Our NEAR-Monotheistic Faiths

C

charles brough

Registered Senior Member
The Jewish books of the Old Testament generally picture their being more than one god. In most of the Biblical books, “they” are referred to far more than “The.” Down below are thirty places in the Old Testament that refer to their being more than one god---references which mean that Judaism cannot be described accurately as a monotheistic faith. It's “God” in it is really just the tribal god of the Jews.

In contrast, the New Testament speaks of only One God; but at the same time, people pray to both Christ and Mary. That makes them sort of lesser gods. Satan would also qualify for that with, of course, the understanding that he is not worshiped or at least not worshiped in the same way. If Christ, Mary and Satan are not also gods, what are they? One can call them “spirits” but that just makes them “little gods.”

Islam also pictures a universe filled with demons and angels. It also describes Mohamed as being transported to Heaven where he was stated as conferring with both God and Christ in “Heaven.” Again, that makes him a sort of “little god.”

So, to be accurate, the “Three Religions of the Book” are really faiths which include a Supreme Being, faiths that can honestly only be described as near-monotheisms.

It is just how it is defined and explains how the U.S. government can claim "we never torture prisoners" (because of how we define the term!). See http://humanpurpose.simplenet.com

THIRTY REFERENCES TO MORE THAN ONE GOD:
Genesis 1:26, 3:22, 11:7
Exodus 12:12, 15:11, 18:11, 20:3,5, 22:20, 28, 23:13, 24, 32, 34:14
Numbers 33:4
Deuteronomy 6:14-15, 10:17, 28:14
Joshua 24:14
Judges 11:24
Samuel 6:5, 28:131 Chronicles 16:25 Psalm 82:1: 82:6, 86:8, 96:4, 97:7, 136:2
Jeremiah 1:16, 10:11
 
And let's not be forgetting the Saints.

These martyrs and holy men are prayed to for individual needs and fears - St. Anthony, for example, is revered as the Saint of lost possessions.
Very reminiscent of the lesser Greek and Roman Gods; pray to them and they will help you in their specialist areas.
 
Didn't the god of the Jews say to them, "Thou shalt have no other god before me"? That would be a meaningless commandment if there were not in fact at least one other god.

Or... the guy who wrote that section knew (wink wink nudge nudge) that gods are metaphors and he wanted the Jews to construct a theology that had only one.
 
I had a vague idea the commandment was because of those Babylonians (and the "men of Nineveh"), the wicked gods they worshipped and all that stuff.

Religions - particularly the Judaic ones - are about keeping a tribe together. The Hebrews were a bunch of nomads who established a name for themselves, amongst the ascendant empires of the time - the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians. Nebbuchednezar kidnapped the Jewish elite because he thought they would be useful to him, presumably.

If you consider that the mythologies were most likely constructed well after the actual events, after a generation or two had had the time to inflate, re-tell and imagine such events, the religious elite would have enshrined it as doctrine, as a means of cohesion.

That's what the Jewish religion has always been about, and probably every other.
 
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