Explanation of Old Testament cruelty?

Disclaimer:  This is a channeled message. 

Just thought I should get that out of the way.  I wouldn't post it except after having read a couple of his books I value what James Gilliland has to contribute and would recommend his books to all who are open.  That said, this passage from his first book, Becoming Gods (though now titled Reunion with Source) struck me as a possible explanation as to why I've always held such an aversion to the Old Testament.  (Taken from the book as it is presented.)

Feminine God

    In a time before my time as Ezekiel, the land was governed by simple people.  They worshipped a feminine God and had many deities to represent different aspects of nature.  They were gatherers and tillers of the soil.  It was a time of peace, harmony, abundance and unity with all life.  They worshipped and gave thanks to the feminine aspect of God for their abundant crops and the birth of all life, especially their children.  They believed the feminine God to be the mother of all life, and all life was their family.  They treated all life as their sacred family, and there was truly no separation between God, their people and nature.
    To the west were the warring herdsmen.  They worshipped their image of a masculine God of power.  They believed the thunder to be his voice and lightening to be his wrath.  Therefore, they put him in the ethers, away from the totality of life.  They were conquerors and prayed to their image of God to bring them victory and give them strength in battle.  They prayed that God would rage upon and punish their enemies.  Their enemies consisted of anyone who had something they wanted.
    The peaceful tillers of the soil were no match for the warring herdsmen, whose actions were incomprehensible to them.  They could not bear arms against the warring herdsmen because they had no weapons and could not bring harm to anyone.  To harm the herdsmen would be to harm their brothers, for they, too, were born of the one mother.  Regardless of their ignorance and actions, the herdsmen were family.  Thus, the tillers were conquered and enslaved by the herdsmen.
    The herdsmen hated the feminine God who opposed their actions against humanity, nature, and life in general.  The feminine God was a constant reminder of all they were not and what they knew in their heart of hearts to be true.  They began a crusade to crush and destroy any trace of the feminine God.  Temples and statues were destroyed.  Those who worshipped the feminine God were either killed or tortured, and soon fear and intimidation erased all but a faint memory of the feminine God.
    The warring herdsmen replaced the feminine God with their own image of a wrathful, punishing, masculine God, and their holy men created codes, doctrines, rules and regulations to appease this image.  The beliefs and religions they created allowed them to continue to enslave and control the people, tax their goods and continue doing as they wished to humanity and nature.
    After many generations, the warring, wrathful, punishing God became an accepted belief by the majority on Earth.  This attracted the people of Elaga - extraterrestrials that assumed and acted out this image using their advanced technology to gain dominion over the Earth and its people.  Those warring herdsmen who set out to conquer, control and enslave were soon conquered and controlled themselves due to their ignorance and the image they had created.  The warring, wrathful, punishing God was now replaced by the people from Elaga.
    The people from Elaga gave wrath and punishment a whole new meaning, and those who did not worship them were dealt with very severely.  They had great ships with weaponry that decimated entire cities in a moment.  Those who resisted became examples of a power that, according to their understanding, could be nothing other than God.  It was, in truth, a technologically advanced, yet spiritually backward, people interacting with the people of Earth.  This was the second phase of the fictitious image of a wrathful, punishing God.  The Pharisees were the third.
    This understanding is dedicated to the Women of Spirit and the feminine God - that which births and is the mother of all life, that which is returning to nurture and give birth to a new life - one of love, joy, peace and unity with all life.
   
Images, Religions, Symbols

    It is written that man is created in the same image and likeness of God.  To fully understand this, let us replace “image” with “consciousness.”  There are many small minds that have taken their own personal image of God and projected that image into the ethers.  This image has inherent within it all of the limitations of the one projecting the image.  In order to give this image validity, they seek the support and agreement of others.  Those who have no image agree with them and gather around this image, and thus is born organized religion.  The reason that there are over 11,000 religions is because there are over 11,000 images.
    In most cases the image is passed down by humans, generation to generation, where it is altered according to the needs of the existing government and religious organizations.  God-inspired or not, humans are fallible.  The clarity of any truth is relative to the clarity of the mind it comes through.  All experience is altered by the one who perceives it.  An experience must fit one’s picture of reality and if it does not, an individual will adjust the experience within the mind.  He will then relay the experience as he perceived it.  If one does not have anything to compare an experience with, he will adjust the experience to symbols and images he understands.  Many sacred writings were not recorded until 200 years after the events, according to stories passed down by word of mouth.  We all know what happens to the original story.  It is altered, amended and adjusted to fit the needs of the storyteller.
    There are tribes in Africa that have built straw airplanes and lit fires to attract the Gods in the sky.  To the tribesmen, anyone who can fly must be a God.  When they see airplanes fly overhead, they believe the airplanes are Gods.  Those in the airplane understand and accept the airplane as a mechanical means of traveling long distances.  
    As Ezekiel, I experienced the landing of a ship.  The ship was from Elaga, a technologically advanced civilization.  They had the ability to teleport objects and people and communicate with anyone, anywhere, at any time.  They desired to “straighten out” humanity in their own way.  Unfortunately, they also wanted to be appreciated and worshipped as Gods.  Their love was far from unconditional.  I described this ship to the best of my ability, and it is recorded in your bible, along with countless other encounters with “fiery chariots.”
    This was an intellectual description by a personality and was based upon the experience of that lifetime.  The description was based on my understanding at that time of God and the universe, using the words, symbols and objects understood at that time.  In other words, it is old news.  
    I have since evolved to a greater understanding of God and the universe.  I now know about the Elaga civilization and their technology.  What I experienced as Ezekiel and my “superstition” has been dissolved by this greater understanding  of God and the universe.  Images and religious misconceptions based upon the old images give way to this greater understanding.  To hold on to the images of the past is to hold on to ignorance.  Humanity is evolving into a greater understanding of God, the universe and the other planes, dimensions and civilizations that are in the universe.  To come to this understanding, we must dispense with the misperceptions, superstitions and graven images of the past and open our hearts and minds to a greater reality.
    I desire, if you wish, for you to read the book of Ezekiel within your Bible in light of this new understanding.  The leader of the people from Elaga was named Jehovah.  He was known as the jealous, wrathful God of Israel.  In order to intimidate the people into worshipping him as their only God, he unleashed shattering and devastating weapons upon all who resisted his edicts or his self-ordained role as the God of Israel.
    Upon his orders, six men of Elaga with their shattering weapons, which were atomic in nature, annihilated the men, women and children of Israel, leaving only a few terrified survivors to spread the news.  Another man from Elaga dressed in linen was ordered to reach into the bowels of one of the smaller ships, known as “cherubim,” and take hot coals (radioactive material) and spread them all about the city.  This was to insure Jehovah’s prophesy that a plague would come upon the city, causing people’s hair and fingernails to fall out.  He prophesied that they, and all who came years after would die and become food for the beasts and ravens.  His wrath was not limited to the people of Israel, for he destroyed other cities as well.  It was a reign of terror and mass genocide.  
    This knowledge will come as a shock to a great many of you.  Some will deny it; some will remember the experience - for it was part of their former experience - and feel victimized or angry.  
    Reason this:  What kind of God would do such a thing?  Is it a God you can look up to and worship?  Only a limited God would see himself as separate from humanity and order mass genocide, demand sacrifice of children, birds and beasts, and demand offerings of oils, grains and herbs.  Reason this:  Would it make sense for a God, an omnipresent God of pure, unconditional love and joy, to war upon itself?  Who would he root for or side with?  He would be against himself - punishing and killing himself.  A singular entity with an ego that believes itself to be separate from, or above, the whole of life is not embracing the totality of omnipresent God.
    The encounters between Jehovah and the human race have been the foundation for several of your great religions, the inspiration for much of the Old Testament, and they are one of the grandest of all misperceptions.  Jehovah was a technologically evolved tyrant who was spiritually backward.  He had a great ship - described in depth to the best of my ability, as Ezekiel, according to the knowledge of that time period.  He also had the smaller ships known as “cherubim.”  They sounded like a great roar of rushing waters when they ascended and descended.  On these ships were powerful, shattering, atomic weapons that were used on all who resisted.
    Jehovah was the force behind Joshua and David.  He created a weapon of terror beyond your wildest dreams.  Those who encountered it were hideously turned inside out.  Their hair and fingers fell from their bodies, their bodies literally exploded, and those who survived prayed for death.  This terrible weapon, along with a great ship, warred against innocent and peaceful people who had nothing but a sword and shield.  Jehovah’s armies were merciless and their slaughter was all done in the name of God - a jealous, wrathful God who would have no other images before him.  Jehovah forced those who would not deliver his message to eat their dung and urine, or he took away their kin to insure the delivery of his message.  Jehovah was a God who warred upon and hated the white man, the black man, the red man and all who were not of his chosen people.  He killed and tortured his own people for not perfectly obeying and carrying out his demands.  He was truly merciless, unforgiving, and had no respect for life, not even the lives of his own followers.  Fear, intimidation, control and manipulation were the tools of Jehovah.  
    These tools are still used today.  Many of your religions are based upon the doctrines of Jehovah - doctrines that in the past were enforced by a jealous, wrathful and technologically evolved tyrant.  Many of the doctrines were fair and just, and they assisted humanity in establishing a ‘moral’ code of behavior that allowed them to coexist peacefully.  But, the image of God left behind has severely stunted a great portion of humanity’s spiritual evolution.  Fear, unworthiness and the image of a jealous, wrathful and embittered God that no one can appease and who exists somewhere in the ethers are the great separators and stumbling blocks to awakening and uniting with the one consciousness that encompasses all consciousness.
    Who would want to unite, become one with, or serve such an image?  Many, in ignorance and through fear and intimidation, have become subservient to just such an image and to those religious institutions that perpetuate such an image.  It has become very profitable to move God out of the hearts and minds of people and to use fear, intimidation and guilt to demand payment to appease a wrathful, punishing image.
    The pure, unconditional love and joy of God is not to be earned or bought.  It is something to become one with.  The temple is within.  It has always been within.  It is my desire that you contemplate this experience and use whatever techniques work for you to process and release any lower vibrational attitudes and emotions you may be experiencing.  This knowledge is given for that purpose - to get you beyond your fear, unworthiness, misperceptions and wrong conclusions from this or other experiences at the hands of those who, in ignorance, are perpetuating the wrathful, punishing, controlling and manipulating image of God.  
    Finally, in this regard, a comment concerning a group known as the “Jehovah’s Witnesses” and any other religious institution which fosters an image of a wrathful, punishing God, separate from humanity and nature, living somewhere in the ethers.  They are not to be warred upon.  They are to be loved.  If they have experienced the wrath of Jehovah in a past life or the wrath of misguided, overzealous individuals perpetuating the image of a wrathful, punishing God, they have much to overcome.  Many of them are aligned with Jesus, Yahweh, and the Great White Brotherhood and are just using the wrong name, and that is all right.
    Those whose hearts are filled with love for humanity and nature are on track no matter what their image.  I am empathic with those who falsely align with and perpetuate the wrathful punishing God.  I understand the fear, the unworthiness and the confusion.  I understand the scars and misperceptions that came from these encounters.  I, too, was once confused and deeply scarred from those experiences.  I have since healed my wounds.  The fear, unworthiness and confusion have settled into my soul as wisdom.  It is my deepest desire that all humanity heal and awaken also.
    The prize is unconditional love, pure joy and a oneness with the omnipresent source of all consciousness and all life.  Only a fool would not trade their graven images, their fear and unworthiness, and the pain and suffering which comes from ignorance.
    Pure unconditional love and joy is pressing hard upon all humanity.  Those who need an image to worship outside of themselves should choose an image that empowers them and reminds them of what resides within self.  They should choose an image they can love and aspire towards becoming, one without an image that intimidates them or makes them fearful.  Over and over again, we have given the image of a loving, joyous God to humanity.  This image has been bent and twisted by humans and their institutions.
    In the days to come, all will be aligned with a new image that honors all paths and all people as unique expressions of God.  This new image will also incorporate nature as a part of the whole that is to be loved and cherished.  This will be the Golden Age, the thousand years of peace.  The Golden Light that is pure, unconditional love and joy will fill the hearts of all humanity.  That is destiny.

The Gods of Love and Peace

    This next understanding concerns another highly evolved being, named “Yahweh,” and the Great White Brotherhood.  Yahweh was the God of love and peace.  There was, and still is today, a Great White Brotherhood - a collection of ascended saints, sages and masters who have greatly loved and served humanity for eons.  They are loving, peaceful masters who have been overseers of humanity’s spiritual evolution.  They do not believe in war and are greatly loved.  They were a threat to Jehovah’s desire to be the one sovereign God of Israel and the entire planet.  They pleaded to Jehovah to end his senseless slaughter and allow humanity its own evolutionary process.  They even stood in front of his ships, which greatly angered Jehovah, for his weapons could not harm them.
    They were unseen by people on Earth, yet they were present throughout Jehovah’s reign.  They prayed incessantly to the Supreme Intelligence, the Creator of all that is, and one day a great ship appeared in the heavens.  It was brighter than ten thousand suns.  It was swifter than anything known, and on it were the greatest of all Gods that ever were.  Jehovah was intimidated by this great ship and utterly defenseless, for he could do nothing against it.  He fled to a far distant galaxy, never to return.  Yahweh and the 13 grand masters of the Great White Brotherhood began what was, and is to this day, the arduous task of healing the scars, wounds and misperceptions created from the encounter with Jehovah.
    They sent dreams of peace and visions of brotherly love.  They sent one of their own, endowed with the love, wisdom and power of Yahweh and the thirteen.  They transferred their combined higher consciousness and energy into one singular entity.  The star of Bethlehem was a great ship that oversaw the birth of this entity, holding its position while the rest of the stars traversed the heavens.  He taught of love, peace and brotherhood and his forgiveness and mercy were unlimited.  He was the son of Joseph and Mary, indeed an immaculate conception, and he was known to you as “Jesus.”  There shall come a great light, very soon in your time, that will once and for all heal the scars and images of the past.  It will sever all connections with Jehovah, which still exist to this day.  The days of controlling, manipulating energies will come to a close.  The pure unconditional love and joy of Yahweh and the Great White Brotherhood will be the governing consciousness of humanity.

The Last Great War

    The last great war shall be a war in consciousness, light and energy.  There shall be no nuclear war.  There is a limit to allowing, and nuclear war would be devastating to other life forms on this plane and other dimensions as well.  It shall not be permitted.  The last great war shall be between the Christ Consciousness and all that which is against the Christ Consciousness.  It is a war between the soul’s ego, being the working duplicate of the God-self, and the alter ego, programmed by social consciousness.  The alter ego is riddled with fear, unworthiness, disease, religious and scientific dogma, and a myriad of wrong conclusions from past experiences.  There will be those who will resist vehemently the awakening and healing process, yet it is no longer optional.  It is destiny.
    The fruits of the labor of grand masters, saints and sages are being harvested as we speak, with the greater harvest just around the corner.  This great war shall be multidimensional, as above, so below.  It will be experienced on Earth as the fall of the tyrants.  Those who lust for power and money at the expense of humanity and nature, those who desire to possess, dominate, control and manipulate, and those refuse to honor the divine right to free will and self-determination of the individual, shall not see the coming age.  The lag time between the action and the reaction is being drastically shortened.  Their karma shall seem instantaneous.  Those who cling to social consciousness will also experience an acceleration of everything within social consciousness.
    The diseases, fears, insecurities, anger, violence, jealousies, separating attitudes and emotions will all manifest until there is a healing and change in consciousness.  Those in your governments and your business and religious institutions who desire to dominate, control and manipulate, stifling individual freedom, will become even more tyrannical and fanatical.  The other polarity will also be amplified, as well as universal justice, will also be exalted.  Behind them will be legions seen and unseen.  The masses will become enlightened and empowered from within, and they shall also make their stand.  The polarities between love, joy and individual freedom and the opposing factions of fear, againstness and those who desire to take away your freedom will become very apparent.  
    Nature will also move with the acceleration of time in her cleansing and healing process, and there will be a quantum leap in physical evolution.  There has been an electrical band of energy, known as the blue corona, placed around the Earth, which is accelerating and amplifying the awakening and healing process.  It is intensifying the polarities, exalting everything and bringing forward the people and events into your daily lives that correspond with your attitudes and emotions.  You are all getting a crash course in self.  As the energy increases cyclically and exponentially, it will seem as if the world has gone rather mad.
    This even is also happening on what is termed other planes and dimensions as well.  The astral levels, often referred to as the wheel of life, are also experiencing a quickening of their attitudes and emotions.  
    As the veils are lifted, many are going to experience feeling the presence of loved ones who have made their transition working out unfinished business, or just saying good-bye as they ascend to new levels.  They are also healing the wounds, traumas and wrong conclusions from past experiences, which also perhaps involved those they left behind on Earth, yet are still connected to on a mental and emotional level.  
    There is another experience that is going to manifest in your heavens.  It will be the greatest of all wars.  It concerns a group of beings that have, and still are, based upon the Earth.  They were responsible for creating great dynasties.  They have been behind the greatest tyrants that have plagued the Earth for eons.  They have created images of jealous wrathful Gods, fearful demons and a few other clever creations - all to keep you in darkness and subservience.  They do love humanity, yet that love is very conditional, and they will only exalt you to the level that they can be worshipped and continue to control and manipulate you.  They do not desire for you to realize that you are Gods born of the original light, for then they would have no more control and could no longer hold their exalted position over you.  They are best understood as a house of consciousness, and there are many who have mistakenly aligned themselves with this house and are, in most cases, unconscious that they are doing their bidding.  They are unaware that when you desire to control and manipulate others, you attune to and attract others of like mind, on other planes and dimensions of consciousness.  In turn, for the use of a little of the power from these malevolent beings, they themselves end up being controlled and manipulated, and in some cases, possessed.
    Like minds attract like minds.  These particular entities are known as the evolved tyrants.  Those who align themselves with this house will be known by their own desires to hold others beneath them and by their controlling and manipulating tendencies.  These evolved tyrants are realizing their next move is governed by the moves of those beneath them.  Thus, they have given up their freedom and are controlled in truth by those beneath them.  They are also evolving and coming to the realization that they do not need to possess so many forgotten Gods to exact self worth.  Those based upon the Earth are already being turned around.  There is a greater consciousness intervening on your behalf, along with a great armada with ships beyond your wildest imagination.  Their leader, the once defeated Jehovah, is returning.  Yet, you will not experience his wrath, for that which awaits him is awesome.  It will be as if the greatest of all Gods that ever were and the whole universe have set out to greet him on your behalf.  That is how greatly you are loved.  There shall be a war in the heavens, and it will be a war of consciousness and light.
    On Earth it will be seen as great bursts of light in your heavens, eventually ending in twelve days of continuous light.  This will signal the end of the tyrants, the end of social (nonspiritual) consciousness and all lower vibrational attitudes and emotions.  This will be the final lifting, and those who are left will be the meek, profound feeling entities who have aligned themselves with their soul’s purpose and destiny and chose love to be the manifesting force behind all creation.  They will be those who removed themselves from social consciousness and chose the Christ consciousness - those who aligned themselves with the house of Yahweh, the Great White Brother/Sisterhood, and the Beautiful Many masters, saints, and sages dedicated to awakening the God within you.  It will be known as the age of God.