Jubilee 99 - Aztec / Babylonia Paradigm - Musical Worship

The seekers invaded; those defending mounted an attack; the Jubilators won; the attacked enjoyed wine, women and instrumental music for a year and then had their heart cut out. Consistent with many ancient religions, the use of music is the appeasement for a dying civilization.

"The United States in recent years has witnessed a resurgence of shamanistic cults among all classes and all races. Storefront salvationists prosper in Harlem, and snake handlers in Appalachia: these are psychedelic prophets who advocate hallucinogenic drugs (music produces endorphins, a powerful morphine-like drug), revivalistic preachers who capitalize on the medium of television, prophets of a strange new cybernetic age (throw away the old computers), and mystical seers who bring suburban matrons a revelation from Tibet (or from the Aztecs in Mexico). All these people, despite the evident sincerity of most of them, are really religious entrepreneurs or shamans... (Farb, Peter, Man's Rise to Civilization. 182)

Rubel Shelly and Randy Harris quote a writer (who they understand could not really throw away the old computer) to say--

Rubel Shelly: "To get out of the (computer) traps, we need to revive the time-honored Aztec custom of

cyclical destruction and renewal.

But we'd need a much smaller Sun Calendar because our 'end-of-the-world' cycles should run five years, max." (Rubel Shelley - Randy Harris, Second Incarnation, p. 243)

Not to fear, Rubel, the Aztecs also had a 52 week Jubilee with "five days of uncertainty" where they wondered if they had enabled the gods to prop up the sky for another year.

A worship facilitator to bring the worshiper into the presence of God is a conscious appeal to the Aztec victim brought into the presence of the god to lay down his musical instrument, his heart and his life. Rubel Shelly and Randy Harris in The Second Incarnation are attracted to the Aztec model which has Babylonian parallels including the seven ornine level pyramids where you ascended to the god. The temple on top was really a "helioport" for the God. Or as dance teams claim, "We provide a platform upon which God lands."

Musical worship among the Jubilee and some Seeker models of commercial religion appeals to the Aztecs as an approved example for burning down the structures and rebuilding on the ashes of the old wineskins. This cannot be accomplished without ritual drama and music. And, of course, a lot of innocent people will have to be sacrificed.

This new (but ancient) admixture includes

1. a floundering kingdom, 2. the need to destroy the "old gods" (harmful brethren), 3. the need to aid God in establishing the kingdom, 4. the need for a revival with its Cane-ridge proof of atonement, 5. the Aztec parallel plan to "kindle a new fire in the old heart," 6. followed by a Jubilee at which we restore the land [individual congregations] to the "rightful tribe."

These all have their parallels a hundred times over in history and especially among the Babylonians and Aztecs.

One resource observed that:

"The Aztecs arrived from the remote regions of the north around about 1200 AD. For a long time they lived a nomadic lifestyle enduring many hardships. At one stage the Aztecs were enslaved by a more powerful tribe, but they proved to be too ferocious to handle. After more wanderings, they finally settled on the south-western borders of the main lake of Mexico in 1325.

Legend has it that it was here that the Aztecs saw what was believed to be a sign showing them that this should be the site of their future city.

They saw a great royal eagle perched on the stem of a prickly pear. It had a serpent in his talons and his magnificent wings were spread against the sunrise.

The Aztecs got their system going in the beginning by sending "evangelists" to the lands of tribes they had invaded.

"These invaders slipped in and planted and watered a new crop of corn on the enemy's lands.
"When the corn was ready to be harvested, the Aztec nation moved into the invaded property with their food supply ready made by stealth and theft.

Heredotus:

The Oracle of Delphi prophesied victory for Gyges and helped make him king against the people's will. Of course, Delphi was where Apollo had his SEEKER CENTER. And Apollo, Abaddon or Apollyon will come again and turn loose the locusts or, as grasshoppers, were the MUSICAL PERFORMERS. They were Apollo's MUSES who had once been turned into locusts.

This defines exactly how NAVIGATING THE WINDS OF CHANGE and using the Aztec pattern end-time agents destroy the church:

Inheriting from his father a war with the Milesians,

he pressed the siege against the city by attacking it in the following manner.
When the harvest was ripe on the ground he marched his army into Milesia to the sound of pipes and harps, and flutes masculine and feminine.

The buildings that were scattered over the country he neither pulled down nor burnt, nor did he even tear away the doors, but left them standing as they were.

He cut down, however, and utterly destroyed all the trees and all the corn throughout the land, and then returned to his own dominions.

It was idle for his army to sit down before the place, as the Milesians were masters of the sea. The reason that he did not demolish their buildings was that the inhabitants might be tempted to use them as homesteads from which to go forth to sow and till their lands;

and so each time that he invaded the country he might find something to plunder.

In this way he carried on the war with the Milesians for eleven years, in the course of which he inflicted on them two terrible blows; one in their own country in the district of Limeneium, the other in the plain of the Maeander...

It was in the twelfth year of the war that the following mischance occurred from the firing of the harvest-fields. Scarcely had the corn been set alight by the soldiers when a violent wind carried the flames against the temple of Minerva Assesia, which caught fire and was burnt to the ground. At the time no one made any account of the circumstance; but afterwards, on the return of the army to Sardis, Alyattes fell sick. His illness continued, whereupon, either advised thereto by some friend, or perchance himself conceiving the idea, he sent messengers to Delphi to inquire of the god concerning his malady. On their arrival the Pythoness declared that no answer should be given them until they had rebuilt the temple of Minerva, burnt by the Lydians at Assesus in Milesia.

In later dealings Periander gets involved:

This Periander, who apprised Thrasybulus of the oracle, was son of; Cypselus, and tyrant of Corinth. In his time a very wonderful thing is said to have happened.

The Corinthians and the Lesbians agree in their account of the matter.
They relate that Arion of Methymna, who as a player on the harp, was second to no man living at that time, and who was, so far as we know,

the first to invent the dithyrambic (to Dionysus) measure, to give it its name,
and to recite in it at Corinth, was carried to Taenarum on the back of a dolphin.

He had lived for many years at the court of Periander, when a longing came upon him to sail across to Italy and Sicily.

Having made rich profits in those parts, he wanted to recross the seas to Corinth.
He therefore hired a vessel, the crew of which were Corinthians, thinking that there was no people in whom he could more safely confide; and, going on board, he set sail from Tarentum.

Velikovsky refers to other documents and states his belief that this had once been connected with star worship:

"On the day of Atonement the Israelites used to send a scapegoat to "azazel" in the desert. It was a ceremony of propitiation of Satan. In Egypt the goat was an animal dedicated to Seth-Typhon.

Azaxel was a fallen star or Lucifer (Venus, Zoe).

On the day on which the Jubilee year was proclaimed, the Israelites dispatched a placating offering of a scapegoat to Lucifer.

In Mexico, the Aztecs offered human sacrifices in the belief that they could prevent Venus (Lucifer) from destroying the nation every 52 years. (They also had a 52 week or yearly "Jubilee.")

Too often we hear of a peaceful church getting the "vision" from Nashville and deciding to hire a musical worship facilitator from the old "enemy." Those being invaded "mount an attack" and become the enemy. They have to leave because the Aztecs of Jubilee Land have already planted their crops while the watchers were watching the seekers (seeing your flock). About 400 of the "attacked-become-attackers" are forced to leave and the Aztecs move right in with their pagan forms ready to go. Never mind that the ignorant elders are dividing the congregation: "They have had a vision of a bird on a prickly pear tree."

This has its counterpart in flying under false "wings" to engather the "invaded" tribes without turning them into "attackers." This is good, but as old as the hills, change agentry. As they flaked off a few tribes it became easier to use past success as a "resume'" to further ascend up the several levels to the top of the tower to bring the worshipers into the presence of God:

"The throne was filled by a succession of princes who were

able to profit from their enlarged resources and

the enthusiasm of the nation to engage in war.

Year after year the armies returned with spoils from conquered cities and captives.

No state in the Mesoamerican region
was able to resist the growing strength of the conquerors.

By the start of the 1500's, the Aztec dominion had spread (under the bold and bloody Ahuitzotl), across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific and into the farthest corners of Guatemala and Nicaragua. Click Here for more

In Revelation, the final or eleventh king having his one hour of fun with the Great Harlot religion will usurp the authority of the previous ten kings of the hour. We might look forward for a fulfilment as the eleventh king becomes superior and wrestles authority away from the others along with the other little horns. The Aztecs, without knowing it, were gathering all of the seekers together in peace and security just in time to hand them over to the Catholic church.

In Mexico, this happened when the Spaniards (Catholics) invaded and the people believed they had really made contact with the great white god. Of course, the gods murdered and stole the Aztec's property and the invaded people turned into attack agents to try, too late, to repel the Spaniard Catholics who had accomplished their great Jubilee.

All restorations of the Jubilee, totally fulfilled by Lord Jesus Christ, have reverted to a "much smaller Sun Calendar." It is significant that these were New Year's Festivals or Independance Days among the Babylonians and later by the Jews. The Catholics have opted for more often Jubilees and the Aztecs had their 52 week or yearly Jubilee festival at which many were sacrificed so that the helpless god was aided in reestablishing his kingdom for another year.

Originally, in many pagan societies, it was the priest-king who to be an honest priest must be ritually murdered by the people every four to twelve years. Allow the victim to be worshiped like a god, be honored as "keynoter" at his own sacrifice, throw away his now-useless magical instruments and peaceably lie down on the stone slab.

However, no priest-pretender would allow that. He would invent a new "paradigm." He would replace his holiness with up to 20,000 of his slave captives and let them die in place of the "god."

Some times the king of ancient Babylonian Paganism reigned up to twelve years before he was ritually murdered.

Furthermore, the priests did not destroy their own property. They changed their theology and decided that it made more sense to sacrifice the little people and burn down their houses. Nor did the Aztecs come up with any new and improved worship rituals. Their musical worship teams were still often used by those dedicated to human sacrifice to calm their nerves as they waited all year to be sacrificed. The musical worship of the victim came to an end only when he submitted himself to have his beating heart ripped from his body.

Therefore, musical worship as the new method of bringing the worshiper into the presence of God may be a subconscious call for the Aztec victim who was brought into the presence of his god to lay down his musical worship and his life. Musical worship to bring the worshiper into the presence of God has no Biblical foundation but is a revival of the Babylonian, Canaanite and other pagan worship. Even the Hebrews offered human sacrifice as they played music including the Tabret at Topheth where they fed their children to the tongue-licking Molech bull heated to red-hot passion as he lifted his holy hands to consume the victim. Not to worry. The music kept the evil sounds from reaching the priest's ears and the music and screams would be interpreted as an oracle.

Some of the computer talk shows that a lot of people find that the new computer won't really run as fast as the old one and has a lot more problems. Therefore, Shelly isn't quite willing to throw away the "old computer" but suggests that we toss away everything not necessary: "To save the lost and keep the saved." I would suggest the Gospel rather than the Jubilee or a modern Feast of Tabernacles where the men of note sing, play, preach, sell poems, conduct a "book fair" and get on the lecture circuit with "the men of note." Jesus refused to go up.

Armageddon 2000 may be based on computers. The old pattern makers wrote the computer programs but they didn't consider what would happen when the year 2000 came. Many of the new paradigm makers are dead. The new paradigm makers don't know how to program by the old book and now it is going to take billions of dollars to train them to teach the new wineskin computers how to speak the old language again.

The various plans to rekindle the fire for God has many parallels from Babylon to Mexico. For instance, history shows that the "Aztec" (destroy the old computers-burn down and rekindle the new fire in the heart of the victim) parallel "turns things upside down" so that "those invaded" (Aztecs or 'old dead church down the street') are mystically "turned upside down" and accused of being the "attackers." At the same time the "invaders" (Spaniards with their spit-baptizing priests) are really just honest "seekers or searchers"--

Rubel Shelly: "The status quo is never questioned without peril.

The ones being questioned become defensive,
mount an attack against the searchers,

and try to discount those who have dared register their serious concerns by discrediting both their questions and their motivations. Giving too little credit to their forbears, the ones doing the questioning are sometimes tactless, come across as self-righteous, and do unnecessary harm.

While these dangers are acknowledged,
we still believe the alternative of perpetuating a theological impoverished and practically deleterious ecclesiology is even worse. (Rubel Shelly and Randy Harris, The Second Incarnation, p. 242, 1992).

Did you get that? You have to "judge" it in the context of throwing away old computers (wineskins) and burning down the old buildings:

Someone decides to invade your property, steal your sheep, divide the church, steal the "buildings and grounds" and chase away about half of the flock.

You become defensive as any shepherd would be.
However, in your self-defense YOU mount an attack upon the invaders.

Can you believe it? Yet, I get the "ditto head" occasional cry that I am dividing the church by being judgmental. But, I haven't taken a penny nor left my magic valley. "Ecumenical" just means that everyone is acceptable except those who are not "ecumenical."

The LOGIC is so exquisite that I begin to comprehend why God said: "Many are called but few are chosen."

I thought that Rubel Shelly and his tribe of invading "professional pastors" or "located evangelists" who took control and developed their own pyramid or 7 to 12 step plans of church administration to take control from the tribe who earned the food caused the problem in the first place!!

The invaders are charitable but have decided that those being questioned are worthy of the death of the Aztec Jubilee. While accusing conservative churches of being judgmental and "attackers" just listen to what conservatives are accused of:

Impoverished Frum Rubel Shelly and Randy Harris means, "stricken, destitute, ruined, broke, bankrupt poverty-stricken."

Deleterious means "A destroyer, harmful, deadly, unhealthy, destructive, injurious."

While this may be true of many who call themselves conservative but are really just evil, why would the alternative Jubilee 99 scheme come from the tower of Babylon or the church down the street which practices worship which anyone after Bible 101aaa could refute?

This last paragraph also has its counterpart in all judgmental revivalism from Babylon downward through history. The existing or established "church" is not only ignorant but destructive. However, I am rich and helpful and I can show you the way even if I have to invade you to impose a new religion, run half of your sheep screaming from the temple which you are deliberately stealing from those who bought it with their blood, sweat and tears.

Violent peddlars of destructive paradigm always get their dues because they have conditioned themselves to be "ecumenical" and seek, nay, LUST after a "broader fellowship" to bestow their blessed affirmation on those whom they have hurt. Thus when the "new god" comes in you dare not question god's "annointed" and you accept anything he says or else someone will stab you in the throat for being judgmental (watch out for pacifists -- they will kill you).

When the searcher-seekers from Spain came to Mexico they wanted to teach the Aztecs a new religion so that they could steal all of their gold. They presumed the Aztec religion to be theologically impoverished and deleterious and their own religion superior. The Aztecs "being questioned" first assumed that the searcher-seekers were the end-time gods. The gods of the final Aztec Jubilee were quite identical to those of the New Years festival held in Babylon and even in Jerusalem. When the New, Superior religion began killing off too many of the invaded ones the attacked had a second incarnation of their minds. They began defending themselves against the seekers. The Spaniards thought that the invaded ones began the attack. The ones being questioned mounted an attack against the searcher-seekers. Those being invaded became the agents of evil. And the invaders destroyed the "attackers" and burned their books.

In a direct parallel:

The American Restoration Movement repudiated musical worship and other charismatic efforts and spread throughout the American frontier based solely on the ground of a search for Biblical truth about God. This left the emerging musical worship and societies behind as a minority. However, the small number of searchers sent evangelistic invaders into the non-musical worship churches with no other goal than to convert them to music. Those being invaded are said to have become judgmental and mounted an attack to repel the invaders. Thus, the non-musical churches are despised and rejected because they did not want a new paradigm imposed upon them from the outside.

And the cycle repeats itself beginning in Mesopotamia.

See by Clicking Here.

Rather than being seekers of a new ecclesiology, the Jubilee movement is, like the Catholic invaders of the Aztecs,

commercializing ancient, Babylonian forms of worship

even employing worship facilitators to lead the worshipers into the presence of God with music and drama.

Call it designated change agent methods selling the Seeker-Service model of Willow Creek Association which is similar to the many forms of the predicted end-time adulterous marriage of true religion and commercial practices and products.

Do all of the keynoters (lowest note defining the policy of Jubilee Corporation) sell books and do all of the hallal (meaning kosher meat) singers sell tapes and CDs:

As the strong, nation-wide effort to move churches of Christ into the Willow Creek model of musical worship and drama being sold as a Jubilee, it is natural for those who know about musical worship and ancient paganism to object. By voicing any objection based upon the Bible, non-musical believers become divisive, hobby-riders and worse--trying to influence others by the underhanded method of teaching the change agents "herd." To question the leaders or "God's anointed ones" is like attacking the follower's lover. To object to these new charismatic movements demands that all opposers must be silenced with thinly-disguised violence. The only "spiritual" approach is to allow the "Spaniards" to invade and treat them as the great white gods returning for the final Jubilee. To accept this invasion by the seekers might be the politically correct thing to do but it would not be what Jesus would do. We must be happy to be a Christian which automatically makes one despised and rejected of men and never, never, never applauded.

The proof of a revival is (has always been) judged by the "change agents" as charismatic, exhilarating outbreaks which "validate" the leader. For instance, Montanus, a proponent of charismatic Christianity, taught that if you don't "enthuse" then you are not "God filled"--

"Whoever does not fulfill the conditions of the Paraclete but satisfies himself with only the general Christian revelation is no perfect Christian, he is only a psychic [i.e., a carnal person, contrasted with a pneumatic, a Spirit-filled person." (Bruner, The Holy Spirit, p. 229).

I still believe the beyond-retirement lady who delivers "meals on wheels" into a "urine gas chamber," rat infested "hospice of necessity" is an aroused, awakened, regenerated, enthused, revived angel with "fire burning in the heart" even if she does not get excited, flail her hands, 'praise the Lord," or even "buy the garbage so that she can continue to eat at the trough!" She doesn't need to tithe, sing, play music, dance, cut herself or fall into a frenzy trying to arouse (always sexually) the "god" who is inattentive, asleep, on a business trip, or (as some translate) busy relieving Himself.

The only way to honor her is to teach the "general Christian revelation" (without aids) as having the power which God choose (even if some don't like it) to invest in it. It doesn't need "sermonized, versified or masticated" or spat upon to make it digestible to the literate. If you look for "signs" that it works I suggest that you look out where the "time clock" shifts from "Sunday in the holy place" to "Monday in the marketplace."

The tragic "second chapter" of every revival-through-human-effort is described by Armstrong (and others) as ultimately tragic even when those who fell under the spell defend it. Indeed, how could they do otherwise and still attend?

In its ancient counterpart, the "redeeming person" does not "search" to provoke an "attack" from the "invaded." Rather, he personally offered his own heart in which the fire would be rekindled--you never ask the ignorant and destructive to redeem themselves. In time the "king" discovered that he could sacrifice you or your children to die for the sins of the community and he could live. In the beloved land of the Aztecs, up to 20,000 people had to die for the sins of the god-king.

The pattern, then, is that in all attempts at self-redemption someone has to suffer and, if we believe history, some may die in the revival process and it will not be the invaders.

Rejecting the notion of the adequacy of Christ and His teachings and trying to find the God who gets lost for about fifty years is ultimately destructive. It carries the suicidal seed of self destruction as part of its "pattern." Therefore, this attempt to "do it to you" is destructive because, just as following Cane Ridge, the "high" of earlier attempts by me to revive you was followed by suicidal despair when the experience didn't "meet my needs" by preventing me from stopping off at Duncan's tavern on the way home.

"When God had withdrawn, as abruptly as he had come, his place was--again, quite literally--taken by Satan. Exaltation (exhilaration re Shelly) was succeeded by suicidal despair... There were no more conversions, but the people who survived the experience were calmer and more joyful than they had been before the Awakening, or so Edwards would have us believe." (Karen Armstrong, p. 324, A History of God).

A short story on the web notes that meditation makes you just as calm as chanting without leaving your nerves frazzled.

We have watched a lot of good preachers virtually self-destruct when they believe that they can do something more than "plant and water."

Scholars of American revivalism note that the unlearned on the hostile frontier were

manipulated by men who had learned their secrets from Southern black churches which "pretended" Christian worship to fool the "masters" while continuing their African forms of worship. Therefore, the ancient or archaic "patterns or paradigms" are really promoted by those who somehow feel enslaved to some passion or person. The "acted out" rituals are, like the King of Tyre, playing music as a "harp playing prostitute" to be remembered -- as a male or free or some unexpressed burden.

In an interesting parallel, the old Aztec "church-state" has long been dead but the "survivors" pretend Catholicism while continuing Aztec and other tribal religions. Just watched one cut the throat of a chicken on TV. Some American Indians still pretend Christian worship and get their spiritual "high" from peyote.

Revivalism, therefore, was the "superior" imitating the "inferior" (as in Rock music) while pretending that "it came directly from God." The result was that the "inferior" dominated the "superior" and in many religions and much music

the slave has become overwhelming master. History does repeat because we imitate rather than learn.

It is interesting that Hislop and many ancient historians note that Nimrod and his counterpart in Babylon, Egypt, India and even the Buddha in China and Japan are often pictured and claimed to be black (the white Horus son of the black Osiris, the black Madonna, etc.). However, because black was held to be inferior, the "child" or the "madonna" from China to Scotland to Scandinavia were pictured as white, blue-eyed blonds. That is, the black music/magic worship which began in Babylon and spread to Egypt and "into all the world" clearly produced black tribal religion dressed up as white.

Researchers on the modern repetition of the "tongues" movement (about the only residue of Cane-ridgism) confirm that the worship is not much changed from the worship of African nature gods. One writer pretends to describe African revivalism and later tells you that he is describing demon worship in America. Certainly we cannot judge but isn't it judging to affirm the exercises to be Christian when they fly in the face of Scripture?

Jesus spoke in payables to keep the secrets of the kingdom from those who do not love the truth. This fulfills Isaiah 6; 29 and Acts 28. This is "turned upside down" and claimed to be teaching "spiritual truth through easily understood physical analogies." We might expect, therefore, to see modern attempts to restructure the church as signs of something else.

As the believers outgrow the church Christ died for, does it need to be "burned down" and restored in the model of Jubilee or the Aztec/Babylon model? Doesn't the "bubbling" prove that something is wrong with the "container?" Perhaps if we didn't get excited about establishing the "forms" in the first place the individual could grow without a "container."

From The History of the Conquest of Mexico then click at bottom of page:

"But, although the Aztec mythology gathered nothing from the beautiful inventions of the poet, nor from the refinements of philosophy, it was much indebted, as I have noticed, to the priests,

who endeavored to dazzle the imagination of the people by the most formal and pompous ceremonial.

The influence of the priesthood must be greatest in an imperfect state of civilization, where it engrosses all the scanty science of the time in its own body. This is particularly the case, when the science is of that spurious kind which is less occupied with the real phenomena of nature, than with the fanciful chimeras of human superstition.

Such are the sciences of astrology and divination, in which the Aztec priests were well initiated; and while they seemed to hold the keys of the future in their own hands,

they impressed the ignorant people with sentiments of superstitious awe, beyond that which has probably existed in any other country,- even in Ancient Egypt.

This is the patternism derived from Hitler in Mein Kampf by the modern change agents.

The mass meeting is also necessary for the reason that in it the individual, who at first while becoming a supporter of a young movement, feels lonely and easily succumbs to the fear of being alone, for the first time gets the picture of a larger community, which in most people has a strengthening, encouraging effect.

The same man, within a company or a battalion, surrounded by all his comrades, would set out on an attack with a lighter heart than if left entirely on his own.
In the crowd he always feels somewhat sheltered, even if a thousand reasons actually argue against it.

But the community of the great demonstration not only strengthens the individual, it also unites and helps to create an esprit de corps. The man who is exposed to grave tribulations, as the first advocate of a new doctrine in his factory or workshop,

absolutely needs that strengthening which lies in the conviction of being a member and fighter in a great comprehensive body.

And he obtains an impression of this body for the first time in the mass demonstration. When from his little workshop or big factory, in which he feels very small,

he steps for the first time into a mass meeting and has thousands and thousands of people of the same opinions around him, when, as a seeker, (Als Suchender.' A Wagnerian phrase, which Hitler was apparently determined to use at all costs)

he is swept away by three or four thousand others into the mighty effect of suggestive intoxication and enthusiasm,

when the visible success and agreement of thousands confirm to him the rightness of the new doctrine and for the first time arouse doubt in the truth of his previous conviction -

then he himself has succumbed to the magic influence of what we designate as 'mass suggestion.'

The will, the longing, and also the power of thousands are accumulated in every individual. The man who enters such a meeting doubting and wavering leaves it inwardly reinforced: he has become a link in the community.

The National Socialist movement must never forget this and in particular

it must never let itself be influenced by those bourgeois s who know everything better,
but who nevertheless have gambled away a great state including their own existence and the rule of their class.

The non-functional column or Asherah pole appears in forms reaching from small church steeples to massive pyramids. The gods of fertility were met at the top by the high priest. These poles were signs of superiority but when aimed at God, polluted Him by the sexual intent spilling over the top. For what may be an innocent restoration of the Asherah Click Here.

The Aztecs were masters of the Midianite "Pyramidal structure" imposed upon Israel when they demanded a king to replace the rule of God. This is seen in modern commercial-religious institutions where a band of men and women are "put on the role" (or dole?) to do what they claim the "laity" cannot do. Musical worship teams was one of those priestly roles stolen from the "one another" churches and assigned to those skilled facilitators or manipulators of sexual impulses. It was true in Babylonia and Mexico, true among the Catholics and true in an emerging Willow Creek model of the church:

"The sacerdotal order was very numerous; as may be inferred from the statement that five thousand priests (maybe 10 thousand) were, in some way or other, attached to the principal temple in the capital. The various ranks and functions of this multitudinous body were discriminated with great exactness.

Those best instructed in music took the management of the choirs.
Others arranged the festivals conformably to the calendar.
Some superintended the education of youth, and
others had charge of the hieroglyphical paintings and oral traditions;
while the dismal rites of sacrifice were reserved for the chief dignitaries of the order.

At the top of the human pyramid ruling over the flock of common people were the two high priests. Call them Pulpit Minister and Worship Facilitator?

"At the head of the whole establishment were two high-priests, elected from the order, as it would seem, by the king and principal nobles, without reference to birth, but solely for their qualifications, as shown by their previous conduct in a subordinate station. They were equal in dignity, and inferior only to the sovereign, who rarely acted without their advice in weighty matters of public concern.

As ancient as Babylon or Jerusalem, the horde of professional priests "looking for a crumb of bread," carried on their private lives but were the chief prayers and singers for the common people who dared not get too close to the dangerous god:

"The priests were each devoted to the service of some particular deity, and had quarters provided within the spacious precincts of their temple; at least, while engaged in immediate attendance there,- for they were allowed to marry and have families of their own. In this monastic residence they lived in all the stern severity of conventual discipline. Thrice during the day, and once at night, they were called to prayers. They were frequent in their ablutions and vigils, and mortified the flesh by fasting and cruel penance,- drawing blood from their bodies by flagellation, or by piercing them with the thorns of the aloe. (Re Prophets of Jezebel's Asherah)

The 52 year Jubilee festival was to help the gods prop up the skies in danger of falling without priestly intervention. In addition, the Aztecs held a yearly festival during the 5 dangerous days which had been added to their 360 day calendar because of a close brush with a body held by some to be Venus before it settled into being a planet. While tens of thousands of victims were sacrificed, the Aztecs had their keynoter who would be honored as a god for a year before his sacrifice. His musical minsistry was the god-turned-victim gained him praise and worship which turned out to be mockery.

This mock worship was much like that of Jesus. Psalm 41 says that Judas would not triumph over Jesus with music and great celebration. Nevertheless, the Jewish clergy identified as "musical children" piped and held a mock worship before sacrificing Jesus so that the nation would not be destroyed. In the same way among the Aztecs,

"One of their most important festivals was that in honor of the god Tezcatlipoca, whose rank was inferior only to that of the Supreme Being. He was called "the soul of the world," and supposed to have been its creator.

He was depicted as a handsome man, endowed with perpetual youth.

A year before the intended sacrifice, a captive, distinguished for his personal beauty, and without a blemish on his body, was selected to represent this deity. Certain tutors took charge of him, and instructed him how to perform his new part with becoming grace and dignity. He was arrayed in a splendid dress, regaled with incense, and with a profusion of sweet-scented flowers, of which the ancient Mexicans were as fond as their descendants of the present day. When he went abroad, he was attended by a train of the royal pages, and,

as he halted in the streets to play some favorite melody,
the crowd prostrated themselves before him, and did him homage as the representative of their good deity.
In this way he led an easy, luxurious life, till within a month of his sacrifice.

Four beautiful girls, bearing the names of the principal goddesses, were then selected to share the honors of his bed; and with them he continued to live in idle dalliance

feasted at the banquets of the principal nobles, who paid him all the honors of a divinity. (Note: There are numerous references to musical ministers and prostitution in the ot).

After Israel played their fatal musical game at the foot of Mount Sinai trying to bring Apis "from beyond the sea," Moses told them that the lost gods were not "beyond the sea" but the truth was in the Covenant which he had preached to them and they had rejected. Paul, too, in Romans ten warned against this ancient "sending across the sea" for a "keynoter" to give them the truth. All of this began in Babylon, spread to Egypt and then to South and Central America. and finally appearing in your local church. Therefore, in the Aztec model:

"At length the fatal day of sacrifice arrived.

The term of his short-lived glories was at an end.

He was stripped of his gaudy apparel, and bade adieu to the fair partners of his revelries. One of the royal barges transported him across the lake to a temple which rose on its margin, about a league from the city. Hither the inhabitants of the capital flocked, to witness the consummation of the ceremony. As the sad procession wound up the sides of the pyramid, the unhappy victim

threw away his gay chaplet of flowers,
and broke in pieces the musical instruments with which he had solaced the hours of captivity.

"On the summit he was received by six priests, whose long and matted locks flowed disorderly over their sable robes, covered with hieroglyphic scrolls of mystic import. They led him to the sacrificial stone, a huge block of jasper, with its upper surface somewhat convex. On this the prisoner was stretched. Five priests secured his head and his limbs; while the sixth, clad in a scarlet mantle, emblematic of his bloody office, dexterously opened the breast of the wretched victim with a sharp razor of itztli,- a volcanic substance hard as flint,- and, inserting his hand in the wound,

tore out the palpitating heart.

The minister of death, first holding this up towards the sun, an object of worship throughout Anahuac, cast it at the feet of the deity to whom the temple was devoted, while the multitudes below prostrated themselves in humble adoration. The tragic story of this prisoner was expounded by the priests as the type of human destiny,

which, brilliant in its commencement,

too often closes in sorrow and disaster.

The god-king was too important to be self-sacrificing. The true "gods needed to be protected" because there were other forces (priests down the street or even minor gods) trying to get on the lecture circuit. Among the Aztecs, mentioned favorably by Shelly/Harris, They --

"regarded themselves as the people chosen to protect the Sun God against such constant dangers... As soon as the priests thought they detected a propitious omen in the skies, the breast of a living victim was slit open and a new fire started in his heart. From this fire (revival) all the fires in the temples, and then in the homes were relighted.

The world was believed to be safe, more or less, for another fifty-two years (or weeks in their New Years ritual). There were also five days of dread at the end of each Solar Year, as well as all sorts of dangers connected with cycles of longer and shorter duration." (Farb, p. 182-3)

See the urge to Baptize Santa and see the S.O.N. God as the S.U.N. god.

See Max Lucado's Cosmic Christmas on S.U.N. worship

If we listen to Jesus and Old Testament history closely, we will see that he broke in pieces the musical instruments which had been used to break people into pieces or to appease the gods.

For more reading on Mesoamerican History. And remember, consistent with the Aztec Jubilee:

"Whatever form its social ramifications may have taken, the Jubilee was, and remained, a religious affair, for the atonement of sin (see Lev. XXV, 9)."

This was quite identical to the Babylonian worship;

"Babylon was built as an image of heaven on earth. The New Year Festival was celebrated in April:

"The festival solemnly enthroned the king and established his reign for another year. Yet this political stability could only endure insofar as it participated in the more enduring and effective government of the gods, who brought order out of primordial chaos when they created the world.

The eleven sacred days of the Festival thus projected the participants outside profane time and into the sacred and eternal world of the gods by means of ritual gestures. A scapegoat was killed to cancel th old, dying year; the public humiliation of the king and the enthronement of the carnival king in his place reproduced the original chaos; a mock battle reenacted the struggle of the gods against the forces of destruction.

"On the afternoon of the fourth day of the Festival, priests and choristers filled the Holy of Holies to recite the Enuma Elish, the epic poem which celebrated the victory of the gods over chaos. (Armstrong, Karen, A History of God, p. 7)

Kenneth Sublett

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8.16.08