A little piece now about Tutankhamun. Why? Well, partly because I saw a need which came from the growing number of Buddha statues that I keep noticing in peoples houses and gardens. And also, I’m trying not to sound like an old anachronistic preacher and I’m trying to keep preaching relevant in 2024!
And we all know that name Tutankhamun don’t we, my kids even learnt about him in early primary school years. At the time I thought why teach Egyptology to such young kids? I know now, but that’s for another short story on this site sometime, here I want to talk about the many various idols or statues we have in this world.

So, back to Tutankhamun, do you know what that name actually means? Being a modern Englishman I had no idea until relatively recently that throughout history, and indeed still in many other cultures today, names denote a distinct characteristic about a person or place and Tutankhamun actually means “the living image of Amun”. He was the living representation on the Earth of the god Amun. (The way I understand the word ‘god’ is simply a generic term for spiritual beings like ourselves but not ‘clothed’ in physical bodies like ours. Not a perfect description but it suffices for here).
Now, if anyone has read the Biblical account of creation, you will probably know it says Adam was made ‘in the image of God’ ie Adam was ‘the living image or representation of God’ on this Earth, God spelt with a capital ‘G’ because God, or Yahweh, is the chief God amongst the gods. Have you heard it put that way before? Neither had I until I began to think for myself and dig deeper*.

When God gave those 10 Commandments to the Hebrews one of them was ‘you shall not make any idols to worship’. Wherever we go in the world today we find idols, or images, of various gods in various temples and it was just like that in the Bible times. The Hebrews were told not to do this though because God chose their ancestor Adam to be His image bearer, Adam was the image of God and the temple was the Garden of Eden*.

Due to our conditioning in the western world today spirituality is virtually dead. But throughout the rest of the world, especially Africa, and right throughout history too people have fully embraced this aspect of reality and still do, they fully embrace the existence and the reality of the gods. Indeed, politics and spirituality are inextricably linked. In Africa that link is still out in the open and very much the norm I am told, in the western world however it is conducted in strict secrecy, in secret societies – but that’s enough of that for here.

And now to the point for this article. Most of us will know that Adam failed in his mission of representing God and leading people to God and we all still experience the misery, in all its varied forms, as a result of us remaining separated from God. Where I live in England in 2024 I’m surrounded by materially wealthy people living in comfort, all of which may suggest another story, but they all know, as well as I do, that take away any material covering that we may temporarily ‘clothe’ ourselves with and we are all the same, we are all left exposed and naked in our shame and vulnerability. And for any who think they’ve managed to cover it over for all of their life, I pity them. Physical death will ultimately expose us all and is unavoidable even to the most wealthy. At death though it’s too late to remedy the issue and we enter eternity separated from God, whatever the reality of that really means **

Isn’t all that very doom mongering? I thought the preacher said God loved me? Well he did, and here comes the great answer to all of our searching so far and that is Jesus Christ.

The Perfect Image.

The Bible presents Jesus as ”the Second Man”, and the perfect ‘living image of God’ because He didn’t fail in His mission. He became the perfect human example who, because of his perfection, was able to open up for mankind that which so many seek, a gateway to the heavenlies, in this case a covenant relationship with Yahweh (God, Elohim, has many names, Yahweh being the name that refers to the covenant head aspect of His nature). Jesus, as a man, became the true living representative of God on this earth and He invites you to come through this door too, you must’ve heard that phrase ‘knock, and the door will be opened’. And, going back to names, the name Jesus, Yeshua in Hebrew, literally means ‘to rescue’…

When we come into covenant with God, EVERYTHING THAT WE NEED AND EVERYTHING THAT WE LACK TO MAKE US WHOLE, PLUS A WHOLE LOT MORE is available to us right now in the form of our inheritance from Jesus. (Strictly speaking, it’s ours if we can bear it, but if we can’t then we won’t be given it in full measure, for safety reasons, similar to how a hunter would be very unloving to give a rifle to his two year old son. How much of God’s grace we receive is proportional to how much of this worlds ‘baggage’ we let go ie how much we as spiritual children grow up in the things of the spirit).

And if you don’t get that, you need to meditate on that until you do! If you do get that but think it’s just not possible, well that’s why it’s called ‘the gospel message’ because that literally means “good news that’s simply too good to be true”. That’s why Christians throughout the history of the world are so enthusiastic and will ultimately even choose to burn at the stake rather than renounce their family or covenant ties with Jesus – we are spiritual beings, this world is only temporary, and such a person need never fear what man can do to them physically and once we know Him it’s an awful thought to find ourselves outside of family connections with and through Jesus for all eternity.

My question then, why do they teach us so much about Tutankhamun but not so much about Jesus or the real meaning of those ten commandments? Is it becoming clear yet?

Back to those ten commandments, they were NOT a list given to make those Hebrews good, and, contrary to what I was taught as a kid, nor me and you either. They were given to the people God calls to Himself to show us just how sick or ill we really are. That’s because we just cannot meet these perfect instructions or guidelines God gives us for us to make the best of our lives, and our illness, what the Bible calls sin (literally simply meaning falling short of the mark) and separation from God, is therefore terminal. Instead, these commandments are intended to lead us to the remedy for our illness, our redeemer, Jesus, the perfect man and living image of God who attained this perfect standard for us, that image that we now follow as our federal head and saviour who credits our account with His righteousness, a little like what some might know as a class action lawsuit where one represents the many. That’s not a perfect analogy and neither is this but it’s also a little like how upon marriage we gain all our spouses possessions and they become ours. And here, Jesus ‘inherits’ our shortfalls and deals with those for us, and we ‘inherit’ all His righteousness before God. Wow! Next time you hear a preacher say “God loves you“, now I hope you’ll know exactly what he means!

So, now you know what gods and images/idols are really all about, which idol or image would you now like in your life, or sat in your home or garden? Or would you actually, now you’ve ditched all those indoctrinated ideas we grew up with, would you like to actually be the temple where the Spirit of God lives? Well the truth is receiving or accepting (the Spirit of) Jesus into our hearts, and living alongside our spirit, is way better than merely choosing a crucifix, fish symbol or maybe a dove, and no matter what we see in films merely waving a crucifix won’t scare a demon away from a demon possessed person, they flee the afflicted person when the real image is presented before them! We are told in the Bible “to all who did receive him, ie to those who believed in his name, He gave the right to become sons of God, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God”. We actually BECOME the image of God, sons of God. And there’s no need for churches or cathedrals anymore either because our bodies become the temple where God dwells, by His Spirit. That’s right, the spirit of the living God comes and makes abode in our bodies, and that’s a way better option than inviting any of the multitudes of other spiritual beings into our lives like so many people do or have done.

Jesus is the real Tower of Babel, the real meaning of Jacob’s ladder, He is the gateway to the gods, the true stairway to heaven, not drugs as Led Zeppelin’s song told us all, that’s the counterfeit. The apostle Paul said don’t get drunk with wine (they didn’t have drugs then like we do now) but get ‘drunk’, or filled, with God’s Spirit. Both take you out of this world, but one is a counterfeit. Jesus is what the Bible is all about, the return to the figurative Garden of Eden, Paradise restored where God now dwells again with man. And just as Adams mission was to introduce the world to God, that now becomes the mission of these new living images of God……and that’s through whom and why you’re now reading this message.

If you do have any questions or any obstacles that you’d like any help with then please do get in touch. And if you’re one of those people who’s dabbled in witchcraft, seances etc and have now realised that mistake, please know that you can make those now unwanted guests leave, you don’t have to be their slaves for evermore. Ditto innocent victims of these practices. In modern lingo, Jesus is Boss, and all those spititual beings that you or someone on your behalf opened the door to know that. Suicide is not the only way out, just ask Jesus in and He’ll evict them, He’s the ultimate bailiff! Please get in touch if you’d like to know more.

There is never any charge from a genuine man or woman of God and there never will be, the price is already paid by Jesus. Freely did we receive and freely do we give out.

Be blessed.

Notes.

*So many people I know have an underlying belief in at least something else to our existence but to be quite truthful, with the totally unbiblical interpretations of the Bible that churches pump out nowadays there is no wonder people have rejected the Bible and very few hang around to unravel these deceptive translations that lead to crazy interpretations. 

Also, I don’t want to overcomplicate this here that’s why this appears in the notes, but the temple where Adam the priest was to serve, was the Garden of Eden. 

I hated English literature at school and that’s probably why it took me so long to realise that so much of the biblical Old Testament is simply Hebrew poetry, it’s not a literal history of the world since creation, and our first task in understanding our Bibles it seems is to learn a little about Hebrew poetry and the wider culture of the Ancient Near East because so much more Bible language is figurative than we’d ever realise at first! Adam was not the first man, he was the first man who God made covenant with i.e. he was the first High Priest, or mediator, for the people God wanted to call out, and the Garden of Eden was the first biblical temple, God’s own temple among the many temples of the pre existing peoples. Once we realise that so many jigsaw pieces should now slide smoothly into their proper place. There is so much more on this in Section Two on this site for those who are interested. 

** I don’t want to go down the road of purgatory or “eternally burning in hell“ because once again, when we start thinking for ourselves that’s another aspect of all this that really does need some very close attention as to whether we’ve been taught correctly. Fear is a very powerful weapon in the hands of an enemy and weaponising the fear of the flames has got certain people/organisations very wealthy in days gone by.