Thursday, January 9, 2014

Child of Abraham, Child of God (part 5)

The book “The Two Babylons” by Alexander Hislop is a detailed expose tracing the Mother of God and Queen of Heaven cults through the ancient religions back to Babel. Hislop demonstrates how the cults originated with the death of Nimrod and the exaltation of his wife, Semiramis, and have featured under different names within various religions of the world.  Concerning Nimrod, Hislop writes:

Now, the ancient traditions relate that the apostates who joined in the rebellion of  Nimrod made war upon the faithful among the sons of Noah. Power and numbers were on the side of the fire-worshippers. But on the side of Shem and the faithful was the mighty power of God's Spirit. Therefore many were convinced of their sin, arrested in their evil career; and victory, as we have already seen, declared for the saints. The power of Nimrod came to an end, and with that, for a time, the worship of the sun, and the fiery serpent associated with it. The wars of the giants against heaven, referred to in ancient heathen writers, had primary reference to this war against the saints; for men cannot make war upon God except by attacking the people of God. The ancient writer Eupolemus, as quoted by Eusebius (Praeparatio Evang.), states, that the builders of the tower of Babel were these giants; which statement amounts nearly to the same thing as the conclusion to which we have already come, for we have seen that the "mighty ones" of Nimrod were "the giants" of antiquity. Epiphanius records that Nimrod was a ringleader among these giants, and that "conspiracy, sedition, and tyranny were carried on under him." From the very necessity of the case, the faithful must have suffered most, as being most opposed to his ambitious and sacrilegious schemes. That Nimrod's reign terminated in some very signal catastrophe, we have seen abundant reason already to conclude. The following statement of Syncellus confirms the conclusions to which we have already come as to the nature of that catastrophe; referring to the arresting of the tower-building scheme, Syncellus (Chronographia) proceeds thus: "But Nimrod would still obstinately stay (when most of the other tower-builders were dispersed), and reside upon the spot; nor could he be withdrawn from the tower, still having the command over no contemptible body of men. Upon this, we are informed, that the tower, being beat upon by violent winds, gave way, and by the just judgment of God, crushed him to pieces."

Though this could not be literally true, for the tower stood for many ages, yet there is a considerable amount of tradition to the effect that the tower in which Nimrod gloried was overthrown by wind, which gives reason to suspect that this story, when properly understood, had a real meaning in it. Take it figuratively, and remembering that the same word which signifies the wind signifies also the Spirit of God, it becomes highly probable that the meaning is, that his lofty and ambitious scheme, by which, in Scriptural language, he was seeking to "mount up to heaven," and "set his nest among the stars," was overthrown for a time by the Spirit of God, as we have already concluded, and that, in that overthrow he himself perished (pg 152).

Moreover, we need to understand that back in the days of Nimrod, there was more technology available than what is given credit by people today. The number of pyramids that are being discovered that are super-structures which were designed for purposes other than being burial homes for reigning pharaohs of Egypt is becoming more evident, even if not widely known. The mere fact that blocks of limestone weighing more than 100 tons[2] can be precision cut and transported, then lifted in to position and fitted without any need for filler, as there are no gaps, testifies to the technological advancement that existed at that time. 

No comments:

Post a Comment