The Last Days Volume 6
Joseph A. Cortes TeachingFaith Ministries
The Last Days: Volume 6
Table of Contents Page
Chapter One : The Moon God 1
Chapter Two : Tracing the Crescent Moon Symbol 14
Chapter Three : The Moon God Repackaged 25
Chapter Four : Satan’s Plan “A” 38
Chapter Five : It’s a Family Affair 49
Chapter Six : God Keeps His Covenant 56
Chapter Seven : Called the Land of Canaan 67
Chapter Eight : The Moon God in Scripture 77
Chapter Nine : Truth Suppressors 98
Chapter Ten : City of the Moon God 107
Chapter Eleven : Cush = Chaos 125
1
The Moon God
Open your Bible to I Kings 18:20. For those of you who have been a Christian for any length of time, you have probably heard one or more messages on I Kings Chapters 17-19. Of course it starts with 17 where Elijah warns Ahab of a drought. Further along in that chapter Elijah meets a widow and he raises the widow’s son. Then in chapter 18 Elijah confronts Ahab again. Ahab was a wicked king and he had a wicked queen, Jezebel. I’m not going to review the history behind those two individuals. Let’s just call them evil and wicked because that is what they were. I’m not going to stay on these verses very long because I’m going to go to what most don’t know about where Islam came from and the history. Nearly everyone believes Islam was invented and established in approximately the 600’s by Mohammed after he supposedly received from God through Gabriel principles and holy scripture which was subsequently called the Koran. That is when most think the religion was established and is what they have been led to believe, but it cannot be further from the truth. In this teaching, we will review some of that information, information from historians and archeologists that has been there a while, but yet, so many are still in the dark about where Islam started and how long it has been around. It has been around for millenniums. You heard me right, millenniums. I Kings 18:20, “So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto mount Carmel. [21] And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions?” Two thoughts. What thoughts? Thoughts regarding who the true God is. How long halt ye between two opinions: how long are you going to flip-flop between the two and serving the one that is convenient to you at the time because of your wants, your needs and desires, and your opinion of what God should do for you? “How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD [Yahweh] be God , follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.” Remember that word Baal. Most of the Christians that I come across recognize Baal as just a certain type of god of the Old Testament that the children of Israel kept falling for. It comes with many different names. It can be defined in many different ways. It’s kind of the root where all false gods come from including the moon god, Allah, as I will show you. I Kings 18:21, “if the LORD be God , follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. [22] Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the LORD; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men.” I feel that way sometimes. I know I’m not the only one, but there are times that I feel that way and especially in the Christian world. What do they not see? What Gospel, what New Testament are they preaching from? I scratch my head daily trying to figure out why they cannot see it. Or, do they, but they don’t want to break away from the establishment? In some cases, it might just be too profitable for them to break away. 2
“How long halt ye between two opinions?” In other words, you are going to have to choose one side or the other: you are either going to serve the true God or you are going to serve baal. Nothing has changed from this day. In fact, I can take you further back in biblical history but I decided to start with Elijah. Nothing has changed since this was proclaimed. You are going to have to choose one side or the other. Now I believe we don’t choose Jesus, He chooses us. His Spirit draws you and you do have the choice to respond to it. Very few in history can actually say they had no choice, Jeremiah being one of them. But those are few and very far between and you do have the choice to take that nudge of the Spirit and see Jesus, seek Jesus and pursue Jesus Christ, your new master now, as a servant of His. I’m not going to go into how that is done in this message, but you can find that in the archives under the Salvation messages. What I am saying though is you are going to have to make a choice of one or the other. You might say, “Well, I don’t really serve a god or believe in a god.” You just made a choice. You are serving a non-god. That has become your god whether you realize it or not. Now I know there are many different religions throughout the ages. You have been led to believe they are religions, but there have only been two religions. I really hate to use the word religions because I don’t believe neither Judaism nor Christianity is really a religion. Christianity is a way, a way that provides the truth to lead us to eternal life given by none other than Jesus Christ. They were called The Way in early New Testament days. But the battle between two has been there even before the Mosaic Law was established or before Moses was around. It goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden actually, when man decided to choose the Serpent and what the Serpent was saying instead of God and what God had already instilled in man through the communication that He had with Adam. Adam rebelled. Eve rebelled. But this battle between the two religions (that is what we will call them for now) goes back millenniums. You may be asking, “What about Buddhism and Hinduism?” Those aren’t religions. You have been led to believe those are religions because that is how people identify them, but they aren’t religions. In fact, one of the things I want to do is go through all these so-called religions and prove to you and share with you what they are and how they compare to Christianity. Buddhism and Hinduism are man-made philosophies, principles of life. In fact, in Hinduism you have to go through so many reincarnations until you get to a certain level, what they call the pathway, so you don’t have to go through any more of these reincarnations because you are now complete. Not only is it a philosophy, but it is a way-out-there philosophy. Buddhism is not that far behind. Hare Krishnas are just an adaptation of Hinduism in a lighter form. I’m not even going to go into the cults that stream from Christianity. They’re not religions. They’re man-made doctrines and philosophies that came on the scene much later in history, and if you really want to know the truth, at the end of the age of history as we are going to know it. They haven’t been around that long. But Islam in all its forms has been around for millenniums. Christianity has been around for 2000 years. It’s an extension from Judaism, which is why you hear the term Judeo-Christian. We are Christians who believe a Jew is our savior. Messianic Jews are Jews that believe Jesus Christ is the savior. Judaism doesn’t believe that. They believe He existed but He was not the savior, not the messiah they were looking for. They were looking for a messiah that would bring them deliverance through might and power in the physical sense, where they would have victory over their physical enemies in the here and now 2000 years ago. Most of those belief systems are philosophies. Some may say, “Well, you can say the same thing about Christianity.” Jesus existed. There is enough historical proof about that. “Well, so did Buddha.” Yes, but he didn’t claim he was a god. He didn’t claim that believing in him would provide salvation. The Hindu 3
faith doesn’t provide that either. Now Islam believes in Jesus too as an historical figure, but only as a prophet and a prophet at a lesser level than Mohammed, and, Jesus will someday in the future be Mohammed’s assistant. And of course, those of you listening to me understand Judaism and Christianity. But back in Elijah’s day the choice was clear; either serve and follow Baal or serve the Lord God and follow Him. That is what the battle has been for several millenniums. You might be asking, “What does this have to do with Islam?” It has a lot to do with it because the moon god streamed out of the Baal worship and continued in the direction of leading individuals to serve and follow a false god. In their case, it’s just a moon god. Here is some history:
The religion of Islam has as its focus of worship a deity by the name of “Allah.” The Muslims claim that Allah in pre-Islamic times was the Biblical God of the Patriarchs, prophets and apostles. The issue is thus one of continuity. Was “Allah” the biblical God or a pagan god in Arabia during pre-Islamic times? The Muslim's claim of continuity is essential to their attempt to convert Jews and Christians for if “Allah” is part of the flow of divine revelation in Scripture, then it is the next step in biblical religion. Thus we should all become Muslims. But, on the other hand, if Allah was a pre-Islamic pagan deity, then its core claim is refuted. Religious claims often fall before the results of hard sciences such as archeology. We can endlessly speculate about the past or go and dig it up and see what the evidence reveals. This is the only way to find out the truth concerning the origins of Allah. As we shall see, the hard evidence demonstrates that the god Allah was a pagan deity. In fact, he was the Moon-god who was married to the sun goddess and the stars were his daughters.
Remember this: Allah was a pagan deity. He was the moon god who was married to the sun goddess and the stars were his daughters.
Archaeologists have uncovered temples to the Moon-god throughout the Middle East. From the mountains of Turkey to the banks of the Nile, the most wide- spread religion of the ancient world was the worship of the Moon-god. In the first literate civilization, the Sumerians have left us thousands of clay tablets in which they described their religious beliefs.
This is not made up, folks. It’s historical fact and they keep digging more and more of it up.
As demonstrated by Sjöberg and Hall, the ancient Sumerians worshipped a Moon- god who was called many different names. The most popular names were Nanna, Suen and Asimbabbar. His symbol was the crescent moon. Given the amount of artifacts concerning the worship of this Moon-god, it is clear that this was the dominant religion in Sumeria. The cult of the Moon-god was the most popular religion throughout ancient Mesopotamia. The Assyrians, Babylonians, and others took the word Suen and transformed it into the word Sin as their favorite name for the Moon-God. As Prof. Potts pointed out, “Sin is a name essentially Sumerian in origin which had been borrowed by the Semites.”
In ancient Syria and Canna, the Moon-god Sin was usually represented by the moon in its crescent phase. 4
What is their symbol? What is on their Islamic flag? The crescent moon. Is it not? The moon god.
At times the full moon was placed inside the crescent moon to emphasize all the phases of the moon. The sun-goddess was the wife of Sin and the stars were their daughters. For example, Ishtar was a daughter of Sin. Sacrifices to the Moon-god are described in the Pas Shamra texts. In the Ugaritic texts, the Moon-god was sometimes called Kusuh. In Persia, as well as in Egypt, the Moon-god is depicted on wall murals and on the heads of statues. He was the Judge of men and gods. The Old Testament constantly rebuked the worship of the Moon-god.
Let’s go to a few examples where we can see that, because I like to throw scripture into history whether it is biblical or secular history. We see that in Deuteronomy 4:19. It starts in verse 15 with idolatry and its consequences and then it gets to verse 19, “And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all the nations under the whole heaven.” They were warned not to worship the moon, not to worship the sun, not to worship the stars. God warned because He knew what they would be tempted in. These practices had already been in existence. Remember, this is what Abraham was told by God to leave, the area dominated by these gods who worship Sin, the moon god, who worship the wife, the sun god and the daughters, the stars. That is why we see here, and over and over in scripture throughout the Old Testament, “ And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars”... so they are not tempted to worship these. Now, Moses is not instructing the people that they will be tempted once they see the actual moon, actual stars, or the actual sun and that they are going to worship the physical elements they see there in the heavens. No. What it is referring to is false gods that were established, and statues, and false idols that were created. People were actually worshipping and praying to these false gods for various reasons. We see another example in Deut. 17:3. “And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the hosts of heaven, which I have not commanded”. Now I’m sure you have read this many times if you have been a Christian any length of time and said to yourself, “Well, they were worshipping the sun, they were worshipping the moon, and they were worshipping the stars and anything else in the heavens.” The reply to that thought is yes and no. What they were worshipping was what the moon, sun, and stars represented down here as far as physical elements, elements they could identify with and usually the false idols, statues and things of that nature that they created so that they could see and touch for themselves the sun goddess (that is the sun which in Scripture Moses is warning against), Sin the moon god, and their daughters represented as stars. I like to throw the verifiable Word of God out there so you don’t think I’m a nut and just making this stuff up, so let’s continue in II Kings 21:3. This is where Manasseh rules Judah after Hezekiah’s death. “For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal,” which is the root for all these other gods including the moon god, “and made a grove, and did as Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host 5
of heaven,” meaning the sun, moon and stars and what they represented in a physical idol which was placed on altars, and which they would sacrifice everything from animals to people to. Let’s go to Jeremiah 8: 1 so you can see for yourself that it spans a period of time. It was not something that was just made up in 632 AD or the time that Mohammed came up with these visions that he supposedly got from Gabriel. We will find out exactly what he did receive in future teaching. “At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves: [2] And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served”. This takes us back to I Kings 18. Elijah said, PICK ONE! Stop teeter-tottering! Stop bouncing back and forth! Pick one and follow that one. It is the same message in Revelation Chapter 3 in the last church of the seven. The Lord would rather have you hot or cold, but not lukewarm with the thought process of, “Well, I will serve this god today because I can take advantage of it, it is convenient for me today, and I will serve the true God tomorrow” and then bounce back to the other god the next day. Follow one was Elijah’s warning. “And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served , and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshiped.” What did they do? They loved them, they served them, and they worshipped them. What is going to happen to them? “... they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.” We see this over and over in Scripture. I haven’t given you the context of all these scriptures, but just take my word for it. Let’s stay in the book of Jeremiah. Go to chapter 19 verse 13. “And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.” Israel was constantly guilty of serving other gods over and over. I had someone ask me if I could recommend some material on the Minor Prophets so they could read it and try to get some understanding. I said nope. Sorry to have to say that but I just can’t. I haven’t found anything that is really worth your time and your money to try to learn anything from. Go to Zephaniah 1:5. “And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham; [6] And them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him.” Over and over we see them worshipping the host of heaven. The host of heaven that Zephaniah is referring to is once again the sun, moon and stars which was a symbolic way of saying the moon god, the sun god, and the stars god. It is a sick and evil trinity in itself. I just gave you some scriptures, but you can do the research yourself. I just wanted to get you started in case you wanted to do more research and learn how to look for these things. What does it mean when they say sun, moon, and stars over and over in Scripture and especially in the Old Testament? Back to the history.
The Old Testament constantly rebuked the worship of the Moon-god. When Israel fell into idolatry, it was usually the cult of the Moon-god. As a matter of fact, 6
everywhere in the ancient world, the symbol of the crescent moon can be found on seal impressions, steles, pottery, amulets, clay tablets, cylinders, weights, earrings, necklaces, wall murals, etc. In Tell-el-Obeid, a copper calf was found with a crescent moon on its forehead. An idol with the body of a bull and the head of man has a crescent moon inlaid on its forehead with shells. In Ur, the Stela of Ur- Nammu has the crescent symbol placed at the top of the register of gods because the Moon-god was the head of the gods. Even bread was baked in the form of a crescent as an act of devotion to the Moon-god. The Ur of the Chaldees was so devoted to the Moon-god that it was sometimes called Nannar in tablets from that time period.
A temple of the Moon-god has been excavated in Ur by Sir Leonard Woolley. [Anyone that does any introduction studies in archeology will recognize the name Sir Leonard Woolley.] He dug up many examples of moon worship in Ur and these are displayed in the British Museum to this day. Harran was likewise noted for its devotion to the Moon-god. In the 1950's a major temple to the Moon-god was excavated at Hazer in Palestine. Two idols of the moon god were found. Each was a stature of a man sitting upon a throne with a crescent moon carved on his chest. The accompanying inscriptions make it clear that these were idols of the Moon- god. Several smaller statues were also found which were identified by their inscriptions as the "daughters" of the Moon-god. What about Arabia? As pointed out by Prof. Coon, "Muslims are notoriously loath to preserve traditions of earlier paganism and like to garble what pre-Islamic history they permit to survive in anachronistic terms."
During the nineteenth century, Amaud, Halevy and Glaser went to Southern Arabia and dug up thousands of Sabean, Minaean, and Qatabanian inscriptions which were subsequently translated. In the 1940's, the archeologists G. Caton Thompson and Carleton S. Coon made some amazing discoveries in Arabia. During the 1950's, Wendell Phillips, W.F. Albright, Richard Bower and others excavated sites at Qataban, Timna, and Marib (the ancient capital of Sheba). Thousands of inscriptions from walls and rocks in Northern Arabia have also been collected. Reliefs and votive bowls used in worship of the "daughters of Allah" have also been discovered. The three daughters, al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat are sometimes depicted together with Allah the Moon-god represented by a crescent moon above them. The archeological evidence demonstrates that the dominant religion of Arabia was the cult of the Moon-god.
The cult of the moon god streams from the worship of Baal. Baal was a general god and idol which all these other false idols came from. Now the moon god really took on because it could also be identified with by both genders, male and female. It included a woman as a god. She was the sun prophetess. It included children, in this case as daughters, represented by the stars. So everyone could identify with it: everyone could pick a god out of those three gods, and the head, the moon god, controlled all of it. Thousands upon thousands of clay and other artifacts have been found including bowls and walls, even just on rocks you can see the moon god. There is so much evidence of it now. Nobody really teaches about this because to them it is just boring archeology and history. But there is so much evidence of it now that there is no denying that the moon god, which is Islam, has been in existence and has been competing with the true God, the One that Elijah in I Kings 18 proclaimed and said, Pick a side: Choose one. That message carries 7
forth all the way through until the end of time. Either you are going to serve Jesus or you are going to serve the moon god. You may say, I serve Hinduism or I serve Buddhism or whatever. Well, you serve philosophies just as Evolutionism is a philosophy now, and many have established even that as a religion, a religion based on scientific evidence as they call it. You are going to have to pick one. Now all those others will be the wrong choice. There is only one true choice you can make, The One that has not changed. The One that created mankind to worship and serve Him, not man.
In Old Testament times, the last king of Babylon built Tayma, Arabia as a center of Moon-god worship. Segall stated, "South Arabia's stellar religion has always been dominated by the Moon-god in various variations." Many scholars have also noticed that the Moon-god's name "Sin" is a part of such Arabic words as "Sinai," the "wilderness of Sin," etc. When the popularity of the Moon-god waned elsewhere, the Arabs remained true to their conviction that the Moon-god was the greatest of all gods. While they worshipped 360 gods at the Kabah in Mecca, the Moon-god was the chief deity. Mecca was in fact built as a shrine for the Moon-god.
This is what made it the most sacred site of Arabian paganism. In 1944, G. Caton Thompson revealed in her book, The Tombs and Moon Temple of Hureidha, that she had uncovered a temple of the Moon-god in southern Arabia. The symbols of the crescent moon and no less than twenty-one inscriptions with the name Sin were found in this temple. An idol which may be the Moon-god himself was also discovered. This was later confirmed by other well-known archeologists.
The evidence reveals that the temple of the Moon-god was active even in the Christian era. Evidence gathered from both North and South Arabia demonstrate that Moon-god worship [listen closely, folks] was clearly active even in Muhammad's day and was still the dominant cult. According to numerous inscriptions, while the name of the Moon-god was Sin, his title was al-ilah, i.e. "the deity," meaning that he was the chief or high god among the gods. As Coon pointed out, "The god Il or Ilah was originally a phase of the Moon God." The Moon-god was called al-ilah, i.e. the god, which was shortened to Allah in pre- Islamic times. [So al-ilah became allah] The pagan Arabs even used Allah in the names they gave to their children. For example, both Muhammad's father and uncle had Allah as part of their names.
That is before Mohammed ever got the visions from Gabriel. It was already a common name.
The fact that they were given such names by their pagan parents proves that Allah was the title for the Moon-god even in Muhammad's day. Prof. Coon goes on to say, "Similarly, under Mohammed's tutelage, the relatively anonymous Ilah, became Al-Ilah, The God, or Allah, the Supreme Being."
This fact answers the questions, "Why is Allah never defined in the Qur'an?
I don’t expect most of you to have ever read the Koran, but that is a good question: Why is Allah never defined in the Koran? 8
Why did Muhammad assume that the pagan Arabs already knew who Allah was?" Muhammad was raised in the religion of the Moon-god Allah. But he went one step further than his fellow pagan Arabs. While they believed that Allah, i.e. the Moon-god, was the greatest of all gods and the supreme deity in a pantheon of deities, Muhammad decided that Allah was not only the greatest god but the only god.
Why is that important? To make a long story short, because this now makes him the False Prophet.
In effect he said, "Look, you already believe that the Moon-god Allah is the greatest of all gods. All I want you to do is to accept that the idea that he is the only god. I am not taking away the Allah you already worship. I am only taking away his wife [which represented the sun] and his daughters [which represented the stars] and all the other gods." This is seen from the fact that the first point of the Muslim creed is not, "Allah is great" but "Allah is the greatest," i.e., he is the greatest among the gods. Why would Muhammad say that Allah is the "greatest" except in a polytheistic context? The Arabic word is used to contrast the greater from the lesser. That this is true is seen from the fact that the pagan Arabs never accused Muhammad of preaching a different Allah than the one they already worshipped. This "Allah" was the Moon-god according to the archeological evidence. Muhammad thus attempted to have it both ways. To the pagans, he said that he still believed in the Moon-god Allah. To the Jews and the Christians, he said that Allah was their God too. But both the Jews and the Christians knew better and that is why they rejected his god Allah as a false god.
Al-Kindi, one of the early Christian apologists against Islam, pointed out that Islam and its god Allah did not come from the Bible but from the paganism of the Sabeans. They did not worship the God of the Bible but the Moon-god and his daughters al-Uzza, al-Lat and Manat. Dr. Newman concludes his study of the early Christian-Muslim debates by stating, "Islam proved itself to be...a separate and antagonistic religion which had sprung up from idolatry." Islamic scholar Caesar Farah concluded "There is no reason, therefore, to accept the idea that Allah passed to the Muslims from the Christians and Jews."
They would have us believe that Islam came from Abraham and was passed on from him to Ishmael. No it wasn’t. Ishmael followed and served the gods of the heavens reduced down to the sun, stars and moon along with the images they created for them so they could have them right in front of them, to where they could feel, touch, kneel down, and bow down to them.
The Arabs worshipped the Moon-god as a supreme deity. But this was not biblical monotheism. While the Moon-god was greater than all other gods and goddesses, this was still a polytheistic pantheon of deities. Now that we have the actual idols of the Moon-god [because of archeologists digging up the past] , it is no longer possible to avoid the fact that Allah was a pagan god in pre-Islamic times. Is it any wonder then that the symbol of Islam is the crescent moon?
By the way, how come biblical archeology magazines and all the other archeology magazines do not point this out and make it clear? “We can’t upset the establishment. We want to seem peaceful. We want to seem like we can dwell and accept all faiths as long as it leads back to a 9
belief that there is a god.” Well, you can believe there is God all you want. Do I believe it? Absolutely; He is the Father. But there is no access to Him except through the Son, Jesus Christ.
That a crescent moon sits on top of their mosques and minarets? That a crescent moon is found on the flags of Islamic nations? That the Muslims fast during the month which begins and ends with the appearance of the crescent moon in the sky?
The pagan Arabs worshipped the Moon-god Allah by praying toward Mecca several times a day; making a pilgrimage to Mecca; running around the temple of the Moon-god called the Kabah; kissing the black stone; killing an animal in sacrifice to the Moon-god; throwing stones at the devil; fasting for the month which begins and ends with the crescent moon; giving alms to the poor, etc.,
The Muslim's claim that Allah is the God of the Bible and that Islam arose from the religion of the prophets and apostles is refuted by solid, overwhelming archeological evidence. Islam is nothing more than a revival of the ancient Moon- god cult. It has taken the symbols, the rites, the ceremonies, and even the name of its god from the ancient pagan religion of the Moon-god.
It is sheer idolatry and must be rejected by all those who follow the true Gospel. Islam is just an extension of the moon god Allah that goes back millenniums, which we see over and over in Scripture in the examples I gave. Most people that read the Bible take it literally that it was the sun, moon and stars that they were worshipping up there in the heavens. No! They brought those heavenly figures down to earth and created a religion by their man-made ideas and doctrines with statues and other things that they could feel and touch, as I said earlier: they needed a personal experience of what they could relate to, so they could see it, which they did see over and over throughout the millenniums because of their reproduction of all these false idols and gods. It wasn’t good enough for them to believe in an unseen God. They had to create a god that they could see, feel and touch. So what better symbolic way of worshipping something that has already been created but now reduced down to something that you could feel and touch through false idols, which led to false worship. We see this over and over in Scripture with the moon god. You would think the sun god would be the head of the gods, but no. The moon god became the predominant god—and millenniums ago, not the 6 th or 7 th century. All Mohammed did was further extend a false religion that has been established for a long time, with some conditions that would change it from three gods to one god—further mocking The Holy Trinity. As I started this message, Elijah said you have to choose. It has always been about one way or the other and who you are going to follow. All these other religions or philosophies, as I said earlier, are just that. They are not going to get you anywhere either. They are not going to bring you to eternal life. They may not necessarily be destructive in the physical sense even though there are Hindu fanatics, but those fanatics are not as destructive and labeled in Scripture as a Beast, an underlying beast, even though there have been other beasts that have come and gone. That underlying moon god system drives Islam and was never able to be killed for any length of time because it kept cropping up over and over again. Even though the 7th Beast was slain, it was only slain. Scripture didn’t say it was eliminated, never to exist again, like the other beast, Rome. It was slain, but it was slain with the assurance that it would be able to come back to 10
life—which it has done and we see now. It is spreading and they are effective. Don't believe they aren’t. They will come in a fanatical way and they will come in a moderate way. You can be guaranteed of this, they will come in numbers. Their whole philosophy is to mass produce in numbers. They are patient, they have the endurance and they know eventually (through their processes) that they can overtake any political or religious system because of sheer vast numbers. Listen, it has almost caught up to Christianity and Christianity has been around longer than the Islamic religion produced by Mohammed. But he didn’t start from scratch. The moon god has been there the whole time combating against the true God, misleading and deceiving individuals because individuals want to feel and touch, to see in the here and now something they can relate to, under the concept of if I can see it I can trust it. And even though that doesn’t work, because if you go through the whole story of Elijah, he puts a challenge out there to see which fire would come down and consume the offering. If you go further in I Kings 18, the prophets of Baal were not very successful. In I Kings 18:26 it says, “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, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made. [27] And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or per-adventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.” He was mocking their god. God forbid if we do that now! You will have the news media all over you. We will even have a general of an army criticize you. And it came at noon that Elijah mocked them, “And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.” What a spectacle, but no answer and no consuming fire to devour that offering. They did this and of course, you know what happens: Elijah calls on his Lord, his God and God heard him. Then in verse 38, “Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. [39] And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God.” And what did Elijah do? “And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape, And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook of Kishon, and slew them there.” Now, I don’t plan to slay anyone except with the word of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Gospel record of the Good News, Whom defeats all gods and mocks all gods through His word, which demonstrates over and over throughout Scripture that they are what they are, false and worthless. Islam is nothing new, folks. The moon god has been around for a long long time, way before Mohammed. He didn’t invent anything new. He just changed it around somewhat. And don’t get me wrong, he was effective and he was able to accomplish what he accomplished, and so were his followers. They spread their poison east, west, north and south, and they are still doing it now. I’m not going to burn any Korans. I will just let the Word of God pierce their hearts. Hopefully they will change. If not, they don’t have a happy ending. I wish they would by seeing who the true Lord and Master of their lives should be and that is the Lord Savior Jesus Christ. A lot is being said now in the news about Islam, about what it supposedly is and what it is not. I’m telling you Islam has never been peaceful. Islam has never been The Way and The Truth that leads to eternal life. God has warned against Islam throughout history, before it was ever called 11
Islam, that the moon god which stems from Baal will lead to one’s destruction. It did over and over again especially when Israel started to follow these false gods. Many are being led to believe Islam is peaceful. Look at the prisoners in prisons. They are the biggest converts to Islam in this country. There is nothing peaceful about it. They want Sharia law and they will not settle until it is established globally. Well, I have news for them; my Lord is coming back and He will set things straight and Islam is not going to be a part of it. Period. That beast has a destiny waiting for them, but it is not too late because I have a lot of listeners in Islamic countries including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, and many areas in Africa that tune in. Well, tune in and turn on to Jesus Christ. Look what He has to offer. Look what He has done for you. There is a rescue plan in place. You have not been told it nor allowed to hear it for a reason. They don’t want you rescued. They want you under their bondage - the bondage they have been in for millenniums dating all the way back to the moon god, which has been historically proven over and over. I just gave you some archeological evidence. There are literally books upon books written about all the evidence that has been discovered to prove the gods that all the prophets (even before the prophets such as Moses) warned the children of Israel to stay away from are the gods produced from the sun, the moon and the stars, which in symbol form became the symbols of a crescent moon, the sun (which is not a far stretch, you know what that is), and the stars. They want a little bit of heaven down here on earth. What they are going to get is a lot of hell. With all the information supposedly the news media and others are trying to give you about what Islam is and what it is not ... Well, now you know the truth about where Islam came from. It is a false doctrine. It is a false god. There is only one true God and He had a son, Jesus Christ, and He sent His comforter to comfort us – because some of you, believe it or not, due to the stance you’ll take against Islam, will come under attack. Well greater is He who is in us, which is that Comforter, than he that is in the world. The Comforter sent by Jesus Christ. Cheer up. It might get tough, but have courage. We will get through it. Saints across this world are already facing much more difficult circumstances than we will probably experience here in the United States. They are getting through it. They recognize who the Beast is. They are living it. We need to pray for them, encourage them, and show them through God’s Word what they may not have understood scripturally, but they knew in their hearts was evil. We are giving them the verifiable Word of God.
To be continued...
12
The Last Days Study Guide The Moon God
1. Some say Christianity is just a system of philosophy not unlike any other. What makes Biblical Christianity different?
2. How does Elijah’s command to Israel parallel with the last church in Revelation 3?
3. Give two reasons why moon god paganism was appealing to people.
4. How did Elijah mock the beliefs of the people and their gods?
5. What did the Jews expect from the Messiah they were looking for?
6. List a specific religious behavioral activity of Baal worshippers that is still carried on by Muslims today.
7. While Hinduism and Buddhism are clearly idolatrous just as Islam is, what sets Islam apart when it comes to Scripture?
8. How does one obtain access to the Father of all Creation?
9. What was the first literate civilization?
10. Why are the moon god pagan roots of Islam so difficult to deny?
13
14
Tracing the Moon God Symbol
I know some time back I left us off in Genesis 37 and the two dreams Joseph had. I left you dangling concerning the second dream where he “told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him ,” but it began in verse 9, “And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and behold, the sun, the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.” I asked what people though that meant, and I received a lot of different theories about it. Some thought it was obvious that the sun represents Jacob, the moon represents his mother—the only problem with that is, his mother was already dead—and the eleven stars which made obeisance was assumed to be his eleven brothers. We already knew what the first dream said and it pointed out that Joseph’s sheave in the field arose “and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves [his brothers’ sheaves] stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.” So his brothers already knew the implications of the first dream and how they would have to bow down to Joseph. And I pointed out that they didn’t need a reminder in the second dream of what they heard in the first dream. I said you cannot find anywhere in Scripture where Jacob bowed down to Joseph. So does that second dream have a different meaning? If it does, what is it? As I said, I received some theories and all very interesting, but none of them really have hit on the answer yet. What is that second dream? That is what I’m getting to eventually. I have not forgotten about it. Once again, Joseph’s mother is dead. Joseph’s father nowhere in Scripture bowed down to him. In fact, he was the one issuing out the blessings and not only to Joseph and his sons but also to Pharaoh when he got to Egypt. And what about those eleven stars? We shall see. I haven’t forgotten about it and I will get to it. The last time I was on the moon god subject, I started to lay down some secular history about the moon god religion and all its different facets. In this message, we are going to continue to look at it in more detail so you can understand. Secular history and archeologists are starting to push the date back further and further, which provides for us the evidence for how long this moon god religion was around. It is longer than most people think or had thought of in the past. That usually happens when you dig and you put all the historical facts together and the archeological evidence to come to some type of conclusion, at least for the time being, of when this moon god religion existed and how it came into play in everyday lives that were influenced by the moon god religion. I’m going to give you some more history on the moon god and show you some pictures.
The crescent moon symbol of Islam is a remnant of ancient pagan moon worship. Mohammed grew up worshipping many pagan gods in the Kabah, including the moon, either called Hubal or Allah. After his conversion to monotheism, through the influence of Christians, Mohammed stopped worshipping the moon. The same is true for all Muslims since, down to the present day. However, the crescent moon is the universal symbol of Islam. Muslims will argue that there is no archeological evidence for the crescent moon symbol being used in Islam for the first few centuries after Muhammad. Yet Muslims also claim that Koran in its completed form existed in the time of Muhammad, yet there is no archeological evidence for this claim either. What we can be sure of is the moon worship was more prevalent 15
in Arabia than any other part of the world and that the symbol of the crescent moon has been used by the Arab religions as far back as the time of Abraham.
And as I said, archeologists have pushed those dates back even further, but the strongest evidence does go back all the way to Abraham’s day. It was one of the reasons why God wanted Abraham to leave Ur.
It is a falsification of history to think there is no connection with the history of the crescent moon symbol of pagan moon god worship and Islam. The fact remains that most Arab countries today still use the crescent moon symbol on their flags and atop of their mosques. The connection is so powerful that only the blind would reject any connection.
I mentioned before that Sin was one of the names. It came into existence approximately 2100 BC. Sin, one of the names for the moon god, came from Suen and then evolved to Sin.
Sin the moon god occupied the chief place in the astral triad. Its other two members, Shamash the sun and Ishtar the planet Venus, were his children. Thus it was, in effect, from the night that light had emerged.
In his physical aspect Sin, who was venerated at Ur under the name of Nannar, was an old man with a long beard the color of lapis lazuli. He normally wore a turban. Every evening he got into his barque [a deep water sailing vessel] —which to mortals appeared in the form of a brilliant crescent moon—and navigated the vast spaces of the nocturnal sky. Some people, however, believed that the luminous crescent was Sin’s weapon. But one day the crescent gave way to a disk which stood out in the sky like a gleaming crown. There could be no doubt that this was the god’s own crown; and then Sin was called "Lord of the Diadem". These successive and regular transformations lent Sin a certain mystery. For this reason he was considered to be ‘He whose deep heart no god can penetrate’... Sin was also full of wisdom. At the end of every month the gods came to consult them and he made decisions for them...His wife was Ningal, ‘the great Lady’. He was the father not only of Shamash and Ishtar but also of a son Nusku, the god fire.
The worship of the moon god Sin was wide spread and common during the time of Abraham. Contrary to Muslim’s claims, Abraham was asked to leave Ur of the Chaldees where the moon god Sin was worshipped and migrated to Canaan and worshipped Jehovah [eventually] . The Ur of Chaldees is in the reign of Babylon.
Sin, the moon god of Semitic origin worshipped in ancient Middle Eastern religions was one of the principle deities in the Babylonian and Assyrian pantheon. He was the lord of the calendar and wisdom.
This sin god covered a lot of territory. He was responsible for a lot of activity in people’s lives.
The chief centers of his worship were at Harran and at Ur, where he was known as Nanna.
Remember, Abraham and his father didn’t migrate to Canaan first, but northwest up to Harran. Until Abraham’s father died, Abraham stayed there. Only afterward did he move on. So Sin the 16
moon god, the crescent moon and all other celestial bodies associated with it, had a religious base or center in the city of Ur and at Harran. Now a lot of you have heard, seen pictures, and read information about ziggurats. A ziggurat was a building; a certain type of building that some archeological evidence proves they also served as worshipping sites. Where can we see the first sign of a worshipping site, in my opinion, which acknowledged the Sin god, the moon god and all the deities surrounding it? We can see it in certain locations in Iraq now. We (the United States) had soldiers climb a very small portion of one that still exists and I will show you a picture of it. They’re nothing new. They have been around for thousands of years. I believe the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 was a ziggurat. We know for a fact now that these ziggurats were holy temples that were used as worshipping sites to worship these deities including the most popular one, the moon god. Turn in your bibles to Genesis 11. Most read through the Tower of Babel story and really don’t get the flavor of it. You are taught at a very early age that it was a tower of pride that was going to be raised up to the heavens so mankind could not be destroyed by a flood any longer because they now have an escape route, or whatever reason. There are plenty of them for why the Tower of Babel was built. Hogwash, silliness and no proof. More and more archeological evidence keeps pushing back the dates of when these moon gods and other gods were worshipped. As they push back the dates, they are also finding physical evidence such as ziggurats that prove the case that these were places of worship, holy temples if that is what you want to call them, that didn’t worship the true God, but the god Satan set up, the god that Satan deceived mankind with when they forgot what they were delivered from because time had gone by. Listen, we sit here in this country (the United States of America) in 2010 and most of us have lost the shock and awe of 9-11. Just imagine if you didn’t see it on television replayed over and over, or a news program revisiting that particular day, or on the radio, or all the books that have been written about it. Just think if you had not been barraged about 9-11, whether or not the information was good or bad. Most Americans would develop an out-of-sight out-of-mind attitude and as times goes by decade after decade, it would just seem like something read in a history book, but it never would happen in your day because man has evolved. Man has not changed. What do you think happened after the flood? In Genesis 11:1 it reads, “And the whole earth was of one language [literally of one lip], and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east...” When you read this verse, you get the impression they came from the east. No they did not. In the Hebrew it literally reads, “ And it came to pass, as they journeyed eastward... ” That is why if you read the King James literally and the way it is written here in this verse you would think that man migrated after the flood from the east. We know they went to the plain of Shinar, which today is around the area of Iraq and some western portions of Iran. So we’d reason that they had to come somewhere from the east, whether they came from China, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, or those areas after the flood—if you read the King James the way it is written—but that is not what it says. It says, “And it came to pass, as they journeyed eastward.” So when they were going eastward, they came to the point of some plain in the land of Shinar. Basically, if you look at it on a map, they came from somewhere west of Iraq and Iran. We don’t know where. It could be northwest. It could be southwest. But it was from some westerly direction. 17
Genesis 11:3, “And they said one to another, Go to [come] , let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. [4] And they said, Go to , let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven.” In the Hebrew, the word top is ‘head’. That could mean an animal head, a person’s head, or it could be a statues head. The closest translation you can probably find to the truth and what is being said here in verse four is, “ come, let us build a city whose temple is for heaven” or “reaches to heaven on its top ”. The key word there is ‘temple’. They are building a ‘tower’ as the King James says, but literally it is a temple, a holy site where they are going to place a deity or deities which they now are worshipping. You may question, “In that short amount of a time after the flood?” It was about 100-175 years from the point where Noah left the ark until the beginning of the building of this temple and city. Like I said, we are nine years out from 9-11. It doesn’t have the same significance of shock and awe in our lives as it did that first year, that first month, definitely, that first week. Now put 9-11 one hundred to one hundred and seventy-five years in the past and all you can do is read about it. Now they lived longer in those days, but a lot of the family members that were born after the flood already existed and the migration was going eastward with the Adam tribal members of society—and that is important to understand also. “...let us build a city and a tower...” - a tower that would have a head deity that they could worship and pray to with the understanding that their prayers and supplications would reach to the heavens. That is what verse four is saying; nothing else. It’s not that difficult to understand once you understand archeological evidence has pushed back even to this time period. This is only chapter 11 in Genesis and we are going way back now, just 100-175 years after the flood. “... and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” In other words, let’s build our first city. Let’s put our stake in the ground and claim this and start developing a society where we have something in common. Remember, their instructions after the flood were to repopulate the earth, not to settle down. Verse 5, “And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.” Circle the word ‘men’. Literally this means the ‘children of Adam’. It kind of leaves the door open to ask what else was roaming the earth at that time? Was there something else? Even though it is not the subject matter now, it does make one think. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of Adam built. Why? Well, at the very least, we know what the children of the Watchers were building, establishing and destroying. Now the children of Adam decided they were going to build a city and a holy temple. “And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” They have set their mind to it. They are determined to do it. They are not going according to My plan and instructions that I gave. And now as old as this story is, it demonstrates that man will always fall into sin when they stop following God. Why? We have the clue why. Because they were building a city and a temple and that temple was not to worship God. That temple was to worship the moon god and other deities. 18
On the left is an artist’s conception of a ziggurat and what it would look like after it was built. If you look at it long enough and hard enough you can see how that was designed to be a temple.
On the right is a photo of remnants of a ziggurat taken during the Iraq war with United States soldiers that had climbed the steps of one. Genesis 11: 5, “And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of Adam builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off [ceased] to build the city.” They built the tower. The tower was done. The Lord came down to see the end result. The city was not quite completed, but when the Lord confounded their language and probably literally had people speaking different languages to each other, where no communication was possible, they gave up. They didn’t give up on their own; they had assistance from the Lord. The Lord did not want any part of what they were trying to establish there, a city and a religion(s) that were based on their own man-made traditional belief systems that they were establishing about 100- 175 years after the flood—once again, separating them from God. It has been man’s problem from the very beginning, worshipping someone or something else besides God’s Himself.
Genesis 11:9, “Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.” Who scattered them abroad? THE LORD! He forced them out. This does not mean that they would not land somewhere else and start following and creating other gods, but they were not going to do it there at this time. The Lord scattered them. He forced them out. In both verse 8 and verse 9 it says twice, “the Lord scattered them abroad from thence” –literally, to dash them into pieces. 19
He broke them up. He broke up the little party and when you have nothing in common, it is easy to be scattered away from people that you do not even know what the heck they are saying. Think about it, folks; “What are you saying! I can’t even understand you.” It is as if you only spoke Greek and I am speaking in English. For the most part, I can’t understand you and you can’t understand me or any other language. I have Chinese people walk up to me on occasion and start speaking Chinese. I have no clue what they are saying and I have tried to understand that language, but still I have no clue what they are saying. They look at me and they don’t look like they have much of a clue what I’m trying to communicate to them either. So what happens? We both walk away saying, “What the heck did he say? I wonder if I could have helped him. Or were they trying to help me? Were they trying to ask for directions? ” Who knows... “ So the Lord scattered them abroad. ” I do have more to say about this in the future but my point in even visiting this story is that according to the archeological evidence that is out there and being discovered on almost a yearly basis of new things, new records, and even new tablets, it pushes the moon god further and further and further back. While the evidence has been coming out of those areas slowly for the last 20 years because of the wars there, it is starting to come out again and the discoveries from the explorations are available to us. It is exciting to see how God’s Word, once again, is proven to be true and how secular history through archeological evidence is being laid down to prove the different type of gods and not just through buildings, but also pottery, inscriptions, all sorts of statues that are being uncovered to prove that Adam-like people formed this moon god religion thousands and thousands of years ago and it evolved throughout the periods of time because Satan has made sure that it stayed in the forefront, sometimes more than others, throughout history, because that is how he wants to be identified and that is how he is going to be identified in his last push to destroy man and its future, not just here but his eternal future.
Nanna was worshipped in the ziggurat of Ur.
We know this now for a fact. There is plenty of archeological evidence back to Ur, even Abraham’s day—which is not too far in time period from chapter 11 to chapter 12 where Abram is introduced. God called Abram out of Ur and of course Abram took a side-road and wound up in Harran, another place where the moon god was worshipped.
There was also a smaller temple of Ningal the moon goddess. Nanna was worshipped by both high priests and priestesses. Great kings throughout history from Sargon 2600 BC to Nabonidus in 550 BC had their daughters officiate as high priestess of Nanna at Ur. The tradition begins with the first dynasties of Ur around 3400 BC [that really pushes the date back if that is true] and continued through to the fall of Ur around the time of Nabonidus, a period of some 3000 years. As we shall see this tradition continued for another 1700 years at Harran and still underlies the Islam of today.
The Sumerians, in the first literal civilization, left thousands of clay tablets describing their religious beliefs. As demonstrated by Sjöberg and Hall, the ancient Sumerican worshipped a moon-god who was called by many different names. The most popular names were Nanna, Suen, and Asimbabbar. 20
At the Northernmost end of the Sumerian empire the city of Harran likewise had the Moon Deity as patron God, under the name of Sin. From about 2000 BC to 1200 AD Harran continued an evolving tradition of Moon God worship.
In fact, their coinage in the seal of Harran has at about the center of the coin the crescent moon coming around it with the star on top. That is another piece of archeological evidence that verifies what they worship.
Harran is the place of Abraham's family and ancestors and the centre of many of the early events of Genesis, including the naming of Israel. As described by Ezekiel 27:23, Harran along with Sheba and other cities were traders ‘in blue clothes and broidered work, in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords and made of cedar.’
The status of Sin [the moon god as it was called there] was so great that from 1900 BC to 900 BC his name is witness to the forging of international treaties as the guarantor of the word of kings. The temple was restored by Shalmanester of Assyria in the 9th century BC, and again by Asshurbanipal. About550 BC, Nabonidus the last king of Babylon, who originated from Harran, rebuilt the temple of the Moon God, directed by a dream. His mother was high priestess at Harran and his daughter at Ur. Ironically, his devotion to the Moon God caused a rift between him and his people and contributed to his defeat by the Persians. The worship of the Moon God at Harran evolved with the centuries. It included E-hul- hul, the Temple of Rejoicing, and a set of temples of distinctive shape and color dedicated to each of the seven planets as emissaries of the cosmic deity. Many of the descriptions of Harran through Christian and Moslem eyes include exaggerated tales of sacrifice which are probably not factual.
Oh yes they are factual, and I can show you that in the Bible. So, this historian did not get that quite right.
It was said by one writer that they sacrificed a different character or type of human to each planet. A garlanded black bull was however sacrificed in public ceremony, as the bull was at Ur, and Moslem sources refer to seasonal weeping for Ta'uz at Harran, and up to the 10th century among bedouin in the desert.
His symbol was the crescent moon. Given the amount of artifacts concerning the worship of this moon-god, it is clear that this was the dominant religion in Sumeria. The cult of the moon-god was the most popular religion throughout ancient Mesopotamia. The Assyrians, Babylonians, and Arkkadians took the word Suen and transformed it into the word Sîn as their favorite name for this deity. Sin is a name essentially Sumerian in origin which had been borrowed by the Semites. Assyrians had established 20 independent trade colonies throughout Anatolia known as KARUM. It can be said that the Assyrians had developed the most sophisticated trading system of their time. In other texts, the moon-god was sometimes called Kusuh.
Ur of the Chaldees was so devoted to the moon-god that it was sometimes called Nannar in tablets from that time period. A temple of the moon-god was excavated in Ur by Sir Leonard Woolley. He dug up many examples of moon-worship that 21
are now displayed in the British Museum. Harran was likewise noted for its devotion to the moon-god.
In the 1950's a major temple to the moon-god was excavated at Hazor in Palestine. Two idols of the moon-god were found. Each was a statue of a man sitting upon a throne with a crescent moon carved into his chest. The accompanying inscriptions make it clear that these were idols of the moon-god. The worship tablet found at the same sight shows arms outstretched towards the Moon-god represented by the full moon within the crescent moon. Several smaller statues were also found which were identified by their inscriptions as the daughters of the moon-god.
There has been plenty of other evidence that shows not just a crescent moon, but a crescent moon overlaid (which is the best way I can describe it) over a full moon. It also was a form of worship, a form of not only statue making and what would be included in it but also as a mark of what they believed in. So there were different forms of how this crescent moon actually appeared, all the way from a crescent moon and a star to a crescent moon with a full moon. That is important to understand.
Several smaller statues were also found which were identified by their inscriptions as the daughters of the moon-god. These are illustrated in the collection of photographs.
Thousands of inscriptions from walls and rocks in northern Arabia have also been collected. Reliefs and votive bowls used in worship of the "daughters of Allah" have also been discovered. The three daughters, Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat are sometimes depicted together with Allah the moon-god represented by a crescent moon above them.
Nabonidus (555-539 BC), the last King of Babylon, built Tayma, Arabia, as a centre of moon-god worship. In 1944, a temple of the moon god was uncovered in Saudi Arabia. The symbols of the crescent moon and no less than 21 inscriptions with the name Sîn were found in this temple. An idol which is probably the moon- god himself was also discovered. This was later confirmed by well-known archeologists.
The record of the moon god dates all the way back, in my opinion, to where it all started. Now we have ziggurats that have moon god inscriptions etched into the very building or what is left of them. Even in some foundational ziggurat remains there is evidence of that. So being the case that we find these ziggurats in the Shinar plain, why would we not think that the Tower of Babel was the first creation of building a temple to worship these gods and their special god that they created, because they forgot or didn’t want remember or take seriously what happened just a 100-175 years prior, the flood, which destroyed man for worshipping everything but God? Only one family could be found, Noah, even though God had left the door open for decades while Noah was building that boat. Only one family was rescued. Now as these families start spreading and migrating, the record of them going ‘eastward’, they came to a location they obviously liked and they wanted to settle down. Now we all say that even today, “If only we could settle down in this town,” or “only if we could settle down in this state,” 22
or “only if we could retire here or retire there”. The tendency of man is to always rest on his laurels spiritually and physically. That was not the command that God gave. Go back to Genesis 9:1, “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” How are they going to replenish the earth by sticking around in one location? It just wasn’t going to happen. It’s kind of funny; God always keeps you on the move, doesn’t He? They got tired of moving, “Let’s build us a tower.” The evidence will prove it out (more and more I believe) that these are nothing more than ziggurats, some of which the foundations of are just now being uncovered. Could one of these have been the Tower of Babel? Could this have been the holy temple, probably right in the middle of the city that they started to build but yet they had to cease because God was going to carry out His plan and scatter them? They didn’t have their language confounded and brought to the point where they couldn’t understand each other because they were building a city. They had their language confounded because they were building a tower or a temple and placing a head (a supreme leader in some Hebrew translations) in that temple and started worshipping that idol and what it symbolized. They developed a system of belief that if they practiced and believed in this particular moon god religion they would no longer be destroyed, maybe by the flood. Since their moon god was a celestial god, why not build a temple for the moon god to be at its top that reaches out for the heavens? In a sense, it was their own personal upward look. Do you have a better explanation for it? It all starts coming together when you start seeing for yourself the evidence that has been laid down. I don’t have time to lay out all the evidence. There is just too much material to go through. We would never get past this before Jesus comes or He takes me home. I’m only giving you general information and if you are that interested, you can go search it out for yourself. I think those of you that have been around long enough can start trusting the information I’m giving you. A misinterpretation of the heavens and the development of another deity to worship, inspired by Satan himself to influence their minds, has produced this moon god. It has made its mark and it has stuck around. It has transformed itself along the way through the thousands of years. The last transformation took place with the reformation of Islam. You see it on their flags. It is their national symbolism.
Many different Islamic countries carry it on their flag, post it, present it as their national symbol that marks them, whether they want to realize it or not, all the way back (I am convinced) to the Tower of Babel, when Satan once again got control of Adam-like beings, mankind as we know it, to lead it in a path of destruction. Look at all those crescent moons. Those are different flags representing different Islamic countries. They all have the same crescent moon. The stars might 23
be a little bit different, there might be multiple stars, but the common denominator is that crescent moon and the star. There is also a sun in some cases. Why do you need to know this? Because you need to know where the Islam religion came from—which is the last beast, the 8 th Beast that we are now experiencing and seeing penetrating mankind including the United States. I will bring out more things in the future about how it is penetrating even into important positions that will dictate our own security, to put it in jeopardy, to hold back this 8 th Beast from penetrating and influencing this country. You will see it for yourself. The evidence is there. We are living in the Last Days, folks. The moon god is making its last stand against the Kingdom of God and the followers of Jesus Christ. Those of you who have been listening to this Last Days series know where he is coming from, what Satan is using, and what he plans to do to try to influence the world, and more localized, the Middle East; and how its relation to Israel will cause the whole world to come to its knees because of the situation that will develop in the Middle East. Scripture lays it out. Time is ticking. You need to know about this moon god and I will continue and give you more information about it.
To be continued...
24
The Last Days Study Guide The Moon God
1. What role did Sin play in international treaties?
2. What was the name of the moon god at Ur?
3. What did the name Sin evolve from?
4. Give the closest translation for Genesis 11:3.
5. What type of structure were these false gods and idols worshipped in?
6. Why did God confound the languages at the city of Babel?
7. What is a karum?
8. Approximately how long after the flood did the Tower of Babel events occur?
9. What has been mankind’s problem from the beginning?
25
The Moon God Repackaged
I am going to go back to the Tower of Babel. I will show that is where it started. At that point, I will show you the reasons why it was not a tower to reach the heavens so man could not be destroyed by the flood anymore. That is man’s silly deductions of how mankind, after the days of Noah’s flood, came to the conclusion that if they built a tower tall enough that would never happen to them again. Well, that is all sweet and all but that’s the furthest thing from the truth. The reason why they built this tower, which was more like a temple, is so they could have a place where they could place their statues and other artifacts in their practice of worshipping animistic type gods including the moon god, which was the chief god for far too long. History has changed it of course now but thought the sun god was the predominant god. No, it was not. It was the moon god. We can easily trace it all the way back now to Abraham in Ur and in Harran –when he migrated to Harran before leaving after his father’s death. I contend it even goes back farther than that. The Tower of Babel was nothing more than a temple that was built. I will cover why God scattered them in more detail in the future. I am still on the subject of the moon god. I will be here for a while as we take a look at different viewpoints about this religion. The purpose for going through this exercise is to show you that the Islamic religion, back when Mohammed established the Islamic religion, was nothing more than an extension of the moon god religion. Some have asked if I can show some pictures of the artifacts, statues or whatever I have concerning the moon god that takes it way back to the dates I’ve been preaching about. Sure. I’ll show you a few. This goes back. As you can see, there is the king (or in this case it could be the high priest), and his servants (some think it is his three daughters), and the crescent moon.
Cylinder-Seal of Khashkhamer, Patesi of Ishkun-Sin (in North Babylonia), and vassal of Ur-Engur, King of Ur. (c. 2400 B.C.)
26
Left: We can see in the upper right corner a crescent moon, and some believe the stars, at least one of them is. These are ancient artifacts, ancient archeological evidence.
Ziggurat at Ur (artist’s rendition)
Stela of Nabonidus (555-539 BC) in the British Museum
Above is a picture of a ziggurat. I am not sure this is what the tower of Babel looked like but this is a design of what they would look like. Left is another picture of a full moon on top of a crescent moon. This is an Egyptian statue. The Egyptians also worshipped the moon god.
Bronze statuette of the moon god Lah 27
On the right is another example of the moon god. You can see at the top of that picture the crescent moon.
Below (left) is another shot of an ancient artifact. You can see the star, the crescent moon in the middle and the sun; sun moon and stars. Hazor Excavation 1955-58
Here are two hands or arms reaching Old Babylon (Hammurabi and Melishipak, 1800 up to the crescent moon with a little BC - 1200 BC) Stele in the Louvre, Paris. moon inside on a worship tablet, an artifact that was found and not too long ago incidentally. All these are samples. 28
Anatolian mural from Karum Above in a larger picture, about the left side of the picture at the top of the picture we see the crescent moon along with sacrificial animals and other things of that nature.
Here is another example of a crescent moon with a star on top sitting on a little moon or in this case what some think is the sun, the sun being the least. Now these are just a few examples from many. There are clay writings, clay tablets that are available. If you comb through all the archeological books concerning these particular topics at your library, you can see for yourself. Now back to the moon god religion and, in case you have not gathered through previous teachings in the book of Revelation, the false prophet is Mohammed and the Beast is the Islamic Empire. In case I did not make that clear to you before, I am telling you that now. It is not some pope. It is not some false church. It is Mohammed. I will prove that to you in future teachings. And the beast, which I have already been covering, is nothing other than the 7 th and 8 th Beast of the Islamic Empire that once existed but was pushed back and put back in its place. It became dead in Europe as it was trying to make its conquest and Satan trying did his darnedest to get to the Celtic islands to where the children of Israel migrated, and where a descendant of Judah would be reserved there for its purposes, which are still yet to be determined. The children of Israel would also migrate from those islands westward to the United States of America and Canada. Yes, Canada. I will get to that also. But that is another subject matter.
Was Allah The Moon God of Ancient Arab religion?
Historical evidences, impartial logic, well versed references and all available circumstantial judgments can very well prove that—(a) Allah name of deity was pre-existed much before the arrival of Islam, (b) Pre-Islamic Pagan peoples worshipped Allah as their supreme deity (moon-god). Allah’s name existed in pre- Islamic Arab. In ancient Arab the Allah was considered to be the supreme God/deity (as Moon-God) and Arab Pagans worshipped Allah before Islam arrived.
So the questions are: 29
Did the Pagan Arabs in pre-Islamic times worship 360 gods? Yes It was reduced as time went on and Mohammed convinced tribal members in his regions to not worship those gods anymore and bring in confusion, saying let’s bring it all down to one god and call his name Allah. I will present further truth in the future on how that was done and how Mohammed was successful.
Did the pagans Arabs worship the sun, moon and the stars? Yes I just gave you a few pictures that show what they worshipped and when they made the effort to put it on walls and tablets. It is not like you picking up a pen today and just starting to write. You take that for granted. What they did took time, effort and sweat to communicate these ideas— especially, religious ideas of what they worshipped and who they worshipped. They wanted it in stone literally so they could preserve it in record for future generations, so future generations could look back and see why they believed what they believed. Did the pagan Arabs worship the sun, moon and stars? Yes—which brings up Genesis 37 again, but I’m not ready to get there yet.
Did the Arabs built temples to the Moon-god? Yes Did different Arab tribes give the Moon-god different names/titles? Yes What were some of the names/titles? Sin, Hubul, Al-ilah. Was the title “al-ilah” (the god) used as the Moon-god? Yes We see this over and over in clay inscriptions.
Was the word “Allah” derived from “al-ilah?” Yes Was the pagan “Allah” a high god in a pantheon of deities? Yes. Was he worshipped at the Kabah? Yes. Was Allah only one of many Meccan gods? Yes Did they place a statue of Hubul on top of the Kabah? Yes. At that time was Hubul considered the Moon-god? Yes. Was the Kabah thus the “house of the Moon-god”? Yes. Did the name “Allah” eventually replace that of Hubul as the name of the Moon god? Yes. Did they call the Kabah the “house of Allah”? Yes. Were al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat called “the daughters of Allah”? Yes. Did the Qur’an at one point tell Muslims to worship al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat? Yes. In Surah 53:19-20.
Now Muslim clerics have changed the Koran, but you can still find Korans around with it. They changed it because they don’t want you to figure out where their religion came from. The imams and scholars in Islamic culture now have figured that out. For several decades now they have drastically tried to change all this and destroy or do away with the older Korans.
Have those verses been “abrogated” out of the present Qur’an? Yes. What were they called? “The Satanic Verses.”
These are all obvious yeses to questions I’ve either raised before, given you information on before, or new ones that still need to be covered.
The variable names (Sin, Hubul, llumquh, Al-ilah) of moon god were used by various tribes of pagan Arabs. The pagan god SIN was the name of Moon-god. 30
Who is actually Allah?
According to Islamic Theologians or Islamic teachings, Allah is the supreme God or creator who (suddenly one day?) talked or introduced Himself with Prophet [the false prophet] Muhammad through an Angel named Gabriel, disclosing the truth that it is the Allah who created everything in the universe. Surprisingly, Qur’an never defines the word “Allah” as to who actually Allah was or what was the relation of Allah with pagans. I believe, 99% percent of Muslims do believe that—Allah’s name was invented or started right from the time when Gabriel disclosed the truth (?) to Prophet Muhammad in the cave of Hira Parvat (Mountain) and gave Muhammad the Quran. They believe that before this truth was revealed—pagan Arabs were in the total darkness (Andhakar Zuug) and they used to worship various puppet goddess and that the pagans were very evil people. I can bet on this fact that no mullahs ever told us the real truth, neither they believe this clean truth that “Allah” was in fact a pre-existing deity in pagan Arabia. What a hypocrisy?
Now this is one person’s view which is not too far from mine, by the way.
Some important factors which will suggest that the name“Allah” was already in use by Pagans as their chief God/deity:
In pre-Islamic days, that Muslims call the Days of ignorance, the religious background of the Arabs was pagan, and basically animistic. Through Moon, Sun, Stars, Planets, Animals, wells, trees, stones, caves, springs, and other natural objects man could make contact with the deity. At Mekka, “Allah” was the chief of the gods and the special deity of the Quraish, the prophet’s tribe. Allah had three daughters: Al Uzzah (Venus) most revered of all and pleased with human sacrifice; Manah, the goddess of destiny, and Al Lat, the goddess of vegetable life. These three daughters of Allah (there is a Quranic verse about them) were considered very powerful over all things. Therefore, their intercessions on behalf of their worshippers were of great significance.
Arabs used to give their children names such as—Abdullah (slave of Allah). Clean proof was the fact that, Muhammad’s father’s name was “Abdullah”. Logical analogy here is—had there been no “Allah” in pre-Islamic Arab, there could be no Abdullah or slave of Allah in Arabia.
History tells us two theories of Allah’s existence in and around the Kaba Sharif: (1) Pagans used to call the largest Statue amongst the 360 deities as ALLAH— whom they used to consider the chief/supreme deity (god). Or, (2) Pagan Arabs used to worship 360 deities inside Kaba Sharif, and they used to consider them different smaller deities under the total control of a single most powerful chief deity called “ALLAH” who was invisible (Nirakar) and was the all-powerful, all- knowing, and totally unknowable.
Amazing Similarities with Hindu Religion: In India’s Hindu religion is quite similar to the number two theory (above) of pagan belief. Although, Hindus worship many different Goddesses—they invariably have faith upon a single supreme invisible deity called “Bhagaban” (some call it “Ischhaar”) whom they 31
call “Nirakar”. And, surprisingly there is no sculptural image/figure for this Bhagaban. But all Hindus worship Him along with other numerous deities. This Bhagaban is considered as the lord of all other deities. What would happen—if some intelligent prophet would have asked Hindus to give up worshipping other goddesses and keeping only Bhagaban as their only deity making it a monotheist religion just like Islam? Could it not be another religion like Islam?
In other words, what this person is relaying is what Mohammed was successful in doing is taking all these deities and saying, ‘Hey, let’s wipe out all those deities. Let’s go back and figure out who was the main deity, the deity that always had the largest statue in the group of deities: The one that got most of the attention amongst the 360 gods. Which one was it?” So, what Mohammed was successful in doing was convincing the tribal peoples in the area he was first operating in to be monotheistic and make Allah that god. What this writer is saying is the Hindu religion has similar qualities or characteristic traits about it in how many gods they worshipped. They worshipped many different gods. Now what if someone came along and said, ‘Let’s just worship Bhagaban and make him the only deity’? This would be like what the prophet Mohammed did in bringing moon god worship down to a neat clean package – so there is no confusion on which you should worship today, tomorrow or the next day – and just have one god, Allah. Incidentally, when you trace back further into history, the moon god was always considered the chief god and deity. So we can see why the extension, disguised differently now. Satan is a master of disguises and he convinces his agents how to carry out his operation from the unseen to the real world, and how he influences them and gives them the ability—in this case Mohammed. He was not an educated man, but Satan gave him the education he needed to be such an influence - not just in Mohammed’s communication about what he now is claiming of visions, dreams, and communications with Allah, but also to bring this all down now to a clean neat package with only one god with Allah at the head. That is it. Now, this could have happened in India but it didn’t. It didn’t because India was not going to be designated in the future as a beast. We know that from Scripture. But in Scripture, the area now controlled by Islamic fundamentalism, whether it is moderate or fanatical, or even Islam-lite, is all part of (because of the time we are living in) the 8 th Beast.
Now some factors which will suggest “Allah” was the Moon-god of Arab pagans:
In Qura’n there are at least a dozen verses in which Allah repeatedly swears by the names such as moon, sun, stars, planets, night, wind etc.
Parenthetically, of the moon, sun and stars; the moon is predominant followed by stars more than the sun. These are always the three objects used repeatedly and not just in the Koran but in other Islamic writings. That is kind of ironic, isn’t it?
In Qura’n there are at least a dozen verses in which Allah repeatedly swears by the names such as moon, sun, stars, planets, night, wind etc. It is a mystery why the creator Allah (?) should swear by his creations. [Think about that.] Normally, we swear by the name of something much superior to us, such as we swear by God or by the name of our father (who is considered senior or superior to us). But we never swear by the name of something inferior to us. Here in the Quran swearing 32
fashions of Allah (God) by moon or stars hinting us that Allah considered these things superior to himself. And this makes us to think (otherwise) as to who actually acted as Allah in Quran? However, in his explanation of why the Qur’an swears by the moon in Surah 74:32, “Nay, verily by the Moon,” Yusuf Alli comments, “The moon was worshipped as a deity in times of darkness”. Perhaps, this swearing of Allah was due to the usual/cultural habits of worshipping moon as their God in pagan customs.
Now there was another author that made an English Translation of the Holy Quran and concluded:
Yousuf Ali stated (Page1921-1623 of his English Translation of Holy Quran): “Moon-worship was equally popular in various forms…Apollo and Diana—the twin brother and sister, representing the sun and moon. …in the Vedic religion of India the moon god was Soma, the lord of the planets…….moon was male divinity in ancient India. Moon was also male divinity in ancient Semitic religion, and the Arabic word for the moon “qamar’ is of the masculine gender, on the other hand, the Arabic word for sun “shams” is feminine gender. The pagan Arabs evidently looked upon the sun as a goddess and the moon as a God.
Because the moon as a god was not in the feminine gender, but was in the male divinity gender. This also can be traced much further back than 600 AD.
The Pagan deities best known in the Ka’ba and round about Mecca were Lat, Uzza, and Manat.…the 360 idols established by the Pagans in the Ka’ba probably represented the 360 days of an inaccurate solar year. This was the actual modern pagan worship as known to the Quraish contemporary with our prophet”.
Influence of Moon in Islam:
Who can deny the paramount influences of moon in Muslim’s life? In Islam, moon is considered holiest astronomical object, and moon is the guiding light of all Islamic rituals/festivals. Contradictions and conflicts are very common with the dates of Eids and Ramadan and obviously it is a chronic problem and moon is the nucleus of this problem. Crescent moon and stars are the symbolic sign in the national flags of many Muslim countries, and it is present over the Mosques, in the Muslim graveyard etc.
Prophet Muhammad compromised to Pagans to establish Islam in Arabia:
Prophet Muhammad did his clever tactics of adapting many rites of paganism into Islam, in order to accommodate Islam among the pagan Arabs.
He had to convince these multi-god worshipping pagans to change all that. This uneducated individual was possessed...with the charisma at first, and the power and the knowledge to be convincing. It’s not that easy to change everybody’s view points of what they’re worshipping or whatever they believe.
He made lots of political pacts with the Pagan Leaders such as Abu Suffian to accommodate his new idea of religion and he agreed to incorporate many of the 33
Pagan rituals in Islam. Prophet Muhammad asked the pagans to worship only the “Allah” the largest God, and destroy the idols of all other gods and goddesses that existed in Kabah. To establish oneness (monotheist) of God, he repeatedly asked them not to make any partners to Allah (That is why we can find hundreds of Quranic verses “asking not to make any partners to Allah). Finally, the Prophet was able to convince (by force of course) the pagans to destroy all idols, and on return (he) agreed (perhaps) to keep the “Names” of the goddess of most famous Pagan tribes as the alternative names of Allah—hence Islam has 99 NAMES of Allah.
In Islam many rituals performed (today) by devoted Muslims in the name of Allah are connected to the pagan worship that existed before Islam. Pagans practices of the Pilgrimage of Kabah once a year--the Fast of Ramadan, running around the Kabah seven times, kissing the black stone, shaving the head, animal sacrifices, running up and down two hills, throwing stones at the devil, snorting water in and out the nose, praying several times a day toward Mecca, giving alms, Friday prayers, etc. are strictly followed by Muslims today. Nobody can deny the fact that, all the above rituals of Muslim’s hajj today—existed well before the arrival of Islam.
It is highly plausible to consider the fact that by incorporating much of the Pagan’s rituals in new religion Islam—Prophet [Mohammed] successfully reduced the pagan-risk and it was perhaps one of the most important milestone- attempts to conquer the minds of Pagans resulting in massive breakdown of the Pagans’ moral and support to oppose Islam.
The central shrine at Mekka was the Pagan’s Kaaba (called House of Allah), a cube like stone structure which still stands though many times rebuilt. Imbedded in one corner is the black stone, probably a meteorite, the kissing of which is now an essential part of the Muslim’s pilgrimage.
It is the historical fact that the Ka’aba, the sacred shrine which contains the Black Stone, in Mecca was used for pagan idol worship before Islam and even called the House of Allah at that time. The name of the God whom the Arabs worshipped was the god of pantheon—Ali-ilah the god, the supreme, the predeterminer of everybody’s life or destiny—the chief God “Allah”
Who did not read the story of BLACK STONE which was very sacred to all various tribes of Quraish. When one day this sacred stone was needed to transfer from one place to another, there was a quarrel amongst the various tribes, as to who will carry that sacred stone? Then most intelligent and righteous young boy Muhammad (was not a prophet then) invented the solution of this serious problem. He (Muhammad) put this sacred stone over a Chaddor (piece of cloth) and asked one representative from each tribe to hold the Chaddor and carry the stone. I narrated this story briefly just to prove that—black stone did exist long before Islam was invented.
In summary, it has been truthfully and logically proven with all possible available circumstantial evidences/rational that, Islam was not a new religion but it is a 34
reformed paganism. I believe that all these monotheistic religions have more or less similar origins.
Well, he believes right because there is a mountain of evidence now for all these religions. And just to remind you, it all started after the flood when man decided he was going to worship something besides the true God. God dealt with it and it’s kind of unique the way He dealt with it. We will get to that.
This idea of monotheistic religion was not a brand new invention. Monotheistic thought was declared by Ancient Pharaoh Kings, Mesopotamia’s king Hamarubi (3000 B.C.), and Alexander the Great (300 B.C.). Differences were, these kings demanded that they themselves were the God whom everybody should worship.
Now, why is this important to know? Because Islam is nothing new. All it is is an extension that started at the Tower of Babel. There was a reason why God separated and confused the languages and scattered them. But that didn’t mean in the language that they now understood, and the ones of that part of their group that understood with them, that they didn’t carry with them this same information and move it somewhere else because He scattered them abroad. Wouldn’t it be unique if we could find in different parts of the world this type of religion with the moon god, the male gender idol/god as the prominent god that was worshipped followed by the feminine gender gods, which were many (including the daughters of Allah)? I’m going to tell you we will. What happened at the Tower of Babel was just the beginning. God scattered them. Obviously, they were already in a state of rebellion. Most Christians read it (especially if you read the commentaries) that because they were not doing what God wanted, scattering across the world so the world could be repopulated, that is why God decided to scatter them. Others will read it as because they were trying to become invincible and not be able to be destroyed by God again, so reaching a tower towards heaven, they would not be flooded out again. This is all fine and dandy but that is for the simple minds. I will just leave it at that for now. There is a reason why God scattered them, but as they were being scattered they still took with them what scattered them in the first place ...just in different parts of the world. And, I will prove it. We have a long way to go, folks. It is all very interesting stuff and there are some things that have fascinated me for decades. I plan to go into it further. It is important that you know all of it. I will continue to stick with it until I give you all of it as far as I know of what is available, confirmed, and can be verified in God’s Word. But I have to lay down some history and some archeological evidence first to prove to you that all Islam is is a modified belief system that existed thousands of years before Islam. All Islam is is an extension of what literally ticked off God at the Tower of Babel. Now I have not forgotten about Genesis 37. Some are probably still asking, “What about Genesis 37?” I have some of you so aggravated with me because I won’t go any further on that. Oh I plan to. [3] “Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colors. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto 35
him. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Here, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us?” They knew exactly what that dream meant – that Joseph would someday, somewhere rule over them and they would have to give him their allegiance. Period. They knew the dream and exactly what it was. As I have contended, they didn’t need another dream to confirm that and they hated him for that dream. Then in verse 9, “And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?” As I said before, Rachel is dead! His mother is not even living any more. So what was Jacob talking about? Or did Jacob know what he was talking about? “And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.” See, his father did not understand the saying. Scripture is clear. His brothers understood the first dream but even his father didn’t understand the second dream—because his father never bowed down to him. I challenge you to find it anywhere in Scripture where Jacob bowed down to Joseph. Never. He didn’t even bow down to pharaoh. In fact, he blessed pharaoh when he showed up in Egypt. There is record that Joseph bowed down to Jacob. So what is Scripture saying here? And I think most of you could probably figure out the sun and the moon, but you are stuck on the eleven stars. Well let me tell you, those eleven stars in verse nine that “made obeisance to me” (assuming ‘me’ is Joseph, which is the right assumption), I will make clear to you after more information and evidence that Islam is the extension of the moon god.
To be continued...
36
The Last Days Study Guide The Moon God Repackaged
1. Why does Islam have 99 names for Allah?
2. Name Allah’s daughters.
3. How did Mohammed solve the debate over who would carry the black stone?
4. What makes India different that Muslim controlled lands in Scripture?
5. How many gods did the pagan Arabs worship?
6. God confused the languages and scattered the people of Babel. What did he not do to them?
7. What are the abrogated verses of the Koran called?
8. When Mohammed said not to make any partners with Allah, what did he mean in context?
9. What is the Arabic word for moon?
10. What is the Arabic word for sun?
11. Why is the moon given supremacy?
12. List some pagan activities still practiced today by Muslims?
37
38
Satan’s Plan ‘A’
I’m in Genesis 8-11, the Tower of Babel and those segments of Scripture. There are some starting to teach on what the beast in Revelation and the 8 th Beast are. They identify it now and are starting to identify it more and more with the Islamic Empire. When I say Islamic Empire I mean it covers many nations, not just one nation, but many nations and many different countries under the Islamic Empire umbrella. But I am going back to its roots and laying down some moon god information to show how far back it goes. Now all the Islamic believers will deny that they are affiliated with the moon god. They give various reasons and some give a pretty good argument, but the argument falls short when lined up with history and how it all went down. So I have taken you back further and have now decided to take you all the way back to where all this began again after the world was washed clean from the wickedness and evil that accumulated from before the flood. Man being sinners, they do a pretty good job on their own, but now add in the intensity from Watchers (fallen angels) that wanted Adam-like beings (us) that God created as wives. They subsequently produced giants. After those giants were washed up and died, where did their spirits go? I covered some of this in the Spiritual Warfare series. The bottom line is in the New Testament, which looks forward to our time period, we are warned our days will become as the days of Noah with wickedness, evil, witchcraft, false gods, false idols, and Adam-like men not caring for each other at all, everyone seeking his own way and doing what they have to do to get it. We are living in the same kind of days that Noah lived in as he prepared that ark. Now, this didn’t just start at the time around the ark being built, it started before that, but then it got worse to the point that this world had to be wiped out and it had a clean start. What do you think happened after they came out of that ark? Satan and his minions went to work immediately. That is where we are going to pick up. We are going to go all the way back. I will briefly give you some information but once again it is one of those series where I have to spend a little bit of time covering so much and a vast amount of time, and all that happened during it. I will just give you basic information and then we will move on. We will march close and closer to see how we got to the point where Satan finally had an instrument once again he could use to achieve the same purposes that started way back in the garden, and then when that failed, at the flood, he restarted. Now it has taken him some time to get where he wants to be and we are living in the days where he wants to be. Satan still has his grand illusion that he can win. I believe that. Somehow he can win. He just has to find the right opening, deliver the right type of punch, to put God away. Let me clarify that; I believe he believed that all the way up to the cross. Once Jesus came in and He delivered His blow, Satan knew his days were numbered. Shortly after that period, he started putting the final pieces together as it was prophesied and now he will deliver his final blow through the Islamic Empire. I know there are so many of you out there that still doubt that that could happen. So with that I try to find information (that I have to cut and paste together to use today’s terminology) that I can relate to you so I can give you a general sense of what happened. I have marked up pages 39
and pages of books, made copies, and deleted the nonsense so I could deliver to you what probably happened and what definitely happened even thousands of years ago, even 4300 years ago—not Christians science fiction or any fiction coming from God’s word. Now that is a long time. Things could have changed; and things do change, and history gets rewritten. Most of the time, they cover up the bad stuff. The one thing that has not been rewritten in history (as they discover more and more through archeological digs and explorations) is what people worshipped, what they followed, how they became wicked to the point where they’d sacrifice individuals to follow and worship these false idols and false gods. You don’t hear about it and there aren’t many books written about it because most people don’t find it interesting anymore, but it’s important to know this battle has been raging. It didn’t just start when Mohammed showed up on the scene as the false prophet. The roots of it go way back. So I plan to go back and move us forward from after the flood up to the now to show you how nothing has really changed. Satan still has his same plan. Yes; nations change, people change, but his plan does not change and he is determined to carry it out to its fulfillment. If you really think about it, it’s stupid. If plan ‘A’ doesn’t work, why not move to plan ‘B’? What I am trying to tell you is he doesn’t have a plan ‘B’. Once we understand the rich information in history that we have now to go back to, lean on, and see for ourselves, that he has carried out plan ‘A’ from the very beginning. Before the flood, and immediately after the flood he was right back to it with plan ‘A’ to take the focus off of the Lord and on to the made up false gods and false religions that led to false worship. Nothing has changed if you really think about it. Man has been making up his own traditions of what to believe in throughout the history of time. Now I am going to read to you, but some of the information I’m going to read to you I don’t necessarily agree with and I will probably point out where as I go, but if I miss something don’t sweat over it because I will read you enough information and give you enough view point of what Scripture says on the verifiable points.
Approximately 2200 B.C. to 2000 B.C. - Cush, Semiramis, and Nimrod Become Involved In A Mighty Post-Flood Satanic Assault On Truth
There is more evidence leading to between 2300 BC to 2200 BC.
How did it come about that people began to worship false gods again after the great flood?
There was a short time after the great flood when it looked like the Earth had been scrubbed bright and clean of evil, because only the small family of Noah had survived...
You would think they would have learned their lesson, but you have to remember about 175 years has gone by since the flood. (Now I circled some words there because I know this particular person (and not that I am boasting here) doesn’t have the view point or maybe even the knowledge, the desire or the passion, to explore beyond what they learn in Sunday school or behind the pulpit, which preaches the same ‘ol same ‘ol for the last two the three hundred years.) 40
The assumptions here are there was a “short time” after the great flood when it looked like the Earth had been scrubbed bright and clean of evil, and “because only the small family of Noah had survived...” Are we sure about that? “Well scripture says that!” Are you sure about that? Now this is not part of the Last Days series, but could there have been other survivors? Is there evidence of any survivors? Is there evidence from Scripture that leads us to look at who those possible survivors were? Now here I go again bursting your bubbles, bursting your traditions, bursting your sure foundation of what God’s Word says because you read it for yourself. Listen, if you could read God’s Word for yourself, you would not need what Ephesians 4:11 proclaims the Church needed to grow. I’m not talking about Salvation now. This is something totally different from Salvation. What it needed to grow... to grow in what? In the knowledge of God’s Word whether it was past, present, or in the future. The problem, as I‘ve said before, is the Church has been in a stalemate position for far too long. The biggest problem in the United States (and Europe also) is Christian education and the institutions that think they have arrived and there is nothing else beyond what they know that needs to be learned. Well I have news for them, they know very little. People accuse me of being arrogant because I say these things. As I’ve said, as I bring more and more of what people think are secrets of the Bible out into the open, they can prove me wrong. Or, if I do not necessarily deliver all the proof, prove that I don’t have a view point that should be looked at because Scripture leads us that way. “Because only the small family of Noah had survived...” Are you sure about that? Does Old and New Testament scripture lead us to look at it further and give us enough room to develop another view point where Noah and his family were not the only ones that survived? If enough of you email me, maybe I will do that as a sidebar message of the Last Days series in the future.
...and Noah was a preacher of righteousness before the flood we are told in the Book of Genesis. Noah was found perfect [complete] in his generation, by God. So, with so noble and righteous a human father, all might have gone well - assuming man is a good creature beneath it all. But with us - we humans - therein lies the problem, as they say.
Why? Because we are all born into sin whether it was before or after the flood. We are all born into sin, which is a tool Satan and his minions can enter in by that forces us (and you do not even realize you are being forced) to make him our captain instead of God in the Old Testament or Christ in the New.
The exact post flood issues which first ensnared that small and blessed family may be forever obscured by time and revisionist history writing, but we have hints, and we know a few things. For instance, Noah’s 3 sons [Shem, Ham, and Japheth] were about 100 years old. They were not blank tablets. They were not unformed pristine personalities. We don’t know exactly what kind of men they were, but they had spent about 100 years (all of their life) in a world so wicked and corrupted that God decided to destroy all but the tiniest sliver of a remnant [And that is the question that I raised earlier: how much of a sliver was that?] of all that it held. These 3 boys [men] , and Noah more so, had seen wicked, wicked times, and those images were in their hearts and in their minds whether they wanted it so or not. 41
And the mind is a bowl that you eat from all of your life, and never really get to wash.
I don’t necessarily agree with that. I think it will never be completely washed until He completes us over there, but you can have more of the mind of Christ daily by continuing to trust and have confidence in Him. That is why we need to keep pursuing the Lord daily so we can have more of the mind of Christ.
So the men in Noah’s family were, at least in part, products of their times, though we don’t know exactly how that affected them. Then there were the women....and they had their memories of the past. Noah’s wife and the wives of Shem, Ham, and Japheth were likely to have been of similar ages to their husbands. They too had known the dark world before the flood. They too had lived it.
In other words, the women were not a blank tablet either.
So, you have a case where a people from a society overflowing with wrong and violence were miraculously rescued by the frightening and mighty hand of God, brought to a new place, and were then asked to lead Holy and righteous lives. Though that sounds reasonable and achievable, when in history has mankind ever managed such a thing? Look what happened to the Hebrew slaves led by Moses that God brought through the parted Red Sea. They were soon building a golden calf idol for themselves to worship at the same time Moses was up on Mt. Sinai receiving the 10 commandments. [What kind of calf idol? Well get to that.] How’s that for loyalty to our Father?
And not all of the players were human. What of the demons, the spirits of these fallen angels...
Here is where I differ with so many in the church world. Demons are not spirits of the fallen angels. Demons are the spirits of the giants that were slain in that flood or even prior to the flood. Demons don’t come from fallen angels. I address this in the Spiritual Warfare Series. Go back to it and see for yourself. Demons are not the spirits of the fallen angels; in fact, what Enoch called the fallen angels is the Watchers. The fallen angels are in a place of judgment. They (about 200 of them or so) are held there until the judgment. They saw the daughters of men, or Adam, and they wanted a piece of them and they got some. Sorry to be so blunt, but I think you get the message. They produced giants and when those giants they were destroyed produced demons, disembodied spirits that are always seeking to wreak havoc and to obtain a body. This is what leads up to spiritual possession by demons or demon spirit possessions. Here is where most demonology falls off the track in the way they teach it. They don’t even understand who the enemy is. They don’t. Fallen angels don’t seek another body, they have their body. There is no where recorded in any sources that I have ever found whether it is in the Bible or outside the Bible that the fallen angels have lost their physical bodies that God created for them. Now we have record of their punishment. They are being held until the final judgment in a location, Tartarus, according to God’s Word and in the Book of Enoch. They are not demons. So let’s read this again...
What of the demons, the spirits of these fallen angels, who left their first estate in heaven in order to possess wives and to live as powerful rulers on the pre-flood 42
Earth?? What of Satan, who needed a new plan after the flood wiped out his progress of old?
Well, he didn’t need a new plan. Like I said, he has always had plan ‘A’ and he is stubborn enough to stick to it until he thinks it’s going to work. Now he knows the final outcome since the cross, but he isn’t going to change his plan (for whatever reason).
Those rebellious ones, those fallen angels, were still in a war for their lives, just like we find them to be today. And they are wise and cunning when it comes to tricking man (who is prone to do evil anyway.) But how would they go about it? The rebellious angels no longer seem to have had physical bodies of their own.
Well they are not even around, but Satan sure is and also during this time. Those angels that seduced the daughters of men are not even around, the demons are and possibly other fallen angels. They have a captain and their captain and their general is Satan.
Those had perished in the flood. They only had the ability to try to spiritually influence man. Would that be enough?
Well that is enough, but even though this statement is not accurate (and I told you the reasons why) the point is even their influence is enough. They don’t need a physical seen identity to work their evil and wickedness.
The first window of opportunity provided to them after the flood, the first one which I can perceive to be mentioned in scripture, was provided by Noah himself. He managed to reestablish grape vines, and he made wine. And he drank wine; in fact, too much wine. And he appears to have passed out in his tent in some embarrassing and unseemly physical posture.
I have covered this before so I’m not going to now. Whatever Noah’s reason, whatever physical condition, or whatever happened in that tent, we know for a fact from that point on Satan could reenact plan ‘A’ once again. Plan ‘A’ was dormant during the flood, but not any longer because Noah sinned just like Adam. Sin didn’t come into the world until Adam sinned. Sorry. Most of you think Eve was the culprit of sin. She was the culprit of outright rebellion but Adam had the last word in the way God set up the order. Then Adam sinned and God dealt with it. In this case also Noah sinned. The ramifications of that can be seen even now.
His son Ham saw him like this, and called out to others to come and see his father in this shameful state. But Shem and Japheth were concerned for their father’s dignity, and walking in backwards so as not to see their father‘s humiliating posture, they covered his form with a blanket.
Noah awoke, found out what had occurred, and cursed the son of his own son Ham.
I already told you that people will read right through that story and think that Ham was cursed. Ham was never cursed, but one of his sons was cursed. The others were not. 43
He did not curse Ham himself, but rather he cursed Ham’s descendents through Canaan, one of Ham’s sons. Noah called down a curse upon Canaan. This spared both Ham and therefore his presumably innocent wife, and some of Ham’s descendents were spared this cursing. But it did also give Noah a course for expending his anger, and indignation, and for setting the example of wrongdoing receiving punishment - of recompense for bad behavior. Yet, sadly, it also sowed division among the blood lines of his three sons, Ham, Shem, and Japheth. It was a punishment conceived by an imperfect human mind, and it wasn’t without ramifications for the future. Yet Noah was greatly loved by God, and who is to say whether it was part of God’s plan that Noah spoke as he did in Genesis 9:25:
“Cursed be Canaan; a slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers. “
And Noah continued, saying concerning his other sons:
“Blessed by the Lord my God be Shem, and let Canaan be his slave.”
And about Japheth, he said:
“God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his slave.”
Per Genesis 10:6 , the sons of Ham were Cush (Ethiopians and Cushites), Mizraim (founder of Egypt), Put (Northern Africa), and Canaan. Of these sons of Ham, (Ham being Noah’s youngest son), only Canaan was cursed. Cush, Mizraim and Put are not mentioned to be included in this curse in any way. And they went on to form mighty kingdoms and do great things. Yet we know that the house of Ham was dealt a severe blow here. And there must have been some bad feelings.
Ham is the middle child and not the youngest son. The use of ‘younger son’ in Genesis 9:24 is in reference to Noah’s grandson, Canaan. The word ‘son’ in Hebrew can mean son or grandson, etc. This is why we see Canaan cursed in verse 25.
The Jewish historian Josephus says that the fledgling kingdoms founded by Canaan’s descendents (lying mostly in present day Israel’s geographical confines) did not last too long before they were defeated soundly by other peoples, and for the most part were never reformed as nations [even today] . Josephus thought this to be the form which Noah’s curse took. Josephus was just a man, though, and may or may not have been right.
Josephus is more right than wrong. I’ll tell you that right now.
And Ham’s son Cush went on have sons: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Ra’amah, Sab’teca, and importantly, Nimrod.
Nimrod was a son of Cush. His grandfather was Ham.
Ra’amah also had sons: Sheba and Dedan. (And the early Hindu peoples used almost these very names for some of their gods: Braham, Shiva, and Raamah are 44
Hindu 'gods' whose names are nearly matches for Ham (notice 'ham' is in the word Braham), Sheba, Raamah. (see Genesis 10:6-7)
Some historians see these sons as possible figures in the Hindu people's worship of gods: they were worshiping their pre- and post-flood ancestors as gods.
So, why is this important for a Christian to know? Because Satan seems to have used certain of Ham’s descendents, Cush and Nimrod...
So now we have Cush and Nimrod – Nimrod being the son of Cush, and Cush being the son of Ham, and Ham being the son of Noah. Do you follow the line there, folks? Now we know Canaan was cursed because Noah cursed one of Ham’s sons, not all of them, but Cush was not.
...along with Semiramis (whose family lineage seems uncertain) who was the chief woman in their lives (and probably human history’s most powerful and potent villainess) to wreak a great and terrible spiritual slaughter on humankind in numerous nations by misdirecting their worship from God to men.
It is without a doubt if you study the history of Semiramis. If you think Jezebel was bad, compared to Semiramis Jezebel was a saint. That is how evil she was.
It seems that Cush, a son of Ham, may have been the founding father of post- flood false religion...
The founding father. Now most preachers and teachers start off with Nimrod. No. Sorry. You need to come to the point where you are updated on world history and how it went down, and see how it matches up with biblical history. In fact, you cannot even figure it out unless you have biblical history in my opinion. Anyway, that is not the way it went down and there is plenty of archeological evidence now that prior to Nimrod something existed and something was scattering the people to migrate eastward. The problem with so many biblical understandings, what is taught in seminaries and other places, is that Cush migrated to Ethiopia and that is where he stayed, in Africa. Now in those days that particular country covered a different geographical area than what we have today, but some of that area that is in Ethiopia still exists in today’s nation of Ethiopia. Whatever the geographical borders were, that is not where Cush settled. It was one of the settled cities that eventually spread into a geographical nation, but that is not where the total settlement lied. They migrated eastward and it started with Cush. Now obviously Cush’s son Nimrod tagged along. Nimrod was a unique kind of person and I believe not only physically, but also in a way of leading men, with all the charisma and probably general type leadership that one needs to gather a group of people to follow them.
It seems that Cush, a son of Ham, may have been the founding father of post- flood false religion, and that this poison, in the initial form of permutated ancestor worship, did eventually shift to become full blown idol and false gods worship to the most extensive and insidious degree. This has lasted to and through the time of Jesus, and in fact to our very day - a period of approx 4,300 years. And in that time, more than a billion people have been successfully deluded into worshipping what is not God and is not Jesus, perhaps to the permanent torment of their soul. 45
It has been a heck of a lot more than a billion people that have fallen into that trap in the last 4300 years.
Because Cush, Semiramis, and Nimrod were all apparently alive, or recently deceased at the time the languages of man were divided, many cultures have a legend, a myth, a plotline for their religious mythology which basically describes certain actual historical events. Summing up the aggregate myths and simplifying the storyline, it appears that the following is the basic way things occurred:
Cush was called a great and enlightened teacher in his post-flood world - a man of extensive knowledge and technical ability. He also formed a kingdom of his own, built cities of his own, then expanded his empire through warfare. He became ruler of a large kingdom and of some notable early cities in the Middle East. He expanded as far eastward as what we know today as India, where he fought the people living there, and was clobbered. (These would have been the descendents of Cush's close relatives [as they spread and migrated even quicker than Cush did] . Cush lives a pretty long time, we can surmise. Shem's first few generations of descendents did, anyway. Like 400 years, at first, soon after the flood, but decreasing as time went by, so that 350 or so years after the flood the bible records ages more like Abraham's 175 years.)
So they had a lot of time after the flood to create a lot of damage, to spread a lot of evil, to be used of Satan to set up another kingdom - how Satan would destroy mankind and still be the ruler of this world. Four hundred years is a long time. The United States of America is some 230 years old, barely half over the amount of time that Cush lived before his death after the flood.
So, beaten back from India, Cush retreated, expanding no further eastward. This area became known as the kingdom and region of Cush - the Cush of most ancient times - somewhere around 2200 B.C. [I think closer to 2300 B.C.] But his kingdom - and Cush himself - likely spanned a couple of centuries. Their lives, again, were in the 400 year time frame - in the first centuries after the flood. You can have a lot of children in 400 years.
That Kingdom of Cush was composed of both southern Asian land, as far east as, but probably including little of today’s India. And to the south, part of Northern Africa also was included in this kingdom, and also was known as Cush. Later in history, the northern Asian portion of Cush would be conquered and renamed, but the African portion would still be called Cush...
This is why it became a popular belief that that’s where Cush had migrated—because after Cush’s influence and after his death and even after Nimrod’s death, Semiramis couldn’t keep the kingdom together forever, she would eventually die. She lived about 100 years after Nimrod’s death. Then things start changing, history marched on. They moved on forming other types of nations even though they are in the same geographical location where all this is taking place and renaming it a different name.
...but the African portion would still be called Cush, then at a later time, the African part would be called Ethiopia, with somewhat different borders. And it would endure. 46
Emperor Cush eventually found a wife. She was extraordinary in her beauty - very extraordinary - and powerful in mind. She was ambitious, brave, and politically shrewd. She was said to be [and this here is not coming from the bible but other sources] a tavern owner or tavern girl originally, at an early stage of her life, though the Bible never mentions her name at all. But according to other old writings of various degrees of reliability when she rose to power, first through marriage, then later through her formidable abilities, she would sanitize her image somewhat. She would associate herself with the sea, as if she had originated from the sea. She would start her own religion - a false religion. She would become the de-facto high priestess of it. Her religion opposed the God of Noah, and basically supplanted Him. And her husband Cush was involved with this religion as well. This woman’s name was Semiramis, the old writings say. But she came to have a great many names, after the languages were divided at the tower of Babel.
There is a lot of history we have to cover to understand how we are now being attacked world- wide by Satan’s last attempt using none other than the Islamic Empire. If you don’t understand world history and how it lines up with biblical history, and understand the flow of events that have happened—that proves God’s Word and as I like to say, I like to show off—you will be lost. We might not have all the details in the Bible but we have enough to look at now because we have the evidence being explored and dug up continuously to look back now and say, “Ah ha, there it goes proving God’s Word again.” Why? Because it’s time. I believe it’s Christ’s last way of trying to get a stubborn world to take a second look. Christianity is not that effective anymore of producing committed Christians that make a difference. It is effective in the numbers game they have going of how-many-Christians-we-can- get-by-sundown agenda. Yet, it’s not effective; it doesn’t turn people around enough to say I want to be committed to it, saying, “I believe Christ came out of that tomb and I believe He is coming back again for me—and if I can believe that, I can believe everything else including what has happened between Christ’s time and now.” This can all be verified a lot easier between biblical and world history than even the Old Testament history that goes further back. What I’m out to do is to prove to you that the Devil’s plan ‘A’ has always been the same whether it is pre- or post-flood. It has always been the same and he just reactivated it as soon as Noah allowed it to be reactivated. When that happened, Satan went back to the same old tricks, methods and plan. Now, he has had hiccups along the way because God made sure he had or else his plan would have been carried out a lot sooner and reached its conclusion. But God through His mercy still wants to seek ones that would follow Him and have the passion to pursue Him and turn their lives over to Him so they can be soldiers of Christ’s Army, His only begotten Son, that will make a difference, that will turn the world upside down because they, without a doubt, know the truth—and more of it is being revealed as they grow in Christ, to solidify. Do you ever wonder why those apostles went all the way and sacrificed their wellbeing, were beaten, tortured, bruised, stoned, murdered? How many so-called Christians do you think would go through all that today? I would be willing to bet you not that very many in comparison to how many are out there that claim they are Christians. They think they are having trials and tribulation when their nail breaks or they lose their job. Yes, those are hardships as you go through life. It may be a rude awakening for some but I am telling you right now, that is not 47
tribulation. Those are hardships and there is a difference. What made the apostles unique is that they were grounded in the truth and probably more truth than we will ever know. They may even had had to hold back revealing what they knew because the time was not yet set. Well, now it is set and it is time some of this truth comes out. I know it might be laborious to some of you that don’t like history but you have to know where plan ‘A’ reactivated again after the flood and how we get to all these false gods whether it is the sun, moon, stars or the earth. By the way, who do you think started Mother Nature (or a goddess of the earth)? Semiramis. What do you think we are falling back into with such things as the Kyoto Protocols, Green Faith, and the like, where the earth is more important than man: that in application, man should be subservient to earth and its environment even to the point where we cannot grow food to eat for fear of disturbing a fish? That is proof in itself that man worships the earth more than they do God. It is the same totalitarian god of the Tower of Babel, Baal, who was the god of weather, war, and commerce. Mother Nature (earth and its environment) is just one of the world’s new gods and objects of worship and God forbid we do anything against it. Well, I have news for you, we are supposed to have dominion over the earth and God will take care of everything else. That doesn’t mean we abuse the earth, but it also doesn’t mean we are its subjects. I am God’s. I am the Lord Jesus Christ’s. I have been marked by the Holy Spirit and everything else in this world serves Him and he has given you and me dominion over it. He has given us dominion over the unseen spiritual enemies. We will continue this and go into more of the early history right after the flood took place and how we fell right back into Satan’s plan of destroying this world and destroying any hope for mankind.
To be continued...
48
The Last Days Study Guide Satan’s Plan ‘A’
1. How long did Semiramis live after Nimrod died?
2. What is Satan’s plan ‘A’?
3. Who was the founder of post-flood religion?
4. At the very beginning of the reference material, there are two common assumptions about the flood. List them.
5. Even though the flood had occurred, what did not get wiped out for Noah, his wife, his sons or his daughter-in-laws?
6. What are demons?
7. Who were the early Hindu people worshipping as gods?
8. Who is Noah’s younger son?
9. Why did it become popular to believe that the Kingdom of Cush only meant areas of Africa?
49
It’s a Family Affair
I am in Genesis 8-11 and the story about the events after the flood. In Genesis 8, the flood ends; then there is the covenant Noah received; Noah’s family record is in chapter 10; and eventually, we get to chapter 11 and half way through we have the story of the Tower of Babel. I want to continue where I left off and give you more information about Cush and where he actually went. He was not just in Africa. He also migrated and established locations where people would settle down and develop cities, and of course, cities under his control. Now some of his own children migrated further than he did and then when he would try to take over those areas in their control, they fought back. As the material said, he got clobbered. So then he finally settled in the Mesopotamian Valley, specifically known as Shinar. Picking up where we left off:
So, beaten back from India, Cush retreated, expanding no further eastward. This area became known as the kingdom and region of Cush [Ham’s son, the father of Nimrod] - the Cush of most ancient times - somewhere around 2200 B.C., formed and established his kingdom - and Cush himself - likely spanned a couple of centuries.
Cush lived approximately 400 years after the flood. So he had time to migrate and establish different locations and cities.
That Kingdom of Cush was composed of both southern Asian land, as far east as, but probably including little of today’s India. And to the south, part of Northern Africa also was included in this kingdom, and also was known as Cush. Later in history, the northern Asian portion of Cush would be conquered and renamed, but the African portion would still be called Cush, then at a later time, the African part would be called Ethiopia, with somewhat different borders. And it would endure.
And this is what most people teach, including a lot of Christian history teachers, just the Northern African history of Cush. If you take a horizontal line all the way to India it also included Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Afghanistan and some of the western portions of India.
Emperor Cush eventually found a wife. She was extraordinary in her beauty - very extraordinary - and powerful in mind. She was ambitious, brave, and politically shrewd. She was said to be a tavern owner or tavern girl originally, at an early stage of her life, though the Bible never mentions her name at all. But according to other old writings of various degrees of reliability when she rose to power, first through marriage, then later through her formidable abilities, she would sanitize her image somewhat. She would associate herself with the sea, as if she had originated from the sea. She would start her own religion - a false religion. She would become the de-facto high priestess of it. Her religion opposed the God of Noah, and basically supplanted Him. And her husband Cush was involved with this religion as well. This woman’s name was Semiramis, the old writings say. But she came to have a great many names, after the languages were divided at the tower of Babel. 50
I will be giving you some of those names.
Cush at some point had a son named Nimrod. I do not know if Semiramis was Nimrod’s birth mother or not. [Now this writer is actually being honest.] Nimrod was said to be a giant [Now you have probably never heard that before, but there are other writings outside of the Bible that say he was.] - though he was more extreme concerning his strength than he was his height. He was probably about 8 feet tall. One source says 4 ½ to 5 cubits, of the royal 20” type of cubit. That’s about 7 ½ feet tall. [Depending on the type of cubit used, it could even be a bit more.] But he was very broad through the shoulders - about 3 feet in statue depictions thought to be of him - and strong and athletic. And he was bold, warlike, and ambitious. So much so that he grew to found a nation - a kingdom of his own to the west of his father Cush’s kingdom.
Here in these other sources it refers to Cush’s kingdom being mostly in the east. Some sources say his father eventually settled down there as he was getting older. Now some say he did and some say he didn’t depending on if you want advanced African history or if you want advanced Mesopotamian history. Nimrod made war even against his father Cush’s kingdom and eventually he took over.
And eventually, when established, he made war even against his father and Cush’s kingdom, and defeated his father in battle. And - he ended up with Semiramis as his wife!! The woman who had been his father’s wife became his queen also. The woman that had been some sort of mother to him – a real mother or a step mother - became his wife.
Now there is a television series for you. What would Hollywood do with that?
And sometime after this , Semiramis became angry with her son/husband, Nimrod, and had him tricked into taking hallucinogenic drugs at one of the ceremonies of her false religion. And while he was disabled by these drugs, she had him offered by her priests as a sacrifice to her gods. She apparently made it out to be a great honor for Nimrod. She said that the gods wished Nimrod to join their company, according to some accounts. But, by whatever subterfuge she used, Nimrod was killed then.
Now there are a few theories regarding how Nimrod met his death and this is just one of them, but I’ve already given you my opinion of how that occurred.
So, another man, also a son of Semiramis, apparently ruled for a time, but proved to be unfit for ruling. So Semiramis, portraying herself to be partly divine, made herself ruler of the kingdom, and ruled it for over a hundred years. She warred against many, defeating most of her adversaries, and expanding her kingdom. Then she made the same mistake as Cush, and made war against the people of India. Nearly her whole army was killed in a terrible and crushing defeat. It is said that after that she retreated, shied away from further empire expansion, and she focused on developing great defensive walls around the cities of her kingdom, and upon building amazing architectural creations, cities and buildings and pyramids of the stepped sort. And she built roads throughout her kingdom. And then, eventually, she died also. 51
And somewhere during all of these happenings, before his murder [which I believe also] , Nimrod began influencing his people to build the tower of Babel, though God's word to men at that time was that they should disperse and populate the Earth, according to the historian Josephus. [Not just Josephus – it is quite clear in the Bible.] Josephus believed that the tower was Nimrod's way of escaping another flood if God became mad at everyone for clustering together in his Babylonian empire instead of dispersing to form colonies. God became displeased with the tower, and God divided the languages of man into many languages so that they could less readily be made to cooperate on such a project as the tower, or to again unite under one ruler. God knows quite well how easy it would be for Satan to take control of the mind of a man who leads all other men, the mind of a great world leader. Only Jesus meets His criteria for being righteous enough to lead all men. And Jesus constantly deferred to His Father, so how could we not do so as well?
And at about that time - or soon after - Abraham’s family began to move away from Ur of the Chaldees, a city in the Babylonian empire, to Haran, and later Abraham, Lot, and family left Haran and wandered on God's command towards the land of Canaan, which was future Israel.
Is this set of rulers (Cush, Semiramis, and Nimrod) historical, or fictional?
Literally dozens of the early civilizations are known to have believed in a set of three ancient gods or ancestors who acted out their lives in nearly the exact manner and who had experienced the same basic life events as Cush, Nimrod, and Semiramis. They merely did it under modified names, with the events sometimes altered slightly, or the motivations modified slightly. And that makes sense if the languages were modified. Many cultures retained knowledge of the events [as they dispersed-because God confused their language] , but through time, they changed some of the details.
They kept the information. It wasn’t like when God confused their language they became converted and started worshipping the true God again. They took what they were already doing and dispersed and they took those false religions and gods with them. As they would travel and move to different areas, the names changed. But if you trace it back, it all goes back to three individuals, Cush, Nimrod and Semiramis. Most historical scholars that follow these false religions and false gods and try to trace the roots of all of it recognize there are always four gods that are worshipped. And if you go back and look around the Mesopotamian area in the cities that were developed by these individuals as additional locations, where they had control and influenced their religion upon the inhabitants of these cities, you will see there were always four gods. Actually, there were three, but one of them was considered as two. There was the sky god, the air god, and the water god. One of those gods (some say it is water, some say it is air, some say it is sky—I believe it is the water) became known as the great mother goddess, Mother Earth in other words. We see that today. People are starting to worship Mother Earth once again, where the earth becomes more important than people. Now these three individuals as they spread their poison were not just satisfied being worshipped, they also—especially after Nimrod’s period, from Nimrod forward—formed other gods, astral 52
gods. From that we get the moon god, also called the sin god; the sun god (if you trace it all the way back it was called Utu); and we get Inanna the queen of the sky/heaven. She eventually became known as Ishtar, where we get the word ‘easter’ from. So there were four principle gods and there were four astral gods. One of those astral gods also became known as Tammuz, which was her son. But let’s continue with the information.
How did Cush, Semiramis, and Nimrod affect human kind?
These three became gods in dozens of ancient cultures. Belief in them and worship of them supplanted belief in the one true God, the God of Noah, the maker of all, and later the Father of earthly Jesus. And the misled methods of worshipping these three false gods came to involve everything from wicked sexual practices to actual human sacrifice - even the sacrifice of infants and children in cases. And this false worship continued strongly and pervasively for more than 2 thousand years. [It is still continuing: it just has different practices.] Both ancient Israel and ancient Judah were destroyed for taking part in such false worship. Then, starting about 2000 years ago, Christianity began to wipe it away in some parts of the world. But even today, many places continue to worship one form or another of the actual historical figures who were Cush, Semiramis, and Nimrod.
These three seem to have been the principal human players in the first great post- flood apostasy. And they have led many hundreds of millions [actually billions] of men, women, and children towards a dark and cursed eternity.
Who were these three known as? Under what names have they been falsely worshipped?
Remember, after they migrated eastward (starting with Cush), Nimrod eventually took over along with Semiramis. Then Nimrod was eliminated. Semiramis still kept the practices but added one additional thing, which we will cover later, where Tammuz comes in. They were worshipped as gods. If you look at Nimrod, even the history (or legend) is correct. He was a powerful looking figure if he was 7 ½ feet tall and he did have the animal skins that Adam and Eve had— that Ham somehow obtained and gave to Cush, and then obviously Cush gave to Nimrod, or he obviously stole it, giving him additional supernatural powers. In the book of Jasher it says those supernatural powers gave him control of the animals. But there are other sources that say that Nimrod didn’t just have that supernatural control over animals to defeat them (that were supposedly large in that day), but also had supernatural powers in physical strength to eliminate what these other sources say are giants still in the land. Now where did they come from? I thought all the giants were wiped out? And that raises the question: What did get wiped out in the flood? We are told in the Old Testament about Noah and his family, but was there a distinction and could there have been other beings that did not get wiped out? Those are the things we are going to look into and hopefully we will have a clearer understanding of that in the future. As they migrated out only certain groups could understand certain groups. The Tower of Babel had to be stopped and God changed all their languages. Each person did not have an individual language. What happened was they dispersed and they took these traditions, they took this 53
religious practice, they took these false gods created by these three. The names and locations changed, and the practices of what they would actually do in the worship of their gods would change slightly, but all still in rebellion from God’s perspective. So who were these three, the sky god, air god and water god? I told you, I think the sky god (it could be the water god) could be Semiramis. That is not really important though. We know 100% who is who. I don’t think anyone can tell you who was who definitively. All we know is by what has been discovered over and over they existed. And they were not satisfied just being worshipped, honored, and bowed down to. They started to create other things that lead eventually to witchcraft, astrology (the wrong type of astrology), and the creation of the moon god and the sun god and the queen of heaven, or the sky god adaptation. Depending on where they were located, they had different names. Cush and the name of Cush and how he was honored and worshipped as a god was called by different names (depending on where you go). He was also known as Belus, Saturn, Dagon, Buddha (one of the original buddhas by the way and that is important to know. It was not just any Buddha), and Beli. These are all names for Cush. You don’t need to remember all these names. What you need to remember is after they were dispersed following the Tower of Babel, they carried the same information with them and they began calling it different names. And why would these names be different? Because they are all speaking in their respective groups a different language. So of course the names would change. Semiramis would eventually be recognized as Aphrodite, Venus, Isis (in Egypt), Aurora, Rhea, Diana, Brittanica, Europa, and many more. What do you think the words alma mater mean? It is a form of the Virgin Mary that goes all the way back to Semiramis. Once again, they traveled and because of the different languages the names would change, but it is still the same individuals. Now Nimrod. Probably the most famous false god and one that most Christians are familiar with is Baal. That traces all the way back to Nimrod. He was also known as Ninus—the root name Ninus is identified with the city of Ninevah. He was known as Mars, Zoro-Ashta, Dagda, Cronus, Orion, Jupiter, Hercules, and Heracles. Once again the name depends on the location, but all the names trace back, just a different location and a different name. The names can be traced back because the practices and worship structure was the same. If you had a different way of practicing what you believed in and you had a different way of worshipping it, then it could be said that it doesn’t resemble anything that was practiced there in the Mesopotamian area and it has to be different, but it wasn’t. That is what gives historians the necessary clues to identify these different types of religions and names of gods, they all have the same characteristics. Why? It all came from the same area, the same three individuals that started it all in the post-flood era. It’s Satan’s plan ‘A’ and as I’ve said, Satan’s has always had plan ‘A’. And when it was disrupted before the flood, he just continued it after he found man vulnerable enough to believe in himself, that he could be a god and a world leader. In this case, he found three. I almost think it is a mock (a slap in the face) to his creator, God Himself, with his own certain kind of satanic trinity.
To be continued...
54
The Last Days Study Guide It’s a Family Affair
1. Where does the word ‘easter’ come from?
2. How long did Semiramis rule alone?
3. Approximately how tall was Nimrod reported to be?
4. How did Cush, Nimrod and Semiramis affect mankind?
5. List some alternative names for Cush.
6. List some alternative names for Semiramis.
7. List some alternative names for Nimrod.
8. How are the various gods in differing cultures traced back to Cush, Semiramis and Nimrod?
9. What does the book Jasher claim as the source for Nimrod’s supernatural abilities?
10. Other than being worshipped themselves, what other practices did these three implement?
55
56
God Keeps His Covenant
Turn in your Bible to Genesis 9. Someone sent to me an opinion piece about an article in Israel Today Magazine .
“Catholic cleric: Christ nullified God’s promises to the Jews.”
A Catholic synod called at the Vatican to address the rising persecution of Christian in the Middle East wrapped up on Saturday with a joint statement that focused a lot of attention on demanding Israel end its “occupation” of Arab lands.
Well, now we know what their point of view is. Their opinion is it is an “occupation”.
The gathering was meant to address the various acts of persecution, intimidation and discrimination that are resulting in a severe dwindling of Christian communities across the region.
That’s not because of the Jews. The article doesn’t tell you that, but it’s not because of the Jews.
But the bulk of the two-week meeting was spent discussing how Israel is the root cause of all the Middle East’s woes, including those faced by its Christians.
The final statement reflected that position. It listed the “occupation” of Arab lands, the building of Israel’s security barrier, military checkpoints, the jailing of terrorists (defined in the statement as “political prisoners”) and the general disruption of Palestinian life as some of the main reasons behind the exodus of Palestinian Christians and Muslim attacks on the Jewish state.
When you read part of that paragraph, you have to stop and ask the question: Why did God have Abram (before he was renamed Abraham) go to the area that is now controlled (for a reason by the way) by Israel today? At that time, Abraham’s area which was promised to him covered an area larger than today’s Israel and included some surrounding areas of other countries in that geographical area today. But Abram and his family that came with him after leaving Haran and travelling south down to Canaan were not the first tribal people or nations living in that area. He came in and at that time coexisted with them. There were groups of people there prior to Abraham. The descendants of Ham had that territory hundreds of years before Abraham was promised it. So in a sense, if you are a Palestinian or someone in the Arab world, which were part of those certain ‘ites,’ (and I will cover momentarily), you would see the present-day Jews (as they always did throughout the period of time) as occupiers. And guess what? They would seem to be right. Now some will reply to me, “How can you say that?” They are occupiers, but listen to the second part of this, instructed by God to be occupiers. And there are reasons behind that and not all the silly reasons that you hear about from those who teach on this subject—whether they don’t see it or they are blind to it or they have a different opinion. I have heard some of the opinions and they definitely have no verifiable proof in God’s Word. I’m not going to bore you with those opinions because it is not even worth it. 57
Sorry; Abraham-ites (if you want to call them that even though they are not called that), the Chosen People (because that is what they really are) were occupiers. They were not occupiers by choice but by obedience; obedience to where God told Abraham to go and claim as his own. Period. Like it or lump it. I understand the other point of view. And if you are not a Jew or you are not a Christian, yes, you are going to see the Jews as illegitimate occupiers. Let’s just take it into our time period today. You are going to see the Jews as illegitimate occupiers and you have some solid history behind you that seems to prove that to be true. Now, if you believe God’s Word to be true, you just have to accept the opposite and say that is what God chose. Period. And if you are a true Christian, whether you are a Palestinian Christian or not, you accept that to be true. If you don’t, then you are in disobedience because you reject what God told Abraham to do and to claim.
Cyril Salim Bustros, the Lebanon-born Greek archbishop of Our Lady of the Annunciation in Boston, Massachusetts was responsible for delivering the final statement.
In clarifying remarks, he stated that “the Holy Scriptures cannot be used to justify the return of Jews to Israel and the displacement of the Palestinians, to justify the occupation by Israel of Palestinian lands.”
Well, he is full of hot air! They mine as well through most of the Bible away.
He then escalated the situation by declaring that the original promises made by God to the children of Israel “were nullified by Christ. There is no longer a chosen people.”
Baloney! There are two sets of Chosen People now, my friend. We already covered that with the two branches earlier in this series. And God is still going to deal with the ones that still reject Him—because His covenant to the people of that land, that are part of the promise, the covenant with Abraham, He will still fulfill and make sure until the very last ‘i’ is dotted and the very last ‘t’ is crossed that all of it will be fulfilled, including when He comes back and finishes that fulfillment of that covenant.
Bustros rejected the idea of Israel as “the Jewish state,” and insisted that eventually all the so-called “Palestinian refugees” must return to the land, a sure recipe for the demographic destruction of the world’s only Jewish nation-state.
Mordechai Levi, Israel’s ambassador to the Vatican, decried Bustros’ comments and the damage they had done to strengthening ties between Israel and the Church.
The Catholic Church for years has been trying to repair its image as an institution steeped in anti-Semitism. But Bustros’ remarks make fairly clear that the Vatican remains as dedicated as ever to replacement theology – that teaching that says God has tossed aside the Jews, despite His irrevocable promises to them, and that “the Church” has instead inherited those promises. 58
Yes, the Church did inherit certain promises, but sorry, it didn’t nullify the promises that were made to Abraham and it goes back even further than that. And that is what we are going to head into now. I have been here before, but it is worth going back and looking at again, and maybe add more detail as I go over it. After the flood and after they had come out of the ark, Noah presents his offering at Genesis 8:20. It was a sweet savor offering (Genesis 8:21), “And the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake;” and scripture continues in Genesis 9:1, “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” Now as we move along that chapter we read in verse 9 God talking to Noah, “And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you...” What covenant? Scripture obviously goes on to list the covenant and the things He will and will not do—in this case, He shall not destroy the world with water again and He gives a token of the sign of His covenant, which we believe today to be the rainbow in the sky. When God sees that rainbow in the sky, He remembers what His covenant was to Noah. Even though how wicked the world would turn out to be, even shortly after the flood, He will remember His covenant stands. Now what does that covenant mean? What was that covenant? “I, behold, I establish my covenant with you and with your seed after you .” A covenant is a contract (amongst other things), which is accompanied by signs, sacrifices and a solemn oath that sealed the relationship with promises. See, a covenant comes with certain promises. What are those promises? There are promises of blessing—which we see in chapter 9. And why are there blessings that come with that covenant promise? One thing and one thing alone; obedience. So it sealed the relationship with promises of blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. A sealed contract and that sealed contract came with signs, sacrifices and so forth, because a relationship that came with promises, God said I will bless you if you are obedient (and you will see that throughout scripture) and I will curse you. Now those curses didn’t always of necessity come through God. It came though, and we will see the first incidence of this, through Noah and Noah would curse a certain individual as you will see later in this chapter. I want to establish that Noah had a covenant with God and that covenant was between Noah and God. They had that sealed relationship that came along with blessings if obedience to God was their way of living, or curses for their disobedience. I will establish my covenant with you and with your seed after you. So it carried along from generation to generation. Well, it was not that long after this covenant was given that you will see this covenant have to be used because Noah brought it into play because of what happened to him. We will read it. Genesis 9:18, “And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan.” Now Ham was the father of more than just Canaan. But the point is made here in verse 18 that something was to be noticed about this particular son because he was singled out of the group of Ham’s sons that we see later in the chapter. Genesis 10:6, “And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.” Out of Ham’s four sons, Canaan is lifted from the group and placed here in verse 18. We know the reason why now because we see what comes in verses 18 through 22. Genesis 9:19, “These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread. And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: And he drank of the wine, and was drunken” . 59
Nothing good ever comes from a drunken state. Some may say, “Well, don’t you drink wine?” Yes, I will have a glass of wine; most of the time with my meal if I want one. I will have a bottle of beer. But I am with my mentor; never let the devil have control of your being physically. Now he tries to take control and a lot of times he does, believe it or not—and you are no perfect individual that has never happened to: thank God for His grace—but never allow Satan that physical control where you are in such a drunken stooper that you don’t even know what the heck is happening around you. You become an instrument of the devil, whether you want to realize it or not, to do what he wants to do through you. Period. Sometimes that can be with your own mouth because you have no control over it, the Holy Spirit sure doesn’t. Sometimes it will go even further than that. In this case, it did. I’m not against alcohol. Just don’t let it control you in any way or fashion. “Well, it makes me feel good.” Well, find that same passion through God’s Word and see which feels better. The flesh is the flesh and it is always going to desire something that destroys you, not lifts you up. That is the problem that comes along with sin. It is in a downward path. It doesn’t have an upward look. Sin seeks to destroy when you allow Satan that control. The one thing you can do in resisting him is say, ya know what, if one bottle of beer is your limit, then one bottle of beer it is. It could be two for some of you. It could be three. I don’t know what your limit is. And I’m not going to sit here and say I’m going to police you. I am not. I’m just saying, throughout Scripture, not just here, it has never had a positive effect on anything. I’m not a cosmic killjoy, and I don’t have a problem sitting down with you and having a conversation and having a beer, or a glass wine, or any alcoholic beverage over it. I’m not self- righteous that way, as a lot of Christians are. I’m just telling you that you need to know where the limit is at so you don’t fall into the trap that Satan wants you to fall in and the bondage that comes with it. I’ll lose some with that opinion and I’ll gain some. “And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.” So far, there doesn’t seem that much harm in it. Let’s read further. “And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.” There have been a lot of silly explanations for what happened here. I will give you what God’s Word has clearly defined that happened here. You can’t just read this particular chapter and get a complete understanding of what happened during this drunken evening (or whatever time of the day it was) event that took place long long ago. “And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.” I have heard silly messaged preached that Ham got cursed for being a snitch. That is so foolish and stupid it’s just beyond further comment. Ham never got cursed, his son did and I will prove to you why Ham did not get cursed. “And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.” Let’s use scripture to define what that means. First go to Leviticus 18 (under forbidden sexual practices) to verse 7. “The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. The nakedness of thy father’s wife [in case she is not your mother] shalt thou not uncover; it is thy father’s nakedness.” What does that mean? Go to Leviticus 20:11. Here is the chapter for the penalties of sin. “And the man that lieth with his father’s wife hath uncovered his father’s nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.” Now this is under the Mosaic Law. Noah was not living under the Mosaic Law. It was even a tougher situation for family members to deal with if caught in the act under the Mosaic Law. “And the man that lieth with his father’s wife hath uncovered his father’s nakedness”. 60
So, what does “the man that lieth” mean? Sex; the person who had sex with his father’s wife has uncovered his father’s nakedness. So you go back to Genesis 9:22, “And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.” You might respond, “So did Canaan who’s been brought up twice now in the last few verses have sex with Noah’s wife?” Yes. That’s it in a nutshell. Let Scripture define what scripture is saying, not some silly interpretation of what your opinion is of what happened. That is stupid and uncalled for. “And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father”—Leviticus 20:11, “And the man that lieth with his father’s wife hath uncovered his father’s nakedness”. So Canaan, Ham’s son, whether he was part of the drunk fest or not, we don’t know, he could have been drunk also; or he could have seen the disadvantaged position that comes with being in a drunken stooper, who knows. Maybe Noah was passed out and maybe Noah’s wife was passed out too, or maybe she was not, we don’t know all the details there—nevertheless, Canaan had sex with Noah’s wife and probably Ham’s mother. And what did Ham do? He told his two brethren without. Now more people are getting more messages and not just listening to the simple messages on Sundays that are preached that really don’t have any scriptural backing to what they preach. They just heard it from wherever they heard it from who keep preaching that same nonsense. Ham isn’t the one who got cursed here. We read further in verse 23, “And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.” We are still talking about Noah’s wife or their mother. [24] “And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.” The reason why most people think this is Ham is because they think Ham was the ‘younger son’ of the three sons of Noah. But when you look at the Hebrew closely, it should read, And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his (son ) grandson had done unto him . You may be thinking, “Well how do you know which one did if it could read either son or grandson?” Well, because of the next verse. “And he said, Cursed be Canaan.” He didn’t say cursed be Ham. Ham wasn’t the one having sex. It was Canaan who was the one having inappropriate sex with a relative. “And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.” Canaan shall be his servant, remember that. It could also read, And Canaan shall be servant to them . Who is ‘them’? Shem. [26] “ God shall enlarge [pursue in the actual Hebrew] Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem,” and as long as he is dwelling in the tents of Shem, the Canaanites shall also be his servant, “and Canaan shall be his servant.” Now what does dwelling in the tents of Shem mean? In that geographical location that Shem would migrate to and establish their kingdom. But as long as Japheth was in that kingdom of Shem, Canaan (or Canaanites) would be their servants too. But once they migrated away, which most of them did, they would no longer have that as an option. Now what does this mean? Canaan, not Ham, was cursed. Remember I told you back at chapter 9 verse 9 the covenant between God and Noah, which would also carry on to his seed? It comes with blessings if obedient and curses for disobedience. Period. If you live under obedience faithfully pursuing God, you will be blessed. If you live in a state of rebellion, where you cannot wait for the next opportunity to be disobedient, you are going to be cursed. Cursed! I’m not saying that. God’s Word is saying that and it applied to them at that point. If you live under the blood and covered by the blood, you live a life of blessing—maybe not necessarily the way you define blessing, but 61
it is the life of blessing. If you don’t have that covering, you are living a life not only now, but eternally of curses that will follow you forever. Is that where you want to be? Or do you want to be an obedient servant of Jesus Christ now and clinging on to the promises not just of eternal life to come, but the blessing from here to there? Now, what does this have to do with that article? I’m getting there. I’m building this up so you can see what happened layer by layer as the events unfolded after the flood. Remember, between this particular situation and say the Tower of Babel—which is still yet to come—was somewhere between 100-175 years. So, all of this happened shortly after the flood. We read in chapter 10:1, “Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood. The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah. And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.” And in verse 5 we read, “By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations. [6] And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan” —remember, Canaan living under the curse —“And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtechah: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba and Dedan. And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel...” Remember “and the beginning.” What does that mean that the beginning of his kingdom was Babel? I won’t have time to go into it now, but was it truly the beginning? It’s what God’s Word says, but we will be taking a closer look at that. “And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. [11] Out of the land went forth Asshur [which we have to look at this also] , and builded Nineveh, and the city of Rehoboth, and Calah, And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.” Then we get down to verse 15, “And Canaan begat Sidon his firstborn, and Heth .” And then it lists what tribal names were given from these two sons of Canaan, which still carry the seed of curse from Noah and that they would be servants. It reads, “And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite, And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite, And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad. And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha. And these are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations.” So back to the question that I asked: Why did Abram from Ur (which is eastward about 1000 miles away from present-day Jerusalem and Israel), have to go all the way westward to the land of Canaan? Why not go somewhere that hasn’t been populated before? Why take Abraham out of this environment—and we will see how wicked of an environment it became in the upcoming teaching—but why not just take him out of this wicked environment of false religions and false idols and plant him somewhere where there would be no influence of any of these problems that were created because of man-made traditions and wickedness? Why not start him somewhere else fresh and new? The world is a big place, why send him back? 62
You have probably read this over dozens if not hundreds of times, because most people do at the beginning chapters of Genesis, and never stopped to realize the reason why. God’s Word is full of verifiable proofs. You don’t need to make up opinions based on assumptions. Just read it. Understand it. Listen to someone that God is using and does for the most part. I believe, from some other material outside of the Bible, that Abraham left Ur for a period of time. Now where he traveled in the camps of Shem, wherever that was, was probably while Noah was still alive dwelling in those camps. And then he finally went back to Ur and he caused a stir there, God had him move out. But why go into another area that is full of false religions, false gods, and false idols – moving him from one place to another that was not that much different? The same wickedness, the same evil, the same religions were being practiced in both places with just the names changed to identify with the location. Have you ever stopped long enough to ask yourself the question: Why would God have Abraham move out of Ur and go to the land of the Canaanites and where all these ‘ites’ were (as we saw in verses 15-18) that were nothing but a problem shortly after the flood even unto the now? Eventually in Scripture they become the 10-horn powers as I already preached in this series. And they will be a problem all the way until the end, until Christ says enough is enough and He handles it His way. Why? God doesn’t take His covenant promises lightly. We don’t see any punishment coming to Noah by God. What he did was he allowed himself to be vulnerable. We don’t have a record of God dealing with him in God’s Word about that drunkenness, but we sure do have a record of Canaan, the one who violated a family member. What happened to that individual? Noah’s grandson Canaan was cursed by Noah. In that period of time, since God gave Noah the covenant and the promise that it would flow through his seed, and the blessings would come if obedience was applied, and curses if they were disobedient, what would come out of Noah’s mouth, God had to act upon. And what came out of Noah’s mouth? Genesis 9:25, “ And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. ” If you do any study on the migrations of these early people, Shem didn’t migrate to Canaan. Canaanites did. Who were the Canaanites? Genesis 10:15-18. That is why when I read those articles, in a sense the Catholic Church is right, it was not the Jews land at first. They did become occupiers. Abraham became an occupier. But if you believe in God’s Word and you trust it, He was instructed to be an occupier. God had the last word on it. And if you are a follower of God, you either accepted it or rejected it and if you rejected it, you became part of that disobedient crowd. So why did Abraham migrate to Canaan where present day Jerusalem is, Tel Aviv, and all the areas where all these Canaanites settled in originally? Because through His promise to Noah that He would keep His covenant, including whatever came out of Noah’s lips, God sent Abraham— which came from the line of Shem—the Chosen People there. If you have been following this ministry or others, you know all the promises made to Abraham and what they consisted of. They would have servants and guess who those servants would be? It was not necessarily Abraham’s choice. It was not necessarily the Jews choice (when they became established as Jews c. 500 BC). It was God’s choice because God kept His covenant promise that He established with a seal and with none other than Noah. What came out of Noah’s lips, whether blessings or cursings, God would act upon and live up to as His part of the deal, and He did. 63
Because of this, in my opinion, it started a rebellion; first with Ham and then as time passed, a vendetta was developed in the minds of his sons and mostly Cush. We will see next time what happened to Cush and Nimrod, where they migrated to, what they established. I left you last time saying Cush, Nimrod, and Semiramis, from those three would come the false religions of the world. They would migrate and then migrate again after the Tower of Babel. It is an especially interesting study when you track on a map the DNA migration of people from the Mesopotamian area and how they migrated throughout the whole world. They took to repopulate this whole world. But that is a different study. I do not have time to do it in this series. Maybe some other time. God kept his covenant with Noah. Noah cursed Canaan. Canaan became the servants of Shem and of Japheth as long as Japheth was still encamped in the tents of Shem. Now, how was that going to be carried out? Once God chose who He was going to use through the line of Shem, Abraham, He would make sure he went to this area where Canaan and his sons, Sidon and Heth, were. All the ‘ites’ developed from them and the tribal units. They still are the servants of Abraham. I know that irks a lot of people and especially Arab people—especially Palestinians. If you are Palestinian Christians, blame Canaan. He started your troubles. And because of your consistent rebellion against what God said would be the outcome because of his rebellion and his wickedness, you are still suffering, and you will until the very end of time of this present age. Throughout history, it is proven that you have. What further evidence do you need? And through this rebellion and through these hardships and through these curses, the other sons of Ham didn’t want anything to do with Canaan. They migrated to different areas: some towards Libya, some towards the eastern coast of Africa, to the southern parts of Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. Obviously Nimrod went to present-day Iraq and Syria as Nimrod and his father established cities and fortresses to war against men, to control men. Now that is the reason Abraham had to go to the land of Canaan, because God didn’t forget His promise to Noah, the covenant that He would keep. And how Noah cursed Canaan had to come to pass. God could have said, “Well, you know Noah, you might just have a bad hangover and you don’t know what the heck you were doing. You are telling Me to curse these people for the rest of their existence until the end of time? That is silly. That is foolish.” But no; we don’t see any argument from God. You saw how God made sure the disobedient ones that refused through the line of Canaan to come to the acknowledgement and the fact ‘unto thee oh God have I sinned’ would pay the price and the price they have been paying. So, what the Catholic Church can’t understand (since they are part, supposedly, of ‘The Church’) is that covenant promise, until the very last day of time, exists and has to be kept. And you know what; it would prove out over and over to be more of a pain to be part of the chosen ones that would keep that covenant promise because Noah cursed Canaan. I’m sure the tribes of Shem many times over, including the sons of Abraham leading up to Moses’ period (and beyond if you really think about it), said if only Noah would have kept his mouth shut. He shouldn’t have gotten drunk. This is his fault too, so just shut your mouth. Let’s see how God sorts this whole mess out. When God chooses anyone or any nation to be in a covenant relationship with Him, they should take their walk with Christ seriously. We are in a covenant relationship with Him. He gave His 64
life to bring you life, to bring me life, to live a life of blessings and not of curses. Too many reject what actually happened because they live in a ‘I have to believe it to see it’ world. That is where trust in His Word comes in. Pistis , as I have defined, comes by hearing and hearing so eventually you are persuaded that what you are hearing to be true. This will lead you to the next level of faith, the so-be-it level of trust and confidence that what is said in the Bible is the truth and you are going to live your life pursuing it, having a passion that no one can extinguish until you get home and over there and you have, more than likely, all the answers to your questions, but realizing the trip was worth it with all its ups and downs, all the hardships, and all the blessings that come along with it because you realize (or you are going to realize; and I think you already do now) you will have verification once and for all. This is not just some silly fantasy story. This is the truth. It gives us the way to eternal life. Don’t take the covenant seals (we are sealed through the Holy Spirit with Christ, attached to Him) and live a life of disobedience and disfaith. It will only detach you. And if God is still tugging on your soul, your being, your life is going to be miserable until you realize you have to get it back together, get on your knees and say, “Lord, take me back in. I want to be part of your family. I want to live my life your way. I want to be part of the blessings, not the curse. The curse leads to destruction. The curse leads to bondage. The curse leads to control by others. Here in Genesis we have how they would be controlled by others, but the curses for disobedience in our lifetime today still has a bigger application. Disobedience leads to curses, curses that God allows you to have in your life that are brought upon by the devil and his minions and they are not going to be pleasant. They aren’t pleasant now and if you think that is horrible enough, wait until the eternal death experience. You don’t die an eternal death, you suffer through that eternal death experience. Abraham had no choice once God chose him. Some of you need to stop fighting against the calling on your life, realize you are chosen no matter where God puts you and you need to stop resisting. Now it didn’t turn out that great for Abraham if you think about it in the worldly sense. Nothing but aggravation and hardships came from being associated with this Canaanite group, because the Canaanites would become their servants. But once God says He will keep a promise, He means it—and He meant the covenant deal He made with Noah. If He means that back then, He also made a covenant promise that He would send His son to deliver us from eternal death. That is a covenant with us, His son, and Himself. His son came, His only begotten son. He paid the price so we could have the blessings of that covenant. The choice is yours now: be under the curses, or be under the blessings. One is about obedience and one is about rebellion and disobedience. The choice is yours. But as far as the history goes, know your history. Know the reasons why certain things happen in God’s Word. And this will lead us to the next segment of the Last Days series about why the sons of Ham rebelled so much—and specifically, not just the Canaanites, but also the individuals that came from Cush, another son of Ham, which eventually produced Nimrod. That is what we will take a look at next time.
To be continued...
65
The Last Days Study Guide God Keeps His Covenant
1. Who are the Chosen People?
2. What is a covenant?
3. What does ‘father’s nakeness’ mean?
4. Why is the Catholic Church (and those like-minded) incorrect when they say the Jews are occupiers?
5. Who did Noah curse?
6. What does ‘the man that lieth’ mean?
7. What line of Noah did Abram come from?
8. How should our walk with Christ be affect by God after now understanding how He functions in covenant relationship?
66
67
Called the Land of Canaan
In the last message, I laid down a lot of information that breaks down a lot of traditional teaching about Noah and when he became drunk, his grandson Canaan who was cursed (not Ham: I gave the reasons for that from Scripture), and how Noah cursed Canaan in Genesis 9:25, “a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem...” Now because of Canaan’s wickedness in verse 22, he was cursed and cursed by Noah. Since Noah declared it, how was it going to be carried out? Who was going to make sure it was carried out? Noah was living a life in a covenant relationship with God. We see that in Genesis 9:9, “And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you.” We are given the reasons why and the token of the sign. That covenant, as I explained, comes with blessings when man lives in obedience to God and curses if man lives in disobedience. Most Christians just want to focus on the blessings and without realizing there is a flip-side to that. So, with Noah living in a covenant relationship with God, whatever he blessed God blessed, and whatever he cursed became cursed. That is how Canaan was cursed. And I asked the question: Why did Abram (Abraham) have to go to the land of Canaan? Now as he perceived it, as his father perceived it, as everyone besides God perceived it, it was the land of Canaan because Canaan called dibs on it and he got there first. But, it wasn’t to be part of his inheritance. We can’t necessarily see that in Genesis, but if we go to other religious books we do. I will only go to one in this message, but I don’t want to dwell too long on this subject. I just want everyone to understand clearly the point I’m trying to make because people will take what I am teaching here, twist it, and not apply it correctly. Why? Because I’m breaking traditions: I’m breaking the mindset of what you have been taught most of your Christian life if not all of it. I’m trying to give you the right perspective of what occurred and not just hearsay. Now, we will never know 100% of the details of the matter, but we can get a basic understanding of what occurred. That is what I’m laying down for you. So we know Noah cursed Canaan and why he was cursed, but we want to look at the function of how the curse would be carried out. But before we look at that, we have to understand that after the flood and a period of time, Noah was given the instructions to spread out and repopulate this earth. They were given specific instructions of where they were to migrate to if you look at other religious materials that go along with the Bible and piece it together. Take the Shemites for instance, the offspring of Shem. They were not very good at following instructions. In fact, they were supposed to be where the Canaanites went, but they never really went there (except maybe Shem’s own close family unit). But as far as the rest of his offspring, they migrated east; and they were to migrate east also. Ham was not necessarily to migrate as far east as he did. He was supposed to go south and west. There are studies on this and you can look it up yourself. If you are that interested in it, go to the library or do what you have to do to get all the details. There is enough there to figure out and map it out. But let me share with you what is in the book of Jubilees as our launching point for further understanding in why Abraham had to go to the land of Canaan—which, I will also show you God’s perspective on. Jub. 10:28, “And Ham and his sons went into the land which he was to occupy, which he acquired as his portion in the land of the south.” 68
Now there are other materials out there besides the Bible, besides the book of Jubilees, that say Ham was allowed to also go eastward in a certain section of the eastward lands, that are to the east of the southlands that he was to occupy. Jub. 10:29, “And Canaan saw the land of Lebanon to the river of Egypt...” This pretty much covers the territory south of Turkey all the way to the Nile River (or thereabouts) in Egypt. “And Canaan saw the land of Lebanon to the river of Egypt that it was very good, and he went not into the land of his inheritance to the west (that is to) the sea...”—I believe more than likely, the Caspian Sea, not the Mediterranean Sea —“and he dwelt in the land of Lebanon, eastward and westward from the border of Jordan and from the border of the sea. And Ham, his father, and Cush and Mizraim, his brothers, said unto him: "Thou hast settled in a land which. is not thine...” If this is accurate, they knew that particular geographical area was not theirs. [30] "Thou hast settled in a land which is not thine, and which did not fall to us by lot: do not do so; for if thou dost do so, thou and thy sons will fall in the land and (be) accursed through sedition...” They were already cursed because of the covenant relationship God had with Noah and now Canaan's father and brothers are warning him that he will be additionally cursed if he settles in land that is not his. God knew the Shemites would eventually get to this portion of their land. And let me tell you right now, the Shemites went a lot further than most people think. Through DNA tracking of these tribes, I believe you can trace them all the way to North America. At the very least, and most people believe this that study this subject, they can be tracked without any doubt all the way to India; and most believe as far as China. And then there is another group of scientists that track these migrations that think not only did they stop in China, but they also went up to Mongolia and circled around and crossed over up where the Siberian Peninsula and Alaska use to connect and down North America. Whatever you believe, there is plenty of evidence that they went as far as India. I would say there is an 85% chance that it is accurate that they went as far as China; and a 50% chance that from those offsprings they continued that migration northward in that time period and then back down southward toward North America—and that was just the Shemites. I’m not even talking about the Japheth or Ham groups. Now the Hamites are the easiest to track. They went three different directions. Ninety-five percent of them either went east, west, or south. But the Shemites didn’t claim this portion of their land. They decided to go eastward, beyond the land where Canaan called dibs. Now God never forgot the fact that the curse was still out there. What was He going to do about it? In my opinion he let the Canaanites go wherever they wanted. If they went to the North Pole, guess what, a group of Shemites would finally land there to fulfill this curse prophecy.
"Thou hast settled in a land which is not thine, and which did not fall to us by lot: do not do so; for if thou dost do so, thou and thy sons will fall in the land and (be) accursed through sedition; for by sedition ye have settled, and by sedition will thy children fall, and thou shalt be rooted out for ever. Dwell not in the dwelling of Shem; for to Shem and to his sons did it come by their lot.” Whether they go down there and inherit it or not, it is theirs. Maybe you can start piecing it together now, with this additional information I’m giving you. Even though the Palestinians today will say “We were here first! We called dibs first!” and there is plenty of proof of that fact, 69
Noah didn’t dish out in the inheritance that particular area to the Canaanites that they would receive as an inheritance. It was given to the Shemites: Shem and his offspring.
Dwell not in the dwelling of Shem; for to Shem and to his sons did it come by their lot. Cursed art thou, and cursed shalt thou be beyond all the sons of Noah [He was already that anyway.] , by the curse by which we bound ourselves by an oath in the presence of the holy judge, and in the presence of Noah our father." Remember, Canaan is one of the sons of Ham. Ham had Cush, Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan. So, what did Canaan do?
But he did not hearken unto them, and dwelt in the land of Lebanon from Hamath to the entering of Egypt [south of Turkey all the way down to Egypt along the Mediterranean Coast] , he and his sons until this day [This is written thousands of years later] . And for this reason that land is named Canaan. That is the reason it is called Canaan; because the Canaanites called dibs. Do you understand that they called dibs on something that they didn’t really have an inheritance to? They were trespassers and they justified their trespassing by claiming they were there first. And if you go to other writings, the Shemites never had an interest in it—outside of possibly Shem and a few of his offspring. But that is another story. So they lived there, they occupied it for hundreds of years prior to Abraham receiving instructions. Now with that background, let’s go back to Genesis 10:6, “And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.” Then Nimrod is introduced in verse 8 because Cush begat Nimrod and he became “ a mighty one in the earth ”—which we are still going to get to; Cush and Nimrod. Genesis 10:9, “He was a mighty hunter before the LORD;” and then it says in verse 10, “And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. [11] Out of the land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh;” and I will need to come back to this and explain it really means as well. Then it goes on to verse 15, “And Canaan begat Sidon his firstborn, and Heth;” and of course, this is where we start getting all the ‘ites’: the Jebusites, the Girgasites, the Amorites, the Hamathites and so forth. It finishes in verse 18 by saying where the families of the Canaanites spread abroad. And I just told you the general area where they spread their ‘ites’. And in verse 19, “And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha. [20] And these are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations.” They covered quite a bit of area including all present-day Israel covers today. If you read just scripture, you really don’t get the sense that they were trespassers. They just went there. In fact, when you get to Shem, it just talks about Shem and gives the children list through the rest of the chapter and in verse 30 says, “And their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar a mount of the east.” Then scripture carries on with, “...these were the sons of Shem ” and so forth. Well, that is a wide area and we will get a better picture of how wide that area is later in Deuteronomy. That is a wide area. I’m sure there were only so many Shemites to go around that soon after the flood: “This is our inheritance. How are we going to cover this whole area!” So I’m sure there were going to be pockets that were not going to be covered. And of course the Canaanites... and I am sure there were some in the Canaanite family from the offspring of 70
Canaan that said, “Let’s get as far away from Shem as we can—because remember, Noah’s curse. If we are as far away as we can be from Shemites, maybe God will forget about that curse. Maybe the Shemites will forget about that curse. Maybe that curse will be forgotten by everyone and wiped out.” Wishful thinking, but God doesn’t forget. Go now to Genesis 11. We see here Shem’s family record at verse 10, “And these are the generations of Shem,” and it lists all the individuals that came from that family lineage. Then we get to verse 27, “Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren; she had no child.” Now we jump to a point. There is a lot of rich history which we are missing here that I’ll maybe fill in as we move along, getting closer and closer to the moon god. I started this whole part of the moon god part of the Last Days series to show you that the Islamic Empire, through the Islamic religious practices, is nothing new. False gods and false idols have been around forever. They have been worshipping the moon and other elements of nature in God’s creation for thousands of years, and it started shortly after the flood. So that is where we started and now I’m trying to work our way back all the way to 600 AD. Genesis 11:31, “And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees [southern Iraq today], to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. Underline “to go into the land of Canaan .” This is Terah, and this is Abram before his name was changed to Abraham. They are going to the land of Canaan. Now they didn’t get there – well, Terah didn’t get there. “They came unto Haran, and dwelt there.” Now Abraham left there. I believe he left twice, but that is another story. What I want you to notice is it doesn’t say “into the land of Shem,” does it? Knowing what you know now by what I have already given you—with the understanding I just read from Jubilees about the inheritance; there are other religious materials—this was Shemite territory that Canaan settled in and claimed for themselves. Shem had a large territory to cover and for some reason, they decided not to cover this general area yet, or maybe it was never their intention to. But because God knew the curse was out there and Canaan and his offspring would have to be under that curse and be a servant unto Shem, eventually Shemites had to get back there, had to make a claim, put their stake in the ground and say, No it is not yours Canaan (and all the offspring from Canaan, all the ‘ites’ that came out of him): God gave it to us. Now if you are a Canaanite looking back, maybe you can understand that it was not part of your inheritance, but question, “Can’t we just cut a deal?” No; no deal was to be cut. God would not allow it. He would do in the unseen element to make it happen in the seen element. That is just how it is whether you like it or not. You might call me a racist; I don’t see how you would call me an anti-Semitic person, but I’ve been called a lot of things in the last five years. So, why not add that to the list. But if you are going to call me something, know why. 71
“to go into the land of Canaan ”—So, okay, they didn’t know exactly where they were going to yet, and since it was called that, why not just call that where they were going. That is fine, I can even accept that. But let’s read on. Go to Genesis 12:1, “Now the LORD said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee.” Now they stopped in Haran (near Turkey and northern Syria today), which was another false religion, false idol capitol. And there is a gap of time between Genesis 11:31 and Genesis 12:1. Isn’t it ironic? Doesn’t it just leap out at you that God did not say, “unto Canaan; I will direct you there”? God did not bring up Canaan’s name, did He? He didn’t say “unto the land of Canaan” as it does Genesis 11:31 when Terah or Abram are talking. When God is talking, He never acknowledges that is the land of Canaan. Never! You may think that is just a one-time coincidence. Okay, let’s move forward as we explore this. Go to verse 5.
“And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.” God is not speaking here. Now it is being told as a story. God says, “I will shew thee” the land you are supposed to possess, and He does not call it the land of Canaan. When God is speaking, He does not talk of it that way. He does not proclaim it that way. But when man is speaking relaying the story, they are still falling back to whom at that time still possessed that land; and Canaanites possessed it. From Haran they went forth to go into the land of Canaan, “and into the land of Canaan they came.” Moving onto verse 6, “And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.” They were in the land because they called dibs a few hundred years prior. “And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land...” It’s kind of ironic that it does not read, “And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give the land of Canaan”. When the Lord is speaking, He never refers to it as Canaan’s land or the land of Canaan. Stupid religious songs have been written about Canaan’s land and how it is promised to us, or promised to whoever. I do not want Canaan’s land. “The land of Canaan is the land of promise,” they say. No, it is not! That is silly traditions not researched out and not thought through. Unfortunately, long overdue. “And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land; and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.” Okay, so we see the Lord doesn’t refer to it as Canaan’s land, but we see the writer, either Terah or Abraham, and the writer of this story still referring to the land of Canaan. Do you see how different it is? God knew who that land belonged to, but Abraham (and Terah definitely did not, and probably even Moses who probably recorded all of this) did not quite have that understanding yet. Let’s move on to Genesis 13:12. This is where Abraham and Lot separated, after Abraham went down to Egypt and all that nonsense that went on there with his wife who he pretended was his sister; then pharaoh found out about it—which is very interesting history that I hope someday I can bring into play, who that pharaoh was. It is important to understand to set Egyptian genealogy straight—which is also important in understanding when Joseph was down there, who he was and who he related to and associated with, but that is another subject. 72
“And Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.” The storyteller is still saying ‘the land of Canaan.’ After Abram came back, after that fiasco in Egypt, he dwelt in the land of Canaan. This is after he separated from Lot who dwelt in certain cities in the plain and pitched his tent towards Sodom. Abraham dwelt in the land of Canaan. Abraham either did not understand what God had already given to him; or the writer here, Moses, did not understand; or it was intentionally done that way to prove the point of why we are even having the strife today—which nobody wants to recognize, this is something that has been going on for approximately 4400 years. Genesis 13:14, “And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever.” Now the Lord is putting a geographical map together for Abram—lift up your eyes; look northward, southward, eastward, and westward—“for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever.” That means from that point on, God has put His stake in the ground now saying, Canaanites, you might think it is yours, you are there, you are the trespassers, but now the true owners of the land are going to take possession through My servant, Abraham, and his seed. In verse 16, “and I will make thy seed as the dust o the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it, and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.” Now move over to Genesis 15:7. This is another covenant made with Abraham now. “And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees...” See, God is not lost: He knows exactly who and where His servants are, where they came from, what they should be understanding; and in this case, Abram, where he is at, and what is going to belong to him. “And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees to give thee this land to inherit it.” Once again God, over and over, is not calling it the land of Canaan, is He? No, He is not. The writer, and possibly Abraham, and definitely Terah did. But the Lord did not. Now before we get to verse 16, Abram is given a sign of how he would know that he should inherit this land. Of course, God goes through what would happen for 400 years plus when the Israelites would go down to Egypt. At first they were treated like kings because Joseph’s status was just as good as being on the throne. And eventually, when the Egyptians “knew not Joseph,” because a few hundred years went by, the Israelites became slaves. They would be delivered from that bondage. Then it picks up in Genesis 15:16, “But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorities is not yet full. And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.” I already preached on this and how God in His compassion was giving the Amorites a chance at His redemption, but it never happened. It still has not happened and never will. They were the first group of people the Israelites dealt with after crossing the Gulf of Aqaba, but before crossing the Jordan. In verse 18, “In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land.” Once again, it does not say, Unto thy seed I have given the land of Canaan, does it? No it does not. When God is speaking, it never does. I don’t have to stay in 73
Genesis. I could go to other areas of the Old Testament and prove this point over and over again. “Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: The Kenites, and Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Raphaims, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.” Now only for a very brief time under Solomon and Jeroboam II did that come to pass, but never since. Now moving along to Deuteronomy 7:1. This is the instruction given to the Israelites by God that they were to totally destroy the Canaanite culture that still existed there in the land that God gave Abraham (not the land of Canaan). It reads, “When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it [they had not possessed it yet after leaving Egypt], and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them: Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.” And we know that happened. Every time Israel decided to go after these pagan gods and their idols, and in this case, intermarry, when they are not supposed to do it, disaster happened. God would bail them out and give them chance after chance, and they would straighten up for a while, but they would fall back to the same old practices—until the Lord would remove both the Northern and Southern kingdoms of Israel: ten going to the north, and two along with the Levites going to Babylon. And of course, the great tribe of Ephraim would be released and they would head through the Caucasus Mountains and other areas and eventually go westward. I cannot say it enough; I don’t want anyone to ever think that I think the Jews are occupiers. They aren’t. I said in the last message, once God gave the instructions of what they were to do through Abraham, and what they would possess through Abraham, they were not occupiers. There was no doubt from that point on. I believe there was no doubt from the very beginning after the flood when the sons were given their inheritance of geographical areas of where they were to migrate to. The Shemites had a large area, most of what we see as the Middle East today. But they didn’t have that great a numbers at that point when the migration started. So they did not migrate to where Israel and Lebanon, some parts of Syria, some parts of Jordan, and eventually even the Sinai Peninsula are. They didn’t have enough numbers. They kept going west. Give the Canaanites credit; they were smart. They tried to stay away from the Shemites. But God knew and God is faithful to His word. He had that covenant with Noah which came with blessings and curses. It was through Noah just as the promise through Abraham would be carried out. As I said, I don’t care where the Canaanites went. They could have landed on a Pacific island where it would be hard to find. Somewhere, sometime in history, Shemites would eventually be there to fulfill the covenant and the curse that came with it because of what Canaan did to his grandfather Noah. God knew it. He knew where they went. He eventually had the Shemites come back. He took care of business. It might have been forgotten through all the migration, but God never forgot. And if you don’t think one of the reasons Abram went eventually to what they 74
thought was the land of Canaan, which God thought differently, to fulfill that covenant curse, you are dead wrong. You are out of touch with God’s Word. You are trapped in some politically correct Christian tradition that doesn’t want to face the facts that God’s Word is real. It can be verified even in the secular sources that do these kinds of studies of where the Shemites went and where they had to go back to. Do the studies. Prove me wrong as I say so often. Spend the years that I have spent tracking all this information. Know what I am saying and don’t put words into my mouth. Are the Canaanites still living under the curse today? Absolutely. They are still fighting, claiming that the land is theirs. It’s not. But the day is coming when it will all be sorted out and everyone will know what the real truth is. It’s coming and I would rather be on God’s side. Over and over though His word He shows that He is faithful, even when He has to work through men to get the job done, to show off His faithfulness. If we can trust Him with migrations of people that literally cover thousands upon thousands of square miles, I’m sure we can trust Him with our lives, every minute of it, every circumstance of it. He is faithful.
To be continued...
75
The Last Days Study Guide Called the Land of Canaan
1. How long has the Canaanite strife been going on?
2. Why was the land of Canaan called that?
3. In what book do we find Canaan’s relatives warning him to stay out of Shem’s land?
4. We notice something interesting when we read in scripture ‘the land of Canaan,’ what is it?
5. How has this history given you a better understanding of the events occurring in Israel today?
76
77
The Moon God in Scripture
I have been asked several times, “Can you track the moon god throughout history and especially biblical history?” Since I said you can do it all the way up to the Islamic Empire and then beyond, I decided to take a break from where I was and give you a reference point, another location in Scripture where we run into the moon god. The reason why it’s not taught is because Christianity is in the dark about this subject matter. I don’t know if they could recognize the enemy if they were staring them right in the face. I use to think so, but I don’t know any longer. I am not sure. But yes, you can track the moon god. This message jumps 2000 years from the flood into the future where we are going to encounter the moon god. I’m sure many of you who have read through First Samuel are going to say, “I don’t see it!” You will. Go to I Samuel 3:1. I’m going to lay down a lot of this chapter because it is the ground work for where I want to go. I Samuel 3:1, “And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli.” Eli had two sons. Scripture, later in the story, says they were vile. They were just flat out evil. They were part of the priestly line that was responsible for the ark amongst other things, but cared less about it. They didn’t care about focusing their life on God and why they were chosen. They were distracted by their world around them and became vile and evil. “And the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision. And it came to pass at that time, where Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see; And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep;” It was nighttime and everyone was going to bed and, “the LORD called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I. And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou callest me. And he said, I called not; lie down again. And he went and lay down.” Samuel as a child was getting the call of the Lord. The Lord wanted to speak to him. Samuel didn’t know it was the Lord. He thought it was Eli. Eli said it was not him. Verse 6, “And the LORD called yet again, Samuel, And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again.” It happened a second time and once again, Eli said it wasn’t him; go back to sleep. Verse 7, “Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him.” He obviously knew the Lord. What else would he be doing in Eli’s presence? He was being trained in the priestly line. How that verse should read is: Thus did Samuel before he knew the LORD and before the word of the LORD was revealed unto him. 78
Verse 8, “And the LORD called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou dist call me. Then Eli perceived that the LORD had called the child.” It took Eli three times to figure it out himself. I am sure he came to the conclusion by evaluating the situation if someone was calling Samuel and it was not him, he figured it was the Lord. So he gave instructions to Samuel, “Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth.” So, Eli told Samuel what to say in case he heard the Lord calling him again. “So Samuel went and lay down in his place.” Verse 10, “And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth. And the LORD said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of everyone that heareth it shall tingle.” The Lord has been dealing with Eli for a long period of time. Eli had a lot of problems dealing with his own sons. It was a major problem. Prior to this chapter, the Lord deals with Eli concerning his sons. He calls them the sons of Belial because they knew not the LORD. (I Sam. 2:12) Eli knew it, but Eli chose to ignore it and not dish out the harsh discipline, the harsh correction necessary to hopefully straighten them out; so they could hopefully put their focus and dedication back on God. Eli was not a very effective father—and especially for being in the line (or occupation, as the world would say) they were in. They were chosen to be servants of the Lord, amongst the Lord’s daily activities and how that service would be carried out. As I said, Eli’s sons were vile and the Lord says to Samuel in verse 11, “ And the LORD said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of everyone that heareth it shall tingle.” In other words, not only would everyone be surprised by what they hear, but they are going to be shocked. It’s kind of a ‘shock and awe’ situation. As we would say today, their ears would be ringing considering what was yet coming. It still had not come to pass. That is what the Lord was trying to communicate to Samuel. “...at which both the ears of everyone that heareth it shall tingle.” Do you know what is wrong with most ministries and churches today? When was the last time their congregations’ ears have tingled? When was the last time their congregations’ ears have heard anything that would stun them and put them in a state of shock for good reasons or bad depending on how one takes the information they are hearing? Think about it folks; most congregations and milquetoast pastors that are leading them want to hear nothing but good news. I’m not speaking of the Good News of the Gospel. I’m speaking of good news in general, a positive message: Something that will lift them up so they can carry on for the next day or two. Something that makes me feel good. A ministry is worthless if that ministry has a spiritual leader that does not make ones ears tingle on occasion. Think about that. I want to make your ears tingle and I think I have been doing that. I have been reading the messages I receive. I have been receiving some asking why I didn’t come along sooner; maybe they would not have been trapped so long in the congregations (around this world, by the way) they were in, not growing in the mind of Christ, but stuck in the Christianity quicksand of the same ol’ same ol’ that does not edify the body of Christ. 79
“...at which both the ears of everyone that heareth it shall tingle.” In other words, turning your world upside down! I’ve preached two messages on this and that it is time that this happens. Not turning your world upside down by putting you in a ‘shock and awe’ state because of some ludicrous things I might do outside the word, but the WORD itself and what it offers as instruction: to build you up and have you grow in the mind of Christ and His word. I Sam. 3:12, “In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house; when I begin, I will also make an end.” What is the Lord talking about here? Go to I Sam. 2:31, “Behold the days come, that I will cut off thine arm and the arm of thy father’s house. And thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation, in all the wealth which God shall give Israel; and there shall not be an old man in thine house forever. And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart: and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age. And this shall be a sign unto thee, that shall come upon thy two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas; in one day they shall die both of them.” That is what Eli had to look forward to here because of his sons’ wickedness and his unwillingness to straighten them out. Death was on the horizon. They would die as young men “in the flower of their age” because of their faithlessness and wickedness. Now the Lord is telling Samuel all of this. I Sam. 3:13, “For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile [lit. accursed; somewhat like what happened to Canaan] and he restrained them not [lit. Eli did not frown upon them].” Eli has probably spoken to his sons about their activities, their unfaithfulness and wickedness unto the Lord, but he failed to discipline them effectively. Now, these were not teenagers any longer. These were younger men probably in their late twenties, early thirties. Some even believe they were in their late thirties. The proper thing would have been to administer correction at the point where they turned and didn’t follow God any longer, but yet kept in the priestly duties—or at least pretended to act in their priestly duties. Some would probably reply to such an idea with, “They are 18 years old. They have a mind of their own. I can’t tell them what to do.” For the most part, that is true. And for the most part, you can tell them to do just about anything in life and they probably won’t take your advice because their attitude is they know better now. They think they are old enough to know better. Well, woop-tee do! Hasn’t that been the problem throughout the ages? Especially fathers.... See, I’m harder on fathers than I am on mothers. Fathers have a responsibility scripturally about the direction of their children. Today’s fathers, especially, are just concerned about their own well being and their happiness. And, as soon as their children come of age (in the USA it is 18 years old), they take the attitude, “That is their problem. They have control of their lives and I can’t do anything about it any longer.” That is an Americanized cop-out, a stupid attitude that needs to be slapped out of you (figuratively). You have been sucked in by the stupid nonsense that cannot be backed up in God’s Word! I don’t care if my son is 60 and I am 80-something: if I see he was getting out of line with the things of God, he and I would have some serious correctional conversations. Now I don’t foresee that happening. I am using him as an example because I have a responsibility. I have a dual responsibility as his pastor and his father. Most of you only have one responsibility and you fail at that! You quickly come up with all the stupid excuses for why 80
you have failed: They are just hardheaded. They won’t listen. They are just too stubborn. Listen, I have heard everything under the sun over the years; every excuse in the book. It doesn’t change one iota what your responsibility is whether they like it or not, or whether they want to hear it or not. Some might say, “Well, I don’t believe that. I believe they are a man of their own.” As long as you are a father to someone on this earth, your spiritual father duties are not over until, God forbid, they go before you and meet their maker if that is where they are headed. And don’t give me Ephesians 6:4. (I’m not even at the part I want to be which gets to the moon god.) These scriptures have many different messages you can preach as I lay down the ground work to give the spiritual principles of what your responsibilities are from God’s Word. I have had many people pull Ephesians 6 on me before. “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath [I agree with that. I am not against that.]: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” The more modern translations even butcher this more, but this is where I get them every time and they always reply confounded, “Uh...I didn’t know that.” Well, now you know. Admonition of the Lord means: to put them in the mind of the Lord. There is no age restriction on this either. Paul didn’t say, Until they are 18, put them in the mind of the Lord. He says just to put them in the mind of the Lord. Like I said, there is no age restriction. That is the problem Eli had. Yes, his sons were in their late twenties to late thirties. They were probably hardheads and too rebellious to change, but it was still his responsibility to carry out the correction. And if they could not take the correction, it was his responsibility, because of the position he had, to separate them out from those duties, but he did not. I Sam 3:13, “And he restrained them not” —literally, like I said, frowned not upon them. That doesn’t mean you don’t love your children. That doesn’t mean you aren’t going to be there for them. But as long as they want to associate with you, you are going to do your utmost to put them in the mind of the Lord. That is your responsibility as a father. If your son is a friend, that is great; but that is not the relationship. Too many fathers and mothers want their children as friends. You are a parent. You have the duties of a parent just like they will some day (if Jesus tarries). What you teach them now will hopefully carry on to the next generation producing, maybe, the next deliverer of God’s news, or any avenue they head out on to try and pursue and to be a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ that doesn’t shame him. But due to the ignorant and stupid traditions that are being passed on from one generation to the next of what you can and cannot do with your children, this is exactly what is happening. As I said, that is a westernized thought. And yes, you are not going to be able to tell you kids, once they come of age what they want and what they don’t want, what they want to do and what they don’t want to do. They are going to make those decisions for themselves. But when it comes to spiritual matters, you have a responsibility. So, get off your duff and start being a father. “Well, don’t you have anything for mothers?” Yes, but not in this context. “What if I don’t have a father?” Well then mother, you are going to have to step up. Now I do not know how I got into that. I guess this verse took me there. See, God’s Word deals with things straightly. There is no guesswork in it. Because Christians do not like what God’s word instructs, they twist it and water it down to suit them and what they can and cannot accomplish and then justify it if they cannot. Now this is just something else that I wanted to touch on for a long time now. But I never really got to Ephesians 5 or 6 yet in that context. That 81
is still to come in the future, but since we are reading these verses now, I mine as well deal with it in some fashion. Eli should have been administering the correction, but he didn’t. And he should have started early in their lives. Listen; I could go to Hebrews 12 and deliver the same message. God’s Word verifies itself and the responsibilities of a spiritual father from the physical line. You can’t be responsible for their physical activities, but you definitely can be responsible and step up to put the mind of Christ in them. Whether they accept it or not, we’ll never know. You will never know, but God willing, they will with instruction and prayer. And if they don’t, it doesn’t change one iota. You still lived up to the responsibility God placed on you until He takes you home. And of course, I received this other comment once, “What if you are wrong? What if you instructed your son or daughter wrong and it screwed them up for life?” Well, figure out where you went wrong and correct yourself. Then correct them if they are relying on your information about the way they do certain things or the way they live their life. The western world has made so many cop-outs of things to justify their conscience. It makes me sick. More of you are hippies-for-Jesus than you think because you adopted the world’s ways and applied it to spiritual matters. The two are like night and day in comparison. They cannot be compared. “Well, I read this wonderful book in the psychology section of my book store about how to be a great parent. It had great suggestions.” If those suggestions are not coming from Scripture, I would only use that book as fire kindling material. “Are you serious?” Yes! I am damn serious. And I am not cussing because that is what that other material is basically good for. It leads astray, which leads to damnation, individuals who are not instructed in the things of the Lord. I’m not open to it. They might have good suggestions and I might take some of them, as long as it does not interfere with what Scripture says about the spiritual responsibility of the family unit. If you don’t think any of that was important, then you don’t know anything about the word of God and you have become too westernized with westernized thought and the philosophies that developed from it. I Sam. 3:14, “And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever.” The day is coming when their sins will not be purged any longer because God will have had enough of the vile and wicked. “And Samuel lay until the morning, and opened the doors of the house of the LORD, And Samuel feared to show Eli the vision.” I would too if I were the young Samuel! God just told me some awful things are coming your way concerning your family members, your sons. “Then Eli called Samuel, and said, Samuel, my son. And he answered, Here am I. And he said, What is the thing that the LORD hath said unto thee? I pray thee, hide it not from me. God do so to thee, and more also, if thou hide anything of all the things that he said unto thee.” So basically, Eli said whatever was going to happen (obviously Eli knew it was not very good and the future did not look too promising) he was hoping the same would happen to Samuel and then some if he didn’t tell Eli. So what did Samuel do in verse 18? “And Samuel told him every whit [lit. all the things or words], and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the LORD: let him do what seemeth him good . And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established [faithful] to be a prophet of the LORD . And the LORD appeared again in Shiloh: for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD.” 82
I Sam. 4:1, “And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Eben-ezer: and the Philistines pitched in Aphek. And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel: and when they joined battle, Israel was smitten before the Philistines: and they slew of the army in the field about four thousand men.” Four thousand Israelis died in battle against the Philistines. The Philistines won the first battle. Verse 3, “And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the LORD smitten us today before the Philistines?” They were wondering why they lost. “Let us fetch [lit. take unto us] the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies.” See, they already reasoned why they had lost the battle, because the ark did not go before them or with them. In Samuel’s time, they were already idol worshipping in a different manner. They didn’t worship the Lord of the ark. They worshipped the ark itself. They thought it had some magical power that could be bringing them victory if they wouldn’t forget it behind. They were worshipping the ark and not the Lord of the ark. They didn’t realize that it was the Lord of the ark that brought the victory, not the ark itself. “Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies.”Notice; it doesn’t say, the Lord may save us out of the hand of our enemies, does it? It says that it —it meaning the ark—may save us out of the hand of our enemies. Verse 4, “So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims: and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were with the ark of the covenant of God.” Well! Here come the two vile and wicked individuals with the ark of the covenant of God. Verse 5, “And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again.” They were rejoicing that the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp. They were not rejoicing at God’s presence. God’s presence was not there. “And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, What meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they understood that the ark of the LORD was come into the camp. And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp. And they said, Woe unto us! For there hath not been such a thing heretofore.” They also thought that if the ark was there the God of the Hebrews would be there also. Why did they think that? “Woe unto us! Who shall deliver us out of the hands of these mighty Gods? These are the Gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness.” They remembered stories that go way back in time from the time this was happening. And the Philistines at least understood that when the ark was in the presence of the Hebrews, the Lord obviously was there also. What they did not realize is, when you start worshipping the ark and not the Lord, and you start relying on the ark for your deliverance and not the Lord, the Lord will have no part of it. 83
Listen; even in Joshua’s day, they lost battles when the ark was there but the children of Israel were disobedient. If you look at the family of Achen, they won the battle but Achen sinned and they got their rear end kicked around.
“Woe unto us! Who shall deliver us out of the hands of these mighty Gods? These are the Gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight.” Now we might lose, but have some courage and let’s give it all we got. We definitely don’t want to fall into the hands of the Hebrews. Verse 10, “And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen.” Now a total of two battles lost and 34,000 total lives lost also. “And the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hopni and Phinehas, were slain.” They died just as Samuel heard in the word from the Lord and as Eli had been warned. It had finally come to pass. The ark was there, but the Lord’s presence was not there. They were slaughtered and 34,000 men were lost: the first time four thousand, and this time thirty thousand. If you really think about it, it was a low period in the kingdom of Israel. It is a low period in anyone’s life when the Lord’s presence is not there with you walking side-by-side and also leading you into battle, into the spiritual warfare we face every day. In a sense, our ark is the spiritual armor we have now. Try not putting it on. You cannot create the armor and you cannot even put it on unless you faithe in Him and then He sparks the designs for the kind of armor you need for that day to do battle against some wicked and unseen beings that control the scene. Try going one day without wearing that armor. You will see how kicked around you will be and then you will wonder, “Why is this happening to me?” Did you check in and ask the Lord to have the armor placed on you by Him? Most of you get up, brush your teeth, do your business and never even acknowledge Jesus once before your day continues. Then you wonder why you get kicked around. I’m not saying you aren’t going to get kicked around; but I would rather get kicked around with my armor on than off because now I have a fighting chance. The Lord will have His victory one way or the other if I keep faithing in Him and understand that He is not going to allow happen to me anything that He doesn’t want to happen—because He has my back, my front, my top, my bottom, my ALL AROUND, every circumference of my being covered. It has been a while since I preached on spiritual warfare and some of you have lost the principles of that 100+ message series, which is not even completed yet. You have an out-of-sight, out-of- mind mentality. There is not a morning or evening (or whenever your daily cycle starts) that should go by that you do not recognize Him first and what He provides for you, so you can face the next period of hours that you are awake, and while you are asleep also until you rise again the following day. The children of Israel decided they were going to be ark worshippers, not Lord worshippers, and they were fighting the battles. Of course, their leaders, including Eli (even though God gave Eli chance after chance), were not very good spiritual leaders. They didn’t have a very good spiritual leader. They didn’t have a spiritual leader that would say what he means and mean what he says. Eli was a push-over and not with his family only. Nevertheless, God let him be in that position. 84
I Samuel 4:12-17, “And there ran a man of Benjamin out of the army, and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes rent, and with earth upon his head. And when he came, lo, Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside watching: for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city, and told it, all the city cried out. And when Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said, What meaneth the noise of this tumult? And the man came in hastily, and told Eli. Now Eli was ninety and eight years old; and his eyes were dim, that he could not see. And the man said unto Eli, I am he that came out of the army, and I fled today out of the army. And he said, What is there done, my son? And the messenger answered and said, Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there hath been also a great slaughter among the people, and thy two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God is taken.” Obviously, there is a pause between receiving the news that his two sons were dead and the ark of God being taken. We can see there is a pause by looking at verse 18, “And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that he fell from his seat backward by the side of the gate...” I think here it does give us the impression that he was more shocked, terrified, upset, moved, or however you want to describe it, by the loss of the ark than receiving the news of his sons’ deaths. I give Eli credit for that. It doesn’t say here, It came to pass when he heard of his sons dying he fell off his seat. No! “ “And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that he fell from his seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck break, and he died: for he was an old man, and heavy.” No matter how you look at it, it affected him more than receiving the news of his sons’ deaths. This 98 year old, fat old man wasn’t shocked by his sons’ deaths, but when he heard the ark of God was taken, something suddenly triggered him to move in a direction where he fell off of his seat, landing on his neck and it broke, and he died. “And he had judged Israel forty years.” I Sam. 4:19, “And his daughter in law, Phinehas’ wife, was with child, near to be delivered: and when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was taken, and that her father in law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and travailed; for her pains came upon her. And about the time of her death, the women that stood by her said unto her, Fear not; for thou hast borne a son. But she answered not, neither did she regard it [or set not her heart on it; she was giving birth and she was dying]. And she named the child I-chabod, saying, the glory is departed from Israel.” The glory was departed from Israel long before the ark was taken by the Philistines. But, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back and in this case, it was Israel finally realizing that the glory of God is no longer with them. Now they would have to take a look at themselves and see why that happened. Verse 22, “ And she said, The glory is departed from Israel: for the ark of God is taken.” Now we get to where I wanted to be for this message, “And the Philistines took the ark .” Everything prior was just introduction. I Sam. 5:1, “And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Eben-ezer unto Ashdod. When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it [to a famous idol temple] into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon .” Who was this Dagon god? By most of the historical information that we have, Dagon was a mermaid type god, a merman (male), or mermaid (female); half fish and half human. The bottom 85
half was the fish-like portion. The torso was human-like. Some think that this idol Dagon was the same idol as Derketo in the Greek catagories of god at a later time. Some think it was Atargatis. Depending on who you study when you study about these false gods and the false religions that have developed around them, tracking them all through the present Middle East, all the way to areas of China, Turkey, Greece, modern-day Italy, they all had their names for certain gods, but when you look at them all, they all came from one source, and they were all the same gods but with different names depending on their locations—Venus for one and then the moon god for another. I’m telling you this Dagon god was a moon goddess. It could be a moon god also, but I lean more toward moon goddess, the mermaid. Some of you didn’t even know where the mermaid traditions came from. Most of the time it’s looked at as something we make cartoon movies out of like The Little Mermaid. Something that is pleasant. In old sailors’ traditions, there were also seducing mermaids with the intention of evil. But all these stories and traditions go way back. Dagon was introduced early after the flood period. Dagon was also known as Oannes. He was worshipped widely in that location of the Middle East such as Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, in Israel, and northern Saudi Arabia—especially when you go back as far as 2400 B.C. Oannes was worshiped in all these geographical areas, but just by different names. The renowned Jewish scholar Rashi confirmed that Oannes is the same god as Dagon—the one here listed in this chapter. Dagon, who was worshiped by none other than the Philistines of the Middle East, we see right here in I Sam. 5:2. Where did the Philistines bring the ark of God? To the temple that housed the Dagon idol. If you track it all the way back, Oannes is the same god, but now that this is a different location, it’s called something else all the way to the Mesopotamian area. And it was the head god of the 200 plus regional pantheon of gods that they had in that area. You will recall how the Philistine Goliath killed by David is described as the Nephilim (“Rapha” or giants). Rashi points out that the Hebrew word dāg or 'fish' is the root of the name Dagon. Thus Rashi draws a direct connection between Dagon and Oannes. Because of the evidence that is out there, most scholars are now beginning to understand Dagon came from Oannes whether you are a Jewish scholar or not. It’s obvious and you cannot deny it. So, who was Oannes? If Dagon came from Oannes, and was just called something else in a different geographical location, and Dagon is this mermaid type figure whether male or female idol, then who was Oannes and where did Oannes come from? Oannes came from the Mesopotamian area but it was migrated there. Most scholars in this particular subject, not necessarily just biblical scholars but idol worship researchers, have concluded that Oannes can only be traced back to a figure that was called something else. Who was that something else? I have a list of names and we have been here before. Oannes, Buddha, Beli, Meni, Saturn, and Dagon come from Cush and the gods that were developed to worship him. Now Cush was Nimrod’s father. Nimrod didn’t just arrive on the scene and create all this false worshipping and false idols himself. There was something driving him to become who he became... and it can be dated all the way back to Ham. Cush was the son of Ham and so was Canaan. Canaan is where we get the Canaanites from, and where the Philistines in this story dwelt and were part of their geographical area. Cush leads to the gods and the names that are mentioned: Oannes, Dagon, Buddha (the orginal Buddha), Beli, Saturn, Hermes, Belus. They all trace back to Cush. 86
So now the Philistines have their own version of honoring Cush, a son of Ham, the father of Nimrod. Nimrod and Semiramis have their own names and we already covered that somewhat, and we will get back to that. But the images of Oannes and Dagon often showed him wrapped about in a fish scale cloak identifying them both as a moon gods—like the Arab god Hubal who became the allah of Islam: chief god of the 360 Arab gods of the Mecca Ka’aba (which Mohammed reduced down to a single god)—as well as the gods of the seas. Oannes’ consort is Atargatis who is known to the Greeks as Derketo. Atargatis was a Semitic moon goddess and the first known mermaid. She had a fish tail rather than legs and fish were sacred to her. Atargatis and Oannes were the parents of Queen Semiramis, the Assyrian queen of Babylon, for whom the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon were built. Babylon, you will recall, was the first of the four world empires discussed by Prophet Daniel. I could continue, but I think you are getting the point that this Dagon god goes all the way back to Cush. It was brought to that area under the guise of the Oannes god and was converted to the name Dagon because the Philistines wanted their own claim to fame in their own naming process of a god in their geographical area. I want to drive this point home so you understand that throughout scripture you see certain characteristics of what the wickedness of man produced throughout a period of time but just called it something else. It all goes back to diverting the Hebrews from worshipping the true God. It goes back to the pollution of introducing moon gods. Now there were sun gods and other gods, but what you see throughout the history of time from approximately 2400 BC and even in the day of Samuel are two predominant gods and the most predominant of all of them were the sun god and the moon god. For the moon god they build temples and massive temples dedicated to its worship, whether it was the moon god (male figure) or goddess (female figure). The Babylonians were known to worship a sea god called Oannes—or, if you trace back its roots, Cush. The Syrians and the Philistines were also known to have worshipped a Semitic mermaid moon-goddess. The Syrians called her Atargatis while the Philistines knew her as Derceto. It’s not unusual or surprising that this moon-goddess was depicted as a mermaid as the tides ebbed and flowed with the moon then as it does now and this was incorporated into the god-like personifications that we find in their art and the ancient literature. Atargatis is one of the first recorded mermaids and the legend says that her child Semiramis was a normal human and because of this Atargatis was ashamed and killed her lover. Now some scholars that study this subject alone, these idols and the religions that came from them, have come believe that it was Cush’s wife. Yet, others believe it was not his wife. But whatever the source was, it originated with Cush. And in this case in the story in first Samuel, the name is known as Dagon—a moon goddess in my opinion, but it could also be a male moon god figure. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had both, and there is some evidence that they might indeed have: and perhaps not in the same location at the same time, but in different locations. If you go throughout all of history and you look at the different periods of time you will find moon gods and moon goddesses popping up in all different cultures and geographical locations: 87
• The Romans considered Diana a moon goddess. Paul had to deal with that. Now I am sure you have heard about Diana being preached, especially when Paul was dealing with the Corinthians (and even the Ephesians in some cases), and how that god was the predominant god of Paul’s time in those geographical locations. She was a moon goddess folks! Do the work. Do the studies. • Another example is in the Thracian area. Bendis is a moon goddess of the moon and hunt. She had a dual purpose. • Artemis was a moon goddess in Greek mythology. The sun god was originally Helios and the moon goddess Selene, but over time this changed. Artemis came to be associated with Selene, just like Apollo with Helios. Apollo became a sun god and Artemis became the goddess of the moon. • In the Hittite culture around the Turkish area and where the Turkish empire finally developed becoming known as the Hittites, Arma is the name of a Hittite lunar personification whom some think is connected with the Greek god Hermes. So in that location, Arma was the moon god. • Have you ever heard of Heng-o? In the Chinese culture, she was the mother of twelve moons and ten suns, so she became known as the moon goddess. • Jumping to a whole different part of the world now on a different continent and in a different hemisphere the Mayan culture had its own version of the moon goddess, Ix Chel (Lady Rainbow). She was their moon goddess. • Khons (Khonsu) was an Egyptian moon god, and as names changed and as dynasties changed, also became known as Min, Duau, Osiris, and Thoth. These are all moon goddesses or moon gods. • A moon goddess of African culture is Mawu (Maou). • Then from western Asia Minor we have Mên the moon god who also carried some healing and punishment qualities. • And as I said, there was Selene (Luna), the goddess within the Greek area. • And of course, we have the Sumerian—which I believe it started with Cush, Oannes came in the picture, then it was converted into all the different other gods’ names as it migrated east and west, but the central and most important god of Sumerian origin was Sîn (Suen)/Nanna and all the particular variations for that particular god and then it migrated from that point. This is what Nimrod and Semiramis forced and their people had to worship with all kinds of horrific sacrifices to try to please the moon god Sîn/Nanna. We will trace that all the way to the Islamic Empire, which Mohammed started in this last days push to fulfill all prophecy. • Hindu’s also have their own moon god, Soma. • The Japanese have Tsuki-Yomi, a Shinto moon god.
I could on and on. There were gods everywhere dedicated to the moon god or moon goddess. Dagon is just one example of that, a moon goddess or a moon god depending on if it was mermaid or merman. Back to I Samuel 5:2. The Philistines brought the ark and put it in the house of Dagon. See, Satan knows what he is doing, folks. The ark is an important feature in Hebraic culture and worship, as that high priest presented himself once a year in the Holy of Holies where the ark 88
would be, bringing the sin and trespass offering, and then would remove it to outside the camp as a type of Christ and what He would come and do it for us. And not just once a year, but for every day of our lives if we keep following and understanding what His blood does for us in our everyday life as we struggle to get through hanging on to Him, sometimes slipping, knowing we need grace daily and His forgiveness, and have assurance that we are covered by His blood if we have our focus and our faith on Him. Satan knows what the ultimate insult to the Lord will be, presenting the Ark of the Covenant to the Dagon god. That is what the Philistines did and they knew exactly what they were doing. There is no doubt that they were excited. They were jubilant and confident in the superior value of their gods compared to the ark. “This is the ark of the covenant that destroyed the Egyptians?” Of course, they didn’t quite understand how that happened, but nevertheless, “We must be a powerful people! We must be dominant. Even the Hebraic God could not stand up against us and our gods.” Think about it. Think about the mindset that must have been going on in that time period after they not only won one victory, but two; and the second victory with the ark in the presence of the second battle, slaughtering 30,000 Hebrew men and they went running, and taking the ark as a trophy. They took that Ark of the Covenant as a trophy and presented it to Dagon, the moon god/goddess. They faced the God of Israel in battle and they could make the claim that their god Dagon had delivered them and had defeated Israel in the process. I’m sure to them the victory was complete. Now the Ark of the Covenant is sitting with a half-man half-fish figure—which was also known as the father of Baal. So what happened? I Sam. 5:3, “And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.” Some mysterious happening took place over night. Dagon obviously had not fallen before and if it had, it was such a rare occurrence that they were surprised Dagon fell. And how did it fall? “...upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD.” See, the glory had departed and that is why that child was named I-chabod. It is not at the end of the story in chapter four by accident. “The glory is departed from Israel: for the ark of God is taken.” And then in chapter 5 verse 3, Dagon fell before the ark of the Lord. Had the glory departed? Or did it just not make itself available because the Israelites placed their worship and focus on the wrong thing. They were guilty of icon worship. God will find a way to glorify Himself. He has throughout history. He will find a way. We may disgrace the glory of God, man might disgrace the glory of God, but I can guarantee you He will not go without glory. Even though this was making the proclamation that the glory had departed from Israel, the glory had not departed from the ark. The focus that Israel had on the Lord is what departed. They treated the ark like a magic talisman that they could just put in front of something and they could get what they wanted. That is not how it works. When men and women will not glorify God, God will glorify Himself. You can count on that over and again. It was not by accident that this Dagon moon god fell and landed before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. 89
So what did the Philistines do? They took Dagon and set him in his place again. I guess they had ruled out what obviously happened. God made Dagon fall before Him. They rejected God despite the obvious evidence. And that didn’t just happen once. We read on: Verse 4 , “And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD;”it happened again. “and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump [torso] of Dagon was left to him.” You can just hear the Philistines making all kinds of excuses. Man is good at that. They don’t want to look at the obvious. They don’t want to see what is really happening. Man will not glorify God, but God will glorify Himself. And He will have man’s creations of what he thinks God should be like fall in front of Him and bow down. This is still true today. It isn’t just a story that happened 2500 years ago. It’s still true today. And Christ will come back some day and all will see, lament, and grieve that they missed the obvious, and they will have no excuse—as Paul would write 500 years later because all they had to do was look at the heavens. All they had to do was look around them. They are without excuse. Instead of worshiping and following the Creator, they created with their own eyes things they could see, and then put religious values on those things creating false religions and false idols. Dagon was no exception. I can hear all their excuses, “It has to be an accident; Maybe somebody snuck in; Maybe it was an earthquake that knocked it over.” Do you think there were no guards placed outside of that temple area to make sure that nobody gets in? You would think some of these very superstitious individuals would take into account that something is not right here. Of course; we still do that today. But instead of understanding why certain things happen, we just write it off as coincidence. Not only then, but now, we refuse to give God the glory and He is still seeking the same thing He did 2500 years ago; you and me recognizing that there is only one God that we bow down to. He sent His only begotten Son and now we go through Him to get to the Father. These Philistine priests who were in charge of these temple areas that had all these idols and idol worship at these locations were confronted with the truth just as we are confronted with the truth every day that we live. Those of you who reject God as they did didn’t take a look at the evidence—and it is available. I’m trying to present to you the evidence message after message, but you still reject it. I have Christians now that are still rejecting this Last Days series. They refuse to listen to it. They’ve heard the first few messages and just refuse because they can’t be wrong. They are too egotistical and arrogant thinking that they could not have been misled. I don’t think maliciously misled, but still misled to what the truth is about the Last Days teaching, both Daniel and Revelation. I haven’t even gotten to Zechariah or other books yet. If anyone thinks that they can study Daniel and Revelation only and get the full picture, they are gravely mistaken. Keep listening. They wanted to believe in an accident. Today people still refuse to look at the evidence. They think it is all coincidence, man-made traditions, and stories to try to control peoples’ lives. And of course, in our cynical society today, it is to take their money from them. They look at it as another con-artist’s scheme. It is not. 90
The first time Dagon fell before the Ark of the Covenant might be able to be written off as coincidence. But again... the second time the very next night, when there is no record of it ever happening before? I doubt it did. Now something should raise your curiosity. Something should start pulling you to maybe think the Ark of the Covenant should not be there. Maybe this is a message that the God of the Hebrews, the Lord of the Hebrews, is sending to the Philistines – their gods will bow down to Him and Him only. Therefore, the Philistines should only bow down to the Lord God of the Hebrews. These Philistine priests rejected the evidence. They probably just wanted to believe it was an accident. How could they believe something so ridiculous? Think about it; it would be laughable to think that this is a message from the Lord saying, “No, get Dagon out of here.” It can’t be. They ruled it out and they thought it was ridiculous just as we do today, if you think about it, because worshiping the Lord instead of Dagon in chapter 3, would mean a big change in your thinking and living. It’s much easier to just glue Dagon back together—because we see in verse 4 that his head and both his hands were cut off. Now it’s not by accident and that was a message. You might read right through that and not see the message today because it doesn’t mean much to you, but from the period of time this was written in when your head was cut off or your hands were cut off, it meant something. Write in your margins at verse 4: The head is the seat of wisdom and the hands are the instruments of action. That is what this meant back in those days when you had your hands cut off or your head chopped off. Now here in this scripture both are cut off to show these priests of the Philistines that they neither had wisdom or strength to defend themselves nor their worshippers, and their god was defenseless, their god was worthless. Their god was in pieces. Instead of seeing the signs, reading the signs—because it physically happened right in their presence: they didn’t need to read about it like earlier with the Egyptians and what happened to them when the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord was in the midst of the people. They could see it for themselves now—they didn’t. It’s not a coincidence. It’s not an accident. They had a choice to believe it or rule it out as ridiculous. They knew the significance of those broken off pieces; no wisdom and no strength to defend themselves. Now you would think that would be enough signs to get the message across. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. What happened? I Sam. 5:5, “Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon’s house, tread upon the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day. But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod [where the ark was], and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof.” Do you know what emerods are? Hemorrhoids. I told someone that I should title this message “The Lord Can Be A Pain In Your Bleep”. But someone just scanning the messages might take offense at that, so we are not going to name it that. Nevertheless, the Lord on occasion can be a pain in your bleep. Guess where hemorrhoids are located? In your secret place as some rabbinic writers would write. They were being destroyed by another element, which we will get to in a moment, but those who were not being destroyed by that were getting a severe case of hemorrhoids. “And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us...” The Lord’s hand might be sore, but what they were sitting on was awfully sore. I bet you it was the largest and biggest case or hemorrhoids 91
known to mankind. To make the point, I bet they were protruding out of what they were sitting on. “... and upon Dagon our god. They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath.” So they decided to take it to a different Philistine location. Even though they had these physical elements (they were being killed, and the ones that were not being killed were suffering a terrible case of hemorrhoids), they were still not convinced. And you wonder why when you give the good news of Jesus Christ to someone, they are not convinced immediately? People are stubborn and hardheaded! The enemy goes to work immediately to blind you from the truth, even though it is obvious and the evidence is smacking you in the face. So they carried the ark to Gath and what happened there? “And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither. [Verse 9] And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city [they were dying too] , both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts.” So, you would think they would be convinced after the second time that this has happened; people are dying and people are getting a terrible case or hemorrhoids. Can you imagine people going around with their hands on their backside constantly, moaning and groaning and crying? I could get very graphic here, but I won’t. I think you get the picture. Verse 10, “Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron [another Philistine location] . And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people. So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not, and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there. And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods [hemorrhoids] : and the cry of the city went up to heaven.” When we close our ears to God and we deny the evidence that is in front of us, God will find another way to get His message across. That is what He is doing here. And, we might not like the second way He sends His message. A word to the wise is to listen the first time around, because you are not going to like the second time around...or the third time around if there is a third time. You better wise up and understand you are not listening to this by accident. There is a reason— and a reason I decided to go off course with the moon god even though it is referring to it—and that is some of you keep denying the evidence. You let something else in this world distract you and you put your focus and your desires on that. Now that is fine as long as the primary focus is always on the Lord Jesus Christ and with what He would have you do with your life, not what you want out of life. Let me share with you what others have said about these hemorrhoids. It was some type of plague besides the hemorrhoids. The hemorrhoids were the aftermath. If you didn’t die from the plague, you would be tormented with these painful, large, agonizing hemorrhoids. You probably couldn’t even walk. Now some commentators believe that if you died before you even had the hemorrhoids, you died because there was destruction going on in the land, and if they were not 92
destroyed, they were being slain. Some believe it was like the Bubonic plague that went throughout the city and killed people. And there is good evidence that it was something like a Bubonic plague because of what they offered as an offering when they sent back the Ark of the Covenant. But back to these hemorrhoids. I’m going to share with you how other religious writings have described what went down in this time period.
According to the Rabbins, swelling on the anus. It appears to be accompanied with dysentery, a bloody flux, and an ulcerated anus. Of the numerous suggested identifications of the specific malady that struck the Philistines, bubonic plague remains the most likely: ‘It is a disease characterized by an epidemic occurrence, by the appearance of tumours, by the production of panic amongst the affected population, by a high mortality rate, and by an association with mice or rats.’
The Septuagint adds this to verse six: “And the cities and the fields of all that region burst up, and mice were produced, and there was the confusion of a great death in the city.” Some think this was originally in the Hebrew text, and explains why golden images of rats were included in the return of the ark (1 Samuel 6:5).
In Legends of the Jews, Ginzberg is much more graphic: “This new plague consisted in mice crawling forth out of the earth, and jerking the entrails out of the bodies of the Philistines while they eased nature.
While they were going to the bathroom, mice would jump up and somehow go at their hemorrhoids. Think about that. You are not going to listen to the first and second message that went by? When God has had enough of you not listening, strange and sometimes horrific things can happen in your life. When God still wants to pull on your heart, so you can follow Him and draw you closer to Him, sometimes He will put a tough road in your path and you will still be wondering “Why this is happening?” Maybe God is trying to get your attention. It’s time to lean on Him and start following Him, denying yourself and take up the cross, and follow in His likeness.
If the Philistines sought to protect themselves by using brass vessels, the vessels burst at the touch of the mice, and, as before, the Philistines were at their mercy.”
Now as we continue on in the story, I Sam. 6:1 reads, “And the ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines seven months. And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall we do to the ark of the LORD? Tell us wherewith we shall send it to his place. And they said, If ye send away the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty; but in any wise return him a trespass offering: then ye shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you. Then said they, What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden [hemorrhoids] emerods...” It sounds funny when you read it, but I’m sure it was a sincere offering considering their situation. Five golden emerods... It kinds of reminds one of that song about ‘five golden rings’. “...and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines: for one plague was on you all, and on your lords. Wherefore ye shall make images of your [hemorrhoids] emerods, and images of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory to 93
the God of Israel; peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land. That is where the assumption comes in that whatever was destroying and killing them was some type of plague and was probably related to mice. That is why they bring up the Bubonic plague or some form of a plague that is created by mice through the spreading of disease, as the mice would spread it through the vast numbers that they become as disease carriers. And if you didn’t die from that, God struck you with hemorrhoids of gargantuan proportions in your secret parts. I Sam. 6:6, “Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed? Now therefore make a new cart, and take two milch kine [nursing cows]”—they still needed a sign to see if they were doing the right thing—“on which there hath come no yoke, and tie the kine to the cart, and bring their calves home from them: And take the ark of the LORD, and lay it upon the cart; and put the jewels of gold, which ye return him for a trespass offering, in a coffer by the side thereof; and send it away, that it may go. And see, if it goeth up by the way of its own coast to Bethshemesh, then he hath done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us; it was a chance that happened to us. And the men did so; and took two milch kine and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home:” Now the first natural reaction of a nursing cow is to stay by her calf. And these cows were not even being led. The sign was that if they knew the direction of where Beth-shemesh was, where they wanted to return the ark which was under Hebrew control, they are going to find their way and God is going to make sure they get back there—if this thing is what has been cursing us with death and hemorrhoids. And that is exactly what happened. You would think the Philistines would have had a change of heart, get rid of all their idols and false religion, and start following the true God. God gave that area and the people that migrated there when they should not have chance after chance. I believe He is still doing it today. But those who relay The Message and have a chance to are getting fewer and fewer in those areas. The door is closing. They are going to suffer a lot worse than hemorrhoids. They are going to suffer the slain part, but not just slain in a temporary situation, eternally slain under eternal damnation as a punishment from God. So the ark was carried away. Instead of submitting to the God of Israel, like I said, they decided to just get rid of Him. Have you ever stopped to wonder, “What IF they submitted?” If they had submitted and the problem had gone away, they probably would have wanted to return the ark. But they never submitted or acknowledged. They just wanted to get rid of the problem, get rid of God. “God is interfering with my life. Can’t I just put Him on the side and continue to do what I want to do? I have important plans for myself and it doesn’t include God!” Just hope He doesn’t strike you with hemorrhoids of these proportions. That will surely get your attention if you are still alive. The problem is, we cannot get rid of the Lord. We can push Him away, but if He is still calling on you, it is just temporary. We are all going to face Him one day. I would rather face Him and acknowledge Him here now, that He is the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings and it is He whom I serve and no other false gods before me—including anything this world has declared as a god. There are so many false gods: there are more false gods now than there ever 94
was throughout history—though we don’t label them as that any longer. You can push Him away, but you still have to stand before Him some day. That is a message within a message even though the focus of this teaching was on Dagon. I gave you the introduction that led up to the Philistines defeating Israel and how it was prophesied because of Eli’s lack of ability to carry out his duties. And how the children of Israel lost their focus and started worshiping the ark as an icon instead of the Lord that went before the ark. No matter what you decide, no matter what the Israelites decided in Scripture as we read it, no matter what the Philistines decided, God is going to glorify Himself and He is going to find people that acknowledge that. He is going to find people that acknowledge His son is His Son, His only begotten Son. Our pride just as the Philistines’ pride, and our arrogance just as the Philistines’ arrogance could not take one bit of glory away from God. And no matter how much they try, they are not taking one bit of glory away from Jesus Christ. They will be glorified. I guess one of the questions is: Will we choose, because God has given us the privilege to be chosen, to enjoy watching Him be glorified, and no other false gods before us? The problem is as old as time, as old as Adam. We put our focus on other things in life and we forget that He is the reason why we live. He is the reason why we serve Him and nothing else. Oh, there are things you are involved with in life, but those are only secondary things to provide you a living, to provide you entertainment, to provide you necessities, to provide you enjoyment. And as I have said, God and Christ are not a cosmic kill-joy. They want you to have those things. But the problem with mankind whether Christian or not is they start worshiping and focusing on those things more than they do the Lord Himself. His presence then will leave you if He cannot shake you up to understand that He does not take second place in anyone’s life. He had Dagon bow before Him. He tried to show the Philistines the error of their ways. He is a God of compassion, even though they went against His chosen people. They had an opportunity to change, but they didn’t. They couldn’t convince themselves. Like I said, it was easier to glue back their god than changing their mindset and thinking and now worship the true God. It came with more of a commitment. It came with a more necessary dedication on an everyday activity than their false gods did. You would think they would be jumping at the opportunity, because throughout the history of all these false gods and all these different cultures it cost these people their lives as sacrifices. Now usually it was slaves captured in battle, but not necessarily. I am talking about being delivered from that kind of evil. They did not want it. Satan had blinded them so that they did not see the opportunities presented in front of them. Throughout scripture, this moon god or goddess false idols and the false religions that have been surrounding them throughout the periods of time in history has misled mankind. And Satan is using the same moon god and goddesses to accomplish what he wants to accomplish before his time is done and it is over. He wants to lead Adam-kind down the same road that he is headed to and that is the Lake of Fire. He will do anything he can and he has disguised it now in the last thirteen to fourteen hundred years in a different way, but it is the same thing. It is the same false principles based on false idols. 95
The reason I did this teaching is to show you one example in Scripture where you find a moon god or a moon goddess. Even though you could read these scriptures a hundred times, or read it in seminary a hundred times and ask your professors, they will reply, “I don’t know...It’s Dagon. It’s a Canaanite god.” That is their best answer in most cases. We do not see what is happening in these last days and how Satan is setting up his last push, his empire, to control the world, which is no different than Plan ‘A’, which is still Plan ‘A’ today that he had and implemented immediately after the flood was over. He did not change plans. He just kept changing the names, the religions, the idols, to convince mankind (and keep secret where these idols came from) that there is no such thing as an unseen God that you cannot see when you can see other things around you, developing a story around it and in most cases, an unbelievable story to convince the masses. Then usually the next generation down, because they were not living in the time when these stories were created, they were the ones most convinced. And like a snowball going downhill, it would get bigger and bigger. The stories became greater and more miraculous to the point where people were gullible enough to fall for this and start worshiping these idols, these religions, and the practices that went along with it. The Bible is full of stories like this, full of the moon god and the moon goddess. I think one of the distractions that we face today is through programs trying to bring the sun god back into the picture and how that was the main god of mankind throughout its early history for a few thousand years—and actually, some even still practice it today. NO. Yes, it does exist but it was not the predominant God that was worshipped. The moon god has not changed. It still exists today and we are still resisting it. And I will keep resisting it by bringing you the truth. What I am preaching is nothing new. It may be new to you and even most Christians, but unfortunately, the best research on this does not come from Christian resources. That is a shame, but thank God it is there—because even the ones that research this out don’t even see the significance of it to prove God’s Word, to show the ‘verifiableness’ of God word as I preach. It does and thank God it does.
To be continued...
96
The Last Days Study Guide The Moon God in Scripture
1. How did Eli die?
2. What does ‘admonition of the Lord’ mean?
3. What offering did the Philistines make to Jehovah?
4. Name Eli’s sons.
5. What does I-chabod mean?
6. Where did Oannes originate from?
7. What disease is speculated to have been the cause of the Philistines illness and deaths?
8. How did Eli err?
9. Describe Dagon.
10. List some names of moon gods and goddesses.
11. How did God show compassion on the Philistines?
12. What did the loss of Dagon’s head and hands mean?
13. After reflecting on this teaching, how do you think it benefits your walk in Christ?
97
98
Truth Suppressors
I went to Samuel in the last message to give you different examples of what the moon god was called during certain periods. I demonstrated once again through God’s Word where we can find these moon god idols. They were called different names during different time periods and definitely in different geographical areas and cultures. We started in chapter three when Samuel was a child and just coming on the scene. Then we went through the events that led up to chapter 5. The Philistines had captured the ark, took it back with them, and they ended up with a plague. If they didn’t die from the plague, they got the worse case of hemorrhoids probably ever known to mankind. And Dagon (the name used in I Samuel 5) fell not just once but twice. The second time when it fell before the ark—because the ark was placed by the Philistines like a trophy in their idol temple right next to their moon god idol Dagon—its hands and head were cut off. And I covered in a general way why Dagon was the moon god, the merman or mermaid god to the Philistines. I have been camping out in Genesis chapters 8-11 and going back and forth giving you information about this time period. After the flood, Satan went immediately back to work with what I have been calling his Plan ‘A’ and blinding mankind to believe in themselves, to believing in the creation instead of the Creator, and that the creation can set themselves up as gods and have others worship them and the things they would make. This is where we get all these false idols, false gods, and false religions from. After the flood, the father of reestablishing these false religions, false idols, and false gods was Cush, a son of Ham. Now Cush was also the father of Nimrod. Cush, more than likely, married Semiramis. And then when Cush died, his son Nimrod married his mother Semiramis. When he died, they also had a son called Tammuz. It is a sick plot if you really think about it. Now I know there are some variations on who married who and what happened in that evil scenario depending on whom you study. The point is, they all established gods. They all established themselves as gods. And they all used what was created to be worshipped as gods, e.g., the sun, the moon, the stars; the wrong path of astrology and how it was developed. But Cush was the father of all evil in my opinion. He started separating mankind from the only true living God and you will see his name come up over and over in different cultures, just called something different because of geographical areas these gods went. I told you some of the names were Belus, Hermes (a popular one that was circulated), Saturn, Dagon, Oannes, (the original) Buddha, Beli, and others. I keep repeating these names over and over so when you hear them you remember, “Oh, that belonged to Cush” or “That belonged to Semiramis,” and so it almost becomes second nature for you. Semiramis became Rhea (which became very popular at a later time), Britannica, Europa, Venus, Ishtar, Isis, Aurora, Aphrodite, Diana, etc. We see Paul would deal with these false idols and gods, and how he dealt with Diana. We get the name Alma Mater from Semiramis, which translated means virgin mother or lady mother . 99
Then of course Nimrod was known as Baal (many of you are familiar with that), Ninus (the root name for the city of Nineveh), Mars, Zoro-ashta, Dagda, Cronus, Orion, Jupiter, Hercules, Heracles, and Baldr (Balder, Baldur). There are many of them. These names should become very familiar during these messages as I keep teaching and preaching in this particular time period. Now, I’m not going to stay very much longer in this time period, but we will come back to these periodically throughout this Last Days series because the Devil had a Plan ‘A’ before the flood and has the same Plan ‘A’ after the flood. He is using those same methods to cause that separation from God. Now the Devil is successful, there is no doubt about it, but man does not have an excuse. Man has never had an excuse. Remember Noah was still alive. These individuals could have gone back to the source and got the information. More than likely, Cush’s father Ham was still alive. He was in that ark. Cush’s grandfather was Noah. What happened? How come Ham was not more convincing? Even though one of his sons Canaan sinned greatly, that was just one of the sons. What happened to the other sons? What happened to Ham? What kind of instruction and impression was left in Cush’s mind? It makes you stop and wonder what happened. Nimrod was Cush’s son. Ham was his grandfather and Noah was his great grandfather. And more than likely, Noah was still alive when Nimrod was going around being a mighty hunter. Why couldn’t these people come to the knowledge of the truth in their heart? You cannot convince me that they did not know the truth. Man has always known the truth one way or another. God has always left witnesses (human beings) to proclaim the truth. And if you didn’t want to believe the human beings, you could look at the heavens, you could look at His creation and at least come to the conclusion there has got to be something more to our existence than a false idol or something we come up with. We are prone to want to worship and desire a supernatural connection (if you want to call it that) to a being that we cannot see or relate to at our own level, and want to place that being at a superior level—because obviously, there had to be a superior level being to create everything we see and the principles that revolve around creation. Now creation is the perfect example. Romans 1:18, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.” This has been the problem from day one when Adam sinned. What do I mean? Circle that word wrath. What wrath means (the definition of it) is something hot; something that is hot and surging with anger . The word is so descriptive that it not only tells us it is hot and gaining steam so-to-speak, but also that it is slowly rising. Thank God it is slowly rising or else we probably would not be here and having the chance, the opportunity, to realize what Christ did for us. We have now that wonderful experience of receiving His grace, and we are covered by His blood, and we know where we are going to spend our eternity if we keep faithing in Him. If His anger, His hotness was not slow in rising, we would not be here today. Thank God for His compassion and His slow rising anger. This is probably the best way to describe God’s wrath to you: Have you ever put a pot of water on the stove? If you put it on a very low flame, it is going to take a lot longer to reach a boiling point. But if you crank the fuel knob on the stove to the furthest extent for the hottest and largest flame out of your burner (I’m assuming you have a gas stove), that means the boiling point is 100
going to arrive a lot sooner than if you keep it at a low flame. It’s going to take much longer for that water in the pot to get to the boiling point. The language is very descriptive in Romans 1:18. “For the wrath”—surge of anger that is hot in nature, but yet out of the compassion for man it is slow in rising—“of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness...” What is ungodliness? Ungodliness is neglect or violation of worship towards Him , not some false idol or false religion. His boiling point takes a long time to get there. That is the way He designed it to be for our sake. And all others (that means it goes all the way back to Adam’s day) that neglect or violate acknowledging Him and worshipping Him as the True Living God, He could have wiped out, even Adam after He sinned. He could have wiped out all of the generations that led up to the flood and wiped out Adam-kind completely and forever, but there was one family that was saved. And it is amazing to me! Somewhere between 100-175 years after the flood, which was nothing to those people that lived because they still lived long lives, they forsook God. They had to literally call their parents liars! Cush had to call his father Ham or even his grandfather Noah a liar. “You are not telling us the truth. There is no reasonable way to explain why God would wipe out so many! God is love.” God is love, but God is also about justice. The holding back of His wrath will only go for so long. We still live in the age where there is compassion and an opportunity to be rescued from the miserable state we are in, but the day is coming sooner or later when that ends. God’s final judgment through His Son is coming down, folks; and it is not going to be pretty. Thank God we won’t be a part of it. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness [neglect and violation of worship that He deserves] and unrighteousness...”—meaning it will lead you to a wrong place with God. Being righteous in its simplest definition is being right with God . Here, unrighteousness is being wrong with God. The neglect, the violation of acknowledging Him and worshipping Him as the True Living God and His only begotten Son as the Son of God is going to lead you to a path where you are wrong with God. That is a terrible state to be in! That is what led to the first destruction by water, the flood. The second is going to be by fire. “...who hold the truth in unrighteousness...” Now what does that mean? Circle the word hold. The Greek does not necessarily say that they did not know about it. If you study the Greek language closely and you compare it to other writings that use that same language (which unfortunately most lexicons do not do), it means restraining and suppressing what you know, which is the Truth, because of the state you are in. It tells you, once again, that state and it ends with unrighteousness (it is the same word there). You restrain it and you suppress it because you like YOUR explanation better. You like YOUR justification better. You like it because God’s ways are not man’s ways, and man wants to do what he wants to do. Who suppress and restrain the truth ... It is not by accident these words and this language is used here in this verse. It is saying in general that for most of mankind’s existence, man has known the Truth or has the desire to know it because God has implanted that in our system, in our being. That is why Paul goes on to say in verse 20, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse [lit. that they may be without excuse] .” If you could not get the message by the hearing of it, you are still without an excuse. What you have done because of your sick and arrogant I-know-better-than-God, or-any-of –His-preachers- 101
and-servants-that-rightly-divide-the-Word, so-I-do-not-have-to-listen-to-what-they- have-to-say attitude is suppressed it and restrained it, and it kept you and is still keeping you (if that is your attitude) in a place where you are wrong with God . This is one of those verses you can read right through and not put the right application to it. And there is nowhere in God’s book where you cannot take this verse and see that application used again and again. Man has been the same since sin came into existence in Adam-kind. Nothing has changed. What does this have to do with Genesis chapters 8-11? A lot. As I stated earlier, how could these people not know? Now this is a ludicrous example because it didn’t happen this way, but that is like Jesus having children and Jesus is your grandfather. He might not be around anymore, but your father sure knew all about him, and he told you everything he said and what happened along with other eyewitnesses—there was more than one in that ark—and you still suppress and restrain in your heart because you are so stubborn you have to see it to believe it. You are still without excuse because even though Jesus is not here any longer, and let’s say His word is not in the written format we have as today (that is how much more lucky you are today), you are still without excuse because Paul goes on to say “Look around. What do you see? What are you experiencing?” I preached a message, I think within the first six months to a year of TeachingFaith Ministries, titled, Does God Really Exist? In a simple way, that message gives you the probabilities of having life on this planet and how farfetched, how impossible it is to anyone’s imagination it could even happen. The probability figures are astronomical. The placement of where we are at in our solar system, the probability figures of even that taking place are mind-blowing...amongst all the other figures I gave. WE ARE WITHOUT EXCUSE. Mankind starts with a hardened heart. Sometimes that heart softens up (through Christian education), but it is not a converted heart. That is why Christianity can be faked so easily to the untrained eye. I have known pretending Christians that can quote Scripture inside and out, but all I had to do was ask them a few questions and nail down the heart of their problem of why they are professing Christians and not real Christians. We have too many professing Christians today. They will accept there is a God, but that in and of itself isn’t good enough. They will even accept there is a Jesus Christ, but that in and of itself is not good enough. They do not want to accept that He changes you into His image, to mould you to be in His service in an individual relationship; and as I preached so many times in John 15, also in reasonable service as Paul puts it in Romans 12:1, to be a soldier of Jesus Christ and serve in the capacity God called you to do it in. For those of you who follow this ministry, I made it quite simple and easy to understand what that is at this point. Some of you do other things, but you are called to support financially and communicate on a steady basis. But you would be surprised; people across this world are so distracted from that because they do not see the reason in it, the purpose. You are shallow minded and you only want to see what is in Christ’s service through your tunnel vision with no light at the end of the tunnel. It has been no different throughout the ages. The problem exists today, the problem existed 1000 years ago, and the problem existed before the flood and after. 102
The Devil has been consistent in keeping to his plan. Who do you think is inspiring the restraining? Who do you think is suppressing the Truth as you develop a substitute truth to operate in your everyday life, so you can justify that you are your own and you are not bought with a price? Well, it is just the opposite; you are not your own, you have been bought, and it cost Christ His blood. My guess, when I study these chapters and reflect over and over what went wrong with these sons and grandsons so soon after the flood, and what I keep falling back to is: parents (in that case) were priests in their own households and had the responsibility to train these sons in the truth. Probably with all that had to happen so soon after the flood to get mankind going, they neglected their responsibilities, amongst other things. But that is probably the uppermost thing I would put on the list of things that they didn’t do. It is nothing new. We have people in society today around the world chasing their tail, where looking out for number one is more important than anything else. I have been disgusted watching the politics here in the United States the last few months and leading up to Election Day yesterday. I have people asking me if it is going to change much. Nope. You are fooled if you think it will. Politicians will always be politicians. Though you will have some who will try to be dedicated to the principles which got them elected, those are too far and too few between. It is dominated by self-seeking self-promoting politicians, lawyers, political science majors that want to keep their seat, to receive their salaries, pensions and kick- backs, and all the other benefits that come with the job. You may see minor tweekings here and there and a lot of blowhard success stories, but time is marching on. What fascinates me about elections is more the local elections – even though lately we’ve been seeing (especially here in California) the corruption (I think it was the city of Bell) where they are collecting 600-700 thousand dollar salaries and upwards of that amount. For the most part, local elections have a heartbeat of what the community wants and needs. Those people elected do not have grand illusions of becoming President, Senator, or shining a seat in the House of Representatives. So, they are committed to fulfilling the promises that they campaigned for. That kind of election actually gets me more excited than the grander elections whether it is congressional seats for the Senate or the House, or even the President. I do not think it is going to change much. Man has not changed much. No matter what kind of political or religious system you have put in, man has not changed from the premise that they want to serve themselves. Other should serve them because of the prominent position they put themselves in and that is how they want to be looked at. Cush and Nimrod are a case in point. Nimrod became a mighty hunter. There are plenty of historical works now that reference the reasons why he became a mighty hunter—incidentally, not just a hunter of animals. You get the allusion that is all that is being referred to in Scripture, but when you add other outside sources and not just one or two, you start reading that he was a hunter of men too. Why? He wanted to create his own kingdom. He had the skills, leadership qualities, and if you want to use the skins of the animals that God slayed to provide a covering for Adam and Eve and that they had supernatural power—which I am not saying they did or didn’t—those gave him the ability to rise above everyone else. And when you would not bow down you were eliminated. How many governments have done that? The Nimrod attitude was no different than Hitler’s attitude. It comes for the same reason and from the same attitude that if you won’t do it my way you will be eliminated. 103
I have somewhat touched on Abel and Cain, why Abel’s sacrifice was a pleasing sacrifice to God and Cain’s was not. It surprises me that most preacher don’t understand this. The reason why Cain’s sacrifice was not acceptable is because he didn’t want to offer an animal sacrifice. He didn’t see the reason for it. With all the political correctness that goes on today, it’s not a far stretch that he thought, “Why kill an animal? Oh my god!” Think of all the animal rights groups. Cain was the first president of the animals’ rights groups. “I cannot believe a God of love would ask me to kill one of His creation and spill its blood.” Cain more than likely justified in his mind why that was ridiculous. He chose to restrain and suppress the Truth. Back to Romans again; he knew the truth, but he refused to operate in that truth. He didn’t see any reason for it. And of course, when it was pointed out to him, he rebelled. He became angry. He became jealous. Evil thoughts came into his mind. The Devil was working overtime on his mind. So, what happened? To paraphrase, “Well, if you want an animal sacrifice, guess what? I’ll kill one of your creations,” and Abel was slain. “You want a sacrifice? I’ll give you something better than an animal! Here is my brother, human flesh.” You all know the story of what happened after that. What do you think the driving force was? Now Noah presented an offering in the right way as soon as he came out of the ark. Not long after that, Nimrod, Cush, and Semiramis were offering human beings as a sacrifice. If you didn’t bow to Nimrod, if you didn’t bow to Cush (though Nimrod more than anyone else), and be part of the community that he was building up, that would have his laws and not God’s, his religion and not God’s, you would be exterminated by death or sacrifice. Nothing changed after the flood. The march of Cain kept going strong and only got stronger. I was going to go somewhere totally different than the direction I finally went with this message, but maybe somebody out there needs to hear it. It’s about time you come to your senses and realize you have been following your way for way too long. “Well, I don’t want God or Christ to put any limits on my life of what I want to accomplish or do.” If He does, I guarantee you are better off in the long run. You may not realize that now, but soon you will, and for forever. You will not regret it. You are going to serve someone, but what most of you don’t realize is you are serving the Devil by creating a Christian religion that you can accept and follow. In following in Christ’s likeness, there are two other steps prior to that: denying yourself, thinking that you are a god yourself. You may say, “I don’t think that.” Maybe not on the surface, but when you keep rejecting His call on your life, and His direction and molding process you create yourself as a god because you are serving yourself, self worship, not Christ worship. It is time you start realizing the first step is denying yourself. You might know about salvation but you are not living the saved life because you will not hand your life over and say, “ Not my will, but Thine. ” The word ‘will’ is thelema in the Greek. Even Christ faced that in the Garden before marching towards the cross. He came to the conclusion, I am not here to serve myself: I am here to carry out the Father’s wishes for the benefit of mankind. What follows ‘deny yourself’? Take up the cross. Taking up the cross is not your personal cross. Millions upon millions of Christians over the decades, centuries, and millenniums have been misled to believe it is all our personal trials, tribulations, and problems. It is not. Taking up the cross, if we are going to be in His likeness, is for the benefit of others. That is the second part of John 15. I have preached before on ‘in His likeness’ and you know what it means. Deny yourself, pick up the cross and follow Me. To do anything else is to set yourself up as your own god—which is nothing more than a false idol that you created about yourself. 104
This message is hard and most don’t want to hear it. I know that. That is why it was rejected shortly after the flood. Mankind is bent on not being dedicated and committed to God. He finds ways to justify it, rationalize it, or anything else. And it is always done by the creation of other things to worship. Throughout time Israel, during and after Moses’ period, had the tendency to fall back on worshipping something that required less commitment. You saw that when Moses was on the mount. What did Aaron make? A false god, a false idol. Mankind is a champion at trying to get his own way. I can almost feel the resistance out there, “Well, I just don’t hear this preached anywhere else. They all preach that it is all about me.” They all preach creating a false god within you and about you. Now, it is not too late to have that all turned around, but it cannot be of your doing. But it does start with you recognizing how wrong you are with God and it is time to get right with Him again just as Romans 1:18 declares what our problem is, we restrained and suppressed the Truth. If you are reading this now, you are not reading it by accident. The Lord is still trying to rescue you from yourself and the false illusions you created around you. We all need a rescuer and that rescuer was the only begotten Son of the Father, Jesus Christ. It is time to be covered with His blood, deny yourself, and pick up the cross and follow Him in His likeness.
To be continued...
105
The Last Days Study Guide Truth Suppressors
1. What is the root name for the city of Nineveh?
2. How is God’s wrath described?
3. What does Alma Matter mean?
4. Define ungodliness.
5. What does ‘hold’ mean in Romans 1:18?
6. What is the Greek word for ‘will’?
7. If you are not dying to yourself, who are you worshipping?
106
107
City of the Moon God
Open your Bible to the book of Joshua in the Old Testament. I received an article today from someone by email. The article is from the Christianity Today Magazine titled “Muslims in Evangelical Churches: Does loving your neighbor mean opening your doors to false worship?” by Jason B. Hood.
As professional religion reporters looked back on 2010, they ranked the debate over an Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero—along with a pastor's threat to burn the Qur'an—as the year's top story. The threat of Qur'an burning has dropped out of the headlines. But loud opposition to construction of Islamic centers continues across the country. Outside of Manhattan, metro Nashville became the most prominent of the local controversies (which were legion). Brentwood residents successfully quashed plans for a mosque in their town as plans to convert a historic theater in Antioch into an Islamic center continued despite local opposition. But it was Murfreesboro that got the most attention from national media, the Justice Department, and local politicians. A court has ruled that construction of an Islamic center there can continue, but a legal challenge is ongoing.
I’m not going to get into whether they should or shouldn’t, can or cannot. That would take us off focus from this teaching.
Meanwhile, some churches have modeled a much more welcoming approach. A Church [pastor] in Cordova, Tennessee, [I’m not going to name the church or people or give them that much air time] and his congregants put out a sign welcoming incoming neighbors at the Memphis Islamic Center. The church then allowed these Muslim neighbors to use their sanctuary [highlight that] as a makeshift mosque throughout Ramadan while the Islamic Center was under construction.
Now, Christians who have been following this series or have just started to may ask, “What is so wrong with extending brotherly love out to Muslims? Maybe if we bring them in they will see the light and what we preach about Jesus Christ.” Oh really? It is going to be hard not to stop during this piece without commenting on it. I have to discipline myself because I could spend the rest of this message on this article and I don’t want to do that. But remember this, “The church then allowed these Muslim neighbors to use their sanctuary as a makeshift mosque throughout Ramadan” while their Islamic Center, which I guess includes a mosque, was under construction.
[They] received extensive national media coverage for their efforts.
For [the pastor] , allowing Muslims to worship on his church's property was a matter of "What would Jesus do?" 108
The question is not “What Would Jesus Do?” but what God’s Word says about it because what God’s Word says about it is what Jesus would have done. This is not about being neighborly, folks. I have no problem extending my hand if a Muslim needs food, counseling, if a Muslim needs the word of God because they are confused. That is why this ministry exists. I’m surprised that despite some tight internet regulations in Saudi Arabia for instance, we had a few more viewers today logging in from Saudi Arabia; nothing comes in or goes out and especially anything that has to do with religion, the Christian religion, without going through the Saudi Arabian religious establishment, which controls their government establishment. Yet, it happens every day. I don’t know how they accomplish the feat of getting our internet site, but it is happening. As I see it, God knows who to reach. Now, what would Jesus do? What did Jesus call the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock more specifically? (Al Aqsa is right next to the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.) He called it an abomination of desolation, for reasons I have already given in this series. We already know what God’s Word thinks of it. We already know what Jesus is going to do. But the problem is we have these bible seminary (or whatever they come out of) religious morons, and that’s all I can call them. “Well, are you calling other pastors morons?” I can’t say what I really want to say. Yes, I am calling them spiritual morons. They are as in tune with God’s Word as a rat is. There is no spiritual connection. They are trained robots that have not been inspired. They are not even a tool or agent that God can use to get the rightly divided Word out. I’m sorry; I have been protesting against these fools for years and I don’t plan to change. I know it turns off some, but it will also turn on the lights for many others, that is, once they line up with what I’m preaching and placing on the website so they can go back to it and learn over and over. Compared it to what is being offered out there... Listen, I study and I constantly review all of it. I was just reviewing some more silly timelines that came out not too long ago with the most ridiculous conclusions. It’s almost laughable. Because some of you already know what I’ve taught on some timelines, maybe one day I will bring them here and just show you the side-by- side comparison so you can see how ridiculous it is. They are not Word-based but once again based on Christian science fiction. What would Jesus do? God’s Word is full of information of not only what He did in the past but also what He is planning to do in the future—and including even today.
For [this person] , allowing Muslims to worship on his church's property was a matter of "What would Jesus do?"—a matter of his United Methodist congregation modeling the love of Jesus to strangers, just as Jesus had welcomed them.
Like I said, I have no problem helping out a Muslim. I have no problem helping out a Hindu. I have no problem helping out a Hare Krishna. I don’t even have a problem helping someone that belongs to Satan’s church in a time of need. And yes, there is a Church of Satan. I definitely do not have a problem preaching to them concerning Jesus. This is not about love one another, as Jesus put it. This is about obedience and disobedience. You will understand that before I finish this message. It is about obedience and disobedience. I’m sorry; this church and churches like them, and pastors like this particular church has are dead wrong, are so off track, and are so 109
disobedient to the Word of God that you just want to grab them and shake them and say, “Wake up! Who mind-bleeped you with Christian psychology while you were in bible school or seminary!”—because all they are applying here is Christian psychological principles they were probably taught in school to rationalize everything in God’s Word and why they should do this and that for the benefit of fellow mankind. God’s Word does not deal with mankind that way. Man does, God does not.
Another United Methodist pastor 900 miles away came to a similar conclusion when a neighboring Islamic congregation asked to use his church's space for five months of Friday prayers. [This person] , pastor of Aldersgate Methodist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, shares part of his theological reasoning in a sermon published at [an internet website] .
While [that pastor] uses more explicitly evangelical and exclusivist language than [the other church and its pastor] , he similarly defends his decision by appealing to Jesus and Christian love: "When we say that Jesus is the only way to the Father, we don't just mean our belief in Jesus is the only way to the Father. We also mean Jesus' way of life is the only way we manifest the Father's love.
That is the biggest bunch of Christian psychological bull-bleep that I have heard I a long time! “We also mean Jesus' way of life is the only way we manifest the Father's love.”—Listen, try to imitate Jesus, everything He did and you will still fall short. Does that mean the Father’s love is not going to be manifested in you? Think about how stupid that is. And people are reading this on a daily basis and falling for this Christian crap! I’m telling you right now it’s not Christian and it definitely is not God’s Word! What reconciled me back to the Father was Jesus’ love for mankind. I already told you what love is. I’m sorry; Wuest and all those other Greek language experts put a different kind of definition on the word than what Paul knew the word meant and how it was used in the classical Greek format—where the Christian translation of God’s Word should be and how it should be translated. What I am saying is Paul knew exactly what the words meant. Then we had Christian so-called experts trying to put different meanings on what God’s Word says, specifically in the Greek language, and then they try to put additional meanings on the Greek definition of words. And I have told you many times over that if you just pick up Greek dictionaries and lexicons here and there you will see them saying pretty much the same thing. All they are doing is copying one person’s work and then putting a little twist on it to make it their own. There are a few serious Greek scholars that took it serious and started analyzing what the Greek language actually said and what Paul more than likely used to communicate what he was trying to express concerning God and His ways, Christ and His ways. I have told you the best definition you can find concerning love is giving somebody what they need, not what they desire. Do you think man desired Jesus Christ, a man to come on the scene and die? They were looking for a Messiah to defeat the Romans and any other enemies surrounding them. They wanted a seen military victory in the flesh. Christ knew that was a temporary solution, but that was not an eternal solution. So He gave them what they needed, not what they wanted. What they desired was a military campaign that put their enemies under their foot. That would have only been a temporary solution. What they needed was eternal life! And the only way anyone is going to get 110
it is through Jesus Christ, no other religion, no other method. The greatest expression and definition (write it down, never forget it) describing agapao and agape love is giving what they need, not what they desire . What you and I needed was Christ to die on that cross and rise from the dead! If we would have had our way, just like Peter before Christ went to the cross, that would not have happened...for whatever reason—because maybe Peter was still hoping for a military campaign, or maybe Peter was so attached and so loved Jesus that he didn’t want to see Him die. Perhaps he wanted Him to live longer so he could have association and companionship with Him, but Christ knew better. And don’t get me wrong; we probably would have done the same thing. So don’t think that I think I am special and donn’t think that you are special. We probably would have followed the same suit as Peter in that situation because we too would not recognize this is what we needed: because we are still in the flesh looking for what we desire.
We also mean Jesus' way of life is the only way we manifest the Father's love.
What a Christian jerk. I’m sorry, I just cannot hold back.
That we would welcome Muslim strangers into our sacred space [obviously you do not think it is that sacred] with no strings attached is not a reduction of what we believe about Jesus (or a betrayal); it is, I think, the fullest possible expression of what we believe about Jesus."
Oh really? Then you don’t believe much, and you as a pastor should definitely know better. But don’t feel bad; most don’t anyway because they don’t have a clue. For years I believed giving was the most recognizable topic and the most expressed topic throughout Scripture—and it is. Do you know what is second? And it is a close second if it is not tied. I will give you one example. It’s probably something that you’ve read so many times and yet you never came even close to understanding why this story is so important. A certain city was a very important city to conquer to lay down a principle that would affect Israel from that day forward, even in today’s day, and even unto the end. God has things under control and He knows who Israel’s enemies are. He knows how He is going to handle them when their reckoning day comes, when Christ comes back and settles the score once and for all. Sorry; the last days message and all the directions it takes is right up there with giving. There is hardly a single chapter in Scripture where there is not a last days reference to it. “Are you kidding?” No I’m not. These fools think the fullest possible expression of what we believe about Jesus is opening your doors to allow false worship within what you call the church? It is inexcusable. If you are a pastor or anywhere in leadership guiding people through the journey of life through God’s Word and you don’t know the simple principles of what has displeased God from almost day one, you are in trouble. We know for sure according to the biblical historical record that goes hand-in-hand with secular history that false worship, false idols, and false gods has been the number one thing that has upset God, and how He has punished His chosen people because of their lack of understanding of that, because they were so gullible and wanted the easy way out. See, serving God is tough. It’s not complicated, but it is tough. You rationalize serving everything else and you make it convenient how you want to worship. Well, Christianity in these latter days has done the same thing, made it convenient to worship, made it convenient to go to church, made it convenient to have activities, made it convenient to keep you occupied, made it convenient, convenient, convenient for you no matter where you turn so that they can keep you 111
within their walls, in a sense, trapped as a prisoner of your own desires and flesh; because you are entertained and occupied there, and it is disguised as the work of the Lord. Listen, today’s church is not turning the world upside down. It is holding the world’s hand side-by-side where you can hardly tell the difference between one activity and another, between what is a worldly activity and what is a church activity because the only difference is they call it Christian-so-n-so when the world just calls it so-n-so. It goes on to say:
Both of the pastors allowing Muslim worship on their property appeal to the love required of Christians...
No it does not! It does not appeal to that at all.
...as an authoritative guide for their decision-making.
But it is not self-evident that this duty requires us to provide property for false worship. [Well, you got that right.] The theological issues at play come down to whether Jesus' love command also requires leaders to avoid causing undue stumbling; or, as Wesley put it, the command to do good works includes avoiding causing or leading others to harm, whether they are believers or unbelievers. Does facilitation of false worship violate the love command?
Well, Wesley didn’t have much understanding of what good works was anyway. He put his own definition on that.
Absurd extremes of Qur'an burning and protests over mosque construction illustrate the fact that the love command requires theological interpretation in order to be correctly applied.
That is true, but what does God’s Word say about bringing false idols and false worship into the body of Christ? I’m going to use an Old Testament story and go into ‘the chosen ones’ daily lives, into the camp called the Israelites as they crossed Jordan and headed their way to Jericho. There are a lot of different principles in just about every chapter of God’s Word and an important understanding of what God’s Word says in every chapter. You cannot exhaust it. I’m telling you there are last days messages in this particular chapter also. I necessarily won’t get there, but I want to respond to, How should we react as Christians to allowing Muslims, Hindus, Hare Krishnas, or whoever to practice idolatrous worship in our sanctuaries? If you are not there to worship my Lord Jesus Christ or at least hear about Him, go somewhere else. I guarantee you; you would be hard pressed to find any mosque that will allow the message of Jesus to be preached in their mosque or even praying to Jesus in their mosque. But Christians say, “We are doing this out of brotherly love. We are doing this because this is what Jesus would do.” Would He? Jesus would sit down and have a dinner with a Muslim and I believe try to convince him of the error of his ways and say, “No; I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. It is not through anything that you are going to hear in the future about the prophet Mohammed.” There were no Muslims in Jesus’ day but I think Jesus would heal someone who was still worshipping the identity of the moon god or any other god. It’s not about what you would do for fellow mankind because of your expression of love (giving what they need, not what they desire). This is about 112
obedience and disobedience, and what God has set as a pattern throughout Scripture. This is just one of many stories I could go to for this message of being obedient or disobedient. Go to Joshua 5:13. Joshua 5:13, “And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? [14] And he said, Nay; but as captain [lit. prince] of the host of the LORD am I now come. This is the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. I know a lot of people preach it is an angel, maybe even Michael. It’s not. First of all, angels do not require anyone to prostrate themselves, bow down, or whatever you want to call it, and worship them. They would not even think of it. This is the pre- incarnated Christ, this is the Prince of the Host, the Captain of the Host, the Lord Jesus speaking here and He has His sword drawn in His hand. He is ready to go to battle. He is ready to go to war. Against who? All the Canaanites in the land that Joshua and the children of Israel had to conquer. The Canaanites had no business being there. They are trespassers! That particular area of the world was not designated by Noah to be their land. They are trespassers. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant? And the captain of the LORD’s host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy.” Incidentally, that does not happen to angels. It only happens to Jehovah and Jehovah is Jesus in the New Testament, by the way. I still have to preach on that. “And Joshua did so.” Joshua 6:1, “ Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in. ” No one was coming in and no one was going out. Remember, they were sealed tight. There were two walls in Jericho with about 10 plus feet distance between them in certain areas. There was not just one wall around Jericho, there were two walls around Jericho. Archeology has proven that. And all the gates and all the walls, no one was going in or coming out. They were sealed tight. Verse 2, “And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour. And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go around about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days.” You are going to make a trip around the city of Jericho once and you are going to do this for six days. Verse 4, “And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priest shall blow with the trumpets”. Now the question is: Did they blow every time they went around the city each of the six days? Or, did they just wait for the last day when they went around the city seven times and blew the trumpets? If you look at some Hebrew translations and if you study where it says ‘shall blow,’ some scholars believe, because it is used quite often in Hebrew literature, the words that were used here in verse four for ‘shall blow’ is like clapping your hands, or in this case clanging the trumpets together. We know they blew the trumpets on the last day. Now if they went around the 113
city for the first six days and just clanged their trumpets together, can you imagine what the people of Jericho city were thinking as they were watching these people going around the city clanging their trumpets? “What a bunch of lunatics. Why in the world are they doing that? What is the purpose of it? That is not how you put up a fight. That is not how you declare war. That is not how you attack a city.” But remember, the Israelites would not bring that wall down. The destruction of the city and the fortification around it, Christ was going to take care of. All they had to do to the ones that would escape the destruction was make sure that they were exterminated. God did not want anyone alive and there is a reason for that. He wanted all the Canaanites in all the cities exterminated because God knew they would eventually pollute— which they did because Joshua did not fulfill his mission. He made peace with the Gibeonites and the Amorites were always a constant pain to the Israelites. So, we pick it up at verse 5.
“And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn...” A long blast... Now does any of this have to do with the last days as a precursor of what was going to happen eventually according to the book of Revelation? I’m reserving this for another message and we will take a look at that in the future. “And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout: and the wall of the city shall fall down flat [from underneath itself], and the people shall ascend up, every man straight before him. And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said unto them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the LORD. And he said unto the people, Pass on and compass the city, and let him that is armed pass on before the ark of the LORD. And it came to pass, when Joshua had spoken unto the people, that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram’s horns passed on before the LORD, and blew [clanged] with the trumpets: and the ark of the covenant of the LORD followed them. Now, what do I think? I do not think they blew those trumpets the six days. I think that was an event and a long blast on the seventh day when the trumpets blew at Joshua’s command. I have studied this. There is more evidence of clanging the trumpets together than there is blowing those first six days. I know that is going to be new to some of you if not most of you. I know it is going to irk some scholars. Well, take it up with other scholars because more and more of them are starting to lean towards a clanging of the trumpets together. Joshua 6:9, “And the armed men went before the priests that blew [clanged] with the trumpets and the rereward came after the ark, the priests going on, and blowing [clanging] with the trumpets. And Joshua had commanded the people, saying, Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth until the day I bid you shout; then shall ye shout. So the ark of the LORD compassed the city, going about it once, and they came into the camp, and lodged in the camp. And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the LORD. And seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the LORD went on continually, and blew [clanged] with the trumpets: and the armed men went before them: but the rereward came after the ark of the LORD, the priests going on, and blowing [clanging] with the trumpets. And the second day they compassed the city once, and returned into the camp: so they did six days.” 114
Most of you know this story. There are so many messages you can preach from it, but I want to concentrate on one thing, false gods, false worship, and the moon god; and it has no business in churches. Joshua 6:15, “And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times: only on that day they compassed the city seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the LORD hath given you the city.” Now the trumpets were blown. Now the long blast took place. Verse 17, “And the city shall be accursed [remember that], even it, and all that are therein, to the LORD: only Rahab...” Rahab is represented as the bride here, eventually to someone in the line of Judah. She became an ancestor of David. She is mentioned in the genealogy in the Gospel record that leads all the way up to Jesus. It is amazing that on the seventh day when the seven trumpets blew Rahab was rescued. That makes me want to take you to the book of Revelation right now, but that is another subject for another time. It is just food for thought.
“...only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.” I want you to pay close attention to verse 18. “And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel accursed, and trouble it.” “And ye, in any wise keep yourselves,” or literally guard yourselves; remember what you have been told and guard your thoughts. Do not lose your focus or the instruction that will lead you to be disobedient. “And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing...” What is the accursed thing? Ask yourself that. I know you can look at every commentary and you can look at every book. They are going to tell you it was the silver, gold, and vessels of brass and iron. Oh really? Is that what you think it is? “lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing...” What God is saying here is you are going to make yourself accursed if you take of the accursed thing “and make the camp of Israel accursed, and trouble it.” You are going to bring on the trouble, the wrath of God into the camp if you take the accursed thing. Do you understand that folks? Joshua 6:19 , “But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the LORD” Or literally, they are holy because they would be consecrated. Why? Because they were supposed to be given to the priests. “Well, why should the priests get it?” The priests will use it for the functions they were assigned to carry out. Sorry; this time you do not get any silver, gold, or brass. No precious metals for you Israel. It is being handed over to the priests for the functions 115
they have to carry out. That is the only thing they could do with it. Now, a lot of preachers preach this differently. In fact, I haven’t met one yet that has not. Remember the accursed in verse 18. “And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing...” The accursed thing was not the silver, gold and the brass. “...and make the camp of Israel accursed, and trouble it.” “But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated [holy] they shall come into the treasury of the LORD.” Guess who controlled the treasury? The priests. Try to preach this message in today’s world. “The priests, the preachers, the pastors are not qualified. How can we trust them?” Whether you can trust them or not is not even the issue. The issue is this is what God said for Israel to do with it in this case. “So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout...” Now they hear the trumpets. So it gives credence to the scholars that say the first six days they were just clanging the trumpets as they are marching. So we get to the seventh day, as they went around seven times, after the seventh time the priests blew the trumpets finally “and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat [from underneath themselves] so that all the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. [22] But Joshua had said unto the two men that had spied out the country, Go into the harlot’s house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as ye sware unto her.” You know that story, I’ve preached it before. Verse 24, “And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein: only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD.” Now it does not say here that they took the accursed thing, does it? No; because the silver, brass, gold, and iron was not the accursed thing. That is an important distinction to make here. It is important that you clear this up in your mind. Don’t combine these two items and put it under one category as the accursed thing. The accursed thing was the accursed thing. The other precious metals were going to be used for the functions of the things concerning God and how the priests had to carry out the functions for the different purposes, and they were in charge of the treasury. “And Joshua saved Rahab,” and you know the whole story. Then we get to chapter 7, but before we go there, I want to read you something about Jericho, because this is about the moon god.
Jericho is a green oasis in the Jordan Valley which was 7 Km west of the river Jordan, 10 Km north of the Dead Sea and 30 Km east of Jerusalem. It lies 250 meters below sea level and thus it is considered to be the lowest city in the world.
The origin of the name "Jericho" is Semitic. [Listen closely] To the Canaanites it meant "The Moon". In Syriac the name meant "Scent and odour".
That is why when you look this up in most of your bible dictionaries you will see ‘pleasant odor’ for the name of Jericho. I am sorry, that is bad scholarship, lazy scholarship. Not enough research went into it when they were writing their dictionaries and lexicons. That was just one of 116
the names, but it was not the name. This is why it is important to know this and why the last days message has stayed in the dark, because of lack of inspiration to see what the truth is.
To the Canaanites it meant "The Moon". In Syriac the name meant "Scent and odour". The city is called "The city of Palm" and "The Garden of God".
City of Palms can be said just about any city in Israel.
Jericho is the oldest city in the world. The ruins of the oldest civilization discovered in Jericho are 10,000 years old.
How old the city is is debatable.
The Canaanites were among the first folks that emigrated from Arabia to physical Syria.
They did not migrate from Syria. I believe they migrated, if they migrated from anywhere, was from the Babylonian area near the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.
Jericho was one of their most important cities (1400 B.C.). The name “Jericho” to them meant “the moon ".
The Canaanites excelled in the sculpture of statues and in pictorial sculpture which appears in the layers of gypsum covering the skulls, and which are similar to a head cover. It is exactly similar to the contemporary head dress worn by Palestinian women. It is known by its popular name, "Al-Wiqahyah" (The protector), or “As-Samada" or " Al- 'Usabh al-kan'aniyyah "(The Canaanite Turban).
Jericho; Let me read you something else.
Astronauts have walked on the moon, and we have seen its surface on our TV sets. Yet the moon was regarded with mystery from earliest times. Clever men studied its (and other solar bodies') movements and used the knowledge as magic to control superstitious populaces. Ancient cities were dedicated to moon-worship [and the Canaanite cities were no different] , having the moon as their patron-god. One such was Ur in Mesopotamia (with "Nanna" as patroness). Even in Mesopotamia, the moon was the chief astral deity at this time.
See, I am reading different historians and one archeological fact finding mission report after another trying to discover and dig through history. Everything that I have read to you about the moon god has come from different sources. I have not repeated one source yet. The scholarship is out there. The work has been done. They are still in the process of discovering more information about these deities and gods in times past—especially around this time period. This is information every Christian should be digging into and finding out about; or, at the very least, trusting the ones that are preaching it to you, bringing it to you. It is real. It is historical fact. In this case, it is archeological fact. These deities existed.
Even in Mesopotamia, the moon was the chief astral deity at this time. 117
Early in Canaanite religion, the male moon-god, "Yerach," was the chief god of the pantheon. And the female sun-god, "Shamash," was his cohort. Later, these were changed to Baal [which has an interesting beginning point and in the future we will see where that came from] and Ashteroth. "To judge from Canaanite place- names of the earliest period, such as Jericho and Beit-Yerach, as well as from Non-Semitic personal and place names of the 2nd millenium BC, the cult of the sun-god and moon-god (or goddess) was at its height in very early times and steadily declined thereafter"
Well, I disagree with that. It didn’t decline. It took on different names and it was disguised differently, but there was no decline taking place through the centuries. I will prove that.
In Palestine there seem to have been two cities associated with moon worship, both "facing" east. One was Beit-Yerach ("Temple of the Moon") on the southwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. The other was Jericho...
Isn’t that ironic? After crossing Jordan, they had to conquer (or the Lord would do it for them mostly) Jericho, the city of the moon god.
The other was Jericho with the broad Jordan valley extending eastward. But Jericho was a leading city in Joshua's time (1400 BC) and likely the seat of moon worship...
Was God sending a message? Was the Captain of the Host doing just as He will in the last days when He comes back after that seventh trumpet is blown, having sword in hand to bring an end to the Beast that has controlled and had the moon god as its deity throughout its history? I say yes. We will see that in the future.
Jericho was a leading city in Joshua's time (1400 BC) and likely the seat of moon worship. If the moon was the chief of the Canaanite pantheon, it would be a very strategic city indeed!
"The worship of the Moon (Yerach) and his consort Nikkal (Mesopotamian Nin- gal) and the sun goddess (Shepesh) is attested at Ras Shamra (Ugarit) both in mythological texts [outside of the bible, including non-Hebraic literature] and in offering-lists." And even in the Land of Israel, "The basalt figure of a seated god adjacent to a sculpture of hands upraised to a crescent and disc in the Late Bronze Age temple at Hazor probably depicts the Moon-god."
No matter where you go, there are representations of the moon god deity being the main god. Even though there were other gods and the sun god probably came in second, they were being worshipped, were being idolized, were being bowed down to. Why do we think, as we analyze scripture and look closely at this story in Joshua, the overthrow and conquest of Jericho and its citizens was important? Because the citizens of Jericho and this city of the moon god was an important and strategic location for the worship of the moon god and it had to be destroyed. Jericho had to go down. And hopefully with Jericho going down, the system that the Canaanites used to establish religion and the worship of a false god would be eradicated from their land. 118
Now you see it earlier in the Exodus story when they were still in Egypt, that God dealt with the Egyptians’ gods to also prove that their gods were not gods but man’s imagination of what a god should be, and a god that they had designed. We see it in Exodus 12:12 during the Passover and after the plagues, one after another, came down when the Israelites were still in Egypt with Moses, “For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt [the worst of all the plagues], both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.” Against ALL the gods of Egypt; think about that. Are you afraid of their gods? Do you think their gods are going to destroy you? Do you think their gods are going to interfere with your exodus? Guess what? Not only will I send a strong message to the leadership of Egypt, removing their first born from their lives and their existence, but I will also destroy their beasts and come against all the gods of Egypt. I will execute judgment. I, the LORD! Numbers 33:4, “For the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, which the LORD had smitten among them: upon their gods also the LORD executed judgments.” The first city they would conquer when they crossed Jordan God was sending a message just as He did (give or take) 40 years earlier. I will execute the mankind leadership that does not worship Me, and I will execute and bring judgment upon their false gods to show them that those gods are worthless. They are not gods. There is only one God and He is the Lord and the I AM—which I will show you in the future where that points and that is Jesus. Now, as they are wandering in the wilderness, a generation passed. They only heard about the stories. You have probably heard the old phrase over and over ‘out of sight, out of mind’. They never had it in sight in the first place. Only a few that were a part of that original crowd was going to cross Jordan. The rest were either too young to remember or they were not even born yet. They didn’t witness those plagues more than likely. So they needed reassurance and God knew this. They needed to be obedient but as they were being obedient, they were getting reassured of Christ, Jehovah’s supremacy over these gods of Canaan. They were told over and over. You can read it in the Torah, the second through fifth book of the Old Testament, where they are told over and over not to do what really angers and aggravates God, worshipping false gods. That is why the Canaanites had to be eliminated, why they had to be exterminated along with their gods. Judgment had to come and it did. They had to destroy the system and that is what they did. God knew when their chief city that established the basis of their religion and false worship, and their false god the moon god was destroyed, this would increase Israel’s confidence to go and take all the land of the Canaanites and conquer all the kings of the Canaanites. That is why you see Him, Christ Himself, the Captain of the Host, the Prince of the Host in this first battle taking the lead position. Follow Me men, we are going in! Christ did most of the work. They went in. They destroyed everything. They burned everything. They thought that they didn’t take anything that was accursed. But that didn’t happen because we pick it up at Joshua 7:1, “But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing...” Now here is where the confusion comes in. 119
“...for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled [burning, fuming mad] against the children of Israel.” Don’t bring the accursed thing into the camp! It brings trouble! God is not pleased that anyone would act in disobedience to His instruction. Go back to chapter 6 verse 18. “And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel accursed, and trouble it.” Achan was disobedient and he took of the accursed thing. And of course, the next city was going to be Ai. And they decided, Hey we were so victorious (forgetting who really won the battle for them) let’s just take 3000 men and take care of that city. They went and they got their rear-ends kicked around. They lost that battle. And we read in Joshua 7:6,“And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the even tide, and he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads.” They could not figure out what happened. The second city was going to be so much easier than the first. What happened? “And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord GOD, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side of Jordan...” We were happier over there Lord: we were safe over there. In essence, What did You bring us over here for, to die? “O LORD, what shall I say when Israel turneth their backs [lit. turn their necks] before their enemies! For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name? And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?” Get up man! What are you doing falling on your face! You are the assigned leader of this group. Can’t you put two and two together? Didn’t I say trouble would be upon you if you take the accursed thing? “Israel hath sinned”—one man’s actions has caused the whole camp of Israel to be in sin — “and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them; for they have taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.” Ah ha! Now we get a little bit clearer understanding. They took the accursed thing, which God said not to take, and have also stolen and dissembled all the other things that were part of that list. But they were not the accursed thing. Get that in your mind folks. Plant it there. Separate the two. Joshua 7:12, “Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies [that is why they lost at Ai], but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.” 120
If they didn’t find who took something that was accursed, God would have nothing else to do with them. That was it. That was the line in the sand. Find it. Destroy it and the person who took it—and unfortunately his family had to pay the price too. Or, you no longer have Me amongst you leading you, protecting you, bringing you from victory to victory, supplying your needs, and everything that goes with God’s care for His chosen group.
“...because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.” See, God doesn’t like accursed things. God doesn’t like false gods, false idols, false anything or any associated element of that religion. He died for all mankind including Muslims, Hindus, and anyone else to rescue them from the path they are in, which is eventually destruction, eternal destruction. But He doesn’t make a deal with mankind saying, “Okay you can still worship that as long as you get along with your fellow mankind.” That’s not how it works. You are either with God or you are accursed. Sorry, there is no changing of His mind. “Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies... [13] Up sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow: for thus saith the LORD God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you. In the morning therefore ye shall be brought according to your tribes: and it shall be, that the tribe which the LORD taketh shall come according to the families thereof; and the family which the LORD shall take shall come by households; and the household which the LORD shall take shall come man by man. And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath, because he hath transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he hath wrought folly [lit. wickedness] in Israel. So Joshua rose up early in the morning, and brought Israel by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was taken: And he brought the family of Judah; and he took the family of the Zarhites: and he brought the family of the Zarhites man by man; and Zabdi was taken: and he brought his household man by man; and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken. [19] And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me. And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done: When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment...” Highlight or circle ‘Babylonish garment’. Do whatever you have to do to have it stand out among these scriptures. What was the accursed thing? Some say it was some type of Babylonish idol. I lean more toward a priest’s ceremonial garment, what a priest would wear. Now it was not uncommon. The High Priest and even the ones that were not high priests wore certain garments. And the High Priest was suppose to wear the garments, which they did, that put them in the place of representing the people Israel and the functions they were to carry out. Recall the significance and important information that the breast plate carried with itself, which God knew about and even the children of Israel also, or at least the priests did and what it symbolized. Priestly garments were important key elements of worship because the people in those days, whether you are an Israelite or not, would follow the priests that would direct them in the act of worship to their God. Now obviously as the High Priest would function in the Tabernacle and eventually in the Temple—for certain purposes in the act of worship, including 121
the priests as they would deal with the offerings—he would stand to mediate between God and man. In other religions of that time and before that time it carried the same important role in their mindset. If you could get a priestly garment in your hands, it was worth something. It was worth more than the gold, silver, brass, and the iron because of what it represented. As Achan is relaying this information to Joshua, it is not by accident what he took. Remember, chapter 6 verse 18 starts with the instruction of do not take the accursed thing, and also gives us further instruction what to do with the other things that were not accursed, but were to be consecrated unto the Lord for the purposes that He had designed, which the priests would take from the treasury and use as they were instructed. So we have the list. The accursed thing is first, then everything else. Now you go to Joshua 7:21 when Achan finally confesses what he did, “When I saw among the spoils a goodly [something desirable in the Hebrew] Babylonish garment...” This is a priest’s ceremonial garment of some sort that represented a priest in a very high position if not the top position in the moon god worship. And then, “two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.” Now you know what the accursed thing was. It was something that was supposed to be burnt. God wanted anything and everything burnt, or if it was mankind, killed and exterminated when Jericho was destroyed. The only thing that was not to be destroyed was those precious metals. Do you understand? Everything was to be destroyed and everything was, except probably outside of the key deity statue of the moon city temple worship and this priestly garment—which carries so much definition it with it of what it meant as a representative if you wore it to step in for the people as you communicate to the false god or gods. In this case, it represented the moon god. As the High Priest would stand in once a year for the sin and trespass offering, the same principles and practices were being applied in false worship and false religions—except when you study these false religions, these individuals that were high priests or priests of these false religions almost set themselves up as false gods themselves with divine deity powers. It was a wicked thing. It was evil. God wanted anything that was associated to the moon god practice of the religion destroyed, people and items. They were all accursed. He didn’t want the pollution. Achan brought the pollution in and that was cursed. It caused the whole camp to be cursed. Now Joshua had men search it out. And yes, they did find it. And in verse 25 we read, “And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? The LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called, The Valley of Achor [lit. trouble], unto this day.” God made it very clear that all other gods are nothing more than figments of man’s imagination. Ignoring the true God or refusing to surrender and to serve Him will lead to judgment and destruction. Now back to where I started with the article. To allow any false worship of any false god into your church is to bring in trouble – not necessarily from man, but trouble God and Christ will 122
bring upon you for being disobedient. This has nothing to do with being a Good Samaritan so-to- speak, helping out mankind. This is about bringing a false worship of a false idol into a place that calls Jesus their Master, their Savior, when you know very well the religion you allow to be brought into your sanctuary denies His existence and says He is not the Son of God. Damn you who even think about doing it and damn you straight from God’s Word that carries that out. We don’t live in Old Testament times, but your destruction would have been being stoned to death. God’s Word does the stoning now. It’s not too late to change your opinion. There is only one religion—I even hate calling it a religion—there is only one Way and that is Christ and everything else is a false figment of your imagination because you want to serve a god that you create. That could be anything by the way, but we are talking about the Muslims being allowed to worship in Christian churches and use them as make-shift mosques. That will lead you straight to hell. Get your act together. I could give you story after story, and take you to places in the Old and New Testaments showing how that is defined over and over again. It’s not by accident that God wanted to send a message and He is going to send a message again when He deals with the Beast and the seventh trumpet to deliver His Bride this time, not Rahab, but the Church, the true out called ones. The question is, will you be ready or will you be stuck with some Christian psychological bull-bleep and try to rationalize it with “This is what Jesus would do?” No! He won’t. His Word has demonstrated that over and over. God willing, I will bring more stories to you to show you God’s verifiables, Thus saith the Word of the Lord.
To be continued...
123
The Last Days Study Guide
City of the Moon God
1. What affect did Achan’s sin have upon his family?
2. What was Israel to do with the gold, silver, brass and iron from Jericho?
3. Some are of the opinion that the moon god cult was at its height in very early times, but thereafter steadily declined. What information are they failing to take into consideration that causes their opinion to be flawed?
4. What parallel(s) can be seen between the story and Jericho and last days prophecy?
5. How many times did the Israelites march around Jericho?
6. What did the name Jericho mean to the Canaanites?
7. What would have caused God to have nothing to do with the Israelites?
8. What is the accursed thing?
9. When confronted with a circumstance, instead of asking our self ‘What would Jesus do?” what should we be asking our self?
10. How has this message affected your view about Islamic worship practices within Christian sanctuaries?
124
125
Cush = Chaos
We are in Genesis Chapters 9 through 11 and concentrating again on Cush. Cush was a son of Ham and Noah was his grandfather; and of course one of Cush’s sons was Nimrod. Everybody has heard of Nimrod. We find him in the Old Testament in Genesis Chapters 10 and 11. So, we are in that time period after the flood. What I have been trying to point out is there was the god sun, the god moon, and of course, the stars. I also teased you with Genesis 37 concerning Joseph’s second dream, not the first dream where Joseph dreamed a dream and told his brothers in verse 7 about “... binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us?” They knew exactly what that dream meant. They weren’t guessing at it. It was clear to them what Joseph was dreaming, so why a second dream? Was it to aggravate them even more? They were already aggravated. They already wanted to eliminate Joseph from their existence. He was already Jacob’s favorite son. It was demonstrated with the coat Jacob had given him. Then Joseph has another dream in Genesis 37:9, “And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.” He told his father this dream and I asked you, What do you think this particular verse means when you have read it in the past? And of course everyone thinks that because we have the sun, the moon and eleven stars in verse 9, it is about Joseph’s family. So now what do you think about it as I relay this information to you and we are piecing it together? Some of you are starting to get the clues that you need to start relating it to something else and not with what Joseph was talking about regarding his brothers, father, and his mother (again his mother is already dead by this point). Remember, Joseph was not only a dreamer, he was also a type of Christ (though he was not Christ) because of the similarities of what he went through. At my last calculation there are over 50 similarities. So, he was a type of Christ of things yet to come. Verse 10, “And he told it to his father, and his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed?” Even his father didn’t understand the dream. “Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.” The only problem with this is his mother was already dead. So obviously, Jacob was talking about maybe a stepmother, as we would call it. This obviously was not the mother that gave birth to Joseph because she was dead by this time. That is why Jacob was confused also: which mother? If you go by the genealogy record, it could be Leah or one of the other concubines that gave birth to the remaining brothers. Verse 11, “And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.” He did not rule out the possible understanding of that dream. He just didn’t know the dreams interpretation at that time. I don’t even think Joseph did. I do not think this points to anything except the religion that was established prior to this dream being given, and that which would come afterwards. We will see that as I progress forward. 126
So I took us back and made some sidebar messages, for instance on Jericho the moon god city, the capitol city of that area, which was the first city conquered, with Christ as the Captain of the Host going before Israel and tearing down those walls, accomplishing what they accomplished through Him. It’s not by coincidence that it happened to be the capitol of the moon god worship in that area—which was still called the land of Canaan even though it did not belong to Canaan: it was not part of his inheritance. So we are going to pick up now where I left off concerning Cush and Nimrod. I will show you that after the flood, Satan made a beeline to this line of Ham’s lineage. We already know that Canaan was cursed and the reason for that. But now through Ham, through one of his sons Cush, and through Cush’s son Nimrod, a false religion with false gods was established, which I believe they placed as astral gods and titled themselves after those heavenly bodies. I was reading this week through another 500-plus page book on the false gods and false religions of that era. The information is available. Unfortunately, all these books that I have been reading for a long time now were written over 100 years ago. The few that have been written in the more recent decades haven’t changed much even though there has been some changes and additional information which is helpful in some areas. But overall, the information that was established and the books that were made to pass on that knowledge has not changed much in newer publications as far as the structure and how these religions were started. I’m telling you the ringleader was Cush and his son Nimrod. But Cush was the first person to make himself a deity while he was still living and then it just enhanced after he died, and so forth for his son Nimrod. And of course Semiramis took it to a whole new level. I can give you all the different names of these false gods and false idols, make the connection, and show you how they are the same kind of gods that existed eventually in Egypt. As you study this you will find it started in the Babylonian area, the Land of Shinar area, but it also became popular and practiced as a religion in Egypt. They were the same gods with just their names changed, yet the same meaning behind how they were worshiped, how they were established, just a transfer of location. Then eventually it spread through the Assyrian area westward through Turkey all the way to Greece—different time periods a little bit later in history, but the same gods with different names. Then eventually it spread to Rome. The problem with studying this is you can get confused thinking they are different gods in different locations. They are not. It was just the adoption of the same gods that started in the Shinar area and moved on to different locations whether it was Egypt, Northern Assyria, Turkey, Greece, or eventually Rome and beyond—including the Celts carrying some of that with them in a previous exodus from Egypt that wound up in the British Isles. (But that is getting ahead of the story, and, I’m not even sure I’m going to go there because there is just too much ground to cover.) Each location had the same understanding of what they were worshipping, but just put a new title or name behind that god to claim it as their own. It was nothing new or unique. Like I said, there is so much rich information. I could spend the next 52 weeks on just analyzing this whole false religion system, how it was established, and who the players were throughout history. I hope with this message to finish convincing you of who the ringleaders were so we can move on and go back to Scripture, as I did with the City of The Moon God, and show where we see signs of them still worshiping what was established—for instance, the time period between Nimrod and Abraham, which was not that long of a distance of time. 127
Now let’s get to Nimrod. I am going to read you a lot of history from two different sources. It might bore most of you because you are not into history, but you have to understand where the roots of this false worship originated. The main deity, the moon god, has been identified not just through one source but many now as being Cush or Cronus/Kronos (and other names that were given to him). As we move forward in this you will see it remained an established religion with the only difference being names and time periods changing. You will see it throughout scriptural history all the way through the New Testament; and then eventually how the Beast reared its head in the Islamic Empire. What it worships is nothing more than the moon god—especially the way Mohammed established it to be worshiped.
Now, this Ninus, or "Son," borne in the arms of the Babylonian Madonna, is so described as very clearly to identify him with Nimrod. He was the first who carried on war against his neighbours, and he conquered all nations from Assyria to Lybia, as they were yet unacquainted with the arts of war.
That is a big territory; that is from Assyria, which is mostly in the Mesopotamian area as we know of today, all the way to Libya. Now we see it in scripture in Genesis 10:8, “And Cush [son of Ham] begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth, He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.” When one reads ‘before the Lord,’ it makes one question what it means. “And the beginning [or the first one to be acknowledged this] of his kingdom [or his reign as a king] was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar [the Mesopotamian Valley]. Out of the land, went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city of Rehoboth, and Calah, And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.”
Ninus, the most ancient of the Assyrian kings mentioned in history, performed great actions. Being naturally of a warlike disposition, and ambitious of glory that results from valour, he armed a considerable number of young men that were brave and vigorous like himself, trained them up a long time in laborious exercises and hardships, and by that means accustomed them to bear the fatigues of war, and to face dangers with intrepidity. Ninus, ‘the most ancient of the Assyrian kings,’ raised his power to an extraordinary height by bringing the people of Babylonia under subjection to him, while as yet the city of Babylon was not in existence, this shows that he occupied the very position of Nimrod, of whom the Scriptural account is, that he first "began to be mighty on the earth," and that the "beginning of his kingdom was Babylon." As the Babel builders, when their speech was confounded, were scattered abroad on the face of the earth, and therefore deserted both the city and the tower which they had commenced to build, Babylon as a city, could not properly be said to exist till Nimrod, by establishing his power there, made it the foundation and starting-point of his greatness. In this respect, then, the story of Ninus and of Nimrod exactly harmonize. The way, too, in which Ninus gained his power is the very way in which Nimrod erected his. There can be no doubt that it was by inuring his followers to the toils and dangers of the chase, that he gradually formed them to the use of arms, and so prepared them for aiding him in establishing his dominions; just as Ninus [if you compare both stories] , by training his companions for a long time "in laborious exercises and hardships," qualified them for making him the first of the Assyrian kings. 128
The conclusions deduced from these testimonies of ancient history are greatly strengthened by many additional considerations. In Genesis 10:11, we find a passage, which, when its meaning is properly understood, casts a very steady light on the subject. That passage, as given in the authorized version, runs thus:-- "Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh." This speaks of it as something remarkable, that Asshur went out of the land of Shinar, while yet the human race in general went forth from the same land. It goes upon the supposition that Asshur had some sort of divine right to that land, and that he had been, in a manner, expelled from it by Nimrod, while no divine right is elsewhere hinted at in the context, or seems capable of proof. Moreover, it represents Asshur as setting up in the IMMEDIATE NEIGHBOURHOOD of Nimrod as mighty a kingdom as Nimrod himself, Asshur building four cities, one of which is emphatically said to have been "great" (v 12); while Nimrod, on this interpretation, built just the same number of cities, of which none is specially characterized as "great." Now, it is in the last degree improbable that Nimrod would have quietly borne so mighty a rival so near him. To obviate such difficulties as these, it has been proposed to render the words, "out of that land he (Nimrod) went forth into Asshur, or Assyria."
Instead of reading “Out of that land went forth Asshur,” it should then read, “he (Nimrod) went forth into Asshur” or the Assyrian area.
But then, according to ordinary usage of grammar, the word in the original should have been "Ashurah," with the sign of motion to a place affixed to it, whereas it is simply Asshur, without any such sign of motion affixed. I am persuaded that the whole perplexity that commentators have hitherto felt in considering this passage, has arisen from supposing that there is a proper name in the passage, where in reality no proper name exists. Asshur is the passive participle of a verb, which, in its Chaldee sense, signifies "to make strong," and, consequently, signifies "being strengthened," or "made strong." Read thus, the whole passage is natural and easy (v 10), "And the beginning of his (Nimrod's) kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh." A beginning naturally implies something to succeed, and here we find it (v 11): "Out of that land he went forth, being made strong, or when he had been made strong (Ashur), and builded Nineveh," &c. Now, this exactly agrees with the statement in the ancient history of Justin: "Ninus [Nimrod] strengthened the greatness of his acquired dominion by continued possession. Having subdued, therefore, his neighbours, when, by an accession of forces, being still further strengthened, he went forth against other tribes, and every new victory paved the way for another, he subdued all the peoples of the East." Thus, then, Nimrod, or Ninus, was the builder of Nineveh; and the origin of the name of that city, as "the habitation of Ninus," is accounted for, and light is thereby, at the same time, cast on the fact, that the name of the chief part of the ruins of Nineveh is Nimroud at this day.
Now, assuming that Ninus is Nimrod, the way in which that assumption explains what is otherwise inexplicable in the statements of ancient history greatly confirms the truth of that assumption itself. Ninus is said to have been the son of Belus or Bel, and Bel is said to have been the founder of Babylon. 129
“Well, I thought Nimrod was the founder of Babylon?” No. There are many different historical documents which say Bel was the founder of Babylon. I will get to who Bel was in a moment.
If Ninus was in reality the first king of Babylon, how could Belus or Bel, his father, be said to be the founder of it? Both might very well be, as will appear if we consider who was Bel, and what we can trace of his doings. If Ninus was Nimrod, who was the historical Bel? He must have been Cush [son of Ham, grandson of Noah] ; for "Cush begat Nimrod" (Gen 10:8); and Cush is generally represented as having been a ringleader in the great apostacy. But again, Cush, as the son of Ham, was Her-mes or Mercury; for Hermes is just an Egyptian synonym for the "son of Ham."
Remember when I first started to take us into the moon god segment of this particular part of the Last Days series and all the different names I gave you? That was just a partial list.
Now, Hermes was the great original prophet of idolatry; for he was recognized by the pagans as the author of their religious rites, and the interpreter of the gods. The distinguished Gesenius identifies him with the Babylonian Nebo, as the prophetic god; and a statement of Hyginus shows that he was known as the grand agent in that movement which produced the division of tongues [which we see in scripture also] . His words are these: "For many ages men lived under the government of Jove [evidently not the Roman Jupiter, but the Jehovah of the Hebrews] , without cities and without laws, and all speaking one language. But after that Mercury [Cush] interpreted the speeches of men (whence an interpreter is called Hermeneutes), the same individual distributed the nations. Then discord began."
Here there is a manifest enigma. How could Mercury or Hermes have any need to interpret the speeches of mankind when they "all spake one language"? To find out the meaning of this, we must go to the language of the Mysteries. Peresh, in Chaldee, signifies "to interpret"; but was pronounced by old Egyptians and by Greeks, and often by the Chaldees themselves, in the same way as "Peres," to "divide." Mercury, then, or Hermes, or Cush, "the son of Ham," was the "DIVIDER of the speeches of men." He, it would seem, had been the ringleader in the scheme for building the great city and tower of Babel; and, as the well known title of Hermes,--"the interpreter of the gods," would indicate, had encouraged them, in the name of God, to proceed in their presumptuous enterprise, and so had caused the language of men to be divided, and themselves to be scattered abroad on the face of the earth. Now look at the name of Belus or Bel, given to the father of Ninus, or Nimrod, in connection with this. While the Greek name Belus represented both the Baal and Bel of the Chaldees, these were nevertheless two entirely distinct titles. These titles were both alike often given to the same god, but they had totally different meanings. Baal, as we have already seen, signified "The Lord"; but Bel signified "The Confounder." When, then, we read that Belus, the father of Ninus, was he that built or founded Babylon, can there be a doubt, in what sense it was that the title of Belus was given to him? It must have been in the sense of Bel the "Confounder." And to this meaning of the name of the Babylonian Bel, there is a very distinct allusion in Jeremiah 1:2, where it is said "Bel is confounded," that is, "The Confounder is brought to confusion." That Cush was known to Pagan antiquity under the very character of Bel, "The Confounder," a statement of Ovid very clearly proves. The statement to 130
which I refer is that in which Janus "the god of gods,” from whom all the other gods had their origin, is made to say of himself: "The ancients...called me Chaos."
Now I know this is a lot to absorb in one sitting, but I am trying to point out to you the similarity between the two stories of Ninus and Nimrod: both accomplishing the same feats; both having the same accomplishments to their name; both having similar fathers; both having a father who was the original ringleader to bring them to the point where eventually God had to deal with them. Both had a father who created chaos.
Now, first this decisively shows that Chaos was known not merely as a state of confusion, but as the "god of Confusion." But, secondly, who that is at all acquainted with the laws of Chaldaic pronunciation, does not know that Chaos is just one of the established forms of the name of Chus or Cush?
I’ve shared this with you because I wanted to introduce you to several different names, Ninus and Nimrod – two different characters both accomplishing the same things in the same area of the Mesopotamian Valley, both having a father that was known as the ‘chaos’ or the ‘confounder’, both had the father Baal or Bel but really the same character. Now let’s look at another source, a different author/historian all together which reviews some of the same facts.
Both Scripture and profane historians agree in attributing the origin of the Pagan system to Babylon and Assyria, and there is the strongest evidence to prove that the first originals of the gods were the founders of the Babylonian or first great empire of the world, Cush and his son Nimrod.
In short, Belus, the chief god of the Assyrians and Babylonians, is represented in the dynasties of Berosus and others as the first king of Babylon. “Belus was the first king of the Assyrians and after his death was worshiped as a god."
In other words, Cush was worshipped as a God.
Megasthenes, quoted by Abydenus, records a speech of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in which he refers to Belus and Beltis, the god and goddess of Babylon, as “my ancestors”. In like manner the Egyptian priest and historian Manetho [from a different location] , in the dedication of his History to Ptolemy, calls the Egyptian god Hermes “our forefather.” From this it is clear that both the Egyptians and the Babylonians held the belief that their gods were human beings from whom they were descended.
And as I told you before, even Northern Assyria, Turkey, Greece and eventually Rome thousands of years later would worship all the same gods in their different locations with different names, but same gods.
Other historians state, “The Babylonians say that the first of their kings was Belus [a.k.a. Cush, Chaos, Hermes etc.] ,” showing that this was not a mere invention of the Greeks, but the belief of the Babylonians themselves.
The Greeks did not invent this even though some think they did. They didn’t. 131
The classical writers in the centuries immediately preceding the Christian era speak of “Cepheus, the son of Belus,” as the first king of the Ethiopians, or Cushites, and Cepheus, they say, was, after his death, placed among the stars — that is, worshipped as a god. [Now father and son are worshipped as a god.] This shows that it was the general belief of the civilized world at that time that the father of the king of the Cushite race, who under Nimrod were the founders of the Babylonian empire, was the human original of the Babylonian god Belus, and that both he and his son were deified after death.
Cush, Nimrod—you see, Satan has been mimicking God’s plan all along, God’s structure of authority of Father, Son, Holy Ghost. We are not going to get to the Holy Ghost part of this right now, but Father and Son is definitely cleared. Satan’s trying to establish in human form to distort the plan of God by using the descendants that came out of the ark from Noah, the chosen race to start all over again, to pollute them, to get them back on track for their ultimate destruction which was Satan’s plan before the flood in the first place. He polluted this world with beings that polluted mankind. Now mankind was already polluted before that because of sin. Satan just enhanced it even further. Now he is trying to do that again—and this time not having the same resources he had before the flood, fallen angels, Watchers that produced giants that created all kinds of havoc and additional wickedness. The world was heading to destruction and would have been destroyed within a few centuries in my opinion if God had not intervened and plucked a chosen group out of that and spared Adam-kind. Satan immediately after the flood (between 100- 175 years) established, poisoned. Imagine being that close to the event. I mean, we look back at The Flood that destroyed the world just as our grandfather said in his stories as he related down to us what God did because of man’s rebellion and their association with beings they had no business associating with, and everything else that was in-between. Ham knew this! He saw it with his own eyes. He couldn’t convince his son Cush? Or, did Cush eventually develop an attitude amongst everything else he developed of ‘out of sight, out of mind,’ and maybe he wasn’t in Ham’s presence. Ham was probably no prize either, by the way. Or ‘out of sight, out of mind’ from his grandfather and decided to start his own thing using his own family to accomplish it. I can hear Cush now, “Eh, those are old man stories. They say it happened that way, but I wasn’t there to see it.” That is what we are doing today, “Sure Jesus Christ died on the cross... even if He did, yeah, I didn’t see Him rise from the grave. That is a nice little catch to that story to try to convince us gullible ones that it actually happened and we should put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.” What’s the difference? There is no difference. Father and son; two thirds of an evil trinity now being established, mimicking what God has already established. Satan knew that. He just found the players, the pawns in Adam-like form, to play out the play, which eventually leads to ultimate destruction. Both Belus and his son Ninus/Nimrod became deities after their death. They were deified.
The inscriptions show that there were two god-kings of the name of Belus, the first of whom is called by Sir H. Rawlinson “Bel Nimrod the lesser," and it was his son, the second Belus or Bel Nimrod, who was by far the most important person in the Babylonian worship, and who, as we shall see, is especially identified with Nimrod. This would make his father, the first Belus, to be Cush. 132
‘Nimrod the lesser’ would be Cush according to Rawlinson, so follow this.
Nimrod was the first king of the Babylonian empire, “the first who began to be mighty on earth," but it would appear that his father Cush had previously been the ringleader in the attempt to build the Tower of Babel, and was the first founder of the city, which was commenced at the same time, and is therefore recognized in the dynastic lists as the first king, under the name of Bel or Belus.
In strict conformity with the Assyrian inscriptions [not necessarily historical documents, but inscriptions], we have seen according to historians that Belus is the same as Cronus, the Greek name of Saturn [remember, different locations different names] , and that from him descended a second Belus [Nimrod] .
Sanchoniathon, the Phoenician, also states that Cronus begat a son called Cronus.
Turning now to the father of Nin, or Ninus, viz., the first Belus, or Bel Nimrod the lesser, [Nimrod the greater being Nimrod as we know through scriptures and Nimrod the lesser once again is Cush, Nimrod’s father] it is evident that if Nin, or Bel Nimrud the greater, is Nimrod, then Bel Nimrud the lesser, or Hea [which you will see later, especially in the Grecian locations] , is Cush. It is indeed stated by the Sibylline Oracles, that the first Cronus, or Belus, was the son of Noah and brother of Japetus and Titan (Japhet and Shem), which would make him Ham. But this is an error arising from the identity of name of the first and second Belus, which caused them to be sometimes confounded together as one individual [which they are not] , and led later writers to regard the first Belus as Ham.
I won’t get into it now, but this screwed up Egyptian history. I will show you the first pharaoh was existing in the same time as Abraham. The reason why Egyptian chronology is all messed up in its timelines as far as dating is concerned is because they do not match up the figures correctly. They are trying to date these things with their scales and equipment. Yet, they have no problem dating some of the characters, almost all the characters, that are known out there in the Mesopotamian Valley and putting an accurate timeline (give or take a few hundred years) to them. When it comes to the Egyptian chronology of kings we know as pharaohs, they mess up. They place them in the wrong time periods, which throws off all their dating from the point of the first pharaoh to the last pharaoh. As you’ll see, everything lines up. Once you line up all the dating timelines from this period right after the flood between 100-175 years, then you can line up not just this location’s dating timelines, but also other areas such as Egypt. And we will see that because at almost the same time after it was established in the Mesopotamian Valley—due to Nimrod’s conquering attitude, of controlling a vast area, and our seeing where he conquered—we also find these religions shortly after come into established practice and the development of structure. Nimrod being related to some of Ham’s descendants didn’t have much of a problem influencing, not necessarily always conquering, but influencing the belief systems of these people that were obviously susceptible and gullible to Satan’s tricks or devices (as I said earlier from II Corinthians) because of a lack of knowledge, and because now they are drifted away from the source that gave them that knowledge as they expanded out. Like I said, who wants to listen to 133
the old man stories—if Noah was still around, which he was for the most part. Who wants to listen to it? So we see these stories in different writings and we see some of the areas that historians accurately chronicle in trying to pinpoint and put this all on some timeline that covered not just the Mesopotamian Valley, but also other areas. And once you find a way to correct the techniques of how to date all this, the only conclusion is Belus is always Belus no matter where you place them and Belus is always Cush. Ham is out of the equation.
It is also to be observed that the ancients called all the direct descendants of a person his sons, and Cush, whose fame quite eclipsed his father Ham, would thus be the most prominent “son” of Noah in that family.
Nimrod, as the human original of the different gods representing the various attributes under which he was deified, was the most prominent and important deity in the Pagan mythology, and Cush, as the father of these gods, was therefore known as “Cronus,” or “Saturn," the “father of the gods.” But he also held another equally important position.
We have seen that the elder Belus, or Bel Nimrod the lesser [Cush] , was called “Hea,” and Hea is described as the source of all knowledge and science. He is “The Intelligence,” and is called “The Lord of the Abyss or Great Deep,” “The Intelligent Fish,” “The Teacher of Mankind”" and “The Lord of Understanding.”
I have mentioned prior about a lunatic that committed crimes in Arizona: you could see by what he was reading and what he liked to read that he was trying to discover the mysteries of life through understanding them according to current events or circumstances. How many people have been put in that position throughout history? They made themselves sitting ducks by allowing these evil outside sources. And here Cush and Nimrod, but basically Cush, to be the one to have that intelligence, the one that has that understanding because he is the lord of it, and because he is the lord of it he will also be the teacher of mankind, and because he is the teacher of mankind, he must have all the prophetic understanding of what is going to happen to mankind, so... Why not worship him as a deity, he is the all knowing? Things have not changed throughout the millenniums. Man is still seeking. The problem is he is seeking in the wrong places. He is looking in the wrong places. All he needs is God’s Word, the Holy Bible, and the understanding that man is seeking will come to pass for a closer relationship with God and answers to why we exist in this life. Once you understand that we exist to serve Him and to achieve His purposes, not only here but for what he has destined us for throughout eternity, this life will make sense and be less confusing. And the last time I checked, eternity was a long time.
In these respects he appears to be identical with “Nebo” the prophetic god and “god of writing and science," and both gods are equally symbolized by the wedge or arrow head which was the essential element of cuneiform writing, as if both had been inventors of writing.
Well, let’s add something else to his resume. Man! this guy had a lot of titles, a lot of different names in a lot of different locations. 134
Nebo, like Hea, is entitled “He who Teaches," " He who possesses Intelligence," " The Supreme Intelligence," " He who hears from afar," and is called “The glorifier of Bel Nimrod [or the glorifier of his son] ." The latter title may mean that he was the counsellor or instructor of Bel Nimrod the greater [that of course being Nimrod] , through which the latter obtained his power, and this, as we shall see, is the particular relation which the elder god bears to the younger.
Moreover, the wife of Nebo is the goddess "Nana" which was the Babylonian name of "Ishtar.'"
I haven’t gotten there yet, and I’m not sure I’m going to go there in this particular series. But that also has implications on what would come and be practiced throughout the establishment of this false religion.
These characteristics of the elder Belus, viz., as the god of wisdom and teacher of mankind, distinguish him from the second Belus, the god of war and hunting [his son Nimrod] , and they appear to be alluded to by Stephanus of Byzantium, who says that " Babylon was built by Babilon son of the all-wise Belus."
This is one historical record after another. They are not changing the historical records, folks. No matter where we go we are seeing the same characters and they are saying the same thing.
Now, as Nimrod was the founder of Babylon, it is clear that his father, “The all- wise Belus," was Cush, the first Belus or Hea, “The Lord of Understanding”and “Teacher of Mankind."
Nebo appears to have taken the place of the Babylonian Hea in the Assyrian Pantheon. For although Hea is invoked in the incantations in the old Chaldean language, Nebo, coupled with Bel, who in this case must be Bel Merodach, are the gods ordinarily invoked as the two principal gods by the Assyrian kings. This is also implied by the passage in Isaiah xlvi., " Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth."
Now, you have heard me mention Sin before in the earlier part of these teachings:
"Sin," the moon god of the Assyrians...
And by the way, not just the Assyrians; it’s been proven since this was written, which was almost 104 years ago, Sin was not the moon god of just the Assyrians. Sin traveled. He was all over the Mesopotamian area. He was eventually called something else in Egypt not that long after its invention as Sin in the Mesopotamian Valley; and it moved on to other locations also.
"Sin," the moon god of the Assyrians, requires a brief notice. He is called “The King of the gods," " God of gods," titles which were peculiar to Hea, the father of the gods, or the first Belus, who was Cronus or Saturn [Cush] . Sin is also called “Lord of spirits," and this was the particular attribute of Hea, who was always appealed to as the ruler of the spirits good and evil.
So now you have the introduction of the spirit world or the ruler of the spirits—including an imitation of Father, Son and Spirit. In this case, they give it the title of it being holy. I do not have time to share what I want to share, but take my word for it; do your own research. They 135
established their own evil and wicked trinity thousands of years before we would even hear the words “Father, Son and Holy Ghost” in the New Testament. Satan goes to work early when he is planning to scatter or confound the masses. He does not sit on his laurels. He is not a couch potato of evil. He is always busy.
This would imply that Sin, the moon god, was another aspect of Hea and Nebo, i.e., Cush, and we shall see that there is further evidence that this was the case. Sin is also stated to have been the first divine monarch who had reigned upon earth, which can only apply to the first Belus or Cush."
What did Jesus say, He would send the Comforter that flows through Him and represents Him. What did Cush establish? He established himself as the deity, the all-knowing, the one that introduced into society science, religion, and all sorts of intelligence. He was the all wise, he was their spiritual leader. And by being the spiritual leader, the father figure, he had a son, that son being Nimrod. Out of Nimrod he eventually would convince that even though he obtained the same attribute as his son because he was the originator of it, he also extended to his son the same attributes which—after Cush was out of the picture at his death and no longer in existence—his son would carry on what he started and his son would have the same attributes, the spirit flow of life, the way he taught it to be and could be extended to Nimrod’s followers; and so forth down the line assuming they would have Assyrian and Mesopotamian kings, and kings of any other location that would still follow their religious master plan for mankind.
If then Cush was Hermes or Mercury, he would seem to have been, not only the teacher of mankind and originator of the ancient idolatry, or worship of the gods, but also the ringleader in the enterprise undertaken to build the Tower of Babel, in order to " reach unto heaven " (Genesis xi. 4). This tower was not intended, as some have supposed, to be a place of refuge in case of a second Deluge [Which is what most of Christianity preaches and I do not adopt that theory. I told you the Tower of Babel was a temple for evil worship.], but as a central temple for the worship of the gods in order to keep the human race together and under the influence of these gods..."
Isn’t that what Mohammed did? Establish a religion to keep the people together so they would not be scattered without purpose? He eliminated a lot of the things from the moon god worship, which was still an extension of the moon god worship as I will point out in the future.
...but as a central temple for the worship of the gods in order to keep the human race together and under the influence of these gods," lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." Now Hyginus [which I already quoted to you from another source] says, " For many ages men lived under the government of Jove without cities and without laws, and all speaking one language. But after Mercury interpreted the speeches of men, the same individual distributed the nations. Then discord began." There is an evident contradiction here in saying that Mercury interpreted the speeches of men when they were all of one language; but, as pointed out by others, the Chaldee peresh, meaning "to interpret," was pronounced by the Egyptians and Greeks in the same way as the Chaldee peres, " to divide," and the Greeks, knowing Hermes as " the interpreter of the gods," substituted the word "interpreted" for the word "divided." 136
Thus the tradition, correctly rendered, would mean that Mercury, or Hermes (that is Cush), " divided the speeches of men," or was the cause of the confusion of tongues [which I believe it was the latter] and subsequent " scattering abroad " or " distribution of the nations " which followed the building of the Tower of Babel; that, in short, he was the ringleader in that enterprise, and the consequent cause of discord or confusion. This is also confirmed by Gregory Turonensis, who represents Cush as the ringleader in that apostasy.
It would appear also that, as the cause of discord, his name became synonymous with confusion," for, whatever the original meaning of the word, “Bel” came to signify" the confounder.'' In one of his deified aspects he was also known as “the god of confusion." As Gronus, or Saturn, he was “The father of the gods," and the father of the gods was also known as “Janus," who was called “The god of gods," from whom the gods had their origin. Now, Ovid makes Janus say of himself, “The ancients called me Chaos,” and “Chaos” was the Greek god of confusion.
It seemed highly probable that the very word "chaos" is a form of the name "Cush," for Cush is also written "Khus," the "sh" in Chaldee frequently passing into " s," and Khus in pronunciation becomes "Khawos," or without the digamma " Khaos " or " Chaos."
On the reverse of an Etruscan medal of Janus a club is shown, and the name of a club in Chaldee is derived from the word which signifies to “break in pieces " or " scatter abroad," implying, according to the usual symbolism of Paganism, that Janus was the cause of the human race being " scattered abroad." The title on the medal, "Bel Athri," also points to its Babylonian origin. Its meaning is " Lord of spies, or seers," an allusion to his character as " all-seeing Janus [remember; the one who has ultimate intelligence and knowledge of all things] ," for which reason he is represented on the medal by two heads, back to back, looking in all directions. This is also the character of Hea, the “Lord of understanding," Hermes,” The god of all celestial knowledge," and Nebo, “The prophetic god," or god of seers.
"all-seeing Janus;” Remember the one who has ultimate intelligence and knowledge of all things. Who? Cronus, Saturn, Hea, Cush, Chaos/Khawos.
Another form of the " father of the gods " was Vulcan [I’m not talking about Star Trek here] , who was called " Hephaistos, which has a similar signification to the club of Janus, for it is derived from Hephaitz, " to scatter abroad," Hephaitz becoming in Greek " Hephaist." This also is, no doubt, the meaning of the hammer shown in the hands of Vulcan, meaning that he was " the breaker in pieces " or " scatterer abroad," although the Greeks, as in the case of other gods adopted by them from Babylon and Phoenicia, being ignorant of their original characteristics, supposed the hammer to mean that Vulcan was simply a forger of metals [which it was not] .
Vulcan, or Hephaistus, was the chief of the Cyclops, and this further identifies him with Cronus and Bel, for the former was also king of the Cyclops, who are called " the inventors of tower building," or the first who built towers, thus 137
identifying them and their king with the builders of Babylon and the Tower of Babel.
Again, Vulcan was the god of fire, and as the word “Cyclops" (Greek, Kuclops) is probably of Chaldean origin, it would mean "kings of flame," from Khuk king, and Lohb, flame.
This tends to identify Vulcan with Moloch, the god of fire, to whom children were sacrificed by burning. "Moloch," or " Molk," signifies “king,” and it seems probable that "Mulkiber," the Roman name of Vulcan, is derived from the Chaldee Molk, "king," and gheber, "mighty."
Once again it is all the same gods with different names for different locations.
To both Moloch and Baal human sacrifices were offered, and it was the universal custom for the priests to partake of the sacrifice offered, as in the case of the Jewish ritual to which the Apostle Paul refers, thus implying that, in the rites of the heathen gods, this was also the custom of the Pagan priests. In fact, the Cyclops, of whom Cronus [Cush] was king, were said to be cannibals, and “to revive the rites of the Cyclops" meant to revive the custom of eating human flesh. This is still part of the religious rites of many of the Hamitic races of Africa.
This was written 104 years ago, so there is less of that happening now than back then.
The word "cannibal," our term for eaters of human flesh, is probably derived from Cahna bal, "the priest of Bel"; Cahna being the emphatic form of Cahn, "a priest." [Who were the priests of Bel? The priests that served Cush.] Cannibalism appears to have been initiated by Cronus, i.e., Saturn or Cush. For we are told by Sanchoniathon that Cronus was the originator of human sacrifices:
Who was the originator of human sacrifices? Cronus, Saturn, Hea, Hermes, Chaos/Khawos: in scripture he is known in Genesis 11:6-8 as Cush who begat Nimrod; Nimrod being the greater Nimrod, and Cush being the lesser Nimrod. I am going through all this because I want you to have this understanding now as we progress further into Scripture. I already told you I jumped last week to Jericho the capital city of the moon god in the land of Canaan. When the children of Israel crossed over, do you think God was not considering the implications of why that city had to be conquered first? Why that city? He was sending a message. When He is leading His army He is making a beeline to false idols and false worshippers, and false gods. They were established back in Joshua’s time when the children of Israel crossed over to the area that was promised to the Israelites by God. The moon god capital for that area was Jericho and they were overrun by idol worship throughout that land and beyond. God made a point to send a message and a message of encouragement, As I destroyed the gods of Egypt and delivered you, as you cross this river, I will lead you and I will destroy all the false gods and false worshippers of those gods before you. And He is coming back again, sword in hand as when he was Captain of the Hosts. The Sword is going to come from His mouth and devour the 8 th Beast, the Beast that is resurrected again. It is called a different name now just as names were changed periodically because of the location change back in the time period I was just sharing with you. They also changed. The players changed but the same false 138
religion still exists. It is the moon god religion. I will be showing you through history in the future that the moon god was the main deity of worship. Some believe that deity was Cush himself and he said he had powers that originated from the moon. Whatever the source is, the moon god religion was established, and the second most powerful deity was the sun, which some believe Nimrod represents that in history and especially Biblical History; and then the stars which represent... let’s just call them daughters for now. It is important to know where this originated. As I said, I could spend 52 weeks giving you historical source after historical source and probably put you to sleep. I’m not going to do that. I think I have established enough. I hope I have convinced you where this false religion established itself; and, even though the names changed when the locations changed, that it is still the same false religion traveling from one location to another location. The names changed for various reasons including language, but it was the same false religion. Cush established it. Cush was the spiritual father of this evil wickedness. He was totally controlled by Satan and he had a powerful son, the war-like son, to spread what he would call his good news, not THE Good News, but which turned out to be bad news because it was a false religion that was being established. And it came with terrible consequences. Look... in some cases, offering children to these deities as sacrifices, burning them alive. We will be taking the track and seeing how this religion anchored itself even in biblical history and why God told Abraham to get out of there, I do not want you part of that. We will also see what happened during Moses’ period as I travel through Scripture and show you over and over again, to prove to you this has always been there. I do not know why it has been ignored. Maybe the time was not right. That is why those of you who are called to participate in this ministry have come to realize that you are not sent here by accident. There is a purpose as we, through God’s Word, prepare people for what to expect by looking back and how it’s been leading up to this point because Satan has not changed his plan –but, God has the answer for it.
To be continued...
139
The Last Days Study Guide
Cush = Chaos
1. Which biblical figure correlates to Cephus?
2. What causes the misunderstanding of the identity of the first Cronus in the Sibylline Oracles?
3. According to Rawlinson, who is Bel Nimrod the lesser?
4. Who was the first king of Assyria?
5. Who is the father of Ninus?
6. Who is Hea?
7. What does Hermes mean?
8. What does Baal mean?
9. What is Nebo’s wife’s name?
10. What type of false god was Moloch?
11. List some similarities between the history of Ninus and Nimrod.
140