MYSTERY BABYLON by Elder William Covert

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 22, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 50.

MYSTERY BABYLON.

By Elder William Covert

SATAN told our first parents through Eve that they would not die, but that they would become as gods. Whether the deceiver had in mind at that time all the idolatry that he brought into the world to curse humanity or not, it is certain that the theories which have been promulgated in the perpetuation of that falsehood, have laid the foundation for the doctrines of gods many and lords many; for every system of iniquity and idolatry has its base resting upon his teaching of that hour.

Whether Satan intended that Eve should understand his promise to mean that she should put off mortal flesh that she might become a god or not, it is certain that since that time he has stoutly affirmed that what we call death is not death, but transition, by which man becomes deified.

The plan of obedience and consequent unbroken life marked out for Adam and Eve, was highly displeasing to Satan, and, being determined to deceive man, that he might control him, he laid out the whole plan of his course with man in this earth, making his first promise to our race to constitute the basis for all man's rebellion against God. The promise was deceptive, crooked, mysterious, and crafty.

Not only is Satan the father of lies, but he made his first lie to man to be the father for all subsequent lies. In this he planned that all the progeny of falsehood should stand together in defense of their kind, to pose as the truth.

The teaching that man should not die, but instead of death he should become as gods, made way for the doctrine and worship of devils, or demons. This end was brought about by the deifying and worshiping of the dead. There deified ones were supposed to serve the purpose of middle powers between the sovereign gods and living men. Back in the early history of idolatry it was taught that the celestial gods were too sublime and pure to be approached by mortal man, and too holy to be profaned by the cares of earthly business. But when man passed from the fleshly state, he could better serve his mortal kindred upon the earth. Therefore it was advocated that he had passed into the spheres to become mediator between the gods and man. Plato said, "God is not approached by men, but all commerce and intercourse between gods and men is performed by the mediation of demons." He further says, "Demons are reporters and carriers from men to the gods, and again from the gods to men, of the supplications and prayers of the one, and of the injunctions and rewards of devotion of the other." Another said, "Demons are middle powers, by whom both our desires and merits pass unto the gods; they are carriers between men on earth and the gods in heaven

from hence of prayers, from thence of gifts."

Thus it was taught that those who had departed this life were not dead, but that they had become officers of the gods, to be attendants, recorders, overseers, and governors for the gods among men. So they had it that all things were done by the will of the gods, through the service of the demons, demon with them simply meaning a deified man.

This teaching was, no doubt, brought about by the intermeddling of Satan and his angels with the affairs of men. This was done for the purpose of deceiving man, and thereby gaining dominion over him. This scheme, founded upon the falsehood which Satan told Eve in Eden, has afforded the devil a working basis for all the idolatry that has ever cursed the inhabitants of this world.

The history of demonism seems to date its formal beginning back to the death of Bel, Baal, or Belus. Nimrod, the first ruler of Babylon, or Babel, or his successor was deified, or worshiped, under this name. He was reported as having become a demon god after his death. Here it was that in old Babylon was laid the foundation of the mysteries of Satan. This was the foundation of the mystery of Bel, or Babylon. Here was the beginning of Baalism. They called all demons Baalim, from the deified king. But this king would, of course, be regarded as the chief among all those who were deified. In the estimation of these ancient idolaters, those great men who were deified in time became gods, and were regarded as the natural deities, represented in the sun, moon, and stars. Bel, or Baal, became the chief god of the sun, and others of royalty ruled among the planets.

In order to worship these deities man made images and consecrated them, and called these departed souls, as they thought them to be, to inhabit these senseless objects of their own creation. The sum of it was that their images were bodies, and their demons were the souls that lived in them.

One idolater said in explanation of his worship, "We do not think brass, and gold, and silver, and other materials of images, to be of themselves gods and holy powers; but in these we worship and reverence the gods brought into these images by sacred dedication, and keeping their residence there."

It was this kind of worship which had the support of Manasseh, king of Judah. It is stated that "he reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served them. . . . And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. . . . And used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards. . . . And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God." 2 Chron. 33: 3-7.

This kind of idolatry was especially forbidden even as early as the times of Moses, for in Deut. 17: 2, 3 instruction is given to deal with these who have "served other gods, and worshiped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I [the Lord] have not commanded."

Notwithstanding the positive commandments and the explicit instruction given to prevent Israel from falling into such gross habits, yet it frequently became necessary to correct them for their iniquitous practices in these idolatries.

The Lord forbade Israel making marriages with these idolatrous people, because he said the result would be that they would be led to serve other gods if they did so. Deut. 7: 3, 4; Josh. 23: 12; 1 Kings 11: 2; Ezra 9: 2. Yet this important instruction was frequently disregarded, and greatly to the detriment of those who did it, too. Perhaps the most noted case of departure, followed by the introduction of the grossest idolatry, is the marriage of Ahab, king of Israel, with Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians. 1 Kings 16: 31. This Jezebel, according to Philo, brought into Israel the worship of Baal; and this Bible history abundantly attests, for the narrative of the marriage proceeds to tell how Ahab went and served Baal and worshiped him, and reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria, and that he did more to provoke the anger of the Lord than had been done by all the kings of Israel which had been before him. Verses 32, 33.

This took place about three hundred years before the carrying of Judah and remnants of Israel into Babylon. The entire history of this wicked woman goes to show that she was wholly under the influence of demon worship, and, consequently, an enemy to the law and worship of the one true God. She succeeded in preventing the public worship of God, and caused those who would obey the commandments of God to become outcasts, and to wander among the mountains and hide among the caves of the earth, because they were hunted like wild beasts of prey. And when, finally, the prophet Elijah and King Ahab met face to face, Ahab accused the prophet of troubling Israel, because he would not submit to the idolatry that the wicked queen had caused to be enforced in the nation. The answer of Elijah was, "I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim." 1 Kings 18: 17, 18.

It was at this time that Elijah proposed a test as to who was God. Jezebel had the prophets of the Lord murdered, except those who were hid from her cruelty. She then fed eight hundred and fifty of the prophets, or priests, of Baal and image worship, while one poor widow fed, by a perpetual miracle, the hiding prophet of God. The proposition of the prophet was accepted, and with the result of the test as to who was God the reader is acquainted.

The religion so zealously espoused and defended by Jezebel embodied in its theology the worship of Baal, who had by this time become to be, in the mind of the heathen, the sun god; and in addition to this Bel there were a vast number of deities and demons of lower rank, who belonged to this family of confusion. These constituted Baalim; therefore it became necessary to employ a large number of idolatrous priests about the business of so many gods and demigods. The reader will please notice in 1 Kings 18: 25 that Elijah asked them to call on the name of their gods, using the plural number. But when they began in their frenzy to greatly exercise themselves in their importunity, they called loudly for Baal. "O Baal, hear us!" Then the Lord's prophet mockingly said, "He is a god." He, Baal, was the one on whom they chiefly depended. In this it is seen that the prophet understood that this body of men professed to represent a multitude of gods, of whom Baal was chief.

This system of Baalism originated in Babylon, but seems to have been the prevailing religion of the State everywhere at this time, for Ahab hunted in every kingdom and nation for the hiding prophet, and took an oath from all that he was not to be found by them. So all nations joined in the hunt for the prophet who worshiped Him who created heaven and earth. Surely the mystery of Babylonian worship was even then ruling the nations, and the doctrine of Satan,—that man did not die, but became as gods,—was everywhere defended by all but the true worshipers. There was much image worship and various kinds of apostasy during the reign of Jeroboam over Israel; but these were not full-blown Baalism until the wicked Jezebel brought in the Babylonian mysteries. We have noticed that the kingdom of Judah under Manasseh was given over to the worship of Baalim. The testimony is that "Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen." 2 Chron. 33: 9.

But Judah had long been cursed with monuments of heathenish folly. "For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites," and "for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab." 1 Kings 11: 5, 7. In the reign of Josiah these images and houses of idolatrous worship were destroyed. See 2 Kings 23.

In the righting up of matters there were found images and priests, to accommodate the worship of the sun, the moon, and twelve constellations. Then there were represented all the host of heaven. The host of heaven, as understood through the heathen mysteries, were departed souls of men, deified, together with a more sublime caste of demons who had never been linked with a mortal body. These last mentioned were the wise "gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh." Dan. 2: 11.

It was because Judah and Israel were so inclined to imitate the iniquitous worship of the Babylonians that the Lord permitted Israel to be almost entirely absorbed by heathenism and Judah to be taken captive by the Babylonians. Why should they be kept separate, while they were so nearly alike? Then, again, if there was any truth left among them, chastisement and reverses were to call it to light through affliction.