Ok so to start this off I have to tell you about my religion class. Last religion class we were studying Lot. Before we go any further, Lot is listed among the righteous in the New Testament even though he did make some poor decisions, but I digress. Anyways, we were studying the whole deal with his daughters and their date rape. (That's really the best word for it because poor Lot, or perhaps lucky, Lot was unconscious for the whole thing) Anyways, his daughters sons became the fathers of the Ammonites, and Moabites. Now here's the thing our teacher went on to explain that this will be very important. He then went on to explain that the Ammonites worshiped a fire god called Moloch. In their worship they would throw babies into a sacred furnace as sacrifice. Yeah, horribly wicked stuff.
Second part was that he explained about circumcision. When Abraham received the covenant to perform circumcision he had just entered into the land of Canaan. There was the center of a lot of the fertility religions at the time. He went on to explain that basically, and that word is important, they would go to the temple of their goddess, hire a "sacred" prostitute and then have sex to worship their goddess. This was a form of worship.
Third part is that my accounting professor takes about 5-15 minutes every class time to share a little thought. (They aren't all that little) So he talks about some cool stuff and pulls out some quotes from Joseph Smith talking about people that are too righteous to be saved and will be damned, stuff like that.
Next is that it seems that no matter what numbers we create for examples in our accounting class, the number 666 always comes up in some from or another. We set the interest rates, principle, payments, and lots of other numbers and it crops up. The funny thing is that our teacher has never really ever had this happen. He jokingly said, "You guys must be the devil class." He then went on to say he'd tell us something interesting about that number.
So we embark on a journey that shall cover two weeks. First he starts off quoting revelation about Christ and the lady that was pregnant. The first verse is, Revelation 5:12. It states, "Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." He then went on to say that only one man other than Christ has ever received these things but he didn't do a thing to receive them. Christ was slain and atoned for our sins to receive all these things. He then talks about how the Whore (great and abominable church) dresses up just like Aaron did. She's arrayed to look like a priest of the church. She like the pregnant lady represents a church and it's Satan's church. Much like Christ has a bride (the church), Satan has a whore (Babylon).
Ok, next week. We talk about a few other things that expound on what he just said. Now, just this Tuesday he goes to the verse that mentions the whole 666 thing. Revelation 13:18 "Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. He then turned us to 1 Kings 10:14. Here is wisdom, he asked us who was famous for his wisdom; Solomon. It's interesting that the numbers match, but that's not the worst of it.
He then told us to go find some verses that showed just how evil Solomon was. I found the scripture in 1 Kings 11:5. Here it states that he worshiped the goddess of fertility that would later be known among the Greeks as Aphrodite, and he worshiped, Milcom (or Moloch). Solomon had gone so far off the path that he was worshiping a god that required infant sacrifice.
I was like wow, I never realized exactly how evil Solomon had become. My teacher then went on to explain that Solomon is an example of what the anti-christ would be like. The ultimate apostate. He stated that like Satan he split the children of God. Satan took a third of the host of heaven with him and Solomon's wickedness and taxes eventually caused the split of Israel. Now if he was a type or example of the anti-christ, then his worship of the two gods makes sense. Abortion, and sexual promiscuity.
Take it or leave it. That was what my accounting teacher taught us and to me, it sounds reasonable. I just thought I'd share this little nugget that he gave us. Feel free to comment up a storm and get on a gospel discussion.
Actually, it was Rehoboam that caused the split. Solomon did stray far from the path in his dotage - see your later post on why not to marry outside of the church. Sorry, I cannot agree that Solomon was the anti-Christ equivalent. He did lose his way, but you still have to convince me that it was deliberate.
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