Who was Abraham? by Mataji Devi According to the universally recognized Bible (King James' version) a man called Abraham, who lived in the city of Ur in Sumer, received "a message" from God, who introduced himself by the name of Yahweh or Jehovah. The first contacts of Yahweh with Abraham and his descendents, as described in the Bible, are so weird that we are authorized to doubt about the real identity and nature of this Yahweh. From the Bible, we understand that Abraham was "chosen" by Yahweh to start a "new religion" that would destroy all other religions and establish the supreme political power of his descendents over the entire earth (Genesis, 12.2). Subsequently Abraham attacked the small city of Sodom with his servants and plundered it (Genesis 14.14-20) on the pretext of reclaiming his brother Lot who lived there (and who returned to live there after being "liberated" by Abraham). Pleased by his activities, Yahweh proposes to Abraham a "blood pact" (Genesis, 15.1-21) strikingly similar to the one that, according to the Gospel, Satan will propose to Jesus by offering material wealth and benefits, specifically possession and domination on all the land in exchange for worship. The ritual requested to evoke Yahweh is described with horrible details. A number of animals were slaughtered and their dead bodies put on an altar: a heifer, a she goat, a ram, a turtle, a dove and a pigeon. "When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham, and lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him". His God had arrived – to us, he seems more like a demoniac visitation than a godly being. And the conversation that follows is not less frightening. In fact, Yahweh starts by promising a lot of sufferings for Abraham's own descendants, including slavery. In alternative, they could offer to Yahweh the sufferings and blood of others (other peoples or at least animals). We should remember here that demoniac entities feed on blood and suffering of others. The sign of the pact of all Abraham's descendents with Yahweh was genital mutilation, luckily dispensed with by most Christians (but not by Muslims). After this encounter, the "just and holy" Abraham had two children. The firstborn, Ismael, was kicked out from Abraham's house into the desert to die, together with his mother who was "just a slave", because he was born before the child of the other wife, Sarah. The Muslims say that Arabs are the descendents of Ismael. When the "legitimate" son was born (Israel, also called Isaac) of the "good wife", Abraham was ordered to kill him on his God's altar. Yahweh wanted to make sure that Abraham was ready to kill anyone, including his only son born in his old age, and after savoring that tasty situation of pain, fear and cruelty, when he had verified that Abraham had given up all signs of compassion, good sense and humanity, Yahweh at the last moment suggested Abraham to slaughter an innocent animal instead of the child. The entire Bible (Old Testament) is a long story of military conquests, massacres, deceits and betrayals ordered by Yahweh to increase the political power of his "chosen people" who forcibly invaded and occupied the "Promised Land" by wiping off the previous populations and cultures. We are then expected to be "inspired towards religion and love for God" by the story of entire cities or nations razed to ground and all their people slaughtered, including women and small children, or raped and enslaved, while thousands of priests of other religions were massacred (see the famous story of Elijah who incited the mob to slaughter all the priests of Baal), for the purpose of establishing God's supreme power. The Old Testament is full of the most horrendous crimes and not only against "enemies" belonging to other religions or cultures: we find brothers killing their own brothers by smashing their head, throwing them into wells or selling them into slavery. A "holy" King like David, considered very dear to God, had his general killed in order to appropriate his wives and properties, etc. Intoxication especially with wine was considered "divine" and women were barred from literacy and religious life. Rape and slavery were normal war strategies, and selling one's wife or daughters into prostitution was considered normal. Due to a famine in the land where Abraham had settled, Abraham moved to Egypt with his wife Sarah, where he became rich by offering his wife in prostitution and acquired many slaves (Genesis, 13.11-20, 13.1-3). However, Yahweh is not tender even with his own followers: a slight mistake, a shadow of doubt or hesitation shown by them, and the punishment is cruel. When the Jews left Egypt where they had lived for some time, Moses led them to Mount Sinai where he ascended the hill to receive the Ten Commandments from Yahweh. After waiting for many days without any news, the Jews were bored and organized a feast, eating, drinking and dancing. In the middle of the feast Moses came down the hill and, angry because the Jews had not waited indefinitely for his return, he broke the stone tablets with the Commandments and cursed the Jews to spend 40 years in the desert wandering aimlessly because "they had doubted". The book of Genesis in the Bible also tells us the story of how Yahweh treated the first two human beings he had created: he kicked them out from his Garden of Eden, condemning them to all sorts of pains and tribulations, just because they had eaten one apple from a "forbidden tree". When Bible theologians try to justify such a divine action with a deeper philosophical explanation, they only make it worse: the "apple" symbolizes Knowledge, that makes human beings akin to God Himself. Thus Yahweh wanted his human beings to remain ignorant; non-compliance with such condition entailed immediate expulsion from "Paradise", or "God's Garden". Anyway, finally the Jews reached their Promised Land (Palestine) and after wiping out the previous inhabitants, they settled down and started cultivating the land. Thomas Paine writes again: "When we read in the books ascribed to Moses, Joshua, etc., that they (the Israelites) came by stealth upon whole nations of people, who, as history itself shows, had given them no offence; that they put all those nations to the sword; that they spared neither age nor infancy; that they utterly destroyed men, women, and children; that they left not a soul to breathe- expressions that are repeated over and over again in those books, and that, too, with exulting ferocity- are we sure these things are facts? .... When the Jewish army returned from one of their plundering and murdering excursions, the account goes on as follows: Numbers, chap. xxxi., verse 13: 'And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp; and Moses was wroth with the officers of the host... which came from the battle; and Moses said unto them... (you have made a mistake by sparing the women and children). Now, therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known a man by lying with him; but all the women-children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.' Among the detestable villains that in any period of the world have disgraced the name of man, it is impossible to find a greater than Moses, if this account be true. Here is an order to butcher the boys, to massacre the mothers, and debauch the daughters. ... After this detestable order, follows an account of the plunder taken, and the manner of dividing it; and here it is that the profaneness of priestly hypocrisy increases the catalogue of crimes. Ver. 37 to 40, 'And the Lord's tribute of sheep was six hundred and three score and fifteen; and the beeves were thirty and six thousand, of which the Lord's tribute was three score and twelve; and the asses were thirty thousand and five hundred, of which the Lord's tribute was three score and one; and the persons were sixteen thousand, of which the Lord's tribute was thirty and two persons.' In short, the matters contained in this chapter, as well as in many other parts of the Bible, are too horrid for humanity to read or for decency to hear, for it appears, from the 35th verse of this chapter, that the number of women-children consigned to debauchery by the order of Moses was thirty-two thousand." Critic readers of the Bible also notice that in the Bible, God keeps cursing his own creation, considers some animals abominable, orders genital mutilation (on themselves and their children) to his followers as the most important sign of their devotion, and plans genocide and mass murder of people (of entire cities as in Sodom and Gomorra, and of the entire planet in the Great Flood) because of their "bad nature". It is quite natural then to wonder why he couldn't have done things right in the first place while creating: the only answer that is possible, according to the writers of the Bible, is that God enjoys the suffering of his creatures. So the God presented in the Bible is evil, bloodthirsty and intolerant, hates knowledge, peace, beauty, love, happiness and healthy pleasures, and his greatest pleasure is humiliating and torturing his own creatures. The first nine chapters of the Leviticus are dedicated to detailed rituals for animal sacrifices, to be observed "forever as a statute", and animal sacrifices are again detailed in several other books of the Bible. For example, God orders a treatment for leprosy by sprinkling the patient with the blood of a bird and a lamb, and oil in a ritual way, something that actually looks like a demoniac black magic practice. Contd..
Much of Exodus is wasted on divine instructions for making tables, candlesticks, snuffers, priestly garments, girdles, and bonnets, fringed skirts, etc. One wonders why Moses is not willing to share his mystic knowledge that will enable the priests (descending from his brother Aaron and the tribe of Levi) to keep in touch with God through the complicated rituals that must have been connected to the ritual instruments so precisely prescribed. After dedicating entire chapters on how to make an altar, one expects at least as much attention and information on how to use it. The complete absence of such information has only two possible explanations: a) such knowledge was intended to be secret, and therefore it must exist in some secret and initiatic form, b) such knowledge was considered superfluous and therefore eliminated, and only the gross and obvious externals of rituals remained. In both cases, the scribes of the Bible are hiding information, either to keep the "magic secrets" to themselves in order to control the mass of people, or to destroy the "magic secrets" that would entail real spiritual and religious powers, something that was politically very dangerous. The bodily purity required for the rituals is extreme. Women are considered "polluted" during menses and even after childbirth. Anyone becomes "polluted" by performing even a small menial work during the sacred day of the Sabbath. Handicapped people cannot approach the altar of God because they would "profane" it. Who are the "abrahamics"? This definition comes from the name of the man they consider their ancestor and first authority: Abraham, or Ibrahim. Thus Jews, Christians and Muslims all come under the category. Mainstream public opinion and western-oriented academia (until late heavily influenced by Christian powers) generally maintain that Hebraism, Christianity and Islam are "three great religions", but they are actually three main sects of the very same religion. They all openly and officially declare that they believe in the same god, the god of Abraham/Ibrahim, and they define themselves "the peoples of the Book", by which they intend the Bible. There are only some minor differences among them, mostly superficial definitions - language details, just like Joshua and Jesus, Joseph and Yussuf, Moshe and Moses, and so on. The substance is very much the same. The Jews still recognize and follow the Old Testament of the "basic bible" that is the famous King James' version. The Hebraic Tanakh (acronym for Torah, Chumash, Nevim and Ketuvim) is actually nothing but the same 24 books found in the Old Testament of the Protestant Christians, only with a little difference of numeration in the books (Jews count as a single book what Christians count as several). The Christians sects have more ideological differences between each other (Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants of various denominations) than with the Jews and Muslims. Each of the 3 abrahamic sects recognizes the previous prophets as authoritative, but claims that "their own" prophet is the final and the best (as in Jesus and Mohammed). The Jews are the most ancient, but they still have "an ace in their sleeve", the "Messiah" that will come at the end of times... All the abrahamics believe that this world is going to end soon, to be permanently destroyed by God, and at that point they (either of the sects - but each one of them claims exclusivity) will get a special status as "all others" will be cast into eternal hell, and they (the Chosen People) will obtain eternal pleasures in paradise. Therefore no group among the abrahamics is really concerned about environmental conservation, proper management of resources, political/military instability, etc: they believe the End of Days is coming soon, and everything will be destroyed anyway. They do not believe in a future on this planet, or for the intrinsic value of this planet for that matter. All the abrahamic sects believe that paradise will be attained not on the merit of the good deeds one may have done individually, or the qualifications one may have developed by his/her own effort, but simply on the strength of one's allegiance to their particular sect. "Extra paradise points" can be gained by converting people, harming or killing "non-believers", destroying their sacred places/books etc. Abrahamics give absolutely no importance to ethical principles, which they call "moral relativism" or "human laws", i.e. something that has no "absolute value" like "the word of God", or better, the word of the priests who claim to be God's exclusive and plenipotentiary representatives. So whatever action the priests (rabbis or mullah) tells people to do, they must obey, without any consideration of morality, compassion, justice, truthfulness, consistency, logic, common sense, or similar things. Especially truthfulness/consistency is considered of zero value when compared to the orders, or the versions of truth or history given by the priests. This is shown also in the great variety of versions of the bible and the koran, carefully engineered to accommodate the various levels of indoctrination on which the abrahamic strategists build their domination plans. Often the versions destined to the general public or the newcomers (or prospective allies) are merely summaries or extracts or passages (never the entire text), handpicked for the wisdom and compassion they seem to express. After one has converted, or the "religion" has gained a strong foothold on the region/society, a second more "complete" version is introduced, that includes a lot of apparently innocuous garbage, contradictions, falsities and outdated stuff - like unfulfilled prophecies, ridiculous descriptions of the universe, condemnation of innocent persons/ideas, etc. After the "religion" has become predominant in a region/society, and/or the individual has lost all trace of common sense and decency (being totally indoctrinated) the complete versions start appearing, under the strict control of the priests, or simply destined to be in their exclusive possession and use. The priests (rabbis, clergy hierarchy, mullahs etc) are the absolute authority on the lives of people, as their "religious authority" extends to every aspect of the individual's life, both with prohibitions and prescriptions that immediately appear cruel and unjust and oppressive to any civilized person - like heavy corporal punishment to women who are raped, brutal beating (up to killing) of children who "talk back" or "disobey" the father, etc. All abrahamic sects give very little value to life - both human and animal - and they prescribe the death sentence or mutilation even for minor crimes, and especially for ideological diversities. There is no freedom of religion or opinion in the regions where abrahamics take power. Any ideological variation that is not authorized by the priests is considered a serious crime - idolatry, blasphemy, apostasy etc - and is prosecuted and punished by heavy corporal violence, torture or murder, to which nobody has any right to object. Human beings are treated with great harshness and cruelty, and animals are treated even worse. Abrahamic religious authorities do not come under the purview of the secular law and cannot be prosecuted or contradicted by the secular government, even if there is a claim of "separation between the government and religion". Wherever an abrahamic sect has established itself at sufficient level in a particular region, no other ideology is allowed to prosper, exist freely or be propagated. Especially what is called "polytheism", or freedom of religious beliefs and worship. The concept of worship as a manifestation of respect towards Mother Nature, the Universe, planets, trees, or women, is considered blasphemous. All religious activities must be strictly controlled by the priests, and within specific enclosures, such as synagogues, churches or mosques. A person who does not attend regularly the prescribed religious activities in the prescribed enclosures is considered socially dangerous and must be reformed by oppression or eliminated. Non-abrahamic religions/ forms of spirituality/ ideology are called "pagans, heathens, nonbelievers, gentiles" etc, and are always treated as inferior to the "true believers". In the regions/ nations dominated by abrahamics there can be no "pagan" temples, no public (and sometimes not even private) religious ceremonies by "pagans". In fact they barely tolerate each other - as clearly exemplified by the history of Jerusalem. Sacred city for all the 3 abrahamic sects, each of them remains unable to tolerate the idea that either other gets the possibility of accessing such holy place (to worship and pray), so much that they have been killing each other systematically and constantly for the last 1800 years, reducing the "Holy Land" to a mined desert. Just imagine what they are able to do in the matter of co-existence with other religions that do not even worship the same god, share the same scripture, the same prophets, and the same holy places. All three abrahamic sects are profoundly racist, and support and perpetuate strong birth prejudice, support slavery, rape, mistreatment of women, sexual oppression and repression, corporal punishment on small children, and so on. All abrahamic sects have a cult for violence, aggression, blood, suffering, and conquest. They are against vegetarianism, and in some cases they prohibit it altogether. They believe that people are human beings (although of different levels), who have a soul, that is created at birth. They do not believe in reincarnation or karma. contd..
In 1794, Thomas Paine wrote in Age of Reason for his fellow Americans: "All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit... Each of those churches show certain books, which they call revelation, or the word of God. The Jews say, that their word of God was given by God to Moses, face to face; the Christians say, that their word of God came by divine inspiration: and the Turks say, that their word of God (the Koran) was brought by an angel from Heaven. Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all.... When Moses told the children of Israel that he received the two tables of the commandments from the hands of God, they were not obliged to believe him, because they had no other authority for it than his telling them so; and I have no other authority for it than some historian telling me so. The commandments carry no internal evidence of divinity with them; they contain some good moral precepts, such as any man qualified to be a lawgiver, or a legislator, could produce himself, without having recourse to supernatural intervention. It is, however, necessary to except the declaration which says that God visits the sins of the fathers upon the children; it is contrary to every principle of moral justice... Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel... The three religions called Hebraism, Christianity and Islam are in fact one religion only, based on the worship of the "only one God" worshiped by Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua, and Moses. The original Semitic religion, called Hebraism, produced a scripture called the Bible and a series of concepts which, in the deeply (and often unconsciously) biased western civilization, seem to be the absolute truth and not simply relative visions of Reality. In other words, the Jews (contrarily to all the other previous religions) stated that their own religion, Hebraism, was the only possible religion (without considering the actual merits of its teachings) and all other religious groups were wrong and had to be vanquished and destroyed. And in fact they have been very efficient in this destructive rampage. Most people believe that Hebraism, Christianity and Islam constitute the "beginning of civilization" or even human habitation in the regions they conquered, both because of the relentless false propaganda imposed by these three sects, and because the evidence of all previous civilization was systematically wiped out wherever they arrived, wave after wave.
'Ignorant', it seems rude to call you by your username, but you probably chose it for a positive meaning... This post actually led me to discover this forum and I have given people links to it. My parents tried and failed to make me a Christian - however until I read through The Bible I did not realize the full character of that religion. Before reading it I had considered Christianity only a bunch of ugly fables, which had no spiritual meaning for me; after the experience I felt alienated and unsafe in Christian culture. This book was horrifying. Of course Christians present only selected stories to children - essentially trying to disguise it as humanistic in an effort to make a positive impression. And most Christians look no further than the quaint excerpts - they get drawn into the religion as an occasion for social interaction or respectability. My impression was essentially like that of M. Devi. In fact, years later - last year - I looked through previous notes, read parts of it again, and decided to write up my impression. I started researching online and discovered the terms 'Abrahamic' and 'Dharmic' and that led me here, and Devi's writing summed up my own reaction so well that I abandoned my own article, because much the same had been said well enough already. As a side note, I found some more about Mataji Devi online, however did not find the original source of the article posted here. So anyway, I wanted to express my appreciation for the article, and to say that I think it is an important topic. Most Christians I've met have had little knowledge of The Bible or the history of their religion, and at least some might be less inclined to their faith if they had better understanding of its true nature.
