The Only God

This post is really just a musing on my part after running across a book review I found on the Internet. This review reminded me of a conversation I had one evening with a friend who argued that all of the world’s religions provided a path to heaven if the teachings of that religion were followed. Basically, my friend was saying that god has many faces and many names, but it is still just one god. At the time I only listened to my friend without comment. The following is my opinion now.


Is there really just one god called by different names by people of different religions? Did God set it up so that his teachings of the various religions are just diverse enough to attract people of different persuasions but really they are all worshipping the same god regardless of their religion? Are there many paths to eternal life and it all boils down to whether or not you are a “good” person? So what about non-Christians? Can they get to heaven? Is it that you believe and follow the “Christian” God or you are condemned?

Stephen Prothero’s new book “God Is Not One” is reviewed below. No, I have not read the book but I find the review quite interesting. Please take a few minutes to read the review and then I would like to offer my belief about the “Only” God.

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Book review: 'God Is Not One' by Stephen Prothero
By Thane Rosenbaum, Special to the Los Angeles Times
June 9, 2010
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-book9-20100609,0,6504154.story

In an age in which it has become fashionable to demonize those with whom we disagree, there is still a contradictory impulse to remain politically correct. This is particularly true when it comes to religion.


As Stephen Prothero, religion scholar and author of the bestseller "Religious Literacy," reminds us in his latest book, "God Is Not One," all the preaching about tolerance for other religions is necessary because most people believe in God, and social peace is best achieved when all religions are regarded as essentially the same.


After all, religions seek similar truths; they just have different ways of getting there. And the world is surely safer when rivals aren't fuming and proclaiming, "Our God is greater than yours."


Yet, Prothero argues that these feel-good, all-inclusive notions of religious parity have imperiled the world by ignoring the clashes among religions, and the idiosyncratic ways in which all religions, in fact, differ. Sameness is admittedly seductive, he says, but the blithe belief that all religions share the same values and want the same things is foolishly romantic and unreal.


"No fair-minded scholar wants to perpetuate stereotypes," Prothero writes, "…[b]ut it is time to grow out of the reflex to defend. After 9/11 and the Holocaust, we need to see the world's religions as they really are — in all their gore and glory."


And how different are they?  Christians regard sin as the problem and see salvation as the solution. Muslims define the problem as pride that can only be conquered by submission. Buddhists seek to overcome suffering while Christians regard suffering as ennobling, which is why Christians aren't trying to achieve nirvana. Buddhists, unlike Christians, aren't looking for salvation since they don't believe in sin. Neither do Confucians. And while Jews and Muslims speak of sin, they are not all that interested in salvation from their sins.


And there's more.  Jews believe in one God, Buddhists believe in no God, Hindus believe in many gods. Christ is regarded as a God among Christians, whereas for Muslims, Muhammad is very much a man who achieved perfection as a prophet, political leader, military general and family patriarch. And when it comes to the diversity in denominations among the world's religions, Christianity is king.


Got all that?  Prothero ranks the world's religions (he limits them to eight) in terms of impact. Yes, Christianity is still the largest, and annual sales of the New Testament in the United States alone total $500 million, but Islam is growing faster, and Prothero makes the case that Muhammad ranks higher than Christ in overall importance.


One thing is for certain: In modern times, Islam is in the news far more often. Just ask the creators of "South Park," who were recently threatened by Islamic extremists. With all the lunacy about death threats to British novelists, Danish cartoonists and now American animators, Prothero explains why Muslims simply won't tolerate any mocking of Muhammad — especially in a visual form. For Christians, the body of Christ as God incarnate has a long history in representational art, but in the 1,400-plus years of Islam as a religion and culture, art has been limited to calligraphy and the Arabic letters of the Koran.


For Muslims who have never seen the image of Muhammad re-created in any form, the depiction of their sacred prophet with a bomb on his head, or wearing a bear suit while stashed away in a U-Haul, reaches a form of desecration worthy of, well, yes, a holy war. Note to counterterrorism specialists and neoconservatives: Muslims, especially those who have submitted themselves, unreservedly, to Islam, are not afraid to die. No other religion has more tantalizingly described the seductions of the afterlife than has Islam.


Yes, killings seem to be commanded in the Koran, but the Bible isn't bloodless, either. Yet, curiously, suicide is prohibited under the Koran, and so is mass murder. Suicide bombers have obviously gone a la carte when it comes to Koranic teachings. And jihad has as much to do with the inner struggle to submit to Islam as it does with a holy war.


Throughout this enormously timely, thoughtful and balanced book, Prothero fears a world blinded to the consequences of religious ecstasy, but he is also mindful that religions have been forces for good as well, and that science has shown there to be evolutionary benefits that come from religion: Indeed, belief and practice may be fundamentally human.


It is in this way that Prothero debunks not only the fallacy of religious sameness, but also the "New Atheists" who have, lately, become so pervasive and culturally relevant. Atheism can take on its own religion, one dedicated entirely to disparaging the god-fearing, and, in doing so, become as nasty, hostile and ill-informed as the religious fanatics they so thoroughly condemn.

calendar@latimes.com
Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist and law professor whose books include the novel "The Golems of Gotham."  Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times
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Okay, that is the review and here is my belief. There is one God, comprised of the Holy Trinity of the Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit. This God is not the god of the Jews, the Muslims, or any other faith. Yes, Jewish people worship Yahweh, who is the Father in the Trinity but they reject the Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, as their savior and have no regard for the Holy Spirit. The Jewish people believe that God is indivisible and thus, in my opinion, they completely miss the point. Muslims worship Allah who is revealed to them through the profit Mohammed. The teachings of Mohammed are entirely different than those of Jesus Christ. In general then, all of the various gods of all of the major religions are different.

I believe that the only true god is the Christian God. I know I know, this sounds pretty severe and close-minded. You may ask me, “How in the heck can you be so sure of yourself? Maybe Allah is the true god and your God is the false one. Ever think of that? Uh?” And my answer back is yes, that I have thought about it. First of all Allah’s teachings contradict those of God the Father and the Son Jesus Christ so I know that they are not the same god. And I have discovered through my personal experiences that the Christian God is indeed alive and well and working toward preparing me for his kingdom. I have provided examples in previous postings of how God has shown Himself to me and I will repeat some of them here.

God is guiding my family toward His will as we continue to battle with cancer. He has provided for us spiritually and financially as we continue his work. What might have become a disaster to my family has become a journey toward salvation.

God has responded to me when I pray and ask Him questions. His responses have successfully guided us along our journey. God has not failed us.

God has shown Himself to me in miracles. Some of these miracles were immediate, measurable, and physical responses to my prayers to Him to intervene on my behalf and I must say they were breath taking.

The Holy Spirit continuously guides me in my daily routine toward building God’s kingdom and has made Himself very evident to me by the outpouring of love and support provided to my family by the Christian community.

My mind is free from the shame and burden of my sins because I have brought them to the Cross of Jesus Christ and asked for and received His forgiveness.

Now, since I know that the teachings of my Christian God are different than those of the gods of other religions and I have personal experience of the power and greatness of my God then the only conclusion I can draw is that my God is the only true God. All other gods are false. (A does not equal B; and A does equal C; then B does not equal C.)

Isaiah 45:5-6 -- I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides me there is no god.

Malachi 3:6 -- For I the Lord do not change…

John 1:1-8 -- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Matthew 24:35 -- Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

So does this mean that only people who accept our Lord Jesus Christ as their savior can get to heaven? Well, that is a central Christian belief, but I hope not. I do pray that Jesus will judge some non-Christians worthy of Heaven. I offer my humble opinion on this at the end of a posting made on May 31, 2010 entitled “Death, Resurrection, and Eternal Life”. If you are interested please take a look at it.

Lord, thank you for revealing Yourself to me through Your words in the Holy Bible and thank You for softening my heart so that I could let your Son, Jesus Christ, into it. And thank You Lord for providing me and the entire Christian community with the Holy Spirit who guides us and comforts us.


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