Chapter 7: More on the religion that we call Government
Government is as much of a religion as any other.
Let’s remember chapter 2, 1st Samuel 8, short version: Don’t create a king.
If that isn’t enough, let’s looks at modern leaders, as found in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_have_been_considered_deities
Imperial Cults
Egyptian pharaohs: 3050 – 30 BC
Egyptian pharaohs were kings of Ancient Egypt, and were considered gods by their culture. Their titles equated them with aspects of the likes of the hawk god Horus, the vulture goddess Nekhbet, and the cobra-goddess Wadjet. The Egyptians believed that when their Pharaoh died, he would continue to lead them in the next life, which is why his burial was grand and completed to perfection—to please him in the next life and ensure his immortality to protect his people. See List of pharaohs.
Naram-Sin: 2255 – 2119 BC
The first Mesopotamian king to claim divinity.
Chinese Emperors: 221 BC – AD 1911
Deified as “Sons of Heaven” since the Qin Dynasty under Qin Shi Huang.
Roman Emperors: 42 BC – AD 363
Following Julius Caesar who in 42 BC was formally deified as “the Divine Julius”, and Caesar Augustus henceforth became Divi filius (“Son of the Divine One”), some (not all) Roman Emperors of the 1st to 4th centuries claimed divinity, including Tiberius 14–37, Caligula 37–41, Claudius 41–54, Hadrian 117–138, Commodus 161–192, Constantine I 306–312, Julian the Apostate 361–363
Japanese Emperors: 660 BC –
Claimed, at least by some Shintoists, including government officials, to be divine descendants of the goddess Amaterasu. Hirohito, the Showa emperor, repudiated the “false conception” of his divinity in the Humanity Declaration in 1945.
Natchez rulers: 700
The Natchez were a theocracy ruled by “The Great Sun.” This ruler has sometimes been deemed a God-king.
The Sailendras: 700
The Sailendra dynasty of Java were active promoters of Mahayana Buddhism and covered the plains of Central Java with Buddhist monuments, including the world famous Borobudur.
Dalai Lamas: 1391 –
Considered re-incarnations of Avalokiteśvara in Tibetan Buddhism. Panchen Lamas are incarnations of Amitābha.
Inca Emperors: 1438
The Inca Emperors had a status very similar to that of the Pharaohs of Egypt.
Nepalese monarchs: 1768–2008
In Nepal, the kings of the Shah dynasty were considered incarnations of Vishnu.
Deified by their followers
Imhotep: 2600 BC
Ancient Egyptian architect and physician, who two thousand years after his death, was raised to that of a god, becoming the god of medicine and healing.
Queen Dido of Carthage: 814 BC
Founder and first queen of Carthage, after her death, she was deified by her people with the name of Tanit and assimilated to the Great Goddess Astarte (Roman Juno). The cult of Tanit survived Carthage’s destruction by the Romans; it was introduced to Rome itself by Emperor Septimius Severus, himself born in North Africa. It was extinguished completely with the Theodosian decrees of the late 4th century.
Romulus and Remus (hero cult): 771–717
BC Founders of Rome, sons of Mars, Romulus served as first king. After his death, Romulus was defined as the god, Quirinus, the divine persona of the Roman people. He is now regarded as a mythological figure, and his name a back-formation from the name Rome, which may ultimately derive from a word for “river”. Some scholars, notably Andrea Carandini believe in the historicity of Romulus, in part because of the 1988 discovery of the Murus Romuli on the north slope of the Palatine Hill in Rome.
Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha: 563 BC(?)
Believed a god by some Mahayana sects, and worshipped as an avatar of Vishnu by some Vaishnavas.
Hephaestion: 356–324 BC
Deified by Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon the Great (hero cult) : 356–323 BC
Some believe he implied he was a demigod by actively using the title “Son of Ammon–Zeus”. The title was bestowed upon him by Egyptian priests of the god Ammon at the Oracle of the god at the Siwah oasis in the Libyan Desert.
Antinous: 111 AD–130 AD
Deified by Hadrian. He is the last non-Imperial human formally deified in Western Civilization.
Mary (mother of Jesus) : 300 CE In 300 AD
She was worshipped as a Mother Goddess in the Christian sect Collyridianism, which was found throughout the Arabian Peninsula. Collyridianism was made up mostly of women followers and female priests. Followers of Collyridianism were known to make bread and wheat offerings to the Virgin Mary, along with other sacrificial practices. The cult was heavily condemned as heretical and schismatic by other Christians and was preached against by Epiphanius of Salamis, who discussed the group in his recollective writings titled Panarion.
Guan Yu: 581 AD–618 AD
Guan Yu has been deified as early as the Sui Dynasty and is still popularly worshipped today among the Chinese people variedly as an indigenous Chinese deity, a bodhisattva in Buddhism and a guardian deity in Taoism. He is also held in high esteem in Confucianism. In Hong Kong both police and gangsters consider him a divine object of reverence. In certain schools of Taoism and Chinese Buddhism he has been deemed divine or semi-divine status. The reverence for him may date back to the Sui dynasty.
Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib: 599 AD–661 AD
According to the Alawite faith, Ali ibn Abi Talib is one member of a trinity (Ali-Muhammad-Salman the Persian) corresponding roughly to the Christian Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is considered to be the second emanation of God by Yarsan and the supreme deity in Ali-Illahism.
Sugawara no Michizane: 845 AD–903 AD
Japanese Imperial courtier banished from the capital and deified upon his death to appease his angry spirit. Worshipped as Tenjin, kami of scholarship.
El-Hakem b’Amr Allah: 985 AD–1021 AD
Sixth Fatimid Caliph in Egypt, ruling from 996 to 1021. The members of the Druze faith believe that the Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah is God incarnate and that he will come back as the Mahdi.
Majapahit Kings: 1293–1597
Javanese rulers of South East Asia’s largest ever kingdom, in Indonesia. After death, they were depicted as Hindu gods (see for instance Raden Wijaya).
Tokugawa Ieyasu: 1543–1616
Deified posthumously with the name Tōshō Daigongen by his successors.
L. L. Zamenhof: 1859–1917
Considered a god by members of the Oomoto religion.
José Rizal: 1861–1896
Deified by some people in the Philippines due to his contributions to the Philippine Revolution.
Wallace Fard Muhammad: ~1877 – ~1934
Posthumously deified by Elijah Muhammad. He is also given other titles by the Nation of Islam.
Kanichi Otsuka: 1891
Shinreikyo states of its founder “God became one with a human body, appeared among humanity, and founded Shinreikyo.”
George Washington 1732–1799
Worshiped as a kami in Hawaiian Shinto shrines. In the United States Capitol dome, he is also depicted ascending into Heaven and becoming a god, in the famous painting called The Apotheosis of Washington.
Yes, even a painting, and our country’s hero worship is a form of Deification. But why stop there: Sports Heros, Militiary Heros, Actors, Politicians, and all of the other public figures. YOU, yes, YOU the reader, if you recognize them for more than just being human, YOU are practicing idolatry. You are deifying people, people who are no better by the flesh than you or another other person around you. This is the root of the reason people search out to have a ruler, a king, a slave master.
Involuntary Deification
Antiochus II Theos: 286–246 BC
Seleucid ruler. The younger son of Antiochus I and Stratonice, succeeded his father in 261. He liberated Ephesus, Ionia, Cilicia and Pamphylia from Egyptian domination, and in return for their autonomy the cities of Asia Minor gave him the title Theos (“God”).
Zheng He: 1371–1433
Worshiped by some Chinese and South East Asians.
General John Nicholson: 1822–1857
Inspired the cult of Nikal Seyn.
Jiddu Krishnamurti: 1895–1986
Renounced the status of messiah and Maitreya incarnation given him by the Theosophical Society.
Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia: 1892–1975
Among most followers of the Rastafari movement, Haile Selassie is seen as the second coming of Jesus Christ, God incarnate, the Black Messiah and “Earth’s Rightful Ruler” who will also lead African peoples to freedom. Rastas say that his royal titles (i.e. King of Kings, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and Root of David) were prophesied as belonging to the returned Messiah in Revelation 5:5. Their faith in his divinity first appeared in Jamaica, soon after his 1930 coronation in Addis Ababa. Before his coronation he was called Ras (meaning Prince) Tafari.
Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, Duke of Edinburgh: 1921–
Considered a god in the village of Yaohnanen, a cargo cult in Vanuatu. See Prince Philip Movement.
Kumari: -?
These are little girls who are worshipped by both Hindus and Buddhists as the incarnation of the Hindu Goddess Durga (Nepali Taleju) in Nepal. They are picked when they are prepubescent and are worshipped until they reach puberty. Their cult is in South Asian countries, especially in Nepal.
George W Bush: 2000 –
For a president that had controversy surrounding him at every turn, and now gets his face plastered regularly with “Miss Me Yet?” At this point it doesn’t matter if he is guilty or innocent of treason, it is worst the people that still reminisce about him being president, and Clinton before him.
Barry Husain Obama: 2008 – 2016 (Limiting this entry to his presidency)
Where do we start this? The media assigned title of “The messiah”; “You didn’t build that”; 54 states; and any hundreds of gaffs, including the enslavement act called Obamacare.
See? This deification isn’t limited to the dead, but to the living. Again think about who you are worshipping, and didn’t realize it. What are you watching that is more important than God and your liberty? What is more important than taking care of those things that you are given to steward? How long do you need to Hero worship before you realize that this is idolatry?
Self Deification
Antiochus IV Epiphanes: 215–164 BC
Seleucid ruler (reigned 175-164); the only Seleucid king to claim divine honors, calling himself Theos Epiphaneus “God Manifest” and Nikephoros “Bringer of Victory.” Nearly conquered Ptolemaic Egypt, the primary rival of the Seleucids among the Diadochi states. Famously attempted to impose ancient Greek religion on the Jews by persecution, leading to the Maccabean Revolt; remembered as a major persecutor in Jewish tradition.
Simon Magus: 1st century
Considered a god in Simonianism. According to Irenaeus, he “was glorified by many as if he were a god; and he taught that it was himself who appeared among the Jews as the Son, but descended in Samaria as the Father while he came to other nations in the character of the Holy Spirit. He represented himself, in a word, as being the loftiest of all powers, that is, the Being who is the Father over all, and he allowed himself to be called by whatsoever title men were pleased to address him.”
Veleda: 1st century
Germanic prophetess considered a deity during her lifetime.
smail I: 1502–1524
Self-claimed to be an emanation of God and was considered such by the Kızılbaş-Safaviya order, Qizilbash-Turkman subjects and Alevis.
Danila Filippovich: 1700
He believed that he was God and started the Khlysts. (There are various transliterations of his name including Danila Filipov, Danila Filipich, and Daniil Filippovich.)
Kondratii Selivanov: 1780s
Kondraty Selivanov proclaimed himself both as the late Peter III of Russia and Christ himself, and started the Skoptsy.
Hong Xiuquan: 1814–1864
Chinese man who claimed he was the younger brother of Jesus, and thus a son of God. Led the Taiping Rebellion, conquering a large part of China before defeat and suicide.
Father Divine: ~1880–1965
His followers considered him God in the flesh.
Taher Saifuddin: 1888–1965
Claimed to be Elahul Ard (God on Earth) in Bombay High Court
Francisco Macías Nguema: 1924–1979
In 1978, he changed the motto of Equatorial Guinea to “There is no other God than Macias Nguema.”
Juanita Peraza (Mita) : 1897–1970
According to the Mita faith, Mita (Peraza) was the incarnation of the Holy Ghost on earth.
Lou de Palingboer: 1898–1968
A divorced Dutchman named Louwrens Voorthuijzen who proclaimed himself “Lou the Eel Vendor”, this being the translation of his proclaimed name “Lou de Palingboer”. He was a figure who mixed marketing European eels with proselytism. His followers also considered him a living God on a mission against evil.
Jim Jones: 1931–1978
Founder of Peoples Temple, which started off as a part of a mainstream Protestant denomination before becoming a personality cult as time went on. One of Jones’s devotees claimed that Jones said “If you see me as your savior, I’ll be your savior. If you see me as your God, I’ll be your God”; however Jones also described himself as atheist.
Yahweh ben Yahweh: 1935–2007
He was born as Hulon Mitchell, Jr. and his self-proclaimed name means “God, Son of God.” He could have only been deeming himself son of God, not God, but many of his followers clearly consider him God Incarnate.
Nirmala Srivastava: 1923–2011
Guru and goddess of Sahaja Yoga, has proclaimed herself the incarnation of the Holy Ghost (Adi Shakti), claimed that all other incarnations (e.g., Krishna, Christ, etc.) were aspects of her.
Jehovah Wanyonyi: 1924–
“I am the one who created Adam and Eve. I made their bodies and their blood”, […] “I still use human beings by speaking through them, like I spoke through Jesus Christ until he went to Heaven.” There are between 120 and a 1000 followers who consider him God.
Sathya Sai Baba: 1926–2011
Hindu guru that followers believed was a reincarnation of an avatar of Dattatreya. He alleged that he had the ability to heal, raise the dead, appear in more than one location at the same time, materialize objects, such as jewellery, etc.
Mitsuo Matayoshi: 1944–
In 1997 he established the World Economic Community Party (世界経済共同体党) based on his conviction that he is the God and Christ.
Claude Vorilhon: 1946–
Claims to be Maitreya, messenger of the “Elohim.”
Vissarion: 1961–
Claims to be Jesus Christ returned, which makes him not “God” but the “word of God”.
Church Entities
It isn’t limited to government, but also church. Did you see those people? Every man who claims a title that isn’t written is setting himself up for worship.
Even the Christ Child, Jesus
Jesus: ~4 BC – ~33 AD
(Included due to Wikipedia, and I added some notes. Don’t get frustrated until you read to the bottom of the notes. I’ll try to make myself clear as I go.)
In Romans 1 Paul the Apostle described Jesus as being the Son of God and the Lord. Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria wrote in defense of the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Orthodox Christianity adopted his teachings at the First Council of Nicaea in a Synod assembly of bishops in 325 AD called by the Roman emperor Constantine the Great.
Over time, with the composition and establishment of the Nicene and Athanasian creeds, Jesus was declared God Incarnate. He is now considered to be divine in most Christian views of Jesus; God the Son in Trinitarian Christianity.
Further information: History of early Christianity, Pauline Christianity, Constantine the Great and Christianity and Christology.
I have a personal problem with this declaration. God of the old and New Testament always says I am God, or I am your God, but Jesus said “When you see me, you see my Father”. Also God said that we cannot see Him face to face, but men saw Jesus face to face. Lastly John 1:1 was a very romantic way of saying that God knew what was going to be in His law and what His son was going to be like before the foundation of the world, because he set them according to His own heart.
John 1
- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2. The same was in the beginning with God. 3. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. 4. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Keep note of this, we will look at verse 5 again in a moment.
Am I denying the Deification of Christ, or that God set the Lord Jesus as the Head of the body of Christ, or that the nature of the creation of Christ Jesus wasn’t divine? No. I am saying that in the scriptures, there is no word trinity, and the older translations of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are not written the way they are in modern form starting with the lack of punctuation, chapters, and verses. I am saying that this shouldn’t be handled in this book, but I wanted you to have enough information to be enticed into doing your own study into the scriptures yourself, and not just take another person’s word for it. Study to show yourself approved, a workman, rightly dividing the word of truth 2 Timothy 2:15. Since we know that the scriptures are filled with metaphors, how much of this is metaphor and how much is literal? How much is an orientalism (a statement of speech, “This ring is as big as a house”, vs literal)? This is why I refer you to 2nd Timothy. If you don’t read it yourself, then how do you know what is written? How do you know that you are being told the truth?
I will say I won’t call Christ Jesus anything other than what is written, for the same reason I don’t call our current president Messiah or King, except in ridicule, and I won’t ridicule the first of many, the head of the body of Christ, the Lamb of God, the Christ Jesus.
Now let’s look at verse 5, the darkness doesn’t comprehend that light. This is why we are even talking about this. When you walk by the government you are walking by the darkness of this world. If you are walking by the light of others teaching, then you are walking also in their shadows of their mistakes. But if you come to God directly, then you allow Him to provide your light. I can only show you what is reflected from me. You now have the knowledge to come to him directly, and learn from both what he has written, and what he reveals to you directly. Just remember to test all new knowledge, all new wisdom, against the knowledge of Christ in the scriptures. This is how you know that the wisdom and knowledge is from God.
Why review this
Government is the epitome of an evil false religion with an evil god. It is idolatry.
- Government collects tithes, but by force.
- Government has its high priests, the modern Pharisees and Sadducees called Judges and Legislators.
- Government has its modern prophets called Corporate Media.
- Finally government has its own high of high priests, in the USA that is the President.
- The Government has its own enforcement agency called police and military.
- They strike down their pagans and heretics by calling them terrorists and criminals.
- Anyone who tries to keep what they earned, and labored for, get raided because they failed to pay their compulsory tithes, which by mangling the language they call voluntary.
- We have multiple temples, and obligatory worship service. These include government offices, unpaid mandatory jury service, and draft.
- But let’s not forget some people volunteer to serve this evil church via:
- Paid Police Service, that we are being forced to pay so that they can enforce laws that infringe on our natural rights.
- Paid Inspectors, Labor Managers, Permitting Services, and other government employees, all of which are designed to tell us what we cannot do with our money and property.
- Military, which is now nothing more than a means to generate money to the military industrial sector. Perfectly healthy, both physically and mentally, people coming back home with missing body parts and damaged perceptions of reality.
- Not all are coming home in pieces, if they were, we would have not new volunteers. No, the idea is to keep the numbers down as far as possible, so that recruitment is high enough to make sure that the government can strip these perfectly healthy people of their human nature, which is needed for war, then return them to the public when done. All damage included.
- If you really want to see peace in any region that is in an escalating conflict, look at who is funding the effort, and where the money is going. In the end, you will discover that whenever you have a large standing military, you will always find a reason to use it.
Is man's government always wrong, or always seeking war?
Let’s look at Pearl Harbor
Book: Day of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor by Robert Stinnett
This book proposes that FDR knew about the planned attack and even had warning, but chose to do nothing, so that he could use the attack as a means to bring the US into a Euro-Asia war. However, there are strong arguments from historian Donald Steury that claim that the book is complete fiction. My position on this, the core of the story smells too much like other events like the Alamo, The twin Towers, and other “Government Failures”.
Something to note: This topic is big enough in Wikipedia that it took two entries to cover everything.
###Here are some other supporting links:
- http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1930
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCollum_memo
- http://www.rationalrevolution.net/war/fdr_provoked_the_japanese_attack.htm
I will not cover the 911 theories and conspiracies here, they are a side track to the message.
###Let’s go back about two thousand years.
There was this man called Jesus, before he was even born the king of the time, Herod, decided that he didn’t want to lose his throne to this child, and decided to have all first born males killed.
Try again a few years later, the same child is now a man, and preaching not punishment under the law, but forgiveness, and condemns the men who would judge him by their own laws.
Now going for strike three, they pay off one of Jesus’ own men, to turn him in, so that they may “discuss with him”, but rather take him to be punished. That same man, who did no evil, who only preached love, peace, and compassion from God, was put to death by ballot, the people chose the free the murderer rather than the savior. He we beaten for crimes that he did not commit. He was tortured for the appeasement of the crowd. Finally, with the blessings of the mob, crucified. And we have this level of corruption now.
NOTE: If you are a government employee, you will most likely be unsettled by these next several paragraphs of this chapter. Just remember your actions reveal your nature, not your title. So if you have a Godly nature, then you have nothing to worry about.
How many innocent people have their lives ruined because of government agencies like Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Alcohol and Tobacco, Internal Revenue Service, Environmental Protection Agency. Let’s not forget the police shooting database:
I am not saying that all police shootings are amoral, but because of public and free media, they are definitely becoming more to light. The thin blue line in some counties and cities look more like outlines of the dead bodies that the police are leaving behind. I fortunately live in a city where this is incredibly minimal. Heck, I even have a couple of local police officers that I call friends. Does that mean I condone local police? I condone it a lot more than federal police.
Let’s go back to where we left off two thousand years ago. So the local government of the Jews decided that they had enough of the Jesus character, now that he had been dead for a while, and started killing his new and old followers. Then one of these killers of the followers sees the light, both figuratively and literally. He learns of his mistakes, then becomes one of the greatest of the leaders of this Love, Peace, and liberty from the punishment of the Mosaic Law; we know him as Saul, also as Paul. So what happens to him when he returns to his starting point? They try to kill him again, and again and again. Each time he fought one government with the other. He was a Roman by birth, so no official could kill him except if found guilty in court. And he had demanded his right to be tried by Caesar, the highest of the rules of man.
So was government the solution, or the problem here? Government is such a fickled deity that it is both an enemy and a tool. When fighting a hydra, pit each head against the other, and you only have to fight the remaining head. Also note that one of these governments wasn’t the Roman government, but the ruling Hierarchy of the Jewish people. The man appointed king of the Jews, who by all rights, had no authority to carry out an execution. If you go so far as check the history of this, you will also see that there is a lot of in-playing of marriages and bloodlines from the first Herod to the last. Sounds like today’s Oligarchy doesn’t it?
Even now, we have this level of in-playing. More than one generation of politician from a single family. Expanding to reflect dynasties. Corporate executives serving as government officials, just so that they can return to new corporate positions, or become lobbyists. What sickens me even more, are these false prophets that tout God on the podium, just so that they can do the exact opposite of what is in the word of God, and get praised by the blinded followers waiving their ballots and dollar bills heralding in their great new savior. BLAPHEMY! You hypocrites that turn and run from God to worship and see this new god, who isn’t a god, but is a poison of an asp. And you drink it willingly, saying, “It makes my pain go away, and I don’t have to think.” You who would vote to have freedom stolen from others to feed your stomach are no better than the rats that eat from your plates. You are the problem, not just the politicians, not just the people who they hire, but you too.
Summary to take from this:
- If your country is so shady, and filled with secrets that you see conspiracies in the actions of daily men, doing daily deeds, then you are already a slave to fear.
- If your work is to protect the people but all you see are criminals, then you are already a slave to fear and hate.
- If your idea of protecting people is to remove the liberties of others, then you are part of the problem.
- If you believe that because of a magical piece of paper, called a ballot, a law, a constitution, or a dollar bill, grants you the moral right to infringe on the rights of others, then you are the problem.
As a God fearing Christian, what will you do to end your participation in being part of the problem?