The Great Gospel of John
Volume 10
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Der Herr in der Stadt am Nebo
- Chapter 192 -
The origins of idolatry.
I said: "The first inhabitants of Egypt, as descendants of Noah, brought also the knowledge about the one, only true God into that country and worshipped the only true God for more than 700 years. A temple is still remaining, sculptured from a big granite rock and built by 4 consecutive leaders of the shepherds to honor the only true God.
2
An inscription was carved into the stone wall completely in the back of that temple, with the following few words: 'Ja bu sim bil', which means 'I was, am and will be.'
3
According to this notion of the deity, the first inhabitants worshipped the one and really only true God - just like Abraham in this country - and the Spirit of God was with them and taught them great things.
4
However, later on, these first inhabitants, who were taught by the Spirit of God, thought deeper about the personality of the deity, and this all the more as they became more familiar with the powers of nature.
5
Each power that they discovered was represented as a specific quality of the one initial power in the deity. In order to better instruct the people about it, the powers that flowed from the one deity were represented more illustrative to the people by means of corresponding images. And so they said to the people that each one of these powers was also holy and deserved godly reverence since it resulted from the one and only true God.
6
They appointed teachers and they also established schools, and in the beginning they were instructed about the main original deity, but later the teaching was changed to mostly the specific powers that came from the divine being. And so, soon after that, for every power, specific teachers were appointed and schools established where every student had to study first before he, after taking exams, was accepted into the main school.
7
In time these teachers became priests of the separate divine powers or qualities, and thus every priest knew well what he had to teach.
8
Only a few schools existed in the beginning, and when in the course of time the number of people greatly increased, not enough schools were available. So they built more schools and temples and provided these temples with the images that go with it. They constantly discovered more of those separate powers coming from the one deity, put up smaller schools and provided the temples again with new deities that go with it and that were corresponding images of the powers from the one, only true deity. And finally they set up easy teachings for the teachers and priests according to which it was sufficient to only recognize and honor only one such power that was represented in the temple, because by that they also would recognize and honor the original main God in all His separate outflows of power and activity.
9
Therefore, the actual most important knowledge of the one and only true deity subsisted only among the more and more lazy and greedy priests. However, depending on their work, the people did only have to recognize and honor the many separate outflows of power of the one deity, and only a few were allowed to be initiated in the high schools about the deeper secrets.
10
Also strangers came to Egypt from all directions and wanted to be initiated into the wisdom of the Egyptians. But although the Egyptians, meaning the priests, showed them around from temple to temple and from school to school, they only taught them by means of the temple images which were related to the one main God. Apart from a few lessons, the strangers took also the many images to their own country which they could buy for money, and they also built temples and schools for them for which they appointed teachers and priests.
11
And look, this is how paganism and image idolatry came into being at that time, and the people were led to believe that they had done everything when they only truly honored one or several images that were presented to them in the temples and when they zealously offered to them according to their means.
12
The one and only true deity was honored with a certain fear and shyness as the relentless destiny, and the Greeks built even a temple for that fate, and this with the naming: 'Dedication to the only God who is totally unknown to all men'. So no image was placed in that temple but only a circle that was covered with the 'Veil of Isis' behind which no one could or was allowed to look.
13
And so you have received now in a few words a complete explanation from Me about what is behind the many pagan idol images.