What is unique about the Judeo-Christian God?

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I’m asking this in response to the “your God is just a compilation of the gods of other early civilizations” claim. My understanding is that, to the contrary, the Judeo-Christian God has attributes that were not claimed for any of these other gods. I’d like to start a list of those attributes.

To start with, were any of these other gods said to comprise existence itself (“I am who am”)?
 
snarflemike said:
I’m asking this in response to the “your God is just a compilation of the gods of other early civilizations” claim. My understanding is that, to the contrary, the Judeo-Christian God has attributes that were not claimed for any of these other gods. I’d like to start a list of those attributes.

To start with, were any of these other gods said to comprise existence itself (“I am who am”)?
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And did any of the ‘other gods’ actually die, not in some kind of ‘fertility growth’ cycle, but die to save all humanity? I don’t think so! I think Jesus is unique in that.
 
Tantum_ergo said:
And did any of the ‘other gods’ actually die, not in some kind of ‘fertility growth’ cycle, but die to save all humanity? I don’t think so! I think Jesus is unique in that.
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is the Judeo-Christian God different from the Catholic God?
 
aprilfloyd said:
is the Judeo-Christian God different from the Catholic God?
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Yes - the Trinity and the Incarnation among other things. And I’d bet that the Trinitarian nature of the Christian God is unique and worth adding to the list. It is often claimed that other gods “became men” but I don’t know how accurate such claims are, or how well they fit with The Incarnation.
 
Incarnation
Suffering Servant
Fulfiller of prophecy
Martyrs
Miracles
Witnesses

Here’s also an article by Dr. Peter Kreeft on the Uniqueness of Christianity
Bishop Fulton Sheen probably has some works on the subject as well, I remember from a class, but not sure if online.
 
Found the Bishop Sheen references in an old file. If you can get ahold of his Philosophy of Religion, you’ll find his treatment on Transcendence of Christianity on page 240ff. The context starts on 207.
 
The Eucharist.

What other God gives himself to us as our food?
 
I participated in the other thread, but I’ll go ahead and cut & paste my material into this discussion for the benefit of the OP’s desire for a compilation of examples. These represent some comparisons I made off the top of my head between OT descriptions of God and general descriptions of ancient pagan gods. I didn’t address aspects of Christology in the other thread (as it was focusing on the Torah) but I see that others have already done so in this discussion.

1) Mythological gods are not true creators. They do not create something out of nothing, but rather fashion things from pre-existing material.

YHWH creates the universe out of nothing.

2) Mythological gods are not eternal. They are brought into existence either by birth or some other creative force.

YHWH is uncreated and eternal.

3) Mythological gods typically come in male and female counterparts, reflecting what is viewed in nature.

Although YHWH is described with certain male and female characteristics, YHWH has no gender.

4) Mythological gods have physical forms and are depicted in idols.

YHWH is pure spirit. YHWH is invisible and therefore there is no depiction of him in the form of idols or such.

5) Mythological gods have personal names.

YHWH revealed no name to humanity for several centuries. When he finally revealed a name to Moses, it was not a personal name, but rather, “I Am Who Am” (designating himself as the quintessential being that exists).
 
snarflemike said:
It is often claimed that other gods “became men” but I don’t know how accurate such claims are, or how well they fit with The Incarnation.
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This is a good point, one that I would like to elaborate on further. In mythology we hear of gods taking on the appearance of humans but this aspect of a god’s humanity is more like a costume or disguise. They are not truly human, so their “humanity” is in appearance only. This is much different from the kenosis associated with the Incarnation. Jesus is true God and true man.

Moreover, in mythology we hear about the concept of a demigod whose conception resulted from the mating between a god and a human. Someone could try to make the argument that this is what was going on at the Annunciation, and that Jesus is like the demigods of paganism. But demigods are described as being neither fully gods nor fully human (they are in a class by themselves). On the other hand, in the Incarnation Jesus is fully God and fully human (or, as we say, human in all ways but sin) and therefore the Incarnation does not have a parallel in paganism.
 
Title of this thread is interesting - what is unique about the Judeo-Christian God? Well for starters, God is unique. Hear Oh Israel that God is One. There is no God but God.

Whether this is truly “unique” among contemporary religions, I don’t know, but it certainly was not the norm in that day and age.
 
snarflemike said:
I’m asking this in response to the “your God is just a compilation of the gods of other early civilizations” claim. My understanding is that, to the contrary, the Judeo-Christian God has attributes that were not claimed for any of these other gods. I’d like to start a list of those attributes.

To start with, were any of these other gods said to comprise existence itself (“I am who am”)?
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The Immaculate Conception - recognizing that if God is creating an unlimited number of humans, the odds reveal that only one will be most perfectly obedient from conception to death - The Holy Virgin Mother!!!
 
snarflemike said:
I’m asking this in response to the “your God is just a compilation of the gods of other early civilizations” claim. My understanding is that, to the contrary, the Judeo-Christian God has attributes that were not claimed for any of these other gods. I’d like to start a list of those attributes.

To start with, were any of these other gods said to comprise existence itself (“I am who am”)?
Click to expand...
The first thing you list, the aesity of God (where essence and existence are identicle: I AM who AM), can be known without access to revelation. This attribute is unique to God–in fact, it is impossible to conceive of a being with this attribute who is not God! Since God can be known (speculatively, not affectively) from reason and the things that can be made, it would make sense that He was acknowlwedged by people other than Jews and Christians.

The ancient philosophers and others in fact did discover God in this way. But, as St. Thomas notes in his commentary on the Gospel of St. John: “Again, if they did have some speculative knowledge of God, this was mixed with many errors: some denied his providence over all things; others said he was the soul of the world; still others worshipped other gods along with him.”

See also this article on the “God of Classical Theism”, including the linked articles within the article:
edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-avengers-and-classical-theism.html
 
snarflemike said:
I’m asking this in response to the “your God is just a compilation of the gods of other early civilizations” claim. My understanding is that, to the contrary, the Judeo-Christian God has attributes that were not claimed for any of these other gods. I’d like to start a list of those attributes.

To start with, were any of these other gods said to comprise existence itself (“I am who am”)?
Click to expand...
Our God died and was buried on Friday afternoon and 3 days later, rose from the dead on Sunday morning and walked out of His tomb. He instituted His own Church, the Catholic Church on Peter and His apostles, and not even the gates of hell will prevail against it. It’s here today with Francis as pope, the 266th successor to Peter. That’s as unique as it gets.
 
Genesis315 said:
The first thing you list, the aesity of God (where essence and existence are identicle: I AM who AM), can be known without access to revelation. This attribute is unique to God–in fact, it is impossible to conceive of a being with this attribute who is not God! Since God can be known (speculatively, not affectively) from reason and the things that can be made, it would make sense that He was acknowlwedged by people other than Jews and Christians…
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I agree that the eternal existence of God can be discerned through reason, but what is being examined is whether or not this attribute of the Judeo-Christian God stemmed from the mythology of an earlier civilization. I am not aware of any ancient pagan god being described as having comprised existence itself. Moreover, whereas the eternal existence of God can be discerned through reason, I am not aware of a record of any philosophers actually discussing this until after Judaism was well established.

Unless specific cases can be brought forth contradicting at least one of my above stated points then it is reasonable to dismiss the notion that eternal existence of the Judeo-Christian God was borrowed from an earlier pagan religion or earlier philosophical construct.
 
I’d add a few other unique qualities:

Most religions consist of human attempts to reach God. In Judaism and Christianity, God reaches to us.

Other religions have, at best, myths that may not fit history, and are not well situated in history. Judaism and Christianity are interwoven into actual history, to the point that we can see errors in attempts to date them, such as the fact that Jesus must have been born before the death of King Herod the Great, by 4 B.C., not in the year 1 (B.C. or A.D.) Similarly, we know that Jesus died when Herod Antipas was tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, and Pilate the governor of Judea, even if not the exact year.

Our God acts always and only from love for us and for creation; other Gods have other motivations. Many have a “portfolio” such as war, or fertility, or storms.
 
bmonk said:
I’d add a few other unique qualities:

Most religions consist of human attempts to reach God. In Judaism and Christianity, God reaches to us.

Other religions have, at best, myths that may not fit history, and are not well situated in history. Judaism and Christianity are interwoven into actual history, to the point that we can see errors in attempts to date them, such as the fact that Jesus must have been born before the death of King Herod the Great, by 4 B.C., not in the year 1 (B.C. or A.D.) Similarly, we know that Jesus died when Herod Antipas was tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, and Pilate the governor of Judea, even if not the exact year.

Our God acts always and only from love for us and for creation; other Gods have other motivations. Many have a “portfolio” such as war, or fertility, or storms.
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Egyptian Religion has a lot of accurate history. In fact any religion where the leaders were worshipped has a good history.

Horus actually sounds a lot like Jesus

Born on December 25th
Born of a virgin
Birth was accompanied by a star in the east
After his birth was adored by three kings
Teacher at 12
Baptized/Ministry at 30
Had 12 disciples he traveled about with
Performing miracles: 8a. healing the sick, 8b. walking on water
Known by many names: “Lamb of God”, “The Truth”, “God’s begotten(?) Son”, “The Light”, “The good Shepard”
After being betrayed:
was crucified
Dead-for 3 days
Resurrected
skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/1678/claimed-similarities-between-jesus-christ-and-horus-and-other-gods
 
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