Twilight of the Gods – Chapter 05

Is it possible that behind what is taking place in America and the world lies a mystery that goes back to the gods of the ancient world…and that they now have returned?
The Return of the Gods is the most explosive book Jonathan Cahn has ever written. It is so explosive and so revealing that no description here could do it justice. Jonathan Cahn is known for revealing the stunning mysteries, many from ancient times, that lie behind and are playing out in the events of our times. But with The Return of the Gods , Cahn takes this to an entirely new level and dimension.
The Return of the Gods , Cahn takes the reader on a journey from an ancient parable, the ancient inscriptions in Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia that become the puzzle pieces behind what is taking place in our world to this day, specifically in America. Is it possible that what we in the modern world take as nothing more than ancient mythology could actually possess a reality beyond our fathoming?

Chapter five twilight of the gods 2000 years ago, in the midst of the Greco Roman world in the Heartland of Galilee.
In the hilltop village of Nazareth, there appeared a Jewish man named Yeshua who would become known to much of the world as Jesus.
He came as the long prophesized redeemer, the messiah of Israel and the light of the world.
He would in time become the central figure of human history.
The Galilean, the earliest accounts of his ministry record his performing miracles in the site of the Judean multitudes, the lame walked the blind received sight and the lepers were healed.
Another miracle of healing that he was recorded to have performed was described by the Greek word Abalo.
Abalo means to expel to eject, to cast out, to send away the Bible records.
Several encounters between Jesus and those possessed or demonized by unclean spirits.
In each case, he cast out the demonic spirit.
In each case, the person was set free, healed and restored to his or her right mind.
Before the end of his ministry on earth, he imparted the same power of Abalo, the casting out of spirits to his disciples emanation.
In the fourth decade of the first century, the message of forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life in the death and resurrection of the Messiah Yeshua or Jesus.
The message that would become known as the Gospel went forth from the city of Jerusalem.
It spread first throughout the land of Judea.
Then it went into the nations to the gentiles, the gospel and the word of God had crossed into the pagan world.
That crossing would change the course of world history.
The message of God now entered the lands of many gods and idols.
The ways of God now touched the ways of the pagan world.
The word of God now touched the realm of mythology.
The spirit of God now moved through the world of spirits and the disciples of God now moved through the Dominion of the shade, the Dimona clash of the gods, if behind the gods were Principalities, then when the two worlds met, we would expect an intense conflict.
And that is exactly what took place. It was a clash of spirits.
The Book of Acts records several of those first clashes in the city of Philippi, a woman possessed with the spirit of divination stalked the apostle Paul and his coworker Silas for days, Luke, the writer of the account uses the Greek word Python or Python to describe the possessing spirit.
It is the same word used to identify the oracle of Delphi and the spirit that possessed her and the God behind the spirit that possessed her.
After several days of being followed or stalked the apostle Paul cast the spirit out of the woman.
It was that casting out of the spirit that led to a violent backlash.
The crowds went into an uproar. The two disciples were arrested, beaten and imprisoned.
Their imprisonment only came to an end when an earthquake shook the prison to its foundations in the city of Ephesus where the disciples proclaimed the word performed miracles of healing and cast out the spirits.
The conflict between the gospel and the gods led to a dangerous confrontation.
The idol makers of Ephesus stirred up the multitude into a fury against the word and faith that was being proclaimed.
The violent rage was centered on the city’s patron goddess whom they believed was threatened by the new message and faith.
The crowd chanted the name of the goddess over and over again as it sought to exact vengeance against the disciples, fury of the gods.
The rage of the pagan world against the gospel would grow so fierce that in time, believers would be imprisoned, crucified, burned and sent into the arenas to be killed as entertainment before cheering Spectators.
The fury of the gods and the ferocity of the spirits were now deadly.
In the early years of the fourth century, the Roman Emperor Diocletian launched what would become known as the great persecution.
The number of Christians arrested became so great that common criminals had to be released from Roman prisons in order to make room beyond imprisonment.
Diocletian’s persecution would lead to the torture and execution of countless believers in Jesus.
The great persecution with its deadly fury was rooted in the gods.
It was launched on the day called Terminalia, the festival of the Roman God, terminus lord of boundaries and endings.
The persecution was intended to bring about the end of faith in Jesus and the termination of his followers, Christians would be commanded to offer sacrifices to the pagan gods.
If they refused, they would be imprisoned or killed the oracles wore.
But there is a story behind the story.
The great persecution had its origin in the city of Dima in the hilltop temple of Apollo by the Aegean Sea.
It was there that the Emperor Diocletian sent a delegation to have an audience with the temple’s oracle.
It was believed that the gods were angry at the new faith.
It was believed that the gospel was interfering with the ability of the gods to transmit prophecies to their priests and priestesses.
The delegation came with a question for the oracle.
The emperor wanted to know whether he should launch a persecution against them.
The oracle’s response gave Diocletian the answer he needed.
He was to make war against the believers and the new faith.
So the greatest persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire was launched by a woman possessed by a spirit, one of the shade, the Damia, the spirit of a pagan God, the great exorcism.
In the end, it was not the gods that prevailed or the might of the Roman Empire or the words of the oracle against all odds.
The overwhelmingly powerless followers of the crucified redeemer, overcame the fires of persecution and the message of the gospel of God’s love and forgiveness, overcame the reign of the gods.
The polytheism and pantheism of the Greco Roman world gave way to the belief in one God and the mythological consciousness of ancient paganism yielded to the word of God and to a salvation that had manifested in time and space myth yielded to history.
The spell of the gods was broken, the skies were no longer filled with their Thrones and the earth was no longer their haunting ground, their names no longer inspired fear and awe.
Their festivals attracted fewer and fewer worshippers, their shrines were abandoned, their temples fell into ruin.
It was the twilight of the gods.
But if behind the gods were the spirits, then when the spell of the gods was broken, we would expect the signs of possession to dissipate.
And so they did the frenzied spirit possessions of the pagan priests, priestesses oracles and worshipers became an increasingly rare phenomenon.
The carnal and licentious acts of pagan worship and rituals were banned from the public sphere and human sacrifice became a distant memory.
The breaking of the spell, the breaking of the spell and its repercussions went far beyond the realm of pagan worship, the degradation of human life that was typical of paganism yielded before the new belief that life was sacred.
The individual was also sacred and so possessed immutable rights.
Women were likewise sacred and were to be treated as equal heirs of the kingdom and the poor and the weak were no less created in the image of God than were the rich and powerful.
They were to be treated accordingly as equals.
Every life was now of inestimable value and equally precious in the sight of God.
Every realm of society was affected.
Sexuality was now to be treated as a sacred gift from God to be honored and kept in the equally sacred vessel of marriage.
As for little Children, they were no longer to be abused or mistreated to take their lives because they were unwanted was now a crime.
As for emperors and rulers, governments and kingdoms, they could no longer claim the authority of Godhood.
They too were subject to God’s laws and standards as was everyone.
So the twilight of the gods would transform the Roman Empire and Western civilization.
The Greek word Abalo used in the New Testament to describe jesus’ as casting spirits out of individuals.
Now took on a colossal dimension. The casting out now applied to an entire empire.
The gods had been cast out of their temples, their cities and lands from Western civilization itself.
And if behind the gods were the spirits.
Then the casting out of the gods represented the greatest mass exorcism in world history.
My hall has fallen what happened to the oracle of Delphi, the pinnacle of pagan revelation and its most exalted case of spirit possession.
In the year 362 the pagan Roman emperor known as Julian, the apostate attempted to restore the oracle’s temple to its former glory.
He sent a representative to consult her.
She sent back a word that would become known as her last pronouncement.
It is recorded that she said this, tell the emperor that my hall has fallen to the ground.
Phoebus, the God Apollo no longer has his house, nor his manic bay, nor his prophetic spring.
The water has dried up. The gods had been exiled, the possessing spirits had been cast out no longer.
Could they take possession as they had in earlier days? Nor could they direct empires with their prophetic utterances?
Their oracles had grown silent exiles and exorcisms.
It was an end and a new beginning.
The driving out of gods and spirits that took place in the Roman Empire would now take place beyond its borders.
It would happen in every place in which the gospel was received.
Each time it happened, the signs of possession, individual and civilizational would begin to disappear.
No longer would the Germanic tribes gather in the forests to hang their victims on sacred trees as sacrifices to their God Odin no longer would the slaves offer up their prisoners and slaves as sacrifices to their God per and no longer will the Aztecs tear out to the beating hearts of their victims in honor of their son, God, what had happened in the Roman Empire would be repeated throughout the earth.
Civilizations were exercised, the gods lost their hold and the spirits departed.
The phenomenon of a civilization set free from the gods and cleansed of the spirits was something new to world history.
It had never before happened. The phenomenon was unique to western civilization.
It would radically alter the course of that civilization and then that of the world itself.
The worship of gods may come to an end but Principalities and spirits do not.
They go on what then became of the gods and spirits.
And if they did go on, could they not one day return?
And if they did return, what would happen to bring the mystery into modern times, we must uncover one more ancient puzzle piece.