Introduction:
We often observe Israel's worship of Baal and Queen of Heaven. Elijah's sacrifice to God, and subsequent execution of the prophets of Baal, and then his fleeing for his life from Jezebel. We observe Judah's insistance in worshiping the Queen of Heaven in rebellion against God's Word to them through Jeremiah; even though exile to Babylon for that very thing had happened to most of Judah's population.

Furthermore, we make periodic observations that the catholic "Madonna and child", which they put forth to be "Mary and Jesus" is actually none other than the ancient Ishtar, and/or Isis and Horus.

What I say regularly in these things is from a generalized remembrance of reading bits and pieces here and there. The following comes from the "Israel My Glory" magazine, and is a succinct nutshell of this whole topic. Notice the claims and accolades given in ancient times to both Ishtar and Isis -before- Jesus was born in human form. And then, glean from your knowledge of the catholic church, the things they say regarding "Mary". In the magazine they had a photo of a statue of Aphrodite...looked -identical- to today's traditional statues of "mary".

And then, consider how today's ecumenism of the one-world religions is spoked out from Rome as its hub. God continually chided Israel regarding their lusting back to Egypt, and near the end, regarding the Queen of Heaven. Solomon's wives turned his heart away to various forms of the Queen of Heaven. And both Jeremiah and Revelation speak of "Babylon". We've even taken the fearful step of labeling the Babylon-tainted Scripture translation for what it is.

Regarding Babylon, the exhortation is given: "And I heard another voice from Heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, so that you not share in her sins, and so that you not receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to Heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her." (Rev18:4-6)

So, anyway....here's the little article.

God pronounced severe judgment on the people of Judah and Jerusalem because they worshiped "the queen of heaven" (Jer7:17-20; 44:15-19). Who or what was the queen of heaven, and how did the people of Israel get involved in worship of her?

As early as the twenty-fifth century B.C., people of Ur of the Chaldees in Sumeria worshiped a mother-goddess named Ishtar. Around the same time the Minoans of Crete had a mother-goddess portrayed with "her divine child Velchanos" in her arms. Later, the people of Cyprus revered a goddess who appears to have been patterned after the Sumerian Ishtar and later adopted by the Greeks as Aphrodite, or Astarte.

The Babylonians, who conquered Sumeria around the twenty-second century B.C., related their religious beliefs to the heavenly bodies. They regarded the planets as gods and goddesses and equated the planet Venus with the Sumerian mother-goddess Ishtar.

The Babylonians worshiped Ishtar as "The Virgin", "The Holy Virgin," "The Virgin Mother," "Goddess of Goddesses," and "Queen of Heaven and Earth." They exclaimed, "Ishtar is Great! Ishtar is Queen! My Lady is exalted, my Lady is Queen...There is none like unto her."

They called her "Shining light of heaven, light of the world, enlightener of all the places where men dwell, who gatherest together the hosts of the nations"; and they claimed, "Where thou glancest, the dead come to life, and the sick rise and walk; the mind of the diseased is healed when it looks upon thy face."

In Babylonian mythology Ishtar wore a crown and was related to Tammuz, who sometimes was portrayed as her son and other times as her lover.

It appears that the Sumerian-Babylonian Ishtar was the counterpart of the Egyptian Isis and the model for the Grecian Aphrodite, Roman Venus, Assyrian Nina, Phrygian and Roman Cybele, Phoenician Astarte, and Astarte of Syria. In essence they were the same mother-goddess.

The Egyptians called Isis "the Great Mother" and "the Mother of God." Isis worship spread to Italy by the second century and then throughout the entire Roman Empire. There the goddess was portrayed with her "divine child Horus" in her arms and widely acclaimed as "Queen of Heaven" and "Mother of God."

The people of Phoenicia worshiped Baal. Baalism included the worship of Molech with fiery sacrifices of children and the worship of Astarte, the Phoenician Ishtar Queen of Heaven.

When the Phoenician princess Jezebel became the wife of King Ahab of the northern Kingdom of Israel, she influenced him to fully establish Baal worship in his realm (1Ki16:29-33; 21:25-26) This move entangled the people of Israel in Queen-of-Heaven worship. As a result, God judged them with the Assyrian Captivity (2Ki17:5-7,16-18)

Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, became the wife of King Jehoram of the Kingdom of Judah. She influenced him to do what her father had done--fully establish Baal worship in his kingdom (2Ki8:16-18). Her son, Ahaziah, the next king of Judah, did the same (2Ki8:25-27), as did King Manasseh (2Ki21:1-6). These actions would have entangled the people of Judah in Queen-of-Heaven worship. Thus God judged them with the Babylonian Captivity (2Ki21;12-14)

by Renald E. Showers
"Israel My Glory" (magazine July/August,2004)(pg23)
Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry
www.foigm.org

Related topic: "Anti-Semitism, Catholicism and Passover?"