How did the god of Judaism, Christianity, and possibly Islam become "the God"

[Valeria Crowe]

Thank you everyone for your answers. And a special thanks to the lady who sent me a great youtube video this morning. I can see how ancient and middle aged "prophets" helped to spread it but still, to the point where there's still 1/3 of the world who identify as Christian and Muslim, and ironically a very small percentage consider themselves Jewish. I actually took a Soc. of Religion class last semester that had those stats available. World-wide it was below 1%, I was surprised. I guess I find that odd considering there's other religions out there for billions of people to follow as well.

 
Not that surprising. Politics and murder spread religions real good. There's nothing unusual about your god.

[Darkhawk]

ironically a very small percentage consider themselves Jewish.

 
What's ironic about a culturally exclusive religion being only practiced by members of the relevant culture?

Are you even aware that if you want to convert to Judaism, Jewish custom requires people to try to convince you to do something else instead, several times, before you are permitted to study for conversion?

Christianity and Islam are conversion-oriented religions.  Judaism is not.  Religions where the practitioners actually give a shit about making other people conform to their religious practices tend to spread a whole heck of a lot more than religions where the practitioners don't want other people to do as they do.  Shocking!

[Castus]

Okay so in my experience people in the Abrahamic religions tend to say their masculine god is the only true god to the point where they capitalize the g

That is because Abrahamic religions are monotheistic. That statement is akin to saying "in my experience, trees are made out of wood."

[Valentine]

What's ironic about a culturally exclusive religion being only practiced by members of the relevant culture?

Are you even aware that if you want to convert to Judaism, Jewish custom requires people to try to convince you to do something else instead, several times, before you are permitted to study for conversion?

Christianity and Islam are conversion-oriented religions.  Judaism is not.  Religions where the practitioners actually give a shit about making other people conform to their religious practices tend to spread a whole heck of a lot more than religions where the practitioners don't want other people to do as they do.  Shocking!

 
I mean, there's that other very mysterious reason why the Jewish population isn't so big, of course.  I'm trying to put my finger on it...

[Maponos]

Okay so in my experience people in the Abrahamic religions tend to say their masculine god is the only true god to the point where they capitalize the g. Also technically like other religions, they all (Abrahamic faiths) started out in a small section of the middle east and was supposed to reflect those people and I know that throughout history Christianity in particular spread but how did this Middle Eastern god become so universal to the point where "he" became the source and the cause of disgruntled atheists and agnostics who are against the extreme proselyzation of this god? Also I know Christians don't always do this but god in the old testament is supposed to separate from Jesus (the technical Christian god) of the new testament, and to be blunt the god of the old testament is quite the bastard, and hateful. In all of mythology I've never heard of such a beloved but feared god that was basically both good and evil. For the most part Jesus is a kinder, gentler soul. So to me they are separate partly for that reason.

Also what is it about the Middle Eastern culture that they've pretty much created vengeful but loving gods (ex: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam)? Was it also part of their polytheistic, pre-Abrahamic society?

 
Allah/Jehovah/Yahweh are all the same because they came from the same source. However, they began having different religions based around them because of different prophets and people saying opposing things as well as cultural interpretations based on this god.

Random trivia: Yahweh was originally a tribal deity of Israel in the larger Canaanite religion.

[Shakas]

Not that surprising. Politics and murder spread religions real good. There's nothing unusual about your god.

That, and you could make a very cogent argument that the Christianity of modern-day moralists and televangelists and U.S. Republicans is rather different from the Christianity practiced circa the 4th century C.E.  Theses have been written on those "missing" books of the Bible that were conveniently omitted from the King James Version but which have been forgotten by modern Christians.

Whether most Christians acknowledge it or not, their religion's malleability is one reason it has been durable.

[SunflowerP]

... those "missing" books of the Bible that were conveniently omitted from the King James Version but which have been forgotten by modern Christians.

 
That's rather erasive of Catholics - and, I think, of pretty much everything outside Protestantism.

Sunflower