Source of Today's Religious Confusion - Installment 8
Plain Truth Magazine
June 1960
Volume: Vol XXV, No.6
Issue:
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Source of Today's Religious Confusion - Installment 8

Today's religious customs do not come from the Bible! Here are the facts of their origin!

   Synopsis: The preceding articles have revealed amazing facts which most people are afraid to face!
   An impelling force-Satan-working behind the scenes and before Christ's time, caused surprising, counterfeit religious practices to be formulated. They appeared like the genuine. They seemed to be Christian. Therefore they were secretly injected into the church after the time of the apostles.
   These pagan practices have made it very difficult for each generation after Christ's time to discern and to follow the true ways to Salvation — the ways that God has commanded.
   Why have old pagan religious practices, whose origins date usually from a period centuries before the time of Moses, such a vital INFLUENCE ON OUR LIVES today?

PATTERNED IN ADVANCE of Christ's Coming

   The world just after the flood knew and understood that a Savior was to come (Gen. 3:15). After the death of Nimrod, the mighty leader and founder of civilization after the flood, his wife Semiramis succeeded him. Babylon — a word which means "confusion" (Gen. 10:8-10; 11:1-9) — was the home of this powerful family. Semiramis wanted to gain prestige so she could retain the large holdings which her husband had gained by war. She palmed one of her illegitimate sons off as the coming Savior and made herself the "Virgin Mother."
   The Devil knew the confusion he could create by duplicating IN ADVANCE the teachings of Christ. So he inspired Semiramis to formulate a great number of clever teachings. These have an amazing similarity to the ones which Christ proclaimed when he came bringing the good news of the kingdom of God.
   In each of her ideas AN EVIL TWIST IS FOUND. These twists benefited her, and they benefit the Devil to this very day! After Christ came, these pagan ideas became mixed with His own, and this has thrown the world into great religious confusion.
   THE VERY FACT, HOWEVER, THAT WE ARE NOW AWARE THAT THE VAST MAJORITY OF THESE CONFUSING DOCTRINES COME FROM ONE SOURCE MAKES IT RELATIVELY EASY TO QUICKLY TRACE THEM DOWN AND TO FIND WHETHER THEY CAME FROM GOD OR THE DEVIL. The Bible commands us to "Prove all things: Hold fast that which is good" (I Thes. 5:21). Soon Satan will, through his ministers, perform great wonders" so that "if it were possible, they would deceive the very elect" (Rev. 13:13 and Mat. 24:24). IT WILL PAY TO KNOW THE DEVIL'S METHODS!

PART VIII

Vain Repetition of Prayers

   Jesus commands, "WHEN YE PRAY, USE NOT VAIN REPETITIONS, AS THE HEATHEN DO: FOR THEY THINK THAT THEY SHALL BE HEARD FOR THEIR MUCH SPEAKING" (Matt. 6:7). Where does this mechanical repetition and telling of prayers upon beads come from then, if it is not commanded of God?
   The rosary (the instrument containing beads on which prayers are counted) was used as a sacred instrument among the ancient Mexicans (Humboldt's Mexican Researches, vol. ii, p. 29), also among the Brahmins. Hindu sacred books refer to it often. It was used by the heathen of ancient Tibet, China, and Greece, and ancient Rome (Rome before the time of Christ!). The name "Rosary" itself seems to be from the Chaldee (Babylonian) 'Ro', 'thought', and 'Shareh', 'director' " (Hislop, p. 188). The very present name — Ro-sar-y — indicates that this method came from Babylon.
   The Rosary allows people to think they are worshipping God but to overlook the great fact that God wants above all things that prayer should be from the heart.
   As regards the Rosary of the Sacred Heart, the "Heart" was one of the sacred symbols of Osiris (the Egyptian Tammuz or Nimrod), when he was supposedly born again as the infant divinity, and carried in the arms of his mother Isis (the Egyptian Semiramis). Dryden's Aeneid, book i, pp. 937-940, shows why the heart was Osiris' symbol when he was born-again: Venus (a Grecian name for Semiramis), speaking to the boy-god, her son, said, "My Son, my might... To thee thy much afflicted mother flies." The son was called "the Strength" of his mother. "Thus the boy-god came to be regarded as the "god of the heart," or cupid, or god of love.
   In this Rosary of the Sacred Heart, therefore, it is Tammuz, the Sun-god, who is venerated — and in our day!

St. Valentine's Heart

   Christ said: "I am the light of the world. He that followeth Me shall... have the light of life" (John 8:12). Through Christ's WORDS, LIGHT was shed to the people on how to attain eternal life. Did Satan have counterfeits formulated to correspond to this part of Christ's character? Let us see.
   Nimrod being reborn as the incarnation of the SUN (the light-bringer), the "sacred heart" was frequently represented as being aflame. It became an emblem of the incarnate Son. "To be represented as a heart on fire, required also that burning lamps and lighted candles should form part of the worship of that Son" (Hislop's The Two Babylons, p. 191).
   The Savior is spoken of as the "Messiah which is... Christ" (John 1:41). The word "Messiah," according to Peloubet's Bible Dictionary, means one who is anointed with Holy oil. Kings of Israel were called "anointed" from this mode of consecration. The Saviour was the Messiah, the anointed one consecrated by God.

Extreme Unction a Counterfeit of Salvation

   We now shall see how Satan, knowing of the Messiah's coming — the One who would come to make peace between mankind and God — produced counterfeits hundreds of years before He came. It did not take Semiramis, inspired by Satan, long to incorporate this into her Mysteries and identify this title with her dead husband, Nimrod:
   "Among the many names of the Babylonian god (Nimrod) was the name 'Beel-samen', 'Lord of Heaven', which is the name of the sun. But Beel-samen also properly signified 'Lord of Oil' and was evidently intended as a synonym of the Divine name 'The Messiah'." (Note here the subtle counterfeit of Semiramis, as inspired by the Devil, to duplicate the real Messiah!)
   "This also accounts for the fact that the body of the Babylonian Belus (Nimrod) was represented as having been preserved in his sepulchre... floating in oil. And... at Rome the 'statue of Saturn' (Nimrod) was made hollow and filled with oil... As the olive branch was one of the symbols of their Messiah (Nimrod) whose great mission it was to make peace between God and man so, in bearing this branch of the anointed one, they thereby testified that in the name of that anointed one they came seeking peace" (Hislop, p. 165). IF ONE WAS ANOINTED WITH OIL BEFORE HE DIED, HE WAS SURE OF A GRACIOUS RECEPTION BY HIS GOD, THEY BELIEVED.
   "The worshippers of this... 'Lord of Heaven'... were also anointed with 'magical ointments'... to fit and prepare them for being admitted in vision, into his awful presence... Thus the pagan system naturally developed into an 'extreme unction'... [which] was entirely unknown among the Christians till corruption was far advanced in the Church" (p. 166).
   Extreme unction thus was being practiced by pagans hundreds of years before the great falling away from the truth occurred in the Church. It was being used to prepare those who were being initiated into the Mysteries to meet their god in vision in an initiation. It was also to prepare others to make their last journey into the unknown beyond.
   After Christ's coming, the apostate Church, desiring to retain this pagan practice for the thousands of incoming pagans and also to pacify the professing Christians, concocted a spiritual basis: "Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil... and the Lord shall raise him up" (James 15:14-15). THIS COMMAND IS OBVIOUSLY GIVEN FOR PHYSICAL HEALING AND NOT TO PREPARE MAN TO MEET THE CREATOR! This scripture was deliberately misinterpreted to allow a pagan counterfeit to masquerade as Christian. Repentance and Christ's blood make forgiveness possible. But by this pagan rite, men claim to prepare one another to meet the Creator — but the rite or ceremony is only a continuation of pagan Sun-worship, worship of a false Messiah.
   So those who could have life by God's healing COMMAND are led astray, by Satan's counterfeit, into other ways which bring death. They are deceived into honoring a false Messiah — into using a false method to prepare them for their final judgment!
   Today this same deception is perpetuated in the name of "Christianity"!

Relic Worship of Pagan Origin

   IN MANY CHURCHES TODAY THE WORSHIP OF RELICS PLAYS AN IMPORTANT PART. It is believed that, "Whenever a chapel is opened or a temple consecrated, it cannot be thoroughly complete without some relic... of he-saint or she-saint to GIVE SANCTITY to it... The grossest impostures have been practiced in regard to such relics... and their WONDER WORKING POWERS..." In the realms of Heathendom the same worship had flourished for ages before Christian saints or martyrs had appeared in the world (Hislop p. 176).
   It was found in China, Greece, India, and other places. Nimrod, it will be remembered, was cut in pieces. Plutarch (vol. ii, p. 358, A), describes the search Semiramis made for these pieces, "Isis (Semiramis) set out... in search of the scattered pieces of her husband's body... and one reason assigned for the different sepulchres of Osiris (Nimrod) in Egypt is that whenever any one of his scattered limbs was discovered she buried it on the spot. Not only were these Egyptian RELICS SACRED THEMSELVES, BUT THEY CONSECRATED THE VERY GROUND IN WHICH THEY WERE ENTOMBED" (Ibid. sec. 20, vol. ii, p. 359 A).
   "If the places where the relics of Osiris were buried were accounted peculiarly holy, it is easy to see how naturally this would give rise to pilgrimages so frequent among the heathen." In the Middle Ages such pilgrimages to the tombs of the saints, were to wash away sin (Hislop, p. 180).
   Nowhere in the Bible are pilgrimages commanded!!
   Mankind spread from the original Babylon to all parts of the earth to form Babylon the Great. It is thus easy to see where today's "Great Babylon" acquired this practice. Such practices are entirely contrary to God's teachings. When a human being dies today, he remains dead. He cannot "sanctify," "work wonders," or "consecrate" anything. Even David, one of God's most beloved, is still dead (Acts 2:29). Only when Christ comes will the righteous live again (I Cor. 15:51; I Thes. 4:16). IT IS OBVIOUS WHERE THE FALSE IDEA THAT MAN CONTINUES TO LIVE AFTER HE IS DEAD COMES FROM!

Other Deceptive Counterfeits

   Church government in the Middle Ages was patterned after the Pagan College of Pontiffs, with its "Pontifex Maximus," which had existed in Rome from the earliest times. It is known to have been framed on the model of the grand original Council of Pontiffs at ancient Babylon, and the keys that their human leader emblazons on his arms as the ensigns of his spiritual authority were the symbols of two well-known pagan divinities who existed at Rome before the apostate Church was ever founded — Janus (the Roman name for a god who represented Nimrod in one of his many forms), and Cybele (Nimrod's wife Semiramis). Each of these two divinities had a key which opened the doors to the kingdom of heaven.
   Clerical celibacy, the shaving of the heads of priests, the pontifical crosier, and the mitre were all known in ancient Babylon.
   These are other pieces of evidence as to what the people of today are actually worshipping. DOES GOD HOLD PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE TODAY FOR WORSHIPPING THIS SYSTEM JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE DECEIVED? HE HELD OUR FOREFATHERS RESPONSIBLE FOR WORSHIPPING THIS IDENTICALLY SAME SYSTEM OF MYSTERIES EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE DECEIVED! Why wouldn't He hold us responsible? He says He will! (Rev. 18:4). We are to come out of Babylon or we will receive of her plagues! The plagues will soon fall!

"Mystery of Iniquity" A Secret System

   As we have seen, the OPEN WORSHIP of the sun (or fire) and the snake (the Devil) was STOPPED when the righteous forces of Shem destroyed Nimrod, who had been the great power promoting this worship. SHEM FORBADE THE WORSHIP OF THESE SYMBOLS. When Semiramis started the forbidden system again, it had to be through a SYSTEM OF MYSTERIOUS SYMBOLS. We have seen that she deified her dead husband Nimrod, herself, and her son, Tammuz. She associated them with great personages of the past, and set up a system whereby they might also be worshipped through symbols. Thus those who were initiated into the meaning of these symbols could continue their worship of the things which had been forbidden.
   THIS MYSTERY SYSTEM BECAME THE MOST POWERFUL DECEPTIVE RELIGIOUS DEVICE THIS WORLD HAS EVER KNOWN, as will later be proved by the Bible itself!
   Nimrod had many titles as did also his wife (Wilkinson, vol. iv, p. 179). As we have seen, one of Nimrod's names is Saturn, which signifies the Hidden god. To those who were initiated, he was revealed; to all others, he was hidden. Why is this word "Saturn" the very key that connects the idolatrous Babylon of that time with the Babylonish fountain-head of idolatry in our time?
   "The name Saturn in Chaldee (Babylonian) is... Stur. This name contains exactly the Apocalyptic number 666: S=60, T=400, U=6, R=200... But still further it turns out... that the original of Rome itself was Saturnia, 'the city of Saturn'. This is vouched alike by Ovid, by Pliny, and by Aurelius Victor." Thus ancient Rome was branded with the number 666 (Rev. 13:18). "Virgil... showed that Lateinos, to whom the Romans or Latin race traced back their lineage, was represented with a glory around his head, to show he was a 'child of the Sun'" — a symbol of devil worship (Hislop, pp. 269-270).
   Note in particular that NIMROD, THE HEAD OF THE PAGAN SUN-SERPENT WORSHIP, WHO WAS FALSELY REPRESENTED AS THE VERY SON OF GOD, BORE THE NUMBER 666! This same number continues to be branded on the present-day Babylonish system, whose symbols hide the actual worship of the devil. How do we know? Because a world-wide religious leader who represents this system will brand himself with this number by his very actions! — by acting as Nimrod did — setting himself up in the place of Christ, the Son of God!
   It is prophesied that Christ will come and smite the nations and rule them (Isa. 2:1-4). But what is also prophesied to happen just before Christ will establish His rule in Jerusalem?
   God says, "I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem" (Joel 3:1). Literal Jerusalem is soon to go into captivity to a coming union of fascist dictators in Europe. The religious head of this coming union will "... plant the tabernacle of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain" in Palestine (Dan. 11:45).
   He will place his headquarters of worship in the land which prophecy shows Christ intends to use as His own headquarters and place of worship. Furthermore, this human religious head will exalt "himself above all that is called God... so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" (II Thes. 2:4).
   Christ, THE SON OF GOD, is to come to Jerusalem to establish the worship of God on the earth, but there will be a mortal man who will come to this same place to spread the Babylonish worship on earth. This man will thus attempt to usurp the authority of Christ... he will actually try to be the only "Representative of the Son of God," which translated into Latin is "Filii vicarivs Dei." It adds up to 666: i=1, l=50, v=5, c=100, d=500. The letters f, a, r, s, and e have no numerical value. THIS MAN WILL PLACE UPON HIMSELF THE SAME NUMBER THAT NIMROD, THE ORIGINATOR OF THE WORLD'S FALSE RELIGIOUS WORSHIP, CARRIED. NIMROD, AS THE "SON OF GOD," WAS REPRESENTED AS BEING CHRIST!!!
   Here is proof that the system of Mysterious Iniquity, whose head will brand himself with the number 666, is the same hidden system that has existed from the Flood and only for the purpose of perverting God's teachings. It is no wonder that Christ's gospel was "infiltrated" and twisted. The wonder would have been if this had not occurred!
   In summarizing, recall that mysterious or hidden symbols are used. These symbols exist today, such as the Christmas tree, the Easter egg, the hot cross bun — there are many others.
   Also, just as symbolic as the Christmas tree and other material symbols, are the periods of time set apart by Satan for the worship of other than the true God — Christmas, Easter, Lent — and many other symbolic periods which are hiding from people today the real "gods" they are worshipping! SATAN HAS ALWAYS TAUGHT ANOTHER GOSPEL — A WRONG AND IMPOSSIBLE WAY OF OBTAINING IMMORTALITY — YOU CAN'T WORSHIP THE SYMBOLS OF SATAN'S GODS AND OBTAIN ETERNAL LIFE. Even to the initiated, this worship was mysterious or hidden until explained. The individual (Satan) who is at the head is mysterious or hidden. God has given Satan's system the name "Babylon," which means "Confusion" (Rev. 17:5). No wonder the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with confusing doctrines (Rev. 17:2).
   Satan hid in the form of a serpent; Adam hid in the garden after he had sinned; Nimrod was hidden in the Chaldean Mysteries. The Devil is now the (hidden) god of this world (II Cor. 4:4) and is deceiving the whole earth (Rev. 12:9)! The WORLD TODAY THINKS IT IS WORSHIPPING GOD, BUT HE SAYS IT IS DECEIVED.
   We have seen that there were pagan religious practices in the time of Christ and the apostles which closely resembled the doctrines the apostles practiced and preached. We have studied these pagan customs and found that they originated from a common source — the old Babylonian Mysteries of Semiramis, and that they have found their way into religious practices of our day. They mask the way to salvation which Christ taught. THIS BABYLONISH SYSTEM, MASQUERADING AS CHRISTIAN, CONTROLS THE WORSHIP OF THE WORLD TODAY!
   Fortunate will be the few who find their way out of this morass of confusion and STAND READY to be transformed at Christ's soon coming!

Next Installment 9: Today's Greatest Religious Hoax!

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Plain Truth MagazineJune 1960Vol XXV, No.6