4- There is only One God

(B) There is only One God

(1) This is plain from the first of the Ten Commandments: "You shall have no other gods before Me" (Ex.20:3); (Deut.5:7).

 

(2) And from other verses in the Book of Deuteronomy, such as: "the LORD Himself is God; there is none other besides Him" (Deut.5:35), and: "Hear, 0 Israel. The LORD our God, the LORD is one!" (Deut.6:4)

 

(3) The doctrine of One God is also clear in many verses in the Book of Isaiah, among which are:

(a) (Is.43: 10,11): "1 am He. Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the LORD, and besides Me there is no Savior." This is the chapter from which Jehovah's Witnesses extracted the phrase: "'You are My witnesses,' says the LORD" (Is.43:10,12).

(b) (Is.44:6): "I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there is no God."

(c) (Is.45:5,6): "I am the LORD, and there is no other, there is no God besides Me."

St-Takla.org Image: Modern Coptic icon of Jesus Christ Pantokrator. صورة في موقع الأنبا تكلا: أيقونة قبطية حديثة تصور السيد المسيح الضابط الكل: البانطوكراتور.

(d) (Is.45:21,22): "Have not I, the LORD? And there is no other God besides Me, a just God and a Savior, there is none besides Me. For I am God, and there is no other."

(e) (Is.46:9): "For I am God, and there is no other, I am God, and there is none like Me."

 

(4) Another testimony on the Oneness of God is in the Book of Hosea the Prophet: "Yet I am the LORD your God ever since the land of Egypt, and you shall know no God but Me; for there is no Savior besides Me" (Hos. 13:4).

 

(5) We find the same testimony in the New Testament: (a) (Rom.3:30): "...since there is one God'

(b) (l Cor. 8:4): "...there is no other God but one"

(c) (Jas. 2:19): "You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe - and tremble!" This means that even the demons, unfruitful as they are, know very well that there is one God and tremble from His Judgment.

If there is mention in the Holy Bible of the word 'gods', it does not at all mean Deity, and we have discussed this issue before here on st-takla.org in other pages. Sometimes it means the pagan gods as is mentioned in the Psalms: "For the LORD is great and greatly to be praised, He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the people are idols" (Ps. 96:4,5), and: "Worship Him, all you gods" (Ps. 97:7). Naturally, those who worship another are not true gods.

Another example, said by the Divine Inspiration in Psalm 82, is: "I said, 'You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High. But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes."' (Ps: 6,7). Naturally, he who dies and falls can not be a God. But it is a symbolical expression signifying power and authority, as when some of the

Jews' enemies were afraid from the return of the Ark of Covenant and said: "Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness" (I Sam.4:8). They described all the people as gods which has a symbolic or a metaphoric meaning.

(C) Conclusion: Christ is God

If there is only one God, by the testimony of the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible, and if Christ is a God by the same testimony, then Christ is This One God.

God says in the Book of Isaiah: "And there is no other God besides Me", and in the same Book the Divine Inspiration says that Christ is a "Mighty God" What does this mean other than the Two are One?