Posted by:
En Sabah Nur
(
)
Date: June 05, 2014 11:49AM
The name Beelzebub has been interesting to me for some time. Baal Zebub, or "Lord of Flies" was supposedly the patron deity of the city of Ekron, although I can find no supporting documentation for this outside of the Bible.
There are some who believe that the title of the god could have originally been Baal Zebul, "Lord Prince," and that they title of "lord of the flies" was a derisive epithet against a foreign god, but this is mere speculation.
As with many Canaanite, Assyrian and Egyptian deities, Beelzebub was popularly thought of as a lesser, malevolent god, or fallen angel, or a wandering spirit who pestered people foolish enough to wander in the "waste places" of the earth. This was particularly true during the centuries leading up to and immediately following the beginning of the common era, so the accusation that Jesus cast out spirits by the power of the Lord of Flies was an accusation that he had pledged himself or come under the control of a malevolent spirit or god. It was NOT referring to THE DEVIL, Lucifer, but a different being entirely.
But such is the way with religion and culture wars; to Paul, non-Christian Jews were to be considered Gentiles, to Mormons, non-Mormons became Gentiles and the Catholic Church became the new Babylon, the whore of the Earth. The meanings of words, names and phrases take different meanings in different cultures and over time. Sometimes former cultural elements are woven into the newer religions (such as Dia de los Muertos, an ancient Mezo-American celebration dating back some 3000 years, incorporating crosses, Christ on a crucifix and the Virgin Mary) and sometimes they're stomped out completely (like crucifixes and sacramental wine in Mormonism).
I know that you're angry at the church for its lies and deceptions, and that's completely justified. Frankly, it seems now to be more of a real estate company masquerading as a religion than a legitimate theology, if any theology can really be considered legitimate at all.
Mormonism is more overtly obfuscatory than other religions, especially when it trots out its PR and legal teams to disseminate Mormon protocol while the Q15 rarely say anything that isn't trite. But deception is still there in your average Christian churches, whose pastors and the like have gone through seminary, know the difficult and often contradictory messages of the Bible and yet only teach from a select few scriptures that make their parishioners feel good about surrendering their pocket change to support the organization.
It's not exactly the same, but it's certainly similar.