THE EURO-GENTILE INFLUENCE IN THE FALSIFICATION OF

THE EURO-GENTILE INFLUENCE IN THE FALSIFICATION OF TRUTH!
By Pastor Ray Hagins
(Copyright 1999 The Lamplight Group, Inc.)

• The need for discernment! (Read Malachi 3:18).

“Discern” - the ability to understand the difference between truth and error.
“Discernment”- the ability to grasp and comprehend that which is obscure to the masses. Discernment is the power to see what is not evident to the so-called average mind.

• What was the major goal of the Euro-Gentile, Greco-Roman fabrication concerning God consciousness? Answer: White Supremacy and Cultural Imperialism!!!

• In order to understand the historical context involved here we must go back to the year 332 B.C.E. when Alexander “the Greek” invaded Egypt, Africa. (Read 1 Maccabees 1).

1 Maccabees 1:1-40
1 This history begins when Alexander the Great, son of Philip of Macedonia, marched from Macedonia and attacked Darius, king of Persia and Media. Alexander enlarged the Greek Empire by defeating Darius and seizing his throne. 2 He fought many battles, captured fortified cities, and put the kings of the region to death. 3 As he advanced to the ends of the earth, he plundered many nations; and when he had conquered the world, he became proud and arrogant. 4 By building up a strong army, he dominated whole nations and their rulers, and forced everyone to pay him taxes. 5 When Alexander had been emperor for twelve years, he fell ill and realized that he was about to die. He called together his generals, noblemen who had been brought up with him since his early childhood, and he divided his empire, giving a part to each of them. 8 After his death, the generals took control, 9 and each had himself crowned king of his own territory. The descendants of these kings ruled for many generations and brought a great deal of misery on the world. 10 The wicked ruler Antiochus Epiphanes, son of King Antiochus the Third of Syria, was a descendant of one of Alexander's generals. Antiochus Epiphanes had been a hostage in Rome before he became king of Syria in the year 137. 11 At that time there appeared in the land of Israel a group of traitorous Jews who had no regard for the Law and who had a bad influence on many of our people. They said, "Let's come to terms with the Gentiles, for our refusal to associate with them has brought us nothing but trouble." 12 This proposal appealed to many people, 13 and some of them became so enthusiastic about it that they went to the king and received from him permission to follow Gentile customs. 14 They built in Jerusalem a stadium like those in the Greek cities. 15 They had surgery performed to hide their circumcision, abandoned the holy covenant, started associating with Gentiles, and did all sorts of other evil things. 16 When Antiochus had firmly established himself as king, he decided to conquer Egypt and rule that country as well as Syria. 17 He invaded Egypt with a large fleet of ships and a powerful army, including chariots, elephants, and cavalry. 18 When the attack came, King Ptolemy of Egypt turned and fled, and many of his soldiers were killed. 19 Antiochus was able to capture the fortified cities of Egypt and plunder the whole land. 20 In the year 143, after the conquest of Egypt, Antiochus marched with a great army against the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem. 21 In his arrogance, he entered the Temple and took away the gold altar, the lampstand with all its equipment, 22 the table for the bread offered to the Lord, the cups and bowls, the gold fire pans, the curtain, and the crowns. He also stripped all the gold from the front of the Temple 23 and carried off the silver and gold and everything else of value, including all the treasures that he could find stored there. 24 Then he took it all to his own country. He had also murdered many people and boasted arrogantly about it. 25 There was great mourning everywhere in the land of Israel. 26 Rulers and leaders groaned in sorrow. Young men and young women grew weak. The beauty of our women faded. 27 Every bridegroom sang a funeral song, and every bride sat mourning in her room. 28 All our people were clothed with shame, and our land trembled for them. 29 Two years later Antiochus sent a large army from Mysia F4 against the towns of Judea. When the soldiers entered Jerusalem, 30 their commander spoke to the people, offering them terms of peace and completely deceiving them. Then he suddenly launched a fierce attack on the city, dealing it a major blow and killing many of the people. 31 He plundered the city, set it on fire, and tore down its buildings and walls. 32 He and his army took the women and children as prisoners and seized the cattle. 33 Then Antiochus and his forces built high walls and strong towers in the area north of the Temple, turning it into a fort. 34 They brought in a group of traitorous Jews and installed them there. 35 They also brought in arms and supplies and stored in the fort all the loot that they had taken in Jerusalem. This fort became a great threat to the city. 36 The fort was a threat to the Temple, a constant, evil menace for Israel. 37 Innocent people were murdered around the altar; the Holy Place was defiled by murderers. 38 The people of Jerusalem fled in fear, and the city became a colony of foreigners. Jerusalem was foreign to its own people, who had been forced to abandon the city. 39 Her Temple was as empty as a wilderness; her festivals were turned into days of mourning, her Sabbath joy into shame. Her honor became an object of ridicule. 40 Her shame was as great as her former glory, and her pride was turned into deepest mourning.

• The Greco-Roman influence devastated the Truth insomuch that God’s people were robbed of their knowledge of God and given an “anti-God” belief system. Under Alexander’s rule everyone was required to take Greek names, the Greek language, and Greek dress.

• The sacred names of the people of God were removed and replaced with pagan “Euro-Gentile” names. For example, see Hananiah, Azariah, & Mishael were renamed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego cf. Daniel 1:6-7. See 1 Maccabees 2:59.

• The Greeks (under Antiochus) forced and maintained “cultural imperialism” (see 1 Maccabees 1:41-50; 2 Maccabees 4:7-16; 6:1-10). This is Hellenism!!! Many Jews (for the sake of social comfort) adopted a foreign way of life and taught it to their children.

Maccabees 1:41-64
41 Antiochus now issued a decree that all nations in his empire should abandon their own customs and become one people. All the Gentiles and even many of the Israelites submitted to this decree. They adopted the official pagan religion, offered sacrifices to idols, and no longer observed the Sabbath. 44 The king also sent messengers with a decree to Jerusalem and all the towns of Judea, ordering the people to follow customs that were foreign to the country. 45 He ordered them not to offer burnt offerings, grain offerings, or wine offerings in the Temple, and commanded them to treat Sabbaths and festivals as ordinary work days. 46 They were even ordered to defile the Temple and the holy things in it. 47 They were commanded to build pagan altars, temples, and shrines, and to sacrifice pigs and other unclean animals there. 48 They were forbidden to circumcise their sons and were required to make themselves ritually unclean in every way they could, 49 so that they would forget the Law which the Lord had given through Moses and would disobey all its commands. 50 The penalty for disobeying the king's decree was death. 51 The king not only issued the same decree throughout his whole empire, but he also appointed officials to supervise the people and commanded each town in Judea to offer pagan sacrifices. 52 Many of the Jews were ready to forsake the Law and to obey these officials. They defiled the land with their evil, 53 and their conduct forced all true Israelites to hide wherever they could. 54 On the fifteenth day of the month of Kislev in the year 145, King Antiochus set up "The Awful Horror" on the altar of the Temple, and pagan altars were built in the towns throughout Judea. 55 Pagan sacrifices were offered in front of houses and in the streets. 56 Any books of the Law which were found were torn up and burned, 57 and anyone who was caught with a copy of the sacred books or who obeyed the Law was put to death by order of the king. 58 Month after month these wicked people used their power against the Israelites caught in the towns. 59 On the twenty-fifth of the month, these same evil people offered sacrifices on the pagan altar erected on top of the altar in the Temple. 60 Mothers who had allowed their babies to be circumcised were put to death in accordance with the king's decree. 61 Their babies were hung around their necks, and their families and those who had circumcised them were put to death. 62 But many people in Israel firmly resisted the king's decree and refused to eat food that was ritually unclean. 63 They preferred to die rather than break the holy covenant and eat unclean food—and many did die. 64 In his anger God made Israel suffer terribly.

2 Maccabees 4:7-16
7 Later, when King Seleucus died and Antiochus (known as Epiphanes) became king, Jason the brother of Onias became High Priest by corrupt means. 8 He went to see the king and offered him 27,000 pounds of silver with 6,000 more pounds to be paid later. 9 Jason also offered him an additional 11,250 pounds of silver for the authority to establish a stadium where young men could train and to enroll the people of Jerusalem as citizens of Antioch. 10 The king gave his approval, and just as soon as Jason took over the office of High Priest, he made the people of Jerusalem change to the Greek way of life. 11 He began by abolishing the favors that John had secured for the Jews from previous Syrian kings. (John was the father of the Eupolemus who later went to Rome to make an alliance and to establish ties of friendship.) Jason also did away with our Jewish customs and introduced new customs that were contrary to our Law. 12 With great enthusiasm he built a stadium near the Temple hill and led our finest young men to adopt the Greek custom of participating in athletic events. 13 Because of the unrivaled wickedness of Jason, that ungodly and illegitimate High Priest, the craze for the Greek way of life and for foreign customs reached such a point 14 that even the priests lost all interest in their sacred duties. They lost interest in the Temple services and neglected the sacrifices. Just as soon as the signal was given, they would rush off to take part in the games that were forbidden by our Law. 15 They did not care about anything their ancestors had valued; they prized only Greek honors. 16 And this turned out to be the source of all their troubles, for the very people whose ways they admired and whose customs they tried to imitate became their enemies and oppressed them.

2 Maccabees 6:1-10
1 Not long after that, the king sent an elderly Athenian F12 to force the Jews to abandon their religion and the customs of their ancestors. 2 He was also to defile their Temple by dedicating it to the Olympian god Zeus. F13 The temple on Mount Gerizim was to be officially named "Temple of Zeus the God of Hospitality," as the people who lived there had requested. 3 The oppression was harsh and almost intolerable. 4 Gentiles filled the Temple with drinking parties and all sorts of immorality. They even had intercourse with prostitutes there. Forbidden objects were brought into the Temple, 5 and the altar was covered with detestable sacrifices prohibited by our Law. 6 It was impossible to observe the Sabbath, to celebrate any of the traditional festivals, or even so much as to admit to being a Jew. 7 Each month when the king's birthday was celebrated, the Jews were compelled by brute force to eat the intestines of sacrificial animals. Then, during the festival in honor of the wine god Dionysus, they were required to wear ivy wreaths on their heads and march in procession. 8 On the advice of Ptolemy, F14 the neighboring Greek cities were also instructed to require Jews to eat the sacrifices; 9 they were told to put to death every Jew who refused to adopt the Greek way of life. It was easy to see that hard times were ahead. 10 For example, two women were arrested for having their babies circumcised. They were paraded around the city with their babies hung from their breasts; then they were thrown down from the city wall.

• This is the cultural/social environment that the Jewish revolutionary, Apollonius of Tyana, (whom we’ve been taught to call “Jesus” by the Roman Church) was born into. It is important to know that the name “Jesus” is a Greco-Roman fabrication.

• When the Teacher of Righteousness (the so-called Jesus) was born the law had already been abolished. His mission was to bring about a restoration of the truth and laws of God among his people and deliver them from the hypocritical religious leaders that held them in bondage (See Matthew 5:17-20).

• The Pharisees (re-interpreters of the law) and Sadducees (the upper-class, nobility) of Jerusalem had sold out to Hellenism. The Sadducees controlled the temple and were “friends” of the Hellenistic party for the sake of political influence and interests. They claimed to hold to the law but they operated within the guidelines of Greco-Roman cultural imperialism. The high priesthood was determined and appointed by the Sadducees.

• The methods for living that God gave to our fathers is what gave our people strength. But we were forcefully removed from (Maat) the ways of the ancients unto an evil culture and manner of worship (See Mark 7:5-9).

• Yeshua (Jesus) was a Hebrew and he resisted the Hellenistic way of life. People were beginning to listen to him and he became a threat to the “program of control” that the Greco-Roman authorities had set up through the Jewish religious leaders. Therefore, it was imperative that he should die! (See. John 11:47-53).