It looks like you underscored the word only, however I suggest you underline the word begotten instead.
Add in Ro 8:15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to And by him we cry, Abba, Father.”
John 1:12,13 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
And even the Lord Prayer, teaching us how to Pray, starting with ‘our Father’, I think the case is pretty clear that instead of assistants, children is a much better term, at least for the NT, though at terms the word servant is used, but in terms of why God doesn’t do everything himself, this seems to be the best answer, at least from a biblical point of view.
In the world we can observe, creatures with unusual powers have had to sacrifice other powers. We don’t have heavy-boned animals that can fly. Animals that can run fast can’t swim like fish. If you show me a large bird skeleton with strong and heavy bones, I’d find any claims that it could fly to be incredible.
As to our Kansas man, of course we would expect other unusual characteristics to accompany his great strength. I’d expect him to run fast and jump far. But X-Ray vision, using eyes that look and operate much like ours? Nope. That strains credulity. Add some power to create, say, 1 tree, and that’s right off the credibility scale.
The first thing that comes to mind when the claim of an all-powerful, all-knowing and all-seeing singular deity is made is this quote:
“For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong .”
One of my favorite quotes, in Hinduism, related to the OP is the agnostic view from the Rigveda written c. 1500–1000 BCE.
“7. Whence all creation had its origin,
the creator, whether he fashioned it or whether he did not,
the creator, who surveys it all from highest heaven,
he knows — or maybe even he does not know.”
There are other parts of Rigveda where creationism is also preached.
Lots of people miss the implications of “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me”. It doesn’t mean other gods don’t exist, but it is taught and preached that way so that misconception made its way into popular thought.
Basically Abrahamic religious people are threatened by the temptation of other deities and don’t want to even come close to admitting in the existence of other gods, even if they are deemed to be lesser entities. After all, God/Jesus/Allah demand worship to one God, implying that the other ones are misleading and unimportant.
The Bible is loaded with other gods, who usually wind up getting defeated by the Lord and His prophets.
Other religions don’t have this problem. Even in Egypt, although Ptah was considered the Creator God, he wasn’t even the #1 worshipped god, although he usually makes the Top 20 lists.
I wonder how the whale version of this story goes;
Verily, I tell you the parable of Fred. Fred was a mighty whale who swam about the seas. But Fred hungered and did not find food. So Fred did offer prayer to the Lord and ask that the Lord provide him with a meal.
And lo! It came to pass. The Lord caused a great storm to rise. A boat was in the midst of this storm and a man was thrown overboard. And Fred did swallow the man and thus he was fed by the mercy of the Lord.
But Fred, now that he was fed, forgot his faith. He did not offer a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord for the meal he had been provided. So on the third day, the Lord caused Fred to vomit his meal back up. And once again Fred was hungry.
The lesson is that we must offer prayers to the Lord in both good times and bad times.
Of course, when humans told this story, they made Jonah the central figure. It makes you realize that a lot of religion is just random things happening with a divine connection added after the fact to explain the religious meaning of what had occurred.
New from 1998?
I suppose I could break a paragraph into sub-paragraphs if you are having trouble reading my text.
(If long text bothers you, be sure to avoid Charles Dickens, H. L. Mencken, Samuel Beckett, and a few others.)
The way I think I heard it (and other instances of the Hebrews’ enemies using magic/divine power against them, or the witches that you’re supposed to suffer not to live) explained is that God created the world with certain rules, and that these magicians had learned those rules and exploited them - but that doing so is sinful.
Of course, I doubt that’s how the ancient Israelites conceived of these stories, since as a number of you have mentioned there is reason to believe that early Judaism was about the WORSHIP of a single God, not the BELIEF in a single God.
