There is a "New Age to Jesus" Trend that is Partially Due to Lack of Biblical Knowledge and Awareness. For This Reason, Youth are Losing Their Faith Again and Again and Turning to Not Much of Anything.
Many of you who read this blog are confused about what is in The Bible, and it makes sense that you are. You have been purposefully mislead by the powers that be because it was the only way for Constantine and his kind to unify their people. The library of texts that you know as The Bible has been taken out of historical and cultural context and only recently put back into perspective. For this reason, many of your parents and grandparents who taught you 'the word of God' had no clue what or who they were talking about. Everyone who has a bible does not read it and does not realize they still delve into Canaanite and older pantheons. Many of those who DO read The Bible are not aware of the book's many mistranslations and historical inaccuracies.
You Must Understand Where You ARE Before You Move Forward.
There are many gods and names of gods mentioned in the Bible. I was first made aware of the stark differences in the general personalities of God as revealed in the old vs. new testament when I was in my teens. This is why I became somewhat suspicious of what I was reading.
It is honorable of you to question what you read.
Jesus had warned the Jews that they served a murderer (John 8:39-44) and a liar and he referred to this person as their father. Earlier in the old testament when Joshua asked his followers to choose whom they would serve (Joshua 24:15), he was not referring to a general god vs. devil, but moreso, which god they would choose in their monolatric society.
Most Christians consider the scriptures to be about a war between good and evil, between God and the Devil. Perhaps it was moreso a battle between gods -- siblings even. Let us look at the words that begin with 'dev':
[dev]iate - to turn from the norm
[dev]elop - to begin existing
It can be thought that the word '[dev]il' means in essence, a deviation from the course of El or Justice or the start of new god.
El was the chief god of the Canaanite pantheon during the time of the early Israelites. El, also known as El Elyon or El Shaddai, had sons and daughters (Elohim, plural of Eloah or El), which he allotted portions of land to. Those humans who lived on the land belonged to and worshipped the god over that particular land -- this is known as monolatrism. Many gods warred with each other to acquire more status and take over other gods' lands working through human devices. (Ephesians 6:12-13). These are principalities and rulers, not the Most High God.
The Canaanite Pantheon Consisted of Over 234 Deities. Additionally, Every Traveler and Settler in Canaan Brought Their Own Gods.
Archaeological evidence shows Israelites evolved from a community of Edomites in Canaan, and they may have consisted of outcasts, paupers, traveling bandits, miners, nomadic shepherds, escaped slaves and others who joined together to form a small band or group. This group was known by Egyptians as Shasu or Shasu Yhw (also called Yahu by Ramses II), a group first named when the temple ruins of Nubia were excavated in Africa where Sudan meets Egypt. They looked black African in nature based on the carvings we have of them.
Shasu is pronounced 'shaswe' and means people who went on foot, aka nomads. They brought their god who could have easily been an ancestor or Egun. This god was known in Edom as Qos (pronounced Koze) and he was a rival or derivative of Yhw. Qos of Sudan was mostly left out of the Bible because he was synonymous with Yhw. He is mentioned in Ezra 2:53 which named temple servants who returned from exile, namely Barkos or son of Qos, also meaning Qos gleamed forth.
Qos is known to be a weather or storm god like the european Thor. Additionally, Qos means 'archer' similarly to the Yoruban Ochosi, which I can easily see deriving from the name O'Qos. Qos was usually depicted in art and sculpture as being flanked by bulls and wielding a thunderbolt. This could explain canaanite god associations to cattle.
Truthfully, it would be senseless for all of these different communities to use their own languages to say Storm God or Thunder God or God who brings rains and consequently Bulls to Eat. In this case, syncretism makes as much sense as speaking one language or dialect within a region.
Over the course of time these black peoples' gods; the gods of Edom, Moab and Midian; were syncretised and mixed with Canaanite gods, and many of the black and brown people migrated or were driven out of the middle east into central, western and southern Africa, settling down with the Twi or indigenous tree peoples there. The surviving leadership of the Canaanite pantheons found their names in the "holy" scriptures and are as follows:
El - Chief God known as the bull
Athirat or Asherah - El's wife or consort
Baal - god of war / storm god / god who brings fertility, mostly known as a rival to Yhwh
Anat or Astarte - goddess of war
Chemosh - god of war and destruction; he who subdues
Dagon - god of crops
Yhw(h) - god of metallurgy or metal workers similar to war god Ogun in Yoruban Ifa traditions
Nahar aka Yam - god of the sea or of rivers (referred to in scripture as the word river or the city Mesopotamia or Syria (deriving from Assyria in Northern Mesopotamia, which means high place or hilly, mountainous area between rivers). Yam (similar to Yemaya in Yoruban Ifa traditions) also derives from the ancient semitic dynasty of Aleppo, Syria called Yamhad. They worshipped the gods of their ancients, the Amorites who were inhabitants of Canaan. These names alone gives credence to the fact that ancient leaders, kings and ancestors were deified, became gods, along with natural phenomena, and were then syncretised with gods of other kingdoms. In pre-Christian spirituality, humans were likened to mortal manifestations of animals and nature so deifying them seemed natural in the context of ancient thought and shamanic culture.
Mot/Resheph - god of death (listed in bible as the name of a person, also known as Resheph, god of burning); perhaps even 'Mot' could have been a syncretised term from the Egyptian god Ma'at who weighted all hearts against her single feather after death.
Deber - god of pestilence (listed in the bible only as the word 'pestilence' and not as a god)
In Summary, Consider Ancient History When Studying Your Bible and READ Commentaries That Are Provided.
Tunnel vision and overcomplication must be discarded when studying spirituality, which is vital to mankind in that it does the following:
- Unifies
- Establishes law and sacred rites
- Provides for ancestral continuance
- Promotes self-identity and
- Defines Leadership and purposes for war
- Spells out future circumstances
There is no way that any emperor or king could unify a kingdom without taking all of the gods of all of the peoples in the land and turning them into one main God that was over the nation. This makes perfect sense if everyone served the same energy and you want to establish one language. The conglomerate of gods into One, also known as Unification of the Elohim is basically who you are calling God if you are a Christian. They are better served as being known as the Godhead.
Political success follows unified belief. Truthfully, the more knowledge we obtain from excavations, the more we realize, at least some ancestral, nature and animal energies were likely personified from the subconscious human spirit that can so easily make things alive. Basically, whether these deities existed in and of themselves, from ancestral spirits or from the human psyche is six in one hand half dozen in the other. The fact is they did exist in the hearts and minds of the people, were deemed to be powerful and we are still discussing them today.
This leads to some philosophical questions concerning religions:
- Is religion the most truthful way to handle Deity?
- Does sacrifice, especially of one's child, cause soldiers to win wars or does it just make them really mad and emotional, which leads them to winning wars?
- Upon realizing many Elohim or Loa exist, who will YOU worship....or not?
Current scripture is certainly the best we have right now since not ONE of these deities is appearing personally [at least not to most], and WHOEVER you call will likely show you some type of phenomena to confirm your belief due to the fact that they aren't forcing themselves on anyone.
(AD)
You need to know, which god The Bible is referring to when you are reading the books within it.
In addition to reading scholarly commentary before each book, it is of vital importance that you know the following when reading The Bible:
- When does a new author start and end in the texts? What do you know about the author's background? The end and start of one chapter or book does not necessarily infer this info.
- What is the 'actual' name of the 'God' that is being referred to in a particular biblical passage?
- What was the spiritual practice during the time in which a specific portion of the text was written? What was king and what empire ruled during this period?
- Is the account considered to be literature, poetry, history or prophecy; and for which group of people?
- What are the recent archaeological findings that prove or disprove what you are reading?
- What are the differentiations between the god of Abraham, the god of Joshua and the god of Jesus?
- What do you really feel and believe in your own heart concerning spirituality, especially in light of what we know about placebos, Energy and the power of the subconscious mind?
Do Not Read The Bible Ignorantly.
- Understand the belief systems of the editors. Their commentaries and translations are meant to steer you to what they believe and proselytize you.
- Do background study to understand the original writers and languages of the text. We have bibles with the words of Jesus in red, however there is no general differentiation of color with regard to original languages. Personal research is required.
- Take a neutral bible class at an accredited college or university so that you understand the general context and culture in which each book was written. Professors are tasked with being neutral and have up to date findings at their fingertips, which is helpful in keeping up with current knowledge and thought.
- Do not be afraid to adopt more than one reasoning approach in biblical study. The modern Catholic explanation of the creation story and the historicity of the Israelites is sensible and provides a good framework with which to start your study, even if you are not Catholic.
How Do You Start in Your Own Walk Into Righteousness and Soul Evolution? Start With What You Know!
- You know Spirit/Life/Energy/Chi exists.
- You know some manifestations of It are more powerful than others -- there is a Chief God.
- You know It exists within our universe and seems to have at least some form of High Consciousness.
- You know It manifests in diverse forms.
- You know if we silly humans can build a kingdom, so can It.
- You know that if we humans are one and many at the same time, then so is It.
- You know good and bad is based on which side you stand on so 'evil' is complicated and though levels unlock DNA.
- You know what you have personally experienced.