The Conspiracy Hypothesis*

THE JUDEO/CHRISTIAN CYCLES

FIRST END-TIME (c. B.C. 869): The Time of Elijah and Elisha

| Israel | Judea | Bloodbath | Cleansing of the Temple |

Baal vs. Yahweh

Real life, of course, does not consist of a number of acts and scenes isolated in time by the raising and dropping of a curtain. Events do not stand alone, but have both antecedents and results, appearing to flow from the past and extending into the future. The curvature whereby a millennium’s beginning and end are linked in a circle is as invisible to us as it was in the apparently flat line of the horizon to landlubbers before Columbus proved the world was round. This is not to say, however, we do not notice many natural chronological cycles around us.

The URANTIA Book begins its account of the original Elijah and Elisha in the century before they actually came on stage, pointing out that other teachers of truth had tried

“Elijah, the Prophet”

ahead of them to stem “the reactionary tide of spiritual decadence that had set in” (1064 A) following the division of the Holy Land into two kingdoms, the northern one of Israel and Judea in the south.

This was the end-time of a mid-point epochal transition period, halfway between the two bestowals, therefore the presentation of new truth was not involved. Elijah and Elisha fought to restore the worship of the One God primarily in the northern state, which was ruled by King Ahab (the governmental “Beast”) and his Queen, Jezebel (the religious “False Prophet”). According to the Bible it was she who corrupted the King with Baal worship. The URANTIA Book presents the Yahweh vs. Baal controversey as a class struggle involving land rights, which Elijah turned into a religious issue.

According to the Bible, Ahab and Jezebel persecuted Elijah with great severity, totally eradicating the prophet’s first set of followers. Elijah laments; not once but twice:

“The children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, torn down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only am left.” (1 Kings 19:10 and 14)

But he was still able to find support among the people -- including Elisha. God tells him:

“I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.” (1 Kings 19:15)

ISRAEL: The Northern Kingdom

Most of the work of these two prophets was carried out in King Ahab’s north where there was not only Baalite corruption but, as The URANTIA Book puts it, “State and Church went along hand in hand”.

Elijah fusing with his Thought Adjuster

Israel was at last delivered from its enemies during the reigns of Jehoash and Jerobaum (c. B.C. 798-767), (ref. 1074 B). Elijah, himself, achieved the supreme goal of human life, personality perfection, and was taken from the earth in a “chariot of fire” for subsequent fusion with his Thought Adjuster (ref. 1212 C).

Thereafter Elisha both literally and symbolically takes up Elijah’s mantle, significantly praying for a double portion of the spirit which had motivated his teacher. Elisha’s role requires that he raise the teachings of his “mentor” to another level. He is always, in a sense, the higher exponent of his predecessors -- the Elijahs. The Elishas always bring about material, social transformations. The word of Elijah bears fruit in Elisha. That is the rule, but it is a rough and ready one.

JUDEA: The Southern Kingdom

In the southern kingdom, according to the Bible, Jehoshaphat, the King of Judea, brought in Baalite corruption when he made a military treaty with Ahab and sealed the pact with the marriage of his eldest son, Jehoram, to a daughter of Jezebel and Ahab, Athaliah.The URANTIA Book says, “presently there was in Jerusalem a temple of Baal alongside of the temple of Yahweh” (1074 C). What happens next gets a little complicated in the Bible, especially so since its writers were apparently confused themselves by the similar names belonging to two kings and couldn’t keep them straight. I certainly had that problem.

It appears that Jehoshaphat, except for this one lapse, was loyal to Yahweh -- it was he who, when Jerusalem was under attack, sought supernal advice and stopped the planned invasion long enough with an apparently supernally revealed psy-war tactic which allowed surrounding tribes to destroy the mauraders. Instead of coming out on their walls with weapons of defence, the Judeans brought their musical insrtuments and started jamming. The attackers hesitated in wonder, and were subsequently lost when nearby tribes arose against them.

Jehoshaphat’s eldest son, Jehoram, probably because of bedroom influence, wavered back and forth between the conflicting value systems of his wife and father. He was crowned King of Judea after Jehosephat died. Athaliah and Jehoram’s daughter, Jehosheba, became a Yahweh worshipper who married the High Priest. Her brother, Ahaziah, would follow his father on the throne and embrace the values of his mother, a true daughter of Jezebel; thus Judea, too, became thoroughly infected with Baal worship.

Bloodbath

Meanwhile, Elisha sends a messenger to another son of Jehosephat, Jehu, to annoint him King of Israel (by this time Ahab was dead and his son, Joram wore the

Elisha with his followers, the “sons of the prophet” (II Kings 4:38)

crown). This messenger also passed on to Jehu Elisha’s instructions to wipe out the entire Ahab progeny. William Smith writes:

“The time was come for the fulfillment of the curse upon Ahab by annointing Jehu king over Israel. Elisha’s personal share in the transaction was confined to giving directions to one of the sons of the prophets [that is, to one of his followers -- the messenger]. Beyond this we have no record of Elisha’s having taken part in the revolution of Jehu, or the events which followed it. He does not appear til we find him on his death bed in his own house.” (Smith’s Bible Dictionary )

The URANTIA Book calls Jehu a “country landlord” who was aided by the “gypsy chieftan Jehonadab” (also known as “Jonadab”, whose father, Rechab started a Nazerine-like sect which persisted at least into the 12th cebtury, as reported by a Benjamin of Tudela, who found

Jehu was made King of Israel by Elisha

Jews called “Rechabites” near El Jubar. They also possibly make a much later, almost modern appearance near Mecca as the Beni-Khaibr tribe, according to a Dr. Wolff -- all as alleged by Smith, who unfortunately gives no further details or references. It is interesting that they maintained their tribal identity throughout the entire Elijah/Elisha evolutionary millennial epoch, and also that The URANTIA Book terms them “Gypsies”, which were believed to have originated even later than the 12th century Rechabites, and in India). Together Jehu and Jonadab brought about a successful reform in Israel when they destroyed “the prophets (real estate agents) of Baal at Samaria” (1074 B). Jehu also destroyed every kinsman of Ahab upon whom he could lay his hands, including Ahaziah, the then-present King of Judea, who was the grandson of both Jehosaphat and Ahab, and the son of Athaliah, Jezebel’s think-alike daughter.

The Cleansing of the Temple

The assassination of King Ahaziah left the Queen Mother -- Jezebel’s daughter, Athaliah -- in charge of Judea. She and her Baalite contingent then proceeded to carry out what The URANTIA Book terms “a reign of terror” which included the desecration and partial dismantling of the Temple.

What Elisha’s do is carry out a cleansing of the Temple. This is the rule.

When Athaliah first took the reigns of Judea she slaughtered all of her immediate rivals except Joash, a child-heir to the throne whom Jehoshaphat’s grand-daughter, Jehosheba, and her husband, the High priest, sprited away from the palace bloodbath and hid for a number of years in the Temple. Acording to The URANTIA Book, after Joash became king he led a successful, thirty-five year “monotheistic revolt” against the Baalites (ref. 1074 C), and restored Yahweh worship to Judea. Then, according to the Bible, he and the High Priest together restored and “cleansed” the Temple.

Since Elisha is shown in the Bible to have had both great admiration for, and trust in Jehosephat, it may be assumed that the King followed the prophet’s teachings, as well as those of Elijah, which the Bible confirms. It also tells us that Jehosaphat listened to the prophecies of “the little known Micaiah” who, according to The URANTIA Book, provided Elisha with “invaluable assistance” (1064 C), and whom Jehoshaphat sent through all the cities of his realm teaching his subjects the way of Yahweh. And the assumption may be further made that Jehosaphat instructed his faithful grandaughter, Jehosheba, in the teachings of Elisha, as well. He would have hardly withheld them from his own household!

Also, Jehosheba’s wavering father was at times during his career in close contact with Elisha and even benefitted on occasion from following the prophet’s advice. It is quite possible that Jehoshiba’s formative years were spent during the years in which her father held Elisha in high esteem. Her brother, however, was likely tutored by his mother, Jezebel’s daughter, who would have wanted to assure herself that the future king was well-coached in her own values, and would continue to uphold Baal worship in Judea, which in fact he did.

Although Elisha survived until the reign of Jehoash of Israel; as Smith points out, he remains in the background during the entire monotheistic revolt and Temple restoration (“cleansing”). This is not to say that it is impossible that he kept his hand in the affairs taking place in the Southern Kingdom. The Bible does report that, at least at the very beginning of his ministry, he was present in the Southern Kingdom city of Jerico, a mere 20-mile crowflight from Jerusalem -- even over the rough terrain, surely no more than a day’s travel. In any respect, the teachings and influence of the Holy Land’s renowned, living prophet, through the vector of Jehoshaphat and Jehosheba, had to have had a decided effect on events of the time in the south. They were one people, with a unifying religion, if they were not one kingdom! I think it can be safely said that if it had not been for Elisha the Temple simply would not have been “cleansed” under Joash. And comparison with later Elisha’s support this. What Elishas do is carry out a cleansing of the Temple. This is the rule, and the original Elisha was no exception, but his influence must be inferred from circumstantial evidence.

(NEXT:) “SECOND END-TIME (c. A.D. 132): John the Baptist and Jesus”