Post by Radrook Admin on Oct 24, 2024 23:05:06 GMT -5
Bible OT Writers had a Monotheistic Agenda?
Such is the accusation being levied against those who wrote the OT. That they were attempting to hide the fact that Israel's true religion was identical to the surrounding nations.
First, please note that the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible written by Moses, wasn't written with the agenda of hiding the real way that Israel was worshipping. Instead, it correctly conveyed how God wanted his people to perceive him and to worship him immediately after their exodus from bondage in Egypt.
Because of this, any deviation from the Pentateuch was considered false worship, and condemned via the major and minor prophets who warned Israel of the consequences of false worship.
Hosea 13:2
Now they sin more and more; they make idols for themselves from their silver, cleverly fashioned images, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of these people, “They offer human sacrifices! They kiss calf-idols!”
Isaiah 44:9
All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame.
www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel%206&version=ERV
Now they sin more and more; they make idols for themselves from their silver, cleverly fashioned images, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of these people, “They offer human sacrifices! They kiss calf-idols!”
Isaiah 44:9
All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame.
www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel%206&version=ERV
History confirms the fulfillment of such prophecies such as the fall of the disobedient Ten-Tribe kingdom which had embraced false worship, and later of the Two-tribe Kingdom of Judah and Benjamin which also deviated.
So yes, despite all the divinely inspired warnings, Israel did repeatedly deviate from what was required. However, that was definitely not the way God had told them to worship. So their deviations from true worship cannot and should not be described as such.