Divided Faith Versus Singularity of Heart

Question 20. What does God forbid in the First Commandment? Part 3.

The greatest form of idolatry today is not that people will bow down to a statue but that people will cling to someone or something other than the one true God. (As I noted in the December 4, 2007 post, even atheists have a god: whatever they trust!)

True faith teaches a singularity of heart, to have one's confession of faith, one's life, and one's actions focused upon and giving honor to The One. Because our lives are so hectic, it becomes more and more difficult to have this singularity of heart. Mere busyness delivers us from idleness but pushes us toward idolatry as we struggle to meet all our commitments. The One---the true God---becomes for us a face in the crowd rather than the object of our devotion, set apart and consecrated above all things.

In the end, true faith calls for more than a different belief but a different way of life that expresses that belief. Life with God and living for God go hand in hand. We see this most clearly in the person and work of Jesus. The balance in His life is truly remarkable. He had great gifts of teaching and healing so that crowds sought Him and huddled about Him, to the point where He was jostled and pushed and overwelmed by them. Mark 1 records:

32 That evening at sundown they brought to [Jesus] all who were sick or oppressed by demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door. 34 And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. 35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, 37 and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” 38 And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”

Even when everyone around Jesus demanded His attention---and deservedly so---He slipped away to pray to His Father, to commune with Him but also to intercede for His disciples and those who came to Him with all their needs. This singularity of heart, focused on the Lord and His calling, helped Jesus with the day to day struggles as well as His ultimate commitment: His calling from the Father. As a man, Jesus was overrun with demands yet He remained singularly devoted to His Father and entrusted all His cares and burdens to the Father for the sake of those who would listen to Him.

Do Other Gods Exist?

Question 20. What does God forbid in the First Commandment? Part 2.

As stated in the previous post, the First Commandment, "You shall have no other gods," seems to imply that other gods are real and that one can have a relationship with them. One may rightly ask, is this true?

The Bible consistently speaks against the idea that the figures of idols are true gods. Perhaps the best example of this is the prophet Isaiah's satire of a person carving an idol from a block of wood (Isaiah 44:9--20) and then using the wood trimming to warm his room and bake his bread---an excellent example of humor in the Bible!

But seriously, those who worship idols usually regard them as representations or manifestations of spiritual realities. In fact, archaeologists now believe that a bull calf idol of the ancient Near East actually represented the mount or throne for the god (typically Baal) who stood upon it. So, the idolaters were really directing their devotion beyond the wood, stone, gold, or silver that stood in front of them. The idol was a way to reach beyond and to "have" a connection to the god it represented. Modern religions that use idols have a similar understanding.

The apostle Paul strongly warns against such idolatry and sacrifices to idols when he writes: "I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons" (1 Corinthians 10:20; cf also Revelation 9:20). The biblical view then is that there are indeed spiritual realities---demons/false gods---standing behind idolatrous and false worship. So false worship can in no way honor the one true God.

In the First Commandment God is delivering something like an ultimatum to us: you will have Me as God or you will have some other god, you can't have both. To this He attaches a warning and a promise: (1) as the only true God, He will punish those who hate Him (Exodus 20:5) but (2) He will likewise show steadfast love to those who love Him and heed His word (20:6).

No Other Gods

20. What does God forbid in the First Commandment?

The wording of the first commandment may, at first, feel a bid strange: "You shall have no other gods" (Exodus 20:3). How does one have a god? Such wording seems to imply that there are indeed other gods beside the one true God.

First, we must recognize that the wording in the catechism is an abbreviated form of the commandment, which actually runs another three verses. Using an abbreviated form was a medieval practice that made memorization easier. For the catechism, Luther built on this practice but included more of the text (Exodus 20:5--6) as a summary or "close" of the commandments. Here is the full statement of the commandment from Exodus:

“You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments."

We see then that the Lord forbids His people to have or make gods/idols before which they would bow down or serve (cf Exodus 32). To understand the word "have," consider the following expressions: I have a family; I have a father; we have a president. The word "have" does not mean simple possession of something. It describes a relationship---a bond---between persons or things. The Creator will not allow His creation to set up objects or barriers between Him and them. As He said it positively and emphatically in the opening to the Ten Commandments:

I am the Lord your God . . .

Now that He has freed Israel from the bondage of Egypt, He will not let them return to bondage by serving other gods or masters. This truth is foundational, not only to biblical/Christian faith, but also to western ideals of the freedom and value of the individual. Human beings are loved by God and, as created beings, they have a direct relationship with their Creator.

A Prayer for True, Simple, and Useful Teachings

This morning I was reading an essay by Robert Preus on interpreting the Bible. He included a quote about Romans 15:4 from an early Lutheran document called “The Book of Concord.” After reading the passage, I decided to turn it into a prayer, since it so well expressed my attitude as I read the Holy Scriptures:

Merciful Father, Your Word was written for our instruction so that by steadfastness and by encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Grant us sound interpretation of the Scriptures so we may receive all their comfort and hope according to Your Holy Spirit’s will and intent. Grant that we abide in this simple, direct, and useful explanation that is permanently and well-grounded in Your revealed will. Teach us to flee all lofty, specious questions and disputation so that we reject and condemn all things contrary to Your true, simple, and useful teachings; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen. (Rm 15:4; FC SD XI, 92—93)

The passage places special emphasis on comfort and hope (faith) as the goals of biblical study. Reading and studying the Bible is not always comforting, since God's ways are often mysterious to us and the Bible frequently describes His condemnation and judgment. But all such passages have a higher goal: our repentance. Comfort and hope are the blessings that follow repentance, the blessings in which Christians live.

I’ve been driving a few matters at work and at home, so haven’t posted lately. Praying all is well for you.

Three and One? Thinking reasonably about the Trinity

Question 19: Who is the only true God? Part 3.

Jesus said, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30).

People's biggest objection to the doctrine of the Trinity isn't that they can't see it in the Bible (confer earlier posts). Nor is it that the word "trinity" doesn't appear in the Bible (tri and uni; "three" and "one" certainly do). They can't understand how God can be three and one at the same time:

1 + 1 + 1 = 3, which does not equal 1

This is what we learn in elementary math. However, in a higher order of math we learn this:

1 x 1 x 1= 1, where three that are one do yield a 1

If, in a higher order a math, three can be one then certainly the true God can be three in one or triune (He is God, afterall; we should not think that He is limited to our order and reason). This is not an absolulte explanation of the doctrine of the Trinity or of God's being. Human langauage and mathematics can't explain the eternal God. But such an illustration can help us begin to see how what God says about Himself is surely possible.

Another illustation works like this: every physical object has the following three elements.

height x width x depth = volume

The entire object is height. The entire object is width. Likewise, it is all depth. Anywhere you start measuring, you find these three. These three elements describe the whole and yet the object is one. You can't take away an element without affecting the relationship to the others. You can't add to an element without affecting the relationship to the others. These three naturally stand together in a unity, as I illustrated earlier with the visual of a white sphere, which is one length, one height, and one depth.

If this sort of tri-unity is true of physical objects, certainly a similar tri-unity is possible for the one true God, as He presents Himself in Scripture. "Trinity" simply describes and summarizes what God has shown us about His being.

God is three-in-one

Question 19: Who is the only true God? Part 2.

Christians don't believe in God because they have rationally proved His existence by accumulated evidence or reason. Instead, they believe in God based on the testimony of others who have experienced God's presence, work, and word. For example, consider the testimony of Abraham as described in Genesis. God simply came to Abraham and called him to follow His way (Genesis 12) and Abraham testified about this experience. The Bible simply assumes that God exists, records the experiences of those whom God called, and does not try to prove He's there.

The testimony of Scripture about God presents Him in ways that challenge our reason. God is clearly one (Dt 6) yet He is also variously described by those who heard from Him. In particular, the descriptions indicate that God is three-in-one or "triune." Some may complain that the word "trinity" does not appear in Scripture and so shouldn't be used but this is to misunderstand the word. "Three" and "one" certainly do appear in Scripture and the word "trinity" is simply a compilation of these biblical terms in order to express a biblical thought. Here's why the words "trinity" and "triune" came about:

Numbers 6:22--27

22 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 23 “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,

24 The Lord bless you and keep you;

25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;

26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

27 “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”

Isaiah 6:3

And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

Matthew 28:19--20

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Other such passages could be multiplied. Note the singular character (same word [Lord or holy] used or the singular "name" used). Though the Scripture asserts that God is one, it also describes Him in this threefold way. When Christians talk about the Trinity, they're just describing what the Scriptures testify about God.

The question that usually follows is, "How can God be three and one at the same time---it doesn't add up?" I'll address that question next.

An All Important Question---The Existence of God

Question 19: Who is the only true God? Part 1.

I addressed an aspect of this question earlier in the Dec 4, 2007 post where I noted that everyone has a god---even an atheist. The matter here builds on that thought by begging the question: how do you know you have the right God, the one true God? This is a much harder question, complicated by the many, many religions and worldviews out there, some of which have more than one god.

One might rightly wonder, "Why don't people come to the same conclusions and all point to the same God?" In a sense they do, but not with full agreement or clarity. Religious people generally agree that someone or something caused creation, existence as we experience it. Everything must have come from somewhere or something. In our experience, nothing comes from nothing.

So people naturally conclude that there is a maker (theists) or sustainer of what exists (those who believe in the eternity of matter essentially have matter as their god; e.g., pantheists). Even atheists do not escape this, since they presumably will believe that matter exists. And the material world or some aspect of it would then be their god. So commonsense and experience have everyone pointing in the same general direction: there is a source for existence.

Most religions today also agree that God is one or a unity. The belief in many gods (polytheism) is fading away fast. Even religions that continue to speak of more than one god often also have some idea of a basic divinity that stands behind their various gods.

So, to summarize, (1) all people believing in someone or something. (2) Religions and common sense point toward one God or a divine unity. (3) And this one God or unity is the maker of sustainer of what exists. I've represented this visually above by a simply "point," which people use for representing "one" of something. I surely do not intend that the true God is a circle of some sort, but only wish to convey a concept visually. I'll explain why later.