Its never too late to learn from history.The Spanish Influenza of 1918

Royalblood :Something tells me that we need to revisit the history of epidemics. This one in particular now that we have the Ukraine epidemic New flu strain taking place and not covered by none of the main stream media. Friends take notes of the links posted below this one. It may just be the swine flue is just Smoke of a Fire Storm that is on the Horizon.
Listen to the interview here then read this history below

The Spanish Influenza of 1918 was the greatest, most lethal pandemic the world has ever known. In its 10-month duration between 22 and 40 million people perished worldwide. Estimates place the death toll in the United States at over 675,000 with over 22 million becoming ill. Leading physicians of the time thought the illness a bacterium, but in fact it was something not yet discovered--a virus. American were familiar with the flu; it sent you to bed, made you miserable for 3 or 4 days with fever, muscle aches, and congestion, then left you shaky for about a week. It made millions sick, yet killed only the oldest, youngest, and most feeble.

The 1918 influenza was not the flu Americans were familiar with. It was a horror that turned victims bluish-black then drowned them with their own body fluids. the death toll was highest in the ages 15 to 40, those in the peak of health. The victims would be fine one minute and the next incapacitated, fever-racked, and delirious. Temperatures rose to 104-106 degrees, skin turned blue, purple, or deep brown from lack of oxygen. Massive pneumonia attacked the lungs, filling them with fluid; blood gushed from the nose. Death was quick, savage, and terrifying.

The America of 1918 was in its second year of involvement in World War I, and millions of young Americans were in uniform. Great military camps were established throughout the United States for the training of soldiers and filled to overflowing. Most of these camps were near large cities or well populated areas. Railroads moved these soldiers rapidly across the country toward the East Coast to pack into troopships bound for the battlefields of Europe. Sailors and merchant seamen who crowded port cities had access to all parts of the world.

Civilians flooded cities to work in the expanded war industry, huge rallies and parades were held, all to support the war effort. The country was the perfect breeding ground for the coming pandemic.

The pandemic had three distinct waves, the first coming from the American heartland, most probably Kansas. During March[,] soldiers and civilians around Ft. Riley, KS, rapidly became ill; some of them died, their lungs swollen with bloody fluid. The disease spread to other camps and port cities. Statistics of military and civilian deaths in March and April of 1918 demonstrated a sharp rise between the ages 21 to 29. The illness astounded physicians with its rapid onset, how rapidly it spread, and how quickly it killed those in the most robust of health.

Then, that summer, it subsided, and the United States was virtually free of the flu. However, the disease was on the move, riding the troopships to Europe and turning them into a nightmare of illness and death.

The influenza then arrived in Europe with the 1.5 million soldiers who brought more death with their virus than the weapons they carried. It raged across Europe and into Asia, eventually killing more American soldiers than the war. Approximately 80 percent of Spain's population contracted the flu giving rise to the rumor it started there.

Sometime, late in the summer of 1918, the virus mutated in a response to increasing human antibodies. Now in its most virulent form it returned in the same ships that took it to Europe, making landfall in Boston in September. There, it killed over 2000 people.

Philadelphia

Philadelphia's population in 1918 was 1,700,000 with war industry adding another 300,000 transient workers. The city was teeming with large ghettos representing every oppressed ethnic group from Europe. The city's medical resources, some of the best in the country, were strained. Twenty-six percent of Philadelphia physicians and a much larger percentage of nurses were away serving with the military; 75 percent of Philadelphia's hospitals' medical and surgical staffs were overseas. Although the city's board of health knew the flu had gotten to Europe in July, and had made it to Boston by the third week of September, it still did not make it a reportable disease. The flu was coming to Philadelphia and the city was not prepared.

The disease appeared first at the sprawling naval base and shipyard on 18 September. The next day 600 sailors were ill; at the same time civilian hospitals started receiving patients. The board of health now began to act by instituting a public campaign against coughing, sneezing, and spitting. Philadelphia was about to become the American city with the highest, most rapidly accumulating, death toll in the worst pandemic in recorded history. In a single day, the death toll reached 1,700.

Dr. Paul A. Lewis, director of the Phipps Institute of Philadelphia stated he had isolated the cause of the flu, Pfeiffer's Bacillus. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that this discovery armed the medical profession with the absolute knowledge on which to base its attack on the disease. they both were wrong! Despite the crisis, on 28 September, 200,000 people gathered in the streets to view the kickoff of the Fourth Liberty Loan Drive. The parade stretched 23 blocks through the city; death marched with it.

By 4 October the University of Pennsylvania's newspaper The Daily Pennsylvanian reported 636 new cases and 139 deaths. The paper would continue to give a daily count throughout the epidemic. On that day the board of health closed all schools, churches, theaters, and saloons. All citizens were ordered to wear gauze masks in public, "Obey the laws and wear the gauze protect your jaws from septic paws." Those daring not to wear masks were ridiculed by being called "slackers," the worst epithet of the day, or were physically run off the streets. A sneeze or cough sent people scurrying.

As the death toll mounted, a frantic public stripped medicines from pharmacy shelves. Students from Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Temple University assisted in filling prescriptions, mostly for whiskey, as it was the only place one could get it. As medications disappeared, people turned to folk remedies and ridiculous concoctions sold by charlatans.

On 10 October, 528 died in the city. Thirty-fourth street, in front of Philadelphia General hospital, was crowded with vehicles of every description bringing the sick, the dying, and, in most cases, the dead to the hospital. The scene was repeating itself in front of every hospital in the city. Many of the staff of PGH were sick because this was a disease of necessity (meaning care was provided for the symptoms, not the cure), the majority of work fell to nurses. PGH School of Nursing's chief nurse, Lillian Clayton, worked 48-hour shifts. Sheer exhaustion allowed many of the nurses to become ill; four died. Miss Clayton offered to allow all preliminary (freshman) nursing students to return home rather than face the disease, yet all volunteered to stay. Six eventually died from flu.

Throughout the country the United States Health Department was besieged by calls for more nurses to care for the sick. GEN John J. Pershing, commander of all American troops in Europe sent an urgent appeal for 1,500 more nurses. Philadelphia's trained nurses were not enough; student nurse and lay volunteers were quickly utilized.

The University of Pennsylvania's School of Nursing's 1919 yearbook describes the scene: "Then came the epidemic of influenza, and our plans for service (in the armed forces) were brought to a standstill, for we had all we could manage at home. Ever in our hearts will remain the memory of those classmates, Grace Virginia Fitzgerald and Marie Luise O. Boremann who gave their lives in the influenza epidemic October twelfth and thirteen 1918."

The frustration of Philadelphia nurses can best be illustrated by the 1919 annual report of the Chestnut Hill Hospital's School of Nursing where a passage reads, "most tragic because of the loss by death of so many nurses and because of our inability to meet the needs of the patients who came to us during the epidemic of influenza that swept the city."

Philadelphia's well-organized Society of Visiting Nurses, "had every thought and previous action blotted from their minds," by the great tragedy. Nurses were busy around the clock caring for the thousands of sick who could not reach a hospital. They described entering houses where all members of a family were dead. Some had both parents dead and the children starving. In some neighborhoods they were hailed as saviors. In others they were shunned due to the white gowns and gauze masks they wore.

The Philadelphia Automobile Club volunteered and effectively transported the nurses on their rounds. Care of the sick was made even more difficult by the refusal of some people to assist in the care of neighbors and even relatives for fear of contracting the disease. The Society of Visiting Nurses, in its 1918 report claimed the influenza epidemic gave it purpose and resources it never would have had otherwise. Members cared for thousands during the epidemic and some gave their lives.

A growing problem that threatened the living was the dead. Bodies started piling up in makeshift morgues and in the streets. In a vision not seen since the Black Death of medieval Europe, carts went through the street, their drivers calling for people to bring out the dead for burial. Wagonloads of bodies, some dead over a week, were buried in Potter's Field at Second and Luzerne Streets. Highway workers dug large trenches and filled them to capacity. the provmise that bodies could later be retrieved and reinterred after the epidemic subsided persuaded relatives to give up loved ones. Relatives never recovered most of the bodies.

Aftermath

By October 27th the epidemic began to subside as quickly as it came. Other parts of the country would continue to suffer from the pandemic well into the spring of 1919. The passing of influenza through the city left an estimated 12,191 dead. In but 4 weeks, there were 47,094 reported cases.

As soon as the dying stopped the forgetting began. The 1918 influenza pandemic is seldom mentioned, and most Americans have never heard of it. What is amazing is just how quickly the amnesia began. In researching archives, I was shocked at how little appeared in journals, yearbooks, and annual reports during the pandemic or within a year of its passing. And here was a disease that killed more people in less time than any other event in world history. It was as though it had never happened. It certaily is true that the human mind always trieds to expunge the intolerable from memory.

Medical science remains haunted by the disappearance of the virus. Where did it come from, and where did it go? Virologists are only now slowly unlocking the secrets of the Spanish Flu from recently discovered lung tissue specimens from 1918. Apparently, the virus' savageness was due to a flu strain that had undergone a mutation. Influenza viruses mutate constantly in what is known as antigenic drift, usually in such minimal ways that last year's flu or vaccine offers at least some protection against this year's outbreak. But about every decade or two, such drift may be so dramatic as to be regarded by the human body as an entirely new virus. Then it sweeps through the human population with a vengeance. In 1957 the Asian flu killed 70,000 Americans. In 1968 the Hong Kong flu killed 28,000.

In a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, epidemiologists believe the probability is high that another dangerous new strain of the influenza virus will emerge. Combined with the world's increased population and jet-age travel, the stage could be set for another catastrophe. This pandemic could spread so fast that research laboratories could not isolate, prepare, and distribute an appropriate vaccine in time. Jeffery K. Taubenberger of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and the primary researcher of the 1918 virus points out that if the records are any indication, another pandemic is inevitable. The question is when.

The Spanish Influenza's legacy is carved in stone, amid the cemeteries of cities, towns, and villages throughout [the] United States. A walk through any one of them will possibly reveal a mass grave or perhaps a poignant tombstone inscribed with the year of death--1918.

Bibliography

Taubenberger, J; Reid, A. "Initial Genetic Characterization of the 1918 'Spanish' Influenza Virus" Science 1997 275 pp. 1793-1796.

Webster, R., "1918 Spanish Influenza; the Secrets Remain Elusive." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; 1996 (Feb. 16) 116Y.

Influenza; General Information: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 7 January 1999 CDC Web Site.

Brown, D. "It All Started in Kansas" Washington Post, Weekly Edition, Vol. 9, Number 21. March 23-30, 1992.

Iezzoni, Lynette, Influenza 1918: The Worst Epidemic in American History. T.V. Books, LLC, New York, NY, 1999.

Crosby, Alfred, America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK 1998.

Collier, Richard, The Plague of the Spanish Lady. Forge Village, MA. Murray Printing Co. 1974.

Lynch, E. "The Flu of 1918." The Pennsylvania Gazette, University of Pennsylvania, 17 February 1999.

Gilbert, M., The First World War: A Complete History. Henry Holt & Co. New York, NY 1994.

"Is Another Influenza Pandemic coming soon?" Infectious Disease News, Slack Inc. 2 June 1997.

Henig, R., "Why Hong Kong's Bird Flu Signals a Serious Threat." The Washington Post. (4 January 1998.)

"Influenza, Could it Happen again?" The American Experience, PBS 20 January 1999.

Stachniewicz, SA, Axelrod, J. The Double Frill: The History of the Philadelphia General Hospital School of Nursing. Geo. F. Stichley Co., Philadelphia, PA, 1978.

The Nursing Record, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, 1919 Year Book.

Chestnut Hill Hospital School of Nursing, Annual Report, 1918.

Philadelphia Society of Visiting Nurses, Annual Report, 1918.

Croskey MD, J.W., History of Blockley: A History of the Philadelphia General Hospital. F.A. Davis Co. Philadelphia 1929.

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James F. Armstrong, is a flight nurse with the PENNSTAR Flight Program, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA.

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Source: Armstrong, James F. "Philadelphia, Nurses, and the Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918." Navy Medicine 92, no. 2 (March-April 2001): 16-20.

Deadly Unknown Virus in Ukrain is labeled H1N1 but sources says its not.

A warning was given by this man in the Red beetle name Joseph Moshe but he was captured,then extradited to Israel.
Moshe claimed that Baxter's pharmaceuticals laboratory in the Ukraine out of all places was creating this biological weapon. All of this came out in the beginning of August, which is more than 2 months before the situation that is currently unfolding

Pope signs constitution for Anglicans to join Catholic Church

Why America is in Bible Prophecy

AMERICA'S CRISIS BY URIAH SMITH.
p. 1, Para. 1, [CRISIS].
INTERNATIONAL TRACT SOCIETY PACIFIC PRESS
PUBLISHING CO. 1895.
p. 2, Para. 1, [CRISIS].
THE Government of the United States of America is a
subject of Bible prophecy. Why not? The chief theme of
prophecy, next to the coming, work and second advent, of
our Lord Jesus Christ, to set up His everlasting kingdom,
is the story of the rise and fall of cities, nations and
kingdoms on this earth. Why should not our own nation come
into consideration as well as others?
The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Tyre and Sidon, Nineveh
and Jerusalem, the kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia,
Greece, and Rome, and the ten kingdoms which arose out of
old Rome, all have had their place on the prophetic page.
Their rise, history, decline, and fall, were all plainly
foretold, and every prophetic utterance concerning them has
thus far been fulfilled to the very letter. May we not,
therefore, look for like particulars respecting a
government so prominent and influential as our own? And if
so, ought it not to be a theme of paramount interest to
those who have the opportunity to become acquainted
therewith? .
Scanning the field of prophecy, and noting the character
of the nations which all agree are mentioned in the Bible,
two reasons at once appear why they are thus made prominent
in the prophetic page: First, if they have been nations
which have had a leading influence in the affairs of men;
and, secondly, if they have been so closely connected with
the people of God, and the great events in the development
of the plan of man's redemption through Jesus Christ, that
the history of the true church, and the Lord's work in the
earth, could not be written without making mention of them.

From these facts, as a basis of inquiry, again we ask, Why
should not the United States have a place in prophecy?
Every reason which has ever existed to cause the history of
any nation to be foretold, exists in a tenfold stronger
degree to show that this nation should also receive its
share of testimony from the pen of inspiration. Under the
aegis of a nation guaranteeing perfect civil and religious
liberty, religion has had free course and a large following
in our own land, and intelligence is so widespread that out
of its sixty-five millions of inhabitants over forty-five
millions can read and write. In rapidity of development,
both in territory and population, this nation has never
been equaled by any nation in the world. In the variety and
extent of its resources, the amount and skill of its
agricultural and mechanical productions, it leads the
world; and from the point of view which takes in its power
for self-defense and its resources for the future, it is
the richest and the strongest nation on the face of the
earth to-day. Surely, in the prophetic survey of the great
civil and religious developments in the world's history,
down to the setting up of the everlasting kingdom of the
Son of God, which is the objective point of all prophecy,
such a government cannot be overlooked.
Under the impulse of a probability, which partakes so
largely of the nature of certainty, one can hardly restrain
one's self from an examination of the volume of revelation
to see what nations are noted therein, and to determine
their location and chronology.
In the prophecy of Daniel, chapter 2, under the form of a
great image, the four leading kingdoms of the world, from
B.C. 606, are symbolized, namely, Babylon, Medo-Persia,
Greece, and Rome, and the divisions of Rome, as represented
by the nationalities of modern Europe. Next follows the
kingdom of God. Dan. 2:44.
In the seventh chapter of the same prophecy the ground is
again essentially covered, with further particulars, which
could not be well represented by the image. Thus, the lion
there represents Babylon; the bear, Medo-Persia; the
leopard, Grecia; and the great and terrible nondescript
beast, Rome. The ten horns of this beast signify the ten
kingdoms that arose out of Rome, and the little horn that
came up among them represents the Papacy, which, in the
sixth century, reached the position described in Dan.
7:24,25; 2 Thess. 2:4. The next link in that chain is again
the kingdom of God. Dan. 7:18,27.
In Daniel 8 we have Medo-Persia and Grecia expressly
named, and a little horn, waxing exceeding great, and
passing through two phases, to represent again the Roman
power, this prophecy also reaching down to the overthrow of
all earthly governments.
Coming to the book of Revelation, the vision of chapter 12
opens with a view of ancient Pagan Rome, under the symbol
of a great red dragon. This dragon gives his seat and power
to the leopard beast of chapter 13, which represents Papal
Rome; and verse 3 brings to view the time when the latter
was wounded to death, which was the temporary overthrow of
the Papacy by the French, in 1798. Then follows another
symbol of a beast with two horns like a lamb, of which we
shall have occasion to speak more fully hereafter.
The reader will, of course, understand that in a work of
the studied brevity of this tract, many propositions will
be simply stated, not proved. Abundant evidence for all the
positions taken is furnished in larger works, issued by the
Religious Liberty Association, Battle Creek, Michigan,
which those who desire to study the subject further, are
earnestly invited to read.
The symbols of Revelation 8 and 9 expositors generally
agree in applying to the Barbarians who overthrew Rome, and
the Saracens and Turks under the rise and progress of
Mohammedanism.
Now, we inquire, what portion of the world's territory is
appropriated by these symbols, or, in other words, was
included in the area of the kingdoms which they
represented? Babylon and Medo-Persia covered all the
civilized portion of Asia in ancient times; Greece took in
all Eastern Europe, including Russia; and Rome, with the
ten kingdoms into which it was finally broken up, between
the middle of the fourth and the close of the fifth century
A.D., embraced all Western Europe and Northern Africa; the
Saracens and Turks appropriated to themselves especially
Western Asia and Northern Africa. In other words, all the
portions of the eastern hemisphere, which have borne any
prominent part in the world's progress and civilization,
from the earliest times to the present, are taken up and
appropriated by the symbols already mentioned, respecting
the application of which there is scarcely any room for
doubt, and no very great difference of opinion among
intelligent expositors.
But the reader should bear in mind that there is one
symbol, the second symbol of Revelation 13, which is not
yet applied, and that there is one mighty nation in this
western hemisphere, worthy, as we have seen, of being noted
in prophecy, which is not yet brought in. That is, all the
symbols but one are applied, and all the available portions
of the earth, with the exception of our own government, are
covered by the nations which these symbols represent. To
state it in other words, of all the symbols presented, one
alone, the two-horned beast of Revelation 13, is so far
unapplied, and of all the countries of the earth respecting
which any reason exists why they should be mentioned in
prophecy at all, one alone, our own government, remains
unidentified.
Do the two-horned beast and the United States belong
together? Does the former symbolize the latter? If they do
thus belong together, all the Biblical symbols find an
application, and the whole ground is covered. If they do
not thus belong to each other, it follows (1) that the
United States is not represented in prophecy at all, by any
of the symbols which represent the nations of the earth,
which is not probable; and, secondly, that the symbol of
Rev. 13:11-17 finds no government to which it can be
applied, which is not possible.
Let us then look a little further at this symbol of Rev.
13:11-17, and see if our government has developed any
features in its past history, or present character, which
answer to the specifications brought to view in the symbol.

1. John calls this "another beast," showing that the
nation was a different one from any which had thus far been
represented by any of the preceding symbols. But those
symbols, as we have seen, cover all the available portions
of the eastern hemisphere; hence we must look for the power
intended by this symbol to the western hemisphere. And when
we turn to this locality, the eye is at once attracted by
our own country, the great American colossus here arising.

2. When the nation intended by this prophecy first came to
the prophet's attention, it was "coming up." And the point
of time is clearly indicated. It was when the preceding, or
papal power, represented by the leopard beast, went into
captivity (Rev. 13:10), or when, as already mentioned, the
Papacy was temporarily over-thrown, in 1798. Was our own
nation then coming up? -- Most emphatically. The
Declaration of Independence was issued only twenty-two
years before, and the war for national freedom reached its
successful termination only fourteen years before. Hence,
in the two important points of chronology and location, are
we held to this country, and no other, for the application
of the symbol of the two-horned beast.

3. It comes up out of the earth. The preceding, or leopard
beast, and the four great beasts of Daniel 7, came up out
of the sea, that is, arose in territory thickly populated;
for waters denote peoples and nations and tongues. Rev.
17:15; Isa. 8:7. Coming up out of the earth would signify,
by contrast with coming up out of the sea, the development
of the power in question in a territory new, and previously
unoccupied by civilized nations. This, again, points
directly to the New World, and to our own country.

4. It had two horns like a lamb. Such horns well symbolize
the innocent, peaceful, and lamblike professions of this
government. The two great principles of civil and religious
liberty, -- "a State without a king, and a church without a
pope," -- have been the great attraction which has drawn
the world to America. And this pertains equally to both
branches of the really dual government, State and national,
which here exists.
5. When first brought to view, it was "coming up". That
is, it was in a state of visible, tangible growth and
expansion. And it was also coming up in a quiet and
peaceful manner, for the words "coming up" (in the Greek,
anabatnon) mean "to grow up like a plant out of the earth."
In just this way the United States has arisen. Expanding as
it has, from less than three millions of people, when its
independence was declared, in 1776, to over three millions
and a half square miles of territory, and over sixty-five
millions of people, in a little over a century, it presents
an instance of national growth that has no parallel in the
annals of the world. It has come up, not by conquering and
subjugating other peoples, but in a quiet and peaceful
manner, so much so that George Alfred Townsend, without any
reference to the prophecy, in trying to describe it could
think of no better figure than that which the prophet
himself used nearly eighteen hundred years before. In his
work entitled "The New World Compared with the Old," page
635, contrasting the rise of this country with that of the
other nationalities in the western hemisphere, Mr. Townsend
says, "Like a silent seed, we grew into empire."

6. "He exerciseth all the power of the first beast before
him." That is, it will be no second-rate power, but as
strong a nation as has ever been seen, since empire began.
Our own country, as already mentioned, answers admirably to
this condition.

7. "He causeth the earth, and them which dwell therein, to
worship the first beast." The first beast, as already
noticed, is the Papacy; and to worship any power is to obey
it in some particulars which are peculiar to itself, and in
opposition to the demands of other powers. In the present
case it is further explained by the words of verse 16, that
(the two-horned beast) causes all to receive a mark, which
is the mark of the beast (Rev. 16:2). The mark of any power
is that by which it asserts its claim to supreme authority,
and by which its followers are distinguished from those of
every other power.
In the case of the Roman Catholic Church, in reference to
which these expressions are used, the worship and the mark
are found in the observance of the first day of the week as
the sabbath, which that church claims as its special badge
of authority. See Roman Catholic catechisms.

This comes into direct conflict with the authority of God,
who, for reasons set forth in his word, demands the
observance of the seventh day. It is impossible for anyone
to obey them both; for they are intentionally placed in
antagonism and opposition. Therefore, by his course with
reference to these two days, as to which he will observe as
the Sabbath, every one, with full intelligence in regard to
the issue before him, decides whether he prefers to obey
God in opposition to the church, or the church in
opposition to God. And it is therefore a striking and
corroborative fact that the Sabbath commandment is the only
one in which the earth -- the land, in contrast with them
(the people) who dwell therein -- as set forth in Rev.
13:12, can be caused to obey (Lev. 26:34,35; 2 Chron.
36:21), and thus worship the beast. And the contest is now
on in this country between these two institutions.

8. The nation represented by the two-horned beast is a
Protestant nation; for it causes its people to worship the
first beast, the Papacy, by religiously regarding some
institution of the Papacy, as noted above. Now, if it were
a papal nation, its citizens would voluntarily render that
worship, or if enforced by the government, it would enforce
the worship of itself. But here it is one power enforcing
the worship of another power, and that other power is the
Papacy; for it is the first beast. Therefore, this power
that enforces the worship is a Protestant power, which is
another feature by which it is shown that the two-horned
beast applies to our own country.

9. "He doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come
down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men." It is
another striking fact that in this country modern
Spiritualism originated, through which many wonders have
already appeared, and others, to the full extent of the
prophecy, may just as easily follow; for Spiritualism is a
masterpiece of evil to deceive; and it, according to the
prophecy, is one of the great factors which is to lead the
nation on in the oppressive work which it is finally to do.
Verse 14.

10. It is, lastly, to cause the people to make an image to
the beast; and to do this, it says to them that dwell on
the earth that they should make an image, etc. By this it
plainly appears that the form of the government in question
is republican, for appeal is made to the people to carry
out whatever measure it is desired to secure, and by their
votes the question is decided.

Let us now group together these features, and note their
significance:--
1. The power in question must be located in the western
hemisphere.
2. It comes into view at the time the first beast goes
into captivity, namely, about the year 1798.
3. It rises in a quiet and peaceable manner, like a plant
out of the earth, and in territory previously unoccupied by
civilized nations.
4. It makes a profession which is perfectly just,
innocent, and lamb-like.
5. Its progress is so rapid as to strike the beholder with
wonder.
6. It is the equal of any other nation in power.
7. It enforces an institution of the Papacy -- the firstday
sabbath -- which, when so enforced, constitutes the
worship and mark of the beast.
8. It is a Protestant power.
9. It is a nation in which appear great and super-human
wonders to deceive the people.
10. It is republican in its form of government. p. 14,
Para. 11, [CRISIS].
And of these ten specifications two things can be said:

First, that they will apply perfectly to our own country,
the Government of the United States; and, secondly, that if
we try to apply them to any other government, they will be
found to be utter failures. The two-horned beast,
therefore, symbolizes the Government of the United States,
and cannot be applied to any other nation. Behind these ten
lines of defense the argument for this position lies
impregnably intrenched.
But a painful sequel follows; for, according to the
conditions of the prophecy, some of them already alluded
to, this same power is to commit itself to ways that are
dark and inscrutable, and, contrary to all its profession
of justice and innocence, enter upon a systematic and legal
course of religious persecution against those who would
obey the truth of God, according to His word. While the
beast has the horns of "a lamb," it speaks "as a dragon."

Into these somber features the whole current of this
prophecy at last resolves itself. If the first beast
represents the Papacy, as is the conviction of all genuine
Protestants, and if that system is utterly subversive of
the word of God, being the anthropological horn of Daniel
7, the man of sin and son of perdition spoken of by Paul in
2 Thess. 2, and the antichrist of John, then to worship
that beast is to apostatize from God; and the two-horned
beast, by enforcing that worship, shows itself to be an
enemy of God and the opposer of true religion. If Sunday,
as a rest day, which Rome claims as a mark of her power to
rule the church, is the antagonist and rival of the Sabbath
of the Lord, as is proved by the Scriptures, then the twohorned
beast, by compelling people to receive such mark,
arrays itself on the side of evil, and forces men into a
position of antagonism with Jehovah.
The image which he causes the people to make is an image
of the beast. We can determine what an image of the Papacy
will be by considering what constituted the Papacy itself
in its days of power. As brought to view in the prophecy,
it may be defined as an ecclesiastical hierarchy,
exercising the self-assumed prerogative of defining heresy,
and having the control of the civil arm to punish the same.
An image of this would be an ecclesiastical organization,
having control of the civil power to carry out its own
decisions and purposes. This would of course be a virtual
union of Church and State. This the founders of our
government intended to guard against, but for just this
thing, by a lamentable oversight, they have left the way
all open. Such an organization in this country would be a
reproduction of the first beast in character, and surely
reenact its tyrannical works. The image is not only an
image of the beast, but it is an image made to the beast,
indicating on the part of those who make the image, an
abject deference to, and collusion with, that beast; which,
to say the least, is most astonishing in a professedly
Protestant country.
When people began, years ago, to study these
specifications of the prophecy, they were able to draw only
one conclusion, and that is that the country represented by
the two-horned beast would, in the end, virtually renounce
its Protestantism, its republicanism, ignore its
professions of lamb-like innocence, and, fired with the
spirit of the Papacy, which is the spirit of the dragon
(Rev. 12:13), which is the spirit of the devil (verse 9),
would enforce the worship of the Papacy, would cause its
people to receive the papal mark, would virtually unite
Church and State, under an image of the Papacy, and give
that image power to enforce the worship of itself under
pain of death (Rev. 13:14,15).

This view of the two-horned beast was adopted by Seventhday
Adventists as far back as the year 1851, and the
conclusion was consequently adopted and taught that Sundaykeeping
would here be enforced by law, contrary to the
requirements of God, that in this land there would be a
virtual return to a union of Church and State, and that
scenes of religious persecution, like those which disgraced
the nations of Christendom in the Dark Ages, would be here
reenacted.
This view of the application of the two-horned beast was
taken, and persecution, as here indicated, was predicted,
in the publications issued by the people above named, as
early as the year 1854. The original articles are found in
the Advent Review, Vol. 5, Nos. 9 and 10, dated March 21
and 28, 1854. These were immediately issued in pamphlet
form, and another edition was called for as early as 1857.
The same views were afterward incorporated into larger
works, and have been constantly before the world in
Seventh-day Adventist publications, and set forth in their
public lectures, from that day to this. But when first
advocated, and for many years thereafter, not the least
indications appeared pointing to any fulfillment; yet there
was the prophecy; its application to the United States
could not be questioned; and it followed as surely as the
prophecy was true, that this country would commit itself to
religious persecution before the end of its career. The
position was consequently boldly assumed, in the face of a
storm of incredulity and apparent commiseration for
believers in so improbable a delusion, that such an
unnatural and seemingly impossible work was yet to be done
in this country.
The whole aspect of the scene has now changed!
Spiritualism has shown itself to be the wonder-working
power brought to view in the prophecy. After a few years an
unwonted interest sprang up on the question of securing a
better observance of the first day of the week by law. Socalled
"sabbath committees" were organized in this country
and Canada; and professed Christians began to think that
they were numerous enough to demand some political
victories in behalf of religious dogmas. Like a clap of
thunder from a clear sky, in February, 1863, an association
was formed having for its purpose the securing of an
amendment to the Constitution of the United States,
acknowledging Christ as the Ruler of the nation, and the
law of God as the law of the land. This is now known as
"The National Reform Association." The avowed aim of this
association is to enforce by law the observance of Sunday
as the Sabbath, and to elect no man to office who is not
one of their kind of Christians. A general clamor for
Sunday reform and Sunday laws is arising from all parts of
this country, and in foreign lands as well. The Woman's
Christian Temperance Union has fallen into line, with the
same idea of securing a reformation by law. A new party,
called the American party, has come into existence to
champion the same idea in the field of politics.
Another organization, called the Sabbath Union, is also in
the field for a like object, and lastly, the great
Christian Endeavor movement has arisen, and formed what is
called "The Christian Citizenship League," through which
the combined strength of all the churches is to be turned
to this one end. At the convention of this organization
held in Boston in July, 1895, W. H. Mcmillan said
"Here is a power that is going to wrest the control of
affairs from the hands of political demagogues, and place
it in the hands of Him who is King over all, and rules the
world in righteousness. Our political leaders have been
counting the saloon vote, the illiterate vote, and the
stay-at-home vote, and all other elements that have
hitherto entered into their canvassings of probabilities;
but they have not yet learned to count the Christian
Endeavor vote. I want to serve notice on them now that the
time is drawing near when they will discover that a
political revolution has occurred, and they will be found
coming home from Washington and our State capitals without
a job."
These sentiments were cheered to the echo in the mighty
convention above referred to. Thus these religiopoliticians
know what weapon to use to secure their ends.
The average office holder, threatened with a loss of votes,
is the most abject sycophant on the face of the earth. For
a vote he will sell himself to any unrighteous decree that
religious bigots may demand, and the political demagogue
will do deference, on all fours, to a religious boycott.

The object which these Christian (?) politicians have ever
kept, and still keep, in view, was well defined in a speech
by a Mr. Havens in New York, some years ago, when he said:-

"For my part I wait to see the day when a Luther shall
spring up in this country who shall found a great American
Catholic Church, instead of a great Roman Catholic Church."

And what would this great American Catholic Church be but
the perfect image of the great Roman Catholic Church, which
the prophecy says will be erected here? p. 21, Para. 1,
[CRISIS].
As long ago as July 30, 1864, the Banner of Light, a
Spiritualist paper, of Boston, Mass., said

"A system will be unfolded sooner or later that will
embrace in its folds Church and State, for the object of
the two should be one and the same."
And now these sinister predictions begin to assume shape
before our eyes. Like blood poisoning in the human system,
this idea is permeating the whole religious world, and the
multitudes who have set their hearts upon it are working
for it, not though the gospel, which, when rightly used, is
the power of God unto salvation, but through the human
instrumentalities of the ballot box and a threatened
boycott of all those who oppose their schemes. "Christ,"
they say, "shall be King of this nation," not simply in a
spiritual sense, but politically and actually; and they
dream of a great theocracy, the control of which shall be
in the hands of the professed ministers of Jesus Christ.

Their great rallying cry, drawn from an expression used by
Justice Brewer, of the Supreme Court, in arguing that
Trinity Church, of New York, had a right to send abroad to
secure a minister for its services, is that "this is a
Christian nation." And their purpose evidently is to keep
this fiction before the eyes of the people till they can
force the issue of making this a "Christian government," by
subjecting the State to the dictation of the Church. p.

To this end the Legislatures of the different States have
been besieged by petitions for more stringent Sunday laws,
or for more severe penalties where they already exist. But
most of all have these religious reactionists clamored at
the doors of Congress for national legislation in their
favor; and Congress has so far yielded to their
importunities as to legislate, in direct violation of the
Constitution of the United States, in reference to the
Sabbath question. This was done in connection with the
appropriation to the World's Fair. Our national legislators
went so far as to publicly interpret the fourth commandment
to mean Sunday; and so subservient did Congress show itself
to be that these religious demagogues now openly boast that
they have Congress in their hands, and can force it to do
their bidding. They seem incapable of drawing any lessons
from the history of the past; and every day their dream of
Christianity triumphant, on political lines, expands, and
their intoxication from the prospect of coming power
increases. They will soon be in the position to fulfill
Rev. 18:7. See Isa. 29:8-10.
What do these things mean? -- They mean that the complete
fulfillment of the prophecy we are examining is at our very
doors. And what are to be the practical results of this
movement, as it progresses? They are already beginning to
be seen in the persecution brought upon observers of the
seventh day. In reference to our application of the
prophecy, showing that persecution would be the result of
this religio-political movement, people have pretended to
scout, in a facetious manner, any such idea. Thus the
Christian Statesman, the organ of the National Reform
Association, as long ago as March, 1874, speaking of
Seventh-day Adventists, said:-
"From the beginning of the National Reform movement they
have regarded it as the first step toward the persecution
which they, as keepers of the seventh day, will endure,
when our sabbath laws are revived and enforced. One can but
smile at their apprehensions of the success of a movement
which would not harm a hair of their heads; but their fears
are sincere enough for all that."
But religious bigotry stops only with the limit of its
power, and these people, now finding on many State statute
books, Sunday laws, the offspring of the old adulterous
union of Church and State, which existed in the darkness of
the Middle Ages, have seized upon these laws, and through
them are beginning to set the machinery of oppression in
operation against Sabbath-keepers. The method of procedure
is usually for some professedly pious church member or
minister to act himself as spy, or procure someone else to
act for him in that capacity, to detect a seventh-daykeeper
at some quiet and useful work on Sunday. Then
follows complaint, indictment, conviction, the prison, and
the chain-gang.
Would the reader believe it? just such scenes as here
described have been acted over and over again within a few
years just past, in this country, which professes to
guarantee to every man the liberty to worship God according
to the dictates of his own conscience. Sabbath-keepers hold
that that law which came from the lips and hand of Jehovah,
saying, "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but
the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God," -- a
law as much higher than any law of man as the heavens are
higher than the earth, -- plainly grants them the right, on
all days but the seventh, to engage in any legitimate
occupation requisite for their own sustenance, which
involves no necessary disturbance, or any infringements
upon the rights of others.
The seventh day being the only day which they can really
keep as the Sabbath, there is no other day than the seventh
which they can even seem to keep without the appearance of
evil. But the law-makers, influenced by the fact they
themselves regard the first day of the week as the Sabbath,
or Lord's day, or by the fact that the majority of people
so regard it, frame the statutes so that all men must act
toward the first day of the week just as if it was the
Sabbath, and that they keep it as such, by refraining from
labor on that day. For the Sabbath-keeper to pay all the
outward regard to the first day that he would to the
Sabbath, would be to indulge in a degree of hypocrisy which
his conscience will not allow; and the State, by enforcing
it, restricts his liberty of conscience, and oppresses him
by depriving him of one-sixth of the time available for his
support. And this is done because another class of people
regard the day as the Sabbath, which he does not. It is
class legislation on religious lines, placing one class at
a disadvantage, to the advantage of another class. This is
contrary to the Constitution of the United States, and the
constitutions, or bills of right, of the different States
of which the nation is composed.
The inconsistency of legislating on religious questions,
in a government which declares that nothing of that kind
can be done, is at once seen, and the treachery of
oppressing people for opinion's sake, in a government
guaranteeing liberty of conscience, is keenly felt. Hence,
every conceivable invention is resorted to, to make it
appear that this is not a question of religion at all, but
only a police regulation, or a civil requirement necessary
for the public good, and so to be enforced upon all alike.
Such sophistry is too transparent to be entitled to a
patient hearing; for Sunday, in its origin and history, in
its very intrinsic nature, in root, fiber, branch, and
blossom, in foundation stone and finial, is a religious
institution, and nothing but a religious institution; hence
any law enacted in reference to it can be nothing else than
a religious law, call it by whatever other name one may. No
responsible jurist ever puts in this plea, that it is
merely a civil institution. That is an invention of the
ministers, who are urging this movement forward, and by
which they hope to blind the eyes of the people; and
whenever they gain anything on this plea, in behalf of
Sunday, they immediately glory over it among themselves, as
a victory for the "sabbath" and "Lord's day"! Shame on such
moral turpitude, and doubly so when practised by a
professed follower of Jesus Christ.
"But," it may be urged, "obey the law until it is
repealed." This would do in matters that did not violate
the conscience. But no man true to God could say to Him,
"Lord, I would obey You, but my fellow-men will not permit
me to do so; therefore I will yield to them and disobey You
until they shall see fit to repeal the law; then I will
return to Your obedience." On this ground there never could
have been a reformer, and the world would to-day be lying
in the darkness and death of paganism. Who will thus plead,
that man should be placed before God, and man's law before
the law of Jehovah? The Lord says, "Thou shalt have no
other gods before Me."
The men who founded this republic did not intend that any
trouble should ever arise in this land over a question of
conscience; but they left the evil principle of a religious
law in the framework of their political structure, which,
though then dormant, was sure to spring to life whenever
the opportunity should occur. Through the late unfolding of
truth it is now found that God has requirements upon men
with which the laws of the land are in conflict. What ought
to be done? -- Man ought to obey God, and no court or any
judge should entertain any case resting on a law which is
found to be invasive of any God-given and unalienable right
of man; and the Legislatures of every State where such laws
exist, should, at the very first possible moment, wipe them
off from the statute books. Then there would be no trouble.
But, as long as they are allowed to remain, religious
bigots, unfeeling judges, and those who have feelings of
personal enmity to gratify, will use them to oppress those
whose convictions of duty run contrary to such laws, and
who will be true to what they consider right.
It will be said again, that, in a country like this,
majorities must rule and the minority submit. The answer
again is, Yes, in all matter except those of conscience.

Questions of that kind are not to be decided by majorities
or human authorities. Christ's rule is, "Render unto Caesar
the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that
are God's."
And now, to repeat, persecution has begun. That it is
persecution, pure and simple, is evident from the fact that
all kinds of work, pleasure, and festivities, even of a
questionable character, on the part of non-Sabbath-keepers,
are passed by without any opposition or protest, while he
who observes the seventh day is detected, by those who are
willing to stoop to the dirty work of spies and informers,
then arrested, convicted, and punished, not for any wrong
against his fellow-men, nor the committing of any nuisance,
or anything calculated to demoralize or corrupt society,
but simply because he believes (and practices accordingly)
that the day of the week which is to be kept as the Sabbath
is a different day from that which the majority of the
people regard as such.
Seventh-day Adventists indulge in no spirit of defiance
against the laws of the land; they will obey them in every
particular wherein they do not conflict with their duty to
God; and they are careful to be no cause of disturbance to
their neighbors. Yet they are treated in a way to show, as
herein alleged, that it is a work of persecution, for every
persecution that has ever been waged against dissenters has
had the plea of the law behind it.
It is certainly a remarkable sight to behold the officers
of the law creeping around houses like thieves, and peering
into windows and doors like spies, to find a complaint
against a Seventh-day Adventist for Sunday work of which
they would not otherwise be aware, while the rush and roar
of business, contrary in much greater degree to the letter
of the Sunday laws, are passed by unheeded. Ninety arrests
have been made, some of them under circumstances of great
oppression and cruelty. The prisoners have served an
aggregate of nearly fifteen hundred days in jail and in the
chain gangs. Two men have lost their lives as the result of
the oppressive measures brought against them, as veritable
martyrs to their convictions of truth as any that have gone
down in death in the dungeons of the Romish Inquisition.

The secular papers of the land have generally spoken out
in loud condemnation of the monstrous injustice and wrong
of these things; but the religious press, with a few noble
exceptions, has treated the matter with indifference and
silence. And, more than this, none of those National
Reformers who smiled at our apprehensions in this
direction, have any word of remonstrance to utter, as they
see the reality beginning to come.
For more than forty years we have been predicting such a
condition of things in this country. Reader, you may
perhaps have failed to be convicted by the logic of the
Scriptures and the statements of history that have been
presented; but will you now yield to the logic of the
facts? If our position is true, which events now
transpiring are demonstrating to be the case, the great
crisis of human history is upon us, and the decisions of
eternity are hanging in the balance. Here and now, in the
movements with which it is the lot of the men of this
generation to be connected, is to be decided the great
controversy which commenced with the defection of the archrebel
before time began. Shall God or Satan, good or evil,
be vindicated, and triumph at last? The power behind truth
and righteousness is grandly symbolized in the book of
Revelation, by One riding forth upon a white horse,
followed by the armies of heaven. The opposing powers are
symbolized by the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet,
this last being the same as the two-horned beast, the
symbol of our own government. These three stand for the
three prevailing religions of the world, -- Paganism, the
Papacy, and apostate Protestantism. Rev. 16:13; 19:11-15.

The heavenly Rider prevails; the beast and false prophet
are cast alive into an all-devouring lake of fire, in which
they are consumed, but those who remain loyal to God stand
at last on the crystal sea of heavenly victory (Rev. 15:2,
3), and sing the song of everlasting triumph, called the
song of Moses and the Lamb.
To all who read these pages we earnestly say, These things
are worthy of your careful attention; will you give them
candid and thoughtful study? Where do you stand? Which side
of this controversy will you espouse? What destiny will you
choose?

Swine Flu perspective from Finland Health minister . you need to see this

Many "Christs" shall come and deceive many. The bible forsaw this. Matthew 24:5

Genesis 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

So is the teaching of Mithra no different than Lucifer the serpent. Ecclesiastes 1:9

The great deceiver at the closing time of the sealing of God's people, here in the most critical window of earths History. Where sides are being chosen.Again the distraction of the truth is presented to man.
Back by the UN which split the world in to 10 kingdoms via the club of Rome.The UN now bears the Identity of Egypt,the dragon,the civil power in the end game. click here and here for more more bible proof of this.

For man shall come saying I am Christ and deceive many.

Matthew 24:5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

Mark 13:6 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ ; and shall deceive many.

Luke 21:8 And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.

Gods does not repeat things unless its super important. Many miracles will be wrath in this here last days.And many will be deceive by so call miracles. Satan and his angels of darkness work wonderfully at this time to turn many away from truth.When Salvivic truth is being presented the adversary Satan ,the wicked,The serpent,the Dragon always brings a counterfeit message. A message of error. See the story of Jeremiah, Elijah at mount Carmel. Enemies of the message will always rise when truth is being presented.

Deception of the last days.Nothing has change.
Show us a sign they say show us miracles and great works.
1Corinthians 1:22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
2 Thessalonians 2:1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12.

We as God's people need to plant or roots down deep in The word so that when All that can be shaken will be shaken we will be planted solid in the Rock Christ Jesus who is the way the truth and the life. John 14:6

Source :Royalblood

You may be interested in seeing Who all these new Saviours are connected to by clicking here

Ancient Sun Worship affects all of us.No escape from baptised paganism

Ancient Sun Worship
and Its Impact on Christianity
By A.T Jones
Extract from “The Two Republics”
Ancient Sun Worship and Its Impact on Christianity
2
CHAPTER 1 - ANCIENT SUN WORSHIP
IN the history of mankind no form of idolatry has been more widely practiced than that of the worship of the sun. It may well be described as universal; for there is scarcely a nation in which the worship of the sun in some form has not found a place. In Egypt, the oldest nation of historic times, under the names of Ra and Osiris, with half a dozen other forms; in Phenicia and the land of Canaan, under the names of Baal, Melkarth, Shamas, Adoni, Moloch, and many other forms; in Syria, Tammuz and Elagabalus; among the Moabites, under the names of Baal-peor and Chemosh; among the Babylonians and Assyrians, under the names of Bel and Shamas; among the Medes and Persians and other kindred nations, under the name of Ormuz and Mithra; among the ancient Indians, under the name of Mitra, Mithra, or Mithras;1
in Greece, under Adonis, Apollo, Bacchus, and Hercules; in Phrygia, under the term Atys; and in Rome, under Bacchus, Apollo, and Hercules; -- in all these places, and under all these forms, the sun was worshiped by all these peoples. The myth of Hercules alone will illustrate the wide-spread practice of this worship: "The mythology of Hercules is of a very mixed character in the form in which it has come down to us. There is in it the identification of one
or more Grecian heroes with Melcarth, the sun-god of the Phenicians. hence we find Hercules so frequently represented as the sun-god, and his twelve labors regarded as the passage of the sun through the twelve signs of the zodiac. he is the powerful planet which animates and imparts fecundity to the universe, whose divinity has been honored in every quarter by temples and altars, and consecrated in the religious strains of all national. From Meroe in Ethiopia, and Thebes in Upper Egypt, even to Britain, and the icy regions of Scythia; from the ancient Taprobana and Palibothra in India, to Cadiz and the shores of the Atlantic; from the forests of Germany to the burning sands of Africa; -- everywhere, in short, where the benefits
of the luminary of day are experienced, there we find established the name and worship of a Hercules. "Many ages before the period when Alcmena is said to have lived, and the pretended Tyrinthian hero to have performed his wonderful exploits, Egypt and Phenicia, which divinities from Greece, had raised temples to the sun, under a name analogous to that of Hercules, and had carried his worship to the isle to Thasus and to Gades. Here was consecrated a temple to the year, and to the months which divided it into twelve parts, that is, to the twelve labors or victories which conducted Hercules to immortality. It is under the name of Hercules Astrochyton, or the god clothed with a mantle of stars, that the poet Nonnus designates the sun, adored by the Tyrians. He is the same god,'observes the poet, `whom different nations adore under a multitude of different names: Belus on the bank of the Euphrates, Ammon in Libya, Apis at Memphis, Saturn in Arabia,2 Jupiter in Assyria, Serapis in Egypt, Helios among the Babylonians, Apollo at Delphi, AEsculapius throughout Greece,' etc. Martianus Capella in his hymn to the sun, as also Ausonius and Macrobius, confirms the fact of this multiplicity of names given to a single star. "The Egyptians, according to Plutarch, thought that Hercules had his seat in the sun and that he traveled with it around the moon. The author of the hymns ascribed to Orpheus. fixes still more strongly the identity of Hercules with the sun. He calls Hercules the god who produced time whose forms vary, the father of all things, and destroyer of all. He is the god who brings
back by turns Aurora and the night, and who, moving onward from east to west, runs through the career of his twelve labors; the valiant Titan who chases away maladies, and delivers man from the evils which afflict him.'" -- Anthom.3
By whatever name or under whatever form the sun was worshiped, there was always a female divinity associated with it. Sometimes this female was the moon sometimes the earth, sometimes the atmosphere, and at other times simply the female principle in nature. In other forms it was the idea of a male and female blended in one, as in the case of Baalim. The female sometimes appeared as the wife of the one with whom she was worshiped; sometimes Ancient Sun Worship and Its Impact on Christianity
3 as both the sister and the wife, as in the case of Osiris; yet again as the wife of some other god; and often not exactly as a wife at all, but simply as a female associate. With Osiris was associated Isis; with Baal, Ashtaroth, or Astarte; with Bel, Mylitta; with Shamas, Anunit; with Adonis, Venus; with Hercules, Omphale; with Apollo, Diana; with Atys, Cybele. Sometimes they were worshiped in the images of the male and female human figure; sometimes in the form of a bull and a heifer, as in Osiris and Isis; sometimes in a form in which the human and the beast were blended; sometimes in a simple carved disc for the male, and a piece of carved wood for the female, as in some forms of Baal and Astarte; sometimes in the form of stones
which had fallen from heaven, but mostly in the form of cones or obelisks4 which they
themselves had shaped to represent the male, and of other shapes to represent the female. And yet in unison with all these the sun itself was worshiped, especially at its rising, by a bow or prostration, or kissing of the hand.
In none of these forms, however, not even in the naked shining sun, was it the literal object that was worshiped, but certain functions or powers, of which these were but the representations. It was observed that the sun in co-operation with the earth and the atmosphere which gave rain, caused all manner of verdure to spring forth and bear its proper fruit. It was held, therefore, that the sun was the supreme formative power, the mighty author of fruitfulness, and that the greatest and most glorious manifestation and exertion of his powers were employed in reproduction. Sun worship was therefore nothing more nor less than the worship of the principle of reproduction in man and nature. And as the influence of the
real sun was extended over and through all nature, so this principle was extended through all worship.
"All paganism is at bottom a worship of nature in some form or other, and in all pagan religions the deepest and most awe-inspiring attribute of nature was its power of reproduction.
The mystery of birth and becoming was the deepest mystery of nature; it lay at
the root of all thoughtful paganism, and appeared in various forms, some of a more innocent, others of a most debasing type. To ancient pagan thinkers, as well as to modern men of science, the key to the hidden secret of the origin and preservation of the universe, lay in the mystery of sex. Two energies or agents, one an active and generative, other a feminine, passive, or susceptible one, were everywhere thought to combine for creative purposes; and heaven and earth sun and moon, day and night, were believed to co-operate to the production of being. Upon some such basis as this rested almost all the polytheistic worship of the old civilization; and to it may be traced back, by stage, the separation of divinity into male and
female gods; the deification of distinct powers of nature, and the idealization of man's own faculties, desires, and lusts; where every power of his understanding was embodied as an object of adoration, and every impulse of his will became an incarnation of deity." --
"Encyclopedia Britannica."5
As the sun was the great god, the supreme lord, and as he exerted his most glorious powers in reproduction, it was held to be the most acceptable worship for his devotees so to employ themselves and their powers. Consequently prostitution was the one chief characteristic of sun worship wherever found. As the association of a female without reference to relationship was the only requirement necessary to worship, the result was the perfect confusion of all relationships among the worshipers, even to the mutual interchange of garments between the
sexes. In the eighteenth chapter of Leviticus there is a faithful record of such a result among the sun worshipers of the land of Canaan whom the Lord caused to be blotted from the earth. The prohibition in Deuteronomy xxii, 5 -- "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment" -- was aimed directly at this practice in sun worship.
The sacrifice of virginity was the most acceptable offering that ever could be made in the worship of the sun. Indeed, until this sacrifice had been made, no other offering was Ancient Sun Worship and Its Impact on Christianity 4
acceptable. One ancient writer saw the manner of worship of Bel and Mylitta in Babylon, and has left a record of what he saw. He says: --
"The Babylonians have one most shameful custom. Every woman born in the country must
once in her life go and sit down in the precinct of Venus, and there consort with a stranger. . . . . Venus is called Mylitta by the Assyrians." -- Herodotus.6
Baal-peor, by whose shameful worship Balaam succeeded in bringing evil upon Israel when he failed in his own efforts to curse them, was the god which in Moab presided over such characters as above described by Herodotus in Babylon. This particular system of worship did not prevail outside of Egypt and the Eastern nations. In Greece and Rome the worship was through Bacchus, Hercules, Apollo, etc., and was more in the form of festivals -- mysteries -- celebrated with obscene symbols and in most lascivious rites. The rites of Bacchus are thus described: --
" The worship of Bacchus prevailed in almost all parts of Greece. Men and women joined in his festivals dressed in Asiatic robes and bonnets, their heads wreathed with vine and ivy leaves, with fawn skins flung over their shoulders, and thyrsi or blunt spears twined with vine leaves, in their hands. They ran through the country shouting Io Bacche ! Euoi ! Iacche ! etc., swinging their thyrsi, beating on drums, and sounding various instruments. Indecent emblems were carried in procession, and the ceremonies often assumed a most immoral character and tendency. The Woman, who bore a chief part in these frantic revels, were called Bacchae Maenades Thyiades Euades, etc. " -- Anthon.7 In the mysteries Bacchus was identified with Osiris, and was worshiped as the sun. In India, Schiva and his worship were identical with Bacchus and his worship. "The two systems of worship have the same obscenities, and the same emblems of the generative power." -- Anthon.8 "An obscure native of Greece brought first to Etruria, and shortly afterwards to the more congenial soil of Rome, the mysterious orgies of Bacchus, which had already obtained an infamous celebrity in the East. The horrible wickednesses which were perpetrated at the initiations, at which the passions of the youth of either sex were inflamed by wine and music, secresy and security, had been practiced by the devotees without remorse for some time, before they were discovered. . . . The Bacchanalia, though constantly interdicted, continued to reappear in the city." -- Merivale.9
The worship of the Phrygian Cybele and Atys was common in Greece five hundred years
before Christ, and was introduced into Rome about 547 B. C., when an embassy was sent to the king of Pergamus to ask for the stone which represented Cybele, and which was said to have fallen from heaven. The king gave up the stone, which was taken to Rome. A temple was built, and a festival established in her honor. The festival was called Megalesia, and was celebrated annually in the early part of April, and is thus described: --
"Like Asiatic worship in general, that of Cybele was enthusiastic. Her priests named Galli and Corybantes, ran about with dreadful cries and howlings, beating on timbrels, clashing cymbals, sounding pipes, and cutting their flesh with knives. The box-tree and cypress were considered as sacred to her, as from the former she made the pipes, and Atys was said to have been changed into the latter." -- Anthon.10
The universality of the worship of the sun in Hercules has been already shown. Of the manner in which his worship was conducted, we have the following account: --
"It seems to have been marked by an almost delirious sensuality. Married and unmarried females prostituted themselves at the festival of the gods. The two sexes changed their respective characters; and tradition reported that Hercules himself had given an example of this, when, assuming the vestments and occupation of a female, he subjected himself to the Ancient Sun Worship and Its Impact on Christianity service of the voluptuous Omphale. The Lydian Hercules was named Sandon, after the robe dyed with sandyx, in which Omphalc had arrayed him, and which the females of the country imitated in celebrating his licentious worship." -- Anthon.11
In Rome and Italy, "The worship of Hercules was from an early date among the most widely diffused; he was, to use the words of an ancient author, adored in every hamlet of Italy, and altars were everywhere erected to him in the streets of the cities and along the country roads."
-- Mommsen.12
As before stated, the almost numberless forms of sun worship were practiced in Canaan. In the practice of these fearful abominations they had so corrupted themselves that in the expressive figure of the Scripture, the very earth had grown so sick that it was compelled to vomit out the filthy inhabitants. "The land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants." Lev. xviii, 25. All of this the God of heaven taught his people to renounce. "Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: (for all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled): that the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you. For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people. Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the Lord your God." Lev. xviii, 26-30.13
In all these prohibitions the people were taught to shun as the terrible plague that it was, every suggestion of the evil influences of the worship of the sun. They were to break down all the sun-images and carved stocks -- groves -- that might be found anywhere in all the land which the Lord had given them. See Ex. xxiii, 24; xxxiii, 13, 14.
In yet another and most comprehensive way the Lord taught his people to shun every
indication of the worship of the sun. As has been shown, the devotees of the sun worshiped with their faces toward the east. When God established his worship with the children of Israel in the very midst of the sun worshiping nations round about, at first a sanctuary was built and afterwards a temple, where he dwelt by the glory of his presence. To the door of this sanctuary every form of sacrifice and offering was to be brought, and there they were to worship. And the door of that sanctuary (the temple also) was always toward the east, in order that all who would sacrifice to Jehovah and worship him, would in so doing turn their backs upon the sun and its worship; and that whoever joined in the worship of the sun, had first to turn his back upon Jehovah.
Through the periods of the judges there were lapses into sun worship among the children of Israel, but they were restored to the worship of the Lord, and by the influence of Samuel and David, and Solomon in his early days, the whole nation was separated from sun worship in all its forms, and united in the pure worship of Jehovah. Yet in his later years Solomon turned from the Lord, and "loved many strange women, together with daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in into you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart. For it came to pass when Solomon was old,that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtaroth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father.
Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that Ancient Sun Worship and Its Impact on Christianity is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. And
likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods."
1 Kings xi, 1-8. After the death of Solomon, the ten tribes separated themselves from Judah and Benjamin, and under the kingship, and by the direction, of Jeroboam, established a false worship through the two golden calves copied from Egypt, one of which was placed in Bethel and the other in Dan. Each of the successors of Jeroboam walked in the way of Jeroboam "and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin," unto the time of Omri, who in this wicked way "did worse than all that were before him." "And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. And it came to pass as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshiped him. And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him." 1 Kings xvi, 30-33.
From this it is evident that as corrupt and degrading as was the worship established by Jerobaoam, that of the sun was far worse. Ethbaal was a priest of Baal and Astarte, who assassinated the king and made himself king in his stead. Jezebel brought with her into Israel the worship of Baal and Astarte,-- the male and female sun, -- and established it to such an extent that in a few years there were four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and four hundred of Astarte, and only seven thousand people in all Israel who had not joined in the wicked worship. Elijah began a reformation, but the worship and the gods introduced by Jezebel remained in some measure till the reign of Jehu, who gathered every worshiper of Baal to a general assembly in honor of Baal, and slew them all. "And they brought forth the images out of the house of Baal, and burned them. And they brake down the image of Ball, and brake down the house of Baal, and made it a draught house unto this day. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them, to wit, the golden calves that were in Bethel and that were in Dan." 2 Kings x, 26-29. Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, married Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and with her, sun worship through Baal and Ashtaroth was introduced into the kingdom of Judah; for Jehoram "walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab; for the daughter of Ahab was his wife: and he did evil in the sight of the Lord." 2 Kings viii, 18. This worship of Baalim continued till the time of Hezekiah, who "brake the images [sun images] in pieces, and cut down the groves [Ahseras, representations of Ashtaroth], and threw-down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin." 2 Chron. xxxi, 1. By Manasseh, however, this worship was all restored in its fullest extent; "for he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served them. Also he built altars in the house of the Lord whereof the Lord had said, In Jerusalem shall my name be forever. And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son Hinnom: also he observed times and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger. And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made in the house of God of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name forever." 2 Chron. xxxiii, 3-7.
This image which he set in the house of the Lord was rather a double image of Baal and Ashtaroth, which he put up above the altars of Baal in the house of the Lord. The cloisters about the temple were used as stables for the horses which were dedicated to the sun. By the Ancient Sun Worship and Its Impact on Christianity side of the temple he built houses for the priests and priestesses of the Baalim, where the women wove hangings for the figures of Astarte.
Happily, Manasseh was succeeded by Josiah, who annihilated this whole system. "For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father : and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images. And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images that were on high above them he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images he brake in pieces and made dust of them, and strewed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them." "And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove. And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba,and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city. . . .
And he defiled Topheth, which is the valley of the children of Hinnom. that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire. And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron." 2 Chron. xxxiv, 3,4 ; 2 Kings
xxiii,7-12
Yet by the time that Zedekiah reigned, there was again a serious lapse not tonly into certain forms of sun worship, but into the open worship of the literal sun. Ezekiel was among the captives in Babylonia, and by the Spirit of God he was taken in a vision to Jerusalem, and was caused to see the abominations that were being practiced there. First, he was caused to see the image of Jealousy in the very entry way to the altar of sacrifies, before the house of the Lord.
He was told to turn, and he would see greater abominations than this. He then saw, "and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about. And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them Stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up."
Again he was told to turn, and he would see yet greater abominations than this that they were doing. He was then brought " to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north : and, behold, there sat women weeping] for Tammuz."
And he was told to turn yet again, and he should see greater abominations even than this.
"And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east, and they worshiped the sun toward the east." Eze.viii,16.
All that is meant in this we cannot tell; but this much is certain, that, in the estimate of Jehovah, as bad as was the worship of Astarte, and however much it provoked to jealousy; as bad as was the worship of all manner of abominable beasts; as bad as was the worship of Tammuz; yet worse than all these, even though in them were embodied some forms of sun worship -- more abominable than all these was the setting of the face toward the east, in the worship of the sun itself. This was to turn the back upon the Lord; to leave him and his worship behind; and, in worshiping the visible sun, to choose all that was included in all the Ancient Sun Worship and Its Impact on Christianity
8
forms of its worship that might be known. This was open apostasy -- the renunciation of all that was good and the acceptance of all that was bad.
Now, aside from the lascivious rites of Bacchus and Hercules, and beyond the fearful orgies of Cybele, this very form of worship prevailed in the Roman empire. The worship of the sun itself was the principal worship of the Romans in the time of Constantine. The sun, as represented in Apollo, was the chief and patron divinity recognized by Augustus. "Apollo was the patron of the spot which had given a name to his great victory of Actium; Apollo himself,it was proclaimed, had fought for Rome and for Octavius on that auspicious day; the same Apollo, the sun-god, had shuddered in his bright career at the murder of the dictator, and had terrified the nations by the eclipse of his divine countenance . . . . Besides building a splendid temple to Apollo on the Palatine Hill, the emperor sought to honor him by transplanting to the Circus Maximus, the sports of which were under his special protection, an obelisk from Heliopolis [city of the sun] in Egypt. This flame-shaped column was a symbol of the sun, and originally bore a blazing orb upon its summit." -- Merivale. 14
To Sol Deus invictus -- the sun, the unconquerable god -- were attributed the world-wide conquests of the Roman power. The greatest and most magnificent temple that ever was built on earth, except only that built by Solomon, was erected by Antoninus Pius, emperor of Rome, at Baalbek, in honor of the visible shining sun.
But it was in Elagabalus that the worship of the sun received its strongest imperial impetus.
The way that he became emperor was this : The emperor Caracalla was murdered near
Antioch, March 8, A.D. 217, and there Macrinus became emperor in his stead. Caracalla's mother committed suicide shortly afterward, and then Macrinus commanded Julia Maesa, her sister, to leave Antioch with her family. She went to Emesa where a considerable body of troops was stationed, and where was a temple of the sun which the troops frequented in their worship. Julia's grandson, Bassianus, was made high-priest of the sun in this temple. In this young man the troops "recognized," or thought they recognized, the features of Caracalla."
Julia took particular pains, by the careful distribution of money, to deepen this impression,and May 16, 218, he was declared emperor by the troops at Emesa. He asserted his hereditary right to the office because of his relationship of Caracalla.
The rebellion rapidly spread among the troops throughout the province. Officers who tried to check it were murdered, and the power of young Bassianus daily grew.
Macrinus assembled his troops, and left Antioch to quell the insurrection. A battle was fought, and Macrinus was slain, thus ending a reign of eighty-seven days, and Bassianus became emperor in fact, June 7, A.D. 218. He assumed the name of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, and sent letters to the Senate announcing his accession to the empire in the place of Macrinus. Not being ready just then to go to Rome personally, he sent a picture of himself which he commanded to be placed in the Senate house over the altar of victory. "He was drawn in his sacerdotal robes of silk and gold, after the loose flowing fashion of the Medes and Phenicians;his head was covered with a lofty tiara, his numerous collars and bracelets were adorned with gems of an inestimable value. His eyebrows were tinged with black, and his cheeks painted with an artificial red and white." -- Gibbon.15 The name under which the sun was worshiped at Emesa, where Bassianus was high-priest, was Elagabalus. His accession to the office of emperor he attributed to the favor of this sun-god. Therefore as emperor he assumed the name of Elagabalus as greater and more honorable than any that might be derived from any other source, and by this name alone is he known in history.
When he went to Rome, the "black conical stone" from Emesa, the symbol of the functions of the sun, was taken with him, and as he moved "in a solemn procession through the streets of Rome, the way was strewed with gold dust; the black stone, set in precious gems, was placed on a chariot drawn by six mill-white horses richly caparisoned. The pious emperor held he Ancient Sun Worship and Its Impact on Christianity 9 reins, and supported by his ministers, moved slowly backwards, that he might perpetually enjoy the felicity of the divine presence. In a magnificent temple raised on the Palatine Mount, the sacrifices of the god Elagabalus were celebrated with every circumstance of cost and solemnity. The richest wines, the most extraordinary victims, and the rarest aromatics, were profusely consumed on his altar. Around the altar a chorus of Syrian damsels performed their lascivious dances to the sound of barbarian music." -- Ginnon.16
It was in perfect harmony with the rites of sun worship everywhere that all the laws of nature and decency should be violated and subverted by Elagabalus; that he should have a long train of concubines, and a rapid succession of wives; that a vestal virgin should be taken by force from her sacred retreat to feed his passion ; and that he should put on the dress, and play the part, of a woman, while he publicly assigned to another the title and the place of husband to himself. All these things belonged with the worship of the sun, and all this Elagabalus did, not as emperor, but as imperial high-priest and representative of the sun. As emperor and highpriest of the sun, it was his chief purpose, and "it was openly asserted, that the worship of the sun, under his name of Elagabalus, was to supercede all other worship." -- Milman.17
As soon as Aurelian became emperor, March, A. D.270, he began the erection of a temple of Rome in honor of the sun. In A. D. 272 he made an expedition against Zenobia, who had established her authority in the East with her capital at Baalbek. When he had overthrown her power and captured her capital city, he left an officer with a garrison of troops to govern the city while he returned to Europe. The people arose and murdered the governor and his soldiers. Aurelian returned and gave up the people to indiscriminate massacre, and made of the city itself a heap of ruins. The only attempt he made to repair it was to restore the temple of the sun, which Antoninus had built. When he returned to Rome in A. D.274, he celebrated a triumph, which, in magnificence and the abundance of treasures, was second to none that Rome had ever seen. At this time also he dedicated his magnificent temple to the sun. "A considerable portion of his oriental spoils was consecrated to the gods of Rome ; the Capitol, and every other temple, glittered with the offerings of his ostentatious piety; and the temple of the sun alone received above fifteen thousand pounds of gold. This last was a magnificent structure, erected by the emperor on the side of the Quirinal Hill, and dedicated soon after the triumph, to that deity whom Aurelian adored as the parent of his life and fortunes. His mother had been an inferior priestess in a chapel of the sun; a peculiar devotion to the god of light, was a sentiment which the fortunate peasant imbibed in his infancy; and every step of his elevation, every victory of his reign, fortified superstition by gratitude." -- Gibbon.18
The immediate predecessor of the emperor Diocletian died on his way from Persia to Europe.
The fact of his death was concealed from the army for a time, which gave rise to a strong suspicion that he had been murdered. When Diocletian was chosen emperor, he therefore deemed it necessary to purge himself of all suspicion by a means which would prove satisfactory to all. He did it by a solemn oath in the face of the sun. "Conscious that the station which he had filled, exposed him to some suspicions, Diocletian ascended the tribunal, and raising his eyes towards the sun, made a solemn profession of his own innocence, in the presence of that all-seeing deity." -- Gibbon.19 And it was the oracle of the sun -- Apollo -- at Miletus, which he consulted before he issued the decree of persecution, to which he was so strongly urged by Galerius, who was prompted by his mother, a fanatical worshiper of Cybele.
But it was in Constantine that, after Elagabalus, the sun found its most worshipful devotee. As emperor of Rome he had to show some deference to the other gods, and therefore on the medals which were issued in honor of his victories, there were the figures of Jupiter and Mars,as well as of Hercules and Apollo. Up to the period of his war with Maxentius, A. D.312, "all that we know of Constantine's religion would imply that he was outwardly, and even Ancient Sun Worship and Its Impact on Christianity zealously, pagan. In a public oration, his panegyrist extols the magnificence of his offerings to the gods. His victorious presence was not merely expected to restore more than their former splendor to the Gaulish cities ruined by barbaric incursions, but sumptuous temples were to arise at his bidding, to propitiate the deities, particularly Apollo, his tutelary god. The medals struck for these victories are covered with the symbols of paganism. Eusebius himself admits that Constantine was at this time in doubt which religion he should embrace." Milman.20
Thus as emperor, and to satisfy the prejudices of the people, some respectful deference was shown to other gods, but "the devotion of Constantine was more peculiarly directed to the genius of the sun, the Apollo of Greek and Roman mythology; and he was pleased to be represented with the symbols of the god of light and poetry. The unerring shafts of that deity, the brightness of his eyes, his laurel wreath, immortal beauty, and elegant accomplishments,
seemed to point him out as the patron of a young hero. The altars of Apollo were crowned with the votive offerings of Constantine; and the credulous multitude were taught to believe that the emperor was permitted to behold with mortal eyes the visible majesty of their tutelar deity; and that, iether waking or in a vision, he was blessed with the auspicious omens of a long and victorious reign. The sun was universally celebrated as the invincible guide and
protector of Constantine." -- Gibbon21
In the time of Constantine, and in Constantine himself. the worship of the sun occupied the imperial seat, and was the imperial religion of Rome. It will be necessary in another chapter to trace the same thing among the people of the empire.
-----------------------------------
1 This is so among the Hindus of India, even to this day. " The most sacred and the most universally used -- even
to the present day -- of all Vedic prayers is that composed in the Gayatri meter, and thence called Gayatri, or , as
addressed to the vivifying Sun-god, Savitri : `Let us meditate on that excellent glory of the Divine vivifier; may he
enlighten our understanding."
"Turning toward the Eastern sky, he repeats the Gayatri or Savitri . . . This prayer is the most sacred of all Vedic
utterances, and like the Lord's prayer among Christians, . . . must always among Hindus take precedence of all
other forms of supplication. The next division of the service is called Upasthana (or Mitro-pasthana) because the
worshiper abandons his sitting posture, stands erect with his face toward the rising sun, and invokes that luminary
under the name of Mitra. The prayer he now repeats is Rig-veda iii, 59, of which the first verse is to the following
effect :
" ` Mitra, raising his voice, calls men to activity.
Mitra, sustains the earth and the sky.
Mitra, with unwaking eye, beholds call creatures.
Offer to Mitra the oblation of butter ! '
The use of this hymn is the morning service of every Hindu." -- " Religious Thought and Life in India." chap i last
par., and chap. xv, par., 41,57.
2 Sun worship, with that of the other heavenly bodies, continued till the rise of Mahomet. The father of Mahomet,
when a boy, was devoted as a sacrifice to the sun, but fortunately was ransomed. (See Gibbon," Decline and Fall,"
Chap. 1, par 9.) It was from the horrors of sun-worship that Mahomet turned Arabia.
3 "Classical Dictionary," article "Hercules."
4 The obelisk, or Cleopatra's Needle, brought from Egypt and now standing in Central Park, New York City, is one
of these stone sun-images.
5 Article "Christianity."
Ancient Sun Worship and Its Impact on Christianity
11
6 Book i, chap excix.
7 "Classical Dictionary, Bacchus.
8 Id.
9 "History of Romans Under the Empire, " chap xxii, par. 19,20.
10 "Classical Dictionary," article "Cybele."
11 Id., "Hercules."
12 "History of Rome, " book i chap. xii, par. 25.
13 Read also the whole of Leviticus chapters xviii,xx.
14 "Romaus Under the Empire." chap xxxiii, par .13.
15 "Decline and Fall,"chap. vi, par. 22.
16 Id., par. 23.
17 "History of Christianity," book ii, chap. viii, par. 22.
18 "Decline and Fall," chap.xi, par.43.
19 Id., Chap. xii, par.41.
20 "History of Christianity," book iii, chap. 1, par. 36.

Egypt, freemasonary,Judaism,Islam - The missing links

part1



part 2

Can man come up with this ?

Poverty soon to spread when the artificial prosperity falls through

The inhabitants of Planet earth are being prepared for the crowning act in the great drama of deception

As the crowning act in the great drama of deception, Satan himself will personate Christ. The church has long professed to look to the Saviour's advent as the consummation of her hopes. Now the great deceiver will make it appear that Christ has come. In different parts of the earth, Satan will manifest himself among men as a majestic being of dazzling brightness, resembling the description of the Son of God given by John in the Revelation. [REV. 1:13-15.] The glory that surrounds him is unsurpassed by anything that mortal eyes have yet beheld. The shout of triumph rings out upon the air., "Christ has come! Christ has come!" The people prostrate themselves in adoration before him, while he lifts up his hands, and pronounces a blessing upon them, as Christ blessed his disciples when he was upon the earth. His voice is soft and subdued, yet full of melody. In gentle, compassionate tones he presents some of the same gracious, heavenly truths which the Saviour uttered; he heals the diseases of the people, and then, in his assumed character of Christ, he claims to have changed the Sabbath to Sunday, and commands all to hallow the day which he has blessed. He declares that those who persist in keeping holy the seventh day are blaspheming his name by refusing to listen to his angels sent to them with light and truth. This is the strong, almost overmastering delusion. Like the Samaritans who were deceived by Simon Magus, the multitudes, from the least to the greatest, give heed to these sorceries, saying, This is "the great power of God." [ACTS. 8:10.]
But the people of God will not be misled. The teachings of this false christ are not in accordance with the Scriptures His blessing is pronounced upon the worshipers of the beast and his image,--the very class upon whom the Bible declares that God's unmingled wrath shall be poured out.
And, furthermore, Satan is not permitted to counterfeit the manner of Christ's advent. The Saviour has warned his people against deception upon this point, and has clearly foretold the manner of his second coming. "There shall arise false christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. . . . Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." [MATT. 24:24-27, 31, 25:31; REV. 1:7; 1 THESS. 4:16, 17.] This coming, there is no possibility of counterfeiting. It will be universally known--witnessed by the whole world.
Only those who have been diligent students of the Scriptures, and who have received the love of the truth, will be shielded from the powerful delusion that takes the world captive. By the Bible testimony these will detect the deceiver in his disguise. To all, the testing time will come. By the sifting of temptation, the genuine Christian will be revealed. Are the people of God now so firmly established upon his Word that they would not yield to the evidence of their senses? Would they, in such a crisis, cling to the Bible, and the Bible only? Satan will, if possible, prevent them from obtaining a preparation to stand in that day. He will so arrange affairs as to hedge up their way, entangle them with earthly treasures, cause them to carry a heavy, wearisome burden, that their hearts may be overcharged with the cares of this life, and the day of trial may come upon them as a thief.
source :{Great Controversy 625.2}
Ellen White

Millions worship Lucify ( light bearer )ignorantly

Demonic angels are assigned to many who follow the pop culture and rap music.
Millions worship Satan directly ,but they do so ignorantly.
Many rappers are instruments of this grand deceptions.
Hence they are promised wealth and much possession when given the hypnotic power to cause many to worship the devil.

Because they love not the truth, strong delusion overtake them and thus many will be lost.