Watchman Willie Martin Archive



������������������ 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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