Paper 97 Overview: Evolution of the God Concept Among the Hebrews

The Hebrew spiritual leaders accomplished a remarkable achievement by deanthropomorphizing their concept of God without making it an abstraction comprehensible only to philosophers. They managed to evolve a concept of Deity that common people could grasp as a Father figure, if not of individuals then at least of the race as a whole. The concept of God's personality, first clearly taught at Salem during Melchizedek's time, was vague during the exodus from Egypt but developed steadily in the Hebrew mind through generations of spiritual teachers.

From Moses to Malachi, there was an almost unbroken ideational growth of God's personality in the Hebrew consciousness. This concept was ultimately enhanced and glorified by Jesus' teachings about the heavenly Father, completing a remarkable evolutionary path from a tribal volcano deity to a universal, loving Creator. This transformation represents one of the most significant spiritual developments in human religious history.

The spiritual leaders of the Hebrews achieved something unique in religious history by removing human-like qualities from their God concept without turning it into an abstract idea only philosophers could understand. This allowed ordinary people to relate to God as a Father figure, if not of individuals then at least of the Hebrew race. The concept of God's personality was clearly taught at Salem in Melchizedek's time but became vague during the Egyptian exodus.

Over generations, Hebrew spiritual leaders helped this concept develop in response to their teachings. The perception of Yahweh's personality evolved more consistently than other divine attributes. From Moses through Malachi, there was an almost unbroken ideational growth of God's personality in Hebrew thought, which was later elevated and glorified by Jesus' teachings about the Father in heaven.

Pressure from surrounding peoples in Palestine taught the Hebrew leaders they needed to unite their tribal organizations under a centralized government to survive. This centralization of authority provided Samuel an opportunity to function as a teacher and reformer. Samuel came from a long line of Salem teachers who had maintained Melchizedek's truths as part of their worship practices, and he was a strong and determined man who fought widespread opposition to turn Israel back to worshiping Yahweh.

Samuel was only partially successful, winning back the more intelligent half of the Hebrews to the higher concept of Yahweh while the other half continued worshiping tribal gods. He was a practical reformer who took direct action rather than relying on preaching, and he had a clear concept of the one God as creator of heaven and earth. Samuel's greatest contribution was his declaration that Yahweh was changeless, an embodiment of unerring perfection and divinity, helping the evolving God concept rise above the changing state of men's minds and mortal existence.

In the tenth century before Christ, the Hebrew nation divided into two kingdoms, and many truth teachers in both divisions tried to stop the spiritual decline. These efforts were unsuccessful until Elijah, a determined warrior for righteousness, began teaching in the northern kingdom. Elijah restored a concept of God comparable to that taught in Samuel's time, though he had little opportunity to present an advanced concept of God because he was constantly battling the altars of Baal and demolishing false gods.

When Elijah departed, his faithful associate Elisha continued his work with help from the little-known Micaiah, keeping the light of truth alive in Palestine. These were not times of progress in understanding God, as the Hebrews had not yet reached even the Mosaic ideal. The era of Elijah and Elisha ended with the better classes returning to supreme Yahweh worship and the restoration of the idea of the Universal Creator to approximately where Samuel had left it.

The long conflict between Yahweh believers and Baal followers was more a socioeconomic clash of ideologies than a difference in religious beliefs. The people of Palestine were divided on their attitudes toward land ownership: the southern Arabian tribes (Yahwehites) viewed land as an inalienable gift from God that could not be sold or mortgaged, while the northern Canaanites (Baalites) freely bought and sold property.

The Baal cult was founded on two major doctrines: the validation of property exchanges and contracts, and the belief that Baal sent rain for soil fertility. This socioeconomic controversy became a definite religious issue during Elijah's time, when he shifted the Yahweh-Baal conflict from a land issue to a religious one after Ahab murdered Naboth to take his land. This became a fight of country folk against city domination, and under Elijah's influence, the concept transformed from many Baals to one Yahweh – monotheism won over polytheism.

A significant step in the transition of the tribal god Yahweh—who had long been served with sacrifices and ceremonies—to a God who would punish wrongdoing even among his chosen people was taken by Amos. This prophet emerged from the southern hills to denounce criminality, drunkenness, oppression, and immorality among the northern tribes. Not since Moses had such powerful truths been proclaimed in Palestine, making Amos much more than just a religious reformer.

Amos was a discoverer of new concepts of Deity who courageously attacked the belief in a divine being who would tolerate sin among his chosen people. For the first time since Melchizedek, people heard the denunciation of the double standard of national justice and morality. Hosea followed Amos and continued his moral warnings while resurrecting Moses' concept of a God of love, preaching forgiveness through repentance rather than sacrifice. Together, these prophets laid the groundwork for a more universal and compassionate understanding of God.

As some prophets proclaimed punishment for personal sins in the northern clans and others predicted calamity for the southern kingdom, these warnings awakened the conscience of the Hebrew nations. It was in this environment that the first Isaiah appeared and began teaching about the eternal nature of God, his infinite wisdom, and his unchanging reliability. Isaiah represented God as saying, "Judgment also will I lay to the line and righteousness to the plummet," and offered comfort to the troubled Hebrews.

Speaking to the fearful and soul-hungry Hebrews, Isaiah said, "Arise and shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you." He was followed by Micah and Obadiah, who confirmed and enriched his soul-satisfying gospel. These brave messengers boldly denounced the priest-dominated rituals of the Hebrews and fearlessly attacked the entire sacrificial system. Micah taught of a day of freedom from superstition and priestcraft, when all people would live according to their understanding of God.

While several teachers continued to spread Isaiah's gospel, Jeremiah took the next bold step in the internationalization of Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews. He fearlessly declared that Yahweh was not exclusively supporting the Hebrews in their military struggles against other nations but was instead God of all the earth, all nations, and all peoples. Jeremiah's teaching represented the culmination of the rising wave of internationalization of Israel's God.

This intrepid preacher proclaimed that Yahweh was God of all nations, not just the Hebrews, and that there were no separate gods for Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, or Philistines. This teaching participated in a renaissance of monotheism throughout the world, elevating the concept of Yahweh to a Deity of planetary and even cosmic significance. Jeremiah also preached about the just and loving God described by Isaiah, declaring: "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn you."

The destruction of the Hebrew nation and their captivity in Mesopotamia would have greatly benefited their expanding theology if not for the determined actions of their priesthood. Resentful about losing their national god, Jewish priests invented fables and miraculous events in Hebrew history to restore the Jews as the chosen people of the newly internationalized God of all nations. During captivity, the Jews were influenced by Babylonian legends, though they improved their moral quality.

A young and courageous prophet, known as the second Isaiah, fully embraced the concept of God as just, loving, righteous, and merciful taught by the first Isaiah and Jeremiah. This prophet left his teachings on record, which the hostile priests reluctantly included with the earlier Isaiah's writings because of their beauty and grandeur. The second Isaiah reached a higher concept of God than any prophet from Machiventa to Jesus, proclaiming a God of universal creation and upholding whose righteousness would endure forever.

The practice of treating Hebrew experiences as sacred history and all other world events as profane history has created much confusion in human understanding. This difficulty exists because there is no secular history of the Jews available. After the Babylonian exile, the priests created a new record of God's supposedly miraculous dealings with the Hebrews and then carefully destroyed all existing records of Hebrew affairs, including books like "The Doings of the Kings of Israel."

To understand why the captive Jews attempted to completely rewrite their history, one must consider the devastating pressure of secular events that terrorized them. They struggled without an adequate nontheological philosophy of life and faced contradictory prophetic messages. After five hundred years under foreign rulers, the honest Jews searching their scriptures became more confused. The prophets had offered various explanations and promises of deliverance, but these hopes led to racial disappointment and frustration when deliverance was repeatedly delayed.

The Hebrew nation was formed through the union of Israelites and Canaanites, contrary to priestly records that claimed the Hebrews drove out the Canaanites. The Israelite consciousness originated in the hill country of Ephraim, while the later Jewish consciousness developed in the southern clan of Judah. The Jews always tried to discredit the northern Israelites in their historical records, and much of their supposed history was rewritten to glorify certain figures and events.

Hebrew history officially begins with Saul uniting the northern clans to fight the Ammonites who were attacking their fellow tribesmen east of the Jordan. With only about 3,000 men, Saul defeated the enemy, leading the hill tribes to make him king. When priests later rewrote this story, they increased Saul's army to 330,000 and added "Judah" to the list of participating tribes. This pattern of historical distortion continued with David, whose rise to power was presented as divinely ordained, while the more complex and often morally questionable reality was obscured.

Hebrew leaders had taught their people they were chosen not for special privilege but for the special service of carrying the truth of one God to all nations. They promised that if the Jews fulfilled this destiny, they would become spiritual leaders for all peoples, with the coming Messiah reigning over them and the world as the Prince of Peace. When freed by the Persians, the Jews returned to Palestine only to fall under the control of their own priest-made laws, sacrifices, and rituals.

National pride, misplaced faith in a misconceived Messiah, and the increasing control of the priesthood silenced the spiritual leaders, causing religious decline from the time of Daniel until John the Baptist. However, the Jews never lost the concept of the Universal Father, which has continued into the twentieth century. From Moses to John the Baptist, there was an unbroken line of faithful teachers who passed the monotheistic torch while rebuking corrupt rulers and commercialized priests, preserving the worship of the supreme Yahweh despite the religion's limitations.