Evangelicals hate this reality. It is the truth however.
At no point in time did ancient Israel ever believe in monotheism. This is a modern invention based on a bad reading of an ancient idiom.
At no point in time did 1st Century Christians believe in monotheism. They accepted quite easily the concept that there were three (or more) divine beings we call God, and they were separate and distinct. The idea of the Trinity didn't come until bad philosophers took Greek ideas and tried to change Christianity to match.
In John 17 as well as elsewhere in the New Testament the concept of "theosis" is laid out in plain sight. Our destiny is not to worship God but to become God. This is not heresy. The orthodox still believe it. It was the PRIMARY selling point of Christianity to the early Christians.
This concept of theosis comes from the beginning of time. In ancient times, great men who loved God and whom God loved became, literally, Gods. The "divine council" is a recorded FACT in the Old Testament.
I believe that the ancient, pagan Gods were once men who were elevated by God. The people rightly worshiped them, the same way we worship AKA revere our national and cultural heroes.
What happened? ANCIENT MEN PERVERTED THE TRUTH. Rather than accept the doctrine of theosis they said that these great men became gods by throwing down the Father God. *READ THEIR MYTHS* and you'll see it is a perversion of the Christ story and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paganism is not entirely wrong. Learn what it actually is and you'll learn WHY Christian ideas changed the world BACK TO HOW IT WAS MEANT TO BE.
At no point in time did ancient Israel ever believe in monotheism. This is a modern invention based on a bad reading of an ancient idiom.
At no point in time did 1st Century Christians believe in monotheism. They accepted quite easily the concept that there were three (or more) divine beings we call God, and they were separate and distinct. The idea of the Trinity didn't come until bad philosophers took Greek ideas and tried to change Christianity to match.
In John 17 as well as elsewhere in the New Testament the concept of "theosis" is laid out in plain sight. Our destiny is not to worship God but to become God. This is not heresy. The orthodox still believe it. It was the PRIMARY selling point of Christianity to the early Christians.
This concept of theosis comes from the beginning of time. In ancient times, great men who loved God and whom God loved became, literally, Gods. The "divine council" is a recorded FACT in the Old Testament.
I believe that the ancient, pagan Gods were once men who were elevated by God. The people rightly worshiped them, the same way we worship AKA revere our national and cultural heroes.
What happened? ANCIENT MEN PERVERTED THE TRUTH. Rather than accept the doctrine of theosis they said that these great men became gods by throwing down the Father God. *READ THEIR MYTHS* and you'll see it is a perversion of the Christ story and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paganism is not entirely wrong. Learn what it actually is and you'll learn WHY Christian ideas changed the world BACK TO HOW IT WAS MEANT TO BE.
**What's Wrong with the West: Dr Matthew Raphael Johnson**
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viqpjOimCZw
His 2h lecture on Dostoyevsky was helpful in understanding what Dostoyevsky was getting at, why the main character in "The Idiot" represented the purer world before modern industrialization turned society into forgetting wider family bonds (individualization) and treating money as the thing that people revolved around and chased for status. The main character shames everyone just by his very presence.
**Fyodor Dostoevsky Complete Lecture Series - Matt Raphael Johnson**
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGumhl8-kiY
And why all of this created mental illness in the modern world. The fast-paced life, constant work to try and keep up with buying more consumer goods and increase status, with the constant fear that it could all be wiped away:
**Anton Chekhov The Social Origins of Mental Illness - Matt Raphael Johnson**
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCp59ct5zbc
**Christ and Christianity Are Greek - Matt Raphael Johnson** (how Christianity was viewed before judaizers/masoretics pushed the idea that it was all culturally Hebrew)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qng5RtBavY0
This is also who is doing the discussion with Pete Quinones on the 200 Years Together reading.
We were meant to have presidents serve for life, as long as they kept getting reelected. We only limited them to 2 terms in deference to Washington.
Presidents were meant to have ALL executive power. ALL OF IT!