Hellenism - Romanism

            During the time of Abraham, Moses, and the generations just after Moses, the ancient Israelites lived under a theocracy, meaning they were directly governed by our CREATOR, according to the Order of Melchizedek. There was no centralized earthly authority. There were no men-in-black. There was no central high church, synagogue or high priest rendering moral decisions. The national leadership came from individuals - men and women - called Judges, they were special people of the Jerusalem Church who were called out by YAHWEH to guide the people in HIS ways, feelings and opinions.

            The Book of Judges, and the two Books of the Prophet Samuel, recount the Israelites up and down relationship with YAHWEH as their KING.  The last person to rule as a Prophet was Samuel apx. 1025 B.C.E., as he grew older, the people no longer felt secure in their system of government and asked Samuel to appoint them a human king modeled after their pagan neighbors. Samuel was distraught, he felt the people had rejected him.

           "Liberty means responsibility, that is why people hate it." YAHWEH reassured him, they have not rejected him (Samuel), but rather have rejected YAHWEH and HIS rule over them. In the above quote YAHWEH gives the people one final warning as to what this type of government would do to them, the key word is 'take.' This type of government will always 'take' more the it gives. Unfortunately, the people were seduced by the dark side and rejected HIS warning.

            One must always remember: The ancient texts tell us of the supernatural conflict between the side of light against the darkness of evil. Our fight is not with our fellow man, it is the false education system hiding behind him. Ephesians 6:12 puts it in black and white: "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."

 

Satan is the god of this world,

and his is a world of counterfeit wisdom...

"...whose minds the god of this age has blinded..." - 2Cor.4:4

           The Biblical history books of Kings and Chronicles, details the consequences of their wrong choices. First the northern kingdom of Israel was destroyed, wiped off the map, never to be heard from again. And later the southern kingdom was defeated. The conquered Judeans were collected and transferred to the ancient city of Babylon. 

            King  Nebuchadnezzar was incredibly wealthy and powerful. He built his capitol city, Babylon, into was one of the ancient wonders of the world. The city with its magnificent buildings was crowned by the renowned and spectacular hanging gardens of Babylon. The ancient capital, about six miles square and with walls 300 feet high, was part of the empire of Nimrod referred to in Genesis 10:10.    

            In that era a wise Prophet named Daniel was “called out” for extraordinary service.  He was a brilliant young man, a Prophet who had been given special understanding in visions and dreams.  He wrote the book under his name in the Bible.  Daniel exemplified how to live, and conduct oneself in the midst of Babylon, which is an example of how all Believers must live in a world governed by darkness.  Do not sink your roots too deeply in this present order.  Change is coming - sooner then you think!

            There are many interesting stories of Daniel’s life of exile in Babylon, but for our study one incident is very important to us today.  YAHWEH used Daniel to make it known to the Babylonian king that the CREATOR, YAHWEH, ruled over the whole Earth, and that Nebuchadnezzar held his throne only by HIS will.  In a dream Nebuchadnezzar saw a vision that he did not understand, and none of his wise men could explain it.  He called on Daniel, who interpreted it as a prophecy outlining the superpower human governments and the coming  government of YAHWEH.  This prophecy is important to us today as it generally describes the government we will be living under until the redeeming Messiah comes and restores the Kingdom.   

            Through this prophecy, YAHWEH is telling us that there will be different stages to this government of kings that we have chosen for ourselves.  Nebuchadnezzar saw a stupendous male image, and Daniel described what the features of it represented.  The golden head represented Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon; its chest and arms of silver represent the next superpower the Persian Empire, which came in 536 B.C.E.  The mid-section of bronze represents the Greco-Macedonian Empire of Alexander the great in 331 B.C.E.  The hips and legs of iron are the Roman Empire which begins in 63 B.C.E., and the two long legs are the split of the Roman Empire, East/Constantinople and West/Rome. 

            It’s feet, is a blend of iron and clay (this is the stage we are under today), and the ten toes represent ten governing bodies ruling together, which will come to power sometime in the future, near the end of this 'Biblical' Age of Grace. 

            This iron clay mixture is not very strong, and it represents a weak revival of the roman empire combined with other global organizations.  The prophecy reveals that this entire system of human governments will be destroyed by the redeeming Messiah (the final battle is described in Zec.ch.14).  Then man’s governments will be replaced by the Kingdom/Government of YAHWEH, headed by the Messiah, as King of kings ruling all the Earth (Dan.ch.2, and a corresponding vision in ch.7).

            During a large party at Nebuchadnezzar’s palace they were passing around and defiling objects stolen from the Temple in Jerusalem.  All of a sudden some mysterious Aramaic writing appeared on the wall and Daniel was summoned to interpret it (Dan.5:25).  Roughly translated it said, “the party is over,” meaning the Babylonian empire will soon be destroyed.  Although Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges the existence of YAHWEH, because of his pride and thinking his glorious city was invincible, he never obeyed.  Painfully the prophecies unfolded just as YAHWEH predicted, and the Persian Empire succeeded Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian Empire.

            Today’s popular expression, “didn’t you see the handwriting on the wall,” comes from Nebuchadnezzar’s harsh lesson of reality. Change is coming - sooner then you think!

            Today: Critics of the Bible questioned the existence of Nebuchadnezzar because his name never appeared in any archaeological sites.  In the early 1900’s Babylon was discovered in Iraq.  Along with the discovery of Babylon are thousands of clay bricks with a dedication to Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon.  Now these critics grudgingly admit the Biblical references in the book of Daniel are the greatest and most accurate history of Nebuchadnezzar.  

            King Saddam Hussein of the Desert Storm Gulf War fame is rebuilding the city and fancies himself to King Nebuchadnezzar because he conquered the Ancient Jews and drove them off their land.  King Hussein rebuilt the Istar Gate and began rebuilding the city.  Every year there is a summer festival dedicated to Satan.  When Iraq is allowed to start selling oil again, this project would progress rapidly.  Prophecy says in Revelation 18:1-12 the city will return in the end times.  It will become a major commercial commerce center, and men will weep at the destruction of the city at the return of the Messiah (Isa.13:1,6,19; Rev.ch.18).  

HELLENISM  

               King Cyrus of Persia was one of the great righteous gentiles of Scripture. He honored the Jewish people, by acknowledging that they were a special people of YAHWEH (2Chr.36:20-21). Seventy years after the captivity of Judah and the destruction of Solomon’s Temple, YAHWEH put in the mind of King Cyrus to make a proclamation to send the first colony of captive Judeans back to Jerusalem (Ezr.1:1-4). In 536 B.C. captivity ended exactly as prophesied in Jeremiah 25:11, King Cyrus allowed the first Judeans to return to their homeland. About 5% or 42,700 captives returned under the leadership of a man called Zerubbabel to rebuild their country and to build the second Temple.

             Today, archaeologists have discovered a stone from Persia with this proclamation engraved on it. This gentile Persian king also promoted a revival of the Hebrew faith, as he commissioned the priest and scribe Ezra to teach the people the Law (Ezr.7:12-26). On the first day of the seventh month, a special assembly, commissioned by the gentile king, was called in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Church is reconvened as everyone (men and women) gathers to listen to a public reading of the Torah, followed by a renewal of a Covenant to obey the Law (Neh.ch.8).

             After the Persian empire, the Greek empire built by the young military general Alexander the Great (336-323 B.C.E.) rose to its glory.  The Greek empire, exerting its own Greek culture, language, and spiritual ideals, thoroughly influenced the ancient world from Egypt to India.  This came to be known as Hellenism.  As the Jewish allegiance was switched from Persia to Greece, Greek spirituality and philosophy began to infect and cause problems in the religion of the Judeans.  Problems in their political life would come later, after Alexander the Great died, his empire was divided up among his generals with Jerusalem caught in the tenuous middle ground.

              Today many still regard the concept of aspiring to the highest Hellenistic ideals of morality, philosophy and science as the mark of an educated man.  But this new-age of enlightenment was used by Satan to plant many seeds of spiritual disinformation that are still with us today.  For example, the snake as the symbol of healing has its roots in the ancient pagan cultures, which was adopted by the Greek thinkers.  In the Bible the snake represents evil and is a cursed loathsome creature (and this will not change in the Kingdom to come, Isa.65:25).  In the pagan world, the snake represents wisdom, and because of the snake’s ability to shed its skin, it was seen as a powerful image for renewal and healing. 

            The two serpents twisted around a short wand are the symbol of the pagan god who cures illness.  Today’s name caduceus comes from the Roman times where it was associated with the Roman god Mercury, and to the Greeks it was the god Hermes.  It has a very unflattering, very ancient spiritual history rooted with thieves, tricksters, and shady businessmen.  And with them comes a flawed science and philosophy still at work today.  It is their Hellenist arrogance against nature believing it is something to be conquered and controlled.  As opposed to the philosophy of oriental medicine where one heals more in harmony with the natural forces.

            Today’s macho-man has its roots in Greek Hellenism.  The Greek world was a rich men's club, where women were rarely seen and never heard.  There was one law for the rulers, and another law for the ruled.  The early Greeks followed a fertility religion stemming from the ancient Babylonian mystery religion of the Canaanites.  As the Greek empire matured, their religion evolved into a sophisticated mythology of polytheism. 

            Hellenism is a system of slavery to false gods.  It is nothing more then the ancient Babylonian gods with a new-age make-over.  It was a religion of multiple gods, temple prostitutes, naked athletes, and so on.  “It was a time when the gods were petty and cruel,” and sex was glamorous and exciting.  The people believed that the gods were just like humans only much more powerful, and they lived in their heavenly home called Mount Olympus. 

            “You gotta give the Devil his due,” he is a Bible scholar to say the least.  He knows it in the original tongue with all the great and powerful Sacred Names, and he carefully listens to the prophecies.  One of Satan’s warfare tactics is to blind all humanity by counterfeiting and perverting YAHWEH’S wisdom.  Satan knows of the prophecies of the coming Messiah and his disinformation demons would use the Greeks to muddy the spiritual waters.  There was a clear purpose to this, so that when the real Messiah appeared, as the son of GOD, who has a mission to conquer evil, the people would say, “. . . no big deal, been there, done that.”

            For example the counterfeit story of the Biblical Messiah began with the god of gods, who was the father god Zeus.  He had a son by a human female called Hercules, who was half god, half human.  In the Greek world Hercules was the son of god, and their savior.  He was called back to his heavenly home before his work could be finished, but before he left he descended into the underworld and triumphed over the forces of evil.

            Hellenism is opposite to the Biblical lessons.  It mimics Biblical principles, for example health care, a savior to conquer evil, but its spiritual character - the science, the philosophy, and the commerce behind the system - is a counterfeit.  Hellenism is an excellent example of how Satan convinces humans that they are making progress, when they are really going backwards!   

ROMANISM

           In 66 B.C.E. Judea becomes a province of, and subject to, Imperial Rome.  One of the main reasons the Empire of Greece collapsed is that they treated their newly conquered provincial subjects as defeated enemies.  The Romans would not make this same mistake, they treated their conquered subjects as Romans - not as outsiders, but as contributors.  When the Romans brought their great unification machine to your tribe or nation-state, you were absorbed by it and became part of the Roman family - or else.   

           The Roman empire was a cultural and religious melting pot.  As in all roads lead to Rome, they will take some of the local peoples customs and gods, sprinkle in some worship for the Roman emperor and embrace it as their own.  Sounds simple enough, everyone is happy, as long as you do not say that there is only one true GOD and only one way of getting there.  Naturally the Jews, with their stubborn belief in monotheism, would run afoul of the Romans.

            They were a brutal society with millions of slaves that were treated as human chattel, and an all-powerful emperor who could kill at will.  When they came to town, the defeated leadership was either killed on the spot (if they were lucky enough), or nailed to a slow-agonizing-painful death on a stake or cross - as an example of authority to the rest of the population.  Some were simply carted off to prison to experience unspeakable horror. 

            The second in command of the village was given a lesson in how to stay alive under Roman imperial rule by learning to do the Roman curtsey (which means following orders - without question), which would then be taught to all in the local population.  The Romans preferred cooperation to crucifixion, and if the provincial male residents learned their lessons well, pledging unbending loyalty, they would be made cives Romani - citizens of Rome - with all the commensurate rights and duties.  Those locals who excelled at the “Roman curtsey” were granted coveted positions in the Roman hierarchy. 

            One can get into quite an active and lively debate on pros and cons of the so-called benefits brought by the Roman machine.  The Roman machine gives the gift of the future!  A future of a strong new alliance of all people with a common purpose, peace, prosperity, and protection!  We bring a civilized life! 

            “No!  You bring lies, deceit, betrayal, bribery, thievery and death!” The critics would charge.  But the critics never lasted too long.  The Roman machine was relentless as it unified the entire Mediterranean rim and eventually up to the British Isles.  The Romans imposed urbanization, cosmopolitan is in - country is out.  They took great pains to stamp out the people’s connection to the land, preferring to corral the people into cities which made them easier to control. 

             Commerce moved freely on the new Roman roads, safe from pirates and marauders, but not from tax collectors and bureaucrats.  The Roman taxes paid for fresh water systems, single currency, single code of laws and courts - universal law - for all male citizens throughout the empire.  (The Roman world was a man’s world, women and non citizens were, let’s say, wa-a-a-y down the food chain of life.)  The Roman taxes also carried a heavy government bureaucracy and it paid for the grand lifestyle of the man-god-emperors, such as they were.  And the heavy taxes paid for a massive single Roman army - forbidding as it was, to enemy and citizen alike.   

            Some say with an almost romantic admiration, the greatest achievement of the Roman world was in its sheer art of governing.  Your point of view, of course, depends on which side of the sword you are on.  To put it simply, the Romans were a bunch of control freaks, their whole system was all about control, control, control.  They will control you with religion.  They will control you with politics.  And they will control you with commerce.   

            The keystone in Roman governing is that a citizen must produce.  Volumes could be written about it, but the short version goes like this: The government would argue, if it only takes a small percentage of the people to basically feed all of the people.  The question is, what do all the rest of the people do?  You have to keep them busy doing something or they will rebel, or start killing each other.  The answer is in an old Jewish saying: “There is no business like business.”  Sometimes, throughout history the Jews take a lot of heat because they are good at business, but the Romans raised it into an art form, and they gave it that nationwide imperial touch.  In the Roman business world everything is recorded and licensed, wholesaled and brokered - by a registered agent; then retailed, credited, shipped - while all assets are registered, taxed, financed, and followed.   

            In China, almost 500 years before the Roman empire, Confucius sought to transmit the wisdom of the ancient sages. Opposite of the Roman ways, Confucius and his disciples distrusted written laws. He believed a dusty statute book was too inflexible to handle the infinite variety of human experience. He chose to trust people, not laws, and taught a philosophy of personal virtue, devotion to family and social justice, to rely on innate human goodness as the best guarantee of a civil society. He was probably closer to the Biblical mark of the Noadic Covenant teachings, than most give him credit for. 

          The Biblical lessons are clear, as believers, we are to learn these lessons of personal virtue, devotion to family, social justice, etc., because the more moral the society, then less community laws are needed to govern them. Unfortunately, scholars today consider the comprehensive body of statute and case law our greatest inheritance from ancient Rome.  

           “The more things change the more they stay the same.”  In ancient times, like today, the more corrupt the government became, the more laws they manufactured, and if one steps out of bounds they will be crushed under the weight of it.

            Some will simply say, “...it’s the nature of the beast.”  We will leave the Roman empire pro-con debate to another forum, for our discussion we will just simply label it Romanism.  We are concerned with the spiritual side of the Roman world.  Remember the prophecy of the Prophet Daniel, described earlier, spiritually the Roman Empire or the principles of Romanism will govern until the Messiah comes to destroy it.  Many Roman political concepts, just mentioned, both good and bad, are still in use today.  Today they are called western political concepts, but they originated from the Romans and were spiritually passed on through time to us. 

            Also, in use today are many Roman spiritual concepts.  There is always a spiritual price to pay when the Roman progress comes to town, because there is no truth within them.  The Ten Commandments are out, hypocrisy, political corruption, cardinal decadence, and lies, are in.  They go out of their way to keep the masses fearful, ignorant and divided, so they are easier to exploit.  Some grumbling from the masses will be tolerated, but stick your head too high above the crowd and shout corruption too loudly, then you will be subject to a tactical response - just ask any whistle-blower.

            The Romans did not start out as a corrupt and liberal thinking society.  In the early years of the empire they were very conservative and adopted a strict morality code, but in time, little by little, backsliding (incrementalism) begins.  First taxes go up, then personal weapons are confiscated, and the ruling elites become drunk with power - then trouble begins....  

            Eventually after much hardship the pendulum would swing the other way and for a while there would be revival returning to its founding principles.  During the conservative swing Satan knows all he has to do is wait a while, then incrementalism creeps in and the pendulum swings the other way again. (The more things change the more they stay the same.) 

      The macho-men of Hellenism-Romanism is directly opposite of the Biblical lessons. The Book of Acts 6:1-7, records an important lesson of role reversal in the early church, where prominent preachers and teachers were assigned to a food distribution program for widows.  In the Hellenist’s world, real men don’t do kitchen work.  Such tasks would usually be assigned to a male servant or to a woman - not leading men.  This was a dramatic example, where in the eyes of the Hellenist society of the time, distinguished men doing servants’ or women’s work would be considered very demeaning.  (Picture shows an Albanian man smoking a cigarette as his wife carries hay alongside the national road in near Elbasan, near the capital of Tirana February 24, 2003. In rural Albania, tradition dictates that women to do all the house chores with men never helping as this is seen to be a sign of weakness. REUTERS)

            Roman male training starts at a very early age laying tracks to adulthood, and is based on competition for materialism - not growing spiritually. To be a man you have to compete to win, and to win you never show weakness, and never admit guilt - this attitude is tough on the family. Feelings in the Roman world are a sign of weakness, real men do not cry, never show pain, and never-ever show fear.

           This is not our CREATOR’S idea of seeking the meaning of life. Contrast this to the Biblical lessons where all Believers are commanded to grow in knowledge and grace (2Pet.3:18), to be a living sacrifice . . ., transformed by the renewing of your mind . . . (Rom.12:1-2). To dispose of your demons through reflection and afflicting your soul, to have a change of heart and repent. To connect to a Heavenly timetable - signs to watch - which gives us hope for the future. They put us spiritually in control and encourage us to: live-learn-and grow - HONORABLY!

           Romanism is a world of compromise.  Discounting the occasional dictator, Romanism basically is a ruling partnership of the politicians, priests, and merchants, with each in a constant struggle for increased power or market shares, and the people always struggling to be the wise consumer. 

            Sometime in the future, almost tomorrow, 

the Rock called the Messiah will crush this dark age, 

and usher in the Kingdom of Light.

From the book  The Mystical Rites of our CREATOR  ISBN 0-9675266-0-4

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Last modified: February 21, 2009