I ran into a new term: Henotheism.

[Rival]

Making pictures of Jesus is not allowed, Orthodox and Catholics do that but not all Christians. Jesus is the visible appearance of God, like in the OT the Angel of the Lord, who is Jesus. God can manifest Himself and thus become visible, but His actual form is invisible and formless. The God you named does not have the characteristics of an Almighty God, only one possesses that. There is only one Almighty God who created everything, everyone else cannot be God according to biblical understanding.

IOW you admit your God has a visible image and all the while refuse to understand anything I just wrote to you about Amun being the 'hidden' God who creates the whole world and has visible manifestations, the same as your Jesus.

That's a nice bias you have there.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Henotheism

 

[Teritos]

IOW you admit your God has a visible image and all the while refuse to understand anything I just wrote to you about Amun being the 'hidden' God who creates the whole world and has visible manifestations, the same as your Jesus.

That's a nice bias you have there.

The visible form of God is alive, it breathes and speaks, Jesus lived and lives, we have many witnesses for it. Has anyone ever seen Amun alive?

 

[Rival]

The visible form of God is alive, it breathes and speaks, Jesus lived and lives, we have many witnesses for it. Has anyone ever seen Amun alive?

Have you seen Jesus alive?

Obviously the answer is no. You have a faith based understanding in that you believe what your scripture says about him. That's fine. My belief is in Amun.

 

[Teritos]

Have you seen Jesus alive?

Obviously the answer is no. You have a faith based understanding in that you believe what your scripture says about him. That's fine. My belief is in Amun.

I have witnesses, many witnesses who have seen Jesus alive. But who has seen Amun alive?

 

[Viker]

I have witnesses, many witnesses who have seen Jesus alive. But who has seen Amun alive?

But you have never seen?

Technically, no one needs to see to have faith. There are other experiences that act in place of eye witness testimony.

 

[Rival]

I have witnesses, many witnesses who have seen Jesus alive. But who has seen Amun alive?

Bro, you need to read what I wrote to you, which you clearly didn't.

Amun's name literally means HIDDEN.

He's the equivalent of your Father God.

My gosh, what is it with some of you Christians and this being 'alive' thing? Seriously, what does it mean?

 

[Teritos]

But you have never seen?

Technically, no one needs to see to have faith. There are other experiences that act in place of eye witness testimony.

Bro, you need to read what I wrote to you, which you clearly didn't.

Amun's name literally means HIDDEN.

He's the equivalent of your Father God.

My Gosh, what is it with you Christians and this being 'alive' thing? Seriously, what does it mean?

God is also invisible and hidden, but he manifests himself to show himself. I personally could never follow a God who has not even shown himself alive, because that would be an indication that this God does not even exist. I myself do not need to see it with my own eyes, the witnesses are enough for me, and I believe the witnesses. The name of God in the Bible "Yahweh" means "He lives", He is a God who lives, and a God who lives shows signs of life.

 

[Rival]

I personally could never follow a God who has not even shown himself alive, because that would be an indication that this God does not even exist.

Then you would disagree with Judaism, your religion's parent, and your own scripture's 'No-one has ever seen God'.

The name of God in the Bible "Yahweh" means "He lives",

Not quite.

 

[Viker]

God is also invisible and hidden, but he manifests himself to show himself. I personally could never follow a God who has not even shown himself alive, because that would be an indication that this God does not even exist. I myself do not need to see it with my own eyes, the witnesses are enough for me, and I believe the witnesses. The name of God in the Bible "Yahweh" means "He lives", He is a God who lives, and a God who lives shows signs of life.

Lucifer is an invisible power in the air and omnipresent. He can be contacted by anyone and many at once any where.

 

[Teritos]

Then you would disagree with Judaism, your religion's parent, and your own scripture's 'No-one has ever seen God'.

For me personally, today's Judaism has nothing to do with the Tanakh, rather it is related to the Talmud.
And it is clear that the passage in the OT where it says that "no one can see God" cannot be literally, for Moses has seen God's back, but also this can not be literally. God has no back or face, he is a spirit and therefore formless and invisible, it is obviously symbolic language.

 

[Rival]

For me personally, today's Judaism has nothing to do with the Tanakh, rather it is related to the Talmud.
And it is clear that the passage in the OT where it says that "no one can see God" cannot be literally, for Moses has seen God's back, but also this can not be literally. God has no back or face, he is a spirit and therefore formless and invisible, it is obviously symbolic language.

Oh great, another Christian throwing out Judaism, how new.

I was talking about John 1:18
No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

 

[Subduction Zone]

They have, but idols are lifeless, they do not exist. The worship of idols is forbidden.

No, idols do exist. The worship of them is forbidden.

You appear to be trying to play semantic games or are even worse conflating idols with the gods that they represent.

 

[Teritos]

Oh great, another Christian throwing out Judaism, how new.

I was talking about John 1:18
No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

I would translate John 1:18 as "No one has ever known God, but Jesus has made Him known." In the OT, you see God mainly making wars and punishing and cursing people because people were very disobedient. But when God became man in Jesus, he revealed his true character. According to John, it was seen and recognized that God is love. Everyone who has seen Jesus has seen the Father, because Jesus is the incarnation of God. So if anyone wants to get to know God, all he has to do is to look at Jesus.

 

[epronovost]

Give me the name of another god who is invisible and is said to have created the whole world. This concept of a God exists only in the Bible.

Are you really this naive? Don't you think any other civilization's mythology would have any interest in answering this universal question? Every single religion has its creation myth from Brahma creating the world as he emerged from his egg/lotus flowers to the Egyptians themselves who, depending on the era, had various deity do the job. In one of them, Atum literally masturbated the world into being.

 

[Heyo]

I was watching a video of the Atheist Experience and in this short clip Matt brings up the concept of Henotheism:

His claim was not that the early Hebrew were monotheistic. They did believe in other gods. But they were not what many people would classify as polytheists, which is usually a belief in multiple gods all with their own specialty. Henotheism is acknowledging that there are other gods but your own god is the best, for . . . um reasons.

He gave an example of Moses showing that the Hebrew god was more powerful than the Egyptian one. There was no claim that the Egyptian god or gods did not exist. Just that they were less powerful. There are other examples in the Old Testament. Any thoughts?

I'm surprised that the word and/or the concept is new to you. I have used and explained it several times on here.
(Although I have to confess that I learned about monolatry only recently.)

"Henotheism and monolatry
Henotheism is closely related to the theistic concept of monolatry, which is also the worship of one god among many. The primary difference between the two is that henotheism is the worship of one god, not precluding the existence of others who may also be worthy of praise, while Monolatry is the worship of one god who alone is worthy of worship, though other gods are known to exist.[15]" - http://dictionary.sensagent.com/Henotheism/en-en/#Henotheism_and_monolatry

 

[Rival]

Are you really this naive? Don't you think any other civilization's mythology would have any interest in answering this universal question? Every single religion has its creation myth from Brahma creating the world as he emerged from his egg/lotus flowers to the Egyptians themselves who, depending on the era, had various deity do the job. In one of them, Atum literally masturbated the world into being.

Ptah, too.

And Khnum.

And Khepri.

But nah, they don't count, I guess.

 

[epronovost]

Ptah, too.

And Khnum.

But nah, they don't count, I guess.

Shh, his daddy is bigger than your daddy m'kay.

 

[Subduction Zone]

I'm surprised that the word and/or the concept is new to you. I have used and explained it several times on here.
(Although I have to confess that I learned about monolatry only recently.)

"Henotheism and monolatry
Henotheism is closely related to the theistic concept of monolatry, which is also the worship of one god among many. The primary difference between the two is that henotheism is the worship of one god, not precluding the existence of others who may also be worthy of praise, while Monolatry is the worship of one god who alone is worthy of worship, though other gods are known to exist.[15]" - Henotheism : definition of Henotheism and synonyms of Henotheism (English)

I was aware of the concept, but the word was new to me. I have heard quite often the argument that the Hebrews believed that other gods existed. Some of the stories in the Bible make far more sense if that was the case. Of course it hurts current belief which is why modern believers reject the idea so often.

 

[SigurdReginson]

"Thou shalt have no other god but me"

Thou shalt not have any other gods before me, so it doesn't even say that you can't worship other gods, just that Yahweh comes first.