EchDel
· 94w
The law is a schoolmaster unto Christ.
The God of Moses is the same as the God of Paul.
On another point I get very annoyed when a preacher says "When the Jews left the land of Egypt."
It is like sa...
The assumption that the God of the Old Testament (YHWH/El) is the same as the God Jesus describes in the New Testament deserves closer scrutiny. Jesus speaks of an all-loving, all-present God, one who intimately knows and claims each soul—a concept that resonates more with the philosophical understanding of Brahman in Hinduism than with the tribal, ritualistic, and warlike gods depicted in much of the Old Testament. Brahman, with its unity of all existence and the notion that the Atman (individual soul) is Brahman, aligns far more closely with the God Jesus described in his teachings.
Importantly, YHWH and El are not even the same god in the Old Testament. There were distinct traditions and battles between their devotees, illustrating a period of polytheistic tension that many overlook. The Bible is often assumed to be exclusively monotheistic, but its early layers reveal at least two competing gods—not to mention their wives, children, and familial dynamics, akin to the pantheons of Greek, Roman, Persian, and Babylonian traditions. YHWH, in particular, shares similarities with the gods of those cultures: human-like in emotion, often angry, vengeful, and prone to favoritism and retaliation. This god required sacrifices, rigid rituals, and territorial conflicts, reflecting the cultural and political struggles of the time.
By contrast, the God Jesus reveals operates on a vastly higher spiritual level, one of infinite compassion, unconditional love, and forgiveness, far removed from the anthropomorphic limitations of YHWH or El. To conflate the God of Jesus with these earlier deities not only lacks philosophical coherence but also diminishes the revolutionary nature of Jesus's message. The God Jesus points to is not confined to tribal or mythological frameworks but is a universal force of pure love and spiritual truth, transcending the anthropomorphic limitations of ancient deities. It is a God far above such human-like emotions and interactions, calling humanity to a higher understanding of the divine.
