“And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
      He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: therefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.
      And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.” Genesis 10:8-10

Because God had found one righteous man he had decided that He would no longer consider destroying the earth and doing away with Man. This prophecy was stamped in the sky with the symbolic rainbow. And so, after the Flood the World was replete with the cooing of doves and the mating sounds of contented animals filling a rainbow framed world, a new world secure in the knowledge of God’s promise of a new and bright future for Man.

Yet, this world had not taken hold for long before its serenity and beauty was to be chased away once again by the ambitions of Man who quickly descended into that familiar opposition to the spirit of God. Our scene in history now intruded upon by the rumbling sound of rushing chariots and the shrill horns of men hunting men. Men are sweating, toiling, making bricks under the lash of a whip. They slop slime into hods and carry them up a ladders and long ramps ascending a vast tower which is loudly under construction. The ox grunts as it works, the laborer’s mallet rings loud across the plain which has become the stage for a conspiracy to dethrone God on earth.

It has taken but two generations after the Flood for men to forge a conspiracy engaging in a world empire. Nimrod, Babylon’s proud leader, built the world’s first cities along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers – not coincidentally, where the Garden of Eden had originally been – with the cities of Babel and Nineveh being the cornerstones of the earliest expression of Man’s insatiable desire to dominate God’s creation. Genesis Chapter 10 speaks briefly of this chain of cities linked together into a conglomerate power under the headship of the world’s first Antichrist person. The fortified life of the city provided Man with protection against wild beasts and marauding tribes. Secure under this umbrella of unification, Nimrod and his subjects became the ruling force on earth, a force able to contend with the Spirit of God for influence upon the heart and mind of Man in his everyday life.

False Religion Instituted Early
To further his lust for power and to accommodate his military needs, Nimrod, under Satan’s influence and special guidance – knowledge of the occult as handed down from his father Cush – Nimrod (see profile of Nimrod and his unholy family) with the help of Semiramis his wife, devised the Antichrist’s greatest ally and mouthpiece: i.e. false religion. Perverting God’s prophetic word, and using mystical rites, while subtly mixing lies with a measure of truth, Nimrod seduced the people away from God.

But, Oh!  But, Oh!! The people were willing. Secure in the protection network of cities of which Nimrod had become overlord (Genesis 10), the people embarked on their greatest project – a monument and temple for Nimrod’s plans to cast God off and rule the world for himself. The people became easy prey for this hunter of men who captured their hearts and devoured their souls with a diabolical web of false religion which was woven to perfection by Satan himself.

And so, the first empire on earth was wired together by rebellious unity, false religion and the occult. Here is an everlasting lesson for Mankind and one well worth scrutinizing in our time as the modern world clamors for unity at any price. The people felt strong and confident in their unity; but what was their purpose, what was their motive in unity? One of the recurring themes in God’s history is the conspiracy of empire; that is, the conspiracy of Man and Devil to unite the nations and peoples of the earth into a force able to define and direct their own destiny, unimpeded by God’s commands and will.        

The focal point of Nimrod’s Empire was his great tower. The Tower of Babel was built to reach to the heavens. This tower, later restored around 600 B.C. by King Nebuchadnezzar, and seen by the Greek traveler and historian, Herodotus, was an astrological tower used in rites for the earliest forms of the occult. The tower and its associated activities were an affront to God and was a rallying point for some kind of conspiracy to undermine God’s influence in the affairs of Man. Astrology as an occult practice was conceived and given birth at Babel. Instead of the stars being recognized for their true purpose; to tell the Savior’s story, men were encouraged to use them to predict their own future, to tell their own story, and thumb their nose at God. The tower was like nothing ever before created by Man. Six hundred and fifty feet high, its eight stories were set on a base of dried brick a quarter of a mile square. That’s right, a quarter of a mile square. What can it be compared to in the modern world? Not even modern skyscrapers are a mile in circumference. Genesis chapter 11 says that God came down to look at the city and the tower and all that the men had built and he was greatly concerned. The people had come together in one cause, with one mind, deceived by false religion, intent on controlling their own fate. In their hearts they were rebelling against him. They were aspiring to be their own gods; secure, together, spiritual; all without the One True God. God’s concern is hinted at in verse 9, “And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” From this we can get only a partial sense of the terrible threat this conspiracy had on the well-being of Mankind and how it might undermine the work of true salvation. Man might even imagine that he could attain eternal life apart from God, believing he could steal life without being rid of sin and selfishness. God knew this would be the greatest of all tragedies: Man might find a kind of “life” without being freed from the bondage of self and sin. Man might think he could be saved without the intervention of God, without turning with his whole heart to the one and only Redeemer. 

If Man ever slipped into that delusion, what then? Who could be saved? Man and Creation would be doomed to a living Hell, cast from God’s presence forever. For that very reason, God had already barred Man access to the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden.

“And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever:
   Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
   So He drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubims, and flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” Genesis 3:22-24

Nimrod’s bogus religion headed by the deities of himself, his wife Semiramis and their savior child, Tammuz stayed alive even after God had busted up the conspiracy. This mystery religion centered around multiple triads which signified and institutionalized the deification of man. This religion immediately found its way to Egypt where it changed the names of the deities to suit their Nile habitat, but it remained essentially the same with revisions and refinements until it became the basis and foundation for the great mystery rites which have served as the basis for false religion to this very day. Many perversions of spiritual things and the mixing and mangling of God’s prophecies were peddled to the Antichrist Empire religion and eventually became the basis for all Greek mystery religions, as well as those that later invaded the Roman Empire from the East during the age of Imperialism. Once embedded in the Roman Empire it never left.

Deceived by False Religion, Man had swarmed together to make a life exclusive of his Maker. The hope of the empire was based on a unity in opposition to God. It would be the first of many such unholy coalitions decked out in the spirit of togetherness. In time to come the conspiracy to build a unified empire of the nations would become an obsession with Satan and his Antichrist. False Religion and political gospels masquerading as salvation would become more and more sophisticated as concepts of humanism were honed to a fine edge. But unity of flesh and corruption of spirit would always be the common thread woven throughout the empire’s sinister cloak of godly sounding words and pseudo-righteousness.

Be sure, unity on Man’s terms, always, always, opposes God. Yes, 50 million Frenchmen can be wrong. Men can be in harmony with other men, have a strong, mutually beneficial unity, and be altogether out of harmony with the Creator. So the question is: Why did God allow the formation of nations and the emergence of empires? Why didn’t he demand that Man live in pastoral surroundings under tribal and family society? Certainly it is in Man’s nature to swarm together, but one main reason for God allowing cities and nations is that he, in his unique way, would use the very tools of Man’s rebellion to keep him from uniting. While Satan intended nations and empires for rebellion, God, in typical fashion, decided to use nations and empires to keep Man isolated and divided from one another so the Tower of Babel on a worldwide scale would not be repeated – at least not until the end time, not until the final days when it will meet judgment’s requirements for Man to once again unite in foolish rebellion against his Maker. Nimrod made the first lunge to unite the world, and though God shattered it quickly, it was only the first in a long succession of attempts.

Again, this conspiracy to unite against God’s proclaimed plan (even though many times the perpetrators claim to be doing God’s will) is a recurring plot conjured up throughout history by the Antichrist Empire, no matter where it happens to be seated at a given point in history. Almost immediately after the people were scattered, other cultures headed by mighty men followed the lead of Nimrod. Great cultures began to jockey for position and the competition to become the greatest empire on earth began to heat up. The Hittites to the north, the Phoenicians in the center, and the Egyptians in the south, all developed into pompous influential kingdoms that dominated life in their region of the world. Egypt, a disciple of Babel, became very powerful, and along with Babel, they ruled their respective kingdoms in great majesty and authority. The Map shows these fledgling empires which paved the way for the beasts that would later rule the earth with even greater Antichrist-like ferocity and power.

But Map 2 not only portrays the “Spirit of Empire” it also ushers in the third and final one of the major characters of “The Redemption Play”: the “Chosen Nation”. Out of the line of Shem, from the land of Ham, God put out a call for a man named Abram. God beckoned this man to come from his home in Babylon and sojourn in the land of Canaan, to become “a stranger in a strange land”. Given only the promise that his seed would someday grow into a great nation and possess the Promised Land, Abram believed God (as Adam and Noah before him had believed) and Abram did what God asked him to do. Having faith to rely totally upon God, Abram did not ally himself with men, nor did he find his solace in the security of a walled city, or under the benevolent lordship of some king or pharaoh. Because Abram so trusted God, God changed his name to Abraham, meaning: father of a great multitude; and the odyssey of the “Chosen Nation”, and her dramatic conflict with the nations and the Antichrist “Spirit of Empire” in particular, was set in motion.