Babylon, Revelation 17, Tower of Babel.

An Essay: The Symbol of Babylon.

Revelation 17 is concerned with Babylon, so it is important before we go there that we understand the nature of Babylon, what the symbol means.

Babylon represents False religion in all its forms, and it began at the Tower of Babel. To understand Revelation 17 we need to go to the Tower.

THE TOWER OF BABEL.

Section I: - THE TOWER AND THE JUDGMENT.

A) THE TOWER.

Genesis 11:1-7.

(1) The Motivation for building a Tower.

(a) To Keep Society Together, A Rallying Point.

Genesis 11:1-4.

v2 "As men moved eastward" - The implication is that they were all moving together as one group after the flood. Here was an attempt to keep the new society together. Hence they set out to "Build a city" (v4) that is a communal dwelling place where they could all settle down together and live. They perceived that their strength was in unity. Once mankind was fragmented they knew they would lose strength.

v5 "So that we may not be scattered over the face of the earth".

(b) A Religious Edifice.

Genesis 11:4 - "that reaches to the heavens".

Religion is a unifying factor in any society, so it was necessary to have a religious centre. The Tower was a religious shrine. Throughout the Ancient Near East such imitation mountains, or ziggurats, were constructed with shrines on their top layers. The positioning of these towers were set by astrologers so that the towers could be used to study the stars for religious guidance through astrology. Clearly the tower was to be the religious and social centre of the new community.

(c) Humanistic Pride.

Genesis 11:4 - "Let us make a name for ourselves".

While they worked together there was no limit to what they could do.

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B) THE JUDGMENT OF GOD.

(i) The judgment of God at Babel still affects mankind. It is a curse that has become the basis of all subsequent cultural, national and spiritual history. Mankind continues to struggle against its effects, attempting to conquer the curse by man's own efforts.

(ii) Traditionally the calendar day on which this event happened is said by the Jews to be the same as the day of the giving of the Law at Sinai, hence of the feast of Pentecost, hence of the coming of the Spirit in Acts 2.

From this we can see that the events of Acts 2 not only fulfill the prophecy of the feast of Pentecost, but also are God's way of reversing the curse of Babel. Where at Babel God gave tongues to confuse and divide, now at Pentecost God gives tongues to bring understanding and unity.

It is my belief that what we now call the prayer tongue was the means of communication that men had before the Tower of Babel. Until that time men apparently talked in a manner of communication that was unlearned - it arose out of the spirit. At Babel God imposed languages on men's minds as a judgment. These new languages were learned in the mind and are not natural to us.

(iii) The judgment at Babel consisted of Three parts:
(a) A confusion of languages.
(b) A scattering of Mankind.
(c) A Denigration of Religion.

(1) A Confusion of Languages.
Linguists today who have been tracing through history to find the origin of language now believe that mankind originally spoke a common language, thus agreeing with the claims of the Bible.
The confusion of language involves firstly a confounding of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and phraseology.
Secondly the uniformity of speech meant a uniformity in mental thought in the community. Language is the expression of the mind, so in a common language we find tremendous power. Hence the confusion of languages is also a confusion of the basic mental conceptions of mankind. The fact is each language group today has its own special linguistic "spirit". Hence in some cultures the language has allowed the development of science, whilst in others scientific concepts are almost impossible to express. Other examples can be given of how languages differ.

The original language of the Garden of Eden was like a mirror of God's ability to speak. When God shattered that mirror at Babel he gave only a part of it to each person, the whole is never to be complete again in human history. Hence we see in differing cultures vastly different ways of understanding life, often to the point of contradiction.

Community of speech involved a vigorous uniformity of mental life. The result was amazing advance in science, the arts, etc. Mythology looks back to a golden age of man before the flood, but this continued until Babel. The confusion of tongues hence implies a confusion of thought in every sphere - science, religion, culture, the arts, history and philosophy.

(2) A Scattering of Mankind.
As a result of this confusion of tongues mankind could no longer agree together, so a split was inevitable. The aim of the tower was to preserve unity, so God effectively divided mankind throughout the earth.

It seems as if God sovereignly forced people to move over the face of the earth very rapidly after Babel, so that all of the main land areas were inhabited. There are indications that the physical division of the land masses into the present continents could have happened soon after this.

(3) A Denigration of Religion.
However mankind still had a general revelation of God's nature and purposes, and an inner religious nature that needed to be satisfied. Hence man turned again to the Satanic, now strengthened by the addition of the Demonic spirits loosed after the flood.
That this general revelation was held by every culture is strongly proven in:
Richards :- Eternity in their Hearts.
He shows that the knowledge of one true God and his promised redeemer was a common belief of all ancient peoples. The belief in pluralism was a later addition to their religious thought.

The desire of the demons to be worshiped allowed the growth of animism.
However there was also a Satanic religion set up at Babel which spread throughout the world when mankind were scattered. This is discussed in the next section.

The work of Archaeologists has shown that there is amazing similarity between the demonic religion of Ancient Assyria and that of South America, and other parts of the globe. This can only be explained by the fact that they all were worshipping the same demonic pattern at Babel and were scattered over the earth afterwards, taking their false worship with them from Babel.

Section II: - THE SYSTEM OF BABYLON.

Genesis 10:6-12 11:1-9.
1 Chronicles 1:10.

Source Reading:
Hislop. Rev.A., "THE TWO BABYLONS."
Pratney.W., "DEVIL TAKE THE YOUNGEST."

A) INTRODUCTION.
Hislop analyses the major religious myths of mankind in his book. He convincingly demonstrates that all of these myths are essentially the same and go back to a common source. The only variations are cultural and name changes from culture to culture.
Hislop demonstrates how these myths are all based on the revelation of God's purposes given to Adam by God in the Garden of Eden before man was expelled. This revelation is summarised in Genesis 3:15 but the details were pictured by God in the stars in the constellations. “The heavens declare the glory of the Lord”.
Hislop shows how this original revelation was perverted by interpreting it with respect to events surrounding the tower of Babel, i.e the original perversion giving rise to the myths is based on a true revelation from God and historical events that have been reinterpreted to fit in with the revelation. The result was a distortion of truth - good was made to appear bad and vica versa. This is why the mythologies are so powerful - they have truth at their heart.
Hislop then shows how this religion began at Babel, and is in a true sense the "religion of Babylon", the system of Antichrist. It is Satanic religion in its purest sense. This system, Hislop shows, was adopted into the church virtually unchanged at the time of Constantine, with only the names of the characters changed. The result was that the church was, in fact, worshiping Satan in the Dark Ages, thinking that it was worshiping Christ.
This Babylonian religion is the source of all false religion. It is, in a very real sense, the "Mother of All Harlots" (Revelation 17:5). It is the system referred to in Revelation, and elsewhere in the Bible.

B) HISLOP'S HISTORICAL RECONSTRUCTION.

Using the myths as a guide he compares myth with myth and is able to isolate out the main points of what happened.

(1) Cush (Gen 10:6) was the first apostate after the Flood. He began receiving "revelations" from the "gods". He founded apostate worship. He appears in the myths under different names:
(a) Hermes (Egypt) = "the Son of Ham".
Hermes was considered to be the great original prophet of idolatry, and is recognised by pagans to be the founder of their religious rites. He was known as "the Interpreter of the Gods".
(b) Nebo (Babylon).
He was the prophetic "god" and was the ringleader in a movement which produced the division of tongues (Gen 11).
(c) Mercury (Greece).
The ringleader in building a tower.
(d) Bel - the founder of Babylon = "the confounder" = Baal.
(e) Janus (Rome).
The name Cush is related to the word for Chaos, the name of the God of confusion, also called Janus. He was symbolised by a club.
(f) Vulcan (Greece).
The Chaldee word for club also means "to break in pieces and scatter abroad" (c/f Genesis 11:8,9) which in Greek is hephaizt, which is another name for Vulcan, the "father" of the Greek gods who also carried a hammer.
Cush began a great apostacy. He founded Babylon and the tower, but his son Nimrod completed his works.

(2) Nimrod - the son of Cush - was the first king of Babylon. He was the first king to wage war on his neighbors, and legend has it that he formed the first empire - stretching from Iran to Libya.
1 Chronicles 1:10 - "mighty man" = "warrior".
Genesis 10:11 (alternative translation):
"Out of that land he went forth, being made strong, and he builded Nineveh".
Nineveh = nin nevah = the habitation of Ninus (= Nimrod).
The ruins of Nineveh are called Nimroud to this day.

Nimrod appears in the myths under the following names:
(a) Ninus, the son of Bel.
(b) Kronos, or Saturn, the king of the Cyclops.
The Cyclops were known as the inventors of tower building. Saturn is also called the father of the gods. He is called this because in the "mysteries" he was the first man to be deified, i.e to call himself a god, thus reaching the height of human sin.
He is depicted as a giant horned bull, or Reem.
Reem = Bull, prince, ruler.
Horns - symbolise might, power.
i.e. "horned bull" = mighty prince, ruler (c/f Gen 10:9).
Nimrod was the son of Cush, therefore he was black. The popular representation of Satan as a black, horned, cloven footed individual was exactly how Nimrod was depicted as chief of the gods. However the Anglo Saxons saw black as a a symbol of fear, so transferred the symbol to evil when they absorbed Babylonianism.
(c) Bacchus. (Greece).
Also known as Dionysus or Iacchus. The son of the Mother God.
The rites of Bacchus and Osirus are the same.
Bacchus was drawn in a coach pulled by leopards.
Also called Aithiopais = Son of Aethiops.
Aethiops = the Cushites (Black People).
i.e. Aethiops = Cush.
i.e. Bacchus = son of Cush.
(d) Woden (Mexico and England & elsewhere).
(e) Osiris (Egypt).
Was worshiped the same way as Ninus.
Was depicted Black.
Was clothed in a leopard skin. The name Nimrod means, "the subduer of the Leopard".
Depicted as a calf or young bull called APIS who is, in Greece, Saturn.

Ninus conquered Egypt. In Egypt the legend of Nimrod and the illegitimate child were so mixed that it was difficult to tell the difference between the two.
Child = KHONS (= "to chase") = the huntsman (c/f Gen 10:9).
Khons = Latin God CONSUS = NEPTUNE (the keeper of secrets, who turned the horse i.e. who tamed it).
= Saturn (the god of mysteries, the Hidden one).
Father of Khons = "The Hidden God". I.e. the father and the son are seen as the same so that the child could be claimed to be Nimrod reincarnated.

The Centaur (half man half horse) is a memorial to the man who first used horses.
Centaur = Kronos, Saturn
= (in the zodiac Sagittarius, the Archer.)
(g) India.
Called Iswara, presented at the breast of his mother Isi, or Parvati.
(h) Other names include Eros, Cupid (son of Venus i.e. Venus = Semiramus), Krishna, Zoroastes, Thor.

(3) Cush began a great apostacy that Nimrod continued. This involved various themes:
(a) Idol Worship.
In particular the images of Nimrod at first, but others came later, as we shall see.
(b) Spiritism.
That is demon worship. What the fallen angels began the demons now continued with gusto.
(c) Perverted Astrology - for personal predictions.
The purpose of doing this is simple - the original meaning of Astrology showed the truth of the Redeemer and his conflict with evil. This knowledge was available to all. If Satanic deception was to succeed then is was vital that the divinely placed witness to truth be somehow obscured.
(d) The Worship of Man - Humanism.
This culminates in the worship of a man as God, which is the manifestation of the Spirit of Antichrist.
(e) Materialism - the belief that things and power could make you happy.

(4) The Myths tell us that Nimrod was put to death for his sin by the command of a great king.
"Hercules, by the power of God, fought and overcame the giants".
"giants" = mighty ones = Nimrod and his army.
Nimrod's body was cut into 72 pieces and sent to the corners of the empire as a testimony to the judgment.
Bacchus is called "the Lamented One".

Hercules = Shem.
This agrees with the character of Shem as we see it in the Bible.

Names of Shem:
(a) Hercules (Greece).
(b) Sem (Egypt).
Acknowledged to be the Egyptian name of Hercules. Osiris (= Nimrod) was said to die by the tusk of a wild boar.
Tusk symbolises power in the mouth, i.e. spiritual power.
(c) Shem is called by the apostates "Typho", the evil one
Shem means "to desolate, lay waste, the appointed one". Hence he was made to mean "the Destroyer, Desolater" i.e. the Devil.

Multitudes were said to follow Shem. A major revival came about.

(5) Semiramus, Nimrod's widow, couldn't continue the apostacy openly any more. Hence she began the "Hidden Mysteries" - secret societies which became the basis of the mystery religions and the secret societies of today. Free masonry is actually based on the Egyptian cult of Isis and Osiris.

Semiramus is known by these names:
(a) Rhea, the wife of Ninus, the "mother" of the gods.
(b) Isis (India, Egypt, Freemasonry).
She was pictured with a vulture headdress. Rhea can also be translated "vulture".
(c) Venus (Greece).
Pictured with a golden cup in her hand (c/f Rev 17:4).
(d) Parvati (India).
(e) Cybele - the goddess of fortifications.
Pictured with a turretted crown on her head.
(f) Diana (Ephesus) - similarly crowned.
(g) The Queen of Heaven.

(6) After Nimrod's execution Semiramus became pregnant. To prevent the standard punishment of stoning for immorality she claimed that this was to be "the promised seed of the woman". The promise of Gen 3:15 appears in all the myths. It was known that this redeemer would conquer evil by death and resurrection, hence she claimed that this was Nimrod reincarnated (the beginning of reincarnation). Nimrod became the great savior of the world who laid down his life for the sins of men. He was now being reborn in this child, which fortunately for her was a son.

She called her dead husband Zoroastes - "the seed of the woman" - and erected the mysteries to worship him. The theology was already present in the stars, she just borrowed it and then used false astrology to obscure the fact.

(7) Nimrod was black, which was unpopular, but the illegitimate son solved that problem. Nimrod was ignored and the child worshipped. The mother derived her glory from the son, but she soon eclipsed him, becoming the main object of worship. The elevation of women over men begins again here with a distortion of the roles of the sexes.

What happened to the child is not certain - he never seems to have been allowed to grow up. It may be that he became a child sacrifice of the sort we find demanded in this religion.

Hence we have a trinity - the Father = Nimrod, the Son = the Child, the Spirit = incarnate in the woman who was symbolised by all of the Bible symbols for the Holy Spirit.

(8) The child was always presented as a babe in the mother's arms. The picturing of Mary and Jesus is actually a copy of Babylonian statues and art from centuries before Christ. This explains why Mary is always depicted as a white woman when she was Semitic. Semiramus was white. The church adopted the artwork when the mystery cults became "Christianized" under Constantine.

(9) The seasonal cycle of harvests was added to the original mysteries to make them more popular with the common people, but this was clearly not part of the original belief. The "Dying and rising" of the seasons became a handy way of justifying the mystery cult belief of a dying and rising Nimrod.

This system is the basis of all of the mystery cults of ancient times and of mythology and false religion the world over. The system was well established in Babylon by the time of the Tower of Babel, and hence when men were spread by the confusion of tongues it was able to go throughout the world.

Hislop shows in the second part of his book how the rituals and practices and many of the so called decrees of the Popes are actually all faithful replicas of beliefs and practices of the ancient Babylonians three thousand years before Christ. Hence the absorption of mystery celebrations such as Christmas and Easter and Guy Fawkes are easy to understand. (Funeral pyres were burnt on Nov 5th in ancient Britain in memory of Woden = Nimrod before there was even Roman contact with the British Isles!)

NOTES: -

(1) The Festivals of Christendom are actually festivals of Nimrod.

(a) Christmas.
Clearly in the Bible is not Dec 25th as that is winter. Shepherds do not watch their flocks in the fields at night after October in Palestine until February.
Dec 25th is actually the date of the festival in Ancient Babylon celebrating the birth of the child, called Yuleday.
Yule = an ancient Chaldee word meaning "infant, little child".
Christmas trees were common in Ancient Rome and Egypt.

(b) Lady Day. - 25th March.
Memorial to the miraculous conception of Christ in the womb.
Observed in Pagan Rome in honour of Cybele.

(c) Easter.
Easter = Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven.
Astarte = Nineveh, or Ishtar.
On the 1st May there were celebrations to Bel. 1st may called Beltane
Lent - fasting prior to this - was practiced in pagan Mexico and Egypt in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Tammuz.
Babylon celebrated Easter with hot cross buns, painted eggs.

(d) Feast of the Nativity of St John. - 24 June, midsummersday.
In Babylon was one of the big festivals to Tammuz, the sun God. One of the great features were the midsummer night fires on the evening of the 23rd - still practiced in France, Ireland, Switzerland and Scotland. When the fires got low the peasants used to walk through the embers.

(e) St Bacchus the Martyr - Oct 7th.

(f) Feast of Assumption - 15th August.
Celebrated in Babylon.

(2) Doctrines of Babylon.

(i) Baptismal Regeneration.

(ii) Reincarnation.

(iii) Justification by works.

C) SUMMARY - THE SYSTEM OF BABYLON.

The symbol of Babylon in the Bible is very powerful and therefore has several elements to the system it pictures. The main elements are these (and they are all seen in the Tower of Babel):

(a) Empire Building, a one world government controlled by a Satanically inspired man.

(b) Counterfeit Christianity - a false messiah, an Antichrist who is both religious and political ruler.

(c) Occult worship -including astrology, idol worship and secret rites. The primary rite of this system has always been the destruction of innocent children in worship of this god (see Winkey Pratney "Devil Take the Youngest"). This rite is most clearly seen today in abortion, which is the worship of Satan.

(d) Humanism - the exaltation of men making themselves into god.

(e) Materalism - progress through human achievement.

This element is seen in particular in the form of a union of economic and religious systems in society in such a way that we see religious (or philosophic) rulers taking control of the political and economic system of a nation. Whenever religion and politics meet we see an immediate manifestation of the spirit of Antichrist. In its final form we shall see Antichrist himself as a religious and political ruler who performs economic miracles.

These are all expressions of the spirit of Antichrist, which Paul says "is already at work in the world” (2 Thessalonians 2).