God and the gods; (What Herman Bavinck can teach us)
God and the gods
Taken from; en.wikipedia.org
This is a question that I have thought about for a long time. For the great world religions is that they all have a claim to being the exclusive truth. In the public sphere it means accepting one and rejecting the others. This to me is a simplistic answer and I have found no theology to do justice to this problem. Each theologian claims the centre ground for themselves or there is a complete surrender to inclusiveness where all the religions are blended into one, such as liberalism. These all fail to do justice to religious and theological dialogue. Gunton saw this as a problem and in his book the One the Three and the Many gave a possible outline.
It is true that not all the religions can be right, can they? The answer is that they cannot but perhaps each religion has something to teach another about something. It is also a great sin to force a belief system into subjectivity of another system. Without respect there cannot be any dialogue.
I have come up with a starting point. I call it ‘exclusivity in relation.’ At the end of the day, we share certain things worded in various ways:
- · Belief in a transcendental reality (God)
- · We share in the same humanity (By nature of humanness we are all equal)
- · We share this world with nature (creation)
Without being comparative and hanging on to our exclusivity we can relate and make the world a better place for everyone.
For me the demarcation line is Christ. Christ came to save that which was lost and to bring people back to a true relationship with God. Other religions cannot accept this but although this is the case we can celebrate in our very differences. The beating heart of any great religion is its compassion and mercy. Through our relational entanglement and without compromise of core beliefs we can foster a better world for our future children to live in. Obviously, there is room to prove our transcendental reality is the correct one, but hatred is banished from the scene. These problems are not new to the 21st century but they go back into prehistory.
I feel that Bavinck can teach us a lot through Holy Scripture. It may be that you who are reading my blog have a different religion to me but perhaps you can look at your own scriptures and ask the question if you have seen similar problems in your part of the world. I then invite you to look at Herman Bavinck and ponder on his findings, the great theologian he is. Perhaps God is calling you to turn to a new path of faith!
On page 32 Bavinck says that because of the ‘this close relationship between God and Israel in the Old Testament dispensation, many texts do not pronounce themselves, so to speak, on the question whether the gods of other peoples are in any way real. In the first commandment God himself says: "You shall have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3), and elsewhere we are told that the Lord is greater than all the other gods (Exodus 15:11; 18:11).’
Some scholars from Bavinck’s point of view accused the Old Testament of henotheism. From my point of view and Bavincks it has to be said that Henotheism is an alien concept for the Old Testament’s Monotheistic God.
Henos in Greek means one but is used in a particular way. Wikipedia puts it this way:
“Henotheism (from Greek ἑνός θεοῦ (henos theou) 'of one god') is the worship of a single, supreme god while not denying the existence or possible existence of other lower deities.[1][2] Friedrich Schelling (1775–1854) coined the word, and Friedrich Welcker (1784–1868) used it to depict primitive monotheism among ancient Greeks.[3]
Max Müller (1823–1900), a German philologist and orientalist, brought the term into wider usage in his scholarship on the Indian religions,[4][5] particularly Hinduism whose scriptures mention and praise numerous deities as if they are one ultimate unitary divine essence.[2] Müller made the term central to his criticism of Western theological and religious exceptionalism (relative to Eastern religions), focusing on a cultural dogma which held "monotheism" to be both fundamentally well-defined and inherently superior to differing conceptions of God.[6]”
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henotheism
Christians, Muslims and Jews who share the Old Testament would find ‘Henotheism’ an insulting term to the one True Monotheistic God. Why do I say this; to spell it out, the Judaic TaNaK in the first section (Torah = Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) In Islam these writings are known as the Tevrat (From Torah, the books of the holy prophet Moses) and these first five books are the beginning of the Christian Bible. The Scriptures are shared between three great religions and all three religions ascribe this Monotheistic God to be the God of creation.
God’s Special Unique Relationship with Israel
Let us now consider some passages from Holy Scripture that Bavinck used:
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me. Exodus 20:3
11 “Who is like You among the gods, O LORD?
Who is like You, majestic in holiness,
Awesome in praises, working wonders? Exodus 15:11
11 Now I know that the LORD is greater than all the gods; indeed, it was proven when they dealt proudly against the people.” Exodus 18:11
19 Now therefore, please let my lord the king listen to the words of his servant. If the LORD has stirred you up against me, let Him accept an offering; but if it is men, cursed are they before the LORD, for they have driven me out today so that I would have no attachment with the inheritance of the LORD, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’ 1 Samuel 26:19
10 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. Exodus 20:10
The God of Israel as the God of the Creation and over all humanity
(Gen 6, 5—7; 8:21; 9:19: 18:1ff., 25; etc).
5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 The LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” Genesis 6:5-7
21 The LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done. Genesis 8:21
19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated. Genesis 9:19
1 Now the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. Genesis 18:1
Bavinck reminds us that God is indeed the God of heaven and earth. In Genesis too we see God making various covenants with various people:
· There was the covenant with Noah that he would never flood the earth again.
· There was the covenant with Abraham that he would make him a great nation and all the earth through him would be blessed.
· There was the covenant with Moses and the 10 commandments given to Israel
Bavinck didn’t mention the covenants here, but I did. I wanted to tease out the relationship God has with humanity and Israel.
The God of Israel is unique and above all gods (real or fake)
(Deut. 5:24; 4:7; 10:17; 29:26; 32:12, 16; 1 Kings 8:23; 2 Chron. 28:23:1er. 22:9; Ps. 95:3; 97:9; etc.; cf_1 Cor. 8:5ff.; 10:20).
Herman Bavinck then gives us a list of other Scriptures in brackets:
24 ‘O Lord GOD, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your strong hand; for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as Yours? Deuteronomy 3:24
7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the LORD our God whenever we call on Him? Deuteronomy 4:7
17 For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. Deuteronomy 10:17
26 They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they have not known and whom He had not allotted to them. Deuteronomy 29:26
12 “The LORD alone guided him,
And there was no foreign god with him. Deuteronomy 32:12
16 “They made Him jealous with strange gods;
With abominations they provoked Him to anger. Deuteronomy 32:16
23 He said, “O LORD, the God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing lovingkindness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart, 1 Kings 8:23
23 For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him, and said, “Because the gods of the kings of Aram helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.” But they became the downfall of him and all Israel. 2 Chronicles 28:23
9 Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the covenant of the LORD their God and bowed down to other gods and served them.’” Jeremiah 22:9
3 For the LORD is a great God
And a great King above all gods, Psalms 95:3
9 For You are the LORD Most High over all the earth;
You are exalted far above all gods. Psalms 97:9
5 For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. 1 Corinthians 8:5-6
In the Old Testament as you can see the God of Israel is unique. God does not share his Divinity with other divinities. This is pure monotheism not henotheism. Those who claim such a thing are doing eisegesis and not exegesis and it violates the scientific vigour of meeting the text and what it actually means.
The last verse is found in the New Testament in which Paul says even if these gods may be real (which they are not) there is still only one Lord for the believer!
The Master Theologian continues with mentioning that some held the God of the Old Testament to be a higher divinity and a lower divinity in Gnosticism. These claims are just nonsense but with proper exegesis this sore of mistake should never take place.
Bavinck is correct to state on page 32 that we have in front of us a history of revelation. From the references we have given this knowledge has come to us in many different forms. It has come through dreams, prophecies, God’s commands. The revelation has not evolved over time no! This is a special relationship with God and his people. This special relationship too has been ratified through various covenants. The Christian Church is an extension of these covenants as in Christ a New Covenant was made. I’m not going to go into this as it is a big topic.
Reflection
This Week we have learned that God has revealed himself to the world through relationships not in an evolutionistic, impersonal way through a Hegelian thesis, antithesis, and synthesis but rather, through dreams, visions, prophecies and covenants. We serve a living God who in his Monotheism; Father Son and Holy Spirit reaches out to humanity and through the work of Christ calls his people to come home. Bavinck has not looked at this extra stuff I have mentioned here but as Christians this is the road that we walk by faith.
Next time we will look at some of the major collecting points on God and the gods that Bavinck has penned. When we look at God in the history of the Old Testament, we can certainly see the important rationale that gives Christianity a bedrock to work from. Christ is at the centre of the Old Testament; again, and again Jesus has said that he did not come to abolish but ‘fulfil the Old Testament.’ The Old Testament was the handbook that the Apostles used for the Church. Jesus quoted from the Old Testament and used it to defy Satan at the temptations before starting his ministry of preaching the Gospel, death and resurrection.
Bibliography
Reformed Dogmatics; God and Creation; volume 2; Herman Bavinck; John Bolt editor and translated by John Vriend; Part 2 knowing God.
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