The group that promoted the Palmyra Victory Arch (temple of Baal) to display it in various public places around the world are now recreating a statue of Athena, the Greek goddess of war, for an exhibit in the United Nations, an organization that claims to be working towards world peace but which one rabbi likens to modern-day paganism. While standing for peace, the goddess represents wisdom and war.
The original Athena statue stood in Palmyra, Syria, until it was destroyed by ISIS in 2015, just as the Victory Arch and Temple of Baal structure was destroyed. While claiming a picture of peace, the statue depicts Athena in her classic pose grasping a spear, belying her prominent role as the Greek goddess of war.
It is also believed that the Greek goddess Athena was based on the earlier Mesopotamian goddess Ashera. While a goddess of the Greek , it was also used as a temple by the Mesopotamians, Romans, and Muslims in succession. It became the Roman goddess of wisdom and war, as the Minerva. A degree called Minerval for wisdom is in the occult group known as the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.). Wisdom is depicted also an an owl in these groups.
Ashera can be associated with names of Canann, Phoenicia, and Sumerian that became the same as Ashtar, Ashtereth or Ishtar, Queen of Heaven.
Rabbi Dokow told Breaking Israel News, “There is currently an unmistakeable rise of paganism and idol worship in the world, more than any other religion, and it is naive to believe this display is disconnected from this phenomenon.”
Paganism is also believed in the New Age as man worships nature. But as man believes nature, as well as man, are all of one spirit or Universal mind that becomes One. In which man becomes god. This is contrary to Christianity.