I recently watched an episode from Morgan Freeman's TV series on God. Here is the segment:
Akhenaten got rid of all the major Egyptian gods and invented Aten another name for Ra the sun god. Aten was to be worshiped as the only one true god. And Akhenaten claimed he was the only spokesman for Aten on Earth. Akhenaten's will was Aten's will.
"Others have likened some aspects of Akhenaten's relationship with the Aten to the relationship, in Christian tradition, between
Jesus Christ and God, particularly interpretations that emphasize a more monotheistic interpretation of Atenism than a henotheistic one."
Akhenaten became a single high king priest and the high priests of the other gods lost all their power as all the power was accumulated under a single monarchy. This made the once powerful priests very angry! The priests who lost their power wanted to crucify Akhenaten!
"The idea that Akhenaten was the pioneer of a monotheistic religion that later became
Judaism has been considered by various scholars."
Akhenaten - Wikipedia
But not surprisingly Jewish scholars have poo-poo'd the idea their religion of monotheism was not of their own invention:
"There is little or no evidence to support the notion that Akhenaten was a progenitor of the full-blown monotheism that we find in the Bible. The monotheism of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament had its own separate development – one that began more than half a millennium after the pharaoh's death."
But the similarities are too obvious. Psalm 104 and "Great Hymn to the Aten" are practically identical. Prior to Akhenaten monotheism simply did not exist anywhere in recorded history. Akhenaten was the first to invent it. And it was hugely successful in consolidating power!
This idea of a single "Lord" God where the king on Earth forms a divine monarchy was very appealing to those who desire absolute power over their subjects. The "messenger" of God holds tremendous power over the people who buy into the message.
King James was a big proponent of the divine rights of kings as outlined in his book The True Law of Free Monarchies.
The True Law of Free Monarchies - Wikipedia
The idea of the divine rights of kings I find is somewhat evil, selfish, and self-serving for the person in the position of power. But you be the judge:
"The
divine right of kings,
divine right, or
God's mandate is a political and religious doctrine of royal and
political legitimacy. It stems from a specific metaphysical framework in which the king (or queen) is pre-selected as a heir prior to their birth. By pre-selecting the king's physical manifestation, the governed populace actively (rather than merely passively) hands the metaphysical selection of the king's soul – which will inhabit the body and thereby rule them – over to God. In this way, the "divine right" originates as a metaphysical act of humility or submission towards the
Godhead. Consequentially, it asserts that a
monarch (e.g. a king) is subject to no earthly authority, deriving the right to rule directly from a divine authority, like the
monotheist will of God. The monarch is thus not subject to the will of his people, of the
aristocracy, or of any other
estate of the realm. It implies that only divine authority can judge an unjust monarch and that any attempt to depose, dethrone or restrict their powers runs contrary to God's will and may constitute a sacrilegious act.
It is often expressed in the phrase "by the Grace of God", attached to the titles of a reigning monarch; although this right does not make the monarch the same as a
sacred king. The divine right has been a key element for legitimizing many
absolute monarchies."
Essentially the king speaks for God because the king and God are of the same mind.
This has a long history in Christianity:
"Outside of Christianity,[
clarification needed] kings were often seen as either ruling with the backing of heavenly powers or perhaps even being divine beings themselves. However, the Christian notion of a divine right of kings is traced to a story found in
1 Samuel, where the prophet
Samuel anoints
Saul and then
David as
mashiach or king over Israel. The anointing is to such an effect that the monarch became inviolable, so that even when Saul sought to kill David, David would not raise his hand against him because "he was the Lord's anointed"."
All throughout history hundreds of people have claimed to be messengers for God:
List of people who have been considered deities - Wikipedia
Kings are supposedly messengers of God. I have a tough time with this idea of divine monarchy. I think the Bible is written as authoritarian propaganda justifying monarchy as divine government. I live in the New York City area where there's an expression, "He's selling you the Brooklyn bridge.". The idea is shysters will sell you something they do not own. This is how I feel about the divine rights of kings. I feel like whoever is in power is being shyster selling something they do not own.
I feel the mind of God is beyond our comprehension and no one speaks for God.
So what do you think? Are kings and messengers of God claiming to speak for God nothing but shysters pretending to know the mind of God? Or are you believing someone selling you the Brooklyn bridge is legitimate?
