THE EFFECTS OF BABYLON'S MYSTERIES.
By William Covert
We have seen how the teaching of Satan, that man should not die, laid the foundation for the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and that this doctrine led to demonism, and demonism to the grossest idolatry. We have seen how it led to the worship of the sun and moon and the constellations through the deifying of man, and how Bel was through these Babylonian mysteries developed into the chief god of the sun. Through this means Baalism and sun worship became almost universal, and demonism was everywhere popularized. It was through Baal worship that sun worship gained its footing in all heathendom, and it was through sun worship that Sunday, "the wild solar holiday of all pagan times," got its vast following in the world. (See North British Review, vol. 18, p. 409.) Jennings, in speaking of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, teaches that the worship of the sun was practiced by the heathen before that exodus from bondage. He says, "The idolatrous nations, in honor to their chief god, the sun, began the day at its rising." He further says of Sunday that it was "the day which the heathens in general consecrated to the worship and honor of their chief god, the sun, which according to our computation was the first day of the week."—Antiquities, book 3. Webster, in defining the term Sunday, says it is "so called because this day was anciently dedicated to the sun or its worship." Worcester defines it as follows: "Sunday, so named because anciently dedicated to the sun or its worship. The first day of the week." This idolatry had evidently affected Israel while they were yet in Egypt, for in the wilderness, on their way to Canaan, the Lord said: "They despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols. Nevertheless mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness. But I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols." Eze. 20:16-18. The Lord commanded them to cast away the idols of Egypt. Verses 6, 7. "I lifted up mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, . . . because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my Sabbaths, and their eyes went after their fathers' idols." Verses 23, 24. If following these idols caused them to pollute the Lord's Sabbath, it was because there was something in their worship which took the place of the Sabbath. That thing was evidently the Sunday, dedicated to Baal and sun worship. Therefore Baalism always led to Sabbath breaking, because it led away from the Creator. In this sun worship they turned their backs upon the Lord and worshiped the sun toward the east, or the sun rising. Eze. 8:16. In erecting the sanctuary the Lord reversed the order of Baal and had them enter the tabernacle facing westward, so that the accusation of turning the back upon the Lord was significant of idolatry and sun worship. In the times of Jeremiah idolatry was the leading sin of the people. The weeping prophet said their priests, their prophets, their princes, and their kings were "saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth," and that they had turned their backs unto the Lord. Jer. 2:26, 27. In their abominable worship they had deified their ancestors, and had erected images and monuments for the accommodation of their departed souls. In this they were following Baalim, as the heathen nations around them were doing. They had changed their gods (verse 11), and gone after Baalim (verse 23). They offered sacrifices to the queen of heaven. Jer. 7:18. They had done this in all the cities and in the streets of Jerusalem. Verse 17. These abominations were even in the house of the Lord. Verse 30. They had offered their children in sacrifice to Baal in Tophet. Verse 31; Jer. 19:5, 6. In doing these things they had worshiped the sun and the moon and the host of heaven. Jer. 8:1, 2. These vanities had darkened their minds till there was a perpetual backsliding and they refused to repent. Verse 5. In this they had rejected the law of the Lord (Jer. 9:13), and had walked in the imagination of their own heart and after Baalim as their fathers had taught them (verse 14). Because they had done all these things and had offered their sons and their daughters in sacrifice to Baal, the Lord left the city of Jerusalem to the enemy, and it was besieged, and in its defense they ate their own friends and children. Jer. 19:5-13. This idolatry was such that under every green tree and upon every high hill images were erected and offerings made. Jer. 2:20; 2 Kings 16:3, 4; 1 Kings 14:23. The carriages of Babylon were so cumbered with these images that they became a burden to the poor beasts to draw them. They were also put upon the beasts, and upon the cattle. The prophet said: "Their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle; your carriages were heavy laden; they are a burden to the weary beast. They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden." Isa. 43:1, 2. This was the extreme to which Belism, or Baalism, was carried in Babylon. Thus she was in her religious aspect when she overcame Judah. But she could not continue in this way. The fall of ancient Babylon was foretold by an illustrated vision to Isaiah. In his description he said:— "Behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground." Isa. 21:9. And again Jeremiah said:— "Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach [the king] is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces. For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein." Jer. 50:2, 3. "Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, without an inhabitant." "I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up." "I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon; and her whole land shall be confounded." "I will do judgment upon her graven images." "Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her." Jer. 51:37, 44, 47, 52, 64. The kingdom of Babylon was destroyed for her idolatry, and Israel was again restored to her own land; but the successors of Babylon, down through Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Rome, have all followed after Baal, and every one of these powers has served as heads for the great Babylonian harlot, by which she has reigned over the kings of the earth, and by the power of their professed civil battle-ax has shed the blood and drank the gore of the martyrs of Jesus.