Episode:Melchizedek Gospel—Response in the Levant (Part 1)
The Levant was the homeland of the faiths of the Occidental world. The Salem missionaries spread out over the entire Near East, everywhere proclaiming the good news of the gospel of Machiventa Melchizedek. In some of these lands their teachings bore fruit; in others they met with varying success. And much of the Mesopotamian religious culture found its way into Hebrew literature and liturgy via the great minds of Egypt.
Keywords: Urantia, Melchizedek of Salem, Mesopotamia, Babylon, Egypt
Summary by Kermit
Paper 95. The Melchizedek Teachings in the Levant
As India was the origin of the religions and philosophies of the Orient, so was the Levant the homeland for the religions of the Occidental world. The Levant encompasses the lands surrounding the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. It was pointed out that the geographical terms Orient, Levant, and Occident are derived from references to the rising, risen, and setting sun. The author is using a slightly expanded version of the Levant to help us trace the story of the evolution of Occidental religion, to Rome and thence Europe.
1. The Salem Religion in Mesopotamia.
Mesopotamia (between the rivers), was the site of the second garden, in which and from which the descendents of Seth (oldest surviving son of Adam and Eve from the second garden) attempted to spread the Edenic teachings. The Sethite priesthood did this with diminishing influence from around 35,000, B.C. By 2000 B.C. these teachings were largely lost and had come under the influence of two groups of invaders and their primitive beliefs—the Bedouin Semites (Amorites) and the barbarian horsemen from the north (Babylonians).
The author presents historical facts about the continuity of the Adamite teaching honoring the seventh day of the week, morphing into the idea of this special seventh day being the worst day of bad luck during the “Melchizedek” era. Many of the Mesopotamian taboos concerning this day were carried back to Palestine by the Jews and applied to their observance of the Sabbath.
The Salem teachers helped refine the religions of Mesopotamia. The teaching of one God held ascendency for more than one hundred fifty years but slowly gave way to earlier beliefs in multiple deities. It was pointed out that Adam and Eve were on Urantia for about that long when they took their missteps into default. We might conclude that the material observance of high spiritual concepts require the continual “injection” of spiritual gravity in order for them to resist the degrading effects of material gravity.
The Salem teachers in their push towards monotheism consolidated the Mesopotamian pantheon down to seven, and then exalted three of those gods to supremacy over the others. Several triads appeared at various locations all reminiscent of the Andite trinity teachings and based on the Melchizedek insignia of three circles.
But the Salem teachers were about to make the supreme blunder repeated throughout our religious evolution. At their headquarters at Kish, they contaminated their spiritual message with material concerns and social reforms. The popularity of Ishtar, mother of the gods and the spirit of sex fertility, was nothing more than disguised sex worship, and lead to prevalent practices of temple harlotry. When the Salem teachers attempted the social reform of ending temple harlotry, they failed. Further, this failure led to the defeat of their more important spiritual and philosophical teachings. This was followed by a great increase in the cult of Ishtar, leading further to the enthusiastic pursuits of astrology and fortune telling and increasing deterioration of the priesthood. Attempting to modify material practices (particularly sex) by decree only leads to a reactionary response and a proliferation of related practices. Melchizedek had admonished his followers to preach only a spiritual message of divine favor, through faith alone. In their attempt to address the apparently worthy cause of reforming the mores, their spiritual mission was sidetracked and failed, save for scattered small bands of believers in the one God. Here we have the lesson of the consequences of embracing revolutionary change in place of slower but more stable and enduring evolutionary progress. We are reminded of the parallel lesson involving Jesus’ apostles and disciples some 2000 years hence, who were instructed in spreading an exclusively spiritual message, but could not resist the temptation to attempt social reformation in the process.
In light of these lessons, what can we conclude about the fifth epochal revelation (5th ER)? The great difference here being that the 5th ER, is not an exclusively spiritual revelation. It contains very clear ideas about moral, social, economic, and political arenas of human activity, by design, as well as a reinforcement of the spiritual content of previous teachers. The 5th ER is not likely to have the desired result of increased appreciation of cosmic reality when presented to those who lack the spiritual stability of at least the 3rdER, simple faith in one God. Having the 5th ER in hand, individuals do not have to remain chained to the evolutionary stream of religious and philosophical thought. We may attempt the restructuring of our primitive ideas of religion by the application of courageous and independent cosmic thinking. But in our socialization of such thought, we must respect this evolutionary context. Failure to do so will bring ridicule and isolation. The Father’s Way of evolution will eventually achieve what revelation fails to accomplish.
It was from the surviving small groups of Salem missionaries that came many of the Old Testament Psalms. It was by way of Egypt and the work of Amenomope and Ikhnaton that much of the Mesopotamian religious culture found its way into Hebrew literature and liturgy.
2. Early Egyptian Religion
It was in Egypt where the Melchizedek teachings took deepest root and subsequently spread to Europe. So it was that both the Egyptians and the Babylonians contributed greatly to the Hebrew religion. Our author makes special note that the concept of divine Providence came from the Egyptians. It was further mentioned that the concept of Providence comes not from ideas of God the Father, but from God the Mother, the Supreme. Such a concept bulks large in the origins of the United States. Now we can see this thread comes all the way from Egypt to the Levant, to Europe and to the USA.
The favorable reception of the Salem teachings in Egypt was due more to their moral and political tendencies than their philosophic or religious leanings. The revelators are encouraging us to incorporate the full cosmic perspective as we blend evolutionary threads of our heritage coming from the Jewish (religious) origins and the Greek (philosophical) foundations. The 5th ER is here to help us do this.
The revelators present here an interesting story of the circuitous path the religious evolution of the Egyptian civilization, from primitive nature worship through the discoveries of embalming the dead, leading to practices designed to ensure a salutary afterlife involving the inscription of magical texts preserved as the Book of the Dead. These magical rituals we are told became early involved in the realms of conscience and character leading to their reliance on ethical and moral ideals rather than elaborate tombs for salvation.
We discussed the interesting Egyptian belief that twinkling stars represented the survival of the souls of the worthy dead, i.e., as individuals, while less worthy survivors were absorbed into the sun losing all individuality. How is this like our story of an ascender who fuses with his indwelling spirit becomes an eternal individual, while those who choose iniquity become part of the personality of the Almighty, incorporated into the Supreme, losing individuality.
The Egyptian concept of judgment in the afterlife found its way into Hebrew theology. Listen to the archives of this broadcast for the interesting connection of this concept of judgment found in the first Psalm, which we are told happened to be written by an Egyptian.
