Christian
Churches of God
No.
222z
Summary:
The Golden Calf
(Edition 3.0
19970916-20001212)
Most people know of the symbol of the golden calf made by Aaron for Israel when Moses was up on the mountain. Most, however, do not understand that the calf was a symbol of a system of worship that was to penetrate Israel and destroy the religious system of Judah.
Christian Churches of God
E-mail: secretary@ccg.org
(Copyright ã 1997, 1998, 2000 Wade Cox)
(Summary edited
by Wade Cox)
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The Golden
Calf
Most people are familiar with the symbol of the golden calf made by Aaron for Israel while Moses was on the mountain. What is not generally known is the deep symbolism of this golden calf from antiquity as a pagan deity, and the all-pervasive influence in every religion on this earth.
While Moses was communing with Messiah on Mt. Sinai and receiving the Law from the mouth of the great God, through the Angel (the pre-incarnate Messiah) the people in the camp were otherwise engaged. They had Aaron forge a golden calf as a symbol of the gods of Egypt to lead them (Ex. 32:1-6).
Moses’ term up the mountain is a type of Christ’s being away for a long time - 40 jubilees - 2000 years, and leaving His people in the wilderness of this satanic world. As the Israel in the desert asserted their will to go their own way, so Israel and the world have done, in the absence of Messiah.
The rings of gold given to Aaron were round, symbolising the sun and also the crescents, which symbolised the moon low on the horizon.
So why forge a calf, as opposed to any other animal? The crescent represented the horns of a bull calf, and the crescent of the moon above the horizon some period after the phasis of the conjunction. Their round earrings represented the sun, moon and the Morning Star - the triune system worshipped in Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Exodus 32:1-6: The people required visible deities to follow, and the difference is in following the True God Who is invisible and no man can see (Jn. 1:18; 1Tim. 6:16) and no one has heard His voice (Jn. 5:37). Israel’s religion was embroiled in paganism, worshipping stars, moon, sun, and other gods - as seen from the text in Amos 5:25-27 (quoted in Acts 7:42,43).
Our people have always been in trouble with God, lapsing and falling away, and substituting pagan systems for the worship of the One True God, which ended in exile for both Israel and Judah. While in the wilderness Israel had a pure relationship with God that did not require sacrifices (Jer. 2:2,3; Hos. 2:14-20; 9:10).
Names of pagan deities are interchangeable, in that the moon gods, sun gods, Morning Star were worshipped under different names in different locations - Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Moab, Ammon etc. The dynasties at Ur all deified themselves under the name of Sin, the moon god symbolised by a bull. He was Chemosh in Moab, and Milcom (Malcolm and Moloch) in Ammon, and widely worshipped by all tribes.
Abraham had to be taken from Ur and Harran where Sin, the moon god was the Baal or Lord. The worship of sun, moon and stars is as ancient as the world religions from the fall in Eden.
The Hillel calendar of the Jews, which counts the beginning of the months from the visible crescent, really upholds the ancient ways - following a moon crescent, which is seen, rather than the true conjunction, a completely dark disk, representing the great God who is invisible.
The flag of Islam incorporates the crescent moon (horns of the calf or bull) with stars. It is pagan in origin. Israel’s “Star of David” is really the star of Kaiwan or Chiun. There are all sorts of symbolism concerning this so-called “Star of David”.
The concepts of the Babylonian system strike at the concepts vested in the Messiah. Shamash becomes supreme divine judge, his sister Ishtar is queen of heaven — Mary fills that place in the Roman Catholic pantheon of saints.
Ishtar is also Venus, goddess of fertility, sex goddess and as the Morning Star, goddess of war. She is represented by the lion and the dove. Every symbol representing Messiah has been appropriated by the moon-worshipping system. This is a battle for the control of the religious systems of the planet, fought from a counterfeit base.
The symbolism surrounding the calf system at Sinai ties into primitive temple and cult prostitution, and that is what the revelry at Sinai was all about. Balaam advised the Moabites to employ the fertility rites to bring Israel into odium with God, at the time of the Exodus.
God’s system was perverted while Moses was away for 40 days and nights, just as true Christianity has been perverted over the last 2000 years of Christ’s absence.
Exodus 32:7-10: Moses is tested and does not fail.
Verses 1l-14: Moses pleads for the people, so that God’s name and works might not be impugned. God dealt with Israel and Judah through the circumstances of their idolatry. Judah lost one third of its population in the last century. What does it bode for Israel, in our sins?
Verses 15-19: Moses descends with the 2 tablets and then breaks the tablets of the testimony given by God, written on both sides. Thus we see two Messiahs, who is the one person, over two Advents - the Messiah of Aaron and the Messiah of Israel.
Verses 20-29: The first advent introduced a new sanctified priesthood, as did Moses’ first descent, although the Levites by their loyal actions really sanctified themselves, by killing the disloyal ones.
Verse 30-31: Moses returns up the mountain. This return prefigures Christ as the Wave Sheaf offering ascending to God the Father to make atonement for sin. For where there is sin there must be expiation and sacrifice.
Verses 32-35: Moses offers himself as a substitute for Israel, as did Messiah. The whole question of remaining in the book of life is one of obedience and the willing self-revelation of God, on obedience.
This cult worship of the moon god, Sin, as the Golden Calf or Moloch, or the Triune God of which the Trinity is the modern derivation, is the most evil form of human barbarity, and God condemns it and its system. The system is extant even today (cf. the papers The Origins of Christmas and Easter (No. 235), and The Doctrine of Original Sin Part I The Garden of Eden (No 246)). The bull calf is identified with the moon-god whose horns are the crescent moon.
The terms in Isaiah 14:12 refer to the Day Star, Morning Star or Lucifer, meaning light bearer. It is identified with the Babylonian system because it forms the nucleus of the world religious system as identified in Revelation. Ishtar, as Morning Star, is also Lucifer as light bearer and these functions will be taken over by Messiah and the elect. That is why Mariolatry is the mother-goddess system of the queen of heaven.
Thus both aspects of the bull as the crescent, and the morning star were tied absolutely into idolatry. They are a gross perversion of the biblical system and the calendar of God.
To continue with the Hillel calendar or any
system based on observation of the crescent, given the known information about
the significance of the crescent moon and its place in the worship of the Calf
system, is effectively to continue in the system of worship, if not the active
sacrifices, of Moloch so condemned by God.
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