The Great Red Dragon

Chapter VII The Two Developments Historically and Prophetically Considered: Black Text is Alexander Hislop.

Hitherto we have considered the history of the Two Babylons chiefly in detail. Now we are to view them as organised systems. The idolatrous system of the ancient Babylon assumed different phases in different periods of its history. In the prophetic description of the modern Babylon, there is evidently also a development of different powers at different times. Do these two developments bear any typical relation to each other? Yes, they do. When we bring the religious history of the ancient Babylonian Paganism to bear on the prophetic symbols that shadow forth the organised working of idolatry in Rome, it will be found that it casts as much light on this view of the subject as on that which has hitherto engaged our attention. The powers of iniquity at work in the modern Babylon are specifically described in chapters 12 and 13 of the Revelation; and they are as follows:--

I. The Great Red Dragon;
II. The Beast that comes up out of the sea;
III. The Beast that ascendeth out of the earth; and
IV. The Image of the Beast. In all these respects it will be found, on inquiry, that, in regard to succession and order of development,

the Paganism of the Old Testament Babylon was the exact type of the Paganism of the new.

Section I -- The Great Red Dragon

See Dr. Rubel Shelly on Baptizing Santa
See Dr. Rubel Shelly on Baptizing the S.U.N.

This formidable enemy of the truth is particularly described in Revelation 12:3--

"And there appeared another wonder in heaven, a great red dragon."

It is admitted on all hands that this is the first grand enemy that in Gospel times assaulted the Christian Church. If the terms in which it is described, and the deeds attributed to it, are considered, it will be found that there is a great analogy between it and the first enemy of all,
........... that appeared against the ancient Church of God soon after the Flood.

See The Sons of God.
Chapter XIII.-Origin of Idolatry. Clement

"But when all these things were done, men turned again to impiety; [There is a similar chapter in Homily IX. 7, but in a discourse: on the following day.-R.] and on this account a law was given by God to instruct them in the manner of living.

But in process of time, the worship of God and righteousness were corrupted by the unbelieving and the wicked, as we shall show more fully by and by.

Moreover, perverse and erratic religions were introduced, to which the greater part of men gave themselves up,

by occasion of holidays and solemnities, instituting drinkings and banquets,
following pipes, and flutes, and harps, and diverse kinds of musical instruments, and indulging themselves in all kinds of drunkenness and luxury.

Hence every kind of error took rise; hence they invented groves and altars, fillets and victims, and after drunkenness they were agitated as if with mad emotions.

By this means power was given to the demons to enter into minds of this sort, so that they seemed to lead insane dances and to rave like Bacchanalians; hence were invented the gnashing of teeth, and bellowing from the depth of their bowels; hence a terrible countenance and a fierce aspect in men, so that he whom drunkenness had subverted and a demon had instigated, was believed by the deceived and the erring to be filled with the Deity.

"According to the system which Nimrod was the grand instrument in introducing, men were led to believe

that a real spiritual change of heart was unnecessary, and that so far as change was needful, they could be regenerated by mere external means.

"Looking at the subject in the light of the Bacchanalian orgies (Read Ephesus and Corinth), which, as the reader has seen, commemorated the history of Nimrod, it is evident that he led mankind to seek their chief good in sensual enjoyment,

and showed them how they might enjoy the pleasures of sin, without any fear of the wrath of a holy God. (Voodoo, Rock, Boogie Woogie becomes Contemporary Christian Music)

"In his various expeditions he was always accompanied by troops of women; and by music and song, and games (ritual drama) and revelries, and everything that could please the natural hearts, he commended himself to the good graces of mankind." (Hislop, Alexander, The Two Babylons, p. 55, Loizeaux Brothers)

Music in Babylon

The term dragon, according to the associations currently connected with it, is somewhat apt to mislead the reader, by recalling to his mind the fabulous dragons of the Dark Ages, equipped with wings. At the time this Divine description was given,

the term dragon had no such meaning among either profane or sacred writers. "The dragon of the Greeks," says Pausanias, "was only a large snake"; and the context shows that this is the very case here; for what in the third verse is called a "dragon," in the fourteenth is simply described as a "serpent."

Then the word rendered "Red" properly means "Fiery"; so that the "Red Dragon" signifies the "Fiery Serpent" or "Serpent of Fire." Exactly so does it appear to have been in the first form of idolatry,

that, under the patronage of Nimrod, appeared in the ancient world.
The "Serpent of Fire" in the plains of Shinar seems to have been the grand object of worship.
There is the strongest evidence that apostacy among the sons of Noah began in fire-worship, and that in connection with the symbol of the serpent.

We have seen already, on different occasions, that fire was worshipped as the enlightener and the purifier. Now, it was thus at the very beginning; for Nimrod is singled out by the voice of antiquity as commencing this fire-worship. The identity of Nimrod and Ninus has already been proved; and under the name of Ninus, also, he is represented as originating the same practice.

In a fragment of Apollodorus it is said that "Ninus taught the Assyrians to worship fire." The sun, as the great source of light and heat, was worshipped under the name of Baal. Now, the fact that the sun, under that name, was worshipped in the earliest ages of the world, shows the audacious character of these first beginnings of apostacy.

Men have spoken as if the worship of the sun and of the heavenly bodies was a very excusable thing, into which the human race might very readily and very innocently fall. But how stands the fact?

Job, as one of the oldest writings, repudiated sun and moon worship:
If I rejoice because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much; Job 31:25

If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness; Job 31:26
and my heart has been secretly enticed, and I have worshiped them by kissing my hand to them, Job 31:27
........... This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge:
........... for I should have denied the God that is above. Job 31:28

According to the primitive language of mankind, the sun was called "Shemesh"--that is, "the Servant"--that name, no doubt, being divinely given, to keep the world in mind of the great truth that,
........... however glorious was the orb of day, it was, after all,
........... the appointed Minister of the bounty of the great unseen Creator to His creatures upon earth.

Men knew this, and yet with the full knowledge of it, they put the servant in the place of the Master; and called the sun Baal--that is, the Lord--and worshipped him accordingly.

See modern Shamash Worship.

Job also understood that living righ and treating others right was just too hard. Therefore, they converted worship in spirit to performing musical fertility rituals.

Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Job 21:7

Their seed is established in their sight with them,

and their offspring before their eyes. Job 21: 8

Their houses are safe from fear,

neither is the rod of God upon them. Job 21: 9

Their bull gendereth, and faileth not;
their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. Job 21: 10

They send forth their little ones like a flock,

and their children dance. Job 21: 11

They take the timbrel and harp,

and rejoice at the sound of the organ. Job 21: 12

They spend their days in wealth,

and in a moment go down to the grave. Job 21: 13

Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us;

for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. Job 21: 14
What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him? Job 21: 15

What a meaning, then, in the saying of Paul, that, "when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God"; but "changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is God over all, blessed for ever."

And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Acts 7:41

Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? Acts 7:42

Amos was not bad mouthing a "bad mental attitude" but he was condemning the worship of the host of heaven which began at Mount Sinai as a terminal sin in musical idolatry.

This is what I will do to this place and to those who live here, declares the LORD. I will make this city like Topheth. Jer 19:12

Topheth is named after:

Taphaph (h8606) taw-faf'; a prim. root; to drum, i. e. play (as) on the tambourine: - taber, play with timbrels.

The houses in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled like this place, Topheth--all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs to all the starry hosts and poured out drink offerings to other gods.'" Jer 19:13

See how all of the nations would be destroyed to the beat of musical instruments.

The beginning, then, of sun-worship, and of the worship of the host of heaven, was a sin against the light--a presumptuous, heaven-daring sin.

As the sun in the heavens was the great object of worship,
so fire was worshipped as its earthly representative.
Whoever shall cause this song to cease,

(and) shall not glorify Shamash (Sun God), the light of the great gods,
Or shall change the name of Ashurbanipal,
the exercise of whose kingship Shamash in a vision commanded,
and then shall name another royal name,

May his playing on the harp be displeasing to the people;
may his song of rejoicing be a thorn and a thistle.

To this primeval fire-worship Vitruvius alludes when he says that "men were first formed into states and communities by meeting around fires." And this is exactly in conformity with what we have already seen in regard to Phoroneus, whom we have identified with Nimrod, that while he was said to be the "inventor of fire," he was also regarded as the first that "gathered mankind into communities."

Along with the sun, as the great fire-god, and, in due time, identified with him, was the serpent worshipped.

"In the mythology of the primitive world," says Owen, "the serpent is universally the symbol of the sun." In Egypt, one of the commonest symbols of the sun, or sun-god, is a disc with a serpent around it. The original reason of that identification seems just to have been that,

as the sun was the great enlightener of the physical world
so the serpent was held to have been the great enlightener of the spiritual,
........... by giving mankind the "knowledge of good and evil."

Sophia, Eve, Zoe and Mary are identified as the great enlighteners, the Mother of the gods. Zoe taught the minor "jehovahs" how to organize instrumental music bands. She is quite identical to Lucifer, the enlightener and "they called her the Beast." Shophia-Zoe are "the female instructing principle."

This, of course, implies tremendous depravity on the part of the ring-leaders in such a system, considering the period when it began; but such appears to have been the real meaning of the identification. At all events, we have evidence, both Scriptural and profane,

for the fact, that the worship of the serpent began side by side with the worship of fire and the sun. See the Worship of Shamash

Can we Baptize Santa and S.U.N. worship to replace the S.O.N?

The inspired statement of Paul seems decisive on the subject. It was, he says, "when men knew God, but glorified Him not as God," that they changed the glory of God, not only into an image made like to corruptible man, but into the likeness of "creeping things"--that is, of serpents (Rom 1:23).

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Rom 1:18

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. Rom 1: 19

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Rom 1: 20

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Rom 1: 21

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, Rom 1: 22
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Rom 1: 23

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Rom 1: 24

Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. Rom 1: 25

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: Rom 1: 26

And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. Rom 1: 27

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Rom 1: 28

Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Rom 1: 29

Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Rom 1: 30
........... Without understanding, Rom 1: 31

In the Exodus, it happened this way:

Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. Ezekiel 20: 7

But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. Ezekiel 20: 8

But I wrought for my names sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt. Ezekiel 20: 9

Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. Ezekiel 20:10

And I gave them my statutes, and shewed them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them. Ezekiel 20:11

Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them. Ezekiel 20:12

But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted:

then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them. Ezekiel 20:13

Pollute means:

Chalal (h2490) khaw-lal'; a prim. root [comp. 2470]; prop. to bore, i. e. (by impl.) to wound, to dissolve; fig. to profane (a person, place or thing), to break (one's word), to begin (as if by an "opening wedge"); denom. (from 2485) to play (the flute): - begin (* men began), defile, * break, defile, * eat (as common things), * first, * gather the grape thereof, * take inheritance, pipe, player on instruments, pollute, (cast as) profane (self), prostitute, slay (slain), sorrow, stain, wound.

This is why God had the people's "congregation" put outside the gates when the music began for animal sacrifices.

Based on the word "pollute," "play," the example of Samson and David and scholarly opinion, the "because of transgression" was musical idolatry:

"The triumphal hymn of Moses had unquestionably a religious character about it; but

the employment of music in religious services, though idolatrous,
is more distinctly marked in the festivities which attended the erection of the golden calf." (Smith's Bible Dictionary, Music, p. 589).

The Apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon notes of serpent worship:

In return for their foolish and wicked thoughts, which led them astray to worship irrational serpents and worthless animals, 11:15 -
........... thou didst send upon them a multitude of irrational creatures to punish them,
........... ........... that they might learn that one is punished
........... ........... by the very things by which he sins. (Revelation 18) 11:16 -

Stephen was murdered in part for denying that God lived in houses or was worshiped with the works of men's hands:

And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Acts 7:41

Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? Acts 7:42

"Then God turned away from them and gave them up, and let them serve the sun, moon, and stars as their gods! In the book of Amos' prophecies the Lord God asks, 'Was it to me you were sacrificing during those forty years in the desert, Israel? Acts 7:42LIV

With this profane history exactly coincides. Of profane writers, Sanchuniathon, the Phoenician, who is believed to have lived about the time of Joshua, says--

"Thoth first attributed something of the divine nature to the serpent and the serpent tribe, in which he was followed by the Phoenicians and Egyptians. For this animal was esteemed by him to be the most spiritual of all the reptiles, and of a FIERY nature, inasmuch as it exhibits an incredible celerity, moving by its spirit, without either hands or feet...Moreover, it is long-lived, and has the quality of RENEWING ITS YOUTH...as Thoth has laid down in the sacred books; upon which accounts this animal is introduced in the sacred rites and Mysteries."

Click for the Emerald Tablets of Thoth

Now, Thoth, it will be remembered, was the counsellor of Thamus, that is, Nimrod. From this statement, then, we are led to the conclusion that serpent-worship was a part of the primeval apostacy of Nimrod. The "FIERY NATURE" of the serpent, alluded to in the above extract, is continually celebrated by the heathen poets.

See Nimrod and Musical Female Harem of the gods.

Thus Virgil, "availing himself," as the author of Pompeii remarks, "of the divine nature attributed to serpents," describes the sacred serpent that came from the tomb of Anchises, when his son Aeneas had been sacrificing before it, in such terms as illustrate at once the language of the Phoenician, and the "Fiery Serpent" of the passage before us:--

"Scarce had he finished, when, with speckled pride,
A serpent from the tomb began to glide;
His hugy bulk on seven high volumes rolled,
Blue was his breadth of back, but streaked with scaly gold.
Thus, riding on his curls, he seemed to pass
A rolling fire along, and singe the grass."

It is not wonderful, then, the fire-worship and serpent-worship should be conjoined.

The serpent, also, as "renewing its youth" every year, (A Jubilee)
was plausibly represented to those who wished an excuse for idolatry

as a meet emblem of the sun, the great regenerator,
who every year regenerates and renews the face of nature, and who, when deified, was worshipped as the grand Regenerator of the souls of men.

In the chapter under consideration, the "great fiery serpent" is represented with all the emblems of royalty. All its heads are encircled with "crowns or diadems"; and so in Egypt, the serpent of fire, or serpent of the sun,

in Greek was called the Basilisk, that is, the "royal serpent," to identify it with Moloch, which name, while it recalls the ideas both of fire and blood, properly signifies "the King."

In the LXX version God asks why people must always go in procession with instruments to the temple. Then, he shows how He will judge Assyria, the "mother" of serpent worship as even Jews burned babies in what had been Solomon's "music grove."

Must ye always rejoice, and go into my holy places continually, as they that keep a feast? and must ye go with a pipe, as those that rejoice into the mountain of the Lord, to the God of Israel Isaiah 30:29 LXX

And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. Isaiah 30:30

For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod. Isaiah 30: 31

And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the Lord shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it. Isaiah 30: 32

And it shall happen to him from every side, that they from whom their hope of assistance was, in which he trusted, themselves shall war against him in turn with drums and with harp. Isaiah 30:32 LXX

God uses that which people LUST AFTER to destroy them. In the Dead Sea Scrolls a Psalm like Psalm 41 is translated to define the idea that Judas will not triumph over Jesus. They attacked Jesus as Beliar, Beelzebub or Satan using instrumental music to panic Him or "melt His heart." In the end, the military weapons will be turned on those who refused to trust in God's Word.

For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it. Isaiah 30: 33

Of Lucifer, a "Zoe" figure was androgynous. He (she) used the King (queen) of Babylon as her change agent:

Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. Isaiah 14:9

All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? Isaiah 14:10

Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm (maggots) is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. Isaiah 14:11

In the Battle of Baal and Yahm:

. . . And in Yahm will be the sieve of destruction, And in Yahm will be the breast of [death];
(in) Judge Nahar will be "gnawers", There "maggots move about. . .
There the sword I will destroy (S).
. . . /the house I will burn (S). To the earth will fall [the strength of us two/
the noble (S)]; and into the dust [the might of us two/ the mighty (S)]."
Scarce have come these words from his/her mouth;
his/her speech and - the utterance of his/her uttered his/her - voice from his/her lips/
And she raises her voice: when/but he groaned/sank/keeps lying in wait (?)/ "May he sink
beside the foot of - the throne of Prince Yahm.
Thereupon answers Kothar wa Khasis: "Truly, indeed, I have been telling you...

The Basilisk was always, among the Egyptians, and among many nations besides, regarded as "the very type of majesty and dominion." As such, its image was worn affixed to the head-dress of the Egyptian monarchs; and it was not lawful for any one else to wear it. The sun identified with this serpent was called "P'ouro," which signifies at one "the Fire" and "the King," and from this very name the epithet "Purros," the "Fiery," is given to the "Great seven-crowned serpent" of our text. *

* The word Purros in the text does not exclude the idea of "Red," for the sun-god was painted red to identify him with Moloch, at once the god of fire and god of blood.--(WILKINSON). The primary leading idea, however, is that of Fire.

Britannica: Cockatrice also called Basilisk, in the legends of Hellenistic and Roman times, a small serpent, possibly the Egyptian cobra, known as a basilikos ("kinglet") and credited with powers of destroying all animal and vegetable life by its mere look or breath. Only the weasel, which secreted a venom deadly to the cockatrice, was safe from its powers.

By the beginning of the 17th century more marvels had been added to the legend. The snake was said to be generated from an egg laid by a cock and hatched by a serpent. In addition to the weasel, another enemy was the cock;

if the basilisk heard a cock crow, it would shortly die. Thus travelers in regions allegedly infested by the basilisk took cocks with them.

Thus was the Sun, the Great Fire-god, identified with the Serpent. But he had also a human representative, and that was Tammuz, for whom the daughters of Israel lamented, in other words Nimrod.

We have already seen the identity of Nimrod and Zoroaster. Now, Zoroaster was not only the head of the Chaldean Mysteries, but, as all admit, the head of the fire-worshippers. (see note below) The title given to Nimrod, as the first of the Babylonian kings, by Berosus, indicates the same thing. That title is Alorus, that is, "the god of fire." As Nimrod, "the god of fire," was Molk-Gheber, or, "the Mighty king," inasmuch as he was the first who was called Moloch, or King, and the first who began to be "mighty" (Gheber) on the earth, we see at once how it was that the "passing through the fire to Moloch" originated, and how the god of fire among the Romans came to be called "Mulkiber." *

* Commonly spelled Mulciber (OVID, Art. Am.); but the Roman c was hard. From the epithet "Gheber," the Parsees, or fire-worshippers of India, are still called "Guebres."

It was only after his death, however, that he appears to have been deified.

Then, retrospectively, he was worshipped as the child of the Sun, or the Sun incarnate. In his own life-time, however, he set up no higher pretensions than that of being Bol-Khan, or Priest of Baal, from which the other name of the Roman fire-god Vulcan is evidently derived. Everything in the history of Vulcan exactly agrees with that of Nimrod. Vulcan was "the most ugly and deformed" of all the gods.

Nimrod, over all the world, is represented with the features and complexion of a negro. Though Vulcan was so ugly, that when he sought a wife, "all the beautiful goddesses rejected him with horror"; yet "Destiny, the irrevocable, interposed, and pronounced the decree, by which [Venus] the most beautiful of the goddesses, was united to the most unsightly of the gods."

So, in spite of the black and Cushite features of Nimrod, he had for his queen Semiramis, the most beautiful of women. The wife of Vulcan was noted for her infidelities and licentiousness; the wife of Nimrod was the very same. * Vulcan was the head and chief of the Cyclops, that is, "the kings of flame." **

* Nimrod, as universal king, was Khuk-hold, "King of the world." As such, the emblem of his power was the bull's horns.

Hence the origin of the Cuckhold's horns.

** Kuclops, from Khuk, "king," and Lohb, "flame." The image of the great god was represented with three eyes--one in the forehead; hence the story of the Cyclops with the one eye in the forehead.

Nimrod was the head of the fire-worshippers. Vulcan was the forger of the thunderbolts by which such havoc was made among the enemies of the gods. Ninus, or Nimrod, in his wars with the king of Bactria, seems to have carried on the conflict in a similar way.

See Clementine Homily VIII

From Arnobius 5. we learn, that when the Assyrians under Ninus made war against the Bactrians,
........... the warfare was waged not only by the sword and bodily strength,
........... but by magic and by means derived from the secret instructions (incantations) of the Chaldeans.

24. These are your ideas, these are your sentiments, impiously conceived, and more impiously believed. Nay, rather, to speak out more truly, the augurs, the dream interpreters, the soothsayers, the prophets, and the priestlings, ever vain, have devised these fables;

for they, fearing that their own arts be brought to nought, and that they may extort but scanty contributions from the devotees, now few and infrequent, whenever they have found you to be willing that their craft should come into disrepute, cry aloud,

The gods are neglected, and in the temples
there is now a very thin attendance.

Former ceremonies are exposed to derision, and the time-honoured rites of institutions once sacred
........... have sunk before the superstitions of new religions.

Justly is the human race afflicted by so many pressing calamities, justly is it racked by the hardships of so many toils.

And men-a senseless race-being unable, from their inborn blindness, to see even that which is placed in open light,

dare to assert in their frenzy what you in your sane mind do not blush to believe.

Click to read Arnobius on the musical connection.

When it is known that the historical Cyclops are, by the historian Castor, traced up to the very time of Saturn or Belus, the first king of Babylon, and when we learn that Jupiter (who was worshipped in the very same character as Ninus, "the child"),

when fighting against the Titans (satans, seitans), "received from the Cyclops aid" by means of "dazzling lightnings and thunders,"

we may have some pretty clear idea of the magic arts derived from the Chaldean Mysteries, which Ninus employed against the Bactrian king.

There is evidence that, down to a late period, the priests of the Chaldean Mysteries knew the composition of the formidable Greek fire, which burned under water, and the secret of which has been lost; and there can be little doubt that Nimrod, in erecting his power, availed himself of such or similar scientific secrets, which he and his associates alone possessed.

THE WORLD OF IBLIS (SHAYTAAN)

HADHRAT Abdullah Ibn Abbaas (Radiallaahu Anhu) narrates the following Hadith of Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi was sallam):

"Iblis, the accursed one petitioned Allah Ta'ala "O my Rabb! You have sent down Aadam (Alayhi salaam) onto the earth and You know that for him will be sent Revelations and Messengers.

What will be his Books and how will be his Messengers?"

Allah Ta'ala replied: "I will send Angels to them (progeny of Adam) and from them (mankind) will raise Messengers. Their revelations will be the Tauraah, Injeel, Zabur and the Quraan.

Iblis said: "What will be my book?"

The Divine Answer came: "Your writing will be to tattoo; your reciting will be poetry;

your messengers will be the fortune-tellers and astrologists;
your food will be that food on which Bismillaah was not recited;
your drink will be alcohol;
your truth will be falsehood;
your home will be the toilets;
your net (to ensnare) will be women;
your muezzin will be the musical instruments,
and your musjid will be the market-place."

Bismillaah. Is the name of Allah. All actions of a Muslim should begin with Bismillaah to ensure good and meritorious conduct.

Muezzin calls out the daily prayer.

In these, and other respects yet to be noticed, there is an exact coincidence between Vulcan, the god of fire of the Romans, and Nimrod, the fire-god of Babylon. In the case of the classic Vulcan, it is only in his character of the fire-god as a physical agent that he is popularly represented.

But it was in his spiritual aspects, in cleansing and regenerating the souls of men, that the fire-worship told most effectually on the world.

The power, the popularity, and skill of Nimrod, as well as the seductive nature of the system itself, enabled him to spread the delusive doctrine far and wide, as he was represented under the well-known name of Phaethon, (see note below) as on the point of "setting the whole world on fire," or (without the poetical metaphor) of involving all mankind in the guilt of fire-worship.

The extraordinary prevalence of the worship of the fire-god in the early ages of the world, is proved by legends found over all the earth, and by facts in almost every clime. Thus, in Mexico, the natives relate, that in primeval times, just after the first age, the world was burnt up with fire. As their history, like the Egyptian, was written in Hieroglyphics, it is plain that this must be symbolically understood. In India, they have a legend to the very same effect, though somewhat varied in its form.

See the Naga-Serpent Connection: "The great temple-builders of the famous Ankhor Wat were considered to be the semi-divine Khmers. The avenue leading to the Temple is lined with the seven-headed Naga. And even in Mexico, we find the "Naga" which becomes "Nagal." In China, the Naga is given the form of the Dragon and has a direct association with the Emperor and is known as the "Son of Heaven"...while in Egypt the same association is termed "King-Initiate". The Chinese are even said to have originated with the Serpent demi-gods and even to speak their language, Naga-Krita.

The Brahmins say that, in a very remote period of the past, one of the gods shone with such insufferable splendour,

"inflicting distress on the universe by his effulgent beams, brighter than a thousand worlds," * that, unless another more potent god had interposed and cut off his head, the result would have been most disastrous.

* SKANDA PURAN, and PADMA PURAN, apud KENNEDY'S Hindoo Mythology, p. 275. In the myth, this divinity is represented as the fifth head of Brahma; but as this head is represented as having gained the knowledge that made him so insufferably proud by perusing the Vedas produced by the other four heads of Brahma, that shows that he must have been regarded as having a distinct individuality.

In the Druidic Triads of the old British Bards, there is distinct reference to the same event. They say that in primeval times a "tempest of fire arose, which split the earth asunder to the great deep," from which none escaped but "the select company shut up together in the enclosure with the strong door," with the great "patriarch distinguished for his integrity,"

that is evidently with Shem, the leader of the faithful--who preserved their "integrity" when so many made shipwreck of faith and a good conscience.

These stories all point to one and the same period, and they show how powerful had been this form of apostacy. The Papal purgatory and the fires of St. John's Eve, which we have already considered, and many other fables or practices still extant, are just so many relics of the same ancient superstition.

It will be observed, however, that the Great Red Dragon, or Great Fiery Serpent, is represented as

standing before the Woman with the crown of twelve stars,
that is, the true Church of God, "To devour her child as soon as it should be born."
Now, this is in exact accordance with the character of the Great Head of the system of fire-worship.
Nimrod, as the representative of the devouring fire to which human victims, and especially children, were offered in sacrifice, was regarded as the great child-devourer.

Though, at his first deification, he was set up himself as Ninus, or the child, yet, as the first of mankind that was deified, he was, of course, the actual father of all the Babylonian gods; and, therefore, in that character he was afterwards universally regarded. *

* Phaethon, though the child of the sun, is also called the Father of the gods. (LACTANTIUS, De Falsa Religione) In Egypt, too, Vulcan was the Father of the gods. (AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS)

Jamison, Fauset and Brown note of the worship God sentenced Israel to as recorded by Paul and Amos:

Molech . . . Chiun--"Molech" means "king" answering to Mars [BENGEL]; the Sun [JABLONSKI]; Saturn, the same as "Chiun" [MAURER]. The Septuagint translates "Chiun" into Remphan, as Stephen quotes it (Ac 7:42,43). The same god often had different names.

Molech is the Ammonite name; Chiun, the Arabic and Persian name, written also Chevan. In an Arabic lexicon Chiun means "austere"; so astrologers represented Saturn as a planet baleful in his influence. Hence the Phoenicians offered human sacrifices to him, children especially; so idolatrous Israel also. Rimmon was the Syrian name (2Ki 5:18); pronounced as Remvan, or "Remphan," just as Chiun was also Chevan. Molech had the form of a king; Chevan, or Chiun, of a star [GROTIUS]. Remphan was the Egyptian name for Saturn: hence the Septuagint translator of Amos gave the Egyptian name for the Hebrew, being an Egyptian. [HODIUS II, De Bibliorum Textibus Originalibus. 4.115].

The same as the Nile, of which the Egyptians made the star Saturn the representative [HARENBERG]. BENGEL considers Remphan or Rephan akin to Teraphim and Remphis, the name of a king of Egypt.

The Hebrews became infected with Sabeanism, the oldest form of idolatry, the worship of the Saba or starry hosts, in their stay in the Arabian desert, where Job notices its prevalence (Job 31:26); in opposition, in Am 5:27, Jehovah declares Himself "the God of hosts."

the star of your god--R. ISAAC CARO says all the astrologers represented Saturn as the star of Israel. Probably there was a figure of a star on the head of the image of the idol, to represent the planet Saturn; hence "images" correspond to "star" in the parallel clause. A star in hieroglyphics represents God (Nu 24:17). "Images" are either a Hebraism for "image," or refer to the many images made to represent Chiun.

27. beyond Damascus--In Ac 7:43 it is "beyond Babylon," which includes beyond Damascus. In Amos time, Damascus was the object of Israel's fear because of the Syrian wars. Babylon was not yet named as the place of their captivity.

Stephen supplies this name. Their place of exile was in fact, as he states, "beyond Babylon," in Halah and Habor by the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes (2Ki 17:6; compare here Am 1:5 4:3 6:14). The road to Assyria lay through "Damascus." It is therefore specified, that not merely shall they be carried captives to Damascus, as they had been by Syrian kings (2Ki 10:32,33 13:7),

but, beyond that, to a region whence a return was not so possible as from Damascus.
They were led captive by Satan into idolatry,
therefore God caused them to go captive among idolaters.

Compare 2Ki 15:29 16:9 Isa 8:4, whence it appears Tiglath-pileser attacked Israel and Damascus at the same time at Ahaz' request (Am 3:1).

As the Father of the gods, he was, as we have seen, called Kronos (Saturn); and every one knows that the classical story of Kronos was just this, that, "he devoured his sons as soon as they were born." Such is the analogy between type and antitype. This legend has a further and deeper meaning; but, as applied to Nimrod, or

"The Horned One," it just refers to the fact, that, as the representative of Moloch or Baal,
infants were the most acceptable offerings at his altar. We have ample and melancholy evidence on this subject from the records of antiquity.

See Nimrod's Worship in Babylon

"The Phenicians," says Eusebius, "every year sacrificed their beloved and only-begotten children to Kronos or Saturn, and the Rhodians also often did the same." Diodorus Siculus states that the Carthaginians, on one occasion, when besieged by the Sicilians, and sore pressed, in order to rectify, as they supposed, their error in having somewhat departed from the ancient custom of Carthage, in this respect,

hastily "chose out two hundred of the noblest of their children, and publicly sacrificed them" to this god. There is reason to believe that the same practice obtained in our own land in the times of the Druids. We know that they offered human sacrifices to their bloody gods.

We have evidence that they made "their children pass through the fire to Moloch," and that makes it highly probable that they also offered them in sacrifice; for, from Jeremiah 32:35, compared with Jeremiah 19:5, we find that these two things were parts of one and the same system. The god whom the Druids worshipped was Baal, as the blazing Baal-fires show, and the last-cited passage proves that children were offered in sacrifice to Baal.

Click for our notes on Israel's Child Sacrifice. God will repay with music.

When "the fruit of the body" was thus offered, it was "for the sin of the soul." And it was a principle of the Mosaic law, a principle no doubt derived from the patriarchal faith, that the priest must partake of whatever was offered as a sin-offering (Num 18:9,10).

Hence, the priests of Nimrod or Baal were necessarily required to eat of the human sacrifices; and thus it has come to pass that "Cahna-Bal," * the "Priest of Baal," is the established word in our own tongue for a devourer of human flesh. **

* The word Cahna is the emphatic form of Cahn. Cahn is "a priest," Cahna is "the priest."

** From the historian Castor (in Armenian translation of EUSEBIUS) we learn that it was under Bel, or Belus, that is Baal, that the Cyclops lived; and the Scholiast on Aeschylus states that these Cyclops were the brethren of Kronos, who was also Bel or Bal, as we have elsewhere seen.

The eye in their forehead shows that originally this name was a name of the great god; for that eye in India and Greece is found the characteristic of the supreme divinity. The Cyclops, then, had been representatives of that God--in other words, priests, and priests of Bel or Bal. Now, we find that the Cyclops were well-known as cannibals, Referre ritus Cyclopum, "to bring back the rites of the Cyclops," meaning to revive the practice of eating human flesh. (OVID, Metam.)

Castor, Pollux, and the Cyclops all had power to "move the worshipers into the presence of the gods." Homosexuality was primarily the POWER POINTS of connecting the flesh to the spiritual.

Now, the ancient traditions relate that the apostates who joined in the rebellion of Nimrod made war upon the faithful among the sons of Noah.

Click To Read Second Adam and Eve on This Account

Power and numbers were on the side of the fire-worshippers. But on the side of Shem and the faithful was the mighty power of God's Spirit.

Therefore many were convinced of their sin, arrested in their evil career; and victory, as we have already seen, declared for the saints. The power of Nimrod came to an end, * and with that, for a time,

the worship of the sun, and the fiery serpent associated with it.

* The wars of the giants against heaven, referred to in ancient heathen writers, had primary reference to this war against the saints;
........... for men cannot make war upon God except by attacking the people of God.

The ancient writer Eupolemus, as quoted by Eusebius (Praeparatio Evang.), states, that the builders of the tower of Babel were these giants; which statement amounts nearly to the same thing as the conclusion to which we have already come, for we have seen that the "mighty ones" of Nimrod were "the giants" of antiquity.

Epiphanius records that Nimrod was a ringleader among these giants, and that "conspiracy, sedition, and tyranny were carried on under him." From the very necessity of the case, the faithful must have suffered most, as being most opposed to his ambitious and sacrilegious schemes. That Nimrod's reign terminated in some very signal catastrophe, we have seen abundant reason already to conclude. The following statement of Syncellus confirms the conclusions to which we have already come as to the nature of that catastrophe; referring to the arresting of the tower-building scheme, Syncellus (Chronographia) proceeds thus:

"But Nimrod would still obstinately stay (when most of the other tower-builders were dispersed), and reside upon the spot; nor could he be withdrawn from the tower,

still having the command over no contemptible body of men. Upon this, we are informed, that the tower,
being beat upon by violent winds, gave way, and by the just judgment of God, crushed him to pieces."

See how Nimrod used the Musical Worship Teams.

Though this could not be literally true, for the tower stood for many ages, yet there is a considerable amount of tradition to the effect that the tower in which Nimrod gloried was overthrown by wind, which gives reason to suspect that this story, when properly understood, had a real meaning in it.

Take it figuratively, and remembering that the same word which signifies the wind signifies also the Spirit of God, it becomes highly probable that the meaning is, that his lofty and ambitious scheme, by which, in Scriptural language,

he was seeking to "mount up to heaven," and "set his nest among the stars," was overthrown for a time by the Spirit of God, as we have already concluded, and that, in that overthrow he himself perished.

The case was exactly as stated here in regard to the antitype (Rev 12:9): "The great dragon," or fiery serpent, was "cast out of heaven to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him"; that is, the Head of the fire-worship, and all his associates and underlings, were cast down from the power and glory to which they had been raised.

Then was the time when the whole gods of the classic Pantheon of Greece were fain to flee and hide themselves from the wrath of their adversaries. Then it was, that, in India, Indra, the king of the gods, Surya, the god of the sun, Agni, the god of fire, and all the rabble rout of the Hindu Olympus, were driven from heaven, wandered over the earth, or hid themselves, in forests, disconsolate, and ready to "perish of hunger."

Remember that at Mount Sinai, as a result of their musical idolatry, God turned them over to worship the starry host. Tammuz was worshiped by the women at the Jerusalem temple while the men bowed to the Sun in the east:

Then it was that Phaethon, while driving the chariot of the sun, when on the point of setting the world on fire, was smitten by the Supreme God, and cast headlong to the earth,

while his sisters, the daughters of the sun, inconsolably lamented him, as, "the women wept for Tammuz." (Ezekiel 14)

Then it was, as the reader must be prepared to see, that Vulcan, or Molk-Gheber, the classic "god of fire," was so ignominiously hurled down from heaven, as he himself relates in Homer, speaking of the wrath of the King of Heaven, which in this instance must mean God Most High:--

"I felt his matchless might,
Hurled headlong downwards from the ethereal height;
Tossed all the day in rapid circles round,
Nor, till the sun descended, touched the ground.
Breathless I fell, in giddy motion lost.
The Sinthians raised me on the Lemnian coast."

The lines, in which Milton refers to this same downfall, though he gives it another application, still more beautifully describe the greatness of the overthrow:--

"In Ausonian land
Men called him Mulciber; and how he fell
From heaven, they fabled. Thrown by angry Jove
Sheer o'er the crystal battlements; from morn
To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,
A summer's day; and, with the setting sun,
Dropped from the zenith, like a falling star.
On Lemnos, the Aegean isle."
Paradise Lost

These words very strikingly show the tremendous fall of Molk-Gheber, or Nimrod, "the Mighty King," when "suddenly he was cast down from the height of his power, and was deprived at once of his kingdom and his life." *