Slavery- Past, Present and Future

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A lmost everyone will agree that the civilised world is facing a crisis. But nobody cares
to define its nature, to discover its cause and formulate a solution. In times of crisis, a
morally healthy society rallies its values, its self-esteem and its crusading spirit to fight for
its moral ideas and its future with full confidence. But is this what we see today?

Of course, we all have different opinions about the state of the world. And then, we need to
ask ourselves if we are in a position to make a change to the events around us. And then of
course, we all suffer from a little of the old “apathy syndrome”, let’s leave it up the
politicians, they will sort it out!

When Alexander F. Tytler wrote “The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic” in the
18th century he pointed out that “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of
government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money
from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the
candidates promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury, with a result that a
democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, often followed by dictatorship. The
average of the world’s greatest civilisations has been 200 years.” He goes on to point out
that civilisations go through a series of stages, and these stages give us a good indication of
the level of progress of the world today. Look at these carefully.

1. From bondage to spiritual faith

2. From courage to liberty
3. From abundance to selfishness
4. From selfishness to complacency
5. From complacency to apathy
6. From apathy to dependency
7. From dependency back into bondage.

At what level do you think the world is currently at? Most people say at number 3. The
reality is that the world is sitting at number 6, about to go into number 7.

"When a man, a business corporation or an entire society is approaching bankruptcy,

there are two courses that those involved can follow: they can evade the reality of
their situation and act on a frantic, blind, range-of-the-moment expediency - not
daring to look ahead, wishing no one would name the truth, yet desperately hoping
that something will save them somehow - or they can identify the situation, check
their premises, discover their hidden assets and start rebuilding." 1.

Mankind has the choice to think or to evade - to maintain a state of full awareness or to drift
from moment to moment, in a semi-conscious daze, at the mercy of whatever associational
whims the unfocused mechanism of his consciousness produces.
But there is another factor. History has shown that the very fabric of society down through
the ages has been built upon certain beliefs. Today, we all live in accordance with what we
believe. In fact, society's perspective’s, lifestyle and decisions are based to a large extent
upon our value base, or moral/religious beliefs, our education and our level of technological
attainment.

Many ancient peoples believed the earth was flat, and when someone discovered otherwise,
a dramatic event occurred. Those who discovered that the earth was round were persecuted
and some even killed because their beliefs differed from those of the society in which they
lived.

Freedom to believe what we want to believe is important to all of us. Political, social,
religious and economic freedom are accepted as “givens”, in the western world, something
unchangeable and unchanging - and if we did not have them there might be an uprising by
all against the government.

We are told by the media that we live in a free society. But what happens if we discover
that our freedom is an illusion, and that what we are told is designed to manipulate us for
the benefit of others - in other words, our beliefs are controlled.

The opposites of freedom and liberty are manipulation and slavery. The ancient pagan
cultures were based upon slavery: slavery to beliefs. Often we overlook the fact that
intelligent manipulation of others is naturally human and not something recently
discovered. A little reasoning shows that an intelligent leader would soon learn that a
brutally enforced slavery is a most expensive form of labour - far more expensive than a
well treated slave who retains some sense of freedom and dignity. Going further, it is not
difficult to realise that the best and most efficient slave would be the slave who believes he
is entirely free.

For example, in India we find the world's largest juvenile work force - approximately
44,000,000 according to the Indian Ministry of Labour (1989 statistics). Of these millions,
over 40,000 work in the tea gardens of Assam. These plantation workers live in conditions
more commonly associated with the nineteenth century. Tea-pickers are slaves, in all but
name. Theoretically free, but in reality they are shackled to their work by low wages, by
isolation, by food prices - and the world's addiction to tea.

ECONOMIC SLAVERY.

By careful control of our understanding of the economy, mankind today has been
manipulated to a certain extent to believe that we are still a free society, when the whole
world's financial system has been carefully brought to a stage where almost every country
is in debt, barely ever able to keep payments up on the interest on loans. For example, the
average wheat farmer in many countries today is a share-farmer on what was once his own
property. He has mortgaged his farm, and eventually the time has come when he could not
meet his payments, and the bank has foreclosed his payments, and taken over the property.
The farmer can stay and work his property - as an employee of the Bank. This is a very
basic illustration of the economic slavery that is gradually coming in today in even western
countries. It is a matter of history in the third world countries.

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RELIGIOUS SLAVERY.

The first man in recorded history who understood this principle of manipulation and slavery
was Nimrod, who set up the first great city or empire based on enslavement to beliefs.
Historical sources speak of him as a great leader of man, but in reality he was the first in
recorded history who understood how to control his fellow man. With the setting up of
Nimrod's kingdom, the entire ancient world entered a new historical phase. The political
and social history of the world changed when Nimrod set up his rulership in the area of
ancient Babylonian, or Accad, and Assyria. This area, recorded by some historians as the
Plains of Shinar, is today modern Iraq. Nimrod's empire was built on the principle of
slavery - slavery to religious beliefs. The common people were held in subjection by
superstitious fear, generated by the priests of the new order which Nimrod and his wife
Semiramis set up. Nimrod became a priest-King, and deified himself as a god. To add to
this, he built up a system of belief that is still with us today, and it is based upon the
movements of the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars.

ANCIENT PAGANISM.

Anyone who has studied the pagan societies knows that the sun is one of the chief deities,
though it may be called by many names.

"All the Gods of antiquity were symbolised by the sun." "The pagans looked upon the
stars as living things, capable of influencing the destinies of individuals, nations and
races." - Manly P. Hall. Secret Teachings of All Ages.

"The Sun, as he pursued his way among these 'living creatures' of the zodiac, ... was
said to either assume the nature of or triumph over the sign he entered. The sun thus
became a Bull in Taurus, and was worshipped as such by the Egyptians under the
name Apis, and by the Assyrians as Bel, Baal or Bul. In Leo the sun became a Lion-
slayer, Hercules, and an archer in Sagittarius. In Pisces, the Fishes, he as a fish -
Dagon, or Vishnu, the fish-god of the Philistines and Hindus." - Manly P. Hall. Secret
Teachings of All Ages.

We find in ancient paganism many names for the Sun, for its rays, for the shape of the solar
disc, and other names for its radiating heat. We find men worshipping its life-giving
qualities and its death-giving powers. Fire was worshipped because, being hot and having
the appearance of the sun, it was declared to be the sun-spirit. We find the thunder storm
being worshipped as a divine being because thunder was declared to be the voice of the sun
god. And so it went on into an unlimited number of symbols, manifestations, and names.

Almost invariably, no matter where we find sun worship on the face of the earth, either
ancient or modern, we find a sacred serpent accompanying such worship.

Take ancient Egypt, for example. Egyptian inscriptions show the sun pictured in the sky
encircled by the cobra. The cobra, likewise, is pictured as being a part of the headdress of
the Queen and the Pharoah, who was deified as the sun-god on earth. Back in the cradle of
sun-worship, in ancient Babylon, the serpent is commonly found in the temples of the sun.

Nimrod's reign in Babylon was cut short when he was killed by Shem (Son of Noah)
because of his evil nature and to demonstrate his mortal humanity to his followers.
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Nimrod's wife, Semiramis however, claimed that Nimrod's soul had gone to the sun and
instructed the people to worship the sun. She supposedly proved this by giving birth to a
son (Tammuz, The son of the sun) who she claimed was conceived by a ray of light from
the sun. When Semiramis died she became personified by the planet 'Venus' and was the
'goddess of love' or queen of heaven and was known by various names throughout the
ancient pagan cultures. Ishtar and Tammus were the Babylonian names, (or Semiramis and
Nimrod). In Egypt they were called Isis and Horus (or Osiris), in pagan Rome as Fortuna
and Jupiter, or Venus and Cupid; in India as Isi and Iswara; in Asia as Cybele and Deoius;
in Greece as Irene and Plutus; and in Tibet, China and Japan, the earliest Jesuit missionaries
were astonished to find the female Buddha holding a divine son in her arms.

As every student of religious history has discovered, names and genders meant little to
ancient pagan worshippers. The same deity often appears in a hundred different forms. In
Babylon, the female sun, worshipped for its life-giving qualities, has numerous phases,
chief of which were probably summed up in Ishtar, from which we get our English word,
Easter. Ishtar was described as "the fruitful goddess of the earth, teeming with fertility," the
latter idea being seen in the rabbits and eggs that always accompanied this worship.
Worship of the female moon, of Venus and of Diana of the Ephesians, "whom all Asia and
the world worshipped," according to the Bible (Acts 19:27), was the same again.

Let us turn the calendar back three thousand years, and visit one of these pagan temples...

We walk into a massive stone temple and gaze around curiously. Along the walls and
around the front are numerous images receiving the adoration and prayers of the
worshippers, who obediently bow before them. At the front of the worship room a tonsured
Babylonian priest, (with the shaved pate representing the sun's disk, and the fringe of hair
representing the sun's rays), chants in a monotone voice understood neither by ourselves
nor, apparently, by the worshippers. As we stand watching, a man obviously feeling guilty
of something enters, and goes to a small confessional room to relieve his conscience. He
pays the priest the required fee, and is told that he must do penance to purify his soul. The
priest looks into his book of rituals, and chooses from the eighty grades of punishment,
which include fire, privation, thirst, self-torture and journeyings. He considers one
sufficiently severe to expiate the sin.

The penitent worshipper draws back at the punishment meted out to him, but after being
reminded that the priest carries the keys to heaven and hell, and that eternal hellfire is the
alternative of disobedience, he trembles with fear and begins his long penalty of self-
torture. We pass on to another room of the temple, where are kept the sacred relics through
which most of the temple's miracles are performed. The relics, we notice, include a piece of
cloth, strings of beads, a vial of tears, a black stone, a tooth, a begging bowl and a piece of
wood. Worshippers move in and out, many of whom claim to have been healed by contact
with some particular relic.

In another room of the sun-temple we see young men in training to be priests. They explain
to us the seven degrees of initiation through which they must pass. When they reach the
sixth degree, each will receive the title of "Sun" and be so addressed by his associates.
When they reach the seventh and highest degree, each will receive the title of "Father," and
will be so addressed by all they meet. As we pass on we see worshippers bowed before the
statues of the 'Goddess of Love' - Semiramis, holding the son of the sun in her arms - the
boy, Tammuz.

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In Babylon, the priestly order, or 'mystery schools' controlled the beliefs of the people. The
main order or ancient priesthood were called the 'Council of Pontiffs'. In these mystery
schools they worshipped their true master - Nimrod and the one he gave his allegiance to
when he rebelled against God - Lucifer, the angel of light. (Amon Ra, Zeus, Jupiter or
Janus [in mythology] - the Force.)

Scattered around the temple are gold representations of the sun. Also upon the statues we
see a gold letter T - which stands for Tammuz. This gold cross is symbolic of the sun, and
is sacred to the sun-worshippers. We notice it is used as an amulet over the heart of many of
the worshippers, and can be seen on the clothing of the priests. The cross symbol is pictured
in some of the temple artwork as the sun in the sky, rather than a circle. Sometimes it is
represented with the rays of the sun encircling the cross.

CRUCIFIXION.

The favourite form of administering the death penalty before Christ was the crucifixion. It
was a widespread method of offering human sacrifices to the gods or the spirits of the under
world. When a sun-worshipping general in ancient times went out to do battle, he was
almost sure to offer up sacrifices in the form of crucifixions to the sun-god. The Behistun
inscriptions tell us how three thousand chief Babylonians were crucified at one time as an
offering to the sun-god by a Persian general, who had succeeded in capturing them in battle.
Alexander the Great is said to have crucified ten thousand as a similar offering after one of
his victorious campaigns.

The robe of Cyrus the Great, (King of Persian) a follower of the sun, was decorated with
crosses five hundred years before Christ. Go into almost any museum today, and you will
find statues of Ra, the Egyptian God, holding the ankh, or ringed cross in his hand.

Many crucifixes, found from days gone by, were attached to prayer beads. These beads
were used extensively throughout the Oriental pagan religions, a prayer being said for each
bead. Interestingly enough, we cannot find any mention of prayer beads in the Bible; or the
need for them; it is another tradition that has come into the so-called Christian Churches
from outside paganism.

Many ancient cultures around the world had temples and idols to the sun-god, symbolised
by the cross. Other signs of sun worship found in ancient paganism included the use of
obelisks, (tall four-sided stone columns with pyramid-shaped points). The sacred serpent
accompanied such worship, together with worship being held on the 'venerable day of the
sun' - the first day of the week - which "was anciently dedicated to the sun or its worship." 2

About the time of Christ another sun-god was rising to the ascendancy. Mithraism, an
ancient worship from Persia, in the first century A.D. was transformed into the leading Sun
god of the Roman Empire. The Romans gave him a new name - Sol Invictus, which means
"the Invincible Sun." Mithra became the great god of the Roman soldiers, and by the
middle of the second century had become the greatest rival of true Christian worship.

"The worship of Mithra was a clever counterfeit by Satan to draw men and women
from the worship of the true God. Mithraism imitated the worship of Christ in several
ways: it had a dying, rising saviour god, whose birth and resurrection was celebrated
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 every year. It had special religious suppers, or communion services, when the
believers partook of their god. Its converts had to be baptised (by standing under an
iron grating, over which a bull was slaughtered)." 3.

As time went on, Mithra worship became popular amongst the teachers at the Alexandrian
Theological School. Alexandria, Egypt, was at that time one of the largest cities in the
Roman Empire. The so-called Christian teachers at Alexandria adopted pagan and
philosophical religious ideas and practises. From about 125 A.D. till 325 A.D. Alexandria
made a concerted effort to teach pagan philosophy to their students and to write books on
"Christian philosophy". And so “Gnosticism” arrived on the religious scene. Alexandria
became extremely inventive at blending pagan theories and rituals into Christian doctrine.
To add to this, the leaders of the Christian Church in the capital city of Rome began to
adopt these pagan ideas as “new light”, and began to dogmatically demand that all the
Christian churches throughout the civilised world practise these errors, just because the
Church at Rome had so decreed it!

Finally, with the ascension of Constantine to the throne in 312 A.D. they gained the help
they needed. Constantine was an ardent follower of Mithraism before his "conversion", and
history shows that he never gave up many of his beliefs in pagan Sun-worship. It was the
influence of Constantine perhaps more than any other single individual that brought about
the compromise between the followers of Jesus and the advocates of the pagan mystery
schools. This enabled the latter to penetrate into the former during the Dark Ages. "Another
reason for the survival of many of the beliefs and symbols of sun worship in Christianity
lies in the fact that the early Christian teachers found the people so wedded to their old rites
and usages that it was vain to hope for the complete abandonment of these long cherished
practices." 4.

Today the situation is virtually the same. People are often at a loss to explain why they have
certain opinions or beliefs. They really just don't know "why" they hold to some idea or
belief. They possibly grew up in an environment that molded their way of thinking. Various
influences may have given direction to their beliefs. They do not realize that none of us can
afford to assume that we inherit the truth. It is something that is personally acquired.
Parents may have it, but they cannot transmit it to their children; genetically or otherwise.
They may use their influence and knowledge to teach it. They may recommend it. But on
the part of the son or daughter, it must be personally accepted.

The Roman Emperor Aurelian (270-275 A.D.) whose mother was a priestess of the sun,
made the solar cult of Mithraism the official religion of the empire. His biographer, Flavius
Vopiscus, says that the priests of the Temple of the Sun at Rome were called "pontiffs".
They were priests of their dying-rising saviour-god Mithra, and 'vicegerents" (second in
command, next to him) of the Mithraic Church.

In ancient Egypt the sun-god Ra - pictured with a tail, a tined fork in one hand, a sun on his
head, with a cobra coiled around the sun - was unquestionably the source of our modern
concept of the devil. In Persia and India we find the sun being called Mithra in one breath
and Ahura-Mazda in the next, the latter term being best translated "light-demon".

The picture here presented is not an imaginary one. These are some of the actual beliefs and
rites of ancient paganism dedicated to the worship of Lucifer thinly disguised as the Sun
god. The Babylonians, and the Egyptians and the Persians, who inherited their Satan-Sun
worship from Babylon, left exhaustive records that have been translated by the scholars of

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the British museum and elsewhere, and that may now be read by anyone. Yet in spite of the
fact that these customs come to us from Babylon, how many of these same satanic worship
traditions are found today in the professed Christian Churches!

Notice how contrary to such practices are the following quotations from the Bible:

"When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they
shall be heard for their much speaking." Matt 6:7. Here we are told to avoid the chanting
that the ancient pagans practiced in their worship of their gods.

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9. Here we see that we do not need to go to the
Priests of any religion in confession, but to go to God, the creator of all life.

"There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus."
1 Timothy 2:5. Again, we note here that a Priesthood, as instigated by organized religion
today, is unnecessary. A priest as our mediator between God and man is found only in
Christ Jesus, not in other men.

THE COUNTERFEIT

In matters of religion it isn't always safe to follow the crowd. Clear thinking is not found
with the masses. The majority don't bother to investigate; they don't think to ask "why?"
Kierkegaard stated it well when he wrote: "The larger the crowd, the more probable that
that which it praises is folly, and the more improbable that it is truth, and the most
improbable of all that it is any eternal truth."

When Lucifer set out to counterfeit and attempt to destroy all divine worship, he left no
point of doctrine unattacked. Step by step he examined every plank in the Hebrew-Biblical
platform, and produced a counterfeit for each.

Every scholar who studies into the ancient pagan religions would do well to remember that
Lucifer was thoroughly acquainted with God's plan of salvation for mankind long before
Christ, the Son of God, came into the world. Lucifer unquestionably knew of this plan after
he had fallen from grace, and certainly could have learned of it from our early ancestors and
from succeeding prophets of Scripture. Failure to recognise Lucifer's knowledge of the
work that Christ was to do has turned many a so-called scholar into an agnostic or a man
without faith, for we find that Lucifer counterfeited some of the Christian beliefs even
before Christ personally presented them while on earth. Many people often assume that
Christianity is copied from pagan religions, when in actuality, Lucifer merely took
advantage of his early knowledge of Christ's work.

John, in the book of Revelation, writing centuries after the kingdom of Babylon had ceased
to exist, declares in Rev. 18:2-4, "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the
habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit ... For all nations have drunk of the
wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth are waxed rich through the
abundance of her delicacies. 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."

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There are two points worth noticing here; the statement that Babylon's devil worship
became universal, and the warning for all who profess to be honest searchers for truth and
those who are followers of Jesus Christ to weed out of their religion all forms of Pagan
idolatry and tradition. We all need to ask ourselves the question, “am I a slave to my
beliefs, or am I following the truth, for ‘the truth will set you free.’"

Researched and written by Blair Andrew, 2001.

PO Box 97
Eagle Heights
4271, Qld.
Australia. Email: discern@hotmail.com

Footnotes.

1. For the New Intellectual, by Ayn Rand. p10.

2. Websters’ New International Dictionary, Sunday, (dies Solis) 1928 Ed.
3. Beyond Pitcairn, by Vance Ferrell. p45.
4. Sun Lore of all Ages, by Olcott.

FURTHER STUDY.

Authors surname first.

Allen, Gary. "None Dare Call it Conspiracy."

Corti, Count Egon Caesar. "The Rise of the House of Rothschild."
Dowling, John. "The History of Romanism." 1871. N.Y.
Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. "The Occult Roots of Nazism."
Griffin, Des. "Fourth Reich of the Rich."
Hislop, Alexander Rev. "The Two Babylons."
Hohne, Heinz. "The Order of the Death's Head." 1971.
Jones, Alonzo T. “Empires of the Bible.” 1886.
Manhattan, Avro. "Vatican Imperialism in the 20th Century."
Manhattan, Avro. "Catholic Power Today." 1967.
Martin, Malachi. "The Keys of this Blood." 1991.
Tytler, Alexander F. (1748-1813) “The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic”
Woodrow, Ralph. "Babylon, Mystery Religion." 1966.