Christianity is poly-theistic

Cover to cover. NIV or NRSV, can't remember.

If I didn't read the Bible when I was going through confirmation, I might still be a Christian to this day.

This is a really great point and the most illuminating thing said in this thread.

 

Oh, so you're saying that if we accept that god is evil, then christianity is not polytheism?


No cigar.

There can be a god with control over the other gods, who made other gods, and still be a system of gods.

We're talking in the same sense that christianity burnt people for: paganism of all ages and types, superstition, etc. Christianity is just as polytheistic, they just claim to have a super-hard-on for this one guy.

 

:lurk5:

 

God coexisted within Jesus the same way that god exists within everything. God is in the kindom of heaven. The book states word for word, "the kingdom of heaven is within." Therefore god is within all. Nothing exists separately from anything else. Separation is impossible. Angels are not gods, they're creations. Satan was also a creation and he doesn't have his own realm anymore than this world is a realm outside of the kingdom of heaven. The separation between heaven, hell, this world and perhaps others is a sensory illusion.

God is within everything, nothing is separate, therefore everything is an extension of god. 'Other gods' would not be separate gods. Everything is extension, god being the root.

You have yet to prove that Christians worship more than one god. Christianity is the believe and following of the message of Jesus Christ, hence the name Christ-ianity. God was man (Jesus) not as two separate things, but as one thing, man being the extension of god. Jesus Christ is clearly the central figure of the religion.

Angels, satan, and whoever else you mentioned are not gods. They are creations, as are we.



I think you're confused about the role of certain figures within Christianty. As others have mentioned, reading the book would really help your argument. It would at least help your confusion.

 

Wrong. Most post-date the latst written books in the NT.

 

To be honest, I'm not really sure what you are saying (edit: I think I am understanding your point the more I look at it.)

If God wanted to tie down Satan, for example, there would be nothing that Satan could do.

Even if God was accepted as evil, God as described in the Bible still has total reign and control over the universe. He could be an evil God, but he would still have that power.

In any case, it would end in a personal choice of whether or not God of the Bible is considered evil or good.

Whenever a God is mentioned in the Bible it's in the sense that they are worshiped, not that they are gods. For example, someone's belly can be described as a god, or a statue can be a 'god', or a philosophical position.

"For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords," 1 Corinthians 8:5

"If you see oppression of the poor and denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be shocked at the sight; for one official watches over another official, and there are higher officials over them." Eccles 5:8

Stalin can be called a god or rule like one, doesn't mean that we are all polytheists.

well, seeing as Jesus is the main person to be followed in Christianity, can you show me where Jesus recommended any of his followers do any of the things you have mentioned? With my readings, Jesus seemed to have a lot of disgust for that sort of thing.

Claims are one thing, but if they don't really have a, 'super-hard-on' as you say for one guy, or I would call a true worship of Jesus then it wouldn't be worth much what they said.

 

You're right, my mistake. I read elsewhere that many of the gospels within the Nag Hammadi pre-date NT books.

I just came across this, most other sites say the same thing;

 

Christianity is NOT poly-theistic. There is only one Almighty God, by definition there can not be two Almighty Gods, only one.

There can be many gods, even your stomach can be called a god but there is only one Almighty God.

The word god basically means a mighty one and there are many things that can fit that bill.

So for Christianity to be poly-theistic they would have to worship more than one God which they do not. They only worship one almighty God and that is Jehovah, thus they are mono-theistic.

 

If someone in ancient Greece prayed to only Zeus and no other gods, even though they believed that the other gods existed, would it be polytheistic?

 

I don't think you understand what polytheism is.
Christianity is monotheistic in both subjective practice and objective scholarly study. It's characteristic of being a monotheistic religion is apparent in every page of it's affiliated text. It has all the philosophy and sentiments of a monotheistic religion. No other gods are worshiped or even recognized besides the one true God.

It seems like you are (unsoundly) warping things to bend it into a polytheism subset, as if in an attempt to take that vindication away from people, or shock them or something.
Christianity does not consider Lucifer a god.

 

You ask a trick question. God's in Greek mythos is different from what is meant by god's in Christianity so it would be judged differently. Believing that the God of war existed while only worshiping Zeus would still be polytheism since Mars is still a God in the sense of personal will and power. With the Greek mythos we have Greek drama with human typical feuds between the God's (Early Christians would actually joke around about it). With God of the Bible, Jehovah has ultimate control for an ultimate purpose. Nothing can continue without him; no need to debate (although allows it) and nothing has what it has unless it's given. So while, Satan for example, has his own followers and even their own domain, they only have it because god willed it to be so. If Satan went up to heaven pushed God aside and had a wrestling match and stole God's thunder then I could see how it would be the same. But we know in Christianity that this simply is not so.

"It may seem to the student that the Greek gods act capriciously, frivolously, and even immorally, that they are not particularly heroic, and that they lack the religious seriousness we might expect from a god. All of this is true, but it is also not the complete picture of the Greek gods. For the Greeks did not always think of their gods in the same way many Americans think of God. In the usual Judeo-Christian way of thinking, God is all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful, and is the source of moral goodness. The Greek gods were much more insightful, knowledgeable, and powerful than humans, but not infinitely so. Moreover, their most distinctive quality is not goodness, but power: "The distinguishing quality of the [Greek] gods is, above everything, power" (Bowra 58). Power defines a god: "A [Greek] god is a power that represents a type of action, a kind of force" (Vernant 273). Thus Aphrodite is the force of love and lust; Zeus is the power of the thunderbolt and of kingship; Ares is the power of battle run amok, and so on."

http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/Gods&men.htm

While Greek god's represent a type of action, Satan is the result of being a contrast to God. Since God is often described as life, the opposite would naturally be death, so Satan and death commingle since he is contrasting God; Satan is everything God is not. And since death and nonexistence also commingle, Satan has no power beyond what life gives it.

 

I haven't brushed up on my Greek mythology in a while, so correct me if I'm wrong. But Zeus was the head and king of mount Olympus and had authority over all the gods.

I don't quite see how the god of the bible is as different as you make him out to be. Lucifer rebelled against him, and there was a war. (a war between the gods) Granted, god won, but there was still a war. If I remember right, 1/3 of the angels revolted. This means 1/3 of the angels (creatures that know gods power better than anyone else) determined that it was in their best interest to rebel against god. There hasn't been a war since, but there will be another one.

So while there aren't petty disagreements between the heavenly beings, they still fight for control of the thrown. Theres also the battle for souls, is there not? However, in that battle both sides use humans to accomplish their purposes (as did the Greek gods) though they occasionally manifest themselves on earth. (as did the Greek gods) The fact that there are spiritual beings who have their own separate realm and battle with ¨the one true god¨ for his thrown and the world he created makes a pretty good case for polytheism in my eyes.


Edit: Just because you believe that one side will be victorious in the end doesn't mean that the other side is to be demeaned. The god of the bible hasn't won yet, and I would say that he is actually doing pretty poorly in the war for earth.

 

You see, the religion itself was polytheistic, so no matter how a single person might use it, it is still polytheistic.

As for Christianity it is monotheistic, only one Almighty God is to be worshiped.
So no matter how an individual who calls himself a Christian might worship, the religion itself is monotheistic.

 

The Bible does call Satan the god of this system of things. The Bible does not indicate that even though Satan is called a god that he should worshiped as one.

 

The problem with calling Christianity poly theistic is that all creatures, theologically, that God created such as angels only have as much 'power' as he allows them to have, they really don't have a whole lot on their own. At any moment, God could snuff Satan, all demons and all angels out of existence. To my mind, a god must possess its own power independent of another being.

 

God of the Bible has already won by proving Satan is a liar so all those angels mentioned were deceived. Think of it as a court of law and Satan is accusing God of holding out. He was disproved through Jesus. Now the final enemy is death and God is quickly bringing that enemy to an end as we are living in the last days. There is no possibility of Satan winning as he has already lost. God is a jealous God but even so he still gives man free will to choose who their father will be until the very end of this system of things, but those taking the mark won't have anymore chance; this is done as a test. The end point is God never recommends worship of any other god (little g) but himself and anyone doing so would not be called a Christian so is therefore monotheistic.

As for doing poorly, one of the things Jesus has mentioned (among other things) was that their would be wars and rumors of wars and that all of these things must happen before his second return so it's no secret that things would get hectic before the end as it's actually promised to happen.

 

def zep pretty well covered this, but Christ's ressurection is the victory over slavery to the evil one.

 

Good post.

You pretty much answered my questions.

 

What if a Christian decided to worship Mary, would his version of Christianity be polytheistic?

(or worship Jesus and God separately for that matter..)

 

Def zepplin, I was going to address "god is obviously evil" in another thread, so I'll get back to you on that

To lunarverse and indeed, most posters in this thread: You keep making it sound like being a creation prevents something from being a god....

For example, the greeks and romans, the pagan contemporaries of christianity, had gods that got up to all sorts of naughty things, and thus produced more gods..... The nature of the creator does not preclude creations from certain rank, when they would otherwise belong to that rank, for example christians might say angels are not gods because they did not have a hand in creation, but I think immortal flying beings that can flit between realms at will are reasonably easy to classify as a god, by many religious standards.

You don't have to create to be a god, and being a creation does not preclude a super-human being from falling under the banner of "god".