(Redirected from King of the Gods)
- 73 Bible Verses About Rulers
- Celtic Ruler Of The Gods
- Ruler Of Greek Gods
- 59 Bible Verses About Leaders, Political
- Kingdoms, Rulers And God’s Sovereignty
Indra, the Hindu king of gods
As polytheistic systems evolve, there is a tendency for one deity, usually male, to achieve preeminence as king of the gods. Www fourwindscasino com. This tendency can parallel the growth of hierarchical systems of political power in which a monarch eventually comes to assume ultimate authority for human affairs. Other gods come to serve in a Divine Council or pantheon – such subsidiary courtier-deities are usually linked by family ties from the union of a single husband or wife, or else from an androgynous divinity who is responsible for the creation.
In the New Testament, the English word ruler is only given to God a few times and usually as part of a compound name of God or Jesus. Only once does the word occur on its own. The same Greek word can also mean “leader.” In Luke 22:26, the word is used when Jesus says the “leader” should function as a servant. The Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar was served by many of the Jews whose exile Isaiah had foretold, including Daniel. A vain and foolish man (Daniel 3) Nebuchadnezzar's erratic behaviour culminated in a kind of breakdown: 'He was driven away from people and ate grass like cattle.
Historically, subsequent social events, such as invasions or shifts in power structures, can cause the previous king of the gods to be displaced by a new divinity, who assumes the displaced god's attributes and functions. Frequently the king of the gods has at least one wife who is the queen of the gods.
According to feminist theories of the replacement of original matriarchies by patriarchies, male sky gods tend to supplant female earth goddesses and achieve omnipotence.[1]
There is also a tendency for kings of the gods to assume more and more importance, syncretistically assuming the attributes and functions of lesser divinities, who come to be seen as aspects of the single supreme deity.
King of the gods in different cultures[edit]
![Praises Praises](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lKVIwynMx7k/hqdefault.jpg)
Examples of this displacement of kings of the gods include:
- In the MesopotamianAnunnaki, Enlil displaces Anu and is in turn replaced by Marduk.[2]
- The Ancient EgyptianEnnead and Ogdoad, where the deityOsiris assumes pre-eminence, to be displaced by Seth or Sutekh, who is in turn replaced by Horus, son to Osiris and Isis
- In the Canaanite pantheon, Baʿal (Hadad) displaces El
- In the Hurrian/Hittite pantheon, Teshub or Tarhunt or Arinna displaces Kumarbi.
- In the ArmenianAr, later – Aramazd.
- In Hinduism, the King of the Gods was originally Dyaus, later subsumed by Indra.[3] Though Indra still retains the title of the King of the Gods[4] and the Ruler of Heaven.
- In the Ancient Greek system of Olympian Gods, Cronus displaces Uranus, and Zeus in turn displaces Cronus
- In Norse mythology, Odin assumes the role as the Allfather or King of the Gods but as the mythology has multiple tribes of Gods such as the Aesir and Vanir. Odin is the leader of the former.
- Ancient IranianAhura Mazda of the Zoroastrians
- Dravidian religions[5] had supreme gods based on lands including Seyyon, Mayyon, Vendhan and Kottravi
List of rulers of pantheons[edit]
The leaders of the various pantheons include:
- Australian Aboriginal pantheon: Baiame
- Algonquin pantheon: Gitche Manitou
- Ashanti pantheon: Nyame
- Aztec pantheon: Huitzilopochtli, Ometeotl, Quetzalcoatl or Tezcatlipoca
- Batak pantheon: (primordial) Debata Ompung Mulajadi na Bolon; (celestial) Batara Guru
- Canaanite pantheon: Baʿal (now usually identified with Hadad)
- Carthaginian pantheon: Baʿal Hammon
- Celtic pantheon: Dagda (Irish); possibly Lugus (Brythonic/Gaulish religion)
- Berber pantheon: old: Amun; new: Poseidon
- Chinese pantheon: Yuanshi Tianzun, Jade Emperor, Shangdi, Tian
- Circassian pantheon: Theshxwe
- Dahomey pantheon: Nana Buluku
- Dravidian pantheon: Seyyon, Mayyon, Vendhan, Kotravi
- Egyptian pantheon: Old Kingdom: Ra. New Kingdom: Amun
- Finnic pantheon: Ukko
- Germanic pantheon: Wōden
- Georgian pantheon: Armazi, Ghmerti
- Greek pantheon: Zeus
- Guarani pantheon: Tupa
- Haida pantheon: Raven
- Hawaiian mythology: Kāne
- Hindu pantheon: Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu, Indra or Brahman
- Hittite pantheon: Arinna or Teshub
- Hopi pantheon: Angwusnasomtaka
- Inca pantheon: Viracocha
- Inuit pantheon: Anguta or Anigut but only among the Greenlandic Inuit
- Japanese pantheon: Amenominakanushi, Izanagi-no-Mikoto, then Amaterasu-Ōmikami
- Korean pantheon: Dangun
- Lakota pantheon: Wakan Tanka or Inyan
- Lusitanian pantheon: Endovelicus
- Mari pantheon: Kugu Jumo
- Māori pantheon: Tāne
- Mayan pantheon: Hunab Ku or Itzamna
- Mbuti pantheon: Khonvoum
- Mesopotamian pantheon: Sumerian: An, later Enlil; Babylonian: Marduk
- Miwok pantheon: Coyote
- Muisca pantheon: Chiminigagua
- Nabatean pantheon: Dushara
- Norse pantheon: Odin
- Ossetian pantheon: Xucau
- Persian pantheon: Ahura Mazda
- Philippine pantheon: Bathala (Tagalog), Kan-Laon (Visayan)
- Roman pantheon: Jupiter
- Sami pantheon: Beaivi
- Slavic pantheon: Perun
- Turco-Mongol pantheon: Tengri and Kayra
- Vietnamese pantheon: Lạc Long Quân
- Vodou pantheon: Bondye
- Yoruba pantheon: Olorun
- Zulu pantheon: Unkulunkulu, Umvelinqangi
Characteristics[edit]
The following are the characteristics shared by virtually all Kings of the gods:
- Creation: Most of these gods derive their power from the fact that they created the world, formulated its laws and/or created life forms notably humans. Ex: Ra, Odin.
- Dominion over the sky: Many such deities hold control over all aspects of the sky, such as weather, rain, thunderstorms, air, winds and celestial objects like stars. They also control some aspects of earth like harvest, fertility, plants or mountains. Ex: Zeus, Indra, Perun.
- Lightning bolts as personal weapons: Commonly seen with sky gods.
- Divine Wisdom: Some Kings of Gods possess superior wisdom and clairvoyance, compared to most beings. Ex: Ra, Odin.
- God of the Sun, Daylight or Celestial Fire: Some kings of gods are associated with the Sun, as it is life giving and is a powerful symbol of order. They are said to be in charge of celestial fire which are purifying by nature. Daylight is also an important phenomenon as most events take place under its presence. Ex: Ra, Dyeus Pitr.
- Conquest, Law, Justice, Order, Time and Fate: Most kings of gods have the ability to control the events of battle and grant victory to those who deserve it. They are seen as paragons of law and promote order. They are seen as powerful manifestations of their respective civilizations. Some gods either possess great skill in war or tremendous physical strength. Some of them have some control over time and regulate it with seasons. Others have limited control over the fate of a human. Ex: Zeus, Odin, Ra, Indra.
- Divine authority over other gods: This may be because the concerned head of the pantheon is the father or creator of many gods and goddesses who swear allegiance to him. As a result, the king of the gods makes sure that all deities function properly, punish them for misdeeds, grant or take away immortality from lesser gods etc. Ex: Zeus, Odin.
- Divine rival: In some cases, there may be another god, who is equal in supernatural power and thinks he can do a better job than the current king. This often results in conflict, and in extreme cases, war. Ex: Ra and Apophis; Osiris, Set and Horus; Perun and Veles; Indra and the Asuras; Zeus and Poseidon; Cronos and Uranus; Typhon and Zeus etc.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Compare:Stookey, Lorena Laura (2004). 'Primal Parents'. Thematic Guide to World Mythology. Thematic Guides to Literature. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 142–143. ISBN9780313315053. Retrieved 2018-10-20.
Myths from many cultures posit the original existence of [..] primal parents, or world parents, that most commonly take the forms of earth mother and sky father [..]. [..] the association of the father with the sky also signifies the ascendancy of the male that occurs with the emergence of patriarchal culture. [..] As agricultural communities are supplanted by warrior societies, the primal parent known as the sky father is readily transformed into another familiar figure, the omnipotent sky god who can also take the form of the sun god or the god of storms.
- ^http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/listofdeities/marduk/
- ^Agrawala, Prithvi Kumar (1984). Goddessess [sic] in Ancient India. Abhinav Publications. p. 47. ISBN978-0-391-02960-6.
- ^Doniger, Wendy (2010-09-30). The Hindus: An Alternative History. OUP Oxford. p. 12. ISBN978-0-19-959334-7.
- ^'Dravidian folk religion', Wikipedia, 2019-11-15, retrieved 2019-11-28
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=King_of_the_gods&oldid=988256872'
Question: 'When is civil disobedience allowed for a Christian?'Answer: The emperor of Rome from AD 54 to 68 was Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, also known simply as Nero. The emperor was not known for being a moral and ethical person, to say the least. In AD 64 the great Roman fire occurred, with Nero himself being suspected of arson. In his writings, the Roman senator and historian Tacitus recorded, “To get rid of the report [that he had started the fire], Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace” (Annals, XV).
It was during the reign of Nero that the apostle Paul wrote his epistle to the Romans. While one might expect him to encourage the Christians in Rome to rise up against their oppressive ruler, in chapter 13, we find this instead:
“Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor” (Romans 13:1–7).
73 Bible Verses About Rulers
Even under the reign of a ruthless and godless emperor, Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells his readers to be in subjection to the government. Moreover, he states that no authority exists other than that established by God, and that rulers are serving God in their political office.Peter writes nearly the same thing in one of his two New Testament letters:
“Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king” (1 Peter 2:13–17).
Both Paul’s and Peter’s teachings have led to quite a few questions from Christians where civil disobedience is concerned. Do Paul and Peter mean that Christians are always to submit to whatever the government commands, no matter what is asked of them?
Celtic Ruler Of The Gods
A Brief Look at the Various Views of Civil DisobedienceThere are at least three general positions on the matter of civil disobedience. The anarchist view says that a person can choose to disobey the government whenever he likes and whenever he feels he is personally justified in doing so. Such a stance has no biblical support whatsoever, as evidenced in the writings of Paul in Romans 13.
The extremist patriot says that a person should always follow and obey his country, no matter what the command. As will be shown in a moment, this view also does not have biblical support. Moreover, it is not supported in the history of nations. For example, during the Nuremberg trials, the attorneys for the Nazi war criminals attempted to use the defense that their clients were only following the direct orders of the government and therefore could not be held responsible for their actions. However, one of the judges dismissed their argument with the simple question: “But gentlemen, is there not a law above our laws?”
The position the Scriptures uphold is one of biblical submission, with a Christian being allowed to act in civil disobedience to the government if it commands evil, such that it requires a Christian to act in a manner that is contrary to the clear teachings and requirements of God’s Word.
Civil Disobedience—Examples in Scripture
In Exodus 1, the Egyptian Pharaoh gave the clear command to two Hebrew midwives that they were to kill all male Jewish babies. An extreme patriot would have carried out the government’s order, yet the Bible says the midwives disobeyed Pharaoh and “feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live” (Exodus 1:17). The Bible goes on to say the midwives lied to Pharaoh about why they were letting the children live; yet even though they lied and disobeyed their government, “God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied, and became very mighty. Because the midwives feared God, He established households for them” (Exodus 1:20–21).
In Joshua 2, Rahab directly disobeyed a command from the king of Jericho to produce the Israelite spies who had entered the city to gain intelligence for battle. Instead, she let them down via a rope so they could escape. Even though Rahab had received a clear order from the top government official, she resisted the command and was redeemed from the city’s destruction when Joshua and the Israeli army destroyed it.
The book of 1 Samuel records a command given by King Saul during a military campaign that no one could eat until Saul had won his battle with the Philistines. However, Saul’s son Jonathan, who had not heard the order, ate honey to refresh himself from the hard battle the army had waged. When Saul found out about it, he ordered his son to die. However, the people resisted Saul and his command and saved Jonathan from being put to death (1 Samuel 14:45).
Another example of civil disobedience in keeping with biblical submission is found in 1 Kings 18. That chapter briefly introduces a man named Obadiah who “feared the Lord greatly.” When the queen Jezebel was killing God’s prophets, Obadiah took a hundred of them and hid them from her so they could live. Such an act was in clear defiance of the ruling authority’s wishes.
Ruler Of Greek Gods
In 2 Kings, the only apparently approved revolt against a reigning government official is recorded. Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, began to destroy the royal offspring of the house of Judah. However, Joash the son of Ahaziah was taken by the king’s daughter and hidden from Athaliah so that the bloodline would be preserved. Six years later, Jehoiada gathered men around him, declared Joash to be king, and put Athaliah to death.Daniel records a number of civil disobedience examples. The first is found in chapter 3 where Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to bow down to the golden idol in disobedience to King Nebuchadnezzar’s command. The second is in chapter 6 where Daniel defies King Darius’ decree to not pray to anyone other than the king. In both cases, God rescued His people from the death penalty that was imposed, signaling His approval of their actions.
In the New Testament, the book of Acts records the civil disobedience of Peter and John towards the authorities that were in power at the time. After Peter healed a man born lame, Peter and John were arrested for preaching about Jesus and put in jail. The religious authorities were determined to stop them from teaching about Jesus; however, Peter said, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19–20). Later, the rulers confronted the apostles again and reminded them of their command to not teach about Jesus, but Peter responded, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
One last example of civil disobedience is found in the book of Revelation where the Antichrist commands all those who are alive during the end times to worship an image of himself. But the apostle John, who wrote Revelation, states that those who become Christians at the time will disobey the Antichrist and his government and refuse to worship the image (Revelation 13:15) just as Daniel’s companions violated Nebuchadnezzar’s decree to worship his idol.
Civil Disobedience—Conclusion
What conclusions can be drawn from the above biblical examples? The guidelines for a Christian’s civil disobedience can be summed as follows:
• Christians should resist a government that commands or compels evil and should work nonviolently within the laws of the land to change a government that permits evil.
• Civil disobedience is permitted when the government’s laws or commands are in direct violation of God’s laws and commands.
• If a Christian disobeys an evil government, unless he can flee from the government, he should accept that government’s punishment for his actions.
59 Bible Verses About Leaders, Political
• Christians are certainly permitted to work to install new government leaders within the laws that have been established.
Kingdoms, Rulers And God’s Sovereignty
Lastly, Christians are commanded to pray for their leaders and for God to intervene in His time to change any ungodly path that they are pursuing: “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity” (1 Timothy 2:1–2).