The 2026 Olympic Games are set to begin this weekend. While the athletes are admirable with their incredible skill and dedication, the origination of the Games is not what it appears.
The Olympic Games began as a pagan ritual to honor the god Zeus.
Greek poet Homer called Zeus “the father of gods and men.” It is believed the Zeus took up residence at the top of Mouth Olympus in 1200 BC. A massive temple was erected there in his honor, and people began pilgrimaging to Olympia to worship him along with his pantheon of other gods. (Zeus was the leader of 12 “Olympian” gods.)
The first Olympic games were held in Olympia in 776 BC (during the first full moon after the summer solstice). The gods themselves were said to have been present at the original games. The Olympics were then held every four years from that point on to honor Zeus and the Olympian gods.
As Paul Christesen, Dartmouth professor of Ancient Greek History says, “At its heart, the ancient Olympic Games was a religious festival held in a religious sanctuary.” The Olympics began with prayers and sacrifices to Zeus the “patron deity of the games.” Before each event, those competing would pray and place offerings on the altar of whichever god they were seeking help from during their competition. (There were eventually 70 altars with various gods to choose from.)
For over 1000 years, the Greeks and later the Romans converged on Olympia to celebrate the great and powerful Zeus. Ancient Greek even coins bore the god’s image in the form of a bull. (This is the form Zeus would take before raping the goddess Europa.)
Whenever people gathered to worship Zeus, they would first need to light the sacred flame. This is why the Olympic torch lights the Olympic cauldron which commences the games still to this day.
The use of cauldrons began with the druids and continues in modern witchcraft. A cauldron can be used for divination—where the people staring into the fire may receive messages from the “other side.” The cauldron is considered a “sacred space” where the connection between the spiritual and physical realm occurs.
Before the Olympic cauldron was lit during the last opening ceremony in Paris, viewers were first subject to a myriad of bizarre scenes rife with occult meaning. We saw a masked man usher children into tunnels lined with human skulls. We witnessed hundreds of severed heads…singing. We even saw death ride in on a pale horse with the nations of the world in tow.
The opening ceremony ended with a drag queen mockery of “The Last Supper.” Of course men dressing up as women has always been part of pagan worship rituals.
In the Bible, we see the citizens of Lystra begin to wonder if Paul and Barnabas might be two of the Olympian gods incarnate. Acts 14:12-13 says, “Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: ‘Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God,who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. In the past, he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.’Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them.”
Zeus and his pantheon of gods were constantly demanding sacrifices from all who worshipped them. At the end of the Olympic games, victors would offer sacrifices to whichever god had helped them win their sport. The Greek goddess of victory was said to be the first to pledge her allegiance to Zeus. It was said that Zeus kept her at his side everywhere he went. That goddess’s name is Nike.
