The Jehovah Mystery

[Bruce Michael]

Dear Companions,


While looking into the Jehovah mystery I came across some interesting web pages. After having my door knocked on for many years, I was surprised that I didn't know these basic doctrines of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

"Jesus Christ: Jesus was Michael the Archangel who was the first creation of Jehovah. Michael became the perfect man, Jesus, to redeem humanity. Jesus was not always "the Christ", He became Christ after His baptism.

"Russell believed that Jesus' body dissolved into gasses..."

Considering the Jehovah's Witnesses were founded in 1879, it is understandable that they made the mistake of equating Michael with Christ. (1879 is the start of the Archangelic cycle belonging to Michael, according to the teaching of Abbot Trithemius of Sponheim.)

We also find "Christ-Michael" in the Urantia book. The name Michael means the "countenance of God" or "he who goes before God"; and this how Christ first revealed Himself- through the Archangel Michael.

But Christ is not an Archangel. He is the Word revealed through the Elohim- Exousiai.

"And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes."

Mark 1:22

The word translated here as "authority" is Exousiai.

You might like to look at the Mormon view as well. You'll note that they are closer to the truth, re: Jehovah/Christ.

Here are the Mormon Temple Ceremonies.


-Br.Bruce

[mee]

The

Bible’s Answer

Aside from Michael, no archangel is mentioned in the Bible, nor do the Scriptures use the term "archangel" in the plural. The Bible describes Michael as the archangel, implying that he alone bears that designation. Hence, it is reasonable to conclude that Jehovah God has delegated to one, and only one, of his heavenly creatures full authority over all other angels.
Aside from the Creator himself, only one faithful person is spoken of as having angels under subjection—namely, Jesus Christ. (Matthew 13:41; 16:27; 24:31) The apostle Paul made specific mention of "the Lord Jesus" and "his powerful angels." (2 Thessalonians 1:7) And Peter described the resurrected Jesus by saying: "He is at God’s right hand, for he went his way to heaven; and angels and authorities and powers were made subject to him."—1 Peter 3:22.
While there is no statement in the Bible that categorically identifies Michael the archangel as Jesus, there is one scripture that links Jesus with the office of archangel. In his letter to the Thessalonians, the apostle Paul prophesied: "The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel’s voice and with God’s trumpet, and those who are dead in union with Christ will rise first." (1 Thessalonians 4:16) In this scripture Jesus is described as having assumed his power as God’s Messianic King. Yet, he speaks with "an archangel’s voice." Note, too, that he has the power to raise the dead.
While on earth as a human, Jesus performed several resurrections. In doing so, he used his voice to utter commanding calls. For example, when resurrecting the dead son of a widow in the city of Nain, he said: "Young man, I say to you, Get up!" (Luke 7:14, 15) Later, just before resurrecting his friend Lazarus, Jesus "cried out with a loud voice: ‘Lazarus, come on out!’" (John 11:43) But on these occasions, Jesus’ voice was the voice of a perfect man.
After his own resurrection, Jesus was raised to a "superior position" in heaven as a spirit creature. (Philippians 2:9) No longer a human, he has the voice of an archangel. So when God’s trumpet sounded the call for "those who are dead in union with Christ" to be raised to heaven, Jesus issued "a commanding call," this time "with an archangel’s voice." It is reasonable to conclude that only an archangel would call "with an archangel’s voice."
Yes, there are other angelic creatures of high rank, such as seraphs and cherubs. (Genesis 3:24; Isaiah 6:2) Yet, the Scriptures point to the resurrected Jesus Christ as the chief of all angels—Michael the archangel.

[Bruce Michael]

Originally Posted by mee

The

Bible’s Answer

Aside from Michael, no archangel is mentioned in the Bible, nor do the Scriptures use the term "archangel" in the plural.

That is not the Bible's answer Mee. That is altered Bible you are looking in. The true Bible contains the Book of Enoch; as the Ethiopians have preserved it through the centuries.
Seven Archangels - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Eastern tradition also has it that there are seven main Archangels.


>And Peter described the resurrected Jesus by saying: "He is at God’s right hand, for >he went his way to heaven; and angels and authorities and powers were made subject >to him."—1 Peter 3:22.

Christ Jesus is not the Archangel Michael. There is no such statement in the scriptures. The Authorities and Powers are actually higher Hierarchies, not subject to Michael or the other Archangels.

Originally Posted by mee

Yes, there are other angelic creatures of high rank, such as seraphs and cherubs. (Genesis 3:24; Isaiah 6:2) Yet, the Scriptures point to the resurrected Jesus Christ as the chief of all angels—Michael the archangel.

There are six other higher Hierarchies beyond the Archangels.

The Elohim in Genesis are a plurality; and that is what it literally says- also "We" and "They" are used.

Honorific? - a flimsy argument based on nothing.... There are no Jehovahim or Adonais. Nowhere in the Bible is a plural used as an honorific. Jesus didn't refer to His "Fathers". Sure Queen Victoria said things like "We are not amused" but we never refer to the Queen as "Queens"- unless you're in New York. When God speaks from the Burning Bush He says "I Am that I Am". That is specific. But it is not the "Elohim".

All other lesser beings stream from Father God. Steiner, along with the other Christian esotericists sees in the Elohim the working of Christ the Creative Word.

The "gods many, and lords many" "including Thrones, angelic Lords, celestial Powers and Rulers" that Paul of Tarsus speaks of, are the hierarchical beings. Paul's disciple Dionysius the Areopagite, Bishop of Athens, carried
on this secret teaching and his later disciple, who took on his name, wrote of these Celestial Hierarchies. This book became, probably, the most influential in all Christendom. It was presented to Charlemagne as a coronation gift for instance.

Dionysius the Areopagite: Celestial Hierarchy

So revelation continues on.

The Anthroposophical Christology is there for those who are ready for the "strong meat" as the writer of Hebrews tells it:

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Hebrews 5:13-14

In Christ,
Br.Bruce

[mee]

Originally Posted by Bruce Michael

That is not the Bible's answer Mee. That is altered Bible you are looking in. The true Bible contains the Book of Enoch;

The inspired word of God ,doesnt contain the book of Enoch

[mee]

[quote=Bruce Michael;125656]


The Elohim in Genesis are a plurality[/quote
The plural form of the noun here in Hebrew is the plural of majesty or excellence. (See NAB, St. Joseph Edition, Bible Dictionary, p. 330; also, New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967, Vol. V, p. 287.) It conveys no thought of plurality of persons within a godhead.

[Bruce Michael]

Originally Posted by mee

The inspired word of God ,doesnt contain the book of Enoch

According to what authority?
The Book of Enoch was removed by the Jews:

The early Christian father Tertullian wrote c. 200 that the Book of Enoch had been rejected by the Jews because it contained prophecies pertaining to Christ

The Ethiopians have always kept it as part of the canon.

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It is referred to by Jude 14-15:

And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these [men], saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

Compare this with Enoch 1:9, translated from the Ethiopic:

And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones To execute judgement upon all, And to destroy all the ungodly: And to convict all flesh Of all the works of their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed, And of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.

Why, if Jude mentions it, isn't it part of the canon?

The books of the Bible were put together in a most arbitrary manner.

In Christ,
-Br.Bruce

[Bruce Michael]

[quote=mee;125677]

Originally Posted by Bruce Michael

Dear Mee,
The Elohim in Genesis are a plurality[/quote
The plural form of the noun here in Hebrew is the plural of majesty or excellence. (See NAB, St. Joseph Edition, Bible Dictionary, p. 330; also, New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967, Vol. V, p. 287.) It conveys no thought of plurality of persons within a godhead.

I have already disproved this. Folk often say they follow the Holy Bible but when it comes down to it they change it to suit their own preconceived ideas.

Elohim is the plural- there is no mistake. Eloha is the singular. Don't you trust the Word of God?

The Elohim in Genesis are a plurality; and that is what it literally says- also "We" and "They" are used.

Honorific? - a flimsy argument based on nothing.... There are no Jehovahim or Adonais. Nowhere in the Bible is a plural used as an honorific. Jesus didn't refer to His "Fathers". Sure Queen Victoria said things like "We are not amused" but we never refer to the Queen as "Queens"- unless you're in New York. When God speaks from the Burning Bush He says "I Am that I Am". That is specific. But it is not the "Elohim".

Do you have just one more example of God being named "Gods" for reasons of majesty?
Answer: No.

As Paul says there are "gods many and lords many".

God Bless,
Br.Bruce

[AndrewX]

Just for kicks, I'll post this excerpt from de Purucker's Encyclopedic Theosophcial Glossary:

Jehovah yehowah (Hebrew) In the Bible, the god of the Hebrews; a modern mispronunciation of the Hebrew alphabetic characters, resulting from the combining by the Jews themselves of the Hebrew consonants of this word (YHVH) with the vowels of the word Adonai (my lords) because the Jews, while always writing or copying the alphabetic characters of the name correctly in their manuscripts, when reading it never pronounced the word YHVH, but read "Adonai" in its stead -- writing the Massoretic points of Adonai to vocalize YHVH to produce Yahovah. Consequently when the Bible came to be studied by those unfamiliar with the real pronunciation of YHVH, it was read in various ways, commonly as Jehovah. It is now held by some scholars that YHVH should be pronounced yahweh or yave. It is also given as Yihweh (he will be, or it will be) (SD 2:129). However, Josephus, a priest who undoubtedly knew the correct pronunciation, wrote that it would be highly unlawful for him to divulge it as the Jews regarded it as too holy to pronounce aloud.

Blavatsky writes that the rendering Ja-ho-vah is "a perversion of the Holy Name": that the majority of the Jews themselves were ignorant of the true pronunciation. "Alone, out of all their nation the high priests had it in their possession, and respectively passed it to their successors," before their death. "Once a year only, on the day of atonement, the high priest was allowed to pronounce it in a whisper" (IU 2:398-9).

The Hebrews were not the only ones who knew of and revered a divinity whose name when written was conveyed by vowels mainly, as for instance the Gnostic Iao, Ieuo, or Iaou. All these ancient peoples by these vowel-words desired to express the fluid life-giving energy of the globe, of the moon, and of the planetary source -- in this case, Saturn.

The early Christian Fathers connected the moon and its functions with Jehovah -- as the proximate but not causal "giver of life and death." Moreover "With the Israelites, the chief function of Jehovah was child-giving, and the esotericism of the Bible, interpreted Kabalistically, shows undeniably the Holy of Holies in the temple to be only the symbol of the womb. . . . This idea must certainly have been borrowed by the Jews from the Egyptians and Indians . . ." (SD 1:264). Jehovah is likewise identified with the serpent or dragon that tempted Eve, the dragon often standing for the primordial principle.

In the Qabbalah, Jehovah is regarded as hermaphrodite and connected with the female Sephirah Binah. The Qabbalists show the word to be "composed of the two-fold name of the first androgyne -- Adam and Eve, Jod (or Yodh), Vau and He-Va -- the female serpent as a symbol of Divine Intelligence proceeding from the One-Generative or Creative Spirit" (IU 2:398).

From the standpoint of the Jews, Jehovah was their patron deity, the regent of the planet Saturn.

Notice that Saturn is mentioned twice, and in this last reference the phrase is "regent of the the planet Saturn." We know that in fact, every planet has its regent ... and THESE are the Creative ELOHIM, most certainly and obviously PLURAL.

Regent [from Latin regens ruling] Ruler, rector; the divine-spiritual-intellectual ruler or cosmic spirit of any cosmic entity. Equivalent to the 'elohim, kabiri, rays of the Logos, the four Maharajas, the genii of the seven sacred planets, of the twelve zodiacal constellations, or of stars, worlds, etc. (Ibid)

And for clarity's sake, here are de Purucker's entries on `Elohim' and on `Adonai,' and a few other related terms:

Elohim 'elohim (Hebrew) [from 'eloah goddess + im masculine plural ending] The monotheistic proclivities, not only of the Jews but of Christian translators, have led to this word always being translated as God; yet the word itself is a plural form, nor is it in any sense necessarily a plural of majesty, as suggested by some monotheistic scholars. A correct rendering should denote both masculine and feminine characteristics, such as androgyne divinities.

In spite of the ideas imbodied in the word itself, the later development of Judaism caused 'elohim to be almost entirely translated in paraphrase as the "one true God"; but in earlier times 'elohim (or rather benei 'elohim or benei 'elim -- sons of gods, members of the classes of divine beings) meant spiritual beings or cosmic spirits of differing hierarchical grades: a collective class of cosmic spirits among whom is found the familiar Jewish Yahweh or Jehovah. Thus, strictly speaking and as viewed in the original Qabbalah, the 'elohim meant the angelic hierarchies of many varying grades of spirituality or ethereality; and in cosmogonic or astrological matters, the 'elohim were often mentally aggregated under the generalized term tseba'oth [fem pl from the verbal root tsaba' a host, an army] as in the expression "host of heaven."

In the Jewish Qabbalah the 'elohim, however, are the sixth hierarchical group in derivation from the first or Crown, Kether: [as Bruce already pointed out] cosmogonically they represent the manifested formers or weavers of the cosmos. In this Qabbalistic system, Jehovah was the third angelic potency (counting from the first, Kether).

The opening words of the Bible refer directly to the activities of the 'elohim, for this is the sole divine name mentioned in Genesis 1:1-2. De Purucker translates these verses from the original Hebrew as: "In a host (or multitude), the gods (Elohim) formed themselves into the heavens and the earth. And the earth became ethereal. And darkness upon the face of the ethers. And the ruah (the spirit-soul) of the gods (of Elohim) fluttered or hovered, brooding" (cf Fund 99-100). He goes on to say that "we see that the Elohim evolved man, humanity, out of themselves, and told them to become, then to enter into and inform these other creatures. Indeed, these sons of the Elohim are, in our teachings, the children of light, the sons of light, which are we ourselves, and yet different from ourselves, because higher, yet they are our own very selves inwardly. In fact, the Elohim, became, evolved into, their own offspring, remaining in a sense still always the inspiring light within, or rather above . . . the Elohim projected themselves into the nascent forms of the then 'humanity,' which thenceforward were 'men,' however imperfect their development still was" (Fund 101-2).

Eloaeos (Gnostic) The spiritual genius of the planet Jupiter; one of the seven stellar or planetary spirits of the Egyptian and other Gnostics, who together form the second or inferior hebdomad. See also ASTAPHAI

Hebdomad [from Greek hebdomas a group of seven] A group of seven, a septenary; a period of seven days, or seven years, etc., as in Sabbatical periods.

Astaphai, Astaphoi (Gnostic) [from Greek astaphaios] With the Egyptian Gnostics, the genius of the planet Mercury, corresponding to the Egyptian Thoth and the Greek Hermes.

Adonai 'adonai (Hebrew) [from 'adon lord] My Lords; through usage, Lord, a plural of excellence. Originally a sort of appeal or prayer to the hierarchical spiritual powers of the earth planetary chain, and more particularly of the planetary spirit of the earth itself; later it became a mere substitute for the unutterable name of God, usually for Tetragrammaton (YHVH).

"As the inner nature of YHVH is hidden; therefore He (YHVH) is only named with the Name of the Shekhinah, Adonai, i.e., Lord; therefore the Rabbins say (of the name YHVH); Not as I am written (i.e., YHVH) am I read. In this world My Name is written YHVH and read Adonai, but in the world to come, the same will be read as it is written, so that Mercy (represented by YHVH) shall be from all sides" (Zohar iii 320a). Adonai is rendered Lord in the Bible, although it means "my Lords"; whereas 'elohim is translated God in the English Authorized Version.

In the Sephirothal scheme, the Divine Name of the Sephirah of Malchuth was 'Adonai. The Gnostics taught that Iurbo and Adonai were names of Iao-Jehovah, who is an emanation of Ilda Baoth. According to Origen the Gnostics considered Adonai the genius of the sun. Blavatsky writes: "Both Aidoneus and Dionysius [Dionysus] are the bases of Adonai, or 'Jurbo Adonai,' as Jehovah is called in Codex Nazaraeus. . . . Baal-Adonis of the sods or Mysteries of the pre-Babylonian Jews became the Adonai by the Massorah, the later-vowelled Jehovah" (SD 1:463). See also 'ADON; IAO; JEHOVAH

Adon 'adon (Hebrew) plural 'adonim [from 'adan to fix, determine] Commander, lord, master, ruler; "The Adonim and Adonai . . . which the Jews applied to their Jehovah and angels . . . were simply the first spiritual and ethereal sons of the earth; and the god Adonis, who in his many variations stood for the 'First Lord' " (SD 2:452).

I mean, I know this is not all printed up in the form of a nice color pocket-sized leaflet, ready for handing out during door-to-doors ... but come on, I can play cut'n'paste just as well as our resident Jehovah's Witness, et al - meanwhile witnessing the other Six of Them, as well.

[mee]

Originally Posted by AndrewX

I mean, I know this is not all printed up in the form of a nice color pocket-sized leaflet, ready for handing out during door-to-doors ... but come on, I can play cut'n'paste just as well as our resident Jehovah's Witness, et al - meanwhile witnessing the other Six of Them, as well.

yes that is correct , from door to door the truth is being made known, and even online on the official site, and the brochure is called ..... The Divine Name That Will Endure Forever.......Index - Jehovah's Witnesses Official Web Site if you look under Jehovah God you will find it

[mee]

Originally Posted by Bruce Michael

When God speaks from the Burning Bush He says "I Am that I Am". That is specific. But it is not the "Elohim".


God Bless,
Br.Bruce

At this God said to Moses: “I SHALL PROVE TO BE WHAT I SHALL PROVE TO BE.”


“I SHALL PROVE TO BE WHAT I SHALL PROVE TO BE.” Heb., היהא רשׁא היהא (’Eh·yeh′ ’Asher′ ’Eh·yeh′), God’s own self-designation; Leeser, “I WILL BE THAT I WILL BE”; Rotherham, “I Will Become whatsoever I please.” Gr., E·go′ ei·mi ho on, “I am The Being,” or, “I am The Existing One”; Lat., e′go sum qui sum, “I am Who I am.” ’Eh·yeh′ comes from the Heb. verb ha·yah′, “become; prove to be.” Here ’Eh·yeh′ is in the imperfect state, first person sing., meaning “I shall become”; or, “I shall prove to be.” The reference here is not to God’s self-existence but to what he has in mind to become toward others.
And he added: “This is what you are to say to the sons of Israel, ‘I SHALL PROVE TO BE has sent me to YOU.’” Exodus 3;14