Only One God
Compiled by W. R. Miller
The basic belief of Christianity, and of Judaism, is that there is one God. One Creator. One King of Kings and Lord of Lords. One Supreme Being. Beside Him there is no other God. All other gods are simply byproducts of depraved imaginations. In other words, other gods are non-existent.
How do we know this?
Our knowledge of God, and what He is like, and His interactions with mankind, come from centuries of eyewitness testimony presented in the Old and New Testaments – the Bible. We trust the Biblical accounts because they have proven to be authentic historical documents, preserved through the ages by churches and synagogues. We trust these accounts to be accurate and true, when examined under the standards of legal and historical evidence. Following that, we trust the writers of Holy Scripture to cite their works as authoritative, crediting none other than God Himself, that He is the supreme authority in all things.
What does God say about Himself? What does God say about other gods? This essay compiles the relevant verses from the Holy Scriptures, from the Old and New Testaments. Also included are various scriptures indigenous to Mormonism, when compatible with the Bible, which actually support God as One -- though such a belief is no longer recognized by the polytheistic Mormon church. Mormon verses are indicated in red.
Following the outline, each heading will be demonstrated by a list of Scriptures. In this manner we let God’s authoritative Word speak for Him.*
Special note: The word "monotheistic" is used here in the popular sense. Readers should be aware of current understandings in Evangelical and Jewish scholarship that regard the word "monotheism" as inadequate to express Biblical belief. For more information please see here. The Mormons have misused these discussions for their own purposes, but the matter may be summed up thusly: We are compelled to define "God" in terms of the uniqueness of God as the one eternal, omniscient, omnipotent being who created the universe, because the Hebrew word elohim did have a more general meaning than the word we use in its place, "God" (in the proper name sense). The Mormon view is still invalid, because they view God as evolving, and even say that the one we now call God has a "Father" of His own who is even more powerful, and so on, ad infinitum. As we will see from these passages, the Bible will not allow for that.
Outline
Introduction: The Bible / The Word of God
A. Authentic
1. Archaeological support
2. Legal-historical authority
B. Accurate and True
1. Authoritative
2. “It is written”
3. What the Bible says, God says. What God says, the Bible says.
A.
God is unique
1. The Shema
1. Only one Lord
2. Only one Savior
3. The First and the
Last / The Alpha and Omega / The Beginning and the End
B.
There is no other God
1. There is no other God
2. No one like God
3. There is no other who
can forgive sins
4. There is no other
rock
5. No one else holy
II. Attributes unique to God
A. Creator
B. Possessor of heaven and earth
C. God of heaven and earth
E. God of gods
F. God of hosts
1. God of hosts
2. Lord of Hosts
3. Lord God of Hosts
1. Rock
2. Shepherd
3. Immanuel
4. Redeemer
III. Nature of God
A. “I AM”
B. Almighty God
C. Omnipotent
D. Omnipresent
1. Cannot be contained
2. “Fear not, for I am with you”
E. Omniscient
F.
Eternal
G. Immutable
J.
Perfect
K. Righteous
L. God is Truth, incapable of lying
M.
God is Lord
1. Worthy of worship
2. He must be obeyed
N. God denounces service, or
worship, to other gods
B. Other gods are powerless
C. “Ye are gods”
Appendix: Do you
believe you’re a god, a potential god or “a god in embryo”?
Only One God
Introduction: The
Bible / The Word of God
A. Authentic
The authenticity of the Holy Scriptures is affirmed, and can be confirmed. How do we know they are authentic?
For this essay, two evidences will be discussed, from the standpoints of archaeology and legal-historical authority. At the end of this section links are provided to other essays on the Bible’s authenticity.
1. Archaeological support
Sir
Frederic George Kenyon was a British scholar and Director of the
In The
Story of the Bible (
“It is reassuring at the end to find that the general result of all these
discoveries (of manuscripts) and all this study is to strengthen the proof of
the authenticity of the Scriptures, and our conviction that we have in our hands, in substantial
integrity, the veritable Word of God.”
In Our Bible
and Ancient Manuscripts (New York: Harper & Bros., 1941, p. 23),
Kenyon writes,
“One word
of warning, already referred to, must be emphasized in conclusion. No
fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith rests on a disputed reading.
Constant references to mistakes and divergences of reading, such as the plan of
this book necessitates, might give rise to the doubt whether the substance, as
well as the language, of the Bible is not open to question. It cannot be too strongly asserted that in
substance the text of the Bible is certain. Especially is this the case with
the New Testament.
“The
number of manuscripts of the New Testament, of early translations from it, and
of quotations from it in the oldest writers of the Church, is so large that it
is practically certain that the true reading of every doubtful passage is
preserved in some one or other of these ancient authorities. This can be said of no other ancient book
in the world. Scholars are satisfied that they possess substantially the
true text of the principal Greek and Roman writers whose works have come down
to us, of Sophocles, of Thucydides, of Cicero, of Virgil; yet our knowledge of
their writings depends on a mere handful of manuscripts, whereas the
manuscripts of the New Testament are counted by hundreds, and even thousands.
In the case of the Old Testament we are not quite in such a good position, as
will be shown presently. In some passages it seems certain that the true
reading has not been preserved by any ancient authority, and we are driven to
conjecture in order to supply it. But such passages are an infinitesimal portion
of the whole and may be disregarded. The
Christian can take the whole Bible in his hand and say without fear or
hesitation that he holds in it the true Word of God, handed down without
essential loss from generation to generation throughout the centuries.” Text online at http://www.katapi.org.uk/BibleMSS/II.htm.
Sir
Frederic G. Kenyon, in The Bible and Archaeology (
”The
interval than between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant
evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation
for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they
were written has now been removed. Both
the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament
may be regarded as finally established.”
2. Legal-historical
authority
Harvard Law professor Simon Greenleaf, whose biography and
credits are presented online here: http://28.1911encyclopedia.org/G/GR/GREENLEAF_SIMON.htm,
is one of history’s greatest legal authorities.
His principle work, the three-volume Treatise
on the Law of Evidence, served as a resource for attorneys for years, even endorsed by
Abraham Lincoln. The London Law Journal
wrote of him in 1874, “It is no mean honor to America that her schools of
jurisprudence have produced two of the finest writers and best esteemed legal
authorities in this century—the great and good man, Judge Story, and his
eminent and worthy associate Professor Greenleaf. Upon the existing law of
evidence (by Greenleaf) more light has shown from the New World than from all
the lawyers who adorn the courts of
He writes, in Testimony of the Evangelists,
“That the books of the Old Testament, as we now have them, are genuine; that they existed in the time of our Saviour, and were commonly received and referred to among the Jews, as the sacred books of their religion; and that the text of the Four Evangelists has been handed down to us in the state in which it was originally written, that is, without having been materially corrupted or falsified, either by heretics or Christians; are facts which we are entitled to assume as true, until the contrary is shown.
“The genuineness of these writings really admits of as little doubt, and is susceptible of as ready proof, as that of any ancient writings whatever. The rule of municipal law on this subject is familiar, and applies with equal force to all ancient writings, whether documentary or otherwise; and as it comes first in order, in the prosecution of these inquiries, it may, for the sake of mere convenience, be designated as our first rule.
Every document, apparently ancient, coming from the proper repository or custody, and bearing on its face no evident marks of forger, the law presumes to be genuine, and devolves on the opposing party the burden of proving it to be otherwise.
“An ancient document, offered in evidence in our courts, is said to come from the proper repository, when it is found in the place where, and under the care of persons with whom, such writings might naturally and reasonably be expected to be found; for it is this custody which gives authenticity to documents found within it. If they come from such a place, and bear no evident marks of forgery, the law presumes that they are genuine, and they are permitted to be read in evidence, unless the opposing party is able successfully to impeach them, the burden of showing them to be false and unworthy of credit, is devolved on the party who makes that objection. The presumption of law is the judgment of charity. It presumes every many is innocent until he is proved guilty; that everything has been done fairly and legally, until it is proved to have been otherwise; and that every document, found in its proper repository, and not bearing marks of forgery, is genuine. Now this is precisely the case with the Sacred Writings. They have been used in the church from time immemorial, and thus are found in the place where alone they ought to be looked for they come to us, and challenge our reception of them as genuine writings, precisely as Domesday Book, the Ancient Statues of Wales, or any other of the ancient documents which have recently been published under the British Record Commission, are received. They are found in familiar use in all the churches of Christendom, as the sacred books to which all denominations of Christians refer, as the standard of their faith. There is no pretense that they were engraven on plates of gold and discovered in a cave, nor that they were brought from heaven by angels; but they are received as the plain narratives and writings of the men whose names they respectively bear, made public at the time they were written; and though there are some slight discrepancies among the copies subsequently made, there is no pretense that the originals are lost, and that copies alone are now produced, the principles of the municipal law here also afford a satisfactory answer. For the multiplication of copies was a public fact, in the faithfulness of which all the Christian community had an interest; and it is a rule of law, that,--
In matters of public and general interest, all persons must be presumed to be conversant, on the principle that individuals are presumed to be conversant with their own affairs.
Therefore it is that, in such matters, the prevailing current of assertion is resorted to as evidence, for it is to this that every member of the community is supposed to be privy. The persons, moreover, who multiplied these copies may be regarded, in some manner, as agents of Christian public, for whose use and benefit the copies were made; and on the ground of the credit due to such agents, and of the public nature of the facts themselves, the copies thus made are entitled to an extraordinary degree of confidence, and, as in the case of official registers and other public books, it is not necessary that they should be confirmed and sanctioned by the ordinary tests of truth. If any ancient document concerning our public rights were lost copies which had been received in evidence in any of our courts of justice, without the slightest hesitation. the entire text of the Corpus Juris Civilis is received as authority in all the courts of continental Europe, upon much weaker evidence of its genuineness; for the integrity of the Sacred Text has been preserved by the jealousy of opposing sects, beyond any moral possibility of corruption; while that of the Roman Civil Law has been preserved by tacit consent, without the interest of any opposing school, to watch over and preserve it from alteration.
“These copies of the Holy Scriptures having thus been in familiar use in the churches, from the time when the text was committed to writing; having been watched with vigilance by so many sects, opposed to each other in doctrine, yet all appealing to these Scriptures for the correctness of their faith; and having in all ages, down to this day, been respected as the authoritative source of all ecclesiastical power and government, and submitted to, and acted under in regard to so many claims of right, on the one hand, and so many obligations of duty, on the other; it is quite erroneous to suppose that the Christian is bound to offer any further proof of their genuineness or authenticity. It is for the objector to show them spurious; for on him, by the plainest rules of law, lies the burden of proof. If it were the case of a claim to a franchise, and a copy of an ancient deed or character were produced in support of the title, under parallel circumstances on which to presume its venture to deny either its admissibility in evidence, or the satisfactory character of the proof. In a recent case in the House of Lords, precisely such a document, being an old manuscript copy, purporting to have been extracted from ancient Journals of the House, which were lost, and to have been made by an officer whose duty it was to prepare lists of the Peers, was held admissible in a claim of peerage.”
Further information about the Bible’s authenticity can be found at the
articles at the following links:
Jimmy Williams. “Are the Biblical Documents Reliable?”
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/bib-docu.html
Dr. John Ankerberg, Dr. John Weldon. “The Historical Reliability of the New
Testament Text--Part One”
http://www.johnankerberg.org/Articles/editors-choice/EC0802W2.htm
Dr. John Ankerberg, Dr. John Weldon. “The Historical Reliability of the New
Testament Text--Part Two”
http://www.johnankerberg.org/Articles/editors-choice/EC0902W2.htm
Dr. John Ankerberg, Dr. John Weldon. “The Historical Reliability of the New
Testament Text--Part Three”
http://www.johnankerberg.org/Articles/editors-choice/EC1002W2.htm
Dr. John Ankerberg, Dr. John Weldon. “The Historical Reliability of the New
Testament Text--Part Four”
http://www.johnankerberg.org/Articles/editors-choice/EC1102W2.htm
James Patrick Holding. “Textual Trysts: The Textual Reliability of
the New Testament”
http://www.tektonics.org/lp/nttextcrit.html
B. Accurate and True
The documents of the Old and New Testaments demonstrate to be authentic historical documents, by the standards of the law and of history. But are the statements within those documents accurate and true? Analysis of the documents provide an affirmative conclusion. This is demonstrated in the following essay, “The Truthfulness of the Eyewitness Accounts as Presented in the Bible,” at http://www.tektonics.org/guest/truthfulness.htm.
“Supposing, therefore, that it is not irrational, nor inconsistent with sound philosophy, to believe that God has made a special and express revelation of his character and will to man, and that the sacred books of our religion are genuine, as we now have them; we proceed to examine and compare the testimony of the Four Evangelists, as witnesses to the life and doctrines of Jesus Christ; in order to determine the degree of credit, to which, by the rules of evidence plied in human tribunals, they are justly entitled. Our attention will naturally be first directed to the witnesses themselves, to see who and what manner of men they were; and we shall take them in the order of their writings; stating the prominent traits only in their lives and characters, as they are handed down to us by credible historians.”
So says Simon Greenleaf, who applies legal procedures of evidence in Testimony of the Evangelists, in which he also states:
“Such are the brief histories of men, whose narratives we are to examine and compare; conducting the examination and weighing the testimony by the same rules and principles which govern our tribunals of justice in similar cases. These tribunals are in such cases governed by the following fundamental rule;--
In trials of fact, by oral testimony, the proper inquiry is not whether is it possible that the testimony may be false, but whether there is sufficient probability that it is true.
“It should be observed that the subject of inquiry is a matter of fact, and not of abstract mathematical truth. the latter alone is susceptible of that high degree of proof, usually termed demonstration, which excludes the possibility of error, and which therefore may reasonably be required in support of every mathematical deduction. But the proof of matters of fact rests upon moral evidence alone; by which is meant not merely that species of evidence which we do not obtain either from our own senses, from intuition, or from demonstration. In the ordinary affairs of life we do not require nor expect demonstrative evidence, because it is inconsistent with the nature of matters of fact, and to insist on its production would be unreasonable and absurd. And it makes no difference, whether the facts to be proved related to this life or to the next, the nature of the evidence required being in both cases the same. The error of the skeptic consists in pretending or supposing that there is a difference in the nature of the things to be proved; and in demanding demonstrative evidence concerning things which are not susceptible of any other than moral evidence alone, and of which the utmost that can be said is, that there is no reasonable doubt about their truth.”
After applying the legal rules of evidence, Greenleaf concludes:
“The narratives of the evangelists are now submitted to the reader's perusal and examination, upon the principles and by the rules already stated. For this purpose, and for the sake of more ready and close comparison, they are arranged in juxtaposition, after the general order of the latest and most approved harmonies. The question is not upon the strict propriety of the arrangement, but upon the veracity of the witnesses and the credibility of their narratives. With the relative merits of modern harmonists, and with points of controversy among theologians the writer has no concern. His business is that of a lawyer examining the testimony of witnesses by the rules of his profession, in order to ascertain whether, if they had thus testified on oath, in a court of justice, they would be entitled to credit and whether their narratives, as we now have them, would be received as ancient documents, coming from the proper custody. If so, then it is believed that every honest and impartial man will act consistently with that result, by receiving their testimony in all the extent of its import.”
From The Testimony of the Evangelists Examined by the Rules of Evidence Administrated in Courts of Justice, available online here: http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa;idno=AGA1251.0001.001.
·
Acts
1:1-3
1 The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2 until
the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given
commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, 3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His
suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days
and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
· Acts
18:25
This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in
spirit, he spoke and taught accurately
the things of the Lord, though he
knew only the baptism of John.
·
For God is my witness, whom I
serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make
mention of you always in my prayers,
· Romans
9:1
I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,
· 2
Corinthians 1:12
[ Paul’s Sincerity ] For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience
that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not
with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you.
· 2
Corinthians 4:2
But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor
handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth
commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
· 2
Corinthians 5:11
Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well
known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.
11 But you, O man of God, flee these things
and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. 12Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on
eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good
confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13I urge you in
the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who
witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate,
· 2
Timothy 1:3
I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did,
as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day,
·
For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you
the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of
His majesty.
· Hebrews
9:14
how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered
Himself without spot to God, cleanse
your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God?
·
Therefore we also, since we are
surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every
weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance
the race that is set before us,
1 That which was from the beginning, which
we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and
our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life-- 2the life
was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that
eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us-- 3that
which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have
fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His
Son Jesus Christ.
Further information is supplied at the following:
James Patrick Holding.
“The New Testament: Gospel
Dates, Gospel Authors, Gospels Freedoms; Profiles
of Key Issues Concerning the Four Gospels” http://www.tektonics.org/ntdocdef/gospdefhub.html
James Patrick Holding. “The New Testament: Canon Fire; On the Formation of the NT Canon http://www.tektonics.org/lp/ntcanon.html
James Patrick Holding. “The Old Testament: Canon Fire II; The Formation of the OT Canon” http://www.tektonics.org/lp/otcanon.html
C. Authoritative
With the Scriptures proven to be authentic, accurate and true, we therefore present its claims to be authoritative. Those who wrote the Biblical accounts regarded those accounts as historical and authoritative, endorsed by the prophets and apostles throughout the ages, as well as the One who conquered death, Jesus Christ. Not only are these accounts inspired by God, but in many cases, He is quoted directly. As the Word of God, it is therefore authoritative.
1.
Authoritative
· Exodus
4:28
So Moses told Aaron all the words of
the LORD who had sent him, and all the signs which He had commanded
him.
· Exodus
4:30
And Aaron spoke all the words which
the LORD had spoken to Moses.
Then he did the signs in the sight of the people.
· Exodus
19:7
So Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before them all
these words which the LORD commanded him.
· Exodus
24:3
So Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the
judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which the LORD has said we will do.”
· Exodus
24:4
And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD. And he
rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and
twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of
· Exodus
24:8
And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the
blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words.”
· Exodus
34:1
And the LORD said to Moses, “Cut two tablets of stone like the first
ones, and I will write on these tablets
the words that were on the first
tablets which you broke.
· Exodus
34:27
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write
these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have
made a covenant with you and with
· Exodus
34:28
So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither
ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote
on the tablets the words of the
covenant, the Ten Commandments.
· Exodus
35:1
Then Moses gathered all the congregation of the children of
· Numbers
11:24
So Moses went out and told the people the
words of the LORD,
and he gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them
around the tabernacle.
· Numbers
12:6
Then He said, “Hear now My words:
If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, make Myself known to him
in a vision; I speak to him in a dream.
· Deuteronomy
12:28
Observe and obey all these words which I command you, that it
may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is
good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.
· Deuteronomy
17:19
And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that
he may learn to fear the LORD his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes,
· Deuteronomy
27:3
You shall write on them all the words of this law, when you have
crossed over, that you may enter the land which the LORD your God is
giving you, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey,’ just as the LORD God
of your fathers promised you.
· Deuteronomy
28:58
“If you do not carefully observe all the
words of this law that are
written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, THE
LORD YOUR GOD,
· Deuteronomy
29:1
These are the words of the
covenant which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of
· Deuteronomy
29:29
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which
are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
· Deuteronomy
31:12
Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who
is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the LORD
your God and carefully observe all the words of this law,
· Joshua
3:9
So Joshua said to the children of
· Joshua
24:26
Then Joshua wrote these words in
the Book of the Law of God. And he took a large stone, and set it up there
under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the LORD.
· Joshua
24:27
And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness to
us, for it has heard all the words of
the LORD which He spoke to us.
It shall therefore be a witness to you, lest you deny your God.”
|
· 2
Samuel 22:31 |
· Psalm
18:30 |
|
· 2
Kings 22:13 |
· 2
Chronicles 34:21 |
· 2
Kings 22:16
“Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will bring calamity on this place and on
its inhabitants—all the words of
the book which the king of
|
· 2
Kings 22:18 |
· 2
Chronicles 34:26 |
|
· 2
Kings 23:2 |
· 2
Chronicles 34:30 |
|
· 2
Kings 23:3 |
· 2
Chronicles 34:31 |
· 2
Kings 23:24
Moreover Josiah put away those who consulted mediums and spiritists, the
household gods and idols, all the abominations that were seen in the land of
Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might perform the words of the law
which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house
of the LORD.
· Ezra
7:11
[