Friday, May 31, 2013
Deuteronomy 6:4-8 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
ONE GOD
In the Athanasian Creed we confess this about our God: "... the Godhead of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one: the glory equal, the majesty coeternal. ... So the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God; and yet there are not three Gods, but one God."
What is the trouble with religions that teach there is more than one God? Why couldn't there be a Mount Olympus as the Greeks had where a dozen gods and goddesses supposedly made their homes? Or why not have thousands like the Hindus? Wouldn't you think that if having one God were a good thing, having more would be better yet?
Well, not really. For how can a person truly worship more than one? If you are to "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" (5) then there simply cannot be more than one. For how would you be able to divide your loyalty among three gods or six or a hundred? How would you be able to worship and trust with all your heart and soul and strength if some of your heart were given to one god and some to another? By definition, if you worshiped one of them with "all your heart" you would be failing to give proper glory to another who deserved and demanded it. There can only be one "number one" in a person's life.
And what of the commandments? If there were many gods, how would you know whose direction to follow, especially if they did not all give the same direction? And what of your salvation? If there were many gods, how would you know which one could truly grant you eternal life? Which one could you trust to bring you back from death?
Think about this: There has to be but one God or there may as well be none.
There is only one God. The LORD our God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- with perfect unity of purpose for they are of one essence, one true God -- seek nothing else than to deliver you from everlasting punishment. The one God wants one thing only: For you to join Him, sins forgiven, in eternal glory. He is the one and only who grants this forgiveness. He is the one and only who saves you.
The God of Abr'ham praise: All praised be His name
Who was and is and is to be and still the same!
The one eternal God, Ere aught that now appears;
The First and Last: beyond all tho't His timeless years!
He by Himself hath sworn,--I on His oath depend,--
I shall, on eagles' wings upborne, to heav'n ascend;
I shall behold His face, I shall His pow'r adore
And sing the wonders of His grace forevermore.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 40:1, 3)
