In the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ (Rev. 17:5) we are told of a Mystery we are not to partake of: Mystery, Babylon the Great. We are warned of a time when the whole world (even the very elect, if it were possible) would believe it. In 2 Thess. 2:7 we are warned of the mystery of iniquity (lawlessness)—already infiltrating the church, and 2 Tim. 2:19 tells us, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” We may think we are immune from Satan’s deceitfulness, but prior to the inception of the New Testament Church error crept in, leading many astray. 2 Tim. 4:3,4 is a warning to us today: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” The word “fables” here refers to the knowledge learned from ancient Mysteries. Why did this happen and how can we avoid falling prey to these mysteries, introduced by Satan anciently and still alive and well today?

As we come into the cradle of civilization around 600 B.C. mystery religions permeate the scene. Persian, Greek, and Egyptian mysteries were the bases of society, religion, and government. Daniel and the wise young men of Israel were taken to Babylon during this time because the kings and rulers sought out the best wisdom from the various mystic religions and societies throughout the known world, mixing it to come up with more, better wisdom, climbing forever that ladder of gnosis. The wise and learned men of the day were steeped in the mysteries—the history of Philosophy and Religion bear this out. Upon their return to Israel many Jews brought back much mystic knowledge, already woven into what truth they remembered. They influenced the pure religion God’s true priests and prophets tried to restore. Many “church fathers” came out of these societies and mystery religions and were influenced by the then extant and tainted Jewish mysteries. They began another religion, Catholicism—another daughter of Babylon, by bringing their baggage with them, incorporating their paradigms into the “new religion,” to make sense of Biblical truths that wouldn’t fit the concepts they had.

One of these concepts was how God had to be. We can study how they formulated the trinity, calling it a “mystery.” In a recent Bible Study we’ve read about the Catholic Church’s triadic mysteries still believed and taught today: of the trinity, the incarnation, and the Eucharist. The doctrine of the trinity demands that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost(Spirit) are forever a closed unit, three-in-one, a mystery. So then they add to the mystery two more mystery doctrines: of the incarnation (how can a divine part of an indivisible unit come to earth and be born as a human being?) and of the Eucharist (how can the bread and wine eaten as part of their Eucharistic ritual become the physical body and blood of this God/man?) Using an old mystery concept of the ONE (a single unit made up of divine “stuff,” indivisible, unknowable) to define God, they boxed the Elohim into a closed unit,  forever in their doctrine denying the truth and very plan of God—the very Mystery of God ordained from the beginning! By rejecting the duality of the God-head—two distinct beings, one who became the Father and one who created everything and became the Son, both having divine nature (the holy spirit)—they rejected and sealed off the understanding of the very intent of God to create sons to whom He will eventually give the divine nature, as these three scriptures explain: Col 1:25-27, 1Pet. 5:10-11 & 1Jn 3:1-2. 

     There are two trees, two sets of mysteries.

Throughout the New Testament we can read of the true Mysteries of God and what they entail. Here are all the scriptures that include the words mystery or mysteries. The theme comes through when they are all taken in context: Matt. 13:11, Mark 4:11, Luke 8:10, Rom. 11:25, Rom. 16:25, 1Cor. 2:7-10, 1Cor. 4:1, 1Cor. 13:2, 1Cor. 14:2, 1Cor. 15:51-54, Eph. 1:9, Eph. 3:3-4, Eph. 3:9, Eph. 5:32, Eph. 6:19, Col. 1:26-27, Col. 2:2,3,8-10, Col. 4:3, 2Thes. 2:7, 1Tim. 3:9, 1Tim. 3:16, Rev. 1:20, Rev. 10:7, Rev. 17:5.

As we can see, God’s mysteries have to do with reconciling mankind to Himself and giving humans eternal life as His sons. The knowledge of His mysteries tells us how He intends to do it and include all of mankind who will call on Jesus’ Name (all that He is about). It can’t be discovered on our own or bought. It is a gift, freely given by our Father because Jesus Christ paved the way through His great sacrifice. Ephesians 1 explains this so clearly.

At the very beginning, in the Garden of Eden, Satan told Eve to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and she would not die, but live forever (Gen. 3:4-5). Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the mystic system of Satan the devil, of which mankind was commanded not to partake. There are many strong clues that it was this system that was brought through the flood from Cain. The word “babylon” means confusion. The mystery religions we can read of throughout history stem from this, the first false religion set up by Satan the Devil. Salvation through secret societies: initiations, steps up the ladder of knowledge (gnosis), introductions into the mysteries, etc. are part of the religion he began. All false religions, taking to themselves the knowledge of what is good and evil, certainly are confused, as they try to step around God’s Word and Jesus Christ, the Way of Life (salvation), the Truth and up the ladder of “confusion” (the Tower of Babel). From the beginning Satan has offered his alternative and men have been lured into his trap.

So how do we avoid the wiles of Satan the Devil and avoid partaking of Mystery, Babylon? We must remember Satan is knowledgeable, extremely intelligent, subtle, wily and crafty and will keep deceiving people until he is shut up in the bottomless pit. Remember, Jesus warns us in Matt. 24:24: “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, the very elect,” and Paul points out in 2 Thess. 2:7,9,10, “For the mystery of iniquity (lawlessness) is already at work .... The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” Once given the truth we are to believe it, treasure it, act on it, build on it. We must hold on to the love of the truth as God reveals it to us in His written Word and through Jesus Christ the Word, living in us through the Holy Spirit, never mixing it with man’s traditions or understandings that would alter it in any way. Satan has counterfeited God’s plan from the beginning, substituting his ladder of knowledge, gnosis, for God’s Truth; his Mystery of confusion and iniquity for God’s Mystery of salvation; his tree of the knowledge of good and evil for God’s tree of Life, which we know is Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, as Paul confirms in 1 Cor. 3:11 - 4:2, “For on no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.... (19) for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God... (23) and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”

~Carol Irish~