The Scriptures have some fascinating idiosyncrasies.

In the East, one meets with a profusion of gods and deities with bizarre forms-eight arms (Durga), four heads (Brahma), a thousand eyes (Indra); or with unusual transplants--a horse's head (Ahagrayia), a ram's testicles (Indra); or endowed with frightening appearances (Kali, Rudra); or toying with bloody dismemberment (Mother Kali wearing a garland of fifty severed heads and a skirt of human arms, or holding her own severed head in her hand).

Whereas in the West, all representations of God and his saints are always faithfully anthropomorphic (with all body parts in their proper place and in the right number, except in the case of some of the angels such as the seraphims and other divine attendants as described in apocalyptic literature (Revelation, Ezekiel, etc.). Demons, whether of the Eastern or Western flavor, are always grotesque as a matter of course.

So it is quite understandable that when Christian missionaries, raised on images of noble-browed Jehovah, blue-eyed Christ, and chubby cupids, enter Asian temples and behold multi-armed, fiery-eyed, part-human and part-animal gods, they are firmly convinced that they are witnessing visions of hell, and that their duty is to liberate these foolish people from their "demonic" worship and teach the only "true" religion-theirs. Local devotees, on the other hand, understand these pictures and statues as patterns of divine attributes, rich in spirituals metaphors-a severed head representing a conquered ego, multiple arms symbolizing endless divine blessings and powers, etc.

Similarly, the 330 million names of gods and deities in Hinduism are but descriptive attributes of a single Supreme Deity. Just as the Deity of the Tanakh ("Old Testament") goes under 42 different appellations, and Lord Jesus is referred to by no less than 593 different names in the New Testament.