Interesting point

Interesting point

"Clearly for something to be eternal it must have always existed, and must continue to exist in the future. Any religion that has a founder cannot claim to have always existed. There was no Christianity before Jesus and no Islam before Muhammad. Sikhism did not exist before Guru Nanak, nor Confucianism before Confucius. Judaism is the religion of the people of Israel, which started with Abraham, the Father of Israel."

https://western-hindu.org/2008/05/28/hinduism-is-the-eternal-way-and-the-true-religion/

Why Hinduism is the "Eternal way", the true religion.

Hinduism is more correctly referred to as sanatana dharma, which can be translated as the eternal way or the eternal law. In this post I hope to demonstrate that Hinduism can claim to be the etern…

Now I realize that Christianity claims to have the answers to this objection...that Jesus existed from the beginning of time, that he is pointed to in the Old Testament, and that belief in the god Yahweh started with the first humans Adam and Eve. However, traces of the Abrahamic religions only go back to about the 4th century BC and the god Yahweh was one of many gods worshipped in Canaan.

"Yahweh worship also has its roots in an ancient religion of Canaan, the land which God promised to Abraham. Within this polytheistic religion, Yahweh was but one of many deities united under a figure known as El. "

https://bigthink.com/the-past/yahweh-god-origins-israel/

Let there be God: How Yahweh became "God Almighty"

In the Canaan religion, Yahweh was a lesser god, who was assigned the land of Israel. Here's how he became "God Almighty."

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Re: Interesting point

Jun 4, 2023, 6:36 PM

Two good articles. Enjoyed them both.

For the first, he sets his argument up, and defines "true", as this:

"Hinduism is unique in having a broad teaching of techniques for spiritual advancement, and methods to decide which technique suits a person best. This is why I say Hinduism is the true religion. It is not the only path, but the purest and broadest revealed pathway to God.

I'm not entirely sure I'd use that as the definition of "true", but I would agree with his assessment that Hinduism is one of the broader paths to enlightenment. Which brings up an important difference between the Eastern and Western religious mindset: Obedience to God vs understanding of God.

I'm not sure if there's anywhere in the Bible where God says "this is how to understand me" or some similar phrase. He surely says "obey me" and "love one another", but not much in the way of "this is what this means", or "this is why I do it," or explaining anything in general. I'm not sure if anything is spelled out in Hinduism either, but I do know that the focus there is enlightenment, rather than obeying.

+++++

For the second article, that is an interesting concept and I've read about it in other places. One of the things that is confounding though is "why?"

Gen 12 says that Abram, though from Ur, was summoned to Canaan after he had set up shop in Harran. Why Terah left Ur, and why he stopped in Harran instead of going on to Canaan in the first place is not addressed.

Gen 11:31 "Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there.

Gen 12:1 "The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you."

So there's no doubt Abram's clan were not native to Canaan, and thus not followers of the Canaanite gods.

But this is where it gets interesting. The idea of a travelling God. Yahweh's following in a lot of the OT is kind of hazy. He's not the god of the Mesopotamians, not the Egyptians, anyone but the Jews. In Micah there's even polytheistic acceptance:

Micah 4:5 "All the nations may walk in the name of their gods, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever."

He's the god of this little caravan of Abram clan. And wherever Abram's clan goes, he goes. To Egypt, to the Sinai, and later back to Canaan. he has fights with other Gods, and while he usually wins, sometimes he loses. The Israelites actually had the Ark taken from them once.

1 Sam 4:10 "So the Philistines fought, and the Israelites were defeated and every man fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great; Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers. 11 The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died."

That kind of blows up the premise of The Raiders of the Lost Ark and Hit ler wanting it for its combat value.

This all gets into the deeper topic of who all wrote the various parts of the Bible, and when. And specifically, what they call God at different times, and in different places. Sometimes he is referred to as "God." That's a late understanding I think. Other times he is "Lord," or, "Lord God," or "God Almighty." My suspicion is that each of these names had a different meaning when they were used, and they are not entirely synonymous.

As a fun little example, read Gen 1 through Gen 2:3. These passages use "God" exclusively. And the text is rigid, formal, and matter of fact. God said, God said, God said, over and over and over. Right up until he needed to rest. Although, why an omnipotent God needs to rest is a question.

But then read Gen 2:4-25. It's much more folksy, casual, and relaxed. And the term "Lord God" is used exclusively. Both tell the story of the creation of man, but in different ways. And perhaps, by different people, at different times. There's a lot more to the Bible than is immediately obvious.

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Couple of questions.

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