Replies to post #78814 on Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[mlsoft]

geezer...

"In several places in the Old Testament it is clear that the God of the Israelites was jealous of other Gods. He said "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me". He recognized that there were other Gods. In His jealousy, he wanted to be seen as the chief God."

You need to read the whole Bible and put those quotes in context. There is but one God, there is no other. What is referred to in your quotes is the other gods found in the minds of men (idols) and the demons (fallen angels) that are behind those idols. God created the entire universe and all that is in it, so how could there be another god??

"As for evil, God specifically said that He creates evil.

Isaiah 45
6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things."

The word translated "evil" is often translated "calamity" or "disaster" and that is the meaning here. Calamity is the translation given in a number of Bible editions.

mlsoft

[zitboy_rev_11_3]

In His jealousy, he wanted to be seen as the chief God.

jesus gave us a few descriptions regarding the Father.....God is love, God is spirit, and that God is perfect, when he inspired us to "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)

we also know that God is changeless........"I am the LORD All-Powerful, and I never change." (Malachi 3:6).........."Jesus Christ never changes! He is the same yesterday, today, and forever." (Hebrews 13:8)

jealousy is never an attribute of true love, so it certainly cannot be an attribute of God's love

moses was a brilliant, self-educated man.....he practically lived in the library of alexandria, which housed all the world's knowledge, including voluminous amounts of religious, and religion-related material........i guarantee that moses knew of God's love, and that God is not jealous, but as a teacher, he had to find ways to profoundly impress upon an uneducated and downtrodden people, knowledge and understanding of God, in manners that they could understand

so what we see in the bible, in this written historical account of man finding God, is a progression, or one might say, an evolution of man's growing understanding of who God is............from a god of thunder and lightning, to one of many gods, to a jealous god who causes afflictions, to a compassionate god who heals our afflictions, to a loving god who is afflicted by our afflictions.....from a god to fear, to a god that loves.............man needs to overcome his tendancy to apply human attributes to God, his habit of designating "that which is flesh" to "that which is spirit"