The Origin
Of
Our Belief In God
by Erik Langkjer
Part II: The Sun Hero
4. Circling around
If we combine the psalms of the Qumran scroll called Hodayot with the information given us by Philo of Alexandria of a nightly vigil celebrated by the Essene community (by Philo called the "Therapists"), the result is a very interesting ritual celebrating the Exodus from Egypt. The ritual was celebrated on a certain night after 7 times 7 days. (Perhaps the Jewish Pentecost, celebrated 7 weeks after Easter). After eating together, the night was spent singing psalms, first the male choir and the female choir standing apart from each other answering each other, but then at the end of the night, the two choirs mingled, and even danced wheeling in big circles, all this in a dramatic re-enactment of the flight from Pharaoh and death in Egypt, the walk through the waters rising in mighty walls on each side of the fleeing people, and finally the song of Miriam standing on the highland (Philo uses the Greek word, meteora = "high in the air") on the other shore. And after this they would all go out of the dining hall to greet the sunrise, and they would stand turned to the east with hands uplifted to the rising sun, "standing together with the Father" (Greek: systathenton, de cont. vit. 90). Now we know from some of the followers of John the Baptist that God was called the "Standing One", the one who transcends death and is eternally standing. (Dositheos had to hail Simon Magus, the first disciple of John, as "The Standing One", and the only document we have from the hand of the Magus is Apophasis Megale, a description of God as the one "who stood, stands and will stand").
At this ritual the Essene singer was planted on his feet among the eternally standing ones (the angels, in the Bible called "the sons of God"), forming the council of God, where God makes his plans known to angels and prophets. The prophets were already in the Old Testament seen as those who had access to God's council, and the Essene community was certainly trying to be God's holy council, receiving direct information about his holy will and plans, and many of them were looked upon as prophets knowing the future in advance. ("For all the men of your council and in common lot with the angels before your face, and there is no mediator", 1.QH VI,13. "…I have listened to your wonderful counselling by your Holy Spirit" XII,12f.).
Now the Hodayot are psalms of thanksgiving, with the typical phrase: I thank you Lord ... And the salvation thanked for is a salvation from many chaotic waters and death in Sheol. And salvation itself is mostly described in the following way: "I was exposed to... But my feet are set on firm ground...You raised me to eternal height, I will walk on smooth land" (II,29.III,20). Salvation is coming to the highland of the Lord standing on his firm rock ("on a place of standing you have set me", "…so that it (the heart) can stand ... eternal abode in a perfect light for ever" (XVIII,28f.), where nobody should be shaken and brought to fall, standing by an "eternal well" of "living waters" among "trees of life" (VIII,4-9). The sinner was cleansed so that he could stand "in the standing-place" of the angels (III,21f.), safe from the great flood, the streams of Belial (29-33,15-18) "By your grace is my standing" and it will survive the attacks of mighty streams of water (II,25-29). "I... shall wander on the roads of glory and peace without end and finish, forever" (VII,14f.). "Eternal foundations serve as my basis" (VII,8f.). "To stand before your face in eternity" (VII,31).
Since the dawn of our culture man has believed that if he could travel in the route of the sun, he would finally reach through the eternal night to paradise, where the sun is resting during the night, and renewed so that it can rise and shine with renewed strength every morning. The travel through the night and the chaotic waters, the wheeling round and round in the dance of the chorus is being one with the sun and its long journey through the darkness to the sunrise, even to paradise with the firm, everlasting mountain, the tree of life, and the well of life. After the vigil the Qumran people felt that their steps were now guided by God on a "road made even", the "royal highway" of the sun, travelling with light and life through the wildernesses of this world. In the gospel John the Baptist is hailed as the one preparing this road, making it even. He is the Christian version of the sun warrior.
Moses´s life is finished by his ascension on Mt. Abarim ("transitors"). The sun hero finishes his travels by climbing the mythical mountain. The name of the mountain is hinting at this passing through the universe, a parallel to the transitus of Mithras, so also A. Jeremias [1].
[1] p.761.
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.