Symbolism will be their downfall

What kind of gods are they?

In my zeal to present the gods gone astray that Psalm 82 calls the Divine Council or the congregation of the mighty, I mis-characterized them by saying they co-reigned with God, Supreme God. Let me correct my mistake and clarify: these gods of Psalm 82, these sons of God of Genesis 6 and Job, are created beings, unlike the Supreme God, who is uncreated, who has always been.

Whether these other beings should be called gods or something else is debatable. The scripture calls them gods — Elhohyim — so it’s not errant, but our connotations inferred may be. They are spiritual beings of a higher order, possibly (probably) the highest order under God Himself. I think the four archangels listed in Enoch are probably a step above them…. Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, and Uriel….

They did not/do not co-reign with God in that they share God’s power. They are created beings given much power to serve God, like the seraphim, cherubim, angels, and whatever other heavenly created beings God has created. Just like satan, they were created for a function and they abused their powers and subverted their original purpose for selfish ambitions. Their task, it appears, was some sort of service to God in the affairs of the created world on earth.

I am genuinely sorry if I confused or misrepresented anything by poor word choice or description. I never intend or want to misrepresent anything of God (or anything at all).

Some may prefer to call them angels, and that may be a better descriptor for connotation. But the actual words Scripture uses is “sons of God” and “gods” (Hebrew eloyhim), which is why I use that term, but I know it causes a bit of confusion when we’ve been taught there are no other gods but God. That is in fact true when you’re talking about the uncreated Being who is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. There is only One. But the Bible and other works do call these lesser (yet quite powerful) other beings gods as well.

Both Daniel and Enoch call these beings “Watchers”, which is ’iyr in the Aramaic that literally means watcher, but the translators have implied as angels or guardians. It comes from the root word ‘uwr meaning “through the idea of opening the eyes”, from the root “to be bare”. Best hypothesis is these are created beings with the task of watching creation. They’re listed three times in Daniel in chapter four and each time they are coupled with the “holy ones” (which is also an Aramaic word) which loosely translates one made sacred. Each time in Daniel they’re used is to issue a decree.

According to Enoch (and corroborated in Genesis 6), it would seem that there were two hundred of these beings who left their abode in heaven, perhaps they were just doing their task they were created for (watching, reporting?), but at the leadership of Semjaza rebelled against their heavenly assignments and copulated with human women. Enoch 6:6 tells us, “And they were in all two hundred who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.” Interestingly, “Hermon” comes from an ancient Hebrew word “charam” which means “to seclude, specifically by a ban, to devote to religious uses especially destruction”. Like Heiser said, Mount Hermon is ground zero for the rebellious gods/watchers/angels.

I realize I’ve ruffled some feathers addressing and expounding on other “gods”, but I’m going to repeat something I explained in an earlier article. In the Ten Commandments, the first one is “you shall have no other gods before me.” There’s no reason for God to command this if it’s not an issue. The very next commandment is not to make idols. If idols (graven images) were the sole concern, is the first commandment necessary? And why wouldn’t God have said, “you shall have no idols before me”? He didn’t. He said gods.

There were lesser gods being worshiped and God was setting aside a nation as an example to the world of a people who worshiped only the supreme God. He goes on into verse five to say He is a “jealous” God. It literally means jealous and roots back to the primitive root qana’ meaning “to be zealous, (that is in a bad sense) jealous or envious”.

I don’t have time to keep breaking this down for people who think it’s heresy. It’s solid exegesis. A serious Biblical word study of the times eloyhim is used and its context, a serious word study of the “sons of God” and its context, should help people (who aren’t insistent that the western church’s teaching is without error) understand better. I’m really just laying this out for those with ears to hear and a heart to seek God for understanding. I realize it will sound like heresy to those entrenched in western church christianity.

If it is or if it isn’t gods, there’s still this other thing….

There is a group of people that think they are gods and they serve them. So our belief, understanding, traditions don’t matter in the context of what this other people group is doing. THEY worship other “gods”, whether you think they exist or not. They have ordered their lives around serving these other “gods”. (Just like Abraham’s dad and uncle did, just like the Israelites did when they forsook God for the gods of other nations.)

Jonathan Cahn (in his book Return of the Gods) laid it out like this… Before Christ the majority of the world was serving and worshiping other gods. They made temples to them, they made sacrifices to them, they held festivals and parades to them, their calendars were set by them. You couldn’t walk through the major cities of the world without running into homage of some sort to the gods of that region. You might have heard of them as Zeus, Osiris, Aphrodite, Poseidon, Athena, Baal, and the list goes on and on by different regions and different languages.

After Christ, the disciples and the ever increasing Christians evangelized the “modern” world and were severely persecuted and even killed for their message of the one true God and His son. Yet little by little, the worship of the other gods gave way to Christianity and the foreign gods’ temples now lie in ruins all over the world, most are famous tourist spots.

As Cahn says, if you sweep the temple clean of unclean spirits but don’t fill it with the Holy Spirit, the unclean spirit eventually comes back and brings seven more with it and the state of the temple is worse than it was before it was swept clean. A world that converted (in large portion) to Christianity eventually apostatized and the (allegorical) temple was emptied. So the other gods have moved back in all over the world in places we’d now call post-Christian. Read Cahn’s book. It will help you understand so much.

The old gods are now modern and trendy

What used to be underground and backroom worships and rituals to other gods has now gone mainstream. What they used to do in the dark they now do in broad daylight. Sometimes they’re bold enough to put their god’s name or one of the many images of their gods right out there. Just a brief sampling:

  • Starbucks uses the Ishtar image on their cups… they say it’s a siren
  • Venus razors by Gilette…. goddess of love
  • Maseratti uses the Poseidon (Neptune) trident … god of the sea
  • NBC uses the peacock … Hera goddess of women, symbol of pride
  • CBS uses the all-seeing eye … Horus or Ra
  • Nike is named after the Greek goddess of victory
  • the iconic Statue of Liberty is actually a replica of the Babylonian goddess of fertility, Ishtar
  • Paramount’s logo is a towering mountain with 22 stars encircling its top which is strangely parallel to Mount Hermon, (the mount the ancient gods left their abode in Heaven to fornicate on earth). The 22 stars are strangely parallel to the 22 named gods or beings that led the 200 in the rebellion of their original corruption of earth.
  • And of course Apple, with a bite out of it, lauds the forbidden fruit as the key to knowledge. [Their first computer debuted for sale at $666.66.]

I’m not arguing that each of these (and the multitude that I didn’t list) are idol worshipers. Obviously some companies use mythology figures for market purposes. But it is telling that the market is saturated with emulations of foreign gods and idols. In fact, there’s not an industry in the public sphere that isn’t represented in some way, shape or form by foreign gods and idols.

The entertainment industry is ripe with god worship. In fact, watching a music video these days is like having a front seat to an occult ritual. Pretty much anything by Beyonce, Lady Gaga, JayZ, Marilyn Manson, Katy Perry, Madonna, Taylor Swift, and the list goes on and on….is witnessing some form of homage to their god(s) and/or some ritual.

Speaking of the entertainment industry, the NFL is classified as “sports entertainment”, (which releases them from liability for fixing games, among other things). For years now they have employed some of the biggest names in idol worship (idols to us, gods to them) for the half-time shows. Has anyone forgotten the half-time show where Madonna came in as Ishtar to perform her ritual under the watchful eye of Ra (Horus)? It has been a steady stream of idol rituals thanks to the prolific platform the NFL has.

NASA (the Hebrew word for “to deceive”) uses a forked tongue emblem, and names their rockets after a slew of gods, just look. (Atlas, Jupiter, Thor, Titan, Athena, Minotaur, Apollo, Nike, etc.) I wonder what NASA could be being used to deceive humanity about?

The days of the week, the months of the year – almost all are named after gods. Many holidays are rooted in ancient god worship celebrations.

Here’s an interesting one, “X” is supposedly symbolic for “Osiris risen”. Celebrities crossing their arms in an X is supposedly giving homage to the resurrection of Osiris, the Egyptian god of death and resurrection. There have been a rash of other X logos lately, notably: Elon Musk renamed Twitter “X”; Madonna has an alter ego named “Madame X”; the spacecraft manufacture in CA is called “SpaceX”; the Marvel comic superheroes are “X-Men”, etc.

Altiyan Childs, 2010 X-factor winner from Australia, had a near death experience where he attributes his life being saved by God. He did an about face after that and reevaluated his life, becoming very dedicated to God. In 2021 he released a five hour video where he went into great detail on the various forms of idolatry and cult worship in the entertainment industry. His video gives great detail to the symbols they use and their meanings. Video here.

Depending on the source, the ancient Roman God Saturn (where we get Saturday, aka Saturn’s Day) is either the god of time (Kronos or Father Time), Lord of the Rings, the originator of the cult of EL…. Or is symbolic of satan himself. Interestingly you’ll find the Saturn logo on a number of corporate logos of a circle with a ring, or the rings of Saturn, such as these….

Epstein Island has a temple modeled after the Mamluk Bathhouse in Aleppo, Syria. The name Mamluk means “slave soldiers”, and they were known for kidnapping young boys to force them to become warriors, and kidnapping young girls to force them into sex slavery. The blue and white stripes are said to be a nod to ancient Greece, where sex between adults and minors was commonplace. Interestingly, the set for Ellen Degeneres’s talk show had a similar background.

The point is….

I could go on and on about the various god/idol symbolism imagery that permeates our culture. I have files and files of images and history. But the point is, the people entrenched in service and worship of their gods (little g) pay homage to their gods in their various venues. Just like a Christian displays a fish, a cross, three crosses, various aspects of God in their lives both personal and public (think personalized license plates, bumper stickers, t-shirts, business logos, sports teams, scripture references, names of the real God, etc.), so do the adherents to foreign gods display their loyalty and adoration for their gods.

There was a time, perhaps, that brazen demonstrations of idolatry would be frowned upon in American society. But as American culture has become more and more debased, rejecting adherence to Christian morals and trading them for hedonistic displays and lifestyles, those who participate and have allegiance to the lesser gods have become emboldened to no longer hide their affections and loyalties. The scales have tipped and the idolatrous feel the weight of their power and are moving forward with their objectives.

It’s a brave new world where conservative morals are ridiculed and being outlawed while outright depravity, perversions and licentiousness are lauded and on open display. It’s a demonstration of allegiance to the gods one serves, or the God one serves.

If there was a time such loyalties hid in the shadows, that time is either over or quickly fading. The battle of the gods has commenced and loyalties will be the dividing lines in the coming days. If ever a true believer in the true God needed to evaluate their loyalties and the things they give affection to, I would think that time would be upon us. As the battle heightens, compromising affections with lesser gods will prove devastating to Christians.

Our nation and indeed our world are being led by Godless adherents to foreign gods intent on doing the bidding of their gods, and that is a dark and destructive place. We are and will further be deemed the enemy because our allegiance is to the true and supreme God. God is able to protect us, but we cannot afford to be found with one foot in allegiance to God and the other in the cesspools of idolatry.

As I alluded to earlier, the end outcome is guaranteed victory for the supreme God and His children, but the battle leading up to that end will be treacherous for us all. The gods do not fight fair and human suffering is nothing to such gods. In fact, they prefer humans to suffer. Fortunately, we have a God who does care and protects those found abiding in Him and has provided the way for us through Christ.

9 thoughts on “Symbolism will be their downfall”

  1. Your analysis is right on target. Our land is being polluted by gods of all kinds. Hollywood and corporate America along with the evil of our politicians and even to the medical profession.
    Revelation’s was never even looked at until 30 years ago by our local churches. Now, it’s catch up time with all scripture as the dusty Bibles remain on most book shelves.
    Our true God is the only Omnipotent, the Omniesent, and Omnipresent God of all of us.
    Young people are unsure of most anything about our God. Church attendance is down in most denominations. Mega churches preach only a message of prosperity along with lots of rock music.
    As the end of the 6000 years of this present world nears its end,
    We can look forward to the New Heaven and New Earth. There won’t be any rapture, but the Lord is coming for us in His time.
    Blessings,
    Thank you for your depth of research and sharing it with us!
    Paul Drexel

    1. Thank you Paul! I think of Charles Dickens “it was the best of times; it was the worst of times” when I consider present day. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! God bless you and your family as you hold close to Him and His ways.

    2. Enjoyed your response immensely, Paul. Very brave of you to expose the cherished pretrib falsehood, and thought it very insightful to point out that our Creator built within his 6 day creation a clue to the length of man’s time upon this earth to rule himself!!

  2. Thank you Michelle!
    I love how you are able to condense so much info into a few pages. These are all BIG topics so I really appreciate you for keeping it fairly short and relatively simple. I find your writing to be easy to read and to understand. I am enjoying this series of articles!

    Dawn

  3. Another outstanding article of current and vital Biblical truth. Truth patterned after THE TRUTH, that will lead us in the paths of righteousness for His namesake!!
    Your articles, just as those of Rob Pue, are almost always indicative of the lateness of the hour we live in, and challenging us to live solely for Christ our SOON coming King!! 🙏🏻🙏🏻

  4. The idea that God created a pantheon of lesser gods makes for interesting reading. I have a friend that started to go down that route in the last couple of years and unfortunately, his spiritual experience devolved from a strong belief in Jesus to now becoming in full denial of Him. Very sad. I’m in no wise suggesting that this shipwreck of faith is destined for everyone who espouses this teaching, however, it might be a slippery slope to traverse. Personally, I do not see anywhere in scripture where God Almighty created a group of powerful spiritual beings who rebelled against Him. What I see is that He created Adam who rebelled and caused the sin problem to enter into God’s creation. Man’s greatest adversary is his carnal mind. Scripture tells us that the remedy is to be “renewed in our mind”, not worry about other “gods” who do not even exist — except in the minds of those who believe in them. The book of Enoch is not a reliable source. It is not holy inspired scripture. It is a pseudepigraphica work falsely ascribed to Enoch. Jesus tells us that angels cannot marry and mate with humans. The “sons of God” are not either fallen angels or rebellious spiritual entities that are called “gods”. The sons of God are those that believe and follow God. The new testament defines a son of God as the true believers and followers of Christ. The divine council does not consist of lesser divine beings than the one true God. The divine council consists of God Almighty and His Son. “Let US make man in our image…..” The false gods of ancient history and those that are making a resurgence in our day are not real entities. They do not exist. Isaiah 43:10 tells us that no gods exist but the one true God. Paul says in Galatians 4:8 that the gods that the Galatians formerly served were not gods at all. Psalm 115:8 states that the gods through whom the idolaters made idols to have no knowledge nor possess any senses. They are mere inventions of men who deny the true God. The word “god” (small g) simply means one in authority. The gods of this age are the men and women in authority — people who God Himself raised up for his own purposes and to fullfill His plan. They are unregenerate humans who deny God and oppose Christ — not puppets of a pantheon of lesser divine entities. This is what I see thus far in my studies. In closing, I’d just add that I appreciate your work. You bring a lot of truth to the table. May God bless us both as we continue to seek Him and His truth.

    1. Oh thank you so much for sharing your thoughts Louis! I appreciate your input. If you’ve never read Michael Heiser’s exhaustive work on the Hebrew words and the Mesopotamian history, I’d happily recommend it. If after reading it you still feel as you do, it’d be easier to discuss those points, because most of the points you’ve brought up are answered in his work.

      I’m going to guess your friend, when looking at the pantheon of gods and seeing there were many who had a similar story to the three-person Godhead, many whose gods were “born” on December 25, a few who were “resurrected”, some who were “dead” three days and then resurrected, and other similarities among the myths of other deities with the story of Christ caused a spirit of unbelief to grow. It’s unfortunate, but it challenges the authenticity of Christ’s advent and victory when it “appears” the “same” happened before Christ. I have a response for that, but was reluctant to put it out there because I think it’s a stumbling block to a lot of people on the authenticity of Christ and the Bible. So I was reluctant to bring it up to give the devil an opportunity to cast doubt in people who are young in the faith and could be deceived.

      Again, if after reading and studying Heiser’s work you have the same objections, I’m happy to discuss further. I think I addressed in my latest article (Symbolism will be their downfall) that the terminology is debatable (gods vs fallen angels vs demons, etc.). Because the Scripture calls them gods (at times, not always), I don’t find it errant, just hazy for connotation.

      Yes, God bless us both as we seek Him! Always happy to hear from you friend!

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