From the book Thy Kingdom Comes
Gods many
Who exercises the authority of the civilized governments of men which they make for themselves? Those who had the right to judge the people and enforce that judgment were called ruling judges or gods1.
“For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,)” 1Corinthians 8:5
What is Paul talking about? Who are called gods in heaven and in earth? And why are there gods many?
And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for [am] I in the place of God? Genesis 50:19
How was Joseph in the place of God? Is this blaspheme? He had the power of judgment over the people. He literally administered the ownership possessing the equitable title to their land, belongings and labor.
Again it bares repeating that in the Old and New Testament the words “gods” and “God” are translated from words defined as “rulers, judges” which includes the right to exercise authority, power and jurisdiction over other men. The word God was “applied as deference to magistrates”2and “figuratively, a magistrate”3 in both Israel and Rome.
To realize that at the time of Christ you would address a judge in a Hebrew, Roman or Greek courts as god should change the entire way you read your modern Bibles. This is why there are gods many.
Another example of the word god is found in Acts 7:19, 21. “In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’s house three months: And when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.” What do they mean exceeding fair? Fair is from the word asteios which in the original form was astu (a city). Here it is a form that meant “of the city” or civil power. The word is only used in reference to Moses in the Bible.
The word exceedingly offers some clarification. Of the over 1300 times it appears in the New Testament it is translated as exceedingly only once. All the other times it is translated “God” or “gods”.
Yes, Moses was a god of the civil authority and had the power to rule over his brothers with executorial judgment as a god. He had become the son of the daughter of Pharaoh when he was three months old. By that adoption into the house of Pharaoh, he was an heir to the office of ruling judge in Egypt.
Moses had the right to judge and rule over the people in this high office of Egyptian government. The power wielded by persons in arbitrary civil jurisdictions can tempt and change men. Moses feared what his soul was becoming and turned from that ancient temptation and fled Egypt.
Moses showed this holy restraint many times, as in the case of Dathan and Abiram who could have been judged by Moses as god of Israel. Instead he left judgment to God the Father for he knew “vengeance is mine saith the LORD”.
The God of heaven eventually arranged that Moses was able to redeem the people and bring them out of this corvee’ or civil bondage of Egypt. They were given the gold and silver [an honest money system] replacing their denominated scarabs issued by the government through their usurious Egyptian banking temples. According to Philo when the people were led out of that system by Moses they got the title to their animals, possessions and families back. This was a parallel to Abram leaving Haran.
God brought the souls of Israel out of Egypt where the people served strange gods. He then gave them a specific command to guide them in this new governance:
I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:2-3.
The people knew what gods were. They knew that the gods were not the statues but the men and jurisdictions they represented. Does anyone worship the flag or the Capital Dome or the statue upon the top? Those are just the symbols of their allegiance and service.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Ex. 20:4
Like the days of Abraham, Nimrod, Daniel and Rome these images of lions, elephants and eagles were simply representations of the jurisdictions which accompanied them. God goes on to clarify this simple truth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Ex. 20:5-6
We cannot serve a statue like the one on the top of the Capital dome or the eagle above the American flag but we can serve the jurisdiction of that government and the men who make its laws. As lawmakers they have the power to appoint judges over the people of their created civil society and execute judgment upon those who dare disobey their will.
Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Ex. 20:5-6
The third office created by the Senate of Rome and appointed at the election of Agustus as Emperator4 was the office of the Apo Theos, the appointor of gods. The duty of this office was to appoint magistrates or judges throughout the Empire who were called theos or gods. There were many gods exercising judgment over the people by way of the thousands and thousands of laws passed by the Senate or Conscripti Patres [conscripted fathers] and ratified by the elected President of Rome, Augustus.
It should not be so strange to think of the Roman Emperors as gods when you realize that George Washington himself is deified in the ceiling of the capitol dome. “Across the Dome’s eye, 180 feet above the floor, spreads a gigantic allegorical painting by the Italian artist Constantino Brumidi. The painting depicts the ‘Apotheosis,’ or glorification, of George Washington.”5 The Vatican painter, “Brumidi depicted George Washington rising to the heavens in glory… The word “apotheosis” in the title means literally the raising of a person to the rank of a god…”6
Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? John 10:34
Why would Jesus say ye are gods? If the people exercise freewill they remain the ruling judges of their own actions. They are gods but only over themselves not over their neighbor. They of course are answerable to the Laws of God but no man or civil power stands between them and their Father Creator. How was chaos avoided?
Moses found the authoritarian centralized power of the Civil State to be in opposition to God’s plan. Central powers decide what is good and what is evil. These systems also grant power to government to define charity, hope and faith. A ruling elite can decide what is given or received and when. This annihilates hope and robs the individual of the divine right of choice and charity. Guaranteed entitlements entice men to trust in the governments of men and lures them away from faith in God.
What form of Government could Moses employ in managing those millions of souls that followed him out of Egypt into the wilderness?
The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute. Proverbs 12:24
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1See Appendix 5
2From Strong’s Æelohiym ... occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates;...
3From Strong’s theos of uncertain affinity; a deity,... figuratively, a magistrate; by Hebraism, very:..
4“Emperator, emperatoris m. commander in chief “Collins L.E. Dict. ‘62. This was the head of the Roman military. It was a 10 year term of office elected by the electoral college of the Senate.
5“We, the People” “The Story of the US Capitol” by the US Capitol Historical Society, Wa. D.C., Library of Congress catalog number 65-20721.
6US government www.aoc.gov/cc/art/rotunda/apotheosis/apoth_center.h™