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The Revelation of Jesus Christ
will find, moreover, that Jeremiah pronounced the curse of God upon those who took part in this rite. A remarkable story about Tammuz was this: His mother declared that he had been slain by a boar, and that he arose from the dead on a certain day, which was always thereafter celebrated as the feast of lstar. This feast celebrating the resurrection of Tammuz from the dead was preceded by forty days of weeping and sorrowing. This mystery also had cor rupted Israel. (See Ezek. 8: 14.) But the feast day itself was one of great rejoicing. When Nebuchadnezzar became the king of Babylon and built that great city, there was a temple unit dedicated to these mystery religions, called the Temple of Bel. It was a mile and a half in circumference. There were the priests that gave themselves to services; there were the virgins that were dedicated to Tammuz; and there was the symbol above it, the sign of the cross. The cross was used as symbolizing the life giving principle and as the first letter in the name of Tammuz. The sign of the cross, therefore, did not originate with Chris tianity. It originated with the ancient mystery religion at Babel. The sacred symbol of the egg that we use at Easter time was also prominent. · When the Medo-Persian empire overthrew Babylon, the city was destroyed; but the mystery religion did not die. When Alexander the Great overthrew the Medo-Persian empire, that empire came to a close; but the mystery religion did not; only its center was changed. Fifty years before the birth of Christ, Rome became the mistress of the world, and the city of Rome became the center of all the ancient myster ies. All the Roman emperors were initiated into this mystery religion. When Julius Cresar was initiated, he took unto him self a title, Pontifex Maximus, which means "the greatest high priest," and was a declaration that Cresar became the leader, the high priest, of those Babylonian mysticisms which began back there in the twilight of history. When Christ was born in Bethlehem, Augustus Cresar ruled over the Roman Empire. (See Luke 2: 1.) Like the Cresars before him, he bore the title, "Pontifex Maximus." And the pagan religions of Greece and Rome covered the vast domain of his possessions-all per-
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