It bothers me that these folks claim to absolutely trust the Bible, but actually put their Faith in pastors like this man to interpret it for them.

It seems to me that European view of the Bible is radically different. It doesn’t make me want to be a Christian, but it does make dialogue a lot easier.

“This idea that though there were many gods Israel could worship only one is called “henotheism” derived from Greek “hen” (one) + “theos” (god). It means “the worship of one god without denying the existence of other gods”, or “the belief in a special supreme god for each region, race, or nation”, and we see a further example of it reflected in Judges 11:24 as well as the aforementioned Numbers 25, where Baal’s existence is acknowledged outright by YHWH. There were many gods of many lands. The people of Israel did not deny it though they limited their devotion increasingly to only one after the seventh century. David Lochhead suggests that henotheism “might also be described as monolatry – the worship of one god among many.”

David Lochhead, “Monotheistic Violence” Buddhist-Christian Studies 21 (2001) 4.

As for the rest, agreed 100%!

“The primary difference between the two is that monolatry is the worship of one god who alone is [believed] (my insert) worthy of worship, though other gods are believed to exist, while henotheism is the worship of one god, not precluding the existence of others who may also be worthy of praise.”

Even if there is something like captial T truth, what real evidence does this guy have that other Christians who disagree with him don’t? In short, until the Christians are one united front of common belief, why should anyone take them seriously?

Or should we just pick one just to be safe? Well, that doesn’t work either what with loads of Christians damning each other to eternal punishment.

War on “Truth”? You know those who wanted to keep slaves probably felt a “war” was declared on them too. Those who wanted women to remain the property of men probably felt a “war” was waged against their “Truth” too. There were Bible believers in support of both these things and shucks, I don’t see too many being taken seriously in our day and age. Things change and thank the gods that such a nonsensical group is losing hold on people’s minds.

This is how I understand the progression: The Jews started out polytheistic. Then along came YHWH from NW Arabia with Midianite merchants, sometime ca. 1200 BCE. His worship spread (his followers being Yahwists in the words of one scholar). Eventually, they stamped out the polytheists in the 7th to 6th centuries BCE. The Jews were now henotheists (I hadn’t heard the term monolatrist before so thanks for that one!) which meant they believed in many gods but only one god was for them – YHWH. As time went on, they became monotheists. In the words of Morton Smith, the worst things got for the Jews, the more powerful they needed their god to be.

Of course, the Christians also call themselves monotheists and that claim is open to debate as well.

But yes, it puts a different spin on the story, a story many monotheists remain ignorant of. It’s a shame. It might open their eyes a bit.

For the record, I was a monotheist too – LCA Lutheran (they’re now ELCA) – a pretty tame bunch in those days (don’t know how they are now). I left when I graduated from high school in 75 and by 79 I was a Pagan. Obviously, they lost me too with all the nonsense. None of it made sense even years before and nobody could explain any of it to my satisfaction.

And, Jews back when the OT was written weren’t monotheists, they were monolatrists. They clearly believed in other deities, they just believed they had picked the most powerful one, who would give the best rewards.

Kinda puts a whole different spin on the story, doesn’t it?