The Evolution of God

From State Hwy. 128 near the Colorado River - Utah

From Yahweh to Adonai

In Mormon theology, Elohim is God the Father, Yahweh or Jehovah is The Son. This differs from the etymology of faith gleaned from the archeological and written record.

The word “Elohim” occurs more than 2500 times in the Hebrew Bible but it means something quite different than God the Father’s actual name... it’s used as a common noun.  Uniquely, it is both singular and plural even though it carries the plural suffix “im.”   Yahweh is frequently referred to as the Elohim of Israel or God of Israel.  In the same token, Exodus 12:12 speaks of the Elohim of Egypt or Gods of Egypt.  In 1 Samuel 28:13, the witch of Endor tells Saul she sees elohim or spirits coming up out of the Earth.  It is only after the Babylonian conquest that Yahweh is replaced with Elohim as God’s referred to name.  There also was a shift in the sanctity of the name.  It was increasingly regarded as too sacred to be uttered and Adonai, “My Lord”, came into ritual use.   Today, haShem or “The Name” is used in conversation.  They all refer to the same diety, God.

I know biblical literalists will insist our monotheistic worship of God has its roots with the first man, Adam, and was codified under Moses.  Actually, like most belief systems, it was an answer to a socio-economical problem and evolved over time.

Yahweh worship stems from the pre-Israelite peoples all across the Levant and was shared by many cultures.  In fact, ancient Judaism was polytheistic with a pantheon of various local gods borrowing heavily from West Semite, Phoenician,  and Canaanite traditions.  Given the worship of Asherah as consort to Yahweh right up to the destruction of the temple by Babylonian forces, monotheism didn’t become prevalent among the Jews until the 6th century BCE.

Now, you’re probably thinking, “this doesn’t sound anything like what I read in the Old Testament.”  Well, you’d be right.  It isn’t... for good reason.

We might want to think of tradition as something immoveable and constant.  It’s not.  It can change... and change quickly.  Within a few short generations, the Jews went from a polytheistic society dominated by the worship of Yahweh to the monotheistic one centered on Elohim... purging “foreign influences” along the way through clever retelling of the familiar stories reflecting a newer evolved spirituality.  Anthropologists believe this took place as Jews sought a common identity more distinct from their neighbors and captors.

Now, it wasn’t just the name or number of gods that changed.  Depending on the particular period in Jewish history, God has taken on strikingly different characteristics.  He has been portrayed as violent, bloodthirsty, and vengeful to loving, nurturing, and forgiving.... the creator of life, the harbinger of death... patient, impulsive... and everything in between.  There are interesting geo-political correlations where shifts in regional power or prosperity influenced this evolving spiritual heritage of billions.

We can follow the evolution of our faith clear back into pre-history.  Something never spawns from nothing... even where God is concerned.  Faith and belief have always been a reaction to something.  It is the answer to a question and answers change to meet the questions.  Religion evolves much like life.  It has always been this way and continues on even today.

In the early days of the Mormon faith, gifts of the spirit were common place during Sunday meetings.  From speaking in tongues, seeing ministering spirits, to the working of miracles; it was once said these things defined the true church of God... these days, God is a little less Las Vegas.  Now, I think the most exciting thing to happen during Sacrament Meeting might be someone bursting into tears.  The days of revival, so common on the frontier in those early years, are gone.  We tend to want something a bit more dignified and solemn.  This modern view is also reflected in our perception of God.  From destroyer of nations to quiet patriarch... God, it seems, is what we choose him to be.

The Dangers of Indoctrination

Front Yard - Childhood Home

My Confession of Childhood

I can’t help but feel a pang of remorse.  I know my parents only wish was to share and instill in us something they valued more than anything else, their faith.  Unfortunately, in their enthusiasm, they failed to offer any real choice.

I don’t blame them for that particular.  Like many sects, Mormonism isn’t equipped to accommodate choice.  It teaches you what to think but not necessarily how to think... it certainly frowns on questioning authority and rejects outright any divergent doctrine or ideas.

Within our family, I do believe my parents allowed us a certain level of spiritual autonomy but I can’t shake the belief that they only did that hoping our larger church community would act as the real pressuring agent to conform.  They certainly did precious little to protect us from it.  Instead, they counseled us to be obedient and embrace the ideology and communal responsibilities of our chosen religion.

As a youth, I saw what conflict and ostracism a questioning voice brought down upon my second sister.  Don’t get me wrong, I do not believe she was any more clued in than the rest of us but she did effectively identify the injustice of our spiritual indoctrination.  So I dealt with that impossible situation the only way I knew how... unconditional surrender.  I didn’t fully accept this fact until recent adulthood.

Surrender is an awful thing.  You might have had all the reason in the world to do it... it might have even been the best decision at the time given the alternatives... but after the fact, when the danger is past, it feels cheap, dirty, and indefensible.  Inevitably, the victim defines their perpetrator the very same way.

“A university is not a political party, and an education is not an indoctrination.”

~ David Horowitz

Articles of Faith

Arches National Park - Utah

My Fundamental Beliefs

I attended Family Home Evening at my parents house.  In closing, they recited the 13 Articles of Faith as part of my nephew’s preparation to graduate from Primary.  To better reflect my beliefs, my Articles of Faith would include these modifications:

1. 1. I believe in God, the originator of all things, in our divine relationship to Him, and in the gentle promptings of the spirit to recognize and appreciate His purpose and design.
2. 2.I believe the concepts of good and evil were created by men but that our actions have real cause and effect on our spiritual progress for which we will be held accountable.
3. 3.I believe that through our atonement following Jesus’ example, all mankind can be saved, by our inevitable recognition and acceptance of the laws and principles of the Gospel.
4. 4. I believe the principles of the gospel are; first, trust and faith in free-agency and our right to choose our own path; second, acknowledgment of the divine nature of learning and repentance; and third, our unfettered access to the Holy Spirit. 
5. 5.I believe we are all called of God and authorized to manage our own spiritual affairs without the need for those claiming authority over us.  The power of the priesthood and the Holy Spirit are our divine birthright and are freely available at all times if we are worthy to perceive their presence.  They can not be gifted, denied, rescinded, or enhanced except by our own personal hand.
6. 6.I believe in fellowship among the faithful but that the concepts of organized church and ecclesiastic authority are inherently evil and impede spiritual progress.
7. 7.I believe in all manner of spiritual gifts in so much as they clarify and enlighten our purpose for being and enhance the principles of pluralism and universal siblinghood.  
8. 8.I believe all scripture to be the word of man and reflects the untold millennia of collective effort by our species to uncover the purpose of our existence.  They are of incalculable value in our personal pursuit of truth and meaning.  
9. 9.I believe the only true revelation is personal revelation.  Truth is relative and subject to the needs of our personal progression towards exaltation.
10. 10.  I believe we are all God’s chosen and that the gathering of the tribes of Israel, the establishment of Zion, the future reign of Christ, and all the many many scriptural revelations are allegory for profound and sacred truths.

My Natural Law

Spanning the Colorado River - near Moab Utah

Christianity

A Follower of Jesus

Now you might be thinking that for someone who is of the opinion that no truth is absolute given our current intellectual state and everything is relative, my beliefs are pretty well defined and fixed.  In reality, they are a developing collection that reflect my chosen paradigm.

Religion is always evolving to meet the needs of people at any given point in history.  All the great religions of the past have slowly faded into mythology or even been forgotten all together only to be replaced with something newer and more relevant.  Odin and Frigg, Zeus and Hera, and farther back than we have record to recall, once mighty systems of faith fall to the relentless march of social evolution.  Allah, God, Buddha, Jesus... all the great religions of today’s world will, at some point, join our pantheon of mythology and be relegated to the history of once practiced and revered faith.

Some of the faithful cling desperately to an imaginary permanence and refuse to see the subtle changes evident even during our own short recorded history.  “What is is and will always be” just isn’t.

So if religion isn’t absolute and forever, is there any value in it?  Of course there is!  There still is a continuity of truth... it’s just much more fluid than many feel comfortable admitting to.

Christianity was given me by my parents.  Just like it was given to them by theirs.  It shapes my understanding.  It colors my perceptions.  It molds my thoughts and feelings.  It is a vessel of truth and not necessarily the truth itself.  It is a philosophy that helps defines the universe in which I live.  Its comfortable confines concentrate and focus my perceptions.  It is the allegorical model which gives course and direction to my inner spiritual journey.

I strive to uncover and incorporate the ideals and teachings attributed to Jesus of Nazareth as I understand and need them to be.  I value the concept of the Christ and am intent on unlocking its gift.

“For it is an indubitable and evident thing that he who is born a Christian, Jew, Pagan, Turk, Infidel, or whatever religion it may be, can arrive at the perfection of this Work or Art and become a Master, but he who hath abandoned his natural Law, and embraced another religion opposed to his own, can never arrive at the summit of this sacred Science.”

~ Rabbi Yaakov Moelin 1365-1427 CE

The Christ and the Nazarene

The Colorado River along State Hwy. 128 - Utah

Likened unto Jesus

“Jesus said, ‘If you bring forth what is within you,
what you bring forth will save you.If you do not
bring forth what is within you, what you do not
bring forth will destroy you.’”

 ~Gospel of Thomas 70 

I was raised to believe “Christ” was title for just one person, Jesus.... the third member of the Godhead or Trinity.  Many gnostics expand the concept of the Christ to include all of us and their scripture speaks to the Christ-within.

This view radically changes the focal point of what I know of the ministry of Jesus.  I have long believed the value of scripture is not its historical accuracies but the spiritual allegory we are required to identify, decipher, and study.

In this light, Jesus becomes the archetypical man... showing us the way to transcend sin and mortality.  He is the one to emulate as his disciples .  In fact, the name Thomas, a beloved disciple,  quite literally means Twin... or the Twin in Christ.  We should all strive to be his Twin.  We share his ability and divinity in every way.  This is what I believe and it is a belief firmly based on faith.

What we know of Jesus is a complex mix of often conflicting opinion intermingled with very scant fact.  While there is significant variation even among the gospel accounts, I find the non-biblical references the most interesting.  While I wouldn't say any of this proves anything, it does open the door for wider interpretation of what can be called, The Jesus Myths.

The first secular reference of Jesus, The Testimonium Flavianum, attributed to the renowned Jewish historian Josephus, wasn’t penned until approximately 94 A.D.  Currently, the most widely held scholarly opinion is that the Testimonium Flavianum is only partially authentic and that those words and phrases that correspond with standard Christian formulae are additions from a Christian copyist.

The first scriptural reference to Jesus being divine didn’t appear until the 2nd century.  All earlier Christian texts that we know of make no mention of his Godhood.  These texts were not selected for inclusion in our current Bible but many were tremendously popular in pre-catholic Christendom.

There are striking similarities between the Jesus stories and those of the earlier Mystery religions that flourished throughout the Greco-Roman world; predating Christianity by centuries. You see, there were several figures prior to Jesus who shared many of his traits... and while you may recognize their names, under the mystery religions, they really shouldn’t be associated too strictly with their classical mythologies.

Horus, Attis, Krishna, Dionysus, Mithras... in various tellings of the Mysteries, they shared as many as 30 direct correlations to the Jesus story.  Here are 6 that many will find most interesting:

1. They are the son of God and Savior of all mankind.
2. Their father is a god and their mother a mortal virgin.
3. They are born in a stable before shepherds on or near the Winter Solstice.
4. They die on or near the Spring Equinox for the sins of the world.
5. After death, they descend into hell and rise again on the third day.
6. They preach the sacrament of communion of their sacred body and blood for the forgiveness of sins.

I do believe, like many early Christian Gnostics, that the Jesus stories are a Jewish repackaging of earlier Mystery religions.  These religions were so influential and popularized at the time, they would have been familiar to any number of the literally hundreds of preachers roaming the Judean countryside fitting Jesus' description.  By their very nature, the mysteries encouraged variation and creative retelling.  Personally, I choose believe Christian scripture is, both literally and allegorically, attempting to describe one preacher in particular.  The preacher we know to today as Jesus.  I don't believe such a broad understanding should in any way detract from the teachings attributed to him.

Like many early Gnostic Christians, I also believe Jesus did not do for us what we could do for ourselves.  The Christ is a spiritual act and acknowledgement and I believe the scriptures speak to the Christ within us all.  The remission of sin and the transcending of mortal existence into immortality is our work.  It is something we must do for ourselves, each of us individually.  Whether I call him Lord, prophet, brother, man, or friend, Jesus the Nazarene pointed the way.

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:

no man cometh unto the Father, but [by] me.”

~ John 14:6

Sin and Satan

Camping along the bank of the Colorado River - Near Moab Utah

The Truth Behind Error

“A wicked mortal is not the idea of God. He is little else than the expression of error. To suppose that sin, lust, hatred, envy, hypocrisy, revenge, have life abiding in them, is a terrible mistake. Life and Life’s idea, Truth and Truth’s idea, never make men sick, sinful, or mortal.”

“Error is neither Mind nor one of Mind’s faculties. Error is the contradiction of Truth. Error is a belief without understanding. Error is unreal because untrue. It is that which stemma to be and is not. If error were true, its truth would be error, and we should have a self-evident absurdity; namely, erroneous truth. Thus we should continue to lose the standard of Truth.”

~ Mary Baker Eddy

First and foremost, I do not believe in Satan as an actual entity with sentience or motivation.  My faith dictates he is a metaphor... a metaphor for mortal sin.  Sin is nothing more than human failing or, in the simplest term, error.  Temptation is the expression of human weakness and not the product of some spiritual adversary intent on causing harm.

It is my firm belief that the whole creation myth is a profound spiritual allegory intended to reveal eternal truths only to those who study and ponder it sufficiently.  Heavenly wars, banished hosts, and earthly temptations spawned by the demonic are all part of a rich oral history of tremendous depth and meaning that has, sadly, been reduced to a ridiculously simplistic face-value “historical” narrative in the pages of a terribly misunderstood book.

We are the real Satan and his only power is what we surrender through error.

Pursuing Happiness

Along State Hwy. 6 - Near Green River Utah

The Greater Jihad

The Universal Tenet of Happiness

I just finished listening to an incredible conversation hosted by Krista Tippett of American Public Media's "Being" on stage at Emory University.  The panelists included His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama - the exiled head of state and spiritual leader of Tibet, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks - Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth, The Most Reverend Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori - the 26th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, and Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr - Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University and one of the world's leading experts on Islamic science and spirituality.  The night’s topic; “pursuing happiness with the Dalai Lama.”

I found it especially applicable to the evolving purpose of this blog... a purpose I am still struggling to properly quantify.  I left contemplating two related considerations that I currently find especially pertinent and personal as I fuel my pursuit of happiness.

One of the most commonly used words in Arabic for “happiness” literally means “expanded or enlarged.”  In her closing comments, Ms. Tippett said, “In the 21st century, all religious people must feel themselves enlarged rather than threatened by the presence of religious others.”  This begs two questions; “Do I feel enlarged?” and “Do I enlarge others?”  In pondering these questions and reminiscing personal situations, I came to the not-so-astonishing conclusion that one can not be accomplished without the other and that happiness requires both.

Because my Mormon upbringing tends to view life and faith in rather black and white terms, I haven't felt particularly enlarged as I insist on the shades of gray more common among pluralists.  Understandably, I often feel threatened by rigid sectarianism.  Intended or not, I find much of their common jargon, phraseology, and dogma to be depreciating, condescending and exclusionary.  Unfortunately, in these moments of instinctive partisanship, I too find it difficult to enlarge those outside my defined understanding.  I become defensive and I miss opportunities for open dialog by choosing to be equally uncompromising.

I can firmly say I still do embrace many intrinsically Mormon philosophies yet I seem to seek out sources outside the more traditional Mormon paradigm in my efforts to advance my thinking on such topics.  With rare exception, I tend to view Mormon opinion with far more skepticism.  Tonight's conversation touched on why.

“...thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian; because thou wast a stranger in his land.”  

~Deut. 23:7

Having left Egypt, Moses counseled his followers.  To be truly free of Egypt, they must also leave behind their hatred for their enemy.  I thought my enemy was having my ideas and beliefs considered a betrayal; meritless and damaging in the eyes of those with whom I had once communed.  But as Moses points out, my enemy is much closer and much more personal than that.  My enemy is any hurt and disappointment I allow such considerations to cause.  It is the resentment caused by judgement, real or otherwise, to which I give credence.

I long for the serenity and consistency exemplified by the Buddha.  It is that enlightenment or exalted state which we should all strive and it can only be achieved through the introspective battle of self-betterment... addressing those inner shortcomings preventing us from reaching true and sustainable happiness.

“One of my Muslim friend explained to me one interpretation of Jihad, not only sort of attack on other, but real meaning is combative attack your own wrongdoing or negativities.  So in that sentence, the whole Buddhist practice is practice of Jihad.”

~ the Dalai Lama