Concepts of God created by one culture becomes a divine unction for justifying the domination of others
The Battle of Tours 732AD Christians versus Muslims
We cannot escape from the fact that the images we have of God are manufactured within a closed cultural loop of repetition and re-inforcement by a priesthood called to protect the authenticity of sacred texts.
It becomes obvious as you read the dialogue Jesus had with his people and their leaders that their minds were locked up in a concept of God that he found difficult to identify with. There are many examples of him trying to correct their understanding of God and to bring it inline with his experience of God as his biological father through the womb of a virgin.
My purpose here is not to claim the virgin birth as truth but to show you what happens when a young man born in a culture of exceptionalism, a race promulgating their God as superior over mankind, decides to make himself the authoritative voice for God against those who relied on their scriptures to be the authority..
Immediately, the moment he opened his mouth in the Synagogue, where all the worship of national icons and Jewish heroes took place, to proclaim his identity as the Messiah he met the real spirit of exceptionalism. The collective spirit, offended by his comments about their ancestors, caused worshippers to rush forward, drag him out of the Synagogue, and try to throw him off a cliff. Nothing to do with the spirit of God that Jesus loved.
Jesus came with a revelation of God that was at odds with the way in which the sacred cultural texts, hailed as truth by his people, portrayed him. This got him into a load of trouble, leading inevitably to the charge of blasphemy, resulting in a punishment in line with the sacred text his people regarded as the Law.
He spoke out, “They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.”
And again, “ Woe to you, teachers.., and hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.”
Well, you could argue he asked for trouble. Also, you could argue he was on a mission to show them that they hadn't a single clue who God was, what he was like, and the purpose of his creation.
Here are just a few examples of portrayals of God in their sacred texts that Jesus would find totally abhorrent.
Meanwhile a prophet came to Ahab king of Israel and announced, “This is what the Lord (Jesus’ Father) says: ‘Do you see this vast army? I will give it into your hand today, and then you will know that I am the Lord. (Jesus’ Father) ’” 1 kings 20 v13
Anyone who shows contempt for the judge or for the priest who stands ministering there to the Lord your God (Jesus’ Father) is to be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel. Deuteronomy 17:12
Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, (Jesus’ Father) says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbour.’” Exodus 32:27
The Lord our God (Jesus’ Father) delivered him over to us and we struck him down, together with his sons and his whole army. At that time we took all his towns and completely destroyed them—men, women and children. We left no survivors. But the livestock and the plunder from the towns we had captured we carried off for ourselves. Deuteronomy 2:33-35
Anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord (Jesus’ Father) is to be put to death. The entire assembly must stone them. Whether foreigner or native-born, when they blaspheme the Name they are to be put to death. Leviticus 24:16
So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord commanded Moses. Numbers 15:36
Stone them to death, because they tried to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Deuteronomy 13:10
Then two scoundrels came and sat opposite him and brought charges against Naboth before the people, saying, “Naboth has cursed both God and the king.” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death. 1 Kings 21:13
Clearly, in plain sight, the God that the chosen people worshipped was created from their imagination. They were not able to know who was God until Jesus came to manifest him in he flesh.
