Drew Grumbles

T or F? "Recognizing the divine council in both the Hebrew Bible and the Book of Mormon may help us appreciate a more nuanced understanding of such theological terms as 'monotheism' as well as bolster confidence in the antiquity of the Nephite record."

Ps 82:1 is oft translated as a "divine council." The underlying phrase is actually "assembly of El." El is singular. El occurs 25x in the OT, and each time is translated as "god." It is never an adjective, always a noun. Ps 82:1 says, "God is standing in God's assembly."

"You are elohim, but like Adam you shall die." - Psalm 82:6-7 "But you are an Adam, and no El, though you think you are [an] elohim. . . therefore . . . you shall die." - Ezek 28:2, 8

"The Babylonians boasted that Marduk was the greatest of all gods and that none compared to him, whereas the prophet Isaiah declares time and again that the Lord alone is God and that there is none but him." - Shalom Paul

T/F: YHWH is "species unique"

Monotheism – only one God exists. Monolatry – multiple gods exist, but only one ought to be worshipped. Henotheism – many gods exist with one as supreme (e.g. Canaanite religion). x.com/jonmoffitt/sta…

"Our lives through various scenes are drawn, And vexed with trifling cares; While thine eternal thought moves on Thine undisturbed affairs."

"Modern Christians often assume that monotheism means, by definition, that no other spiritual beings can exist at all." Have you ever met a Christian who thinks this?

"There is no God, no real divine being but one. The objects of heathen worship were neither what the heathen took them to be, nor were they gods in the true sense of that term.” – Charles Hodge on 1 Corinthians 8:4

“‘God is one’ was a denial of the existence of any other gods.” - Philip H. Towner on 1 Timothy 2:5

YHWH said to Moses, "I have made you God [elohim] to Pharaoh." נְתַתִּיךָ אֱלֹהִים (Exodus 7:1) Does this make Moses a real god?

After Jesus says "The Lord our God the Lord is one," the scribe responds (Mk 12:32), "You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him." (οὐκ ἔστιν ἄλλος πλὴν αὐτοῦ) This is a nearly exact quote of Deut 4:35,39 in LXX (οὐκ ἔστιν ἔτι πλὴν αὐτοῦ)

Thomas Goodwin says, "You *therefore* find that the angels are *called* gods." What does he mean? "But ye have good angels and bad angels *called* gods as well as magistrates here below, and they are *therefore called so because they are rulers*."

"The OT can say that the Lord is 'above all gods' without for a moment admitting their reality." - J. Alec Motyer, Isaiah 41:21

"It may be thought that Isaiah speaks inaccurately, when he says that idols are of nothing...The solution is easy, for Isaiah did not look at the material, but at the quality, that is, the notion of divinity which men erroneously attribute to them." Calvin, Isa 41:24

"At the funerals of those close to us, we will pay nature the tears it is owed." - John Calvin

Answer: Neo-Babylonian prayer to Ishtar. They believed the gods were real and Ishtar was the "God of [real] gods." x.com/pastorgrumbles…

Who prayed like this? "I implore you. . . God of gods, [king] of all the inhabited world . . . you are noble, the greatest of the gods, . . . splendid is your greatness, exalted over all the gods."

The correct answer is Joseph Smith. He made his argument based on usage of the title elohim. x.com/pastorgrumbles…

Who said it? “The head one of the Gods brought forth the Gods. . . . Thus the head God brought forth the Gods in the grand council.”