Jesus Triumphant (Chronicles of the Nephilim Book 8) by Brian Godawa Read Free Book Online

Nymphs were the seductive sexual courtiers of Pan, the god of passions and nature. The High Priestess, dressed in an exotic silken robe, embroidered with gems, had been expecting them.
    “Welcome to our sacred space,” she said, “I am the Ob of Panias.”
    She continued with a deep bow, reiterated by the others with her. “The sacred order of Pan welcomes, with humble submission, the most high god, Ba’al and his escort, the mother of the gods, Asherah.”
    The gods were not so formally inclined. They had a job to do, and no time to delay. “Ob, we need your skills with necromancy,” said Ba’al. “The time is come to call up the hordes of the dead.”
     
    They entered the large cave opening and followed the river back into the dark recesses. It had been so many ages since their primordial fall from heaven, that Ba’al and Asherah had forgotten their original names as Sons of God. Their gender was male, but some of them, like Asherah, were masquerading as goddesses, so they played the part to the full by modifying their bodies to appear female.
    Ba’al had come so far in his quest for power. He began as an upstart deity before the Flood, when Anu and Inanna ruled the pantheon in Mesopotamia. When the Flood ravaged the earth and most of the gods were bound in Tartarus, Ba’al began to build his skills and strength until he became the most formidable of divinities, calling himself Ninurta, and then Marduk. It was not until he arrived in Canaan that he was able to ascend above the stars of heaven and become Elyon Ba’al, the Most High.
    During the time of Israel’s forefather, Abraham, the archangels invaded his palace on Mount Sapan in the far reaches of the north and cast him into the molten magma that flowed beneath the earth. But he came back with a vengeance when he was vomited out of the great volcanic island of Thera during the time of King David, their anointed one.
    Ba’al had been nursed back to health by Asherah on the shores of Tyre, and she conspired with him to betray Dagon, chief god of the Philistines, in order to renew Ba’al’s place as head of the pantheon. Over the generations of Israel’s growth in her Promised Land of inheritance, Ba’al and Asherah had managed to worm their way into the hearts of Israelites like a couple of parasites. Though Jews were expressly forbidden by Yahweh from worshiping other gods or making images of them, the populace nevertheless became infatuated with them and whored after the Canaanite deities. The extent to which Jews gave them obeisance is the extent to which the gods had freedom and power to occupy the land and keep it from being inherited by Yahweh’s people.
    Ba’al was called by other names in various locations. He went by Ba’alzebul in the Philistine coastal cities, which meant, “Ba’al the Prince.” He had various Israelite locations named after him such as Ba’al-Berith, Ba’al-Gad, Ba’al-Peor, and others. When his palace on Sapan was destroyed by the angels, he decided not to rebuild it and took as his own the holy cosmic mountain where the gods assembled, and in whose foothills lay this very Cave of Pan. Mount Hermon was now called Ba’al-Hermon.
    Asherah, on the other hand, had been a great support to Ba’al. She did not seek to usurp his authority and became his ally in the pantheon. She worked patiently through subterfuge and cunning intrigue. In the days of the Israelite monarchy, she had managed to infiltrate Israel with her cult prostitutes and Asherim poles placed right beside the Yahwist altars of sacrifice on the high places.
    She and Ba’al had both cursed the day that the pious prig King Josiah of Israel uncovered long lost scrolls of the Law of God they had neglected in their backslidden ways. He reformed the culture, cleansed the holy temple, and purged Israel of her high places and cult objects of idolatry. The gods’ previous control diminished. Asherah and Ba’al wanted to ring Josiah’s neck for the inestimable