Ancient Astrological Motif on the Pope's Hat

The top frame presents an image that was produced on clay 1000s of years ago, produced when a stone cylinder having an intricately carved image was rolled over moist clay. The scene depicted is that of a devotee's audience with Ninurta, the Sumerian god of war and agriculture, whose counterpart as the god of agriculture was the god Saturn in Roman mythology. Take note of the figure of a 6-pointed star on the clay tablet; it was used as an astrological motif for identification of a depicted figure as divine, a god. The motif, as you can see, is found on the Pope's hat, too, along with jewels surrounding it for representing the stars of the Pleiades constellation -- the same motif as found on the Sumerian artifact. The star on the Pope's hat is formed by the interlacing of 2 triangles for production of the hexagram, the same as used for presentation of the Star of David, which comes into present-day Judaism as a revival from ancient astrological lore via the Kabbala, because it was also found earlier in Judaism apart from the later Kabbalistic literature, for it was found in the excavated ruins of a synagogue in Capernaum, built between the 2nd-5th centuries.

On Steeples, Ithyphallic Spires and Obelisks


Do steeples/ithyphallic spires and obelisks have an unclean origin? Consider the affirmative testimony of 3 scholarly sources that follows, as it relates to Christendom's Churches: 



No. 1. We read this in The Biblical Cyclopaedia, by McClintock and Strong: "Even the spires of churches are symbols retained from the old phallic worship" ("Phallus," vol. VIII, p. 55).


No. 2. Thomas Inman, in his book Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism, writes that ancient fertility rites and phallic worship resulted in the setting up of various architectural structures so that "we now see towers or spires before our churches, and minarets before mosques" (p. XXII).



No. 3. Edward Carpenter, in his book Pagan and Christian Creeds (Harcourt, Brace and Company: New York) 1920; p. 255, writes: “As to the lingam as representing the male organ, in some form or other—as upright stone or pillar or obelisk or slender round tower—it occurs all over the world, notably in Ireland, and forms such a memorial of the adoration paid by early folk to the great emblem and instrument of human fertility, as cannot be mistaken.“ 


Conclusion: The pagans used upright stones, (e.g., the lingam), pillars, obelisks, and slender towers as phallic symbols. Moreover, a little more reading of scholarly sources bears out that these fertility symbols, including the cross itself, came to be incorporated into Church architecture from Constantine the Great’s time. 


How does the God of the Bible view such paganish trappings? 



Exodus 23:24 states: “You must . . . smash their sacred pillars*.” 



Leviticus 26:1 states: “. . . you must not set up . . . a sacred pillar*.” 



Deuteronomy 12:3 states: “You should . . . shatter their sacred pillars*, burn their sacred poles# in the fire.” 



Deuteronomy 16:22 states: “Neither should you set up a sacred pillar* for yourself, something Jehovah your God hates.”



* “Sacred pillar” translates the Hebrew word matstsebah, a phallic image (usually made of stone) and used in Baal worship, the Canaanite god of fertility. 



# “Sacred pole” translates the Hebrew word ‘asherah, though the word is used also as the proper name of a Canaanite fertility goddess whose image was the “sacred pole,” a phallus, the (usually) wooden, stylized representation of a penis. 



So, the God of the Bible hated these fertility symbols/images, and forbade his covenant people the Israelites from erecting them in the land He had promised to Abraham’s offspring by Isaac. He forbade that anything emblematic of pagan worship (idolatry) should be mixed in with worship of Himself, although the Israelites very frequently violated that prohibition convinced they could do so with impunity, but nonetheless learned contrariwise, for they often suffered God’s punishing wrath. See how determined Jehovah was to bring punishment to the 10-tribe Kingdom of Israel for its erection of sacred poles: "Jehovah will strike Israel down like a reed that sways in the water, and he will uproot Israel off this good land that he gave to their forefathers, and he will scatter them beyond the River, because they made their sacred poles, offending Jehovah" (1 Kings 14:15). See also Jehovah's complaint that apostate Jews in the temple in Jerusalem offended Jehovah by, as Jehovah put it, their "thrusting out the branch [phallus] to my nose" (Ezekiel 8:17). Oh, they might have thought that, because they were in Jehovah's house, they were free to do according to their own ideas for sacred service to Jehovah, but Jehovah stated this: "So I will act in rage. My eyes will not feel sorry; nor will I feel compassion. Even though they cry out loudly in my ears, I will not hear them" (Ezekiel 8:18). 

We are in the last days of a wicked world of mankind alienated from God, and for sake of the preservation of pure worship of Himself by a great crowd of true Christians (see Revelation 7:9-17), our God Jehovah jealously guards against insinuation of idolatry into our midst. This means that the Churches of Protestantism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Roman Catholicism, inter alia, are exposed in these last days as their not being the owners of pure worship established by Jesus Christ, which worship will last “forever and ever” (Micah 4:5). 

There are very many examples that show us that those Churches are polluted with paganish trappings, beliefs, and practices. (N.B. Judaism is famous for its aniconism, though it, too, has adopted the Star of David that “was inherited from medieval Arabic literature by Kabbalists for use in talismanic protective amulets (segulot) where it was known as the Seal of Solomon among Muslims . . . and was also used in Christian churches as a decorative motif many centuries before its first known use in a Jewish synagogue” (see Wikipedia; see also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUPuH5_t_JM). But for sake of brevity and for focus on apostate, so-called Christianity, we are here rather narrowly focused on the sacred pillars (church steeples, ithyphallic spires) that are erected by those Churches named above, which “sacred pillars” God still hates. He hates the unclean origins so distinctive of churches' architecture.) 



May it be argued that God can accept those images because the Churches have repurposed them for, among other things, peculiar identification of Church buildings—that God can accept use of the images when they do not evoke paganish religious sentiment in the minds of professing Christians? No. After all, it is not merely that our own emotions and intentions be above reproach, but humility on our part is also required — humility here as our willingness to let God’s Word the Bible educate us as to how He feels about paganish trappings; He has told us that he finds them detestable. So, that He finds them detestable should cause us to conform humbly and meekly to His will, meaning that we should be happy that He has taught us in the Bible how we can make sure that we have quit touching whatever things He considers unclean (cf. 2 Corinthians 6:17). God has not given us license to “Christianize” paganish trappings.