Episode:Melchizedek Gospel—Response Among the Hebrews (Part 7)
Much which has been regarded as the sacred history of the Hebrews is little more than the chronicle of ordinary profane history. In an effort to restore the Jews as the chosen people, the exiled priests prepared fictitious narratives of God's miraculous dealings with Israel, though they often failed to delete the plain and matter-of-fact statements which already rested in the Hebrew records.
Keywords: Urantia, Melchizedek of Salem, Old Testament, Saul, King David
Note: Today, January 6th, is the day of epiphany in Christianity. It is also Kermit Anderson's day of epiphany of sorts, the 46th anniversary of his taking possession of his first copy of The Urantia Book.
Summary by Kermit
We discussed the last few paragraphs of [97:8]. As has been mentioned, the fourth epochal revelation (4th ER) concerns our ideals of God, whereas the 5th ER addresses our ideas of God. Possessing true ideas of God is not merely an academic exercise, but carries serious consequences. The sublime ideals of God revealed by Jesus fill the believer with hope. Whether that hope is true or false will depend upon the truth of the ideas of God. We note that it was the false hope of the Jews, based upon their false ideas of God that led to such confusion and disappointment that they failed to recognize and accept Jesus’ mission when he came. Serious consequences indeed!
The Jews are hardly alone in their blunders of attempting to put miraculous interpretations into their records. All modern religions have made the same missteps. Many Christians regard the entire Christian Bible (Old and New Testaments) from an existential perspective, instead of recognizing it as a record of the evolutionary path of progressive comprehension of God. In fact, this view is so pervasive that we who engage the 5th ER must free ourselves from any such bias. As has already been noted, a number of the Hebrew prophets have acted from an existential viewpoint abominably, yet from an evolutionary perspective are in step with their times. This story of the evolution of the God concepts among the Hebrews, when seen in its true light is magnificent!
97:9. Hebrew History
The previous sections of this paper have stepped us through Hebrew history, citing the roles and contributions of key prophets. Now we go back to step through the same history from the perspective of the people. As we see, this is not a God filled story, punctuated by numerous miraculous divine interventions, but the story of a struggling people in primitive times.
The revelators here in the 5th ER are disabusing us of the belief in the miraculous happenings of God’s chosen people. The conventional viewpoint of many modern religionists reflect a focus on the outer life and events of history. Can we use this revelation to cultivate a recognition and realization of the unseen spiritual Father whom Jesus represents, and the prophets taught? This is the realm of the inner life of true religion.
The revelators proceed to set the record straight regarding Hebrew history. Numerous Old Testament statements are shown to be fictitious entries and distortions created for the purpose of establishing the Hebrews as God’s chosen people with a destiny of preeminence among the nations of the world.
The greatest distortions of Jewish history involved David. The Jewish priests and scribes went to great lengths to present David as the quintessential Hebrew king, appointed king by Samuel acting under divine direction. When in fact, he was proclaimed king by his rag tag army composed of, “a polyglot assortment of malcontents, being for the most part made up of social misfits and fugitives from justice.” We are further told that the bulk of David’s army was non-Hebrew. And eighty percent of them were Baalites.
Incidentally, the revelation parenthetically confirms Jebus to be Jerusalem, settling a scholarly point of controversy.
Throughout the Hebrew scriptures our author points to telltale remnants of older writings, inadvertently left in the record which demonstrate the revisionist practices of the priests during the exile. We remarked on the countless hours of effort by hundreds if not thousands of Bible scholars to rationalize these discrepancies to be able to trace the sacred lineage of Jesus from King David.
The rollercoaster ups and downs of the conflict between the proponents of Yahweh and the adherents of Baal cycled through numerous kings punctuated by many battles and struggles for power, culminating in the exile.
We discussed the irony of the captivity, in that it provided a certain stability that enabled the Jews to establish conditions favorable for Jesus’ bestowal. In so doing issues of religion became separated from political upheavals. So not only did the oft mentioned 6th century B.C. renaissance play a significant role in preparing the world for Michael’s mission, but the captivity was also a crucial contributing influence.
From the details presented by our Melchizedek author, it is apparent he expects the reader to be conversant with the Old Testament record. We now pick up or study with the remaining five paragraphs of this section nine, Hebrew History, and finish our series on the Melchizedek Gospel—Response Among the Hebrews.
