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

508 . 7le Goiden Age for May 25, 1921- --.-....-.-..~..r..c_---Mary shows her standing on a large sphere,which is colored he, and spangled c-ith stars.On her head rests a heavy gold orown. Theglobe is intended to symbolize the blue vault ofthe heaven, while the crou;ned woman herself,a parentlp, represents the moon as the queeno #' heaven, that is, hstarte or Ashtoreth. Byher side she holds the chiId, who is also crowned,and who stands on a smaller star-spangled blueglobe. In this connectioli he evidently represe~itsthe sun, the king or lord of heaven, that is, Baal.(Remember that the word Baal meanr lord)Another familiar figure of the Papal "Notherof God" shows her standing on a sphere, one foottreading on a serpent's head. Pepacy maintainsthat it was not the seed of the woman, but thewomm herself, who mas to brnise the hcnd ofthe serpent. Regardless of the laws of grtlllulltir,the apostate church renders God's conde~ll~lationof the serpent: "She shall bruise thy heacl, andthou shalt bruise her heel". In this the goddessof "Babylon the Great" is only fashioned afterher type in ancient Babylon ; for thongh it \\-asoriginally dainied that Ninlrod had crushed thehead of the serpent, his mother n-as latterlygiven the glory of having clone this great deed.-Diodom, Bibliotl~cai, Iib. 11, p. TO; Smith'sClassical Dictionary, p. 320.Still another popular representation of theVirgin Nary shows her standing among theeloudr, sometimes on a sphere, with what looksIihe the crescent of the nioon at her feet. Thiswell-known picture is evidently intended toshow the Virgin 1lal-y as being the wonialirpoken of in the Revelation, twelfth chapter.But we know that this "wonian" of Revelationis the e.vmbolical Bgure of the true church ofthe living God, whose names are written inheaven; and that the Papal pictnres which showher as the 1-irgin Mary are, -in reality, onlycopying the old niythological idolators whodepicted their goddess sinlilarly as the "queenof heaved'. For the creweat of the moon atthe feet of the Papal Virgin Mary betrays theheathen origin of the image, as this is the wellknown sign of -4starte or Ashtoreth, the hornsof the moonts crescent covertly suggesting herpower as queen of heaven. Although at Arstsight the pictures of the Virgin Mary seem toshow the crescent of the moon, careful studyw i l l manifest that it is not really the moon'screscent, hut, rather, two horns; for if the ares-cent of the moon were intended, it would beimpossible to see the wom'an's dgura throughthe part which, an is obvious, the dark portionof the "018' moon wonld hide from view. In 'the twelfth chahter of Revelation it merely'mentions that the woman stood on the moon,not on the crescent of the moon,Although in the first instance Semiramisderived her exalted position from the divinecharacter attributed to the child in her arms,she ultimately practically eclipsed her son. .Soalso in "Babylon the Great" it is the Madonnawho receives all the adoration, and to whompetitions are generally addressed. What a satire,to think that the poor world haa been soblinded by Satan, that it has been deceivedinto worshiping a woman who .is nolcezi~tent fJVell did the Lord forbid His people to makeand bow down to images, "which -see not, norhaar, nor know" ! (Daniel 5 : 23 ; Pmh 115 :4-8)It would be rlifficult to understand how so great .a delusion could have becoma universal, wereit not that we are aware that Satan ir the "podof this world", and that along with him arelegions of demons, who have sought to impersonatethe dead in various ways, bolstering upSatan's lie that there is no death. (Oenesis 3: 4)In Psalm 106: 37 we are told- that the Jews, inserving Baal or Molech, had really "sacrificedtheir soncr and their daughters unto devil*"-clemons ; arid in Psalm 96 : 5 we read :"For allthe gods of the nations are demond'. (Septuagintversion)The Apostle Pad, in 1 Corinthians10 : 20, says : "But I say, that the things whichthe Gentiles sacrifice, they saodce to r1evils"-demons.Origin of Star WorshipThe worahip of the stars by the idolatrouenations was as prevalent as the worahip of thesun and the moon. JIpthology identifles Nimrodand Semiramis with certain constelhtions. LFrom Persian record8 we axe expressly assuredthat Nimrod, .after his death, was "deihd" bythe name Orion, the mighty hunter, and "placedamong the stars". (Paschal Chronicle, tom. I,p. 64) The conetellation.Virgo is admitted bythe most learned astronoinere to have heendedicated to Ceree, who ns we have seen wasidentical with the E tian Ims, and mas thereforethe game a8 giramia, th. Bab~loniangoddess. (Dr. John Hill, in hie Uramm; andMr. A. Jamieoon, in hie ChhsDCrrl Ah; see'