{"id":2443,"date":"2016-04-21T05:50:45","date_gmt":"2016-04-21T11:50:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/?p=2443"},"modified":"2016-04-19T12:38:59","modified_gmt":"2016-04-19T18:38:59","slug":"apotheosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/?p=2443","title":{"rendered":"apotheosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"apotheosis\"<\/a>\u201cDana, what are Apollo and Poseidon and Archimedes doing up there on that painting of George Washington?\u201d John is taking a humanities course in junior high and, though he loves his teacher and the class, he asked me early in the semester why he had to learn about the \u2018fake gods.\u2019 I told him it is good to understand what past cultures believed and how those beliefs shaped the world in which we live. \u201cBut remember,\u201d I encouraged, \u201cthere is only one true God.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he may not have gotten all the intended images correct as he looked straight up in the Capitol\u2019s high dome, John did notice a rather strange painting in a most prestigious location. In the 1850\u2019s, Constantino Brumidi was given the assignment of painting a huge fresco honoring our nation\u2019s first president. Born in Rome to an Italian mother and Greek father, Brumidi was a gifted artist who eventually moved to America and fell in love with our young nation.<\/p>\n

Completed in 1866, \u201cThe Apotheosis of Washington\u201d shows the founding father surrounded by thirteen maidens, representing the original thirteen colonies, escorted into the exalted position of being a god. On the outside edges of the painting, Roman gods such as Mercury, Neptune, and Vulcan accompany American leaders in Science, Commerce, Marine life, Agriculture, War, and Mechanics. I asked a lady who worked at the Capitol why the artist used such images and she answered that he was imitating the art of his homeland.<\/p>\n

While I would guess George Washington himself would not have approved of the idea of him being turned into a god (which is the meaning of \u2018apotheosis\u2019), we can know from the powerful example of Paul and Barnabas to never accept glory that belongs to our Father in heaven.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet who was lame from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed and called out, \u2018Stand up on your feet!\u2019 At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lyconian language, \u2018The gods have come down to us in human form!\u2019 Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: \u2018Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.\u201d Acts 14:8-15<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cDana, what are Apollo and Poseidon and Archimedes doing up there on that painting of George Washington?\u201d John is taking a humanities course in junior high and, though he loves his teacher and the class, he asked me early in the semester why he had to learn about the \u2018fake gods.\u2019 I told him it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2443"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2450,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443\/revisions\/2450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}