LESSON FOUR
NIMROD AND BABYLON: THE BIRTH OF
IDOLATRY
by Steve and Terri White
Genesis 10:8‑12; Genesis 3:15; Genesis 11
After the flood Noah and his family repopulated the earth.
Because the deluge did not eradicate sin, man’s sinful nature
ran wild once again. At the same time, territories were
overrun with wild beasts, turning against the inhabitants of
the land. The battle of man against beast was hot and fearful,
but in the midst of it, Nimrod, son of Cush, appeared as the
'knight in shining armor'. A "mighty hunter," Nimrod
delivered the people from the fear of beasts. Hungry for
power, though, he also emancipated man from the LORD.
Until Nimrod, mankind was governed by the patriarchal
system where the heads of families heard from God and
guided their individual tribes. Nimrod, more accurately a
"mighty hunter against the LORD," usurped patriarchal rule,
and crowned himself the first human king in all of history.
Now man ruled instead of God.
According to Jewish legend, Nimrod feared the prophecy that
a child was to be born who would turn the people back to
God. In an effort to preserve his kingdom, he slew 70,000
babies in hopes of killing the would‑be savior. The story goes
that Abram of Ur was the prophetic baby, the father of Israel
from whom the messiah would come.
Although Nimrod’s motive was to keep the promised child
from ruling, he used the fear of the wild beasts as a pretense
for uniting the people, and established the kingdom of Babel.
Presenting himself as savior, Nimrod convinced the
inhabitants to look to him as the lord of the earth instead of
the true God. Thus, the establishment of the kingdom was the
beginning of the Babylon we read about in the Bible.
Historically and symbolically, Babylon is any organized
system that replaces God’s rule with human or demonic rule.
Nimrod’s greed and ambition led him to sell himself to
demonic powers, and he became the high priest of devil
worship. During this time Nimrod married the beautiful and
cunning, but notoriously immoral, Semiramis. Together they
ruled the world.
Plans were made for a grand tower, a massive type of building
called a ziggurat, which consisted of a series of terraced
platforms, each smaller than the one below it, and all together
reaching a great height. At the top would be a shrine to Bel,
whom they worshiped as 'the Most High god', the god of the
sun and of fire; other 'sky gods' would also be included.
Therefore, Genesis 11:4, in speaking of "a tower and his top
with the heavens (literal translation)," is not referring to the
height of the tower, but instead to the inscriptions of the stars
on the walls of the shrine. The constellations were there, but
with outlines of the 'sky gods' on them in order to cause
people to associate the 'pictures in the sky' that they had
known about from childhood, with the images Nimrod wanted
them to worship. This is indicative of the occult deception
which reigned in Babylon.
The Witness of the Stars by E. W. Bullinger reveals the true
meaning of what we call 'the signs of the zodiac'. They were
meant to be pictures in the sky representing God’s promise of
a coming Deliverer, who, being the Seed of the Woman, would
bruise the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15). For this purpose, God
gave the stars as "lights . . . for signs and for seasons" (Gen.
1:14 signs, from Hebrew oth means 'evidence'; seasons from
Hebrew moed means 'appointed time'). The sky pictures were
reminders meant to serve as evidence that all was under God’s
divine control, and at His appointed time the events promised
(the coming Deliverer, etc.) would happen.
God decided that the perversion of the celestial witness was an
attempt to extinguish all hope in man for redemption ‑‑ this
He would not allow. "This they begin to do, and now nothing
will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do"
(Gen. 11:6) indicates that evil was about to be unleashed that
would be "unrestrained." God defeated all of their designs by
confusing their one language into many and scattering the
people across the earth; when they could not communicate,
their knowledge became fragmented. Various elements of
'stargazing' by the civilizations that followed (Egyptian,
Assyrian, Greek, etc,) can be traced back to their common
beginnings in Babylon. The 'divine astrology' ‑‑ God’s witness
in the heavens ‑‑ was still intact, while pagan astrology was
broken into corrupt pieces, a mockery of the former danger of
the tower that had its "top with the heavens."
Meanwhile, in the height of his power, Nimrod died. It was a
violent death, shrouded in mystery. Semiramis, pregnant from
an adulterous relationship and desperate to keep her position,
devised a scheme. Taking advantage of the prophecy written
in the sky with which the remaining inhabitants of Babylon
were familiar, Semiramis covered up the details of Nimrod’s
death and publicly proclaimed that:
Nimrod’s death was voluntary and self‑sacrificial for the
benefit of the world.
Nimrod would rise again by mystical means.
She was a virgin.
Nimrod "visited her in a flash of light and the baby was
the reincarnated Nimrod".
Nimrod’s rising in the form of her son was the
fulfillment of the ancient prophecy (Gen. 3:15).
The baby, named Tammuz, was taught the lie and worshiped
as god. Semiramis soon claimed that Nimrod had become the
"sun god," and was worshiped as such. Not surprisingly,
Semiramis was also worshiped as a goddess ‑‑ her original
goal finally achieved. Thus, the birth of the mystery religion
of Babylon: pagan worship of the bogus virgin and child.
Three key figures are prominent in every idolatrous system ‑‑
Nimrod, Semiramis, and Tammuz:
a famous, but sinful king dies or is cut off;
an immoral queen encourages false worship, bears a
child, and is elevated to the status of god;
a child, worshiped as god, but serving as husband, lover,
or son of the mother.
From Babylon the worship of mother/son spread across the
whole earth. In Egypt there is Isis and Horus; in India, Isi and
Iward; in Asia, Cybele and Deorius; in ancient Rome, Fortuna
and Jupiter; and in Greece, Ceres/Irene and Plutus. The
demonic counterfeit was long in place before the real mother
and child walked the earth ‑‑ Mary and Jesus, the Christ.
REFERENCES:
Adam's Kin, by Ruth Beechick
Astrology, the Ancient Conspiracy, by Ben Adam
Devil Take the Youngest, by Winkie Pratney
The Two Babylons, by Alexander Hislop
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