You shall have no other gods before Me

[Gregorius]

When this is written in the 10 commandments does this just mean the Abrahamic god should be your main god or your only god?

 

[Taudefindi]

God is jealous, he wants all of your attention and worship.
He wants to be the only deity in your life and existence.

 

[Xenophon]

Even worse, that god is only for a certain select ethnicity.

 

[stratamaster78]

When this is written in the 10 commandments does this just mean the Abrahamic god should be your main god or your only god?

Only God.

There are several Gods and Goddesses that suffer from jealousy.

But don’t let that worry you.

Try breaking a few of the lesser commandments and see what the ole boy does about it.

I think you’ll find the answer to be nothing.

 

[Accipeveldare]

Only God.

There are several Gods and Goddesses that suffer from jealousy.

But don’t let that worry you.

Try breaking a few of the lesser commandments and see what the ole boy does about it.

I think you’ll find the answer to be nothing.

Mostly because he can't get rid of free will easily lol

 

[Taudefindi]

There are several Gods and Goddesses that suffer from jealousy.

Certainly, but at least those others don't pretend to not be jealous, unlike the big G that wants to have this image of a nonchalant good deity.
And then he goes and kills people and condemn them for an eternity of suffering all because they "dared to worship others".

Try breaking a few of the lesser commandments

The most that will happen are the consequences of their actions, not divine punishment for "breaking the commandments".
How many people commit adultery and we don't see news of all of them dying?

 

[stratamaster78]

Mostly because he can't get rid of free will easily lol

Well also I don't even think he exists in the way that is believed.

Free will... sort of exists.

I liked an explanation from I believe @Robert Ramsay in another thread.

I'm paraphrasing but that within time and space it's a choose your own adventure book with branching paths towards a certain conclusion. Outside of time and space not so much.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

I'm paraphrasing but that within time and space it's a choose your own adventure book with branching paths towards a certain conclusion. Outside of time and space not so much.

The way I usually put it is that the entire Multiverse is completely predetermined, but the path you experience through it is not.

 

[HoldAll]

Except for the reforms attempted by pharao Akhenaten in ancient Egypt which didn't stick, monotheism was a pretty revolutionary idea at that time that needed violent enforcement in view of the widespread polytheism in the Middle East. It must have been pretty seductive though, a single go-to guy for all your spiritual needs and mundane wants instead of a bewildering plethora of bickering gods.

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Post automatically merged: Jul 29, 2024

Ah, forgot Zoroastrianism (and probably some other ancient monotheist faiths as well).

Anyway, shouldn't this post be in Religion?

 

[Jackson]

It's a commandment to the Jews. You'd have to read more of the literature to determine if it applies to you.

I'm not a theologian. But as far as I know the Jews didn't think it applied to everyone else.

 

[IllusiveOwl]

The Gnostics believe this jealous and cruel God to be Yaldobeoth, the ruler of the material world, posing as the true God beyond matter out of ignorance of him. Yaldy acts as the chief administrator to this circus our physical bodies have no choice but to participate in, his staff whip us all into the routines/habits/beliefs that makes the world run on a schedule.

Why would an Omnipotent God fear being Worshipped under other names? The only reasonable deduction I could see is that there would be other Gods that exist who may rival this being, contradicting monotheism (Or its all fiction and exists to justify a funneling of all belief towards a single Earthly throne)

Also the word "command"ment just doesnt have a benevolent ring to it, when you think about it

 

[Jackson]

Why would an Omnipotent God fear being Worshipped under other names?

Because it's his true name that only the Jewish priests know or something like that.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

The way I look at it is that the custodians of a belief system need to keep people focussed on that belief system. From a magical point of view, what's the point of a belief system where it's optional which bits you believe in?

 

[Xenophon]

The way I look at it is that the custodians of a belief system need to keep people focussed on that belief system. From a magical point of view, what's the point of a belief system where it's optional which bits you believe in?

From the magickal point of view, though, one can test which bits are worth believing in. Many "world religions" tend to enjoin en toto acceptance. At least the Adamic ones have tended to. (True, latterly the Christian churches have backed off on traditional dogmas, though this has been mainly been in order to bend the knee to "relevance" or whatever's trendy this year in socio-political activism. So the "all or nothing" approach is still operative, albeit in altered guise.)
Creeds like the old Hellenic, Celtic, Germanic "paganisms," and Hinduism too, had/have "custodians." But there seems to be little overtly ideological about this. The custodians perform rites and teach, but it's more in a spirit of take it or leave it as you please. Like the Buddhists say, turn no one away; chase after no one.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

From the magickal point of view, though, one can test which bits are worth believing in.

Good point. As magicians, we are not constrained by an entire system - unless we choose to be

 

[Shade]

When this is written in the 10 commandments does this just mean the Abrahamic god should be your main god or your only god?

No yhwh, was not the top god, he just wanted to be the top of the pantheon. He was however the top Lord that was worshipped in that pantheon, the Bible misconstrued Jewish teachings. Demonized Canaanite deities and the Roman Catholics alongside the knights Templar killed many heathens, heretics, pagans and gnostics. Elohim to my understanding is plural for the full pantheon but they use yhwh as the top lord as he was favored by them. So when the commandments were written they made sure to make him top dog… err god.

Post automatically merged: Aug 2, 2024

I’d be be doing a disservice not to mention, it were the Jews who worshipped yhwh that possibly crucified Yeshua, Yeshua was not the son of yhwh, and their reason for crucifying him (if he was) it was most likely not because of his claim to be the son of yhwh, (although if he didn’t was to get others to follow him above yhwh, which worked as the New Testament is way different than the old) he was a gnostic/heretic, proof of this can be found in the non cannon gnostic gospels. It was commonplace in those days to give one teaching to your audience in parables and the true meaning to the initiated, disciples or whatever you wish to call them. After finding out about his heretic teachings that is probably what caused them to crucify him, or it coulda been as simple has his claim to divinity which also woulda been seen as heresy.
whatever floats your boat just my understanding of the yhwh situation, I could spend a lot more time but this post is long enough.

 

[Xenophon]

No yhwh, was not the top god, he just wanted to be the top of the pantheon. He was however the top Lord that was worshipped in that pantheon, the Bible misconstrued Jewish teachings. Demonized Canaanite deities and the Roman Catholics alongside the knights Templar killed many heathens, heretics, pagans and gnostics. Elohim to my understanding is plural for the full pantheon but they use yhwh as the top lord as he was favored by them. So when the commandments were written they made sure to make him top dog… err god.

Post automatically merged: Aug 2, 2024

I’d be be doing a disservice not to mention, it were the Jews who worshipped yhwh that possibly crucified Yeshua, Yeshua was not the son of yhwh, and their reason for crucifying him (if he was) it was most likely not because of his claim to be the son of yhwh, (although if he didn’t was to get others to follow him above yhwh, which worked as the New Testament is way different than the old) he was a gnostic/heretic, proof of this can be found in the non cannon gnostic gospels. It was commonplace in those days to give one teaching to your audience in parables and the true meaning to the initiated, disciples or whatever you wish to call them. After finding out about his heretic teachings that is probably what caused them to crucify him, or it coulda been as simple has his claim to divinity which also woulda been seen as heresy.
whatever floats your boat just my understanding of the yhwh situation, I could spend a lot more time but this post is long enough.

A more mundane possibility is simply that Jesus seemed to challenge the Roman leadership, with his talk about a coming kingdom and his claims to have fulfilled the prophecies in his person. The spirit of the Jewish authorities seems to have been very much on the order of, "Hey, Romans! We are so not with this guy!" In short, the four gospels hint at a mostly political basis to the execution, not a refined theological controversy.

 

[Shade]

A more mundane possibility is simply that Jesus seemed to challenge the Roman leadership, with his talk about a coming kingdom and his claims to have fulfilled the prophecies in his person. The spirit of the Jewish authorities seems to have been very much on the order of, "Hey, Romans! We are so not with this guy!" In short, the four gospels hint at a mostly political basis to the execution, not a refined theological controversy.

Exactly why he woulda been called a heretic, but o don’t take the translated Bible very seriously, gnostic texts I lean towards more, I think wether he made claims or he was teaching a doctrine the church disliked doesn’t change the fact he was in deep water, but either way, I think it was in the book of John where he was claimed to have talked to a select few disciples over a decade after he was supposedly crucified.

 

[Morell]

I’d be be doing a disservice not to mention, it were the Jews who worshipped yhwh that possibly crucified Yeshua, Yeshua was not the son of yhwh, and their reason for crucifying him (if he was) it was most likely not because of his claim to be the son of yhwh, (although if he didn’t was to get others to follow him above yhwh, which worked as the New Testament is way different than the old) ...

I personally think about something... different. I think that Yeshua signed his death sentence when he ravaged the jewish temple with a whip.

 

[Shade]

I personally think about something... different. I think that Yeshua signed his death sentence when he ravaged the jewish temple with a whip.

He definitely went ham on them that was a pretty crazy story. I think they were all like tax collectors and stuff though. I don’t recall his reasoning exactly but I sympathize with the tax thing