THE EGYPTIAN GODDESS ISIS
Last night on some odd whim I loaded up the DVD player with The Exorcism of Emily Rose. It was fine viewing for a Sunday, the Sabbath, a day to be spent away from the usual demands of the world and one where thoughts are to tend toward Eternity. It was a good and scary movie and reminded me that the material world is not all there is, that there are things beyond the felt and visible.
Emily Rose created a sense of dread in the same way that The Exorcist created a sense of dread, though they approach it from different angles. For these movies to work the viewer must have in him a belief, however shallow, of worlds beyond the natural. Without this neither movie makes any sense. Both would be laughable, as ridiculous as The Da Vinci Code. A man who boasts of his atheism but who is scared of the world presented by Emily Rose and The Exorcist is no atheist. He believes in something besides his own silly self, and that is a good thing.
When The Exorcist came out I saw it and was scared. Years later I would boast of my agnosticism and atheism—I went back and forth in my confusion—and found it absurd. After returning to Christ I saw it yet again, and understood why the film was so frightful. It assumes a world where Satan and his demons walk the earth and desire to live with man forever in Hell. To simplify things, The Exorcist and Emily Rose assume Christianity is true. Without this underlying faith both movies would be mere cartoons.
Christianity has long understood the history and workings of Satan. God created him when He created all the angels. For reason unknown to us Satan—we may refer to him by his title Lucifer, “the Light Bringer”—was the most beautiful being among the angels.
You were the seal of resemblance, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty…You were perfect in your wave from the day of creation, until iniquity was found in you. (Ezekiel 28:12-15)
Entranced by his own luminance he fell into the sin of Pride and “desired to be as God.” He convinced one-third of the angels to follow him in a great civil war.
And there was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels: and they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who seduceth the whole world; and he was cast unto the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. (Apocalypse 12:7-9)
Since then Satan and his demons seek the absolute destruction of the pinnacle of creation, man. Satan is as a roaring lion who roams the earth to devour men. Sometimes one or more of his demons will actually possess a man. A man in such a state will need the Rite of Exorcism—“the act of driving out, or warding off, demons, or evil spirits, from persons, places, or things, which are believed to be possessed or infested by them”— to cast out the demon. The New Testament is full of exorcisms. Any man who calls himself a Christian but denies the possibility of demon possession is either a liar or ignorant of his faith.
Such is the world assumed by The Exorcist and Emily Rose. If that assumption is false then Christianity is false. No Satan, no Christ. No matter how much man tries to wriggle free from that simple principle, he will find no logical way out as there is no logical way out. To disbelieve he must close his eyes and become a mere fool.
I know that condition well as I lived in it for 20 years. I also know that I need reminding more than instructing. My apartment is full of things that remind me—a statue of Mary, a bunch of Crucifixes, a jar of Holy Water and so on. But there was something else as well. Years ago I acquired a painting from a man who was moving from Argentina. I lived there at the time, and the man was having a house sale. The painting was on the wall in my apartment in Buenos Aires and is on the wall in my apartment in Oklahoma City—or was until last night.
The painting was of the Egyptian goddess Isis.
One of the titles of Isis is “Queen of Heaven.” Oddly enough, that is also one of the titles of Mary. Odder still, right next to that painting of Isis was a painting of Mary with her Child. Both overlooked my bed. There are some parallels between Isis and Mary.
Scholars have made comparisons with Isis worship in late Roman times and the cult of the Blessed Virgin Mary. After the Christian religion gained popularity and started dispersing into Europe and then throughout Rome, the Christians converted an Isis shrine in Egypt into one for Mary and in other ways “deliberately took images from the pagan world”.
And here I will point a moral and adorn a tale. After watching Emily Rose, I saw that painting of Isis in a new light. In a word, it became creepy, especially since it was right next to Mary and overlooked me as I slept. I removed it and placed it in the living room before going to bed. But Isis is a jealous goddess. She let me know her disapproval this morning. A container that was safely and securely placed upon a shelf right next to the wall where she was placed “fell” upon the floor this morning when I was in another room. There was no material reason why this occurred. I was not near it, did not bump it and had not touched it for weeks.
It is as Augustine believed, that all the ancient gods and goddesses of the ancient world were really demons. All of our modern replacements for these beings—drugs, pornography, sex, the love of power and fame and money—are as well demons. That painting of Isis was a representation of a demon and saw me as I slept. But so did Mary.
Isis leaves my apartment today, and only Mary and her Son will be allowed in my bedroom. For Christ is a jealous God, and would not have any demonic goddess of Egypt next to His mother.
I will sleep well tonight. I suggest that you remove any demons from your life—whether they are on your wall or happily reside inside you—so that you may do the same.
Update: For a layman’s look at The Rite of Exorcism see Matt Baglio.
He writes about his journey into the world of contemporary exorcism in The Rite, which has just been published. Over the course of his reporting, Baglio returned to Catholicism, in part by being confronted with the reality of the demonic — of disembodied intelligent evil, and the power of Jesus Christ in the Church to deal effectively with it.
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QUEENS OF HEAVEN
by Scipio
Monday
20 April 09
***************************************
Barry Soetoro aka Barack Hussein Obama
is a
USURPER
because he is not eligible to be President of the United States
because he is not a Natural Born Citizen
as required by Article Two, Section One, Clause Five
of the United States Constitution.
This is a fact regardless of
where he was born (Mombassa, Hawaii, Chicago, or Mars).
He is not a Natural Born Citizen
because he was not born of
TWO PARENTS
BOTH OF WHOM WERE UNITED STATES CITIZENS
at the time of his birth.
His father was a subject/ciitizen
of Kenya/Great Britain at the time of his birth and afterwards.
His mother was too young to pass on her US citizenship
according to the law in effect when he was born.
Check it out:
http://www.TheObamaFile.com/ObamaNaturalBorn.htm
His usurpation cannot be corrected by Congress,
it can only be corrected by his resignation, his removal
or
by an amendment to the Constitution
which will never happen.
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