The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 3 – 3
In the last lessons we studied the beasts as they moved from Asia to Europe and down through the Middle Ages. But a key point I want you to notice is that all those beasts BEGAN with Babylon. Assyria was a powerful empire that controlled most of the Middle East until Babylon conquered it in 612 BC. But Assyria was not mentioned in ANY of these visions. They all begin with Babylon. That’s important. The beasts of Revelation are all Babylonian beasts! Those kingdoms all trace their ancestry to Babylon the great. (Revelation 17:5). It’s also no accident that the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, was turned into a beast for seven years to teach him humility (Daniel 4:15-17). Because his kingdom was the original beast! And by humbling him, God showed He can rule even the beast – for whatever evil the beast does, God permits it only up to a point (Revelation 12, for example, shows God intervening to save the church from the dragon and the beast).
But what makes Babylon special? Why choose that nation, among all other ancient and pagan kingdoms, to use as a pattern of prophecy? Why not Egypt, or China? For that we have to back up another 1,500 years to around 2200 BC. After the flood, God commanded man to spread out and refill the Earth (Genesis 9:1, 7). But men didn’t want to spread out and fill the Earth – they wanted to stay together in one place, in a few cities where they’d be safe (Genesis 11:4). The largest and most important of these cities was Babel (better known by its Greek name “Babylon”). It was built by Nimrod, a great-grandson of Noah (Genesis 10:8-10). Notice he was a mighty hunter “before the Lord”; this is an archaic phrase, in modern English it should read “a mighty hunter in FRONT of the Lord”, that is, “in PLACE of the Lord”. After the flood, God promised the beasts would fear men; Genesis 9:2. But if you are disobedient, God will take back His blessings.
And as the people refused to fill the Earth, the “fear and dread” of humans ceased to be in the wild animals; so Nimrod became a mighty hunter, to protect them from the beasts – since God refused to protect them because they rejected His commands! Nimrod was someone who eclipsed God in the eyes of the people. That’s why his name was Nimrod – Hebrew for Rebel. As “he began to be a mighty one in the Earth”, he built the first cities after the flood and became the first, and so far only, true world ruler. To be fair, at a time when the world’s population could only have been a few hundred thousand, this wasn’t as difficult. But it’s an appropriate bit of irony that in protecting the world from other beasts, his kingdom itself became the Beast empire.
The people wanted to stay in cities where there was trade, security, and fellowship, so Nimrod built Babel for them (Genesis 10:10). Remember, it was built specifically so that they would NOT be spread out over the Earth (Genesis 11:1-4). This suited Nimrod fine, because he couldn’t protect or easily rule men who were scattered over the Earth, so he wanted them kept in one place – in direct contradiction to God’s command. Now think about this: why would they build a tower “to reach unto heaven”? What could be the motivation for that particular building? They could have built walls – and they did. They could have raised armies, crafted better weapons, done all sorts of things “lest they be scattered abroad” – but WHY build a tower “unto heaven”?
Because they wanted protection from another flood! Remember, the flood had happened only 150 years before. Righteous Noah was still alive, as were all his sons – people who remembered the judgment of God on a rebellious world, and must have talked about it constantly! And so the people FEARED another flood… but not enough to stop sinning! They wanted to be able to disobey God, and yet be protected from God’s judgment! And so they built a tower, so that when the rains came again they would be able to climb above the waves and be safe against the power of God as Noah was – but without being “scattered abroad” in boats!
THE WAY OF BABEL
God had told them to spread out and refill the Earth, but the people said “NO! We will stay here in one place!” They knew they were rebelling against the commandment of God – their leader’s name meant rebel! – so they naturally feared God would once again drown them all! As it happens, God had already promised that He would never destroy the world with water again (Genesis 9:11-17), but they didn’t believe Him any more than men believe Him today. God’s word wasn’t good enough for them; they didn’t trust Him. They wanted a backup plan! So they searched for a leader who could promise them safety, someone who could deliver them from God’s wrath – a mighty hunter who could stand in front of God and protect them from His wrath!
Nimrod became powerful by giving the people what they wanted – A SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT that found loopholes in God’s law! “Is God not protecting you from the beasts as He promised in Job 5:23? No problem! I’ll do it for Him! We’ll build walls and armies for protection!” (compare to Psalms 33:16). “Is God not keeping you healthy, and healing your diseases as He promised in Exodus 15:26? No problem, I’ll invent medicines to treat your symptoms!” (Compare to Jeremiah 46:11 and Luke 8:43- 44). “Is God not giving you salvation? Does He say you have to CHANGE to be allowed into His Kingdom? No problem! Just be yourself and I’ll give you salvation anyway!”
Read 2 Peter 2:12-19. Note that this is how the BEAST acts (verse 12), and that the beast “promises them liberty” even though they are slaves of corruption! The false prophets promise “peace” to sinners (Jeremiah 14:13-15). They STRENGTHEN the hands of the evildoers! And that cannot help but make you the servant of evil, a servant of the rebel, a servant of Nimrod (Romans 6:16). Nimrod set up the first complete system that would allow a man to live a normal, relatively pain-free life, and circumvent the judgment of God. The word “Babel” is from an Akkadian word meaning “Gate of God”, or “Gate to Heaven”!
By its very name, Nimrod claimed this tower would get you salvation! That was its stated purpose, to save mankind from the wrath of God and help them ascend up to heaven! Nimrod spent his life establishing a method of government built around a wide and easy GATE which leads up to heaven! Sound familiar? The world promises a wide path where you only have to “give your heart to Jesus” to get to heaven! – can there be anything easier than this false gate Jesus warned us about? Matthew 7:13-14. A sawdust trail that requires absolutely nothing from you except to “confess His name”? Isn’t that a REALLY easy way to find life? Maybe… too easy? Like today’s pastors, Nimrod knew he couldn’t get into power if he preached Jesus’ message “Repent and obey God’s laws, for there are few who find life!” So he made a huge gate that reached up into heaven, that ANYONE and EVERYONE could find!
THE FOUNDATION OF PAGANISM
Did God give Adam and Eve a commandment in the Garden? Genesis 2:17. Did the devil then twist that command and subtly contradict God, saying the exact opposite? Genesis 3:4. Did he say the command was bad for them? Genesis 3:5. And did Eve fall for it? Genesis 3:6. And did they die “in that day”? So many people miss that obvious question! God said, quote, “for IN THE DAY that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” – and the devil said, “No, thou shalt NOT surely die!” – and then they ate the fruit… the sun went down… and they DIDN’T die! The devil was telling the truth! As you’ve seen, that was because God was speaking of the thousand-year day – the devil probably knew that, and didn’t bother revealing the whole truth. But when they didn’t die that day, it seemed like, with the devil’s help, they had gotten away with sinning and lived anyway!
The devil twisted God’s words to say something God didn’t intend, convinced Eve to trust him, Eve did, and lo and behold, the devil appeared to be right! They didn’t die! So pay careful attention to this pattern: God: “Don’t sin, or you’ll die.” Devil: “You can sin, and you won’t die – I can protect you.” People: “We love you, devil – in fact, you are now our god!” This has been the story from, quite literally, day one. This is what God told Israel, when they believed in the same exact words “Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit” (Jeremiah 7:8). What were these lying words they trusted in? Jeremiah 7:7, 9-10. These lying words said you can break the commandments and that God would love you anyway! Just as Satan told Eve! The false religion says “Praise God that we are not under that law! We are FREE to do all these abominations, because the Savior has DELIVERED us from the commandments!”
God said THESE were the words they learned from that false religion! Satan changes the names of his religion regularly, always trying new ways of deceiving God’s people, but the heart of the message is the same! “You can sin and you won’t die.” After the Jews returned from Babylon the same teachings were around (Malachi 2:17) – just as today it is believed that everyone who does evil (breaks the commandments) is GOOD in the sight of God – that God DELIGHTS in them, and even though they break the commandments “they shall not surely die”! They say “Sure, you shouldn’t sin… but God understands you can’t help yourself! Just say you love God and that’s all that matters!” Isn’t that exactly what YOUR last church taught? These lying words that God said CANNOT profit you? The same words that Israel learned from the “Queen of Heaven”, the same words Babel learned from Nimrod, the same words that Eve heard from the lips of the devil himself!
These words got THEM kicked OUT of paradise, and yet all of Christianity believes those same words will get them INTO paradise! How deceived they are by that false church, even today! YES, Nimrod’s beliefs STILL LIVE in the heart of the beast, the whore, and the false prophet today! To this day, any religion that says “Jesus paid for all past, present, and future sins, and now we don’t HAVE to keep the law anymore”, is preaching the devil’s oldest doctrine “thou shalt not surely die!”
DRUNKEN CONFUSION
If you’ve ever been extremely drunk, you’ll remember that things just don’t make sense to you. You know that words should make sense, but you can’t really focus on them; they’re blurry, and you can’t concentrate. So read Jeremiah 51:7. Babylon made the world drunk! They made it hard to understand God’s words! Obviously this isn’t with fermented grapes, but with confusion – taking the word of God and twisting it! Compare to Isaiah 29:9-12. People are confused today; the Bible doesn’t make sense to them! No one can understand the Bible – just as you, yourself probably couldn’t, not so long ago! God says this is because the people are spiritually drunk on wine that BABYLON gave them to drink! Babylon promised them salvation even though they sinned – and God gives a metaphor to show how that works out in Isaiah 29:8. The world is DREAMING of going to heaven – and when they awake in the 2nd resurrection, they’ll be stunned! They’re dreaming that they’re saved even now, and in this dream they feel full! They pray, sing, and worship loudly, deluding themselves that they have salvation even though they preach against the law of God.
Why do their dreams have no hope of coming true? Why are they sure to wake up empty, even though their preacher promises them salvation no matter what? Isaiah 29:13. They fill themselves with these false hopes which will be dashed when God returns and says “I never knew you, you who practice lawlessness” (Matthew 7:23). This false religion began with the devil’s words “thou shalt not surely die”, and the pre-flood world was so consumed by that deception (Genesis 6:5) that God had to destroy it all, saving only Noah and his family. But after the flood it began all over again with Nimrod and Babylon. As far as Babylon is concerned, the real savior of mankind is the one who opened man’s eyes to the truth. The one who gave him forbidden knowledge, the one who gave him the right to choose his own destiny! Satan is the SAVIOR of mankind – SAVING man from obeying God! Just as he saved Eve,
HE WANTS TO SAVE YOU!
He wants to DELIVER YOU from the harsh restrictions God places on you! He will permit you to freely commit adultery, steal, go to war, work seven days a week, and live life to the full without that stern God looking over your shoulder! THIS is the savior most of the world calls Jesus! The COUNTERFEIT Jesus (2 Corinthians 11:4), who perverts the gospel of Christ (Galatians 1:7-8), just as he perverted God’s gospel in Eden – he starts with the truth and cleverly tells you part of it. Just as He tried to do to Jesus (Matthew 4:1-11). The devil quoted relevant, on-point scriptures – but omitted something important in each case. Jesus simply pointed out what He had “forgotten” to say – the part that showed the TRUE meaning of those words!
That’s the devil’s oldest trick, and he does it to this day, quoting phrases like “Peace on Earth” and forgetting Matthew 10:34; saying “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”, and forgetting to quote James 2:20; saying “the greatest is love”, and forgetting to quote Romans 13:10. Babylon’s various religions all teach about a God who accepts everyone, sincere or not, and they all discourage sin – of course – but still allow it and freely absolve it, with or without repentance. Nimrod’s system permits you to sin and doesn’t require ANYTHING from you except to say the words “I give my heart to Jesus!” But the real Jesus DOES require things from you; He DOES insist on obedience. He DOES demand that you depart from LAWLESSNESS and prove it with your works! (Acts 26:20, Matthew 3:8). He says, “IF you love me, keep my commandments”! (John 14:15).
All the things you’ve read so far in these lessons, and there are more to come, are REQUIRED – not optional, not something you just “try” to do, but firmly REQUIRED of anyone who wants to be a TRUE Christian. That’s why the way is “hard” and there are “few that find it”. And that’s why the false church is so popular! It’s easier! Who wouldn’t rather just “give their heart to the Lord” and continue about their normal activities and expect to walk up the tower to heaven when they die! It is a very APPEALING LIE – all the good lies are.
THE FALL OF BABEL
Nimrod was a tool Satan used to build a force to fight the truth after the flood, and he was named after his false god – for as Nimrod means rebel, so Satan means adversary – their names are nearly synonymous! Knowing this fascist, totalitarian, one-world government would have the power to totally destroy the true followers of God and extinguish all truth from the Earth (Genesis 11:5-6), God divided their languages, and FORCED them to spread out over the Earth as He had commanded at the first (Genesis 11:7-8). They left, grudgingly – but they took the heart of Babylon with them wherever they went. As I said, BaBeL actually means “gate of heaven”, but oddly, in Genesis 11:9 God says it was called babel because there God created BaLaL “confusion”, in their languages. Hebrew doesn’t write vowels, which is why I highlighted the consonants there. Babel and Balal are different words, so why would God give us an explanation that is obviously not the meaning of the word?
God uses puns from time to time to make a point, and that’s what He does here, punning the similar letters of babel and balal. It’s as if God said “BBL?? More like BLL! LOL!” It’s not particularly funny in English, but I’m sure it was hilarious when Moses texted it to Aaron in Hebrew. But the confusion went both ways – God confused and divided the words of Nimrod, by giving his people many languages that didn’t make sense to each other. But God only did that because Nimrod had already confused and twisted the words of God, as did Satan before him! Like Satan, Nimrod made it harder for people to understand God spiritually, so God made it harder for people to understand Nimrod physically! Then God took their gate of heaven and turned it upside down – just as Nimrod took the TRUE gate of heaven and turned it upside down and made Satan’s doctrines seem good and God seem unfair! (Isaiah 5:20, Proverbs 17:15).
God probably didn’t destroy Babel personally – He usually punishes nations through other men (2 Samuel 7:14). Studying the pagan history of the time (Nimrod’s version of the story) there’s good reason to believe that Noah’s son Shem was righteous, and that God used him to destroy Babel and later kill Nimrod. And then Shem’s children and servants kept God’s original commandment and conveyed the refugees to new homes around the world. No time to prove that here, though.
AFTER BABEL
Before the flood, there was little need for a written language. People lived almost a thousand years, all spoke the same language, and probably all lived in a relatively small area – so there never arose a strong need for writing. But ask yourself what you would do – suddenly surrounded by people who can’t understand you? How do you reestablish communication? Learning a single language can take years, and everyone there speaks a different language (at least 70 different languages were created at Babel). Really – what would you do? What’s the fastest way to reestablish basic communication with everyone? You’d play Pictionary! You may not speak a common language, but you can all understand a stick drawing of a man or a mountain! You can all grasp that three wavy lines on top of each other represent water, a circle represents the sun, and so on.
Each mythology around the world credits the gift of writing to a single great hunter-god-healer-hero. He needed this not only to communicate with those around him, but also to send instructions – and receive tribute – from far-distant peoples newly scattered around the world by God. Certainly anyone might draw an eye to represent an eye, or a bird for a bird – but why would mountains and gardens each have three points? Why would worshipers face away from each other? This argues towards a common, single origin. And if a single origin, a single originator. And we know his name – Nimrod. It is certain from mythology that this savior-god, Nimrod, was married to a powerful and charismatic woman, and that together they were deified, and that she was known as the queen of heaven in almost every culture… queen of heaven because she reigned over the gate of heaven!
After God divided the language and destroyed his empire, Nimrod didn’t give up. With his empire destroyed – and probably fleeing from Shem’s justice – Nimrod and his wife changed tactics and exerted power not through military conquest but through spiritual conquest. So one or both of them traveled the world to wherever God had taken men. These cultures are separated by 4,000 miles and according to mainstream history, had had no contact since the Asians left Africa 50,000-100,000 years ago. Yet 2,000 years BC – in the time of Nimrod – many of their glyphs are nearly identical.
(Photo: Reader’s Digest “History of China”). Earliest Babylonian glyph for “Mountain”. Note the three parts.
This, too, is recognizably similar to Egyptian and Chinese. Wherever they found men, they gave them the gift of writing in order to communicate their new religion – the religion of Babylon now separate from the GOVERNMENT of Babylon. It was this division of church and state that was to have such a profound impact on the world. For suddenly there was male Babylon power – a state guided by Nimrod’s principles, the beast… and there was also a separate female Babylon power, a church built upon Nimrod’s foundation – the great whore. And always throughout history they have kept the pattern as we learned in Revelation, a beast and a whore get their power from the dragon, and are guided on Earth by the false prophet/man of sin/mouth of the little horn.
So it was in the very beginning of the beast. Babel (the beast) was guided by Nimrod (the rebel/mouth speaking blasphemies) under the dragon (the adversary/Satan). Together they created all false religion which, as you learned, is pictured by a slutty woman who seduced all the nations of the Earth into worshiping her and her husband!
OTHER NAMES OF THE BEAST
Nimrod took on many new names – each one appropriate to the new language. In Egypt he became Osiris. Egyptians credit Thoth, who worked directly for Osiris, as inventing writing and healing – the truth is probably that one of Nimrod’s priests developed Nimrod’s idea of writing and Nimrod spread it everywhere he took his empire. In China he became Fu Xi, who was credited with “the invention of hunting, fishing and cooking as well as… writing”. A later retelling of Nimrod’s tale is famous to western culture as Prometheus, who stole fire and healing from the gods and gave it to mankind. He had a thousand names in a thousand cultures, and he was always the noble man/god who took gifts from an evil God and gave them to mankind – gifts like medicine, fire, writing, and of course – life after death. It is possible to merge and harmonize ancient histories and myths in the same way we do the Bible except that, while the Bible is always true, the myths are only partially true. Still, when tales of Osiris, Fu Xi, and Marduk all agree, we can compare that with what we know in the Bible and extrapolate a fairly accurate picture of ancient history. But while fascinating, that’s another – very large – story.
Like with God’s religion, Satan’s religions basically tell the same story over and over again – different names, different context, but always the same thing – an oppressed humanity suffering under a tyrannical ruler/god who is delivered by a young, daring hero. Once the battle is won, the people are free of God’s rules, and “shall not surely die”. After Israel came into the promised land, they encountered the same gods, but with different names. Molech or Melqart was the Canaanite version of Nimrod. In his native Babylon, writing is credited to Nebo, who, like Thoth in Egypt, worked for the most powerful god, Marduk (Nimrod), usually translated into English in your Bible as Merodach.
As time passed Marduk was referred to less by name, and more often simply by his title of Bel, “Lord”. You are more familiar with the Hebrew form of that title, Baal whom God spends most of the Old Testament ranting at Israel for following – but it’s just one more name for Nimrod. It was Nimrod under the names of Baal and Molech and Chemosh that constantly led Israel astray.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Read Jeremiah 50:2. Remember, Babylon actually means gate of heaven. That was what Nimrod called it! But it was the false gate, that couldn’t take you to heaven! So God called it confusion instead – deception! And in Jeremiah 50, God prophesies the final destruction of that false religion, the wide highway of Babylon – the way of life that leads to death! And God said that now Bel (Nimrod’s title), who started this confusion is himself confused – just as God did, in type, by confusing languages at the original tower of Babel! And that Merodach (Nimrod) is broken in pieces. Interestingly, myth says the Egyptian persona of Nimrod, Osiris, was cut into 14 pieces and spread around the world – much like Nimrod’s empire was by God! Notice the strong connection here between Babylon, Bel, and Merodach. God is repeating the same thing three times for emphasis, as He often does. Each time using different names which refer to the same thing or person. This is one of the keys of prophecy – similar things are often repeated two or three times in a sentence to form a connection and comparison between them (Psalms 107:33, to pick a random example).
But now read Isaiah 46:1. Reading this superficially, you imagine oxen carrying idols. Fine, but doesn’t really say much, does it? Does God say this because He doesn’t want us to use oxen to carry idols? Or is there something more hidden in this, and literally every other verse in the Bible? Hidden in plain sight, but lost from view because the world is drunken and confused by Babylon? Because it if you read that verse like you learned to do in the end of the last lesson, you can replace “beasts” with world-ruling empires and “oxen” (individual beasts) with nations! Knowing that Bel is Nimrod, who founded the false religion, and Nebo was his priest, the verse would read: Isaiah 46:1 Nimrod boweth down, his priesthood stoopeth, their idols were upon the world-ruling empires, and upon the nations: your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden to the weary nation.
And that, in the context of God judging the world and destroying the false religion at His return, makes a great deal of sense! For the religions of the world bind “heavy burdens, grievous to be borne” (Matthew 23:4), thousands of rituals, prayers, idols, penances, traditions, candles, sacrifices, and so much more! These are all heavy burdens which Nimrod’s priests have bound on the beasts of this world, all of whom have been dominated by a branch of the false religion that traces its ancestry to Babylon (Revelation 17:2-5, Revelation 18:3). On the other hand, God asks only obedience to a simple and easy set of laws. Is that obedience a heavy burden? 1 John 5:3. What does God say to the nations of the world who are weighed down by the burden of false religion? Matthew 11:28-30.
Not killing your neighbor is not a heavy burden! Going to mass every day is a heavy burden! Not stealing and lying is not a heavy burden – burning your firstborn child alive is a heavy burden! (Jeremiah 7:31). Living in poverty so the priests can build bigger churches with solid gold ornaments, that’s a heavy burden! Helping those who need it is not hard – living in fear of hell for your unsaved loved ones is a heavy burden! Buying idols and placing them in every room of your house, crossing yourself seven times when you pass in front of a church, listening to Christian radio… THOSE are heavy burdens! But they’re not the worst of it – your sins are the heaviest burden of all (Psalm 38:4). The things of God are EASY to do, compared with what Nimrod’s religions ask for in exchange for the empty promises they make!
Isaiah 46:2 They [Babylon’s children] stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity. The beasts of the world accepted the burden of false religion because it promised to remove their burden of sin! But not only did it not remove the burden of sin, it heaped more sins upon them! And in Isaiah 46, we finally see those who promised liberty themselves taken captive by God’s judgment!
Taken captive by the very laws they sought to free others from keeping! And finally we see mankind being freed from bondage to sin, and freed from bondage to the Babylonian system! You can’t help the world today – we have to wait for Jesus to return – but YOU can be freed from Babylon as soon as you break the chains of every ritual, every tradition, every false belief you’ve borrowed from her! Revelation 18:4 …Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her [the whore of Babylon’s] sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. Isaiah 52:11 Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her [the Babylon-inspired Church]; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
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