Babylon Here Now

2002.05.D.01 Babylon Here Now

Greetings

This article reinforces some of the principles posted last year and earlier this year regarding the critical need for us to recognize and observe the Hebrew Roots of the faith and PARTICULARLY the need to observe the Ten Commandments.

Warm regards and blessings

BABYLON

SENT BY Ben Ehrhardt

What’s with Babylon? I don’t get it. Here we are early in the 21st century, cross-referencing the daily news with Revelation, and the apostle John is talking about Babylon. At the writing of Revelation (about 1900 years ago), the Babylonian Empire had been long gone. Hundreds of years.

Gone were the days of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar. Assyrians had absorbed them; Medes and Persians followed the Assyrians. The Romans were in power by the time John received this piece of Revelation. So what in the world was YHVH doing talking to John about Babylon? Is Saddam getting ready to stage a huge rally?

Is this some kind of twisted time warp game the Almighty was playing on  John? Is this one of those apparent ‘inconsistencies’ that college  professors use to convince unread and unthinking students that the Bible is  riddled with errors? I mean this is kind of important. The angel is telling  John that if YHVH’s people don’t come out of Babylon, they will participate in her sins AND receive of her plagues. (Raise your hand if you want to host one of the plagues in store for Babylon.)

Rev 18:1 “After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven,  having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory. 2 And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! And she has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every  unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. 3 "For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the  merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality." 4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, "Come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues; 5 for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”

Anything here make your bones chill?

Dwelling place of demons... There is such a thing?

All nations… You mean America won’t abstain?

Immorality, sensuality, sins, plagues… Yuck!

God has remembered her iniquities… Yikes!

Being one of YHVH’s people in these times (that are looking suspiciously akin to those written about in Revelation), I am wondering if maybe this isn’t something I should explore. I really don’t want to fall short of the mark, and I want to do all I can to avoid becoming deceived. Care to join me? Lets look at some passages together:

• Ex 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before Me.
• And Ex 23:12-13 Now concerning everything which I have said to you, be on your guard; and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from your mouth. 
• Matt 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. 22 "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons and in Your name perform many miracles?'
• 23 "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.' (Greek Anomia, without the law: without the Torah!)
• Mark 13:22-27 For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. 23 "But take heed; behold, I have told you everything in advance. 24 "But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken. 26 "And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 "And then He will send forth the angels, and will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth, to the farthest end of heaven.
• 2 Thess 2:1-4 Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Yahshua HaMashiach, and our gathering together to Him, 2 that you may not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of G-d, displaying himself as being G-d.

Now if you believe that we are all about to get raptured out of here and won’t have to worry about any of this, great! (While I don’t personally believe there’s any picture of that in Scripture, I’m all for it! I’d like to avoid the tribulation if possible. Of course, the Sudanese believers that are being slaughtered and the Chinese that are being imprisoned for the gospel would probably also like to avoid the tribulation.) If you believe we are slathered under so much grace that we can entirely disregard everything the Almighty has told us to do with impunity, great! Go back to sleep—this isn’t for you.

But if the above Scriptures prick your heart in any way—if the Spirit is calling you to carefully examine all you do in light of Scripture (yes, all 66 of the books), then we have some questions to answer.

• Why, for example, would YHVH warn us to come out of Babylon if He didn’t think we were entrenched in her?
• Why would He warn us not to bring other gods before Him unless we have a sin proclivity to do so?
• Could it be possible for us to live our entire lives thinking we’re doing service to Yahshua only to be rejected by Him?
• How can we avoid this?
• Finally, was Yahshua kidding when He said false prophets will arise and a strong delusion will come?
• Was He lying about a coming apostasy? (As a side note, those in the world are already seduced and deluded. They cannot apostatize, as they have no faith from which to fall).

That leaves us with these five questions:

1) Are we really thigh-deep in the muck of Babylon?

2) How and when do we bring other gods’ names before Adonai?

3) Do we disregard the Torah?

4) Could the above items cause us to be deceived and miss being gathered to Yahshua?

5) How can we be sure to avoid the apostasy?

These are difficult questions to consider, but given the eternal ramifications and the times we seem to be living in, we must at least take a look at them. To begin, lets turn to the kind assistance of our Ya and Splitfoot analogy for help. Ya, if you’ll remember, is the One and Only Creator Who loves His creation with all the wisdom and discipline of the most protective and tender father. Yet Ya doesn’t force Himself on His creation. Splitfoot, Ya’s foolish and arrogant arch-enemy, is committed to doing everything in His limited and twisted power to make Ya’s creation run away from its Creator.

Everything had been going along swimmingly for Splitfoot. After Adam had defaulted his rightful control of the earth over to Splitfoot, Splitfoot had worked with a vengeance to corrupt Adam’s seed. Earth was awash in bloody violence. Splitfoot and his posse had taken control of every facet of earth… except one. That pesky Noach.

Noach alone found grace and favor in the sight of Ya. Only Noach’s heart wasn’t turned toward evil continually. Noach was perfect in his generations. “Once we get Noach, we’ve won!” Splitfoot gleefully boasted to his demonic cabinet. Just about the time the meeting ended, the fountains of the deep broke up and the rain started falling. “Foiled again, ”skulked our foul antagonist. During the flood, the flesh he had so successfully corrupted died, but he and the boys lived on, just waiting for their next opening. By the time Noach’s grandson, Nimrod, was alive, the time was ripe.

• Rom 1:19-23 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

Nimrod founded most of the cities in post-diluvium Mesopotamia. He became a mighty man on the earth. (Gen. 10: 8+) Scripture notes something interesting happening about this time: the tower of Babel being built. Two generations after Noach, his descendants are spurning Ya again…Here’s Nimrod, the mighty hunter, founder of the cities. Was the tower a big surprise to him? Doubtful. The architectural drawings of the doomed ziggurat probably adorned his walls. He probably drew them.

One thing is for sure, Nimrod was highly revered. So much so that like the Pharaohs, Caesars, Japanese emperors, and Hitler after them, his followers attributed to him powers of godhood. Absolute deity. Splitfoot thought this was a riot. He was all for it! Nimrod went the way of all flesh, but his followers carried his legend on. Now dead and resting placidly in sungod heaven, he impregnated his wife, Semiramis, with a ray of light and was reincarnated into his own son. New name: Tammuz. (As in, women weeping for). Semiramis was the fertility goddess. And Tammuz was her son/husband.

Two generations after Noach and already foolish hearts were pitch black.

Now before giving away more of the plot, I want to make one thing very clear. It was because this whole mythology was created and after it was well-established, that YHVH came down and in a fury, separating men into different languages and scattering them on the face of the earth. Do we figure they just forgot their abominable practices and returned whole-heartedly to Ya? No, rather with their hearts turned away from YHVH, they were wide open to Splitfoot’s devices. The names of their gods changed as they moved, but the story remained essentially the same.

Back to the story: Maybe to relieve some pressure from being the sungod, Tammuz went out hunting. Having been a great hunter in his former incarnation, he must have had some surprise when a particularly hairy boar killed him dead. But, cleverly, he reincarnated again. Pagans everywhere still celebrate this day as the rebirth of the sungod. Want to know which day this occurred? Do you really because it may change the way you look at one of the most venerated holidays in all Christendom. It was then and still is celebrated with much excess in food and sex. Evergreens adorn the homes of pagans in honor of Saturnalia (another of his names). Gifts are given in abundance. What’s the date? Why, it’s December 25th. What a weird coincidence! That is when the traditional Christian church celebrates the birth of our Messiah! Surely we aren’t bringing a Babylonian god before YHVH as we bow down to our Christmas trees and retrieve presents for our children on a day YHVH never told us to celebrate. (See Jeremiah 10; I Kings. 11:31-33; Ezek. 8:14.) Pagan cultures everywhere share similar worship of the creation rather than the Creator. Sun, moon, stars, earth, seasons, cycles, reincarnation, perverted sexuality, and bloody sacrifice, most notably of innocent children.

Eventually Semiramis died. Being a goddess—and a fertility one at that—she was also able to reincarnate. She came back in an egg in the Euphrates River and washed ashore in a basket of reeds. Her name in this carnation was Ashtoreth. Ishtar, Oestre, Estre, Astarte, Easter: different names, same character. Emerging from the egg, she saw a nearby rabbit passing and turned him into an egg-laying rabbit (bunnies= fertility). Her pagan priests commemorated her rebirth annually by sleeping with virgins (freshly adorned in the finest dresses their families could afford), impregnating them on altars on high places during the sunrise of the vernal equinox.

(Ever wonder why Easter moves around so much? Why we celebrate at a sunrise service when the Messiah raised up just before sundown on Shabbat? Why we wear pretty new dresses?) A year later the children would be three months old. The infants would be sacrificed, and eggs, symbolizing fertility, would be dipped in their blood. Hence, Easter egg dying. Ask the Eastern Orthodox Church why they die eggs blood red to this day, and no one will be able to tell you. Ah, the many colors of spring… A feast was set up in honor of her and her son, and guess what the main course was? The vengeance boar. Wild pig. Big ole fatty ham. Ever wonder why we honor the resurrection of our dear Jewish rabbi, Yahshua, with a ham?

“But that’s not what Christmas and Easter mean to me,” I often hear. That’s probably what Aaron said to Moshe after the golden cow incident. After making the cow with the people’s jewelry, Aaron proclaimed a holy convocation to YHVH. YHVH was so impressed by Aaron’s good intentions, that He had the Levites spear dead about 3,000 that day. Splitfoot buys a round for the boys.

Now you must read the first half of II Kings 23 about how King Josiah cleansed these abominations out of the land and renewed the Covenant with YHVH. Israel had, you see, embraced these fallen angels. King Solomon himself, had built high places for Ashtoreth, Chemosh and Milcom (Molech), the latter two being twin-brother demons who demanded child sacrifice from their adherents.

Smelling Babylon yet?

It was into this brew of paganism that Constantine, the great church father stepped. Constantine, who after converting to Christianity, murdered his wife and son and seated his mother at his right hand as Queen of Heaven. Constantine, the emperor who sanctioned “Christian worship,” according to my dictionary, whose coins inscribed him as Sol Invictus Comiti, ‘committed to the sungod.’ Constantine who had to figure out a way to get a semblance of peace in his realm by taking the reigns of the ‘church’ and blending it with the pagan sungod worship of his realm. He could do this by making the Jews anathema and denying them a place in the club if they insisted on keeping the Biblical feasts. There was Splitfoot again, laughing his little horns off. And most of us grew up praising Constantine for being the first Christian emperor!

Isa 5:13 Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge; And their honorable men are famished, And their multitude is parched with thirst. Are we in exile in Babylon and we don’t even know it?

At the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, Constantine and his little buddies, changed God’s appointed times mightily. Dan 7:25-26 And he (the antichrist) will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; ...26 'But the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever.

At the Council, the Julian calendar was adopted for matters of ‘the church.’  Shabbat was changed to Sun-day  and the names of the week were now named after the Moon,  Tiu (god of sky and war),  Odin/Woden (supreme god, god of the Wild Hunt),  Thor (god of thunder, rain, and farming),   Freya (goddess of love and fertility) and  Saturn (more agriculture).

Days no longer started at sundown as YHVH instituted that first day of creation; now they began at midnight, according to Constantine.

Months were now:

Janus (sungod, of beginnings);

February (sacrificial offerings);

Mars (war god);

April (Etruscan Aphrodite, love goddess);

Maia’s month (mother of Hermes by Zeus);

June through August were named for people;

and September through December for numbers seven through ten in Latin.  Recognize any foreign gods’ names yet?

No wonder the Jewish believers were a thorn in Constantine’s flesh! They knew Torah. Of course they would keep Shabbat and the feasts the way YHVH told them to. Their people had been severely chastened throughout the years for turning from Torah. No way they would utter other gods’ names to honor the Creator’s days or dishonor Him by changing His Shabbat.

And again, why had Israel been scattered to the four winds and Judah taken into captivity?

Jer 22:9'...Because they forsook the covenant of the LORD their God and bowed down to other gods and served them.'"

What is the covenant of YHVH?

It is contained in Exodus 20-23 and Deut. 19-26. It includes the 10 commandments, the Hebrew feasts, Shabbat, the teachings on healthy eating, etc. It is impossible to address the relationship between law and grace here. Suffice it to say that Paul teaches us to continue celebrating Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread, but not with a heart filled with leaven (sin). I Cor. 5:7,8. Sukkot will be celebrated in the Millennial kingdom. Zech 14. YHVH Himself, when teaching how they were to be observed made it quite clear the feasts (moadim or rehearsals) were to be perpetual statutes Ex. 12:14,17. Please read Matt. 5:17-20 to find out Yahshua’s take on the Law.

Col 2:16-17 Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—

This verse is often quoted by people unfamiliar with YHVH’s Biblical calendar. It is used to justify non-compliance with YHVH’s moadim, appointed feasts. Now lets look at its completion in verse 17: things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Messiah. The rehearsals YHVH ordained were designed to paint a picture of the Messiah so that He would be recognized when He came. Truly Yahshua is the substance of everything we do. Acts 17:28a ‘For in him we live, and move, and have our being; …’

And without these shadow pictures painted in the Torah, how would His disciples have known Who He was? (Luke 24:13-35) How are we to provoke our non-believing brothers to jealousy? Lets not just pitch out YHVH’s feasts and worship fertility goddesses then say we’re doing service to YHVH. If ever there was a time to return to the ancient paths of YHVH, it is now.

Two prophecies lend specific credence to the idea that YHVH is bringing true seekers back to His covenant roots.

1. Zech 8:22-23 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'In those days (the end times) ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew saying," Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."‘”
2. Jer 16:19-21 O LORD, my strength and my stronghold, And my refuge in the day of distress, To Thee the nations will come From the ends of the earth and say, "Our fathers have inherited nothing but falsehood, Futility and things of no profit." 20 Can man make gods for himself? Yet they are not gods! 21 "Therefore behold, I am going to make them know- This time I will make them know My power and My might; And they shall know that My name is YHVH."

Finally, Jer 6:16-21...

Thus says the LORD, "Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.' 17 "And I set watchmen over you, saying, 'Listen to the sound of the trumpet!' But they said, 'We will not listen.' 18 "Therefore hear, O nations, And know, O congregation, what is among them. 19 "Hear, O earth: behold, I am bringing disaster on this people, The fruit of their plans, Because they have not listened to My words, And as for My law, they have rejected it also. 20 "For what purpose does frankincense come to Me from Sheba, And the sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, And your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me." 21 Therefore, thus says the LORD, "Behold, I am laying stumbling blocks before this people. And they will stumble against them, Fathers and sons together; Neighbor and friend will perish."

Almost sounds like a great apostasy…

Sort by: Newest First Oldest First Most Popular Most unliked