From: HOLFELTZ@LSTC2VM.stortek.com
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Father-Mother God reference (part 3 of 3)
Date: 14 Apr 92 07:49:01 GMT
Organization: StorageTek SW Engineering

[from Continued (2)]
 
Together They ruled supreme among the gods.  In the primordial
beginning, El and Asherah begat sevetny divine sons and daughters
and it was these who became the lesser gods that filled the
pantheon (Early History of  Israel p.147).  Essentially, the whole
pantheon was a patriarchal order, composed of the sons and daughters
of two heavenly parents who were thought of as God the Father and
God the Mother--El and Asherah.
 
On two different occasions the NT perpeturates this same tradition,
first in Luke (3:38) where it states that Adam was the son of GOD just
as Seth was the son of Adam, and then again in Acts (17:28-9).  This
all fits perfectly with the old patriarchal religion, for not only was
El declared to be the Father of all the gods in heaven, He was also
believed to be the Father of all mankind (Theological Dictionary of the
Old Testament 1:253, Appendix B p.45; Early History of Israel p.281).
 
At the time of Moses, for the first time in the history of the world,
the use of an image was banned from the cultic rituals of the priesthood
(Zondervans Pictorical Encyclopedia of the Bible 3:245).  This in
essence covers consecrating a sacred stone pillar or tree as the patriarchs
did (or the worship of the statue of Mary as a symbol).  The stone pillar
or rocks were to symbolize the presence of El, the tree the presence of
El's wife, Asherah (also to carve picture and plant like a totem pole).
 
The King James version is based upon the Masoretic Text which was tampered
with by the Jewish scribes to remove the implication of Asherah worship.
Enough manuscripts and text has survived and consistently show that sacred
trees formed a part of Patriarchal religion.  For instance, the KJV says the
"Lord appeared unto [Abraham] in the plains of Mamre", but the Jurusalem
Bible says "Yahweh appeared to him at the OAK of Mamre".  Also see
Genesis chapter 21 in KJV.
 
I believe there is now sufficient evidence to warrant belief in:
  1. Many Gods
  2. We owe our allegiance to only one
  3. That allegiance is based upon a Patriarchal order
  4. We have the potential to become like them
  5. Both God and man have alot lose/gain with our experience with life.
 
Based upon the above, this throws an entirely different light upon
our religious heritage.
 
Indeed, I agree, this presents some new problems on our perception of
God and omniscience omni-goodness and etc, but it does remove
several--Evil, sin, the fall, the redemption; it explains why there
is pain and suffering in the world, explains the various archtypes
of heavens.
 
I will be posting to "Election, Reprobation and in between" on these
various points.
 
A poor Wayfaring Stranger in a strange land,
 
Roger Holfeltz   -  The truth can be made up, you know how

[When you say that that Masoretic Text was tampered with, I think
you're suggesting a time period far later than I would suggest is
appropriate.  That text was stabilized someone in the early Christian
centuries (sorry, I don't recall the date).  But I think the Hebrew
scriptures were already being purged of the early religious ideas by
the time of the Deuteronomist, who is pre-exilic.  Maybe something
survived and got removed by the Masoretes -- but I'm sceptical of this
happening very widely.  In Gen 18:1, NJPS has "terebinths", so
presumably that's what's in the Masoretic text.  I don't know why King
James has plains, but it doesn't sound like censorship by the
Masoretes.  --clh]