Disclaimer:
Note that as scholars Elaine Pagels and Bart Ehrman point out, I recognize that there is no one Christianity, but that there are “Christianities.” The documents linked below are not a defense of any one particular sect or Creed of Christianity. So while a Fundamentalist may not find this work useful, another type of Christian might really benefit from these documents as a functional ethos for grounding their particular ethics and worldview, etc. Or someone who is not Christian, but interested in self-improvement literature and finds Jordan Peterson’s Bible Lecture Series interesting, or The Jefferson Bible useful, may also find useful my interpretive approach to Scripture as more metaphorical and better understood as developing evolutionarily as motivational inspiring literature. For these people, my use of the word "God" can even be interpreted within a nontheistic context with the God-concept being thought of as meaning something similar to Spinoza's God, or the how Paul Tillich defined God as the "Ground of Being," or how process theology describes God; or how Jordan Peterson's conception of God as the Highest Good, etc. For more details see the Introduction and Chapter 1 below.
NOTE: This is a Manuscript I am editing, all words in blue in the documents are areas I am still editing when time permits
The First Phase and Strategy of "God" (Part 1) -- The Rise of the Israelites (Year: 1300s BC up to 29 AD):
The first phase of God was the development of the Hebraic theology of "Jehovah is a man of war: Jehovah is his name" (Exodus 15:3 ASB). During this phase, the strategy among God conceptualizers was to present the deity as having a physical body and a divine wife or consort (see the book God: An Anatomy by Francesca Stavrakopolou for more details). God ruled the heavens and directed His People as His righteous priests and warriors (who were led by their patron deity of war named Jehovah or Yahweh).
Historical Context of this First Phase of God: This was a time when God Himself gave to King David his wives and concubines as representative of David's expanded kingdom and dominion (see 2 Samuel 12:8). During this phase of God, Hebraic theology was sex-positive and affirmed the sensual body and desire as good within the boundaries of the Hebraic code of conduct. During this first phase, before God's People (the Israelites) were conquered and subjugated by the Babylonians and then later the Romans, God was perceived as directed his People with the core ideals of freedom, strength, territory, and dominating power; when that which was "good" was prosperity, sexual felicity, fecundity (growth of genus), and the conquering spirit of the warrior balanced with the cultivation of a unified People (a culture) through Law and Order: aiming toward expanding the Israelite's dominion (through wars if necessary). In brief, the "Jehovian Spirit" in phase one emphasized what could be called a Call to Dominion. The following linked article goes into more detail:
The Second Phase & Strategy of God (Part 2) -- Under Roman Rule (30 AD to 312 AD):
In the second phase, the strategy and emphasis was what Albert Sweitzer called an "interim ethic." This is when the Gospel authors knowing the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple paint portraits of Jesus in the 30s AD forewarning his fellow Jews about their future slaughter of thousands of Jews in 70 AD. The early Pauline pacifism, celibacy, and voluntary martyrdom (for more detail see the work of Paul Middleton on this subject) of the 50s AD is thus given a retroactive purpose, as the lifestyle Jesus encourages of his fellow Israelites in the Gospels is really directed at those like the "dagger men" of the first century who were engaging in violent activism against Rome.
Historical Context of the Second Phase:
So what are the Gospels trying to convey? Since Jesus is speaking to Jews, not Gentiles in the 30s AD. We can see that some Jews at this time were seeking to violently attack and oppose Rome. The Gospel Jesus' message to his fellow Jews in the Gospels is about telling them to not retaliating against Rome, so it is a message in its historical context that is directed at Jews in the 30s AD. Jesus is basically talking in the 30s AD and warning his fellow Israelites among some (not all) of the Judaizing factions within Judaism of the first century, that some of these Judaizer groups were acting like "hypocrites" (a word better translated as those engaged in fake piety, i.e. mere performative religiosity, or religious play-acting). This portrait of Jesus is speaking to a specific audience when he says to "turn the other cheek," which meant not retaliating against a Roman Gentile. This "live and let live" ideas was directed at Israelites under Rome and the message being don't violently oppose Rome. This is based on Paul's earlier teachings in Romans 13 about the divine sanctioning of Rome by God. Jesus is thus speaking to a specific type of person, the Israelite who refuses to align with Rome but wants to militarily attack Rome. Jesus is telling them (then in 30s AD) that they are going to basically lose in 70 AD: resulting in the destruction of "heaven and earth" (the temple being destroyed) which will undo the requirement of Torah-observance for Gentiles and the end of organized Temple-based religion. The Gospel Jesus is in context saying that those certain groups of Jews opposing Rome from 30 to 70 AD will cause a radical shift in God's focus from the Israelites to the Gentiles; for Jesus is saying in the Gospels that the destruction of the Temple later on in 70 AD will cause himself as the Christ (as an Indo-European deity based on the Roman Emperor as Lord and Savior and the mystery religions) to then replace the physical Temple with a new spiritual Temple (Christians themselves as a Temple): so that instead of God dwelling in the Israelite physical Temple's Holy of Holies (for only certain Jews to enter therein), after 70 AD with that "building of God/God's abode" destroyed, the resurrected Christ as a Divine-Life donating Spirit (Pneuma) will act as God's Spirit; so that through Christ as a fluid pneuamtic substance would then dwell in a new Gentile-Temple: a corporate collective Temple, with God's divine Fluid Energy (Pneuma) abiding within the collective bodies of Gentiles.
This second phase of conceptualizing God is thus better understood in the cultural context of the first century, when Jews and Christians were under Roman oppression. This post-70s development within the Gospels of aligning with Rome, having Jesus speak positively of a Roman centurion and Pilate presented as an innocent party, etc., paved the way for Roman-Christianity. As PBS explains, by the year "313 AD, [when] the Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, which accepted Christianity: 10 years later, it had become the official religion of the Roman Empire" (Source: pbs.org). During this particular historical phase of conceptualizing God's People, in the cultural context of 30 to 312 AD, the Pauline Movement acted as a temporary strategy to conquer Rome psychologically. In the first two centuries, the strategy was pacifism and martyrdom in order to oppose Caesarian worship in Rome through nonviolent resistance and a type of nonviolent "psychological warfare." By this I mean that the early Christian communities, that produced the New Testament documents, implanted a kind of "divine algorithm" through what psychologists call emotional contagion -- in the mystic-metaphorical language of the Divine Seed of God as The Word (Christ) planted into souls, so that God's People were able to produce a change in character, or what Paul called "a renewing of the mind" and "a new creation"; which "snowballed" into the Jesus People or Christ Communities, that converted many in Rome and eventually overturned the Roman Ethic and psychologically conquered the pagan religions; all without lifting their swords to cause any physical harm.
The temporary strategy of dying a voluntary martyr in the first century cultural context of being under Roman rule (as a phase of God's People), made sense at this time: because at this time in Rome, Christians were being forced to recant their belief in Christ as Lord and Savior by instead basically pledging allegiance to the Roman civic religion and Caesar as Lord and Savior; so that, many early Christians choosing death for the political crime of declaring Jesus as Lord (instead of Caesar) while standing before Roman courts, caused the Pauline Movement to spread through emotional contagion. In other words, there was basically a "buzz about town" among pagan Romans, who were basically wondering, "Why are these Christians so emotionally brave and secure in the face of death, and so caring and loving amongst one another?" Thus, that strategy of denying your life and literally "taking up your cross" by dying a martyr in first century Rome, was psychosocially affective in that first century context under Roman oppression. The documents linked below in this section covers this second phase of God's People under Roman oppression in the first century; and how many of the strategies of that time were culturally context dependent and specific to the first century (for example, "take up your cross" meant literal martyrdom in first century Rome in the gospel of Mark); and thus given that Roman courts, that demand one declare Caesar as Lord, are now no longer in existence, then a historical reading of Scripture reveals how much of the language of the New Testament is no longer applicable today when there is no Caesar any longer; and strategies like temporary celibacy (for example in 1 Corinthians 7 and Mathew 19:12) are no longer practical today given that the calamities of 70 AD (that Jesus predicted) has already occurred and imperial Rome was eventually destroyed; and thus the New Testament emphasis on pacifism, asceticism (and celibacy), and voluntary martyrdom becomes a cultural timeframe dependent phase of God as an important strategy for that time and place only (30 to 312 AD), as a way to rally God's People and win against Rome at that time. The documents below summarize the scholarship of Paul Middleton and others, and explains why during this phase of God, God's more masculine Spirit (that had previously "animated" the Israelites, like with Moses) was deemphasized, and how end-times apocalyptic expectations led to a temporary ascetic celibate ideal, pacifism, and anti-family tendencies. These articles go into more details about that phase of Christianity's growth and development:
List of New Testament Verses Emphasizing Martyrdom in Opposition to Rome
A Summary of Paul Middleton’s article "Martyrdom in the Gospel of Mark" and his book "Radical Martyrdom and Cosmic Conflict in Early Christianity"
Antifamilial Tendencies in Ancient Christianity by Elizabeth A. Clark
Unmanly Men: How Luke-Acts sought to reframe masculinity
The Erasure of "Gods Phallus" (see book) & The Neuroticism that Followed
Third Phase & Strategy (Part 3) -- The Book of Revelation and Constantinian-Christianity: The Development toward Chivalrous Knighthood Christianity and Muscular Christianity
In the 3rd Phase of God we have the Pauline Christ becoming the John of Patmos Christ in the book of Revelation. One can see the Gospels' portrait of Christ changing and adapting, for example the Markan Jesus as exorcist is constantly tossing out demons from people, which is latter replaced with Christ performing miracles as signs with no mention of demons in the Gospel of John. You see the Undisputed Letters of Paul, the authentic Paul encouraging lifelong celibacy because he thought the mortal world was ending soon, but in the Disputed Letters of Paul (Pseudepigraphic Pauline letters), all of a sudden marriage and family is promoted.
Thus you see an emerging energy in Christianity throughout its historically development, wherein the energy of Life continually develops Christianity toward that which causes it to culturally improvise, adapt scripturally, and change theologically, like a living genus evolving over time. When Christianity is seen through this Lens, as an Emerging Phenomenon, one is better able to appreciate and value Christianity as a religion of power that survives and flourishes through its changing adaptability and development overtime through the lens of organic Life itself. In other words, the metaphors of life in the New Testament, light, seeds, planting, growth, etc., perhaps points to an actual lifeward adaptability akin to biological Life, as the most consistent conceptualization of God in the texts.
Fourth Phase & Strategy (Part 4) -- The Rise of American Democracy & The Patriotic "Christian Right" (Borders/Boundaries, Family, and Self-Defense):
The Strategy during this modern phase was God's shift toward endorsing democracy and self-defense, "just wars," and freedom fighters in the spirit of defending one's freedom and democracy. To best understand this American phase, see these books:
Militant Christianity: An Anthropological History by Alice Beck Kehoe
The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity: A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation by James C. Russell
The Saxon Savior by G. Ronald Murphy
Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez
Note that some of these books have a politically biased slant to them which I don't always agree with; but I still recommend these books despite their bias and flaws because the historical data is valid and even someone of a different politically leaning will find the information of use in understanding the rise of a more Americanized Indo-European Christianity. As an Indo-European myself by ancestry, these books help me see how Christianity developed overtime from a small group of pacifists preaching utopianism to become a powerful culturally influential world religion through its integration of the ethics of compassion and the warrior ethos.
Thus, the first century phase and strategy was a "Roman-times gospel," addressing specific issues in first century Rome, which served its purpose of implanting a new morality that replaced the Roman pagan-morality of classism, cruelty and might-makes-right; which led to our modern notions of human rights and civility. Centuries later, with the Roman system gone and replaced with the Christian Ethos of Chivalry in the 3rd Phase, then made way for a new "Americanized gospel."
Historical Context of the Fourth Phase: About a few hundred years after Paul and the first Christians died off, Augustine arose and infected the Christian tradition with his ideology of "despising the body"; thus there emerged an anti-body Augustinian mentality which led to body-rejecting asceticism, puritanism and Victorianism. Thus, there was needed new Christian voices to break out of this mold. There needed to be new voices to return to the original Hebraic affirmation of the body. Biblical scholar Michael Heiser was one such voice, as he described the true nature of God's Realm as Yahweh (aka Jehovah) and His heavenly holy ones (lesser gods). Heiser also explained that the word "saint" actually means holy ones. So combining Heiser's scholarship with the book God: An Anatomy by Francesca Stavrakopoulou, it became clear through historical biblical scholarship that God the Father had a body and a wife or consort. Thus, if one's image of God is embodied and the body is good and holy, that makes one's own sensual body good and holy. When this is combined with Heiser's realization that the pre-earth holy ones (gods) in the heavens are the model for how the earth-born saints (holy ones), then knowing these gods could have sex based on Genesis 5, means the goal of sainthood is not a sexless state but a fully glorified state is an embodied state of sensuality not permanent celibacy. For if Heiser's concept of heavenly holy ones (gods), aka angels, have sex based Genesis 6, it logically follows that earthly saints/holy ones are not to be permanently celibate in this life or the next but are to be like the heavenly holy ones, that is they are allowed to be imitate as embodied sensual beings.
The documents below cover this fourth phase and strategy of God:
In conclusion
What the Four Phases and Strategies of God does is put the Old and New Testament in their proper cultural and historical context and perspective. Thus revealing the importance and practical usefulness of the gospel; by showing how Scripture and theology is at the very least a useful Life Philosophy and empowering "spiritual literature," that is ultimately designed to affirm this life and the body as good. Thus, Scripture can be utilized for inspiring a life of positive action and creativity, while instilling an optimistic outlook on life while providing imagery and metaphors for unifying a People (a Healthy Culture) around the communitarian vision of God's Garden Realm. Even if one is not willing to see Scripture as inspired, one can still see the Bible in the same way one might see The Chronicles of Narnia, a series of seven "high fantasy" novels by Christian author C. S. Lewis. One can appreciate the Bible as a useful form of midrash that upholds the traditions of "Muscular Christianity," Family Values, and American Democracy; with an emphasis on Christian theosis (aka deification) which one also finds emphasized in The Eastern Orthodox Church.