Evolution of the God Concept Among the Hebrews
The spiritual leaders of the Hebrews did what no others before them had ever succeeded in doing -- they deanthropomorphized their God concept without converting it into an abstraction of Deity comprehensible only to philosophers. Even common people were able to regard the matured concept of Yahweh as a Father, if not of the individual, at least of the race. The concept of the personality of God, while clearly taught at Salem in the days of Melchizedek, was vague and hazy at the time of the flight from Egypt and only gradually evolved in the Hebraic mind from generation to generation in response to the teaching of the spiritual leaders. The perception of Yahweh's personality was much more continuous in its progressive evolution than was that of many other of the Deity attributes. From Moses to Malachi there occurred an almost unbroken ideational growth of the personality of God in the Hebrew mind, and this concept was eventually heightened and glorified by the teachings of Jesus about the Father in heaven.
--Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon, from the Urantia Papers. Samuel -- First of the Hebrew Prophets Samuel sprang from a long line of the Salem teachers who had persisted in maintaining the truths of Melchizedek... Elijah and Elisha Elijah was kept busy, as Samuel had been before him, overthrowing the altars of Baal and demolishing the idols of false gods. Yahweh and Baal The long-drawn-out controversy between the believers in Yahweh and the followers of Baal was a socioeconomic clash of ideologies rather than a difference in religious beliefs. Amos and Hosea Amos was not merely a restorer or reformer; he was a discoverer of new concepts of Deity. The First Isaiah Isaiah went on to preach the eternal nature of God, his infinite wisdom, his unchanging perfection of reliability. Jeremiah the Fearless While several teachers continued to expound the gospel of Isaiah, it remained for Jeremiah to take the next bold step in the internationalization of Yahweh... The Second Isaiah No prophet or religious teacher from Machiventa to the time of Jesus attained the high concept of God that Isaiah the second proclaimed during these days of the captivity. Sacred and Profane History The custom of looking upon the record of the experiences of the Hebrews as sacred history and upon the transactions of the rest of the world as profane history is responsible for much of... Hebrew History There never were twelve tribes of the Israelites -- only three or four tribes settled in Palestine. The Hebrew nation came into being as the result of... The Hebrew Religion ...but the Hebrew religion of sincere belief in the one and universal God continues to live in the hearts of the scattered exiles... Return from Evolution of the God Cocept Among the Hebrews to Home |
