Babel the Mother of World Religions

Babel the Mother of World Religions and Origin of all False Belief Systems

Overview

… before Abraham was, I am.

– John 8.58 b

Since the beginning, when God created humanity, He made himself and his ways known to everyone. Rom1. Besides the witness he put in the heart of all people, He always had men of God share His message to the rest of the world (Where my servant is there i am also).

He also established covenants throughout time to those who had faith in him; the first covenant was with Adam. The next we are told about in Scripture is the covenant with Noah. Noah was a righteous man who shared Gods word with the world, but when they didn’t listen and where destroyed, he share Gods word with his children. It was only 3 generation after Noah, until Nimrod, Noah’s grandson, began to rebel before God and lead the people in Shinar to build a temple that was meant to oppose God.

The Bible tells us that Nimrod was a mighty hunter before (against) the Lord. The exact purpose of the tower is debated by scholars, but one thing is known it was an opposition to God purpose. This was either because God told the people to spread out over the earth, or because they were going to worship other gods (demons) on it. The tower was never competed because God confused their language cause them to begin spreading out over the world.

It is interesting to find that many remnants of the ancient world belief systems have within it, a monotheistic based faith or had a supreme almighty deity above other lesser deities. Gradually, every nation would fall into polytheistic belief system which we know through scripture, this was the worship of demons. Lev 34.14-16, Deut 32.17. As these nations fell away from God, God chose Abraham to be His messenger to spread the truth of His word to the world, through his children the Israelites; this is when the covenant was formed with Abraham.

Ancient Kings Reference Pre-Deluge Texts

We have references of ancient kings reading pre-deluge texts presumable from Noah or one of the sons of Noah. In 1853 a statement was uncovered by Hormuzd Rassam in Ashurbanipal library in Nineveh from the time era of the 7^th century B.C.E. 

“ I read the beautiful clay tablets from Sumer and the Akkadian writing, which is hard to master. I had the joy of reading inscriptions on stone from the time before the flood.”

– King Ashurbanipal, an ancient king of the Assyrian Empire

Original Divide of Cultures

If we take into account, the most relevant information through archaeology and history we can discover the origin of the nations. Tracing back languages origins, genetics, and historic records, we find, in correlation to the bible, the divided nations all originated from the tower of Babel. We are able to pieces together the remnants of their original beliefs and religious systems, many with roots still containing a common origin. An origin that began with Noah after the flood that reveals the one true God and His original plan for humanity.

Japhetic Nations Culture and Religions

Gomer – The father of the Cimmerians and people groups that eventually settles in Germany, Spain and England. They would have contributed to some of the Scandinavian or Norse mythos, and Celtic pagan religions.

Magog – The father of the Scythian people who settled North of Caspian Sea. They believed in the Scythian pantheon. A belief that resembles Iranian and Vedic influence.

Madai – The father of the Aryans, Mede, and Asian people groups, who at first lived south and east of the Caspian Sea. There people groups eventually became the Indian nation who further migrated as Pacific Islanders, and possible where some of the Native Americans original ancestors. They believed in the Vedic and Chinese Ancient Religion.

Javan – The father of the Ionian people who settled at and near Greece. They developed the Greek mythology whose origin was heavily influenced by Minoan and Mycenaean people. Their religion would give rise to the Roman pantheon.

Tubal – The father of the Turkish and Iberian people who settled south of black sea. The Iberian religions where influenced by the Greeks, Assyrian, Phoenician and Mediterranean beliefs and practices.

Meshech – The father of the Slavic people whom settled between Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. They believed in a Slavic Pagan religion which has recently been combined with other beliefs to form the neo Slavic faith Rodnovery.

Tira – The father of the Thracians who became the Getae or Scandinavian people groups. The Scandinavians formed the basis what we know today as the Norse or Nordic Mythologies.

• see Noah’s Descendants

Semitic Nations Culture and Religions

Elam – The father of the Persian people, settled on gulf of Persia. One of their people’s primary beliefs became Zoroastrianism

Ashur – The father of the Assyrians, who settled between the Euphrates River and Tigris River. Their people followed the ancient Assyrian Religions.

Arpachshad – The father of the Babylonians, who settled at Chaldea. The Babylonian religions carried many similarities with many of the Sumerian religions and beliefs.

Arpachshad was also the ancestor of Abraham, whom God chose to be His messenger to the world. The father of the Jewish nation.

Lud and Aram – The fathers of the Lydian, Aramean and Syrian nations, whom settled throughout Asia Minor, Palestine and Syria. They were influenced by Mesopotamian beliefs, Baal worship, and other pantheons in the region.

• See Noah’s Descendants

Hamitic Nations Culture and Religions

Cush – The father of the Ethiopians and people that mingled with the Babylonians. People adopted an ancient Ethiopian Paganism belief.

Mizraim – The father of the Egyptian people, settled in settled Egypt and northern African regions. People developed the pantheon we know today as the Egyptian Mythologies

Phut – The father of various northern African people groups. Mostly settled in Libya. Various influences developed into the native set of Berber Religions.

Cannan – The father of the Hittite people who settled at the Mediterranean. They were influenced over time by Baal worship but believed in a large pantheon. Their beliefs correlated with other Mesopotamian and Egyptian religions.

• See Noah’s Descendants

Ancient Cultures Accounts of Babel & Religions

We only have pieces of the puzzle from all the countries in the world; therefore we have to put together each component to see the whole picture. This is the case since the world’s people where split up on the day God confused the languages at Babel.

As nations would conquer other nations, beliefs, traditions and heritages would be lost or change. Deities would be transferred or discarded. New deities would be formed as combination of language and traits would coalesce. The traditions and beliefs would continue to mix between the people groups as the original message they received would become more obscure.

Babylonian Account of the Tower of Babel

In 1917, Robert Koldewey a German archaeologist discovered a Babylonian scription on a stone stele that conveyed the plan from Nebuchadnezzar to build the Etemenanki. E Temen An Ki or the temple of the foundation of heaven and earth, dated to 600 – 560 b.c.e.

The stele was later examined by Dr. Andrew George and deciphered to be a ziggurat that was to be dedicated to the god Marduk in the ancient city of Babylon. Located about 90 km south of Baghdad in Iraq. It is believed that this was either a dedication or Nebuchadnezzar’s attempt to rebuild of the original tower of Babel.

Assyrian Account of the Tower of Babel

George Smith excavated a site in ancient Nineveh to uncover the Royal library of Ashurbanipal. This library contained many accounts similar to what we find in the Bible, including the creation story, the world flood, etc. One of the accounts was that of the event of the tower of Babel. Called in their text the gateway to heaven, the text fragments gives details similar to that told in the bible, ending with the confusion of language and spreading of human civilization.

“[…] them? The father […] Of him, his heart was evil, […] against the father of all the gods was wicked, […] of him, his heart was evil, […] Babylon brought to subjection, [small] and great he confounded their speech. […] Babylon brought to subjection, [small] and great he confounded their speech. Their strong place (tower) all the day they founded; to their strong place in the night entirely he made an end. In his anger also word thus he poured out: [to] scatter abroad he set his face he gave this? command, their counsel was confused […] the course he broke
[…] fixed the sanctuary”

– Fragmented text found at Nineveh, Royal Library of Ashurbanipal

Sumerian Account of the Tower of Babel

The Sumerian legend of Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta is preserved in post-Sumerian stories of the original legend from the 21^st century b.c.e. It is the story that accounts for the conflict between the king of Unug-Kulaba, Enmerkar and the king of Unug-Kulaka, Aratta. It tells of the erection of a temple and the confusion of languages.

Grecian and Roman Historian on the Tower of Babel

An ancient Greek Historian Abydenus writing in 200b.c. in his history of the Chaldeans,

But there are some who say that the men who first arose out of the earth, being puffed up by their strength and great stature, and proudly thinking that they were better than the gods, raised a huge tower, where Babylon now stands: and when they were already nearer to heaven, the winds came to the help of the gods, and overthrew their structure upon them, the ruins of which were called Babylon. And being up to that time of one tongue, they received from the gods a confused language; and afterwards war arose between Chronos and Titan – Greek Historian Abydenus

Greek Historian Herodotus wrote in the mid 5^th century b.c. about Babylon’s tower that had a spiral staircase that attempted to reach heaven.

Chinese Characters point to the Tower of Babel

Many of the Chinese characters reflect stories and images from the bible. Including the story of creation in the Garden of Eden, the temptation of woman by a serpent. Noah’s ark and 8 being saved by a boat. The most ancient traditions praise Shang-Di the one supreme god of heaven, whom animal sacrificed where given as offering for sin, similar to the edict given to the Jews. The Chinese characters that depict tower is written as:

DUST (Clay) + GRASS + PEOPLE (Mankind) + ONE + MOUTH (language)

When you take in consideration all the various Chinese characters that reflect original biblical stories, this is yet another example that points to the Biblical story in Gen 6. The people were of one speech and built the tower of Babel of bricks baked of clay and grass.

The Chinese word for Migrate is:

GREAT + WALK + WEST + DIVISION

This signifies that the story when the Chinese people walked (or migrated) after a great division that occurs in the west.

Native American Tribes – Stories of Tower of Babel

Choctaw Indians

The Choctaw Native Americans have an oral tradition of their creator God Aba, whom originally made all people to speak the same language. Their traditions state that they became curious and started to build a pile of rocks to reach the sky. Each night the wind blew the rocks down separating the people into different groups until the fourth day they could no longer understand each other, and scattered to form various tribes.

Cherokee Native Tradition

The Cherokee Native Americans tell of a time when great floods threatened their lands so they constructed a huge tower to reach the heavens. They believe there were 12 tribes back then. Their plan was when the flood would come they would leave the earth and go to heaven. After the tower was constructed the gods destroyed it and they could not repair it because their languages where changed.

Ancient Monolithic Structures

Pyramidal and Ziggurat step type structures exist all around the world from ancient times. It can be easily inferred that the ancient cultures that came from those the children of the original builders of the tower of Babel, carried with them the plans and designs as they migrated from their original position in the Middle East.

If the original builders created the tower of Babel for religious purposes, they would have passed on this message and meaning to their children along with the design and plans and technology they would have remembered. This is why the center of every civilization has some type of pyramidal type structure that reflects or is similar to that original design.

Ancient Technology used to create these structures remains a mystery. Details about how to move such massive granite blocks, how they were cut with such perfect precision and the laser accuracy of the bore holes and geometric angles just a few remarkable features that pose a problem even for modern technology.

Mother of all False World Religions

In the end times we are told from the book of Revelation that the anti Christ will enforce a one world religion on all people. This religion may be a new religion, or he could resurrect portions of the ancient religious system that the devil used to deceive the world after the Babel.

We do know that the mystery of Babylon the great will be at the center of what will occur in the last days. She is a harlot and committee fornication with the world and all the world leaders; she drinks the blood of the saints and has great wealth. She is the mother of all the earth’s abominations, which includes the world’s false religious systems. As every false belief is an abomination, keeping people away from knowing the one true God. 

1. “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, ² with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.”… 

⁴ The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. ⁵ And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” ⁶ And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus…

15 “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages.

– Revelation 17. 1-2, 4-6, 15

God warns all believers everywhere to get out of her and forsake her and her ways, lest you get caught up in her iniquity and you are guilty of partaking in her sins.

“Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back as she herself has paid back others and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed. As she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning, since in her heart she says, ‘I sit as a queen, …

– Revelation 18. 4-7a

Similarities between Ancient False Religions

Worship of the Sun God

Lucifer, his name means the shining one, and often depicts himself as the bringer of light or knowledge. We find that most of the male supreme begins become associated with or as the sun or lightning god.

“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! [how] art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!”

– Isaiah 14:12:

The name Lucifer mean the bearer of light or light bringer.

“I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven “

– Jesus Luke 10. 17

Satanists have used the lightning bolt as a symbol for the devil for a very long time.

Queen of Heaven

Many of the ancient religions attributed a supreme mother goddess that they would worship, that would eventually be revered as their queen of the heavens. They would be the mother or wife of the primary deity and had many different names throughout the various religions, and always had an attribute in fertility or with sexual features.

The Queen of Heaven has been worshipped as Semiramis, Ashtoreth, Astarte, Ishtar, Venus, Artemis (of the Ephesians), and Diana, and in Roman Catholicism, Miriam or Mary the mother of Jesus. 

The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

– Jer 7.18

Obelisks and Temple Prostitution

Obelisks where used in a great many ancient religions, typically believed to be a phallus symbol. Phallus symbology and the worship of fertility god(desses) or other sexually orientated rituals and degrees of sexual immorality where practiced in most of the ancient temple. Temple prostitution was common and often a practice of the worshippers in those temples. The Devil knows that the sexual gratification of the flesh is a difficult bondage to escape, and people will often fight very hard to retain those points of sensual exploitation.

Astrology

Most ancient religious systems had some type of cosmology attached to their belief system, along with celestial body worship. Star gazing was a common practice among diviners in ancient cultures.

And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven

– Deut 4.19

It has been proposed that in ancient times God wrote the gospel in the stars, attributing Ps 19.1 that the heavens declare the glory of God and proclaim (or tell) of His handiwork. How do they tell of His handiwork, is this verse more than an allegorical statement? The Gospel in the Stars proposal states that God wrote in the constellations His plan of salvation and the gospel message, however overtime its meaning was corrupted by the pagan beliefs into an astrological symbolism.

This proposal need more research or discovery before it could definitively be attributed to pre-ancient cultures.

Similarities between ancient religions and Judaism or Christianity

It would not be surprising as archaeological and translated texts become more common, that we find commonalities between the most ancient religions of the world and Judaism (or Christianity). As God would have told Noah’s descendants about His plan of redemption in ancient times, and had His people spread His message to the developing nations.

We find some remnants of similarities between some of these ancient religions and Christianity, not because Christianity was formed form these ancient religions, but because the one true God gave humanity his message from the beginning of time.

Supreme Male Deities

Almost all ancient cultures had a male supreme deity that recited over heaven. However, we know that Lucifer always worked to corrupt humanity and deceives people to see him as that supreme deity.

And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

– Rev 12.9

In Isaiah we see that the Devil has continually made it his goal to ascend to heaven, sit above God, and make himself like God. In his pride, he has desired the worship of God’s created being since the beginning.

How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! ¹³ You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne  above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.^[14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” ¹⁵ But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit.

– Isaiah 14. 12 – 15

We have another agent that works to corrupt the image of God. The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans Chapter 1 that as the hearts of people become corrupt, they exchange the glory of God for the image of corruptible man and beast. So not only does the Devil work to corrupt God word, so does immoral man, who works to make God in his own image or like the image of corruptible beast.

References

The Center for Messianic Learning – Mystery of Babylon the Great

Ancient Pages – Story of Babylon told by the Choctow Indians

Apologetic Press – The Ancient Origins of Hinduism

Ancient Origins – Assyrian Account of the Tower of Babel

Answers in Genesis – Account of Pre-Deluge Statement by Ancient Assyrian King

Answer in Genesis – the unknown God of ancient China

Roman Catholic Beliefs – Worship of the sun gods