Why is He so Wrathful and Vengeful?
The Origins of God, Part II
by Ra-Harakhte
Nowadays most people in the Western World believe in the God introduced by the Israelites. This God is often referred to as Wrathful, Vengeful and Jealous, as described in the Old Testament and Revelations. Well, a quick study of the Jewish people will reveal why.
Geography has always played a major role in the "personality" a tribal god takes. Agricultural based cultures generally had a goddess-based belief system because of the nurturing nature of the environment. The earth was seen as "Mother Earth," and hence, the almighty in Heaven was also seen in her female glory. On the other hand, cultures like the Jews who were nomadic, on the move, and predatory, did not live in such nurturing environments. Such conditions encountered by nomadic tribes, being as they were more of a challenge to life than those of their hunting and gathering counterparts, obviously made their perception of deity quite different, hence "God the Father." For these nomads, it was as if they were constantly being tested, which was generally the task of males in such societies, so how else would the almighty seem?
Why would Jehovah/Yahweh/Elohim be such a Jealous, Wrathful, and Vengeful deity? Look at the environment and their lives. The struggle against the desert, against other tribes.
Life in the desert, especially to a nomadic tribe, would be a constant challenge. Plant life and food would be scarce, heat would be unbearable, not to mention such natural environmental occurrences such as sandstorms, occasional lightning storms, and heavy, heavy rain when precipitation finally would come. Upon endurance of such powerful and seemingly negative outbursts of weather and living conditions, how else would God seem?
By the same token, imagine you lived in a jungle, filled with abundant plant life, fruit, animals . . . How would God seem then?
"The human woman gives birth just as the earth gives birth to the plants. She gives nourishment, as the plants do. So woman magic and earth magic are the same. They are related. And the personification of the energy that gives birth to forms and nourishes forms is properly female. It is in the agriculutural world of ancient Mesopotatmia, the Egyptian Nile, and in the earlier planting-culture systems that the Goddess is the dominant mythic form."
"And then there came the invasions . . . When you have hunters, you have killers. When you have herders, you have killers, because they're always in movement, nomadic, coming into conflict with other people and conquering the areas into which they move. And these invasions bring in warrior gods, thunderbolt hurlers, like Zeus, or Yahweh"
-- Joseph Campbell, from "The Power of Myth" copyright 1988, by Apostrophe S. Productions
When one looks into the personality and makeup of all the deities that humanity has ever worshipped, it becomes plain to see they are nothing more than an outgrowth of men's minds, for they are all images that man himself has known. It is absurd to think that the gods would look and behave as man, for the universe and all that is in it is far more diverse and dimensional. For such a being to create a vast and multi-depth area of dimension and existence, it would be ridiculous to endow it with the characteristics of the human race that has long been guided by the ignorance of His ego and outer-conscious mind. The vices of man simply cannot apply to the force of creation in the universe, that includes being "wrathful, vengeful, loving, and forgiving." Those are all subject emotions in the outer consciousness of the human psyche, brought down through eons of evolution and polarization with the true source of divinity.
The force of creation, in its act of creating, knows nothing of vice, knows nothing of "bad" nor "good," and does not judge. Only man, twisted in his own consciousness needing to set his own ego upon the platform of righteousness does that. God, being omnipresent and omniscient, has no ego (any objective study into the creation of various life forms and observance of life and history istelf can reveal that). It is completely ego-less, and just IS -- just like nature itself, always moving forward and BECOMING, growing and changing. It does not sit on a throne like a separate ameoba in the sea of creation, molding little toys for its amusement. That's totally ignorant and absurd in the face of what exists in the universe. And if man could get beyond his five senses and ego, he would see that and realize that he, too, is part of the puzzle of All That Is, and is NOT seperate from it, but inclusive and instrumental IN it.
What happens when you neglect yourself and responsibilities? Everything goes out the door and falls to pieces. Gee, doesn't sound much different than the world we live in, does it? That's a pretty big hint . . . Perhaps we are not as separate and distant from creative godliness than we have thought -- we've just never exercised our true creative natures and instead gave credence to being "less than perfect" and being "not worthy" and our world has definitely reflected those beliefs.
You are not a servant to something that is separate and above you. If anything, you are a servant and slave to a system and series of beliefs, linked to your emotions, linked to your psyche, wholly created through time by the minds of men. A simple idea that has compounded throughout the eons. It is just and IDEA and CONCEPT, not REALITY as evidenced by clear, honest, and subjective study into our history, our universe.
It's time to wake up and realize the movie is over, and it was just a movie. Now go back out and rediscover reality.
copyright 1998 by Ra-Harakhte (Ra-Harakhte@webtv.net)
