��

�� LESSON FOUR

�� NIMROD AND BABYLON: THE BIRTH OF

�� IDOLATRY

�� by Steve and Terri White

�� Genesis 10:8‑12; Genesis 3:15; Genesis 11

�� After the flood Noah and his family repopulated the earth.

�� Because the deluge did not eradicate sin, man�s sinful nature

�� ran wild once again. At the same time, territories were

�� overrun with wild beasts, turning against the inhabitants of

�� the land. The battle of man against beast was hot and fearful,

�� but in the midst of it, Nimrod, son of Cush, appeared as the

�� 'knight in shining armor'. A "mighty hunter," Nimrod

�� delivered the people from the fear of beasts. Hungry for

�� power, though, he also emancipated man from the LORD.

�� Until Nimrod, mankind was governed by the patriarchal

�� system where the heads of families heard from God and

�� guided their individual tribes. Nimrod, more accurately a

�� "mighty hunter against the LORD," usurped patriarchal rule,

�� and crowned himself the first human king in all of history.

�� Now man ruled instead of God.

�� According to Jewish legend, Nimrod feared the prophecy that

�� a child was to be born who would turn the people back to

�� God. In an effort to preserve his kingdom, he slew 70,000

�� babies in hopes of killing the would‑be savior. The story goes

�� that Abram of Ur was the prophetic baby, the father of Israel

�� from whom the messiah would come.

�� Although Nimrod�s motive was to keep the promised child

�� from ruling, he used the fear of the wild beasts as a pretense

�� for uniting the people, and established the kingdom of Babel.

�� Presenting himself as savior, Nimrod convinced the

�� inhabitants to look to him as the lord of the earth instead of

�� the true God. Thus, the establishment of the kingdom was the

�� beginning of the Babylon we read about in the Bible.

�� Historically and symbolically, Babylon is any organized

�� system that replaces God�s rule with human or demonic rule.

�� Nimrod�s greed and ambition led him to sell himself to

�� demonic powers, and he became the high priest of devil

�� worship. During this time Nimrod married the beautiful and

�� cunning, but notoriously immoral, Semiramis. Together they

�� ruled the world.

�� Plans were made for a grand tower, a massive type of building

�� called a ziggurat, which consisted of a series of terraced

�� platforms, each smaller than the one below it, and all together

�� reaching a great height. At the top would be a shrine to Bel,

�� whom they worshiped as 'the Most High god', the god of the

�� sun and of fire; other 'sky gods' would also be included.

�� Therefore, Genesis 11:4, in speaking of "a tower and his top

�� with the heavens (literal translation)," is not referring to the

�� height of the tower, but instead to the inscriptions of the stars

�� on the walls of the shrine. The constellations were there, but

�� with outlines of the 'sky gods' on them in order to cause

�� people to associate the 'pictures in the sky' that they had

�� known about from childhood, with the images Nimrod wanted

�� them to worship. This is indicative of the occult deception

� ��which reigned in Babylon.

�� The Witness of the Stars by E. W. Bullinger reveals the true

�� meaning of what we call 'the signs of the zodiac'. They were

�� meant to be pictures in the sky representing God�s promise of

�� a coming Deliverer, who, being the Seed of the Woman, would

�� bruise the serpent�s head (Gen. 3:15). For this purpose, God

�� gave the stars as "lights . . . for signs and for seasons" (Gen.

�� 1:14 signs, from Hebrew oth means 'evidence'; seasons from

�� Hebrew moed means 'appointed time'). The sky pictures were

�� reminders meant to serve as evidence that all was under God�s

�� divine control, and at His appointed time the events promised

�� (the coming Deliverer, etc.) would happen.

�� God decided that the perversion of the celestial witness was an

�� attempt to extinguish all hope in man for redemption ‑‑ this

�� He would not allow. "This they begin to do, and now nothing

�� will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do"

�� (Gen. 11:6) indicates that evil was about to be unleashed that

�� would be "unrestrained." God defeated all of their designs by

�� confusing their one language into many and scattering the

�� people across the earth; when they could not communicate,

�� their knowledge became fragmented. Various elements of

�� 'stargazing' by the civilizations that followed (Egyptian,

�� Assyrian, Greek, etc,) can be traced back to their common

�� beginnings in Babylon. The 'divine astrology' ‑‑ God�s witness

�� in the heavens ‑‑ was still intact, while pagan astrology was

�� broken into corrupt pieces, a mockery of the former danger of

�� the tower that had its "top with the heavens."

�� Meanwhile, in the height of his power, Nimrod died. It was a

�� violent death, shrouded in mystery. Semiramis, pregnant from

�� an adulterous relationship and desperate to keep her position,

�� devised a scheme. Taking advantage of the prophecy written

�� in the sky with which the remaining inhabitants of Babylon

�� were familiar, Semiramis covered up the details of Nimrod�s

�� death and publicly proclaimed that:

�� Nimrod�s death was voluntary and self‑sacrificial for the

�� benefit of the world.

�� Nimrod would rise again by mystical means.

�� She was a virgin.

�� Nimrod "visited her in a flash of light and the baby was

�� the reincarnated Nimrod".

�� Nimrod�s rising in the form of her son was the

�� fulfillment of the ancient prophecy (Gen. 3:15).��

�� The baby, named Tammuz, was taught the lie and worshiped

�� as god. Semiramis soon claimed that Nimrod had become the

�� "sun god," and was worshiped as such. Not surprisingly,

�� Semiramis was also worshiped as a goddess ‑‑ her original

�� goal finally achieved. Thus, the birth of the mystery religion

�� of Babylon: pagan worship of the bogus virgin and child.

�� Three key figures are prominent in every idolatrous system ‑‑

�� Nimrod, Semiramis, and Tammuz:

�� a famous, but sinful king dies or is cut off;

�� an immoral queen encourages false worship, bears a

�� child, and is elevated to the status of god;

�� a child, worshiped as god, but serving as husband, lover,

�� or son of the mother.

�� From Babylon the worship of mother/son spread across the

�� whole earth. In Egypt there is Isis and Horus; in India, Isi and

�� Iward; in Asia, Cybele and Deorius; in ancient Rome, Fortuna

�� and Jupiter; and in Greece, Ceres/Irene and Plutus. The

�� demonic counterfeit was long in place before the real mother

�� and child walked the earth ‑‑ Mary and Jesus, the Christ.

�� REFERENCES:

�� Adam's Kin, by Ruth Beechick

�� Astrology, the Ancient Conspiracy, by Ben Adam

�� Devil Take the Youngest, by Winkie Pratney

�� The Two Babylons, by Alexander Hislop

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