Christianity is poly-theistic

And many do this.

Or directly worship items that are seen as conduits, thereby totally bypassing the graven image issue, in the case of the eastern orthodox church.

 

I think I agree with this.. for now at least..

 

Jesus pointed out that there would be some who called themselves Christian but who would not be Christian. Those who do not worship the God and only the God that Jesus said we should worship could not rightly be called Christian.

 

God very clearly either is a very nasty being, deserving of only my worst wishes, if this is the case.

If god can instantly do anything he pleases, why did he create a world he knew would suck, and then watch it suck, while blaming all it's various inhabitants?

Again, that's another thread, but.... for those who advocate reading the bible and all.... read the bible. That's one nasty deity, and he does some atrocious things.

As for this thread, the choice seems to be between polytheism, and living under an utterly evil god.

 

RooRshack, for all of your intelligence, I'm afraid you are wasting your time here with this line of thinking...I must also say I would have thought you more open-minded than you seem to be.

I want to clear up something which actually addresses the OP - I worship (as do other Christians) God the Father (Jehovah Yahwey), God the Son (Jesus as God come human incarnate), and God the Holy Spirit. I see these (Father, Son and Holy Ghost) as the God-head that I worship all as One. Not as different dieties. Jesus said "None shall come to the Father except through me"...now that is paraphrasing, but that is definitely the gist. I see the Holy Spirit as we would see our spirits, our souls - but God (imo) "sends" out this Holy Spirit, as well as there is evidence in the bible that the Holy Spirit does a good bit on It's own. I find that even though I find that I pray to God, I have always 'signed off' with "I ask this in Jesus name"...it's just an old habit (one on my better ones.)

Did I make it clearer or more confusing?

 

Let's see you worship God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Are you arguing that Christianity is polytheistic or monotheistic?

 

Oh, that's the argument muslims make for christianity being polytheistic. I do have a good handle on christianity, in general, and I have no issue with seeing different facets of one god as the same thing.

I'm talking about the abundance of other beings on the level of, and with the powers of, what other religions would consider a god. Angels, the devil, fallen angels, are all examples of these. Christianity calls them these other things, but by most belief systems, the creations or children of gods can be gods in their own right, and supernatural beings with these powers would be considered gods, even if their power might originally come from their own creator.

 

Since you quoted me, surely you were able to comprehend when I said I worship God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit as one.

That is one God, as I see it. In the quote you used of me, I don't understand why you would ask such.^ I consider this to be the God-head (ALL emanating from the same God source) and I consider it to be monotheistic.

 

And RooRshack, I think the other beings you mentioned, wouldn't be on God's "level" because none of them incarnated as human or even could become human (imo) just to be used as the ultimate blood sacrifice.

For all the talk of other beings with power, none, to my knowledge, has ever even wanted to become human and die, certainly not to become the ultimate sacrifice for our sorry human butts. Even Jesus prayed that this cup be passed from Him; but, that He would accept this destiny since it was meant to be...to fulfill the prophesies, and be the sacrifice so that we (humans) could be saved by grace.

 

But see, that's the christian way of seeing god.

To qualify as a god, a being does not have to care about humans, does not have to sacrafice itself, and does not have to be the top god. It just has to be a god. For example, In (I think both, could be wrong, I'm no expert on them) greek and roman mythology, there are gods created by affairs between gods (and maybe god and man). Even as an unplanned bastard god, they're still gods.

You don't have to be the god, or even be nice, to be a god.

Also, I think olderwater was trying to mock me and what he perceives as my lack of understanding of christianity, with that response to you. If this is the case he should go back and read my first sentence in the OP of this thread, where I say I don't mean in the sense that muslims claim that christinaity is polytheistic. (however, on that note, the godhead was no part of the original bible, or any bible, but later conceived by the church, to explain things to all us newly converted peasants)

 

Oh, I get what you're saying...and I do think, as I indicated in post #6 (which I will repeat and hopefully not offend), my God (Jehovah Yahwey) does not claim at any point, especially in the OT, that there are no other gods.
In fact, there are places in the OT where there are "contests", so to say, between God Jehovah and other gods...Baal being one, for instance.

 

Just wondering, by my count it seems like you worship three gods. I guess it's a mystery?

 

No, I was not trying to mock you, so I guess I don't have to go back and reread the OP.

 

Costello: Well then who's on first?

Abbott: Yes.

Costello: I mean the fellow's name.

Abbott: Who.

Costello: The guy on first.

Abbott: Who.

Costello: The first baseman.

Abbott: Who.

Costello: The guy playing...

Abbott: Who is on first!

Costello: I'm asking YOU who's on first.

Abbott: That's the man's name.

Costello: That's who's name?

Abbott: Yes.

Costello: Well go ahead and tell me.

Abbott: That's it.

Costello: That's who?

Abbott: Yes.

(Trinity described: seconded edition 5,000 pages)

 

yeah, we've always felt is xtianity was really serious about monotheism is would see all things are being divine, everything is a part of God, theres no seperation, but they don't see this and will deny it if you say anything like it to them, and they talk about idols, but even within idols is God, is the bible not an idol? its not God, words are idols, everything is an idol, in our opinion, if you percieve a world of different objects, you are not monotheistic, but if you perceive everything as the same, like instead of seeing trees, a cat, last nights lasagna, you just GOD GOD GOD, and theres not even a you theres just GOD, then you can say you're monotheistic, but until then you're just a pagan, and most people are you don't even have to get into the teachings, its its not necessarily bad, its just the way it is, not that monotheism isn't desirable, because its the truth, there is in reality only One, but in a way it doesn't matter what you call it, etc, because it is one, all of us are constantly it, theres no escaping it, even if you see it differently, the truth remains.

 

:smilielol5: Thanx Zep, I needed that.

 

NP :2thumbsup:

 

If God is infinite why not?

 

For some reason, Monkey Boy, even though some people can type in a foreign language, argue the most obscure point(s!) or even immediately know where a certain passage is...the idea of the trinity, a god-head, a snappin' triumpherate that combines to one...well, it's just beyond some people's thinking.

Since the bible talks about God having the form of the Holy Spirit, and being a "father figure" surrounded by the angels AND how He came and incarnated as human in Jesus...I say God is infinite and there is no reason why one cannot acknowledge all and worship all as one.

 

There may be much that we may not understand about God but it is not because God is keeping it a mystery.