The Two Babylons Alexander Hislop The Beast from the Earth
Chapter VII
Section III
Rev 13:11
And I beheld another
beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb,
and he spake as a dragon. Rev 13:12 And he exerciseth all the power of the
first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell
therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
Now, in ancient Chaldea there was the type,
also, of this. That god was called in Babylon Nebo, in Egypt Nub
or Num, * and among the Romans Numa, for Numa Pompilius, the great
priest-king of the Romans, occupied precisely the position of the
Babylonian Nebo. * In Egypt, especially among the
Greek-speaking population, the Egyptian b frequently passed into
an m. Among the Etrurians, from whom the Romans
derived the most of their rites, he was called Tages, and of this Tages
it is particularly recorded, that just as John saw the beast under
consideration "come up out of the earth," so Tages was a child
suddenly and miraculously born out of a furrow or hole in the ground. In
Egypt, this God was represented with the head and horns of a
ram. TG Naga (Sk). Literally "Serpent". The name in the Indian Pantheon of the Serpent or
Dragon Spirits, and of the inhabitants of Patala, hell.
But as Patala means the antipodes, and was the name given to America
by the ancients, who knew and visited that continent before Europe
had ever heard of it, the term is probably akin to the
Mexican
Nagals the (now)
sorcerers and medicine men. The Nagas are the Burmese Nats, serpent-gods, or "dragon demons". Naga (Sanskrit) Serpent; the symbol of immortality and wisdom, of renewed births, of secret knowledge and, when
the tail is held in the mouth, of eternity. The nagas or serpents of
wisdom are, therefore, full initiates: "the first Nagas -- beings wiser than Serpents -- are the 'Sons of Will
and Yoga,' born before the complete separation
of the sexes, 'matured in the man-bearing eggs
produced by the power (Kriyasakti) of the holy sages' of the early Third Race" (SD 2:181). These first
nagas were the original
human
adepts, who were later
symbolized by the terms serpents and dragons. "These 'originals' -- called to this day in China
'the Dragons of
Wisdom' -- were the
first disciples of the Dhyanis, who were their instructors; in short, the primitive adepts of the Third Race,
and later, of the Fourth and Fifth Races. The name became universal,
and no sane man
before the Christian era would ever have confounded the man and the
symbol" (SD 2:210). Hierophant [from Greek hierophantes from
hieros sacred + phainein to show] A
revealer of sacred
mysteries; title given
to the highest
adepts in the temples
of antiquity, who taught and expounded the Mysteries. The attributes
of a hierophant were those of Hermes
or Mercury, being both expounder and mystagog or conductor of souls. In Hebrew an equivalent is found in the hierarchy
of the 'elohim. Many names of man-gods refer to archaic
hierophants, such as Orpheus, Enoch,
etc. The hierophants of ancient Egypt handed down the sacred teachings, some of which
were, however, lost by the deaths of hierophants before they had
completed their message because, due to the degeneration which had
come upon the West, they were unable to find appropriate pupils to
receive the wisdom. During the celebration of the
ancient
Mysteries, the
hierophant in the drama
of the Mysteries represented the demiurge, the Third Logos, opening or revealing the mysteries of
the universe and, in consequence, of human nature to the neophytes.
He was thus the sacred teacher. Of
course, Hermes is the father of musical instruments and musicians,
liars and thieves. exêgêtês , ou, ho, one who leads
on, adviser, prêgmatôn agathôn II. expounder, interpreter, esp. of oracles, dreams, or omens,
Hdt.1.78; at Athens, of sacred rites or customs, modes of burial, expiation, etc., spiritual directo b. at Rome, of the
pontifices, D.H.2.73. He was the great wonder-worker, and
answered exactly to the terms of the prophecy, when it is said (v
13), "he doeth great wonders, and causeth fire to come down
from heaven in the sight of men." It was in this very character that
the Etrurian Tages was known; for it was he who was said to have taught
the Romans augury, and all the superstition and wonder-working jugglery
connected therewith. As in recent times, we hear of weeping images
and winking Madonnas, and innumerable prodigies besides, continually
occurring in the Romish Church, in proof of this papal dogma or that,
so was it also in the system of Babylon. There is hardly a form of "pious fraud" or saintly
imposture practised at this day on the banks of the Tiber, that
cannot be proved to have had its counterpart on the banks of the
Euphrates, or in the systems that came from it. Has the image of the
Virgin been seen to shed tears? Many a tear was shed by the Pagan
images. To these tender-hearted idols Lucan alludes, when,
speaking of the prodigies that occurred during the civil wars, he
says:-- If Rome counts it a divine accomplishment for
the sacred image of her Madonna to
"wink," it
was surely not less becoming in the sacred images of Paganism to
relax their features into an occasional grin. That they did so, we
have abundant testimony. Psellus tells us that, when the priests put
forth their magic powers, "then statues laughed, and lamps were
spontaneously enkindled." When the images made merry, however, they
seemed to have inspired other feelings than those of merriment into
the breasts of those who beheld them. "The Theurgists," says
Salverte, "caused the appearance of the
gods in the air, in the midst of
gaseous vapour, disengaged from fire. The Theurgis
Maximus undoubtedly made use of a
secret analogous to this, when, in the fumes of the incense which he
burned before the statue of Hecate, the image was seen to laugh so
naturally as to fill the spectators with
terror." There were times, however, when different
feelings were inspired. Has the image of the Madonna been made to look
benignantly upon a favoured worshipper, and send him home assured
that his prayer was heard? So did the statues of the Egyptian Isis. They were
so framed, that the goddess could shake the silver serpent on her
forehead, and nod assent to those who had preferred their petitions
in such a way as pleased her. We read of Romish saints that showed
their miraculous powers by crossing rivers or the sea in most
unlikely conveyances. Thus, of St. Raymond it is written that he was
transported over the sea on his cloak. Paganism is not a whit behind in this matter;
for it is recorded of a Buddhist saint, Sura Acharya, that, when "he
used to visit his flocks west of the Indus, he floated himself across
the stream upon his mantle." Nay, the gods and high priests of Paganism
showed far more buoyancy than even this. There is a holy man, at this
day, in the Church of Rome, somewhere on
the Continent, who rejoices in the name of St. Cubertin, who
so overflows with spirituality,
that when he engages in his
devotions there is no keeping his body down to the ground, but, spite
of all the laws of gravity, it rises
several feet into the air. So was it
also with the renowned St. Francis of Assisi, Petrus a Martina, and
Francis of Macerata, some centuries ago. But both St. Cubertin and St. Francis and his
fellows are far from being original in this superhuman devotion. The
priests and magicians in the Chaldean
Mysteries anticipated them not merely
by centuries, but by thousands of years. Coelius Rhodiginus says, "that, according to
the Chaldeans, luminous rays, emanating from the soul, do sometimes
divinely
penetrate the body, which is then of itself raised above the earth,
and that this was the case with Zoroaster." The disciples of Jamblichus asserted that they
had often witnessed the same miracle in the case of their master,
who, when he prayed was raised to the height of ten cubits from the
earth. The greatest miracle which Rome pretends to work, is when, by
the repetition of five magic words, she professes to bring down the
body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven,
to make Him really and corporeally present in the sacrament of the
altar. The Chaldean priests pretended, by their magic spells, in like
manner, to bring down their divinities into their statues, so that
their "real presence" should be visibly manifested in them. This they
called "the making of gods"; and from this no doubt comes the
blasphemous saying of the Popish priests, that they have power "to
create their Creator." There is no evidence, so far as I
have been able to find, that, in the Babylonian system, the thin
round cake of wafer, the "unbloody sacrifice of the mass," was
ever regarded in any other light than as a symbol, that ever it
was held to be changed into the
god whom it represented. But yet the doctrine of transubstantiation is
clearly of the very essence of
Magic, which pretended, on the
pronunciation of a few potent words, to change one substance into
another, or by a dexterous juggle, wholly to remove one substance,
and to substitute another in its place. Further, the Pope, in the plenitude of his
power, assumes the right of wielding the
lightnings of Jehovah, and of blasting by his "fulminations" whoever offends
him. Kings, and whole nations, believing in this power, have trembled
and bowed before him, through fear of being scathed by his spiritual
thunders. The priests of Paganism assumed the very same
power; and, to enforce the belief of their spiritual power, they even
attempted to bring down the literal lightnings from heaven; yea,
there seems some reason to believe that they actually succeeded, and
anticipated the splendid discovery of Dr. Franklin. Numa Pompilius is
said to have done so with complete success. Tullus Hostilius, his
successor, imitating his example, perished in the attempt, himself
and his whole family being struck, like Professor Reichman in recent
times, with the lightning he was endeavouring to draw down. *
Such were the wonder-working powers attributed
in the Divine Word to the beast that was to come up
from the earth; and by the old Babylonian type these very powers were
all pretended to be exercised. * The means appointed for
drawing down the
lightning were described in the books
of the Etrurian Tages. Numa had copied from these books, and had left
commentaries behind him on the subject, which Tallus had
misunderstood, and hence the catastrophe. Now, in remembrance of the birth of the god out
of a "hole in the earth," the Mysteries were frequently celebrated in
caves under ground. This was the case in Persia, where, just as Tages was
said to be born out of the ground, Mithra was in like manner fabled
to have been produced from a cave in the earth. * * JUSTIN MARTYR. It is remarkable
that, as Mithra was born out of a cave, so the idolatrous
nominal Christians of the East represent our Saviour as having in
like manner been born in a a cave. (See KITTO's Cyclopoedia, "Bethlehem")
There is not the least hint of such a thing in the Scripture.
Numa of Rome himself pretended to get all his
revelations from the Nymph Egeria, in a cave. In these caves men were
first initiated in the secret Mysteries, and by the signs and lying
wonders there presented to them, they were led back, after the death
of Nimrod, to the worship of that god in its new form. This Apocalyptic
beast, then, that "comes up out of the
earth," agrees in all respects with that ancient god born from a
"hole in the ground"; for no words could more exactly describe his
doing than the words of the prediction (v 13): "He doeth great wonders, and
causeth fire to come down from heaven in the sight of men,...and he
causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast,
whose deadly wound was healed." This wonder-working beast, called
Nebo, or
"The Prophet," as the prophet of idolatry, was, of course, the
"false
prophet." By comparing the passage before us with Revelation 19:20,
it will be manifest that this beast that "came up out of the earth"
is expressly called by that very name: "And the beast was taken, and with
him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he
deceived them that received the mark of
the beast, and them that worshipped his
image." As it was the "beast from the earth" that "wrought miracles"
before the first beast, this shows that "the beast from the earth" is
the "false prophet"; in other words, is "Nebo." If we examine the history of the Roman empire,
we shall find that here also there is a precise accordance between
type and antitype. When the deadly wound of Paganism was healed, and
the old Pagan title of
Pontiff was restored, it was, through means of the
corrupt clergy, symbolised, as is
generally believed, and justly under the image of a beast with horns, like a
lamb;
according to the saying of our Lord, "Beware of false prophets, that shall come to
you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."
The clergy, as a corporate body, consisted of
two grand divisions--the regular and
secular
clergy answering to the two horns or powers of the beast, and
combining also, at a very early period, both temporal and spiritual
powers. Modern commercial schemes
clearly wear the two horns: worship for you in the holy place and
solve all of your secular problems in the marketplace. These are
means of extending the clergy power into every avenue of the
believer's life -- programs, programs, programs. The bishops, as heads of these
clergy, had large temporal
powers, long before the Pope gained his
temporal crown. We have the distinct evidence of both Guizot and
Gibbon to this effect. After showing that before the fifth century,
the clergy had not only become distinct from, but independent of the
people, Guizot adds: "The Christian clergy had moreover another and
very different source of influence. The bishops and priests became
the principal municipal
magistrates...If you open the code,
either of Theodosius or Justinian, you will find numerous regulations
which remit municipal affairs to
the clergy and the bishops." (Tax breaks) Guizot makes several quotations. The following
extract from the Justinian code is sufficient to show how ample was
the civil power bestowed upon the bishops: "With respect to the yearly affairs
of cities, whether they concern the ordinary revenues of the city, either from funds arising from the property of the
city, or from private gifts or legacies, or from any other source;
whether public works, or depots of provisions or aqueducts, or the
maintenance of baths or ports, or the construction of walls or towers, or the repairing of bridges or roads, or trials, in
which the city may be engaged in reference to public or private
interests, we ordain as follows:-- The very pious bishop, and three notables, chosen from among the first men of
the city, shall meet together; they shall each year examine the works done;
they shall take care that those who conduct them, or who have
conducted them, shall regulate them with precision, render their
accounts, and show that they have duly performed their engagements in
the administration, whether of the public monuments, or of the sums
appointed for provisions or baths, or of expenses in the maintenance
of roads, aqueducts, or any other work." Here is a large list of functions laid on the
spiritual shoulders of "the very pious bishop," not one of which is
even hinted at in the Divine enumeration of the duties of a bishop,
as contained in the Word of God. (See 1 Timothy 3:1-7; and Titus
1:5-9.) How did the bishops, who were originally
appointed for purely
spiritual objects, contrive to grasp
at such a large amount of temporal authority? From Gibbon we get light as to the real origin
of what Guizot calls this "prodigious power." The author of the
Decline and Fall shows, that soon after Constantine's time, "the Church"
[and consequently the bishops, especially when they assumed to be a
separate order from the other clergy] gained great temporal power
through the right of
asylum, which had belonged to the
Pagan temples, being transferred by the Emperors to the Christian
churches. His words are: "The fugitive, and even the
guilty,
were permitted to implore either the justice or mercy of the Deity
and His ministers." Thus was the foundation laid of the
invasion of the rights of the civil magistrate by ecclesiastics, and thus
were they encouraged to grasp at all the powers of the State.
Thus, also, as is justly observed by the
authoress of Rome in the 19th
Century, speaking of the right of
asylum, were "the altars perverted into
protection towards the very crimes they were raised to banish from
the world." This is a very striking thing, as showing how
the temporal power of the Papacy, in its very first beginnings, was
founded on "lawlessness," and is an additional proof to the many that might be
alleged, that the Head of the Roman system, to whom all bishops are
subject is indeed "The Lawless One" (2 Thess 2:8), predicted in
Scripture as the recognised Head of the "Mystery of Iniquity."
All this temporal power came into the hands of
men, who, while professing to be
ministers of Christ, and followers of the Lamb, The spiritual power which they wielded over the
souls of men, and the secular power which they gained in the affairs
of the world, were both alike used in opposition to the cause of
pure religion and undefiled. At first these false prophets, in
leading men astray, and seeking to unite Paganism and
Christianity, wrought
under-ground,
mining like the mole in
the dark, and secretly perverting the simple,
according to the saying of Paul, "The Mystery of Iniquity doth already work." But by-and-by, towards the end of the fourth
century, when the minds of men had been pretty well prepared, and the
aspects of things seemed to be favourable for it, the wolves in sheep's clothing
appeared above ground, brought their secret doctrines and practices, by little and little, into the light of day, and
century after century, as their power increased, by means of all "deceivableness of
unrighteousness," and "signs and lying wonders,"
deluded
the minds of the worldly Christians, made them believe that
their
anathema
was equivalent to the curse of God; in other words, that they could "bring
down fire from heaven," and thus "caused the earth, and them that dwelt
therein, to worship the beast whose deadly wound was healed."
* * Though the Pope be the great Jupiter Tonans
of the Papacy, and "fulminates" from the Vatican, as his predecessor
was formerly believed to do from the Capitol, yet it is not he in
reality that brings down the fire from heaven, but his clergy.
But for the influence of the
clergy in everywhere blinding the minds of the people, the Papal
thunders would be but "bruta fulmina" after all. The symbol,
therefore, is most exact, when it attributes the "bringing down of
the fire from heaven," to the beast from the earth, rather than to
the beast from the sea. When "the deadly wound" of the Pagan beast was
healed, and the beast from the sea appeared, it is said that this
beast from the earth became the recognised, accredited executor of the
will of the great sea beast (v 12), "And he exerciseth all the power
of the first beast before him," literally "in his presence"--under
his inspection. Considering who the first beast is, there is
great force in this expression "in his presence." The beast that
comes up from the sea, is "the little
horn," that "has eyes like the eyes of
man" (Dan 7:8); it is Janus Tuens, "All-seeing
Janus," in other words, the Universal Bishop or "Universal Overseer,"
who, from his throne on
the seven hills, by means of the organised
system of the confessional,
sees and
knows all
that is done, to be the utmost bounds
of his wide dominion. Now, it was just exactly
about the time that the Pope became universal bishop, that the custom
began of systematically investing the chief bishops of the Western
empire with the Papal livery, the pallium, "for the purpose," says Gieseler,
"of symbolising and strengthening their
connection with the Church of Rome."
* * GIESELER. From Gieseler we learn that so
early as 501, the Bishop of Rome had laid the foundation of the
corporation of bishops by the bestowal of the pallium; but, at the
same time, he expressly states that it was only about 602, at the `63
ascent of Phocas to the imperial throne--that Phocas that made the
Pope Universal Bishop--that the Popes began to bestow the pallium,
that is, of course, systematically, and on a large scale. That pallium, worn on the
shoulders of the bishops, while on the one hand it was the livery of
the Pope, and bound those who received it to act as the functionaries
of Rome, deriving all their authority from him, and exercising it
under his superintendence, as the "Bishop of bishops," on the other
hand, was in reality the visible
investiture of these wolves with the sheep's
clothing. For what was the pallium of the Papal
bishop? It was a dress made of wool, blessed by the Pope,
taken from the holy
lambs kept by the nuns of St. Agnes, and
woven by their sacred hands, that it might be bestowed on those whom
the Popes delighted to honour, for the purpose, as one of themselves
expressed it, of "joining them to our society in the one
pastoral sheepfold." * * GIESELER, "Papacy"). The reader
who peruses the early letters of the Popes in bestowing the pallium,
will not fail to observe the wide difference of meaning between "the
one pastoral sheepfold" above referred to, and "the one sheepfold" of
our Lord. The former really means a sheepfold consisting of pastors
or shepherds. The papal letters unequivocally imply the organisation
of the bishops, as a distinct corporation, altogether independent of
the Church, and dependent only on the Papacy, which seems remarkably
to agree with the terms of the prediction in regard to the beast from
the earth. Thus commissioned, thus ordained by the
universal Bishop, they did their work effectually, and brought the
earth and them that dwelt in it, "to worship the beast that received
the wound by a sword and did live." This was a part of this beast's
predicted work. But there was another, and not less important, which
remains for consideration. The Britannica says: Pallium also called Pall, liturgical vestment worn
over the chasuble by the pope, archbishops, and some bishops in the
Roman Catholic church. It is bestowed by the pope on archbishops and
bishops having metropolitan jurisdiction as a symbol of their
participation in papal authority. It is made of a circular strip of
white lamb's wool about two inches wide, is decorated with four black
crosses (Nimrod's
symbol), and is placed
over the shoulders. Two vertical bands, each decorated with a cross,
extending from the circular strip in the front and back, give the
pallium a Y-shaped appearance. The equivalent vestment in the
Eastern churches is the omophorion, a long, white silk or velvet
embroidered scarf, worn by bishops celebrating the holy liturgy.
In Etruria he seems to have been represented
in a somewhat similar way; for there we find a Divine and miraculous
child exhibited wearing the ram's horns
And sweat from Lares, told the city's woes."
And holy sweat from brazen idols fell."
were seeking simply their own
aggrandisement,
and, to secure that aggrandisement,
did not hesitate to betray the
cause which they professed to
serve.