The History of Judaism and its Modern Day Implications...

In order to fully understand what has been discussed in "the deception brought to light" series, which covered the book "The Rainbow Swastika", I feel it is also necessary to cover briefly the history of Judaism. It is of great consequence to our current way of life as Christians and how the ideas and thoughts which gave birth to our faith, evolved over time. It is for this reason, that I have exhaustively researched this and now divulge that information to you. It is also important to understand how all of this connects with the New Age's attempt to destroy the foundations of Orthodox Judaism and in turn the foundations of Christianity. It is alarmingly apparent, certainly considering Hannah Newman's research in the Rainbow Swastika, that the NAM is dramatically threatened by God and his chosen and will decieve and ultimately kill to destroy these foundations.

The Kabbalah is one such Jewish text that I have been researching, and in essense, is a work resulting from the infultration of mysticism into Orthodox Judaism and its ancient texts. Mysticism throughout history has encompassed many forms, through many cultures...teachings which, in colaboration with many other pagan rituals and practices, later culminate into beliefs such as pantheism (belief that we as individuals are god in and of ourselves),and ultimatley New Age Theosophy. It is this information that is critical when understanding that what is going
on now in our world has been going on in one form or another since the time of Nimrod and Babylon. Much of what the world was before the Great Flood... the practices at the time, in which were a complete abomination to God... certainly were the cause of it and is where every established ancient religion post-dating the Flood derived their mystic practices and beliefs... A knowledge which was passed down through the generations of man from the serpent's declaration to man that is stated in Genesis 3:1-6 ("1 Now the serpent was more subtil than
any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3But of the fruit of the tree which is in
the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and [YE SHALL BE AS GODS], knowing good and evil." )That is why I stress the importance of Matthew 24:37 ("But as the days of Noe (Noah) were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.") But, to understand what it was like in "the Days of Noah", I feel that a brief explaination of our Jewish brethren's history is needed.

As I will reveal in this series, an astounding history precedes the Jewish people. However, I will only be tracing back to the era of the 2nd temple which follows the events of the Old Testament. The occurances during the 1st temple era can of course be found there...

The Persian Era:

In 539 BCE, the Persians conquered Babylon. (The Jews of course were in exile in Babylon at the time and it was the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar that conquered the region previously and destroyed Solomon's Temple in 586 BCE. The Ark of the Covenant disappeared after the destruction of the 1st Temple and to this day it is a mystery as to its whereabouts.)

In 537 BCE, Cyrus the Great allowed the Jews to return to Judea and rebuild the Temple but did not allow the re-establishment of a Jewish monarchy such as one finds with King David or King Solomon. This left the preists as the dominant authority of the Jewish people. It was
around this time that the Sadduccee party emerged as the party of priests and the elites. Much debate occured however, over the legitimacy of the 2nd temple due to it being construted under the auspices of a foreign empire. This began to pave the way for separate ideologies and the development of different sects within the Jewish faith as we will see.Also established during this time out of the scribes and sages (later known as the Rabbi), who were considered the experts on Jewish law and its interpretations, was the party of the Pharisees.

The Hellenistic Era:

*It should be noted that it was during this era that the separation between the priests (Sadducee's) and the scribes and sages (Pharisee's) became much more apparent. The Pharisee's upheld the Oral Tradition of Judaism which was taught by word of mouth, passed down through the generations from the time of Moses. It is held that the Oral law was given to Moses at the same time that the Written law was given to him. The main difference being that the Sadducees did not revere the Oral Law and took the Torah very literal in translation. For Instance, as justification of "an eye for an eye" it would be translated by a Pharisee as something of relative value in retribution for the plucking out of someone's eye... where as a Sadducee would require that the assailant have one of his/her own eyes removed.

In 332 BCE, Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire. When he died in 323 BCE, the empire was divided amongst his generals. At the time, Judea was ruled by the Egyptian-Hellenic Ptolemies.

In 198 BCE, the Syrian-Hellenic Seleucid Empire, which was ruled by Antiocus III, seized control of Judea. Understand that during this time the region was very diverse. Several languages and beliefs existed in the area. These pagan influences worked their way into the Jewish faith and this is where alot of mysticism polluted Judaism. This type of Judaism is refered to as "Hellenistic Judaism". (Hellenization is the indoctrination of Greecian culture and religious beliefs). Some sects of Judaism were affected more than others, but all sects of Judaism were affected in some way during this period. There was a dividing line however, between those that supported hellenization of Judaism (those in favor of the Seleucids) and those that defied it (those who supported the Ptomelies).

In 175 BCE, the High Priest of the time Simon II died and conflict developed between the supporters of his son Onias III (who oposed Hellenization, and favored the Ptolemies) and his son Jason (who favored hellenization of Judaism and the Seleucids). The result of
which brought about a brief civil war. Huge numbers of the Jewish population flocked to Jason's side.

In 167 BCE, the Seleucid king Antiochus IV invaded Judea, desecrated the Temple and forcefully imposed hellenism, requiring Jews to abandon their laws and customs. In response, Mattathias and his 5 sons, a family of priests at the time, began a bloody revolt against the
Seleucid empire.

In 165 BCE, Jerusalem was liberated and the Temple was restored. Fighting continued however and two of Mattathias sons, Judah and Johnathan, were killed. It was also at this time that the Great Sanhedrin was established.The Sanhedrin was a court of 71 members that met on fixed occasions in the Temple of Jerusalem, acting as a religious legislative body, trial court, and administrator of rituals. Members included the High Priest and former High Priests; members of the priestly line; community elders and heads of tribes and families, all being knowledgeable and experienced in the Jewish Law.

In 141 BCE, an assembly of priest made Simon, one of Mattathia's sons, High Priest and leader.This was to begin what is known as the Hasmonean dynasty.

In 135 BCE, Simon was killed and his son John inherited the position.

By 152 BCE, the Seleucids had been defeated and a type of monarchy was once again formed under the Hasmonean dynasty.The gap between the Pharisees and Sadducees during the Hellenization period widened substantially. It was out of this period that the Essenes (the community responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls) evolved which consisted of dissident priests that rejected the ideologies of the other sects even claiming that the second temple was illegitimate due the fact that the Ark of the Covenant was not present. They believed that their community represented the new Temple and that their obedience to the law was a new type of sacrifice. Sometime During the Hasmonean period, a Pharisee suggested to the Hasmonean king at the time, Alexander Jannaeus, that he should choose between being king or High Priest. In response he openly sided with the Sadducees by adopting their rites. This caused a riot in the Temple and caused a brief civil war that repressed the Pharisees. On his deathbed, king Alexander called for reconcilliation between both parties. At his death, his wife, Salome Alexander succeeded him. Salome's brother Shimon was a leading Pharisee and during this time the Pharisees gained tremendous political power, especially in the Sanhedrin institution. When she died, her son Hyrcanus sought support from the Pharisees and the younger son, Aristobulus, sought support from the Sadducees. This conflict culminated into yet another civil war.

To be continued...