Gen 1:26: Let us make man in our image…
How do you explain this? Is it referring to the trinity? I’m seeing it used to justify someone’s view that God is in a ‘crew’ of god’s.
Also, this is what someone posted in a forum;
‘YHWH was a war god in a bigger pantheon. The Bible also mentions Him having a wife that lived with Him in the Temple, multiple instances of “greater than all other gods” and it’s like, and often the term translated as “false” doesn’t mean the other gods aren’t real, but that they aren’t THE god. Again: henotheistic, not monotheistic.’
How do I prove this person is wrong?
Arguing with these non-believers and their outrageous positions can be dangerous unless you really know your Scriptures. The Hebrew word for God in Genesis 1:26 is Elohim. By the “im” ending we know it’s plural. Taken Literally it should mean gods, but it’s always used as if it’s singular, God. It refers to the Trinity.
As for God being the only one, read Isaiah 43:10-11 “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. I, even I, am the Lord and there is no other. Apart from me there is no Savior.
Isaiah 44:6 “This is what the LORD says– Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.
Isaiah 45:5 “I am God and there is no other, apart from me there is no God.”
Isaiah 46:9 “I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me.”
There are probably a dozen or so references like this in the 10 chapters between Isaiah 40 and 50 alone. You can believe the Bible or believe the unbeliever but you can’t believe both.
As far as God having a wife and living in the Temple, there’s no mention of that anywhere in the Bible because it isn’t true. This person probably got the notion from a feminist pagan belief that the Shekinah Glory, a Hebrew term for the Holy Spirit, was actually Asteroth, the Canaanite goddess of fertility. It’s the height of blasphemy, made popular in a novel called the DiVinci Code.
By “greater than all other gods” the Hebrews meant greater than the pagan gods who are demons hiding behind images of wood and stone. They are real in the sense that demons are real, but they’re definitely not deserving of the title “God.” There’s only One who is.