By John Thiel, Second Angel’s Message, study 6, mp3

Under the second angel’s message Babylon is always applied to the people or the church having once been faithful becoming corrupt from Noah’s time right through. This message is appropriate for people in modern times as it was way back there. Ancient Babylon was the city that set the stage for all the others to follow. Rome today is still affected by the events of the past and also for the future. Ancient Babylon has affected the world all through history until now.

Their children, along with new converts, came forward and new-modelled the cause. To secure converts, the exalted standard of the Christian faith was lowered, and as the result a pagan flood, flowing into the church, carried with it its customs, practices, and idols. GC 385

Many people don’t know what pagan means, they think it just means heathen but it is actually a form of worship. This is what we are looking into. Where did paganism originate? Paganism commenced out of Noah’s family after the flood.

Genesis 10:6 And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.  8 And Cush begat Nimrod:he began to be a mighty one in the earth.  10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

You can see the development of paganism if you study the Ham line which lead to Nimrod.

For a time the descendants of Noah continued to dwell among the mountains where the ark had rested. As their numbers increased, apostasy soon led to division. Those who desired to forget their Creator and to cast off the restraint of His law felt a constant annoyance from the teaching and example of their God-fearing associates, and after a time they decided to separate from the worshipers of God. Accordingly they journeyed to the plain of Shinar, on the banks of the river Euphrates. They were attracted by the beauty of the situation and the fertility of the soil, and upon this plain they determined to make their home. Here they decided to build a city, and in it a tower of such stupendous height as should render it the wonder of the world..When the tower had been partially completed, a portion of it was occupied as a dwelling place for the builders; other apartments, splendidly furnished and adorned, were devoted to their idols. PP 118 – 119.2

In casting their hearts from the restraint of God they now turned their hearts to a different kind of worship.

The people rejoiced in their success, and praised the gods of silver and gold, and set themselves against the Ruler of heaven and earth. PP 118 – 119.2

The ancient practices of Babylon came from their idolatrous worship and became the customs of this people. They set themselves against the ruler of heaven and earth. Notice how that took place. The characteristic of their idolatry was that they refused to acknowledge their creator and set their attention on natural causes so that they worshiped the things of nature instead of the Creator of nature.

The dwellers on the plain of Shinar disbelieved God’s covenant that He would not again bring a flood upon the earth. Many of them denied the existence of God and attributed the Flood to the operation of natural causes. Others believed in a Supreme Being, and that it was He who had destroyed the antediluvian world; and their hearts, like that of Cain, rose up in rebellion against Him. PP 119.1

One of the important influences of their replacement worship is to worship the sources in nature that would have caused the flood. We know that the sun in its reaction with water creates rain. This became their study so that they would worship nature not God, including the sun.

Romans 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified [him] not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.  22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,  23 And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.  24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:  25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen

They worshiped the creature more than the Creator. This is the foundation of paganism that developed along Ham’s line. The practices of ancient Babylon was because the people hated the restraint under God’s tuition and their practices developed and finally filtered through with that same mind right through to our own time.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 The thing that hath been, it [is that] which shall be; and that which is done [is] that which shall be done:and [there is] no new [thing] under the sun.  10 Is there [any] thing whereof it may be said, See, this [is] new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.

What took place after Noah is never obsolete. The practices of today, have been so in the past. It’s a commonsense principle. There is a new guise but the same principles are practiced. There is nothing new under the sun. The originators of Babylon were Ham’s line. When did the seed of corruption first arise in Ham?

Nakedness

Genesis 9:20 And Noah began [to be] an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:  21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.  22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.  23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid [it] upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces [were] backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.  24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.

What did Ham do to his father? The contrast told you, the others walked backwards. The detail is not depicted, but this is what the seed of paganism does, it is to do with nakedness.

Noah, speaking by divine inspiration, foretold the history of the three great races to spring from these fathers of mankind. Tracing the descendants of Ham, through the son rather than the father, he declared, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. The unnatural crime of Ham declared that filial reverence had long before been cast from his soul, and it revealed the impiety and vileness of his character. These evil characteristics were perpetuated in Canaan and his posterity, whose continued guilt called upon them the judgments of God. On the other hand, the reverence manifested by Shem and Japheth for their father, and thus for the divine statutes, promised a brighter future for their descendants. PP 117.

To understand paganism, you have to understand what Ham did in his irreverence and his behaviour towards his father’s nakedness. Down the line through the Scriptures we can find the people and nations that were represented by Ham. You can see where paganism launched from. What nation did Ham’s people make up?

Psalms 105:23 Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.

Egypt was the land of Ham. Ham’s line went down to the horn of Africa. Ham also went to other places as well.

Exodus 32:4 And he received [them] at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf:and they said, These [be] thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.  5 And when Aaron saw [it], he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow [is] a feast to the LORD.  6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

This is the story of paganism in the land of Ham where they had the golden calf.  They rose up early and offered offerings, sitting down to eat and drink and rose up to play. This is what they did in their worship. Feasting, playing, worshipping idols and worshipping the creature.

Exodus 32:17 And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, [There is] a noise of war in the camp.  18 And he said, [It is] not the voice of [them that] shout for mastery, neither [is it] the voice of [them that] cry for being overcome:[but] the noise of [them that] sing do I hear.  19 And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing:and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.

Revelling and singing.

Exodus 32:25 And when Moses saw that the people [were] naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto [their] shame among their enemies:) 

Nakedness is Ham’s behaviour. The children of Israel picked up the practices they saw in Egypt and there they were doing them in the wilderness. This is what idolaters are. It’s alright for children to play but not for adults. Adults have bigger things to think about.

1 Corinthians 10:7 Neither be ye idolaters, as [were] some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

The other nations are depicted;

Genesis 10:15 And Canaan begat Sidon his firstborn, and Heth,  16 And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite,

 17 And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,  18 And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite:and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad.  19 And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha.  20 These [are] the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, [and] in their nations.

The same behaviour is depicted here as well in these other nations. Canaan is also of Ham’s line. God specifically speaks about the Canaanites to be driven out. What were God’s people warned not to do?

Leviticus 18:3 After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do:and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do:neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.

The practices of Egypt shall you not do, neither the practices of Canaan.

Leviticus 18:6 None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover [their] nakedness:I [am] the LORD. 7 The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover:she [is] thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.

These are the practices.

Leviticus 18:21 And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through [the fire] to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God:I [am] the LORD.  22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind:it [is] abomination. 23 Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith:neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto:it [is] confusion. 27 (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which [were] before you, and the land is defiled;)

These practices are to do with the seed of Ham that was put into them. All pagan worship and pagan playing of sports is associated with nakedness. The Olympics were originally played naked. The behavioural customs and practices that were carried on there have come right down the ages to us today.

An Abomination to God

Deuteronomy shows the confusion that they were not to follow;

Deuteronomy 22:5 The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment:for all that do so [are] abomination unto the LORD thy God.

These Hamathite behaviour patterns are an abomination to God. What has been in the past happens again and again. We have a warning;

Whose Glory is in their Shame

Philippians 3:18 (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, [that they are] the enemies of the cross of Christ:Whose end [is] destruction, whose God [is their] belly, and [whose] glory [is] in their shame, who mind earthly things.)

They walk contrary to the cross of Jesus Christ. Any of the practices that come from Ham’s line are something to resist.

1Timothy 2:8 I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. 9 In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;

All these practices are summarised here that we are warned against that we should be like Noah, Japheth and Shem, not Ham. That there should be modesty in apparel, apparel that covers that nakedness should not appear.

Nimrod

Every idol worship is always to do with festive activities. Nimrod was the one who commenced this in Babylon. Nimrod raised himself against God and he and his wife and son became the originators of sun worship and this corrupt fertility is exercised. Ishtar the goddess of fertility (his wife) and Tammuz a god that the women wept over because he came to an early death.

Ezekiel 8:10 So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about.  11 And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up. 12 Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth. 13 He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, [and] thou shalt see greater abominations that they do. 14 Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD’S house which [was] toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. 15 Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen [this], O son of man? turn thee yet again, [and] thou shalt see greater abominations than these. 16 And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD’S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, [were] about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.

How has the faithful city become an harlot. Everything Nimrod commenced was carried through and Israel picked up. What was Ishtar the beginning of? Easter, the goddess of fertility. Christmas is another pagan practice and Sunday (sun worship ). Any pagan nation you want to go to changes the name but the principles are the same. The building of the tower of Babel was to control nature. Everything inside it has to do with pagan worship and has come down through history in ways that people don’t even know any more.

For example;

• Education – the education principles of mathematics and physics were picked up from Egypt which was picked up from Babylon. The pyramids of Egypt (mathematics) and astronomy based on pagan principles.
• University degrees – can be traced back to the trained people of the past, the systematic study of these people, no time to study God.
• Medicine – If you become a doctor you have to make the Hippocratic oath (Hypocrites) and in the oath are pagan oaths to the gods. To get somewhere doctors and even Seventh Day Adventists make this oath because they have been infiltrated with the customs and practices of the world that are based on pagan principles.

The potions of medicine – to study the effect of concentrated poisons to control body functions is the medicine of today. This is totally from the god Ekron that the king of Israel went to get his healing from. The manipulation that affects nature is always of a pagan practice.

The buildings of the tower of Babel and the pyramids were built in such a way as to fit into the magnetic grid of the planet. The study into free-masonry gives you an understanding of this. The city of Canberra was built in this way to fit into the magnetic grid of the earth. The people that are sitting in there are affected by the magnetic grid. It all comes from Nimrod. Political centralisation is the characteristic that comes from paganism.

God had directed men to disperse throughout the earth, to replenish and subdue it; but these Babel builders determined to keep their community united in one body, and to found a monarchy that should eventually embrace the whole earth. Thus their city would become the metropolis of a universal empire; its glory would command the admiration and homage of the world and render the founders illustrious. The magnificent tower, reaching to the heavens, was intended to stand as a monument of the power and wisdom of its builders, perpetuating their fame to the latest generations. PP 119.

Is this not the politics of the world? They want to become great and become an empire to rule the world.

Revelation 13:3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed:and all the world wondered after the beast.

These monopolising powers came from Nimrod. The mentality of the Roman Empire developed into papal Rome

Revelation 13:12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

These big world powers are gearing to the one world power. Each political power is coloured by Nimrod’s mentality of politics.

Revelation 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

The world governing empire mentality s where everybody has to submit to sun worshipping paganism. The Sunday Laws are to do with the worship of the beast. We live in these modern times and see all these practices around us and don’t realise that its Nimrod’s mentality. We accept these pagan practices and customs as normal when in reality they have nothing to do with faithful Noah and his faithful people. What is relevant for us at this time under the three angel’s messages?

1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things [that are] in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that [is] in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

• The lust of the flesh (to do with nakedness)
• The lust of the eyes (what Ham did)
• The pride of life (what Nimrod did)
• Is not of the Father, but is of the world

John 17:14 have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

This is in reference to those who are Jesus’ people. We are not of the world if we are followers of Jesus Christ. We come apart from all those things we regard as normal around us. We’re in it, we can’t stop it but we are not of it. We are not falling in love with these things and we are not occupying our heart’s affections with these things. They are for the using, but not to be absorbed in.

2 Corinthians 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers:for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?  16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in [them]; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean [thing]; and I will receive you,  18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

The call is to not be participants with this world. We have made this vow through our baptismal vows. The church that rejected the first angel’s message is to be shunned because they have absorbed the same things as original Babylon had done. This is why we don’t vote, why we don’t participate in sports or wars because we are not part of this scene. We are strangers here and we are happy to be strangers because we are of Noah’s line, not Ham’s line.

Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of [them], and embraced [them], and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Moses was taught in the universities of Egypt. He had a great mind but he had to come out of there and he refused to be called the son of Pharoah and chose to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season. We are to be in the world but not of the world, we are to occupy ourselves with other mental exercises.

1 Corinthians 7:31 And they that use this world, as not abusing [it]:for the fashion of this world passeth away.

We use this world, but not abuse it. There is nothing wrong with becoming a scientist as long as we don’t abuse it. We can use it for the sake of living on this planet but if I devote myself totally to it as that is abusing it. If I use it just as a means of income of sustaining my interests which are of heavenly things, this is using it.

Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world:but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

While we live in it our mind we must not be conformed. We must have a transformation by the renewing of our mind and live to prove the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. To be totally segregated in heart and mind. To put that into practice, it is the heart and mind being absorbed in the kingdom of heaven and occupying the planet until He comes. Seeing the idols of the world but not being attracted to them. It does not become part of your mind.

This is the material that the three angels’ messages deal with, that we come out from the world. While God’s people are in the world, like Israel of old, their hearts were with the Lord but they had to be there because they were in captivity there. God says if you’ve been coloured by some of these things come out because I’m going to take you into captivity;

Revelation 18:1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.  2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.  3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.  4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

God will do what He did with Babylon, destroy it. As God is about to do that again, He is at work through the three angel’s messages to identify clearly what we are doing in these studies identifying exactly what is wrong and what is right. Every nation is absorbed with this same mentality of Nimrod. They have wrapped themselves up with paganism mixed with Christianity and money is being made out of it. As that is made abundantly clear to those who are studying, there is a loud and clear message from heaven under the Holy Spirit saying – come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Amen.