God's Work?

Seven years ago, in the town in Germany I lived, my children's doctor, Dr. Frederking, along with his wife and assistant were killed in their practice on the day before Christmas Eve. It was an exceptionally violent crime and shocked not only our local community but also the entire country. The three victims were tied, gagged and then strangled one by one. No one could understand why this should happen to people who cared so much about their fellow humans. The community that he served loved the doctor. The pastor in our community could no longer understand life. He asked how God could permit such a thing.

Seven years later, I would like to answer his question. How can God permit such murder? How can God permit all of the wars? How can God permit mass starvation, torture, the abuse of children and even slavery? What God of love would permit that?

Is the answer that God is not love? Do we dare ask that question? Do we dare question God's motives? Who is that being behind all things?

At this point, seven years later, I dare not only ask the question; I dare give an answer. Who or what caused the deaths of these three people?

The Police arrested a suspect. Karl-Heinz B., a handicapped alcoholic who at the time was 52 years old. The suspect was arrested and placed on trial. He confessed to the crime and claimed to have been drunk at the time. The suspect had no true memory of the crime. Very few people believed his confession because the crime did not appear to work of a person who was drunk and could not move with ease. Nonetheless, the suspect was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

Did Karl-Heinz B. actually commit the crime, and if so, why? He had not true motive. Did some sort of explosion occur in Karl-Heinz B’s mind that led him to do something he had never done before? How could God allow three humans who clearly were loved and very needed by their community die by the hand of an itinerant handicapped drunkard? Where is justice here? Is there any sort of principle of equanimity on this planet, or is everything haphazardly out of control?

We can begin to answer the pastor’s questions by investigating the nature of the being we call God. This being is unknown to us, and that is the problem. For, there is truly something behind all things and all events. Understanding this being is essential to our lives and to making the changes in our society so that events such as Dr. Frederking’s murder do not become the norm of our existence.

The answer is that the god that rules our lives is not one unitary being, and major parts of this being are not love. Few people wish to hear this answer. They wish to maintain the mystery shrouding this being. Maintaining the mystery may bring us further and further down the road to catastrophe, however.

To begin to understand the being we call God we need to look at the history of this being. Swiss Bible researcher Othmar Keel has been doing just that for a good part of his professional life. The Catholic theology professor has discovered that in the beginnings of Judaism there was not one god. Judaism began in a polytheistic setting. It must have taken hundreds of years before monotheism really set in.

The many gods were integrated into Judaism. This means that they were integrated into the one God who the Jews worshiped.

The Canaanite god of storms, Baal, had an official companion named Asherah, also known as Astarte or Ishtar in other Middle-Eastern societies. Baal’s successor in Judaism was Yahweh, the Jewish "monotheistic" God. Keel discovered that Yahweh, like Baal had a female partner, at least in the early centuries of Judaism. This partner was Astarte, the same partner that Baal had. Baal did not disappear with the onset of Judaism. The history of religion is full of gods becoming subsumed by new religions as old religions disappear. Thus the Canaanite god became part of Judaism. Over the centuries he became part of Yahweh.

Of course, the Old Testament god, Yahweh, then became part of the New Testament religion, Christianity. So Baal became part of the energetic structure of the monotheistic god of Christianity. Baal is not unknown in modern times. The god known for his supernatural power to create calamity is still secretly worshipped by some individuals in the modern world

Does Baal truly exist in our modern world, and is he responsible for driving humans to irresponsible acts such as the murder of Dr. Frederking, his wife and his assistant?

The only kind of “scientific” proof we have is the careful investigation carried out by researchers such as Professor Keel. Keel does not attempt to prove that Baal became part of the Christian god. Rather, Keel demonstrates very clearly the polytheistic beginnings of monotheism. The many gods became one God. Or so it seems, for the many gods still exist.

The proof of the present-day existence of many gods is, however, in the world around us in our daily experiences. "Haphazard" catastrophes seem to abound. A unitary god cannot and would not create this kind of random and chaotic havoc.

The clear and underlying reality is quite a number of individual beings or “gods” acting either individually or in small groups. They do not act in any sort of unity or harmony with each other. This is what is behind a good part of our everyday reality. These beings work through us humans. They cause us to do things we would not normally do, unless we become aware of their existence.

If Karl-Heinz B. did actually commit the brutal murder, he was not capable of doing it alone. Did a being such as Baal come into him to propel him to such an act?

Do such beings propel other humans to acts of random and inexplicable violence? The obvious answer is yes. The world is the way it is because individual gods still operate individually.

If you are a member of a crack military unit, you need Baal. Baal is the god of storms. This God can unleash havoc on an enemy. It is rather inconceivable that a modern soldier would consciously invoke an individual god to either fight for him or to fight through him. The invocation is tacit and unconscious.

Can we see a god? Can we see his energy? No, but we also cannot see ultraviolet rays, x-rays or gamma rays with our eyes. Yet scientists know that they exist. Science does not presently have an apparatus to measure or determine the presence of the energy rays of a god or of any other energy being. This does not mean that such beings do not exist. Most people simply cannot perceive them.

Can it be that the being we call God is not love? Ancient gods still operate on planet Earth as parts of the God that we know. Higher levels of God that are love do exist. Rarely do we experience these levels. They have been brought down to earth at different times in our history. It does appear that the being we know as Jesus brought the higher levels down to earth. We need this to happen again, and we need these higher levels to remain when this happens.

Andrew Terker