Herbert W Armstrong

   And then down in verse five (Revelation 17:5): "And upon her forehead was a name written: 'Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.' And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered with great wonder."

   And then over in Revelation 18, the description and account is given of economic Babylon and her great downfall, and what is going to happen to her at the end of the age. In verse 24 of Revelation 18 (Revelation 18:24): "And in her" — that is Mystery Babylon the Great — "was found the blood of prophets." Now basically, the prophets lived before the time of Christ, before the New Testament, and the prophets were killed, of course, before that time by this system.

   Now, a lot of people tend to think of Mystery Babylon the Great in much, much too narrow terms, in that they attribute all of Mystery Babylon the Great principally to the Catholic Church and to the Protestant churches. But it is a much, much more inclusive and extensive and expansive system than that. It is a system that has been in existence since the time of the creation of man, when Satan first was in the Garden and tempted Eve, and we shall be demonstrating some of that this afternoon and also showing you how it affects your lives today.

   There is not a person here who is not affected by it. I don't care how old or how young you are — you are affected. It is the principal thing that governs this world at the present time. I'm speaking of Mystery Babylon the Great, and the principal progenitor of it at the present time, as far as the youth are concerned, would be the public school system and the media, and it has far, far greater impact on their lives than does the Catholic Church or the Protestant churches, though the Catholic Church and the Protestant churches are a part of the system.

   "And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all that were slain upon the earth." Now over in verse four is the admonition to God's people in this chapter 18 (Revelation 18:4): "And I heard another voice from heaven saying, 'Come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins and that you receive not of her plagues.'"

   There have been four systems since the creation of man that have attempted to explain the great questions of life: Who is God? What is God? Who is man? What is man? What is his purpose? What is his reason for being? Why is he here? What is the nature of the universe? What's the nature of man? Is there good? Is there evil? And the only place that you can go to that really explains that is the Word of God — true religion and undefiled before God. The Word of God explains that.

   Now, false religion has developed a system. It is a mystery system that attempts to explain these questions. Growing out of the false religion has been philosophy. They attempt to explain these questions. Growing out of philosophy has been science. Science attempts to explain these questions — not that everything in philosophy or science is false. It is not, but basically the end results thereof are the ways of man. It leads to death, and out of science has grown the pseudo-sciences of the day: psychology and sociology, which play such a prominent role in Western society.

   Babylon today is taught freely. The Mystery Babylon today is taught freely in the public schools. The Mystery Babylon controls every dimension of life: economics, society, the various social institutions, politics, education, and religion — and atheism is a religion. And by the way, many of the atheists do believe in a form of immortality. So it is a complete system. And as I said, many of us tend to think of it in very narrow terms — just the Catholics and the Protestants, the Protestant churches.

   Now, I want to pick up a link back in Matthew, the 23rd chapter. I'm going to trace this back to the Garden of Eden at the present time, and then I'm going to bring it back from the Garden of Eden back to the present time. In Matthew chapter 23, we'll see here Jesus Christ talking to the scribes and the Pharisees, the two main religious sects. One of the questions this morning in the Bible Bowl, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The word "Judaism" was not used by Christ, was not used by the apostles. When people talked about Judaism, they were talking about Pharisaism. Josephus was the man who coined the term "Judaism." It was an unknown term until Josephus began to use it in his writings.

   When you talk about Judaism, you were talking about Pharisaism. In Matthew 23, Christ gave the scathing rebuke publicly to the scribes and the Pharisees, and we see a vital link which links Revelation 18:24 — "in her was found the blood of the prophets." In Matthew 23 and verse 31 (Matthew 23:31): "Wherefore you be witnesses under yourself that you are" — now talking to the scribes and the Pharisees — "you are the children of them which kill the prophets."

   Now, these were descendants, some of them from Abraham, as far as the flesh is concerned. "You are the children. Fill you up, then the measure of your fathers." And then in verse 37 (Matthew 23:37-38) he says, "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that killed the prophets and stone them." And then in verse 38 he tells them, "Behold your house is left unto you desolate." That is the temple.

   The Jews thought that because they had the temple, which was the symbol of God's presence — because in the Holy of Holies, the Shekina glory of God filled the Holy of Holies, which was symbolic of his presence and them being his people — and they thought that because the temple was there, they were the special and chosen people of God. And because it was there, they would never be destroyed. And Christ let them know that their house would be left unto them desolate, and it is left unto them desolate unto this day. That is, the temple has not been rebuilt.

   Now, here I am going to be reading from the Babylonian Talmud, which is the handbook of Judaism or Pharisaism for the world today. And what they say about this publication at the end of the first century, speaking of the Talmud: "It was to them a substitute for their destroyed temple. It was their stronghold, their entertainment by day and by night." So to the scribes and the Pharisees, these writings, this book became to them the temple. Christ said, "Your temple is left unto you desolate."

   Now, if we go back to I Kings 18 and verse 17, we will see another link — the fathers. It says here, "You are the children of the fathers who killed the prophets." Well, who were the fathers that killed the prophets? We'll see a link here in I Kings chapter 18 and verse 17. This is the story about the confrontation that Elijah had with the priests of Baal, and Baalism, of course, was a vital link in the Mystery Babylonian system.

   I Kings 18:17: "It came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said unto him, 'Are you he that troubles Israel?' And he answered, 'I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Eternal and you have followed Baalim.'" Baalim is a plural term for Baal.

   "Now therefore, sin and gather to me all Israel and to Mount Carmel and the prophets of Baal, 450" — and the prophets of Baal being the male part of it, because sex was a vital part of the Mystery Babylonian system — "and the prophets of the groves" — the groves representing the female part of it — "400, which eat at Jezebel's table."

   So you see here the kings of Israel — Ahab, who was a physical descendant from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And later on, of course, the scribes and Pharisees came to sit in Moses' seat, and they became the children of those who had killed the prophets earlier.

   So, Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel. And Elijah came unto all the people and said, "How long halt you between two opinions?" And this shows very clearly that there are only two ways of life. There are only two religions: true religion and false religion. "If the Eternal be God, then follow him. But if Baal, then follow him." And the people answered him not a word.

   Now, if we turn back a little farther to Judges, chapter three and verse five, we see another link. In Judges 3:5: "And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites." This is Judges 3:5. Israel now had come out of Egypt, Israel had gone into the promised land after wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, they had been led into the promised land by Joshua. Joshua now had died. There was no immediate successor named for Joshua.

   So in a sense, you could say the seat of Moses at that particular time had been left vacant, and the people were expected to live by faith and that God would be their king. He would be their God, and they would be His people. They would live by faith. There is no time that God excuses us — I don't care if there's a person sitting in the seat of Moses or not sitting in the seat of Moses. He still expects us to honor him as our God and our king.

   But immediately when Israel was left without one there and expected to live by faith, verse six: "They took their daughters" — that is, those Canaanite tribes — "to be their wives and gave their daughters to their sons and served their gods. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and forgot the Eternal their God and served Baalim and the groves" — the male and female part of Mystery Babylon the Great.

   Now back to Genesis chapter 11, the beginning link of this right after the flood. In Genesis chapter 11, after the flood had occurred, then Nimrod, the son of Cush — and Cush and Nimrod together built the tower of Babel or the tower of Babylon, that is, confusion. In Genesis 11 and verse nine (Genesis 11:9): "Therefore is the name of it called Babel" — that is, Babylon, that is, confusion — "because the Eternal did there confound the language of all the earth, and from there did the Eternal scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth."

   And it is God who sets the bounds and the habitations of the nations. And one thing that you'll always find with the Babylonian system is that they desire to remove the bounds and the habitations of the nations. You see, the Tower of Babel was to a large degree built in rebellion to the command that God had given them to be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth. And in Genesis chapter 10, God had assigned the various families of the earth to specific geographical locations, and it is a disgusting shame that today our one-worldism people, those who would restore Babel and Babylon — that's one of the first things that they set out to do, is to remove the bounds and the habitations of the people and make the people so-called into one people.

   Now there is, if you'll hold your place right there, you look at Isaiah the 10th chapter and I shall give you hard proof of that. In Isaiah 10, as a prophecy for the end time in Isaiah 10 and verse 12 (Isaiah 10:12): "Wherefore it shall come to pass that when the Eternal has performed his whole work" — notice the time setting. He who has an ear, let him hear — "when the Eternal hath performed his whole work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria and the glory of his high looks."

   For he said — and this is what the Assyrian said, a type of those who are used by Satan to do his bidding and to do his will to restore the Babylonian system — "By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am prudent, and I have removed the bounds of the people."

   How much do you hear today about world community? "We are one world. We are one people.." Now, not so long ago, I attended a function in Tyler, Texas called "Up with People" — a very disgusting performance, thinly veiled at their one-worldism, where young people who are totally deceived, I feel, go around dancing and singing and talking about "We are many, we are one," and it's just another one of the ploys that the propagandists use in their attempts to remove the bounds of the people.

   "And have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man" — remember this is the Assyrian talking — "and my hand have found as a nest the riches of the people, and as one gathers eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth, and there was none that moved the wing or opened the mouth or peeped."

   Now, what I am going to be talking about here today is not popular. And if you were to really begin to get on television or radio and really begin to preach this and bear down on it, hate letters would flow in like mad, and they would try to get you kicked off immediately because this is not the social gospel. And when you try to remove the bounds of the people, that is the essence of the social gospel.

   Now, if you go back to Genesis chapter one — you'll see the true beginning, not Genesis chapter one, but Genesis chapter three — the real beginning of the Mystery Babylon the Great System. And that first lie that Eve was told by the serpent, verse four (Genesis 3:1): "And the serpent said unto the woman, 'You shall not surely die.'" The doctrine of the immortality of the soul is inextricably linked — that is, you cannot disentangle the doctrine of the immortality of the soul from all false religion. Even the atheists believe in a form of immortality, that is, immortality through their offspring.

   And in order for you to have offspring, you obviously must have sex. In today's world in Mystery Babylon the Great, the people have been taught basically that the way to get back to God is through sex, that the serpent taught Eve how to do this and that the serpent copulated with Eve and bear Cain. We know that's a lie. And that later on, Eve taught Adam the sex act, and then they could have offspring, and then immortality could then be gained through their offspring. And all of this takes on various forms and various configurations in different nations and different civilizations around the world from that time to the present.

   Now in Genesis chapter three, in verse 15 (Genesis 3:15), where God talked to the woman, he told her that her seed — and that would mean a man would be born who would bruise the head of this serpent, who would render him of non-effect. Now, in Genesis chapter four, in verse one (Genesis 4:1): "Adam knew Eve his wife" — not the serpent — "and she conceived and bare Cain." Now we even have some ex-ministers in the Church of God who preach that it was the serpent who copulated with Eve to have Cain. My Bible says that Adam did. "That Adam knew Eve and she conceived and bare Cain and said, 'I have gotten a man from the Eternal.'" From whom did Eve say that she had gotten the man? From the Eternal.

   Perhaps Eve thought at this time that Cain was the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15, that Cain would be the savior, that Cain would be the one who would bruise the serpent's head and would render him of non-effect. Now, the story that is told here about Cain and Abel — they both brought offerings unto God. The offering that Abel brought was accepted. It was an animal offering, and animals, of course, were used in the temple and in the Tabernacle first as an offering for sin — that is, through the shedding of blood, symbolic of the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ for the covering of sin. Whereas Cain brought from the fruit of the ground, symbolic of a thank offering and not an offering for sin.

   Cain had in his mind that he was the savior of the world, that he was perfect, that really he had not sinned. He did not need an offering. Abel knew differently. He knew what he was. He knew what man was, and he offered an offering in faith and it was accepted. Verse six (Genesis 4:6): "And the Eternal said unto Cain, 'Why are you mad? And why is your face fallen? If you do well, shall you not be accepted? And if you do not well, sin lies at the door'" — or an offering for sin lies at the door.

   "You need to wake up, Cain, and realize that you too are a sinner and that you need an offering that covers your sins, that you are not the savior of the world. You are man, you are but dust." But Cain, of course, did not accept this. He went out and talked with his brother Abel, and he wound up killing his brother Abel. And then God pronounced a punishment on Cain. And he said, "That punishment is greater than I can bear." He was told to go out from the face of God. Instead of repenting, we see in verse 16 what Cain did (Genesis 4:16).

   In this system that Cain developed at that present time, at that time continues to the present time today — it had an interruption at the flood when God wiped out that wicked world whose thoughts were continually upon evil — it was renewed by Cush and Nimrod, as we've already mentioned. But let's look at the early beginnings here for just a moment, and you will see that it's still in existence today.

   "Cain went out from the presence of the Eternal and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Enoch. And he builded a city" — that is, Cain, not Enoch — "and Cain called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch." Now, this city was the pre-flood Jericho.

   Now, here we have the beginnings of so-called civilization. Here we have the perversion of chemistry, the perversion of metals, the perversion of music, and all the things that go with the present modern Babylonian system that is described very graphically in Revelation, the 18th chapter. It was a time when people began to lay field to field and house to house where no place could be found for them on the face of the earth.

   You remember it talks about in Genesis 6, how that there was, in a sense, a population explosion — that the daughters of men were going, were having intercourse with the sons of men and so on. And that the earth was really growing in population. I don't think it was so much that they were literally filling the earth every last little bit of it, but that they were crowding together in cities.

   And God says in Isaiah that one of the current woes upon Israel is the fact that they are crowding together in cities: "Woe unto those who lay house to house and field to field that there be no place found." Ninety percent of the people in America today live in cities, and in that kind of environment, it is almost impossible for them to maintain the kind of relationship with their brother that they should. You even put rats and animals in that kind of environment and they become violent and turn on each other.

   So we'll see here that a system developed that was evil. In verse 18 (Genesis 4:18): "And unto Enoch was born Irad, and Irad begat Mehujael." Now, Mehujael means "an instrument of God." See, they begin to take, they began to take on the name of God. Any time that you see a word, a name, that is a proper name end in "El" — "El" is one of the names of God. For example, Israel — "ruling with God" is the literal meaning of Israel. And Mehujael means "an instrument of God." So they began to take on the names of God. They began to set themselves up as God.

   And of course, it was the false god. And then he begat Methusael — Methusael, once again ending in "El," means "man who is God," which is blasphemy. "And Lamech took unto him two wives. The name of one was Adah" — and Adah means "white" — "and then the other name Zillah" means "dark." So we here have the beginning of polygamy, a man who married a white woman and evidently a very dark woman.

   "And Adah bare Jabal; he was the father of such as dwell in tents and such as have cattle." And perhaps we have the beginning here of cross-breeding and the wrong use of breeding with animals. "And his brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ." And obviously there was perverted music here, and perverted music goes with false religion.

   Now, recently on "60 Minutes," they ran a special on the Rastafarians. The Rastafarians are a group of Black Jews in Jamaica who claim to be the true Jews. Now, the population of Jamaica is about 2 million. The Rastafarians constitute 200,000 of the 2 million, which is quite a large percentage, and they believe that they are the true Jews and they have developed a system of religion that is spreading around the world very rapidly.

   Now, two of the main things that they use in conjunction with their religion — one is the smoking of marijuana, and they have various people who go out and guard the fields in Jamaica so when the government helicopters and so on come over, that they can be diverted and their marijuana can be protected. Another thing that they do has to do with rock music. In fact, the head of the Rastafarians right now — and the head of the Rastafarians is the most powerful political personage in Jamaica at the present time — he made his name and his fortune in rock music, and they talked very openly about it, how that it had been used to preach their gospel around the world and how that they had plans to use it much, much more effectively than they had in the past.

   It is a well-documented fact. Now, the trademark or the sign of the Rastafarians is the plaited hairstyle that comes down in the little pleats and the beads like strings of rats' tails all over the head. And that is the sign of the Rastafarians. I'm beginning to see that style, of course, here in America, especially Los Angeles International Airport, Dallas Fort Worth, and other places. It is a well-documented fact that the perversion of music, the use of drugs, and free sex have been a vital part of Mystery Babylon the Great since its inception to the present time.

   Now many of us do not today connect these together, and they think it's just sort of the way things are. No, it is a part of some people's religion and it is by design — it is not accidental. Satan has a plan. According to mythology, this Tubal-cain was the Vulcan of mythology. And the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah — once again, a dark woman. She was married — Ham married her.

   "And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, 'Hear my voice, you wives of Lamech; hearken unto my voice, for I have slain a man to my wounding and a young man to my hurt.'" And legend has it that Lamech killed Cain. And you remember there had been a punishment pronounced upon anyone who would kill Cain. So it says in verse 24: "If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold."

   And then it begins to talk about the righteous line from Adam and Eve — that is, Seth. Verse 26: "And to Seth, to him also there was born a son, and he called his name Enos. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord" — or the margin here says "to call themselves by the name of the Lord." But I believe the King James rendering is more accurate because here is where the righteous line begins. The men began to call upon the name of the Lord through the righteous line — that is, the preachers of righteousness, who preach the true religion, Enoch and Noah for sure being two of those. And Enoch or Enos does not mean anything having to do with God as do Mehujael and Methusael up in verse 18.

   Now chapter 5: "This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; male and female created he them and blessed them and called their name Adam in the day when they were created. And Adam lived 130 years and begat a son in his own likeness" — remember now that Noah was pure in his generations. Mr. Armstrong has recently written about that, saying that that has to do with racial genetic lineage — "after his image and called his name Seth."

   And then there are eight persons, not counting Seth, who are named here. And these people, we know for sure that some of them were preachers of righteousness, as for example, Enoch, as it says there in verse 21: "And Enoch lived 65 years and begat Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God for 300 years and begat sons and daughters."

   And then the eighth person, verse 29, is Noah: "And he called his name Noah, saying, 'This same shall comfort us concerning our work'" — what work? The work of God, because Noah, as you remember, preached for 120 years in the building of the ark, urging the pre-flood world, the line of Cain, this evil world that had sprung up, urging it to repent. And so in that sense, Noah performed a work similar to the Elijah or John the Baptist, just as Mr. Armstrong in this work today is preparing a people for the Lord, which work you're supposed to be a part of — "concerning our work and toil of our hands because of the ground which the Eternal hath cursed."

   Now let's go to II Peter chapter 2, and you'll see something mentioned here about these preachers of righteousness that we just read about in Genesis chapter 5. And II Peter, the second chapter, he talks first of all in chapter four about the angels that sinned and had cast them down to Tartarus — to a condition of restraint to be judged at a later time, as Mr. Armstrong explained the last time that he was here, that we shall judge angels.

   And in verse 5: "And spared not the old world but saved Noah the eighth" — see, he was the eighth from Seth — "a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly." So we see right after the creation of Adam and Eve that they went into sin, that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul was developed, also the idea that man could regain immortality through the sex act.

   And the serpent came to be worshiped because they thought — they taught that the serpent taught Eve the act of copulation. And then Eve passed this on to Adam and so on to their descendants, hence ensuring that they would live forever or gain immortality. Now, there was a lot more to the mysteries than that, of course, in which they were trying to get back to God or back to the fixed stars in the heavens from which Adam had supposedly fallen.

   Now, let's go back to Genesis chapter 10. In Genesis chapter 10, we see the account of the dividing of the nations. Once again, I tell you that the Babylonian system has always desired to remove the bounds and habitations of the nations, whereas God plainly says that He sets the bounds and habitations of the nations.

   It is a tragedy. It is a shame that in today's world, that the various races and the various cultures are not left alone so that they can develop the special qualities that God intended them to develop, and so that together the people would represent unto God what he wanted them to represent, and that He would be pleased by their works and by their actions, instead of grieved as he must be at the present time, and as he was before the flood.

   Now in Genesis 10, we see about the family of Ham, verse six (Genesis 10:6): "The sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan. And the sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, Sabtecha, and the sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. And Cush begat Nimrod. He, Nimrod began to be a mighty one in the earth."

   So right after the flood, we have someone setting himself up again, just as Cain had done after he had committed the act that he had done with his brother and killed Abel and thought he was some mighty one or some savior. So right after the flood, here comes the same system back again through Nimrod.

   "He was a mighty hunter before the Eternal, wherefore it is said, even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Eternal." So Nimrod and his followers began to set themselves up ahead of God. Nimrod, you can see here, was the grandson of Ham. He was the son of Cush. And Ham, as you see here, was the second son of Noah. And God had assigned these various sons of Noah — Shem, Ham, and Japheth — various inheritances upon the face of the earth and wanted them to go live in these particular places.

   Now, in Genesis chapter 11, we see: "The whole earth was of one language and of one speech. And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar" — which is the ancient name for Babylon — "and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, 'Go to, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly.' And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, 'Go to, let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth.'"

   Why "lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth"? Now, Nimrod knew that these various peoples had been allowed to go to their bounds and habitations and the inheritances that God had given them, that he would not be able to rule over them. So one of the things that those who must do in order to restore Babylon today is to remove that and to make the world into such a world community that he can have instant communication and control over them.

   And the principal way that the world is different today than it has ever been before is communication. Never has there been the ability to communicate in such a way as there is today. We can have instant live communication from the hinder side of the earth, from Australia, from Peking, or wherever it might be, instantly via satellite. And in addition to that, we have the doomsday weapons whereby man is able to eradicate himself from the face of the earth.

   Nimrod was very successful here in organizing world government, and he claimed that he was the promised seed of woman, and he was called by some Zoroaster. Zoroaster literally means "the seed of the woman" as prophesied in Genesis 3:15. Nimrod claimed to be that seed. And then Nimrod's doctrines and rituals of worship eventually came to be known as the religion of Babylon, or biblically, Mystery Babylon the Great.

   And from this place, these various peoples, after God had confounded the languages a little bit later on — in verse seven, he said, "Let's confound their language and let's scatter them" — they then took this to the various corners of the earth. They took it to Egypt, to India, to China, and Mystery Babylon the Great has been perpetuated in these various lands and various places. It's taken on different forms and different configurations. And the one who became the chief of the religion or the high priest was called various things in various places.

   Now, in order for you to understand the significance of a scripture in Revelation 18 that deals with drugs, you need to understand the background. Nimrod, when he set up this religion, he combined two things together. He combined monotheism — that is, that there is one God — with animism. Now, animism is the doctrine or the philosophy or the teaching that every object in nature contains a spirit essence or a soul, that there is a spirit in it. There would be a spirit in the wood in this desk, there would be a spirit in the rocks that you find out on the road, that there would be a spirit in any element that you want to name. And they prayed to some of these spirits that were thought to be good or beneficial to them, and they tried to appease those that they thought would be harmful to them.

   So what Nimrod did? He taught that God is all and all is God. In other words, everything has a spirit essence that is God, and God is in everything. So all is God, God is all, and all is God, and God became the creation. In other words, God was the earth that nourished man. God was the water which moistened the earth. God was the air or the spirit of life. And God was the fire or the sun which gave light and heat. And some, of course, eventually worshiped the sun.

   Thus, creation itself was worshiped as God or the great universal soul. Now, this is called also pantheism — the word "pan," meaning "all" — pan, all the God, all God is nature and nature is all God. So this is the basis of Romans 1:25 where Paul said, "They changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more" — or the creation more — "than the creator who is blessed forever."

   Now stay with what I'm talking about because this does lead to the basis for the use of drugs in false religion. It is also very current today. It was believed by them then that these four elements — earth, water, air, and fire — made up everything that there was. And that in each one of these things — the earth, the water, the fire, the air — that there were these spirit essences.

   Now they couldn't see these spirit essences with the naked eye. They had to have something to help them to see these elementals. Guess what it was that helped them to see these elementals? Drugs. Drugs help them to see the elementals. Under the influence of drugs, they could have visions and hallucinations. And of course, the high priests were the ones who principally took the drugs, and then they could see these various visions.

   Back in the sixties when this man called Bishop Pike helped to lead the hippie revolt in California and the use of drugs and the acceptance of drugs on college campuses — one of the things that they claimed was that through the use of LSD and various drugs, that one can better get in tune with reality and really see reality as it is: kaleidoscope, lightnings, flashings, spots if you were viewing the true essence or the elementals.

   Now look at Revelation 18 and verse 23 (Revelation 18:23): "And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in you, and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in you. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery" — the Greek word is "pharmacia," the word from which we get drugs — "or by your sorcery, by your drugs, by your pharmacia were all nations deceived."

   Now, I have an article here that appeared in the Longview paper, Sunday, March 1981: "Illegal Drugs Now Country's Biggest Industry." "General Motors, Exxon and AT&T Make Room — there's an up-and-coming American industry whose annual receipts of 50 to 60 billion dollars now rival this triumvirate of industrial giants. Unfortunately, however, many of its stockholders are broken families, debilitated youth and criminal offenders, for this burgeoning industry is illegal drug traffic and it has been called this nation's single most serious social and criminal problem."

   Promulgated by the Drug Abuse Research and Education Foundation Incorporated of Texas, this information is the basis for Governor William Clements' Texans War on Drugs Committee headed by Dallas Computer magnate H. Ross Perot.

   Now, this article — or a series of 10 articles have now appeared in the Longview paper. This one titled "Marijuana and Your Child — Marijuana Epidemic Among Children": "There is an epidemic loose upon American's children, unlike the plague or smallpox or cholera that has wiped out generations in the past. This epidemic maims rather than kills individually. It robs a person of awareness and stifles pride in the family. It magnifies problems that already exist nationally. It steals the country's greatest resource — the formative years of its brightest, most imaginative people, its children, the pedestal for the future of young Americans."

   "Twelve to seventeen federal figures show 31%. Almost one of three have used marijuana. This is more than double the figure for 1972. More significantly, 17% in this age group are current users, up from 7% in 1972. Of young Americans 18 to 25, 68% — more than two out of three have used marijuana, up from 48% in 1972. Again, more significantly, 40% of this age group are current users. That's four out of 10, and of those, two out of three admit they use the drug five or more days a month."

   "Marijuana use is heavier among males, but the difference is rapidly dissolving. The United States Department of Health and Human Services estimates that in the next few years, as many females as males may smoke the drug. Nor does marijuana use exist alone. It frequently goes hand in hand with the use of another widely available drug — alcohol. The combination is dulling the senses of a growing number of young Americans, reaching now to the earliest ages of junior high school — kids just out of grammar school playground and a few not quite out."

   "Nor is it any longer an urban or suburban phenomenon. In rural areas, three out of 10 young adults are current marijuana users, and you can easily obtain marijuana in Big Sandy — almost any young person on the street could tell you where you could get it. It is very prevalent. It is very evident for most young people."

   "Their first marijuana is not from a pusher or stranger, it's from a so-called friend. Anybody who tries to give you marijuana is not your friend. You can mark that down," it's from a so-called friend said Trish Brown of East Texas Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. As Director of Education and Training for the United Way Funded agency, she has seen the epidemic of drug abuse spread, and she said alcohol and marijuana are major culprits. Though serving at 14 county area, she said the Longview headquartered agency receives the majority of its clients from the Gregg County area.

   And she goes on talking about how they try to treat the people. And then she says, Mrs. Brown said the survey showed 89% of students in grades 10 through 12 said they drank alcohol and 79% said they used other drugs, marijuana being major among them. That is right here in East Texas.

   Now, the thing about this, when you're talking about that kind of money — 50-60 billion dollars — do you realize how much money that is? Like it says, more money than Exxon and AT&T and corporations like that, General Motors have combined. That means that the big banks have to really compete for the big dollars.

   "Drug Traffic Brings Big Banks" is the title of this article: "Big bankers are proving again, they don't care where the money comes from as long as there's plenty of it. They come swarming around like sharks lured by a booming economy, fueled by billions of dollars in illegal narcotics profits. Mega bankers from around the country and the world are scrambling to establish a foothold in Miami's thriving financial community at the present time."

   It is said that there are three states in the union that are thriving economically in the face of great economic peril, inflation, recession, and possibly depression — those three states being Florida, Texas, and California. Now you hear such things as the reason is because people moving to the Sun Belt — it does play a part. You hear that it's because we have energy — that does play a part, but principally it has to do with drug traffic.

   At stake in this competition are the huge profits to be reaped by gaining a portion of the approximately 7 billion dollars — 7 billion dollars generated annually in Florida by criminal elements, importing tons of Colombian-produced marijuana and cocaine for distribution to pot smokers and coke sniffers. Seven billion dollars a year in Florida alone — it has now surpassed the state's 5.2 billion a year tourist industry.

   Now, the Florida legislature voted three years ago to repeal a law prohibiting foreign banks in the state. The number of overseas institutions in the Miami area rose from zero in 1977 to 21 at the end of 1980, with at least another 20 scheduled to open their doors early this year.

   Among the overseas banks that scurried to gain a piece of this action were a number of Western Europe's leading institutions including the Swiss Credit Bank, Barclays Bank of London, the Union Bank of Switzerland, Lloyds Bank International, and the Standard Chartered LTD Bank. And a recent entry from the Far East is the Bank of Tokyo. And among those poised to establish offices are more mega institutions from France, West Germany, Switzerland, and Britain.

   Among the U.S. banks already scooping up the share of Florida's booming economy via the Edge Act subsidiaries are Security Pacific Bank of Los Angeles, Morgan Guaranty Trust in New York, Citibank, New York, and Chase Manhattan in New York and a host of others.

   Now you read once again Revelation 18 verse 23 (Revelation 18:23), it might make a little bit more sense where it says, "For your merchants were the great men of the earth." These bankers are the great men of the earth. These are the men that we go bow down to and fold our hands and say, "Oh, won't you please give me interim financing that I might build a house and that I might pay you back $250,000 for a $30,000 house." Oh yes, they are the great men of the earth. It is unbelievable how our people have been deceived by the system.

   If the people of America — and I'm going to give a sermon on this in the near future — really knew how the banking institutions worked, they would drive them into the sea immediately. And this does not even begin to talk about the legal drugs that are sold in this country via the AMA and other means — doesn't even begin to touch it.

   See, these little people running around on the streets in Big Sandy and Tyler and other places who are trying to push off a little marijuana here and there — they are nothing. They are mere pawns used by these people. But of course, the real sufferers are the consumers who ignorantly go to the slaughter.

   And here these people are lining up in Miami so they can get a little bit of this. This article goes on to tell about how that some of these people will bring this money into the banks in Miami at the present time. It is not all that unusual for someone sort of casually dressed, carrying a nondescript box or bag to walk in a bank in Miami and deposit $1 million in cash. The only thing that the banks would like to know is a little bit of an advance notice so they can have all their tellers there to count the money.

   It goes back to Nimrod's system where the priest wanted to really get in tune with elementals so they took these drugs so that they could see what the world was really made of, and man has fallen for it.

   Now, let's go back to Genesis chapter 11 a little bit more and talk about this tower a little bit more — this tower that Nimrod was building. Herodotus, the so-called father of history, writes about this tower that Nimrod was building: "In the middle of the precinct" — this is quoting from Herodotus — "in the middle of the precinct, there was a tower of solid masonry of furlong and length and breadth upon which was raised a second tower, and on that a third, and so on up to eight." So there were eight different levels to this.

   Now, this had to do with — there were eight different steps or phases that man would go through on his way back to perfection or back to the fixed stars or back to heaven as the Protestants call it and the Catholics call it, depending on which religion and where it is and what configuration or shape it takes on. It's still the same mixture, pure deception that is being pawned off on an unsuspecting world. And it says very clearly in Revelation that Satan is deceiving the whole world.

   Now, at the current time, the Japanese are excavating the site of the Tower of Babel. Now why the Japanese are in Iraq excavating the Tower of Babel, I don't know, but they along with others are there. It's a so-called academic project at the present time. They say that it might have commercial use a little bit later on and that they might set it up as a center of tourism. But I would tend to think that it has far greater implications than that. And there have been articles in the papers about this, about the excavation of it by the Japanese and others.

   Continuing here with a quote from Herodotus: "On the topmost tower, there is a spacious temple, and inside the temple stands a couch of unusual size, richly adorned with a golden table by its side. There is no statue of any kind set up in the place, nor is the chamber occupied of nights by anyone but a single native woman who, as the Chaldeans, the priests of this God affirm, is chosen for himself by the deity out of all the women of the land."

   So on the top floor was set aside a place where the temple God — and the temple God, of course, was a high priest — would have chosen the fairest lady from all the land so that he could sleep with her.

   Another quote from Herodotus continuing: "They also declare — but I for my part do not credit it — that the God comes down in person into this chamber and sleeps upon the couch. This is like the story told by the Egyptians of what takes place in their city of Thebes, where a woman always passes the night in the temple of the Thebean Jupiter. In each case, the woman is said to be debarred all intercourse with men. It is also like the custom of Patara in Lycia where the priestesses who deliver the oracles sleep and is shut up in the temple every night."

   So it takes very little imagination to know who the God was that really slept with the priestesses. It was the high priest.

   Also another quote from Herodotus that has implications for today: "The Babylonians have one most shameful custom. Every woman born in the country must once in her life go and sit down in the precinct of Venus and there consort with a stranger. Here, there is always a great crowd, some coming and others going. Lines of cord mark out paths in all directions among the women, and the strangers pass along them to make their choice."

   "A woman who has once taken her seat is not allowed to return home till one of the strangers throws a silver coin into her lap and takes her with him beyond the holy ground. When he throws the coin, he says these words, 'The goddess Milita prosper thee'" — Venus is called Milita by the Assyrians. "The silver coin may be of any size. It cannot be refused, for that is forbidden by the law, since once thrown, it is sacred. The woman goes with the first man who throws her money and rejects no one. When she has gone with him and so satisfied the goddess, she returns home, and from that time forth, no gift however great will prevail with her." A custom very much like that is found also in certain parts of the land of Cyprus.

   Today, this is still being continued in that the young women of America today are greatly pressured to have intercourse before they are married. The pressure is tremendous in today's world. It really starts at about the age of 12 or 13. It is to the point that young girls feel as if they have failed in life if they have not been able to successfully do this by the time they get to be 16.

   Now, Redbook not so long ago printed series of research that they had done in which they said that if a young person has illicit sexual relations before the age of 15, chances are very great that they will be promiscuous the rest of their lives. It does something to the mind.

   See, in Ancient Babylon, these women could not get married until they had had intercourse with someone, and they could reject no one. It didn't matter if they were old or young, it didn't matter what race they were from — they had to do it. It was unlawful for any man to marry a virgin.

   Now you get an excellent description of that — and I'm not going to turn to it at the present time — about how these practices influence and have affected Zion in Isaiah, the chapter three, in the end times, talking about the women of Zion and what they do and how they are dressed. And it is even to the point today that we have our children's ears pierced at the age of two, which it does have sexual connotations for the populace, and anything that will so-called enhance sexuality is what is sold, whether it be Toyota automobiles or cleanser or something to clear the sink and unstop the commode. It will increase your sexual life the way it is advertised.

   In Babylon, each local mystery denomination had their various gods and their various localities. Of course, today in America you can drive through almost any community and there you see the steeple and one sitting there on the corner.

   In addition to that, the part that I've talked about here about what went on in the Tower of Babel and in Babylon in ancient times, there is another aspect that has significance today. Some of the Jews and their proselytes have a religion based upon the Talmud. It finds its highest glories in the Zohar — it's "Zohar Ha" — H-A — "Sepher" — S-E-P-H-E-R — in the Zohar Ha Sepher, which is the Book of Splendor.

   The doctrinal structure is based upon the Babylonian sexual interpretation of the Tree of Life and of knowledge. The book claims that the story of creation is a veil of the sex mystery known as the Mystery of Faith and the Supreme Mystery.

   Through this mystery, we are all incarnated in bondage to physical bodies here on earth, and only through this mystery — that is, sexual union — may we be liberated from mortality and the physical body. Sex is the law of liberation.

   Now, here is a quote from the Talmud which I've read earlier, they say is their temple: "When the serpent copulated with Eve, he infused her with lust. The lust of the Israelites who stood at Mount Sinai came to an end. The lust of idolaters who did not stand at Mount Sinai did not come to an end." And that is from Yebamoth — that is one of the rabbis quoted in it — 103A, 103B.

   Our Eliezer further stated what is meant by the scriptural text: "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" — once again from the Talmud, Yebamoth 63A. What is meant by "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh"? In the footnote emphasis on "this is now," this teaches that Adam had intercourse with every beast and animal but found no satisfaction until he cohabited with Eve.

   The doctrinal structure in the Zohar is illustrated by phallic tree of life and its 10 Sephiroth degrees or steps to sexual perfection. The first Sephirah is "Yesod," the organ of generation, and this step corresponds to the moon and the other mystery religions. " Yesod" means foundation, showing that sexual generation is the foundation or beginning to the road to salvation.

   Now, the Zohar goes on to teach that sexual union is the true mission of man upon earth. And if a man does not have a child during his lifetime, then he has failed, and then he must be reincarnated so that he can live again and have this opportunity, and he can be reincarnated according to their religion up to three times so that he may fulfill his mission of reproducing offspring.

   Now, some of them are well known to be on a quest for the long lost pronunciation of the sacred name of God — Yahweh, YHWH. The exact pronunciation of this name is said to have been lost through the centuries. Some have an elaborate and complicated theosophy centered around the sacred name. The core of their teaching though is as follows: Y equals male, H equals female, W equals offspring. To have God's name upon them, they teach, they must fulfill their sacred duty to have offspring, for that is their first step to perfection. Only through sex can they climb the 10-rung ladder of the tree of life to the perfection of the Shekina glory — that is, the state of perfect liberty in sexual expression.

   Now, do you know what the Shekina is? Now, the word "Shekina" is not found in the Bible, but it is a term that is applied to the glory of God when his presence filled the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle and later on in Solomon's temple, later on in the temple that Zerubbabel and Joshua built during the restoration, and later on in Herod's Temple. I don't — there's not a specific biblical account where God's glory filled the Holy of Holies in that temple, but evidently it did. There's also a description of this glory filling the temple that will be rebuilt during the millennium. It's described in Ezekiel.

   So this word "Shekina" literally symbolizes the presence of God. So they're saying that the perfection of the Shekina — that is, the state of perfect liberty — is found in sexual expression. Now, the people who believe this religion relate this word "Shakan" — and "Shakan" is a word that is found in the Bible, a Hebrew word that means "to dwell," "Shakan" to dwell. And then they relate it to "Shakab," "Shakab" — to lie down sexually.

   Thus, those who learn the perfect methods of performing the sex act attain the glory of the Shekina. And when you walk in a bookstore today in most of the malls around the USA, what's one of the most prominent things? Book after book after book having to do with sex and so-called improving your sex life.

   The goal of a follower of this system is to regain the Shekina glory that was lost when Adam was barred from the Garden of Eden. And they think this is the way to do it. In the Zohar, God is spoken of as being the Shekina, and in order for one to reach perfection and become a God, he must attain this state of sexual glory or ecstasy. The Shekina is their God interpreted sexually.

   They define God as being the state of liberation that is attained in uninhibited sexual activity in thought. This simply refers to their goal of eradicating all sexual inhibitions in order to regain the sexual freedom that Adam supposedly enjoyed before the creation of Eve.

   Do you think it's any accident that we have television programs like "Soap" where every kind of sexual variance and aberration that you can think of is graphically portrayed before your children and your family in your living room each week? Do you think that that's an accident?

   I have the Humanist Manifesto. The Humanist Manifesto on page 18 reads similarly to the following — that it is our belief. Now, the Humanist Manifesto is the Bible of the secular humanist of today, that there should be no laws that prohibit people living together of the same sexes, that there should be no laws that prohibit consenting adults, that there should be sexual freedom declared throughout the land.

   Now, I have an article here that was recently in — I think the Longview paper. It's the most interesting article. It might help you to understand why the Southern United States has been a great target of the northern newspapers for quite a long time — well, ever since the Civil War — because it has been among the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh where they have gotten the strongest resistance to their social gospel. It has been in the so-called Bible Belt.

   "Sociologist, now this is from a Sociologist: Southern Ladies Not Yet Extinct." "The days of Scarlett O'Hara are long gone but a Georgia sociologist says traditional Southern ladies are far from extinct, and she believes their endurance is a major reason the Equal Rights Amendment has failed in most Southern states."

   "'There are tremendous numbers of Southern women who are not about to change,' said Caroline Dillman. 'People are saying there is no such thing as a Southern lady anymore.' She says there are a lot of them." Ms. Dillman, a sociologist at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, a suburb of Atlanta, discussed her research Friday at a regional conference on women at Georgia State University.

   She said the persistence of what she calls "Southern lady women" in the underlying culture of the South is a prime source of antipathy to the proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution which would prohibit discrimination based on sex. And you see the gay rights out marching for so-called sexual rights, and you see the abortionist people out — those who favor abortion out marching for the right to abort. And you see the ERA women out marching for so-called equal rights.

   Ms. Dillman says she draws a distinction between those Southern lady women and the Southern Belles of "Gone with the Wind days." The stereotypic belle of fiction was flighty and self-centered. But Ms. Dillman's Southern lady usually is well educated, devoted to her community and especially to her family.

   The typical Southern lady can trace her heritage for generations — that is, back to England and Ireland and Scotland and Germany and Eastern and Western Europe there. The typical Southern lady can trace her heritage for generations. She married young, had children quickly, she has strong family and religious ties. Her family is her career.

   Governed by these characteristics, the Southern lady finds the ERA and other feminist issues foreign to her, Ms. Dillman said in an interview. "People say, 'Why doesn't the ERA pass in the South?' But nobody looks at it from the proper perspective," she said. "There are tremendous numbers of Southern women who believe the Bible says women should be subservient to their husbands," she said. "When you've got all those women down there demonstrating at the legislature, if the ERA doesn't have a prayer."

   So you can see that there is and still is great resistance to this in some parts of the country. Do you think it is an accident that the television producers came up with a show "All in the Family" where one who would oppose the many practices that the social gospel teaches and preaches is made to look like a buffoon? And of course, the people who oppose it intelligently, as this woman was talking about here, are bypassed. They try to make it all or nothing. You're either an illiterate redneck Archie Bunker, or else you are pre- or you are strictly been brainwashed by the social gospel.

   So when you see people like Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem advocating the liberated sexuality taught in the Zohar, they are doing what the Pharisees did. Christ said, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves."

   Every day I get a stack of literature about this high concerning some movement in this country, from the ultra-right to the ultra-left, and a lot of it — I don't know how in the world your name gets on these mailing lists. I am solicited to support gay rights, abortion — you name it, and they will go to no end to try to get support.

   In addition to that, I would say the two most widely read people in America for the past 20 years have been Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren. Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren are sisters. They are Jewish sisters. Of course, they are married at the present time, and they write these columns.

   This appeared in the Arizona Republic, January the 31st, 1978: "Dear Abby: When I read the small print at the end of your column claiming that you send personal replies to those who send the stamped addressed envelope, I didn't really believe it, but my life was such a total mess that I had nothing to lose but the price of two postage stamps. So I took a chance and wrote to you. Abby, your response changed my life. I went to a marriage counselor as you suggested and found that he was on the same wavelength as I. Well, it happened after living with the wrong person for 19 years. I am moving in with the marriage counselor. He's Jewish and gay, about my age, and the most intellectually stimulating and wonderfully sympathetic person I've ever met. I'm off the booze, off the Valium, off women forever. My indebtedness is endless. Living at last in San Francisco." Their living. "Mazel tov" — translation: "Congratulations." That was Abigail Van Buren's response.

   And our people read this and they go to the slaughter, many of them not even knowing that they're going to the slaughter. The education that we are currently bemeshed in traces its roots back to the Greeks and back to so-called Greek philosophy, and the basis of Greek philosophy is merely another form of the Mystery Babylonian system.

   In ancient Greece, only the so-called free men could be educated. It was education for the free man. So Plato, Aristotle, and the various Greek philosophers that came on would meet in the City Square, and they would talk about the great questions of life, and they would be initiated in the mysteries of life.

   Now where I went to college, one of the times I went to college, over the administration door, it said "The state has decreed that only educated men shall be free." That was what was taught by the Greeks. But God has decreed that only free men — or only the educated men are free — or is free. In other words, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." And that's what Christ plainly said, and to the degree that you know the truth of God, you can be liberated from the doctrines, the superstitions, the ignorance of man that has been foisted off on a deceived world since the creation of Adam and Eve.

   And since Cain went out and built himself a city, and since the time that Nimrod then perpetuated this after the flood, and then down through the ages to the present time, many, many of the practices that you read about and take for granted, and many, many of the things that have been hoisted off on Americans today go back to this system. And God has asked us — he has told us, "Come out of her, you my people, that you might not be partakers of her plagues."

   So it is time that we, the people of God, really would begin to wake up, that we would become as concerned about our children's minds as we are about their bellies. Now in the Church of God for the past 30 years or so, the parents have been very concerned about what goes into the bellies. "Horrors, if my child should eat any pork!" And then the white sugar craze and rage and the various things that have gone along with it concerning what you put in your belly.

   Not to say that it's not important, but all that we will become as concerned about what goes into the minds of our children as we are about what goes in their belly. And I urge all of us to do whatever we can do to stand with our children and with our families in the times in which we live because they are frightening times.

   Spend time with them, teach them, love them, do whatever you can do. And as much as possible, you fill their minds with the truth of God and protect their minds from Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots. It is what God expects. It is one of the main things that he has laid upon the family. So let's begin to do it and to do it God's way.