Herbert W Armstrong

   They all have some common elements. Today, I want to begin, as I said, a series of sermons where we study Babylon, Mother of Harlots. Why should we want to look at that? Because many of the things that are currently going on in the world today have their origins there. There are things that God tells us to come out of and to be separate from.

   I want us first of all to look at Revelation 17. Revelation 17 (Revelation 17:1-5), the description is given of Babylon, the great, that great whore that sits on many waters as it says in verse one of Revelation 17. It goes on to describe how she is dressed, where she is sitting. And then in verse five, Revelation 17, "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. John did not admire this horror, which says here with great admiration, but with great wonder — what is this, what does this mean?

   In Revelation 18, verse 24 (Revelation 18:24). In Revelation 18, of course, it tells you very clearly in verse four, "Come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins and that you receive not of her plagues." And then the plagues are described that are going to fall upon Babylon, principally here concentrating on the economic arm of Babylon the Great. And then in verse 24, "And in her, in Babylon the Great, was found the blood of prophets." That is an important thing to remember — blood of prophets. Now, the prophets lived before the time of Jesus Christ. The Catholic church had not yet even begun at the time of Jesus Christ and of saints and of all that were slain upon the earth.

   Now, we know that the Catholic church is an arm of Mystery Babylon the Great. It was and has been an integral part of it since its inception, but it is not the sum total of Mystery Babylon the Great. And Mystery Babylon the Great had its roots in its origins in a much earlier time, even going back all the way to the Garden of Eden and the serpent's temptation of Eve.

   Now, if you would turn back to John — no, it's Matthew, I'm sorry. Matthew chapter 23, just for a moment in Matthew 23. And we're going to come back to Matthew 23, but I want to look at a verse or two here to begin with. Matthew 23:1: "Then spake Jesus to the multitude and to the disciples saying, 'The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.'" Now the literal meaning of the word Pharisee is "those set apart."

   Now time after time, Jesus publicly rebuked and gave scathing remarks to the Pharisees. Why did he do that? Why did he judge them so harshly? One might ask. You look in verse 13, "Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" What is the connection between the Pharisees and Mystery Babylon the Great? Well, there definitely is a connection.

   Now, let's look at these various woes. "Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses." This is verse 14, "And for pretense make long prayer. Therefore, you shall receive the greater damnation. 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." Verse 16: "Woe unto you, blind guides, which say whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing, but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is the debtor."

   And now in verse 23: "Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law: judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought you to have done and not to leave the other undone." Verse 25: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess." Verse 27: "Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness." Verse 29: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous and say, 'If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'"

   Now, their fathers were partakers in the blood of the prophets — Ahab, Jezebel, and others. Ahab and Jezebel, I'll mention later on. Christ told them in John 5:46, He said, "If you had believed Moses, he wrote of me, then you would have known me and you would have believed me, but you did not believe Moses. And so you don't know me and you don't believe me."

   Verse 31, He says, "Wherefore you be witnesses unto yourselves that you are the children of them which killed the prophets." Now this is the word of God speaking. It is not some kind of literature that you might read on the right wing put out by the John Birch Society or Spotlight or any other public publication. This is the word of God.

   Now, one of the greatest things that is talked about in the world today is anti-Semitism. That today has come to mean those people who persecute those who are called Jews. Now, "Semitic" means, those who in its literal meaning, those who are descendants of Shemite, of Shem, or the Shemite. And in some cases, it has been even extended to include all the descendants of Noah which came from the Middle East, the Semitic peoples.

   Now, if you want to talk about anti-Semitism, let's take what has happened to the great persecution that has been upon the Anglo-Saxon peoples and particularly those of the southern part of the United States during the past 100 years. These are the people who descended from Ephraim. I go right back there. My mother's maiden name is English. I am descended from the House of Ephraim, if indeed Great Britain, which I believe it is, is of the House of Ephraim. So if you want to talk about anti-Semitism, anytime that you persecute, talk about or prejudice toward anybody who is of Israel — and there were 12 tribes, not just one — well, that's anti-Semitism. But today it has been construed to mean very narrowly only the Jews. And then a lot of those people who call themselves Jews today are not Jews in the racial sense, but they are only Jews in a broad religious sense.

   "Fill up ye then the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you generation of vipers! How can you escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore behold, I send unto you or I send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some of them you shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall you scourge in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city. Verse 37. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that killed the prophets and stoned them which are sent unto you! How often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate."

   Now, there is something that, according to the Pharisees and the Jews, took the place of the temple. Now, when it says here in verse 38, "Your house is left unto you desolate," of course, it is talking about the temple. That is what it is talking about in verse 35: "That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zechariah son of Barachias, whom you slew between the temple and the altar."

   And they thought, of course, because they had the temple and because the law had been given by Moses to Israel, and they were physical descendants — some of them from Israel and from Abraham — that no harm would ever come to them. Now, of course, Jeremiah had told them back before the time that the first temple had been destroyed, that is Solomon's temple, by Nebuchadnezzar. He says, "Look, don't think because you have the temple here that I won't destroy you, that I won't send you into captivity. You go up and look in Samaria and Shiloh, to what I did at Shiloh, and all you'll find is ruins." So don't get the idea that just because you have a building, just because you have a house, just because you have been a special people to me, that you will continue to be that unless you do what I tell you to do.

   Now, there is something that the Jews claim that has taken the place of the temple. Now I have a series — I think I do, yeah of articles that summarizes some things about the Pharisees, and then I am going to read from the Babylonian Talmud itself. The Babylonian... you've heard a great deal about the Talmud. Very few people have ever read the Talmud. If you really want to become educated as to the origins of many of the religions and practices that are prevalent in the world today, here's a place that you can go. This is volume 10. It was translated by Rodkinson into English in the early 20th century. Was one of the first English editions translations of the Talmud. Before that time, hardly anyone except the Jews who studied at the rabbinical schools and colleges around the world knew what this said.

   A little bit later, I'm going to read from their own publications. What they say — this is from the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, 1943, under the article "Pharisees": "The Jewish religion as it is today traces its descent without a break through all the centuries from the Pharisees. Their leading ideas and methods found expression in a literature of enormous extent, of which a very great deal is still in existence. The Talmud is the largest and most important single piece of that literature, and the study of it is essential for any real understanding of Pharisaism."

   Concerning the Pharisees, the 1905 Jewish Encyclopedia says: "With the destruction of the temple (70 A.D.), the Sadducees disappeared altogether." Do you know the origin of the sect, the Pharisees, where it came from, where it got its name? I bet there are only three people beside myself in the auditorium here this afternoon who know that. They heard the sermon this morning. "Leaving the regulation of all Jewish affairs in the hands of the Pharisees. Henceforth, Jewish life was regulated by the Pharisees. The whole history of Judaism was reconstructed from the Pharisaic point of view, and a new aspect was given to the Sanhedrin of the past."

   A new chain of tradition supplanted the older priestly tradition many times in recent articles. And in recent publications, Mr. Armstrong has mentioned the fact that the Judaism of today is not the religion that was delivered by God to Moses, revealed to Israel through the Torah through the Pentateuch. It is not that religion that God gave to the nation of Israel. It is something else altogether, though it claims its origins and its roots and talks about the Bible and so on. And the Talmud claims to be an expansion and a commentary on the Bible.

   You may ascertain by turning to top Jewish authorities today that the Babylonian Talmud, the written form of the tradition of the Pharisees, is the sole authority of the so-called Jewish religion. Rabbi Louis Finkelstein was chosen in 1937 by the Kehillas (that is a word which means Jewish communities) of the world as one of the top 120 Jews who best represent a light of Judaism to the world. He has long headed the Jewish Theological Seminary of America with branches in New York and Los Angeles. In "The Pharisees," his two-volume work, Rabbi Finkelstein writes: "Pharisaism became Talmudists, but the spirit of the ancient Pharisee survives unaltered when the Jew studies the Talmud. He is actually repeating the arguments used in the Palestinian academies from Palestine to Babylonia, from Babylonia to North Africa, Italy, Spain, France, and Germany. From these to Poland, Russia, and Eastern Europe, and through these countries generally, ancient Pharisaism has wandered."

   In a book "The Talmud — Heart's Blood of the Jewish Faith" — this was a book that was a best seller by Herman Wouk. — it was run serially in the New York Herald Tribune in 1959. Here is a quote: "The Talmud is today the circulating heart's blood of the Jewish religion. Whatever laws, customs, or ceremonies we observe — whether we are Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, or merely spasmodic sentimentalists — we follow the Talmud. It is our common law."

   That's some articles from the Jewish Encyclopedia and also from the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia and from the book that was written by Wouk., and also comments from Rabbi Finkelstein who has been the head of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

   Now, in this book itself, the introduction was written by Rodkinson, the man who translated the Talmud into English. I'll read a few of his comments that I have bracketed in the introduction: "The persecutors of the Talmud during the period ranging from the first century B.C., when it began to take form, to the present day, have varied in their character, objects and actions. In one respect, however, they all agreed, namely in their general wish to destroy its existence. A review of its persecutors before going into their history would not be amiss. They are: the Seleucids in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, the Roman Emperor Nero, Domitian, Hadrian, the Samaritans, the Sadducees, Balitisims the followers of Jesus, and all the sects opposed to the Pharisees."

   Now, it's interesting when you read through their writings and their literature — it's always they are the ones that are persecuted. They never persecute anybody else. "Before the development of the Talmud had been completed, when hardly a single section had been arranged systematically and written down — it having been known merely as oral teaching in the mouths of the sages" (where "sages" means the wise ones) "and reconsidered and analyzed constantly by their disciples and the colleges — it was violently attacked. But no sooner had the Talmud been completed in Babylonia and the Saborits have put their seal upon it, so to speak, deciding that nothing was to be added to or subtracted from, then Justinian decreed practically its death." That is to say, what amounted to the same thing — capital punishment to all those who were occupied in its study.

   Then it talks about how many of the Popes tried to do away with it. "The Talmud exists today and not one letter is missing. No modern persecutions, however, can seriously endanger its existence, and it would appear that the Talmud would also survive them and continue as long as the sky spans the earth." That is the introduction.

   Now from the book itself, the History of the Talmud, Chapter One, their own writings: "The name 'Written Law' was given to the Pentateuch, that is Pentateuch the first five books of the Bible, also the Prophets and the Hagiographa" (that is, the writings — Psalms and Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and the Book of Job and so on, the Book of Daniel) "and that of 'Oral Law' to the teachings of the sages consisting of comments on the text of the Bible. The word 'Torah' alone was applied to the entire Bible. The term 'Talmud' was reserved for the oral law."

   "This word designated all the commentaries, the word oral law, of the sages on the scriptures which the Pharisees had begun to interpret figuratively. Figurative interpretation was inaugurated in the days of the Great Assembly when its members resolved to keep themselves distinct from the Samaritans, their inveterate enemies who adhered to the literal interpretation of the text, which is, in the opinion of the Pharisees, was falsified by them. This study, however, commenced to make progress at the time of the Sanhedrin, or from that of the Macedonian conquest of Judea when the term 'Great Assembly' was changed to the Greek 'Sanhedrin.' All sages who interpreted the biblical passages figuratively, unlike the Samaritans, were called Pharisees."

   The Samaritans, of course, persecuted those Pharisees, objected to their interpretation and did them great injury when they had the power. You remember at the time, the story of the Good Samaritan, how that the Jews would have nothing to do with the Samaritans. In the scripture that Mr. Stewart read in the sermonette, how that he met the Samaritan woman at the well, and she said, "Why are you talking with me, seeing that you are a Jew and the Jews have nothing to do with the Samaritans?" One of the great divisions that had caused this was over this literal interpretation of the scripture by the Samaritans as opposed to the figurative interpretation of the scriptures by the Pharisees.

   Now, until the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, before which period all the high priests since the erection of the second temple had been of the family of Zadok — King David's high priest... See, when David was instructed to build the temple, he was given the instructions. Remember Solomon actually built it. He also earlier had set up temple worship and had come up with the various courses of priests and so on. The priestly family was the family of Zadok.

   Now, when Solomon's temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, Judah went into captivity. They came back, rebuilt the temple under Zerubbabel, and they restored the priestly worship and God's true religion in Israel. At that time, under the family of Zadok, the family of Zadok continued until the time of Antiochus Epiphanes.

   Now, if you would look at Ezekiel chapter 44 — in Ezekiel 42:4 through 48 chapters, you will find a description of the temple that is going to be built after the millennium begins or during that time. And also it talks about what is going to take place in the temple and who is going to administer what line of priest. In Ezekiel 44 and verse 15 (Ezekiel 44:15): "But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Master, Adonai God."

   From the time of Antiochus, however, when the high priesthood passed from the descendants of Zadok to other families, finally coming into the possession of the Maccabees who were not descendants of the house of Zadok, they began to differ from the Pharisees in the interpretation of the Torah and to explain the text on the basis of oral tradition. Now, that is, the Pharisees were the ones explaining it on the basis of oral tradition. Then they, the Sadducees, founded a distinct sect styled Sadducees or Zadokes (after Zadok).

   So the word "Sadducees" comes from "Zadok" — Zadok, that line, that family from which the priests were to come. So "Sadducee" or in English, it has an "S" — "SADD" instead of "ZAD" — " Zadducees", and the dispute with the Pharisees and their teaching, for example, with the Talmud was begun. Then a little later on, after several wars and so on, the Pharisees triumphed over their foes and the oral law was the absorbing subject of the Sanhedrin.

   Now, the Sanhedrin consisted of the 70 elders. And well, actually, you would have — there were two high priests during the time of Christ. That's why two high priests are named. There was one who was representing the civil authority and then there was one representing the religious authority, and then you had 69 others in addition to these high priests. So there are actually 71 people on the Sanhedrin.

   Under the leadership of Joshua Perachiah and Simeon Shetach and Jaudah Tabbai, the Talmud was then studied in all colleges of Palestine, Egypt, and wherever Jews lived. Owing to the enmity of the Samaritans and the opposition of the Sadducees, many laws and regulations were added to the Talmud of the Pharisees. After the triumph of Simeon ben Shetach over the Sadducees, when he had finally cleared the Sanhedrin of them — so finally, the Pharisees were able to get all the Sadducees out of the Sanhedrin so that it was composed only of Pharisees.

   Now, I know in a particular book, it was written entitled "The Real Jesus" — there's a section in there that says that the Pharisees were of insignificance in Palestine. It also goes so far as to say that they wielded no real power and authority and also makes the statement that the Jews did not kill Christ. Even their own testimony is different.

   Only the Pharisees remained there. Development of Talmud progressed rapidly, for the number of the sages — the adherents, revered sanctifiers — the Talmud increased greatly in the colleges of the Eshkolites who succeeded to Ben Shetach, that is the son of Shetach — Shemaiah and Abtalion, and after them, Hillel and Shammai. From all places in the world came persons to learn the doctrines and morality of the Talmud.

   Besides the disciples of Jesus, who then believed in his Messiahship but not in his divinity, they began secretly to undermine the Talmud, which laid more stress on external ceremonies than they deemed necessary, and endeavored with all their might to weaken its influence among the populace. But Zakkai and the Sanhedrin in Jamnia, with Gamaliel (the son of the slain Simeon) at their head, restored the Talmud to its prestige and took pains to raise up others in the places of the murdered sages. Thus the study of the Talmud flourished after the destruction of the temple, although beset with great difficulties and desperate struggles.

   Now it talks about that there were attempts to destroy it, but here's the summation of that: But in the long run, they did succeed in widening and increasing the sphere of influence of the Talmud. For both the internal dissensions and external oppositions only tended to sink more deeply into the hearts of the people its doctrines, its legends, and its morals. At the end of the first century, it was to them a substitute for their destroyed temple. It was their stronghold, their entertainment by day and by night.

   So to those who practice and believe it, it takes the place of the temple. Now Christ said, "Your house is left unto you desolate." Also has other sections about the Jewish followers of the Messiah Jesus began at this time to gradually blend with the foreigners who adopted the new creed. Hence their influence on their brethren who persisted in the old faith was weakened.

   Then there is an amazing section right here. Says: "It is not surprising that the Babylonian Talmud came to be received as the important and essential part of the oral law, while that of Palestine held a subordinate position. The Haggadah" (that is a part of the Talmud) "with its mystic and veiled religious wisdom" — mystic and veiled, their own words — "has exercised a great influence in the oriental and heathen world, which has borrowed from it many precious gems of profound religious thought, having Palestine for their birthplace."

   "And indeed, we find that the multitude of legends based on the Bible, which have been current in and reverenced by the Mohammedan world for 1200 years, delighting both sages and the unlearned, are to be found in the Hamitic Haggadah, whether entire or only in the leading idea — their identity is recognizable. Many also of the legends of the Middle Ages to be found in the works of Dante" — you remember Dante's Inferno of the ever-burning hellfire and the devil down there, stroking the fires and pitchforks and the poor sinners screaming and cringing as they are tormented forever and ever — "or those of Boccaccio, Cervantes, and Milton" — you remember Milton's Paradise Lost — "are taken consciously or unconsciously from their original source, the Talmudic Haggadah. The fathers of the Christian church" (that is talking about the Catholic church) "have likewise drawn on it, as Basilius of Cappadocia, Hieronymus, Chrysostom, and many others who construed passages in the Bible in accordance with the Haggadah."

   Now, that is straight from their own writing. If you want an education, if you really want to know, read it. It is in the church library. It's interesting — the six-pointed star of David. That means something also.

   Many of us think of Babylon, the Mother of Harlots, in much too narrow terms. See, the Catholic church was not in existence when Christ said what he did to the Pharisees in Matthew 23. It goes all the way back to the book of Genesis.

   Let's look at Genesis 11 and verse nine. In Genesis 11:9, it is the first time that the word "Babel" or "Babel" is used, meaning Babylon — confusion. Genesis 11:9: "Therefore is the name of it called Babel" (that is the city that Cush and Nimrod started to build) "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."

   The reason for building of the temple is given in verse four, or the tower actually — it was the temple — "lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." But there's much more to the story of why they were building a tower and a temple. I won't even get to all of that today.

   Why does the Bible refer to Babylon as the Mother of Harlots? There are two aspects of harlotry: physical harlotry, where you actually join your flesh to another human being that is a harlot, and you play the role of the harlot physically, whether you be male or female. And also there is spiritual harlotry, which is spiritual fornication — that is, turning from the worship of the true God.

   Babylon is the mother of both physical harlotry and spiritual harlotry. Mystery Babylon had its origin in the Garden of Eden. Basically, there have been only two systems on earth since the creation of Adam and Eve: God's and Satan's, truth and falsehood, light and darkness. Satan's system encompasses all areas of human endeavor which, broadly classified, are economic, political, social, education — but the most important, and all the roads lead back to it (as you have heard, "all roads lead to Rome") — religion. There is hardly anything that takes place that does not have some kind of religious significance.

   Now, there have been four principal systems that have attempted to answer the big questions of life: Is there a God? If so, what is his nature? What is man? What is his purpose? What is the nature of man? What's the nature of the universe? What is good? What is evil?

   Those systems are true religion. It is the only place that you can go. This is what you profess. That is what you believe. That's what you heard in the sermonette. That is why it is so precious. Because those who do not have the truth, they are gripped in darkness. They are in bondage. As you heard, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." And if you don't have it, you are a slave to the dogma, the doctrine, the superstition, the ignorance of man.

   True religion is the only place that you can go to explain, to answer those basic questions of life. In addition to that, false religion has attempted to answer the same questions. Out of that grew philosophy, and out of philosophy grew science. We live in the so-called scientific space age. And then out of science — now there are some so-called hard sciences: physics, chemistry, mathematics that you can count on — they have been able to produce and invent marvelous, wonderful things that enable man to cope with his environment and enabled us to live a life of luxury and ease. In that sense, they might be a curse.

   But in addition to that, we now have pseudo-sciences. That is psychology, sociology. The principal religion of today is psychology. They call the shots in American society. If someone begins to have spiritual problems, they wind up at the psychologist or the psychiatry or the psychiatrist. These people wield terrific power in American society.

   There was an article that appeared in Psychology Today back in 1976 — give a year or two — the title of it: "The High Priests of American Society." This article appeared in their own publication in which psychologists, psychiatrists, and researchers of the social sciences — it's written so very graphically how that these people, the psychiatrists, wield unbelievable power in American society.

   If you want to get your husband or wife canned — I mean, locked up — all you have to do is go and get a doctor or a psychiatrist to sign something that says that they are unable to function and cope with life. In other words, they are crazy, and you get them locked away and there's nothing that they can do about it. Not a thing. So you better be good to your husband and to your wife because they can have you declared insane. That is a fact.

   Mrs. Kendall gave my wife an article that she had read in Longview paper recently where this woman had been divorced. Now she had her boyfriends coming to the house and she had a 13-year-old daughter and the difficulties involved. And then the psychologist told how that you can gradually spring this on your children: "You can bring your boyfriend home and sleep with him and they won't think too much about it." Yes, they call the shots. They try to do away with guilt, and they call evil good.

   The greatest fact that we could come to realize in one sense is that there are only two religious systems: God's and Satan's. And it's illustrated in I Kings chapter 18. This is — let's turn there in I Kings 18. This is a confrontation that Elijah had with the priests of Baal. It's during the time of the reign of Ahab and Jezebel. Jezebel had led Ahab and Israel into Baal worship.

   Israel was in and out of Baal worship many, many times. Many of the kings — in fact, from the time that the Northern Kingdoms went north and set up under Jeroboam, there was not a good king. They remained in idolatry, they remained under Baal worship. And Christ was able to say to the Pharisees, "Look, you are the children of those who kill the prophets and stone them."

   In I Kings, the 18th chapter, this confrontation is described. We will begin in verse 17 (I Kings 18:17): "And 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 broken the commandments of the Eternal and you have followed Baalim.'" Baalim is the collective plural term for Baal. The male god Nimrod took on the name so on called different places and different geographical areas.

   "Now therefore send and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel's table." Male and female. 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 ye between two opinions, two thoughts, two systems? If the Eternal be God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him."

   In essence, Elijah is saying, "Look, there are only two systems, there are only two ways. Make up your mind, Israel, what are you going to do?"

   False religion is inextricably linked to the false doctrine of the immortality of the soul, which dehumanizes God. It de-anthropomorphizes God — and through the Greek "man-morphe-size," change into man, ascribe to God manlike qualities and characteristics. God is an individual entity with a mind, with a presence. He is one God, he is in a place, he is on his throne.

   Now, those who believe in the immortality of the soul, whether it be the Indians or the Hindus in India who speak of Nirvana — that great blob in the sky, the spiritual essence — or the Catholic church or the Protestant church that talks about going to heaven, or to some other mystic order that talks about being united once again with a force, with a great spirit essence, whatever it might be — it's the same. God is not an individual.

   And then what they suddenly do is that they make the high priest into God. And then today, they're going to this to the point that they're trying to even make the common man into God by telling him that he can achieve his true human potential, that he has a mind, that he is the one that will decide what is good, what is right, what is wrong.

   Now, when Mr. Armstrong uses the term "human potential," he is speaking of God potential. Now when they use the term "human potential," they are speaking of something quite different than what he is talking about.

   So the immortality of the soul dehumanizes God or de-anthropomorphizes God in that it takes away from him mind, and he becomes just a big blob. False religion is almost always inextricably linked to sex. Atheism is a religion. Oh, yes. The atheists do believe in immortality. Their offspring will continue their existence — once again, linked to sex. You've got to have procreation, you've got to have sex, you've got to be able to reproduce. Now, they're trying to put a subtle twist on that, which I'll talk about a little bit later.

   Communism is a religion. It is the official religion of the Soviet Union. They do not call it communism. They call it dialectical materialism. The word "dialectical" — "dia" means two and "lect" or "lecture" or argument or polemics. That is, from two opposing views, you can merge into one view and that becomes the synthesis and the new reality.

   And that's one of the things that the Pharisees and the Talmud was able to do quite well. They take two opposing views, blend them into one into a synthesis, and that becomes the new truth. And what the communists say: you have the workers on the one hand, you have the capitalists, the bourgeoisie, on the other hand, and that eventually the workers will overthrow the capitalists. And these two will become one and emerging will be the synthesis of the proletariat, the working class, the dictatorship of the proletariat. And then the millennium shall have begun on earth and everyone will be equal and happy. It is a religion. Don't ever think that it isn't, and don't ever think that they're not determined to spread it over the whole world.

   Now, the lie that Satan told is concerning the immortality of the soul — we have often discussed. Say a little bit more about that. Of course, it is inextricably woven into Mystery Babylon the Great, The Mother of Harlots.

   There's another aspect of false religion that we haven't talked as much about. Yet God has warned his people from time immemorial not to get caught up in it. And that has to do with the sexual part of it.

   The mystery religions of the ancient world taught that the tree of knowledge was a sex tree and eating its fruit was symbolic of the sex act. According to this interpretation, Eve was seduced by the serpent, and what she ate of — she ate of the tree. And this actually was knowledge concerning procreation. And then she was able to go teach this to Adam and he partook of this newly found knowledge.

   So it is said that she first of all had sexual relations with a serpent — some say literally, some say symbolically — when she ate of the tree, whereupon she went to Adam and did the same thing with him. And then the people who become initiates, those who are coming into the mysteries, were taught that Adam and Eve became gods through their knowledge of sex. And thus the serpent was the great benefactor of mankind, since he told them — he revealed to Eve how you can achieve godhood. Remember, he told them in chapter three, "You shall be as gods after you eat of this tree of the knowledge of good and evil."

   It was also taught by some that their sin was that Eve conceived twice in the same day. She was said to have had twins. Cain was the result of copulation with the serpent. And by the way, there's a former minister of the Worldwide Church of God who now teaches that the true illuminati are descendants of Cain and Cain was fathered by Satan the devil.

   Now, the Bible clearly says that the angels neither marry nor are given in marriage, and there's no record in the Bible that says that angels were able to procreate with human beings. And then it said that the other child, Abel, was the seed of the woman and was the result of copulation with Adam.

   So the world teaches that the sin in the garden was sexual. One of the earliest writings of the mystery religions available today — and this was written, they don't know exactly when it was written, but it was revised in the first century about 1800 years ago and it still remains today — the writings are entitled "The Divine Pimander of Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus, The Divine Pimander of Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus."

   In this story, they claim that Hermes, Hermes received his teachings from the great dragon, the Edenic or Deniedenic serpent, the personification of universal life, because this was the source of wisdom. They also taught that the serpent in the Garden of Eden was actually God himself or, as the text reads, "Pimandres, the mind of the universe, the creative intelligence, the absolute emperor of all." Whereas the Bible says that "the great dragon, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceives the whole world" is cast out. It does not call it the universal mind, the creative intelligence, the mind of the universe, the absolute emperor of all — though he has been able to basically deceive all mankind into worshiping him.

   Many people don't know that they are worshiping Satan the devil. This great dragon, the deceiver of the whole world, told Hermes that the Word (that is, the Logos, the God of the Old Testament), in moving through the universe, he moved so rapidly that he caused great friction which brought about fire. And he was called the son of striving. This fire, in turn, created seven governors, the spirits of the planets who control the world by a power called destiny.

   And so many people today are talking about destiny, good luck, good fortune. And let's do everything that we can to ensure good luck. There are church members who talk about this — probably more in the next sermon — who daily check their so-called signs of the zodiac to see what is going to happen to them, what are the chances of that day of them having good fortune, good luck, of them reaching their destiny. Whereas God says that he created the heavens and the earth, that he created man in his own image: "In the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

   Now, in this writing here, the first created man — Hermes was told by Pimander that it was — he was a universal man. He was the archetype or mold for the rest of mankind. In other words, the first Adam, the primal Adam, the universal man was not earthy at all to begin with, but he gradually descended to earth through the seven governors and eventually fell to earth.

   Now, this man who began his existence — see, in the great storehouse of the souls in heaven, or as it says here, the fixed stars, the eighth sphere — gradually descended to the earth. Now upon descending, he was neither male nor female. He was androgynous.

   Now, androgyny or androgynous is a term that you ought to learn because it is very significant for today. The principal writings concerning the feminist movement have as their purpose, eventually, androgyny. That is, that a woman would become equally male and female. I should have said female first, probably, because they are female to begin with. And what they want to do is come to the point that man is no longer necessary. And see, the only thing that man has to do with it now is that he provides a tiny little sperm to impregnate the ovum.

   "Now we can manufacture that some other way. If we can procreate some other way, then man maybe could become once again androgynous." It's a term that is used in the feminist writings — unisex. That's what it is — one sex. Androgyny, neither male nor female.

   Now, the University of Colorado recently — they have been able to, they claim, clone a cell from a calf and taking a cell from a calf and through the process of cell reproduction, reproduce that calf. So they are working hard on it.

   This primal Adam's desire to understand the mystery of God resulted in his descending to the earth. His original habitation was the fixed stars. He began to descend from the fixed stars — that is, the eighth sphere — through the other seven spheres down to earth. As he did that, he passed through Saturn, Jupiter, Mars (and at that time, the sun was thought to be a planet), Venus, Mercury, and eventually the moon, and then he came to earth.

   Through each one of these stages, a certain type of action or personality trait which the soul had to pass through was represented. And then the final stage, that of the moon, symbolized the force of generation and growth. So as the universal man descended, he became increasingly entrapped by nature, so that eventually he got so close to the earth that he could look into the waters. He saw a reflection of himself — and there's the myth of Narcissus — and he fell in love with himself. And also at the same time, nature fell in love with him because Isis — from Narcissus, Isis, the goddess of nature — wrapped her arms around him and this soul was entrapped in nature or in a body.

   Thus, it was taught that Adam fell into a physical body or a body of natural elements while still retaining his divine spark, his immortality. This is the basis for the doctrine that the body is the prison house of an immortal soul.

   At any rate, the union of the universal Adam with nature (Isis) resulted in seven other men being reproduced. And all of these were androgynous — and it doesn't tell us why that they had to have Isis in order to produce the seven offspring if he was truly androgynous. Eventually, however, some — they said, Pimander said to Hermes — all the people were separated into male and female.

   The separation is their interpretation of Genesis 2:21-23: "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, 'This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.'"

   Now, the ancient religious ceremonies often alluded to this event where they had a dance in which the priest would dance limp sideways, off balance. If you're still there in I Kings, the 18th chapter, you could look now down at verse 26. I Kings 18:26 — you'll see this limping about the altar: "And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, 'O Baal, answer us!' But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they limped upon the altar which was made."

   That's the literal meaning of the word. In that particular case, you notice the dances of the American Indians, the African tribes of today — they bounce around on one leg, they bounce around on another leg, and it sort of looks like they're hopping or limping or skipping along.

   There's also another aspect to this. I'm reading now from Dr. C. Paul Meredith's thesis written in 1953, "Satan's Great Deception." Hislop's Two Babylons," pages 322-323, says that one of the names of Eve worshiped in ancient Babylon as the Primeval goddess was "Thalatth," which signifies "the rib" or "a side." It comes from the verb "thala," which signifies "to turn aside."

   Adam turned aside from obeying God because he took Eve who was made of a rib. It is in memory of Adam's turning aside from the right way that the pagan priests of Baal supplicated their god to hear them by limping — turning aside at the altar, for limping is the exact meaning of the Hebrew word rendered "leaped." This, he states, is also the origin of Vulcan's lameness, for their pagan god Vulcan, as father of the gods, needed to be identified with Adam as well as Nimrod.

   The pagans knew that this limping or turning aside implied death — eternal death. The doctrine of the separation of the sexes is a very important part of the Babylonian scheme of doctrinal teaching because it forms the basis for the Babylonian division of their gods in the pantheon into masculine and into feminine. The male deities collectively are known as the Baalim, and their female counterparts were termed Ashtaroth.

   Now, once again, reading from Dr. Meredith's thesis, page 153: "Scarcely over 60 years after God led Israel out of Egypt, God says they forsook the Eternal and served Baal and Ashtaroth." Now, Baal is singular, Ashtaroth plural. We find Asherah singular, also Ashtari plural. We find these two names used many places in connection with the Israelites.

   Who were they? The word "Baal" means master or lord. As first and mightiest of the lords of the earth, Nimrod became Baal or Pel or Bell. He was recognized as the chief Babylonian deity. Ashtaroth, as we have previously shown, was Semiramis. Israel was soon worshiping these two under these names. Israel also worshiped Baal-berith — Nimrod as mediator and head of the covenant of grace took this name — or the name of Mithras.

   Solomon went after Ashtoreth for a short time. Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtoreth and served the Eternal only. But they returned to this practice. Please recall that Ashtoreth is just another for the word Ishtar or Easter, which is observed today by the Protestants and Catholics.

   So this interpretation also was a part of the basis for their worship of sex. For sex was the means of returning to the primal androgynous state of being — that is, one flesh. So sex is inextricably linked to it. Now, in some strains or in some sects, in some cases as with the Catholics, it's still a perversion of sex. They teach celibacy, but also the priests of the Babylonian mysteries were supposed to be celibate. But in addition to that, there was this young virgin who was to go into the upper chambers from time to time and guess who the god was — it was a high priest.

   Pimander then told Hermes the key to salvation. And this is their interpretation of the serpent's promise of immortality. He — and this is a quote from the book: "He who through the error of attachment loves his body abides wandering in darkness, sensible and suffering the things of death. But he who realizes that the body is but the tomb of the soul rises to immortality."

   At death, the material body of man is returned to the elements from which it came, and the invisible divine man ascends to the source from whence he came, namely the eighth sphere. The serpent then explained that men were to be deprived of immortality if they did not believe that they were immortal, but would instead be judged and condemned to another cycle of life and another body.

   When Hermes asked why, the answer came: "To the ignorant the body is supreme and they are incapable of realizing the immortality that is within them. Knowing only the body which is subject to death, they believe in death because they worship that substance that is the body, which is the cause and reality of death."

   So you can see from the early sources that mystery religions taught the first requirement of the attainment of heaven was to believe the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. And then secondly, that through sex, that they could achieve this, that they could be united once again with a great spirit essence.

   The psychologists and Satan and others who are his agents today are using sex mightily in American society. It is in a sense, along with psychology, the religion of the day. And Satan is able to propagate his way through perverted sex. And when I speak of perverted sex, I mean any use of sex that breaks the law of God. In other words, Satan recruits through sex. He always has, he always will until he is put away.

   Why did God warn Israel to cut down the groves? What part did they play in this? Let's look at Deuteronomy 12 and verse two. Deuteronomy 12:2 — the groves had a great deal to do with mystery Babylon religion going all the way back to the Garden of Eden.

   And Deuteronomy 12 and verse one: "These are the statutes and judgments which ye shall observe to do in the land which the Eternal your God, the Eternal God of your fathers giveth you to possess it all the days that ye live upon the earth. Ye shall utterly destroy all the places wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree."

   Also look now at II Kings chapter 18. II Kings chapter 18 is the account of the great religious revival that was led in Judah by Hezekiah. What did Hezekiah do to lead this great revival? II Kings 18, it talks about that Hezekiah began to reign when he was 25 years old, gives his mother's name.

   Verse three: "And he did that which was right in the sight of the Eternal, according to all that David his father did. He removed the high places, brake the images, cut down the groves, brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it" — to that serpent. See, the serpent even in Israel is prominently displayed. And here at this point is where that was destroyed out from Israel. And he called it a piece of brass — that is the literal meaning of, Nehushtan, a piece of brass."

   So Hezekiah destroyed the groves, he destroyed the idols, he destroyed the images, he did away with the high places. The high places were places where they had placed these groves. Now look at chapter 23. And here at this time, there's a great revival that is being led by Josiah.

   And II Kings 23, in verse 13 (II Kings 23:13): "And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites" — called different things in different places, still the goddess of fertility or Isis, the one who wrapped her arms around the primal Adam who entrapped his immortal soul. He had to get back some way to the spirit essence through the various governors, through the planets, back to heaven.

   "And for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile. And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men. Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove."

   The groves which the scriptures denounced so frequently were actually Babylonian and Canaanite representations of the Garden of Eden. That's what they actually represented. And this was the place where the initiates of the mystery religions in Canaan reached the first step of perfection — that is, the stage of the moon.

   Now you hear so many songs about "under the light of the silvery moon," "spooning on under the moon," "moon struck," and all of that which generally has some kind of so-called romantic connotations. The initiates went to the grove or to the Garden of Eden as Eve had been in the Garden of Eden and learned a secret whereby man could become God from the serpent. So the initiates went to the grove or to the Garden of Eden and had sex with a temple sodomite, the first step back.

   The pillars were often substituted for trees in the groves and were used extensively as phallic symbols to teach the sexual interpretation of the trees in the Garden of Eden. And today on almost every church corner in America, you see that phallic symbol, the steeple on top of the church, reaching up toward the heavens.

   Also on May Day, it is the principal day in Russia, May Day or the day of the poles — not the day of the Polacks, not a nationality — the day of the poles that goes straight up. May Day or the day of the poles is the day that they dance around the poles. It is also the day that the Russians have chosen to display their military might. And at that time on in the square in the Kremlin, all the great armaments were lined up and the soldiers march. It is a part of their religion because it is through this army and through revolution that they plan to bring the millennium to the earth.

   So the Baal worship of Canaan was derived from the Babylonian interpretation of the trees in the Garden of Eden. That is, the trees they claimed were people or sex symbols and eating of this fruit was sexual intercourse. Now, some said it actually took place, some say it was symbolic as far as intercourse with Satan.

   Turn back to Deuteronomy 16 verse 21 and see what God says about these groves and these trees around a place of worship. In Deuteronomy 16 verse 21 (Deuteronomy 16:21): "Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the Eternal thy God, which thou shalt make thee, neither shalt thou set thee up any image" — that is, a statue or pillar, that's what the literal meaning of that word "image" is — a phallic symbol. So you don't have the trees and you don't have the phallic symbol, you don't put the steeple on top of the church, and you don't use the phallic symbol — "which the Eternal thy God hateth."

   So the instructions are very clear from the word of God, of what he expects. In a section on the religion of the Canaanites, Halley's Handbook, 24th edition, I'm going to read a paragraph: "Baal was their principal god, Ashtoreth — Baal's wife — their principal goddess. She was the personification of the reproductive principle in nature. Ishtar was her Babylonian name, Astarte her Greek and Roman name."

   Baal... if you want to read about the spirit of iniquity that was working, read in Acts what Paul encountered with the Ephesians when he visited there and they were steeped in the worship of Diana and the great temple, which was one of the wonders of the ancient world — the temple to Diana — and Paul had a confrontation with those who worshiped Diana.

   So when the Canaanites and when the people who have been involved — and whether it is intentional or unintentional, there is a lot of unintentional, so-called sex worship in America today, which I'm going to talk about later in sermons down the line showing more clearly and vividly how it is prevalent in American society today.

   The priest, of course, is a representative of God to his congregation. Any church that would tolerate a homosexual, a sodomite, or any such to minister in that church is blaspheming God. But for them, it is not mere corruption as we might think of it. It is their religion.

   Now, God of course refers to himself as masculine, as Father — not that God is masculine in the sense that we think of masculine in the ability to reproduce children. God has the ability to reproduce children, but he's reproducing spiritual children. God the Father begets us with his spirit. He impregnates our mind, the ovum, with his spirit. And we do begin a new creation. And in that sense, see, they have copied that or perverted that process. You do have to be re-impregnated. You do have to be born again because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. God holds the father position. He's the father of his children. He's the final authority in the family order.

   In Babylon, they required the ordination of women because they represented the female goddess of nature — Isis, the queen of heaven. And it was necessary in getting back to the great spirit essence.

   Now, in the world today, a man's masculinity is measured by his ability to perform sexually. The greatest fear that most men have in the world today is impotency and the fear of impotency has driven many men into impotency because it has been taught, it has been drummed into their minds and into their being. If you can't perform sexually, you cannot be a man. You can't be masculine and that is not always true.

   Now, hopefully, you could be both. But let's say that a man does not perform each and every time and no person does perform perfectly every time. Should he then begin to view himself as a failure as worthless as not being masculine? No.

   Now, a lot of women immediately bring pressure on their husbands and use this as an excuse. They too need to understand. Whereas a woman just by natural endowment, biologically equipped is reminded of her femaleness. Her femininity so-called more than a man is because every month she has a menstrual cycle, she has more biological equipment than a man does. And it is not nearly as necessary for her to feel that she is a woman that she is feminine, that she is female to have sex. In other words, it's not as necessary for her to have sex to be feminine. Whereas for a man, it is thought to be imperative.

   Now, I know that today this has been perverted to the extent that now it's man with man and female, with female. But nonetheless, men are not considered masculine unless their ability are able to perform sexually. You need to be aware of that. God is very masculine and he holds the Father possession. But what the world calls masculine and what God calls masculine are not exactly the same thing.

   Well, that's all the time that I have for today. I think we have laid a pretty good foundation to go on to some of the other material that I have on Mystery Babylon, The Great, The Mother of Harlots. Once we go through this series on this, I think you'll have a much better background for continued study in the Bible and also other areas and other subjects on it.