I am doing this special blog today.
There are many religions of the world,
and many Gods that they believe in.
I will discuss this and talk about the one true God whose name is Jehovah!
No one comes through him except through his son, Jesus Christ the Lord.
"For though there be that are called gods,
whether in heaven or in earth,
(as there be gods many, and lords many,)
But to us there is but one god, whom shall call Jehovah.
1st Corinthians 8:5 KJV (1611)
This is all taken from my lifetime of studies;
my independent studies and college studies.
(Much of it is cut and pasted from my reports,
but thought I would share what I learned)
The studies by me - Timothy L. Kerofsky. MA
Ancient Greek:
In ancient Greek they believed that
Zeus was the king of the Gods.
He led all the other Gods and Goddesses.
There were several Gods and Goddesses and deities from them.
They were as follows:
Hera - the wife of Zeus and the Queen of the Gods.
Athena - the Goddess of War.
Apollo - the God of the Sun, truth, music, poetry, dance and healing.
Demeter - the Goddess of Fertility and agriculture.
She was also associated with the underworld.
Poseidon - the God of the Sea and Horses.
Aphrodite - the Goddess of Love and Beauty.
She was in love with the war god Ares.
But, she was the wife of Hephaistos.
Hermes - the God of travel, business. weights, measures, and sports.
He was also the messenger of the Gods and guided souls to the underworld.
His staff could make men fall asleep instantly.
Artemis - the Goddess of Hunting, Archery, and Childbirth.
She was also the goddess of wild animals and was normally portrayed as
living in the countryside.
She had the ability to send plagues or sudden
death to mortals, but she could also heal them.
She was the twin sister
of the god Apollo.
Ares - the God of War.
He was not as cunning as Athena.
He was not a popular God.
He was the most hated by all the children of Zeus.
Hephaistos - the God of Fire, volcanoes, blacksmiths, and craftsmen.
He was married to the goddess Aphrodite.
He was also the father of Erechtheus; the legendary king of Athens.
Dionysus - the God of High Spirits, strong emotions, and wine.
He was a fun-loving god.
He was also the god of drama and theater.
Hades - the God of the Underworld.
According to myth, he and his brothers Zeus and Poseidon defeated the
Titans
and claimed ruler-ship over the cosmos, ruling the underworld,
air, and sea,
respectively; the solid earth, long the province of Gaia.
Ancient Rome:
Apollo - the God of light and the sun, truth and prophecy, healing, plague, music, and poetry.
Bacchus - the God grape harvest, wine-making and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy.
Ceres - the Goddess of Harvest.
Cupid - the God of affection, desire, and Love.
Diana - the Goddess of the hunt, moon, and birthing. Had the power to talk to and control animals.
Fortuna - the Goddess of luck and fortune.
Janus - the God of the future and the past. He had two faces.
Juno - the protecting and guardian spirit of females. The peacock is her symbol.
The month of June is named after her.
Jupiter - the King of the Roman Gods. The God of Light and Sky. The protector of the state and laws.
He is the son of Saturn, brother of Neptune, and husband of Juno.
Maia - the Goddess of Growth. Only associated with women. The month of May is named after her.
Mars - the God of War.
Mercury - the God of trade and profit, merchants and travelers.
Minerva - the Goddess of Wisdom, medicine, the arts, dyeing, science and trade.
Associated with the owl. The daughter of Jupiter and Metis.
Neptune - the God of the Sea.
Pluto - the God of the Underworld and judge of the dead.
Proserpina - the Queen Goddess of the Underworld. A beautiful, young, nymph girl.
Saturn - the God of agriculture, liberation, and time.
Uranus - the God of the Sky.
Venus - the Goddess of Love, beauty, sex, fertility, prosperity and victory.
Vesta - the Goddess of Hearth, Home and Family. She is symbolized by a sacred fire.
There is a priesthood devoted to her; the Vestal Virgins.
Vulcan - the God of Fire.
He is the manufacturer of art, arms, iron, and armor for gods
and heroes.
His forge was believed to be situated underneath Mount Aetna
in Sicily.
Vulcan is often depicted with a blacksmith's hammer.
Hinduism:
The book of Hindu is called the, “Bhavagad Gita” which
means, “The Song of God”.
The word Yoga means Yoke which in
turn means Discipline.
There are five ‘Yokes’. They are:
1) Jnana Yoga – Knowledge
2) Bhakti Yoga – Love
3) Karma Yoga – Work
4) Raja Yoga – Meditation
5) Hatha Yoga – Spirit
The Hindu’s believe in three main Gods and many others
deriving from these Gods.
The three Gods are:
1) Brahma – Creator
2) Vishnu – Preserver
3) Shiva – Destroyer
They also believe in three paths of life. Which are:
1) Path
of Desire (Pleasure and Success)
2) Path
of Renunciation (Life’s Foreclosing)
3) Reincarnation (To return again in another
Spirit or as an Animal)
The wants of man:
1) Pleasure
2) Success
3) Responsible
discharge of duty
4) Liberation
What men seek?
1) Being
2) Knowledge
3) Joy
Buddhism:
Began in
India around 560 BC in Kapilavastu
from the concepts of the religion Hinduism
and the philosophy of Raja Yoga. Buddha (the awakened one)
was the son of a
High Hindu Priest.
He belonged to the Kshatriya Caste. Siddhartha Gautama,
the
man known as Buddha, broke away
from all the riches of India that he acquired from his Hindu
father...
He sat under a tree and Meditated for so long that he was at total
peace
and harmony with himself.
When he awoke he said, “Give me raw rice to
eat, water to drink,
and my bent arm as a pillow
and I shall live happily under
the mist of the clouds forever."
More
about Buddhism;
The 4 Noble
Truths-
1) Dukka
(Suffering)
2) Tanha
(Desire)
3) Life’s dislocation is a selfish craving so by
destroying evil desire we become free
from sorrow’.
4)
Truth consists of the Eightfold Path which leads to the end of suffering’
The Eightfold Path-
1) Right
Knowledge
2) Right Aspiration
3) Right
Speech
4) Right Behavior
5) Right Livelihood
6) Right
Effort
7) Right
Mindfulness
8) Right Absorption
Five Precepts-
1) Do not
Kill
2) Do not
Steal
3) Do not Lie
4) Do not Drink
Intoxicants
5) Do not be
Unchaste
Buddhist Sayings:
“By ourselfs is Evil done, By ourselfs we
Pain endure,
By ourselfs we cease from wrong,
By ourselfs we become pure. No
one can save us but ourselfs,
No one can and no one may.
We ourselfs must tread
the path- Buddha only shows the way.”
“Oh it is real, It is the only real thing,
Pain!
So let us name the truth like men.
We are born to Joy that Joy may become
Pain,
We are born to Hope that Hope may become Pain,
We are born to Love that
Love may become Pain,
We are born to Pain that Pain may become more Pain,
and
from this inexhaustible superflux we give others pain as our...
prime definition!”
“The seabourn traveler seizes a favorable
wind,
He raises anchor and sets sails for distant shores.
Like a bird flying through
innumerable clouds,
the wake of his ship leaves no memories behind.”
Shinto:
Shinto means "The Way of Kami (God)".
It is an ancient Japanese religion that started about 500 BC.
The creation stories of Shinto tell of the history and lives of the "Kami"
(deities).
Among
them was a divine couple, Izanagi and Izanami-no-mikoto,
who gave birth to the Japanese islands.
Their children became the deities of the various Japanese clans.
Amaterasu
Omikami (Sun Goddess)
was one of their daughters.
She is the ancestress of the Imperial Family and is regarded as the chief deity.
Her shrine is at Ise. Her descendants
unified the country.
Daoism:
Daoism (Taoism) is an ancient Chinese religion.
It is is based on the concept that for every one thing there is an opposite,
and they must come together in harmony.
For then there will be equilibrium and balance in the universe.
The Nature of the
Principle:
The Tao
(Way) begets the One (Unity),
the one begets the two (Yin and Yang),
the two
begets the three (Yin, Yang, and Ki)
and the three begets the ten thousand
things (Universe).
All things are backed by the shade (Yin) and faced by the
light (Yang)
and harmonized by the immortal breath (Ki).
The great virtue as manifested is but following Tao.
This essence being invariably true, there is faith in
it.
The Yin/Yang View of
the World:
Summer
changes into winter and winter into summer continuously.
The sun rises and
sets, the moon waxes and wanes, the tide ebbs and recedes,
leaves change from
green to brown, the sky from light to dark.
We are in no way separate from
nature! We are not only part of it, but we are nature too -
Our life’s flow in
harmony with the cosmic changes of the universe.
Therefore we are all part of
one continuous cycle.
The Flower – our
Karma:
I will use the flower
to explain how it relates to our Karma and growth.
The soil is
to the flowers growth as to what our karma is to ours.
The soil provides both
the nutrients the flower needs for growth,
but at the same time is a barrier
against which the tender young plant must push until
it reaches the light of
the sun.
We want our
life to be as happy as possible.
However, real happiness lies only in our
ultimate enlightenment –
not in becoming what we think we should be,
not in
becoming what others think we should be,
but rather in becoming our self.
When
one finds true happiness one will have inner peace within –
realizing our Tao
nature uncovering and freeing our inner spirit.
That
progressive freedom and clarity doesn’t happen easily.
Neither does the young
sprout easily push through the soil, which surrounds and nurtures it.
Difficulties,
problems, dilemmas, and set backs are to us what the soil is to the plant;
both
barriers and nourishment.
They nurture our growth by teaching us, by making us
expand our limits.
If we can learn to enjoy and appreciate all of Karma, front
and back,
then we can grow toward our spiritual heavenly sun.
That sun, the
light of Tao, is as necessary to our real aliveness as the earthly sun is to
the flower.
Life is
like the flower, always striving to blossom every year.
Taoist Zen is the way
of the flower. So one must be like a flower – to grow and blossom!
The Taoist Ideal of
the Psychological Balance:
To embrace
both the Feminine and Masculine sides of our nature -
to be both receptive and
active according to circumstance.
The most masculine male is not only strong
and active, but also gentle and receptive.
The most feminine female is not only
gentle and receptive, but also strong and active.
-Strong and
Active means being assertive, but not aggressive.
-Gentle and
Receptive means being accept, but not dependent.
We cause the Yin and Yang to help create a dynamic balance
in our lifestyle.
As we develop the experiences and forces of life,
our
reaction to them produces an ever-evolving,
ever new self. Then we are at one
with our selves.
More on Yin and Yang:
If Yin is…Yang is…
Yin – hard,
female, passive, receptive, dark, cold, straight, sour
Yang – soft,
male, active, gentle, light, hot, circular, sweet
Yin - destruction,
smooth, long, friable, dry, blindness, feminine
Yang - power,
course, short, supple, wet, sight, masculine
Yin - mean,
hate, negative, yielding, follower, secular, action
Yang - kind,
love, positive, strong, leader, divine, inspiration
Yin - love,
soul, body, secular, divine, impulsive, buoyant, square
Yang- hate,
body, soul, divine, secular, rational, heavy, circle
Yin - evil,
black, moon, mountains, red crane, hard, tiger, action
Yang - good,
white, sun, oceans, white crane, soft, dragon, reaction
Confucianism:
Confucius lived from 551 to 479 BC.
In
the Han Dynasty (206 BC to AD 220) Confucianism became China’s
State Religion.
130 BC:
Made basic discipline for training Gov’t. Officials
AD 59: Sacrifices were ordered for Confucius in urban
schools
7 & 8
Centuries: Temples erected as shrines to him
12th Century: Analects remained classic
SUNG Dynasty: Analects remained only a school book,
but basics to all education
1934: Birthday proclaimed a national holiday
Comparison between the sayings of Confucius and
Jesus:
Confucius; “What you do not wish done onto yourself
do not to others.”
Jesus; “Do onto others as you would have them do
onto you”
Should one Love ones enemy, those who do us harm?
Confucius; “By no means, answer hatred with justice and
Love with benevolence.
Otherwise you will waste your benevolence.”
Jesus; “Love your enemies, Bless them that curse you, do
good to them that hate you,
Pray for them that dispitfully use you.”
More Confucius Sayings:
“If there is righteousness in heart, there will be
beauty in character.
If there be beauty in character, there will be
harmony in the home.
If there be harmony in the home, there will be order
in the nation.
If there be order in the nation, there will be peace
in the world!”
“If a man puts duty first and success after, will that not
improve his character?
If he attacks his own failings instead of the faults of
others,
will that not remedy his personal faults?
For his mornings anger to
forget his own safety and involve that of his relatives,
is not this
irrational?”
Random Confucius Proverbs:
Wisdom is better than weapons of war
Over
every possessor of knowledge is one who is more knowing
When the blind lead the blind they both fall off the
cliff
A ship can float on water, water can turn it over
Ten thousand rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is never
full
The
farmer hopes for rain, the traveler hopes for good weather
Beast do not know there own strength,
men do not know there own faults.
A stupid man, will die a stupid death.
Is
there not a person who has not made one error and half mistake?
Pantheist:
The pantheist believe that there is a spirit in all things; animate and non-animate.
That there is life in everything; that nothing is dead.
That we exist in the presence of God through all things in the universe.
Everything has a divine purpose.
Catholicism:
The Catholic Church started out from Saint Peter, and after the Council of Nicea in 325AD Emperor Constantine
(who was a Pagan and became Christian)
formed the Catholic Church of Rome;
the Roman Catholic
Church.
This sect became known as Catholicism
and many Christian Religions today all came from this sect.
Martin Luther (1483-1546)formed the Protestant Reformation
in the 16th century,
causing the church to split in different directions;
from Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Eastern Orthodox,
and many others.
Then the council of the Vatican met to reunite the church.
Holy Inquisition:
But many people do not know,
was the Holy Inquisition headed by the Catholic Church
of the 12th century
which lasted to the time of Spanish Inquisition.
It started with the slaughter of the Knights of Templar.
Knights of Templar:
In 1099 the Knights of Templar were formed
"to police the roads of the holy land
for the
protection of pilgrims".
Sad History of the Knights of Templar, Christopher Check (2013)
But by the late 12th century they amassed
such power that the Pope wanted them stopped.
"Anyone who attempts to construe a personal view of god,
must be burned without pity."
Pope Innocent III
So in 1244 the Council of Harbonne was met;
and all the heretics were arrested and tortured,
even children were tortured and beheaded.
"The Inquisition was an ecclesiastical court and process of the
Roman Catholic Church setup for the purpose towards the discovery and punishment of heresy which wielded immense power and brutality in medieval and early modern times."
From Horrors of the Catholic Church and the Holy Inquisition
In 1252 Pope Innocent IV created and authorized the use of torture chambers. Many of these devices had described upon it:
"Glory be to God".
This
system for close to over six centuries became the legal framework
throughout most of Europe that orchestrated one of the most confound
religious orders in the course of mankind.
Spanish Inquisition:
Then the Spanish Inquisition started in 1478
as a state
institution
used to identify conversos—Jews and Moors (Muslims)
who pretended to
convert to Christianity for purposes of political or social advantage
and secretly practiced their former religion.
The Spanish Inquisition was abolished in 1834
under Queen Isabella II
In 1542 Cardinal Giovanni Caraffa
under the direction of
Pope Paul the 3rd,
ordered the Roman Inquisition and the arrest of all heretics
and all those suspected of heresy to be tried, tortured,
and executed
if found guilty.
A
number of wars resulting from religious conflicts broke out
as well as
the Catholic governments tried to stop the spread of Protestantism in
the country.
Such attempts led to the civil war in France from 1562 to
1598 and a rebellion in the Netherlands between 1565 and 1648.
Religion
was a major issue in the fighting between Spain
and England from 1585 to
1604.
It was also a cause of the Thirty Years' War 1618 to
1648,
which centered in Germany,
that eventually involved all of the
great nations of Europe halving its population.
The estimate of the
death toll during the three Inquisitions ranged worldwide from 600,000
to millions of innocent people.
This covered a span of nearly six
centuries.
Council of Utrecht:
In 1889 the Council of Utrecht was held,
this made the
Catholic Church
a Universal Church,
and amended the Council of the Vatican
of 1870.
The Pope:
Today the Roman Catholic Church is headed by Pope Francis,
who is truly an advocate for peace.
"We must restore hope to young people, help the old,
be open to the future, spread love.
Be poor among the poor.
We need to include the excluded and preach peace."
Pope Francis
He knows that the church had a dark history,
and he is rebuilding the church.
"Instead of being just a church that welcomes
and receives by keeping the doors open,
let us try also to be a church that finds new roads,
that is able to step outside itself
and go to those who do not attend Mass,
to those who have quit or are indifferent."
Pope Francis
And what I like most about him is that he is truly against war:
"War begets war, violence begets violence"
Pope Francis
Christianity:
As you see many religions are man-made, many are steeped in false-hoods,
many are traditionally passed down, there is even 600 years of violence
and darkness in the church in which I was raised in - the Catholic Church.
This saddens me.
Many religions have good traits. Many have good quotes and philosophies.
The problem with that is that they are half truths.
Satan wants us to be seeped in the half truths,
he wants us to fail - so we will be condemned.
To me the true religion that is not man-made is Christianity.
Not any church, but the church of Christ.
Not Catholic, Muslim, Methodist, Presbyterian, Protestant, Lutheran,
and all the other churches, religions, and beliefs that are traditionally passed down.
To be Christ-like and follow the teachings of Jesus.
This will lead us to his father in heaven; Jehovah.
To be kind to one another, caring, giving, and loving.
To be forthright, peace-loving, and non-violent.
These are the true values of Christians.
It is not the church one belongs to; but the values that they process.
When Jesus formed his twelve disciples; they were the true Christians.
We need to be like them and pass down the teachings of Jesus.
Then we will have our glory in heaven one day.
Not only do I believe in and am seeking my life toward Jehovah, through his son Jesus,
but I am like the Gnostic's were. I am constantly seeking knowledge.
Though many religions believe in several gods; there is but one god whom in English is Jehovah.
"And (God) Jehovah said unto Moses, I
AM THAT I AM: and he said,
Thus shalt thou say unto the children of
Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."
Exodus 3:14 KJV (1611)
"But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things,
and we in him whose name is called Jehovah;
and one Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God,
by whom are all things, and we by him."
1st Corinthians 8:6 KJV (1611)
"For there is one God, and one mediator between Jehovah and men, the man Christ Jesus..."
1st Timothy 2:5 KJV (1611)
I follow Christ Jesus who will lead me to him.
Thank you for reading this long blog.
