From: jtem01@gmail.com   
      
   On 1/13/26 8:18 PM, Mike wrote:   
      
   > To my humble thinking, believing that God   
   > is a King and believing that a king is God   
   > are fundamentally different concepts.   
      
   I don't see how that could be the case to an   
   ancient. They worshiped a god, either way,   
   with the exact same results.   
      
   There was no radio, there was no TV, there   
   was no photography... if you even wanted to   
   see a king you needed to be lucky, and have   
   a place relatively close at whatever event   
   he was making an appearance.   
      
   A king was a concept.   
      
   In ancient times, a king could change his   
   name and for all intents and purposes there   
   was a new king. This does appear to have   
   happened. I myself believe it was the case   
   with Queen Tiye in Egypt, taking the name   
   of Nefertiti instead of them actually being   
   two different people.   
      
   NOTE:  She needed to become someone else   
   because father/daughter marriages were great,   
   brother/sister marriages were great but   
   mother/son was a total no-no.   
      
   > Calling   
   > God a “King” is a metaphor drawn from human   
   > political structures, used to express ideas   
   > like authority, order, and sovereignty in   
   > terms people can grasp.   
      
   We are speaking of an ancient world where god   
   kings were common, including over the Levant. I   
   can't see how we might possibly erase the actual   
   context of that era, replace it with our modern   
   thinking.   
      
   Most of the O.T. is either back dated or a   
   recycling of the past. The region was literally   
   the property of god kings right up until the   
   claimed Maccabean Revolt -- the Seleucid empire   
   or Egypt. After them came Rome, before them came   
   Alexander the Great...   
      
   > By contrast, believing a king to be God elevates   
   > a human being—limited, fallible, and temporal—   
   > into a divine status.   
      
   And?   
      
   Because it was like white-on-rice. Even the Romans   
   who started out HATING the idea ended up proclaiming   
   their emperors gods...   
      
   Speaking of Egypt, did you know that Nectanebo II   
   was even a prototype of sorts for Jesus?   
      
   HE HAD AN EMPTY TOMB!   
      
   Well. Sarcophagus.   
      
      
      
      
   --   
   https://jtem.tumblr.com/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)