The Golden Age of Yahwism, and what it teaches us about what is important
For me, the Golden Age of the Israelite faith was the time of David and Solomon. The richest fruits of that time are most of the Psalms, and the Book of Proverbs. What you glean from reading especially the Book of Proverbs, is how highly wisdom and knowledge ranks in the Israelite faith. Today, you have people who have a lot to say about every topic under the Sun, but who know very little, and have even less wisdom (a good example of this are the so-called ‘proofs’ people give to show the Earth is flat)!
There has been a tendency over the last few decades for both the religious and the political far-right to sow a hateful distrust of knowledge and wisdom. They paint it as a conspiracy of the learned elite to keep ordinary people under subjection. The only way to throw off this subjection, in their view, is to reject all knowledge and wisdom as untrustworthy. However, the only reason why they want ordinary people to eschew knowledge, is so that we will not be able to tell when they are manipulating us or lying to us.
There are many religious people today who display behaviour and outlook which is an affront to God. Religion has become the embodiment of hatred, intolerance, arrogance and violence. This is the result of human beings moulding religion and God in their own image. If a religious person spews out hatred and violence, they are bringing out only what lies in the treasury of their heart. Religious fundamentalism, together with its narrow world-view, is the Golden Calf of the modern era.
The sins of Religion
In Western countries (especially around Europe), religion is in danger of dying out. Can you blame them? For decent people, religion has become something so superstitious, so rigid and totalitarian, that no intelligent, decent, free-thinking person would follow it; religion therefore engenders nothing but disgust and revulsion. This is disgust and revulsion that God shares. Evangelicals tell us that a good person will go to hell if they don’t accept ‘Christ’ as their lord and saviour; Islamists tell us that those who reject Islam will also go to hell; fundamentalist Jews raid and smash up Arab property. Fundamentalist Buddhist mobs burn down Muslim and Hindu property.
Doing wicked things in the name of God are all blasphemous acts, calling evil good, and re-branding good as evil. Religion has truly lost its way. The warnings about the corruption of religion in Yeshua’s day are no less relevant today. If nothing is changed, it will lead itself on a path to self-destruction. If the mindset of Religion does not change, no good and decent person will want to follow any religion.
YHVH is the God of Knowledge and Wisdom. All knowledge and wisdom come from YHVH. To denigrate and pour scorn on Knowledge and Wisdom is to desecrate the Sacredness of God.
If the religious stupidity of ALL religions is not changed or challenged, then God will be abandoned, and God’s Great Plan will never be fulfilled – the Kingdom of God will never be fulfilled. No religion should be exempt from criticism when it does wrong. The Fire of YHVH’s purifying Glory will not hold back, because much of today’s hateful and violent religion is a threat to the holiness of YHVH, no matter which religion commits it.
The Heart of True Religion
Consider this: Abraham had no Bible. He had no Torah. He didn’t observe any religious festivals. Yet his life was a living monument to the power and Presence of God. What law did he live by? What was his guide? Answer these questions, and you will find what lies at the heart of True Religion: Wisdom and Righteousness (that is, acting in a good, decent and ethical manner)
These are the two foundational pillars of Yahwism, and it is only by walking the path between these two pillars that we come into the Presence of YHVH. Any ‘religious’ act which is an affront to wisdom, and is contrary to the spirit of righteousness, is not from God. This is something Abraham knew, and something that the religious people of this world need to return to.
Abraham smashed the religious idols of his day, so perhaps to return Religion to some semblance of truly witnessing to the infinite power of the Creator, maybe we need to smash the vain religious idols and golden calves of today.