Over the past semester, I have been learning about some incredible topics in my Old Testament class at Appalachian, but the topic we covered today takes the cake. My teacher was discussing the topics of henotheism and monolatry, which are two very complex topics. Basically, both of these words mean pledging allegiance to one God and one God only. For seven years, I went to Catholic school. About a year ago, an interesting topic came up. I remembered talking about this topic because of these two words that our teacher had discussed in my class. The topic was nothing but infamous: religious pluralism. This "presenter," if you will, talked about religious pluralism at none other but a monthly meeting for Fellowship of Christian Athletes at the school I was attending. I had conflicting views with this person, but I never said anything because I was usually in the minority when arguing my point since I had a very liberal view on things and went to a conservative, Catholic high school. It became aware to me today that religious pluralism is alive and well today, but it was also very rampant in the Hebrew Bible. God even discussed this topic when giving the Ten Commandments. He stated, "You shall have no other gods before me." God knew that other deities probably had some version of existence to some other people, but He told His people that He always came first. I have been researching this topic very diligently online and the things I have found are incredible. The shaded view that the modern Christian society has on this subject is simply unacceptable. One website reads as follows: "What does the Bible teach about religious pluralism? First, the Bible acknowledges only one God (Deuteronomy 6:5). Therefore, religious pluralism is incompatible with biblical teaching since pluralism accepts multiple views of God or even multiple gods." The great thing about this is that Deuteronomy 6:5 has absolutely nothing to do with this topic! The verse reads, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." Does it say anything about other gods or deities? I don't think so. It does state, "Lord, your God," but this is only a possessive noun. This verse is simply stating that if you take the Christian God as your deity that you will follow, serve, and love (SIDE-POINT: I wish all Christians actually did these three things because I'm pretty sure God didn't want us judging others and not accepting those who may be different than us.), then you should love Him with everything you have. Now, the Jewish faith knows what they are talking about in this situation. Even though this next quote is from Wikipedia, it is still correct in the facts that it states. The Jewish faith holds a belief that they are Godhis view, however, did not preclude a belief that God has a relationship with other peoples — rather, Judaism held that God had entered into a covenant with all humankind, and that Jews and non-Jews alike have a relationship with God. Each nation with its own unique relationship with God. Biblical references as well as rabbinic literature support this view: Moses refers to the 'God of the spirits of all flesh' (Numbers 27:16), and the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) also identifies prophets outside the community of Israel. Based on these statements, some rabbis theorized that, in the words of Nethanel ibn Fayyumi, a Yemenite Jewish theologian of the 12th century, 'God permitted to every people something he forbade to others...[and] God sends a prophet to every people according to their own language.'" Interesting. So, the religion that started our religion (Christianity) holds the view that other different religions, deities, and practices are just as good as theirs and even different religions can still go to Heaven. I definitely agree with the Jewish view here. I believe that all religions have a different view of God. Christians don't rule the world with how God is viewed and they definitely shouldn't think so. God can be present in all things that inhabit earth, so why can't others picture Him in a way that is more comfortable to them? Whether it is in the form of hundreds of thousands of gods, a peaceful prophet that walked the Earth, or as the Holy Trinity, God can be anything we want Him to be. It's incredible what things we, as Christians, can find in the Bible when we read it academically and not with a shaded view on what we want to hear. I'm really thankful to have received the chance to minor in such a invigorating and interesting topic.
's chosen and holy people, but "t
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Who Am I?Just your everyday organist with high hopes and a lot on his mind. |