A panel of judges periodically selected the ‘goddess’ by reading the candidates' horoscopes and checking each for physical imperfections. There must be perfect hair, eyes, teeth, and skin with no scars, and she should not fear the dark. Also, as a final qualification the living goddess must spend a night alone in a room among the heads of ritually slaughtered goats and buffaloes without showing fear. If the child successfully passes all the tests, they remain in complete isolation at a temple, not allowed to return to her family until she reaches puberty. At that point she officially loses her divine status and is replaced by the next chosen one.
It is ‘interesting’, to say the least, to ponder how anyone could be just by appointment by mere men to become deity. It likewise amazing to know that many of the qualifications are based on desirable physical traits. By this standard God’s Son, described in Scripture as the perfect Lamb of God, would have had a difficult time qualifying in Nepal, according to Isaiah 53:2-3.
"He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him."
The New Testament book of Colossians explains precisely who alone embodied deity in human flesh. Speaking of Jesus Christ in chapter one, the writer reveals in verses 15-17, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist."
Then later in chapter two this great truth is expanded upon. "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power." (Colossians 2:9-10) The Bible is emphatic that there is just one Creator God who exists eternally in the form of three distinct persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Luke 3:22, Genesis 1:26)
Any tradition or attempt at making humans into gods is twisted and at direct odds with Biblical truth – not to mention human logic and common sense. But there are those who become closely related to the true God through faith. And while they can possess some of His worthy attributes, they never become actual deity. But amazingly they will someday enjoy the next closest thing. The Apostle John wrote how believers are to reflect the life of Christ in this life – and how they will find the ultimate fulfillment of that glorious goal in the life to come!
"Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." (1 John 3:2-3)
Bill Breckenridge
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