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Views of the Deity, Traditional and Scientific
Views of the Deity Traditional and Scientific Author:James Samuelson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: n. THE GOD OP ISRAEL. "I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known unto them."... more »—Exodus vi., v. 3. It is not our intention to trench more than is absolutely necessary upon the debatable ground of controversial theology, or it might be deemed necessary, before we seek to obtain a glimpse of the Semitic Deity in the sacred writings of the past, to inquire whether or not the Hebrews were true monotheists. A few reflections on this head may perhaps arise incidentally out of the contemplation of the picture of " Jehovah," but it may be as well to state that the controversy does not appear to the author to possess the importance which certain learned writers have thought fit to attach to it. For there are two kinds of monotheism, the one which recognises an omnipresent Deity, the Euler of the universe, the Father of the whole human race, and the guardian of life in all its phases and aspects, the other a belief in a (rod whose care is bestowed upon some particular race or section of the human family; a iaith which never concerns itself about the possibility of other gods, or any Providence for less highly favoured peoples, or which tacitly admits the existence of inferior deities, all of whom are however pretenders, and but second- Vide Semitic Monotheism in Professor Max Muller's ' Chips from a German Workshop," and the works of Benan there noticed. ary in comparison with " our true God." All the evidence that can be extracted from the earlier portions of the Old Testament tends to show that the monotheism of the ancient Hebrews was of the latter kind, and some of its spirit has been transmitted not only to their modern descendants, but it has also found its way into the faith of many Christian ...« less