The Origin
Of
Our Belief In God
by Erik Langkjer
Part II: The Sun Hero
24. Summary
The escatological hope of Roman-Hellenistic time that the soul of the dead can ascend the heavens and become a star is a belief coming from the Middle East:
"I shall ascend the heavens, above the stars of El I will elevate my seat. I will sit (enthroned) on the Mount of Assembly, in the recesses of Saphon. I will mount the backsides of the clouds, be comparable to the supreme one"[1].
By following the path of the glory of the sun, Ps 73,24f., the year-cycle of the sun (365), Gen 5,23f., the fiery chariot of the sun (Elija), by riding the clouds (the Son of Man, Dan 7,13) one will be established, consolidated among the stars on the cosmic mountain Saphon identical with the starry vault ever turning around its top in the North Star. The sons of El are the stars, therefore Lel, the mountain of the nightly heaven is also the mountain of the Assembly of the sons of El.
El Cronos leads the flight of the Gods (acc. to Philo of Byblos), and is finally apotheosed as the star Saturn. Saturn is the place where one goes over from the long journey in the course of the sun to the eternal, fixed state of the shining stars.
Anat forces the sun to carry the corpse of the dead Baal through the netherworld to Mt.Saphon. The sun's journey is through night and hell to the summit of the cosmic vault.
Very important is the Ugarit-fragment, RS 24.245, where Baal is hailed as sitting like "a bear" at the summit of "Divine Saphon". It is described as a holy seven-fold mountain with "seven lightening-bolts and eight bundles of clouds (or peaks?)"[2]. Strangely enough, the mountain is also described as the world tree, the axis mundi[3].
The Sumerian temple tower and the Egyptian obelisk are both models of the world mountain and the Mesopotamian kings mounting the 7 steps of the temple tower are apotheosed.
The very old Resheph-temple in Byblos is called the obelisk temple: in its courtyard were erected a multitude of obelisks. But Resheph is the god apotheosed as Saturn-El Cronos.The obelisks are raised up as a "house of eternity" for the deceased's soul. Acc. to Philo of Byblos, El Cronos was surrounded by a group of eloim, "gods", or perhaps rather apotheosed kings and noblemen.
The stone stele is raised on the "Cedar mountain", the old garden of the gods. In a strange way the deceased soul is brought near to heaven, walking among the burning stars on the mountain of El, resting in the eternal depth of the high heavens, participating in the eternal feast of the gods.
The picture shows the cavalier god riding a camel arriving at the gate to paradise. The gate is shown as two opposites: The column of fire and the column of vegetation (the tree of life with the bowl of the crescent moon at the top). The mystical flower is seen above the head of the camel.[4]
This journey in the path of the sun to the mystical centre, to paradise, is a very important motif in Syrian religion. Other important motifs are the demon god in his lion appearance, and the old highgod and his son, the sun-warrior. A small altar from Lebanon, now at Ny Carlsberg Glyptoteket in Copenhagen, is adorned with pictures of all three gods:
At Sumatar Harabesi 40 km north east of Harran, there is an old high place dedicated to Sin, the moon god of Harran. On a mountainside two reliefs are carved: of the old god Sin called Marelahe ("Lord of the Gods") and the young sun hero standing in the gate of the sun[5]:
Another important motif is the primordial twins as personifications of the two pillars of the sun´s gate[6].
The cross, the mystical flower with four petals is the symbol of cosmic centre, of all diversity being united into one. This can also be shown by a very special sphere symbolising the unity of cosmos. In a temple from Dura gods are seen standing on this device[7].
I hope our small investigation has shed some light over important motifs as the four rivers from Eden, the two trees and the two primordial brothers as opposites, the snake and the moving of human mind from unity to knowledge of duality, good and evil, male and female. Ill. from Roscher, Neue Omphalosstudien, Abh.d.phil-hist.Kl.d. Sächs. Gesellsch.d.Wiss.vol. 31.taf III, no.3. See also A.J.Wensinck, Tree and Bird as Cosmological Symbols in Western Asia,1921.
[1] Is 14,13f
[2] Transl. B.Margulis, "Weltbaum and Weltberg in Ugaritic Literature", ZAW 86, 1974, p.14
[3] Margulis, ibd
[4] Rostovtzeff, Dura VII/VIII, t. 31, 2
[5] H.J.W.Drijvers, Cults and Beliefs at Edessa, 1980, pl.XXV
[6] Ivory from Nimrud, M.Mallowan, Nimrud 2, fig. 394
[7] Cumont, Dura t.LV
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.