THE INCARNATION OF MOLOCH (Part III)

MOLOCH

Before proceeding, the reader is encouraged to review, in the order shown below, previous blogs concerning this same topic:

1. THE SEALED BOOK UNFOLDED TO VIEW

2. HIS NUMBER IS 666

3. THE FOOLISH BEAST

THE INCARNATION OF MOLOCH 

Although many consider Solomon to be a righteous leader during the initial years of his reign, the scriptures suggest otherwise . . . as does his conduct. It is true that God blessed him, but it was't because Solomon had qualified himself for such blessings through righteous living. His throne was secured through bloodshed (see 1 Kings 2:12-25, 28-34, 36-46), his kingdom was built upon the back of Israelite slaves (see 1 Kings 5:13-16) and, as depicted in the picture shown to the left, he was the first king to build up the altar of Moloch, whereby, he introduced child-sacrifice as a form of worship to Israel (see Leviticus 18:21 and Leviticus 20:1-5; compare 1 Kings 11:7 and Moloch).

Although his name means "peaceable", Solomon was no less of a tyrant to Israel than Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and no less of a butcher than Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. No other person can measure up to his extreme moral wickedness. For this reason, he has been revealed in scripture that we may expose Lucifer and his methods of treachery.

WINSTON CHURCHILL

Other literary works have also referred to him in conjunction with his pagan god, Moloch. In The Gathering Storm (1948), the first volume of Winston Churchill's history of World War II, Churchill compares Solomon's pagan god with Hitler's triumph at the moment he finally achieved total power in 1933:

ADOLPH HITLER

He had called from the depths of defeat the dark and savage furies latent in the most numerous, most serviceable, ruthless, contradictory and ill-starred race in Europe. He had conjured up the fearful idol of an all-devouring Moloch of which he was the priest and incarnation (Churchill, Winston S., The Gathering Storm (The Second World War), Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, NY, 1948, p. 64).

JOHN MILTON

Likewise, in John Milton's poetic masterpiece containing more than ten thousand verses of Biblical history regarding the fall of man, Moloch is depicted as a brutish spirit, obsessed with war and violence. He urges the devils to return to battle Heaven even after their defeat has landed them in Hell. Important for purposes of this blog, Milton portrayed Moloch as the fallen angel who caused Solomon to build a temple against God wherein children, in sacrifice to his idol, were burned alive:

HINNOM, TOPHET, GEHENNA, or HELL

First MOLOCH, horrid King besmear'd with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents tears,
Though, for the noyse of Drums and Timbrels loud,
Their children's cries unheard that passed through fire
To his grim Idol. Him the AMMONITE
Worshipt in RABBA and her watry Plain,
In ARGOB and in BASAN, to the stream
Of utmost ARNON. Nor content with such
Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart
Of SOLOMON he led by fraud to build
His Temple right against the Temple of God
On that opprobrious Hill, and made his Grove
The pleasant Vally of HINNOM, TOPHET thence
And black GEHENNA call'd, the Type of Hell (Milton, John, Paradise Lost, Book I, 392-405). 

SATAN CAST OUT

In this literary work, Moloch is further listed among the chief of Satan's angels and, to those cast out of Heaven and assembled at the parliament of Hell, argues for immediate warfare against God. Although somewhat lengthy, this appeal is worthwhile reading (note: to facilitate understanding, the plain-english translation in used below):

SATAN SUMMONS HIS COUNCILS

Satan sat on his throne.

It was fancier than the richest kings of Persia or India had. He had become the king of evil.

It was more than he hoped for, and now he was greedy for more.

Instead of learning from his defeat, he just wanted to fight God some more.

So he began to tell his dream to the assembly.Gods of Heaven! - I still call you that because no place, however deep and dark, can weaken immortal power.

I'm not giving up on Heaven.

We will rise up more glorious and more feared than if we never fell, and not be afraid that we might lose again. 

Heaven's law made me your leader. The rights of justice gave us free will. And our achievements gave us honor and glory. 

Now we have it all back again, and in a much safer place. He willingly gave us this kingdom. Nobody would want to take it away from us. 

The powers that rule in the comfort of Heaven might be envied, but who's going to envy whoever rules in Hell and is in constant pain and under constant threat of attack from above? 

Where there's nothing to steal, there are no thieves. Nobody wants to gain worse pain for himself than he already has. 

That makes us more firmly united. Now we can fight for what is rightly ours. 

We have a better chance of succeeding now than when we were in the comforts of Heaven. Now it's just a matter of deciding how to go about it. Who wants to speak?

Moloch stood up. He was the strongest and fiercest angel in the war.

He wanted to be as strong as God, otherwise to him life wasn't worth living.

He was willing to risk everything.

MOLOCH

I vote for war, he said. I don't know anything about trickery. Those of you who want to sit around conspiring, do it on your own time! What do you expect the rest of us to do--sit around and wait in this hell-hole while our warden sits above on his comfortable throne? No! Let's take these damned hell-flames and attack his angels with them. He invented these tortures. Let's return them to him and dump sulfur and black fire on his throne. It won't be as hard as you think. Being chased downward and falling like we did is unnatural to us. But we can fly upward more easily, and take them by surprise. Are you afraid to make him mad again? What more can he do to us? What's worse than this?--where fire tortures us without end, and we're slaves at his mercy to punish whenever and in whatever way he wants. How much worse could things get? If he decides to kill us, let him. At least we'll be out of here. And if we really are immortal and can't die, then we can make his life miserable with repeated attacks forever. If not victory, at least we can get our revenge (Milton, John, Paradise Lost, Book II, 1-105).

To the people he served, Solomon was the INCARNATION OF MOLOCH.

THAT WHICH THEY DESIRED

So . . . why did the Lord bless one whose kingdom was full of darkness?

Whatever work

SOLOMON'S WIVES AND IDOLATRY

God desired to accomplish with Israel, He generally sought to do so through those who had power over them. Hence, there was an occasional changing of the guard. At times, those placed in power were foreign nations used to chasten God's people; at times, prophets and kings from within were placed as rulers that God might bless His people. At this specific time in Israel's history, the Lord blessed a king from within--Solomon--to chasten His people; and that the words of the prophet Samuel would not fall to the ground (see 1 Samuel 3:19). Surely, God could have removed Solomon out of his place. Nevertheless, God chose to retain Solomon because he was what God's people desired. 

When the Book of Mormon prophet, Mosiah, neared death, he established judges to reign over the Nephites according to the commandments of God (see Mosiah 29:21-27). This political structure, however, was not an original idea. Following the death of Joshua, the Bible notes that "the Lord raised up judges, which delivered [Israel] out of the hand of those that spoiled them. And when the Lord raised them up judges, then the Lord was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the Lord because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them" (Judges 2:16, 18). True to form, the record states that the Lord's people . . .

SAMUEL DEDICATED BY HANNAH

. . . would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the Lord; but they did not so.

And when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubbornway (Judges 2:17, 19)

This form of leadership continued until Samuel, the prophet. Unfortunately, those of Samuel's sons who were appointed judges in Israel "walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment" (1 Samuel 8:2-3). By then, Israel had grown weary of this particular form of leadership. As a result, all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came and said unto Samuel, "Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations" (1 Samuel 8:4-5). Their simple request marked a critical turning point for Israel. Although displeased and discouraged, Samuel took the matter to the Lord:

And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. 

According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. 

Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them (1 Samuel 8:7-9).

Samuel returned and, as requested, rehearsed to the elders the manner of king that would reign over them. Neither the first nor second kings of Israel fit within Samuel's description. Solomon, however, fits his description in every detail. Following each verse of the description Samuel gave, a fulfillment of his description, as it pertains to Solomon, is provided below:

He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. (1 Kings 4:26-28; 1 Kings 9:19; 2 Chronicles 1:14, 17; 2 Chronicles 8:6; 2 Chronicles 9:25).

And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. (1 Kings 9:22, 27; 2 Chronicles 8:9-10).

And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. (1 Kings 4:7, 22-23, 27; 1 Kings 10:5; 2 Chronicles 9:4)

And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. (2 Chronicles 2:15; 2 Chronicles 9:7)

And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. (1 Kings 4:2-19)

And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. (1 Kings 5:13-16; 2 Chronicles 2:2)

He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. (1 Kings 8:63; 2 Chronicles 5:6; 2 Chronicles 7:4-5)

And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day.

Nevertheless, it is recorded that ". . . the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; that we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles" (1 Samuel 8:11-20).

It is at this point, that an important lesson should be brought to the forefront: God grants to men according to the desires of their hearts, whether they desire good or whether they desire evil. After declaring his wish to cry repentance unto every people (Alma 29:1) that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth (Alma 29:2), the Book of Mormon prophet, Alma, mildly rescinded his declaration:

I ought not to harrow up in my desires the firm decree of a just God, for I know that he granteth unto men according to their desire, whether it be unto death or unto life; yea, I know that he allotteth unto men, yea, decreeth unto them decrees which are unalterable, according to their wills, whether they be unto salvation or unto destruction.

Yea, and I know that good and evil have come before all men; he that knoweth not good from evil is blameless; but he that knoweth good and evil, to him it is given according to his desires, whether he desireth good or evil, life or death, joy or remorse of conscience (Alma 29:4-5).

The Israelites were raised in an environment whereby they knew good from evil, and to them it was given according to the desires of their heart. Hence, when Samuel rehearsed all that he had heard from the elders, the Lord said to Samuel, "Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king" (1 Samuel 8:21-22). A king he did make, and as Solomon began his reign, the Lord plainly declared that He was not pleased with Solomon, but was willing to prosper him because the people desired it:

And the Lord was not pleased with Solomon, for he made affinity with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter to wife, and brought her into the house of David until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall of Jerusalem round about. And the Lord blessed Solomon for the people's sake only (JST 1 Kings 3:1; emphasis conspicuously added).[1]

Hence, the first and ONLY reason the Lord prospered Solomon was for the people's sake. 

ACQUIRING ALL THINGS

Of the seven things which Solomon received in the likeness of Christ, I wish to address RICHES first. This is because doing so provides the most immediate and obvious connection to the antichrist of which John speaks.

To be continued in Part IV . . .

ENDNOTES

[1] The emphasized elements of the foregoing verse are contributions by the prophet, Joseph Smith. The fact that they did not find their way into the footnotes of the LDS edition of the Old Testament is an unfortunate mishap, for they provide the best doctrinal explanation as to why Solomon received power, riches, wisdom, strength, honour, glory, and blessing from God.