in the earth as a great leader, warrior, builder and religious priest. When he is called a “great hunter” it is not that he was a hunter of game but a hunter of souls for his religious kingdom of Babel (Babylon).
When Nimrod died, his wife Queen Semiramis claimed he was now the Sun-god (later called Baal). She gave birth to an illegitimate son Tammuz and claimed he was Nimrod incarnated. Tammuz died 40 days after his birth (similar to the 40 days of Lent). The pagan ritual (religion) grew so that Tammuz was thought to die and be resurrected each year. Thus, he was mourned with weeping and lament for 40 days culminating in the Feast of Ishtar in the late spring. Later these festivals were called “Lent (40 days) and Easter. Ezekiel records this: “Then He brought me to the entrance of the gate of the LORD’S house which was toward the north; and behold, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz. He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Yet you will see still greater abominations than these.” (Ezekiel 8:12-14).
Actually Easter means “Pasche or Passover” in the Greek. The early church observed only Passover at that time of year, not Easter. The many symbols we attribute to Easter are paganistic: rabbits were a favorite plaything of Tammuz, eggs are symbols of fertility and sexuality of which Queen Ishtar was Queen and hot-cross-buns are represented in the Bible as “cakes” used in various pagan rituals. “The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven;[Ishtar] and they pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to spite Me” (Jeremiah 7:18). The Easter sunrise service is no more than a remnant of Sun-worship prevalent in the ancient pagan religions.
Much of the Babylonian worship was carried out through secret symbols which led God to describe the religion in Revelation as Mystery Babylon (Revelation 17:5). The golden calf was a symbol for Tammuz. For Nimrod, we see fire, candles and ritual fires lighted in his honor; he was also symbolized by: sun-symbols, fish, trees, animals and pillars. As Paul said of such things: “For even though they knew God, they did not honor [glorify] Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures” (Romans 1:21-23).
This system of Babylonian religion spread eventually to all other nations. “Babylon has been a golden cup in the hand of the LORD, Intoxicating all the earth. The nations have drunk of her wine; Therefore the nations are going mad (Jeremiah 51:7) “For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion [wrath] of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth [power] of her sensuality” (Revelation 18:3). It has obviously prevailed until this day, as God’s judgment of Babylon is reserved for the end-times reflected in the Book of Revelation. Herodotus, an early historian, noted the mystery religion was the mother of all systems of idolatry in the world. Bunson said that the religious system was derived from “the primitive empire in Babel”. And Laynard, in his work Ninevah and Its Remains states “we have the united testimony of sacred and profane history that idolatry originated in the area of Babylonia-the most ancient of religious systems” (Vol. 2, pp 440).
B.Mother and Child Worship
Ancient pagan religions are rife with beliefs in the Divine Mother, female goddess, the divine feminine and Mother and Child worship. As we will see, these ancient rites stemming from Babylon became an integral part of the worship in the Roman Catholic Church. It was also the subject of Brown’s recent book The VaVinci Code.
Examples of mother-child worship are prevalent in most world religions well before the birth of Christ. In China the mother goddess called Shingmoo was pictured with a child in her arms. The Scandinavians called theirs Disa who was also pictured with a child. The Estruscans had Nutria and among the Druids the Virgo-Paritura was worshiped as the Mother goddess. In India she was called Indrani, shown with a child in her arms. The Babylonian mother was Aphodite, Ceres to the Greeks and Nana to the Sumerians. In early Rome, she was Venus or Fortuna and her child was called Jupiter. Other mother-child depictions (idols) were Devaki-Crishna (India) and Isi-IshawaCybele-Deoius (Asia). In Egypt, the mother was Isis and the child Horus. Depictions of the pair are among the most prevalent idols in Egypt, featuring mother and child on a throne.
In Greek Ephesus, the Great Mother was known as Diana or Artemus. A statute of her was known as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Paul and his companions were run out of the city when he opposed pagan mother worship:
“You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people, saying that gods made with hands are no gods at all. “Not only is there danger that this trade of ours fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana [Artemis] be regarded as worthless and that she whom all of Asia and the world [the inhabitated earth] worship will even be dethroned from her magnificence.” When they heard this and were filled with rage, they began crying out, saying, “Great is Diana [Artemis] of the Ephesians!” The city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia” (Acts 19:26-29).
Thus mother-child worship was prevalent over the entire world, and had been for centuries when Christ was born to Mary. There was no reference to the worship of or the recognition of her as a divine image either by Christ or by the early church. There is no reference to her as divine in the scriptures. As a matter of fact, Jesus himself didn’t recognize her as his Mother after the Spirit: “Then His mother and His brothers arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him. A crowd was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.” Answering them, He said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:30-330.
Nevertheless, the worship of Mary, pictured with the child Jesus, found its way into Christianity. As we know, the early New Testament churches began to fall away from the truth and evolved into the Roman (western) and Eastern Catholic churches (Catholic means Universal). Many pagans desired to know Christ but they carried with them many pagan ideas. The mother-child image was so engrained in the world at that time that it was impossible for them to give it up. So rather than lose these potential church members, the Universal church instituted their own form of Mother-child worship-that of Mary and Jesus. This Roman Catholic Church was formed in Rome, a center for such worship, so it was easily introduced. Christians of that time faced vigorous persecution partly for their failure to follow Roman religion.
Finally, in approximately 430 B.C.E. Emperor Constantine designated Christianity as the official religion of Rome. At that time Saint Mary worship was made an official doctrine of the Catholic Church. Since at that time there were no other viable Christian religions, anyone who desired to worship Christ had to come by way of the Catholic church, devote themselves to Mary worship and adopt the “mystery” symbols such as the cross, the holy water, immaculate conception, Papal divinity and continual virginity of Mary, all of which are pagan and unscriptural. This was the mixture of Christianity and government (Roman) that God condemns in the Bible. “And the kings of the earth, who committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her, will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning,…(Revelation 18:9). For another thousand years Catholicism would align itself with world governments, receiving power from them and likewise giving them religious validity. Both grew exceedingly rich living off each.
God condemns them thus:
“[Kings of the earth] standing
