Introduction

Holy Scripture tells us there is nothing new under the sun, and Catholics would do well to ponder the wisdom of this passage:

“What is it that hath been? the same thing that shall be. What is it that hath been done? the same that shall be done. Nothing under the sun is new, neither is any man able to say: Behold this is new: for it hath already gone before in the ages that were before us. There is no remembrance of former things: nor indeed of those things which hereafter are to come, shall there be any remembrance with them that shall be in the latter end” (Ecclesiastes I: 9-11).

This is a stunning condemnation of “Progressivism” and a pointed reminder to us in these times that regardless of all the knowledge we think we have accumulated, we have not perceived the instruments of our own destruction being wielded against us, nor have we formulated any clear idea of the origin of such instruments or a truly workable plan to escape these evils that have plagued mankind from the beginning. That the very same blueprint for the seduction of God’s people goes back to the beginning of time would be an idea scoffed at even by those considering themselves spiritually minded and yet given the above, and the many warnings of Our Lord, His Vicars, the Saints and holy people, it cannot be denied. Of course all know that the devil roams the earth, seeking whom he may devour, but exactly what agents and means he employs and the cloaks these agents and their minions garb themselves in is largely unknown and unappreciated. What is even more frightening is that the destruction continues before our eyes and we cannot quite comprehend its source in order to marshal our defenses against it.

Ever since Lucifer fell from his place of honor in heaven, the demons at work among us have been busy trying to regain what their master lost. It is their sole mission on earth. What they cannot successfully destroy they set out to imitate in such a cunning way that the majority of men will be deceived and will take their diabolical fabrication for the genuine article. Their greatest asset in accomplishing this work is the lack of piety and ignorance of those they prey upon, making them unable to successfully connect the dots in order to detect their deceits. What follows below is an attempt to at least give a bare outline of their plan and to alert the faithful to Satan’s many triumphs in the 20^th century and today. This content first appeared in the book Imposter Popes and Idol Altars © 2004; revised 2007 by T. Stanfill-Benns; some text has been added to the original. This series will be presented in three parts for the next several weeks. It seems to be a necessary follow-up to the discussion regarding Antichrist, since many are not convinced that Paul 6 fulfilled that scriptural role. That is because so many fail to fully absorb the extent of the evil he perpetrated and its true source, explained below.

False Gods Spell Destruction

Ba-al proper was the storm god of heaven; his father’s name was El, or Al, the Phoenician nature god. Man’s Religion, by John B. Noss, defined El as a “superhuman being or divinity” used to address “major and minor divinities alike. It also was applied to demons,” or fallen angels. The Mason Pike falsely claimed that the el-al endings were used in the names of the archangels to commemorate the Al god, (the Gnostics name seven archangels, but the Church officially recognizes only Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.) In Muslim belief, Al refers to the three daughters of Allah — Al-Lat, Al-Manah and Al-Uzzah. The Catholic Bible Dictionary, by Rev. Bernard O’Reilly, ranked Baal as “identical to the sun” and synonymous with Bel. Other works identify the god with the symbol of a bull, and connect him to Bel, Belial, Baal-Zebub, Baal-Amun, Baal-Tsaphun, Baal-Peor, Moloch, the Persian Mithra and other gods. In Greek and Roman mythology, numerous gods can be linked to “parent” gods, primarily Baal, who also can be linked to Jupiter. In Scripture this is demonstrated by the use of the plural ‘baalim,’ referring to the multitude of gods Baal can represent.

In Canaan, where the cult first gained popularity, baals were farm gods unique to each region; the pagans believed these idols lent fertility to the land, their animals and themselves. The Bible confirms this, describing the unfaithful Israelites’ false belief that Baal, not the true God, gave them their “bread, water, wool, flax and drink,” (Osee 2:5). They worshipped these gods on hills, in groves of trees and ideally near bodies of water. In his Idol Worship of the World, Frank S. Dobbins explained that temples to Baal were referred to as high places, strongholds, “fortresses,” where the money left by the god’s devotees was worshipped along with the god. This can be referred to the prophet Daniel’s description of the priests of Bel and their coffers. Baal worship has the dubious distinction of being the first crude form of secular humanism — its devotees were said to kiss their own hands to worship their god, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia. This same article stated that anything and anyone could be worshipped as a Baal. In Semitic etymology the word Baal means “to possess sexually,” giving some idea of the depravity involved in the god’s cult. Scripture relates the self-abuse, self-mutilation and homosexuality that accompanied Moloch and Baal worship, reminding the Israelites of the punishments associated with these crimes.

Rev. Martin Scott, S.J., in his Credentials of Christianity related that the pagans in Christ’s time evidenced secular humanism in the worship of their idols, dating this heresy to pre-Christian times. “Paganism flattered man and gratified the passions,” Scott wrote. “Generations of self-indulgence, living only for self, for pleasure, for every gratification within reach had made man a god unto himself.” Scott credited the degradation occasioned by idolatry as the source of pagan cruelty to women and children, noting that children were “offered as victims to Baal…and many other idols like the frightful idol Moloch, who had a man’s body and a bull’s head.” Both Plato and Aristotle advocated laws to compel women past their prime to practice birth control in order to prevent the birth of defective children. Today the depravity of those times is considered an inalienable right!

The first reference to the actual worship of Baal is made in Leviticus 18:21, where he is referred to as Moloch, one of his many names: for as we shall see, they are legion. The first reference to Baal by name is found in Judges 3:7, where the Israelites are described as engaging in forbidden marriages with pagans and worshipping their gods, “Baalim and Ashteroth.” (Ashtereth, Asherah, Ashtorah, Ishtar, Astarte all refer to the goddess-mother of Baal, often symbolized by a tree trunk.) Another reference to Baal is found in 3 Kings 14:24, where King Solomon is chastised for offering worship to Moloch and Astarte, often identified with Anath, Baal’s wife. This infidelity God the Father attributes to Solomon’s intermarriage with pagan wives, who demanded their gods be worshipped after the same fashion as the true God was worshipped in Solomon’s Temple. Solomon’s sins, so grievous in the eyes of God, hastened his death. His son, Rehoboam, installed an Asherah in the Jerusalem Temple, despite the warnings given to his father. Later King Ahab and his infamous wife Jezebel established Baal and the tree-trunk symbol of Asherah in a temple in Samaria. For this sacrilege Elias the prophet confronted the king, inviting Baal’s priests to the contest on Mt. Carmel. Elias condemned and confounded the Baal priests, (3 Kings 18:30-40), ordering their death. In restoring the purity of worship in his day, King Josias destroyed all these same idols in Jerusalem, but their worship was later reintroduced after his death. Dobbins stated that idolatry continued in Israel until the time of Samuel.

Eager to win the souls of those Israelites not subjected to idol worship, the Devil first removed them from their own land to other nations. He then preyed upon their carnal appetites to make the daughters of their Gentile captors more appealing as wives than the limited choices available among those of their own faith. With wives who did not accept or understand the ways of Israel, the faith then became easy enough to water down. During the Babylonian Captivity, the Jews feasted on the democratic doctrines of Hellenism and reveled in the pleasure principal. Shortly thereafter, the sacrifice ceased during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. This Jewish version of the Antichrist was opposed by one family, that of Judas Machabeus. The descendants of this family waged many battles against Antiochus, eventually defeating him. But one battle was lost because certain soldiers had concealed miniature Baals beneath their cloaks. The cult of the stones was yet alive.

Rev. Bernard Kelly, in his work God, Man and Satan, acknowledged the relationship between Jewish mixed marriages and idolatry prior to Israel’s downfall. “The temptation to idolatry (and) impurity…were often linked by Satan in view of their common purpose, for he found in impure love a powerful incentive to the abandoning of the austere religion of the true God.” Before the death of the saintly little Fatima seer, Jacinta Marto, Our Lady revealed to her that more souls go to hell for sins of impurity than any other sin. Mixed marriage, licentiousness and the hatred of women promoted in advertising, pornography, birth control — all spelled the Church’s doom long before the fateful 1960s. Always Satan has known that the seduction of women guarantees the ruin of mankind. This may be why he approached Eve, not Adam. Paraphrasing Ven. Mary of Agreda, Kelly remarked: “The Old Testament is the story of Satan’s attempt to pervert the Chosen People that the woman and her seed would never come into existence.” Satan lives in daily fear of the Genesis promise that the Woman will crush his head. Forever inspired to a hatred of all women by this fear, he projects his hatred on those who might also bring forth Christ mystically — devout women raising God-fearing children. His plan, however, did not succeed with the Chosen People who accepted Christianity, and it will not succeed now. But Baal and Ashtorah are yet with us in ways we cannot fully comprehend.

The “evil and adulterous generation” we are forced to view each day was systematically paganized and perverted by Kabbalistic, Masonic propaganda for decades. We agonize over the death of innocence, not realizing that our philosophy and thinking, our community and family life are but reflections of an anti-God system still celebrating the rites of Moloch. As a goddess, Ashtorah may be relatively unknown. But in principal, she rules from more hearths today than at any time in the past. In reality, we as a society have been impenetrated by pagan beliefs to such an extent that we are blind to our own seduction, thanks to the film and music industry, television and the secular media. Our ignorance of the serpent’s perverse ways fulfills the words of Scripture, “For the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light,” (Luke 16:8). The Devil has succeeded in destroying belief in the Holy Trinity while establishing acceptance of an accursed false “quatrinity” fashioned after his own evil likeness, just as Wisdom prophesied. The Fathers taught that this denial of the Trinity would be the primary predicator of Antichrist’s reign. What has never, to our knowledge, been addressed before are the terrible blasphemies that would likewise be leveled against the Most Holy Mother of God, destined to crush the serpent’s head. St. John Eudes has revealed that because Our Lady’s own heartbeat for Her Son’s in the womb, the Heart of Jesus and the Heart of Mary constitute ONE Heart. How, then, can this cruel denial of the Trinity not affect Our Blessed Lord and His holy Mother profoundly?

To finalize their triumph, the neo-pagans must not only pervert and defile womanhood — they must destroy the model on which it was created. Our Lady’s demotion to one of the many “mother goddesses” must be revived and appreciated anew, that today’s moderns may be worshipped as their own gods and goddesses without feeling the slightest discomfort. A new paganism more virulent, even, than that known in Roman times plagues us today, and we must learn to identify the resurgence of this ancient heresy in our own environment. It is the “current of black paganism,” which Pope Pius XII defined as hedonism, immodesty, individualism and rationalism. Another author, Msgr. L. Cristiani, pointed out that this “black” paganism is really quite different than the type of paganism practiced by those living before the time of Christ. Then at least, pagans recognized powers superior to themselves and assumed an inferior position to these powers, preparing the way for acceptance of Christianity after a fashion. Although all idol worship is defined by St. Paul as the worship of demons, an opinion unanimously held by the early Fathers, Cristiani makes the distinction between those who worship Satan unknowingly, such as the early pagans, and those who worship themselves as possessing magical powers attributed to Satan. And making such fine distinctions and identifying these themes and patterns is crucial to understanding the neo-paganism that reigns triumphant in society today.

In his June 26 radio address to the people of Minneapolis, Minn. Pope Pius XII wrote: “Early explorers record in their relations their utter amazement at the mighty current that sweeps down the Mississippi River.  There is a stronger current of black paganism sweeping over peoples today, carrying along in its onward rush newspapers, magazines, moving pictures, breaking the barriers of self-respect and decency, undermining the foundations of Christian culture and education.” No less than the New York Times ran this headline on the front page that day, covering the Pope’s speech: “Pope Pius warns ‘black paganism’ is world menace; its flood engulfs newspapers, magazines, films, he tells eucharistic congress Christianity endangered [and] calls for self-sacrifice to combat evil.”

Earlier in Divini Redemptoris, 1937, Pope Pius XI taught: “At the same time the State must allow the Church full liberty to fulfill her divine and spiritual mission, and this in itself will be an effectual contribution to the rescue of nations from the dread torment of the present hour. Everywhere today there is an anxious appeal to moral and spiritual forces; and rightly so, for the evil we must combat is at its origin primarily an evil of the spiritual order. From this polluted source the monstrous emanations of the communistic system flow with satanic logic. Now, the Catholic Church is undoubtedly preeminent among the moral and religious forces of today. Therefore the very good of humanity demands that her work be allowed to proceed unhindered.

“Those who act otherwise, and at the same time fondly pretend to attain their objective with purely political or economic means, are in the grip of a dangerous error. When religion is banished from the school, from education and from public life, when the representatives of Christianity and its sacred rites are held up to ridicule, are we not really fostering the materialism which is the fertile soil of Communism.? Neither force, however well-organized it be, nor earthly ideals however lofty or noble, can control a movement whose roots lie in the excessive esteem for the goods of this world. With eyes lifted on high, our Faith sees the new heavens and the new earth described by Our first Predecessor, St. Peter. While the promises of the false prophets of this earth melt away in blood and tears, the great apocalyptic prophecy of the Redeemer shines forth in heavenly splendor: ‘Behold, I make all things new.‘ Venerable Brethren, nothing remains but to raise Our paternal hands to call down upon you, upon your clergy and people, upon the whole Catholic family, the Apostolic Benediction.”

God alone, not man, can truly make all things new. Next, we will examine how Baal worship was established in the very heart of what many believed to be the Catholic Church.