All about me.

When I was a child, in the 1950s, I loved going to Sunday school. I loved hearing about Jesus and what his message was and about the miracles he performed. I loved it so much that my parents thought I might become a minister when I eventually left school. I was brought up in the Church of Scotland, the Presbyterian branch of Christianity. When I reached the age of about seven or eight, my Grandmother gave me a book, she was a very well read woman and she encouraged me to read. From a very young age I fell in love with history, it was my favourite subject at school and I read historical fact and fiction all the time and I still do. The book my Granny gave me was a bit different, it was a book of the Greek Myths, the stories of heroes and Gods and it seemed a bit strange to me. However, something in the stories rang strangely true, the teacher at Sunday school taught me that there was only one God, so how could the ancient Greeks believe in multiple Gods. To say I was confused was an understatement but, something in the stories rang true especially when it came to the Trojan war story. Something in that account sparked my mind and I wanted to learn all about ancient Greek history. 

Time went on and I went from Primary school to high school, now nineteen sixty two, I was still learning about Christianity but still reading Greek mythology/history books. At that time I went to see a movie called The Three Hundred Spartans, starring Richard Egan as Spartan king Leonidas. While watching the movie I felt something, I had never heard of the term Déjà Vu but on learning the meaning, I can say that was what the feeling was. Now I'm not saying I was involved in that battle, it was more of a recognition of being alive at or around that time. The feeling has stayed with me all of my life and I'm seventy two now, and the more I have read, the more real it seems to be. 

Back to Christianity, I was always taught that the world was created about six thousand years ago but watching archeological programmes on TV that showed discoveries that go back hundreds of thousands of years, yet again I was confused. I never believed Darwin's theory, I've always believed in creation and I do now, even more, except, I don't believe the 6,000 years timeline. 

As I grew up, left school, got a job, became a teenager and did teenager things, my curiosity waned. It was still embedded in my mind but kept deep down. I joined the Royal Navy and in 1983 the ship I served on was in the South Atlantic on patrol off the Falkland Islands. My Father had cancer and I received a message saying that he didn't have long left and for the first time in years I prayed to God to take me instead of my Dad. It didn't work because I was given compassionate leave and I flew home only to find that my Dad had died. For me that was it, I was finished with Christianity. Yes, a stupid reaction I know and it took a long time for me to realise that. Fast forward to summer 2022 and I'm sitting outside in my garden in the sunshine and all of a sudden I, received a message, not in the normal way, right inside my head explaining why my prayers had not been answered all those years ago. The answer was so obvious that I felt totally stupid for not seeing it myself. The message was that if I had been taken by God instead of my Father, I would be dead but my Father would still have been in terrible pain with cancer and would have died anyway. One thought kept popping up in my mind was that the world was wrong, over the years the level of suffering had exploded everywhere, inequality, hunger, exploitation of third world countries assets and of course, terrorism and war. The significance of this part of the story will become relevant later on.

I left the Royal Navy in 1987 after fourteen years service and got a job as a postman,in my spare time I restarted my study of history and I incorporated religions into the mix as well. The internet appeared not long after which opened up my horizons and I flooded myself with information. It took me a while to get competent with the internet but it was an eye opener and I found new explanations to just about everything I had ever learned. What was a bit unnerving, was other explanations for the Bible narrative. The connections with the Sumerian civilization and the flood story was the obvious starting point. I will pause here because I have much more to say about the origins of religion and faith which are controversial to say the least.

Till next time.

An ending but also a beginning.

My Father died of cancer in November 1983. From April 1983 I was on HMS Danae on patrol down in the South Atlantic,  I had been receiving updates about my Dad regularly and I knew he wasn't likely to survive. At the time I believed in God and Jesus and I prayed that my Dad would pull through, I also prayed that God should take me instead thinking that if that happened, my Dad would be fine and healthy. Yes, I know, naïve thinking. Obviously he died and I blamed God and from then till a few years ago, I totally rejected Christianity completely. However, a few years ago, I was on YouTube and I came across a video by a man called Michael Heiser who was a very well thought of as a biblical scholar and devout Christian. To cut a long story short, listening to him talking about his faith seemed to reawaken my interest in the bible, and today while sitting outside in the summer sunshine just thinking, something came into my head about why God refused to take me instead of my Dad. If God had agreed to accept my offer, I would have obviously been dead but, my Dad would have kept on suffering the intense pain of his cancer. 

I believe I was told that, and I believe the thought came from God, Jesus. Why, I don't know. Whatever it is, I am and always will be grateful. 

I promise that I will try and live the rest of my life, I'm 71, in a more meaningful way. 

Monotheism 2

In Psalm 82 verse.  God says to the divine council, " You are Gods, sons of the most high, all of you. " Why does God not say, you are MY sons? The God mentioned first is presumably YHVH, so could the Most High actually be the actual creator God? I might be reading too much in to it but as someone who has an avid interest in Gnosticism, what I have just written, to me, fits in with the unknowable creator God is Most High, and the lower demiurgic God YHVH. 

To continue with the divine council narrative, I have been thinking on where the divine council met. Maybe they convened in the garden of Eden which brings me to Adam and Eve. Obviously, Adam and Eve were not the only humans on the planet but, could Adam and Eve have been created to be intermediaries between humans and the divine realm? The fact that they were both tempted to disobey God's law by what is misconstrued as a serpent somewhat ruined the plan. Michael Heiser says that the serpent wasn't actually an animal but a divine being, unhappy about mere humans having an influence in the divine council. He links the rebellious being to Lucifer. 

I will try and expand on this.

Monotheism?

Recently I have been looking at videos by Michael Heiser, an American biblical scholar. He has a podcast, the named The Naked Bible podcast, It was when he mentioned Psalm 82 verse one which reads, " God takes his place in the divine council, In the midst of the Gods he holds judgement. " It was the use of the plural, God's, that surprised me. To my mind and to what I was used to was always the word God, singular. It was then that I remembered the second commandment, " thou shall have no other Gods before me. "

God is actually letting us know that there are indeed other Gods. Michael Heiser said that Psalm 82 gave him food for thought as he hadn't been taught and hadn't realised the passage was there. He mentions all this in his book Unseen Realm, I haven't read it yet but I will in the near future. My take on it is that it makes me want to find out all I can about the beliefs of the early Israelites and related tribes. 

I will probably update this in the future.

Broken World.

Even without taking this past year into consideration, I believe the world we live in is broken. First of all, morality has all but vanished from our thoughts and actions. Anything, and I mean anything, goes. The pursuit of sexual pleasure is all consuming and is even masquerading as scientific research in television shows like "Love Island" "Married at First Sight" and a host of others. I believe it won't be long before pornography is shown as a matter of course on mainstream television. Sports are affected by what I call "protectionism"  on one hand, Rugby, NFL and Soccer are being "dumbed down" by measures that supposedly prevent serious injury but since the measures were introduced, serious injuries have increased, and on the other hand, sports like Boxing and Wrestling have been overshadowed by this mixed martial arts craze. Anything goes, as long as it's violent and bloody. I also believe that gladiatorial contests will be tried out soon, and yes, I mean Roman style gladiators using the weapons of that era. 

There is a video on various social media outlets that show beyond doubt, the UK Prime Minister continually lying in Parliament over a long period of time. It has been viewed over twenty million times and yet the so called, independent, state sponsored media company, the BBC, has failed to mention anything to do with it. The fact is, lying in Parliament is a criminal offence and carries a prison sentence. World politics is awash with attention seeking narcissists that don't care about the general population, they only care when it comes to election time. Voting means nothing and in fact there has been election fraud in at least the last four US presidential elections and the UK general elections. World politics is corrupt to the core.

I could go on but it just depresses me. I reach seventy years old later this year which gives me twenty years or so of life left at the most and to be honest I am happy about that. 

Till next time.

Connection.

The more I read, study and think about things, the more I realise that everything, yes everything, is connected. In the past I've read and been told this but back then, say thirty years or so, I didn't get it. Now, after reading about and by simply thinking about my own life experiences, I do get it. The different religions, ancient and modern, have obvious connections, from messiahs/God's/Goddesses and the time of the year they were born and died, to the length of their lives and the pattern of their lives. The connections between Christianity, Judaism and Islam are obvious but while reading "comparative religions" articles I began to see connections between ancient Paganism and Christianity, especially the timing and nature of the religions festivals. ie.Christmas/Yule, both on or around the winter solstice, the re/birth of the Sun/Son. That brings me to something i've only recently come across, Astrotheology. I have not studied the subject long or thoroughly enough but the subject has caught my interest enough to warrant more study. 

Studying and understanding comparisons between religions is an extremely complicated subject and I would be grateful to anyone who reads this for any advice or guidance they could give me on any part of the subject. 

All comments are welcomed and appreciated and I will reply to questions.

Till next time.

PS. I found a good site for this subject. www.comparativereligion.com  

The Ultimate Self Sacrifice.

We all, I presume, have people we admire and look up to. I know parents, immediate family and friends come into that remit but, I mean people out with that, for instance, historical figures.The person I have admired from a very young age is Leonidas, king of Sparta at the time of the Persian invasion of Greece. He and his personal guards, made up of three hundred hoplites chose to confront a massive Persian invasion force at a place called Thermopylae. Unfortunately, after managing to hold the narrow strip of land for a few days, the Spartans were betrayed by a farm hand and were being outflanked. Instead of retreating, Leonidas and his three hundred hoplites stood firm knowing that their position was hopeless. They were willing to lay down their lives to give the forces from the Greek city states valuable time to prepare for the battles to come. They were indeed, all killed, the Persians marched on, only to be defeated in a naval battle at Salamis. 

I often wonder if I had been in the same position, would I have had the same courage as the Spartans. 

I will leave it there for whosoever reads this to think about.

Till next time.