In Genesis 6:4, it is wri and also that, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bear children to them and they became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

                                    Now, some suppose that angels married women and produced children. We know that this is not possible because God tells us in the first chapter of Genesis in verse 25, and God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind.

                                    Every creature God made, was to reproduce itself after its own kind. The angels are made of spirit. Women are made of flesh. They are a completely and totally different kind. They are unable to reproduce together.

                                    Further Jesus tells us that the angels in heaven neither marry nor are given in marriage. They do not engage in sexual activity. They do not reproduce. These giants were simply mighty men or great men, as the last part of verse 4 in Genesis 6 explains.

                                     A good concordance will tell you the meaning of the word.  The word giants means just that, mighty men, great men. Men of renown or tyrants, authoritarian rulers. People who took to themselves authority over the masses.

                                    Now, we turn a little further over to Genesis 10. A little further in the history of man. And in verse 8 it says, And Cush begat Nimrod, and he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.

                                    Now, this term: before the lord,  is a little awkward here. It means to go before someone, to go ahead of them. Nimrod placed himself ahead of God. He wanted the people to follow him. He wanted to be a somebody, a great man. And he conspired to get people to follow him. And he established a kingdom as it says in verse 10, and the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

                                    Now, I want to come forward to this latter day and to talk about something which is going to tie in here. In the Worldwide Church of God in the 1970s, it became very common to talk about the government of God in the church, church authority as being a pyramidal type system.

                                    Over and over we were told God's government is a pyramid. With one man at the top and there are layers of ministry spreading out broader and broader until we come down to the bottom layer which was the masses of the church, the main membership of the church.

                                    Over and over we were told God's government is a pyramidal system, an authoritarian system. And  many of those Groups which trace their beginnings from the Worldwide Church of God,  still keep the same teaching; that God's government in the church, the way he wants things done in the church; is a pyramidal type of system.

                                    Where do they get this idea? Not from your bible. Search your bible from cover to cover, looking for the word pyramid. See if you can find it. This idea, this concept and the very word pyramid are not to be found anywhere. Yet pyramid is in the bible. It is hiding. It is well hidden behind another word.

                                    If we turn now back to Genesis and we go to chapter 11, where it says, and the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelled there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of.

                                    Now, this word tower is an intriguing word. Many people think of this as people deciding to build a tower so high that they could escape from any future flood. This is not quite the case. The word tower when we examine it and look up its original meaning in the original language refers to a pyramidal type structure. It refers to a pyramid and it is universally believed amongst students of the Scripture, that this was a ziggurat or pyramid of the Babylon type.

                                    This pyramid and the purpose for it are described in chapter 11:4. In the second half of the verse,; let us make a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the whole face of the earth. This pyramid was built primarily for the sake of having a focal point for the people to create unity. The pyramid was something that the people could look to and  say; look what we have and they'll have some unity.

                                    Now, this pyramid was built as a temple. It was to focus people on a system of religion. And that system was to be based upon the heavenly bodies. Today, we would call it astrology. These buildings, these pyramids were set up as observation platforms to observe the movements of the stars and planets. So, as to be able to predict physical phenomenon such as calendar events.

                                    A priesthood could be set up who could tell the people when to plant, when to harvest, when the rains were coming, when was the spring and the summer, winter and fall, when to observe various seasons and high days. And so, a religion was set up with a priesthood who kept the people depended upon them by concealing from the people the means of determining the calendar and the events that they should engage in, by the calendar.

                                    This was the first attempt by man, after the flood to set up a priesthood between man and God, to control the people. The same thing is true in our day. I have heard people say, I wouldn't be going to this church but I want to observe the high days and I wouldn't know when to do it. The people are kept ignorant of how to go about this, how to discern the signs of the times.

                                    God clearly revealed his calendar to Moses and it is clearly explained on our Web site ashininglight.info. Yet we are told however by leaders that we must subscribe to this calendar by the Jewish rabbinate, which even many Jews  admit is faulty.

                                    This is done to maintain the power of the ministry, the power of the priesthood. They need to control certain secrets, to keep us dependant on them. The beginning of this was at Babylon. The tower of Babylon was a pyramid, whose purpose was to inspire unity, to get people to focus on that building, instead of on other things and instead of on God, to get people dependent on the priesthood.

                                    The pyramid was an observation platform set up to use the signs of the heavens to rule people's lives. And a pyramid was also a temple. It was a temple of this priesthood; of this religion. And in order to get the people to accept these things, they had to have a god. Because people are driven to worship something greater than themselves. Everyone wants something greater than themselves and wants to worship or acknowledge that there is more to life than just this temporary existence.

                                    And the ones who do not acknowledge that and who focus on this temporary existence, they have a god too. And it's called their own lusts and their own passions which they seek to fulfill in this life now.

                                    People are driven to worship something. And Nimrod wanting to be a mighty man, a great tyrant, a leader, wanting the preeminence among the people set up a system whereby he would be in control. And he set up a religious system calling on people to worship the creation, rather than the creator.

                                    And he did this as all magicians do; with sleight of hand, with distraction. He focused the people on the physical more and more and more till they lose sight of the spiritual and became totally focused on the physical. This was a means of distraction.

                                    Just like magicians  in today’s shows will use the art of distraction to perform seeming miracles on the stage. What they are doing is something to distract you with one hand while they engage in secret manipulations with the other. We find this fascinating and exciting and interesting in a stage show.

                                    But religions and to a degree governments do this all the time. They focus people on certain things to distract them from other things. This is what pyramids are about. It's what the great cathedrals were about,  and it's what a certain auditorium in Pasadena was about. To focus people on the physical, to distract them from the spiritual errors which were taking place.

                                    And to get people thinking what a great people we are, what a great structure we have built. Look what we have built. As Nebuchadnezzar said, look what I had built for my might and my majesty, in the glory of my kingdom. And they set people's hearts on the physical things and distract them from the spiritual.

                                    So, this tower, this pyramid was a means of distracting people away from God. Focusing on the people and pointing out how great this man was so that no one would dare to think ill of him, no one would dare to rebel against him, no one would dare resist him.

                                    As the same thing, the exact same thing took place; time after time throughout history and in very recent history in the church with the building of an auditorium and the grand buildings of a college. Sapping the strength and the income of the church for these edifices, instead of using them to do the work of the church.

                                    Pyramids were devices designed to distract people away from this or that thing, away from errors, away from God, away from mistakes that were being made, away from abuses, away from false things that were happening, to distract them away from something and getting people to think how great we are and how great our leader is.

                                    Pyramids were a distraction. They were observation platforms. They were temples. And as temples are considered to be a house of God, these temples were also considered to be a house of God and later on history, when various kings declared themselves to be gods, that they were; god. Kings, especially in Egypt; they built themselves temples to bury themselves. Signifying to the people that even in death they were gods because they were laid in a temple, a pyramid. These people in those days knew what pyramids were. They knew that they were temples.

                                    Now, let's return to Genesis 11 starting in verse 5, and the Eternal came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men did build. And the Lord said, Behold, the people are 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. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So, the Eternal scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord there confounded  the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

                                    So, we see what God thought of the building of this tower, this pyramid. He didn't much like it. So, he confounded the people and confused them and scattered them away from there. And here is a secret to understand the confusion of paganism in the world.

                                    People who study these things, study the paganism of Greece, or Egypt, or Britain, or Rome, or this nation, or that people; and they are confounded by the similarities and yet the differences. The truth is that this religion started in Babylon with Nimrod. Nimrod is later killed by Shem. And this Nimrod was replaced by his son Tammuz, of whom I spoke earlier concerning the religion of sun worship and Constantine.

from different families; People from different families had;  in their new language,  the same religion; but now had a new name for their gods; a new name for their religion.

                                    So, the Greeks went to Greece and they called their sun god Jupiter, while the Romans called their Sun god Saturn and Egyptians called theirs Ra. So, it was the same being, the same god. The Phoenicians called him Baal or Lord. The same being, the same god, the same system with a different language.

                                    Now, over a period of time, hundreds and hundreds;  and maybe thousands of years, each culture developed  differently. And they added a few more gods and a few more religious traditions to their beliefs. But the heart and core of it, every religion is the worship of the sun.

                                    And the sun, to the highest initiates of that religion always represented Lucifer. Even today in modern Masonic teaching. We have a book written by Albert Pike called "Morals and Dogma". This is the bible of the Masonic  movement. And in this book, Albert Pike says; the masses of people need to be controlled and directed by the more intelligent people.

                                    People who are more intelligent are more godlike and need to control and direct the masses of people to productive purposes. Just like gunpowder burned in the open air accomplishes nothing, but when controlled can accomplish great things. And he said, Albert Pike said in his book, "Morals and Dogma", that all religions are acceptable in masonry because they acknowledge that all religions are really deep down in their heart the same thing and that masonry is the ultimate religion, the religion of Lucifer.

                                    Their god is Lucifer, the Light Bringer. And he is the heart of all religions of man on this earth. This is clearly written out by Albert Pike in his book "Morals and Dogma". Check in out at any good library.

                                    God divided the languages. God divided the people. God divided their religion. Is God the author of confusion? Yes he is. He's the author of confusion to his enemies. He is not the author of confusion amongst his own people. That is the difference. God confuses his enemies but he himself is not confused, not at all, not in the least.

                                    Now, when the languages were confused and the people spread abroad on the earth and they took with them their religion, they took with them their concept of pyramids. And you will find scattered all across the world, from the South America to Asia to Europe to Africa to North America, you will find pyramids. Some more famous than others, but pyramids everywhere.

                                    And they are all temples or burial places or observation platforms. And in many cases being temples, they were also platforms for sacrifice. And in many cases, human sacrifice. Perhaps the most famous, being the Aztecs of Mexico, who sacrificed thousands of human beings when they welcome the Spanish Conquistador as gods.

                                    They would place their victim on an altar, on top of this pyramid. And they would slash open their chest and reach in and grab the beating heart and rip it out from their screaming victims and hold a throbbing heart on high, offering it to the sun god. And this they did in honor of the new gods, fair-skinned gods coming from the east.

                                    This they did sacrificing thousands in welcome and they sacrificed many more thousands on their festivals and on various occasions throughout the year, in order to bring about a good harvest and propitiate their gods. Who demanded the blood of human victims. The same thing took place in Phoenicia or Palestine, when the Canaanites often threw their firstborn children into the fires, burning them alive in the name of their gods. These human sacrifices took place by the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions throughout history.

                                    And someone is trying to say that this pyramid, this observation platform of the heavens, this temple of a false satanic god, who demands the blood of his human victim, his human follower, somehow represents something godly? For shame that anyone should think that this abomination, this appalling symbol of incredible evil could possibly represent anything godly or good.

                                    It is written, Jesus Christ said, by their fruits you shall know them. What is the fruit of the pyramid? And what is the fruit of authoritarianism in religion? The fruit is abominable, terrible, gut-wrenching, heartbreaking wickedness. That is the fruit. For the love of power  truly corrupts and absolutely power corrupts absolutely. And no man has the ability and the strength to resist that corruption. No man should ever have absolute power.

                                    All power should be regulated by the word of God, by the law of God. That is the purpose of Scripture and the purpose of his commandments;  to prevent tyranny and to regulate the use of power. Power was given to man to fulfill responsibilities. The responsibility to care for the weak, the innocent, the downtrodden, and to prevent them from being downtrodden and abused. Power was given to prevent abuse. It was not given to entitle people to dominate others, but to prevent that kind of abusive domination. Power without responsibility is tyranny. And the responsibilities of power are defined by the power of God, by the law of God.

                                    If we now go to chapter 2 in the book of Revelation, we see that Jesus Christ in speaking for church at Ephesus commands them in verse 6 saying, but this thou hast, that thou hatest the works of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate.

                                    And again in speaking to the church of Pergamos, now in verse 15 he says, so, hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate.

                                    What is this doctrine? Nicolaitanes means a follower of Nicolas. And Nicolas means conquerors of the people, dominators of the people, tyrants over the people. This Jesus Christ said, was tolerated by the church of Pergamos and was not tolerated by the church of Ephesus.

                                    Jesus Christ says that he hates authoritarian power tripping, abusive tyrants in his church. He hates this. He hates it. Do you want to be hated by Jesus Christ? I tell you the people who espouse an authoritarian pyramidal style ruler ship in the church. With a man at the top and other layers of men dominating the masses of the people and controlling them,

anyone who espouses this, is  espousing something which is hated by Jesus Christ and therefore must be hated by his Father. This is an abomination to them. It is a stench in their nostrils.

I am finding that these talks on government are going on a little bit longer than what I anticipated and I'm still not finished. I would like to continue next time with a comparison of the Pharisees and the Laodiceans and how they treated people, how they sought to dominate others and make other people look up to them.

                                    And finally the last talk on the series will be about true godly authority, godly leadership. How God rules and treats his people, how he expects us to treat one another, how he expects us to rule the church and our families. Hoe He expects us to wisely exercise authority; in raising our children in the church, in our governments, in our church and in the government of the Kingdom of God.