Counterfeit Christianity

Chapter Eight - None Seeth Me

        Ancient Babylon was the so-called cradle of civilization. It was called Mesopotamia. Out of the region where the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers intersected, came a civilization, culture and religion that has ruled the world ever since.

          In (Genesis 10:8), Nimrod was begotten of Cush and began to be a mighty hunter before the Lord: "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."

          Nimrod was a mighty hunter of men's souls. He was an idol worshipper, a warlock and totally evil. He was the founder of Babylon.

ANCIENT MYTHS AND THE UNHOLY TRINITY

          History books reveal that the an­cient peoples of Babylon and Assyria worshipped demi-gods named Nimrod, Semiramis and Tammuz. The names change with the passage of time but the unholy trio clearlyand consistently appear in legends and myths of Babylon and Assyria. There are variations to the Babylonian myth, but the following version represents the main parts.

          King Ninus ruled over fledgling Babylon and had a wife named Semiramis or Ishtar, and a son named Nimrod. Ninus died when Nimrod was a child and the custom was that if there was a male heir to the throne too young to rule, the queen could rule in his stead until he came of age. Ninus' widow ruled with amazing ability and conquered the surrounding nations and became known as the first Amazon woman, the queen of strongholds. So addicted to ruling was the queen that when Nimrod came of age, she married her own son to remain in power. She is often portrayed as the wife or consort of the son in various Levantine (area encompassing the eastern Mediterranean Sea from Turkey to Egypt) legends.

          Statues of a mother holding an infant son in her arms, halos around their heads are frequently found in temples to Babylonian gods and goddesses. The mother is Semiramis or Ishtar, the goddess of the moon, and the infant is Nimrod/Tammuz, the sun god of Babylon; hence the halos. Together they ruled and controlled their Babylonian subjects through witchcraft and every form of control and manipulation they could devise. Nimrod became so evil that Shem, one of Noah's sons, had to kill him, cut his body into pieces and send a piece to every corner of the empire as a warning.

          The queen was now in trouble because there was no male heir. Soon after Nimrod's death, however, she proclaimed that she had miraculously and immaculately been impregnated by her gods. She subsequently gave birth to Tammuz who she claimed to be the reincarnation of Nimrod. Tammuz, however, died in his early teens during a boar hunt. The queen was so distraught that she decided to challenge the gods of the underworld for the return of her son. She fought so gallantly against the keepers of the twelve gates to the underworld that the gods sympathized with her and agreed that if the women would weep for Tammuz at the end of the year, he would come back to life the day after the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year) which took place around December 23 or 24. He would be a young man during the spring, a mature man during summer, an old man during autumn and die every winter. On or about December 25, he would be born once again.

          The Babylonians celebrated the re-birth of Tammuz by cutting down a green tree out of the forest, standing it upright in their homes and decking it with silver and gold ornaments. Jer. 10:1-5. On the eve of Tammuz' birthday, they would take a dead, dried out log representing the dead body of Tammuz (called a "yule" log) and burn it. Some historians claim that "yule" is a Germanic word, while others claim that "yule" means "child" in ancient Babylon. The next morning, the children would wake up to see a green tree decorated with silver and gold ornaments and other brightly-colored objects. It represented the re-birth of Tammuz, out of the ashes of the "cremated" log. There would be gifts for all and the celebration went on for twelve days (the twelve days of Tammuz in Babylonian tradition).