Hi,
So to continue with what i posted yesterday, this is part 2. Looking at where the concept of an eternal hell came from. I would like to stress that all the studies i put on here where written by a very gifted man of God. L RAY SMITH. You can view his articles on
www.bibletruths.com.
THE ORIGIN OF ALL THINGS ACCORDING TO THE EGYPTIANS
Here is one Egyptian version of the origin of the universe: "From the beginning there was nothing but a water chaos called Nun, and from that came the god Atum, who had created himself. He made the earth god Geb, and his sister (and wife) Nut, goddess of the sky. To hold up and fill the sky they had two children, the boy Shu, the god of the air, and a girl Tefnut, goddess of moisture and rain. This family four was the very foundation upon which the world existed as they represented: earth, water, air and the sky" (Egyptian gods, By Ottar Vendel, p. 7)
There is an element of truth in this Egyptian creation theory. Notice that in the beginning there was nothing but Nun which is described as a "water chaos." Notice how the Concordant Version translated Gen. 1:2,
"Yet the earth became a CHAOS and vacant and darkness was on the surface of the submerged CHAOS."
Interesting that the Egyptians also start with a "watery CHAOS." And what of the Greeks and Romans? They too subscribed to this Chaos as the first thing that existed, which they called "The Womb of Darkness" from which sprang the first "Cosmic Egg." Only in Greece, they made an actual god out of this chaos.
In the Genesis account God creates the heavens and the earth, the earth is in chaos, God summons the light, forms the firmament, and raises the dry earth out of the waters. Egyptian mythology preserves hints of this truth. They start with the watery chaos, and then have the land rise up out of the chaos, which was the first spot, which the light from heaven shone on. They called this first piece of land, the Benben stone. And yes, it was in the shape of a pyramid. It was this pyramid-shaped Benben stone that would become prominent in Egyptians architecture being placed at the top of all obelisks which many historians and Egyptologists will clearly tell you is but a stylized erect phallus symbol.
The womb, the phallus, eggs, sex and fertility were at the very core of all ancient religions. And virtually all of these symbols have been passed on down through the Christian Church via the architecture of her temples and churches, her holy days and festival, her symbols and mythology, and her doctrines.
In the place of the Creator God, the Egyptians placed man himself, "Atum," their first real god Atum united with the rising sun god Ra and together they later were joined to form Atum-Ra, who gave birth to the god Shu who, according to the Egyptians, supported the sky. In Greece he was known as Atlas who supported the whole earth on his shoulders. Shu’s wife and sister was Tefnut who to the Greeks was Ephnis. Atum created Geb the earth god. To the Greeks he was Gaia the earth god. Geb’s wife and sister was Nut who was Rhea of the Greeks.
Geb and Nut gave birth to Nephthys who was Apharodite to the Greeks. Their second child was Osiris, the Dionysus and Hades of the Greeks. Osiris was the god of the Egyptian netherworld. Hades was the Greek god of the underworld.
Virtually all of the great gods of Egypt became the great gods of Greece and Rome. They invented a few characters of their own, but the main characters of Greek mythology come straight out of Egypt. And all of this is a matter of reams of documented history.
The lowest and worst part of hades is called "Tartarus" in Greek.
"For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell [Gk: ‘tartaroo’]…" (II Peter. 2:4).
Tartaroo is the Greek tartarus. But tartarus is not from the Greek, it is EGYPTIAN. Tartarus comes from the Egyptian word "tartar," which had to do with the lamenting at Egyptian funerals when a loved one was forbidden burial across the lake.
The paradise of the Egyptians was called Elisout or Elisaeus, or the Fields of Reeds. When copied by the Greeks and Romans these areas of paradise were called the Elysian Fields. All of the major gods and goblins of the Egyptian netherworld were copied and reintroduced into Greek mythology. From there they were copied by the Romans, and then allowed to remain as part of the Roman Catholic Church, even though the theologians knew these practices and beliefs were pagan to the core.
God has sternly warned:
"Take heed to yourself that you be not snared by following them [the pagan nations], after that they be destroyed from before you: and that you enquire NOT after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? EVEN SO WILL I DO LIKEWISE" (Deut. 12:30).
And just why does God say they should NOT do such a thing? Here’s why:
"Thou shall NOT do so unto the Lord your God: for [here comes the REAL reason from God’s Own mouth…] EVER ABOMINATION to the Lord, which He HATES, have they done unto their gods, for even their sons and their daughters they have BURNT IN THE FIRE TO THEIR GODS" (Deut. 12:31).
But SURELY the world of Christendom today would never, ever, ever have such an "ABOMINATION… which God HATES," in their arsenal of foundational, bedrock, fundamental doctrines, would they? Maybe it is time that we grow up and get our heads out of the sand. OF COURSE Christendom has these abominations which God hates in their most basic and necessary doctrines, but with one difference. They have taken this doctrine of the Canaanites burning their sons and daughters in fire to their gods to a level of total insanity.
What are we clearly told by Paul concerning the apostatized church of our day?
Paul said:
"…evil men and imposters seducers [Gk: ‘imposters’] shall wax [grow] worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived" (II Tim. 3:13).
These are those which Paul says:
"…shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables" (II Tim. 4:2-4).
One cannot turn away from the truth, unless they once had the truth. This is speaking of the Church. But how has today’s Church gotten worse and worse than burning their sons and daughter in fire? By teaching that their sons and daughters will not be burned up in fire, as the Canaanites did, but by teaching that their sons and daughters will BURN IN FIRE FOR EVER! Here is but one proof of such "damnable heresy" (II Pet. 2:1) in today’s Church:
"…every BOY and every GIRL who dies without knowing Jesus Christ spends AN ETERNITY IN A CITY WHERE THE FIRE IS NEVER QUENCHED and the worm dieth not." (Directly quoted from John Hagee’s Sermon entitled: "The Seven Wonders of Hell").
John Hagee says of this eternal torture for boys and girls with Jesus Christ in fire, that, "IT’S JUSTICE."
I have been accused of being a "Calvinist." Let me now personally and publicly denounce his damnable theology as rank, unscriptural heresy.
Calvin had the same doctrine of children, apparently, as John Hagee and others:
"How did it come to pass that the fall of Adam, without remedy, should involve so many nations, with their INFANT CHILDREN, in eternal death [by which he means eternal torture in fire], but because of the will of God? It is a horrible decree, I confess!" (Calvin’s Institutes, Book III, c. 23, 7).
Read the following quotation from Thayer’s Paper, and weep:
"’The condemnation of the CHILDREN dying without having been baptized," says the Catholic Bossuet, "is an article of firm faith of the church. They are guilty, since they die in the wrath of God, and in the powers of darkness.. Children of wrath by nature, objects of HATRED AND AVERSION, CAST DOWN TO HELL with the OTHER DAMNED, the remain there EVERLASTINGLY subject to the HORRIBLE VENGEANCE OF THE DEVIL.’ Thus the learned Denis Peteau has decided, as well as the most eminent Bellarmin, the Council of Lyons, the Council of Florence, and the Council of Trent."
Whereas Calvin himself calls this damning of the children "a horrible decree," modern follower of Calvinism, Dr. James Kennedy, has euphemized Calvin’s "horrible decree" down to "Hell is FAIR." I am not sure how any modern followers of Calvin can euphemize his burning of Christian believers at the stake. What hideously evil men John Calvin and Martin Luther were.
And Christians by the thousands ask who I think I am that I should be judging such prominent theologians? I don’t judge them, I just expose their damnable heresies as I have just done one more time.
THE EVOLUTION OF EGYPT’S DOCTRINES
The earliest Egyptian myths concerning creation range from the fanciful and bizarre to hints of the actual Biblical record. Different regions of the Nile Valley had their own individual gods of creation. Here are a few:
ATUM is said to have created everything including himself (figure that one—I will not, however, tell you how he supposedly did it, as it is rather disgusting). He then was said to create woman from some flesh off of his own hand.
THOTH was the creator according to a myth from Upper Egypt. He first created four frogs and four snakes.
PTAH the god from Lower Egypt made the world by simply speaking the words, and the land rose up from the sea. Notice how close this really is to the Biblical account in Genesis.
KHEPER is said to have made all the gods from out of his own body.
KHNUM from Aswan in the south is said to have made the world and its first people on a potter’s wheel, by taking mud from the Nile. Once again, we have a few hints of the truth in this myth.
AMON like Atum created everything including himself at the beginning of time.
RE from Heliopolis is said to have created the world by using a tear from his eye.
No Egyptian myth suggests that any of their gods always existed. Each supposedly came into existence at some time in the remote past.
Understand that virtually all Egyptian myths are fanciful, exaggerated, contradicting, convoluted, and bizarre. One can go nuts trying to sort it all out or trying to put things into some kind of chronological order. Here’s another widely accepted Egyptian myth concerning the beginning of creation:
The sky goddess Nut is pictured as a female figure in blue, covered with stars. Her toes are touching one horizon, with her body arched forward and her fingers touching the other horizon. Her body thus produces the arched starry sky of heaven. Her arched torso is held up by her son Shu, (god of the air), who stands on his prone father Geb, who is the god of earth.
Each morning Shu turns into a pig and she eats up all the stars. Each evening she rebirths all the starts back into the heavens again. This she does ever morning and evening.
The sun god Ra ruled the day. He is pictured as a man with the head of a bird with a red disc representing the sun, on his head, with a cobra’s head poking out. Ra was maybe the main god of Egypt from the fifth dynasty until the end of the dynasties. While in other parts of Egypt such gods as Aman ruled supreme. Later on these two gods would be united and worshipped as Aman-Ra.
What, you might ask, has this pagan Egyptian nonsense to do with the Christian teaching of "endless punishment?" Everything—this fantastic, comical, absurd pagan religion of the Egyptians is the bedrock foundation for the most basic of Christian doctrines and heresies. This stupid religion is the basis for fundamental Christian teachings. The [1] immortal soul, [2] judgment at death, [3] entrance into a paradise for some, and [4] never-ending punishments for others, were the fundamental elements of Egyptian paganism, and they are likewise the fundamental elements of Christian doctrine.
THE FIRST EGYPTIAN KING
Look a little further into the pagan Egyptian religion, and maybe you will begin to see why the Christian religion is one of absurd and evil contradictions, unscriptural practices, and square circles. Recall that Geb and Nut gave birth to Osiris. We will stick with Osiris for a bit, as he figures prominently in the death/heaven/hell scenario.
The Osiris myth claims that Orisis was the first King of Egypt. His goddess queen, Isis, was also his sister (there could even be a hint of truth preserved here, in that Adam’s sons and daughters of necessity would have had to marry sisters and brothers). Osiris taught the Egyptians how to worship the gods and how to live. Osiris had a brother named, Set. Although Osiris had a human body and a human head, as did Isis, his sister/queen, Set on the other hand, had a human body but the head of an unknown animal (slightly similar to a jackal).
Now I know that some of you are going to start wondering just where this whole thing is going and why am I taking you there. Simple: I want to shows you where the Christian doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and judgment at death, and two destinies of either heaven or hell upon death, came from. And I want to impress you with the utter stupidity involved in the formulation of these doctrines by the very worst of the ancient pagans, the very nation whose name is synonymous with SIN—EGYPT.
One day Osiris held a feast and his son Set brought a beautiful coffin that he had made. Set promised to give the coffin to the person whose body fit into it the best. Osiris tried first (as in fact Set crafted the coffin so as to fit Osiris perfectly). When Osiris got in, Set and his servants quickly closed the lid and nailed it shut. They then threw it into the Nile. Later, Osiris’ grieving wife Isis, heard of a marvelous tree that sprung on the shores on the Eastern Mediterranean, that a king used to build a palace. Isis heard that this was the spot where her husband Osiris came ashore in his coffin. She traveled there and got a job as hairdresser for the queen. Having access to the palace, she searched until she found the coffin.
By night she managed to get the coffin on a boat headed for Egypt. Upon arrival she hid it in the marshes of the Nile delta. She opened the coffin for one farewell evening with her husband, but Set was hiding and watching. When Isis went to sleep for the night, Set took his brother’s Osiris’ body and cut it into fourteen pieces and spread them all over Egypt. Isis enlisted the help of her son Anubis and her sister Nephthys to find the fourteen pieces of her husband. After many years they found all the pieces but one (yes, that one), which was eaten by a fish, so Isis made one out of wood, and then put the whole body back together again. She also "erected" (yes, that is the proper word) stone phyllus symbols all over Egypt as a reminder to everyone what part of Osiris was missing and which they were to be on the lookout for. More of that in Part D.
Isis then asked the sun god Ra to bring him back to life for just one night of love making, which he did. The next day Osiris died again and was embalmed by Anubis becoming the world’s first mummy. Later Isis gave birth to a son named HORUS. Set turned himself into a snake and nearly killed Horus. So Isis and her son hid in the marshes until he was grown, whereupon Set once more tried to kill him. They fought for three days when Troth (the god of wisdom and all that good stuff) stopped the fight and took them both to the Underworld to the Court of Law. There it was found that Set was a liar and was sentenced to pulling "The Boat of Millions of Years" across the watery heavens forever. (I guess to the Egyptians, millions of years were equal to forever). Horus then ruled as king of Egypt.
I have already shown you several versions as to how the first humans were made. Next I will try and pull all of these gods together and show how they all figure into the Underworld and what happens when humans go there at death.
THE EGYPTIAN FUNERAL
There were different places in Egypt that had "sacred lakes." Lake Acherusia near Memphis may have been the model for this custom. According to Diodorus there were judges or assessors who would determine the character of the deceased persons, and to determine the day of burial. This judgment took place on the shore of such a lake (the burial tombs being on the other side). Forty-two judges were appointed for this task. Anyone could then bring charges against the deceased person. If the judges deemed the person to be evil, he would be denied the journey across the lake for burial.
If the accusations could not be substantiated, or if there were no witnesses against the deceased, then the relatives could eulogize their loved-one with praise, prayer and supplications to the gods of the underworld so as to have him received into the society of the blessed. The multitude assembled acclaimed him of excellent character and asked that he be joined into the regions of Amenti (the Hades of the Greeks). They would then put him into a boat and ferry him across the lake to his burial site or sepulcher.
Should he be found guilty of evils in his life, however, he would be refused immediate transfer across the lake and would be taken to the home of the deceased and propped against the wall for a period of time during which prayers were offered (and of course a little money under the table for the priests to shorten this purgatory period).
This, unfortunately, was not their only judgment. No, there’s more. Upon entering the Underworld or Netherworld, the deceased would be judged again at the Court of Osiris (remember the fourteen piece, minus one, husband of Isis). Well it seems that Osiris became the head honcho in the Underworld. This place of judgment was known as "The Island of Fire." It was not an easy task to even get to the Court of Osiris. One had to pass many gates, doors, and tricky passages to get there. One had to answer questions, know the names of the gods, secret formulas, and the like before one would be allowed to pass through.
After getting through the various gates successfully, the lion god, Aker, would take him through the last gate where he would face the fourteen members of a jury in The Tribunal Hall. There he would be allowed to give his version of his life on earth. Next we are introduced to Anubis (originally a god from Abydos in Upper Egypt, later a son of the sun god Ra, and still later a son of Osiris), who is pictured as a man with the head of a black jackal. He takes the deceased into the courtroom where his heart is weighed on a balance scale, and recorded by the god of wisdom, Throh. Anubis is the god of cemeteries and embalming.
If the deceased heart was not too heavy with sins during his life, he would then be brought before the throne of Osiris who would grant that he could pass through and continue his voyage to the afterlife, where he would be granted a plot of land in the "Field of the Reeds." This field of reeds was the paradise of the ancient Egyptians. Here they would grow crops, drink beer, and life a life of plenty similar to their farms and homes along the Nile River Valley.
Should the heart be heavy with earthly sins, however, the beast Ammut, who sat under the scale, would gobble up his heart, and he would then be brought before Osiris who would pronounce the worst possible fate for an Egyptian. Right here, however, we have two teachings. According to some Egyptian mythology, if a person were not extraordinarily wicked, he would be given a sort of purgatory where his soul would be put into the body of another, or an animal. According to Wilkinson, "the souls which underwent transmigration were those of men whose sins were of sufficiently moderate kind to admit of that purification; the unpardonable sinner being condemned to ETERNAL FIRE," which Thayer points out to mean "never ending fire," as they had no one word to represent "eternal."
And so we see the "heaven and hell" doctrine of the Protestant Christians, and the "heaven and hell or purgatory" of the Catholic Christians, being taught by the Ancient Egyptians long before there was any such things as Old Testament or New Testament Manuscripts.
THE EGYPTIAN HEAVEN ON THE SOLAR BOAT OF RA
Here’s another option to the Field of Reeds for those judged righteous in Osiris’ Court. In place of a parcel of land similar to their home on the Nile, those worthy souls deemed righteous by the gods could be passengers on The Boat of Millions of Years, riding with the sun god Ra
It appeared a simple fact to virtually all, ancient peoples that the Sun traveled across the sky from the Eastern horizon to the Western horizon. The sun was warm, and gave light, and therefore understandable that God-rejecting pagans would consider the sun to be a god. Not just an orb of fire, but an actual god. And so, they developed a complicated and extremely stupid set of doctrines regarding this sun god that they named Ra.
Since the sky is blue like the waters of the sea, they believed that the upper sky was water. They believed that the sun traveled across an ocean of water every day. Believing that the sun was also a fire, they quickly figured out that an orb of fire in an ocean of water, would be extinguished. Hence, they put the sun and Ra the sun god in a boat to keep it dry from the watery sky. This open reed boat (much like the reed boats along the Nile) was pulled across the sky every day by the evil god Set, the brother of Osiris and Isis. On board were the gods Geb (the earth god) and Heka plus the companions of Hu and Sia. Hu was a minor god created by Ra to help fight the evil spirits on their daily journey across the sky. Sia is mentioned in "The Book of the Dead" as having the position of protecting the private parts of the dead.
In the very center of the boat was a huge scarab beetle holding up the sun disk above his head. The Egyptians observed that scarab beetles rolled round balls of dung along the ground, which came to symbolize the round disc of the sun. This beetle was known by the name Kheper. He was the god of rebirth. At the prow the god Upuaut navigated by night, assisted by pilot fish Abtu and Ant who swam in front of the boat. How stupid, you say.
The daytime journey across the sky was not as perilous as the night journey through the underworld, but it too had its problems. There was always the threat of the evil snake-crocodile coming up out of the heavenly sea and attacking the boat and its passengers. The myth of the daily voyage of Ra the sun god across the heaven was a type of allegory of the struggles of man down on the earth. Just making it through the day was not only a constant struggle for man, but even for their gods. It is hard to imagine anyone desiring such a monotonous eternity.
How stupid, you say. How stupid? Are you kidding, this is the stuff of which Christian Doctrines are made. These stupid Egyptian myths are the very bedrock of Christian doctrine. It is from Egypt that the Greeks and Romans borrowed their pagan doctrines, which have now been palmed off to the Christian Church as being BIBLICAL! Don’t laugh at these stupid myths of the Egyptians, for they are very building blocks of major Christian doctrines. Everlasting punishment, immortal souls, heavens and hells, judgments at death, mansions in the sky, physical bodies, and happy hunting grounds, are but the trappings and paraphernalia of Christian doctrine.
THE CHRISTIAN VERSION OF THE HAPPY HUNTING GROUND
At death, an Egyptian had several options as to where or how he would live in his paradise. For one, he could expect to live in the area of his tomb, or among the stars, in the celestial regions with the sun god Ra, or in the Underworld in the Fields of Reeds with their little farm and servants. Once again, these ideas have come down to us in many cultures. The American Indians looked forward to their "Happy Hunting Grounds." A Jehovah’s Witness flyer reminded me of the happy hunting grounds of the Indians, but it is also very close to what Christians picture their fabled planet heaven to be like. All of these tales, myths, and Christian doctrines of heaven are but a desperate attempt to reject the realm of the spirit and hang onto the realm of the physical, the FLESH.
They care not that the Scriptures plainly teach that
"Flesh and blood CANNOT inherit the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption" (I Cor. 15:50).
Yet telling an orthodox Christian that they will not have a physical body in their fabled physical heaven of the flesh: is like telling a little child that there is no Santa Claus.
A Jehovah’s Witness gave my wife a little flyer the other day which pictured a beautiful valley scene with children playing with bears and deers, people of different races conversing with one another, and still others picking luscious fruit in baskets, all with the hillsides dotted with modest cottages and homes. This is how they picture paradise, virtually identical to the pagan Egyptians and their Fields of Reeds and their little farms along the Nile of the Underworld. Many Christians picture something similar in a celestial setting on a rock planet in outer space with clouds, little naked winged Cupids, lush fields with trees and streams running through cities of streets paved with gold, and other such things.
Is any of this stuff Scriptural? No, of course not, It can all be traced back the pagan religion of the pagan Egyptians. Just as the Egyptians believed that their soul continued to live at death without their body, so Christians teach this same unscriptural pagan doctrine. Just as the pagans wanted to be reunited with the physical flesh bodies in the Underworld, so too, do Christians believe and desire that their naked souls in heaven, will one day be united with a body of flesh once more. They want to be reunited with a PHYSICAL body in which to live for all eternity. Yet the Scriptures know no such thing as living in physical bodies.
I hear theologians speak of the "resurrection of the BODY." Why they even make it a part of their grandest creeds, yet the phrase "resurrection of the body" is nowhere found in Scripture. It is the "resurrection of the DEAD" that is taught in Scripture. Dead PEOPLE will be resurrected, not dead BODIES. And our new resurrected bodies will be SPIRITUAL, and not physical (I Cor. 15:44).
Jesus took on several different forms for the sake of those He appeared to after His resurrection. Mary thought He was the gardener. The men going to Emmaus didn’t know who they walked with, at the seaside the apostles new it must be Jesus, but they didn’t dare ask, and once He appeared in the body in which He was crucified so that the Apostles would know for sure that it is He. But I assure you that Jesus will not live through eternity in a physical body symbolizing SIN, and to add insult to injury, a body that is full of holes. What foolishness.
MUMMIES, BODIES, AND FLESH
Mankind desperately wants to hold on to the flesh. Great and wealthy men such as Walt Disney have had their bodies frozen in special containers with the hope that one day science will learn the secret to life and will be able to bring these frozen people back into physical life and existence once more.
The Egyptians were way ahead of Walt Disney and today’s science (or maybe rather: science-fiction). They mummified their bodies for the express purpose of preserving their bodies forever. It was essential that they have physical bodies in the hereafter. Poor people unable to afford the expense of mummification could substitute little figurines to take the place of an embalmed body. The wealthy Pharaoh’s built huge pyramids that are now referred to as "Resurrection Machines."
Little did the Egyptians, the apostate Church, or Walt Disney realize that the body does not exist independent of spirit. Without the spirit from God united with the body, no body will ever live. It is the spirit that gives live, not the soul. Man only becomes a living soul after God adds the SPIRIT. This is theology 101, however, not one orthodox seminary on earth understands or believes this Scriptural truth.
SATAN’S TRINITY OF MAN
Did you ever wonder why it is that so many Christians are almost violently opposed to our teaching that exposes the trinity theory? Just why is the trinity the bedrock of all Christian doctrines along with the immortal soul and judgment upon death theory? Because man desperately wants to believe that he too is a "trinity" composed of three separate entities of body, soul, and spirit in one being, and that he is really immortal even though his physical body will die. Virtually every pagan religion in the world believes man is immortal as the gods. It is too frightening for them to believe that when they die, they are really dead, and that they will remain dead until or unless God resurrects them back to life.
Did the ancient Egyptians believe in the trinity of man: body, soul, and spirit? Yes, of course they did. The soul of man, called Ba, was the consciousness of the man and dwelled inside the body. The spirit-like aspect of man was called Ka. The Ka was like an invisible spirit double of the man. Both the Ka and the Ba where present in every human at birth. The Ba (soul) was pictured as a bird with the head of a man. Every evening the Ba could leave the mummy body and return back to earth among the living and check on friends and relatives. This is how the dead could keep in contact with the living. This is in fact the same hocus-pocus that medians deceitfully use to deceive people into believing that one can communicate with their dead loved-ones.
There is more superstition and witchcraft in some Christian doctrines than any theologian would ever admit to. The souls of people do not go to a heaven or hell upon death. Such doctrines are straight out of the tombs of the Pagan Egyptians.
This trinity of man and immortality of the soul nonsense is Egyptian (SIN), not Scriptural (RIGHTEOUSNESS).
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IS THE ROMAN CHURCH
ETERNITY: Make no mistake about it, the Protestant Church has and always will bow to the authority of the Roman Church. No matter how many adjustments, additions, or deletions they make to their Roman heritage, they are still, nonetheless, Roman to the core. Every time you open your King James Bible and believe that it’s pages are "inerrant," you bow to the Catholic Church.
"Eternity" is not an Hebrew word, neither is it Greek, nor English. Then why is it found in your King James Bible? Who put it there and from where did it come?
Our [now] English words "eternal" and "eternity" come from the Latin word aevum. Dictionaries define this word as meaning, "lifetime, life, age, mankind living at a particular time." From aevum comes aeviternus¸ and the adjective aeternus which is our English word eternal. The doctrine of "everlasting punishment" is based on this LATIN word borrowed from the CATHOLIC Vulgate Bible.
I said that "everlasting punishment" is NOT SCRIPTURAL, but is based on the Latin word aeternus which comes directly out of the Catholic Vulgate Bible.
Satan is a master at what he does, and what he does is DECEIVE (Rev. 12:9). How could Satan get the entire Church of Christ to believe in and worship the rank paganism of sinful Egypt? By writing manuscripts discrediting God’s Word?
By getting men to accuse God falsely? By getting a bunch of kids to start churches of Satanism? No, nothing so elaborate. Such things are but smoke screens. All Satan did to change the ENTIRE Word of God from something meaningful and marvelous into something dreadful and deplorable, was to change the meaning of one little word. ONE WORD, would "deceive the WHOLE WORLD" (Rev. 12:9).
The doctrine came from Egypt, from where it was borrowed by the Greeks, and passed on to the Romans. In order for the Catholic Church to hold on to this pagan doctrine, so as to have almost supernatural power over the people by the use of this fear doctrine, they found it needful to find a way to interject this most damnable of all pagan doctrines, into the very translation of the Scriptures themselves. This is the single most egregious sin against "man adding unto the things of God’s word" in the history of God’s recorded word.
THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH:
Do the Protestants believe that they worship on the Day of the Sun because it is sanctioned in the Scriptures? How absurd. Here is why the Protestants worship on the Day of the Sun:
Most likely, somewhere on that marquee identifying which Church you attended will be a message giving the time and day of either worship services or mass. And on most churches, that day will be SUNDAY. And why are most Christian, worship services held on the "day of the sun?" Not that believers, are to esteem one day above another (Rom. 14:5), but it is interesting that most Christians around the world do worship on the day of the sun—Sunday.
The Catholic Church, that is the Roman Church, came out of pagan Rome. And the Romans celebrated the day of the sun as a day of festivities and pagan worship. It is therefore only natural that the Roman Church should adopt this pagan day of worship just as many other Roman aspects of pagan worship were incorporated into the Roman Catholic Church, and then passed onto the Protestant Churches.
The Lord’s Day, Sunday, is not Scriptural, nor is it Protestant. It is Roman Catholic:
"Christians must not Judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honoring the Lord's Day, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be Judaizing [keeping God’s commandment to keep the Sabbath], let him be anathema from Christ" (A History of the Church Councils, by Charles J. Hefele, Volume 11, p.316).
God said:
"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy" (Ex. 20:8).
But the Roman Catholic Church said, NO, you must profane the Sabbath day of God by working on it, and keep the Roman day of worship in the Day of the SUN—Sunday. And who is it that the Protestant World follows, God or the Roman Church? Why the Roman Church, of course.
Catholic Priest T. Enright, one-time president of Redemptorist Father's College (Kansas City), in one of his lectures, as published in the Industrial American, Harlan, Iowa, referred to this decision made at the Council of Laodicea in the following excerpt:
"My brethren, look about the various wrangling sects and denominations. Show me one that claims or possesses the power to make laws binding on the conscience. There is but one on the face of the earth -the Catholic Church -that has the power to make laws binding upon the conscience, binding before God, binding under the pain of hellfire. Take, for instance, the day we celebrate - Sunday. What right have the Protestant churches to observe that day? None whatever. You say it is to obey the commandment, 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’ But Sunday is not the Sabbath according to the Bible and the record of time. Everyone knows that Sunday is the first day of the week, while Saturday is the seventh day, and the Sabbath, the day consecrated as a day of rest. It is so recognized in all civilized nations.
I have repeatedly offered $1,000 to anyone who will furnish proof from the Bible that Sunday is the day we are bound to keep, and no one has called for the money. If any person in this town will show any Scripture for it, I will tomorrow evening publicly acknowledge it and thank him for it. It was the Holy Catholic Church that changed the day of rest from Saturday to Sunday, the first day of the week. And it not only compelled all to keep Sunday, but at the Council of Laodicea, A.D. 364, anathematised those who kept the Sabbath and urged all persons to labour on the seventh day under penalty of anathema. "Which church does the whole civilized world obey? Protestants call us every horrible name they can think of - anti-Christ, the scarlet-colored beast, Babylon, etc., and at the same time profess great reverence for the Bible, AND YET BY THEIR SOLEMN ACT OF KEEPING SUNDAY, THEY ACKNOWLEDGE THE POWER OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH" (December 19, 1889). (Emphasis are mine).
And which ancient nation paid more homage to the Sun than any other? Why Egypt, of course. The Egyptian sun god, Re or Ra was worshiped everywhere in Egypt throughout its ancient dynasties. Once again, a major symbol of Christian worship traces its beginning back to pagan Egypt.
All of the worst religious teachings of pagan Rome, are still in the Christian Church. The major Christian doctrines of, who is man, what is man, what is man’s purpose on earth, and what is man’s eternal destiny, are believed by Catholics and Protestants alike, and all of them are pagan to the core. And all of them came from pagan Egypt, through pagan Greece, through pagan Rome, into the Church of Rome, through the King James Bible, and into the homes and lives of billions of unsuspecting Christians worldwide.
THE CHURCH IS OBLIVIOUS TO THE COMMANDS OF GOD
The architecture, holy days, and doctrines of the Church are pagan.
Here is what God warns against just such things:
"Thus says the Lord, LEARN NOT THE WAY OF THE HEATHEN…" (Jer. 10:2)
Deut. 12:30—"Take heed to yourself that you BE NOT SNARED BY FOLLOWING THEM, after that they be destroyed from before you, and that you enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? EVEN SO WILL WE DO LIKEWISE."
Lev. 20:23—"And YOU SHALL NOT WALK IN THE MANNERS OF THE NATION, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I ABHORRED them."
Lev. 18:3—"After the doings of the land of EGYPT, wherein you dwelled, SHALL YOU NOT DO: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, where I bring you, SHALL YOU NOT DO: neither shall you walk in their ordinances."
KEEPING THE DUMB SHEEP DUMB
Since none of these things which the Jews of Jesus’ day believed were taught in the Law of Moses, just where did the Jews learn of these pagan doctrines?
Most theologians are clearly deceived, however, not all are ignorant. Many theologians know at least some of the material I am presenting to you. But they don’t want you to know or understand any of it. It has been the purpose of the ruling privileged elite to keep the masses at bay by evil indoctrinations, deceptions, and gross fear.
From Thayer’s "Doctrine of Eternal Punishment," we read the following:
"Any one at all familiar with the writings of the ancient Greeks or Romans, cannot fail to not see how often it is admitted by them that the national religions were the INVENTIONS of the legislator and the priest, for the purpose of governing and restraining the common people [AKA—‘The DUMB SHEEP’]. Hence, all the early lawgivers claim to have had communications with the gods, who aided them in the preparation of their codes.
The object of this SACRED FRAUD was to impress the minds of the multitude with religious awe, and command a more ready obedience on their part. Hence Augustine says, in his ‘City of God,’ ‘This seems to have been done on no other account, but as it was the business of princes, out of their wisdom and civil prudence, TO DECEIVE THE PEOPLE IN THEIR RELIGION; princes, under the name of religion, persuaded the people to believe those things [to be] true, which THEY THEMSELVES KNEW TO BE IDLE FABLES; by this means, for their own ease in government, tying them the more closely to civil society,’ B.iV 32."
There are countless Historians who have clearly come to see the fraudulent origins of most of today’s religious doctrines (Christianity first and foremost).
From Bishop Warburton:
"Hence, they [priests and lawyers] enforced the belief of a future state of reward and punishments by every sort of contrivance."
And it is EGYPT that is the originator of these gross and evil doctrines of eternal torture after death of the souls which supposedly cannot die.
The Egyptian priests and legislators invented these damnable heresies, and the Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans thought it was the best thing that ever happened to them since homemade chocolate fudge. What a clever and inexpensive way to keep the people in constant fear of their religious and civil leaders!
Historians have called Egypt, "The MOTHER OF SUPERSTITIONS." Does "Mystery Babylon the Great, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS, and the abominations of the earth" come to mind when you read that?
Greek and Roman lawyers, philosophers, and priests, acknowledge their indebtedness to Egypt in this respect, and freely credit her with the ORIGINAL INVENTION OF THE FABLES AND TERRORS of the invisible world; though it must be allowed that they have improved somewhat upon the hints given, and shown a wonderful inventive faculty of their own. (Paraphrased from some of Thayer’s material).
So, how did they keep the dumb sheep in line? By filling their heads with visions of eternal torture in fire if they didn’t obey every whim of their religious and civil leaders.
"How LONG, ye simple ones [Heb: ‘silly, seducible, foolish, naïve’] will ye love simplicity [Heb: ‘silliness, seductiveness, foolishness, naïvete’]? And the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?" (Prov. 1:22).
Yes, how true: "…fools HATE knowledge." I do my best to free people from the spiritual dictators over their lives, but often they not only hate the knowledge that I give them, but they also hate me for teaching them.
"My people have been lost sheep: THEIR SHEPHERDS HAVE CAUSED THEM TO GO ASTRAY…" (Jer. 50:6).
Does even one in two billion Christians believe that this verse of Scripture is true? Oh, I almost forgot…this Scripture was written to only the physical Jews of old (we must always consult the Christian orthodox god of "context, context, context"), and therefore this verse has absolutely no relevance to the Church today. I speak as a fool:
"Now ALL THESE THINGS HAPPENED UNTO THEM [For example: ‘The SHEPHERDS causing the sheep to go astray’ under the Old Covenant] for examples [Of how the Shepherds are ‘causing the sheep to go astray’ under the New Covenant] and they are written for OUR ADMONITION [We who are ‘Jews inwardly’—spiritual Jews (Rom. 2:29)], upon whom the ends of the ages are come" (I Cor. 10:11).
"The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means and My people LOVE TO HAVE IT SO…" (Jer. 5:31).
Unbelievable… UNBELIEVABLE. I watch ministers on television use, and abuse, and accuse their congregations, over and over again. And do they get up and walk out? NO… they APPLAUD That’s right, they applaud the abuse of their ministers. "The priests bear rule by their means [by their forced coercion], and they LOVE TO HAVE IT SO…"
Did the Church learn these pagans heresies from God or from Egypt?’’
"WOE to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but NOT OF ME; and that cover with a covering [Heb: ‘devise a plan, weave a web’], but not of My spirit, that they may add sin to sin: that walk to go down to EGYPT, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of EGYPT! Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your CONFUSION…
That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord: Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceit. Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us" (Isa. 30:1-3 & 9-11).
The prayer of Israel, and today’s church, is to "cause the Holy One of Israel to CEASE FROM BEFORE US." Oh they don’t consciously think that that is what they are praying for, but that is, nonetheless, what they want. They want "smooth things," they want their prophets to prophesy "deceit." They don’t want the truth: "They can’t HANDLE THE TRUTH!"
It was from Satan and then from the Egyptians that the Church got the teaching of an immortal soul, not from God.
It was from the Egyptians that the Church got the teaching that there is judgment at death, not from Moses.
It was from the Egyptians that the church learned the pagan teaching of entering a paradise at death, not from the Law or the Prophets.
It was from the Egyptians that the church learned of a never-ending punishment at death, not from the Hebrew Scriptures.
HISTORICAL PROOF THE WORST CHURCH DOCTRINES ARE EGYPTIAN
This next section is from Thayher’s Doctrine of Endless Punishment, quoting many historians regarding the deceitful use of pagan doctrines of punishment.
"Greeks and Romans, Lawgivers and Philosophers, acknowledge their indebtedness to her in this respect, and freely credit her with the original invention of the fables and terrors of the invisible world; though it must be allowed that they have improved somewhat upon the hints given, and shown a wonderful inventive faculty of their own.
These records of the ancient Greeks, confirmed by the monuments as illustrated by modern scholars, open to us the origin of the doctrines of a judgment after death, and of future endless rewards and punishments, for the good or evil deeds of this life. From the Egyptians it passed, with suitable modifications, to the Greeks and Romans. Diodorus himself clearly shows that the fables of the Acherusian lake, of Hecate, Cerberus, Charon, and the Styx, have their original in these Egyptian ceremonies and doctrines.
And Professor Stuart, in a note to Greppo's Essay on Hieroglyphics, accepts the statement of Spineto, that the Amenti of the Egyptians originated the classic fables of Hades and Tartarus, Charon, Pluto, the judges of hell, the dog Cerberus, the Chimeras, Harpies, Gorgons, Furies, "and other such unnatural and horrible things with which the Greeks and Romans peopled their fantastic hell."
It is curious to note the exactness of the copy in many particulars.
The Egyptian Acherusia gives us the Greek Acheron, and perhaps Styx.
The Egyptian Tartar, significant of the lamentations of relatives over the dead refused burial on account of their wicked lives, furnishes the Greek Tartarus, where the wicked are punished.
The funeral boat across the lake, the ferryman, and the gold piece in the mouth of the dead, give rise to Charon, his boat, and fee, and the passage across the Styx into Hades.
The cemetery beyond the lake, surrounded by trees, called by the Egyptians Elisout or Elisaeus, is the original of the Greek Elysian Fields, the abode of the blessed.
The three infernal judges, Minos, Aeacus, Rhadamanthus, are borrowed from the Egyptian judges of the dead; and the heads of animals symbolizing these judges, mistaken by the Greeks, are changed into monster Gorgons, Harpies, Furies, &c.
But, as I have remarked, though the Greeks borrowed, they altered and improved. And, true to that individualism which was so marked a characteristic of that people, they are not satisfied with the Egyptian method of generalizing respecting the punishments of the wicked, but begin specifying particular sinners, and particular kinds of punishment adapted to particular offenses. Hence the fables of Ixion, Tantalus, Tityrus, &c., whose torments in the infernal regions are mentioned in the beginning of this chapter. Everything must be sharp, pointed, and dramatic, to suit the lively genius of the Greek; and the terrors of the invisible world must be presented in a way to strike the imagination in the most powerful manner, and produce some direct result on the individual and on society.
The whole thing is designed for effect, to influence the multitude, to restrain their passions, and to aid the magistrate and ruler in keeping them subject to authority. It is the invention of priests and lawmakers, who take this as the easiest method of governing the people. They claim the "right divine" to govern; claim that their laws originate with the gods, as we have shown above; and that, therefore, the gods will visit on all offenders the terrors and tortures of the damned. Hence, through the joint cunning of priest and legislator, of church and state, mutually supporting each the other, we have all the stupendous frauds and falsehoods respecting the invisible world."
HISTORIANS ACKNOWLEDGE THE INVENTION OF PAGANISM
Polybius, the historian, says:
"Since the multitude is ever fickle, full of lawless desires, irrational passions and violence, there is no other way to keep them in order but by the fear and terror of the invisible world; on which account our ancestors seem to me to have acted judiciously, when they contrived to bring into the popular belief these notions of the gods, and of the infernal regions." B. vi 56.
Dionysius Halicarnassus treats the whole matter as useful, but not as true. Antiq. Rom., B. ii Livy, the celebrated historian, speaks of it in the same spirit; and he praises the wisdom of Numa, because he invented the fear of the gods, as
"a most efficacious means of governing an ignorant and barbarous populace." Hist., I 19.
Strabo, the geographer, says:
"The multitude are restrained from vice by the punishments the gods are said to inflict upon offenders, and by those terrors and threatenings which certain dreadful words and monstrous forms imprint upon their minds...For it is impossible to govern the crowd of women, and all the common rabble, by philosophical reasoning, and lead them to piety, holiness and virtue - but this must be done by superstition, or the fear of the gods, by means of fables and wonders; for the thunder, the aegis, the trident, the torches (of the Furies), the dragons, &c., are all fables, as is also all the ancient theology. These things the legislators used as scarecrows to terrify the childish multitude." Geog., B. I
Timaeus Locrus, the Pythagorean, after stating that the doctrine of rewards and punishments after death is necessary to society, proceeds as follows:
"For as we sometimes cure the body with unwholesome remedies, when such as are most wholesome produce no effect, so we restrain those minds with false relations, which will not be persuaded by the truth. There is a necessity, therefore, of instilling the dread of those foreign torments:
10as that the soul changes its habitation; that the coward is ignominiously thrust into the body of a woman; the murderer imprisoned within the form of a savage beast; the vain and inconstant changed into birds, and the slothful and ignorant into fishes."
Plato, in his commentary on Timaeus, fully endorses what he says respecting the fabulous invention of these foreign torments.
And Strabo says that
"Plato and the Brahmins of India invented fables concerning the future judgments of hell" (Hades).
And Chrysippus blames Plato for attempting to deter men from wrong by frightful stories of future punishments.
Plato himself is exceedingly inconsistent, sometimes adopting, even in his serious discourses, the fables of the poets, and at other times rejecting them as utterly false, and giving too frightful views of the invisible world. Sometimes, he argues, on social grounds, that they are necessary to restrain bad men from wickedness and crime, and then again he protests against them on political grounds, as intimidating the citizens, and making cowards of the soldiers, who, believing these things, are afraid of death, and do not therefore fight well. But all this shows in what light he regarded them; not as truths, certainly, but as fictions, convenient in some cases, but difficult to manage in others.
Plutarch treats the subject in the same way; sometimes arguing for them with great solemnity and earnestness, and on other occasions calling them "fabulous stories, the tales of mothers and nurses."
Seneca says:
"Those things which make the infernal regions terrible, the darkness, the prison, the river of flaming fire, the judgment seat, &c., are all a fable, with which the poets amuse themselves, and by them agitate us with vain terrors." Sextus Empiricus calls them "poetic fables of hell;" and Cicero speaks of them as "silly absurdities and fables" (ineptiis ac fabulis).
Aristotle.
"It has been handed down in mythical form from earliest times to posterity, that there are gods, and that the divine (Deity) compasses all nature. All beside this has been added, after the mythical style, for the purpose of persuading the multitude, and for the interests of the laws, and the advantage of the state." Neander's Church Hist., I, p. 7.
11Another quote from Thomas Thayer’s paper on The Doctrine of Everlasting Punishment:
"Anyone at all familiar with the writings of the ancient Greeks or Romans, [who admittedly received their basis doctrine of hell from Egypt] cannot fail to note how often it is admitted by them that the national religions were the INVENTIONS OF THE LEGISLATOR AND THE PRIES, for the purpose of governing and restraining the common people [commonly called ‘dumb sheep’]."
Hence Augustine [considered by many to be the greatest theologian in history] says, in his ‘City of God,’
"This seems to have been done on no other account, but as it was the business of princes, out of their wisdom and civil prudence, to DECEIVE THE PEOPLE IN THEIR RELIGION; princes, under the name of religion, persuaded the people to believe those things true, which they themselves KNEW TO BE IDLE FABLES; by this means, for their own ease in government, tying them the more closely to civil society." (All CAPS emphasis is mine).
My, how well this religious deception of the masses continues to be in the 21st century.
THE CHRISTIANIZATION OF PAGANISM
When I say that virtually all of the doctrines and traditions of the Church are from pagan sources, I am not exaggerating. There are dozens of things that are pagan within the Church of Christendom today. As this paper is getting rather lengthy, I will call your attention to just one: From where did we get the word "church?"
Walk up to almost any church of any denomination in any nation on earth, and It immediately distinguishes itself from all other kinds of buildings. Let’s now look at a few of the symbols which transform a building into a Christian Church.
First, you might notice near the highway or on the sidewalk, a marquee with a name such as, Church of the Nazarene, or First Baptism Church, or Our Lady Catholic Church. These unique buildings we call churches have many things in common, not the least of which is the designation of the word "church" itself. What does the word "church" mean, and from where did it come? The Scriptures? No. The word "church" is neither Hebrew no Greek, so when these languages were translated into English Bibles, the word church was already in existence.
The word "church" found in most (not all) Bibles is translated from the Greek word "ekklecia," and it means "called out ones." The word "church" is defined in most dictionaries as: "A building for public worship, especially Christian worship; the company of all Christians as a spiritual body." This, however, tells us nothing concerning the origin of this word and its original definition, meaning, and usage. Some theologians have erroneously stated that the word church comes from the Greek "kyrios" which means "lord," and thus "church" is those who belong to the Lord, or references the "Lord’s house." This is not, however, the origin or original meaning of the word "church."
Church is a very early English word that mean "circle" (the shape of a circle), while the Greek word translated "church" is "ekklesia" and means "called out one," and more properly answers to the English words, congregation, assembly or group.
In Acts 19:32 ekklesia refers to a riotous mob. And ekklesia is never applied to a building for worship. Furthermore, there can be only one "Lord’s House," and that was the temple in Jerusalem, only. Local congregations and synagogues or assembly halls were never designated "The Lord’s House."
"Bethel" is the word for "Lord’s House" in Hebrew. Yet, this "Lord’s House" became an abomination to the Lord, along with all other such "Lord’s houses."
"For the saying that he cried by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass… Jeroboam returned not from his evil way, but made again of the lowest of the people priests of the high places… And this thing became SIN unto the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth" (I Kings 13:32-34).
And so, in rebelling to God’s commands, "Bethels" were built throughout the land. And just as Israel continually looked to the heathen for their religious practices (Ex. Jer. 10;1-5), so did the heathens borrow from Israel. These "Bethels" or "houses of the Lord" became popular among the heathens. Bethels were being built throughout Europe, West Asia, and North Africa. They usually used the Greek spelling "baetyls," but they were the same high, religious places of worship, which God condemned. So even if a "Bethel" was a "house of the Lord," it was still condemned by God. Here are the historical facts regarding "church."
Professor Smith of Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible states that "church" comes from a word meaning "circle," which is akin to our word "circus."
Professor Lipsius (German theologian during the Reformation) also shows that "church" came from "circle." Professor A. F. Fausett of Home Bible Study Dictionary" agrees with Professor Lipsius. The exhaustive ten volume Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature under the word "church" states that: "It was probably connected with the Latin circus, circulus, and with the Greek kuklos. Lipsius, who was the first to reject the received tradition, was probably right in his suggestion" (Vol. II, p. 322).
Robert Brown’s work The Myth of Kirke" also confirms that "kirke" (church) means "Circle" or "Circular" (p. 22).
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, under the entry "church" as this:
"The etymology of this word is generally assumed to be from the Greek, kurious oikos (house of God); but this is most improbable, as the word existed in all the Celtic dialects long before the introduction of the Greek . No doubt the word means ‘a circle.’ The places of worship among the German and Celtic nations were always circular [witness circular Stonehenge, the most ancient stone megaliths on earth]. Compare Anglo-Saxon ‘circe,’ a small church, with ‘circol,’ a circle."
In Scotland it is called "Kirk" and in Gemany it is "Kirche," in England it is the word "Circe" (the "c" having a "k" sound). My brother-in-law lives north of Cologne in a small city called Neukirchen meaning New Church.
But according to Brown’s book, "Kirke/Circe" was also the name of a Goddess.
Kirke or Circe was the daughter of the Sun god, who was famous for taming wild animals for her circus. But get ready for this, Circe is pictured holding a golden cup in her hand mixed with wine and drugs, by which she controlled the kings of the world. Now where have we heard that before?
"And the woman [always the symbol for a church/kirke] was arrayed in purple and scarlet color [these colors symbolize wealth and high position], and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication" (Rev. 17:4).
What else are we told is in the golden cup of this church?
"…the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication" (Ver. 2).
But there is something else. Remember that Brown above also mention drugs along with wine. Is our lady church of Revelation 17:4-5 "MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH" also involved in DRUGS?
In the following chapter, we have described the fall of this Babylonian Church System. Notice what Rev. 18:23 lists among her many abominations:
"…for the merchants were the great men of the earth; for by your sorceries were all nations deceived."
Just what are these "sorceries?"
The Greek word translated "sorceries" in this verse is, pharmakeia. Dr. Strong’s first definition of this word is, "medicine." Our words "pharmacy" and "pharmaceutical" (DRUGS) are derived from this word. This harlot church peddles spiritual DRUGS to the world! And so, clearly this pagan goddess Kirke not only stamps Christian religions of the world with her name: "Kirke, Kirche, Church," but also she is the Mystery Babylonian Harlot Church of Rev. 17 and 18. This Church has committed spiritual fornication among the leaders of the world, and has caused the inhabitants of the world to be made drunk and drugged by the contents of her golden cup.
What about you? Are you yet so drugged and drunk on this Harlot Church that you cannot see to walk the straight and narrow way of Christ, which leads to life?
CHRISTMAS TREES, EASTER EGGS, AND SHEILA-NA-GIGS
CHRISTMAS:
Most religious festivals of the world have something to do with sex or fertility. The Christian Holy Days are no different. They ARE in fact, little more than these same pagan festivals with Christian orientations. Christmas, for example IS the pagan Roman Saturnalia or sometimes called "The Festival of Lights." But even the Saturnalia predates the founding of Rome by centuries. This same festival can be traced to Babylon, and yes, you guessed it, to Egypt and their winter celebration of lights.
December 25 is near the winter solstice. It is the time when the sun after having been at the lowest point in the heavens, beings to rise over the world with renewed vigor and power. It was the time of heathen festivities in worship of the sun. The vernal equinox is the point where the sun crosses the celestial equator, about March 20, making day and night of equal length everywhere. This was the time of pagan spring festivals.
The day of December 25 acquired a new significance under the rule of Emperor Aurelian. He proclaimed this day as "Dies Natalis Invicti Solis," or the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. This was because of a strange Eastern religion, Mithraism, whose god Mithras was identified with the Unconquered Sun. During the Saturnalia work of every kind ceased. Schools were closed.
The Roman Saturnalia was boisterous. But whatever the behavior of some Romans, others were simply merry. They ate big dinners, visited their friends, etc. The halls of the Romans were decked with boughs of laurel and of green trees, with lighted candles and with lamps--for the hovering spirits of darkness were afraid of light. Bonfires were lit in high places to strengthen the reviving sun in his course. Candles and green wreaths were given as presents, the streets were crowded with noisy processions of men and women carrying lighted tapers, and public places were decked with flowers and shrubs. The practice of giving and receiving presents was almost as common then as it is now at Christmas. Our present day "Christmas spirit" is actually the spirit of this old Roman festival.
EASTER:
Semiramis was the wife/mother of Nimrod the mighty hunter whose kingdom was Babel (Gen. 10:9-10). From there I will just quote from lasttrumpetministries.org, as their site has a concise history of Easter:
"She [Semiramis] taught that the moon was a goddess that went through a 28 day cycle and ovulated when full. She further claimed that she came down from the moon in a giant moon egg that fell into the Euphrates River. This was to have happened at the time of the first full moon after the spring equinox. Semiramis became known as "Ishtar" which is pronounced "Easter", and her moon egg became known as "Ishtar's" egg." Ishtar soon became pregnant and claimed that it was the rays of the sun-god Baal that caused her to conceive. The son that she brought forth was named Tammuz.
Tammuz was noted to be especially fond of rabbits, and they became sacred in the ancient religion, because Tammuz was believed to be the son of the sun-god, Baal. Tammuz, like his supposed father, became a hunter. The day came when Tammuz was killed by a wild pig. Queen Ishtar told the people that Tammuz was now ascended to his father, Baal, and that the two of them would be with the worshippers in the sacred candle or lamp flame as Father, Son and Spirit. Ishtar, who was now worshipped as the "Mother of God and Queen of Heaven", continued to build her mystery religion.
The queen told the worshippers that when Tammuz was killed by the wild pig, some of his blood fell on the stump of an evergreen tree, and the stump grew into a full new tree overnight. This made the evergreen tree sacred by the blood of Tammuz. She also proclaimed a forty day period of time of sorrow each year prior to the anniversary of the death of Tammuz. During this time, no meat was to be eaten. Worshippers were to meditate upon the sacred mysteries of Baal and Tammuz, and to make the sign of the "T" in front of their hearts as they worshipped. They also ate sacred cakes with the marking of a "T" or cross on the top.
Every year, on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, a celebration was made. It was Ishtar's Sunday and was celebrated with rabbits and eggs. Ishtar also proclaimed that because Tammuz was killed by a pig, that a pig must be eaten on that Sunday. By now, the readers of this tract should have made the connection that paganism has infiltrated the contemporary "Christian" churches, and further study indicates that this paganism came in by way of the Roman Catholic System. The truth is that Easter has nothing whatsoever to do with the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Similar legends abound in Northern Europe: Scholars, accepting the derivation proposed by the 8th-century English scholar, St. Bede, believe the name Easter is thought to come from the Scandinavian "Ostra" and the Teutonic "Ostern" or "Eastre," both Goddesses of mythology signifying spring and fertility whose festival was celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox. Traditions associated with the festival survive in the Easter rabbit, a symbol of fertility, and in colored Easter eggs, originally painted with bright colors to represent the sunlight of spring, and used in Easter-egg rolling contests or given as gifts.
Regardless how accurate all of these histories are in every detail, one thing is for sure. Rabbits and eggs are symbols of fertility, and all pagan and heathen cultures worshipped sex and fertility. Therefore, Easter is pagan, and the Church has absolutely no authority for gracing this pagan sex and fertility festival with the Name of Jesus.
SHEILA-NA-GIGS:
What is a "Sheila-na-gig," you ask? Look it up in your dictionary. It’s not there, you say? Hmmmm? I wonder why--it was a well-known word in Europe and Britain for centuries. Why do you suppose this word just dropped out of all our English dictionaries?
If you still have any doubts—ANY, that the Christian Church is steeped in sex and fertility worship, and rank paganism, then check into the "Sheila-na-gigs" of Christianity during the middle ages.
Sheila-na-gigs are so lewd, so pornographic, and utterly disgusting, that you can no longer even find the word Sheila-na-gig in most English Dictionaries. They are a part of Christianity’s recent past, that church historians and theologians would rather you never, ever find out about.
These statues, carvings, idols and images of Sheila-na-gigs are no mere "golden calves" worshipped by Egypt and Israel. Nor are they mere pictures and statutes of the pagan Greek god Zues, fraudulently said to be pictures of a long-haired Christ. If you think that "the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION spoken of by Daniel standing in the holy place" (Matt. 24:15), was something horrible, wait till you learn what these Sheila-na-gigs standing in the holy places of the Christian Churches of Northwestern Europe and Britain were all about.
Sheela-na-gigs defined:
"Sheela-na-Gigs are carvings of naked females posed in a manner which displays and emphasises the genitalia. They were first brought to scientific attention in the 1840s by antiquarians. The name "sheela-na-gig" was first published in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 1840-44 as a local name for an exhibitionist carving which was once attached to the gable wall of a church. The name sheela-na-gig comes from the Irish language - the most likely interpretations are Sighle na gCioch meaning "the old hag of the breasts," or Sile-ina-Giob meaning "sheela (a name for an old woman) on her hunkers."
Other recorded names include the Devil Stone, the Idol, the Evil Eye Stone, Julia the Giddy, Shiela O?Dwyer, Cathleen Owen, St. Shanahan, Whore, the Witch, and the Hag of the Castle."
"Sheela-na-Gigs are religious carvings of women, special women, the symbolical representation of femininity and/or actual female deities or Goddesses. They were placed on churches, castles and other important buildings of the medieval period and, until quite recently in some instances, they acted as dedicatory or protective symbols promoting good luck and fertility.
But their meaning goes much deeper and the fact that they were erected over the doorways of churches and castles and otherwise placed in every prominent positions suggests that they were a very potent and powerful image, obviously the primary religious belief of the people of that era of christianity." From
Sheela-na-gigs by Jack Roberts
Sheila-na-Gig = sheela na gig, from the Irish Sile nà gCioch" = sheela na gee-och, which means Sheila of the breasts. An ancient fertility icon, Sheila-na-Gigs are stone figurines of women, usually many breasted, and holding open their vaginas. Found in isolation and in medieval church walls. From Susan McKeown
"Aside from the transformative religious mysteries of sacrifice and initiation, the obvious life-giving and growth-promoting powers of the vulva and its secretions have given rise to a widespread use of representations of the female genitalia as apotropaic [to ward off evil] devices. A similar apotropaic function seems to have prompted the placing of squatting female figures prominently exposing their open vulvas on the key of arches at church entrances in Ireland, Great Britain, and German Switzerland. In Ireland these figures are called Sheelagh-na-gigs. Some of these figures represent emaciated old women. These images are illustrations of myths concerning the territorial Celtic goddess who was the granter of royalty. When the goddess wished to test the king-elect, she came to him in the form of an old hag, soliciting sexual intercourse. If the king-elect accepted, she transformed herself into a radiantly beautiful young woman and conferred on him royalty and blessed his reign. Most such figures were removed from churches in the nineteenth century. (Encyclopedia of Religion, article YONI, Vol. 15, p.534).
Who would ever sanction such a display of pagan filth, one might ask? Dr. Ernest L. Martin, Ph.D. answers:
"It should be recalled that the depiction of these women blatantly showing their genitalia in the most prominent places of a Cathedral or church were sanctioned and ordained by the Christian ecclesiastical authorities with the approval and approbation of the papacy in Rome (after all, some of them were found on churches as late as the nineteenth century)."
Even the large Catholic Cathedrals where adorned by these lewd idols, which Cathedrals were the home of the high-ranking Bishops.
All of this pagan nonsense found in the Christian Church came out of Rome and Greece and Egypt. The worship of sex and fertility pictured by symbols of sex and reproduction and fertility was a major part of pagan religion, and Egypt was the origin of many of these pagan practices. Did God reveal His truth to the Egyptians and expect Moses to learn the truths of God from the Egyptians? Moses learned all the pagan customs of Egypt, but he did not pass so much as one of them onto Israel. All that Moses taught Israel CAME FROM GOD.
What does God think of the religion and wisdom and customs of Egypt?
DID GOD MAKE EGYPT THE SOURCE OF DIVINE REVELATION?
Moses knew well the religion of the Egyptians. He was raised as an Egyptian. Endless punishment for the wicked was a most common doctrine through all Egypt, and Moses was reared in the greatest center of learning:
"And Moses was learned in ALL THE WISDOM of the Egyptians…" (Acts 7:22).
Yet, did Moses ever warn Israel of this pagan fate of the wicked taught by sinful Egypt?
NO. Did Moses believe that this Egyptian myth was the Truth of God? NO.
"After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein you dwelled, shall ye not do…" (Lev. 18:3).
"Cast you away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God" (Ezek. 20:7).
I Kings 4:30—"And Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and ALL the wisdom of Egypt"
Yet Solomon never mentioned endless punishment to immortal souls upon death in any of his writings. If Solomon knew that the Egyptian doctrine of immortal souls being tortured in an eternity of hell fire, surely he would have mentioned it just once.
GOD’S VIEW OF THE THEOLOGY AND WISDOM OF EGYPT
Let’s read what God thinks of the "divine revelations" of truth in the nation whose very name is the personification of SIN. Here is God’s judgment on Egypt:
"Surely the princes of Zoan [ancient city in Egypt’s Delta] are FOOLS, the counsel of the wise counselors of Pharaoh is become FOOLISH: how say you unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings? Where are they? Where are the wise men? And let them tell you now, and let them know what the Lord of hosts has purposed upon Egypt.
The princes of Zoan are become FOOLS, the princes of Noph [ancient name for Memphis] are DECEIVED; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay [the mainstay] of the tribes thereof.
The Lord has mingled a PERVERSE SPIRIT in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to ERR IN EVERY WORK THEREOF, as A DRUNKEN MAN STAGGERING IN HIS OWN VOMIT" (Isaiah 19:11-14).
Well, there you have it: "FOOLS, FOOLISH, FOOLS, DECEIVED, PERVERSE SPIRIT, ERR IN EVERY WORK, DRUNKEN MAN STAGGERING IN HIS OWN VOMIT." Does this sound like the kind of people and doctrines that we want to base the future destiny of the entire human race upon? Where did the now Christian doctrine of immortal souls, judgment at death, eternal punishment for the wicked, come from? From Egypt. This is a matter of well-documented history, not speculation.
I am ridiculed and poked fun at on chat rooms all over the country. What we teach on bible-truths.com is considered by orthodoxy to be the very very worst of heresy taught anywhere in the world. Yet their damnable heresies as Peter calls them, came from a clear trail leading back to Egypt from people whom God Himself calls:
"foolish deceived and perverse men who err in everything as drunken men staggering in their own vomit."
The bedrock foundation of Christian doctrine comes out of Egypt by way of Greece, Rome, the Roman Church, and perverted bible translations into the homes of billions of unsuspecting Christians.
In a nutshell: Did God teach Moses or any patriarch or prophets of the Old Testament this Egyptian heresy of everlasting punishment? NO. Does the whole orthodox Christian Church teach this damnable heresy throughout the world? YES. I rest my case. I could close with this and go onto the next Installment.
The most sickening of all heresies and religious teachings in the entire world is the Christian doctrine of ENDLESS TORMENT. And this unscriptural doctrine came from the "FOOLISH DECEIVED AND PERVERSE MEN [OF EGYPT] WHO ERR IN EVERYTHING AS DRUNKEN MEN STAGGERING IN THEIR OWN VOMIT"!
Nevertheless, let it be known from the Scriptures, that as vile, wicked, and disgraceful the ways of the Egyptians were, God will yet have mercy upon them. Just like wicked Jerusalem and even Sodom (Ezek. 16:55), Egypt will be SAVED. After God "smites and heals" Egypt [in JUDGMENT], and "sends them a Saviour" (Isa. 19:20 & 22), He will save them:
"Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, BLESSED BE EGYPT MY PEOPLE, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel [albeit Israel will be ‘the third, not the first of these three, Ver.24] mine inheritance" (Isa. 19:25).
How pray tell, does "BLESSED be Egypt MY people" fit into the damnable Christian doctrine from Egypt who is, as we speak, burning in an eternal hellhole of fire?
When will we open our eyes to God’s Truths on these matters?
SO WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
It means that virtually everything about Christendom—from its name ‘Church,’ to the architecture of their buildings, to the origin of their holy days and doctrines, is all straight out of heathenism, of which God Almighty declares:
"LEARN NOT THE WAY OF THE HEATHEN… inquire NOT after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? Even so WILL I DO LIKEWISE" (Jer. 10:2 & Deut. 12:30).
All Christian doctrines that are not out of paganism are nonetheless, unscriptural. Many Christians today call themselves "Fundamentalists." How "fundamentally" wrong can one be when he does not even believe that Jesus Christ even DIED for his sins? You say, "Oh, but Fundamentalists DO believe that Christ died for their sins. Oh really? And do they believe that he was "dead?" No, of course not. They believe that only his body died, therefore making Christ a liar and making the Saviour of the world, a cadaver! The Scriptural truth is: "…Christ DIED for our sins according to the Scriptures" (I Cor. 15:3).
But was Christ "dead" when He "died?" Fundamentalists say, "NO." They say that he was never in the tomb for three days; they say that He went to hell for three days; they say that we was preaching to IMMORTAL SOULS for three days. But here is what the Scriptures say:
"Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of Man be risen again FROM THE DEAD" (Matt. 17:9).
"And go quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen FROM THE DEAD" (Matt. 28:7).
"Thus it was written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise FROM THE DEAD the third day" (Luke 24:46).
"This is now the third time that Jesus showed Himself to His disciples, after that He was risen FROM THE DEAD" (John 21:14).
"And killed the Prince of life [yes, but was He DEAD?] whom God has raised FROM THE DEAD…" (Acts 3:15).
"For if the DEAD rise not [Van Impe says once we are born, we NEVER DIE, so how can anyone be raised from the dead if they don’t die?], then is NOT CHRIST RAISED: And if Chris be not raised, your faith is vain, YE ARE YET IN YOUR SINS" (I Cor. 15:16-17).
Now then, were was Jesus all the while He was "dead?" I heard one of the biggest names in televangelism say recently that Jesus was being tortured in some hellhole for three days. Of course most Christians believe he was in a safer section of this hellhole. But then others believe He was in heaven with the thief crucified beside Him. Never mind the fact that after His resurrection Jesus told Mary that He had not even yet ascended to His Father. Is nothing they teach, Scriptural? No, nothing.
Either Jesus was dead or we don’t have a Saviour. Jesus could not be raised from the dead if He wasn’t dead in the first place.
"And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. HE [not His body, but ‘He’ Jesus Himself] is not here: for HE is risen as He said, Come and see the place where THE LORD [the LORD, not the Lord’s body; not the Lord’s cadaver, but the LORD HIMSELF] lay. And go quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen FROM THE DEAD…" (Matt. 28:5-7).
I mean just how easy can this believing the Scriptures be compared to believing the lies and unscriptural heresies of the Church? Just read it an believe.
So, how important is the resurrection "from the DEAD" to Fundamental belief? It is totally useless. If you are any orthodox Christian and you die, the teaching is that you go straight to heaven, bypassing this totally unnecessary "resurrection from the DEAD" stuff. Evil pagan doctrines are precious "idols of the heart" to them, and yet the truth of the resurrection from the dead, is "foolishness unto them." I cannot even imagine denying the necessity of what Paul shows us is our ONLY HOPE—the resurrection from THE DEAD.
Let me let you in on a little Scriptural Secret. I say secret, because not one in a hundred thousand knows the truth of this. Here’s the secret: No one in the history of humanity has ever died and gone to heaven. This is but another of the Pagan myths of Christendom. And furthermore, no orthodox Christian ever will die in the future and go to heaven. Neither will any of them be in the first resurrection, unless and until they bitterly repent of their association with:
"MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH (Rev. 17:5)
The only way INTO the First Resurrection is to:
"Come OUT OF HER, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" (Rev. 18:4).
I have hundreds more pages on this subject, but I think I will now bring this Part C to an end.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT TILL NEXT TIME
Theologians and preachers think that they have this whole Greek hades thing all figured out. They know how many compartments are in this Greek hell, and who is going there and what happens there and all about it. They have studied what the Greeks have to say about their little hades/hell place of eternal torture, and it’s all quite simple to them. Whatever the Greeks say this hades of theirs is and represents, then that’s the way it is. After all, should not the Greeks know all about their very own hell? This, however, presents a problem that I doubt few have ever considered.
If theologians think that it is the Greeks who should be defining the meaning of the Greek Scriptures to us, then I submit that they have created their own two-edged sword. Here is just one major problem they will have to solve:
The word in Greek for "hell" is hades, and the word in Greek for "God" is theos.
Now then, since theos comes for deus and deus from Zeus (Zeus being the main god of the Greeks), did Jesus really teach that,
"You shall love the Lord your God [the Greek theos, deus, that is, ZEUS] with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and GREAT COMMANDMENT" (Matt. 22:37-38)?
According to the Greek Scriptures, did Jesus really teach that the great commandment is that we should LOVE the Greek god theos, that is Zeus? Are we really to "LOVE the Greek god ZEUS," with all our heart, soul and mind, in order to avoid being eternally tortured in the Greek hell of hades? The theologians have not thought this through very well. If the Greek Scriptures do indeed teach that the unjust go to the Greek hell, hades, then they also teach that the just are to love the Greek god, Zeus! Think about it. Be sure to read "HELL"—Part D.
May God grant you the faith and courage to trust Him that He might give you "the love of the truth that you might be saved" (II Thes. 2:10),
