In the Bible we can read about another god. His name is
Melchizedek (or Melchisedec). He is first
mentioned in Genesis
"And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and
wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed
him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor
of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which
hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him
tithes of all."
Genesis 14:18-20
This in itself may not be all that significant until we read
Hebrews
"For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most
high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the
kings, and blessed him; To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part
of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and
after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; Without
father, without mother, without descent, having neither
beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the
Son of God; abideth a priest continually. Now consider how
great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham
gave the tenth of the spoils."
Hebrews 7:1-4
Is this God's brother? Is this God's cousin? Is this a
completely different God? For these are certainly divine
attributes. According to the Bible in our hands today, Jesus (pbuh)
had a beginning (he was "begotten"), and an end "he gave up
the ghost" (Luke 23:46). This mighty being, however, is
alleged to have had neither. It is stated plainly here in the
Bible, that he was "made like unto the son of God."
Why do they not worship him then? The church now will allege
that Jesus peace be upon him was "begotten" by God. Tell us what
you mean when you say "begotten." What did God Almighty do to
"beget" Jesus (pbuh)? Further, if Jesus (pbuh) was "begotten,"
but Melchisedec who was "made like unto the Son of God,"
was not, then does this not make Jesus (pbuh) a "son of God" but
Melchisedec an independent god with neither offspring nor
parents? Is a god with no parents not greater than one who needs
parents? Where is Melchisedec now?
From these verses we get the following picture:
- Melchizedec is equal to the Son of God
- Melchizedec's ministry is eternal
- Melchizedec, unlike Jesus (pbuh), is an independent god,
with neither father nor mother.
- Melchizedec, unlike Jesus (pbuh), was never "born" or
"begotten" but was ever present.
- Melchizedec, unlike Jesus (pbuh), will never die but is
eternally without death.
- Everything but God has a beginning of days. Even air,
water, and food have a beginning of days. Melchizedec,
however, does not. Therefore, he is claimed to not need God
nor water, food, nor air to breathe.
Does this not sound preposterous? Notice how when Jesus (pbuh),
a man, is preached as being a god most people have no trouble
with that. They are willing to see proof of his godhead even
where it can not be found (see chapter one). This is because
this is a well established doctrine in Paul's church. However,
when the same Bible tells them in no uncertain terms that
another man, Melchisedec, is a god, then they are willing to
"interpret" the verses fifty different ways and attach to them
all manner of abstract interpretations to disprove this claim
since Melchisedec "cannot possibly" be a god. Why? Because the
church has not told us to worship Melchizedec?. If the Bible
remains the word of God then why should we place the words of
men (the church) above the words of God?
Some people will object that: "Melchizedec was an imaginary
character and not real." Once again, a valid possibility, so let
us study this claim. Let us go back and read the above verses.
Was prophet Abraham (pbuh) an imaginary character?
Of course not! Well then, did Abraham "meet" a figment of his
imagination upon returning from the "slaughter of the kings"?
Was Abraham blessed by a figment of his imagination? Did he give
a tenth of his spoils to a figment of his imagination?
I have searched far and wide in my quest for a logical answer
to this dilemma. Many interpretations have been presented,
however, these interpretations always attempt to either
completely side-step the above issues, or when they do actually
attempt to deal directly with them they say "of course it can
not possibly be that the words are meant to be taken literally,"
with no valid explanation whatsoever. It is simply left up to
the reader to have "faith" and only take the literal meanings of
such words when they are applied to Jesus (pbuh), but when they
are applied to others then they "can not possibly" be understood
to be taken literally. Why?
It is easy to make excuses. It is much harder to keep an open
mind. Many people have a tendency to quote only part of the
command of the Bible. They read "Jesus said unto him, Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul" and stop!. Well what about the rest of the verse? What
about "�and with all thy mind." I don't know about you,
but my salvation is too precious a commodity to allow someone to
dictate to me blind faith in doctrines they have inserted in the
book of God, resulting in countless discrepancies. A truly
unchanged religion of God must be able to convince me fifty ways
from Sunday that it is faultless and unchanged by the hands of
men. It should not need it's propagators, and "correctors" to
demand blind faith and my having to continually make excuses for
it even though they themselves bear witness to the continuous
and unrelenting attempts of the church to "correct" and
"clarify" the Bible over so many centuries.