The Way of the Heathen
By
Robert O. Miller
“Do not learn the way of the Heathen; do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Heathen are dismayed at them. (Jeremiah 10:2)”
A Heathen is one who adheres to the religion of a people or nation that does not acknowledge the Elohim of Israel – Yahweh, thus they are irreligious, uncivilized, or unenlightened. These are they that seek to revive the religious beliefs and practices of the apostasy of Nimrod – namely Mystery Babylon.
Who is this Mystery Babylon?
“I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of YahShua. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement….the angel said to me, “Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns…The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits.” (Revelation 17:1-7, 9)
There has never has been any difficulty in identifying the woman “sitting on seven mountains,” and having on her forehead the name written, “Mystery, Babylon the Great.” It is the apostate system with its seat in Rome.
Sextus Aurelius Propertius, the Latin poet of the Augustan age, identifies Rome as: “The lofty city on seven hills, which governs the whole world.” Its “governing the whole world” is another way of saying “that rules over the kings of the earth.” (Revelation 17:18). Another Latin poet, Marcus Valerius Martialis, calls those seven hills, “The seven dominating mountains.” In fact, if you were from Rome you were called: “De septem montibus virum,” which in English is: “the man from the seven mountains.”
Simon the magician was smart when he selected Rome as the place to start his new religion. In fact, Rome was almost essential to the success of his belief system. If one was going to build a cosmopolitan religion, one needed to come to the center of the Empire – Rome. In no other spot on earth could the new religion’s gigantic schemes of dominion have been formed, or, if formed, realized. Sitting in the seat of seven dominating mountains which the masters of the known world had so long occupied, the Roman bishops seemed the rightful heir of the Caesar’s power. The Church of Simon reaped the fruit of the wars and the conquests, the toils and the blood, of imperial Rome. Finally, the Bishop of Rome, given the title of Pontiff Maximus or Pope perpetually reminded the world that the Church was the successors of Caesars’ Empire.
Rome through right of succession is the Babylon of the Apocalypse; and her character is seen by her system, the grand objects of her worship, her festivals, her doctrine and discipline, her rites and ceremonies, her priesthood and their orders, have all been derived from ancient Babylon. The Pope instead of being “Vicarious Dios” is truly the lineal successor of the throne of Belshazzar. For if it was MYSTERY, BABYLON that was birthed that night, when the Pagan Pontifex Maximus -king of Babylon, in the midst of his thousand lords, “praised the gods of gold, and of silver, and of wood, and of stone” (Dan 5:4), thus the Church of Rome is entitled to the name MYSTERY, BABYLON.
In the early Christian literary work of the 2nd century, considered a valuable book by many Christians, and considered canonical scripture by some of the early Church fathers, “The Shepherd of Hermas,” we find this revelation: “Now a revelation was given to me, my brethren, while I slept, by a young man of comely appearance, who said to me, “Who do you think that old woman is from whom you received the book?” And I said, “The Sibyl.” (the Babylonian Sibyl was the prophetic priestess presiding over the ancient religion of Nimrod) “You are in a mistake,” says he; “it is not the Sibyl.” “Who is it then?” say I. And he said, “It is the Church.” And I said to him, “Why then is she an old woman? “Because,” said he, “she was created first of all. On this account is she old….”Do you see something great?” And I say, “Lady, I see nothing.” She said to me, “Lo! do you not see opposite to you a great tower, built upon the waters, of splendid square stones?” For the tower was built square by those six young men who had come with her. But myriads of men were carrying stones to it, some dragging them from the depths, others removing them from the land, and they handed them to these six young men. They were taking them and building; and those. of the stones that were dragged out of the depths, they placed in the building just as they were: for they were polished and fitted exactly into the other stones, and became so united one with another that the lines of juncture could not be perceived. And in this way the building of the tower looked as if it were made out of one stone. Those stones, however, which were taken from the earth suffered a different fate; for the young men rejected some of them, some they fitted into the building, and some they cut down, and cast far away from the tower. Many other stones, however, lay around the tower, and the young men did not use them in building; for some of them were rough, others had cracks in them, others had been made too short, and others were white and round, but did not fit into the building of the tower. Moreover, I saw other stones thrown far away from the tower, and falling into the public road; yet they did not remain on the road, but were rolled into a pathless place. And I saw others falling into the fire and burning, others falling close to the water, and yet not capable of being rolled into the water, though they wished to be rolled down, and to enter the water…Hear, then, the parables of the tower; for I will reveal all to you, and give me no more trouble in regard to revelation: for these revelations have an end, for they have been completed. But you will not cease praying for revelations, for you are shameless. The tower which you see building is myself, the Church…” (“The Shepherd of Hermas,” 2:4; 3:2, 3)
“…take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has come to an end! How his furyhas ended! Yahweh has broken the rod of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers, which in anger struck down peoples with unceasing blows, and in fury subdued nations with relentless aggression. All the lands are at rest and at peace; they break into singing. Even the junipers and the cedars of Lebanon gloat over you and say, ‘Now that you have been laid low, no one comes to cut us down.’ The realm of the dead below is all astir to meet you at your coming; it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you— all those who were leaders in the world; it makes them rise from their thrones— all those who were kings over the nations. They will all respond, they will say to you, ‘You also have become weak, as we are; you have become like us.’ All your pomp has been brought down to the grave, along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover you. How are you fallen from heaven, O HayLale’ ben Shahar Yalal! How are you cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations! For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven I will exalt my throne above the stars of Elohim: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of Hell.” (Isaiah 14:12-15)
Rome, as successor to the Babylonian Mystery religion, is MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS, and from her DAUGHTER CHURCHES came out in “protest,” calling themselves “PROTESTANT.” And ALL have to a greater or lesser extent embraced her APOSTACY. “Upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS” (Revelation 17:5). Her daughters are called “harlots.” Together, they are called “MYSTERY, BABYLON.” They are pagans, teaching pagan doctrines and customs, cloaked in the NAME of “Christianity!”
This is in stark contrast to the true followers of King Messiah YahShua: “But these … call themselves Christians-but “Nazarenes,” … However they are simply complete Jews. They use not only the New Testament but the Old Testament as well, as the Jews do… They have no different ideas, but confess everything exactly as the Law proclaims it and in the Jewish fashion– except for their belief in Messiah, if you please! For they acknowledge both the resurrection of the dead and the divine creation of all things, and declare that G-d is one, and that his son is Y’shua the Messiah. They are trained to a nicety in Hebrew. For among them the entire Law, the Prophets, and the… Writings… are read in Hebrew, as they surely are by the Jews. They are different from the Jews, and different from Christians, only in the following. They disagree with Jews because they have come to faith in Messiah; but since they are still fettered by the Law — circumcision, the Sabbath, and the rest– they are not in accord with Christians…they are nothing but Jews…They have the Good News according to Matthew in its entirety in Hebrew. For it is clear that they still preserve this, in the Hebrew alphabet, as it was originally written.” (Epiphanius; Panarion 29)
Jerome said, “To-day there still exists among the Jews in all the synagogues of the East a heresy which is … called ‘Nazarenes’; they believe that Christ, the son of God, was born of the Virgin Mary, and they hold him to be the one who suffered under Pontius Pilate and ascended to heaven, and in whom we also believe. But while they pretend to be both Jews and Christians, they are neither.” (Epistle 79, to Augustine)
By 325 CE, the Roman Emperor Constantine made Simon’s Church the official Imperial Religion. The Council standardized doctrine in the church through an assembly representing all of Gentile Christendom. The first thing they did was change the Sabbath: “On the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so suitable for grain-sowing or for vine-planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost. Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord’s Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ. For it is unbecoming beyond measure that on this holiest of festivals we should follow the customs of the Jews. Henceforth let us have nothing in common with this odious people…We ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews…our worship follows a…more convenient course…we desire dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews…How, then, could we follow these Jews, who are almost certainly blinded.” Sunday was made the legal day of Christian worship at this time. As the Sabbath is the identifying sign of the people of Yahweh, so Sunday is the mark that identifies the AUTHORITY of MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS“–because Sunday carries no authority. The substitution of the pagan Sunday to counterfeit the Sabbath is the primary strategy of Satan in deceiving all nations, and counterfeiting the Truth as well as the Faith of Yahweh.
Catholicism says: “Sunday is a Catholic institution, and its claims to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles… From beginning to end of Scripture there is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of weekly public worship from the last day of the week to the first.” (The Catholic Press, Sydney, Australia, August, 1900)
The Lutherans say: “For when there could not be produced one solitary place in the Holy Scriptures which testified that either the Lord Himself or the apostles had ordered such a transfer of the Sabbath to Sunday, then it was not easy to answer the question: Who has transferred the Sabbath, and who has had the right to do it?” (George Sverdrup, A New Day)
The Episcopalians say: “We have made the change from the seventh day to the first day, from Saturday to Sunday, on the authority of the one holy, catholic, apostolic church of Christ.” (Bishop Seymour, Why We Keep Sunday)
The Presbyterians say: “Until, therefore, it can be shown that the whole moral law has been repealed, the Sabbath will stand…. The teaching of Christ confirms the perpetuity of the Sabbath.” (T.C. Blake, D.D., Theology Condensed, pp. 474, 475)
The Methodists say: “it is true that there is no positive command for infant baptism. Nor is there any for keeping holy the first day of the week. Many believe that Christ changed the Sabbath. But, from His own words, we see that He came for no such purpose. Those who believe that Jesus changed the Sabbath base it only on a supposition.” (Amos Binney, Theological Compendium, pages 180, 181)
The Southern Baptists say: “The sacred name of the Seventh day is Sabbath. This fact is too clear to require argument (Exodus 20:10 quoted)… On this point the plain teaching of the Word has been admitted in all ages… Not once did the disciples apply the Sabbath law to the first day of the week–that folly was left for a later age, nor did they pretend that the first day supplanted the seventh.” (Joseph Judson Taylor, The Sabbath Question, pages 14-17, 41)
The Church of Christ says: “Finally, we have the testimony of Christ on this subject. In Mark 2:27, he says: ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.’ From this passage it is evident that the Sabbath was made not merely for the Israelites, as Paley and Hengstenberg would have us believe, but for man…that is, for the race. Hence we conclude that the Sabbath was sanctified from the beginning, and that it was given to Adam, even in Eden, as one of those primeval institutions that God ordained for the happiness of all men.” (Robert Milligan, Scheme of Redemption, (St. Louis, The Bethany Press, 1962), p. 165)
The Pentecostal says: ” ‘Why do we worship on Sunday? Doesn’t the Bible teach us that Saturday should be the Lord’s Day?’… Apparently we will have to seek the answer from some other source than the New Testament.” (David A. Womack, “Is Sunday the Lord’s Day?” The Pentecostal Evangel, Aug. 9, 1959, No. 2361, p. 3)
As John Gilmary Shea says in the American Catholic Quarterly Review, January, 1883, “Protestantism, in discarding the authority of the (Roman Catholic) Church, has no good reasons for its Sunday theory, and ought logically to keep Saturday as the Sabbath.”
In Isaiah 56, Yahweh states, “My salvation is about to come, and My righteousness to be revealed.” Salvation is coming to whom? Righteous will be revealed to whom? Those “who has joined himself to Yahweh.” How do they join themselves to Yahweh? By embracing the Kingdom. What is the sign of surrender to the Kingdom? “…keep My Sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant… love the name of Yahweh…be His servants.”
The Church replaced the three Pilgrimage Holy Days of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles out of a dislike for anything “Jewish,” with the pagan and heathen holidays celebrated by most Christians today Christmas, Easter, and Halloween.
CHRISTMAS
“If all our festival days had to be given up except one, it is quite probable that the voices of children would mingle with those of adults and sound forth in a mighty chorus in favor of retaining Christmas” (Herbert H. Wernecke, Christmas Customs Around the World, page 11)
“Through most of its history, the Christmas season has been a time of raucous revelry and bacchanalian indulgence more akin to Mardi Gras or New Year’s Eve than to a silent, holy night. So tarnished, in fact, was its reputation in colonial America, that celebrating Christmas was banned in Puritan New England, where the noted minister Cotton Mather described yuletide merrymaking as ‘an affront unto the grace of God’. (U.S. News & World Report (12/23/96)) “
“The winter solstice was regarded as the birthday of the sun and at Rome a pagan festival of the nativity of “sol invictus” was introduced by the Emperor Aurelian on the 25th December 274. The church unable to stamp out this popular festival, spiritualized it as the Feast of the Nativity of the Sun of Righteousness. When Christianity spread northwards it encountered a similar pagan festival also held at the winter solstice – the great Yule feast of the Norsemen. Once again Christians absorbed heathen customs. From the various sources came the Yule Log, the Christmas tree introduced into England from Germany and first mentioned in 1878.” (Chambers encyclopaedia 1970 edition page 530)
Santa Claus replaces anything religious as the central person of Christmas. “Santa Claus” is a corruption of the name “St. Nicholas,” a supposed Roman Catholic Bishop of Myra, in Asia Minor, who may have lived in the 4th Century. However, in reality Santa is the Norse god Odin who has a home far away in the “Netherlands” or the North Pole, he comes on horseback or in a sleigh driven by reindeer, he is associated with fire, by entering the house by the chimney or leaving gifts by the hearth (since he is a sun-god). Odin, the gift-giver, is re-incarnated in today’s as Kris Kringle.
“Do not learn the way of the Gentiles…For one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not topple. They are upright, like a palm tree, and they cannot speak; they must be carried, because they cannot go by themselves. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, nor can they do any good. (Jeremiah 10:2-6)”
“For of old I have broken your yoke and burst your bonds; and you said, “I will not transgress,’ when on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down, playing the harlot. (Jeremiah 2:20)”
“Yahweh said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: “Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot. 13Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Yahweh your Elohim, and have scattered your charms to alien deities under every green tree, and you have not obeyed My voice,’ says Yahweh. (Jeremiah 3:6,13)”
“The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with the point of a diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars, while their children remember their altars and their wooden imagesby the green trees on the high hills. (Jeremiah 17:1-2)”
“But come here, you sons of the sorceress, you offspring of the adulterer and the harlot! Whom do you ridicule? Against whom do you make a wide mouth and stick out the tongue? Are you not children of transgression, offspring of falsehood, inflaming yourselves with gods under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks? (Isaiah 57:3-5)”
“Then you shall know that I am Yahweh, when their slain are among their idols all around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every thick oak, wherever they offered sweet incense to all their idols. (Ezekiel 6:13)”
So the next time you’re sitting in someone’s living room, enjoying some wassail, listening to Bing on the stereo, admiring the Christmas Tree remember the “green” tree, the holly, mistle toe and Christmas itself is associated with false worship and idolatry: Deuteronomy 12:2, I Kings 14:22-23, II Kings 16:1-4, 17:9-10, II Chronicles 28:4. They are aserah, or phallic symbols worshiped by the ancient pagans around the world.
EASTER
“Then look at Easter. What means the term Easter itself? It is not a Messianic Term. It bears the Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else but (the Feast of) Ashtarte or Ishtar, one of the titles of Beltis, the Queen of Heaven…The classic poets are full of the fables of the mystics of the Babylonians; and thus its tale is told by Hyginus the Egyptian, the learned keeper of the Palatine library in Rome, in the time of Augustus, who was skilled in all the wisdom of his native country.
An egg of wondrous size is said to have fallen from heaven into the river Euphrates. The fish rolled it to the bank where the doves having settled upon it and hatched it – came out Venus who afterwards was called the Syrian Goddess – that is Astarte. Hence the egg became one of the of symbols of Astarte or Easter.” (The Two Babylons, pages 103, 108&109)
The Christian version of Easter is celebrated after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Today, Protestants unwittingly wait for the Catholics to set the date of the Holiday. The Easter sunrise service is derived from the ancient pagan practice of welcoming the sun on the morning of the spring equinox, marking the beginning of spring. What we now call Easter lilies were revered by the ancients as symbols of fertility and representative of the male genitaliam, as does the rabbit. The ancient Babylonian religions had rituals involving dyed eggs as did the ancient Egyptians.
HALLOWEEN
Every October 31st, hundreds of thousands of children dress in costumes, which range from the cute and sweet to the macabre and satanic. Every year this custom is repeated because it’s always been done. That is what makes it a ritual. After all, it is all harmless fun, right?
Michael Judge, writing for the New Age periodical Common Boundary, explains, “Halloween…began between 1000 and 100 B.C., among the Celtic people. The actual holiday was a commemoration of the new year (Sep./Oct. 1993, p. 29). It was at this time of the year that Baal, the Celtic god of Spring and Summer, ended his reign. It was also when the Lord of the Dead, Samhain, began his reign.”
The ceremony of Halloween underwent an infusion of other pagan influences when the Celt homeland was absorbed by the Roman Empire. While Rome allowed the Druid priests to continue all their ceremonies, “except human sacrifice,” new rituals of Roman origins were also incorporated. “Chief among them was the worship of Pomona, goddess of the harvest. Representing bounty and fecundity, Pomona was shown in art sitting on a great basket of fruits and flowers, a horn of plenty at her feet. Apples were the sacred fruit of the goddess, and many games of divination involving apples entered the Samhain customs through her influence. One of the most popular involved bobbing for apples,” Common Boundary, Sep./Oct. 1993, p. 30.
“Grafted onto one of the Church’s great holy days, Samhain became All Hallows’ Eve, contracted over years of usage to All Hallow’s E’en and, ultimately, Halloween,” Common Boundary, Sep./Oct. 1993, p. 31.
The next time you dress up collecting candy as a harmless diversion remember occult practices are an abomination to Yahweh, Deuteronomy 18:10-12, and Witchcraft is a crime punishable by death in the Torah, Exodus 22:18.
Does It Matter?
Listen to the admonition of Paul on whether we should be following the example of Israel or the “Way of the Heathen”:
“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Messiah? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Messiah?For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.
Observe Israel after the flesh: Are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?
What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything?Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to Yahweh, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.You cannot drink the cup of Yahweh and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of Yahweh’s table and of the table of demons.Or do we provoke Yahweh to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? (1 Corinthians 10:16-22)”
That those who eat festival sacrifices become united with the deity to whom those sacrifices are made is obvious. (v16-18)
That though the food partaken of is itself not intrinsically changed (v19), when a person partakes of and shares in a pagan feast or celebration, they becomes partner with the spirits of evil, the demon host who daily defy the dictates of the Almighty. (20-21)
In other words when a person celebrates Christmas or any other pagan festival, which was and still is motivated by the forces of evil, they are honoring the demons who conceived that pagan festival in the first place; demons who are totally opposed to the Holy Spirit; and who go out of their way too prompt mankind into committing all kinds of evil at their winter and spring festivals. In other words the so-called “spirit of Xmas” is not the Holy Spirit of Yahweh but the Spirit of greed, drunkenness, violence and debauchery all of which are the hallmarks of the pagan holidays.
“‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!’She has become a dwelling for demons and a haunt for every impure spirit…Come out of her, my people,’so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and Yahweh has remembered her crimes… Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and Yahweh has remembered her crimes. Give back to her as she has given; pay her back double for what she has done. Pour her a double portion from her own cup. Give her as much torment and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself. In her heart she boasts, “I sit enthroned as queen. I am not a widow; I will never mourn.” Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is Yahweh our Elohim who judges her.’” (Revelation 18:2, 4, 5-8)
“Learn not the way of the Heathen spirit…Come out of her, my people!”
Originally written by Rabbi Robert O. Miller on Dec. 25th 2010
(Robert Owen Miller 1957-2021)
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