Introduction to Future of God Amen

The opening paragraphs below originally appeared in my first self-published book titled, Legacy of a Father.  It was my first attempt as an author and it became the progenitor of three books that followed: Future of God Amen, AMEN, and Allah, We, Our and Us.   The following paragraphs are presented because they reflect my desire and passion to reveal the development of three major religions and how mankind conceived the belief in one-universal God.  Overviews and book reviews are presented on website:

http://www.futureofgodamen.com

1.0    Reasons for this Book

The evolution of our belief in one God is a very sensitive topic.  For the open-minded reader, this book will take you on a journey that will increase your knowledge of the past and help put into perspective the relationship you may now have with your own personal God.  To religious leaders, priests, ministers, rabbis, imams, mullahs and devout worshippers, this book offers a challenge to accept each other’s religious traditions and open your institutions to each other with friendship and love, for in reality, we all worship the same God.

Initially, I set out to write this book for my children, Karen Beth, Alisa, Lori Gweyn and Linda Diane.  As a father, I felt obligated to leave them with many of my personal thoughts about God.  In my youth, I met some young women who harbored a sense of fear and were constrained to react favorably to a kiss.  They received such a strict religious teaching that it was largely responsible for their frigid response.  To ameliorate this fear-induced reaction, my wife Diane and I tempered our girls’ strict Catholic instruction with a common sense upbringing that prepared them for worldly experiences.  Religious instruction that promoted a sense of morality for our girls was important to us, but we knew we could not control the spiritual aspects of their beliefs because we felt that every individual develops a personal conception of God based upon intellect, sensitivity, and experience.

It did not take long for me to learn that I was on a mission to write not only for my daughters, but to share the knowledge I acquired about the evolution of God with others.  Below are the many reasons that have motivated and energized me to write this book.  I have no hidden agenda.  My desire is to have all people from our different religious institutions, leaders and worshippers alike, accept and honor each other’s traditions and beliefs.  It is my hope that by acknowledging that we all pray to the same God, we may succeed in putting aside our differences; enjoy each other’s traditions; and even attend each other’s houses of worship.

The challenge will be hard for many of our religious leaders, who are more used to making war against those with different religious opinions than they are used to sitting down and breaking bread with them.  However, they have the power to bring together all God’s children and thereby truly fulfill their professional mission.    This challenge does not stop with religious leaders, for it is the millions of their followers who will ultimately control the direction of their religious institutions and determine the course of our future relationships with one another.  This awesome but worthy outcome, discussed in the final chapter, will certainly lead to peace among the religious warring factions now responsible for the murder of people throughout the Middle East and other parts of our world.

1.1   The Allegorical Tree, an Acknowledgement

At the tender age of six, I received my introduction to religion. I was sitting in the second seat of the second row of my classroom in PS (Public School) 121, an elementary school in the heart of Manhattan in New York City.  To my right, hanging on the wall, was a large 2 by 3 foot picture of a tree.  It remained only a tree to me until one morning, Mr. Levy, the principal of the school, visited our classroom.

Mr. Levy, a handsome and charismatic man in his mid-thirties, caught sight of the tree and gave a very intriguing talk about how the Jewish religion was the father of the Catholic and Islamic religions.  He explained that the trunk of the tree represented the Jewish religion, its two prominent limbs the Christian and Islamic religions, and its branches the offshoots into sects and various denominations.  He showed how the major religions branched off into denominations and sects, such as: Protestant, Baptist, Episcopal, Methodist, Mormon, Jehovahs’ Witnesses, Sunnis and Shi’as.  Even Judaism, he pointed out, has several divisions, such as Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Movements.   I never forgot Mr. Levy and his enthusiastic talk.

After my auspicious introduction to religious thought, several years later I received a formal indoctrination in the Catholic religion.  In my later teenage years, I attended the services of other religions and became curious about their beginnings.  This interest in various religions encouraged me to listen to rabbis and ministers while serving two active years in the U.S. Army, and an additional year during the Berlin crisis.  Some years later, after graduating with a degree in Electrical Engineering from the City University of New York, I actively read such anthologies as “Man’s Religions” by John B. Noss and, “Man and His Gods” by Homer W. Smith.  Upon reading these books, I became fascinated with the Egyptian religion.  I proceeded to research the spiritual and moral beliefs of this ancient religion by reading, “The Book of the Dead” by E.A. Wallis Budge.

Egypt’s old, tried, and proven religion not only held many of the moral teachings we practice today, but it also provided for the belief in a hereafter and the concept of a soul.  I had often wondered where the concept of a soul originated.  It was gratifying to find that the Egyptians developed this concept.  The Egyptians envisioned two entities that came to be characterized as souls; the ka and the ba.  The ka represented the spiritual force of any sub-stance that also imbued its unique characteristics. It formed the individuality and personality of a person or thing.  The ba represented a spiritual soul that accompanied the ka to the hereafter for judgment and supported it with food and air within its tomb.

Research revealed that Menes founded the 1st Egyptian dynasty about 3400 BCE 1.  Its religion had multiple gods.  An attempt to replace their polytheistic beliefs into one, all-powerful sun-god was made by the pharaoh Ikhnaton (born as Amenhotep IV) who reigned for 17 years between 1375 and 1358 BCE 2.  The Egyptian priests tried to bury this monotheistic belief after Ikhnaton died in 1362 BCE.  However, the belief in one all-powerful God was too strong a concept to be denied.

About 108 years later, Moses capitalized on the concept of one God and walked out of Egypt with a religious following surpassing 600,000 people.  Moses, brought up in the house of a pharaoh, undoubtedly received the finest education, including education in the Egyptian religion.  It would be reasonable to conclude that the sacred writings and prayers of the Egyptian religion indoctrinated Moses and influenced what he taught and wrote.  Prior to Moses, the Jews had neither written scriptures nor written words that extolled the belief in one God.  In fact, Homer W. Smith in his book, Man and His Gods, indicates that the first 5 books of the Jerusalem Bible, or Torah, were not written for use for Israelite worshipers before 750 BCE (500 years after the Moses Exodus from Egypt).3

After learning of the above historical events that linked Moses to Egyptian indoctrination, and that the depth of Egyptian spiritual beliefs developed the concept of the soul and its possible entrance into an eternal hereafter, I concluded that the two by three foot picture of the allegorical tree was not completely accurate.  I now envision a tree that has become more meaningful and realistic.  Below the trunk of the tree, beneath the ground, I see the Egyptian religion as its roots.  That is, it was the Egyptian religion that provided for the conception and initial development of the Hebrew religion.  It became clear to me that it was the Egyptian concept of an omnipotent and unknowable God, the creator of all things, which became the same God of all the monotheistic religions.

This revelation has been largely responsible for motivating me to share my thoughts with you.  You see, I truly believe in giving credit where credit is due.  It is a dishonorable and deceitful act when a person or group uses knowledge gained and does not acknowledge its source.  However, we may be forgiving, since religious leaders may have unconsciously borrowed from our Egyptian ancestors and many may be simply ignorant of the historical development of the ideas they attempt to communicate to their congregations.

The concept of one God, introduced by the unheralded pharaoh, Ikhnaton, was an easy matter for people, be they Egyptians, Jews or other foreigners to gradually accept as a natural belief.  How-ever, the Egyptian priests, except those who believed in Ikhnaton’s revised conception of God, did not eagerly accept this concept.  They resisted this new belief by desecrating Ikhnaton’s tomb and removing his name from all temples and monuments.  This new concept was a threat to their profession. It would nullify the practice of the religious rites and sacred traditions of worship of the many local gods that had already been ingrained in the Egyptian belief system.  In spite of this resistance by the Egyptian priests and the failure of religious institutions to give credit to its origin, the Egyptian roots of our belief in one God must be acknowledged.

  1. James H. Breasted, The Dawn of Conscience, Page 32.
  2. James H. Breasted, A History of Egypt, Page 599, Chronological Table of Kings.
  3. Homer W. Smith, Man And His Gods, Page 92.

Nicholas Ginex – Perceptive Writer of Our Time

The above title appeared as a Press Release on March 21, 2017 and was my attempt to reach out and enlighten people with perceptive thoughts on religion, philosophy, God, the universe and politics.  Knowing there are thousands of books on these subjects and that an up-coming author like myself is unknown to the world, I was compelled to forget about being humble and include my name in the article.  The link is:

http://www.einpresswire.com/article/371649454/nicholas-ginex-perceptive-writer-of-our-time

To gain the reader’s interest, the Press Release quickly introduces a scholarly paper that was published by the Chute Institute, titled Provide History of Religion and GodIt was placed on an Internet on-line library by the Education Research and Information Center (ERIC), which is sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education.

I encourage all people who have had thoughts about how a universal God was conceived and how religions developed in many communities and regions around the world to read the scholarly paper and visit the website Future of God Amen.

It introduces you to overviews and reviews of several books that deal with the evolution of religion and one-universal God, the presidency of Barack Obama, and why people around the world need to join together to successfully accomplish an Islamic Reformation.

On the renowned Iran Politics Club website you will be able to select many of my articles and gain access to some of my books available as a FREE READ.

Thank you.

It is my hope that you find my written works of sufficient value to introduce them to your friends.  By circulating ideas and information that offer meaning and direction in our lives we gain the ability to make wise decisions and improve our lives.

I am humbly yours,

Nicholas Ginex

AMEN – The Beginning of the Creation of God

AMEN-Creation of God

Hello dear reader,

I begin this article with Figure 1, which provides an overview of how mankind developed the belief in one-universal God.  Few people have had the benefits of being taught history of ancient civilizations and it’s for certain that religious leaders of the Judaic, Christian and Islamic faiths have not instructed their followers about the beginnings of their beliefs.  To learn how these religions developed their beliefs based upon facts and findings, I begin with an opening statement by Jesus Christ from Revelation 3:14, wherein he acknowledged Amen as the beginning of the creation of God.

These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness,              the beginning of the creation of God.

The words of Jesus are profound, albeit, a revelation that has not been acknowledged by Judaic, Christian and Islamic religious leaders.  And yet, they and their followers announce Amen at the end of a prayer, supplication, giving thanks, asking for His protection in challenging times, and reverently sing His name in houses of worship.

It is not my intent to alter your beliefs.  My objective is to inform and educate people about facts that have been surfaced by scholars of religion and highly respected Egyptologists.   They have sacrificed their time and given their lives to surface facts and findings that religious institutions, through ignorance or intent, have not revealed to their followers.

I take you back through the centuries to provide a history of one of the greatest civilizations built by mankind.  In the lands of Egypt, along the Nile River, entered Africans who built homes, irrigation canals, pyramids,  and temples where they worshipped many different gods.  But it was through their beliefs in renewal of the Nile each year that evoked the wonder and veneration for those gods that enriched their lives.  It would be an injustice for me to write in an article a history of how the Africans, later to be called Egyptians after the name of their country, developed the belief in many gods.  They have left a legacy of advancing their multible god beliefs into one-universal God and establishing the first formal religion, which is documented on the walls of their temples, pyramids and obelisks.

For a detailed history of Ancient Egypt, I recommend James H. Breasted book, A History of Egypt.  This book served as the groundwork, along with books  by other great scholars and Egyptologists, that served to widen my knowledge about the beginning of man’s belief in God and the growth of the major religions of today.  To wet your appetite for further study, I have provided Figure 1. Hopefully, it will motivate your curiosity to read Future of God Amen and AMEN, the Beginning of the Creation of God.   These books offer a perspective of man’s development in the belief in God and  bibliographies of the many outstanding books whose authors gave me the gift of knowledge I now impart to you.  Overviews and book reviews are presented on website:

http://www.futureofgodamen.com

Referring to Figure 1, 2600 BCE, I introduce you to the hymn, The Creation by Atum.  Major extracts of this hymn, as with the others that will be mentioned, are provided in the two books referenced above.  Atum was the first god that created the first four gods of the Great Ennead (nine gods): Shu, god of air; Tefnut, god of moisture; Geb, god of earth; and Nut, goddess of the sky.  The Priesthood advanced the idea that their city god Atum-Kheprer, who rose out of the waters of chaos (Nun), brought the first gods into being.   This was a very perceptive concept that recognizes Atum as emanating from two important elements, the heat of the sun, associated with Kheprer and water, associated with Nun.  The Egyptian mind was resourceful and reflective to include the gods of air (Shu) and moisture (Tefnut); for without the elements of air and moisture, life, as we know it, could not be sustained.

A thousand or more years later, between 1550 and 1350 BCE, The high priests of Amon in Thebes wrote A Hymn to Amon-Re.  It professes joy in praise of Amon-Re to the height of heaven and the width of the earth.  With this hymn the Priesthood centralized and unified their religion by worshiping Amon-Re as the supreme god who was the “Maker of all Mankind, Creator and Maker of all that is.” 

By 1370 BCE, Amenhotep IV was the first pharaoh to break with the priesthood’s worship of multiple gods by transforming the sun god Amon-Re into a personal god named Aton, a god that creates and sustains life in all the earth.  Re still was part of the dominate belief of the sun for life on earth but now was envisioned as waves of heat portrayed as emanating hands of life.

Ikhnaton and Nofretete Worshiping Aton

Figure 2.  Amenhotep IV (Ikhnaton) and Nofretete worshiping Aton.

It was during the reign of Ramses II, circa 1270 BCE,  that the Priesthood of Amon wrote, Amon as the Sole God.   The ingenuity of the Egyptian Priesthood cannot be overlooked; with this hymn, they were able to establish Amon as the universal and sole god by advancing the belief that he came into being at the beginning, gave birth to Re and completed himself as Atum, a single body with him.  They therefore closed the circle by linking Amon with Atum, the first Egyptian god; more than 1400 years later.

But an observation needs to be made that it was only twenty years later, in 1250 BCE, that Moses walked out of Egypt extolling the one god belief.  He wrote the Book of the Covenant, which preceded the development of the Torah, The Five Books of Moses, that were started in 950 BCE and  finalized around 444 BCE by Erza and Nehemiah.

Both referenced Amen books above present a detailed history of how the Egyptian Priesthood developed the first one-universal god belief and how people from other lands emulated that belief, which led to the formation of the three major religions.  This one-god belief incorporates many of the Egyptian beliefs which were emulated by the Hebrews, Christians and Moslems.  Such as the belief in a soul, a hereafter attained upon leading a righteous life, a Son of God (the Pharaoh), and after the worship of many gods, the apex of belief – one universal God.

Not acknowledged by religious scholars and leaders is that eight of the Ten Commandments, and many others, were already followed by the Egyptians.  But one of the greatest beliefs, the belief in a soul, originated with the first god of Egypt, Atum.   Many people have assimilated this very complex belief as a natural part of their spiritual beliefs.  However, very few people know where and when this powerful belief in a soul evolved.  The Creation by Atum described Atum’s ka as being imbued into his creations.  It is fair to reason that the concept of a soul, called the ka, was expressed by the Egyptian priesthood with their hymn extolling Atum’s creation.

The idea of a ka had emerged before or during the life of King Ka, who existed a few generations before the start of the First Dynasty, which Egyptologist James H. Breasted dates as 3400 BCE.  By the Sixth Dynasty, approximately eight hundred years later, the priesthood had incorporated the belief of the ka, or soul, in The Creation by Atum. The creation hymn reveals that all created things are protected by the ka of Atum.  Let us visit the lines that state that this creator god put his own vital force into his first creatures.

Thou didst put thy arms about them as the arms of a ka, for thy ka was in them.

To be endowed with an internal force or spirit called the ka from the creator god Atum had a spiritual significance. This vital source must be what gave the created object its unique characteristics or its special force.  Scholars of Egyptian history believe that the ka represents the alter ego, a guardian spirit, or the vital force of personality.  Since the god Atum puts his ka into his creations, it identifies their unique characteristics and attributes. That is, the ka provides those attributes that uniquely form the totality of a living or material substance.  In essence, the ka represents the total makeup of glandular, physical, and mental functions that defines humans and their personality.

I diverged from Figure 1 after indicating that it was Moses’ Book of the Covenant that led to the development of the Torah, also referred to as The Five Books of Moses.  It was the Judaic religion that gave birth to the Christian religion and how that evolution occurred has been documented in the two Amen books mentioned above.  It was Jesus Christ, a man of God, who referred to himself 76 times in the four Gospels as the Son of Man.  He announced a revelation in The Revelation of Saint John that Judaic, Christian, and Islamic religious leaders have not acknowledged throughout the centuries, and continue to be silent even today.

In Revelation 3:14, Jesus proclaimed Amen as, “the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.”   It is not my interest to change or debate your beliefs for our minds are made up with many different inputs that form our intellect and views.  I only desire to present what I have learned for your own evaluation.  By comparing your instilled values with new information, you may be able to have a greater appreciation for differences that exist and resolve them with logic.

By reading the referenced Amen books, you can gain information to assess and determine if Jesus has indeed provided a revelation for all of us to examine and evaluate as being true.  Much of what I have written in this article may be new to you and therefore difficult to absorb.  Beliefs that have been ingrained into our lives are very difficult to analyze with logic.  But only with facts and findings from the past can we surface the truth.  I will be honored to answer any questions or comments about the contents and findings of this article. Do not hesitate to provide a comment, pro or con; for by presenting our views we will be able to reach a higher level of truth.  Hopefully, such greater understanding will bring peace of mind to those who have conflicting beliefs that need to be resolved.

Before I leave you with an extract of a paper published by the Chute Institute, I would like you to reflect on the main themes presented in the book trailer for Amen.

http://youtu.be/kAf9HaN8HWA

The paper urges our educational institutions to teach our youth about the beginnings of Mankind’s belief in God and how our major religions evolved.  It is through understanding of the past, and an honest, truthful assessment of facts and findings, that we can proceed in our spiritual development and our quest to learn about God.  To achieve this objective, I have provided below an abstract  of the Chute Institute paper titled, Provide History of Religion and God.   It is available on the Internet via the link below:

http://cluteinstitute.com/ojs/index.php/CIER/article/download/7729/7793

ABSTRACT Provide History of Religion and God

There is a need for high school, college, and university educators to introduce their students to a history of mankind’s development of religions and beliefs in God.  Regarded as too sensitive a subject, students are deprived of learning how mankind has evolved ways to establish moral and righteous behavior to maintain harmony among competing groups within a growing community.  Based upon facts and findings surfaced by such respected Egyptologists as James H. Breasted and E.A. Wallis Budge, this author conclusively reveals how the first formal religion of Egypt has been emulated by the Judaic, Christian, and Islamic religions.  Historical findings provide meaningful evidence of the spiritual nature of man, the emergence of one God Amen, the development of the concepts of truth, a soul, hereafter, Son of God, and a universal God. These findings afford greater insights in the fields of theology, humanities, psychology, and sociology studies. More importantly, a greater understanding of the nature of man can energize religious leaders and the public to effect possible solutions with the assistance of those with perceptive minds and love of humanity.