The Origin And Character Of God

Introductory Matters -- The History of Scholarship on Ancient Israelite Religion : A Brief Sketch -- Methodology -- El Worship -- The Iconography of Divinity : El -- The Origin of Yahweh -- The Iconography of Divinity : Yahweh -- The Characterization of the Deity Yahweh : Yahweh as Warrior and Family God -- The Characterization of the Deity Yahweh : Yahweh as King and Yahweh as Judge -- Characterization of the Deity Yahweh : Yahweh as Holy.

Few topics are as broad or as daunting as the God of Israel, that deity of the world's three monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, who has been worshiped over millennia. In the Hebrew Bible, God is characterized variously as militant, beneficent, inscrutable, loving, and judicious. Who is this divinity that has been represented as masculine and feminine, mythic and real, transcendent and intimate? The Origin and Character of God is Theodore J. Lewis's monumental study of the vast subject that is the God of Israel. In it, he explores questions of historical origin, how God was characterized in literature, and how he was represented in archaeology and iconography. He also brings us into the lived reality of religious experience. Using the window of divinity to peer into the varieties of religious experience in ancient Israel, Lewis explores the royal use of religion for power, prestige, and control; the intimacy of family and household religion; priestly prerogatives and cultic status; prophetic challenges to injustice; and the pondering of theodicy by poetic sages. A volume that is encyclopedic in scope but accessible in tone, The Origin and Character of God is an essential addition to the growing scholarship of one of humanity's most enduring concepts.

Few topics are as broad or as daunting as the God of Israel, that deity of the world's three monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, who has been worshiped over millennia. In the Hebrew Bible, God is characterized variously as militant, beneficent, inscrutable, loving, and judicious. Who is this divinity that has been represented as masculine and feminine, mythic and real, transcendent and intimate? The Origin and Character of God is Theodore J. Lewis's monumental study of the vast subject that is the God of Israel. In it, he explores questions of historical origin, how God was characterized in literature, and how he was represented in archaeology and iconography. He also brings us into the lived reality of religious experience. Using the window of divinity to peer into the varieties of religious experience in ancient Israel, Lewis explores the royal use of religion for power, prestige, and control; the intimacy of family and household religion; priestly prerogatives and cultic status; prophetic challenges to injustice; and the pondering of theodicy by poetic sages. A volume that is encyclopedic in scope but accessible in tone and was honored with all three of the major awards in the field in three seperate disciplines (American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR) 2020 Frank Moore Cross Award, 2021 American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion, 2021 Biblical Archaeology Society Biennial Publication Award for the Best Book Relating to the Hebrew Bible), The Origin and Character of God is an essential addition to the growing scholarship of one of humanity's most enduring concepts.

Have you ever wondered where the Universe came from? Did it come from a big bang billions of years ago or did an Intelligence far beyond our own create it? If the Universe was created then why was it created and what’s its purpose? What’s man’s purpose, where did we come from, did we evolve from primordial ooze, or were we created in the likeness of that same intelligence? Did this intelligence, this God, always exist? Where did he come from, how did he come into existence? Why would this God, this spirit, have the likeness of a man with arms, legs, and feet? Answers to these questions have eluded mankind since the dawn of time. Many theories have attempted to answer them but there are always flaws. Questions still remain. Questions such as, where did the matter and energy of this big bang come from, how could it just happen to be there? I believe that hidden deep in the pages of the Bible lay the answers to all of these questions, and for thousands of years no one has realized it nor been able to put it all together. However, after seven years of research I believe that this book can answer all of the above questions without leaving any loose ends. I believe that contained within the pages of this book lay the answers to all of mankind’s deepest questions. Answers to questions such as, where did God come from, why was the Universe created, what is mankind’s purpose, and the age-old question, which came first, the chicken or the egg? This little book can also tell you where we as a civilization are headed and what our ultimate fate will be, all from the Bible.

A Transforming Knowledge of the Living God The timeless appeal of this classic book, written by a preacher with a worldwide ministry during the first half of the twentieth century, demonstrates the deep hunger for a saving knowledge of God present in each generation. Arthur Pink sought to give readers not just a theoretical knowledge of God but pointed them toward a personal relationship of yielding to him and living according to his biblical precepts. Pink's book explores attributes such as God's decrees, foreknowledge, sovereignty, holiness, grace, and mercy, among many others, all packaged in a style especially useful for pastors, teachers, and Bible students. Our God who is above all names cannot be found through human searching alone, Pink teaches, but can be known only as he is revealed by the Holy Spirit through his living Word.

Belief in the One male God of Judaism, Christianity and Islãm can be traced back for something over 2,500 years to the time when the Hebrew scripture of Genesis was compiled in the 6th century BC. The narrative content of Genesis was clearly derived from older traditions but, on the face of it, we have no documentary evidence from any other source of a monotheistic culture in respect of this particular God from before that date. In The Origin of God, written but not published before his untimely death in August 2010, Laurence Gardner, author of the international bestsellers Bloodline of the Holy Grail, Genesis of the Grail Kings and Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark, undertakes a biographical exploration of the deiform character variously known as Yahweh, Allãh, or simply The Lord. He seeks to uncover and evaluate His original identity, as against His eventual religiously motivated portrayals. Beginning with documents that pre-date the Bible, Laurence Gardner's final quest was to discover from all available sources what evidence there is, if any, to support the long-standing and widespread notion of God's existence, posing the question: If the Bible had never been written, would we know about God from any more original source?

Jesus Christ is arguably the most famous man who ever lived. His image adorns countless churches, icons, and paintings. He is the subject of millions of statues, sculptures, devotional objects and works of art. Everyone can conjure an image of Jesus: usually as a handsome, white man with flowing locks and pristine linen robes. But what did Jesus really look like? Is our popular image of Jesus overly westernized and untrue to historical reality? This question continues to fascinate. Leading Christian Origins scholar Joan E. Taylor surveys the historical evidence, and the prevalent image of Jesus in art and culture, to suggest an entirely different vision of this most famous of men. He may even have had short hair.