Wikipedia: Biblical Infallibility

Since we can establish that the Bible is inerrant and infallible, we need look no further than to the canonized Scriptures within the Bible to determine if fallen angels can reproduce. I am using the King James Version throughout this article as it is the “gold standard” among translations in the opinions of most scholars.

In the Book of Genesis, immediately after the fall of man, God passes judgement upon Adam, Eve and Satan in the Garden of Eden. The passage says, “And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed [H2233] and her seed [H2233]; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:14-15 KJV).

This is the first Messianic prophecy in the text of the Bible. The seed of a woman is a reference to the coming Messiah, Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ). Women have no “seed” and this makes the prophecy clear that the promised Messiah will be born to a virgin. The lexicon clearly defines seed as semen, offspring, descendants, posterity or children. I think it would be fair to include DNA in our definition of seed. Apparently, Satan and fallen angels have seed.

There is no doubt that every reference to angels in Scripture refers to them in the masculine gender. The Greek word for “angel” in the Brit Chadashah, “angelos,” is in the masculine form. In fact, the feminine form of “angelos” does not exist. There are three genders in grammar, masculine (he, him, his), feminine (she, her, hers), and neuter (it, its). Angels are never referred to in any gender other than masculine. In the many appearances of angels in the Bible, never is an angel referred to as “she” or “it.” Furthermore, when angels did appear, they always appeared dressed as human males (Genesis 18:2; Genesis 18:16; Ezekiel 9:2). No angel ever appeared in Scripture dressed as a female.

• Got Questions: Are angels male or female?

There are some that argue that all species reproduce “after their own kind” and that this is a law established by God that cannot be broken like the law of physics. In the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, the phrase “after their kind” appears ten times. God made all plants and animals to naturally reproduce after their kind.

Is there anything in the first chapter of Genesis that says that prevents mankind or spiritual beings from tampering with the natural order? Is there anything that prevents mankind or spiritual beings from forcing things to reproduce in such a way that they will not reproduce after their own kind? Absolutely not, there is nothing stated that prevents mankind from tampering with the natural order or tampering with the way things reproduce.

Today we know that there are many genetic engineering projects with food, animals and humans occurring around the world. Mankind has learned how to genetically engineer living organisms (watermelons, squash, tomatoes, sheep, goats, etc.). Furthermore, these genetically engineered organisms are also capable of reproduction.

The Torah states that, “Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee” (Leviticus 19:19 KJV) and “Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled. Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together. Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together” (Deuteronomy 22:9-11 KJV).

Living organisms do reproduce after their own kind when left alone, but that is not to say that these organisms cannot be made to not reproduce after their own kind if they are tampered with by genetic engineering. Satan and other fallen angels cannot create matter, they can only manipulate matter.

In conclusion, we have clearly demonstrated that all angels are masculine and (according to Genesis 3:14-15) Satan and fallen angels have “seed” and are capable of procreation.

Satan’s Ten Commandments

The Georgia Guidestones is a large granite monument in Elbert County, Georgia (USA). A message comprising ten guides is inscribed on the structure in eight modern languages, and a shorter message is inscribed at the top of the structure in four ancient languages’ scripts: Babylonian Cuneiform, Classical Greek, Sanskrit, and Egyptian Hieroglyphs.

The structure is sometimes referred to as an “American Stonehenge.” The monument is made from six granite slabs weighing more than 240,000 pounds combined. One slab stands in the center, with four arranged around it. A capstone lies on top of the five slabs, which are astronomically aligned. An additional stone tablet, which is set in the ground a short distance to the west of the structure, provides some notes on the history and purpose of the Guidestones.

In June 1979, an unknown person or persons under the pseudonym R. C. Christian hired Elberton Granite Finishing Company to build the structure. R. C. Christian (Christian Rosenkreuz) is the semi-legendary, perhaps allegorical, founder of the Rosicrucian Order (Order of the Rose Cross), presented in the three Manifestos published in the early 17th century.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Rosenkreuz

Rosicrucianism is a philosophical secret society, said to have been founded in late medieval Germany by Christian Rosenkreuz. It holds a doctrine or theology “built on esoteric truths of the ancient past”, which, “concealed from the average man, provide insight into nature, the physical universe and the spiritual realm.” Rosicrucianism is symbolized by the Rosy Cross.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosicrucian
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_society
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosy_Cross
• http://www.gotquestions.org/Rosicrucianism.html

The symbol of the Rosy Cross played a substantial role within the system of Thelema as developed by Aleister Crowley. In a cosmological context, the rose is Nuit, the infinitely expanded goddess of the night sky, and the cross is Hadit, the ultimately contracted atomic point. For Crowley, it was the job of the adept to identify with the appropriate symbol so to experience the mystical conjunction of opposites, which leads to attainment. It has several meanings, depending on the source. Some groups, such as the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, from a non-sectarian or non-religious view, suggest that the rosy cross predates Christianity, where “the cross represents the human body and the rose represents the individual’s unfolding consciousness.”

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelema
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuit
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadit

A message consisting of a set of ten guidelines or principles is engraved on the Georgia Guidestones in eight different languages, one language on each face of the four large upright stones. Moving clockwise around the structure from due north, these languages are: English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian. The inscriptions on the Guidestones are listed below.

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
10. Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.

The first guideline or principal would reduce the world population down to 500 Million people. What do they plan to do with the other 6.3 billion people? The world’s population (July 7, 2010) is around 6,854,837,564, and the United States’ population (July 8, 2010) is around 309,697,072. If the conspirators of this plan were to leave the population of the United States untouched, they would have to eliminate 6 billion people. That would leave less than 200 million people alive on the rest of the entire Earth.

Built to survive the apocalypse, the Georgia Guidestones are not merely instructions for the future, the massive granite slabs also function as a clock, calendar, and compass.

Whoever the anonymous architects of the Guidestones were, they knew what they were doing. The monument sits at the highest point in Elbert County. The monument is a highly engineered structure that flawlessly tracks the sun. The four outer stones are oriented to mark the limits of the 18.6 year lunar declination cycle. On an equinox or solstice, visitors who stand at the west side of the “mail slot” are positioned to see the sun rise on the horizon. The center column features a hole through which the North Star can be seen regardless of time, as well as a slot that is aligned with the Sun’s solstices and equinoxes. A 7/8″ aperture in the capstone allows a ray of sun to pass through at noon each day, shining a beam on the center stone indicating the day of the year.

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/17-05/ff_guidestones?currentPage=all

Many have praised the inscribed messages as “a stirring call to rational thinking,” while opponents have labeled them as the “Ten Commandments of the Antichrist.”

The Guidestones have become a subject of interest for conspiracy theorists. One of them demanded that the Guidestones “be smashed into a million pieces, and then the rubble used for a construction project,” claiming that the Guidestones are of “a deep Satanic origin,” and that R. C. Christian, belongs to “a Luciferian secret society” related to the New World Order. At the unveiling of the monument, a local minister proclaimed that he believed the monument was “for sun worshipers, for cult worship and for devil worship.”

Radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, in his 2008 documentary Endgame: Elite’s Blueprint For Global Enslavement, told the viewer that “the message of the mysterious Georgia Guidestones, purportedly built by representatives of a secret society called the Rosicrucian Order or Rosicrucians, which call for a global religion, world courts, and for population levels to be maintained at around 500 million, over a 6.5 billion reduction from current levels. The stones infer that humans are a cancer upon the earth and should be culled in order to maintain balance with nature.“

Most people agree that the Guidestones are meant to instruct the survivors of some impending apocalypse as they attempt to reconstitute civilization. Not everyone is comfortable with this notion.

On the sixth day of the Creation narrative in the Book of Genesis it is written, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue [H3533] it: and have dominion [H7287] over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so” (Genesis 1:27-30 KJV).

To subdue and have dominion over the earth and all living things on the face of the earth is to rule, subjugate, dominate, bring into bondage, and make subservient. The earth and its flora and fauna were never intended to subdue and have dominion over mankind. God’s plan was for mankind to care for and rule the earth. In the misguided  thoughts of most environmentalists and global elitists, these roles have been reversed.

• http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H3533&t=KJV
• http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=H7287

The Rosicrucian Order designed and financed the Georgia Guidestones monument. The secretive nature of Rosicrucianism is in direct contrast with Christianity, which seeks to shout the message of Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ) from the roof tops, as Yeshua said, “What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops” (Matthew 10:27 KJV).

The Rosicrucianism Order is syncretistic, meaning that it borrows ideas and beliefs from various other religions in an attempt to unify them under a central theme—wisdom about life after death has been preserved through the ages and is revealed only to the secret brotherhood (the Rosicrucians). There are strongly occultic teachings in Rosicrucianism, including ESP, clairvoyance, and spiritism. This goes right along with the secretive nature of Rosicrucianism because these activities are the playground of Satan and his demons, and Satan always shuns the light.

• http://www.gotquestions.org/Rosicrucianism.html

The nature of secret societies is completely contrary to Christian belief. The Bible is an open book inviting all who will, to come to a saving knowledge of Yeshua HaMashiach. The Apostle John wrote, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17 KJV). Anyone inquiring into membership in the Corpus Christianum can investigate, ask questions, read the inspired handbook (Holy Bible), and make a decision for Messiah Yeshua fully knowing what the cost and consequences of the action will be.

In stark contrast, a secret society welcomes only a restricted number into membership, into the secret oaths and ceremonies, and into the activities of the society. Members of secret orders often compare their organization with the fellowship of believers in a local church. But a secret society is quite different from a church in that it is elitist in nature rather than inclusive. Unlike a church it does not extend its fellowship to any and all persons desiring to identify with the organization, its principles and practices.

The Corpus Christianum discourages membership in secret orders. The reasons for discouraging the Corpus Christianum from belonging to to secret orders and for encouraging the Corpus Christianum to avoid involvement with such orders are summarized below.

1. The activities of secret orders demand time and energy that divert the servant of the Lord from efforts to fulfill the Great Commission.
2. The binding loyalty to fellow members of the secret society—many of whom are not fellow believers in Jesus Christ and His saving work—is an unworthy joining together of believers with unbelievers.
3. The spirit, philosophy, and general influence of secret orders channel activities toward improving only the natural part of humankind instead of changing the heart of the spiritual being.
4. Commitment to secret orders and their teachings leads one to a wrong emphasis on salvation through good works and improving society.

Secret societies are in conflict with the teachings of Holy Scripture. A Christian must never affiliate with any organization that yokes together believers with unbelievers in unholy alliances (2 Corinthians 6:14-18), requires a pledge to unscriptural oaths which are sealed by using the name of God improperly or in vain (Exodus 20:7, Leviticus 5:4-6, Matthew 5:34-37, James 5:12), represents itself as providing teaching in harmony with the Bible when in fact it does not (2 Peter 3:16), represents itself as being religious and offers a false hope of salvation through works, yet dishonors the only true God and our Savior Yeshua HaMashiach (John 17:3, 1 Timothy 2:3-6, Colossians 2:8-10, Ephesians 2:8-9).

In his epistle to the Romans the Apostle Paul wrote, “Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men” (Romans 12:17 KJV). Secretively meeting behind closed doors where activities are carried on behind a cloak of secrecy, in favor of fellow members, usually for economic, social, or political advantage hardly describes doing what is right in the eyes of everybody. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:17-18 KJV). This is God’s advice for Christians and is certainly applicable in regard to secret societies.

The Last In Line: Antichrist Revealed

There is much speculation about the identity of the Antichrist. Some of the more popular targets at the moment are Vladimir Putin, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Pope Benedict XVI, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and William Arthur Philip Louis. So, who is the Antichrist, and how will we recognize him when he comes into power?

Yeshua prayed for strength and for His disciples and those who did and would believe in Him before He entered Garden of Gethsemane and was betrayed, arrested, tried, crucified and resurrected. The Garden of Gethsemane was symbolic is many ways. The fall of man occurred in the Garden of Eden which brought the curse of death through sin, likewise the events in which Yeshua would defeat Satan and provide salvation unto all sinners who accepted His sacrifice began in a garden. During Yeshua’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, He said, “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled” (John 17:12 KJV).

The Son of Perdition is a phrase that appears in the Brit Chadashah (New Testament). Many theologians and scholars also consider “the beast that goes into perdition” mentioned in the Book of Revelation to be references to the “Son of Perdition.”

According to theologians and scholars, Yeshua, the Apostle Paul, and the Apostle John’s Son of Perdition (Man of Sin) is also prophesied of in the Book of Daniel. The Apostle John related the Son of Perdition (G684) concepts by language, referring to “the star that fell from heaven” (Revelation 9:1) by two names, one Greek, and the other Hebrew (Revelation 9:11). The Greek name is “Apollyon” (G623) and means the destroyer (Satan). The Hebrew name is “Abaddon” (G3) and means destroying angel (Satan). Perdition (G684) means destruction, waste or damnable.

• http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G684&t=KJV
• http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G623&t=KJV
• http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G3&t=KJV
• http://www.gotquestions.org/son-of-perdition.html

We can conclude that the Antichrist is a reference to the “son of sin” or the “man of lawlessness” from the definitions of these words and the references to him throughout the Scriptures.

The Apostle Paul and the Apostle Timothy in there second epistle to the Thessalonians wrote, “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 KJV).

When speaking in a parable Yeshua said, “But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first” (Matthew 19:30) and “So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:16).

The Revelation of Saint John the Divine gives us are strongest warnings and clues concerning the false religion and kingdom of the prophesied Antichrist. The two key chapters in the Book of Revelation are the thirteenth and seventeenth chapters.

Revelation 13 ends with a clue and warning that states, “Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six [666]” (Revelation 13:18 KJV).

The Prophet Jeremiah wrote, “Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD’S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence. Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD’S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies” (Jeremiah 51:6-9 KJV).

If anyone looks at the pagan holidays that have been adopted and “Christianized” by the Corpus Christianum, it is apparent that all of these holidays (including Christmas, Lent, Easter, Saint Valentine’s Day, etc.) started with the ancient Sumerians on the plains of Shinar. What specifically occurred on the plains of Shinar? For this we must return to the Book of Genesis.

After the Great Flood, Noah planted a vineyard. He drank the wine he produced and became intoxicated and passed out. His son Ham sinned against his father and told Noah’s other sons, Shem and Japheth. After Noah woke up, he realized what Ham had done. Noah said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant” (Genesis 9:25-27).

After the death of Noah, Genesis lists the genealogy of Noah’s sons,  Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The Bible says, “Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood. The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah. And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations. And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan. And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan. And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD” (Genesis 10:1-9 KJV).

The King James Version says that Nimrod “began to be a mighty (H1368) one in the earth.” The Hebrew word used for mighty is gibbowr (גִּבּוֹר). The Gibborim are the “Mighty Men of Renown” created by the Watchers (a class of angel) when they left their heavenly abode and came down to the daughters of men and produced the “Nephilim” and “Mighty Men of Renown” as recorded in Genesis Chapter 6:1-4 of the Tanakh (Old Testament). They were half breeds, angelic-human hybrids. The union of these beasts with humans produced children that were different in many ways. The first apparent difference was that they developed giantism. They were giants. Og the King of Bashan had a bed that was 13 to 15 feet long; and Goliath was 6 cubits tall (9 feet) and they had six fingers and toes. In addition to giantism, the Gibborim had powerful psychic abilities like out of body experiences, levitation, mind control, time travel, mind reading, remote viewing, the power of placing curses and diseases, the power of removing curses and diseases, and ways of knowing and predicting the future. They were astrologers, homosexuals, lesbians, cannibals, serial killers, and the mighty men of renown. They had super powerful brains and they were extremely intelligent. They knew all the sciences. In short, they had demonic powers. They used these powers to control and enslave mankind and this is how they built the great pyramids and great wonders around. The presence of these hybrids (abominations) was one of the reason for the Flood of Noah and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone.

• http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H1368&t=KJV
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibborim_(biblical)
• http://www.scribd.com/doc/2433668/Mighty-Ones-of-Old
• http://davelivingston.com/sonsofgod.htm

To continue, the Genesis narrative states, “And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city. And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim, And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (out of whom came Philistim,) and Caphtorim. And Canaan begat Sidon his firstborn, and Heth, And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite, And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite, And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad. And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha. These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations” (Genesis 10:8-20 KJV).

Nimrod began to construct cities and a kingdom. Nimrod and Semiramis (Nimrod’s wife) founded a Mystery Religion (this religion is the basis of all pagan religions throughout the world today). In Nimrod’s kingdom of Babylon, he began to build a tower to wage war on God (YHVH) in retaliation for the death of his ancestors that perished in the Great Flood.

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
(Genesis 11:1-9 KJV)

As the people whose language was confounded began to disperse around the earth, they took their Mystery Religion with them. Nimrod was known by many names throughout many cultures. These cultures also began to build monuments (Egyptians, Mayans, Aztecs, Hindus, etc.) to serve their false gods.

The Sumerian “Epic of Gilgamesh” tells many of the same events contained in the Scriptures of the Holy Bible. How does Gilgamesh compare with Nimrod? Josephus says of Nimrod, “Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah — a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it were through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny — seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence upon his own power. He also said he would be revenged on God, if he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach! and that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers.”

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enkidu
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilgamesh

Nimrod is Gilgamesh. Please see the following links from Dr. David Livingston for a much more detailed account and his findings on this subject.

• http://davelivingston.com/nimrod.htm
• http://davelivingston.com/articles/Ur%20Connecting%20Babel.pdf

Enkidu and Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is shown with a subdued lion.

Dr. David Livingston writes that, “The Epic of Gilgamesh has some very indecent sections. Alexander Heidel, first translator of the epic, had the decency to translate the vilest parts into Latin. Spieser, however, gave it to us “straight” (Pritchard 1955: 72). With this kind of literature in the palace, who needs pornography? Gilgamesh was a vile, filthy, man. Yet the myth says of him that he was “2/3 god and 1/3 man.”

In summary, we can conclude that Nimrod declared war on God (YHVH). The Epic of Gilgamesh states that he was 2/3 god and 1/3 human. Two thirds is exactly 66.6% (666). Therefore, Nimrod was the first Antichrist in history.

The Book of Revelation says, “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration” (Revelation 17:1-6 KJV).

Why does John wonder with great admiration when he is shown the woman that sat upon the beast and was drunken with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Yeshua? Because the woman is the Corpus Christianum. A woman almost always represents the church in prophecy. The woman is a whore (the mother of all whores) and an abomination (the mother of all abominations) and she is called Babylon. This is representative of the witchcraft and pagan rituals celebrated by the Corpus Christianum today after forsaking the instructions and the commandments of God (YHVH). The woman is also drunken with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Yeshua. So the Corpus Christianum has sanctified and participated in the murder of God’s people.

And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
(Revelation 17:7-18 KJV)

The angel tells John that, “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.”

So John is presented with a riddle, a riddle that is very strange and perplexing. What is a best that was, and is not, and yet is? This beast ascended out of the bottomless pit and will go into perdition. The woman also sets upon seven mountains.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_hills
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_claimed_to_be_built_on_seven_hills
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_hills_of_Rome

I think it is fair to conclude that the woman that sits on seven hills is a reference to the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church. Vatican Hill (one of the seven hills upon which Rome was built) is a name that was given, long before the founding of Christianity or Catholicism. The name “Vatican” has often been thought to derive from the Latin “vates”, meaning “seer, soothsayer”, though this is uncertain and it is also possible that “Vaticanus” comes from an unrelated Etruscan loan-word. Indeed, the Vatican Hill was the home of the Vates long before pre-Christian Rome. Vaticanus, also known as Vagitanus, was an Etruscan god of prophecy, and his temple was built on the ancient site of Vaticanum (Vatican Hill).

• Wikipedia: Vatican Hill

The angel continued to explain to John, “And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.” We can determine from history who the first seven kings are with  fairly good certainty.

1. Nimrod
2. Pharaoh Amenhotep II
3. Sennacherib
4. Baal-Eser II
5. Antiochus IV Epiphanes
6. Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus
7. Adolf Hitler

For additional information on these kings see the Wikipedia links above or Peter Goodgame’s website concerning the Giza Discovery.

• http://www.redmoonrising.com/Giza/SavDest7.htm

The angel tells John that, “And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.” So this clearly indicates that the Antichrist was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition. So the appearance of the Antichrist is the Second Coming of the Antichrist. Satan counterfeits everything that God (YHVH) creates or does. He is the master of deception and the father of all lies and sin.

When Moses died, Satan had to fight Michael the Archangel over Moses’ body. Deuteronomy says, “And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the LORD shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan, And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea, And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar. And the LORD said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day. And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended” (Deuteronomy 34:1-8 KJV). Jude, the brother of Yeshua and James wrote, “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee” (Jude 1:9 KJV).

Satan clearly wanted Moses’ body. For what purpose? Resurrection and deception. It is not only God (YHVH) that can work miracles, signs and wonders. Yeshua said, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:21-23 KJV).

The Apostle Paul, in his second epistle to the Corinthians wrote, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15 KJV).

John the Baptist was the spirit of Elijah, reincarnation is not possible as we are born and die only once. The Apostle Paul wrote, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:27-28 KJV). Solomon wrote, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth? I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 KJV).

• http://carm.org/bible-difficulties/matthew-mark/was-john-baptist-really-elijah
• http://www.gotquestions.org/John-Baptist-Elijah.html

The prophesied Antichrist will be the spirit of one of the seven kings that have fallen. If Babylon is the mother of harlots and the abominations on the earth then who is her son? Her son is Nimrod, just as the Babylonian tales of Nimrod’s death and Semiramis’ “virgin birth” of Tammuz (the reincarnation of Nimrod and the “son of god” whom she later married). Nimrod (Ra, Baal, Osiris, etc.) was deified as the sun god and Semiramis was deified as the Queen of Heaven (Ishtar, Easter, Isis, Dianna, etc.). The Antichrist is Nimrod.

The ten horns are ten kings who will come to power with the beast will only exist for one hour (fifteen days). Together with the beast they will make war against the Corpus Christianum and will destroy the harlot church that sets on seven hills. Therefore John wrote what the angel cried out as a warning to the church in the last days, “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities” (Revelation 18:4-5 KJV).

These ten kings have many possibilities including a entity that does not yet exist. Three of these possibilities are the United Nations, European Union and the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf. However, this is only speculation on my part and was not revealed to me by the Holy Spirit as Nimrod’s identification as the Antichrist was revealed.

• Wikipedia: United Nations
• Wikipedia: European Union
• Wikipedia: Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf

Europe: Many Tongues, One Voice

The Garden of Eden: Paradise Lost

And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress [H5647] it and to keep [H8104] it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
(Genesis 2:8-17 KJV)

• http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H5647&t=KJV
• http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H8104&t=KJV

When the creation of the heavens and the earth were completed, God (YHVH)  gave mankind a few simple rules. Adam and Eve were to work and protect the garden. Then God told them that, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17).

Many people ask why would God create something that was banned and, specifically, why would it be a tree whose fruit offered knowledge of good and evil? Isn’t knowledge good?

Skeptics often complain that God set Adam and Eve up to fail. However, God had to give Adam and Eve a choice. Without free will to choose, Adam and Eve would have been mere puppets. True love always requires choice. God wanted Adam and Eve to choose to love and trust Him. The only way to give this choice would have been to command something that was not allowed. Since God had planted in the garden all the different trees from which we now get fruit, the test was not too difficult. Adam and Eve had plenty to eat and a large variety of fruits from which to choose, and could have chosen to believe God. They were only commanded not to eat from one tree out of the many.

Since everything else God planted in the garden was good, the natural choice of something to choose from would be knowledge of evil. God’s plan for Adam and Eve was to enjoy each other and their fellowship with Him without the influence of evil. God did not want Adam and Eve to experience evil or even know about it. However, Lucifer had tempted Eve to join him in rebellion against God. Eve sinned and tempted Adam to join her and Satan in rebellion against God, which he did also.

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
(Genesis 3:1-7 KJV)

Satan used the oldest ploy in his playbook of deceit, God is a cosmic killjoy who is trying to keep something good from you. Satan first asked Eve about the tree from which they were told not to eat. Eve told Satan they were not to eat of the forbidden fruit or they would die. Satan’s reply indicated that God was a liar and that He just wanted to keep something good (the fruit) from them, saying, “Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4-5). So, Adam and Eve gained knowledge of the difference between good and evil through direct experience, instead of through instruction by God. The text suggests that Adam and Eve had enjoyed daily walks with God through the garden prior to their fall (Genesis 3:8). The knowledge of evil brought fear and shame to Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:10). So, the knowledge of good and evil was not a good thing, since it ruined their innocent relationship with God and each other.

There was one tree bearing two kinds of fruit. The name of the tree was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The name of the tree revealed the nature of its fruits, good and bad fruits of life and death, love and hate, light and darkness, good and evil, peace and war and heaven and hell. The fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was a double-edged sword, the complete fusion of opposites. This tree was put before Adam and Eve, and even if they had in their innocence the liberty to look upon it as a tree of God’s wonders. God’s prohibition did not allow them to place their desire in it and eat of it, but threatened that (if they would do so) they would die from its fruit. For this was a tree of division where good and evil battled with each other, but in a battle there can be no life. Battle brings forth destruction, and destruction brings forth death, life lives in the sweet unity of love. Therefore, when Adam and Eve ate from this tree, a battle started within them, and in this battle they eventually lost his lives.

Satan didn’t tempt Adam and Eve with the fruit of the Tree of Life. His motives were not to see mankind live as him, as another immortal. His motive was to tempt them to sin and ultimately bring them death. The Apostle Paul wrote, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23 KJV).

I believe that believers will lose our knowledge of evil in heaven. The Prophet Isaiah wrote, “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it” (Isaiah 25:8 KJV).

God had created Adam and Eve in a perfect moral state with very lofty intellectual capabilities. They understood that his role was to achieve as close a bond as possible to the God Almighty, and sin was the furthest thing from their minds. They understood, however, that their existence in the Garden of Eden was a restricted one, they would only be able to worship God with a limited exercise of their free will since they were largely unaware of other modes of existence. Adam and Eve, however, desired to worship God precisely through the wide ranging exercise of their cognitive powers, by exercising their free will in a broad spectrum of experiences. They hoped that through this route they would ultimately arrive at the lofty level of the angels in their relationship with the Creator.

And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
(Genesis 3:8-24 KJV)

As a consequence of their disobedience and rebellion against God, thy were expelled from the Garden of Eden, the ground was cursed to bring forth thorns and women were chastised by greatly multiplying their sorrow by pain in childbirth and became subservient rather than equals with their husbands.

Due to Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God, when they ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil they effectively changed the entire nature of mankind. We were originally created perfect and without any desire to sin. All subsequent offspring were born with a sinful nature and a desire for evil (Psalms 51:5)

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
(Psalms 51:5 KJV)

Every human being sins. Sin is a failure to live according to God’s divine instructions (Torah). A sin is an act that violates a known moral rule. The term sin also refers to the state of having committed such a violation. Sin can refer not only to physical actions taken, but also to thoughts and internalized motivations and feelings. Therefore, any thought, word, or act considered immoral, selfish, shameful, harmful, or alienating should be considered sinful. We sin because we have a corrupt nature to sin. This corrupt nature is inherited from Adam and Eve. Our corrupt nature to sin separates us from God.

Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
(Romans 5:18-19 KJV)

Christians have two natures at work in their being, one is the old nature of sin, and the other is a new nature controlled by the Holy Spirit (Ruach Hakodesh). These two natures are constantly at war with each other. The Apostle Paul explained that, despite his best intentions, he was still influenced by his corrupt nature to sin (Romans 7:18-19).

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
(Romans 7:18-19 KJV)

While our two natures are constantly in conflict, it is not the corrupt nature that will ultimately control the Christian. Part of the sanctification process involves dying to the old nature. A Christian will sin, but a Christian will not continue in unrestrained sin. Paul wrote, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:9 KJV). Sin in a Christian’s life will be followed by remorse and repentance.

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
(Galatians 5:16-17 KJV)

After Yeshua’s Second Coming, when a believers body is glorified, our corupt nature will be destroyed once and for all. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:50-58 KJV).

In the meantime, we must resist temptation and sin. There is no excuse for any sin, the devil cannot make anyone do anything. I can honestly say that each and every sin that I have ever committed has been committed willfully and intentionally. Yeshua was tempted with every sin that we are tempted with, and I believe He was pursued by HaSatan (“The Accuser”) with more temptations than anyone else that has walked the earth.

“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13 KJV).

The Sacred Heart

As Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of First Fruits as commanded by God (YHWH) our Creator approach yet again, many of us still cannot see through the paganism adopted by the Roman Catholic Church centuries ago and they and others are being greatly deceived. These holidays have everything to do with our history, culture and the undeserved atonement for our sins made by Jesus Christ (Yeshua Ha’Mashiach) almost two thousand years ago.

This article will not explain these feasts and works of redemption, instead, it will expose the Sacred Heart which we unfortunately see every year in greeting cards and Facebook posts/Yeshua said, “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:22-24 KJV). If ever there was a time that believers need to be aware of this and come out of the pagan practices of the Christian Church, now is that time. We are under constant attack by the deception and subtlety of Satan, our adversary.

Moses was told by God that, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments” (Exodus 20:4-6 KJV).

Likewise, the Acts of the Apostles (which is presumed to have been written by Luke the Evangelist) wrote, “Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device” (Acts 17:29 KJV). Therefore any image of Yeshua (Son), Yeshua (Son) or the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirt) is a violation of both the Tanakh (Old Testament) and the B’rit Chadashah (New Testament).

The Sacred Heart is one of the most famous religious devotions to Yeshua’s physical heart as the representation of His divine love for humanity. The origin of this devotion in its modern form is derived from a French Roman Catholic nun, Marguerite Marie Alacoque, who said she learned the devotion from Yeshua during a mystical experience. Predecessors to the modern devotion arose unmistakably in the Middle Ages in various facets of Catholic mysticism. The Sacred Heart is often depicted in Christian art as a flaming heart shining with divine light, pierced by the lance-wound, surrounded by the crown of thorns, surmounted by a cross and bleeding. Sometimes the image shown shining within the bosom of the Messiah with his wounded hands pointing at the heart. The wounds and crown of thorns allude to the manner of Yeshua’s death, while the fire represents the transformative power of divine love.

The Immaculate Heart of Mary is a devotional name used to refer to the interior life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, her joys and sorrows, her virtues and hidden perfections, and, above all, her virginal love for God, her maternal love for her Son, Yeshua, and her compassionate love for all people. The consideration of Mary’s interior life and the beauties of her soul, without any thought of her physical heart, does not constitute the traditional devotion; still less does it consist in the consideration of the Heart of Mary merely as a part of her virginal body. In 1855 the Mass of the Most Pure Heart formally became a part of Catholic practice. The two elements are essential to the devotion, just as, according to Roman Catholic theology, soul and body are necessary to the constitution of man.

The Feast of the Sacred Heart has been in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar since 1856, and is celebrated 19 days after Pentecost. As Pentecost is always celebrated on Sunday, the Feast of the Sacred Heart always falls on a Friday.

These are the Christian origins of these symbols, masses and holidays according to the Roman Catholic Church. However, are they the true origins of these things? There is no question that Christianity and Catholicism has been corrupted by the adoption of paganism.

The Sacred Heart originates in Ancient Babylon. It was the heart of Queen Semiramis who passed it on to her illegitimate son, who according to her, was her late husband King Nimrod who had been reincarnated as Tammuz. Queen Semiramis was deified and became known as Ishtar (pronounced Easter). When Tammuz became an adult, he married his mother. Unfortunately, Tammuz was killed by a wild boar while boar hunting. Nimrod (Tammuz) became known as the Sun God, and Semiramis (Ishtar) became known as the Queen of Heaven. These events eventually led to Easter, Easter Eggs, ham in place of lamb, Sunday and Sunrise Services on Easter morning. These are the earliest recorded historical facts in which Satan attempted to steal and corrupt the Messianic Prophecy contained in the Book of Genesis  (Genesis 3:15).

The Feast of the Sacred Heart has it’s origins in the pagan Aztecs and Mayans of Mexico. Human sacrifice, particularly by offering a victim’s heart to the sun god, was commonly practiced. They would cut the heart out of a living victim and offer it as a sacrifice to the sun god, in this case, Kukulcan or Quetzalcoatl, also known as the feathered serpent.

Sol Invictus (“Invincible Sun”) was the official sun god of the later Roman Empire. In 274 the Roman Emperor Aurelian made it an official cult alongside the traditional Roman cults. Scholars disagree whether the new deity was a refoundation of the ancient Latin cult of Sol, a revival of the cult of Elagabalus or completely new. The god was favored by emperors after Aurelian and appeared on their coins until Constantine.

The word for heart is identical (the only difference as listed is the vowel marking) to the word for Baal in Hebrew and Chaldean Aramaic. Vowel marks are an invention of the Masorete Scribes of the tenth century.

• Blue Letter Bible: Bal (בַּל)
• Blue Letter Bible: Bel 
  
• Blue Letter Bible: Bal (Aramaic)

Kukulcan and Quetzalcoatl

It is obvious that all pagan practices will lead one back to Ancient Babylon. The Prophet Jeremiah wrote, “Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD’S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence. Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD’S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad” (Jeremiah 51:6-7 KJV).

And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
(Revelation 17:1-5 KJV)

Saint John also wrote, “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.”
(Revelation 18:4-5 KJV)

Who is referred to as “my people” in this passage of Scripture? It is none other than Christians that are involved in the apostate churches of the world. This is a warning. If you attend a church that does not teach sound biblical doctrine, the time to leave and separate yourselves is now, unless you wish to receive the judgement of God when He pours it out on these churches.

Saint Peter said, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
(1 Peter 4:17-18 KJV)

Happy Passover and Resurrection Day.

Awakening the Serpent

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
(Genesis 3:1-5 KJV)

Satan assaulted our first parents, to draw them to sin, and the temptation proved fatal to them. The tempter was the devil, in the shape and likeness of a serpent. Satan’s plan was to draw our first parents to sin, and so to separate between them and their God. Thus the devil was from the beginning a murderer, and the great mischief maker. The person tempted was the woman: it was Satan’s policy to enter into talk with her when she was alone. There are many temptations to which being alone gives great advantage; but the communion of saints tends very much to their strength and safety. Satan took advantage by finding her near the forbidden tree. They that would not eat the forbidden fruit, must not come near the forbidden tree. Satan tempted Eve, that by her he might tempt Adam. It is his policy to send temptations by hands we do not suspect, and by those that have most influence upon us. Satan questioned whether it were a sin or not, to eat of this tree. He did not disclose his design at first, but he put a question which seemed innocent. Those who would be safe, need to be shy of talking with the tempter. He quoted the command wrong. He spoke in a taunting way. The devil, as he is a liar, so he is a scoffer from the beginning; and scoffers are his children. It is the craft of Satan to speak of the Divine law as uncertain or unreasonable, and so to draw people to sin; it is our wisdom to keep up a firm belief of God’s command, and a high respect for it. Has God said, Ye shall not lie, nor take his name in vain, nor be drunk, etc.? Yes, I am sure he has, and it is well said; and by his grace I will abide by it. It was Eve’s weakness to enter into this talk with the serpent: she might have perceived by his question, that he had no good design, and should therefore have started back. Satan teaches men first to doubt, and then to deny. He promises advantage from their eating this fruit. He aims to make them discontented with their present state, as if it were not so good as it might be, and should be. No condition will of itself bring content, unless the mind be brought to it. He tempts them to seek preferment, as if they were fit to be gods. Satan ruined himself by desiring to be like the Most High, therefore he sought to infect our first parents with the same desire, that he might ruin them too. And still the devil draws people into his interest, by suggesting to them hard thoughts of God, and false hopes of advantage by sin. Let us, therefore, always think well of God as the best good, and think ill of sin as the worst evil: thus let us resist the devil, and he will flee from us.
(Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary)

In the Genesis narrative of the Torah and Biblical Old Testament, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is situated in the Garden of Eden together with the Tree of Life and the Serpent. In many myths the chthonic serpent (sometimes a pair) lives in or is coiled around a Tree of Life situated in a divine garden. In Greek mythology Ladon coiled around the tree in the garden of the Hesperides protecting the entheogenic golden apples.

Similarly Níðhöggr (Nidhogg Nagar) the dragon of Norse mythology eats from the roots of the Yggdrasil, the World Tree. Under yet another tree (the Bodhi Tree of Enlightenment), the Buddha sat in ecstatic meditation. When a storm arose, the mighty serpent king Mucalinda rose up from his place beneath the earth and enveloped the Buddha in seven coils for seven days, not to break his ecstatic state.

The Vision Serpent was also a symbol of rebirth in Mayan mythology, fueling some cross-Atlantic cultural contexts favored in pseudoarchaeology. The Vision Serpent goes back to earlier Mayan conceptions, and lies at the center of the world as the Mayans conceived it. It is in the center axis atop the World Tree. Essentially the World Tree and the Vision Serpent, representing the king, created the center axis which communicates between the spiritual and the earthly worlds or planes. It is through ritual that the king could bring the center axis into existence in the temples and create a doorway to the spiritual world, and with it power.

Sometimes the Tree of Life is represented (in a combination with similar concepts such as the World Tree and Axis Mundi or “World Axis”) by a staff such as those used by shamans. Examples of such staffs featuring coiled snakes in mythology are the Caduceus of Hermes, the Rod of Asclepius, the Staff of Moses, and the papyrus reeds and deity poles entwined by a single serpent Wadjet, dating to earlier than 3000 BCE. The oldest known representation of two snakes entwined around a rod is that of the Sumerian fertility god Ningizzida. Ningizzida was sometimes depicted as a serpent with a human head, eventually becoming a god of healing and magic. It is the companion of Dumuzi (Tammuz) with whom it stood at the gate of heaven. Ningizzida was the ancestor of Gilgamesh (Nimrod), who according to the Epic of Gilgamesh dived to the bottom of the waters to retrieve the plant of life. But while he rested from his labor, a serpent came and ate the plant. The snake became immortal, and Gilgamesh was destined to die.

Ningizzida has been popularised in the 20th century by Raku Kei Reiki (“The Way of the Fire Dragon”) where “Nin Giz Zida” is believed to be a fire serpent of Tibetan rather than Sumerian origin. Nin Giz Zida is another name for the ancient Hindu concept of Kundalini, a Sanskrit word meaning either “coiled up” or “coiling like a snake”. Kundalini refers to the mothering intelligence behind yogic awakening and spiritual maturation leading to altered states of consciousness. There are a number of other translations of the term usually emphasizing a more serpentine nature to the word (serpent power). The symbol of snakes coiled around a staff is an ancient representation of Kundalini physiology. The staff represents the spinal column with the snake(s) being energy channels. In the case of two coiled snakes they usually cross each other seven times, a reference to the seven energy centers called chakras.

The Guardian Eye of Horus, which is guarded by the goddesses of Lower and Upper Egypt, Nekhbet and Wadjet.

In Ancient Egypt, where the earliest written cultural records exist, the serpent appears from the beginning to the end of their mythology. Ra and Atum (“he who completes or perfects”) became the same god, Atum, the “counter-Ra,” was associated with earth animals, including the serpent Nehebkau (“he who harnesses the souls”), the two headed serpent deity who guarded the entrance to the underworld. He is often seen as the son of the snake goddess Renenutet. She often was confused with (and later was absorbed by) their primal snake goddess Wadjet, the Egyptian cobra, who from the earliest of records was the patron and protector of the country, all other deities, and the pharaohs. Hers is the first known oracle. She was depicted as the Crown of Egypt, entwined around the staff of papyrus and the pole that indicated the status of all other deities, as well as having the all-seeing eye of wisdom and vengeance. She never lost her position in the Egyptian pantheon.

The image of the serpent as the embodiment of the wisdom transmitted by Sophia (Isis, Persephone or Pandora) was an emblem used by gnosticism, especially those sects that the more orthodox characterized as “Ophites” (“Serpent People”). The chthonic serpent was one of the earth-animals associated with the cult of Mithras. The Basilisk (Isaiah 14:29), the venomous “king of serpents” with the glance that kills, was hatched by a serpent, Pliny the Elder and others thought, from the egg of a cock.

Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.
(Isaiah 14:29 KJV)

On the Caduceus of Hermes (used as a symbol in modern medicine) the wings symbolize the awakening, the staff the spinal cord, and the serpents the forces of active equilibrium (duality). The other symbol representative of this concept is the epitome of all occult magick, Baphomet. In reality, the staff actually represents the spinal column and the snake(s) represent deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).

Kundalini awakenings experiences can be blissful and filled with feelings of love and a sense of the interconnectedness of all things. For others, it can feel more like a bad drug trip, or even a psychotic break, where practitioners go through altered sleep cycles, changes in identity, or depression. This discrepancy has led many Westerners to fear the coiled serpent resting in their spine, ready to strike.

The third eye (also known as the inner eye) is a mystical and esoteric (ideas preserved or understood by a small group or those specially initiated) concept referring in part to the ajna (brow) chakra in certain dharmic spiritual traditions, in particular Hinduism. This concept was later adopted by Christian mystics and spiritualists as well as people from other religious faiths. It is also spoken of as the gate that leads within to inner realms and spaces of higher consciousness. Among Christian mystics, the term is used in a broad sense to indicate a non-dualistic perspective. In New Age spirituality, the third eye may symbolize a state of enlightenment or the evocation of mental images having deeply personal spiritual or psychological significance. The third eye is often associated with visions, clairvoyance (which includes the ability to observe chakras and auras), precognition, and out-of-body experiences. People who have allegedly developed the capacity to utilize their third eyes are sometimes known as seers.

The third eye is used in many meditation schools and arts, such as in yoga, qigong, many Chinese martial arts, Zen, and in Japanese martial arts such as Karate and Aikido. In terms of Kabbalah, the Ajna chakra is attributed to the sphere of Chokmah, or Wisdom, although others regard the third eye as corresponding to the non-emanated sephirah of da’ath (knowledge).

Kundalini awakenings and similar experiences are the result of the stimulation or activation of the pineal gland. The pineal gland (also called the pineal body, epiphysis cerebri, epiphysis, conarium or the “third eye”) is a small endocrine gland in the vertebrate brain. It produces the serotonin derivative melatonin, a hormone that affects the modulation of wake/sleep patterns and seasonal functions. Its shape resembles a tiny pine cone (hence its name), and it is located near the center of the brain, between the two hemispheres, tucked in a groove where the two rounded thalamic bodies join.

The secretory activity of the pineal gland is only relatively understood. Historically, its location deep in the brain suggested to philosophers that it possessed particular importance. This combination led to its being a mystery gland with superstition and occult theories surrounding its perceived functions. The Eye of Horus is an Ancient Egyptian symbol of protection, royal power and good health. The eye is personified in the goddess Wadjet (The Eye of Ra). The name Wadjet is derived from “wadj” meaning “green” hence “the green one” and was known to the Greeks and Romans as “uraeus” from the Egyptian “iaret” meaning “risen one” from the image of a cobra rising up in protection.

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.
(Ecclesiastes 1:9-11 KJV)

We may not understand the pineal gland today, but it would appear that the Ancient Egyptians and many esoteric societies like the Freemasons, Ordo Templi Orientis, Hindus and those who practice Thelema certainly did, either that or the spirits that were leading them understood the pineal gland and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The Eye of Horus and the dissected human brain which shows the pineal gland in the above photo are far too similar to be a coincidence.

This is why people shouldn’t dabble with the occult, Ouija boards, tarot cards, astrology and unbiblical “Christianized” pagan rituals like “Holy Yoga” and meditation. It is far to easy to open doorways that are difficult or impossible to close. Demons cannot enter a a person unless that person has done something specific on their end that will open up the door for the demons to be able to come into them, and that something action will give the demons a legal right to enter a person.

In order to have Yeshua come into our lives, we first have to be willing to give Him our direct permission to be able to do so, as God will never force Himself on any of us. He will let us know that He will want to come into our lives and that He will always be knocking on our doors, but we will always be the ones who will decide whether or not we will be willing to open up that door for Yeshua to be able to come into our lives. The reason being is that God has given each one of us free will and He will never violate that free will that He has given to each and everyone of us. Demons must work under the same rules.

Yeshua said, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches” (Revelation 3:20-22 KJV).

The Bible makes it perfectly clear who the serpent is, don’t awaken the serpent. The serpent and his followers don’t have much to look forward to in the future.

And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
(Revelation 20:1-15 KJV)

His Eye is on the Sparrow

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
(Matthew 6:25-34 ESV)

For years, leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints have counseled members to have a year’s supply of food and other essentials stored for emergency preparedness and independence. Joseph Smith, the first prophet and president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints taught that “The Church and its members are commanded by the Lord to be self-reliant and independent” (Doctrine and Covenants 78:13-14). I have always called this “Squirrel Syndrome”.

• Docrtine and Covenants: Section 78
• LDS Food Storage Calculator
  

In this day and age martial law seems to be imminent, we have a president (Barack Obama) who appears to be ineligible for office and cares nothing about the rule of law, natural disasters seem to be striking more frequently, the entire world is experiencing economic depression and war seems to be likely between many countries. Given these conditions, I believe it is indeed prudent to plan ahead a few days.

Storing a years’s worth of food and essentials is overkill. It is expensive, unnecessary and shows a lack of faith in God’s Providence for His creation.

If a person makes the right choices in this life there is no reason that one should be anxious. Yeshua provided two fortiori arguments in Matthew 6:25-34, “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” and “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” These fortiori arguments show that since God cares even for the birds and the lilies, how much more will He care for His own. To be anxious demonstrates a lack of faith in God, who promises that he will graciously care for all these things.

Yeshua said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33 ESV). In his epistle to the Romans the Apostle Paul wrote, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32 ESV). In their epistle to the Philippians the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Timothy wrote, “Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:5-6 ESV).

Human beings are of more value than animals because only humans are created “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27), because God gave the human race dominion over all the earth and all its creatures (Genesis 1:28), and because God loves mankind so much that He sent His only begotten Son to pay the ultimate price for our sins (John 3:16).

There is scarcely any sin against which our Lord Jesus more warns his disciples, than disquieting, distracting, distrustful cares about the things of this life. This often insnares the poor as much as the love of wealth does the rich. But there is a carefulness about temporal things which is a duty, though we must not carry these lawful cares too far. Take no thought for your life. Not about the length of it; but refer it to God to lengthen or shorten it as he pleases; our times are in his hand, and they are in a good hand. Not about the comforts of this life; but leave it to God to make it bitter or sweet as he pleases. Food and raiment God has promised, therefore we may expect them. Take no thought for the morrow, for the time to come. Be not anxious for the future, how you shall live next year, or when you are old, or what you shall leave behind you. As we must not boast of tomorrow, so we must not care for to-morrow, or the events of it. God has given us life, and has given us the body. And what can he not do for us, who did that? If we take care about our souls and for eternity, which are more than the body and its life, we may leave it to God to provide for us food and raiment, which are less. Improve this as an encouragement to trust in God. We must reconcile ourselves to our worldly estate, as we do to our stature. We cannot alter the disposals of Providence, therefore we must submit and resign ourselves to them. Thoughtfulness for our souls is the best cure of thoughtfulness for the world. Seek first the kingdom of God, and make religion your business: say not that this is the way to starve; no, it is the way to be well provided for, even in this world. The conclusion of the whole matter is, that it is the will and command of the Lord Jesus, that by daily prayers we may get strength to bear us up under our daily troubles, and to arm us against the temptations that attend them, and then let none of these things move us. Happy are those who take the Lord for their God, and make full proof of it by trusting themselves wholly to his wise disposal. Let thy Spirit convince us of sin in the want of this disposition, and take away the worldliness of our hearts.
(Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary)

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”
(Matthew 10:28-33 ESV)

It is not food, clothing, shelter, cars, and other personal possessions that we need to be concerned with in this life, that is materialism. God has promised to provide our needs already, and God always keeps His promises (Joshua 1:1-6; Numbers 23:19). We need to concentrate our efforts to walk as Messiah Yeshua walked. Tomorrow will worry about itself and today is more than enough trouble already.

The Power of Forgiveness

What is forgiveness? Forgiveness is typically defined as the process of concluding resentment, indignation or anger as a result of a perceived offense, difference or mistake, or ceasing to demand punishment or restitution. The Oxford English Dictionary defines forgiveness as ‘to grant free pardon and to give up all claim on account of an offense or debt’. The concept and benefits of forgiveness have been explored in religious thought, the social sciences and medicine. Forgiveness may be considered simply in terms of the person who forgives including forgiving themselves, in terms of the person forgiven or in terms of the relationship between the forgiver and the person forgiven. In most contexts, forgiveness is granted without any expectation of restorative justice, and without any response on the part of the offender (for example, one may forgive a person who is incommunicado or dead). In practical terms, it may be necessary for the offender to offer some form of acknowledgment, an apology, or even just ask for forgiveness, in order for the wronged person to believe himself able to forgive.

Most world religions include teachings on the nature of forgiveness, and many of these teachings provide an underlying basis for many varying modern day traditions and practices of forgiveness. Some religious doctrines or philosophies place greater emphasis on the need for humans to find some sort of divine forgiveness for their own shortcomings, others place greater emphasis on the need for humans to practice forgiveness of one another, yet others make little or no distinction between human and divine forgiveness.

Therefore, forgiveness is literally the setting aside of a debt by the one to which the debt is owed. When we view forgiveness in this manner, are we to understand that it is possible for us to pay God for our forgiveness? Absolutely not, but it should cause us to realize just how incredible and awesome God’s forgiveness toward us actually is.

In the New Testament, Yeshua speaks of the importance of Christians forgiving or showing mercy towards others. The Parable of the Prodigal Son is perhaps the best known instance of such teaching and practice of forgiveness.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
(1 John 1:5-10 ESV)

A message from the Lord Jesus, the Word of life, the eternal Word, we should all gladly receive. The great God should be represented to this dark world, as pure and perfect light. As this is the nature of God, his doctrines and precepts must be such. And as his perfect happiness cannot be separated from his perfect holiness, so our happiness will be in proportion to our being made holy. To walk in darkness, is to live and act against religion. God holds no heavenly fellowship or intercourse with unholy souls. There is no truth in their profession; their practice shows its folly and falsehood. The eternal Life, the eternal Son, put on flesh and blood, and died to wash us from our sins in his own blood, and procures for us the sacred influences by which sin is to be subdued more and more, till it is quite done away. While the necessity of a holy walk is insisted upon, as the effect and evidence of the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus, the opposite error of self-righteous pride is guarded against with equal care. All who walk near to God, in holiness and righteousness, are sensible that their best days and duties are mixed with sin. God has given testimony to the sinfulness of the world, by providing a sufficient, effectual Sacrifice for sin, needed in all ages; and the sinfulness of believers themselves is shown, by requiring them continually to confess their sins, and to apply by faith to the blood of that Sacrifice. Let us plead guilty before God, be humble, and willing to know the worst of our case. Let us honestly confess all our sins in their full extent, relying wholly on his mercy and truth through the righteousness of Christ, for a free and full forgiveness, and our deliverance from the power and practice of sin.
(Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary)

Why would God forgive us? God desires to forgive is a result of His agape love for mankind. In the New Testament, agape love refers to the covenant love of God for humans, as well as the human reciprocal love for God; the term necessarily extends to the love of one’s fellow man. Many have thought that this word represents divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing, active, volitional, and thoughtful love. Although the word does not have specific religious connotation, the word has been used by a variety of contemporary and ancient sources, including Biblical authors and Christian authors.

God pursues a continuing relationship with us that is real and personal.  Love is God’s very essence. Love, properly defined, needs an object upon which to express itself. You can be an object of God’s love or an object of His wrath.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
(1 John 4:7-13 ESV)

God’s desire is fellowship with us. While God desires fellowship with us, that prospect is spiritually impossible. What makes it impossible is His utter holiness and righteousness in opposition to our utter sinfulness and depravity.

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
(John 17:20-23 ESV)

Our Lord especially prayed, that all believers might be as one body under one head, animated by one soul, by their union with Christ and the Father in him, through the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. The more they dispute about lesser things, the more they throw doubts upon Christianity. Let us endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, praying that all believers may be more and more united in one mind and one judgment. Thus shall we convince the world of the truth and excellence of our religion, and find more sweet communion with God and his saints.
(Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary)

The Spirit of God is the Spirit of love. He that does not love the image of God in his people, has no saving knowledge of God. For it is God’s nature to be kind, and to give happiness. The law of God is love; and all would have been perfectly happy, had all obeyed it. The provision of the gospel, for the forgiveness of sin, and the salvation of sinners, consistently with God’s glory and justice, shows that God is love. Mystery and darkness rest upon many things yet. God has so shown himself to be love, that we cannot come short of eternal happiness, unless through unbelief and impenitence, although strict justice would condemn us to hopeless misery, because we break our Creator’s laws. None of our words or thoughts can do justice to the free, astonishing love of a holy God towards sinners, who could not profit or harm him, whom he might justly crush in a moment, and whose deserving of his vengeance was shown in the method by which they were saved, though he could by his almighty Word have created other worlds, with more perfect beings, if he had seen fit. Search we the whole universe for love in its most glorious displays? It is to be found in the person and the cross of Christ. Does love exist between God and sinners? Here was the origin, not that we loved God, but that he freely loved us. His love could not be designed to be fruitless upon us, and when its proper end and issue are gained and produced, it may be said to be perfected. So faith is perfected by its works. Thus it will appear that God dwells in us by his new-creating Spirit. A loving Christian is a perfect Christian; set him to any good duty, and he is perfect to it, he is expert at it. Love oils the wheels of his affections, and sets him on that which is helpful to his brethren. A man that goes about a business with ill will, always does it badly. That God dwells in us and we in him, were words too high for mortals to use, had not God put them before us. But how may it be known whether the testimony to this does proceed from the Holy Ghost? Those who are truly persuaded that they are the sons of God, cannot but call him Abba, Father. From love to him, they hate sin, and whatever disagrees with his will, and they have a sound and hearty desire to do his will. Such testimony is the testimony of the Holy Ghost.
(Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary)

Yeshua’s last words at His crucifixion were, “It is finished.” What was finished? The way was paved for God to have the fellowship with the apex of His creation. We can have fellowship with God now because of Yeshua’s sacrifice at Golgotha. What is God’s forgiveness? It is most clearly seen in the sacrifice of His only begotten Son on the cross. Yeshua suffered a terrible and cruel execution at His crucifixion. He took God’s wrath for all the sin in the world which was placed upon Him. Yet Yeshua had no sin, He had never broken any laws and died in the company of two criminals. They deserved their sentences, He did not. We deserve death, but Yeshua paid the price for our sins so that we don’t have to suffer eternal death.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
(Ephesians 1:3-10 ESV)

Spiritual and heavenly blessings are the best blessings; with which we cannot be miserable, and without which we cannot but be so. This was from the choice of them in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that they should be made holy by separation from sin, being set apart to God, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, in consequence of their election in Christ. All who are chosen to happiness as the end, are chosen to holiness as the means. In love they were predestinated, or fore-ordained, to be adopted as children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, and to be openly admitted to the privileges of that high relation to himself. The reconciled and adopted believer, the pardoned sinner, gives all the praise of his salvation to his gracious Father. His love appointed this method of redemption, spared not his own Son, and brought believers to hear and embrace this salvation. It was rich grace to provide such a surety as his own Son, and freely to deliver him up. This method of grace gives no encouragement to evil, but shows sin in all its hatefulness, and how it deserves vengeance. The believer’s actions, as well as his words, declare the praises of Divine mercy.
(Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary)

Who needs God’s forgiveness? Anyone who is under the curse of the original sin. Moses wrote, “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5 ESV). Isaiah probably summed up the quality of mankind’s righteousness with one verse. He wrote, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away” (Isaiah 64:6 ESV). Polluted garment or filthy rags (as used in the King James Version) is a reference to menstrual cloths (H5708).

• http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=H5708

Who needs God’s forgiveness? Anyone who meets the Biblical qualifications of being a sinner. The Bible says that “all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Therefore, we all need God’s forgiveness.

God’s forgiveness is His unmerited favor towards mankind. The Apostle Paul wrote, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV). King David wrote, “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Psalms 103:10-12 ESV). That is the amount of forgiveness that God gives to us when we repent and serve Him. None of us deserve this from our Creator. Isaiah wrote, “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins” (Isaiah 43:25 KJV). With forgiveness, God forgets completely forgets our sins. Many critics argue that an omniscient God could never forget something, but they fail to recognize that an omnipotent God can do anything.

What is God’s forgiveness? God’s forgiveness is experiencing His unmerited favor towards mankind. It is a gift, all you have to do is accept His sacrifice of Yeshua. There is nothing you can do to earn God’s forgiveness. No amount of good works or deed will earn salvation for anyone. The Apostle John wrote, “Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:5-6 KJV). There is only one God (YHVH), and the only way to have a relationship with Him is through His only begotten Son, Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ).

Anyone can experience God’s forgiveness by taking advantage of His plan of salvation.

1. First, you need to realize your need for forgiveness. “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:19-26 KJV). “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23 KJV). It is necessary to forgive anyone who you perceived has wronged you in any way. Yeshua said, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15 ESV).
2. Second, you need to respond to God’s provision and plan of salvation. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement” (Romans 5:8-11 KJV).
3. Third, you need to repent of your sin. What is repentance? Many understand the term repentance to mean “turning from sin.” This is not the Biblical definition of repentance. In the Bible, the word repent means “to change one’s mind.” The Bible also tells us that true repentance will result in a change of actions (Luke 3:8-14; Acts 3:19). While repentance is not a work that earns salvation, repentance unto salvation does result in works. It is impossible to truly and fully change your mind without that causing a change in action. In the Bible, repentance results in a change in behavior. Yeshua said, “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3 ESV).
4. Fourth, you must accept and receive Yeshua as your Messiah and Savior. “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:9-13 KJV). “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God” (John 3:16-21 KJV).
5. Fifth, you need to rejoice and faithfully confess your salvation to others. “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33 KJV).
6. Sixth, you need to obey God’s commandments and instructions. “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38 KJV). Baptism is not a work that earns salvation, it shows obedience to God publicly. Yeshua said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15 ESV). “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12 KJV).