To the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and Roger Michel, executive director of the Institute for Digital Archaeology: Do not celebrate the occult. Abandon plans to reconstruct the Arch of Palmyra in Trafalgar Square on April 19.

In 2015 the pictures of destruction by ISIS/Daesh of the Temple of Bel (also known as Baal Shamin) in Palmyra rightly shocked the world, and attempts to safeguard the world’s historical heritage from future acts of senseless aggression are to be applauded.   However, the reconstruction of the temple arch in Trafalgar Square on April 19 by the Oxford based Institute of Digital Archaeology (IDS) will serve a much darker purpose.

Roger Michel, the IDA’s executive director, told The Times: “It is really a political statement, a call to action, to draw attention to what is happening in Syria and Iraq … The symbolic value of these sites is enormous.” At first glance, the sentiment appears unimpeachable. But a problem arises in considering the exact nature of the symbol being celebrated. From earliest times Baal was a powerful symbol for evil and the occult: a pagan Canaanite god who demanded regular and bloody appeasement by child sacrifice. Baal worship, representing all that was evil, was particularly condemned in the Bible (e.g. Leviticus 18:21).

In terms of symbolic value, however, even more disturbing is the date chosen for the reconstruction of the monument, because in occult belief, April 19 marks the Feast of Moloch, another ancient Canaanite god, specifically associated with Baal (e.g. Jeremiah 32:35), who also demanded child sacrifice.   April 19 marks the first day of a thirteen day period known as the “blood sacrifice to the beast,” and culminates in the high occult holy day of Beltane on 1^st May.   It was a period regarded as hugely significant in the worship of Baal, dating back to Enmarkar, one of the ancient kings of Babylon – known in the Bible as Nimrod – who eventually came to be worshipped as a god.

In the last few years the occult, and more particularly Satanism, has been enjoying a clear resurgence of interest, as evidenced by claims in The Daily Express that Jimmy Savile was a practising Satanist (http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/370439/Jimmy-Savile-was-part-of-satanic-ring), and the Royal Navy’s acquiescing in the practice of Satanism in October 2015 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3948329.stm).

It need hardly be said that for those who follow the occult, certain dates are seen as highly potent, carrying immense spiritual power.   Without question, April 19, marking the period of blood sacrifice leading up to Beltane, is one of the most significant dates in the Satanist, occult calendar.

Was the selection of this particular date to reconstruct an ancient monument to the god Baal random or deliberate? Either way, it is extremely unfortunate, to say the least. If it was a coincidence, it is a highly remarkable and appalling one.

Secularists may well claim that they fail to see any significance in this project and its timing, and that non-believers are religiously neutral. But in fact we are all being presented with a choice: whether to align ourselves with a project with patent Satanic associations, and so to support them, or to distance ourselves from it. There is no neutral or middle way.

If we allow the erection of this Arch we will be placing a symbol of death, murder, child sacrifice and sexual immorality in the heart of London.   Any such image is explicitly forbidden in the Bible, so that as a symbol its presence is an insult to Christianity.   It also carries spiritual force.   Many Satanist groups, for example, believe that some day Baal will be resurrected and take his place as ruler of the world. Equally, some Christian scholars believe there is some sort of connection between the ancient figure of Nimrod and the Antichrist – so that the reconstruction of this Arch may well be seen as opening up a spiritual gateway.

While, therefore, fully supporting the work of IDS and their efforts to preserve the world’s heritage against destruction by ISIS, we call on them to abandon this ill-advised, anti-Christian, and pro-Satanist, project in its entirety. And we call on the Mayor of London to uphold the UK’s Christian heritage and ban the erection of a monument that is clearly hostile to Christian belief.