The Nature of the Christian God

1. God’s Name Exodus 15; 3

 

2. God’s Country Habakkuk 3; 3

 

3. Descriptions of God. 2 Samuel 22; 9, Deut. 11;12 , 2 Chronicles 16; 9, Zech. 4;10

3:1 God is like jasper & carnelian stones Rev. 4; 2-3

3:2 John’s description of Christ. Rev. i. I2-l6. Rev. 2; I8

 

4. God’s companions. Zech. 6; 2

4:1 Bizarre heavenly beasts around God’s throne praise him tirelessly. Rev. 4; 6

 

5. God’s Character

5:1 Yahweh the destroyer. Zeph. 1; 2

5:2 Yahweh the avenger. Deut 32; 35 Nahum 1; 2

5:3 Yahweh craves vengeance Ezek. 5; 12 -13

5:4 Yahweh the god of war. Deut. 39 —- 42

5:5 Yahweh comes accompanied by epidemics. Hab. 3;5-6

5:6 God as a wild beast. Lam. 3; 10 Hosea 5; 13; 7-8

5:7 God describes himself as a moth and the rot Hosea 5;

 

6. God’s emotional composition

6:1 Yahweh — an envious, irascible, indignant god. Nahum 1;1 – 6

6:2 Yahweh’s unbridled rage. Deut 32; 22 – 25

6:3 Yahweh’s uncontrollable fury and lack of poise. Isaiah 34; 2 – 10

6:4 Yahweh’s lack of compassion. Lam. 2; 20

6:5 The Lord God remains unmoved by pleas for mercy. Ezek. 8; 18 Ezek. 8:5 Isaiah

13, 6 18

6:6 God regrets destroying every living being and resolves not to do it again. Gen. 8;21

6:7 God repents and feels sorry for himself. Jer. 15; 6. Gen; 6; 6 1] Exodus 32; 14

I Sam. 15; 35 Amos. 7; 3 Jer.15;6.

6:8 The Lord takes a turn, and inexplicably tries to murder Moses and is pacified with the

offering of a baby’s foreskin. Exodus 4; 24-26

 

7. God’s Transport

7:1 God rides on the back of an angel. 2 Samuel 22:11 Psalm 18:10

 

8. God’s Throne

8:1 God has a rumbling, flashing, thundering throne. Rev. 4; 5

 

9. God’s Offspring

9:1 Sons of God have sex with the daughters of men. Gen. 6; 4 1]

 

10. God’s Diet

10:1 The Lord prefers meat to vegetables. Gen. 4. 3-5.

10:2 God enjoys the smell of roast meat. Gen. 8;20

10:3 God shoots out fire to eat the meat offering Lev 9:24

 

11. God’s Appearances

11:1 God stands on the Altar. Amos 9;1

11:2 God manifest himself as a pillar of fire and a cloud. Exodus 13; 21, 22.

11:3 God hides in a burning bush. Exodus 3.2-5

11:4 God shows his back parts. Exodus 33; 23

 

12. God’s Social Life

12:1 God is tired of living in a tent and demands a house. 2 Sam;7:4

12:2 Satan pays a visit on his mate God. Job 1; 6

12:3 Moses and God meet on the top of a mountain. Ex 19; 20

12:4 Moses takes the people to meet Jehovah in a burning mountain. Exodus 19; 17-22

12:5 God holds a dinner party for 74 guests on a paved mountain. Exo 24:9-11

12:6 God and two angels pay a courtesy call on Abraham and have lunch with him. Gen.

18; 1- 8

12:7 Abraham takes a stroll with God and negotiates with him. Gen. 18:16 Gen 18:23

12:8 God has a tiff with Sarah. Gen. 18:10

12:9 Disgusting effect of the presence of “God in a box.” 1 Samuel 5; 8

 

13. God’s Communicative skills

13:1 God appears in a cloud and talks to Moses. Exodus 33; 9 Numbers 12; 5

13:2 God roars Isaiah 42:13 Hosea 11:10 Joel 3; 16

13:3 and yells like grape-pressers. Jer. 25; 30

13:4 He summons people by whistling and hissing. Isaiah 5;26 Zech. 10; 8

13:5 He also summons the flies from Egypt and the Bees from Assyria by hissing. Isaiah

7; 18

 

14. God’s Deceptions

14:1 God deceives his own prophets. Jer. 20; 7 2 Chronicles 18; 22

14:2 And sends evil spirits to trouble his kings. I Samuel ‘I6; 14 I Samuel 18;10

14:3 He even has his son taken away and tempted. Luke 4; 1

14:4 He also deludes people into believing lies so that he can then condemn them. 2

Thessalonians 2; 11

14:5 God makes men drunkards Jeremiah 13:13

 

15. God’s Enemy the Dragon

15:1 God describes the Leviathan his nemesis — a many-headed fire-breathing Sea-

Dragon. Job 41:1 Ps 104:26

15:2 A War in heaven between the angels and the dragon. Rev. 12; 7

15:3 God fights with the Sea-Dragon and kills it. Ps 74:14 13 Isa 27:1

 

16. Testimonies of God’s Goodness

16:1 The love of God is evident in his killing and expropriating the land of others. Psalm 136: 10

16:2 Sun, moon, stars, dragons, pious mountains, and holy beasts are called upon to Praise the Lord. Psalm 148:3

 

Objections to the Creationism of the Bible

The whole edifice of Christian theology of Salvation finds it’s origins in the Biblical account of creation and the subsequent fall of man — necessitating the final salvation through Jesus Christ. So we begin our critique with this myth. The fundamentalists would have us believe that God created the world from nothing (ex nihilo). The world was created according to Genesis in 6 days, then God tired from his labour and took rest on the seventh day, which was consecrated as a holy day. (The original day was Saturday which Emperor Constantine changed to Sunday). If this is accepted as a Myth — meaning a description which explains an inexplicable Truth, then there is no problem. When it is presented as historic and cosmological fact then some questions call for answers. The first major problem that faces us with the story of creation is that there are two distinct and Mutually contradictory accounts.

Genesis 1; 1-31

The earth is formless and void — water is in a state of chaos.

Day 1. God creates the light through speech and separates it from darkness, calls light day and darkness night.

Day 2. Divides the waters upwards and downwards by the sky.

Day 3. Gathers the waters below the sky into the sea, and dry land (earth) appears. Creates vegetation.

Day 4. Creates sun, moon and stars. Day 5. Creates creatures of the sea and birds, and sea monsters (ta‘inim).

Day 6. Creates cattle and all earth creatures,then creates both male and female (Adam & Eve).

Day 7. Takes rest from His handiwork.

Genesis 2; 4-25

The earth is barren and dry

Step 1. A spring gushes out and waters the entire earth.

Step 2. God creates Adam from the dust.

Step 3. God plants a garden to the east — Eden, together with the tree of life and the tree of good & evil.

Step 4. God puts Adam in the garden to work as a gardener.

Step 5. Makes animals to be his companions so that he won’t be lonely. He brings each one to Adam to name it.

Step 6. Adam still has no helper and so God creates Eve from his rib.

Objection 1. The creation ex nihilo?

There is no definite statement that the world was created from nothing. The first verse “ln the beginning God created heaven and earth” is a statement introducing a subject about to be taught ie. the creation of heaven and earth. There was either a pre-existent chaos in which earth and water and sky were all combined and undifferentiated or the first thing that God did was to create a chaos and then set about sorting it out.

Objection 2. Day & Night without the Sun?

God separates light from darkness and calls the light Day and the darkness Night. (Genesis 1;4) Then three days later he creates the sun.(Genesis 1;16) How is it possible for day to exist without the sun? Every school child knows that the day and night are created by the movement of the earth. The Fundamentalist will perform all kinds of exegetical gymnastics to get out of this quandary. Saying that the Day referred to is not an actual day, and the Night is not an actual night — none of which is borne out by the text which uses the words in a simple and straight forward manner, affirming that day and night were alternating with each other.

Objection 3. Canopy of the sky?

According to Genesis 1; 6-8 God separates the waters by means of the canopy of the sky. There is water below which is the sea and there is another body of water above the sky. Seeing that water is a physical substance this canopy too must be a physical substance. Yet millions of people have flown in aircraft above the clouds, space ships and satellites have regularly been sent into space yet never has there been any report of vast bodies of water beyond the sky! Nor a canopy that has been pierced.

Objection 4. Creation of Man

We are told that God created animals first and then followed with the creation of man (Adam) and woman (Eve) at the same time. We are then told that he first created Adam, then he created the animals to be companions to him. When this does not alleviate Adam’s loneliness he takes a rib and creates woman (Eve) to be his companion. An evangelical friend of mine understood the second account to be an elaboration of the first account. But he still could not adequately explain how the animals were created before Adam and then again after him.

Objection 5. Human-like Activities of God.

Genesis 2; 8 tells us that God then took to gardening and planted a garden in the east called Eden. He then gave Adam and Eve to live in the garden. In the cool of the evening He used to stroll about in the garden4alking to himself (Genesis 3;8). Where Adam and Eve hide themselves from him, he couldn’t find them and called out to them(Genesis 3;9). He then interrogates them about their indiscreet behaviour and curses them. This episode clearly demonstrates that God is very much a physical being with physical limitations and is not yet omniscient. If the East spoken of is a geographic east why is it that the garden of Eden has never been found? If it is acknowledged by our Fundamentalist friend to be spiritual realm, then surely the account cannot be historic! History pertains to the realm of scientific investigation not to the realm of mythological speculation! The two views are incompatible. One Evangelical that I was discussing this subject with told me that the garden had been destroyed in the flood! Tree of life and all! (There is no indication of this in the Bible to my knowledge!)

Objection 6. The existence of other Peoples

Adam and Eve had two sons — Qayn and Hevel, Qayn killed Hevel, God then inquires from Qayn what has happened to his brother (Gen. 4;10) In the dialogue that follows Qayn expresses fear that he will be victimized and the Lord acknowledging the reality of his fear promises to protect him (Gen. 4; 15).Qayn then departs to the land of Nod where he marries and has children (Genesis 4; 16). It seems like the creator suddenly has a memory lapse, the entire population of the earth is three; Adam, Eve and Qayn, so who does Qayn fear and from whom will God protect him? Where did those people in the land of Nod come from? Who made them? If this is an historical account we must come to the logical conclusion that other creators were at work oblivious of each other’s agendas!

Objection 7. Lifespan exceeding 800 years

We then have a genealogical table of Adam’s descendants all whom live not less than 800 years! Seeing that a year has always been exactly 12 months except in a leap year it is impossible to accept that our pre-flood ancestors actually lived for 800 + years!

Objection 8. God’s lack of knowledge

The people began building a tower to ascend to heaven (Gen 11;4) God (elohim) came down from heaven to see what they were doing (Gen 11;5) He became worried because nothing would prevent them from doing what they have imagined to do (Gen 11;6) God (elohim) then says “let us divide their languages so that they will become confused and their work will be obstructed” (Gen 11;7) From this “historical” account we learn that God lives up in the sky beyond the clouds, his vision is limited so he cannot see clearly from were he is. He is compelled to descend from the sky to observe what the people are doing. He becomes worried because they can and will reach heaven if they continue building and so he and his colleagues (“let us“) divide the languages, cause confusion and so foil the plot by humans to ascend to heaven!!

The Bible that is Never Quoted

The Bible is a book of miscellaneous character. It was composed by many authors, some of whose Names are known and other unknown and handed down by word of mouth for centuries. lt contains Poetry, history, legends, fables, ethics, prophecy, parable, and superstition. The good and bad, beautiful and ugly, savage and tender, are all wonderfully mixed. It is also a very large book without an index or table of contents and as such it is very easy to read it in an uncritical manner, selecting passages that are agreeable and simply ignoring those that are unagreeable or difficult to understand. Hence the necessity for this Book of unusual or little known Biblical quotes, which is chiefly designed for non-Christians and Freethinkers, but should also be of service to inquiring Christians. The object of this compilation is to present a collection of embarrassing verses which are never quoted by missionaries and in most cases little known by the missionaries themselves. The quotes are presented as they appear in the Bible with the chapters and verses for the purpose of cross-reference by interested scholars. The worst things in the Bible have been selected; its self-contradictions, its absurdities, its immoralities, its indecencies, and its brutalities. Many Christians will doubtless object to this way of approaching the Bible. They will probably deny the fairness of dissecting the Bible in this way and presenting the passages out of context. But the apologists of the Christian Scriptures, particularly the evangelicals are constantly occupied in asserting that the Bible is the unquestionable and infallible “Word of the True God”. It is also the way of true morality and everything in their lives has reference to the Bible and what the Bible says on various selective topics — from the election of the president, to war, abortion and homosexuality. Unquestionably it would be grossly unfair to disembowel an ordinary book in this way. But the Bible is not an ordinary book. lt is endorsed in England as “God’s Word” by Act of Parliament, it is believed by many that everything in it is historically and scientifically true. The creation of the world, the origins of the human species, God’s plan for salvation and everything else is the Absolute Truth to millions of pious Christians. Wars were fought over it, Governments rose and fell through it, blood was shed in it’s name, people were conquered and enslaved on its teachings, persecution was justified by its myths and personal prejudices and hatreds were keep inflamed by its quotes. Its supporters use its verses to denigrate and denounce other belief systems and certainly in the past to justify burning people alive. Evangelicals use a highly critical method of examining the Sacred Scriptures of the Hindus in order to expose their flaws and contradictions and to refute them by appealing to logic, science and ethics. None of these methods are ever applied by them to their own Bible which is seen as so sacred and self evidently perfect that any attempt to censure it would be blasphemy warranting the wrath of God and the righteous indignation of pious Christians and punishment. Of an etemal damnation. The verses are presented with minimal commentary in order to allow the Bible to speak for itself and Give evidence in its own name.

Hindus are now the favored target group for the Southern Baptist Evangelicals who are now pouring hundreds and thousands of dollars into the conversion of the Hindus in India. Hindus are seen as an easy target because of their openness, respect for other religions and deep sense of the spiritual.— Values which can easily be exploited in the conversion strategy. The most common strategy is sales. Is to convince the victim of the need for the product been purveyed. This is done by establishing the superiority of the new product over the old product. ln the unlearned populace this is easily done by comparing the best of the new with the worst of the old. Evangelical missionaries learn the basics of Hinduism and then compare the most contentious aspects with the best of Christianity. Stressing all the successes, theological beauty and religious fellowship. Teaching that Hinduism is a product of the devil and how much the damned heathen will benefit from the goodness and truth of Christianity — this is further backed up by the building of Schools, clinics and financial support for the new converts. The Bible is the basis of the Evangelical case. The missionaries have an amazing range of Biblical quotes in their repetoir all designed to show us the error of our ways, to expose our ignorance and to teach us benighted heathens about the “True Living God” and the perils we face in not accepting the presented version of Christianity. Historically Evangelism goes hand in hand with imperialism, chauvinism and western supremacy. The Missionaries of old were always followed by the soldiers and the merchants. The missionaries stole The spirituality of the natives, the soldiers stole their land and the merchants stole their resources. The English imperialist agenda was justified by the pious desire to bring “The light“to the heathens of the Third world! The real agenda was for material exploitation. The genocide practiced by the (Protestant) Founding Fathers of America, by the (Anglican) English in Tasmania, by the (Calvinist) Dutch in South Africa are all well documented historical facts. The Bible indeed, as does all the world’s Scriptures, contains much that is good and sublime. Christianity too has much that is good and positive and acceptable. But the Bible also contains an incredible amount of nonsense, immorality, wickedness and sheer ignorance. The Bible contains such a vast amount of subject matter that it is possible to justify anything and everything from its pages. The new converts, coddled in the niceties of modern day Christianity are never taught the true history of the church, about the wars of religion, the inquisition etc. and how much the Bible was used to justify the imperialist expansion of the Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and the English. The entire edifice of Apartheid in South Africa was theologically justified by the Dutch Reformed Church, on the basis of Scripture. The Dutch Calvinists, like the American Protestants saw themselves as the “New Israel“ entering into the land of Canaan (Africa and America respectively.) The pagans that they came across were the “New Canaanites“ of the Old Testament. Therefore it made sense to them that the socio- political policies of Yahweh regarding the “Old Canaanites” viz. total annihilation, was still valid.

Now therefore kill every male among the little ones and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. But all the female children who have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. Numbers 31 ;1 7

And when the Lord your God shall deliver them before you, and you shall defeat them; then you shall Utterly destroy them; you shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them. Deut. 7; 2

You shall surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is in it, and its cattle, with the edge of the sword. Deut 13; 15

But of the cities of these people which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breaths; but you shall utterly destroy them. Deut 20;16

And they utterly destroyed all that were in the city, both men and women, young and old and oxen and sheep and asses, with the edge of the sword. Joshua 6.21

The Lord shall deliver the Moabites also into your hands. And you shall destroy every fortified city, and shall fell every good tree and pollute all the springs of water and mar every piece of land with stones. 2. Kings 3:19

When -the Christian—Europeans arrived in America in 1492 there were an estimated 80 million native Inhabitants — by 1550 only 10 million remained. In Mexico on the eve of the Christian conquest there Were about 25 million people, by 1600 only 1 million remained. In the West Indies almost the entire Population was exterminated. In Santo Domingo in 1492 there were about 1 million inhabitants, by 1530 only 10,000 were left. In Cuba in 1492 there were an estimated 600,000 natives, by 1570 only 270 households remained. In North America too million Native Americans — men, women and Children were slaughtered by the pious “pilgrims” egged on by their fundamentalist Baptist preachers Quoting the above passages and demonising the natives.