http://koti.phnet.fi/elohim/What_is_God_like.html
If we examine at this stage the Bible’s description of God, of course it differs very much from the pantheistic concept of god. These kinds of differences lie in the fact that the God of the Bible is a personal God, he is the only God, he is eternal, and he has created all and is apart from his creation. We look at some passages of the Bible regarding this:
God is an eternal God, who has always been in existence:
- (Gen 21:33) Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called upon the name of the LORD , the Eternal God.
- (Isa 40:28) Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no-one can fathom.
God has created all and is apart from his creation:
- (Rev 4:11) “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.â€Â
- (Rev 10:5-6) Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven.
6. And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, “There will be no more delay!
- (Mark 13:19) because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now–and never to be equaled again.
- (Acts 17:16,22-27,29-30) While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.
22. Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.
23. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
24. “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.
25. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.
26. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.
27. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
29. “Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone–an image made by man's design and skill.
30. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
There is only one God:
- (1 Tim 1:17) Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
- (Isa 45:21) Declare what is to be, present it- let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Saviour; there is none but me.
- (Isa 46:9) Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.
Other verses about the same matter:
- (Exodus 20:2-3) "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3.â€ÂYou shall have no other gods before me.
- (Isa 14:13-14) You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.*
14. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.â€Â
- (Eze 28:2) “Son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “ ‘In the pride of your heart you say, “I am a god; I sit on the throne of a god in the heart of the seas.†But you are a man and not a god, though you think you are as wise as a god.
- (Romans 1:22-23,25) Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
23. and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
25. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is for ever praised. Amen.
- (Acts 12:21-24) On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people.
22. They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.â€Â
23. Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.
24. But the word of God continued to increase and spread.
THE View ON one God
When we have examined this view about divinity of all, in other words pantheism, so it is good to know that this view cannot be the original inheritance of mankind, but it is a distortion, which followed when people gave up the worship of one God and their original inheritance.
Instead of that, much older view in the inheritance of mankind is the view of one God. It is not at all a western idea or anything such thing but it is a question of that which comes from the initial history of mankind. For example in Genesis there is an apposite reference to this matter:
- (Gen 4:26) Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD .
Good examples of the worship of one God in the history of the nations can be found in several other studies (Wilhem Schmid, who lived in 1868- 1954, has collected 4500-sided work series, in which has been collected proofs of “primitive†tribes’ monotheistic views on God. At least 1000 comparable examples have been found after his.). Ff we look at the traditional knowledge of many primitive tribes, many of them have records of original information concerning the God of heaven and the highest, genuine and real God, which have been handed down. Often, the more primitive the culture is, the better this information has been preserved.
Among many eastern tribes which now practise polytheism, for example in India, in Thailand, in Burma (In Burma for example the Karens, the Kachins, the Lahuts, the Wa and Kui tribes), traditional accounts about the Fall of Man, the Flood and also the confusion of languages have been handed down; in other words, the matters about which the Bible also speaks. In the same way for example in China the worship of Sang Ti, the worship of the Lord of the Heaven, has been in practice hundreds of years before Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism were born, and Sang Ti has been the principal object of belief (Encyclopaedia of religions and ethics).
Monotheism is also the subject of the next citation, which concerns beliefs prevailing in India. Significantly, there are records in this country that prove the people believed in one God and then how this belief has been given up by degrees:
In the old books of the Veda, the Vedic songs give us decisive proof that during the earliest period of the Veda many gods are mentioned, such as rain god Indra, god of wind Vayu, god of storm Marut, god of sun Surya, goddess of dawn Ushas and god of fire Agni. These were however regarded as different appearances of a single highest being.
Professor Max Muller describes this phenomenon of the early Vedic religion with the following words: “The polytheism of Veda is preceded by monotheism; and when these gods are prayed to, there looms out of the mist of non- godly statements, a memento of one large, extreme God such as the blue skies appear behind the wisps of cloud". During this early period of the Veda religion, Hinduism was religiously and morally uncorrupted. Then there was nothing about the caste system and about reincarnation; image worship, legal child murders, burning of widows, the devil worship and absurd philosophic meditation. Instead of that, in the early Vedic songs there are several sublime points: the commonly well-known tradition of creation, the Fall of Man and the Flood, which belong to the first concepts of mankind. (7)
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If we examine at this stage the Bible’s description of God, of course it differs very much from the pantheistic concept of god. These kinds of differences lie in the fact that the God of the Bible is a personal God, he is the only God, he is eternal, and he has created all and is apart from his creation. We look at some passages of the Bible regarding this:
God is an eternal God, who has always been in existence:
- (Gen 21:33) Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called upon the name of the LORD , the Eternal God.
- (Isa 40:28) Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no-one can fathom.
God has created all and is apart from his creation:
- (Rev 4:11) “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.â€Â
- (Rev 10:5-6) Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven.
6. And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, “There will be no more delay!
- (Mark 13:19) because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now–and never to be equaled again.
- (Acts 17:16,22-27,29-30) While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.
22. Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.
23. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
24. “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.
25. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.
26. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.
27. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
29. “Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone–an image made by man's design and skill.
30. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
There is only one God:
- (1 Tim 1:17) Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
- (Isa 45:21) Declare what is to be, present it- let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Saviour; there is none but me.
- (Isa 46:9) Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.
Other verses about the same matter:
- (Exodus 20:2-3) "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3.â€ÂYou shall have no other gods before me.
- (Isa 14:13-14) You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.*
14. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.â€Â
- (Eze 28:2) “Son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “ ‘In the pride of your heart you say, “I am a god; I sit on the throne of a god in the heart of the seas.†But you are a man and not a god, though you think you are as wise as a god.
- (Romans 1:22-23,25) Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
23. and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
25. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is for ever praised. Amen.
- (Acts 12:21-24) On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people.
22. They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.â€Â
23. Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.
24. But the word of God continued to increase and spread.
THE View ON one God
When we have examined this view about divinity of all, in other words pantheism, so it is good to know that this view cannot be the original inheritance of mankind, but it is a distortion, which followed when people gave up the worship of one God and their original inheritance.
Instead of that, much older view in the inheritance of mankind is the view of one God. It is not at all a western idea or anything such thing but it is a question of that which comes from the initial history of mankind. For example in Genesis there is an apposite reference to this matter:
- (Gen 4:26) Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD .
Good examples of the worship of one God in the history of the nations can be found in several other studies (Wilhem Schmid, who lived in 1868- 1954, has collected 4500-sided work series, in which has been collected proofs of “primitive†tribes’ monotheistic views on God. At least 1000 comparable examples have been found after his.). Ff we look at the traditional knowledge of many primitive tribes, many of them have records of original information concerning the God of heaven and the highest, genuine and real God, which have been handed down. Often, the more primitive the culture is, the better this information has been preserved.
Among many eastern tribes which now practise polytheism, for example in India, in Thailand, in Burma (In Burma for example the Karens, the Kachins, the Lahuts, the Wa and Kui tribes), traditional accounts about the Fall of Man, the Flood and also the confusion of languages have been handed down; in other words, the matters about which the Bible also speaks. In the same way for example in China the worship of Sang Ti, the worship of the Lord of the Heaven, has been in practice hundreds of years before Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism were born, and Sang Ti has been the principal object of belief (Encyclopaedia of religions and ethics).
Monotheism is also the subject of the next citation, which concerns beliefs prevailing in India. Significantly, there are records in this country that prove the people believed in one God and then how this belief has been given up by degrees:
In the old books of the Veda, the Vedic songs give us decisive proof that during the earliest period of the Veda many gods are mentioned, such as rain god Indra, god of wind Vayu, god of storm Marut, god of sun Surya, goddess of dawn Ushas and god of fire Agni. These were however regarded as different appearances of a single highest being.
Professor Max Muller describes this phenomenon of the early Vedic religion with the following words: “The polytheism of Veda is preceded by monotheism; and when these gods are prayed to, there looms out of the mist of non- godly statements, a memento of one large, extreme God such as the blue skies appear behind the wisps of cloud". During this early period of the Veda religion, Hinduism was religiously and morally uncorrupted. Then there was nothing about the caste system and about reincarnation; image worship, legal child murders, burning of widows, the devil worship and absurd philosophic meditation. Instead of that, in the early Vedic songs there are several sublime points: the commonly well-known tradition of creation, the Fall of Man and the Flood, which belong to the first concepts of mankind. (7)
More text behind the link!
