They say that the devil is the greatest of liars and deceivers. Christ refers to the devil as “the father of lies” (John 8:44 NIV). Therefore it would be probable that the devil is able to deceive even the brightest of minds if allowed. With that being said, what if he “which deceiveth the whole world” was able to convince the world that he was God? Specifically, what if the being that followers of the Bible pray to, Yahweh (often called Jehovah, Adonai, or LORD as well), is in fact the devil? I know, that may seem blasphemous and contradicting to someone who has never had that thought before, but allow me to explain.

As I explained in a previous post, the original Hebrew term “Ha-Satan” is a title that is given to the devil and it’s meaning is “the adversary”. The issue here is that we are told to believe that the Serpent in the garden was the devil and that Yahweh was the benevolent god. However, let’s once again examine what exactly happened within the narrative of the garden myth. Yahweh was the first liar within the Bible, making him “the father of lies”; he told Adam he would die the day he ate from the Tree of Knowledge (Genesis 2:15-17) but this did not happen. Instead, Adam’s eyes were opened and his divinity was realized, Yahweh even admitting to this (Genesis 3:22), making the Serpent’s words true (Genesis 3:1-5). As you can see, Yahweh was the deceiver, not the Serpent.

Let’s move past the garden myth to the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). Here you have what almost everyone in the 21st Century ultimately wants, everyone understanding each other and working together in unity towards a common goal for mankind. The narrative says that everyone was speaking the same language and that they had decided to build a tower unto the heavens to make a name for themselves. When they began to build the tower, Yahweh came down and observed that the People were of one accord, and that with this unity they would be able to achieve whatever it is they wanted. Apparently this was a threat to Yahweh, for of course the authority is always threatened when the People are in unity. 1st Corinthians 14:33 claims that “God is not the author of confusion”, however Genesis 11:7 has Yahweh saying:

“Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

This confusion caused by Yahweh resulted in the people being divided up and scattered, never completing the tower. One must ask themselves…..why would a benevolent god not want the people to be united in a cause? And why would an all powerful, all knowing god be threatened by such? Maybe this “god” is not as powerful and all knowing as he claims to be, and that would explain why he is threatened by the unity of the People. Authority always needs to portray the image of being powerful by keeping the People divided and ruled by fear in order to maintain control.

Yahweh is far from benevolent. Not only does he claim to be a jealous god, but claims that his very name is Jealous (Exodus 34:14). Thus Yahweh hates those who do not obey and serve him, and declares death upon those who will not submit. The narratives within the Old Testament show an overwhelming amount of murders done either directly by Yahweh himself or his servants under his command, from the killing of the first born children in Egypt (Exodus 12:29-30) to the literal genocide of the Amalekites done by Saul and his army under Yahweh’s orders (1st Samuel 15). They claim that the evils and atrocities that happen in the world today are the work of the devil and that may be true, but again who exactly is the devil? Throughout history and even unto the present day countless lives have been taken in the name of “god” Yahweh.

Christ was very critical of the Pharisees who were the religious leaders and claimed servants of Yahweh during his time. Christ whose mission it was to awaken the people to the Kingdom of God within and free them from the religious laws imposed on them by Yahweh and his religious authorities, made it known in John 8:41-44 that the Father God he referred to was not the same god that the Pharisees served, and in fact called their god, Yahweh, the devil.

“Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”

Before the canonization of the Bible and the texts outside the canon being declared heresy and burned by the established Catholic Church, the Early Christians and Gnostic sects had a text in wide circulation called The Apocryphon of John which was considered by many to be the “part 2” to the Gospel of John. Within it, Christ appears to his disciple John again and begins to explain to him much about Gnostic cosmology. Christ tells John about the Monad, the “true God”, which he describes as being pure light, sovereign and Father over all, but is not to be looked at as being a deity for It is above and greater than a deity. He then starts to describe the chain in which each of the Aeons (emanations or aspects of the Monad) came into being down to the Aeon Sophia, a feminine aspect of God representing divine wisdom. The myth goes on to say that Sophia desired to conceive and give birth without the consent or involvement of her male counterpart. The child that Sophia gave birth to is Yahweh, who is known to the Gnostics as Yaldabaoth which means “son of chaos”. Yaldabaoth is described as having a body of a serpent and the head of a lion with flashing bolts of lightning in it’s eyes, and is said to be corrupt and imperfect due to both divine aspects (male and female) not being involved in his conception. When she had seen what she had produced, his mother Sophia wrapped him in a bright cloud with a throne in the middle so that he would not be seen by any of the Aeons. Thinking that there was no one else in existence besides himself and his mother, Yaldabaoth then took power from his mother Sophia and started to create other beings and rulers (known to the Gnostics as the Archons) and exalted himself above them claiming that he was a jealous god and there are no gods besides him, for he was ignorant of his origin and the other Aeons above him that emanated from the Monad. However by claiming this, he suggested to the host around him that there is another god, for if there were no other god, of whom would he be jealous?

The text continues by retelling the story of the creation of the material universe by Yaldabaoth and the creation of Adam from the Gnostic perspective. Due to the corruption and imperfection of Yaldabaoth/Yahweh, the material universe itself is corrupt and imperfect in the minds of the Gnostics. This cosmology formed the basis of Gnostic thought, and explains why the Gnostics reject the material world (or rather the concept of materialism) and embrace the spiritual world within, for while Yahweh may have formed the physical body of Adam, the animate Spirit that was breathed into Adam came from the true “God” the Monad, the source of all life and things. This Divinity lies within each and every person and can come to be realized.

In closing I would like to share a passage from another Gnostic text known as the Gospel of Philip. This gospel, like the Apocryphon of John, was not included in the Catholic Church’s biblical canon, however it was circulated and read by the early Christians and Gnostics.

“The rulers wanted to fool us, since they saw we were connected with the good. They took the names of the good and gave them to the not good so with names they could trick and rope us to the not good. As though doing us a favor, they took names from the not good and placed them on the good. They knew what they were doing. They wanted to grab those of us who were free and make us eternal slaves.”

Could it be that Yahweh is in fact the devil or Satan, and that through his servants (the religious authority figures) he leads the world to believe he is the true god by confusing the words and titles? Let me remind you, as I always must, that to the Gnostic these are all concepts, metaphors, parables, and myths explaining higher truths. It should not be taken and viewed in a literal sense. Understand that Yahweh is a concept of god created by man with a purpose and an agenda. In an upcoming entry I shall go in depth explaining the origin of this concept of god, it’s purpose and agenda along with showing how it relates to ourselves and the Universe.

The Apocryphon of John is available to be read online here.

Peace, Love, & Balance

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