 The One True God
By D. Gene
West
The world is
now and always has been full of “other gods.” Pretonius
said of the city of Athens that it was easier to find a god than to
find a man.
And Zenophon called Athens, one great altar to the gods. The Bible is a
very
unique book in that it declares there is only one true and living God.
Judaism,
for hundreds upon hundreds of years claimed that there is only one true
God who
has revealed himself to mankind, and in that they have been correct.
Christianity, likewise, declares to the world there is only one true
God,
although in recent months in this country, in the name of tolerance,
some who
claim to be Christians have voted to no longer say that salvation is
found in
Christ alone. From this and other sources we are learning that once
again, in
our world of so-called pluralism, men are beginning to deny that there
is but
one God. That is not surprising, but what is amazing is that there are
some who
wish to call themselves Christians who agree with that concept. While
these
people do not consider themselves polytheists (worshiper of more than
one God),
in reality they are because they recognize other so-called deities as
being on
a par with Yahweh when it comes to matters religious in nature. For
some reason
these folk find it “bigoted” to insist there is only one true God in
our
universe.
When we turn to the 17th
chapter of the Book of Acts, we find the Apostle Paul confronted with a
situation not too unlike ours. He found the people of Athens worshiping
“ every
god under the sun,” and fearing that they might miss one, they erected
an altar
to “the unknown God.” Paul preached a great sermon on Mar’s Hill in
which he
declared to the people there the unknown God of whom they were
ignorant. Paul
declared that the God whom they did not know is the Creator of the
world and
everything in it. He averred that since God is Lord of heaven and
earth, he
does not dwell in temples made with human hands nor is he worshiped
with the
hands of men as if he needed anything; on the contrary it is God who
gives to
all life, breath and all things. Paul insisted that human beings are
the
offspring of God as certain of their own poets had claimed.
Furthermore, he
created man of one blood for the purpose of dwelling on all the face of
the
earth and has defined their limitations. He also declared that God is
not far
from any of us, for we live, move and have our being in him.
Paul also emphasized that
since we are the offspring of God, we should not think of him as one of
the
idols made of gold, silver or stone, that which is shaped by the art of
man. We
should think of him as being the Divine Nature.
When Christianity had its
beginning in the world, it challenged polytheism to the very core. As
the teaching
of the Bible went forth regarding the one true and living God, temple
after
temple that had been erected to first one heathen god and then the
other fell
into disuse, and finally into dust due to the fact that so many people
were
being converted to Yahweh as the only true God and to Jesus Christ as
the only
Savior in the world. Men by the millions came to accept God and the
Lord Jesus
Christ, and as they did the old gods were forgotten and ignored.
It seems today, however, that there is an
attempt to turn from the recognition of Yahweh as the one living and
eternal
God to other gods which like those in ancient times are nothing more
than the
inventions of men. They are deaf, mute and totally impotent. Yet, men
turn to
them; they pray to them; they offer them gifts and devote their lives
to them.
Surely, they must know that gods of stone, wood, even when ornately
adorned
with precious metals, stones and clothing are nothing more than the
works of
their own hands. As such they have no value in this life or in the one
which is
to come, for there is only one true, living, eternal and loving God and
he is
the One revealed in the Bible.
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