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Originally Posted by Michael Chui  I ran a Google search, and it didn't turn up anything useful. The first result has a biblography, and is probably the best indicator, but it's no proof that Jehova(h) was the god of war in pre-Abraham times. Actually, it seems to say that Jehova(h) wasn't Abraham's god. *shrugs* See for yourself: jehovah "god of war" - Google Search |
Okay... sorry... one last thing. IIRC, this comes largely from Mormon doctrine (as a side note, I grew up in a primarily LDS town; they call themselves "Mormons" and never gave anyone I knew of a hard time about it). I do know that this is not a doctrine held by Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism or Protestants (again, this is a generalization, but as far as generalizations go... it's not a bad one
) In fact, now that I think about it, most of the OP's history seems to be drawn from Mormon doctrine, which, while not a bad thing, is certainly not representative of the larger part of Christian thought, nor is it thought historically accurate by (secular) scholars. All of the YHWH / Elohim distinctions, while important to LDS teachings, are not that important to other Christianities, insofar as the development of doctrine goes. In the exegesis of the Hebrew Bible? Sure. Read up on the Documentary Hypothesis for an example of where it comes in.
[Edited to add] I should also note that the Good God / Evil God dichotomy was a prevalent feature of Gnostic Christianity in the first couple of centuries CE. This, along with the rest of Gnostic Christianity, we declared heresy, and so it's not really around much any more (although there are still Gnostic Christian communities around).