Week of Meetings-08 Rome-Religion-and the Second Advent — Dwight Pentecost

Seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet collar and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication.

And upon her forehead was the name written, Mystery, Babel in the Grace, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth. And I saw the woman jumped in with the blood of saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

When I saw her, I wondered with great amazement. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman and of the feast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and the ten horns.

And dropping down to verse fifteen, he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the harlots sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the feet, he shall eat the harlots, and shall make her desolate and naked.

He shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God has put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree and give their kingdom unto the beasts until the words of God shall be fulfilled. The woman which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

The Difficulty of Proclaiming Judgment on Religious Systems

May God add his blessing to the reading of this portion and the return of Christ. Do you not know of any king of Bible prophecy, or of the word of God, that I personally feel it is as difficult to speak about this day in which we live, as this day to which we are directing your attention this evening?

For we are growing up in such an atmosphere that the scene to speak out against any system or any other religion is to invite the accusations of narrowness, or conceit, or bigotry, or some other such epithet.

Yet, because the word of God devotes a considerable portion to the fact to which we want to direct your attention this evening, I trust that the Spirit of God is going to give you a hearing ear and an understanding heart that you will understand we are not speaking to be bigoted, nor are we speaking against individuals who may be engrossed or enmeshed in a system, but we are speaking to try to declare, as God gives up wisdom and understanding and ability, that to which the visible church is steadily moving, and to try to understand those scriptures that will open up for us the signposts which we can mark along the way as we follow this so-called ecumenical movement with its confirmation and culmination in a great worldwide religious system that is under the curse and the wrath of God.

If I do not speak in accordance with the word of God, do not give credence to that which I have to say, for if that which we will share with you this evening is based upon the truth of the word of God, I ask you to consider it carefully, for the truth of God is unalterable, and invincible, and must end.

Apostasy in the Visible Church

In many passages in the New Testament, we have given to us prophetically the development of the history of the church, and even though believers in the Lord Jesus Christ have the word of God and the truth of God, we find that the visible church is to be characterized by progressive and developing unbelief and apostasy.

That the reception of the truth does not guarantee faithfulness true to the truth of the word of God. The apostle Paul writes, for instance, in first Timothy chapter four, and says the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter time some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and the doctrines of demons.

Or, again in second Timothy chapter three and verse one, Paul writes, this know also that in the last days perilous times shall come. Peter, writing in second Peter, adds his testimony to that of the apostle Paul, as he says in second Peter chapter two and verse one, there were false prophets among the people, even as there shall be false prophets among you, who privily shall bring indomitable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, bring upon themselves swift destruction, and many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the truth shall be evil spoken of.

And when we turn over to the book of the revelations in chapter two, where John is giving to us messages addressed to local assemblies of believers, he writes in Revelation chapter two and verse 20, I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel which calls herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants, to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

And I gave her faith to repent of her fornication, and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her in the great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds, and I will kill her children with death.

And all the churches shall know that I am he which searches her reins and heart, and will give unto every one of you according to your works. And again, in chapter three and verse 10, there is the promise to true believers at the time of the rapture, or the translation of the church, that Jesus Christ will keep those true believers from the hour of temptation, or that is, from the time of the tribulation that will come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth.

And, as we thread our way through these passages of scripture, we find that the word of God pictures the progress of the church as one of degeneracy, of corruption, of ethical and moral malpractice, as well as junctional error and heresy.

The Unregenerate Church and the Tribulation

And, at the time when Jesus Christ comes to take to himself every true believer by translation, he is going to leave on this earth all who may have professed to be believers in Jesus Christ, but who never have been born again.

He will leave all who were in this visible church who have never accepted Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life, and have received eternal life from him. And, the great, professing, visible, but unregenerate church, as Revelation 2 said, will go into the tribulation period to experience the wrath of God.

And, that church that will go into the tribulation period is characterized in Revelation 3 and verse 20 as separated from the Lord Jesus Christ, that great head of the church, for he says, I stand at the door and knock.

That means that Jesus Christ is on the outside, not on the inside. And, even though they profess to know him, and acknowledge him, and profess to worship him, he is a stranger to them, and they to him, and he has to stand on the outside and knock and seek admission.

And so, here is a church that gives lip service to the Lord Jesus Christ, that professes to be his bride, that professes to be united to him in this mystical marriage from which is truly a stranger, and which the Apostle John, in Revelation 17, calls the great harlot.

Now, I scarcely need to remind you that one is guilty of adultery when they are unfaithful to the one to whom they have been joined in marriage. The word adultery, or idolatry, are almost used interchangeably in reference to religious things.

For, if one professes to be joined to God, and to belong to God, and joins himself to an idol, or clings to a false religious system, that idolater is called an adulterer in the spiritual sense of the word.

The Great Harlot and Her Worldwide Influence

Now, as the Apostle John begins to introduce to this great religious system, which will become a worldwide religious system subjugating all things to its authority, John says in Revelation 17, I will show thee the judgment of the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters.

Now, if you go back into this immediate section of the book of Revelation, beginning at chapter 15 and going through chapter 16, you find there angels are emptying vials or bowls. These vials or bowls contain the wrath of God, and in the last part of the tribulation period particularly, we find that there is a deportation upon godless men, and godless alliances, specific judgment from Almighty God himself.

In dealing with the great judgments that are going to come upon the earth during the tribulation period, John singles out one judgment, and devotes more space to that than to all the rest of the judgments together.

He describes the judgment upon the harlot, the one that claims to be the bride of Christ, the one that claims to be united to the Lord Jesus Christ, but is an adulterous or has been unfaithful to the one to whom she professes to be joined.

And so, John is going to reveal to us God's attitude toward this one who is called the harlot that sitteth upon many slaughters. Now, we will find, as we go through chapter 17, that each part of this vision is explained to John who records it for our understanding.

I submit to you that we are not dependent upon the interpretations of men, for the third of God himself interprets this vision to John, and causes John to write the interpretation. And, if you will drop down to verse 15, you find the waters are explained for us.

Verse 15 says, he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest where the harlot sitteth are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and sons. Now, here is the picture of a harlot that is sitting with influence that stretches out to the ends of the earth.

Here, then, is a worldwide system, or as the figure is given to appear, here is a woman who has brought under her sphere of influence not just a few who have submitted to her incitement, but peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and sons.

And, if you were to go back into Revelation chapter 13 and verse 8, where we have a description of the first beast that is the head of the Federated States of Europe, we read in verse 7 I'm sorry, Revelation 13 7, it was given unto him, this head of the Federated States of Europe, to make war with the saints, and to overcome them, and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

Now, I want you to notice that the sphere of influence of this political ruler, the beast, or the head of the Federated States of Europe, and the sphere of influence of this one who is called the harlot are coextensive.

They embrace the same geographical territory. They reach out and bring the whole world, then, into their sphere of influence. But now, we notice something else about this one called the great harlot, and I think it is significant in verse 1 that this one is not just called the harlot, but that the adjective is used.

The great harlot that sets this one apart in a peculiar position. While there may have been others in this religious sphere who might have been called harlots, here is one that is greater than them all, more influential than they all.

The great harlot sits upon many waters pursued, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with a wine of her fornication. Now, we notice that it is not just the common folk who have been brought under the influence of this harlot, but rather it says that the kings of the earth have committed fornication.

The kings of the earth have been joined to her, and have become one with her in her whole program, and in her whole desire. And, we find that further it tells us in verse 3, "...he carried me away into the wilderness, and I saw a woman," that's the woman of verse 1, the great harlot, "...sit upon a scarlet-colored seat, full of names of blasphemies, having seven heads and ten horns.".

The Beast, the Seven Heads, and the Ten Horns

Now, let's turn back for a moment to chapter 13, and we will read there, and we notice in chapter 13, verse 1, John says,. "...I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw beasts rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns.".

Now, once again, what we read in 17 .3 is the same as we read in 13 .1, and again we notice that this woman called the harlot is seen to be seated aside this scarlet-colored beast, the beast who is known by his mouth, the beast that speaketh blasphemy.

Second Thessalonians, chapter 2,. "...he had God's citizens in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God, and that he this beast has seven heads and ten horns.". Now then, I think there is something that is very suggestive to us in the third verse.

When you picture a beast, and a person aside that beast, it is a picture of a rider in control. It is a picture of the beast that has been domesticated, or tamed, or subjugated to the authority of the rider, and as we look at this picture, we find here that this woman has been able to stretch out her influence to such an extent that all parts of the Peace, Roman Kingdom, or the Federated States of Europe are under the authority of this woman herself, and that this woman has become the one in the saddle, the rider who controls the beast, and tells the beast where to go, and when to go, and which direction to go.

So, if you are trying to visualize this in your mind, you will see verse four, a woman who is arrayed in purple and scarlet color. She has all the outward trappings of royalty, clothes and robes that would belong to a king.

She is decked with gold and precious stones and pearls. She has all the wealth that belongs to a reigning monarch, yet she has in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication, and here is this woman clutching this poisonous cup, and she is on the beast, causing the beast to move so that she can go abroad to bring the poison of her cup to added peoples and tongues and nations and kingdoms to subject them to her powers and to her authorities.

Again, when we drop down into verse eight, we find the beast upon whom this woman sits is described for us. The beast that thou sawest was and is not shall ascend out of boundless pit and shall go into perdition, and when you get down to verse nine, John tells us the seven heads or seven mountains.

This may refer to the city that is the capital of this woman's regime, that is the literal city of Rome built from ancient times on the seven hills, or the seven heads may refer to the seven kinds of government that have operated in reference to the Roman Empire.

Whichever one you take, we see the identification here. She is pointing out the last form of Gentile world power, the fourth world kingdom of Daniel chapter two and Daniel chapter seven, and he tells us in verse 12 that the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings.

This again takes us back to Daniel chapter seven in our study several weeks ago, where the fourth beast that Daniel saw was mocked because it had ten horns, and then out from among the ten horns there came the little horn that was to be the great world ruler who would sit in Jerusalem as a god to bring all people in subjection to himself as the head of the federated states of Europe.

And, we read there in verse 13, see that is the ten kings of the nations that comprise the federated states of Europe have one mind and shall give their power and strength under the beast. Now, verse 13 answers for us the question, how does it happen that these rival states of Europe are content to come together under one head?

What has happened that makes them forget their national heresy and their natural animosity, and causes them to unite together into one federated state of Europe? Well, here again I have to go back into chapter 17 and verse 3.

There is a woman that has been enticing, who has been soliciting, and has been bringing these kings under her power and under her authority, and when they drink of the cup of abominations from her hands, they are superfined by that potion that they are willing to listen to her, and to do as she suggests.

Russia, Communism, and the Political Use of Religion

Now, I want to make a suggestion here, and we will be developing it a little later, but that which I understand is this. When you go back to Ezekiel 37 -39, you see there that at the time of the restoration of the Jews to Palestine, there is to arise a great northern confederacy that is to be the enemy of God's people Israel, whom we have previously identified as Russia.

The states of Europe are going to be terrified. They are going to fear the rising might and power of Russia, and there is going to come one system who is going to whisper to all these anti-communistic people, I am your one great barrier against communism.

If you will give me authority, and if you will come under my influence, I will raise up a barricade against communism and give you protection against the king of the north. And, the kings of the earth are going to listen to that very kind of doctrine, and are going to drink and swallow that very kind of teaching from the cup in her hands, and they are going to unite because this woman behind the scenes has been moving and controlling and influencing government to bring them into a federation, and when this federation is brought into actuality and into existence, they suddenly realize that they are no longer in any authority, but that they are under the control of this system that is called the great harlot.

Babylon as the Origin of False Religion

Now, we have one more thing that we have to do, and that is what is the harlot system. And, John wants to give us a clue that will enable us to identify the harlot about whom he is talking. We have had no difficulty with the waters upon which the woman sits.

John has explained it as many peoples, and tongues, and multitudes, and nations. We have no trouble with the beast over whom this woman is in authority, because John in verse 8 down to verse 13 has very carefully identified the beast as the same one of chapter 13, the federated states of Europe.

But now, the question is what influence, or what power, or what system is going to move through the European and non-communistic states to bring them together to give them their own world influence, and then take over the reins and the control of government herself?

And, John identifies this harlot in verse 5. Upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abomination of the Earth. Now, you will notice that this woman is identified, first of all, as Mystery.

And, I am sure you have been taught in the scriptures enough to know that in the New Testament, the word Mystery does not refer to something mysterious. Rather, it refers to some truth that had not previously been revealed by God to man.

God had revealed down through the epistles the progress of unbelief even in the professing church. He had manifested to us the apostasy of the last days. But, until we come into the book of the Revelation, it had not been revealed that there was coming a great world-controlling system which would be Christ-rejected and God dishonored.

So, John says, I'm going to unfurl the curtains of divine truth, and let you see exactly the end to which the professing church is going to come after the departure of the true believers at the time of the rapture.

This is what will happen. Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abomination of the Earth. Now, in order to be able to identify Babylon, I want you to go through some passages of scripture with me, and I want to take you first of all back into the tenth chapter of the book of Genesis.

This is a chapter into which we looked earlier when I pointed out to you that it is probably one of the least read chapters in the Old Testament, and if you have your Bible and turn to it, you will readily see why.

Because, there seems to be nothing inspiring about reading a long list of names of who begat who, and whose sons were who. Yet, this is very important to understanding our study this evening. We notice in chapter 10 and verse 2, he gives to us the names of the sons of Noah, Shem, I'm sorry, verse 1, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Then, when we come on down to verse 6, he is going to develop for us the line of Ham. Now, I want you to remember that the word, the name Ham means the swarthy one, or perhaps better, the sunburned one, and we know that the sons of Ham were Cush, and Cush means the blackened one.

This is to give not their physical characteristics, but rather their spiritual characteristics, because God made a new revelation of himself through Noah after the flood, and Ham turned from the light of that revelation, and was darkened by the revelation, and his son Cush further departed from the revelation given by God through Noah, and he was known as the blackened one.

And, we read in verse 8 that Cush begat Nimrod, and Nimrod was the arch-apostate of the Old Seluvian world. Now, get the picture then from Noah. The Ham, the Cush, the Nimrod. So, here is the fourth generation from the time that God judged the earth, and revealed his righteousness and holiness.

We read about Nimrod that he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord, wherefore it is said even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord, and the beginning of his kingdom, Nimrod's kingdom, was Bab-El.

Now, Bab-El means the gate of God. Now, what characterizes Nimrod's Bab-El civilization? You get out into chapter 11, and you have the record there of these people under Nimrod who went from the east into the land of Shinar and dwelt there.

They were trying to get as far away from the place where God revealed himself as they possibly could. They were going away from the source of light. In their darkness, they were abandoning not only the fact of revelation, but the place of revelation as well.

And as they got off into the land of Shinar, they said one to another, verse 3, Go to, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick instead of stone, and slime they had instead of mortar.

Now, here is an imitation that, whereas they were accustomed of building with stones and mortar, they have divine substitutes that befit the substitute system that they are raising up here. And they said, verse 4, Let us build us a city in a tower whose top may reach unto heaven.

And that was why Nimrod called his city Bab-El. They sought to build a great tower, a great pyramid that would reach up into heaven, and they said this is now the way of approach to God. God can be reached not through the revelation given to Adam and again through Noah of blood sacrifice.

Here is another gate to God, Bab-El. And when God looked down upon the tower, and saw the people were of one language, God said, verse 7, Go to, let us go down and confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

So the Lord scattered them abroad from friendship on the face of all the earth, and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel. Now, the letters are exactly the same in your English text, but here Babel differs from Bab-El in that Babel means confusion, and that whereas Nimrod said we are going to build a false religious system that will be a new approach to God, God came down and said this thing is confusion.

And so here at Bab-El, or at Babel, we find the first organized, idolatrous religious system in the history of the world. Mark you, before the floods, even though men have repudiated the revelation given by God, men never organized a false religious system.

They were believers or unbelievers, but they've never had a false religion. Nimrod was the one who introduced at Babylon the first false religious system that the world has ever seen, and that is why the apostle John speaks of Babylon that is the mother of all, the originator of every kind of false religious system.

The Mother-and-Child Cult and Its Claimed Origins

Now, in order to understand something of the Babylonian religion, and to let you identify for yourself the outward form of the final Babylonian religion, I want to take you back into something of the teachings of this system of Nimrod, the apostate of his day.

If you want to pursue this further, to have this very carefully documented, I would direct you to the work by Kislev entitled The Two Babylons, where everything I shall say is carefully documented and authenticated and verified, and may I just say in passing that even in all the discussions on this question that I have ever read, I have never seen a line of reputation of that which Kislev presents as he unfolds this to us.

Now, Nimrod made a mistake that sometimes men make. He got married. It wasn't that he got married that was the mistake, but he married the wrong girl. He married a girl by the name of Samaritan. Samaritan had had sufficient of the revelation of the word of God to know that God had promised that a seed of the woman should be the instrument through whom God would bring blessing to the world.

Samaritan took hold of the promise of God in Genesis 3 15, which is the first promise of the coming Messiah, and Samaritan conceived an heir of Zion named Tammoth, and Samaritan presented her son Tammoth as the fulfillment of Genesis 3 15.

She then became the high priestess of the Babylonian religion, and set herself and her son up as the object of worship, and without doubt this great tower which was to be the means of approach to God was the temple or the center of worship of this mother-child cult.

The symbol of this Samaritan and Tammoth religion was the symbol or the figure of a mother holding a child in her arms, and it is referred to as the mother-child cult. That Babylonian religion had spread over to Phoenicia, and in Phoenicia while they changed the name to Ashtaroth and Tammoth, it was the same religious system, and they added the worship of the sun which became the emblem of the S .O .N. Tammoth, and they worshiped Samaritan and Tammoth or Ashtaroth and Tammoth under the name Thales.

From Phoenicia, it was carried over to Pergamos in Asia Minor, and in Pergamos we read in Revelation chapter 2 that Pergamos was where Satan's seat or Satan's throne was, and Pergamos became the center of this Babylonian religion.

It spread into Egypt where they worshiped Isis and Horus, into Greece where they worshiped Aphrodite and Hera the mother and child, and into Rome where they worshiped Venus and Cupid. But, wherever it went, it was the same mother-child worship.

I was taken back several years ago in going down into an archaeological museum in Mexico City to see there a recent excavation which had just been put on display that Mexican archaeologists had authenticated as having belonged to a period of about 500 years before Christ that was the center of religious worship among some of the early Indians in Mexico, and, to my amazement, that image which was the center of their worship was the mother with the child in her arms.

And, I do not hesitate to say that this Babylonian religion spread to become the religion of the world that rejected the revelation given by God through Noah, and then through those who reveal the truth of God in the Old Testament.

Religious Rituals and the Queen of Heaven

Now, what was something of this Babylonian religion? We find that, first of all, Samaritan set herself up as the way of approach to God, and with a child in her arms, she pictured herself as the mother, the one who would give life.

She adopted the title the Queen of Heaven, and became known as the Queen of Heaven. Whether it was Samaritan, whether it was Aphrodite or Venus, that name stuck of all of these mother-child forms of the Queen of Heaven.

She taught that salvation was through her administration of the sacraments like the sprinkling with water and ceremonial cleansing. There was purification by the use of these symbols that came from her hands.

Now, the tradition which she spread abroad was that her son Tamar, on one occasion, was out hunting, and that he was slain by a wild boar. That all of the temple's virgins set apart to this Tamar's worship, or the mother-child's worship, were called upon for a 40-day period of fasting, and on the conclusion of that 40-day period of fasting, on the Feast of Ishtar, which was another name for Samarimasu or Asherah, so she said Tamar was resurrected.

Therefore, the Feast of Ishtar was made an annual feast, symbolizing the restoration of Tamar from the dead. They set aside the eggs as sacred to Tamar, which was exchanged on the Feast of Ishtar as a symbol of life out of death.

The evergreen tree, the symbol of life, was made the symbol of Tamar, and it was elevated to a position of prominence in the midwinter of the supposed birth of Tamar. The Queen of Heaven was worshipped by offering her round tapes that were marked with the letter T, which in the Babylonian and later Phoenician alphabet was a cross or an X, and these cross buns or tapes were offered to Tamar and to the mother of Tamar on these yearly occasions.

Now, at the time that Ahab, king in Israel, married a foreign girl, he married a girl who had been brought up in this mother-child cult worship, and it was not long before the nation Israel had given themselves over to the worship of Asherah and Baal, the mother-child worship.

Israel’s Idolatry in Jeremiah and Ezekiel

I remind you that when God called Abraham out of Ur-Vakali, God called Abraham out of a home that was devoted to the worship of this mother-child, the Queen of Heaven, and yet Abraham's father kept his idols, the mother-child idols, until the day of his death.

But now the nation Israel is going back to that very thing, and I want you to to look at several passages of scripture with me. First of all, go to Jeremiah chapter 44. In Jeremiah 44, we find God telling why he is going to send the children of Israel into captivity in Babylon, and I want to begin reading at verse 16.

This is on page 821 in your Q Bible. 44, 16. As for the words that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. Now, here is Israel replying to the prophet Jeremiah, we will not hearken unto thee.

We will certainly do whatsoever things go forth out of our own mouth, now notice, to burn incense under the Queen of Heaven, to pour out drink offerings unto her as we have done we and our fathers, our kings, our princes.

Verse 18, since we left off to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink offerings, we have wanted all things. Verse 19, when we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven, poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her?

There were those round cakes with the letter T that were offered at the Feast of Ishtar, along with the exchanging of the Ishtar eggs. They made their cakes to worship her, and verse dropping on down into verse 25, thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, saying, You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and fulfilled with your hands, saying, We will surely perform our which ye have vowed, to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven, to pour out drink offerings unto her.

Ye will surely accomplish your vows, perform your vows. And here, the nation Israel has repudiated their worship of Jehovah, and has said, We are going to worship only one, that is, the Queen of Heaven, Ahasuerus and Tamas or Phael, as the names were known in the day that the prophet lived.

Now, turn again into the prophet Ezekiel, if you will please, and here we find in Ezekiel chapter 8, page 847, the prophet Ezekiel is told to do a little peeking and eavesdropping, and he is told to go in through a secret door into the temple that was set apart to the worship of Jehovah, and in verse 6, Ezekiel 8, God said to him, Seeest thou what they do, even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go part off of my sanctuary, but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.

And he brought me to the door of the court, when I looked a little hole in the wall, and he brought me to the door of the court, and when he looked and saw the hole in the wall, some of them had digged in the wall, and I had digged in the wall, and there was a secret door.

He said to me, Go in, behold the abominations that they do there. So, I went in and saw. Now, mind you, the prophet has come into the inner sanctuary of the temple that was set apart to the worship of God, after it had been erected by Solomon, and dedicated by Solomon to the glory of God.

So, when he went in, what did he see? Every form of creeping things and abominable beasts, and the idols of the house of Israel portrayed upon the wall round the box. Now, what were these idols? The mother-child cult has come right into the sanctuary of the temple of Jehovah in Jerusalem, and when you go down into verse 13, he says, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do.

Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house, which was toward the north, and behold there sat women weeping for Hamas. What was that? Well, that was that forty-day period before the feast of Ishtar that was set apart to special penance in honoring the Queen of Heaven, and praying in memory of the restoration of Hamas after it had been slain by the wild war.

And here, God pictures a nation Israel has been delivered completely into the hands of the worship of this mother-child cult. Now, this continues as we suggested it spread to Egypt, it spread into Greece with Aphrodite and Hera, it spread into Rome with the worship of Venus and Jupiter, and we go back into Roman history, we find that at the time of the Caesars, approximately the time of Christ, the Caesars upon their coronation were crowned not only Emperor of the Roman Empire, but these emperors were crowned Pontifex Maximus, which is a Latin for the High Priest.