The Origin
Of
Our Belief In God
by Erik Langkjer
Part I: El and Baal, the Shepherd and the Hunter
27. The vision of ultimate reality
The imagery of Maykop is very close to that of the earliest culture of the Middle East. We find the whirl of animals in Hierakonpolis (prehistoric Egypt), at prehistoric Susa, and Mohenjo Daro. Animals of very different horn-shape and color are, in the centre, united to one by the strange prolonging of leg or body (in Hierakonpolis). Also in Maykop the symbolism from bottom to top is a movement from centre and unity to duality. At the bottom of the jar is the mystical well of life in the mystical centre of the universe. At the top, contrast and duality are pictured in several ways:
Two bulls confronting each other in contrast to different animals chasing in the same direction.
This picture is a sort of Russian parallel to the biblical vision of God carried by "life-creatures" melted together from 4 different animals (Ez 1-3) and standing by the crystal sea.
Two pillars of stone in contrast to two pillars of vegetation.
Acc. to Zach 14,6-9 the contrasts of life will disappear (heat and frost, day and night), for the unity of the Lord and the day of the Lord, which is all light, and the mystical well of life, will spring up at Jerusalem and divide into two.
This symbolism of unity and duality is very typical of mythological thinking and also found in primitive philosophy. In Pythagoras and Plato the number One is a mystical symbol of God, and limitless duality is the evil principle.
Müller-Karpe, IV, 3, t.718, 1
Sakjé-Geuzi, North Syria 11-8.cent. B.C. SYRIA V, pl.1
Also the tree of life can be shown as a hybrid – fused together by 3 different symbols of vegetation, and over it hovers the sun bird, a fusion of bird, rosette, moon sickle and two fruit- bearing wreaths being picked by the two genii. The tree of life as a hybrid is also mentioned by J.de Moor in his article "East of Eden"[1]. The double bull arranged as a pair reflecting each other is also a symbol of ultimate reality, duality becoming one. On the seal from Mohenjo Daro above it is seen united to the tree of life(?).
The high god is the giver of vegetation, therefore his epiphany can be the old gigantic tree, the highest tree overlooking the whole area. His finest symbol is the "tree of life" with the "well of life" at its root, and perhaps even the "coiled one" as a symbol of primordial, amorphous matter. As a divine symbol, the tree is carrying fruits of diamond and sapphire and seven globular lights on its branches to mark the mystic unity of all light, the light of the sun and moon and 5 planets. The Menorah is a typical symbol of God as the source of all light and life.
The ecstatic character of the snake coiling up the tree is often stressed by the bird of ecstasy flying in the top of the tree.
The blossoming staff of Aron is the old royal scepter seen as a branch from the tree of life[2]. The arc of the covenant contained a branch from the tree of life and a jar with the manna = "the bread of life" (so Ruprecht). Later "the tree of life"-aspect of Yahveh was represented by the Menorah.
The plant of life, the mystical rosette being nursed (pollinated?) by genii; under it 4-fold totality and double bull becoming one: the mystical centre of the cosmos, Khorsabad, 8th cent.B.C.[3]:
Mysticism, that very specific experience of transcendent reality breaking through the normal day-to-day sensation of color, smell, and sound, opening up to both heaven and hell, is as old as man's contact with God as the upholding power of life and light[4]. It is important for the desert-life of both John the Baptist, Jesus and Paul as for the early monks searching for unity of heart. It is important for the beginning of western philosophy[5], as it is important for the understanding of religion in Catal Hüyük, the vision of Ezekiel, and the longing for androgynous unity among Syrian ecstatics.
To me as a theologian the army of demons is a reality. And mystical visions of ultimate reality as the uniting force behind all love and light and life in the universe are a reality. Only modern man tries to close his eyes to this reality so often experienced in religion, and expressed in its iconography. That mysticism is an important feature in Jewish and Near Eastern religion as early as at the time of Jesus & Paul is proved by Philo of Alexandria: when the high priest has to go into the debir, he changes from clothes of many colours (symbolizing this world) to a white dress symbolizing divine light: standing before God the priest is taken from the plurality of the world and united to divine unity and the transcendent most clear light. When Abraham went out from Ur it was like the opening of the eye of the soul after a long sleep, and he saw the clearest light of God[6].
[1] ZAW 100, 1988
[2] G.Widengren, The King and the Tree of Life, UUA 1951. E.Ruprecht: "Stellung und Bedeutung vom Mannawunder", ZAW 86, 1974, pp.276-8
[3] Parrot, Assur, 1961, fig. 341
[4] John 1,1ff
[5] Proved by A.J Festugière, Contemplation et vie contemplative selon Platon, 1950
[6] Abr.70.
Disclaimer:
Some material presented will contain links, quotes, ideologies, etc., the contents of which should be understood to first, in their whole, reflect the views or opinions of their editors, and second, are used in my personal research as "fair use" sources only, and not espousement one way or the other. Researching for 'truth' leads one all over the place...a piece here, a piece there. As a researcher, I hunt, gather and disassemble resources, trying to put all the pieces into a coherent and logical whole. I encourage you to do the same. And please remember, these pages are only my effort to collect all the pieces I can find and see if they properly fit into the 'reality aggregate'.
Personal Position:
I've come to realize that 'truth' boils down to what we 'believe' the facts we've gathered point to. We only 'know' what we've 'experienced' firsthand. Everything else - what we read, what we watch, what we hear - is what someone else's gathered facts point to and 'they' 'believe' is 'truth', so that 'truth' seems to change in direct proportion to newly gathered facts divided by applied plausibility. Though I believe there is 'truth', until someone representing the celestial realm visibly appears and presents the heavenly records of Facts And Lies In The Order They Happened, I can't know for sure exactly what "the whole truth' on any given subject is, and what applies to me applies to everyone. Until then I'll continue to ask, "what does The Urantia Book say on the subject?"
~Gail Bird Allen
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Urantia Book, 44:0.11 - The Celestial Artisans
Never in your long ascendancy will you lose the power to recognize your associates of former existences. Always, as you ascend inward in the scale of life, will you retain the ability to recognize and fraternize with the fellow beings of your previous and lower levels of experience. Each new translation or resurrection will add one more group of spirit beings to your vision range without in the least depriving you of the ability to recognize your friends and fellows of former estates.
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Princess Bride 1987 Wallace Shawn (Vizzini) and Mandy Patinkin (Inigo Montoya)
Vizzini: HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE.
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. -
Urantia Book, 117:4.14 - The Finite God
And here is mystery: The more closely man approaches God through love, the greater the reality -- actuality -- of that man. The more man withdraws from God, the more nearly he approaches nonreality -- cessation of existence. When man consecrates his will to the doing of the Father's will, when man gives God all that he has, then does God make that man more than he is.
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Urantia Book, 167:7.4 - The Talk About Angels
"And do you not remember that I said to you once before that, if you had your spiritual eyes anointed, you would then see the heavens opened and behold the angels of God ascending and descending? It is by the ministry of the angels that one world may be kept in touch with other worlds, for have I not repeatedly told you that I have other sheep not of this fold?"
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Urantia Book, Foreword - 0:12.12 - The Trinities
But we know that there dwells within the human mind a fragment of God, and that there sojourns with the human soul the Spirit of Truth; and we further know that these spirit forces conspire to enable material man to grasp the reality of spiritual values and to comprehend the philosophy of universe meanings. But even more certainly we know that these spirits of the Divine Presence are able to assist man in the spiritual appropriation of all truth contributory to the enhancement of the ever-progressing reality of personal religious experience—God-consciousness.
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Urantia Book, 1:4.3 - The Mystery Of God
When you are through down here, when your course has been run in temporary form on earth, when your trial trip in the flesh is finished, when the dust that composes the mortal tabernacle "returns to the earth whence it came"; then, it is revealed, the indwelling "Spirit shall return to God who gave it." There sojourns within each moral being of this planet a fragment of God, a part and parcel of divinity. It is not yet yours by right of possession, but it is designedly intended to be one with you if you survive the mortal existence.
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Urantia Book, 1:4.1 - The Mystery Of God
And the greatest of all the unfathomable mysteries of God is the phenomenon of the divine indwelling of mortal minds. The manner in which the Universal Father sojourns with the creatures of time is the most profound of all universe mysteries; the divine presence in the mind of man is the mystery of mysteries.
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Urantia Book, 1:4.6 - The Mystery Of God
To every spirit being and to every mortal creature in every sphere and on every world of the universe of universes, the Universal Father reveals all of his gracious and divine self that can be discerned or comprehended by such spirit beings and by such mortal creatures. God is no respecter of persons, either spiritual or material. The divine presence which any child of the universe enjoys at any given moment is limited only by the capacity of such a creature to receive and to discern the spirit actualities of the supermaterial world.
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Urantia Book, 11:0.1 - The Eternal Isle Of Paradise
Paradise is the eternal center of the universe of universes and the abiding place of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and their divine co-ordinates and associates. This central Isle is the most gigantic organized body of cosmic reality in all the master universe. Paradise is a material sphere as well as a spiritual abode. All of the intelligent creation of the Universal Father is domiciled on material abodes; hence must the absolute controlling center also be material, literal. And again it should be reiterated that spirit things and spiritual beings are real.
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Urantia Book, 50:6.4 - Planetary Culture
Culture presupposes quality of mind; culture cannot be enhanced unless mind is elevated. Superior intellect will seek a noble culture and find some way to attain such a goal. Inferior minds will spurn the highest culture even when presented to them ready-made.
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Urantia Book, 54:1.6 - True And False Liberty
True liberty is the associate of genuine self-respect; false liberty is the consort of self-admiration. True liberty is the fruit of self-control; false liberty, the assumption of self-assertion. Self-control leads to altruistic service; self-admiration tends towards the exploitation of others for the selfish aggrandizement of such a mistaken individual as is willing to sacrifice righteous attainment for the sake of possessing unjust power over his fellow beings.
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Urantia Book, 54:1.9 - True And False Liberty
How dare the self-willed creature encroach upon the rights of his fellows in the name of personal liberty when the Supreme Rulers of the universe stand back in merciful respect for these prerogatives of will and potentials of personality! No being, in the exercise of his supposed personal liberty, has a right to deprive any other being of those privileges of existence conferred by the Creators and duly respected by all their loyal associates, subordinates, and subjects.
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Urantia Book, 54:1.8 - True And False Liberty
There is no error greater than that species of self-deception which leads intelligent beings to crave the exercise of power over other beings for the purpose of depriving these persons of their natural liberties. The golden rule of human fairness cries out against all such fraud, unfairness, selfishness, and unrighteousness.