Then who was "Theos Hypsistos", and was he not a pagan deity?

Submitted by zzazzeefrazzee (United States), Mar 15, 2008 at 19:05

Oliver,

"Extant copies of Paul's writings are all in Greek – when Paul referred to god he used the Greek word theos or kurios – when have I ever disparaged the use of the Greek word theos to refer to god "

So, even though it the term was used with reference to pagan deities, specifically that of the pre-Christian Theos Hypsistos, it gets a "pass".

You missed my point entirely; I think your argument with me holds many parallels to that of Paul with Peter. Think about it: Peter's sanctimonious responses to Paul's evangelizing, Peter's insistence Peter saw it was IMPOSSIBLE to reconcile "gentile" culture with that of Christianity. Paul did so, capitalized directly on the cult of Theos Hypsistos, and succeeded in conversion.

"Using the name of a pagan god to refer to the true and living god is certainly BLASPHEMY."

So then, is the use of theos. The only reliance that you have , is that of precedent in the words of Paul, but not the ACTUAL words of Christ, as he is not know to have spoken Greek, is he?

Furthermore, the determination hat the use of "Alah by Christians is simply your own personal dogma; it is not at all shared by all Christians., and certainly not my Arabic-speaking Christian friends. You have no proof that Allah was used ONLY for a pagan god, and you overlook a very old tradition that the Arabs are directly descended from Abraham into to justify your claims. Basically, you are using arguments given by Morley, without ever citing him.

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