SPECIAL TOPIC: ONE CAUSALITY

The OT asserts the full sovereignty of YHWH.  His control of "all" events (i.e., one causality in the universe) was a theological way of asserting monotheism.

Hebrew thought had no "secondary causes" (see John Walton, Ancient Thought and the Old Testament, pp. 110, 150, 156).  The OT does not discuss secondary causes.

1. angelic temptation
2. human choices
3. natural calamities
4. diseases

This "one causality" can clearly be seen in several OT genres.

1.  2 Chr. 20:6
2.  Eccl 7:14
3.  Isa. 14:24-27
4.  Isa. 43:13
5.  Isa. 45:7
6.  Isa. 54:16
7.  Jer. 18:11
8.  Lam. 3:33-38
9.  Amos 3:6b

This, in no way, is meant to assert that YHWH is the source of evil! (For a good brief discussion of this see Hard Sayings of the Bible, pp. 305-306.)

SPECIAL TOPIC: MONOTHEISM

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