Free Republic

Comparing Christianity and the New Paganism The most serious challenge for Christianity today isn't one of the other great religions of the world, such as Islam or Buddhism. Nor is it simple atheism, which has no depth, no mass appeal, no staying power. Rather, it's a religion most of us think is dead. That religion is paganism — and it is very much alive. Paganism is simply the natural gravity of the human spirit, the line of least resistance, religion in its fallen state. The "old" paganism came from the country. Indeed, the very word "paganism" comes from the Latin...

Thousands of years ago, the king of a great city ordered that this inscription be carved in stone at the city gate: “Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, the pious prince appointed by the will of Marduk...full of prudent deliberation... the never-tiring governor who always has at heart the worship at Esagila and Ezida... the firstborn son of Nabopolassar, King of Babylon am I. “I had the gates built of sheer blue stone, on which bulls and dragons were elaborately painted. “I let the temple of Marduk, highest of all, supreme of gods, a place of joy and jubilation for major and...

snip Following years of devastation under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and the ensuing American invasion of Iraq, World Monuments Fund conservationist Jeff Allen told The New York Times this week that archeologists are beginning to work on ancient Babylonian sites and possibly restore some of them. snip

If the cost of digging a trench is 9 gin, and the trench has a length of 5 ninda and is one-half ninda deep, and if a worker’s daily load of earth costs 10 gin to move, and his daily wages are 6 se of silver, then how wide is the canal? Or, a better question: if you were a tutor of Babylonian scribes some 4,000 years ago, holding a clay tablet on which this problem was incised with cuneiform indentations — the very tablet that can now be seen with 12 others from that Middle Eastern civilization at the...

Aizawl: The fear of the 'Beast' or the Devil in the Christian-dominated state of Mizoram has caused almost 1,000 families to refuse to enroll their names in the National Population Register (NPR) taken up along with the Census 2011 here from May 15. The dread stems from Chapter 13 Verse 17 of the Book of Revelations in the Bible which says "... and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark or the name of the Beast or the number of his name." The problem has stemmed from the Unique Identification Authority of India stipulating...

Well this should not be a surprise to anyone but Red Dawn is the latest film to be put on hold due to MGM’s financial status. With no executives to control the studio, creditors have placed the responsibility of the once great film company on themselves. This move has affected all the movies it was tied to, from the twenty-third Bond film to The Hobbit. Because of MGM’s financial problems Daniel Craig left Bond 23 for Girl with a Dragon Tatoo and Gullimero Del Toro left The Hobbit.

Ever since the Tower of Babel rebellion about 4,200 years ago (Gen 11:1-9), the vast majority of mankind has been governed and ruled by this godless political and religious system. This idolatrous ideology has indeed developed and deepened throughout the world system for ~ 4,200 years. Civilizations and cultures, ideologies and philosophies, religions and societies, cities and nations, morals and traditions have all sprung forth from this event. God in His judgment scattered the people (Gen 11:8-10; Deut. 32:7-8) to the “four corners” of the earth. It is these God-rejecting rebellious seeds - planted by the founders of Babel -...

A current study, known as the Future of Babylon project, documents the damage from water mainly associated with the Euphrates River and irrigation systems nearby. The ground is saturated just below the surface at sites of the Ishtar Gate and the long-gone Hanging Gardens, one of the seven wonders. Bricks are crumbling, temples collapsing. The Tower of Babel, long since reduced to rubble, is surrounded by standing water. Leaders of the international project, describing their findings in interviews and at a meeting this month in New York, said that any plan for reclaiming Babylon as a tourist attraction and a...

(excerpt) This moment at CPAC is even more important for the conservative movement as it happened at an important time when there is already a generational change going on in America. Boomers are fading, Xer’s are ruling, and Millenials are finding their way. Forty-eight percent of those who participated in the CPAC straw poll last week identified themselves as students. They are the future of conservativism. And they shouted down an anti-gay bigot. There will surely be other homocon-related clashes within the conservative movement, just as the Democrat Party has regularly used the gay community as pawns in their re-election...

Incredibly, President George W. Bush told French President Jacques Chirac in early 2003 that Iraq must be invaded to thwart Gog and Magog, the Bible's satanic agents of the Apocalypse. Honest. This isn't a joke. The president of the United States, in a top-secret phone call to a major European ally, asked for French troops to join American soldiers in attacking Iraq as a mission from God. Now out of office, Chirac recounts that the American leader appealed to their "common faith" (Christianity) and told him: "Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East. ... The biblical prophecies...

It is in many ways the weirdest shard of reporting from those years, and its testimony is from no less than the former president of France: The president of the United States, in a top-secret phone call to a major European ally, asked for French troops to join American soldiers in attacking Iraq as a mission from God. Now out of office, Chirac recounts that the American leader appealed to their "common faith" (Christianity) and told him: "Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East…. The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled…. This confrontation is willed by God, who...

Soldiers and civilians prepare to enter the ancient city of Babylon for a tour, July 18. The entrance to the ruins is a recreation of Ishtar's Gate, originally built by Nebuchadnezzar II in 575 B.C. It was dedicated to Ishtar, the goddess of love and war. Photo by Debralee P. Crankshaw, Multi-National Division – South. AL HILLAH — Multi-National Division – South leaders, troops and civilian employees recently visited the historic city of Babylon to see what this ancient land is all about. "The mission [to Babylon] was to educate those on the command staff and some of the primary...

King Jehoiachin was only 18 years old and had occupied the throne of Judah barely three months when he was led off into Babylonian captivity in 598 BCE together with his wives, his mother, his servants, his eunuchs and thousands of "the chief men of the land." But what happened to them when they reached Babylon? And what happened there to the tens of thousands of others who joined them in exile when the First Temple was destroyed a decade later? The Bible tells us of the return to Judah half a century later but virtually nothing of what the...

A hilltop view of the ancient city of Babylon, where King Nebuchadnezzar II, whose life spanned 630-562 B.C., built his hanging gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Photo by Maj. Mike Feeney, 172nd Infantry Brigade. HILLAH — Soldiers of the 172nd Infantry Brigade are enabling documentarians, historians and preservationists as they work to ensure ancient Iraqi history is preserved and documented in Babil province. The Soldiers provide these experts transportation and security as they conduct site surveys of Babylon, an ancient city near the modern city of HillahThe Babil Provincial Reconstruction Team hosted the World Monuments Fund...

HILLAH, Iraq, June 30, 2009 – Soldiers with the 172nd Infantry Brigade are helping documentarians, historians and preservationists as they work to ensure that ancient Iraqi history is preserved and documented in Babil province. Army 1st Lt. Bryan Kelso stands watch outside a deserted palace built under Saddam Hussein at the Babylon ruins, June 21, 2009. Saddam ordered the construction of the palace on a manmade hill overlooking the ancient city of Babylon, where many projects are under way to enhance tourism in the area. U.S. Army photo by Maj. Mike Feeney  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The brigade...

OUR effort in Iraq passed a major milestone today: Our troops are leaving the cities. Advisers remain in place. Joint patrols will still occur. And our forces will wait nearby to respond to Iraqi calls for support. But the last of the bases and US-only outposts within Iraq's urban centers will be vacated. Terrorists have already begun testing the new security arrangements. Iraqi forces won't always pass with flying colors. Yet this situation seemed a pipe dream not so long ago: Iraq's security forces, serving an elected government, assume primary responsibility for the good order of their own country. We...

Regular readers of this weblog and my books know that Bible prophecy says the ancient city of Babylon, Iraq will be rebuilt and become the greatest center of wealth, commerce and power in the “last days” of history. The books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Revelation are explicit on this subject. Skeptics and cynics abound, to be sure, but the fact is Babylon is being rebuilt right now, in part with U.S. taxpayer funds. Iraqi leaders hope that eventually millions of tourists will come to visit, and real progress is being made. Consider today’s edition of Stars & Stripes, a...

20 FOLD, 20 FOLD, JUDGMENT IS UPON AMERICA On June 08, 2009, I saw the following photo at www.drudgereport.com. (photo of the $20 over the White House) Underneath the picture was this caption: CHINA AIRS FEARS ON DOLLAR, DEBT. I IMMEDIATELY heard these words: 20-fold, 20-FOLD, again I say, 20-FOLD is come upon this White House and upon this land." Stunned, I asked the Lord, the Great God of Heaven and Earth, "What does this mean?" This prophetic word has taken two days to come forth for me. The following is the interpretation of the photo and the matter. DESCRIPTION...

A new book by movie producer Jon Peters alleges Hollywood movie mogul Ray Stark sexually molested singer and actress Barbra Streisand at the start of her acting career. The explosive allegations against Stark, who prior to his death in 2004 was one of the most influential producers in motion picture history, are contained in Peters’ memoir, tentatively entitled Studio Head, which was purchased by Harper-Collins Publishers in April for a reported $US875,000. Peters, who turns 64 this year, claims his former wife, actress Lesley Ann Warren, was also molested during infamous Hollywood casting couch sessions and when he became aware...

Iraq's local government is to reopen the Babylon archeological site, which had been closed since the 2003 US-led invasion of the country. The city, located 85 kilometers south of Baghdad, was transformed into a military camp by American and Polish troops and a heliport was built on its ruins. The reopening will take place despite archaeologists expressing their concerns about further damages to what remains of one of the world's first great cities which is pending registration on UNESCO's list of protected World Heritage sites. Iraq's State Board of Antiquities and Heritage now says Babil's provincial government has illegal control...