From the fall of Adam until the days of Noah (around 1,656 years), the antediluvian world reached a human population of somewhere between five billion (low-end) to 17 billion (high-end) just prior to the flood (Source). According to Scripture, the Devil had done exceedingly well in corrupting the entire population during this time because we read in Gen 6:9 that only Noah remained “perfect in his generations” (i.e., genetically untainted).
According to the apocryphal book of 1 Enoch, the Devil used 200 of his fallen brethren to go to earth, seduce human women, and then produce offspring with them beginning in the days of Jared (460-1422AM). This author believes that number is actually much higher, given the global nature of the contamination. Nevertheless, either before or during that great watery judgment, those fallen angels who left their first estate, now found themselves chained in the lowest echelons of hell in a place called Tartarus to be imprisoned until their final day of judgment.
And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Jude 1:6-7 (see also 2 Peter 2:4).
With his first attempt frustrated, and the human population reduced to a sum total of eight, the Devil regrouped and formulated a new angle of attack. He did this by corrupting the now-forming Table of Nations and the newly rising enterprise of human government (Gen 10-11). Presumably no longer able to manifest in physical form upon the earth in the same manner as they had before the flood, the Devil and his fallen hosts were reduced to manipulating the affairs of man by means of influence.
This campaign of whispers deceived men through what the Bible calls the ‘doctrine of devils’ which has done considerable damage to the affairs of man ever since. These demonic doctrines take place namely under seven different guises: the arts, science, religion, philosophy, government, war, and commerce. Wasting no time, we see the first satanic attack come at the dividing of Noah’s family into thirds immediately after the flood.
It appears that Satan likes to work in thirds and makes more sense why secret organizations love the number 33. Satan convinced a third of the angels to follow him in rebelling against God. Satan corrupted a third of Adam’s listed sons (Cain) to stop the seed of the woman. Hereafter the flood, we see him again, targeting a third of Noah’s sons (Ham) which caused Noah to curse Ham’s son Canaan. We see this play out in triplicate if we consider Ham, Canaan, and Nimrod as the antagonists of Gen 9-11. From Genesis 9:18-22
Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.
And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.
So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. Then he said:
“Cursed be Canaan;
A servant of servants
He shall be to his brethren.”
Since the curse was passed on to Canaan, and not to Cush, why does Nimrod get lumped into this mess? Well, aside from becoming the world’s first tyrant, there is some discrepancy as to Nimrod’s true lineage. He isn’t listed as one of Cush’s sons (Gen 10:7) but is somehow begotten by Cush in the next verse.
The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtechah; and the sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan. Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.” And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city). Gen 10:6-12 (my emphasis)
According to the Masoretic text (above), Nimrod was a ‘gibbor’ or mighty one which is used in Genesis 6:4 to describe the Nephilim. While all Nephilim were ‘gibbor’, not all ‘gibbor’ were Nephilim as we see later with David and some of his men (Psalm 89:19, 2 Sam 23:8). Interestingly, the Septuagint (LXX) calls Nimrod (Nebrod) a giant (or gigas in Greek), which when paired up with biblical and secular history, has given us much to speculate about as to the true nature of this man.
According to some, Nimrod (whose name is derived from the Hebrew ‘marad’ which means to ‘rebel’), is the Gilgamesh of the epic. If that is true, then Gilgamesh was a giant who was 2/3’s god, and 1/3 man, and stood anywhere from 11 to 17 feet tall. However, others believe him to be less legend and more human in the form of the Sargon of Akkad. Either way, within two generations of the flood, we see him rising up as the world’s first despot using his power to build empires in the land of Shinar beginning with Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh. According to the first-century historian Josephus, he writes,
"Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah-a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it were through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny-seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence upon his own power. He also said he would be revenged on God, if he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach! and that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers!" (Ant. I: iv: 2)
As noted in Part I, Satan isn't just interested in geopolitical power; he wants complete control of the minds of men. In Nimrod he had the power of hunting men, now Satan wanted the ability to trap them in a false religious system forever. He began taking advantage of the fact that all men spoke the same language at that moment in time and inserted a form of parasitic devilry into the minds of men just prior to the tower of Babel judgment coming down. We are not told how much time elapses between verse 5 and verse 8, but enough time for them to start the tower, but not finish it. It is during this time, that I believe Satan uses Nimrod and Semiramis to create the foundation for this new religious system.
The Mother of Harlots
Satan needed to create the very foundation by which all false religions would follow. Having only the curse to work with (i.e., the protoevangelium), Satan understood that a man would come from the seed of the woman to redeem mankind…thus we see the foundation of this ‘mystery-religion’ as a corruption of this in the form of worship of the fertility goddess and the mother-son religious system at Babel. This same model appears to be replicated throughout the entirety of the ancient world. For example:
*Not intended to be a complete/absolute list of gods as the names/relationships vary depending on the culture. The point is that every major religion and mythology has ties to this first mystery “family” which can be traced back to the original model at Babel.
Who was the wife of Nimrod? Many believe Semiramis to have been the original source of this mystery religion which would come to infect all cultures from Babel to today.
One legend of ancient history regarding Semiramis describes Nimrod meeting Semiramis while she was a brothel owner in Uruk.[ii] This probably occurred when Nimrod was consolidating control over that city. The history of queen/goddess as prostitute/brothel owner is not the material of good legends. Therefore, subsequent legends arose which portrayed her as a mythic fertility goddess and mother of the gods. All attempts to trace the origin of goddess worship lead ultimately to one single woman of ancient history – Semiramis.[iii] She promoted the deification of Nimrod and herself after his death. God’s judgment and Nimrod’s execution forced the ‘mystery religion’ underground for a while. Its adherents realized the danger of practicing their religion in the public domain. Hence, the name “mystery religion of Babylon” refers to its secretive nature. (Source)
This theory is not just a one-off. It is a well-founded theory amongst experts alike, and here, another author attributes this spread of the mystery to the same source, the family of Nimrod, Semiramis, and Tammuz.
This ancient Babylonian cult of the mother and child spread to other parts of the earth. You will find it in the Egyptian religion as Isis and Osiris. In Greece, it is Venus and Adonis, and in the Hindu religion it is Ushas and Vishnu. The same cult prevails in various other localities. It appears in the Old Testament in Jeremiah where the Israelites are warned against offering sacrifices to "the Queen of Heaven…This idolatrous religion culminates at last in the Bible in the book of Revelation. There, a "great harlot" appears, whose name is "Mystery Babylon the Great," the originator of all the harlotries and false religions of earth. The essence of Babylonianism, as we understand from Scripture, is the attempt to gain earthly honor by means of religious authority. That is Babylonianism, and it has pervaded Christian churches, Hindu temples, Buddhist shrines, and Mohammedan mosques. Everywhere it is the element that marks falseness in religion-the attempt to gain earthly power and prestige by means of religious authority. That is what Nimrod began and what God will ultimately destroy, as we read in the book of Revelation. (from The Beginnings by Ray C. Stedman, Word Books 1978).
Thus, in the opening pages of the first book of the Bible, the great theological and ideological antagonist of Scripture is set forth.
On one hand, the God of the Bible establishes salvation by grace through faith, by the shedding of innocent blood (Abel's gift), and by the faith of Abraham. He then gives the Law to Moses, which was designed to make a kingdom of priests who would become the light to all other nations. Ultimately, this Law was destined to become fulfilled in the God-Man Christ Jesus who would free all mankind and liberate the world from the bondage of sin. Yet time after time, we see the ancient Israelites fall away chasing after false gods which brought on them severe repercussions.
But they mingled with the Gentiles And learned their works; They served their idols, Which became a snare to them. They even sacrificed their sons And their daughters to demons, And shed innocent blood, The blood of their sons and daughters, Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; And the land was polluted with blood. Thus they were defiled by their own works, And played the harlot by their own deeds
Psalm 106:35-39
On the other hand, we have the Babylonian system, which commercially, centers its worship on materialism and hedonism, and theologically, embraces ecumenism and idolatry. Babylonianism has infected the world system since the days of Babel and is why in the last book, the Revelation, is called "The Mother of Harlots," as she has spawned all of the world's false ideological and theological systems that have ever come forth.
Adding to the already burgeoning rise of secret religious systems, was the increasing trend of human deification. Having witnessed the personal deification of Alexander the Great (who lived at the same time), the ancient Greek mythographer Euhemerus (circa 300BC), stated the ‘gods’ of old were really just deified human heroes. This seems to be the case in most parts of ancient mythology. By the time of imperial Rome, many Caesars didn’t want to wait until they were dead to enjoy the privileges of personal deification (e.g., Caligula, Vespasian, Domitian, etc.) Subsequently, this continued throughout human history even into our own day with the living deification of men like Emperor Hirohito, Adolf Hitler, Kim Jong Il, Mao Zedong, Kim Il Sung, and Xi Jinping. However, back to the subject at hand.
The two factors which seem to facilitate this process of human deification after the flood, were first, the centuries-long lifespans of the antediluvian/patriarchal fathers, and the lore-building of Noah’s descendants. For example, Noah lived 350 years after the flood, and Shem, for another five hundred. This appears to be the case all the way down through Jacob who lived to be 147 years old. The idea of longevity, in comparison to man's appointed years (Psalm 90:10), reinforced the idea that human immortality was not only possible but achievable. What the ancients lacked in technology, they sought through sorcery and pharmakia.
The second factor was the embellishment of what life was like before the flood to the descendants of Noah. As with each passing generation, the stories about life before the flood got a little more idyllic each time, glossing over all the actual horrors and violence that were the cause of the flood in the first place. This embellishment eventually became the foundation for what many cultures considered the ‘golden age,’ from whence all forbidden knowledge and mythology came.
Sidenote: Most people alive today believe the ancient gods of lore (i.e., the mythologies and idols of old) went extinct with the rise of Christianity in the latter part of the Roman Empire. The truth is, the idols and mythologies might have temporarily faded from public view, but the demonic forces behind them have not. These so-called gods did as they have always done; they rebranded themselves and recycled their lies into something new to accommodate the changing dynamics on the ground. For example, as the Roman mythos and its pantheon of gods begins to decline in the 2nd century AD, it is replaced by the rise in gnosticism.
Furthermore, this new found perversion began to morph and change again after the legalization of Christianity in 313AD resulting in what would later become the Roman Catholic Church system, thus demonstrating that a false works-based religious systems is always being recycled throughout the ages. Beginning with Cain, Satan has not yielded one inch in this arena and always seeks a way to corrupt and thwart any belief system that points to God and the Bible.
While pop culture in the last 100 years has certainly worked to revive the latter (the embellishment of the golden age) in the minds of men, science is dangerously seeking to restore the former (long lifespans) through technology. Anti-aging technologies have become big-ticket investments drawing in many billionaires in a desperate attempt to restore longevity to the lifespan of man, particularly after the recent breakthroughs in gene editing of the past few decades. The other alternative is to pair man with a machine, or download man's consciousness into a system that they believe can live on beyond their mortal frames. This, paired with the increasingly Orwellian and oppressive nature of technology, points to the lateness of the hour in which we find ourselves.
As was the case with the idols of old, who, being made of wood, rock, and metal still had demonic forces behind them, so too will this rising technology have demonic forces embedded in it. We can already see this coming to fruition in our own day, as artificial intelligence (AI) gains popularity in both form and function, we can see its "sentience," becoming increasingly malevolent and twisted.
Ultimately, the world will see this deification culminate with the Man of Sin (the Antichrist) who will, at his appointed time, gain control over the entire earth by means of a biotechnological device known as "the mark of the beast." What specific technology this device is just yet, is unknown. However, we know we today possess the capability to produce such technology. All we are told is that its numbers are calculated to the number of his (the Antichrist's) name equalling six hundred and sixty-six. This device, when placed into the hand or forehead of the wearer, not only grants them temporary access to the world system but also guarantees them eternal damnation in the lake of fire.
Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” Revelation 14:9-11
Part III: Monday
"And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground." 1 Samuel 3:19. This came to my mind when I read this article. While I know you do not claim to be a prophet, or the son of a prophet, it is clear God has his hand on you as you mine these deep, insightful, thoughts, and interpretations of history and their connection to eschatology. It draws the Body of Christ together by understanding his word and seeing his sovereignty through the ages. It is such a joy being handed these insights without a hint of words falling to the ground. Time is short. Maybe today.
Thank you, Pete, for your article and I hope you and yours are doing well.
I found a great reference on fasting and prayer if anyone is interested: it's a pdf from Arthur Wallis called God's chosen fast (I got it off the google). I have been deep diving on the subject for a bit ever since I saw the you tube movie "The visual Bible: the book of Matthew". Good movie. I had read and studied Matthew many times but never really understood Chapter 17, verse 21: Jesus says: " Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting". Jesus is talking about evicting a demon from a child that the disciple was not able to do…
Excellent! There are so many who believe in their religion- rather than faith in Jesus. I pray for the JH cult and the LDS communities- it hurts my heart and I pray every day for their eyes and hearts to be opened to the Truth. I pray a blessed Resurrection Day for all!
Pete thank you! The evidence is clear that you have worked hard to produce this article. Biblically what we see here from the garden of Eden till now proves to be serious and real for us to consider in our prayer life. We need discernment in our daily actions for this late hour. Pete thank you! You have both warned us and encouraged us to watch out, be in our bibles and to recognize and expose the dangers orchestrated out of such evil as Roman Catholicism and other cults. These are evil schemes and dangerous to mankind if we don’t stay close to and lean in on God. Praise be to God that we are reminded this Easter of …
Fascinating article! Thank you for your research. You have a gift to put everything so clearly into perspective. I learned a few new things 😊 Happy & blessed Easter 🌷 ✝️