Chapter 19 God is NOT All Powerful - At Least Not Yet | Is God All Powerful? | The Gods of Nag Hammadi and the Dead Sea Scrolls | Henotheism | The Uniqueness of Yahweh | Examples of Henotheistic Thinking in the Bible | Henotheism Explains Things Monotheism Cannot | Understanding the Ancient Hebrew Theological System | Yahweh's Right to Rule and the Covenant Relationship | Jesus' Jihad | Henotheism, Gnosticism, and Evolutionary Science Agree

Is God All Powerful?

Why did God allow lies and falsehood to creep into his Bible?  If one assumes that the God of the Bible is all powerful and all wise, then how could God allow the Bible to become so polluted?  The question is flawed because the assumption is flawed.  God is not all powerful.

Certainly the God of Genesis 1 is all powerful, for this God created everything, and had the power to ensure that everything was good.  But that God is the God of the Priestly text.

The God of the earlier parts of the Hebrew Bible is different.  Below are quotes from the earlier, more authentic parts of the Bible, such as the Yahwist and Elohist sources, Judges, and Samuel:

"Yahweh was with Judah; and he possessed the mountains, but he was not capable of driving out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had iron chariots." 1

After God tested Abraham, God said, "Now I know that you fear God." 2 (Beforehand, God was not sure if he did.)

When God saw he could not beat Jacob in a wrestling match, God said, "You have struggled with God and man and have prevailed." 3

"Yahweh regretted making humans on the earth." 4  

(God said) "I greatly regret that I have set Saul up as king." 5

Moses convinced God not to destroy Israel in the desert, and afterward Amos again convinced God not to destroy Israel. 6  Hence, God can be swayed by human arguments. 

Indeed, the entire corpus of archaic Hebrew literature is entirely incompatible with any notion that God controls everything, knows everything, or is impermeable. This cannot be explained away with theological constructs, hermeneutics, or exegesis, for the earliest sources of the Bible are clear and consistent on this point.

Likewise, the earliest gospel, Mark, takes for granted that Jesus Christ is not all powerful, as is clear from the quotes below:

"Jesus could not do a mighty work there, except for laying his hands on a few sick people and healing them." 7

"They brought a blind man to Jesus and they begged him to touch him… When he had spit on his eyes and put his hands on him, he asked him if he could see anything.  He looked up and said, "I see men like trees, walking."  Then He put His hands on his eyes and again made him look up, and he was restored and saw everything clearly." 8

So sometimes it takes Jesus multiple attempts to accomplish something. 

The Gods of Nag Hammadi and the Dead Sea Scrolls

Traditional religious establishments have brainwashed us to think Moses taught monotheism on Mount Sinai.  He didn’t.  They tell us that the Judeo-Christian tradition has always believed in only one God.  It didn’t.  In fact, monotheism did not even exist among the Hebrews until the late 600's BCE, which was long after Moses and the early Prophets.  When monotheism came to dominate Jewish thinking in the mid 400's BCE under Ezra, then God stopped sending Prophets to Israel altogether.  Why did the Prophets cease?  Was Yahweh angry at the monotheists?

Allusions to "the gods" plural are constant throughout the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Here are two examples:

"On the Last Day, the congress of the gods shall engage in ferocious combat with the armies of the humans, causing mass destruction." 9

"Who in the heavens is like you, my God?  Who among the sons of the gods?  Who in the entire congress of the gods?" 10

We may also point out that Josephus makes mention of the fact that some Jews were not monotheists even in his day:

"There are many schisms among the Jews.  Some espouse that God is one, as it says in the ancient holy writ, but others declare that God is a plurality." 11

The Dead Sea Scrolls also mention a church of gods, and that Michael reigns over a kingdom of gods.  They also specify that these are living gods, indicating their real existence outside the imagination. 12  The Dead Sea Scrolls were written by the Essenes, who, as we have already stated, were in many ways similar to Jesus, and were the only major denomination of Judaism that Jesus did not criticize.  One must ask, if Jesus were so adamantly opposed to the Pharisees and the Sadducees, who believed in only one God, yet was tolerant toward the Essenes, who believed in many gods, then does it not stand to reason that Jesus Christ himself may have also believed in many gods? 

In fact, Jesus Christ did believe in many gods.  This is implicitly stated within his commentary on Psalm 82.  People were criticizing him for calling himself the Son of God, because they thought it was blasphemy.  In response, Jesus pointed out that Psalm 82 in the Bible says that there are many gods, and so therefore it is not blasphemy for Jesus to assert that he is one of these gods, as he put it:

"Is it not written in your Torah, 'I said you are gods?'  If he called them gods unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken, then how can you accuse me of blasphemy just because I said I am the Son of God?" 13

By saying this, Jesus affirmed the real existence of more than one God and affirmed his own divinity at the same time. 14

More than a few ancient Christian writers affirmed the existence of many gods.  They spoke of "cosmic gods," 15 "secret gods," 16 and "gods that are above god." 17  They said "God creates gods," 18 and that "when three gods are in one place, they are gods," 19 indicative of the Trinity. 

The early Christians who believed in a multitude of gods clearly distinguished them from angels and demons.  One text lists several types of heavenly entities including, "cosmocrator princes, principalities, authorities, woman-gods, man-gods, and archangels" 20 – each apparently being distinct.  The depths of hell are also filled with distinctly different entities, including at least four different types - "princes, angels, demons, and souls." 21  The following two passages give us precision in defining gods, for they draw a distinction between "gods" and "angels," making it clear they are two different types of entities.

"The gods arose, and from them divine gods, and from them masters, and from them archangels." 22 

"We are not certain whether the Unfathomable One has angels or gods – or maybe he was just by himself in the ylem." 23

The Genesis story records that the serpent tempted Eve saying, "Your eyes will be opened, and you will become like elohim." 24  The Hebrew word elohim can mean either "God" singular or "gods" plural, depending on the verb.  An early Christian source clarifies the matter, explicitly saying "You will become like gods." 25  Moreover, the book of Jubilees found among the Dead Sea Scrolls also confirms that "gods" plural is the original meaning. 26 

The God of the early sources of Genesis clearly does not know everything.  Ancient Christians attested to this:

"The prince asked, 'Adam, where are you?' 27 because he didn't know what happened." 28

"What kind of God angrily keeps Adam from eating of the Tree of Knowledge and asks 'Adam, where are you?'  Doesn't God know everything?" 29

The early Christian sources also state that "the gods are derived from pristine matter." 30  Here, the gods are not spiritual entities, but material entities, and therefore may be biological in nature like we are.  Yet the same passage also asserts that the gods are immortal.  Perhaps certain biological entities that are much more intelligent than we are have figured out a way to cheat death indefinitely, and thus become "pristine matter." 

Genesis 1 presents us with one single all powerful Creator God.  As such, it is incompatible with the notion that there are many gods.

What did Jesus think about Genesis 1?  Jesus never affirmed that the earth was created in six days.  Jesus never affirmed the creationist timeline.  Only one place in the entire New Testament speaks about the six-day creation, and it occurs in Hebrews, 31 a book that had a little harder time getting into the canon than did most books of the Bible.  We don't even know who wrote Hebrews, and many of the eastern churches kept it out of their Bibles.  Moreover, the opening verse of John’s gospel, "In the beginning was the Logos," presents a creation account that appears to be aimed at competing against Genesis 1.  The Greek word Logos implies logic and order, which is the exact opposite of what Genesis 1 says about the earth being "without form and void."   From a New Testament perspective, the Genesis 1 account of creation is stuffed in the back of the pantry like an old wineskin.

Henotheism

Henotheism, not monotheism, is the theology of Moses and the Prophets.  This fact is generally accepted by scholars, as any number of authorities can attest. 

What is Henotheism?  Nothing better defines Henotheism than what Saint Paul the Apostle told the Corinthians:

"There are many gods, but for us there is one God." 32

Henotheism is the belief that many gods exist, but that only one God should be worshipped.  Unlike monotheism, there are truly many gods and they really do exist.  Yet unlike polytheism, not all the gods are worshipped.  Only one of them is worshipped, and the rest are profane. 

Henotheism explains why James the brother of Jesus and Saint John the Apostle, together with all the Prophets, were so thoroughly against idols and eating meat sacrificed to idols, even to the point where it was one of the few regulations of the Old Testament that they insisted non-Jewish Christians must keep 33 – because sacrifices to idols serve profane entities that truly do exist. 34 

Henotheism explains why idolatry is the most frequently mentioned offense in the entire Bible – for if God is all powerful, then an idol is nothing, and it would only be an inconsequential joke and hardly worth the mention – but if idolatry truly serves other gods that truly do exist, and if sacrifices to idols truly assist those gods, then this explains why Yahweh and his Prophets are so vociferously against idolatry.  For if there are other gods, then these gods are truly a threat to Yahweh and to his Messiah, and therefore it is particularly important that idolatry does not infiltrate the ranks of the faithful, for it truly gives enemies a foot in the door by which they can infiltrate the armies of Yahweh.  The God of Henotheism is actually competing against other gods who are real.  Worshipping other gods is serving other gods, and serving other gods undermines the power of your covenant God, and this is tantamount to adultery against your God and treason against your nation.  In such terms the Prophets speak of idolatry.  This line of thinking only makes sense in light of Henotheism. 

If God were Almighty, then the overarching importance of the prohibition against idols makes no sense at all, because in a monotheistic system, and idol has no power.      Which is worse, praying to rocks and dead trees, or committing murder?  In a monotheistic system, the first is laughable but the second is quite heinous.  But in a Henotheistic system, idolatry is even more heinous than murder, for murder can only kill the body, but idolatry kills both body and soul, for it puts the soul at the mercy of gods who care not for humanity.  Only within the framework of Henotheistic thinking does it make sense that idolatry is a worse crime than murder, theft, sexual perversion, or any other infraction.  Seeing that the Bible condemns idolatry more frequently than any other sin, this is a case for Henotheism.

The Uniqueness of Yahweh

Nevertheless, the God of Israel was still unique from the other gods in some ways.  Unlike other gods of the region, Yahweh never had sex and he never died.  Most other ancient Near Eastern gods at least had sex, and some like Tammuz died.  We know from archaeology that Baal had sex with a cow 77 times and he also died. 35 

From the very earliest of the Israelite settlements, there is no archaeological evidence that an idol of Yahweh was made, indicating a very early belief in the prohibition against idols. 36 

Examples of Henotheistic Thinking in the Bible

The real existence of the pagan god Dagon is implied in the Biblical story of how Dagon's idol fell on his face before Yahweh.  The Bible never says that wind blew him over or that God blew him over.  Rather, the Bible presents the story as if Dagon was truly a living god who made a conscious decision to humble himself before another god. 37

In another archaic Biblical text, Naomi tells Ruth, "Your sister-in-law went back to her nation and to her gods.  You should do the same." 38  Naomi was a Hebrew who believed in Yahweh, but here she sanctioned the worship of other gods besides Yahweh, but only for those outside the Hebrew nation.

Then there is the case of how the Old Testament makes references to other gods as if they were actual people, and that they could be bound in chains and led into captivity.  The Prophet Jeremiah wrote about Chemosh, the god of the Moabites,

"Chemosh shall go into captivity, with his priests and princes together." 39

It's as if the god Chemosh were physically capable of being handcuffed. 

Henotheism Explains Things Monotheism Cannot

Have you ever wondered why the prophecies in the Bible are vague?  If God were really all powerful, then God should be able to pinpoint exact times, dates, locations, and names when giving prophecies for thousands of years in the future.  But most of the prophecies in the Bible do not attempt such precision.  This is not consistent with monotheism.  But on the other hand, if there are gods who live for thousands of years or more, and if they have substantial control over future events, but not total control, then they can give vague prophecies, which will remarkably and fairly consistently come true.  Such are the Prophets of the Bible.

Have you ever wondered why bad things happen to good people?  If God were all powerful and all good, this should not happen.  On the other hand, if there are gods who are good, yet who cannot always control things, or who do not have the resources to intervene, then the existence of evil makes sense, for the gods can only do so much.

Understanding the Ancient Hebrew Theological System

What follows is an explanation of the ancient Hebrew theological system, as scholars know it from piecing together archaeology with the Biblical texts.  The western Semitic peoples, including Hebrews, Canaanites, and the more archaic city of Ugarit, believed in a Father-God called El.  The name El and its variants are known throughout the Bible – El, Elyon, El-Shaddai, and Eloah.  They believed El spawned a brood of sons called bn-Ilm (Ugaritic) or beni-ha-Elohim (Hebrew), which means "sons of El" or "sons of the God," and that these sons of El participated in some kind of divine government called "the congress of the gods." 40The operations of this congress are implicit within such Biblical stories as the Tower of Babel, where Yahweh consults with the other gods – "Let us go down and confuse their language" 41 – and in Job, where "the sons of God came to present themselves before Yahweh." 42 

El and his wife Athirat had a total of 70 sons in the Biblical and Ugaritic traditions, or 77 in the Hittite tradition.  These were the "sons of God," and to each of them El gave a nation as an inheritance.  Yahweh was one of these sons of El, and his inheritance was Israel. 43  Consequently, each nation was supposed to worship one of the sons of El as its appointed God.  Canaan worshipped Baal, Moab worshipped Chemosh, Ammon worshipped Molech, and Israel worshipped Yahweh.  They all paid homage to El as the Father-God.  This can be seen in Jubilees, where Shem "blessed the El of elohim (God of gods) who gave Yahweh's word, and he blessed Yahweh." 44  In this passage, it sounds as if Shem was blessing two distinct divine entities – El and Yahweh, Father and Son.

These ancient Semites assumed that the gods of other nations truly existed.  If somebody wanted to worship a foreign god, they scooped up some dirt from the foreign soil of that god's nation and took it home with them to worship with, because the gods were geographically limited to a certain nation.  This can clearly be deduced from the story of Naaman the leper, who took two mule loads of Israelite dirt back to Syria on which to kneel down and pray to Yahweh.  The Prophet Elisha did not protest Naaman's theological interpretation on this topic, but merely said, "Go in peace." 45  Some even thought that the God of Israel was confined to the mountains. 46  The national limitation of deities is attested for by the Biblical Prophet Micah, and also by Deuteronomy:

"All the nations will walk each in the name of their own god, and we will walk in the name of Yahweh our God forever." 47

"When Elyon divided the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the sons of Elohim." 48

What this passage means is this:  The Father-God Elyon divided the nations according to the number of sons he had, and so each nation got its own god.  Your Bible might say "sons of Israel" in place of "sons of Elohim," but both the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint attest that the Bible originally said "sons of Elohim" not "sons of Israel," 49 as does Irenaeus also. 50  Scholars believe that the Hebrew Bible was intentionally corrupted by the monotheists to read "sons of Israel" because later Judaism evolved to become monotheist. 51 

Often, even in early times, the national god was combined with the Father-God El to form one entity, hence the term "Yahweh Elyon" (the LORD Most High) in Genesis 14, and "Yahweh Elohim" (the LORD God) – these titles occurring in the Yahwist narrative, which is considered to be the earliest of the four major source texts of the Torah.  Hence, the two deities were collapsed into one long before monotheism was invented.  This also is the origin of Trinitarian thinking – that Jesus Christ, as an entity, can be collapsed into a single entity with the Father and the Spirit, thus making God three-in-one.  Today, theologians often refer to the Trinity as a "mystery," but there was no such "mystery" in the minds of ancient Christian Trinitarians.  They took it for granted, because it was consistent with the same way they had thought for centuries.  Only with the general acceptance of the monotheistic heresy did the Trinity become a seemingly self-contradictory "mystery."

On Psalm 82, Smith asserts Elohim (God) and Yahweh are the same:

"Here the figure of God, understood as Yahweh, takes his stand in the assembly.  The name El was understood in the tradition – and perhaps at the time of the original text's composition as well – to be none other but Yahweh, and not a separate God called El." 52

Yahweh's Right to Rule and the Covenant Relationship

This brings us to Psalm 82 itself, which tells another aspect of ancient Hebrew religion – the God of Israel's rightful destiny to ultimately conquer the other gods and appropriate their inheritances:

"God is the president of El's Congress.  He judges among the gods… saying 'You are gods.  You are all sons of Elyon.  But like mortals you will die, and like the rulers you will fall.'  Rise O God, and judge the earth, for you will inherit all nations." 53

In a world filled with hostile nations and hostile gods, the logical thing to do is to make your nation and your god the top dog, so that you can defend your interests.  That's exactly how ancient Israel viewed things.  Yahweh should be president in the congress of gods, and he has a right to take away all power and possessions of other gods.

This is especially evident when we study the Psalms and the life story of King David.  David's covenant with Yahweh was simple: you keep me from being killed by my enemies, and I will conquer all Israel's neighbors for you.  The covenant was a contractual obligation between two parties for their mutual benefit.  The benefit to David was a long life.  The benefit to Yahweh was the conquest of Edom, Moab, Philistia, Syria, Ammon, and the national unity of Israel.  Once this is understood, David's Psalms make sense.  His frequent mention of the underworld and his intense fear of death – coupled with his description of Yahweh as a god of war with nostrils filled with fire, riding on thunderclouds, sword in hand, hurling lightening bolts, and shooting arrows at his enemies, along with multiple songs of victory – these features are consistent with David's incessant wars of conquest against all Israel's neighbors. 

It was a god-eat-god cosmic system, and David wanted to ensure that his god was the top dog.  This sort of alliance system between gods and humans is what Old Testament covenant theology is all about.  When Israel went to war, they carried the throne of Yahweh into battle, the Ark of the Covenant, because Yahweh was their commander and ally.  Before they attacked, they consulted with Yahweh, to make certain he approved of the military action.  Every war was a holy war against some other competing nation and its god.  Expanding the boundaries of your nation meant expanding the empire of your covenant god, and your god would reward you for it. 

Jesus' Jihad

This type of theology does not stop in the Old Testament.  It is quite evident in the New Testament message of Jesus Christ too.  The types of personalities Jesus chose for his Apostles mirrored that of King David.  They had a tendency toward violent bravery.  Saint Peter toted a sword around.  When Jesus was threatened, Peter cut off the ear of the high priest.  Likewise Saint Paul, who actually committed murder in the name of religion before being converted.  James and John were called sons of thunder.  One of the Apostles was named Simon the Zealot.  The Zealots were a boisterous anti-Roman faction, essentially hell bent on violence in the name of freedom.  What else would one expect from a Messiah who said, "Do not think that I came to bring peace to the earth.  I did not come to bring peace, but a sword?" 54 

Jesus Christ made friends with hated bureaucrats, prostitutes, and social outcasts.  He was not looking for ethical people.  He was looking for loyal people.  He was looking for people in the dregs of society who would fight for him – who would risk everything for him, because they had nothing to loose anyway. 

Conspicuously absent from Jesus Christ's inner circle were people such as Gandhi or Mother Teresa.  There were no such Apostles or disciples of that nature.  If the Christian God is a God of Almighty Universal Love, this simply makes no sense.  On the other hand, if Jesus Christ is not all powerful, then he is a god among gods, who must fight his way to become chief of the gods, or else become a slave to gods more powerful than himself.  In this case, he would not want Gandhi or Mother Teresa in his army, because they are too universalistic in their theology, and therefore too apt to be kind to the enemy.  Instead, he would want to save violent people who were ferociously loyal to him. 

This also explains the doctrine of hell.  Why would an Almighty God torture people forever?  Isn't that sadistic?  But on the other hand, if the gods are at war, it stands to reason that they will incarcerate prisoners of war.  Such is the Christian perception of hell, for in the New Testament, hell is described as a dungeon of spirits in chains, who are awaiting judgment, 55 and they will be judged at the time of the resurrection, that is after the war is over, when they can receive due process of law as non-combatants. 56  This makes perfect sense with regard to the rules of war.

To be sure, Jesus Christ certainly aspires to attain a master plan of love, whereby if he is victorious, he will implement a policy of peace, love, and justice.  But until victory is realized, Jesus must conserve his resources.  He cannot afford to save people who are not loyal to him.  If a violent sinner is more loyal to him than Gandhi, he will save the violent sinner first, for at least violence and loyalty is useful on the field of battle, but universal love is not.

This is not the mentality of an Almighty God.  Rather, it is the mentality of a god who is struggling in a death match with other gods, who desperately needs to recruit loyal soldiers.  He is not looking for saints.  He is looking for soldiers.

Henotheism, Gnosticism, and Evolutionary Science Agree

A fundamental principle that unites Henotheism, Gnosticism, and evolutionary science is this:  they all reject any notion that the governing force of this cosmos is good and just. 

The governing force of ancient Near Eastern Henotheism was the Father-God El, who was known for his support of the hostile forces of nature, such as Yamm (the ocean) and Mot (the desert), which were symbolized in mythology as grotesque primordial monsters and serpents.

Likewise, the governing force of Gnosticism was the demiurge, who was known for his arrogance and stupidity, which caused him and his stupid perverted angels to create a failed cosmos.