The Old Testament: From Paganism to Monotheism

One way to understand the Old Testament and God's work among the Hebrew people is as a movement from paganism to monotheism.
In the Old Testament we see the story of God choosing one people, the descendants of Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob, to be the special people of God.  We Christian understand that God's ultimate plan in all of this was to prepare a people from which the Messiah, Jesus, would come to save the whole world.


The Old Testament reflects both God's words to the people and the people's own understanding, or misunderstanding, of who God is and what God wants.  So, if the Old Testament is the story of God taking pagans and making monotheists out of them, it would stand to reason that we would see times when the people got it and times when they did not get it, and we would see the people's view of God mature over time.


In the previous post I alluded to the story of the Flood and to the plagues of the Exodus.  These could be classic examples of paganism (a god manipulating nature to punish or destroy people who have displeased him.)  However, a closer look will revel something else going on.  The Flood, for instance, is a story about salvation as much as it is a story of destruction.  God offers salvation in the form of the ark as a symbol of the way we are saved by Christ.  In the Exodus story, God is using the plagues as signs of his power to convince Pharaoh to let the Hebrew people go.  God is trying to get through to Pharaoh, but Pharaoh continues to refuse to listen as the consequences get more and more severe.  If anything, the Exodus plagues are an example of God's continual and drastic attempts to get our attention and our continual refusal to listen.


The fact that God is moving the people away from paganism and toward monotheism is nowhere better expressed in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20.  In the first three commandments God commands that the people will have no other gods, (Ex. 20:3) they are not to make an imagine of this one God or any other gods, they are not to worship idols of any kind, (Ex. 20:4-5) and they are not to take the name of this God in vain,which means, among other things, that they are not to call on God to do their bidding as if they could control God.  (Ex. 20:7)


For me, the greatest example of the rejection of a pagan view of God as a God that manipulates nature is given in 1 Kings 19 when the prophet Elijah was hiding in a cave from Queen Jezebel...


"11 The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave." (1 Kings 19:11-13a NIV)


The Lord was not in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire.  God was in the gentle whisper.  A few years ago I saw a copy of War Cry the magazine of the Salvation Army.  In this issue they were describing the work of the Salvation Army in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  They said, "Katrina was an act of NATURE, what we did was an act of GOD."


For the Christian, while it is possible for God to control nature and use if for his purposes, we must remember that God and nature are separate.  In fact, because of original sin, nature itself is broken and out of control. 

Paganism Defined

I am going to be starting some discussions about who God is and how we relate to God. The first part of the discussion will be a definition and discussion of a historically popular, and wrong from the Christian perspective (and from the Jewish and Muslim perspectives as well,) way of knowing and relating to God, paganism.

Paganism, or Animism, is and view that sees a god or gods as directly involved in controlling and manipulating the forces of nature and who will actively do so for their own amusement, or the betterment or determent of humanity. These gods are often petty, cruel, and sadistic towards humanity. They are often at war with each other and use humans as pawns in these battles or humans simply get caught in the middle.

The religious practice of paganism is based on the notion that a god or gods can or must be manipulated or appeased in order for humans to experience a favorable natural outcome or avoid natural disaster. If one can bribe a god with the proper sacrifices, flatter a god with the proper praise and worship, or manipulate a god with the proper prayers, then on can expect the fertility of one's livestock, fields, and wife. If, however, one offends a god, and these gods are often notoriously easy to offend, one will experience natural disaster. If a natural disaster occurs, than someone must have offended a god. In that case, one would have to try to appease that god, or curry the favor of another, stronger, god to intercede, or fight, on their behalf.

As you can see, the pagan relationship with deity is far different from the relationship with Deity we claim as Christians. Although our God is the God of nature and will use nature to make a point, (think about the Flood and the plagues on Egypt during the Exodus) our God has been reveled to us as a God who prefers to work through people, as individuals and communities, and through history, rather than through nature. Thus the claims of some "Christian" leaders who make statements, like those that were made in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, that natural disasters are God's punishment, are operating from a pagan world view rather than a Christian one.

In the next post we will discuss how God is moving the people of the Old Testament from pagan world view to a new understanding of God.