Mary the Mother of Jesus

The Cult Of The Virgin Mother

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Pr. Stephen Bohr

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Series Code: MMJ

Program Code: MMJ000002


00:40 Shall we bow our heads for prayer?
00:41 Father in heaven, we thank You for the awesome privilege of
00:47 being here again to study Your Holy Word.
00:49 And as we study about the cult of the virgin mother,
00:53 we ask that Your Holy Spirit will be here to guide our minds
00:58 and our hearts into all truth.
01:00 I not only ask for those who are gathered here, but I also ask
01:04 for those who are viewing on the many television
01:08 sets across the world.
01:09 I ask that You will open minds and hearts,
01:12 and I thank You for hearing my prayer
01:13 for I ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.
01:17 I'd like to begin our study today by turning to a verse
01:21 which is very close to my heart.
01:23 I'm referring to Genesis 3:15.
01:28 So please turn with me to Genesis 3:15.
01:33 This is actually the Bible in miniature form.
01:39 And we've studied this verse many times before,
01:42 but now we want to look at it from a new perspective.
01:45 That verse says:
01:55 That is between the serpent and the woman.
02:01 That is the serpents seed and her seed.
02:08 The seed of the woman.
02:16 Now you notice here that the enmity runs three ways:
02:21 between the serpent and the woman,
02:23 between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman,
02:28 and between the seed of the woman and the serpent.
02:31 The primary enmity, however, is between the seed of the woman
02:36 and the serpent, because the last part of the verse says,
02:40 he, the seed of the woman, shall bruise your head, the serpent's
02:46 head, and you shall bruise his heel.
02:49 So the primary enmity is between the serpent
02:53 and the seed of the woman.
02:55 Now there's a Greek translation of the Old Testament which
03:01 is known as The Septuagint, or the version of the seventy.
03:05 It's abbreviated, in fact LXX, which is the number 70.
03:10 And in this translation something very peculiar happens.
03:16 Even though the word seed in this verse in Greek is sperma,
03:21 which is neuter, it's interesting that the pronoun
03:28 that goes with the word seed in the Septuagint is masculine.
03:33 That's very unusual, because usually the pronoun
03:37 and the noun must agree.
03:39 Now in Hebrew it says, it shall bruise your head.
03:44 In other words, because it's a seed it is an it,
03:48 it's not a he or a she.
03:49 But the Septuagint changes that to from it to he,
03:54 even though the noun is neuter.
03:57 And this is the only time in the Greek Old Testament,
04:01 in the book of Genesis, where you find this phenomenon
04:04 in the Septuagint.
04:06 Interestingly enough, the Latin Vulgate, which was translated
04:12 by Jerome in the early 300's, was a Latin translation
04:19 from the Greek Septuagint.
04:21 And Jerome, instead of translating as the Septuagint
04:27 had it, He shall bruise your head.
04:30 He actually changed the pronoun to she shall bruise your head,
04:37 in spite of the fact that he was translating the Old Testament
04:42 from the Septuagint version of the Old Testament.
04:47 In other words, in the Vulgate we find that it is a she,
04:52 the woman who is going to crush the head of the serpent,
04:55 instead of the seed of the woman crushing
04:59 the head of the serpent.
05:00 Now it's very interesting to notice that in all of the
05:05 genealogies of Scripture, the job of procreation
05:10 is attributed to men.
05:13 You look, for example, at the genealogy of Genesis 5
05:17 and you'll notice a list of ten men there in that genealogy.
05:21 And it said there that they begot the person
05:26 that came after them.
05:28 In Genesis 11 we have another genealogy,
05:31 or list of descendents.
05:33 Once again it is the men who are doing the procreating.
05:37 You look at the genealogy in Matthew 1,
05:40 the genealogy of Jesus.
05:41 Once again it is men who are doing the begetting,
05:44 even though four women are mentioned,
05:46 the men who are connected with those women are also
05:50 mentioned in the genealogy.
05:52 In other words, the work of procreation in Scripture,
05:55 the work of begetting is attributed to men.
05:58 But interestingly enough, in Genesis 3:15 we find
06:02 an exception to the rule.
06:04 Because we're told in this verse not that this seed would be
06:10 begotten by a man, but that this seed would be
06:13 born from a woman, the seed of a woman.
06:17 We seem to get the impression that this particular seed
06:22 is going to come into the world born of a woman,
06:26 without the intervention of a man.
06:30 That's why we're told that the seed is born of the woman.
06:36 Now these words were pronounced by God to Satan.
06:41 And when Satan heard these words he said,
06:43 So God is going to send a seed, born of the woman,
06:47 to the world that is going to do battle with me.
06:50 God is saying that He's going to crush my head,
06:53 and I am going to bruise His heel.
06:56 I wonder how that's going to happen?
07:00 We need to go to Genesis 3:21 to understand how
07:06 this was going to happen.
07:08 You remember that when Adam and Eve sinned, the first result of
07:11 their sin is that they discovered that they were naked.
07:14 I don't have time to go into it, but really before this they were
07:18 covered with the glorious robe of light,
07:20 such as that which clothes God.
07:23 In fact Psalms 104:1, 2 says that God clothes Himself with
07:28 light as with a garment.
07:29 The woman, which represents the true church
07:32 in Revelation 12, we're told that she's clothed with the sun.
07:35 When Jesus was transfigured His robes shone like the light.
07:39 In other words, Adam and Eve were covered with light.
07:42 But when they sinned the first result was that the robe
07:45 of light left them and they noticed that they were naked.
07:49 And so we're told in Genesis 3:7 that they tried to cover
07:53 their nakedness with fig leaves.
07:55 But even after covering their nakedness with fig leaves
07:58 they still felt naked.
07:59 Because God came to the garden and He said,
08:01 Adam and Eve, where are you?
08:04 And Adam says, Well, we hid in the garden
08:07 because we were naked.
08:08 The fact is that they weren't naked anymore,
08:10 because they had covered themselves with fig leaves.
08:12 This shows that their nakedness was not primarily a nakedness
08:16 of body, it was a nakedness of soul.
08:19 And the devil is observing what is happening.
08:21 He's saying, When they're innocent, when they're holy
08:24 in the sight of God, when they're loyal to God
08:27 they have a robe of light.
08:28 They sin, suddenly they're naked.
08:30 The robe of light is gone.
08:32 And then the devil sees how they cover themselves with fig leaves
08:36 and they're still naked.
08:38 The devil is saying, I wonder how they're going to be restored
08:41 to their original condition.
08:42 Notice Genesis 3:21. We find here:
08:58 So the devil is watching and he's saying, Look at what a
09:02 peculiar way that God clothes Adam and Eve
09:06 and covers their nakedness.
09:07 Animals die! He takes the skins of the animals and He clothes
09:13 their nakedness so that they're no longer naked in His sight.
09:17 The devil is thinking, Hum, the seed is going to be born
09:21 of a woman without the intervention of a man.
09:24 Is it perhaps the case that He is also going to suffer death,
09:30 and in this way He's going to cover the nakedness of Adam and
09:34 Eve and they're going to be restored
09:35 to their original condition?
09:37 Now Scripture makes it very clear that Jesus was born into
09:42 this world through the work of a woman without the
09:46 intervention of a man just like Genesis 3:15 says.
09:51 Notice, for example, Matthew 1: 16, Matthew 1:16. It says:
10:11 Now do you notice in this verse that Joseph is excluded
10:15 as the father of Jesus?
10:17 Notice once again, reading carefully, it says that Joseph
10:21 was the husband of Mary, and that of Mary was born whom?
10:27 Jesus, who is called the Christ.
10:30 Notice also Galatians 4:4.
10:34 Very explicitly the apostle Paul explains that this seed
10:38 was going to be born of a woman without the
10:41 intervention of a man.
10:43 And, of course, we've studied that He was going to die.
10:46 He was going to suffer death, and in this way the nakedness,
10:50 the Spiritual nakedness of man was going to be covered.
10:53 Galatians 4:4 says:
11:07 Now let me ask you this question.
11:10 Against whom is the wrath of Satan particularly guided?
11:15 Is it against the woman, or is it against the
11:19 seed of the woman?
11:20 Well, if you read the Vulgate it would seem to indicate that the
11:25 enmity is between the serpent and the woman,
11:27 because supposedly the woman is going to
11:29 crush the serpent's head.
11:30 But Scripture makes it very clear that the target of the
11:35 devil's attacks was going to be not the woman but the seed.
11:39 The center, in other words, is the seed.
11:43 You say, How do we know that?
11:44 Well, you remember the story of Cain and Abel?
11:47 They were born; Cain first, Abel afterwards.
11:50 And the Bible tells us, to make a long story short, that Cain
11:55 killed his brother Abel.
11:57 You see, the devil saw something special in Abel.
12:00 He said, Perhaps this is the seed, or perhaps from him is
12:05 going to come "the Seed", and so he feels the necessity
12:08 to cut the life of Abel short.
12:11 Notice that his attack is not against Eve.
12:15 His attack is against whom?
12:18 His attack is against Abel, the seed.
12:21 Also we notice, very interesting, that when Abel
12:25 died we're told in Genesis 4:25 that God gave Eve another seed
12:33 in place of Abel whom Cain had killed.
12:36 Once again the emphasis does not fall upon the woman.
12:42 The enmity between the devil and the woman,
12:44 the enmity is between the devil and the seed.
12:48 The center of focus is the seed.
12:50 Notice also Revelation 12:4.
12:54 This is speaking about the birth of Jesus.
12:56 And notice that the woman is not the primary target
13:00 of the devil's wrath.
13:01 It is the seed of the woman.
13:03 Notice Revelation 12:4.
13:06 Speaking about this seven headed dragon, we're told:
13:24 Notice that the enmity isn't between the serpent
13:27 and the woman primarily.
13:28 The serpent is not interested, at least in the first instance,
13:33 of destroying the woman.
13:35 The serpent is interested in destroying the seed,
13:38 because the seed is going to give him a
13:40 death blow on his head.
13:42 Now notice this very interesting comment in the book,
13:46 Patriarchs and Prophets, page 66.
13:49 You know the devil is a quick learner.
13:51 The devil knew very well what was going to happen when he saw
13:55 that first sacrifice, and when he heard God say that He was
13:59 going to send a seed born of the woman.
14:01 We find this very interesting statement:
14:41 Did the devil already know, in the Old Testament, that he was
14:44 going to bring Jesus down to this earth to save man?
14:48 According to this statement, absolutely.
14:50 And we're going to notice, as we study history,
14:52 that this is the case.
14:53 She continues saying:
15:13 And so the devil had this clear picture in his mind as the plan
15:18 of salvation developed.
15:19 He says, The seed is going to be born of a woman without the
15:24 intervention of a man.
15:26 Because this is not speaking about a man begetting this Seed.
15:31 It is a woman who is bringing the Seed into the world.
15:33 This Seed obviously is going to live a perfect life,
15:37 and He is going to suffer death in place of His creatures.
15:41 Obviously, He's going to be born of a virgin, as I've mentioned.
15:46 And His Father is going to be God.
15:49 It's not going to be any human man.
15:51 And so the devil formed this clear picture in his mind
15:55 about what God was planning to do to redeem the human race.
16:00 And so the devil made up his mind that he was going to plant
16:06 a counterfeit in every nation of Planet Earth of this plan that
16:14 God had revealed that He was going to implement.
16:17 Go with me to Genesis 10:8-10, Genesis 10:8-10.
16:25 This is describing the story of the establishment of the nation
16:32 of Babylon, ancient Babylon.
16:34 And it says there:
16:38 Nimrod means rebellion, incidentally.
16:59 In other words, the builder of the Tower of Babel was a man
17:04 called Nimrod, rebellion.
17:06 Now I want you to notice what happened at Babel.
17:10 You know that the languages were confused there.
17:12 But something interesting happened at this Tower of Babel
17:16 whose builder was this rebellious man, Nimrod.
17:19 Notice Genesis 11:8, 9, Genesis 11:8, 9. It says here:
17:54 Did you notice here that every nation on Planet Earth
17:59 had its origin at Babel?
18:02 This is extremely significant, because we're going to find
18:07 that what the devil did at Babel, (he established this
18:10 counterfeit religion), and through this counterfeit
18:13 religion, because these nations went all over the earth
18:18 from Babel, they took this counterfeit or apostate
18:22 religion to every nation on Planet Earth.
18:25 Now you're saying, which counterfeit religion?
18:28 The ancient records show that Nimrod became
18:33 a legendary figure.
18:34 In fact it was believed back then than when Nimrod died
18:39 he went to heaven and he became the sun god.
18:43 Now he had a wife whose name was Semiramis.
18:47 And Semiramis was still alive on Planet Earth after Nimrod
18:52 had gone to heaven and became the sun god.
18:56 And it just so happens that by a supernatural miracle
18:59 Semiramis became pregnant.
19:02 Not by the work of any man, but she was actually
19:06 inseminated, according to their ideas, by the sun god Nimrod.
19:11 Does this begin to sound a little bit familiar?
19:15 You know, you have a god in heaven and he inseminates
19:19 a virgin on earth, and of course she had a son, and the name of
19:26 her son was Tamus.
19:28 Interestingly enough, Tamus was born on December 25th,
19:32 according to the ancient records.
19:34 Now when Semiramis died, interestingly enough, she also
19:41 ascended to the heavens, and she became the moon goddess.
19:45 In other words, after her death she also had an
19:48 assumption to heaven.
19:49 Now you say, where in the world did the devil get this
19:53 phenomenal idea about a god in heaven inseminating a woman
19:59 on Earth, and a child, a supernatural child being born
20:04 from this woman on Planet Earth, and that the woman eventually
20:08 was assumed to heaven and became the moon god.
20:12 Where would the devil create such a scenario?
20:14 The fact is that the devil knew very well the prophecy
20:19 of Genesis 3:15 where it spoke about a woman,
20:24 obviously a virgin, that was going to bring a child
20:28 into the world, not through the beginning of a man,
20:31 but by a supernatural work of God.
20:33 And interestingly enough, later on we find in the Christian
20:38 church the idea that Jesus went to heaven, and then His mother
20:44 later was assumed to heaven as well.
20:47 Do you know that many nations in antiquity had this idea of a
20:52 mother god and her child?
20:54 Let me just mention some examples of this.
20:57 The Samarians had a mother god called Nanna.
21:01 In Egypt the goddess was Isis and her son was Horus.
21:06 In Canaan you have Baal and Ashtoreth.
21:10 The Greeks had a woman called Aphrodite.
21:14 The Etruscan's had a goddess called Nutria, a mother god.
21:19 In Asia the mother was called Cybele, and her son was Deoius,
21:24 or her child was Deoius.
21:26 In Rome you had Venus or Fortuna, who was the mother.
21:30 And you had Jupiter, who was the child.
21:33 Even in China the mother god's name is Shing-mu,
21:37 which means Holy Mother.
21:39 And she's depicted as having a child in her arms,
21:43 and there are rays coming forth from her head.
21:47 In other words she has a halo around her head.
21:49 In India you have the goddess Indrani, and she's also
21:54 portrayed in ancient art as having a child in her arms.
21:59 The Germans had the virgin Hertha that they worshipped,
22:03 and her child also in her arms.
22:06 The Scandinavians had Isa, and she also in the artwork
22:11 has a child in her hands.
22:13 The Druids had Vergo Partitura, and worshipped her
22:17 as the mother of god officially.
22:20 And, of course, Ephesus had Diana.
22:23 By the way, Paul had no love for this goddess Diana.
22:28 He told exactly what should be done in the case of a
22:31 goddess like this.
22:32 He had no idea of Christianity blending or mixing with
22:36 this apostate religion.
22:37 Notice Acts 19:24-27, Acts 19: 24-27.
22:45 Here we find the following description of
22:49 the religion of Diana.
23:02 Notice he made statues of this goddess Diana.
23:08 It became a real good business.
23:52 Interesting that the apostle Paul would have nothing to do
23:55 with this idea of an apostate pagan goddess.
24:00 And those who worshipped Diana knew very well the perspective
24:05 that the apostle Paul had.
24:07 Now I'd like to go for a moment back to the Old Testament,
24:10 to God's people Israel.
24:13 Because this has something very important to tell us about the,
24:18 how would I say? almost veneration of Mary
24:23 in the Christian world today, particularly in the
24:25 Roman Catholic Church.
24:27 I want you to notice what God told Israel before they entered
24:30 the land of Canaan.
24:32 Deuteronomy 7:1-6.
25:53 Notice that God told Israel, Don't you have any contact with
25:58 pagan nations and with their pagan practices.
26:00 Don't have anything to do with their altars, with their icons,
26:04 with their ceremonies.
26:06 Remain totally separated from them.
26:09 And yet Israel did not listen to the counsel of the Lord.
26:13 Notice Judges 10:6, Judges 10:6. It says:
26:45 So notice that instead of remaining separate from these
26:49 pagan nations, and from their practices,
26:52 and from their images, and from their altars, they mixed and
26:56 they blended with these nations.
26:58 Now we might ask the question at this point,
27:01 before we continue looking at the story of Israel,
27:04 Would God give the same counsel to His Christian church today?
27:09 Would He allow the Christian church to adopt practices from
27:15 pagan nations, and altars from pagan nations, and icons from
27:20 pagan nations, and ceremonies, and rites, from pagan nations?
27:25 Absolutely not! If God said to Israel, Remain separate.
27:29 Do not adopt anything that has to do with them.
27:32 God would give the same counsel to the Christian church.
27:36 He would not give the Christian church the opportunity of
27:40 baptizing pagan practices, and adopting them into
27:45 the Christian church.
27:46 Things became really terrible in Israel.
27:49 Notice Ezekiel 8:6, 14, Ezekiel 8, and I want to read
27:57 verse 6 and also verse 14. It says here:
28:23 And now notice verse 16.
28:37 Do you remember we spoke about Tammuz?
28:40 Tammuz was the son, the supernatural son of Nimrod.
28:44 Israel at this point is actually lamenting Tammuz.
28:50 And, by the way, what's happening here is that it was
28:53 believed that, and this is by the way astronomically true,
28:57 in December the days get shorter, and shorter,
29:00 and shorter. They believed that that meant that Tammuz was
29:03 drying, and dying, and dying.
29:04 And then on December 25 the days become longer.
29:07 And so now he was suddenly resurrecting from the dead.
29:11 And so we find here that they're actually practicing one of the
29:16 rites and ceremonies that was established by Nimrod
29:20 way back in Babylon.
29:22 Now notice also Jeremiah 7:18, 19, another one of these
29:28 deplorable practices that Israel had that they adopted from
29:32 the pagan nations.
29:33 It says there in Jeremiah 7:18,
30:08 Notice that they were worshipping, according to this,
30:11 the queen of heaven.
30:14 I want you to remember that specific terminology.
30:17 They were worshipping the queen of heaven.
30:19 By the way, they did it through silver.
30:23 Gold was used to worship the sun god,
30:27 because the sun is yellow.
30:28 Silver was used to depict the moon goddess,
30:31 because it is the color of the moon; which the moon is white,
30:35 or silver. And so Israel here is making cakes
30:39 to the queen of heaven.
30:40 They're worshipping the queen of heaven.
30:44 They're bowing before her.
30:46 They've adopted the pagan practices of the
30:49 surrounding nations.
30:50 For this reason God decided that He needed to send Israel
30:56 into captivity for seventy years.
30:59 And so king Nebuchadnezzar came in the year 605
31:02 and he overcame Jerusalem.
31:06 There were three captivities.
31:07 Jerusalem was destroyed, and God's people were taken captive
31:12 to Babylon for a period of seventy years.
31:15 In Babylon they were cured of their idolatry.
31:20 In other words, they made up their minds that they were not
31:22 going to worship idols ever again.
31:25 They were not going to worship Tammuz.
31:26 They were not going to worship the queen of heaven.
31:28 They were not going to make cakes to her.
31:30 They were not going to pour out drink offerings
31:33 to the pagan gods.
31:34 They were going to be faithful to God in not
31:36 practicing idolatry.
31:38 Now the question is, how could the devil continue proliferating
31:43 this apostate religion that began in Babel, if the children
31:47 of Israel had decided that they would remain separate from
31:51 the practices of the surrounding pagan nations; if they had
31:55 isolated themselves from these pagan nations?
31:58 Well, let me give you a little bit of history about what
32:01 happened after the Babylonian captivity, when Israel had been
32:05 cured once and for all from this idolatry, from adopting
32:09 the pagan practices of the surrounding nations.
32:12 Go with me to Ezra 1:2, 3.
32:16 It's speaking here about Cyrus, king of Persia.
32:20 He's the one that came, by the way, and conquered Babylon
32:23 along with Durias the Mede. It says there:
33:00 I find it rather remarkable that Cyrus, this king of
33:04 the Medo Persian empire would actually say, God has told me
33:09 to build Him a temple in Jerusalem.
33:12 Now the question is, How did he know that God was telling him
33:16 to build Him a temple in Jerusalem?
33:17 Well, the fact is that the name of Cyrus had been given in
33:23 Bible prophecy over a hundred years before he was
33:26 born, in Isaiah 45:1.
33:28 And it's very likely that when Cyrus dried up the river
33:33 Euphrates and entered into the city of Babylon he met Daniel
33:37 there, because Daniel was in the banquet room.
33:39 And Daniel probably opened the scroll of the prophet Isaiah,
33:44 and said, I've been waiting for you.
33:46 Your name has been prophesied.
33:49 One hundred years before you were born, God says that you
33:53 are going to be a shepherd.
33:55 You are going to be the deliverer of His people.
33:58 And so, undoubtedly Cyrus, seeing this providential sign
34:03 said, I must fulfill the will of God.
34:06 And you know what's interesting, there are two individuals,
34:10 two ancient kings, which became monotheistic.
34:14 In other words they came to the point of believing
34:15 that there was only one true God.
34:17 One of them was Tutankhamun.
34:20 And I believe that has to do with the Exodus.
34:24 And the other king was Durias, and Cyrus,
34:28 and the Persian rulers.
34:30 In fact they established a new religion called Zoroastrianism,
34:36 where you had a good god, and you had a evil god
34:39 in constant conflict or controversy; very similar to the
34:43 idea that we find of the conflict between God and
34:46 Satan in Scripture.
34:48 And they believed in only one true God.
34:50 Where do you suppose that Durias and Cyrus
34:53 got that idea from?
34:55 It must have been from Daniel, and from the Hebrews.
34:59 Now interestingly enough, in Babylon there remained
35:03 some pagan priests that had proliferated the religion
35:09 of Babylon; those Chaldeans as they're called in Daniel 2.
35:13 And Durias I, who is not the same Durias the Mede, in the
35:17 year 520 he said, I'm not going to put up with these pagan
35:21 priests in Babylon.
35:22 And so what he did, he massacred these pagan priests.
35:26 And the ones who were able to survive actually fled to the
35:31 city of Pergamum in Asia Minor.
35:34 In the year 482 king Xerxes did the same thing.
35:39 There were still some priests left over in Babylon,
35:42 and so he once again massacred these pagan priests
35:45 of the Babylonian type, not the priesthood of the Zoroastrian
35:49 religion, but the priesthood of the Babylonian religion.
35:52 And once again these priests fled to Asia Minor
35:56 to the city of Pergamum.
35:58 By the way, you can read this fascinating story in the book,
36:03 The Mysteries of Mithra, written by a Roman Catholic scholar
36:07 whose name is Franz Cumont.
36:09 He's also written several other books on religions
36:14 in Asia Minor, and in the Roman empire.
36:16 Interestingly enough, these pagan priests that went to
36:21 Pergamum rooted their religious, their Polytheistic religious
36:26 ideas in Pergamum.
36:28 In this way the pagan polytheistic religion of Babylon
36:33 was transferred to Pergamum.
36:36 And you say, Why is this important?
36:37 It's very important for the reason that according to Virgil,
36:42 the Latin poet, and other Roman writers like Homer,
36:47 they say that Roman civilization and religion was an import
36:54 from Asia Minor, specifically from Pergamum.
36:58 You can read it in this book that I made reference to.
37:01 Interesting that the religion of ancient Babylon went to Pergamum
37:07 and from Pergamum it was imported into Pagan Rome.
37:12 In other words, it became the official religion of pagan Rome.
37:16 Perhaps this is the reason why in 1 Peter 5:13, if you go with
37:23 me there, 1 Peter 5:13, Rome is called Babylon.
37:29 Notice it says there:
37:41 Most scholars believe that this is a reference to Rome.
37:45 In other words Rome is being called Babylon. Why?
37:49 Because the religion of Babylon was transported from
37:54 ancient Babylon, from the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar
37:57 to Pergamum, and from Pergamum, or through
38:00 Pergamum into pagan Rome.
38:03 But now we must go one step further.
38:06 And I must go quickly here.
38:09 I don't have time to go into all of the ramifications of this
38:12 prophecy, so I'm only going to describe it.
38:14 In Revelation 13 we have a composite beast.
38:19 This beast has the characteristics of a lion,
38:22 a bear, a leopard, and a dragon beast.
38:29 And the dragon beast has ten horns.
38:31 And then we're told that that dragon beast with ten horns
38:36 gives his throne, his authority, and his power to this beast.
38:42 In other words, the dragon gives his power to this beast,
38:45 to this composite beast.
38:47 Now the question is, what does this composite beast represent?
38:51 Actually, it's very simple.
38:53 The lion represents Babylon.
38:55 The bear represents Medo Persia.
38:59 The leopard represents Greece.
39:01 The dragon beast is Rome, because the dragon beast in
39:05 Revelation 12 tried to kill the child when the child was born.
39:08 So the dragon beast is Rome.
39:10 And then Rome was divided into ten kingdoms.
39:13 Those are the ten horns in the year 476.
39:17 And then it says that this dragon beast with ten horns
39:21 gives his seat, his power, and his authority
39:25 to this composite beast.
39:27 In other words, after the Roman empire would arise a power that
39:32 would receive the seat, and the authority that existed in pagan
39:37 Rome, along with its civilization, and its religion.
39:40 The question is, which was this power which arose after pagan
39:47 Rome that proliferated the religion of the
39:50 ancient Roman empire that Rome received from Pergamum,
39:54 and that Pergamum received from Babylon in unbroken chain.
39:59 Folks, I wish I could say otherwise, but it was the
40:02 Roman Catholic Papacy.
40:04 Even writers of the Roman Catholic Church, scholars,
40:08 for example, like Cardinal Gibbons, very clearly say that
40:13 most of the practices and beliefs of the Roman Catholic
40:17 Church were imported from paganism: Sunday, the idea of
40:23 nuns, vestal virgins, the idea of incense, the idea of icons,
40:30 the idea of idols in the churches.
40:33 In fact I don't know whether you're aware, but there in the
40:36 Vatican you have in Saint Peters Cathedral,
40:41 you have an image of Jupiter.
40:44 You say, No, it's not of Jupiter, it's of Peter.
40:47 Yes, it was of Jupiter, and they adopt it,
40:49 and they converted Jupiter into Peter.
40:51 I mean the Roman Catholic Church doesn't hide this.
40:54 They actually acquired their religion,
40:57 and their organizational structure, and their political
41:01 structure from ancient Rome.
41:04 And Rome had received it from Pergamum, and Pergamum had
41:08 received it from Babylon.
41:09 Now, I find it very interesting that Pergamum is also involved
41:16 in the transfer from pagan Rome to Papal Rome.
41:20 Go with me to Revelation 2:13, 14.
41:25 This is going to get more and more fascinating.
41:27 By the way, as you're looking for Revelation 2:13, 14,
41:31 allow me to tell you something about the seven
41:33 churches of Revelation.
41:34 The seven churches, according to most scholars,
41:37 represent seven periods of the history of the Christian church
41:40 from apostolic times till the end of time.
41:43 Most scholars that I have read believe that the church of
41:47 Ephesus represents the apostolic church.
41:49 The church that went out conquering and to conquer;
41:51 that set the world on fire with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
41:55 The second church, the church of Smyrna,
41:57 is the persecuted church.
41:59 There's a lot of death language connected with
42:01 the church of Smyrna.
42:02 And, in fact, most scholars believe that it represents
42:06 the period of the church under the period of the Roman
42:09 emperors, the early Roman emperors who persecuted
42:12 Christians, and threw them to the lions, and made them fight
42:15 with animals in the coliseum, and with gladiators, etc.
42:19 And so Smyrna is the persecuted church.
42:22 It's where the devil tried to destroy the growth
42:26 of the church by persecution.
42:28 But the devil soon discovered that instead of stomping out
42:33 the church by persecution, the church grew all the more.
42:36 And so he had to use a different method.
42:39 And so now you enter the third church.
42:41 The third church is called Pergamum.
42:44 Interesting! Now lets read about Pergamum.
42:48 Revelation 2:12-14, And to the angel of the church in Pergamus
42:53 write, these things says he who has the sharp two edged sword.
43:05 Remember that this dragon beast gave his throne
43:10 to this next beast?
43:12 It continues saying:
43:26 But now notice verse 14:
43:48 Notice that the problem with the church of Pergamum
43:51 is that Balaam is there influencing the church.
43:55 Now in order to understand why this is important we have to go
43:58 back to the story of Balaam in Numbers 22 to 24.
44:02 Lets notice Numbers 22:12.
44:06 It just so happens that Balak wants Balaam to curse Israel.
44:10 It says:
44:19 God says to Balaam, You can't curse Israel. They're blessed.
44:22 The question is, Why was Israel blessed?
44:25 Notice Numbers 23:21-23:
44:34 This is Balaam speaking.
45:10 You see, Israel was in a proper relationship with the Lord,
45:14 and therefore the devil could not destroy Israel
45:18 through persecution, through warfare.
45:20 But the devil soon discovers that there's a better way
45:24 to destroy Israel.
45:25 You see, just like the early church grew phenomenally,
45:29 the devil tried to destroy the church by persecution,
45:32 but he couldn't because the church was in a good
45:34 relationship with the Lord.
45:36 Now the devil says, I have to implement plan B.
45:40 And what was that plan B?
45:42 Plan B was if you cannot fight them, or destroy them from
45:46 outside, then infiltrate them with the practices,
45:51 with the pagan practices of the nations,
45:53 and then they will be destroyed.
45:56 Notice Numbers 31:16 on how Balaam
46:01 was successful in his endeavor.
46:04 It says there in Numbers 31:16:
46:09 The women of Moab.
46:25 And so what the devil did was to use Balaam to entice Israel
46:31 to adopt the practices of the Moabites to follow their
46:36 idolatrous practices, their worship practices,
46:40 and as a result they broke their covenant with the Lord,
46:43 and there was great decimation among the people of God.
46:47 The same thing happened in the early church when Ephesus went
46:52 out conquering and to conquer the early church,
46:54 the apostolic church.
46:56 It grew phenomenally.
46:57 The devil says, I have to destroy this church
47:00 because it's winning subjects for Jesus Christ.
47:03 And so now comes the church of Smyrna;
47:06 the church that is persecuted.
47:08 But the more the devil persecutes
47:09 the more the church grows.
47:11 And so the devil says, I have to do something.
47:13 And so you enter the church of Pergamum
47:16 where Balaam is influencing.
47:18 And what the devil does through an emperor called Constantine;
47:23 he introduces into Christianity idolatrous practices
47:29 of the Roman empire.
47:30 You know, even Constantine the Great, he claimed to be a
47:36 Christian, but he actually worshipped the sun god,
47:39 Dies Sol Invictus, the Invincible God.
47:41 He actually had coins printed that said to The Invincible God,
47:45 and it had a sun on it.
47:47 In other words, Constantine was a sun worshipper.
47:50 He was only converted nominally to Christianity.
47:52 And all of these ideas from pagan Rome were transferred
47:57 via Pergamum into the Roman Catholic Church.
48:02 And many scholars in the Roman Catholic Church today admit
48:05 that many of the practices that now exist in the church actually
48:10 were imported directly from the religions of the
48:14 pagan Roman empire.
48:15 Among those things that we're going to study,
48:18 which were imported into the Christian church was the
48:22 veneration of the virgin mother.
48:25 That which had originated all the way back at the
48:29 tower of Babel, which was transferred from Babel to
48:33 Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon.
48:35 Because Nebuchadnezzar actually boasted that he was
48:38 re-establishing the kingdom which existed at Babel.
48:42 And then it was transferred from the Babylon of
48:45 Nebuchadnezzar to Pergamum through the apostate priesthood.
48:49 From the city of Pergamum it was transferred to Rome.
48:55 And through the church of Pergamum it was transferred
48:59 from pagan Rome to Papal Rome in unbroken chain.
49:05 Now in our next study together we're going to take a look at
49:10 a topic which I have chosen to title, Mary the Rival of Jesus.
49:16 You say, How in the world could you title a lecture,
49:19 Mary the Rival of Jesus?
49:21 We're going to see how all of these ideas that originated back
49:27 with Nimrod, and Semiramis, and Tamuz, that were transferred
49:32 to Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar, and then transferred to Rome,
49:37 and then transferred to the Roman Catholic Church,
49:40 have proliferated today in the Christian church.
49:43 And we're going to see how the mother is venerated to such
49:48 a great degree that the child is practically placed
49:53 on a second plain.
49:55 Now I would like you to notice in Revelation 12:1 that God is
50:02 going to have a true church in the end time; a church that
50:06 upholds the truth of God as it's found in Holy Scripture.
50:10 This woman is depicted as clothed with the sun,
50:14 and standing on the moon.
50:16 Notice Revelation 12:1. It says:
50:32 Now we're going to find that the Roman Catholic Church believes
50:35 that this woman actually is symbolic of Mary.
50:40 But the fact is for reasons that we studied in our first lecture,
50:44 this woman actually is a representation of the
50:49 Old Testament church and the New Testament church.
50:52 In other words, Jesus was born from the woman.
50:55 Yes, He was born from the Old Testament church.
50:59 And then later on the woman flees to the wilderness.
51:02 That means that the church in the New Testament period
51:05 flees to the wilderness when she's persecuted by the serpent.
51:09 In other words, God is going to have, according to this verse,
51:13 a true church which will bring the Messiah into the world
51:16 and this true church, after the Messiah is caught up to God
51:21 into His throne, is going to be persecuted by the serpent,
51:26 is going to be persecuted by the dragon to try and destroy
51:29 her, because she upholds the truth of God.
51:32 But do you know that in Revelation the apostate religion
51:37 is also represented by a woman?
51:39 Notice Revelation 17:1-6, Revelation 17:1-6.
51:47 This will be our final passage in our study.
52:06 By the way, if a pure woman represents a pure church,
52:10 a harlot must represent a what? must represent a fallen church.
52:16 Notice that she's seated on many waters.
52:19 Verse 15 explains that the many waters represent multitudes,
52:24 nations, tongues, and peoples.
52:26 So this is an apostate system of religion that sits, or governs
52:30 on nations, tongues, multitudes, and peoples.
52:33 And now notice verse 2.
52:39 Notice that she's involved in the political
52:42 systems of the world.
52:43 She fornicates with the kings of the earth according to this.
52:53 By the way, the wine represents false teachings.
52:56 It represents false doctrines.
52:58 In fact a little later on in this passage we're going to
53:01 notice that it represents her abominations.
53:04 If you want to look up in Scripture the word abominations
53:07 in a concordance, you'll find that abominations are composed
53:10 of many things: worshipping the sun, thinking that you can eat
53:14 unclean foods, thinking that you can be saved in violation of
53:20 the law of God, and many other things as well.
53:24 So notice that she gives the wine; she makes the nations
53:28 drunk with the wine of her fornication. Notice verse 3:
53:46 And notice how this woman is arrayed.
53:51 Interesting colors, right? purple and scarlet.
54:01 Notice that this is a system that majors in gold, and silver,
54:05 and precious stones, and pearls.
54:08 And she's clothed in purple and scarlet. And it says:
54:22 By the way, fornication means that you are married to Jesus,
54:27 but at the same time you're married with paganism.
54:29 In other words you're adopting pagan practices into the church
54:34 like ancient Israel did.
54:36 Let me ask you, why would God rebuke ancient Israel
54:39 for adopting pagan practices, and He would not rebuke the
54:42 Christian church for importing pagan practices?
54:45 Would you expect God to keep the Christian church just as
54:49 pure as He wanted to keep ancient Israel? Of course.
54:52 It continues saying in verse 5... Notice her name.
55:06 What is this system of apostate religion called?
55:09 Babylon, interestingly enough.
55:18 And then you'll notice that this is a persecuting power.
55:21 She persecutes those that don't agree with her teachings.
55:24 It says in verse 6:
55:37 Now I would like to read one final text.
55:40 I know I said that this was the last one,
55:42 but I need to read one more before we draw this to a close.
55:48 Jeremiah 51:7, 8. We began with Babylon and we said that
55:54 these teachings of paganism were transferred from Babel to
56:00 the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar, to Rome through Pergamum,
56:04 and then to papal Rome through the church of Pergamum.
56:09 In other words, Babylon is found all the way through.
56:14 These ideas come from antiquity.
56:17 You know, sometimes I've wondered why so many religions
56:19 in the world, for example, use a rosary.
56:22 It's not only in the Roman Catholic Church
56:24 that a rosary is used.
56:26 Muslims use rosaries.
56:29 Hindus use rosaries.
56:31 You know that what I'm saying is true.
56:33 Where would they all get the idea of saying prayers
56:36 and using beads for their prayers?
56:38 It's because all of these practices ultimately
56:42 come from one source.
56:44 They ultimately come from where? from Babylon, which is Satan's
56:49 apostate system of religion.
56:51 Notice Jeremiah 51:7, 8.
56:59 And notice what she did.
57:12 So we need to beware of the religion of Babylon.
57:17 And God actually says in Revelation 18,
57:21 Come out of her my people.


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Revised 2015-02-17