TWO RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS by Elder R. C. Porter

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 20, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 41.

TWO RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS.

By Elder R. C. Porter

BY ELDER R. C. PORTER.

(Concluded.)

BESIDES the Sabbath, there are two objective points in the plan of redemption toward which the minds of the fallen race were directed as the center of their hope. First, the sinless life of the promised Seed, given unto death for sinners, and, second, his coming again after his ascension, as King of kings and Lord of lords, to bring the lost ones home to glory, henceforth to preside as Prince of Peace forever. Together with the Sabbath, these two events are to fully reveal the character of God; so, against these two points, Satan also directs his forces in special attack. Determined that the world shall not see the 'Seed of the woman' in his true character, he leads them little by little, farther and farther from the word of God, until in the days of Nimrod he finds opportunity to present before them the theory that God is so very far away from the earth that he does not see our actions or attend to our cries. Nimrod, therefore, formulated into a system the worship of the gods of their own making, to whom they gave a character like unto their own; and them they worshiped. After the death of Nimrod, his queen, Semiramis, who, from an originally humble position had been raised to share with him the throne of Babylon during his life, purposed that, as he had been honored as a hero during his life, in death he should be worshiped as a god, yea, as the 'Zero-Ashta' (Chaldee, Zero, the Seed). The world was at this time well acquainted with the primeval promise of Eden, and they knew right well that the bruising of the heel of the promised One meant his death, and through death the curse was to be removed from the earth by the grand Deliverer.

The story was immediately circulated that after the death of Nimrod, or Thammuz, 'all the images assembled from the ends of the earth into the temple of Babylon, to the great golden image of the sun, which was suspended between the heaven and the earth. That image prostrated itself in the temple, and so did all the other images around it, while it revealed to them all that had happened to Thammuz. The images wept and lamented all night long, and then in the morning they each flew away, each to his own temple again, to the ends of the earth. And hence arose the custom every year on the first day of the month of Thammuz, of mourning and weeping for Thammuz.'—More Nevochin, p. 426 (as quoted in 'Two Babylons').

Immediately after this the mysteries were introduced, and it was proclaimed that, on account of their weeping, the wrath of the gods was appeased and Nimrod was raised from the dead, and now in the temple appeared in glory as the deliverer. Then, during the introduction of the mysteries, in the midst of the dense darkness, the face of Nimrod suddenly appeared, thrown upon the canvas from a magic lantern, with a halo of light encircling his head. A profligate priest behind the scenes did his talking for him. The effect was all that had been hoped, and soon images were erected in all parts of the world under different names for the worship of Nimrod, the promised Seed and the deliverer. Images of the child with the serpent biting its heel, while the child was bruising the head of the serpent, were also erected. (See 'Coleman's Indian Mythology,' plate 12, p. 34, 'Backus' India in Greece,' p. 300, 'Wilkinson,' vol. 4, p. 395, 'Credeni Compendium,' vol. 1, pp. 29, 30, and 'Plutarch's De Iside,' vol. 2, p. 369, as quoted in 'Two Babylons,' pp. 58-74.)

The worship of this child under the names of Osiris, Tammuz, Nimrod, Adonis, etc., was always connected with sun worship, and was of the most degrading character. (See 'Two Babylons,' 'Kitto's Encyc. of Relig. Lit.,' and 'Lib. of Univ. Knowl.') In order that the minds of the people might be entirely taken away from the true God and his true character, that they might practice all forms of wickedness, undisturbed by the thoughts of a holy God, pure in character, the pagans transferred the day of worship from the true Sabbath to Sunday. (See Webster on definition of Sunday, North British Review, vol. 18, p. 409, 'Craft's Sabbath for Man,' pp. 375, 376, 'Lib. of Univ. Knowl.,' art. 'Sunday and Fire Worship.')

Thus with all the pagan worshipers, the true God is forgotten, the true Sabbath is set aside, and the promised Seed has come in the person of Nimrod, that exceedingly wicked rebel against God, and prince among the pagans. The pagan world being now under his control, rejoicing in licentious revelry, no longer remembering the Sabbath or the God of the Sabbath, and no longer looking for the promised Messiah, there is but one other class to divert from the worship of the true God, and from the acceptance of the promised Seed, when he shall come in his true character as God has promised. These are the descendants of faithful Abraham. The evil one first comes to them with this child worship, which was, in fact, sun worship, under the names of the images of Baal, Thammuz, Molech, etc., which were all sun images. Many of the Israelites fell under this appeal to the carnal passions, and were led into Sunday keeping and the licentious practices of sun worship. They also worshiped the child Nimrod as the promised Seed, ate with the pagans the sacrifices of the dead, and caused their children to pass through the fire to Molech. Ps. 106: 21, 28, 29, 37; 1 Kings 18: 17-39; 2 Kings 23: 4, 5; 2 Chron. 34: 4, margin; Eze. 8: 14-16; Rev. 2: 14.

During all this period of apostasy a portion of the children of Israel remained true to the worship of the true God, and, later on, many of those who had apostatized, under the judgments of God, mercifully inflicted, returned, and God in love forgave them. Ps. 106. Now, the devil sets about continuing to hold in their minds the pagan idea of God. Many in Israel, yielding to this temptation, worship God through fear, and, to do penance, they load the Sabbath, which was given as a day of spiritual rest in Jesus, in which to delight themselves in the Lord, with their traditions, and thus make it a yoke which neither they nor their children could bear. This resulted in formal Sabbath keeping, from fear occasioned by the pagan idea that God is a God of vengeance.

The next turn in the ever-changing kaleidoscope of Satan was to get the minds of Israel shut up to themselves, so that they would not disturb other nations with the true Sabbath or with the truth concerning the promised Messiah. Having instilled into their minds the idea that God was a God of vengeance, this was easily accomplished. Many of them no longer saw a God of infinite love reaching out to save those poor lost pagans about them, but they saw God in vengeance standing over them awaiting an opportunity to cut them down. They in self-righteousness arose and inclosed the truth in their garments of self-righteousness, with the feeling, 'Come not near me, for I am holier than thou,' and redoubled their penances, that they might appease the wrath of their god of vengeance which the devil had given them to worship.

One more step and the devil has all secured. His purpose will then be accomplished, and the coming of the promised Messiah, entirely thwarted. He now, with all his devilish skill, directs their minds toward the idea that the Messiah is coming as a temporal king, who, with a political sword, will wage a carnal warfare against sinners, and will destroy all who will not yield to him this enforced submission and worship. Thus they looked to see him restore the kingdom to Israel, and rule over the nations as a temporal King. With all this subtle scheming, the devil awaits with fiendish delight the privilege of tempting the Son of God with this base ingratitude on the part of the creatures whom he came to save. But God does not forget his everlasting covenant, formed between the Father, and the Son in the counsels of eternity, to love his people. And because he still loves them with an everlasting love, with loving-kindness he still continues to draw them (Jer. 31: 3), for all the promises of God in Christ are yea and amen, and not yea and nay (2 Cor. 1: 20, 21).

In his all-wise care and tender pity for those who desire to know and receive the promised Saviour, when he comes, he foretold by the prophets, in the utmost simplicity, ages before his coming, every important event of his life. Commencing with his ancestry and birth, and closing with his resurrection and ascension, his entire history is given in advance. These predictions were not all made at once, and by the same prophet, but were given at intervals, during a period of nearly four thousand years, and by men living in different parts of the world. Since they are given in the Old Testament writings, and the Old Testament was translated from the Hebrew into the Greek about two hundred and eighty-seven years before the birth of Christ, the predictions must all have been made at least more than two hundred years before the birth of Christ.