Polytheism Confirmed - By the Bible Itself: Part Two

There are way over 600 of God’s commandments regarding ‘thou shall’ and ‘thou shall not’ or ‘do this’ and ‘don’t do that’ or just plain ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’ in the Bible. The top ten are of course the Ten Commandments. And what’s numero uno – number one – “Thou shall have no other gods before me”. That’s God first and foremost concern – “other gods”. In fact to reinforce commandment number one, commandments number two and three are variations on the exact same theme! Wow! As Sherlock Holmes might say, “The game is afoot”.

For a large part of the civilized world, monotheism rules because the Bible says so. Fortunately there are still cultures around with more commonsense and polytheism still rules. I say “more sense” because far from refuting polytheism the Bible confirms it. It’s monotheism that’s a myth.

Continued from yesterday’s blog…

NEW TESTAMENT

Though reference to the gods or their gods or other gods, etc. is primarily the providence of the Old Testament, the New Testament does also acknowledge the gods.

*Acts 14:11: And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.

Did we note the plural “gods” and how they have a humanoid appearance?

*Acts 19:35: And when the townclerk had appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?

Not only is the reality of the Roman goddess Diana (Artemis to the Greeks) noted, one of five such references, but she’s identified as a “great goddess” to boot. Jupiter of course is the Roman equivalent of Zeus, so in fact Zeus is named in a roundabout sort of way. 

*1 Corinthians 8:5: For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,)

We note that “there be gods many” – spot on IMHO.

DISCUSSION

One of the other Biblical proofs of the polytheistic pudding is that in the KJV of the Bible, you get 201 times the phrase “God of Israel” that appears. Note that it’s not God of Planet Earth; not God of Egypt nor Africa, not God of Mesopotamia, not God of Europe, not God of the Americas, Australia, the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth of Nations, or any other geographical region. God is just God of Israel - Full stop. God has His chosen people and they aren’t the Celtics, the Native Americans (Amerindians), the Native Australians (Aborigines), the Aztecs, the Maya, the Incas, the Egyptians, not even the Greeks and Romans. In that context it makes no sense why the descendents of any of these cultures should worship God, because God doesn’t give a damn about them. They ain’t His chosen people. Muslims, and Hindus and Buddhists ain’t His chosen people. Modern Americans are ecstatic in their love of God, but Americans aren’t His chosen people either. 

Now that “God of Israel” bit makes perfect sense in a polytheistic context, because all those other geographical regions have their own ‘God’ – well actually ‘gods’ though there is usually a Big Boss God; the Big Cheese heading the rest of the pantheon of regional deities. It doesn’t take too much knowledge of ancient mythology to note the geographical/regional divisions.

Also interesting is that some versions of the Bible, like the New King James Version (though not the original King James Version) mention Hades in addition to, but apart from Hell. For example:

*Matthew 16:18: “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”

*Revelation 6:8: “So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.”

Now Hades was both a god and a place. Hades was the Greek god of the underworld; the name of that Greek underworld was Hades. And as we see, the New King James Version uses Hades in both contexts.

So monotheism doesn’t exist since God is just one among equals, one among many gods by His own admission. But they don’t sink or swim together for the gods have an independent existence outside Biblical texts whereas God doesn’t, so it’s far easier to dismiss God from the big picture of the collection of all things godly than the multitude of deities. Polytheism rules, O.K.?

But even if you still acknowledge monotheism, well it’s easy to argue that monotheism is also polytheism since there’s a Jewish God, and a Christian God, and a Mormon God, and an Islamic God, etc. Even within the broad Christian church you have many factions (Catholic, Protestant, etc.); therefore you have so many versions of God. In fact if you gather together all the versions of the monotheistic God, you’d have enough Gods for a baseball game with Godly relief pitchers in the bullpen to boot. [Now that would be an interesting confrontation – God of the Jews, no-hit pitching to the .400 cleanup batter, the God of the Muslims!] 

Now you’d think that if there were really just one God, you would firstly have just one Holy Book. There would be no need for the 30 English language versions or editions of the Bible alone, and that’s excluding the Koran. There would be no if, ands or buts about what was to be included or excluded, and no wriggle room for this interpretation vs. that interpretation. In short, one God, one ‘word of God’ one unified belief system – that’s it, no factions. Everything would be crystal clear because God would not want any honest misinterpretations when it came to the bowing and scraping and all those other ritualistic activities He demands.

Secondly, you’d think that if there were really just one, and only one God, well that obviously means there are no other gods, and therefore no need to give constant reference to them in your holy texts since they don’t exist. I mean there’s no Tooth Fairy, no Easter Bunny and no Santa Claus so there’s not any need for the Bible to mention them – and the Bible doesn’t mention them.

Now the documentation for polytheism might be even more impressive were it not for the fact that Christians are fanatics at destroying anything and everything when it comes to non-Christian (polytheistic) cultures. Hardly anything remains of ancient Inca and Aztec texts, including many artefacts, all destroyed, smashed and totally obliterated. And as for that cultural treasure, the Library at Alexandria, it was all torched by the Christian Roman Empire – burn, baby burn in 391 CE. If it’s not Christian in origin then it must be the work of the devil and all works of the devil (i.e. – all things pagan) must be destroyed and the hell with cultural diversity and preservation. You could imagine the outcry if a rampaging mob of atheists stormed the Vatican Library and burned it down, but it’s okay for Christians to do it, all in the name and for the glory of God.  

CONCLUSION: If you believe there is some form of God, be it supernatural (unlikely) or extraterrestrial (way more probable given His home address) and you put some stock in the Bible as highly embellished but still a partly true account of ancient history in a select geographical area, then you need to swallow equally as well, hook, line and sinker, the rest of the pantheons of other cultures from other geographical regions that came before and/or coexisted with what we call today monotheism. If God exists, then too the gods equally exist – the Bible says so.