The Historical Identity of God

[Guest guest]

The Historical

Identity of God

 

As an interdisciplinary theologian and historian of religion, I

assert that it is impossible to separate God's historical identity

from His theological identity. In over 30 years of study and

reflection, I have realized that a non-racist, non-sectarian

assessment of global religious history and particularity confirms

that there is historically only One True Supreme Personality of

Godhead.

 

If we go back far enough, or deeply enough, into the world's great

salvific devotional traditions, we will find that the entire human

race shares a primal common religious heritage in the salvific and

civilizing self-revelation of the same deity. If we delve deeply into

the particularities of bhakti (devotional) traditions without

prejudice, we quickly discover that the supreme deity of ancient

monotheistic Africans, Semites, Indo-Europeans, Asians and even

Amerindians is historically the same transcendent, incarnating and

immanent Personality of Godhead.

 

By a careful comparative interdisciplinary study (linguistic,

iconographic etc.) of scriptures and traditions, and such

particularities as God's name and form, specific religious lineages,

theophoric personal names, temple art and architecture, temple

foundation deposits, personal or state religious seals and amulets,

coins, place names and maps, rites, sacramental social order, and

moral theology, we can conclusively arrive at the historical identity

of God. Even atheists must agree that the worship of God has real

world history. If the scientific evidence shows that a religion's

deity is historically the God of two or more peoples, then that deity

must ultimately be the same God theologically. The historical

evidence confirms that the Vedic and Biblical deity is the same

Supreme Personality of Godhead.

 

This may be a shocking proposition to those who have a poor fund of

knowledge or prejudice against either the Vedic or Biblical

traditions. Tragically, humanity has now become religiously

accustomed to thinking in terms of eastern religions versus western

religions. Centuries of evil, blasphemously done in the name of God,

have reinforced today's prejudice, fear and hatred on all sides of

the great East-versus-West religious divide. But, according to the

actual historical evidence, this is an artificially constructed

divide in the collective historical self-perception of humanity.

Racism has played a major role in the creation of this present

bifurcated world-view in which the Monotheistic Judeo-Christian and

Islamic traditions have always existed in historical isolation from,

and opposition to the polytheistic and pantheistic eastern

traditions.

 

The ancient evidence does not show any original isolation from or

opposition between the West's "One True God" and the "Gods" of the

East. Rather, the evidence shows a profound, global unity of

civilizing religion and culture in the prehistoric period and the

dawn of high civilization in each region. There is only one religion

that accompanies this original civilizing of humanity.

 

Today's great religions of the West and East are all descended from

that one primal tradition. Our great religions have all originated in

the worship of the same triune deity. To today's Krishna Vaishnavas,

that deity is Hari (Krishna), Vasudeva (Vishnu) and Paramatma. To the

ancient Jews, He was Eli, Toba-Yahu and Adon-Yahu. In ancient Africa,

He was Heri, Wasu-Theos and Aten. Greek speaking Europeans worshiped

Him during the Minoan Era as Heli-Us and Ontos / Autos / Atomos. So,

we see from the earliest evidence, that these three major racial and

linguistic divisions of the one human family (Indo-European, Semitic

and African) originally shared a single, primal civilizing revelatory

religious tradition. We are ultimately one family with faith in the

same God.

My independent discoveries (in the 1960s), regarding the linguistic

connections between the names of Hari in the major language groups,

have now been contexted by the development of the entire field of

linguistic superfamilies. Specifically, research reconstructing the

Nostratic Macro Family of Languages 100% supports my own discoveries

regarding the primal names of God. Recent genetic and linguistic

superfamily research has converged in the creation of a new global

picture of humanity's united past. My own research has identified the

deity of that remote time of unity that Hindus often refer to as the

age of the "Global Vedic Culture" described in their scriptures.

Our shared heritage of faith from that time of unity should be

uniting us. However, presently we are being mal-educated in a

divisive, racist world-view. To end our sad alienation, it is

essential to address this mal-education and to confront the related

historical offences, racial and religious pride and prejudice which

is artificially dividing us.

Gaudiya Vaishnavas have a divine mandate to revive the

original "Krishna consciousness" of all humanity. This means

defeating the racist and corrupt religious lies that have divided us,

and replacing hostile sectarianism with the unifying truth that can

reunite us in our shared God's divine love.

 

Interested readers may correspond with

Bhakti Ananda Goswami

bhakti.eohn