God–Nature of – What Does This Mean?

We Believe in One God…

Encore Post: “All religions believe the same thing, right?” well-meaning people often say to me. They probably know deep down that it isn’t true, but just want everyone to get along. The easiest way to show it is not correct is to explain how various religions answer the question: “How many gods are there?”

Hindus and other eastern religions believe all things and people are a part of god. Mormons believe all gods used to be people who worked their way to godhood and that we, too, can become gods. Judaism, Islam and Christianity believe there is only one God.

The Bible describes the Triune God as the only true God. Moses writes: “Hear, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4) God himself says: “I am the First, I am the Last! Besides me there is no god … Is there a god besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.” (Isaiah 44:6-8) St. Paul tells us that all other things people call gods are not real; There only is one God. (1 Corinthians 8:4-6) Jesus sums it up when he says in prayer that the Father is the only true God. (John 17:3)

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Who is Your God?

Encore Post: When St. Paul first visited Athens as a Christian, he noticed that it was a very religious place. Everywhere he went, he found a temple or sometimes just an altar to this or that god or goddess. That he expected. But what caught him by surprise is there was an altar on which to sacrifice to an unknown god. Someone really wanted to cover all their bases! (Acts 17:16-31)

Our world is also a very religious place. Everywhere you go there are churches, temples and gathering places. “In God we trust” appears on the money of the United States. Conversations often invoke a god, even if it just in cursing. At times of death and birth, a god is often called upon to provide blessings or comfort. For a secular society, gods are everywhere.

God made human beings so that we need to depend upon him. So, even when a person is not a Christian, even if they are an atheist, they need to depend upon someone or something, especially in times of need. Martin Luther describes it this way:

“A god means that from which we are to expect all good and to which we are to take refuge in all distress, so that to have a God is nothing else than to trust and believe Him from the [whole] heart; as I have often said that the confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol. If your faith and trust be right, then is your god also true; and, on the other hand, if your trust be false and wrong, then you have not the true God; for these two belong together, faith and God. That now, I say, upon which you set your heart and put your trust is properly your god.” (Large Catechism 1.1.2-3)

For Christians, God is not some fuzzy concept, one of many competing gods or goddess, or the whole universe merged together as a single being or something we are obsessed with or addicted to. God is our Father, who loved us before he made the world, who knit us together in our mother’s womb, who in the person of the Son of God, suffered, died and rose again, so that we might live with him forever. All other things that we can make into a god are either a product of human imagination or are not made to take the weight of our trust. Sooner or later they will fail. But God will never fail. He is with us, now, through death and into eternal life.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Concordia Theological Seminary

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Blog Post Series

Who or What is the Holy Spirit?

Encore Post: We use his name several times each time we worship. He is responsible for the faith in our hearts and the good works we do. Yet most Christians know very little about him. The Holy Spirit has been called the quiet member of the Trinity, God’s secret agent or thought of as shadowy as his name. The words Spirit, wind, and breath are all good translations of the Hebrew word רוּחַ (Ruach) and the Greek word πνεῦμα (Pneuma). In fact, beginning in the Earliest days of the Church, non-Christian movements have declared that the Holy Spirit is not a person at all, but a force or power.

The reason why the Holy Spirit gets so little attention is that he wants it that way. The Holy Spirit’s role in our lives is to create faith in Jesus and point us to the Son of God. (John 16:13-15) The Holy Spirit knows everything, even the mind of God. (1 Corinthians 2:10-11) He teaches God’s people. (John 14:26) He gets angry when his people betray him. (Isaiah 63:8-10, Hebrews 10:29) The Holy Spirit prays for us (Romans 8:26) and spoke to his people. (Acts 8:29, Acts 10:19-20) So, the Scripture does speak about the Holy Spirit in such a way that it is clear he is not only a person, but also God. (Acts 5:3)

And There’s None Other God

Encore Post: The word “Trinity” is old — it was first used in second century AD. (100-200 AD) Yet, it is not a term used by the Bible. Christian theologians use it to sum up what the Scripture says about the nature of God. It helps to look at the passages that brought the Church to talk about God in this way.

The first truth that the Word of God reveals to us about God is that he is unique. There is only one God. On this point, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and a number of other religions agree. Here is how the Holy Spirit talks about the number of gods and the unity of God.

Judaism uses Deuteronomy 6:4 as its creed: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Jesus and Paul agree. (Mark 12:29, Romans 3:30, Galatians 3:20). Other passages emphasize that there is one God. (Ephesians 4:6 1 Timothy 2:5, James 2:19).

There are no other Gods besides the Lord. (Isaiah 45:21, 1 Corinthians 8:4) None of the so-called gods of the nations are like him. (Isaiah 46:8-9) None of the false gods can bring rain (Jeremiah 14:22) Since they are not real, they cannot help, much less save.

From these, and many other passages, the Church concluded and still believes that there is only one God. It is this God that we fear, love and trust as our own.