Grace and peace to the body of Christ.

I’m sorry that I haven’t posted anything new in a couple of weeks, but I have been otherwise engaged.  But rest assured: God has been busy.  And as most of us know, whenever and wherever God is, the Devil is somewhere to be found, and is also busy. There is much I want to say, but it would only be informative and not edifying, so I will refrain from sharing it with you.  It suffices to say that we need to take every opportunity to witness, as time is truly running short, and many, many people are lost.

I prefer to cite the sources for the information I share; whether Biblical or secular.  With secular sources, this is not always possible, because some of the information I obtained before I started doing formal research.  In other words, I was doing research before I actually started doing research, and back in those days, I didn’t always record where I got the information.  

Now and again, however, I will come across a reference to a particular source and I am able to retrieve the information and record its source.  I am always pleased when this happens with secular sources, but I get absolutely beside myself when the Bible verifies secular information, as was the case today.

I was in the Word today, in the Book of Genesis Chapter 30, when I made a most remarkable discovery.   As you may recall, in our post on generational curses, we explain how partaking in games of chance or a belief in good luck are harmful for Christians, not only because when one does these things, one is depending on something other than Jesus for a blessing, which is sin, but also because belief in luck or fortune is actually god and goddess worship, because Fortune was actually the name of a Babylonian deity.  

So belief in luck or fortune, whether good or bad, is actually idolatry.  

Well, today, the Spirit led me to look up the meaning of the names of Jacob’s (Israel’s) children.  I used Strong’s Concordance for this purpose.  Word studies are great, because they often provide a deeper meaning to a particular passage and, in some cases, actually change the entire context.

Well, I was looking up the meaning of Gad, whose name, in the 1990 edition of Strong’s, can be found on page 25 of the Hebrew and Aramaic Dictionary of the Old Testament. The Hebrew language is very rich, and even a subtle change in the pronunciation of a certain vowel or the use of an upper-case or lower-case letter can produce an entirely different word with an entirely different meaning.  

Such is the case with Gad. Upper-case Gad (pronounced gawd), the son of Jacob, is listed under number 1410 and is said to mean “a troop.”  Lower-case gad (also pronounced gawd), is listed under 1409, and is said to be derived from a word that means fortune (in the sense of distributing).  In other words, bounty.  

This is where it gets interesting.  Upper-case Gad (pronounced gad) gives the following definition:

“a [variation] of 1409: Fortune, a [Babylonian] deity:—that troop.” [Brackets mine, boldface mine, italics in original.]

Here we have Biblical evidence that Fortune was the name of a Babylonian idol.  This was confirmed by another source.  The Illustrated Dictionary of the Bible (a book on Biblical archaeology) defines Gad thus:

“A foreign deity of good fortune worshipped by some Israelites in the period after the Exile (Is. 65:11).  In a bilingual Aramaic-Greek inscription from Palmyra the deity is identified in Greek as ‘fortune‘.  Is. 65:11.”

Isn’t this incredible?  Here we have biblical and secular confirmation that Fortune was a Babylonian god—an idol.  Now we know that idols always come in pairs.  If there is a god, there must also be a goddess.  So, if Fortune is a god, what are the odds that Fame is a goddess (fame and fortune)?  I think they are very good.

But that isn’t all I got from this word study.  As I stated, the Illustrated Dictionary of the Bible gave Isaiah 65:11 as the source of the term, that troop, which is Gad (pronounced gad).  Isaiah 65:11 tells how some of the Israelites had begun to worship idols:

“But ye are they that forsake the Lord, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that number.”

As we have seen, that troop is listed in Strong’s Concordance as the Hebrew word Gad and is said to mean, “Fortune, a Babylonian deity (idol).”  What do you think that number means?  Well, it can be found in Strong’s #4507 as:

“Meniy (pronounced menee): the Apportioner, i.e. Fate (as an idol).“

Did you see that?  Fate is also an idol.  Is this not incredible?  This is proof that paganism has so infiltrated American life, that pagan terminology is part of the American lexicon.  When something goes well for us we say we had “good fortune” (an idol, the god) or good luck (Lucifer), and when it goes bad, we say “that was our fate” (an idol, the goddess).  We are idolaters!  Is it any wonder that America has so many problems seeing that idolatry is forbidden by God, and the penalty is a generational curse?

I have known for some time that Fortune and Fortuna (also known as Fame and Fortune) were a god and goddess, but I had no idea that this was in the Bible.  Now I know that everything we need to know is in that Book; if we would only read it.

As we told you in Juanita Bynum: Prophetess or Witch?, all idolatry, both ancient and modern, goes back to the Babylonian worship of Nimrod and Semiramis.  What is incredible is that just as they have been worshipped since antiquity in every country in the world under different names, they are mentioned in the Bible under many names, but most of us don’t know this.  In fact, all the characters from all the myths from every culture on the globe go back to just two people: Nimrod and Semiramis. Incredible, isn’t it?  Alexander Hislop made this very claim in The Two Babylons, and this has been borne out in my own research.  Today’s find was merely more icing on the cake.

Whether you call them Fortune and Fortuna (or Fame and Fortune), Yin and Yang, Isis and Osiris, Shiva and Parvatti, Apollo and Aphrodite, Diana and Kernos, Odin and Frigga, etc.  They are all just nicknames for Nimrod and Semiramis.  Many of the people who kneel to these false gods would have a heart attack if they knew who and what they really are.  I know, but I’m not going to tell you.  You will have to find out for yourself.  And you should, because therein lies the key.

Do you see why I rarely watch television?  Television provides entertainment, not knowledge.  The Bible says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”  (Proverbs 9:10).  So, all the knowledge in the world is ultimately useless if it doesn’t bring you to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  

Incidentally, the man who introduced me to the New World Order which ultimately led me to the Lord Jesus is himself not saved; which is strange, because one of the books he used to bring me to this knowledge was the first in The Crusader series by Chick Publications. Chick comics are not just ordinary comic books.  They are Gospel tracts that are meant to save souls.  This man had the entire Crusaders collection, but he never accepted the Gospel message they contained.  He basically only used them as history books.  He was “every learning, but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7).

By the way, the etymology of the word entertain is very interesting.  It comes from the French word entretenir, which Webster’s Dictionary says is formed from the words entre + tenir.  Interestingly, Webster’s says that tenir means “to hold,” but it doesn’t tell us what entre means.  So, I go to my handy-dandy Harrap’s French and English Pocket Dictionary, which tells me that entre means “between.”  So, entertain literally means “to hold between.”  

Why would Webster’s not want you to know that entertain literally means “to hold between?” Why, because Webster’s, is politically correct, and doesn’t want you to know how bad things really are; for, you see, it is you who are being “held between”—literally suspended—between Heaven and Hell. 

You must understand that if the Bible is true, then when we die we either go to Heaven or Hell (Hebrews 9:27).  If the media, therefore, were truthful (not to mention godly), they would be telling you this and would be promoting one or the other—either Heaven or Hell.  

But the media do neither.  In fact, if you really look at the messages most of the programs convey, they are telling you that neither heaven nor hell are real; that when we die, we either get recycled into a worm or a plant or come back as another person either on earth or on another planet or in another dimension.  They hold you in suspended animation between heaven and hell.  They don’t want you to know that you must make a decision.

Unfortunately, that won’t cut it with the Lord Jesus.  He says you must be either hot or cold.  If you’re lukewarm, Jesus will spit you out of His mouth (Revelation 3:15-16).

Further proof of the real purpose of entertainment is the fact that Webster’s Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, defines entertainment as “amusement or diversion.”  The meaning of diversion in this sense is to direct one’s attention from what it should be on to something else.  In this case, from the truth to fables.  This is what the media do: they direct your attention from the truth of God to lies. 

Moreover, Webster’s Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language, Vol. 1 (p. 291), defines entertainment thus:

The pleasure which the mind receives from anything interesting, and which holds or arrests the attention; that which entertains; that which serves for amusement.”

Again, the idea is to “hold” (tenir) or “divert” your attention onto something other than what it should be on.  They do this through entertainment.  The media use entertainment to get you to look to the right or to the left instead of up, where there is a piano suspended above your head. Don’t fall for it.

The etymology of amusement, like entertainment, is also very revealing.

“A” is a a prefix that means among other things, “not.”  So when you want to say something is not a particular thing, you can put the affix “a” in front of it.  For example, a person who is not moral is said to be a-moral.  A person who does not believe in God is said to be an a-theist (theo is Greek for God).  Now, the word muse means “to think.”  So, what would you call a person who does not think?  That’s right.  A-mused.  Now, you know the true purpose of Hollywood and the entertainment industry.

If you are a Christian and watch a lot of television, sports events, or other entertainment, know that it is impossible for this behavior not to affect your Christian walk in some way.  In fact, if you are experiencing problems reading and/or understanding the Word of God, this alone could be the cause.  

If you are not saved, and realize that you have been entertained and amused all your life and are in danger of being spit out of the Lord Jesus’ mouth because of it, you need to get saved now.

Saints, let’s get out of the entertainment business and into the Word of God.  It is very revealing.

“Wisdom is the principle thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding” (Proverbs 4:7).

Be encouraged and look up; your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man