Book of Divinity 1

This is a passage from the *Oahspe Bible* (1882), a 19th-century American channeled scripture written by John Ballou Newbrough, blending elements of Spiritualism, Zoroastrianism, and invented cosmology. The text describes a hierarchical heaven ("atmospherea") governed by divine beings called Gods and Lords who administer laws over both spirits of the dead and living mortals, with a celestial legislature called the Diva established by a heavenly figure named Fragapatti to coordinate this governance. The core theological content articulates three interlocking cosmic laws: the Ormazdian law (the Creator's self-expression through matter and perpetual growth), the I'hua'Mazdian law (divine discipline and harmony imposed on mortals and angels to create unity), and the Zarathustrian law (revealed scripture as the vehicle by which heaven's will enters mortal life). These laws are explicitly presented as a trinity-in-one, with the text framing Zoroastrian terminology — Ormazd, Zarathustra — as earlier names for universal principles rather than the property of any one religion. The passage's most distinctive claim is that earthly religious institutions — baptism, marriage rites, funerals — were literally decreed by a heavenly parliament and then transmitted to humans via guardian angels, making all such ceremonies expressions of cosmic legislation rather than human invention. The overall vision is of an evolving spiritual bureaucracy in which souls progress upward through ranks toward eventual godhood, with the text presenting this as consistent with, and underlying, all world religions.

Book of Divinity 1

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