“Come Out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues”
Revelations 18:4 (KJV)
The first step to coming out of Mystery Babylon is understanding more about what that means; and in order to do so, we first need to have a good understanding of the Babylonian origins. The Greek word Babylon (G0897), means confusion. Babylon is of Hebrew origin from the word babel (H0894), which means confusion by mixing. So the root of Babylon is the mixing of Falsehoods with the Truth, thus creating confusion. If you ever wondered about the parable of the wheat and the tares, that is exactly what Mystery Babylon is made of; the wheat is the Truth and the tares are the Falsehoods that were planted among the wheat. However, they had to be allowed to grow together because pulling the tares too soon, or in the wrong manner could/can uproot the wheat; so we must delicately extract the tares, without dislodging the wheat. With that being said, throughout the process there may be many things that go against your current beliefs and make you uncomfortable, and that is completely understandable; but if it is Truth we truly seek, then we must be willing to accept correction. If not, we are only seeking to confirm what we currently believe, leaving ourselves no room for growth, nor the ability to overcome the falsehoods which could hold us in the captivity of Mystery Babylon.
The Reign of Solomon and the Temple which lead to the Babylonian Captivity
The House of David was left in the hands of Solomon, who according to 1 Chronicles 3, was from David’s 7th wife, Bathsheba. Solomon was the second child born to Bathsheba after losing her first child according to 2 Samuel 12, which would make Solomon one of 7 children, but the 8th born child of David. Solomon amazed people with his wisdom, and in 1 Kings 5:4 we see that no one would make war against him. He was very wealthy and collected 666 gold talents per year 1 Kings 10:14. Then in 1 Kings 11, we learn that King Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh (reconnecting Israel with Egypt), women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites, and it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods. Solomon went after Ashtoreth (a.k.a. Ishtar or Easter) the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. Solomon even built a temple for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon where they burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods. In other chapters it says Solomon built a Temple for the Lord God of Israel, so did Solomon build two separate Temples, or just one? Most everything points to only one Temple of Solomon. The Lord God of Israel was angry, “Wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon, forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant. Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy father’s sake: but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son. Howbeit I will not rend away all the kingdom; but will give one tribe to thy son for David my servant’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake which I have chosen.” 1 Kings 11:11-13. The House of David was left one Tribe to be a light and that was the Tribe of Judah.
2 Kings 17:13 “the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”
But they hearkened not, and eventually they were taken into captivity into Babylon and the Temple was destroyed. This is where the Prophets come in for helping us acquire a more in-depth, detailed, idea of what had transpired.
Jeremiah 8:8 “‘How can you say, “We are wise; Adonai’s Torah is with us,”
when in fact the lying pen of the scribes has turned it into falsehood
Isaiah 24:5 “the earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the ordinances, changed the Torah and broken the everlasting agreement”
According to both Isaiah and Jeremiah, they didn’t just fail to keep the commands, they actually changed the Torah (Instructions/Laws) and turned them into falsehoods and broke the everlasting agreement. So this is where the tares were planted among the wheat, and now we must dig deeper to locate and isolate the tares, being mindful to not dislodge the wheat.
Jeremiah 7:22 “For I didn’t speak to your ancestors or give them orders concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.”
Amo 5:25-26 “Have you offered me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years? you, house of Jacob? “No, but now you will bear Sikkut as your king and Kiyun, your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves;”.
Isa 1:11-13;15 “Of what use to Me are your many slaughterings? I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and of caged beasts. I do not require in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or goats. When you come to appear before Me, who has asked this from your hand? To trample My lands? Stop bringing futile sacrifices! (…) when you hold out your hands, I hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I do not hear. Your hands have become filled with blood.”
Isaiah 66:3 “He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.”
Psalm 51:16-17 “For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”
Hosea 6:6-7 “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” But they LIKE ADAM have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.
According to the Prophets, there was never a command to sacrifice from the Eternal (God), however it has been woven into the text on a very large scale, and is a huge foundational framework for the majority of doctrines, from Judaism forward. Most commands to sacrifice are required to be done at the Temple, and before Solomon there was no Temple. The Temple was destroyed, so it was, but then was not. That is until it was rebuilt, but it was also destroyed again; so once again it was, then was not, yet it still is in concept, which we will get into shortly. First let’s see what else was said about it.
Jeremiah 7:4 Don’t rely on that deceitful slogan, ‘The temple of Adonai, the temple of Adonai — these [buildings] are the temple of Adonai.’
Hosea 8: 12-14 I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing. They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it; but the Lord accepteth them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt. For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.
Isaiah 59:7 Their feet run to evil, they rush to shed innocent blood, their thoughts are thoughts of wickedness, their paths lead to havoc and ruin.
Jeremiah 7:5-10 No, but if you really improve your ways and actions; if you really administer justice between people; if you stop oppressing foreigners, orphans and widows; if you stop shedding innocent blood in this place; and if you stop following other gods, to your own harm; then I will let you stay in this place, in the land I gave to your ancestors forever and ever. Look! You are relying on deceitful words that can’t do you any good. First you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, offer to Ba‘al and go after other gods that you haven’t known. Then you come and stand before me in this house that bears my name and say, ‘We are saved’ — so that you can go on doing these abominations!
This does indeed upset the apple cart, and can be a bit hard to take in, but rest assured that as we walk through this step by step, things will become clearer and the true character of the Almighty will shine through. The Bible is a collective work of writings, written by men that was put together by men, and redacted and edited. Unfortunately the Bible is not the Infallible Living Word of the Eternal, but it is indeed a collection of witnesses that we must test and rightly divide, sorting out the wheat from the tares. To do so, we must wholeheartedly seek guidance from the Most High and heed the words of the prophets; then go back to the most original sources we have, and walk through the history of the Torah (First 5 books of the Bible or Tanakh) all the way through to the New Testament (see The History of the Bible). We know already, from what we just learned, that the major additions of the false sacrificial system were introduced around the time of Solomon and with the building of the Temple. The Temple was then destroyed and they were taken into the Babylonian captivity. They heeded the words of Jeremiah long enough to come out of Babylon, but they soon turned on Jeremiah and killed him, just as they killed Isaiah, and by 516 B.C.E. they had rebuilt the Temple, and Ezra was required by the King of Babylon to once again edit the Tanakh (Old Testament) before allowing it to be removed from Babylon. But Jerusalem was not the only place that was destroyed, Babylon was destroyed in 698 B.C.E. by King Sennacherib of Niveveh, and then Nineveh was destroyed in 612 B.C.E. by a Babylonian led coalition. Nineveh is mentioned in the Book of Jonah and is connected to the sign of Jonah that is referenced several times in the New Testament apocrypha, so it is important to likewise look closer at Nineveh.
Nineveh was one of the oldest and greatest cities in antiquity. It was a trade center, that became one of the largest and most affluent cities in antiquity. Nineveh was also a major religious center for the worship of the goddess Ishtar (Easter). In 2260 B.C.E. an earthquake destroyed the first temple of Ishtar at Nineveh, possibly constructed by Sargon the Great, which was rebuilt by the Akkadian king Manishtusu (r. 2270-2255 BCE) who also added on to the city. The Akkadians also assoiciated the city with Ishtar and held it, and the region at large, until the fall of their empire in c. 2083 BCE. At this time the Hatti regained their autonomy in the region briefly until they were overrun by the Assyrians and Amorites. The last phase of Assyrian rule in the region, is the most famous of Assyrian kingdoms and Nineveh reached its height under the reign of its kings. The city grew dramatically in size, grandeur and fame under the reign of King Sennacherib (r. 722-705 BCE) who made Nineveh his capital. He built great walls around the city with fifteen gates, created public parks and gardens, aqueducts, irrigation ditches, canals, and greatly expanded upon and improved the structures of the city. His palace had eighty rooms and he proclaimed it “the palace without rival,” see full history here.
Stephanie Dalley pointed out in detail how classical and Biblical writers were confused with respect to Nineveh and Babylon, and how people had trouble keeping them apart.[2] Therefore, recent scholarship claims that the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon were actually located at Nineveh and were constructed under Sennacherib’s reign. So, both Babylon and Nineveh had Temples to their gods and a connection to the Ishtar (Easter) goddess, and they were both two of the largest most prominent cities in existence; and even though Babylon was rebuilt after its first destruction, it was eventually destroyed again, but Nineveh was destroyed to the point that there isn’t a trace of it left.
Now that we have looked at it from a historical perspective, and see that there is a strong connection between Nineveh and Babylon, let’s look at Nineveh from a Biblical perspective. Nineveh is talked about most in depth in the Book of Jonah, which tells about Nineveh around the time of the reign of Hebrew King Jeroboam II (786-746 BCE); however, the text was dated to around 500-400 B.C.E., so it was likely rewritten/edited a couple hundred years after the time everything took place. There are other references as well in other books of the Bible, so we are able to get a general idea of events.
Jonah 1:2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
Jonah 3:4 -8 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
Jonah 4:11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?
While it does not give us specific details of what their wicked acts were, it alludes to the fact that they did not know their right hands from their left, meaning they were without knowledge of right and wrong, and there was violence that was in their hands. So it goes in line with what the prophets were calling for repentance from where Jerusalem and Israel were concerned. According to the Book of Jonah, Nineveh repented and therefore they were not destroyed, but since historical records prove otherwise, either that was not the case, or they later turned back away from the Most High. However, it is important to note that most times destruction doesn’t necessarily come from the Most High, but rather from our lack of following His instructions, and creating our own demise. There is a parallel between Nineveh and Babylon, from their actions and practices all the way to their destruction. Then there was Solomon who followed suit and likewise built a Temple to serve other gods and sacrifice unto them and that ideology became largely mingled in with the true instructions of the Most High leaving His people in the state of Nineveh not knowing their right hand from their left. After the destruction of Jerusalem and the first temple, and they were taken into Babylonian captivity, they too repented, but just long enough to return to Jerusalem, and then they turned on Jeremiah, killed him and rebuilt the Temple. So the Babylonian ideologies and practices were revived once again, that is until Yeshua(Jesus) and the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E.. Since there is no Temple, the ideology within Judaism is that sacrifice is not required, that is at least until the building of the Third Temple(as a Building), but history has shown that could lead to destruction. However, even though there is no Temple, the concept of the false sacrificial system is still thriving within Christianity that turned the Yeshua(Jesus) into the ultimate sacrifice giving rise to Mystery Babylon. Having come from a Missionary Baptist, Christian background, and having fear instilled in me to not ever deny Jesus as my sacrifice, understanding the next part of this, was extremely hard for me, and I fought against it for quite a while until I was able to see it more clearly. One thing I was sure of though, was that I did not want to reject the very knowledge that I was seeking, simply because I refused to be corrected on what I thought I knew. Once I began to see it from a different perspective, it became very clear, and then I could see the error very plainly in what I had been holding onto.
Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
Jeremiah 6:16 Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.
Coming out of Mystery Babylon is a process that we must work our way through step by step to overcome, this is just the beginning, so we urge you to continue with us as we walk through each subject. Before getting into discerning the scriptures, it is important that we build a solid foundation, so from here we are going to go back to the beginning, and build upon the true character of The Heavenly Father and the Light of the World that gave life all things. The next part we will explore is The Everlasting Light of Life.
K.M.D. & Set Apart Yahad ©2012-2022