The first of the core doctrines of Christianity that we will discuss is the belief that there is one God, and only one God. Let us examine some passages from the Bible, in order to better understand this doctrine:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. [Genesis 1:1, ESV]
This is a very well known verse from the Bible. In this verse, we learn that God created “the heavens and the earth”. In the beginning, “God created”, meaning that God has always existed, and through Him all things exist.
For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth — as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords” — yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. [1 Corinthians 8:5-6, ESV]
Paul explains how, despite there being many “gods” and many “lords”, we know that there is one true God, and one Lord. This passage also describes Jesus Christ as being God, which is part of the doctrine of the Trinity (I will explain this in another section). Not only are we told that there is one God, this passage also explains that it is God through whom all things exist, and through God we exist. This passage supports what is written in Genesis 1:1, in that God created everything, and He has always existed.
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,... [1 Timothy 2:5, ESV]
This verse is another example of why Christians believe there is one God (beside the fact there is only one God). We are told, yet again, that there is only one God. The second half of this verse describes Jesus Christ as being the “one mediator between God and men”, which is true, but is not what we are discussing right now. I will explain what is meant by Jesus being the “one mediator” in another essay. In my explanation of the Trinity, I will also explain why this verse describes Jesus Christ as a man.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. [Deuteronomy 6:4, ESV]
This verse comes from Deuteronomy, when Moses had received the Ten Commandments. After telling the Ten Commandments to the Israelites, Moses declared that “the LORD is one”.
The reason why “Lord” is capitalized whenever the Tetragrammaton is used in the Hebrew (which is the language that the majority of the Old Testament was written in). For more information about the Tetragrammaton, click here.
As you can see, the Bible makes it clear that there is only one God, and we are not to worship anybody other than God. In the next part of this series, I will describe the second core doctrine of Christianity: the Trinity.
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