by Danny Vierra

Chapter 16 – The Madonna of Rome Is the Madonna of Ancient Babylon

In The Thunder of Justice, these idolaters boldly state that the world is “witnessing the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Heaven and true beacon for all Christians.” (The Thunder of Justice, p. 5). But Mary is dead— dead and in the grave! And the people that claim to have seen the Virgin Mary are actually being duped by an evil spirit. And the statues of Mary are nothing more than mere clumps of cement shaped like the Babylonian Madonna from whom she originated. Strong words, but are they true? Take another look at the picture on the cover of this book, if you doubt my word! No wonder the language used in the Second Commandment prohibiting image worship, which was written with God’s own finger, by the way (see Ex. 31: 18), was so strong! No wonder the Pope of Rome, steeped in paganism, removed the Second Commandment from the Ten, for it pronounces judgment from a jealous God not only upon all violators, but also upon their children and their children’s children! “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments.” (Ex. 20: 4- 6). Oh, dear reader, nowhere in the law of God do we find stronger words than these!—“ them that hate me”! God is truly offended and rightly called “a jealous God,” Who will also visit the iniquity of their predecessors upon the descendants of these idolaters who continue the pagan practices of their parents, unless they repent! God, in mercy, may overlook their ignorance and do everything He can to win their hearts; but as they continue to transgress His laws after receiving light on the matter, just how long will God hold back His hand? That no one knows! Hosea 4: 6 says: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to Me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”

I find it immensely interesting that the prophet Jeremiah also had something to say about Israel’s worship of images of false gods, and was quite specific in his address. While dwelling in Egypt as forlorn exiles, instead of being witnesses for God against the heathenism around them, the Israelites were as much devoted to this form of idolatry as the Egyptians themselves. Jeremiah was sent of God to denounce wrath against his own people, if they continued to worship the “queen of heaven,” but his warnings were in vain. “Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying, As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee . But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.” (Jer. 44: 15- 17).

Alexander Hislop, the author of The Two Babylons, remarks: “The worship of the goddessmother with the child in her arms continued to be observed in Egypt till Christianity entered. If the Gospel had come in power among the mass of people, the worship of this goddess- queen would have been overthrown. With the generality it came only in name. Instead, therefore, of the Babylonian goddess being cast out, in too many cases her name only was changed . She was called the Virgin Mary, and, with her child, was worshipped with the same idolatrous feeling by professing Christians, as formerly by open and avowed Pagans …. It just amounts to this, that if Christ be admitted to be truly and properly God, and worthy of Divine honours, His mother, from whom He derived merely His humanity , must be admitted to be the same, must be raised far above the level of all creatures, and be worshipped as a partaker of the Godhead . The divinity of Christ is made to stand or fall with the divinity of His mother. Such is Popery…. This, however, is just the exact reproduction of the doctrine of ancient Babylon in regard to the great goddess- mother. The Madonna of Rome, then, is just the Madonna of Babylon. The ‘Queen of Heaven’ in the one system is the same as the ‘Queen of Heaven’ in the other…. The Roman and Babylonian Madonnas are the same .” (The Two Babylons, pp. 82, 83, 85). No wonder Alexander Hislop named his book The Two Babylons , for the New Testament Babylon is nothing more than a modernized Old Testament Babylon! In many cases, only the names have been changed! For example, the statues of the gods from the Pantheon are now found in the Vatican Museum, with the exception of the great statue of Jupiter, which has been modified, retitled, and seated on a throne in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome as St. Peter. Thousands of pilgrims kiss the foot of Jupiter, while thinking it is the statue of Peter.

Hislop brings out yet another remarkable characteristic between the Madonna of Babylon and the Madonna of Rome, and that is the nimbus or peculiar circle of light (the halo) that frequently encompasses their heads, as well as the heads of the Saints and Christ. Where could such a device have originated? Where in the whole compass of Scripture, do we ever read that Christ’s head was surrounded with a disk, or circle of light? What you will never find in the Word of God is found in the artistic representations of the great gods and goddesses of Babylon. The disk or halo, and particularly the circle, “were the well- known symbols of the Sundivinity , and figured largely in the symbolism of the East. With the circle or the disk the head of the Sun- divinity was encompassed. The same was the case in Pagan Rome. Apollo, as the child of the Sun, was often thus represented. The goddesses that claimed kindred with the Sun were equally entitled to be adorned with the nimbus or luminous circle,…. in the very same way as the head of The Roman Madonna is at this day surrounded.” (Ibid., p. 87).

Friends, let me now quote the last verses of Ezekiel eight: “Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house which was toward the north [remember, Satan, according to Isaiah 14, wanted to set himself up ‘in the sides of the north’— where God’s throne is in Heaven]; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz . Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these [greater than ‘the image of jealousy’]. And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces to the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east …. Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.” (Ezek. 8: 14- 16, 18).

Dear reader, there are two points that can immediately be drawn from these verses, in addition to the many points we have already discussed. First, “Women,” and not one woman, “sat weeping for Tammuz”— the god of Babylon. Do you remember the words on the forehead of the whore of Revelation 17— “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth”? Notice that the “Mother” has “Harlots,” or harlot daughters. Apparently, there are a number of other apostate churches that are following the ways or dogmas of their mother, Rome. Who are these daughters? And second, the “greater abominations” involve sun- worship! Somehow, Babylonian- style sun worship has been set up in the church. Does this have anything to do with the churches in the United States of America? How are they worshipping the sun? Does it have anything to do with Sunday— a day that is worshipped throughout America and the world, but is contrary to the day that the Lord instructed that we worship Him? All these questions will be answered in the next chapter on the “mark of the beast.”

Go to Chapter 17 ⇒

All emphases in this article are mine.
Published by Modern Manna Ministries