The Watchtower Society and John and Morton Edgar - A2Z.org

+,"r' ; a The+-.:',Golden Age ~OT MQ 11, 1921......I,... -of the image of jealmsy, which proroketh tojealousy". This image of the %other and Soii",erected as the result of the jealousy of Satanagainst the coming true seed of the woman,provoked Gm1 to jenlonsy heeause it laisdirected: the devotion of His p~ople, to whom He said:- "Thou shalt hare no other gods hefore me. Thout shalt ncrt make un'to thee aaliv graven image. . .Thou shalt not how down thyself to them nor- serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jedaus: God." (Emtlus 20: 3-5) In Egypt the ''If~ther- and Son" ww-ere worshiped Isis and Osiris,;=-liose very nanles sifinify "the woman" and- "the seed"; for Isis is the Greek for111 of lil'isica,-the womnri; and Osiris is read on the Egyptianluonunr-i~its He-sin' -the seed., i -. . "Dcij%atbn" of Nimrod -The mythical story in Egypt of the deification. of Simrod by Semiramis is to the effect thatIsis, wvho,mas a great enchantress and liad muchknowledge of "magical ceremonies", instructedIIorus and a number of his "followers" to performa series of operations in connection withthe burial of his father, which had tl~u mirac-- dous result of raising Osirii from the dead,and of establishing him as king in Amenti; thatis, the ''Hidden Place," or the other world.(15'oti.rflt Sallier Pnptjr~ts in- the British Jlusenin)Altllough Horns was the son of Osiris,he mas merely another form of Osiris himself,being a nem- inearllation of that yd.Thus, by followi11,n Satan's lie, that the deadare not dead, Semirtlnlis and lier clelutletl fol-Ion-.ers caused others to beliere t1:at Nimroclwas not now dead, I~uthat he had heen resurrected,and had heconle a gocl and ~houlcl hcrererenced a5 ~uch. Rut it is eviclerlt that if thisadvanced forni of idolatry was to become established,it \\-as i~lrlispensahle that it shoul(lh.inauyrat~.tl in scbcrc-t. arid be operated withextreme cantiou; for tllo terror of execntion,lately inflicted on oue so ~iiighty as Xiinrod, wagtoo re8V.to lw ijinor~d. This, then, u-as the beginningof that inicluitona system of 'Wystery"wiiicll has berl~ 50 far-r,eachi~~g i~r its tlesolatin~effc~cts, and which the 1,ord usrrl as a type ofUrat still rent,er "cl+.sc blatir IS i~l)olnil~ntinll," themystic "Ba "h yl6h tlie Great" of the gospel age.-See Rerelrition 17: 5.Tlie very nature of the . "Jfy~terie~' gavegreat facilities for imposing on the senses oftlose who were being "initiated". It is well4i7knoum that magical arts were invented by tl#Chaldeans. Epiphanius, after considering tb,evidences open in his day, pronomced it as hlropinion that it was "Nimrod that eatahlinhdthe sciences of magic and astronomy". (Ah.Hoeres, lib. I, tom. I, Vol. I, p. 7 c) 811 tho fmtild resources of magic, therefore, were employedby Semiramis and her intimate followen,to give color to the lying deceptions of tho-Mysteries of which s11e was the originator. Butnotwithstanding all the care alid precautions ofthe conductors of these ceremonies, enongh ha6lraked out to e~lable us to gain a clear insightinto their charnc.tt.r. .Callrlidates fnr tlie initiation were made topass through the orcl~al of the cotifessional,and were required to swear by binding oathsto iliail~tain the secrecp of the systein they weredesirous of entering. After thus surrenderingtheinselves inlplicitly to the priests, they wereanointed with "nlagical ointments" which introducedinto their bodily systems such drugs astended to escite their i~ilagirltttions and add tothe power of the incliapcr~srible intoxicatingdrinks, that they niight be prepared for thevisions and revelations: that were dmut to bemade to them. Wilkinson, describing the experiencesof those undergoing the process ofinitiation, says: "Strange and anlazing objectspresented themse11-es. Sonletinies the placethey mere in seemed to shake around them;solnetirn~s it npprr red hri~ht and resple?ldentwith light ant1 mcliunt fire, and then againcovereti nit11 black tli~rk~~css. sotnetiriie.: thunderand liyht~~il~y,', son~~ti:i~~:' I'e~rt'tll noiscs andh~1lowi11g-s. sot\itfitilnrs tc~rleible wpp~ritionsasto~~ishi~ig tlrc1 tl.c.r:~hli~rg spectators." (Egyptinus, Vol. V, p. :;;'ti) 'l'lieii at last the greathirltlen god was rc~vralecl to them in such amanlier as to allay their fears and to call forththeir aclniiratio~i allcl blind affections.It \!-as easy for those who controlled theJlpct'eriee, having tli5covered scientific secretswvl~ich th~y jealonsly preserved in their OWTIescll~*i\-e krcpi~~g. to yive the ignorant initiatesI\ h;it 11 ~iph t wcni orular demonstration thatXi~nrocl 1\1io hat1 hc.r~l slain, a~id for whoni suchla~nentatio~>s had been made, was again alive,and now cnco~iipassed with heavenly glory.Thus the whole system of the secret "Mysteries"of Babylon i~~troducetl by help of magic (shamlniracles), was intended to glorify a dead man;and when once tlie worship of one dead marl rvas