There is one and only one true and living God. This is explicitly taught in the Scriptures.
Isaiah consistently and often affirms this most important truth. Isaiah wrote, “O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou has made heaven and earth…Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD, even thou only” (Isaiah 37:16,20). Again he writes, “To whom will ye liken God? Or what likeness will ye compare unto Him” (Isaiah 40:18). And again, “To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One” (Isaiah 40:25). Yet again, Isaiah affirms there is only one God: “I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me” (Isaiah 45:5). Once more, he writes, “…there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me” (Isaiah 45:21). With a most powerful declaration of God’s singularity, Isaiah records the words of the Lord: “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them shew unto them. Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any” (Isaiah 44:6-8). “Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no savior” (Isaiah 43:10,l1). Finally, “For I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me” (Isaiah 46:9).
Moses affirmed the same truth: “Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him” (Deut 4:35,39). Again, “See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand” (Deut. 32:39). King David affirmed, “Wherefore thou art great, O LORD God: for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears” (II Samuel 7:22; I Chron. 17:20; Psalm 18:31; Psalm 86:10). His son Solomon wanted all the people of the earth to know that “the LORD is God, and that there is none else” (I Kings 8:60). Jeremiah taught that there is none like the Lord, Who is the true and living God (Jer. 10:6, 10). Namaan confessed that “Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel” (II Kings 5:15). Hezekiah stated that “thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth” (II Kings 19:15). The Levites acknowledge that “Thou, even Thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee” (Nehemiah 9:6). The prophets Hoshea, Joel and Zachariah all affirmed that there is but one Lord over all the earth (Hosea 13:4; Joel 2:27; Zechariah 14:9).
In the New Testament, Paul adamantly affirmed “There is one God…” (I Tim. 2:5). He wrote, “As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many), But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him” (I Corinthians 8:4-6). Paul was condemned by the craftsmen almost throughout all Asia who made silver shrines to the pagan goddess Diana because their craft was in jeopardy by his teaching. Paul had persuaded and turned away much people, saying that there be no gods, which are made with hands (Acts 19:26). James affirmed that there was but one God and that the demons also know this (James 2:19). Paul and Jude agree that He is the only wise God (I Tim. 1:17; Jude 25).
Furthermore, Paul said that God is not only the God of the Jews but of all others, as well, so, he affirms, it is God that justifies (Rom. 3:29,30). Therefore, the same Lord is over all (Rom. 10:12). The scribes acknowledged that “there is one God; and there is none other but he” (Mark 12:32). Jesus said that Jehovah is the “only true God” (John 17:3). Paul once again affirmed there is one God and Father of all (Eph. 4:6).
Contrasting the True and Living God with idols, the Psalmist says “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them” (Psalm 115:4-8). They are all fake gods, made up gods, no gods at all but the figment of man’s vivid imagination. Jeremiah said, “Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.” (Jer. 51:17,18).
One of the most powerful demonstrations that there are no gods other than Jehovah, the true and living God, was when Elijah challenge the prophets of Baal (I Kings 18). Elijah “came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him” (I Kings 18:21). He then proposed a challenge, let the true God answer by fire. The prophets of Baal called upon their god, “O Baal hear us. But there was no voice nor any that answered” (I Kings 18:26). “And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked” (I Kings 18:27). In truth, there was no such god as Baal. “They cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded” (I Kings 18:28,29). Then Elijah dowsed the sacrifice to Jehovah with water and cried “Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench” (I Kings 18:37-38). “And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God” (I Kings 18:39).
So scripturally, there can be no doubt. There is only one God. Only one true and living God. All other “gods” are false gods, or no gods at all. They are the creations of man’s imagination, made from wood and stone and are lifeless and heartless. They are created to validate man’s lusts and desires for power. They are powerless apart from the threats of their creators. They are created by man but the true and living God created man.
And logically, the same argument can be made. God, by definition, is the supreme being. There cannot be multiple supreme beings in the sense of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God. The cosmological argument demands an uncaused First Cause, not first causes. Even the Greek and Roman pantheons produced a more dominant god, in Zeus and Jupiter. While they are not supreme in any way near the Biblical sense, their status denotes the need for a superior authority. Indeed, there must be an ultimate authority for there to be morality. If there were multiple “supreme” gods, then there could be multiple moral “truths,” which would entail logical contradiction and morality would be merely the whim of some arbitrary feeling or demand of a set of conflicting dictates from an undetermined set of powerful beings. Many questions would be unanswered. There is no logical way to harmonize a pantheon of powerful beings with the order of the universe or the philosophical order of the Supreme being of Judeao-Christian scriptures.
There is but one answer to all these questions and that is…
The Lord, He is God
Eric L. Padgett