(A Note About Fire Worship:Fire (or sun) worship comes from Babylon originally and it is still practiced today. The Yazidi (or Yezidi) people of Iraq (modern-day Babylon) worship a sun-god. Their religion is similar to ancient Zoroastrianism (pg. 54) (i.e. sun-god worship of Babylon). In this religion, the people pray toward the sun, dance around bonfires, jump through fire, and worship the sun-god "Mirtha" (which originates from Tammuz). In the Zoroastrian religion (The Two Babylons, Chap. II; Sub-Sect. V; The Deification of the Child [Baal]; pg. 54), people worshiped the sun-god with fire, claiming that the fire was sacred and somehow connected to the power of the sun. Fire was thought to cleanse or help cleanse sin. In some Catholic countries people will jump through fires on "St. John's Eve." This also goes back to Zoroastrian fire-sun-worship (as Hislop shows in The Two Babylons, pg. 106 and pg. 54).

Mystery Religion: The Antichrist and the Zoroaster(Part 1 of 2)

(Click here to read part 2 of 2.)

Nearly five thousand years ago, after the flood of Gods judgment on a wicked world, a man built a city in the land of modern-day Iraq (or Babylon). This man was the ringleader of an apostate religion: a religion that twisted the truth of Gods Words and distorted the plan of salvation God told Adam and Eve inGenesis 3.

The serpent in the Garden of Eden told Eve that eating fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would give her wisdom and that she would never die. He told her a half-truth (a deception); for Adam and Eve did die, but they truly did get the knowledge of good and evil. This knowledge of sin has not helped us, their descendants at all. Because of Adam and Eves rebellion in eating that forbidden fruit sin entered the world and their sin-nature passed onto their descendants (us).

God was not going to let the human race perish without giving them a savior, Jesus Christ, the seed of the woman who would bruise (or crush) the serpents head (Satans head). Jesus Christ (the seed of the woman) was promised to the early patriarchs to save the human race (mankind) from its sin and to give mankind eternal life in Heaven.

Satan, who had possessed the serpent, wanted to create a counterfeit religion that would also claim to have a messiah (or savior) who was supposed to be the seed of the woman (see Genesis 3).

To do this, Satan had to be very crafty and subtle. He could not bring this apostate religion out in the open because godly men, like Noah and Noahs sonShem, would intervene. After the flood of Noah (when God judged the whole Earth with water), Noahs sons and grandchildren and great-great grandchildren began to multiply in number. Many moved into the land of Shinar, near the area of modern-day Baghdad, Iraq. In this fertile, Mesopotamian region the first post-flood civilization was founded. Its capital was later called Babylon. In this great city, a tower of brick and mortar was being constructed (likely a ziggurat). Everyone spoke the same language because they all were the same family: they were related closely.

Nimrod, who the Bible calls a mighty hunter, became the main leader behind this effort to rebel against God and build a tower unto Heaven. Their goal was to exalt themselves above the one true God, the Creator.

We find that Nimrod started the worship of the host of heaven (the sun, the moon, and the Zodiac) (seeZephaniah 1:4-5). People in pagan religions worshiped the constellations, the moon, and the sun, which God forbids.

Exodus 20:5-6

3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Nimrod, the head of this idolatry, was taken by his godly uncleShemand some other patriarchs. They found him guilty of idolatry and many other gross sins (such as murder) and had him put to death. Nimrods body was cut up into pieces and sent to important cities that followed Nimrods apostasy. This was a warning to them not to follow in Nimrods path. In Egypt, Osiris was said to be killed by Set (or Seth) and his body was cut up into pieces (click to see the Appendix note #7).

After God confused the languages at the Tower of Babel, people grouped together in families with the same language and dispersed across the earth. People who spoke ancient Chinese moved into China. Europeans moved into Europe. Africans moved into Africa. Egyptians brought Nimrods system of idolatry with them when they moved from Babylon.

The ancient Egyptians taught that their god Osiris was killed and cut into pieces by Set (or Seth, a name they wrongfully gave Shem). Egyptians taught that the dead Osiris was reincarnated into the form of his son, Horus, and that Osiris, Isis (his wife), and Horus formed a trinity to be worshiped. In this idolatrous system, however, the mother and child were mostly worshiped.

Mother-Child Worship and the "Zero-ashta"

Mother-child worship came from Babylon and reached into many countries. In ancient Assyria, Rhea (the mother of the gods) and Ninus (the son) were worshipped; in Egypt, Isis and Horus; in India, Isi and Iswara; in Greece, Ceres (the "Great Mother") and her child; in Rome, Fortuna and Jupiter-puer (or Jupiter, the boy)(see #1); and in ancient Canaan, Ashtoreth and Baal (Tammuz) were worshiped.

In the mystery religions that came from Babylon this child was called the seed of the woman or the Zero-ashta(#2). Zero means seed and ashta means woman. Zoroastrianism is the worship of a woman and her seed (her son) who they believed were gods.

Ancient Babylonians and other mystery religions believed that the sun is a god who became incarnate into the form of a boy called Baal, the sun-god(#6). This sun-god boy (Nimrods son Tammuz or Baal) was worshiped with fire, symbolizing the sun. Zoroastrians will pray toward the sun and run through fire because they believed that the fire has magical properties for purification(#3).

This is similar to the Catholic belief that the fires of Purgatory will cleanse them of the stain of sin. This belief contradicts Gods Holy Word, the Bible (seeHebrews 9:11-12, Colossians 1:13-14, Ephesians 2:8-9, Hebrews 9:24-28). If one believes in the true Messiah, Jesus Christ, and makes Jesus Christ his or her personal Savior and Lord, that persons sins (and all stains) are washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ (1 John 1:9).

The ancient people knew about Gods promise to the Serpent (Satan) that someone born later would bruise thy head. Genesis 3:15 says, And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

This promise to Satan was also a promise to all mankind that God would send a savior (Jesus Christ) to deliver them from their sin by Christs death (bruise his heel) because the Serpent (Satan) would have his head bruised (or crushed). All those who were Satans captives through sin would be set free if they truly believed and accepted Christs sacrifice (see Hebrews 2:14-18).

Satan knew all about this promise of the Messiah and so Satan decided he would set up a false Messiah, Tammuz / Nimrod, who was claimed to be the savior of the world(#4). This anti-Christ was the first antichrist to step into the scene and claim to be the Christ God promised would come. There would be others later, but this imposter was worshiped throughout the ancient world along with his mother, the so called queen of heaven (Semiramis, Rhea, Cybele, Astarte, Ashtoreth, Isis, etc.).

This is the antichrist (Tammuz / Nimrod) of ancient Babylon who was worshiped with Semiramis, his mother. This is the man who claimed to be a god who set up a mystery religion that spread throughout the ancient world. And, it still exists today.

In the next part(part 2 of 2), we will look at what mystery religion is and how it is related to dragon (or serpent) worship and freemasonry. We will also look at the God of freemasonry and find out his true identity as revealed by a 33rddegree mason.

(Click here to read part 2 of 2.)

(Click here to see the Appendix.)