@ Viv
The part that needs a citation is the assertion that the church invented it. The undisputed fact, is the part where the phrase is only used by Christ to refer to himself.
as far as El being the Ugarit pantheon father. This was never disputed by me. Fact: this God was Abrahams God known as Elshaddai. The God was later known as yahweh. The changing of the name does not constitute a new God, it's the same God with a different name. That is in fact what all these references are saying. Did the worship of the God evolve in Israelite religious practice? Yes it did. Does this make it a different God? No it doesn't.
a way you can see this in the bible is in numbers. This God had at least one prophet he spoke to who wasn't in the tribe of Israel. In numbers 22 balaam lives in Pethor. This suggests that the God had other prophets in the area who weren't Israelites. so it would seem there were others besides Israelites who accepted the God El as their God. Just because the gods worship was changed or evolved does not make it a new God.
any further argument on the subject is to argue theology and not history. As an example, I would argue that this God elshaddai, called el, became a different God only at the hands of the surrounding nations and that the true worship of the God was preserved by Melchizadek and passed on to Abraham and his descendants. In arguing this I would submit that the surrounding nations evolved the God into something completely different from its original preserved by Melchizadek. So that THEY took on a new God, while Israel preserved the original.
But this is a theological argument, not a historical one. From history we can assert that El was Abrahams God, that Melchizadek was this gods priest and this priest blessed Abraham. Then Abraham passed the worship of this God alone onto his descendants. As I said above, did the Ten Commandments and mosaic law constitute a change to this gods worship at least in terms of making it a standard? Yes. Does this make the God different from el Shaddai mentioned by Melchizadek? No. It only standardized the practices of worship. Did this differ from how the surrounding nations worshipped this God? Probably. Does it make it a different God? No.
Modern day example:
catholics worship differently. Jehovah's witnesses worship differently. Protestants worship differently. Do they worship the same God? Yes.
So what we are really arguing isnt whether it was same God, but which manner of worship was the right one. Therefore it's a theological arguement, not a historical one.