How many gods are there?

So we must be careful in using the terms, first, second and third Persons in the Trinity, not to think there is any difference in importance. The Father is God; the Son is God; the Spirit is God—the Spirit equal in nature and substance to the Father and the Son. If the three Persons of the Godhead are each of them God, it does not follow that there are three Gods. That were impossible. There can be only one God, supreme and unique. Orthodox Christendom believes in three Persons in the Godhead, yet one God, indivisible and unique—the three Persons in the Godhead with one will, one purpose, each sharing to the full every thought and desire and purpose in the minds of the others. We may not, nay cannot, comprehend this. It is a mystery hidden in the Godhead, yet the Godhead is pleased to reveal Itself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Heathen idolaters have "gods many and lords many" — a god perchance for every virtue and for every vice too; and a lord for every separate place. To the Christian there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called gods whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many and lords many,) but to us there is but one God the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him (1 Cor. 8:4-6).

(Vv. 4-6). Further, the question of eating meats offered to idols leads the Apostle to draw a brief but important contrast between idols and the true God. First, he says that we Christians know that an idol is nothing, and that there is none other God but one. Fallen man imagines many gods and many lords in heaven and on earth; but to us Christians there is but “one God, the Father” and “one Lord, Jesus Christ”. Here it is no question of bringing before us the Deity of Christ, but of how God has been pleased to reveal Himself, and the place the divine Persons hold in the ways of grace toward men. The Father remains in Godhead, and God is the source of all, and all for Him. The Son, while never ceasing to be God, has become flesh, and, in Manhood, has taken the place of Lord. Thus the One we know as Jesus Christ is the one Lord to Whom we all owe allegiance and subjection. He is both Creator of all things and the One by Whom we have been redeemed.

To apply this principle therefore, it is clear that an idol is nothing in the world: there is only one God. True, there are those "called gods," whether by man, or even in the Scriptures, where the elders of Israel were called this, simply as being God's representatives on earth (Ps. 82:6; Jn. 10:34,35); but never in the latter case as giving them any place of worship. If there were "gods many, and lords many," these were simply as lightless asteroids in comparison with the sun. To us there is one God, the Father, originator of all things, and we are the fruit of His own work. This is the revelation of Christianity, in contrast to the ignorance of idolatry. The Spirit of God is not mentioned because the subject is not the dynamic power behind the scenes, but the manifested supremacy of God the Father, and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here in this very majestic declaration of the Oneness of the Godhead, care is taken to state it consistently with the truth afterwards revealed concerning the Three Persons of the Godhead—Father, Son and Spirit. These Three Persons, of one Substance, completely united in thought, will, purpose, counsel, are not three Gods, but One God, not a tritheism, but a Holy Trinity. We cannot understand the mystery of all this, but this truth lies at the very foundation of the Christian faith.

There is no God else beside Me

Through Israel this shall be known in all the earth; when Israel herself is saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation” (Isa. 45:17); then “in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory” (v. 25). Thrice happy are those favoured believers, who today, while Israel rejects Christ, know the “salvation that is in Christ Jesus”; true indeed it is that “in Him all that believe are justified from all things.” In the coming day of which we speak, Israel shall witness to the Lord; “There is no God else beside Me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside Me”(v. 21). Over and over again the Holy Spirit reiterates this all-important fact in chapters 43 to 46. No less than ten times it is intensely stated, There is none else! Israel’s God is the only God! He “created” Jacob! He “formed” the nation! and though, like her father, she “would deal treacherously, and was called a transgressor from the womb” (Isa. 48:8), yet He “redeemed” her! Yea, He “called” her by her name; “thou art Mine!” She can therefore witness not only against idols, but to the only God. Now the call is rightly heard, and it will bring rapid response in all the world. “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else” (Isa. 45:22). He “raised up” Cyrus to overthrow idolatry; He “called” him; He “declared” the end from the beginning; therefore it is finally said (Isa. 46:9), “Remember the former things of old: for I AM GOD, AND THERE IS NONE ELSE; I AM GOD, AND THERE IS NONE LIKE ME.”

"Hear, O Israel ! The LORD our God is one LORD." Much has been made of this verse by orthodox Jews, who reverence it greatly. They call it the "Shema" after the first word "Hear." It is often used by Jews and Unitarians to deny the three persons of the Godhead. The Hebrew word "echod" (one), however, excludes forever such a denial, for it means a compound unity. The Hebrew has another word which expresses exactly what Jews and Unitarians, who reject the three persons in the Godhead, believe. It is the word "yochid"; this has the meaning of a single one.

In the section we are considering in John 10 the Lord Jesus goes on to speak of Himself as the Sent One of the Father. "Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If He called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of Him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?" (John 10:34-36). The Lord Jesus quoted Psalm 82 verse 6: "I have said, Ye are gods." The word for "gods" in this verse is Elohim, and in the Psalm, as elsewhere, it is used of those who were set to judge in Israel (Psa. 82:6; Ex. 21:6; 22:8, 9, 28). They were God's representatives, responsible to judge for the Lord, in His fear, and to bring the revelation which God had given in His Word to bear on the various cases brought before them (2 Chron. 19:6-7. cf. Isa. 41:23). It is not difficult to see why the Lord Jesus referred to this Scripture in the context of John 10.

There does not seem to have been any practice of idolatry until after the deluge. It may have been the tradition of the fallen angels which Satan took up, by which to ensnare men, and entice them into demon-worship. Anyhow, almost immediately after the flood mankind fell into idolatry, and idolatry is demon-worship (1 Cor. 10:20). The idol itself is nothing, but what is behind the idol, and which fills the heart and mind of the worshipper, is a demon. The gods of the heathen are evil beings, and the worship of demons became universal after the flood.

"Nations do not easily change their gods; it is not likely that Moses could or would introduce a new deity. But as the Israelites believed that he had made some great change, it may be that through his means the worship of Yahwe [Jehovah] became more general — became, in fact, in a real sense, the national worship. This would not necessarily mean that no other deities were worshiped … Still less would it mean that there was only one God, — that is, that all other pretended gods were nothing. This is what we believe, and what the later Israelites (about the time of the exile and on) believed; but David, and generations after him, thought that Kemosh and Dagon and the rest were real gods, only not the gods of Israel. Exactly what Moses' belief was we do not know. (p. 24.)