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I think that ancient rulers such as the Egyptians simply were considered to be divine or semi-divine as were the later Roman Emperors. In the Old Testament, king Og was said to be the last of the Rephaim which was one of the giant clans and related to the Nephilim. Also, Goliath and his brothers were among the last of the giants.
However, the Nephilim story in the Old Testament has as a backdrop the Sumerian stories of the Apkallu who after the flood were said to be half-divine beings. Also, in the Sumerian story of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh was said to be half divine and of giant stature.
This is an amazing story! What a history....so I guess you are saying the Pharaohs were too late to be semi-divine, since "the last of the Rephaim" was before Pharaoh? I'm not sure of those timelines.
This is an amazing story! What a history....so I guess you are saying the Pharaohs were too late to be semi-divine, since "the last of the Rephaim" was before Pharaoh?
Well, actually, giving it more thought, there were of course Egyptian Pharaoh's in Moses' time and Og the King of Bashan also lived during the days of Moses. Goliath lived during David's time which was long after Moses' day. But I still don't think that the Egyptian Pharaoh's were actually divine or semi-divine, and no references in the Old Testament to the Pharaoh's state that they were.
The gods of Egypt however are presented in the Old Testament as being real.
This is an amazing story! What a history....so I guess you are saying the Pharaohs were too late to be semi-divine, since "the last of the Rephaim" was before Pharaoh? I'm not sure of those timelines.
OT tells us that Joseph's Pharaoh was different (spiritually) than one who did not know Joseph.
Judaism, like all religions evolved over time. All I'm saying here, and as scholarship knows, is that during 2nd Temple period Judaism, Jewish writings outside of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible were portraying a Satan figure by the use of various names such as Belial, Mastema and others, who was in opposition to God. And so, Satan as portrayed in the New Testament is not the invention of Christianity.
Why don't you read the portion of the War Scroll that I posted? Belial is described as an angel of malevolence, and therefore as an evil or wicked being. Then of course 1 Enoch has fallen or rebellious angels descending from heaven to the summit of Mount Hermon where they made a pact to take human females as wives.
I do believe in a "dark side" and in spiritual forces that try to influence us in our daily lives. I say this only because I had an experience about 45 years ago that convinced me of this. It was a powerful one and it forever shaped how I feel about such things. On the other hand, I believe that these "demonic forces" or whatever people may want to call them are not as commonly at work in our world as people seem to think they are. I mean I've had just one experience with this kind of thing in 73 years. It certainly doesn't happen regularly or frequently.
I know there is a large percentage of Christians who don't believe in the devil or other supernatural entities.
Makes sense for a non-believer, but as a Christian, what do you base your position on? Since you do believe in a supernatural God....
How do you regard the many Bible verses mentioning the "Dark Side"?
I believe in the dark side, and it is a fallen spirit, an individual spirit that lived and died before us, at one point, he brings his friends with him.
These spirits are to be kicked out of Christoan lives, problem is, most call it the holy spirit.
Revelation is leading a person to realizing he has a fallem spirit, you puke the fallen out to make way for kings of the east, priests of Judaism.
It says right there, in the Lord's prayer, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." I think that means that it is better to think ahead, and learn from what could have been, than to act upon it. I think it also implies that God can use temptation to deal with us. Why would He do that?
I know that I can be selfish. That is the first thing I come up with, when thinking about this. My preoccupation with a thing will tell me just how important it is to me, or not, sometimes. It may not even be that I have to deny my desire to have instant gratification about a thing, but that I need to understand that no matter how tortured I am, it is best for me not to have that thing. And that seeking my best self is, I have to admit it, better than seeking my most obvious self.
You know what, though, it also says something about the importance of the obvious self, that we can't just put it away. It must remain with us. You can't just answer these questions and then live your life like a hermit. You can't use your answers to pummel others into submission.
You can apply this sort of thing abstractly. Say, you own a business. You have these arguments about how much to pay your workers, what attitudes to take towards them. You can be tempted to be greedy, and to justify your greediness to yourself. You could have looked at the situation better, beforehand, though.
Last edited by Am I a Prophet; 11-20-2021 at 05:32 AM..
Reason: the writing process
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