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Appendix 3: Inanna goddess of Transvestism, Transgenderism, Homosexuality 

Inanna, the seductive woman who rides the Beast, was also the goddess of transvestism, transgenderism and homosexuality. In the Akkadian hymn, “The Enheduanna”, the High Priestess of the Moon in the Sumerian city of Ur – From Passionate Inanna, ca 23rd Century BC., Ishtar is described as transforming men into women.^cclxxii It was said that this goddess could:  

“turn a man into a woman, and a woman into a man.” [These are your powers Inanna]. … one well known text of similar antiquity … describes a religious festival held in honor of Inanna. “The people of Sumer parade before you. … The male prostitutes comb their hair before you. … The women adorn their right side with men’s clothing. … The men adorn their left side with women’s clothing”^cclxxiii  

Imagine this scene: Semi-nude devotees dance in drunkenness around the canopied statue being carried down the street to the frenzied music of drums, cymbals and castanets. It is a festival day for the cult of the goddess. Effeminate men giggle and dance in ecstatic, awkward movements, hyperextending their limbs, but experiencing no pain or fatigue. The flamboyant carnival parades through town, out into the country. At the climax of the mad dancing, a man castrates himself in honor of the goddess as other men tear apart a small animal and feast on the banquet of raw flesh. In a grove of trees, the crowd reclines, but the feverish clip of the music continues with the addition of pipes and flutes. Women share phallic shaped bread to consume with the wine. Intoxicated with alcohol and rhythmic song, the women take on the identity of the goddess. The merger of sexuality and spirituality allows the energy of desire to break down inhibitions and unify the group in 

exual pulsations of passion. Homosexuality and lesbianism are divine deeds; Breaking gender constraints is a religious rite. The bloody, wine-soaked debauchery ensues with abandon to fill every indulgence. The orgy incites lust and unbridled passions for homosexuality, bestiality, and bloodletting as a gift from the goddess. As the crowd reaches exhaustion, the priests and priestesses refill the wine and lead in lifting a glass to the goddess and chanting in unison. The ordained then begin to reveal to the crowd the secrets of the Mysteries.  

This scene of a mystery cult could have taken place in many ancient places such as Rome, Greece, Egypt or Canaan. Some of these rites took place when Israel bowed to the golden calf. Adherents to the mystery schools performed these rituals as agrarian magic for fertility, to seek enlightenment and power, or perhaps with a goal to ascend beyond being human. Mystery Babylon is a thread entwined through the warp and woof of our history, and it entangles us still today. Modern demands to accept changes in sexual-orientation and gender are rooted in ancient religion—the same religion that Abraham confronted, and that Paul exposed in his travels. It seems hard to deny that our society is worshipping Inanna, the woman that rides the Beast, because the entire world is drunk on her perversions and fornications. DDDB notes the paradoxical qualities of Inanna which lead to strife:  

It has been suggested that the goddess is the embodiment of qualities or lifestyles that seem contradictory and paradoxical and call into question the categories or values of the society and thus confirm their existence; an embodiment, that is. Of figures who are marginal (e.g. a prostitute), bi-sexual, or anomalous (e.g. a woman of the respectable upper class who, however, is powerful, free and undomesticated). Alternatively, it has been suggested that she is the embodiment of strife.^cclxxiv (See Appendix 4 Easter). 

TRANSGENDERISM TODAY 

Inanna’s influence has clearly manifested today through the transgender movement. Today we have people who are born men that want to be women and vice versa. Because this is a sensitive and personal topic, I want to state I am not against transgender people. I desire to show the love of Jesus to people identifying as transgender. Sadly, there is a fundamental misunderstanding on their part, and our society has sown a lot of confusion on this issue. In reality, the person claiming to be transgender is more than likely a victim, not the perpetrator.  

Militant pushing of the transgender agenda and normalizing the absurd is the problem. It is likely one of the steppingstones that will lead humanity to accept the Mark of the Beast and worship the image of the Beast, which we will explore in detail in the next book. Transgenderism, at its core, is a rejection of God’s rightful rule and a rejection of His image; It’s a blatant declaration that we do not want to be in God’s image, but in the image of our own making. 

We reason that since we have evolved to this point, why not take charge of our future evolution? If there’s no God, as posited by Darwin and Nietzsche, and we are the product of evolution, (from the goo to the zoo to you), then we are free to direct our own evolution. If we can choose all aspects of who we will be, then we can decide our own gender. The UK Telegraph recently reported that Facebook has seventy-one gender options available^cclxxv for you to choose what you want to be. You can choose to be human or to change from being male to be female, or you can identify as an animal, a house pet, a doll or even a demon. It’s up to you.  

While modern humanism touts that you can be anything, you must remember that God created you to bear His image, which is the most awesome image that you could achieve. Inherently, you project God’s dignity and power. All alterations result in an inferior persona. God made only two genders: male and female. Each man and woman is made in the image of God. Mankind’s enemy, Satan, is the one who has wanted to mar that image—the one obsessed with corrupting the image. His evil forces drive people to hate their own image and to mutilate their bodies. God’s perfect plan involves only two sexes, a binary construct—A or B, which is assigned by the Creator and is so much easier: male or female.  

Dr. Paul R. McHugh, the former psychiatrist-in-chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital, says transgenderism is a “mental disorder” that merits treatment, and that a sex change is “biologically impossible.” He states: 

“This intensely felt sense of being transgendered constitutes a mental disorder in two respects. The first is that the idea of sex misalignment is simply mistaken – it does not correspond with physical reality. The second is that it can lead to grim psychological outcomes … The transgendered person’s disorder is in the person’s “assumption” that they are different than the physical reality of their body, their maleness or femaleness, as assigned by nature. It is a disorder similar to a “dangerously thin” person suffering anorexia who looks in the mirror and thinks they are “overweight.” This assumption, that one’s gender is only in the mind regardless of anatomical reality, has led some transgendered people to push for social acceptance and affirmation of their own subjective “personal truth.” 

Dr. McHugh points out that:  

Studies show between 70% and 80% of children who express transgender feelings “spontaneously lose those feelings” over time. Also, for those who had sexual reassignment surgery, most said they were “satisfied” with the operation “but their subsequent psycho-social adjustments were no better than those who didn’t have the surgery.” 

Because of these studies, McHugh reported: “At Hopkins we stopped doing sex-reassignment surgery, since producing a ‘satisfied’ but still troubled patient seemed an inadequate reason for surgically amputating normal organs.”  

Performing a surgery can change the plumbing in part of the body, but it does not change a man into a woman. Inside of our DNA, in our genes, we have either an XY chromosome, which means male, or we have an XX chromosome, meaning female. Amputating body parts does not change a person’s genes. It is biologically impossible to change your gender since it exists on a genetic level. You may change what you look like on the outside, but you cannot change who you truly are. However, the cult of Inanna has taken deep root in our society and there are misguided doctors who are pushing it, even to the point of giving children “puberty-delaying hormones to render later sex-change surgeries less onerous—even though the drugs stunt the children’s growth and carry a risk of sterility.” Dr. McHugh likens such action to being “close to child abuse,” noting that nearly 80% of those children will “abandon their confusion and grow naturally into adult life if untreated.” Dr. McHugh went on the record to say:  

“‘Sex change’ is biologically impossible. People who undergo sex-reassignment surgery do not change from men to women or vice versa. Rather, they become feminized men or masculinized women. Claiming that this is a civil-rights matter and encouraging surgical intervention is in reality to collaborate with and promote a mental disorder.”^cclxxvi 

Thus, we have well credentialed specialists stating the fixation and desire for a sex change is a mental disorder. We know its origin and that the idea of a sex change is nothing new; it is a perversion that goes back to Inanna. This goddess, Mystery Babylon, was said to have such legendary powers that she could do a sex reassignment. However, it was impossible back then, and it remains impossible today. 

People are free to choose to follow Inanna, but it will lead to suffering. If a person continues down that path, there are severe consequences. “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting” (Rom 1:28). God allows us to choose evil if we want it. He has laid before us life and death. He wants us to choose life because He knows the consequences of our choice. God created man; male and female He created them. He created us equal. Men are not better than women; Women are not inferior to men. We simply have different roles. God gave the man a role; He gave the woman a role. Neither is better than the other. They’re both equal, but they’re distinct roles. I say let’s embrace our roles. If you’re a man, be a man. Be the leader. Be courageous. God has given you testosterone for a reason. Stand up and have a backbone—Have an opinion. Be strong, but don’t browbeat the woman. Don’t be a jerk. If you are a woman, be a woman. Enjoy the role. If the man is the head, then the woman is the neck which turns the head. We should all embrace the gender that God has given and not rebel and reject His ways. 

For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices (Ps 1:29–31 KJV). 

Many people are seeking their own way, and they may have to eat the fruit of their decision. Gender transformation, one of the “powers” of Inanna, is prepping mankind for the Mark of the Beast. Gender confusion makes us question the most basic assumptions about who each of us is at the core: male or female. To arrogantly remake yourself into an image of your choosing is 100% antithetical to God’s design when He created man, male and female. As a society, if we have agreed that gender is an option which can be changed, then the next logical extension is for people to change themselves genetically, and then perhaps our very humanity is up for grabs.  

Appendix 2: Angels Created with Freewill

God created His ministers of fire with the ability to choose, a quality which we humans share, as well. This quality is what will allow Satan, the Beast and the False Prophet to wage war against God. In order for us to appreciate the ability to choose contrary to the desire of our Creator, we need to go back before anything was, before the blackness of space, when there was only the Most High who existed within and as His own dimension.  

Imagining God in and of Himself is a challenging mental exercise, for we should not imagine God was floating around in the darkness of space in eternity past, (which I used to imagine as a boy). Neither space nor darkness had yet been invented! We cannot speak of where God existed, as “where” had not yet been created. God does not exist in a place nor in a dimension. There is no space, dimension or reality outside of who God intrinsically is. This hurts our heads a bit, but it necessarily must be true since to suggest otherwise would mean that something existed apart from Him creating it, and Scripture is replete with verses saying that all things have been created by Him.  

According to the study of higher dimensions, the tenth dimension is both timeless and space-less.^cclxvi It is pure information. Such a mathematical description of reality closely parallels biblical theology. God is both timeless and space-less. He is the mind from which all matter emanates. Mathematically, He is the tenth dimension from which all others proceed. Interestingly, the Big Bang theory has come to a similar conclusion—all matter, including space itself, was tightly packed in a dot smaller than a period on this page. Some have postulated that the dot was not actually there. Nevertheless, if all matter AND space itself was within the dot, where was the dot? The answer is hyperspace: a dimension beyond our own. 

The best minds of quantum physics over the last one hundred years have concluded that behind the matter of the universe is a mind. Max Planck, often considered the father of quantum physics, stated matter comes from a Mind: 

As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear-headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.^cclxvii 

Einstein’s famous equation, E=MC² essentially states that energy and mass (matter) are interchangeable; they are simply alternate forms of the same thing and under the right conditions, mass can become energy, and energy can become mass.^cclxviii Indeed, Einstein stated there is no matter: Concerning matter, we have been all wrong. What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. There is no matter.^cclxix 

Thus, before Creation there was no differentiation (outside of God Himself and His indescribable tri-unity). On that first day, God created things that were not. The first day was the beginning of differentiations. He created a space outside of Himself; He created darkness which had never been (Isa 45:7), for God is light and there is no darkness in Him whatsoever (I John 1:5). Thus, the absence of His glorious light in the newly created void was new and different. For the first time ever, there was darkness. God revealed this to the prophet Isaiah: 

I form the light, and create (בֹורֵ֣א) darkness: I make peace, and create (בֹורֵ֣א) evil (ra’ רָ֑ע): I the LORD do all these things (Isaiah 45:7 KJV). 

Until that moment, darkness (the absence of light) did not exist. Therefore, before day one (or Genesis 1:1–3) when He created the void, which is space, it initially was devoid of God’s light and did not even have photons. Until God conceived of the absence of light, there was no such thing as darkness; it was His idea. When God decided to create a space / dimension outside of Himself, which was not automatically filled with His light, He then by necessity, created the potential of the absence of light which God called darkness. God then created physical light, photons as waves and / or particles, in order to fill the space. 

In the same way, God is good (Exodus 34:6), and no evil or sin or imperfection is in Him. We might say that God has the corner on the market when it comes to good. Good, according to the Bible is defined as what is in accord with God’s will, desire or plan. Therefore, any deviation from that is by definition not good and is therefore “evil”. Thus, when God desired to give the angels, including Satan, and man the option to follow Him or to disobey, He must have by default, created the potential for them to completely exercise their own will by not choosing the good (that is God’s will, desire or plan). It is self-evident that no one can choose that which does not exist. Henry Ford once said that people could choose any color Model T, so long as it was black. It is also similar to the infamous communist regimes where the people are allowed to vote, but there is only one candidate. In reality, having only one candidate (or one color to choose from) is no choice at all.  

WHAT IS EVIL? 

Isaiah 45 states that God is in fact the very One who created evil: “I form the light, and create (בֹורֵ֣א) darkness: I make peace, and create (בֹורֵ֣א boreh) evil (רָ֑ע ra’): I the LORD do all these things” (Isaiah 45:7 KJV). 

Some translations render the word evil (ra רָ֔ע)^cclxx as “calamity”, which is an option in the context of Isaiah 45:7. Nevertheless, the word is the same in which we are first introduced in Genesis 2:17, where God commands man to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (ra רָ֔ע). 

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (ra רָ֔ע) you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen 2:16–17). 

God is also the essence of all that is good. Following God involves doing what is right and good. Thus, if Adam could only choose from all the “good” things that God had made, then there really was not free choice at all. That, in a nutshell, is why God created the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; there had to be a way for Adam to exercise his own will independently, even if it meant it would be contrary to God’s will.  

God defines evil in Isaiah saying they “did evil before My eyes, And chose that in which I do not delight” (Isaiah 65:12; 66:4). This gives us an amazingly simple definition of evil: “doing something in which God does not take pleasure.” God, the master programmer, had to code into this reality the potential to choose contrary to His wishes. He had to create the potential for His creatures to exercise their own will and choose something in which He does not delight. Just as there was no darkness until He made it possible, so too was it impossible to choose something besides His desire.  

The creation of evil^cclxxi is what made choosing contrary to His wishes possible, and it is what makes choosing to follow, obey and love Him meaningful. For God’s creatures to genuinely love Him, the option to reject Him had to be available. Satan, the angels, Adam and Eve—all had to have the opportunity to choose against His will to be able to truly choose Him and hence

have true love for Him. Therefore, it is true that God created evil; yet, He never caused any one to choose evil. Giving individuals the choice between two real and viable options is not the same as making us choose the bad option.  

The creation of evil is analogous to a large rock on a cliff. The rock has potential energy; a tiny nudge will turn the potential energy into kinetic energy. The rock’s potential energy need never be triggered, or made kinetic; so too, mankind’s choosing contrary to God’s desire need not have been actualized. God, in a sense, told Adam not to push the rock and warned him of the consequences if he did, but Adam, of his own free will, pushed it and suffered the consequence when the rock’s energy became kinetic and killed him.  

God created two options: one in accordance with His desires, which leads to life; and, one contrary to His wishes, which leads to death. Angels and humans have the ability to determine their paths. Satan chose the path contrary to God’s wishes.  

Appendix 1: Fallen Angels and Demons 

Unclean and evil spirits, demons and fallen angels are in reality all the same kind of being. The term “fallen angel” does not exist in the Bible; it’s a term that we use to make a distinction between God’s holy and good angels and those rebellious angels that serve Satan.^ccliv Angel just means “messenger”. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament explains the meaning of “demon”: 

daímōn as a term for gods and divine powers. Various senses may be noted in this field: a. “god,” b. “lesser deity,” c. “unknown superhuman factor,” d. “what overtakes us,” e.g., death, or good or evil fortune, e. “protective deity.”^cclv 

We have accounts of good angels, and we also see references to bad angels as evidenced in Revelation: “Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought” (Rev 12:7). We refer to Satan’s angels as fallen angels.  

Throughout the Bible and ancient literature, we see that fallen angels are demons who masqueraded as gods in order to communicate with and control humans. When Paul interacted with “certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers … some said … ‘He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods [δαιμονιων daimonion],’ because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection” (Acts 17:18). The philosophers thought Paul was speaking to them about other gods similar to Zeus or Apollo, yet the Greek word here for “gods” is daimonion—demons. 

Moses used very similar language in his farewell address:  

They sacrificed to demons, not to God, To gods they did not know (Deut 32:17). They served their idols, Which became a snare to them. They even sacrificed their sons And their daughters to demons [lasheddim לַשֵּֽׁדִים – tois daimonios τοις δαιμονιοις] (Ps 106:36–37). 

BDAG explains how demon (δαιμον) “refers in general to powerful entities … After Homer’s time, the adjective, δαιμόνιος means anything ‘sent from heaven’ or ‘that which is divine’.”^cclvi Based on the literature, demons could be good or bad. Philo in his writings On the Giants says: 

And when the angels of God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful, they took unto themselves wives of all of them whom they chose. Those beings, whom other philosophers call demons, Moses usually calls angels (Emphasis mine).^cclvii 

According to Philo, demons and angels are really one and the same. When we talk about angels, demons and the so-called gods, we are talking about the same kind of entities. The Bridgeway Dictionary confirms “rebellious, or fallen angels are variously known as demons, evil spirits, spiritual hosts of wickedness, principalities, powers, rulers, authorities, evil spiritual forces, cosmic powers of evil, and angels of the devil.”^cclviii These are all part of the general class of messenger (angels) that God spoke into existence, according to Psalm 148:2, 5.  

The etymology of the word demon “likely stems from the root δαιω,’to divide (destinies)’. Thus, the word could designate one’s ‘fate’ or ‘destiny’, or the spirit controlling one’s fate.” ^cclix This completely concurs with Enlil who was said to be “the one that decides the fate,”^cclx and was the holder of the Tablet of Destinies. In Psalm 95:5, the Septuagint interprets elilim (idols, and related to Enlil) as demons:  

The national deities of other peoples, said to be idols ‘elilim’ in Hebrew, become “demons” (“All the gods of the nations are demons”); in LXX Deut 32: 17, the foreign divinities whom Israel worshipped, properly described in the Hebrew text as šedim (tutelary spirit) are again called “demons” (”They sacrificed to demons and not to God”; cf. LXX Ps 105:37; Bar. 4:7).^cclxi 

We recall that elilim is related to the Akkadian word, Illil, and Sumerian Enlil, Lord Wind. Thus, Scripture is telling us that idols are plural “Enlils”, and we know Enlil is Satan, who is a fallen angel. The Theological Workbook of the Old Testament explains that the “Hebrew shēd is to be connected with the Babylonian word shêdu, a demon either good or evil. In pagan religions the line between gods and demons is not a constant one.”^cclxii This now explains why we see demons referred to in the New Testament as “unclean spirits” to distinguish between the angels who “kept their first estate” and those who rebelled.  

We see the use of sheddim as gods where God told Elijah to chastise the king of Samaria when he sought out the aid of “Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron” (2 Kgs 1:3) who, incidentally, was known as a Rephaim. “Baal Zebub … 2 Kgs 1 is the healing deity … “Prince, lord of the underworld” in Ugaritic texts (zbl b‘l arș) refers to Baal as a chthonic healer god”^cclxiii This same (false) god Beelzebub is specifically called “the ruler of the demons” (Matt 12:24). Jesus identifies him as none other than Satan (Matt 12:26).  

In LXX Isa 65: II daimon renders the Hebrew name of the pagan god of Fortune (- Gad), where the Israelites are said to have been “preparing a table for the demon”. This conception of table fellowship with pagan gods who are in reality demons carries over into the New Testament: Paul warns the Corinthian Church that they may not eat sacrificial meals in pagan temples, for “that which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons”, meaning, for Corinth, the Greek gods Asclepios, Sarapis, and especially Demeter. ^cclxiv 

There is, therefore, no distinction between fallen angels, demons and unclean spirits. They are simply different titles which describe the same general class of being. We of course acknowledge that there are subclasses of beings within this general category, such as cherubim.  

Furthermore, any supposed distinction between fallen angels and demons, such as the claim that they are the spirits of the deceased Nephilim, is not supported by the biblical, linguistic and ancient textual evidence. If an entire race of beings had been born utterly wicked, through no fault or choice of their own, then they would necessarily be consigned to eternal damnation simply for being born.^cclxv However, God has created all of his sentient beings with free-will and self-determination (See Appendix 2 Angels Freewill).  

Chapter 21 of Corrupting the Image vol 2: No Other Way [Part-2]

WORTHY IS THE LAMB! 

Due to Jesus’ heroic act, the heavenly scene changed for John who had been watching. The camera pans back and we see the millions and millions in heaven rejoicing and praising the lamb.  

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!” And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: “Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!” Then the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever (Rev 5:11–14). 

Jesus did it. He took the hard road and paid the full price to redeem us and destroy death and the works of Enlil, Satan the slanderer. Now it is only right that those in heaven and Earth should praise Him and serve Him. We should give all our affection to Him, and we should give our commitment and our loyalty and fidelity to Him, and to Him alone, because no one else has done, or could do, what He has done.  

He laid down His life and let Himself be put to death on a cross. Nails were put through His hands and feet, and He died on a cross. And then He conquered death, and that was just the beginning of the end for Satan. As we see in the rest of the Book of Revelation, Satan is not going down for good without a fight. He is going to do his best to try to thwart the ultimate redemption of planet Earth. Satan will work extremely hard at it; I guarantee you that. He is not going to say, oh well I have lost, so I will just kind of retreat and go down in flames. No, he is still going to try to win.  

Without His sacrifice, Jesus would not be worthy to take the scroll and open its seals. The scroll, I believe, is a bit of a mixture of the title deed to Planet Earth and also a Ketubah, marriage contract, because a marriage is ultimately going to come as one of the many facets of our redemption. The redemption Jesus offers is all-encompassing, just as Boaz was not only redeeming the land, but was also serving as the kinsman-redeemer and taking the bride. Jesus is redeeming the planet, but is also redeeming the bride, and all of this is made possible by His sacrifice. All heaven and Earth say, “Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.” They said, “There is no one like our God. There is none like our King!” 

Through His death, Jesus defeated the dreadful snake-dragon, for:  

Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage (Heb 2:14–15). 

Jesus said to John at the beginning of his visions:  

“Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death (Rev 1:17–18).  

Milestone Marker 3 and Beyond 

Figure 64 Roman Milestone on the Road of the Patriarchs between Jerusalem and Hebron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons. 

We journeyed through the ancient world, retraced Satan’s steps and discovered his diabolic plan for world domination. Convinced he could be like God, Satan began by refusing to be a servant—the one thing that he needed to do to truly be like God, and he proved himself an unfaithful steward. He flat out staged a coup by swindling Adam and Eve of the dominion God gave them. By usurping the authority over the world, Satan secured what he needed to keep God at bay and himself on the throne. 

As mankind faced the resulting decay and death, God then gave a ray of hope that He would send the Promised One who would crush Satan’s head.  

Throughout our study, we have seen how God has revealed Satan’s top-secret battle plans and strategies. God, the great King, has laid bare Satan’s secret machinations for world domination, both in the past and the future.  

Restricted behind the veil, Satan then sent angels to Mt. Hermon to mate with women and create Nephilim bodysuits for them to inhabit. After that dream went down the drain, Satan gave his DNA to create a rebel hybrid who would open a stargate for human-demonic communication. Though God thwarted the plan by confusing the languages, nevertheless the Rebel became the hero of legends, literature and movies for the past five thousand years—the one who the Bible predicts will return in the last days. He was also responsible for the incursion of Nephilim in Canaan that resulted in the land being overrun with hybrids and idolatry when the children of Israel left Egypt and first saw the Promised Land. Though God went before them and destroyed the giants, Satan’s Trojan Horse, the woman who rides the Beast—known as Mystery Babylon—found its way into their hearts. Israel, through Balaam’s influence, cursed themselves. Mystery Babylon remained in Israel until God divorced the northern kingdom of Israel and sent her away. The land of Bashan with its peak, Mt. Hermon, reigned again and cast a shadow of death on the Galilee region.  

The darkness was interrupted abruptly when God’s long awaited and promised champion arrived and declared that the Gates of Hades and their host would not prevail and irreversibly enslave the world. Jesus came not to be served, as the dragon had demanded; rather, He came as a servant. Satan believed he could destroy his would-be-head-crusher by nailing Him to the cross, only to discover that he had helped Jesus reclaim dominion over the Earth. Jesus retook the Keys of Hades and Death and the title deed of planet Earth which Adam had lost; He took it not through military might, but through His sacrifice.  

Nevertheless, Satan did not quit after his defeat. He once again has used the woman that rides the Beast to cause God’s people to forsake their heavenly birthright in exchange for his kingdom of death. Just as Israel followed him and found themselves living in the shadowland of death, so too Christ-followers forfeit their birthright. In the seven letters to the churches, Jesus rebukes His people for following Jezebel (the very woman that brought Mystery Babylon into Israel), and He rebukes them for following the doctrines of Balaam who made Israel sin at Ba’al Peor. (See Rev 2: 14, 20). Thus, God calls, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins and … receive of her plagues” (Rev 18:4) (See Appendices 3 (Inanna) and 6 (Abominations of Babylon)).   

That falling away is what Paul predicted: “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away [αποστασια] comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition” (2 Thess 2:3). The falling away refers to people who hold to a religious position, and then desert it. That is, Christians who fall away from the true faith into the ways of Babylon. The apostasy occurs when men love the darkness rather than the light. Jesus says, “This, then, is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).  

When the world is ready, “the beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition” (Rev 17:8). Satan will then raise up his dying and rising god. He will bring back his hero, the Rebel, Lord of the Earth, king of the city, Nergal / Pabilsag / Ninurta / Nimrod / the Beast. The rise of this super-human will be the culmination of a plan that was millennia in the making. He will be Satan’s endgame to extend his reign over the world indefinitely.  

The coming Beast will be a composite of the kingdoms that came before him. He will be “like a leopard”, representing the kingdom and might of Alexander the Great (Dan 7:6), “his feet were like the feet of a bear”, representing the kingdom and might of Persia, “and his mouth like the mouth of a lion” (Dan 7:5), representing the kingdom of might, Babylon (Dan 7:4). To this individual “The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority” (Rev 13:2).  

The little horn Daniel saw in which “were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words” (Dan 7:8), is the same Beast full of names of blasphemy^ccxx that John saw in Revelation; it is the culmination and an amalgamation of all the former beasts. The Beast will possess all of their power, strength, speed, influence, authority, glory and pride. However, he will be even more than the sum and epitome of his predecessors: He will be the incarnation of Satan himself. He will be the slanderer incarnate. Satan’s qualities of “seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads” (Rev 12:3), are the same as the Beast’s: “seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name” (Rev 13:1) (Emphasis mine).  

Satan wants to incarnate himself in a man of his choosing, but only to empower himself. Thus, giving his power to the Beast is a fulfillment of his ancient plan to actuate a fusion of himself with a willing and qualified individual; the man will become a god and the god will become a man. Together they will be the Son of Perdition, the man of sin, “the beast who was, is not, and will ascend out of the abyss” (Rev 17:8). 

Through the Mark of the Beast, Satan will finally have his bodysuits and his secret weapon to enslave the world. Men will once again surrender to Satan and curse themselves. The Mark of the Beast will be the mechanism by which they become one with him genetically and thus become his slaves.  

Then in the time of the end: This king will “speak pompous words against the Most High, Shall persecute the saints of the Most High” (Dan 7:25). He will open the Gates of Hades that Jesus prevented from opening and unleash hordes of Pabilsags. Satan will raise up an army of unprecedented proportions by bringing back the Beast who was, the one who will ascend out of the Abyss in a moment of triumph for Satan. The Beast will then be used by Satan to unleash his dark forces from the Abyss. Satan will have the upper hand for three and a half years until a cry goes forth to bring back Jesus. This prophesied cry for Jesus will initiate the great Day of the Lord and the Battle of Armageddon.  

There are still many questions that remain which we will address in the next book. We will consider the Mark of the Beast, the image of the Beast, the false prophet, the Battle of Armageddon, Gog and Magog, the two witnesses, and the one thing that will bring Jesus back to save his people.  

Chapter 21 of Corrupting the Image vol 2: No Other Way [Part-1]

People sometimes think an almighty God should have been able to merely snap His fingers right after Adam and Eve made their gigantic blunder and eliminate Satan and make everything go back to normal. However, Satan calculated that God is also righteous, true and just. He does not violate His own laws. What He has said that He will also do.  

He cannot say: “Oh, I messed up. Sorry, can I have a do-over?” There are no do-overs, no mulligans. What God says He will do, He will accomplish. You can always stand on the promises of God.  

Satan, too, has been standing on the promises of God. He absolutely relies on God’s steadfast character. He thinks aloud, “Well, you said that the day Adam eats this, Adam will die. So now, Adam died. And you gave authority and dominion of the planet to Adam; and now, he has lost his dominion and forfeited it all to me.”  

Once the dominion of Earth was forfeited, God still had the power to destroy Satan, but not the authority. That was the genius of Satan’s plan. He found God’s one weakness: God can not lie. He cannot contradict himself and remain righteous and just. There are teachers who claim God has the authority to break His own edicts; yet this is incorrect. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, Balaam declared: 

God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (Num 23:19). 

The Psalmist put it this way: “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Mercy and truth go before Your face” (Ps 89:14). The author of Hebrews wrote that “it is impossible for God to lie” (Heb 6:18). Satan understood and was therefore “standing on the promises of God.” If God could have blown Satan to smithereens and thereby contradicted His own word.

then Satan’s plan would not have worked. If He were not righteous or just, then He would be no different than Satan. It is this one weakness that Satan has sought to exploit.  

Thus, to gain back dominion of the Earth, Jesus had to outsmart Satan, and he had to pay an incredible price. Jesus did not come as a great overlord with His army to defeat Satan on the battlefield; he came as a humble and lowly King;  

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey (Zech 9:9). 

Though Jesus is the mighty Lion of Judah, the greatest of creatures who walks around tall, proud, and afraid of no one, ready to take on any challenger, He could not just snatch the Tablet of Destinies from Satan’s hands. The only way forward was to lay down His life. We know this is true because Jesus agonized and asked the Father if there was any other way to fix things:  

He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matt 26:37–39).  

Satan, via Judas, then came to the garden with soldiers and in the greatest of all treason, betrayed him with a kiss. Satan certainly thought he had the upper hand in this situation. When he finally saw Jesus nailed to a cross, he may have smirked thinking once again, he had outfoxed God. He imagined that the prophecy of doom that hung over his head for thousands of years was annulled; the One who was going to crush his head was in agony, near death.  

Psalm 22 gives us a window into the spiritual realm to see the gloating and roaring of Satan and his swirling minions. This Psalm is incredible because it talks about our Lord’s sacrifice on the cross in amazing detail: He was forsaken, He groaned, He was mocked by men, He could count all his bones, His hands and feet were pierced. Nevertheless, there are two verses that only begin to make sense in light of the discoveries we have made.  

First of all, Jesus says “Elohi, Elohi^ccxiv My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?” (Ps 22:1). He was not just saying this as part of the decoy—he truly felt abandoned and alone. Nevertheless, such verbiage would have confirmed Satan’s conclusion that he had beaten God.  

In Psalm 22, after reflecting on God’s faithfulness to others, the text says of the Messiah:  

But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people. All those who see Me ridicule Me; They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, “He trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him” (Ps 22:6–8). 

This prophesy from the Psalms was fulfilled with spectacular accuracy: 

And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, “Save Yourself, and come down from the cross!” Likewise the chief priests also, mocking among themselves with the scribes, said, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save (Mark 15:29–31). 

As the Psalm states: “Be not far from Me, For trouble is near; For there is none to help” (Ps 22:11), so too was there none of Jesus’ friends and disciples to help, except for John and Jesus’ mother. However, then something odd happens in the text; something occurs that seems out of place, unless you consider our discovery in deciphering the inscription text which revealed what happened on Bashan, “According to the command of the great bull god Batios.” The Psalm continues to describe Jesus during his crucifixion: 

Many bulls have surrounded Me; Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me. They gape at Me with their mouths, Like a raging and roaring lion (Ps 22:12–13) (Emphasis mine).  

Bulls of Bashan were present at the crucifixion! We now have the framework to recognize the ancient identity of these strong bulls that circled Jesus. In Psalm 22:12, the first phrase, “Many bulls have surrounded Me,” [סְ֭בָבוּנִי פָּרִ֣ים רַבִּ֑ים svavooni parim rabbim] is an excellent translation. However, the next phrase is the challenge. The word “bulls” in the second phrase, “bulls of Bashan”, is the word [אַבִּירֵ֖י abirei]. TWOT notes that abirei means “mighty”, “strong” or “brave”, and it carries a connotation of a bull-god.  

It is undeniable that ’ābı̂r relates to the Akkadian abāru “be strong.” Not so certain is the connection with the Ugaritic ’br “bull” or “humped buffalo.” However, as in Hebrew, it may be an element in a divine name in Ugaritic. The Ugaritic form ibrd may mean “the Mighty One of Hadd.”^ccxv 

We see this aspect in Psalm 78, speaking of manna, where: “Men ate angels’ [אַ֭בִּירִים abirim] food” (Ps 78:25). The translators correctly translate abirim as angels’, that is, “mighty ones”, instead of bulls. The food was the food of spiritual beings, just as the bulls encircling Jesus were spiritual beings—great bull gods. In the instance of manna,  the translation of abirim fits. It is a good thing because the Psalmist would not be exulting in God’s mighty deeds if God had only given men bulls’ food—grass to eat.  

The emphasis of Psalm 22:12 is not merely on the bulls. The word parim, “bulls”, ought to be viewed in light of abirim. Viewed together, the meaning we derive is a blend of the bull concept with the “might ones”, the beings from the other realm. We know bulls can often represent false gods. In fact, we concluded that the transcription on Mt. Hermon was “According to the command of the great bull god Batios … ” The “great bull” is Satan, who is also known as Baal, Ninurta, Melqart, etc. We have seen artifacts from history that depict bull gods, such as Molech. At Mt. Sinai, Israel made a golden calf. Even one of the potential translations of abirim is “Apis”, the name of the sacred Egyptian bull.”^ccxvi  

The next word, of course, is Bashan [בָשָׁ֣ן], which we have discovered is not merely a place, but refers to Satan the Great Dragon, the snake-dragon, Ninurta, Melqart, Heracles, Marduk, Og of Bashan, the Mušḫuššu, the Ušumgallu, and the Anzu, and of course, all the fallen angels who serve alongside him. The Psalm gives us a window to peer into the spiritual realm and not just see the physical!  

The Psalmist then shares Jesus’ vantage point: “They gape at Me with their mouths, Like a raging and roaring lion” (Ps 22:13). The image is powerful: Jesus was on the cross in agony, freely and willingly dying for our sins in the only way possible, while the mighty snake-dragon gods encircled him with their mouths open, roaring like lions at their dying prey. “Jesus,” they may have gloated, “the one who planted His kingdom flag on our mountain! Look at you, nailed to a cross! You are a pathetic loser! If you are the son of God, come down. How will you save the world when you are dead? Who do you think you are? You are no Messiah!” The words of the mockery and berating must have hurt and cut deep, like nails.  

Satan likely imagined he had overcome God; He had offered Jesus the kingdoms of the world on Mt. Hermon, for just a small price. If Jesus would only worship Satan, all the kingdoms of men could have been His. But Jesus refused, and the momentary victory He enjoyed on Hermon, the mountain of Bashan, would end with His last breath—thus preempting the possibility of the Messiah crushing his head, or so Satan may have arrogantly thought.  

The snake-dragon gods may also have circled Jesus like lions eager to eat their prey. Satan may have been eager to see Jesus suffer the fate that had been decreed for Satan:  

“Hell [Sheol] from beneath is excited about you, To meet you at your coming; It stirs up the dead [Rephaim] for you, All the chief ones of the earth; It has raised up from their thrones All the kings of the nations. They all shall speak and say to you: ‘Have you also become as weak as we? Have you become like us? (Isa 14:9–10). 

PROCLAMATION TO THE SPIRITS IN PRISON 

As Jesus died, perhaps Satan shrugged in a gesture of “Is that all you got?” He might have thought with Jesus “being put to death in the flesh” (1 Pet 3:18), He would be assigned a fate along with the Rephaim, and that was fine because Satan had the Keys of Hades and Death (Heb 2:14–15). As we saw in the Ugaritic texts, this is the fate of the underworld (chthonic) god in Bashan, Og of Bashan; and in the Mesopotamian texts, the underworld was inhabited with Ninurta / Pabilsag, Nergal / Melqart / Heracles, all syncretisms of Ninurta who was made into a gibbor and became the son of Enlil.  

Satan was sending Jesus to a place that he controlled and over which he exercised authority. Imagine the shock, however, when Jesus showed up in Sheol / Hades and announced His victory to the spirits who came down on Mt. Hermon, “According to the command of the great bull god Batios” and who then, “swearing an oath in this place go forth.”  

He went and preached [κηρύσσω kerusso] to the spirits in prison [φυλακή phulake], who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water (1 Pet 3:19–20).  

That Jesus went to the underworld is explained by St. Irenaeus in “Against Heresies 5, 31, 2”, (C. 180 AD): “the Lord went away into the midst of the shadow of death where the souls of the dead were.” Scripture tells us about the prison to which the disobedient spirits go:  

It shall come to pass in that day That the LORD will punish on high the host of exalted ones, And on the earth the kings of the earth. They will be gathered together, As prisoners are gathered in the pit, And will be shut up in the prison; After many days they will be punished (Isa 24:21–22). 

The prisoners are put into the “bor” pit, which is also the place Satan will be cast, called “Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit [bor]” (Isa 14:15). This is the place where God sent “the angels who sinned” and “cast them down to hell [Tartarus] and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment” (2 Pet 2:4); This is the same prison that “when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison [φυλακής phulakes]” (Rev 20:7).  

Thus, there is no question of where Jesus went; He descended to the underworld. The question is what exactly did He “preach ”? Was it a message of doom to evil angels or a message of hope to human souls? Irenaeus, in that same work, interprets His descent suggesting:  

The Lord descended into the regions beneath the earth, announcing there the good news of His coming and of the remission of sins conferred upon those who believe in Him.^ccxvii 

That sentiment is likewise echoed by St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 4, 11 (C. 350 AD) saying Jesus: “Descended into the subterranean regions so that He might ransom from there the just…” These two early church commentators were likely thinking of a Scripture that Jesus would fulfill: “To bring out prisoners from the prison, Those who sit in darkness from the prison house” (Isa 42:7). Thus, the question comes down to the word “preached”. Was it the gospel He was bringing?  

The word translated as “preached” is κηρύσσω, which means “to make an official announcement, announce, make known, by an official herald or one who functions as such.”^ccxviii  

The word does not necessarily mean to bring good news, as in the gospel. Instead, Jesus’ message was a public declaration of record. He made a public service announcement to “the spirits in prison who were formerly disobedient … in the days of Noah …” Thus, it was good news for human prisoners, but was certainly bad news for: “The angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode… in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day (Jude 1:6).”There was clearly a special region of Hades reserved for those angels in chains of darkness. Peter’s use of the Greek “Tartarus” is significant in that it was considered the worst part of Hades, a special prison for the Titans.  

According to Hesiod’s Theogony, Tartarus, god of the underworld, was father of the Giants, which we examined in the study of Nimrod. The Greek word “Titans” (τιτάνες) appears twice in Scripture, and both occurrences are in 2 Samuel 5:18–22 (LXX 5:17–21), “The Philistines also went and deployed themselves in the Valley of Rephaim [την κοιλάδα των τιτάνων]” (2 Sam 5:18). Thus, Rephaim is rendered in Greek as “Titans”!  The Titans were thrown into Tartarus, the lowest rung of Hades, which is the place Peter says the bad angels were sent.  

Isaiah says the Rephaim were sent into the bor (the Abyss). Greek mythology is based on historic reality. They are talking about the same beings who are located in the same place. 

In other words, Tartarus is the prison that was reserved for the angels who came down on Mt. Hermon in the days of Noah and took an oath, according to Satan’s command, to take the daughters of men and create Nephilim.  

Bible Scholar Dr Bob Utley notes in his 1 Peter commentary:  

When all of these are compared, a message to the fallen angels of Gen. 6 or the humans of Noah’s day who drowned seem the only textual options. Noah’s day is also mentioned in 2 Pet. 2:4-5, along with Sodom and Gomorrah (cf. 2 Pet. 2:6). In Jude rebellious angels (cf. Jude 6) and Sodom and Gomorrah (cf. Jude 7) are also linked together.^ccxix 

Thus, Jesus not only staked His claim on top of the physical mountain of Bashan and showed His glory, but He also made an announcement to those very angels who disobeyed in the days of Noah. After millennia of Satan (as Enlil, etc.) claiming to be the great mountain, the great dragon, the one who controls fates, the destroyer, king of the underworld, the one who causes the dawn, the god of the 33 stars, the lord of the Earth, lord wind (prince of the power of the air)—Jesus proclaimed His victory.  

After years of the Akitu festivals in which Ninurta, reenacted by the current king, would bring the “good news” (same word as “gospel” in Hebrew) to Satan that he had killed the creator, Jesus delivered the “good news” to all those in the underworld. If only He had taken a camera to get the reactions of those rebellious spirits as He jingled the Keys of Hades and Death in front of them—the very ones who had come down on Hermon and had set in motion the actions that led to the Flood. Until then, Satan firmly held the Keys of Hades and Death in his hands, but through Jesus’ incredible sacrifice, He had retrieved and forever would hold those Keys.  

Peter gives us the effect of Jesus’ message “who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him” (1 Pet 3:22). The angels, authorities and powers, including Satan up until then, had previously held control in this world, but through Jesus’ death, they were made subject to Jesus.  

“Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:2–11).  

The formerly disobedient spirits, who were imprisoned under the Earth, heard the news that Jesus, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, had snatched the Keys of Death and Hades out of Satan’s hand and their eternal reign of terror was coming to an end. During those three days, Peter applies the words of David to Jesus:  

Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence (Acts 2:26–28). 

In other words, Jesus’ stay in Satan’s underworld kingdom was temporary and short. Consequently, “God raised [Him] up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it (Acts 2:24). Jesus’ resurrection from Satan’s underworld abode showed Satan how nailing Jesus to the cross only sealed his own defeat. Satan helped Jesus to crush his own head, just as promised. He had inadvertently assisted Jesus to ultimately fulfill the promise given in Psalm 68: “You ascended on high, You have led captivity captive; You have received gifts among men, Even from the rebellious, That the LORD God might dwell there” (Ps 68:18).  

Satan and his snake-dragons thought they were disarming the Messiah when, in fact, it was Jesus who “disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Col 2:15, Emphasis mine). What Satan imagined to be his greatest victory turned into his greatest and most humiliating defeat. Satan’s legal stronghold over the world was shattered. The Tablet of Destinies onto which he tenaciously held was snatched from his hand. Jesus “wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us” (Col 2:14). It was through Jesus that God would “reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col 1:20).  

He is the one who put it all back together, for many things happened at the cross; All the “legal paperwork” was stamped, if you will. Jesus told His disciples not to tell anyone about the Hermon / Bashan experience “until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.” He may have done so to quash questions and speculation from His disciples about the top-secret plan. After Jesus rose from the dead, the snake-dragons, the mighty ones of Bashan, would understand all too well how they had been completely outsmarted. Jesus freely laid down His life and endured the taunting of the snake-dragon-gods, the might bulls as they encircled him, roaring at him like lions, gloating in their perceived victory over Him.  

The epic, cosmic battle that Satan imagined God was staging at Hermon was in fact being fought while Jesus was on the cross, having been put there at the hand of Satan. It was not through a mighty act or the slaying of His enemies that He would be made worthy to open the scroll. It was not a challenge of strength, but authority. In order to reclaim the authority and dominion of the Earth, He allowed himself to be the slain Lamb; there was no other way. Because He acted as a servant, “The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool” (Acts 2:34–35). 

It was in light of this incredible backstory that an elder told John, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals” (Rev 5:5). John looked and saw “a Lamb as though it had been slain” (Rev 5:6). It was this feature which allowed Jesus to take “the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne” (Rev 5:7), which is confirmed by the creatures and the elders who sang:  

“You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth” (Rev 5:9–10). 

Thank God that Jesus did not take the shortcut. Instead, He did the hard work that was necessary. He died on the cross so that He could redeem us with His own blood. Jesus says: “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out (John 12:31). Thank God for the hero, the hero who did what nobody else was able to do. By His own blood, He defeated the enemy which made him worthy to take the scroll.