The Larger Catechism

Question 8: Are there more Gods than one?

Answer: There is but one only, the living and true God.

The Catechism comes to deal in Questions 8-11 with the numerical identity of God. It stresses two things: that God is One, and that God is Three. The doctrine of the Trinity, or, more accurately, of the Tri-unity of God, is a great mystery, yet it is fundamental to a proper biblical understanding of the Being of God. This question deals with the Oneness of God.

The ancient world had no shortage of gods. Ancient paganism turned the elements of nature, and aspects of the world itself, into gods, while other civilisations created figures which became objects of veneration and worship. Most of these figures represented a mythical world of gods which, according to Psalm 115:4-8, are nothing more than the works of men's hands, and which are totally incapable of rational thought or of personal relationships.

Unlike them, and above them, is the God of the Bible. In a powerful image in Psalm 82:1, God is portrayed as standing supreme in the gathering of the gods of the nations. While they are nothing more than imagined beings, or manufactured images, the God of the covenant is the God who stands above them all as King and Judge.

This has a very modern ring to it, of course. Our modern world may have shaken off its ancient pagan past (or has it?), but the general belief is that one god is as good as the next, one religion as valid as the next, and one belief system as good as any other. Those who maintain the uniqueness of Christ are regarded as fundamentalist and bigotted, and the only accepted position seems to be that no religion, no worship, no 'god' is to be decried, and no religion capable of being falsified.

We see this, for example, in the oft-quoted words of Prince Charles, heir to the British throne (and thereby heir to the headship of the Church of England). While the current monarch is known as the 'defender of the faith', her successor has promised to be known as the 'defender of faiths'. While the throne at present is pledged to uphold and defend the Christian (Protestant) religion as the established religion of Great Britain, Charles, sensitive to the multi-faith, multi-religious diversity of the nation, has promised to tolerate every belief or even those who profess none at all.

Into this morasse of religious tolerance, ambiguity and uncertainty, comes the clear message of the Westminster theology: there is only one God who is living and true! Every other god is a pretender, a usurper, who is in reality dead and false!

The Monotheism Of The Bible

The Bible is a monotheistic book: that means that it tells us of one (mono) God (theistic). It does so explicitly and implicitly. When it talks of God doing something, it implies a singular, undivided, personal action. When it presents an overt theology, explicitly telling us what God is like, it strikes the same monotheistic note. There is only one God. Consider the following evidence.

Genesis 1: In the great creation narrative of Genesis, the name of God is the name Elohim. This is a plural form, but it consistently translated 'God' throughout the Old Testament. The plurality is registered in verse 26, when that God creates man and talks of doing so 'in our image' and 'in our likeness'. But the interesting fact is that all the verbs in Genesis 1 (God 'said', God 'saw', God 'made', God 'created', God 'blessed') are in the singular. There is numerical disjunction: the subject is plural in form, but the verb is singular in form. From the outset we are reminded that the Maker is one mover, one actor, one being.

Exodus 20: The first of the ten commandments given to Moses is a clear statement of God's oneness: "You shall have no other gods before (or besides) me". Jehovah is the only God that there is, and the worship and toleration of any other gods are expressly forbidden. Professor John L. Mackay says in his Commentary on this verse: "It is the fundamental tenet of [Israel's] covenant king that he brooks no rivals". The demand for absolute worship is built upon the fact that there is one God, and one only.

Deuteronomy 6: The passage from verses 4-9 are known as the 'Shema' (Hebrew for 'listen', the first word of verse 4) and form one of the most important passages in Judaism. These verses assert unequivocally that "The Lord our God is one Lord". All the regulations which follow are built upon this premise, that God is unique, unparalleled and unequalled.

Malachi 2: The prophet Malachi has a stern warning to Israel and Judah, and he accuses them in verse 10 of this chapter of having profaned or broken the covenant. This is all the more heinous in view of the fact that "one God has created us". The unity of God ought to be reflected in the unity of the covenant people. Indeed, this will become even more pronounced in the New Testament, such as in Ephesians 4:4ff, where Paul's argument that there is only "one body and one Spirit ... one faith, one baptism" is premised on the fact that there is "one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all". Again, the unity of God becomes the paradigm of the unity of the covenant people.

Matthew 28: The Gospel of Matthew closes with what is commonly called the 'Great Commission' -- the words of Jesus to the church to go into the world and evangelise. One of the duties of the church is to baptise, and baptism, according to Jesus, is to be administered in the 'name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit'. The three persons of the Godhead are named here, but the word 'name' is in the singular. There is only one name. God does not have three names; and the fact that his name is singular reflects the fact of the unity of the divine being.

James 2: Here the apostle James is arguing that faith has to be evidenced by a consistency of life on the part of the believer. It is a faith that manifests itself by works. James uses a rhetorical device to confirm this: he addresses an imaginary character and says to him -- "You believe that there is one God; you do well: the demons also believe and tremble!". It is no evidence, in other words, for genuine spiritual life and union with Christ to confess faith in the one God. The Christian life and experience are much more than that, but they are no less! Even the demons acknowledge that there is only one God.

The consistent teaching of the Bible, therefore, is that there is one God.

The characteristics of the Bible's God

What shall we say, then, about the God of the Bible? The Catechism says two things: first, that he is living. That is a powerful apologetic against a worldview steeped in idolatry, and a religion that panders to man-made but dead gods. The God of the Bible IS! And he is ALIVE! He is the source of all life and the giver of all life. All other gods are dead, powerless, weak and impotent.

Elijah the prophet staked his reputation as God's servant on this fact. In the great showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18, Elijah taunted his adversaries. "Call to Baal", he said to them; "perhaps he is asleep or away somewhere". But the reality was that he was a dead god, the figment of their own blinded imaginations. He, in turn, called on Jehovah: "Hear me, O Lord, hear me; that this people may know that you are the Lord God...". And Jehovah did hear, and demonstrated the reality of his being and of his power by raining down fire from Heaven which consumed the altar and the sacrifice.

There is a sense in which we are involved in the same conflict still. The devotees of all religions and none surround us and ply their philosophies and creeds in the market-place of men's ideas. But we are called to witness and testify to the living power of the living God, who is the Almighty Jehovah.

The Catechism also says that this God is true. David's response to God's covenant-making with him was to say "O Lord God, you are that God, and your words are true" (2 Samuel 7:28), and Jeremiah could also declare: "the Lord is the true God, he is the living God". Jesus also, speaking about those who have the Holy Spirit, declares in John 3:33 that they set their seal to the proposition that God is true. It is part of decisive Christian commitment; those who know God know that God is true. And in a wonderful turn of phrase in 1 Thessalonians 1:9, Paul says that the Greek speaking believers to whom he is writing have "turned from idols to serve the living and true God".

Because God is true, his words are true and he is trustworthy. Every other claimant to the throne of absolute sovereignty is a liar and a cheat. God alone knows the truth and is the truth. Our response to such a God is complete surrender, in faith and trust.

Implications Of The Doctrine Of The Oneness Or Unity Of God

What are the implications of the doctrine that God is numerically one? The first, clearly, is that he is to be the sole object of our adoration, veneration and worship. Worship is a response to what God is: the unique, living, true God, whose right it is to command and to expect obedience and submission.

The second is that the works of God are a unity. The theological terminology is that opera ad extra sunt indivisa -- God's external works are indivisible. Where God acts, he acts as one God, not apportioning his works to his three persons (for that would be to divide his external operations), but working as one God. Although it is proper for us to speak of the Persons of the Trinity acting in salvation (for example it is the Son, not the Father or the Holy Spirit, who dies on the cross of Calvary), nonetheless all God's work is a unity.

The third implication is that the numerical oneness of God becomes the paradigm for the unity of the church. Just as Adam was given a bride fitting for him, so God has married himself not to several churches, but to one. The unity of the church, which ought to be replicated as much as possible in the visible manifestations of that church among us, is a reflection of and a response to the oneness of God.

But perhaps the greatest implication of all is that we can have a personal relationship with God. There is one only, the living and true God. And that means that it is possible for us to respond to that personal God in love and fellowship, in intimacy and nearness. We cannot know God exhaustively, but we can know him truly. And because he is alive and true, we can place all our hope and confidence in him.