What most Christians DO NOT KNOW is that God in the Old Testament is actually A PAGAN GOD, and that Christ is a PAGAN GOD TOO. Secular Humanists have determined that the Hebrews developed their notions about God and man under the influence of cultures which PRECEDED them, Sumerian, Mesopotamian, Canaanite and Egyptian. They “borrowed” from these cultures and TRANSFORMED the notions of various motifs and themes about man and God and made them into their own particular “interpretation” or “spin.”
Secular Humanists understand THAT ALL RELIGIONS are the “creation of men” they consist of various reformattings of earlier myths, motifs and concepts, THEY ARE NOT REVELATIONS FROM HEAVEN.
In Genesis God is portrayed as resting on the 7th day after making man and the world. He denies immortality to man for breaking a commandment not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He replaces man’s “animal companions” with a woman who later “ensnares” man with the forbidden fruit. Both seeing they are naked clothe themselves and are expelled from paradise. Later, God destroys a sinful mankind with a Flood. ALL OF THESE MOTIFS EXIST IN EARLIER PRE-HEBREW MYTHS of the Mesopotamians. The characters appearing in the Genesis stories are in reality REINTERPRETATIONS and TRANSFORMATIONS of PAGAN individuals and PAGAN GODS.
Adam is in reality Enkidu of the Gilgamesh epic. Eve is the Temple prostitute brought by the hunter to “ensnare” Enkidu. Adam is also the PAGAN character Adapa of the “South Wind myth”, who is summoned to heaven to account for his actions. He is warned by his god, Enki, NOT to eat anything offered for it is the food of death (in reality it is the food bestowing IMMORTALITY). Mankind loses out on his bid for immortality BECAUSE HE OBEYED A LYING GOD, but in the re-worked Hebrew version, mankind loses out on his bid for immortality BECAUSE HE DISOBEYED HIS GOD, this is called in the scholarly language AN INVERSION (or REVERSAL) of an earlier motif or concept. In the Mesopotamian myths ALL THE GODS RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY after destroying mankind with the FLOOD. In the Hebrew INVERSION, ONLY ONE GOD RESTS ON THE SEVENTH DAY after “creating a world and mankind” BEFORE THE FLOOD (another INVERSION or REVERSAL of an earlier motif or concept).
Who is GOD in the Genesis myths ? In REALITY he is an AMALGUM of earlier PAGAN GODS, re-worked and transformed by the Hebrews. God IS ENKI of the Sumerian myths, the famous “TRICKSTER GOD,” who plays tricks on other gods and on mankind. Enki “tricked” Adapa (Adam’s prototype) into refusing to eat the food that would confer immortality on mankind. ENKI warned King Ziusudra of Shurrupak in Mesopotamia to build an ARK and save himself and his family from a FLOOD the Gods were sending to destroy all of mankind. ENKI plays another “trick on mankind,” he confounds mankind by changing their ONE LANGUAGE into a BABEL of many languages. It is a PAGAN GOD, ENKI, who “lurks behind” the portrayal of God in Genesis.
So, to take a leaf from Armstrong, What are you going to do, “former” Worldwide Church of God” Christians, you know that PAGANISM is an aspect of today’s Christian beliefs and practices and NOW YOU KNOW that the Hebrew God IS HIMSELF in reality a PAGAN GOD too ?
To “learn for yourselves” the TRUE ORIGINS of the Hebrew BIBLE from PAGAN motifs, concepts and beliefs, you are invited to my website to read the articles there on the Old Testament. But as the Editor of the _Herbert W. Armstrong Painful Truth website_ has warned you, DON’T believe what you are told, DO YOUR OWN INVESTIGATIONS into what the truth really is. Check up on me, investigate my sources or bibliography, am I correctly understanding what I have read. Are the authors I cite from correctly informed ? Is TRUTH determined by FAITH and REVELATIONS or is it determined by RATIONALITY and REASON ? Only the TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE. Cf. the following articles at this url http://www.bibleorigins.net/OldTestament.html
EXCERPT FROM https://hwarmstrong.com/bible-origins.htm
ARTICLE BY Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld