NIMROD AND BABYLON: THE BIRTH OF IDOLATRY

by Steve and Terri White

Genesis 10:8-12; Genesis 3:15; Genesis 11

After the flood Noah and his family repopulated the earth. Because the deluge did not eradicate sin, man’s sinful nature ran wild once again. At the same time, territories were overrun with wild beasts, turning against the inhabitants of the land. The battle of man against beast was hot and fearful, but in the midst of it, Nimrod, son of Cush, appeared as the 'knight in shining armor'. A "mighty hunter," Nimrod delivered the people from the fear of beasts. Hungry for power, though, he also emancipated man from the LORD.

Until Nimrod, mankind was governed by the patriarchal system where the heads of families heard from God and guided their individual tribes. Nimrod, more accurately a "mighty hunter against the LORD," usurped patriarchal rule, and crowned himself the first human king in all of history. Now man ruled instead of God.

According to Jewish legend, Nimrod feared the prophecy that a child was to be born who would turn the people back to God. In an effort to preserve his kingdom, he slew 70,000 babies in hopes of killing the would-be savior. The story goes that Abram of Ur was the prophetic baby, the father of Israel from whom the messiah would come.

Although Nimrod’s motive was to keep the promised child from ruling, he used the fear of the wild beasts as a pretense for uniting the people, and established the kingdom of Babel. Presenting himself as savior, Nimrod convinced the inhabitants to look to him as the lord of the earth instead of the true God. Thus, the establishment of the kingdom was the beginning of the Babylon we read about in the Bible. Historically and symbolically, Babylon is any organized system that replaces God’s rule with human or demonic rule.

Nimrod’s greed and ambition led him to sell himself to demonic powers, and he became the high priest of devil worship. During this time Nimrod married the beautiful and cunning, but notoriously immoral, Semiramis. Together they ruled the world.

Plans were made for a grand tower, a massive type of building called a ziggurat, which consisted of a series of terraced platforms, each smaller than the one below it, and all together reaching a great height. At the top would be a shrine to Bel, whom they worshiped as 'the Most High god', the god of the sun and of fire; other 'sky gods' would also be included. Therefore, Genesis 11:4, in speaking of "a tower and his top with the heavens (literal translation)," is not referring to the height of the tower, but instead to the inscriptions of the stars on the walls of the shrine. The constellations were there, but with outlines of the 'sky gods' on them in order to cause people to associate the 'pictures in the sky' that they had known about from childhood, with the images Nimrod wanted them to worship. This is indicative of the occult deception which reigned in Babylon.

The Witness of the Stars by E. W. Bullinger reveals the true meaning of what we call 'the signs of the zodiac'. They were meant to be pictures in the sky representing God’s promise of a coming Deliverer, who, being the Seed of the Woman, would bruise the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15). For this purpose, God gave the stars as "lights . . . for signs and for seasons" (Gen. 1:14 signs, from Hebrew oth means 'evidence'; seasons from Hebrew moed means 'appointed time'). The sky pictures were reminders meant to serve as evidence that all was under God’s divine control, and at His appointed time the events promised (the coming Deliverer, etc.) would happen.

God decided that the perversion of the celestial witness was an attempt to extinguish all hope in man for redemption -- this He would not allow. "This they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do" (Gen. 11:6) indicates that evil was about to be unleashed that would be "unrestrained." God defeated all of their designs by confusing their one language into many and scattering the people across the earth; when they could not communicate, their knowledge became fragmented. Various elements of 'stargazing' by the civilizations that followed (Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, etc,) can be traced back to their common beginnings in Babylon. The 'divine astrology' -- God’s witness in the heavens -- was still intact, while pagan astrology was broken into corrupt pieces, a mockery of the former danger of the tower that had its "top with the heavens."

Meanwhile, in the height of his power, Nimrod died. It was a violent death, shrouded in mystery. Semiramis, pregnant from an adulterous relationship and desperate to keep her position, devised a scheme. Taking advantage of the prophecy written in the sky with which the remaining inhabitants of Babylon were familiar, Semiramis covered up the details of Nimrod’s death and publicly proclaimed that:

• Nimrod’s death was voluntary and self-sacrificial for the benefit of the world.

• Nimrod would rise again by mystical means.

• She was a virgin.

• Nimrod "visited her in a flash of light and the baby was the reincarnated Nimrod".

• Nimrod’s rising in the form of her son was the fulfillment of the ancient prophecy (Gen. 3:15).      

The baby, named Tammuz, was taught the lie and worshiped as god. Semiramis soon claimed that Nimrod had become the "sun god," and was worshiped as such. Not surprisingly, Semiramis was also worshiped as a goddess -- her original goal finally achieved. Thus, the birth of the mystery religion of Babylon: pagan worship of the bogus virgin and child.

Three key figures are prominent in every idolatrous system -- Nimrod, Semiramis, and Tammuz:

• a famous, but sinful king dies or is cut off;

• an immoral queen encourages false worship, bears a child, and is elevated to the status of god;

• a child, worshiped as god, but serving as husband, lover, or son of the mother.

From Babylon the worship of mother/son spread across the whole earth. In Egypt there is Isis and Horus; in India, Isi and Iward; in Asia, Cybele and Deorius; in ancient Rome, Fortuna and Jupiter; and in Greece, Ceres/Irene and Plutus. The demonic counterfeit was long in place before the real mother and child walked the earth -- Mary and Jesus, the Christ.

REFERENCES:

Adam's Kin, by Ruth Beechick

Astrology, the Ancient Conspiracy, by Ben Adam

Devil Take the Youngest, by Winkie Pratney

The Two Babylons, by Alexander Hislop

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