God vs. gods

My last post ended with a question:

Muslims and Mormons, among others, claim to hear God's voice in their own holy books, just as Christians do. If God's voice can be heard and trusted by human hearts, has he spoken to us through only the Bible, or is his voice heard through other religions as well?

Really, this question is not too difficult to answer, provided we believe that the Bible is true. We have already established evidence for the truthfulness of Scripture. The Bible is truly God's Word. He speaks through it. He is not a liar. The Bible makes it clear that we are to trust what He says (John 17:17; 1 John 5:10). The things that God says in Scripture are true. And the Bible says that Yahweh is the only God — the one true God among all other gods. In fact, one of the Ten Commandments is "you shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3).

After Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, he gave this speech:

Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. (Deuteronomy 4:33-35)

If the Bible is true, and the Bible says Yahweh is the one true God, we can believe that He is.

Moses is stating outright that God is the one true God. He is not saying "there are no other gods in existence" but that there are no other gods like Yahweh, the God of Israel. Yahweh's pro-activeness and power in the salvation of his people is unmatched in the pantheon of pagan gods.

So, does that mean there are other gods? Well, sort of. We know that demons are called authorities and rulers (Ephesians 6:12). This implies that they have authority over something. But what? It's a good question. Think about the Greek gods, the Roman gods, the Norse gods, the Hindu gods...and now consider the story of the Nephilim in Genesis 6:4: "...the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown." Wikipedia's article on Hercules says, "Hercules is the Roman name for the Greek divine hero Heracles, who was the son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmene. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures." Also, consider the store of Leda and the Swan, a Greek myth that involves the seduction of a woman called Leda by Zeus, who comes to her in the form of a swan. These are not isolated incidents. Greek myth is absolutely filled with stories about gods coming down to earth to seduce human women. This forms a strong connection between mythology and the "sons of God" who came down to human women and bore "mighty men" similar to Hercules, by those women. Myth does not spring out of the imagination ex nihilo. Something made the pagan cultures believe that strong men were the offspring of gods and women. Is it in the Bible?

It is very likely that other gods exist in the form of demons, who have authority over human cultures to some extent. There is further evidence for this theory in the book of Daniel, where we meet a strange character called the "Prince of Persia" (Daniel 10:13). Gabriel, the angel, tells Daniel that he was delayed visiting him because he was struggling against the Prince of Persia. The angel Michael (who is also called "one of the chief princes") came to help Gabriel, and eventually Gabriel was able to get away from the fight and come to Daniel's aid. If it took both archangels to withstand this Prince of Persia, he is clearly not a human being.

If one demon can fight against two archangels, maybe the demons have the advantage? Maybe if they all get together they can, in the end, defeat God Himself. So, why should we follow Yahweh instead of these other gods? How can we be sure we are on the right side?

Next: How the God of the Bible is our Redeemer.

Image Credit: 21150; "Hercules Defeats the Kentaurt"; Creative Commons

Tags: Biblical-Truth | God-Father | History-Apologetics | Satan-Demons

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Published 10-28-15