Mystery Babylon As Wonder Woman (2017)

    Wonder Woman (2017) has been highly regarded as an excellent example of the superhero movie. Updated international box office receipts totaled $821.74 million (US), making it the highest-grossing superhero origin film ever made. Indeed, I found it to be an enjoyable movie. It has a certain subtlety when it comes to its themes, most notably feminism, and because of this subtlety it was easy to accept, and at times, tempting to agree. Men were not always cardboard-cutouts suited to a feminist narrative and Wonder Woman was occasionally depicted as feminine, even traditionally so. I laughed along with the humorous sections and I appreciated the action sequences. The only troubling aspect that I perceived on my first time watching the film is the reason I chose to review it for this blog: it puts Wonder Woman in the place of Jesus Christ! Frequently, the film maps itself onto the Gospel account by applying key elements of the life of Christ to the character of Wonder Woman. I couldn't help but notice this the first time I saw the film, as I said, and upon re-watching it I found many more correspondences between the movie and the Gospel.

At first, I believed that feminism was one theme, and Diana-as-Saviour was another. Although the character of Wonder Woman exemplified feminist ideals, it seemed justified in context because Wonder Woman literally has overwhelming super powers in a world of ordinary mortals. How could she be expected to conform to a cultural space assigned her by an entirely foreign culture that she was only briefly passing through, and which also could not account for her superior abilities? But when one considers that Wonder Woman as a feminist icon stands for all women, it becomes apparent that her rejection of patriarchal standards is meant as a model for all women, of whom she is captain or archegos (cf. Heb 2:9-10). Therefore, she represents an inversion of the headship order God has established:

"But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God."  1 Cor 11:3

According to the inverted feminist pattern, the head of every woman is Wonder Woman, and the head of the man is the woman. Now, in case you think this claim is outlandish, remember that the desire of the woman to have authority over the man was declared by God as a result of the sin in the Garden due to Satan's temptation:

"Unto the woman he said...and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." Gen 3:16a,c

This is the same relationship that sin has to mankind. As God said to Cain,

"If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him." Gen 4:7

    One further striking proof of the goal of feminism is given by this statue outside of Emmanuel College, part of Victoria University in the University of Toronto, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This is a theological school associated with the United Church of Canada, and the statue testifies to how deeply acceptance of "that woman Jezebel" has entered into the church, particularly liberal, ecumenical churches (Rev 2:20).

Retrieved from tumblr 03/01/2021, posted by theruggedstreet

    Since the Scripture says the woman is the glory of the man, and the scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35), honouring a woman as if she were the Saviour is in fact only man glorifying himself. (But, "Jesus answered, 'If I honour myself, my honour is nothing:'" John 8:54a). This is why the beast carries the woman in Rev 17. Honour or glory, in the Old Testament, is referred to using the Hebrew word kavod, which properly means weight, but figuratively and in a good sense. The woman, who is a whore, in being carried by the beast, is the weight of his glory (they glory in their shame, Phil 3:18-19). Men, in glorifying a woman, are only exalting themselves and putting themselves in the place of God, which is what the beast, the antichrist, will do. When he appears, he will take the place of the glorified woman, the Whore, himself, and will make her desolate and naked, and eat her flesh, and burn her with fire (Rev 17:16). Proponents of feminism think they are fighting to increase the power and authority of women but really they are preparing themselves to be a meal for the antichrist, to bring him into position where he can show himself that he is God (2 Thess 2:4).

    Sin wants to devour the man by means of his lusts, taking his strength, but all who are in Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death and are therefore free from sin and do not have to let it reign in their mortal bodies, to obey it in its bodily lusts (Rom 6:11-12). The natural or sinful woman would also devour our strength by means of those lusts and thus rule over us, but being risen with Jesus Christ we can obey the righteousness of God and remain free from bondage to women through lust (Rom 6:16-18, Gen 3:16).

    I will now proceed to show the feminist elements but especially the antichrist elements of the movie. As already implied in the preceding discussion, by antichrist elements what is meant are those elements that demonstrate that Wonder Woman is written to be a replacement for Christ. Anti- is a Greek preposition that in my studies I have found is best interpreted as "instead of". Wonder Woman is an instead-of-Christ, and yes, this amounts to "opposition to" and "exaltation above" as written in 2 Thess 2:4. That is, anything put in the place where Jesus should be, as a substitute for Him. Since Jesus Christ is the one in Whom all things hold together, anything put in His place, being insufficient to that task, will result in all things falling apart, which is exactly what we see spoken of in the Bible when the antichrist himself actually comes. The movie, however--like this world--does not foresee the impending disastrous result of putting a substitute in the place of the Lord Jesus Christ and that is why they will do it.

    The opening sentence of the movie fits our framing precisely. A voiced-over Diana reflects, "I used to want to save the world." What follows is a creation narrative that blends Biblical elements with ancient Greek and even Mormon and Islamic beliefs. Zeus, put in the place of God, is said to have created beings over which the gods would rule, beings "born in his image", the race of man. Man was good but Zeus' son, Ares, was envious of man and sought to corrupt his father's creation. The idea that Ares, in the place of the devil, was Zeus' son is equivalent to the Mormon claim that Satan is Jesus' spirit-brother, and also fits the Islamic claim that Satan fell due to envy of man. It never ceases to amaze me how something can be so apparently close to true and yet in the final analysis, completely outside the truth. For example, in Hippolyta's account, she says that man was good at creation. In the Biblical account, God says that the light was good (Gen 1:4), the Earth and the Seas good (Gen 1:10), the grass, seed-bearing herb, and fruit- and seed-bearing trees good (Gen 1:12), the sun, moon, and stars good (Gen 1:18), the creatures of the waters and the winged fowl good (Gen 1:21), the creatures of the earth good (Gen 1:25), and even everything that God had made, very good (Gen 1:31). The only works that God did not say were good specifically were the works of the second day, the creation of the firmament, Heaven, dividing the waters below from the waters above, and the creation of man on the sixth day! There is certainly reason for this, and I believe it has to do with the Redemption that would need to be accomplished by Jesus Christ, for verily he was "slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev 13:8). This is also why it can truly be said that all things God made were very good while at the same time not saying that man in himself was good. After writing this, I came across an Arnold Schwarzenegger science fiction movie called The 6th Day and it begins with a conflated quotation from the Bible, absent the ellipsis to indicate the missing section. The result makes it look as if the Bible says God saw that man was "very good", just as in the creation myth in Wonder Woman.

    So Wonder Woman (and The 6th Day) says man by nature was good but God does not say this. What are the implications of this? Well, wherever there is departure from God's Word, there is error, and error tends to start off small and end big (Gen 11:6, "this they begin to do"). The implication here, which is made explicit later in the movie, is that once the corrupting influence, Ares, is removed, man will naturally return to his original state of being "good".

    The Bible instead teaches that once we have sinned, we become sinners under the power of death. Sin also leaves a residue that will not depart without cleansing by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. And the Gospel, indeed, requires not only the death of Christ for our sins but also His Resurrection for our justification. So we are only cleansed of our sins by the blood of Christ and only made righteous by His Resurrection. The deactivation of the power of the devil over those who believe in Jesus is a crucial part of our salvation, and the washing of regeneration and indwelling of the Holy Spirit is essential in making us good. That is, we are good only in Christ. We must be born again with the Lord in us. Satan proved that man by himself is not good but was vulnerable to temptation through his deception of the woman. As the Scripture says, the first man Adam was natural and "of the earth, earthy", but the second man is the Lord from heaven (1 Cor 15:44-49)!

    Since Wonder Woman, as we shall see, does not die in the movie and is not raised from the dead, neither ascends to heaven, she cannot indwell man. And therefore it would appear to be an essential feature of her 'gospel', if it is to be effective, that with the removal of Ares, man naturally reverts back to his (allegedly) good original nature. More on this later, as the film does explicitly address the subject of man's goodness on several occasions.

From the storybook pictures accompanying the narration (and also the application of logic) it appears that the race of man also included women. These women are not explicitly mentioned in the narration, nor are they honored with any unique account of their origin. The Amazons themselves were a later creation of the gods, not in the image of Zeus, that were intended to exercise a pacific influence upon men by means of "love". At first this worked but it wasn't long before man enslaved the Amazons. No reason is given for this excess although it might have been the result of the jealousy and suspicion that Ares had already sown in men's hearts. As an alternate explanation, without the love of God in them (John 5:42), the Amazons' attempt to 'love' man into a more peaceful mould might have bred bitter resentment and hatred in the targets of their manipulation and 'redirection'. This Amazonian 'love' reminds me of Jezebel and the Whore of Babylon, whose control techniques are whoredoms and witchcrafts (2 Kings 9:22, Rev 18:3, 23), things which the world increasingly labels as love but which are in truth sins against Love.

After an unspecified time in enslavement, there was a revolt led by Hippolyta, who would become Diana's mother. The gods, led by Zeus, intervened on behalf of the Amazons, but Ares slew them one by one. Eventually, he was defeated in battle by Zeus but not destroyed. Zeus' power now consumed, before dying he gave a weapon to be used by the Amazons in defense of mankind should Ares ever return. At the same time Wonder Woman herself was sculpted from clay by Hippolyta and then given life by Zeus.

    So we have some interesting information and even more interesting gaps. Amazons and men are two different races. Amazons were not made from men as Eve was made of Adam's rib. Men were born in Zeus' image to be ruled over by the gods and so have some connection and responsibility towards him. Even now that he is dead, they are still bound to him as their model. But since Zeus died and remained dead, there is no hope in Zeus of eternal life for man. However, Amazons were not made in Zeus' image so they are bound to no divine model but are autonomous. Ordinary women, however, those which are part of the race of man, are still responsible to Zeus and the 'patriarchy'. If Amazons represent Woke feminists, then these are the women who are not Woke, such as Christian women. They are part of the race of man, not the race of Amazons. This explains how in the real world, the Woke can attack those women who don't agree with their doctrine or even just stop short of total allegiance. It explains how conservative women can be spoken of in plainly misogynistic terms by so-called feminists, and even feminists like J.K. Rowling are attacked for defending the identity of natural-born women as distinct from trans-women. Rowling is a heretic in their eyes: in movie terms she still has allegiance remaining towards Zeus and the patriarchy, meaning that she is a member of the race of man, but her critics, Amazons.

Moreover, the movie suggests the possibility of these women becoming followers of Diana and thus being 'born again' into an Amazonian identity! A human woman, with no hope of eternal life and under both Zeus and the patriarchy, can, by becoming a Woke feminist after Diana, obtain emancipation from both Zeus (a stand-in for God) and man and become autonomous--self-ruled, a law unto herself...with even a hint of overcoming death, as the Amazons seem to be naturally extremely long-lived.

 

It is no accident that those on the vanguard of Mystery Babylon are called Woke, because the 'social justice' movement itself is a counterfeit Christianity, and the Bible says that reproving evil deeds according to the judgment of God is like lifting the blinds on a sleeping person: the light streams in and it wakes them up to spiritual life!

"Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."  Eph 5:14

 

The Woke call themselves such because they believe they have seen the light concerning patterns of evil deeds perpetuated throughout society. But this is according to their own judgment and not the judgment of God, for if it were truly of God they would also be reproved for their own evil deeds and convinced of their need for salvation (John 16:7-11)! They would not be so unforgiving, judgmental, and condemning, for they would be taught by Christ that they themselves often need forgiveness, mercy, and grace from God! Moreover, the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus Christ and the Woke never glorify Jesus Christ, showing that they do not have the Holy Spirit which means the light they have seen is from the one that is transformed into an angel of light, Satan (2 Cor 11:13-15). They are not really Woke at all but they continue in the sleep of death.

Hypocrisy, accusations, and self-righteousness are the distinctive marks of a Pharisee, a person that has a strict religious (or quasi-religious) code and yet hates the true God and the Lord Jesus Christ. As the scripture says, they may be zealous but not according to knowledge. They are ignorant of God's righteousness and instead go about to establish their own righteousness, and in this state have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God (Rom 10:2-4). Christ is the perfect man they are seeking to know and be like if only they would take His yoke upon them and learn of Him (Matt 11:28-30). May they repent to God's truth and believe the Gospel of Christ's death for our sins and resurrection from the dead for our justification, that they might be saved, too: for our God is willing!

    Another point, not minor, about the spiritual meaning of this movie is the connection between Wonder Woman and Diana of Ephesus, spoken of in the Bible. Wonder Woman's name is Diana, and the "Lady of Ephesus" is called Artemis in the Greek but translated as Diana in the King James Version probably because by the time the apostle preached in Ephesus, it was part of the Roman Empire. When the silversmiths who made shrines to Diana realized their profits would be threatened and their goddess despised if the city obeyed the Gospel Paul preached, they took up a cry that spread throughout the city: "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" As a result of the praise of this idol, confusion filled the city (Acts 17:29, 32)! The Bible tells us that the great city of confusion is Mystery Babylon, and because idolatry is here shown to be productive of confusion, Mystery Babylon is a city of idols.  "They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols."  Isaiah 45:16

The Greeks, upon discovering the cult of the so-called Lady of Ephesus, identified her with their goddess Artemis by interpretatio graeca, which the Romans had absorbed into their goddess Diana by the time of the New Testament. But this "Lady of Ephesus" has a history going back further than the Hellenic period, and has much in common with Near-Eastern mother goddesses such as Cybele, Ashtoreth (Canaanite version of Inanna-Ishtar), and Isis. The temple of the idol at Ephesus was attended by eunuch priests called Megabyzoi, who were assisted by young virgin girls. Cybele also had eunuch priests called Galli, and in 2002 the remains of a 4th century Gallus was found in England dressed in women's clothes! The earliest surviving references to the Galli often refer to them as "she". Thus we see that the Galli, eunuch priests of Cybele, map precisely onto what are today called trans-women! In particular, "the image that fell down from Jupiter" spoken of by the townclerk in Acts 19:35 allegedly came to ground in Phyrgia at Pessinus (meaning, Place of the Fall). The Phrygians worshipped Cybele in Pessinus on the banks of the river Gallus, from which the Galli receive their name (Herodian, 1.11.1)! So it is indisputable that Diana of Ephesus is closely associated with Cybele (Herodian, 1.10.5).  Ashtoreth is also spoken of in the Bible as "the abomination of the Zidonians" (2 Kings 23:13), which Solomon went after once his heart was no longer perfect with the LORD his God, as his father David's heart had been (1 Kings 11:4-6). The Near-Eastern mother goddesses typically involved sexual and fertility rites performed with temple prostitutes.

    Moreover, several ancient sources refer to the Amazons as a real people, and Callimachus reports in his Hymn to Artemis that the first queen of the Amazons, Otrera, founded the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. There is some question as to the meaning of the name 'Amazon' but one interpretation is that it means 'breastless', from the Greek α-privative and 'mazos' meaning breast. This could have developed from the practice of removing one breast or searing it in childhood in order to have no impediments to archery or spear-wielding. Or, as the Galli were what today is called trans-women, could these 'breastless' warriors have been what is now called 'trans-men'? However, it is also possible that the α is an intensifier, making the term Amazon mean 'great-breasted', suggesting might and bravery in battle. Ancient depictions of Amazons show two-breasted women, making this second possibility the more likely. In either case, the reputation of Amazons as warrior women who established the temple of the idol at Ephesus goes significant distance in explaining the identification of this idol as Artemis. Artemis was a huntress, committed if not to war then at least to hunting and weapons.

Although the original ξόανον (xoanon, idol) does not survive, several copies do, as well as depictions on coins and textual references in ancient sources. Most notable are the oval globes on the chest of the idol:

Detail of Marble Statue of Greek Artemis (Roman: Diana)

Ancient Christian writers believed these to be or represent breasts and called Artemis of Ephesus multimammia on this account (Minucius Felix, Octavius 22:5; Jerome, Commentary on the Epistle to Ephesus Proem). There are numerous theories about the real nature, meaning, and origin of these oval globes but the best theory I have found is that they are bumblebee hives! Bumblebees make hives in identical shapes and they cluster together in this fashion also:

Hives of Wild Bees That Were a Symbol of the Ephesian Artemis

According to the author of this site, it is likely that bumblebees made hives together on the original wooden ξόανον, which was then interpreted as a divine sign. Thus being regarded as sacred, the hives were not removed and were even incorporated into later copies and depictions. There is additional circumstantial support for this explanation, including the use of the bee as a symbol on the shields of Ephesian hoplites and on the coins of the city. Furthermore, girls who served in the temple were called Melissai, meaning, 'Bees'! Interestingly, the Greek word for beehive is κυψέλη (cf. κυβέλη). Surely the appearance of these beehives spontaneously, if indeed that is what happened, would have been interpreted as a sign of approval and acceptance from κυβέλη and would certainly give impetus to the rise of this cult centre. Furthermore, in Acts 19:35, Ephesus is called the temple-warden of Diana and "the image which fell down from Jupiter." That latter phrase is the translation made of a single word, διοπετοῦς, literally, "that which alighted from Zeus". In mythology, it is lightning bolts that descend or are cast down from Zeus. Pondering, I considered the metaphorical or likely 'mystery' interpretation of the lightning bolt as inspiration. When we want to visually depict someone as having a bright idea, we often use the image of a light bulb over their head. A light bulb is not only giving light but it is powered by electricity. So I googled the lightning bolt as a symbol of inspiration, and this is what I found almost immediately as the most fitting result of my inquiry:

Belgravia Gifting Specialists (@belgraviagifting) on Instagram: “Beegoddess Lightning Necklace @beegoddessjewellery ~~~~~ Lightning is a symbol of enlightenment,…”

The caption is taken directly from the image as posted on Instagram. It links to a jewellery website called bee goddess that speaks of its devotion to an Anatolian mother goddess, images of which were found in the ancient ruins of Çatalhöyük, claimed to be the first settlement in the world. Given that Çatalhöyük is only 200 kilometres south-southeast of Pessinus, the centre of Cybele worship, this mother goddess can only be Cybele. The image depicted on bee goddess wears a Beehive styled tiara, which motif is claimed to signify that she is Queen Bee who "streams with honey". Thus the many beehive breasts of Diana of Ephesus would represent a "land flowing with milk and honey" as a counterfeit to the Promised Land of God to His People Israel. And all this discovered simply by searching for the lightning bolt as a symbol of inspiration! Surely then the living component of the idol would have been seen as heavenly inspiration for the nature and worship of the demon. It also strengthens the idol's later identification with Artemis as the 'mistress of beasts.'

This beehive likelihood does not detract from the significance of the oval globes as breasts. Their meaning as symbols of fertility only further associates the ξόανον with κυβέλη and the great-breasted Amazons who brought the ξόανον, founded the temple, and whose capital Themyscira was only about 600 kilometres away from Pessinus, the centre of Cybele worship. And when the Greeks identified it with Artemis, they must have seen similarities, perhaps in the realms of huntress, the moon, wild animals, and childbirth/midwifery, but in bringing these two 'goddesses' together they were juxtaposing opposites: a chaste and virgin huntress with a sex and fertility mother. It must be pointed out that this oxymoron looks like a counterfeit of Mary the mother of Jesus. Mary was indeed a virgin who became a mother while still a virgin, by a miracle of God as the holy scriptures declare. There is no confusion here because although she became a mother by miracle, she remained a virgin until after the birth of Jesus. So she literally was both virgin and mother for a time due to the miraculous work of God. In contrast, the Diana of Ephesus was a confusion: an identity as a virgin fused with the identity of a mother by ordinary means, i.e. sexual intercourse! A logical impossibility, not a natural impossibility as with Mary. As already mentioned, Babel or Babylon is the Hebrew word meaning confusion by mixing. So we discover that Diana of Ephesus was a counterfeit virgin mother, and it has persisted until the present in the form of the Roman Catholic Mary--an idol and a confusion by mixing two incompatible things (Isaiah 41:29). I believe it is no coincidence that the chief Roman celebration of Diana, the Nemoralia, was held at Lake Nemi on the Ides of August (13th-15th) and the Roman Catholic Feast of the Assumption of Mary is celebrated on the 15th of August. Furthermore, Roman Catholicism taught that Mary eventually left the land of Israel and settled in...you guessed it, Ephesus, where she died, was buried, and (as they falsely claim) was resurrected and assumed bodily into heaven! This is certainly not the Mary of history and the Bible! This is Diana of the Ephesians, repackaged. Listen to this video made by a born again former Catholic teacher, starting at the five minute mark. That this counterfeit virgin mother was used as a Trojan horse by the devil to enter the church and mislead Christians into Marian worship/veneration and supplication is consistent with the Christian era inscription at Ephesus, which calls the idol the "delusive image of the demon Artemis". But the demon still projects its image into the world in many ways and forms, of which the Roman Catholic Mary is one and Wonder Woman is another. These images are only truly smashed by knowledge gained in Christ and not by carnal means of destruction (2 Cor 10:3-6).

Lake Nemi in the Alban Hills, about 20 km southeast of the outskirts of Rome

Now compare the photograph of Lake Nemi above with the picture of Themyscira from the 2009 animated film, Wonder Woman:

Themyscira is a Wilderness Around a Caldera

Lake Nemi, like the lake in the picture of Themyscira, is a caldera, which means it formed when a volcano erupted and a magma-filled chamber was emptied and collapsed, the depression later filling with water. The place where Diana was worshiped certainly has correlations to a "lake of fire" (Rev 20:10-15), albeit currently in disguise.

We see another projection of the same demonic image in the opening of the movie The 6th Day! Moments before the deceitful conflation of the Bible verses, we are presented with an image of Columbia, the so-called 'national personification of America'. According to a Philosophical Freemasonry website, Columbia is an American goddess to be recognized as Inanna/Ishtar and Isis. Venerated as Isis by fertility cults that sprang up along the banks of the Nile, in the Roman context "the parallels between Isis and the western conception of the Virgin Goddess in her myriad forms become starkly apparent." Manly Palmer Hall also called her, "The Virgin of the World". Once again, a mother/sex goddess fused with a virgin goddess. It seems that Columbia is really just the confusion of Diana of Ephesus all over again.

The first reference to confusion in the Bible is when a woman lies down to a beast (Lev 18:23). Paul says in 1 Cor 15:32,

"If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die."

There is no scriptural reference to his fighting actual wild beasts and the phrase "after the manner of men" would indicate that he is referring to the men of Ephesus as beasts because they were worshipers of a goddess of wild beasts! Psalm 115:8, "They that make them [idols] are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them."  Since they worshiped this goddess with sexual rites, and since she was served with temple prostitutes, she was a 'woman' who lay down to beasts: with confusion being the result. Since the beast-men of the city worshiped this idol, she was "the woman carried by the beast" (Rev 17:7). I am not asserting that Diana of Ephesus is the one and only manifestation of Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots And Abominations Of The Earth (Rev 17:5), but only that she is decidedly one form of such: one that is finding present-day continuance in our culture in the form of Wonder Woman. As already noted, the Roman Catholic Mary is another form of the same devil (1 Cor 10:20), and so is Columbia of America.

A point to emphasize is that the worship of this idol resulted in confusion filling the whole city (vv. 29, 32). The Scripture also tells us that where envying and strife are, there is confusion and every evil work (James 3:16). Certainly, the success of the preaching of the Gospel in that city known everywhere to be the chief votary of Diana must have aroused great envy, something that can be sensed in Demetrius' speech to the other craftsmen (vv. 24-27) in which he stirs them up to wrath.

 

For us today, the identification of Wonder Woman with Diana of Ephesus shows that confusion is being spread among us, that Babylon exists all around us in a mystery and Christians who do not study the Word are liable to be deceived and to become confused in many things by the teachings that are subtly spread around like seeds by this movie and virtually all the rest of every sort of entertainment media (movies, music, books, games).

 

I will give another example, a hit song from the 90's that is really a hymn to Diana, although it is not openly acknowledged to be such. The songwriter, Ed Kowalczyk, is evidently a practicing Roman Catholic, the son of Polish immigrants. He wears a rosary during solo performances and gives titles to songs like "Grace" and albums like "The Flood and the Mercy" and "The Garden".  So we shall see from his song, "Lightning Crashes" whether the Roman Catholic Mary really is Diana of the Ephesians. From the ancient Roman context, and also as used in witchcraft and neopaganism, Diana came to be viewed as a triad of aspects: "Diana as huntress, Diana as the moon, Diana of the underworld." This is understood in modern witchcraft as Maid, Mother, and Crone.

 

The song deals with two mothers in a hospital, the one giving birth and the other dying. All three individuals are 'midwifed' by an angel who transfers a lifelong confusion from the dying woman to the newborn infant. It is a cycle of life and we are told that birth, motherhood, and death are "like a rolling thunder chasing the wind, forces pulling from the centre of the earth again". In Eccl 1:14, 2:11 Solomon declares that all the things we might labour for under the sun are meaningless; they are "chasing after the wind" or "vexation of spirit" depending on your translation. The cycle of life and death to new life in the song are described as chasing the wind: the rolling thunder chases the wind after the lightning strike of new life, to return to where it started with another lightning strike of death.  So in this one song we have both Diana of the Ephesians and that which was cast down by Zeus, just as Acts 19:35 conjoins the two! And this is all done by the downward pull of forces from the centre of the earth, which means it is driven by death and hell (Matt 12:40).

 

This cycle, this "chasing of the wind", is ultimately nothing but vanity without meaning or hope, which is what heathen religion leaves us with. The song was written to comfort a family grieving the death of a daughter in a car accident but how can a message of cosmic hopelessness give comfort to anyone who understands it? Clearly, it cannot or at least it should not. That way would lead to despair and insanity. Is the confusion that permeates the song regarded as a gift to mask the futility of existence? Is that the implied role of the angel, which we can positively identify as Diana?

 

The apostle John when he was receiving the book of Revelation perceived this vanity clearly and without confusion, and that is why after he saw the book with seven seals he "wept much" that no man in heaven or on earth or under the earth was found worthy to open the book and read it, neither to look upon it (Rev 5). Because without a worthy man to do this, the creation would remain forever in bondage to futility. But praise God, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the root of David, He has prevailed to open the book and to loose its seven seals! And thus, human life need not be vanity because of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The resurrection of Jesus completely abolishes the death-driven vanity that idolatry can only mask with confusion. And this is the essential reason why we must not remain in death-bound religion--because the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ has made it a lie, thank God!

Now, to return to our examination of the feminist theme of the film, it becomes clear that it is part-and-parcel of and indeed in service to, the Wonder-Woman-as-Savior theme. Jesus is "not of this world" (John 8:23) and the feminism represented by Diana is justified by her being not of this world (though not in the same way as Christ). Jesus, however, though He rejected traditions of men that nullified the Word of God, was made under the Law and never transgressed it. Wonder Woman appears to regard everything as a tradition of men and nothing as coming from God and therefore she is a law unto herself.

This is most clearly seen in the conversation of Diana and Steve on the boat as they leave Themyscira. They discuss marriage but entirely without reference to its establishment by God. Steve tells her that it is "impolite to assume" a person would be open to the idea of sex outside of marriage. No reference is made to the Law of God or even to the conscience. Marriage is said to be before a judge without mention of a minister of God. While Steve rightly says that marriage is intended to be a matter of loving and cherishing and honoring the other person for life, he also says when admitting that marriages often do not meet this standard that he has "no idea" why men and women continue to marry. Diana states the Amazonian position that men are necessary for procreation but not for pleasure.

When Diana meets Etta Candy, Steve Trevor's secretary, Etta explains to her, "I'm his secretary. I do everything for him. I go where he tells me to go and I do what he tells me to do." Diana answers that where she is from, "that's called slavery." Etta approves of this saying. But what Etta had said about her own job fits very precisely with the description of authority given by the centurion in Matt 8||Luke 7, which is confirmed by Jesus to be the nature of authority in heaven as well! So is Diana advocating for the abolition of authority in general? Did not the Amazons themselves have a Queen, both in history and in the movie? Or is Diana interested rather in reversing the roles of slave and master? Now, Etta is no slave but a paid servant who acknowledges that her pay is very good. But the framework Diana invokes of slave and master hearkens back to the slavery of the Amazons under men, and thus the implication of her speech is that women have been made slaves to men, and that this order should be reversed.

Later in the movie, Diana and Steve approach the front, having gathered to themselves a rag-tag group of fighters, "a liar, a murderer, and now a smuggler," as Diana puts it. They witness a large group of maimed soldiers returning home, at which sight Diana comments, "It's awful!" At the rendezvous camp, Chief, the Indian smuggler, tells her that he is not fighting in the war but has no place better to be because everything has been taken from his people by Steve Trevor's people, the white men. At least in the war he can be free. The Scot awakens from a nightmare and Chief says, "He sees ghosts." Diana begins to see both the darkness and the brokenness within the souls of men. She lays the blame on war but the Bible teaches that lust comes before war, and indwelling sin is the source of bodily lusts. Therefore, addressing war as if it were the root will miss the real root and the problem will sprout again in time.

When they arrive at the front, Diana determines to cross No Man's Land. Trevor tells her, "This is No Man's Land, Diana. That means no man can cross it." But earlier, when they were on the boat together, he had tried to dissuade her from hunting down Ares herself to end the war by telling her that their best course of action was to return to London, to report to the men who can. Her response had been, "I'm the man who can!" So at once she is the man who can end the war, and being no man she is the only one who can cross no man's land to save everyone. This reminds us of Christ, who had to be fully man in order to represent us as our Substitute, but also had to be the incarnate Son of God born of a virgin in order not to be "in Adam" who sinned but to be separate as our new Federal Head, the "Last Adam" (1 Cor 15:45). What I'm getting at is that He came "in the likeness of sinful flesh" (Rom 8:3): a man, but not a man in Adam. One sense in which He is the Son of Man is that He is the seed of the woman who was made of the man's rib before he sinned. Adam had been created in the image of God and it is this image that was preserved as the seed of the woman, and Christ, as we know, is that image of the invisible God (2 Cor 4:4, Col 1:15, Heb 1:3). Another way to put this is that He in our likeness could represent us all on the cross, and He in His difference is the only one who could rise from the dead to save us all.

She straps on the headpiece of Antiope, the greatest warrior of the Amazons, given to her by her mother. Upon it is displayed the emblem of the sun. This too invokes the Lady of Ephesus who in Crete was called the Light-Bearer (C. I. G. 6797.) and in Lycia was said to rush over the mountains with fiery rays (Soph. Oed. R. 204-208). Indeed, Diana proceeds to rush across the impassable territory of No Man's Land with fiery speed and power. It may be worth mentioning that there is a book called, "Aradia" written by American expat journalist, folklorist, and comedy writer Charles G. Leland, based on material he received from an Italian woman named Maddelena, which is claimed to be an authentic text of an underground goddess religion going back even to early Latin times. This claim is controversial, and it may be instead that the work only represents the family tradition of Maddelena herself or even that it is a forgery by Leland based on his extensive knowledge of folklore. However, even if the book does not represent any genuine underground religion stretching back to antiquity, it has become very significant in the emergence of neopaganism. For our purposes, the book speaks of Diana as greatly loving her brother Lucifer and despite his flight from her, eventually deceiving him through her witchcraft and becoming pregnant with a daughter by him, Aradia. Artemis in Greek myth was the twin sister of Apollo, and whereas she represented the moon, he represented the sun. In Aradia, Lucifer is said to be the god of both sun and moon, though originally created by Diana's division of herself, Darkness, into two, Darkness and Light--Lucifer being the light. Aradia says that as she was the darkness and he, the light, her desire for him became the dawn. Because he was created by her and yet counterpart to herself, he is called her brother and her son. Thus we have the abomination of incest that again identifies Diana with Mystery, Babylon the Great. And we should not omit the fact that this name is written on the woman's forehead (Rev 17:5), just as the emblem of the sun on the headpiece fits over Diana's forehead! So Diana rushing over the Lycian mountains with fiery rays is Wonder Woman rushing across No Man's Land with fiery speed and power, which is the Queen of the Witches' (Rev 18:7) abominable lust for her brother and son, Lucifer. And it is another antichrist counterfeit of the Lord Jesus Christ:

"And he [Moses] said, The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them."  Deut 33:2

In the German-occupied village on the other side of No Man's Land, they encounter a sniper in the belfry of the church. Charlie cannot shoot him, but by means of a springboard provided by Steve, Sameer, and Chief, Diana launches herself into the air and destroys the entire church building. Moments later she emerges unscathed and victorious from the dust and rubble, to the adoration of the people she has saved. The symbolism here that the Church is the oppressor of the people and Wonder Woman the new Saviour, but the allegory has some truth in it because in the end, that entire village is gassed by Doctor Poison, killing everyone: Wonder Woman could not save any of them from the second death (Rev 20:10-15). At every stage she is being presented as an opponent of, replacement for, and successor to Jesus Christ, as if His work had failed and needed to be reinvigorated.

Sameer talks with Diana and explains that in this world, men cannot always be what they want to be. Charlie wants to be an effective sniper to save his friends but because of the psychological trauma he has suffered, he cannot shoot a man in the face, even when it is the only shot he could take. Sameer himself wants to be an actor but is not accepted because of his skin colour. As he tells Wonder Woman, "Everyone is fighting their own battles," once again making war the root of the problem instead of lust. This subtle transference of the problem from lust to war reminds me of how the antichrist shall "by peace destroy many". Will the antichrist make war the problem, even down to the level of inner conflict, instead of lust, and so by somehow controlling this for a brief period, appear to be the saviour of the world? But in this case, since lust is the true cause of war, after a short while it must erupt again! Looking again to the movie, Chief, Sameer, and Charlie represent a community of minorities (indigenous/POC/mentally ill) along with their privileged white Ally, Steve Trevor. A group claiming to be despised and rejected, fighting against the literal Nazis, led by a woman: these are the crucial categories in the false gospel of social justice!

When Diana kills General Erich Ludendorff, she is greatly surprised to discover that both sides of the war are still fighting each other. Now, as audience members we know that Ludendorff was not really Ares, but operating under the assumption that he was, Steve and Diana have their most important discussion about human nature and salvation. Captain Steven Trevor, in this context, speaks almost as if he were a Christian, trying to explain to Diana that salvation is not deserved but is rather a matter of grace received through faith. He tells her that what is important is "what you believe". But he stops short of saying that saving faith is in Jesus Christ who died for our sins and rose again and that the result of entering into this grace is new creation in the image of Christ and thus transformed behaviour. This failure to communicate the whole Gospel results in a weak message that leaves Diana unpersuaded. She seems to think, 'What does it matter what you believe if your actions continue to be evil?' And in this, she definitely has a point. But true faith in Christ transforms us and fills us with good works that can be seen by others as evidence both of the substantial nature of our faith and of its goodness and truth.

During the sermon in church today too, a Pastor was quoted as having said, "The most important thing to my people is my personal holiness."  In order to properly care for the flock the Lord Jesus put under his hand, he needs wisdom and assurance of answered prayers, and these things come from continuing in Jesus' love. In addition to this, the Bible talks about even unbelievers sensing in their conscience whether someone is actually faithful or hypocritical, based upon the honesty, simplicity, and transparency of their mission and treatment of the Word of God (2 Cor 4:2, 5:11). Thus the only truly good and powerful example for the flock, as a Pastor is to be (1 Peter 5:2-4), is the one who has a good and growing measure of personal holiness. And indeed, this really applies to all Christians since sanctification is God's will for all of us (1 Thess 4:3-8). This is the result of true faith active in a person with a good conscience: holiness of God that can be perceived and that bears witness to the truth of the message we proclaim.

Their discussion also revolves around the issue of sin. Steve maintains that people are not always good and war may simply be a part of human nature. He fails however to make a distinction between how God created man and how man subsequently fell into sin, leaving the reality of the Redemption out of the conversation. Wonder Woman resists the thought that men are sinful, having lusts that war within them and lead them to kill and fight and war (James 4:1-2), and she denies that she personally bears any blame at all for war. Although she was not the cause of WW1 and is a recent arrival in the world of men, she has certainly been as active in fighting it as anyone! Her refusal to take any responsibility for the existence of war is in context tantamount to denying she has any sin. So, before the climactic battle of the movie, Wonder Woman is precisely in the position of a counterfeit Christ, having said she has no sin (1 John 1:8-10). In Jesus' case, before the Triumph of the Cross, He truly knew no sin (2 Cor 5:21, Heb 4:15).

In the end, Sir Patrick, the vocal advocate for peace, is revealed to be Ares. This fits with the Biblical description of the antichrist, who by peace shall destroy many (Dan 8:25). Ares destroys Diana's sword, which she had thought was the "god-killer", and reveals under compulsion that Zeus had a child with the queen of the Amazons and left her as the weapon to be used against Ares. Now, at the beginning of the movie, as noted, Diana's mother told her that she had sculpted Diana out of the clay and begged Zeus to give it life. So Diana now has two, logically incompatible stories of her conception and birth. In one, her mother Hippolyta has a sort of virgin conception (not in her womb but through the medium of clay) and in the other, conceives as the result of sexual union. Both of these stories cannot be true. Either Hippolyta was lying, or Ares is lying despite the lasso of truth. Yet the movie never resolves the issue but leaves the viewer in suspense, caught in the cognitive dissonance (confusion) generated by the two mutually exclusive accounts. It is just like Diana of Ephesus: the same two mutually exclusive states of being, that of a chaste virgin and that of a mother by sexual intercourse, forced into one identity without explanation or justification. And what of Wonder Woman herself? Formed of the clay and given life by Zeus, and also begotten of him and coming down from heaven? A dual nature is being ascribed to her: she is a god-woman, in imitation of Christ, who is the God-Man. And again, as mentioned during the film's creation story, this is another similarity with Mormonism (and a frequent misunderstanding of Islam), in which the blasphemy is promulgated that Jesus was begotten by sexual means, just as we are. Thus the Mary of Mormonism was no more a Virgin Mother than the idol Diana of Ephesus, and indeed for them they are the same figure. Thus their 'Jesus' is not our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ares, like Satan, condemns mankind, and also like Satan he presents himself as if he were "like the Most High", by using an I AM statement in response to being asked to tell the truth, and referring to himself not as the god of war but as the god of truth. He is shown as having fallen from heaven. He tells Diana that afterwards, he spiritually inspired man to make destructive weapons, orchestrating periodic armistices he knows man cannot keep, during which times of peace he inspires us to develop ever more deadly weapons that we then use against each other when war breaks out again. Ares' goal is for man to eventually destroy himself.

He tries to subvert Wonder Woman by claiming that the destruction of man will return the world to paradise because man himself is the cause of all misery and suffering, but she declares that she can never be a part of what he envisions. At this point the physical battle begins, with Ares hurling great wooden beams at Wonder Woman; the wood makes me think of the cross. Diana strikes back at him with a metal beam, reminiscent of the nails, which Ares avoids by rising into the air. Charlie the Scot says in a loud voice, "Oh my God!" Isn't this a composite picture of Christ being lifted up on the cross?

Eventually, Diana is on the verge of defeat, bound and encased in bands of metal. The ragtag group of friends, out of ammo and surrounded by the enemy, huddle together in what looks like a prayer-circle led by Chief, and Steven Trevor explodes the plane he is flying full of poison gas. The self-sacrifice of the man she loves energizes Wonder Woman to break free, forcing Ares to resume his diatribe against man. The implication that the prayer of her companions contributed to her re-energizing is a strange, pagan notion, for the true and living God does not need or benefit from our prayers. We and others like ourselves benefit from Him by prayer. She defeats a veritable army of Dr. Poison's foot soldiers and Ares cries out to her that man is full of hatred and weak, just like her Captain Trevor who has, "Gone, and left you nothing. Pathetic! He deserves to burn!"

However, Captain Trevor had left her something.

Diana Bathing. Detail of Actaeon Sarcophagus. 1st Century AD. Musée du Louvre.

Earlier in the movie, when Wonder Woman and Steven Trevor first met in Themyscira, he was bathing naked in a hot tub. She sees his naked body, which is an inversion of the tale of Artemis and Actaeon, in which the young prince Actaeon while out hunting happened upon the nude Artemis bathing. 

When she realized she had been espied, she became enraged and turned Actaeon into a stag. He, frightened by the transformation, fled, but his own fifty hunting dogs caught him and tore him apart and devoured him, thinking him to be an ordinary stag.

Actaeon Transforming. Detail of Actaeon Sarcophagus. 1st Century AD. Musée du Louvre.

In the Wonder Woman inversion, the man is put in the feminine position of vulnerability. But nothing happens to Wonder Woman as a consequence because the writers do not know what God's words are concerning her, but as we have already identified her as the whore of Babylon, we know that although she does not turn into a beast, she does sit upon a beast and shall be thrown down to meet at its ten horns a fate very reminiscent of that of Actaeon:

"And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire."  Rev 17:16

Interestingly, in the midst of this terrible process of torment and sorrow, she shall also be made naked, as according to the legend Artemis was seen naked, undoing the inversion of the film.

While he still stands before her naked, Diana asks him about his watch. He says it was given to him by his father, "It's been through hell and back with him and now it's with me and good thing it's still ticking!"  Sounds like the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and the Holy Spirit given to believers. As he explains to her that it tells time, and so when to eat, sleep, wake up, and go to work, she asks incredulously, "You let this little thing tell you what to do?" The double entendre is certainly meaningful in our spiritual interpretation of the film. The watch is a great symbol, representing not only his penis, his patrimony, and his legacy but also the reduction of the Gospel into nothing more than maleness, which they despise. Make no mistake, the war against the 'patriarchy' is a war against the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, "from whom every family in heavens and upon earth is named" (Eph 3:15).

Ares throws Dr. Poison at her feet and challenges Diana to destroy her, since she is a perfect example of what humans really are and, "unworthy of your sympathy in every way." But Diana recalls Steven Trevor saying to her, "I can save today; you could save the world. I love you." She is moved by love, romantic love, and says to Ares, "You're wrong about them. They're everything you say but so much more."

"Lies!!!" Ares shouts back.  "They do not deserve your protection!"

She recalls the last words Steve spoke to her when he pressed his watch into her hand, the watch that represents his inheritance and his manhood and a perverted gospel masquerading as the true. In this, he is standing in the place of Christ and claiming to pass his authority on to her, as if the Gospel were temporal and needed a renewal with another archegos (Captain), Diana.

Her ultimate declaration follows as she repeats the words of Steven Trevor: "It's not about deserve. It's about what you believe. And I believe in love."

Ares cries out, "I will destroy you!" He hurls thunder and lightning at her, but she takes what was meant to destroy her and, clothed with it, says, "Goodbye brother," rises up between heaven and earth and with her arms outstretched in the form of a cross, closes her eyes, fires it back at Ares, and he is destroyed. This is in imitation of how Christ, through death, destroyed him who had the power of death, even the devil. But the imitation does not go as far as the True, for Diana never dies, neither rises from the dead. She calls Ares "brother", consistent with the Mormon error that Jesus and Satan are spirit-brothers. She then comes back down to earth. Peace descends. One man kneels at her right side, another dead body to her left, reminiscent of the two thieves crucified with Jesus, the one saved, the other condemned, but in this case restricted to this world only.

She looks up to the sky. "I used to want to save the world. To end war and bring peace to mankind. But then I glimpsed the darkness that lives within their light and learned that inside every one of them there will always be both. A choice each must make for themselves, something no hero will ever defeat."

She cannot believe, but Jesus Christ has already and finally defeated the enemy and without fail shall draw to Himself all those whom the Father has given Him (John 6:37).

"And now I know, that only love can truly save the world."

This is unbelief of the Gospel, that love has been incarnated in truth and has already saved the world. She speaks about love and implies that she loves Captain Steven Trevor, who represents Jesus Christ, but she doesn't believe His Gospel because she will not have this Man to reign over her (Luke 19:14). That is betraying the Son of Man with a kiss (Luke 22:48).

"So I stay. I fight, and I give, for the world I know can be. This is my mission now, forever."

Christ has established His church on the earth with a commission to preach His Gospel by the Spirit, but we are not here forever. The Lord Jesus shall come again, to receive us unto Himself; that where He is, there we may be also (John 14:1-3).

So in conclusion, let's gather together some essential points of comparison between the movie and the Christian Gospel. Wonder Woman has a counterfeit of...

• Messiah, Diana
• Regeneration: Becoming Woke/Becoming an Amazon through belief in Wonder Woman
• Righteousness: Rejecting the fear of God and the respect of man
• Immortality: Suggested because Amazons are extremely long-lived and Wonder Woman says she has a mission "now, forever" and see the counterfeit Resurrection, below.
  
• Guiding Presence/Paraclete: Wonder Woman remains as an example: "So I stay, I fight, and I give."
  

 Lastly, let me present for your consideration this poster image and the two following videos showing the counterfeit Resurrection of Diana. Very interesting that when, according to Egyptian mythology, Osiris was pieced back together and restored to life, he was missing his penis. Before Captain Steven Trevor died, he gave his watch to Wonder Woman, so she's got the missing member. That's represented by the sun emblem on her headpiece and the title, "Power." Not that this is true, but it represents the working of the false gospel that Trevor's watch represents, the reduction of the Gospel to patriarchal rule. So now, not only does she have a counterfeit resurrection, she also possesses a counterfeit male authority. She may have despised the patriarchy before but now that she possesses that power, she values it (Prov 20:14)! But as the Bible teaches us, these male authorities, the ten kings, will not tolerate her dominion for long. And it is God who has put it in their hearts to fulfil his will upon Babylon!

God bless you and thank you for reading!