Man's Search For Spirituality - E Christopher Reyes (jenna bush book club .TXT) 📗

and polluted mind. The primary object of the priesthood was to introduce privately, by little and little, under the seal of secrecy and the sanction of an oath, what it would not have been safe all at once and openly to propound.
To drink of “Mysterious beverages,” says Salverte, was indispensable on the part of all who sought initiation in these Mysteries. These “Mysterious beverages” were composed of “Wine, honey, water, and flour.”
From the ingredients avowedly used, and from the nature of others not avowed, but certainly used, there can be no doubt that they were of an intoxicating nature; and till the aspirants had come under their power, till their understandings had been dimmed, and their passions excited by the medicated draught, they were not duly prepared for what they were either to hear or to see.
If it be inquired what was the object and design of these ancient “Mysteries,” it will be found that there was a wonderful analogy between them and that “Mystery of Iniquity,” which was later embodied in the Church of Rome.
The ‘Queen of Babylon’ was herself a paragon of unbridled lust and licentiousness, but in the ‘Mysteries,’ which she had a chief hand in forming, she was worshipped as ‘Rhea,’ the great “Mother” of the gods, with such atrocious rites as she was identified with Venus, the Mother of all Impurity, and raised the very city where she had reigned to a bad eminence among the nations, as the grand seat of idolatry, and consecrated prostitution.
Thus seated was this Chaldean queen a fit and remarkable prototype of the “Woman” in the Apocalypse, with the ‘Golden Cup,’ in her hand, and the name on her forehead, “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.” ~See Revelations 17:5.
The ‘Mystery of Iniquity’ as embodied in the Papacy boasts of being the "Old Religion," and truly they are, for it appears that it is ancient indeed, tracing its lineage far beyond the era of Christianity, back over 4000 years, beyond the Hebrews, to near the period of the Flood and the building of the Tower of Babel, stealing from the Babylonians, and then claiming history as its own, which of course it is, of its own making.
The Apocalyptic emblem of the Harlot woman with the cup in her hand was even embodied in the symbols of idolatry derived from ancient Babylon, as they were exhibited in Greece; for thus was the Greek Venus originally represented, and it is singular that in our own day, and so far as appears for the first time, and the Roman Church actually took this very symbol as their own chosen emblem [The Chalice]
The Gospel, the Spirit of God bares the clear and distinct testimony of Paul, which is derived from the Babylonians, “The mystery of iniquity doth already work.” ~2 Thessalonians 2:7.
This system of iniquity, which had been convincingly instilled in the pagans divinely foretells what was to issue in a pompous apostacy, that in due time would be appallingly revealed to man, and would continue until it should be destroyed “By the breath of the Lord's mouth, and consumed by the brightness of His coming.” ~2 Thessalonians 2:8.
“Protestantism was the triumph of Paul over Peter. Fundamentalism is the triumph of Paul over Christ.” ~Will Durant
In its first introduction into the Church, the secret rituals came in furtively, subliminally, and by stealth, with “All deceivableness of unrighteousness.” Wrought “Mysteriously,” under reasonable, but false pretences, leading men away from the simplicity of the truth as it does in the alleged words of the man called Jesus, and the distortion of his ostensible adages.
And, it does so secretly, if not covertly maliciously, for the betterment of the priesthood, for the very same reason that idolatry was secretly introduced in the ancient ‘Mysteries of Babylon,’ it is not safe, it is not prudent to do otherwise, for the superstitious masses needed their idols, and the Church will be all too willing to let them keep their icons if only to facilitate conversion. “Satan's Masterpiece,” if there be one, is the Roman Church, the perfection of a religious institution created to deceive and perpetuate the priesthood, of policies for deluding and ensnaring the world, of claiming the minds of innocent children whom it condemns upon conception, of the thief who disguises itself as the meek and mild lamb, of the corrupter of nations and of people, of the Church that has claimed more lives than all the wars known to man.
For this very institution knows no bounds in the dissemination of its despicable and corrupt ways, leading men astray and compelling one to believe that it is for the good of God and his only begotten son, the Christ. To the Jews, everything written in the New Testament must comply with the Old Testament, and not the other way around. The New Testament cannot stand on its own without the Old Testament, because it claims to be the fulfillment of the Old Testament. “Think not that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets, I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” ~Matthew 5:17. “And there was delivered to him the book of the prophet Esaias... And he began to say unto them: 'This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.” ~Luke 4:16-21.
But, the Hebrew One God is a yet another patent Forgery and Myth; a mycological Father-god can have no “Only begotten Son;” and Jesus Christ is a myth even before he is mythically born in the elaborate fairy story of the Church Fathers. With respect to the mythical Hebrew-Christian God or gods, we may securely say, as says Father Justin Martyr apropos of the other mythic Pagan gods. “And we confess that we are atheists, so far as Gods of this sort are concerned.” ~Justin Martyr, First Apology, ch. vi; Ante-Nicene Fathrs, vol. i, 169.
As possessing supreme authority, also, over the faith, the Church will reveal little or much, as they judge most expedient; and hoard the great truths of religion, which were as essential a principle in the system of Babylon, as it will be in Romanism or Tractarianism. It is this priestly claim to dominion over the faith and reasoning of men, that will “Imprison the truth in unrighteousness” in the ancient world, so that “Darkness will cover the earth, and gross darkness over the people.”
It is the very same claim, in the hands of the Roman priests, that ushers in the Dark Ages, when, through many a dreary century, the Gospel is unknown, and the Bible will become a sealed and forbidden book to the masses who will faithfully offer their lives in the name of Christ, for that, which they know not. In every respect, then, we see how justly Rome will bear on its forehead, “Mystery, Babylon the Great.” Why were exactly 'Four Gospels,' out of the many brought for consideration from all parts of the known world, included in the New Testament, while II Thessalonians, the Pastoral Epistles and I & II Peter, which are accurately called forgeries for they advocated views, which were never held by the persons the writings were attributed to?
Why only four Gospels? “There are four principle winds, four pillars that hold up the sky, and four corners of the universe; therefore, it is only right that there be four Gospels.” ~Saint Irenaeus.
We have extensive evidence that Egypt and Greece also derived their religious beliefs from Babylon, and we have equal collaborating evidence that the religious system of the Phoenicians also came from the same source. The distinguishing feature of the Phoenician idolatry practice was imported from Assyria, which included Babylonia. “The worship of the Architic Venus, formerly flourished as much among the Assyrians as it does now among the Phenicians.” ~Macrobius.
In 1825, on the occasion of the Jubilee, Pope Leo XII had a medallion struck bearing on the one side his won image, and on the other, that of the Church of Rome symbolized as a “Woman,” holding in her left hand a cross, and in her right a ‘Cup,’ with the legend around her, “Sedet Super Universum,” meaning, “The whole world is her seat.” ~The Ultimate Deception-The Two Babylons or The Papal Worship Proved To Be The Worship of Nimrod and His Wife, By The Late Rev. Alexander Hislop.
A library of clay tablets was created by King Sargon I., in 4,000 BC, at Nineveh, which presented stories of the Creation, Flood, and of a conflict between the Sun God and the demon Tiamat, also the descent of Ishtar into Hades, etc. Their gods were Bel, the Sun, son of Ea; Bilit, or Mylitta, Bel's wife, to whom every Babylonian woman had to offer her virginity; Sin, the moon; Ishtar, evening star, for Ishtar's sake men made themselves eunuchs, and women yielded to prostitution; Dagon, the fish-god, is of Chaldean origin.
The Western Semites of Canaan, Syria, Phoenicia, Phrygia, and Asia Minor, retained many of the traditions and concepts of the Easterns. Bel was by then transformed into Baal; Ishtar into Ashtoreth and Astarte; Moloch into Ashera, and Priapus, the phallic god. They had also the legend of the dying Sun God, and of a ‘Great Flood.’
Many of the stories of Jesus may be traced to these ancient Pagan legends. “We may... Suppose that Canaan was also influenced by Egypt in the sphere of literature, just as it was in that of sculpture. We should certainly encounter Egyptian influence in the literature of the Phoenicians, were that preserved; but in Hebrew literature also, which belongs to so much later a period, there are a number of features that strikingly remind one of the body of Egyptian writings—namely, in the wisdom-literature of the Hebrews, in the Psalms, and in the ‘Song of Songs.’ It might be supposed that similarities of this sort are to be traced, at least indirectly, to Egyptian prototypes. That being so, then even we ourselves must, without suspecting it, have all along been under the influence of the intellectual life of Egypt.” ~From: The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians, Poems, Narratives, and Manuals of Instruction, From the Third and Second Millennia B.C., Adolf Erman [1854 - 1937], Translated into English by Aylward M. Blackman, Methuen, 1927 (apparently, 1923 German).
With this understanding of the history of cultures influencing and being influenced by others it is understandable why there are distinct similarities between the religion of the Christians and that of the Egyptians.
BC 3000-Secret organizations at this period of time are mainly from the priestly craft. Initiates are taught the mysteries of life through phases or degrees. To conceal the true meanings of the craft from the layperson secret symbols and code letters are used, requiring the initiates to perform furtive rites at each step of advancement into the next degree to protect their secret knowledge of the ‘Mysteries.’
BC 2962- Seth's great-great-great-great-great-great grandchild, Noah, son of Lamech is born. Noah lives 905 years and fathers three sons. Seth dies at the age of 912 in 2962 B.C.E.
BC 2953-2838-Fu Hsi, FÛ-hsî, the first of five emperors believed to have been conceived by his mother after a twelve-year period of gestation. Alleged to be the originator who wrote the original Eight Diagram I Ching [Book of Changes] The Chinese develop a philosophy of life rather than a religion of life.
“Upon the altars of the Chinese temples were placed, behind a screen, an image of ‘Shin-moo,’ or the 'Holy Mother,' sitting with a child in her arms, in an alcove, with rays of glory around her head, and tapers constantly burning before her.” ~Gross, Heathen Religions, p. 60.
According to the Chinese legend, on which perhaps the story of