Incompatibilities

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A Year of Living Biblically

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Summary

Here. An overview of a literal young-Earth cosmology.


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A Chistmas Slash Hanukkah Essay

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Confetti

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Schizo

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Shipwreck

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Tohu va Bohu

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Good Wednesday

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Yeshua bar Yosef

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Bull

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That Which I Most Feared

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Gods Are Not Great

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The Immorality of God

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On Why Religion Is Bad

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All Good Moslems Go to Hell

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Whom the Lord Loves

1. Where the Road Forks

James Robinson, of Claremont Graduate University, edited the English version of the Nag Hammadi Library, a very important cache of texts discovered some 60 years ago in a large stone urn buried in the Egyptian sands. It contained some number of lost works, of which we previously had only the titles and rare references. Well, now we're hearing of the "Lost Gospel of Judas". There are many "Lost Writings of So-and-so," and when you first hear of them, your heart may leap at the thought of reading such secret treasures. Alas, none of them are authentic - the disciple whose name is in the title - say Thomas, or Peter - had nothing to do with the work. They make interesting reading, but very rarely offer any insight into actual Christian doctrine. They're often pious forgeries, and more frequently are the product of some heretical, most likely gnostic, sect. Well, point being Proffesor Robinson says of the "Lost Gospel of Judas" - half-jokingly - "Where would Christianity be, if there had been no Judas, and Jesus - instead of dying for our sins on the cross - had died of old age? So: Thank God for Judas? Even the most broadminded among us would call that heresy!" But heresy or not, the idea raises some interesting questions. Indeed. What if Judas had been faithful?

We are, all of us, little children, overflowing with curiosity and willfulness. And we wonder, could it be different than the way it is? What if I’d turned right instead of left, gone instead of stayed? – and I did I even have a choice? Such questions tend as much toward regret as to contentment. In any case, it shouldn’t take long before we get even more philosophical, and evidentially we get back to Adam, who invented regret. And we wonder, did he even have a choice? Was he made just so he could eventually die? There’s Eve, thinking, What's so bad about tasting that fruit? We know the answer now, what with all this death and pain everywhere all around us. But what would have happened if she, if Adam, had not fallen? What would have happened if Israel had taken Jesus up on His offer of the Kingdom? These questions are subjects of prophecy, and so predestination seems at work. And so the question arises, what of free will?

To say that God knows what will happen, and thus doesn't actually make our choices but informs us what they will be, is one way to squirm out of the paradox of prophecy. But this appeals to God in eternity and not in time. And given a question that has vexed our sensibilities since Adam stood shivering outside the gates of Eden, it surely is not idleness to return to it again.

What if the human actors in prophecy, possessing as they did free will, had made other choices? If there are no answers to such questions that don't appeal to eternity, then do we have a real choice in our lives? - and is the idea of free will anything other than a mockery? - and this “whosoever would come unto me" ... is it an offer made in good faith? - or bad? Well, that is a simply unacceptable assumption, of the God we know from the Bible. So how can we account for the fact that Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world to atone for our sins (1 Cor 15:3, Gal 1:4, 1 Pet 2:24, 1 Jn 2:2), if Adam had the choice to not sin? It is simply stupid and meaningless to think that Jesus would die for the sins of mankind, if mankind had no sin. It was inevitable. To God, in eternity, outside of time, there is no 'future'. Obviously God knew sin would come, and planned for its atonement. The question, then, is how man's free will fits into God's foreknowing.

A specific case, then. Jesus said, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." (Mt 4:17). "At hand" - here for the taking, if you would take it. To seal His offer, demonstrating just how near it was, he rode into Jerusalem seated on a colt (Zec 9:9). This fulfillment of prophecy was a clear symbolic claim to be the Messiah, and also a legal declaration. He had legal claim to the throne of King David through Joseph, true heir of Solomon son of David. His biological claim came through Mary, daughter of Heli (given as father-in-law of Joseph, Lk 3:23), descendant of Nathan son of David. He fulfilled the prophetic requirements for being the Messiah, if any had bothered to search the Temple records and test the matter.

So, what if Israel's hard heart had softened and the hypocrites had repented and the corrupt officials had seen the light and a universal cry went up from all of Israel, Hail, King Jesus, Messiah, Immanuel – blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord. What if the kingdom had been accepted.

The political climate was certainly one of expectancy. When Herod the Great died, rebels against Rome had to be put down by his successor Archelaus, and 3,000 Jews were killed. The following Pentecost, in 3 BC, further rebellion provoked more killing, and the Temple was pillaged and its cloisters burned by the legions of Rome. Eventually Varus, governor of Syria, came with 20,000 soldiers, crucified 2,000 rebels, and sold 30,000 Jews as slaves. The result was that Judea became a Roman province, and a kingdom no longer. And during this time, the yearning for Messiah grew ever stronger - political and mystical movements flourished. Such was the situation throughout Jesus' youth. What, then, if the time were right, and Jesus' offer had been accepted? What would have occurred? I’ll tell it as if it happened.



2. When the King Comes

For over three years, Jesus had wandered the countryside, teaching, preaching, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom at hand. Everywhere His message was met with gladness and repentance. The Baptist had prepared the way, and Jesus fulfilled all prophecy and gave miraculous signs, so even the blind could see who He was. He made no public claims, but everyone knew. From everywhere in the world Jews came, out of the farthest reaches of the Empire and from beyond its borders. For these years, merchants and travelers and ambassadors had spread the news, 'the Promised One has come', and it seemed every son of Israel in all the world had come to the Holy Land for this most holy of Passovers.

Emperor Tiberius Caesar – debauched, ruthless, competent – apprized of the perilous situation in Judea and knowing its troublesome history, had taken the precaution of sending reinforcements to the area. So came the might of Imperial Rome at its height, and well did Rome know the usefulness of brutality in holding an empire together. Infelicitous weather had caused delay, so the legions were still several days away when Jesus made his triumphal entry into the City of David.

On that Sunday – the day on which the lambs of Passover were always inspected for their spotlessness – the streets of Jerusalem were overflowing and the Way of Procession was strewn with palm fronds. Out came the priests from their latticed terraces, the princes from their flowered courts, the Pharisees from their halls of debate, and filled with joy and repentance they made obeisance to Him who fulfilled their fondest hopes. Humbled, their pride. Rejoicing, their hearts. When the crowds saw this, even those who doubted were convinced, and the soul of every Jew swelled in his breast.

Jesus was recognized as King, and while the crowd adored him, some zealots went of their own accord and found Herod, cowering in his palace. They dragged him from his hiding place and spilled out his blood like bad wine. Pilate called out the Guard, and lives were lost, but a single Roman garrison is simply no match for millions of ecstatic fanatics, and the contingent took refuge in the garrison, beseiged and awaiting reinforcements.

In those days before Passover, it was jubilation. Messiah had come. The approaching Roman forces held no terror, for none could stand against the Lion of Judah. But Judas, one of the Twelve – troubled by Jesus' strange remoteness and His persistent predictions of His own death – saw no preparations to meet the Roman army, and foresaw in Jesus' seeming idleness the destruction of the land. How many armies across the centuries had trampled over Judah? More and more there grew within him the certainty that this was not the King to come, and he saw only ruin ahead. So Judas came upon the scheme to save his nation from this false messiah. And who knew, perhaps the thankful nation would see him for the deliverer he was, and a grateful Rome would no doubt reward him, nobly. Telling himself that he desired only to protect Jacob from the sword of Pharaoh, Judas stole by night from the walls of Jerusalem to the encampment of the Roman.

Gaius Caesar Germanicus was the general – eighteen years old, newly appointed to command. A bizarre series of illnesses and accidents in the Imperial Family had made him the most likely candidate for succession in the emerging Augustan dynasty, and as preparation to leadership of an empire, he was given leadership of an army. He was tall, large, his sharp humor oddly clashing with his haunting eyes and gaunt face. He counted himself an expert soldier, boasting of his skill as a horseman, gladiator and dueler. No one doubted his promise – he was a leader of men, eloquent and erudite.

What are the details of Judas’ betrayal to the Roman? Something about thirty pieces of silver. Perhaps the price just suggested itself. Perhaps someone with a knowledge of Jewish law and a sense of humor thought the price of a gored slave appropriate … after all, that’s what this Hebrew pretender, this upstart messiah would soon be – a slave, gored. And the place to capture this Jesus, and so avoid the cost of wholesale slaughter? Where else but the garden he often went to for privacy. Why should a Roman general even seek to avoid butchering a rebellious people? Ah, there would be time enough for that – but how much more impressive to be hailed throughout the Empire as the man who put down a rebellion for a few pieces of silver, and rescued a besieged garrison with perhaps the death of but one usurper.

And so, by night, outside the gates where Jesus prayed, unguarded - not far from His sleeping disciples - a Roman guard approached ...



3. How the Lamb Dies

The city was strangely silent. Night had not before diminished the exultation, yet now, while the full moon shamed the stars and cast down hard shadows – now, Zion slept. Why this night did the spirit of torpor descend, upon even the friends of Jesus? God knows. But Jesus did not sleep, and when the soldiers came, He met them, and said, "I AM", and when the Romans fell back to the ground, He stood and waited.

As His disciples scattered, the soldiers took Him before Gaius, who smiled, and said whatever he said, and condemned Jesus, who stood silent before his accusers. And He was stripped, and beaten, and mocked, and led to a hilltop and crucified, so that when Jerusalem woke, she found herself surrounded, and occupied, and she found her Messiah pierced. Once she had awakened to find the Assyrian enemy dead. Now she found herself again surrounded, and Him whom she proclaimed Messiah dying. They rushed not out to save Him, for he who hangs upon a tree is cursed, and so this could not be Messiah. Some of them even reviled Him, first in their hearts, and then more boldly, coming out among the Romans to mock Him openly. Was it to win favor? – to ally themselves with the conquerors? Was it from their own hearts' conviction? God knows.

He died about the third hour – the hour the Passover lamb is slain – and I think He died with criminals, perhaps Roman, perhaps Jewish. It could be that one of them was saved. But on the third hour He died, and there were signs in the sky, and a great wind and shaking, and the occupying army was sorely afraid, so that when some Jews had the temerity to ask that the dead be buried, the request was granted, not from decency but superstitious dread.

Strange things happened after that, for weeks. Jesus' body disappeared, and the disciples made bizarre claims. As a sign of Rome's displeasure, the temple was destroyed, and the city damaged. But inexplicably the people as a whole were spared – of course many lost their lives, but even so it seemed a miracle. Those who kept faith with Jesus remembered his prophecy to flee to the hills when they saw Jerusalem surrounded, and so they suffered little loss of life. When shock of this misfortune wore off, the forbearance shown by Gaius was hailed with tremulous thankfulness. A covenant was made: seven years of peace, to be perpetually affirmed.

And no general was ever so honored as Gaius Caesar Germanicus. All the world gloried at his brilliance, and when Tiberius died shortly thereafter, and Gaius ascended to the throne, a golden age was declared. And he was worshiped. He had admired Egypt and its ways, and instituted many of the Eastern customs of oblation to the ruler – as all loyal citizens thought fitting. He treated his sister Drusilla as a wife, after the manner of god-kings. Everyone in the Empire took the name of their King onto their body – this was already the custom of the army, and loyal citizens counted it an honor and a privilege to bear his mark. When he had been emperor for three and a half years, aged twenty-one, he declared himself indeed a god, equal to Zeus. He had a device contrived by which he could create the sound of thunder, to answer the storm. He had his image set up in every temple of every deity in the empire, including Jerusalem's newly established Tabernacle, replacement of the Temple that had always remained in his thoughts.

The Jews had counted themselves lucky, but the idol in their Holy of Holies was too much, and their consequent rebellion brought about the renewed wrath of Rome. But before the fist of Rome could fall, there was plague, and famine, and blood on the moon, earthquakes and the roaring of the sea. Jacob was troubled. Armies marched, and gathered, and the Jews in the ruins of Jerusalem looked to the sky, cried out for Him who had been pierced, whom they had pierced in Judas' betrayal and their rejection, and they wept as for an only son. The teaching – of those who followed Jesus and all along had proclaimed His Second Coming – was believed. And He came again, and judged the nations and ruled His Kingdom for an age.

And so it was that the seventieth week of Daniel 9 followed straight away after the seven and sixty-two. Rather than an intervening epoch-long parenthesis called the Church Age, the Kingdom Age followed by seven years the rejection of King Jesus on the Eve of Passover....



4. Why the Father Weeps

Well. Interesting story. But let us remember that Gaius Caesar Germanicus was indeed Emperor. We commonly know him as Caligula. And he did rule for seven years, did proclaim himself a god, did know his own sister, did manufacture thunder. He established a cult devoted to the worship of his own deity, and set up his image in the temples of the Empire – he planned to install his abomination in the Temple of Jerusalem, stopped only by his providential death. The only details I have changed with regard to Caligula are that there was no 'Golden Age' and taking of his mark by all the citizens; also his actual date of succession was seven years after the crucifixion, as one born out of time; and although he got his nickname, Caligula, from his close boyhood association with the army, he was no general.

The marriage of the Lamb would not have been to Israel, since that would have God remarrying his raised dead divorced wife (Is 50:1, Jer 3:8) – and God's law forbids remarrying a wife who has taken another husband (Duet 24:4). More likely there’d be a period of 'hyper-missionary work' to the gentiles, with signs and tongues and resurrections, and transportations of the type Philip experienced with the Ethiopian eunuch. All this would serve to get the word out to every soul on the planet, and these converts could have been the Bride, the gentile Church called out in a week of years.

What of Barabbas, that moving symbol for the substitutionary nature of Christ's death? Under law, the only legal grounds for Jesus' execution was as a voluntary substitute. There was no fault found in Him, to warrant His death, so Jesus could have appealed to the law, to demand grounds for His execution. He offered himself for our sins, but specifically, typically, He offered himself for the thief and murderer Barabbas. In this retelling, I could have fabricated a choice between Jesus and some reprobate - perhaps Judas, or Herod, or Pilate - but to do so would have gone beyond what is needful. We, after all, are Barabbas.

Yes, this is fiction. No, it doesn't really matter, since it didn't happen. But then again, it does matter – such a fantasy might show that the offer of the kingdom was real, just as Adam's ability to resist temptation was real (perhaps I’ll tell that story too, sometime [oh, looks like I did, here and here]). Antiochus Epiphanies in the days of the Macabbees did set up his image in the Temple; Caligula would have; Titus might have. Titus, in actual history, was the Prince to Come (Daniel 9:26), son of the newly enthroned Emperor Vespasian who was called away from his campaign against a rebelling Judea by the death of Nero.

Titus would become Emperor himself, and it is he who fulfilled the destruction of the city and sanctuary, with an army of 100,000 men. It is interesting to note that Titus ordered that the Temple not be destroyed, perhaps so he could set up his own image in it. But against his wishes, the Temple was burned. Josephus reported that upwards of 2 million Jews were killed in the siege, while Tacitus estimated a more conservative 600,000 – no doubt each had partisan biases. In any case, the Jews were destroyed as a political people in 70 AD, amidst great tribulation – those who fled the city were crucified in such large number that wood was wanting for crosses, and mothers in besieged Jerusalem were reported to eat their babies. So horrible were conditions that Titus called God as his witness that he was not responsible – rather like Pilate washing his hands. This destruction upon Jerusalem occurred precisely forty years after Jesus was rejected, mostly likely dating from the first public denouncement of Jesus by the Elders of Israel in the first year of his three years of ministry (say, Jn 5:16, or Mt 16:21, Mk 8:31, Lk 9:22). Forty is the biblical number of judgment

In any case I am convinced that each of these, Antiochus, Caligula and Titus, were themselves set up and urged on by Satan, in his attempt to be worshipped as God. But fallen creatures, human or angelic, however brilliant opinion or perception would have them to be, are not endlessly creative. God's plan – what is seen of it – has been plagiarized, corrupted, parodied. Its truth has cast, by reflected light and stolen fire, the shadows of countless lies. And the enemy, like ourselves, is just another character in the final drama.

Human history is the story of Cain, who offered sacrifice on his own terms, and responded with wrath to righteousness. History is a gross burlesque of degradation, changing just its masks, lurching between farce and tragedy. We’re surrounded by the enemy, because we’re surrounded by flesh. We need not riffle through history or trudge across the globe or pierce the dark places of the heavenlies to search out corruption. An infant would be the most terrifying of tyrants, save for its weakness. To say human nature is corrupt is to say the world is corrupt, and this is a mere truism.

But even in our corruption, God does not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability to resist. Nor does He offer blessings He cannot deliver. It is no blasphemy to remember what God Himself tells us, that there are indeed things He cannot do. He cannot lie (Heb 6:18; Titus 1:2), or tempt or be tempted by evil (James 1:13). He cannot change (Mal 3:6). In short, He cannot deny Himself (2Tim 2:13), but must be true to His nature. He does not make false offers. God has integrity, and human words are shadows when applied to Him, but He is bound by His word.

God, eternal, unchanging, the same yesterday, today and always, knowing every sorrow of his children, feeling with them every pain – well, He knows these sorrows and feels these pains unceasingly. What choice does He have, then? In whatever God uses for time, each of its moments is filled with the presence of His own death, His own separation from his Son. We can forget. We have the palliative passage of time, which dulls the sharpest blade. We have sleep, and if you’ve had anguish you know what I mean. But God? What He feels, He feels always. He must be true to His word. He must be true to his nature – unchanging. God is the least free thing there could be. And what value lies in knowing this?

5. What the Wind Says

Whatever ultimate application God’s plan has, we live here, in this world, subject first and overwhelmingly to our own will. And when we look at the catastrophe this the world is – what with all this inevitable anguish and unavoidable death – of course we question it. What possible good can come from this nightmare? Hey God, how many dead babies are enough dead babies? If it’s so easy to get to hell, if there’s nothing pleasing to God that we in ourselves can do, if there’s no good thing in us, then what is hope? - and who hears our anguish and where is comfort to be found? So often that it’s almost always, the answer is not a still, small voice, but silence.

Questions are good. Answers are better. Where are they to be found?

We don’t contend with God and win. Jacob didn’t win when he wrestled with the Lord – he just held on. Sometimes that’s all faith is. Those who tried to trap Jesus with artful questions finally dared no longer come against Him. Why were those Galileans killed, and why did that tower fall on all those people? And who sinned, the man born blind or his parents? And what of this woman, taken in adultery? Jesus cut them short – Don't you worry about towers and tyrants, he said. Just you do what is right. Just you repent. Today's evil is enough for today. And Jacob could only cling to God, desperately – like a panicked child wrapped around his father's leg. Is there an answer in any of this?

In every human being there is emotion, dedication, sacrifice, humanity, laughter, love – but only because, like a flower that springs from a smudge of dirt in the gutter, the defaced image of the Creator can still be discerned, in even the most degraded of human souls. The Holy Spirit graces us all – at times, and up to a point – with His touch like a blowing in our ear. And all the enemy's contrivances cannot snuff that out. It is not the enemy's plan that determines our fate.

There are shadows, and artificial light. But there is truth, and glory. There is a broad and bloody trail of tears and torment stretching out from Eden all the way to here. But there are mountain peaks and morning winds and somewhere from the soul joy rises up as a revelation. The road to hell is easy, and hell has expanded its borders. But God so loved the world that He gave His son to die for us. This is what we’re told, and God weeps for it, and rejoices. And each of us, finally, somehow makes a choice. Lucifer said, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High.” Joshua said, “As for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord.”

We all feel the thirst, trapped as we are in this desert place. And we have a choice, we all have the freedom to choose – to thirst again after lapping like a dog from the toilet, or to drink living waters and be filled.

Like children, we concern ourselves with fairness – but also with things that are none of our affair. Questions are good, but some questions tend not to enlightenment. Like children, our understanding is imperfect. The answer seems to be, God just says so. Obey. That’s the answer Job got, after the loss of his property, after the loss of his health, after the loss of his children. I’m God, says God. Who are you? Shut your mouth, fall on your face, and worship Me. We ask questions, but the ultimate answer, I think, is not in the least satisfying, and may be almost utterly displeasing. Obey. We don’t have a choice, about the answer. This is the predestination part. We do have a choice about believing the answer. That’s the free will.

J

Rebuilding the Tower: the revival of paganism

[Moved from Forgotten Prophets]

1. The Bridegroom



I’ve recently been given cause to call to mind the fact of the prophecies of the end times – End Times. To paraquote some of my own wonderful comments (in Shadowland), regarding a meta-reason for the upsurge of Islamism at this time in history, I say: You know the 12th Imam? The one who disappeared down a well in a cave in Qom in the 900s, and who’ll reappear in the end times to lead the armies of Allah? Reappear out of the well? Reappear out of the pit? Whom might we have read about, say, in Revelation, that will rise out of a pit to conquer the world and lead the army of the moon god against us and our God? Who are the Sons of the East that will rise up against us? I was reading Judges a few days ago, and there it was: the Sons of the East came from Midian. Midian, some believe – including me – is today’s Medina. Hm.

I’ve said that prophecy was and is predictive, but it's flat - we don't have the perspective to judge true distances. One mountain heaped upon another, and no sense of scale. So it’s predictive, but not datable ahead of time. Thus, it acts as after-the-fact confirmation. We don’t rest our faith on the expectations of days and hours, but on the promise of eternity. And we don’t build our faith on promises at all, but on evidence. That’s a different discussion, though. Of course we look for signs, as men have always done. And just as our fathers have thought the sky was red, so might we. A thousand years ago, and now, people ran for the hills awaiting the final trumpet and the rending of the heavens. Alas, so much wasted hope. But the sky is red. We don't know when the storm will start, but we hear the thunder. That is the value of the doctrine of imminence: you've got a raincoat handy, just in case. That boneheads have raced out and tried to corner the market on raincoats is just their hard luck. Thus ends my paraquotations.

We do live in interesting times. For my part, as I’ve said, prophecy is an interesting part of the whole picture. Some get all caught up in it, and if it doesn’t come to pass on their own schedule, well, so much dashed hope may harm someone’s faith. The point is, balance and common sense. Bearing this in mind, some time ago I wrote a long study of the most ancient of mythology. I won’t go into all that, except to say the premise was euhemeristic – the idea that these primal god stories are often distortions of actual history and real people – Adam, Cush, Nimrod, Semiramus, Noah and so on. Not every flood myth remember the Flood – there was, after all, an Ice Age (another book … actually two books), and not every myth was once a reality – but enough remains to reconstruct some very surprising events, referenced only in passing in Genesis. Upshot, the ancient strivings of Satan to rule the world have not been forsaken. The final chapter of my The Serpent in Babel takes up the loose ends of ancient history, and ties them together in the present and presumably near future. I’m excerpting a relevant passage, below.


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And this brings us to the present. The preceding discussion of fallen angels and demons is highly relevant to the future of mankind, in the days of the Tribulation, which may be near at hand. There are several interpretations of those biblical verses which deal with the end times (eschatology). It is not my purpose here to write a treatise on these theories — rather I will present the view to which I subscribe, and as I understand it. It is also not my purpose to elaborate the chronology of the Tribulation and the Millennium, since there are a number of excellent works on this subject ( Best, I think, is J.D. Pentecost, Things to Come [Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan, 1958].) Instead, I will gather the strands of this discussion into a single cord.


Jesus is coming again. This is His Second Coming. He came the first time as a suffering servant, as a ransom, as the Lamb of God to be sacrificed for the salvation of mankind. But His Second Coming is as King, the Lion of Judah, the Arm of God, not with a crown of thorns but of gold, not to be pierces but Himself carrying a rod of iron and the sword of judgment. The first time He was born into a noble but humble family, in a manger, not in secret but obscure neverthe­less; He will come again, though, in the clouds (Acts 1:9,11), so that every eye can see (Rev 1:7). At this time He will destroy the armies of the world (Rev 19:21), separating the sheep from the goats (Mt 25:32), the righteous from the rebellious; He will establish His earthly kingdom which had been prophesied so many times in scripture but delayed for so long. This is the Second Coming.

But before He comes in judgment, He comes for His Bride, the Church — that is, every person who has accepted the salvation which the death of Jesus pro­vides. To understand the meaning of the symbol of calling Jesus the Groom and the Church His bride, we must consider the customs of marriage in the Israel of the days of the Bible. Before a bridegroom of those days would come to claim his bride, he would prepare a house for her. When it was finished, he would ap­proach, trying to catch her off guard. If she was faithful to her betrothal, she would keep watch for her beloved, so that even if he came in the deep of night, she had her bridal clothes laid out. The groom did not come into the house, but stood outside and called her to him, after which the two went to the wedding and the wedding supper.

In just this manner, Jesus comes for His Bride. He has prepared a place (Jn 14:2), and when he comes he does not enter her house, the world, but stands outside and calls her to Him (1Th 4:17). Neither she nor any man knows the hour of His coming, (Mt 24:36), but when He comes, she gathers herself together and rushes to meet him in the twinkling of an eye (1Cor 15:52). This is the first Resurrection, including everyone from the saved thief on the cross to the very last saved soul who dies to fulfill the final number of the Church (cf. Rev 7:4). The decayed or disin­te­grated body of every dead Christian is miracu­lously reconstructed from the dust, the atoms of the earth (after the fashion of Adam's body on the day he was created), and it rises into the heavens to be revivified by its own spirit, which has been waiting in the throne room of God for the fulfillment of this promise, when death is swal­lowed up and victory finally becomes manifest. This is also the Rapture, which includes every living Chris­tian, from the oldest saint to the newest convert; the physical bodies of each of these is instantly transformed, perfected after the manner of Adam's pre-Fall body and the Risen body of Jesus Christ, immune from death and decay, pre­pared now to be the eternal home of their saved souls.

This private, tender and joyful coming of Jesus for His Bride is certainly a coming of sorts, but it is not to be confused for the Second Coming, which is public and fierce. Jesus has come many times, as we know from the Old Testament Christophanies — that is, the pre-incarnation appearances of the Word — starting with Adam in the Garden, who walked with God, the Word, in the cool of the day (Gen 3:8). Since no man has seen God at any time (1Tim 6:16), yet Adam walked with God, and Abraham ate with Him, and Jacob wrestled with Him, and Moses spoke with Him, then we are reading not of God the Father, but the Son. The point is that although God has touched mankind at many times and in many ways, yet only twice does Jesus deal publicly with the entire world — the first time as Victim, the second as Victor. Furthermore, we must remem­ber the distinction between a bridegroom and a warrior, since a newly married man is commanded not to wage war (Deut 24:5). The Bride­groom comes secretly for his Bride, who lives in the house of His enemy; and after a season He comes again, publicly, to the enemy himself - into his very house, and cleanses it.

But in that season when Jesus and His Church celebrate their love for each other, the world is being judged. This period, the seven years of the Tribula­tion, starts only after the restraining force of the Church (dwelling place of the Holy Spirit) has been removed (2Th 2:7). Individual Christians suffer, and local churches suffer, but the Body of Christ has already suffered, on the Cross, and that whole Body will not suffer again. Indeed, what groom would stand by and allow his bride to be tormented? The Bride of Christ waits in the world, which is con­trolled by the forces of evil, and her purity and grace bring light into its darkness; evil deeds are best committed in the dark (Jn 3:19), and so the world is less evil because of her light. When that light, the Spirit in her, is removed, evil runs wild, and judgment begins.

As for when this judgment upon the world starts, we can only say that it is some time after the Rapture, although presumably shortly after. No one knows the time of the Raptur e - the day, the hour - but once the clock of the Tribulation starts running, the world could easily calculate the hour of the Second Coming — it ends precisely seven years after it begins.

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2. Where the Satyrs Dance

Wow, that as really interesting, I must say! I’d forgotten. Here’s the next part. After the Bride is swept away, carried over the threshold as it were ...

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...what of this Tribulation and the evil which has free rein during its course? Here we return to the main theme of this work [The Serpent in Babel], for it is during this time that Satan achieves his greatest victory, his greatest power, when he finally manages to establish that world government, that world religion which he has worked for the past six millennia to achieve. It is now that the world proclaims him as its god, and gives him the worship he has craved since sin was first conceived in his heart.

A man will arise who proclaims a message of peace. His words are followed by actions, and by virtue of his mastery of diplomacy much of the world is united under his leadership. His charisma will be irresistible, and adored as a savior, he will become the object of actual worship – a non-unknown phenomenon … Hitler the rock star. Politics will merge with religion, and he will show himself as god. The Bible describes him as the Beast, the final antichrist. At some time during or before his career, he will be possessed by that demonic spirit which rises from the Pit; he may also be possessed by Satan himself.

The religion which he heads, the religion of a revived Babylon, is already in the world, although not in its final form. It is most clearly articulated in the New Age movement, with its Maitreya/messiah, its ascended masters, its reincarnating avatars, its god-within and goddess without. The New Age is old wine in a new wineskin — a westernized form of Hinduism, which itself is simply the most long-lived of the ancient pagan systems, best symbolized by Babylon.

We have spent many words dealing with the legacy of Babylon. It seems that Satan once sat enthroned there, at least by proxy, through Nimrod. And the very name, Babylon, resonates even in our ears, millennia after its glory. I have pondered as to why it should be that this city has such a mystique. Even in the days of Hammurabi, Babylon was really only a local power, and was less important than Nineveh or Ur in their heyday, yet these cities are obscure compared to Babylon. For a mere half century, during the ephemeral empire of Nebuchadnezzar II, Babylon dominated the international scene — yet it has captured the imagination of the ages. The sole reason for this, I am certain, is the prominence given to Babylon in the Bible, in the Old Testament and most especially in the Revelation. The Bible names it as the location of man's great apostasy, and here the tongues were Confused. This is the city which supplanted Jerusalem for a time as the capital of the Jews, in their Captivity. But most, I think, is the prominence given to it by John, in naming Babylon as the capital of the Beast in the end times.

It is said that the ancient city of Babylon was never destroyed, never thrown down, and that the biblical prophecy has yet to be fulfilled. It is certainly true that the destruction of Babylon in the end times is yet to occur, but it is also true that the city of Babylon has been destroyed in the past, by the Hittites and Kassites and Elamites and Assyrians. The inaccuracy lies in the failure to think of Babylon prior to when the prophecies were made: since the moment Isaiah spoke, Babylon has not yet been destroyed — it would be taken, by the Medes and Persians, and the Greeks, and the Partheans, but not ravished; prior to Isaiah's time, Babylon had most certainly been ravaged, and restored.

Alexander's empire, more ephemeral even than that of Nebuchadnezzar, broke into four parts upon his death, divided among his generals. Syria, Mesopotamia, and Medo-Persia went to Seleucus I. Babylon had to be retaken several times, and became such a bother that Seleucus built on the Tigris a new capital, Seleucia, 45 miles north of the old center of trade and government. Only religion was left to Babylon, and it remained the chief holy city of the region, even after the Parthians took Mesopotamia from the Greeks in 139 BC.

The Parthians also shunned Babylon as an administrative center, building rather Ctesiphon, adjacent to Seleucia, which remained a commercial center. When they absorbed Syria in 40 BC, the Parthians allied with Judean factions against the Jewish high priest, Hyrcanus, who was in the Roman camp. Hyrcanus was eventually taken in chains to Parthia, but later allowed to live in Babylon, which according to Josephus had at that time a high concentration of Jews.

One and a half centuries later, when Trajan found Babylon deserted in 116 AD, the walls and the temple of Bel still stood [see Dio, Roman History, 68.30.1; Pausanaias, 8.33.3]. In the Middle Ages, a city of ten thousand Jews stood six miles from Babylon, and the Synagogue of Daniel met a single mile from the temple of Bel [M.N. Adler, "Benjamin of Tudela, Itinerary of," Jewish Quarterly Review 17 (1905); pp. 514-530]. There seems never to have been a time when the site of Babylon was not occupied, albeit sometimes by some shabby collection of hovels — but the shanty town which has been Babylon for so many centuries is a far cry from the world-center the Bible says it will be in the last days.

Although Babylon certainly fell into utter obscurity, it cannot possibly be said to have fulfilled the biblical prediction of its being forever a desolate haunt of only beasts (Is 13:19-21): “And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of hyenas; and the owls shall dwell there, the satyrs shall dance there.” Jeremiah (51:26) says that the day will come when no one will “take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate forever” — yet after Jeremiah spoke, in Parthian days, and in the 1600's, and until the 20th century, locals mined the ruins of Babylon for its fine, baked bricks. Sodom was destroyed, Troy and Tyre and Carthage were destroyed — but Babylon has stood to this very day. Clearly, the prophecies regarding Babylon's fall, and its prerequisite rise, have not yet been fulfilled.

Regarding the rise of Babylon, we read in Zechariah 5:6-11 that an angel raises a heavy leaden cover off a measuring basket symbolizing rebellion; hidden in the basket squats a woman, called wickedness, who tries to rise up when the lid is lifted but is thrust back down and covered again by the angel. Then two swift-winged women race forth and raise up the basket between heaven and earth, on their way to prepare for the woman a "house in the land of Shinar", where she shall be firmly instated. That this woman is not Israel taken into Babylonian Captivity is known by the fact that Zechariah was writing after Israel had returned to the land. Rather, it is the woman of lawlessness who is constrained for a season, until she sits enthroned in Babylon in the last days.

As for the final end of Babylon (Rev 18:21-23): “with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. The voice of harpers and musicians, and of pipers and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee. No craftsman, of whatsoever craft, shall be found any more in thee, and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee. The light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee, and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee. For thy merchants were the great men of the earth, and by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.” John's Revelation is filled with symbols, but when taken in context with other biblical references, its use of Babylon is too concrete to be allegorical.

That Babylon shall rise seems clear — but how is its transformation worked, from arid village to hub of world commerce and luxury?

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Well, I do answer that question – and it involves a certain S. Hussein. But that discussion must await part three.

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3. The Gates of Confusion



Oh, it just gets more and more interesting! Here's a third installment of my entrancing look at things to come.

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Starting in the late 1970's, Iraq's Saddam Hussein began to build on the site of the ruins of Babylon a sort of archeological park. But in the 1980's, at the height of his war with Iran, Hussein's plans seem to have evolved into a far grander scheme, of actually recon­structing Babylon as a living city, building over the very ruins of the ancient capitol — despite the outcry of archaeolo­gists. The city map of ancient Babylon, pieced together by Robert Koldewey in the first quarter of the 20th century, was used as the blueprint for the recon­struc­tion.

Hussein's rationale for raising Babylon may have been to remind his harried subjects of the ancient enmity between Iraq and Iran — it was the Persians that had finally humbled Mesopotamia so that it never rose to independence again. Further, Hussein cast himself in the role of the ancient conquerors, and as such it was tradition­al to rebuild the chief cities of Babylonia. That Hussein should style himself after Nebuchadnezzar, rather than some other conqueror, may be due to the fact that of all Babylonians it is this king alone who so utterly defeated Israel in battle; given Hussein's self-evident hatred of Israel, such a fact is powerful motive for identification.

By the time of the first of our Gulf Wars, the palace of Nebuchad­nezzar had been rebuilt, along with the temples of Ishtar, Nabu and Ninmah, and several memorial gates. Three artificial hills, each 100 feet high, were constructed and planted with vines and palms. Even before the various museums, fishing spots, theaters and other diversions were completed, the city had become a popular attraction for local wedding parties and musical events. Hmm. Seems that beloved John had something very specific to say about Babylon in the end times: “The voice of harpers and musicians, and of pipers and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee. ...the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee.” (Rev 18 22,23) Whatever events John was referring to, in his Revelation, have not yet come to pass.


A ziggurat-style hotel was planned, and it is claimed that the ziggurat itself will be raised again; plans have been announced for the reconstruction of the hanging gardens, with a prize of one and a half million dollars offered to any Iraqi who can design an irrigation system for it which uses only the technol­ogy available in ancient days. In 1990 Dr. Myua'yad Said, Iraq's Director General of Antiqui­ties, voiced his belief that the city would be surrounded by a moat, and barred to all traffic but pedes­trians and horse-drawn carriages.

Thus we see that the dream of a Babylon restored to world-prominence is not at all insubstantial. When the single factor of oil is remembered, the poverty, backwardness and inefficiency of Iraq and the petroleum-rich Moslem world as a whole, seems bizarre and inexplicable, and it seems only a matter of time before Islam becomes yet more canny in its manipulation of the West. Who it is that will continue or complete the quickening of Babylon is yet to be seen. But the body, as it were, has been exhumed.

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Hussein no longer seems to be a factor in the governance of Mesopotamia. But I will make an off-the-cuff prediction – if I turn out to be right, let's count it as a prophecy – oh my! I suggest that Iraq will enjoy a relatively successful rebuilding, and comport itself as a successful state. I suggest it will prosper, becoming a center of commerce, and enjoy a brisk tourist trade. And I suggest a resort town known as Babylon will be no small attraction. Timeframe? I wouldn’t care to be specific, but one might speculate, say, within ten or fifteen years? Okay, it's a date, then. We'll meet in Babylon, in 2021. I'll be the tall well-preserved blond with the white rose behind his right ear - it'll be the fashion then.


Fascinating, isn’t it. I wonder what I'll say in part four. Bet it’s good. -----

4. Faith of the Broken Cross


Here’s a fourth part of my brilliant study of the rise of Satan to manifest secular power. That the situation with Islamism and Iraq should occur at this particular point is history seems significant to me, but then again, every problem is a nail to a man with a hammer. We must let evidence and sound judgment negotiate their own détente. The following is excerpted from my fabulous study of the most ancient mythology, as I’ve already stated; it is premised on a detailed discussion of, well, demonology and the like ... I won’t elaborate, save to identify the nephalim – the hybrid offspring of fallen angels and human females – as the beings which became demons. Being neither human nor angelic, they have no resting place after death, and their restless spirits do much mischief. Seeking to regain a physical existence and its corporal comforts, they latch onto whatever human body they can, sometimes so deeply as to possess it. Spooky? Well, there’s a purpose. The following discussion takes as a given the “supernatural.” Play along.


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We are not given to known the details of the rise of the city or the system of Babylon. But what we do know is that, being satanic in the most literal way possible, the religion of the Beast must be based utterly upon deception. This is what the Bible teaches when it says the very elect might be deceived (Mt 24:24). As to what this decep­tion is, we can only guess, but I think we can make some pretty good guesses. And it is here that our discussion of the nephalim and the fallen angels becomes relevant.

Throughout history there have been enduring and consistent reports of contact between humanity and entities possessing what can only be described as supernatu­ral characteristics. We have read already of the fallen angels, of the nephalim, of the demons. I suggest that we find these same contacts in the superstitions of every race, as gods, as fairies, as pucks, as trolls, as genies, as ghosts and totems and familiars and an endless list of similar labels. These categories, in our sophisticated and oh so scientific age, have of course been discarded upon the rubbish heap of superstition, and rightly so, given the fabrication which accrued to their memory. But the fact that they have fallen out of fashion is not proof that there was not originally a grim truth behind the original stories. Indeed, if there are demons, they would not identify themselves to the ignorant as evil. If there are fallen angels, they would present themselves as heroes, not villains. And just because the age has become "scientific" does not mean that they will stop presenting themselves.

So the question is, what disguise would evil spirits now use? Well, of course, they would still manifest themselves as "channeled", "higher" beings who claim to teach benighted mankind a new and better way. Thus, although undoubtedly a con game for the most part, the "psychic" phone clubs which have polluted late-night television with their advertisements must also, here and there, have some actual demoniac manning the phones (cf. Acts 16:16‑18).

But even more intriguing is the mushrooming of belief in extraterrestrial "aliens". I have no strong opinion as to whether or not God populated the universe with many intelligent races, or only with mankind. Either could be the case. But I am sure that the creatures who represent themselves as "aliens" are alienated first from God. Indeed, I believe that the category of "alien" is but the latest label, the latest disguise for those same old deceiving spirits of whom we have been reading.

Consider, for example, those evil spirits of ages past who came to some victim in the night, transported him to some fantastic place with sparkling gems and flashing lights, where they performed sexual acts upon him, later to return him home in a chronically disturbed state — pixilated; grave spiritual secrets were sometimes imparted to the victim, which undermined the faith of childhood. Compare this to "aliens," who abduct some human victim, transporting him to their UFO with its glaring lights and incomprehensible controls, where they perform numerous experiments which concentrate on the genitals, returning their victim home in a disturbed state which frequently requires psychological counseling. These aliens invariably teach the abductee about the nature of the universe, consistently making a point to mention that Jesus was actually an ascended master, or one of them, or a "walk-in", or from Venus, or some such (see W.M. Alnor, UFOs in the New Age - Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1992). Consider that if two things look the same, act the same, and have the same result, the most logical, the most elegant conclusion should be that they are the same, by different names.

One of the more curious doctrines of the New Age movement is that there must be a great cosmic "cleansing" before the actual New Age itself can begin. This cleansing is taught variously by the Movement's sundry factions, but the upshot is that a large number of people will simply disappear, because they are inter­fering with the evolution of the consciousness of mankind. Well. Haven’t we heard something of this? Isn't this the Rapture? Satan knows it’s coming, and he has prepared his cover story. And when this absolute miracle (the disap­pear­ance in the blink of an eye of hopefully countless millions of people throughout the world) is correctly prophesied, wouldn't this count as validation for the other claims of the New Age?

New Age adherents, like all pagans, scour mythology for signs relevant to their posi­tion. One favorite hunting ground is native american myth; thus significance is found in a Hopi prophecy which declares that a light from the east will bring a reawakening, emanating “from the True White Brother. He would wear a red cloak or a red hat and would bring with him the sacred stone tablet . . . which [he] alone could read. The three would show the people of the earth a great new Life Plan that will lead to Everlasting Life. . . .Those who are saved will share everything equally . . . . a new religion will probably be brought that helps all people to lead better lives and transforms the world.” [In W. Willoya and V. Brown, Warriors of the Rainbows: Strange and Prophetic Dreams of the Indian Peoples (Happy Camp, CA: Naturegraph Publishers, Inc, 1962), pp. 54-55; quoted in C.E. Cumbey, A Planned Decep­tion: The Staging of a New Age "Messiah" (East Detroit: Pointe Publishers, Inc, 1985), p. 73. Emphasis in origi­nal, and a new paragraph starts after "read."] Super­fi­cially, this sounds like the Christ of the Bible, given Rev 1:14, 2:17 & 19:12. But Jesus does not bring a new religion, and it is not people who transform the world. Also, Jesus comes alone, but another comes, accompanied by a prophet and a king. Who then is this "True White Brother" from the east?

Satan also appears as an angel of light (2Cor 11:14). Further, although unquoted in its New Age source, the prophecy goes on to say that there will be “a victory of those using the [sacred Hopi] swastika over those using the sign of the cross. …those using the sign of the cross will be beheaded . . .” (Cumbey, p. 73.) Passing over the obvious resonances of the swasti­ka, we pause only to notice that these martyrs are those who (Rev 20:4) “were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither had received his mark . . .” You see how they almost get it right — it is just from the perspective of Satan, rather than of God.

And when the Beast reigns there will be signs in the sky. There will be a great deception, so powerful that even the elect would be deceived, if it were possible. There will be a putting aside of nationalism, and a yielding to a great and single authority. If we suppose that "aliens" and their UFOs are just the latest version of the satanically designed mythologies by which Satan has sought to rule, then we can understand just how truly literal the book of Revela­tion actually is.

Are the changelings of lore more than just deformed victims of the preju­dices of an igno­r­ant age — being instead a genuine hybrid of "alien" and human? Are the genital "experi­ments" perpetrated by "aliens" just the continuation of the rape of mankind by fallen angels? Is the Beast somehow related to the nephalim, so that the public unveiling of UFOs and aliens to the world, and the revelation that this world-leader is intimately connected with such "superhuman," "superior" beings, would act as a guarantee of his "evolved" and "enlightened" rule?

We are speculating, building upon evidence and inferences. We will not be dogmatic. But if we are to take the Bible at its reasonable most literal, and if we accept that there are evil angels and demons who work deception in this world, and if we believe that Revelation teaches of a world leader who deceives mankind and is worshipped as a god, and if we give any credence to the mounting evidence of the reality of UFO phenomena (rather than of the associated mythology) — if we accept all of this, then the scenario I have laid out is the most elegant I know, to explain all of the evidence.

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Hmm. Well, that was sort of weird. But it could be right, if all those ifs are right. As to that, I guess time will tell. Could there be anything more to say on this subject? I simper coyly, and taunt you with, "Could be."

5. A Moment's Distance

So many ideas. So many theories. Every culture seems to invent a new religion. I suppose there are as many religions as there are languages. An unintended consequence of the Confusion at Babel – although an inevitable one. And really, what does it matter if there are four thousand false religions, or just one? Well, by now I suppose it should be clear that much of The Serpent in Babel deals with exactly that: Babel and its apostasy, and the personages who instigated it. Ham, Cush and his scion Nimrod who was remembered variously as Osiris, Tammuz, Ninus and so on. It’s pretty elaborate, and outside our scope. But behind these human agents, I have supposed there is a non-human intelligence, which, though not the author of history, is a manipulator of mankind nevertheless. Consider this, then:

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Well might we ask the skeptic's question: Which came first, the vegetable cults, the dying nature gods, the many-breasted venuses, the totems and phalluses and orgies, the avatars and psychics and ascended masters, the aliens and UFOs of the evolutionists? — or that God of the Bible, personal and cosmic, just and merciful, and most of all, gracious? Were Cush and Semiramis and other idolaters the authors of the themes of Christianity? Or are the Mysteries bold perversions of the long-prophesied events which took place in Bethlehem and on Calvary?

Trolling through the murky waters of mythology, we find that it is no difficult task to fish out virtually all of the elements of Christianity. Heathen systems always somewhere contain the memory that God:

“was to become incarnate, to be born of a virgin mother, to spend his infancy and childhood among herds and flocks, whose life should be sought by a huge serpent or dragon, which was even to slay him, but which he was destined to conquer and crush; that he came or was to come, from heaven for the purpose of reforming and delivering mankind; that he was mild, contemplative, and good, but still the god of vengeance, with power to destroy his enemies; that he was a priest, a prophet, and a king, the sacrificer of himself, and the parent, husband, and son of the great Mother, denoted often by a floating ark; that he was the creator of worlds and æons, previous to which he moved on boundless waters; that when slain he was entombed, descended into the hidden world, but rose to life again, ascended the top of a lofty mountain, and thence was translated to heaven.” (Seiss, p. 25.)

All of these details are scattered through paganism, and all are condensed within the Bible. The virgin is Mary, the dragon is Satan, the Woman is Israel, the mountain is Olivet. A fair question is, who borrowed from whom?

As long as atheists write the encyclopedias, the facts will be skewed toward their bias. In the preceding chapters we have seen the evidence examined in a different light — not the light of blind faith, but in the spirit of open-eyed and vigorous inquiry. Of course all of this is theory, but that is as much as to say nothing at all, since the dogma which is spoon-fed to students is also theory, masquerading as fact.

When James Frazer promulgated the theory of the fertility cult, he did not present his belief as a hypothesis, but as a fact. We can of course forgive him his constitutional "core of narrowness": “He was not interested in the ideas of other anthropologists, and could not stand personal contradiction. Nor could he bear controversy.” (H.R. Hays, From Ape to Angel: an Informal History of Social Anthropology [NY: Capricorn Books, 1958], p. 121.) But, aside from being rank hubris, this is also poor scholarship. To recall the words of a certain Roman (Acts 26:24), Frazer's great learning had driven him mad. Such words should be the motto of this, the Age of Information.

Paganism is every religion but one. The Mystery is every religion but one. The worship of the Dragon is every religion but one. The Deceiver has been climbing the mountain and clawing at the throne of God since before the fiery stones of Eden dimmed and grew cool. The goddess whored after all the crowns of the true God. The pagans ransacked true prophecy, and offered in their "goddess" a false virgin, a false mediator, a false Spirit; the only thing she could not be called was "God the Father", and she got around that by being called "Mother Goddess". And so with the child of paganism: false seed and branch, false mediator and savior, false victor and judge.

In Is 66:17, we read of the One, and the abomination, and the mouse, and the eating of swine's flesh. We have here the false father, the false spirit, and the false son. We even have the false communion supper, in the eating of pig flesh: cannibals have informed us that human flesh has the same taste as pork, so much so that they call man "the long pig". We might be thankful that later pagans were so refined in their tastes as to refrain from ritually consumed human flesh, but we can certainly see why such rites were abhorrent to the godly.

We have already heard what God has to say about all this, as when we read of the Image of Jealousy (Ezek 8:3). God is jealous because that which is His has been stolen and twisted. But more than jealousy, I think God feels grief. We are only told explicitly of a few of the emotions which Jesus felt. He felt anger, we are told, and sorrow and deep distress, and love. And we know that Jesus wept. He wept over lost Jerusalem. He wept not at the victory of the Adversary, but at the damage he does in meeting his defeat.

I think that Satan has never read the Bible. I think he knows some parts of it, just enough to twist the meaning. Like every cultist, Satan gets the context wrong. I think that Satan thinks he can win — not in his deepest heart, but in his mind, he thinks that he can somehow pull it off. Hitler in his bunker was making plans for his victory.

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Do you imagine angelic psychology is much different than human? Subtract the influence of childhood, and they must have very much in common with us. That they have maturity where we are still in our infancy, is a detail that will diminish in effect in the coming millennia. That they cannot know death is merely the fate of those Christians who will be Raptured – and in any case, even those of us who go through that temporary separation from our bones will eventually have an eternity separating us from that one-time trauma. We have very much in common with angels – being both higher and lower than they, it might average out to about equal.

Given this, Satan’s motivations are not impenetrable. He has an ego. This is a condition of which you know nothing? I doubt it. He is spiteful. Anyone who has watched children at play must be aware of this emotion. The great difference now, is that he has power to harm, and we have power only to ask for protection. Send us a Michael, O Lord. But their battles are beyond our perceptions. Ignorance is our assurance of contentment.

We are children, sorely in need of protection. The world is harsh and our only comfort seems to be in believing we are safe. Certainly we are not safe, physically. Everyone dies. Not safe. If we can extract some happiness from our lives, then we will be happy. But it must be a precarious happiness, relying on unseen fences and protectors of whom we are only told. But we are told, and we must draw comfort from this. In another place, I have written how even the heavens declare the beginning and the end. This biblical phrase refers not only to nature, but to what has been imposed upon nature, by prophets - the constellations. My point is that this message, so clear when it is clearly expressed, has been twisted most contemptably, whether by design or accident. Again, what was meant for protection was used for harm. We mustn't listen to liars. We mustn't be deceived. Every little child must hold his father's hand when troubling strangers approach.

Well, I’m just making this up as I go along. Hope I’m not boring you. There’s moreo to say, if you can stand it.

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6. Satan As Tapeworm

This is the penultimate installment of my look at the reality of mythology and its relevance for the possibly near-future - extracted from the final chapter of my The Serpent in Babel. We've looked at the corporal return of Jesus, the social changes that facilitate conditions for the Antichrist, the political situation that promises the rise of a literal Babylon, and the historical factors that have brought us where we find ourselves. Didn't think it was that organized, did you. I'll leave it for you to catagorize the following.

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I have saved one last piece of mythology — regarding Nimrod. The annals of China reach back to Babel itself. Reports that the history of China is unbroken are simply incorrect, given the mas­sive book-burnings of Emperor Tsin-shi-hoang (246-209 bc), in which virtually all the ancient tomes were destroyed. Some books were recov­ered from the memory of an old scholar, and others are said to have been pre­served in the tomb of Confucius — but given their murky pro­venance, these must be counted as secondary records.


Be that as it may, traditions which refer to the most an­cient times tell of a famous woman, "the mother of the king of the west." (Annals of the Bamboo Books, Legge, Vol. 3, pp. 114‑115.) She was the mother of the world's first king, who had black skin. He was named Shun, and his father was Chusou or Kusou. Do these cha­racters sound familiar? They are Semiramis, Nimrod, and Cush. The point is that this king, Shun / Nimrod [always represented as black], was said to have eyes which shone "doubly bright" — an indica­tion of demonic possession.

The serpent winds round not just trees, not just temples, but men as well. Nimrod seems to have been such a man. If Hindu gurus shine with reflected light, beguiling fools into calling them holy men, how much more the High Priest and King of Baby­lon?

Judas was a thief, in a position of great trust, as treasurer. We know he went out and worked miracles, with all the other pairs of disci­ples. We know that his feet were washed by Jesus Himself, and that he ate at the Lord's table, and took bread from His hands. And it may indeed be that Satan actually went into Judas, just before the final betrayal (Lk 22:3, Jn 13:27). Afterwards, Judas went and hanged himself.

And it is my conviction that Hitler was such a man — if not possessed by Satan himself, then certainly possessed by some un­derling, and a willing ally of Satan. In his youth, one of the only two books which Hitler was known to have actually stud­ied was a child's storybook on the Nordic gods and heroes. A part of his personal library as Fuhrer was recovered after World War II, and among those books which give evidence of having been well-studied — alongside racist pamphlets, tracts on pseudo­science, and pornographic books and films — were stories about Wotan and the Germanic pan­theon, and books about magic symbols and the occult. (R.G.L. Waite, The Psychopathic God: Adolph Hitler (NY: Basic Books, 1977), pp. 69‑70, 270.)

During Hitler's youth in Vienna, he sought out the publisher of an occult magazine, Ostara — one Jorg Lanz von Liebenfels, who wrote articles in favor of polygamy for "pure blooded Aryans" and forced sterilization for "inferi­or" races — and of extermination of non-Aryans in Germany. (Much of the information contained in this and the following two para­graphs is abstracted from N. Goodrick-Clarke, The Occult Roots of Nazism, Secret Aryan Cults and Their influence on Nazi Ideology - NY: New York University Press, 1992.) Lanz was founder of the racist "Order of the New Templars," and authored the amusingly titled Theo-Zoology or the Lore of the Sodom-Apelings and the Electron of the Gods, which taught that Jesus was the last of a super race which had cohabited with beasts to form a sub-human race (an idea indebted to Madam Blavatsky and her Theosophy), and that modern man was the remnant of these gods, with Aryans the purest.
Prior to WW I, the rising interest in the occult led to the formation in Austria and Germany of a number of "Ariosophic" societies, which focused on the idea of a "pure" human race, somehow imbued with special worth. One such pathologically anti-semitic secret order, the Germanenorden, practiced intricate occult ceremonials until its leadership devolved upon the wealthy Rudolf Freiherr von Sebottendorff (Rudolf Blauer), who changed its name to the "Thule Society", espousing the doctrine of ancient wisdom guarded by super-human masters who could be contacted by rituals and might deign to endow supplicants with prodigious power.

The society was recast as a political group aimed at destabilizing the Weimar Republic — indeed, the head of the Weimar government, Kurt Eisner, was assassinated by a confederate of the Thule Society, and in 1919 Thule trained troops fought against the communists who briefly took control of Bavaria. Von Sebottendorff broadened membership by disguising the occult aspect of the Thule Society, backing the formation of a racist, working class front organiza­tion, the German Workers Party (DAP). This is the group which Hitler transformed into the Nazi party: he recruited Thule members Rudolf Hess and Alfred Rosenberg, assumed ownership of the Thule socie­ty's weekly newspaper, and even used the Thule insignia, the swastika.


Hitler was certainly deeply influenced by racial lore, and his interest in the occult is well-document­ed, despite his public rejection and ridicule of the crasser pseudo-history of the Aryan mystics and such esoteric movements as Free Masonry, Theosophy and Anthrosophy. (Indeed, rejecting occult groups was sound not simply for reasons of respectability, but for security, given that MI 5 had a special Occult Bureau.) Vril, Zen, Sufi, Tibetan and similar influences are widely documented, and even if exaggerated, demonstrate a distinct pattern. Enduring reports exist of the Nazi plan to re-introduce worship of the Nordic pantheon, as a national Neo-Paganism. One of Nazi Germany's laws was that the cross be removed from all churches, replaced by the "immortal" sign of the swasti­ka. This paganism is even clearer in the case of Himmler, who made an Aryan guru, Karl Maria Wiligut, an SS Brigadier (until 1939, when his commitment in the 1920's to a mental institu­tion discredit­ed him). Wewelsburg Castle in Westphalia, which served as SS headquarters, was planned to be a Nazi Vatican, and was used as a temple where solstice rituals devised by Wiligut were per­formed.

Indeed, Hitler is claimed as an adherent of the anti-semitic occultic cabal of Theosophy. Foster Bailey, husband of Alice Bailey (third leader of that movement, after Blavatsky and Besant), wrote in 1972: “One attempt [at unifying Europe] was to begin by uniting the peoples living in the Rhine river valley using that river as a binding factor. It was an attempt by a disciple but did not work.” (Quoted in Cumbey, p. 88; emphasis added.) Who was this failing "disciple"? Hmm. Now, this in itself would be of only passing interest, until we remember what the man did. I have no problem believing that a man, without the aid of the supernatu­ral, could be as evil as Hitler was — yet it is my conviction that he was a specific tool of Satan who was trying to finish a task he set himself before mankind had Fallen.

Aside from Judas, Satan may possess that antichrist called the Beast. He will follow the pattern of Nimrod — and Hitler — as reli­gious and polit­ical leader, and conqueror, and tyrant. Since Nimrod's attempt to con­trol the entire world, similar attempts have been made, by Sesostris III of Egypt, by Sargon I of Akkad, by Hammu­rabi of Old Babylon, by Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria, by Nebu­chadnezzer II of Chaldea; by the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, and even the French and the Germans. None has succeed­ed. The Beast will succeed, for a time — just as Nimrod did. And like Nimrod, the Beast will meet his end in harsh judgment.

It is not for nothing that the myth of the hydra was in­vented, of a monster all but impos­sible to slay. After the conquest of Bab­y­lon and the death of Belshaz­zar, the Per­sians exiled the Chaldean priesthood, which settled in the new cultic center of Pergamos — which for this reason is called Satan's seat (Rev 2:13). The god-king there smiled on this circum­stance, and the pagans proceeded as usu­al. The last king of Per­gamos, Atta­lus III (138-133), willed his titles and dominions to Rome, and so the office of Pontifex Maximus, High Priest of the Babylo­nian system, devolved eventu­ally upon Julius Cae­sar, and thence to the Emperors, and fi­nally to the Popes. If the forms are so dif­ficult to exorcise, how much more the spirit?

The pattern of corruption set in Nimrod's time will hold in the future, as well. Just as Cush and Nimrod were the false prophet and the false messiah at Babel, so we are told (Rev 16:13 & 19:20) of the coming Beast and his prophet; and we find the whore, as well. And always behind the deceit is the Dragon, sprawling out from Eden, through Babel, through Rome, across the ages — woven in the branches of the Tree, coiled around the tiers of the Tower.

__________

So there it is. Ready ... set ...

As I've said, don't panic. Balance and common sense. If you're "saved," you'll be celebrating at a wedding supper. If you're not, what are you worrying about? - you don't believe it anyway. And if you do believe it, but still aren't saved - well, I found myself in that very state, once upon a time. Allow me to commend to you the virtue of humility. Asking for help is a good way to get it. Same with salvation.

Well, I won't toy with your emotions any more. Was I cruel, to taunt you so? Maybe there's more, and maybe not. Hahaha! Just one last part and I'm done. Seeya.

Maybe. Hahaha!

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7. The Place of Refuge

So much, about Satan. He must really be important or something. How uncomfortable. I suppose we could just not think about it. But let’s return to the subject one last time.

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The spirit of antichrist has been loose since the fall of Satan. It is loose today. The evil of the world is not the sole product of Satan and his cohort — men queue up to debase themselves — but behind some of the wickedness (if I may use such a quaint term) is not the random depravity of undiscerning people, but a concerted effort to work against the will of God. This is what we have, at least in part, in the false religions which we have been examining in this work.

But in the time of the Tribulation, the work of antichrist will come into full fruit. The deception of that time will be supernatural. The gullibility of fools has always been exploited, but at this time it will be confirmed. The evil that men do just because they are fallen will be magnified, beyond all experience. Hitler's camps were just a rehearsal for what is to come. The surface of the globe will be a single, vast killing field.

The times in which we are living are fertile soil for the apostasy of the end times. The rise of the occult, the interest in astrology and tarot, the fascination with crystals and pyramids, the self-actualization fads and the New Age cults, the acceptance of reincarnation and the obsession with UFOs — these are the very tenets of the new, the neo-paganism which has surmounted the horizon and is already here.

Every prophet meets one of two fates. He is either like Jeremiah, ignored, grieving to see the doom of those he loves, or he is like Jonah, believed, witness to a vast repentance and revival. For my part, I am no prophet, but I know the future. As an American I live at the heart of a great cultural empire. And I pray that my nation will repent and turn away from the horror which it is becoming. But because I am a dour man, I expect the fate of Jeremiah, more than Jonah.

Yet I may well be wrong in my melancholy. The time may be prolonged. The pagans may be held off. Satan's puppet for this time may have to be discarded, and another selected again, as with Nimrod, and Hitler, and perhaps Alexander and Napoleon. The abomination to be enacted in the rebuilt Temple of Jerusalem has been planned or attempted before, by Antiochus Epiphanes, by Caligula, by Titus. They could not enact Satan's agenda, and this gives us cause for hope. It is certain that the time of trouble will come, but as to when we cannot say.

In the meantime, each of us has two responsibilities — first to be saved, and second to tell the lost world about salvation. These two responsibilities are really the same thing: loving God. I mean the true God, who saves us not out of justice (getting what we deserve), not out of mercy (not getting what we deserve), but out of grace (getting what we do not deserve).

As for the true God, I hear the jaded voice of another Roman, who uttered the flat words, "What is truth?" He did not know that we do not define truth, we demonstrate it. The Truth was before him, and he did not know it. And so I shudder for the fate of America, and the world. But as for you, my friend, who have plowed through these many words to arrive here — there is no need for me to shudder for you. You have heard the truth, it has been placed before you, and if you are not yet saved, you can be. If you are not saved, put aside your faith in yourself — which is the core of every religion but one — and trust Jesus. Is it that simple? Well, is simple a problem? Should it be harder? Is there some special virtue in the complex? Is the grotesque more beautiful that the elegant?

Yes — it is that simple.

In the code of laws handed down through Moses, a man who caused an accidental death was vulnerable to the justice, the vengeance, of the victim's family (Num 35:9-34). The only mercy he could hope for was the haven of the nearest city of refuge, to which he could flee. But if he ever left that city, he was subject to immediate execution by the relatives. There was no advocate to whom the fugitive might appeal — no clever arguments or clouding of the issue, no moronic juries to vote their feelings instead of the facts. There is no price, no bribe, no ransom which would remove the blood from the land. Remember Ps 49:7-8: “None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him — for the redemption of their souls is costly . . .” Only upon the death of the High Priest was the blood-guilt lifted. Only then could the fugitive return, free from fear of reprisal. The victim's family could no longer claim the price of his blood.

There is a ruler who takes what is worthless and counterfeit, and redeems it. There is a victim of your carelessness who not only forgives you but undoes the harm. There is an Advocate who is the Son of the Judge, and when he steps forward to speak for you, justice and mercy have no place — only grace. Our High Priest has died, and we are free. And He lives, and we are saved. No dismembered corpse of Osiris, no whoring Ishtar chasing after a missing penis, no bastard Horus-child squirming in the seat of the King. Only the truth.

No mere man can redeem his brother, nor ransom away our bondage — we do not have the resources to pay so great a price. But God would give us peace, for “this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all . . .” (1 Tim 2:3 6)

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That's how my book, The Serpent in Babel, ends. The End. You didn't have to plow through those many words. If you had, I'd feel free to call you my friend - your patience and interest would have endeared you to me. In any event, I hope there's something of worth even in these not- quite- so- many words. Is there anything else to say? Yes.

We've read of the dark flowering of evil and the killing field it would make of the earth. So many noxious growths, there are. Too bad there isn't some way to foretell what will be poisonous and what will make us hale. But there isn't, when the seed is souls and how they respond to truth. Alas, some seed doesn’t spout and bear good fruit. Some seed is just birdfood. But we cannot know which, until the end. The earth, however, is not yet what for a time it will be. So we tend the garden as best we can, and shoo away the birds when we are able, and prune away what is unhealthy that the stalk and stem may flourish. Maybe something lovely will grow.

Norma McCorvey. Do you recognize the name? Perhaps you know her by another name. Jane Roe. Of Roe v. Wade – the Supreme Court case that struck down all regulation of abortion in the US. Sometime around '94 I saw her interviewed by Tom Snyder on his late night interview program. She was working at an abortion counseling center, and Operation Rescue, a pro-life Christian group, had moved into the next office. I recall she laughed and sneered at their hammering on the walls, pretending to be hanging pictures when it was so clear to her that they were just trying to harass the pro-choicers. I remember she made allusions to her wiccan faith or the goddess or some such. I remember Tom Snyder encouraging her, ending with, “Don’t let the bastards get you down.” She smiled and said, “Oh no, I won’t.”

Some months later I heard that she had become Christian, and was working with Operation Rescue. It is a secret, but I’m a passionate guy … don’t spread it around. So I sat there and sobbed like a little girl. Norma McCorvey has found her city of refuge, where lovely things grow. What more is there to say.



J