Guest Posted October 16, 2019 Share Posted October 16, 2019 Apparently God had a wife in heaven. Named Asherah. She was worshipped alongside Yahweh. First I've ever heard of it! Is this true or a piece of nonsense? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 16, 2019 Share Posted October 16, 2019 This belief is a load of ........ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOrangeCat Posted October 16, 2019 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 5 Topic Count: 57 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 1,403 Content Per Day: 0.27 Reputation: 1,824 Days Won: 0 Joined: 12/24/2009 Status: Offline Share Posted October 16, 2019 The worship of Asherah is condemned in the Bible repeatedly. When the Old Testament speaks of groves and poles as places and things of worship or things to be destroyed it's referring to the worship of Asherah. What you've read about Asherah is probably, at best, misguided people who are taking the fact that the ancient Hebrews sometimes did turn to pagan worship practices and may well have tried to combine the religions at different points in time. At worst it's just people trying to take evidence and make it suit a narrative in an attempt to discredit Christianity. Like I said it's condemned over and over again. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayne Posted October 16, 2019 Group: Royal Member Followers: 16 Topic Count: 107 Topics Per Day: 0.04 Content Count: 3,820 Content Per Day: 1.30 Reputation: 4,805 Days Won: 2 Joined: 03/31/2016 Status: Offline Share Posted October 16, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, Melinda12 said: Apparently God had a wife in heaven. Named Asherah. She was worshipped alongside Yahweh. First I've ever heard of it! Is this true or a piece of nonsense? Asherah was one of the false gods [goddesses] worshiped by the Canaanites in the Promised Land. We really don't know what an Asherah pole looked like in the Old Testament because the Bible does not describe them. Some say it was just a tree with carvings of Asherah on it, some say an erected pole with various carvings on it, some say it was phallic in nature. There's no way to no for sure what they looked like. However, when God brought the Hebrews TO the Promised Land, he told them to rid the Promised Land of certain inhabitants, practices, and evil. God wasn't cruel to these people by wiping them out. In fact, he was merciful in giving them hundreds of years to repent before he did. That's what he told Abraham when charging him with being the father of a great nation that the whole world would be blessed by. He said Abraham's descendants would be enslaved for centuries before going to the Promised Land because the people in the Promised Land who were wicked had not reached their maximum rebelliousness for which there was no turning back. Anyway.....about Asherah. The reason that God wanted these pagan people destroyed was because he knew that their pagan practices would "rub off" on his Hebrew people - from which he was going to bring Christ. And sure enough - the Hebrews did not destroy all that God said to and the Asherah poles and the worship of Asherah became a part of their own religious practice as well as burning babies in fires and having homosexual/heterosexual prostitutes at the altar of some of these false gods. All this is why Israel and Judah were destroyed by God with only Judah returning. It's VERY important that when God says to stay away from certain things, that we obey him. God isn't raining on our parade, but protecting us from ourselves. So, no, Asherah was not God's wife. God had/has no wife. God does speak of himself as a husband - but to his people. Just as Jesus Christ is the groom of the bride - which is the church. BUT because certain people excavating in Israel find small idols resembling a woman in ancient homes of Hebrews and because they have only a tiny, tiny, knowledge of the scriptures - they force an idea that is not true onto the historical scholarship of the day. They claim that the Jews believed that God had a wife. Not true at all. Edited October 16, 2019 by Jayne 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Repose Posted October 16, 2019 Group: Advanced Member Followers: 1 Topic Count: 9 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 205 Content Per Day: 0.12 Reputation: 231 Days Won: 0 Joined: 08/06/2019 Status: Offline Share Posted October 16, 2019 Funny enough, I brought this up previously in another post. AnOrangeCat and Jayne summed it up very well. You had a number of misguided Israelites way back then, and it wasn't unheard of for them to try and mix things up, per say. It wasn't even an unheard of practice amongst heathens, either, as many of the heathens would also acknowledge God's existence, yet still stuck to their ways. You've got researchers doing diggings and finding this stuff, and whether they mean it in that they're convinced she was his wife (ignorance), or they pointed out how this is stuff from the ancient israelites beliefs and people on the outside looking in took this as truthful (reader's ignorance), I guess I don't know. I'd wager it's both researchers being ignorant of scripture and people hopping aboard out of ignorance. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovethelord Posted October 16, 2019 Group: Senior Member Followers: 4 Topic Count: 2 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 667 Content Per Day: 0.38 Reputation: 1,540 Days Won: 0 Joined: 06/17/2019 Status: Offline Share Posted October 16, 2019 11 minutes ago, Repose said: You had a number of misguided Israelites way back then, and it wasn't unheard of for them to try and mix things up, per say. It wasn't even an unheard of practice amongst heathens, either, as many of the heathens would also acknowledge God's existence, yet still stuck to their ways. Hi Repose I don't believe the Israelites were misguided. God was clear in His commandments about worshipping other Gods and anything other than Him. The Israelites, surrounded by other nations, constantly backslid into idolatry and would often start worshipping other deities alongside with God. I think this is an example of people putting their will before God's like many today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovethelord Posted October 16, 2019 Group: Senior Member Followers: 4 Topic Count: 2 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 667 Content Per Day: 0.38 Reputation: 1,540 Days Won: 0 Joined: 06/17/2019 Status: Offline Share Posted October 16, 2019 41 minutes ago, Jayne said: It's VERY important that when God says to stay away from certain things, that we obey him. God isn't raining on our parade, but protecting us from ourselves. Great point! I've learned through my own disobedience that I should have just listened to what God was telling me and then I would have avoided heartache and other difficulties in my life. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Repose Posted October 16, 2019 Group: Advanced Member Followers: 1 Topic Count: 9 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 205 Content Per Day: 0.12 Reputation: 231 Days Won: 0 Joined: 08/06/2019 Status: Offline Share Posted October 16, 2019 (edited) 12 minutes ago, lovethelord said: Hi Repose I don't believe the Israelites were misguided. God was clear in His commandments about worshipping other Gods and anything other than Him. The Israelites, surrounded by other nations, constantly backslid into idolatry and would often start worshipping other deities alongside with God. I think this is an example of people putting their will before God's like many today. Perhaps misguided isn't quite the appropriate word. It's just that, at the time, you had a number of people claiming to be prophets who were not. Such as Hananiah breaking jeremiah's yoke. The israelites really should have relied on God's word and the mosaic law, but I can only imagine a bunch of false prophets going about, trying to teach false teachings. You're not wrong though, there was enough of a presence of God's word and people who adhered to it that it likely was a number of people backsliding and being rebellious. Edited October 16, 2019 by Repose 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnthebaptist Posted October 16, 2019 Group: Non-Conformist Theology Followers: 6 Topic Count: 118 Topics Per Day: 0.06 Content Count: 4,361 Content Per Day: 2.31 Reputation: 2,109 Days Won: 0 Joined: 02/25/2019 Status: Offline Birthday: 02/03/1953 Share Posted October 16, 2019 7 hours ago, Melinda12 said: Apparently God had a wife in heaven. Named Asherah. She was worshipped alongside Yahweh. First I've ever heard of it! Is this true or a piece of nonsense? Probably nonsense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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