KiwiNFLFan wrote: ↑Tue Aug 20, 2019 11:50 pmI'm an ex-Christian who is now a Buddhist. I was involved in all three branches of Christianity over the years - Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant.
Whilst I never considered myself ever to be a Christian, I suppose I am glad my parents culture was Catholic & Orthodox rather than Protestant.
KiwiNFLFan wrote: ↑Tue Aug 20, 2019 11:50 pmI'm curious as to what other Theravada Buddhists think about the god of Christianity.
To me, the Christian god is the same god as in the Buddhist
Tevijja Sutta; as explained below:
1 John 4:7-21
God Is Love
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?s ... ersion=ESV
KiwiNFLFan wrote: ↑Tue Aug 20, 2019 11:50 pmTo recap, the god of Christianity is an insanely jealous being who created two naive humans
The above sounds like the Hebrew God rather than the Christian God.
KiwiNFLFan wrote: ↑Tue Aug 20, 2019 11:50 pmput them in a garden with a tree they weren't allowed to eat from, then kicked them out of the garden when they did eat from it, and cursed all their descendants with mortality because of it. In order to reconcile mankind to himself and let them into his presence, he had to become man (Jesus), live a sinless life and be brutally killed as a sacrifice to himself. But only those who believe in Jesus get to be with god after death. All unbelievers will go to hell where they will be tortured forever.
The above mixing of the Hebrew (Jewish) God & the Christian God sounds like the Protestant influence.
The Hebrew God i would nominate as an asura, due to its propensity to attempt to govern man using violence & punishment. Refer to
SN 11.5, which distinguishes between how 'asura' & 'deva' govern man.
I nominate the Christian God is a Brahma ( as I originally posted). One meaning of 'Brahma' is literally 'The Father'.