The Origin
Of
Our Belief In God
by Erik Langkjer
Part II: The Sun Hero
12. The old god and the young hero
El in Ugarit has his dwelling somewhere in the outskirts of the universe on Mt. Lel, only reached after a long journey. But this resting place can in a strange way be present in the stele, the Betel-stone. The Betel-stone raised by Jacob is explicitly named as the "house of El = God"[1]. It pictures the Highgod as the eternal rock of whom the sun hero is born (Example: Mithras de petra natus = born of the stone) to start his running along the path he clears for the sun. The sun warrior is called the "calf" and when Ieroboam puts up a golden calf next to the Betel-stone, it is the young god emanated from the old. Everywhere in the West Semitic area we find the highgod split up into two: the old Father of Eternity and the young Sun Hero.
Tyre: |
Baalsjamem |
Melqart |
Sidon: |
Chronos |
|
Ugarit: |
The "bull" El, "Father of Years" |
Baal, the "bull-calf (´gl) |
Is 9,6: |
"Father of Eternity" (´ad) |
"El gibbor = "hero" |
Dan 7,9: |
"The Ancient of Days w. white, woolly hair" |
"The Son of Man" |
Egypt: |
Djed-Osiris |
Horus |
Pherecydes: |
Chronos = "Time" |
Zas |
Betel: |
Betel |
a golden calf shining in the sun |
Gaza: |
Aldémios or Aldos acc to Movers halad = "time" |
Marna = Zeus Cretagenes |
Beiruth: |
Aion & Beroe (Nonnos 41,83ff.) |
|
Tarsus: |
Baal Tars as Zeus Olympios |
Sandan as Heracles |
The sun hero is he who prepares a road through chaos and wilderness. (In India Varuna creates a "broad path" for the sun.) He leads on the road to paradise, cf that the calf is hailed by the call: "The God who led us out of Egypt"[2]. The calf is cast by Aaron as an answer to the people demanding a god "who can walk in front of us" (Exod 32,1). The dance is probably circling around in the circle of the sun and the episode finishes with the promise that God will send his angel "to walk in front … to the land which flows with milk and honey", 33,2f., chasing hostile nations off the route. Finally God himself promises to "lead you to the final goal", by walking before them, 33,19.14. All this about the road and the walk cannot be explained by the short way from the eastern delta to Southern Palestine. It is the symbolism of the sun warrior as the breaker of way through the wilderness creating the episode, cf the talk about the kabod, the glory of God, 33,18.22.
The killing of the divine bull releases the waters of life – but here with great irony: The dust from the crushed calf is mixed into the drinking water.
In Gen 28 Jacob is the sun hero, note the symbolism of the road in v.15 & 20.
Under the emperor Elagabal the Syrian sol invictus religion becomes the state religion of the Roman empire. The cult image was a black meteor stone with magic signs inscribed on the surface. Elagabal must be translated "El of the Stone". The black betel-stone is the divine numen in its static state, the old god. The young god again and again born out of the stone/the paradise mountain is the emperor also called Heliogabal. The picture shows a betel-shaped idol standing between columns in a small temple (SYRIA XL, 1963, pl.1). Helios surrounded by the zodiac is coming out of the rock. From Beroia (Aleppo) comes a coin that shows a bearded giant standing on 3 horned and winged lions and with the inscription Beroi-Aion (= "eternity"). He receives a laurel wreath from Nike, the goddess of victory. On the reverse a picture of the emperor Trajan with laurel wreath on his head.[3]
[1] Gen 28,22
[2] Exod 32,4 & 1.Kings 12,28
[3] H.Seyrig, "Zeus de Bérée", SYRIA XL, pp.28-30
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.