Syncretism - Part Four

Apostles of the Sun
Joseph Herrin (02-15-2010)

Egyptian Obelisk in St. Peter’s Square from St. Peter’s Basilica

An obelisk is an object of pagan Sun worship. The word obelisk means “shaft of Bel” (Baal). Nimrod, was known as Baal in various nations and tongues, and he was pictured as the Sun. The Sun was worshiped in ancient Egypt where the above obelisk was originally constructed and set-up. The website Wikipedia provides the following information.

The elliptical center of the piazza... encloses the visitor with "the maternal arms of Mother Church" in Bernini's expression...

At the center of the ellipse stands an Egyptian obelisk of red granite, 25.5 meters tall, supported on bronze lions and surmounted by the Chigi arms in bronze, in all 41 meters to the cross on its top. It was originally erected at Heliopolis by an unknown pharaoh of the Fifth dynasty of Egypt. The Emperor Augustus had it moved to the Julian Forum of Alexandria, where it stood until year 37 A.D., when Caligula ordered the forum demolished and the obelisk transferred to Rome. He placed it in the center of the Circus, where it would preside over Nero's countless brutal games and Christian executions. It was moved to its current site in 1586 by the engineer-architect Domenico Fontana under the direction of Pope Sixtus V... Though Bernini had no influence in the erection of the obelisk, he did use it as the centerpiece of his magnificent piazza.

The paving is varied by radiating lines in travertine, to relieve what might otherwise be a sea of cobblestones. In 1817 circular stones were set to mark the tip of the obelisk's shadow at noon as the sun entered each of the signs of the zodiac, making the obelisk a gigantic sundial's gnomon.
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Peter%27s_Square]

At the very heart of Roman Catholicism we see the worship of the Sun. St. Peter’s Square is a colossal Sun dial. Its massive centerpiece is an Obelisk taken from the Egyptian city of Heliopolis. The name Heliopolis literally means “Sun City.” (In Greek, “Helio” means Sun, and “polis” means city.) Heliopolis served as the center for Sun worship in ancient Egypt.

Quite literally, Roman Catholicism is a “heliocentric” religion. It is centered entirely around images and rituals that are derived from pagan Sun worship that originated in Babylon and spread throughout the ancient world. These images of Sun worship are found everywhere in Roman Catholicism.

I believe it is significant that this obelisk in St. Peter’s Square was formerly located at the Circus where Christians were brutally put to death. We read of the Mother of Harlots in Revelation that she has become drunk on the blood of the saints. The Roman Catholic Church has put myriads of faithful followers of Christ to death during her inquisitions and sundry persecutions. It seems appropriate to place this monument that has witnessed the spilled blood of so many saints on the doorstep of the Roman Catholic Church.

This obelisk, taken directly from a pagan center of Sun worship, is hardly an exception. The Roman Catholic Church has an even larger obelisk. It is located on the grounds of the Papal Archbasilica of St. John Lateran in Rome. This one was also removed from Egypt. It was commissioned by Pharaoh Thutmose III and finished by his grandson Thutmose IV. It was erected in the temple complex of Karnak, a center for the worship of the Sun god Amun-Ra, but later moved to its location next to the Mother Church of Roman Catholcism.

Lateran Obelisk

It should be obvious to an unbiased observer that if a religion that has adopted the symbols, images and rites of ancient Sun worship, it is a religion of Sun worship. The ancient Babylonian worship of Nimrod as the Sun god has been preserved under a thin cloak of Christianity. Being a mixture of the holy and the profane, the Roman Catholic Church has become an abomination in Yahweh’s sight.

I do not want to belabor this issue. It would be an exhaustive task to detail all the images, rites and symbols of Sun worship in the Roman Catholic Church. My intent in this writing is not to expose every symbol of Sun worship, but rather to share enough information that the saint who has been unaware of the pollution of Christianity through the practice of syncretism might be awakened to this fact. It is also that those who have been troubled by the admixture of extra-Biblical rites, symbols and doctrines, might receive affirmation in their spirit that something is terribly amiss in what is presented as Christianity today.

If you desire to read more on this topic, you can find many symbols of Roman Catholic Sun worship on the Internet.

The Roman Catholic Church has been able to introduce Sun worship into the worship of Christ by denying the authority of Scriptures and the role of the Holy Spirit. It has usurped the position of ultimate authority that was placed in Christ and carried out by His Spirit, having vested it in the office of the Pope. The authority of the Roman Catholic Pope is founded upon a spurious claim of “apostolic succession.” It is claimed by the Church of Rome that Peter was the first Pope, fulfilling the following words of Christ.

Matthew 16:18-20
"And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

There are numerous difficulties with this interpretation of the words of Christ. First, we never see the apostle Peter ruling over the early church. When the early church met in Jerusalem to decide issues of doctrine, we find that Peter is mentioned AFTER James, and it was James who gave the official ruling to the saints.

Second, we never find any mention in the Scriptures of Peter visiting Rome, unless Babylon is a reference to Rome (I Peter 5:13).

Third, the Scriptures declare that Peter’s apostleship was to the Jews, in contrast to Paul, whose apostleship was to the Gentiles. It was Paul who wrote the epistle to the Romans, not Peter.

Consider the revelation of the following Scripture:

Galatians 2:7-9
But on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised (for He who effectually worked for Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised effectually worked for me also to the Gentiles), and recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we might go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.

Cephas is the Hebrew rendering of Peter, whose Hebrew name at birth was Simeon, which was Hellenized as Simon. Thus, he is often called Simon Peter. Both the Aramaic Cephas and the Greek Peter mean “rock.” The diligent student of the Scriptures will discover that Christ used two different words when He declared “You are Peter..., and upon this rock I will build my church.”

These are Strongs numbers 4074 and 4073. The latter word rendered “rock” is feminine, and was not intended as a reference to Peter, who was most definitely not feminine.

petra
NT:4073; feminine of the same as NT:4074; a (mass of) rock (literally or figuratively):

The rock upon which Christ declared He would build His church was not Peter, but rather the confession Peter had just made when Christ asked His disciples who men said He was.

Matthew 16:15-18
He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" And Simon Peter answered and said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Yahshua answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church...”

Christ was literally declaring that upon this rock of revelation that Peter had received from God the Father, He would build His church. This revelation is that Yahshua is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. That this is what Christ intended with these words is revealed everywhere in the teaching of the apostles.

I John 4:2-3
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Yahshua Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Yahshua is not from God...

The apostle John is declaring the same thing. The foundation of the church is the knowledge of the identity of Yahshua as the Son of God. This is the foundation upon which all the apostles built.

I Corinthians 12:3
Therefore I make known to you, that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Yahshua is accursed"; and no one can say, "Yahshua is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.

I John 5:1
Whoever believes that Yahshua is the Christ is born of God...

Observe how foundational a matter this is among the teaching of the apostles. Salvation is founded upon one’s belief in the identity of Christ and confession of the same.

Romans 10:8-9
But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" - that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Yahshua as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved...

Truly, this confession that Peter professed to Christ is the foundation upon which Yahshua has built His church. The church is not built upon an apostle. The apostles were merely laborers who worked to lay the foundation. The solid Rock that is the foundation of the church is faith in Yahshua as the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

That the foundation upon which the church is built is faith in Christ, rather than the Roman Catholic belief in the absolute authority of Peter and a succession of Popes, is made abundantly clear in the following words of the apostle Paul.

I Corinthians 3:10-11
According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it. But let each man be careful how he builds upon it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Yahshua Christ.

There is no other foundation upon which the church may be built. Those who profess that the church is built upon Peter, and a succession of Popes, have laid another foundation and the building they have constructed is NOT the Church of Jesus Christ, Yahshua the Messiah. The Roman Catholic Church is led by apostles of the Sun, rather than apostles of the Son of God. The high holy days of Christmas and Easter are testimonies to this fact. (See the article - Removing the High Places.)

This last fact leads us to consider that it is not merely the Mother Church of Rome that has become infected with pagan ideology, departing from the truth and falling into apostasy, but the Protestant churches have done the same. Christmas and Easter, Sunday worship, and various images, doctrines and practices derived from idolatrous cults have been merged into the Protestant churches, as well.

Rome may have its obelisks, monuments to the Sun, but so too do the Protestant churches.

People of God, perhaps you will forgive the average Roman Catholic for never questioning why there is a monument to Baal in the center of St. Peter’s Square when you realize that most Protestants have never ventured to ask why there is an obelisk mounted upon the roof of their church. If you protest and say, “But there is a cross atop our steeple,” the Catholics can say the same. Look again at the pictures of the obelisks I have included here. The “t” which we recognize as the cross was also the Tau sign which represented Tammuz, who was Nimrod reborn as the god of the Sun. Placing the cross upon the top of an obelisk clearly identifies it as a symbol of Sun worship, rather than a symbol of the Son of God.

Do you read anywhere in Scripture that the saints were using the sign of the cross to denote their faith in Christ? Did the apostles place obelisks upon the tops of the buildings they used for their assembly with the saints? Where then did the steeple arise?

Satan is the great deceiver who deceives the entire world. He has put forth explanations to satisfy the marginally inquisitive. He would suggest that churches had steeples to allow them to be seen from a far distance so that all who desired to worship could find them.

In this blog, it has been noted that in the past year many steeples have been toppled by acts of God. It is there that judgment must begin.

Steeple - Central Lutheran Church, Minneapolis

Salina Kansas, First Baptist Church Storm Damage

Please understand my intent in sharing these things. I do not believe the church will be purified by focusing upon the removal of all the symbols of Babylonian origin that they have embraced. I share these things to suggest to you that the church has adopted much that has arisen from impure sources, and this includes the doctrines of the church. The apostles prophesied that this would be the condition of the last days church before the return of Christ.

II Timothy 4:3-4
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.

Many teachings in the church are considered “othodox” belief today, but they are not sound doctrine. The teaching of Christ and His apostles has been corrupted through the admixture of many pagan elements. The church is riddled with false teachings, yet most of this teaching is as unnoticed by the majority of believers as the obelisk to the Sun sitting atop the roof of their meeting house.

Christ is coming back for a purified church. How will the saints be cleansed unless they return to a pure devotion to Christ, and begin to test all things by the Spirit and the Word of God?

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Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063