WHICH GOD?

Since everyone must have a god, the crucial question for every man is: which god is the true God? Or to put the question differently: how are we to distinguish between the one true God on the one hand, and the many false gods on the other? In other words, by what means can we determine which of all possible gods are pretenders and which is the true one? The clue to the answer to these questions may be found in a further analysis of freedom.

As we have already seen, every man by the structure of his freedom must have a god. That is, in every one of his choices a man must necessarily appeal to some criterion by reference to which the decision is made. And the ultimate criterion by which a man makes his choices is his god. Clearly then the choice of one's god is the most basic and fundamental choice that a man can make, it lies behind and is presupposed by every other decision as to what a man will do or think; it is clearly the most important exercise of his freedom. What should one choose as his ultimate criterion of his decisions? Negatively, he should not choose that as his ultimate criterion which will destroy or limit the very freedom of choice by which it is chosen. And positively, he should choose that ultimate criterion which will enhance and fulfill that freedom. Any ultimate criterion that denies or takes away the very freedom of choice by which it is chosen cannot be the true God. The choice of such an ultimate criterion is a contradiction of man's basic freedom of choice; such a god is fatal to man's freedom.

By freedom we do not mean purposeless caprice or chance, indeterminism, but rather the ability of choice, freedom of decision, self-determination. Neither is this freedom an abstract entity, "freedom-in-general," Freiheit, but rather the concrete decision of someone, of a free agent. The most appropriate word for such a being who has such freedom is the word "person." A person is a being that is self-determining, not determined, who has freedom, free will, the ability to choose. A person is to be distinguished from a non-person, a thing, an "it," a being that is determined, not self-determining, that has no freedom, no free will, no ability to choose.

A god that is a thing has less freedom than the person who chooses it. Such a god who does not have as much freedom as the one who chooses it cannot be the true God. It cannot do any more for them than they can do for themselves. Such a god is only the projection of the whims and fancies of the worshippers because it is in reality inferior to its worshippers. As a minimum criterion, therefore, a god can be recognized as a false god if it has less freedom than man himself. [1]

An impersonal or non-personal god is, therefore, a false god. To choose such a god as one's ultimate criterion of choice would be a denial of one's freedom of choice and the worst kind of bondage. A false god can be recognized by the effect that it has upon the freedom of the one who gives it his allegiance. An impersonal or non-personal god because it does not have as much freedom as the one who chooses it as his god limits the freedom and puts into bondage the one who chooses it. The true God, on the other hand, must be at least a person in order to have at least as much freedom as the one who chooses him as his god. But the true God must not only be a person, He must also have unlimited freedom if He is to be able to do the things that He has promised and to deliver the one who cries to Him in trouble and need. A god without unlimited freedom might not be able to keep his promises or to save the one who cries to Him for help. Therefore, a god that does not have unlimited freedom must be a false god. The prophet Isaiah applies this criterion to the denunciation of idolatry.

"6 Those who lavish gold from the purse,
and weigh out silver in the scales, hire a goldsmith,
and he makes it into a god; then they fall down and worship!
7 They lift it upon their shoulders, they carry it,
they set it in its place. If one cries to it,
it does not answer or save him from his trouble." (Isa. 46:6-7;
see also Isa. 44:18-20; 45:20-21; Psa. 115:2-7; 135:5-7, 15-17.)
The true God, on the other hand, has unlimited freedom; He can do whatever He pleases (Psa. 115:3; 135:6); He can save when He is called upon (Isa. 43:11; 45:15-17). The true God, therefore, is a person (or persons) with unlimited freedom.

The classic illustration of the application of these criteria for determining which god is the true God is found in the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal (I Kings 18:17-39 NAS). After challenging the apostate people of Israel to make up their minds between Jehovah and Baal: "If Jehovah be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." (verse 21, ARV), Elijah proposed a very concrete test by which the true God may be known and the false god be exposed as a fraud.

"23 Now let them give us two oxen;
and let them choose one ox for themselves and cut it up,
and place it on the wood, but put no fire under it;
and I will prepare the other ox, and lay it on the wood,
and I will not put a fire under it.
24 Then you call on the name of your god,
and I will call on the name of the Lord,
and the God who answers by fire, He is God." (verses 23-24 NAS)
The test is to see which god can produce. For a false god cannot answer when it is called upon; it cannot act to deliver the one who cries to it in trouble or need.
"26 Then they [the prophets of Baal] took the ox which was given to them
and they prepared it and called on the name of Baal,
from morning until noon saying, 'O Baal, answer us.'
But there was no voice and no one answered...
29 And it came about when midday was past,
that they raved until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice;
but there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention."
(verses 26, 29 NAS)
By this test all false gods may be detected: a false god cannot produce, cannot respond when called upon. Elijah's proposal was the application of this test to determine which of the two rival gods, Jehovah or Baal, was the pretender and which was the true God. Elijah, like the other prophets of the true God, Jehovah, did not hesitate to apply this test because he knew what the true God could do.
"36 Then it came about at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice,
that Elijah the prophet came near and said,
'O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Isarel,
today let it be known that Thou art God in Israel,
and that I am Thy servant,
and that I have done all these things at Thy word!
37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me,
that this people may know Thou, O Lord, art God,
and that Thou hast turned their hearts back again.'
38 Then fire of the Lord fell,
and consumed the burnt offering
and the wood and the stones and the dust,
and licked up the water that was in the trench.
39 And when all the people saw it,
they fell on their faces; and they said,
'The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God.'"
(verses 36-39 NAS; see also Isa. 46:1-11; 40:18-26; Jer. 10:6-16.)
Not only are false gods unable to produce, but they visit their worshippers with the opposite of what they promise. They entice their worshippers with glittering prospects, but then visit them with cruel disillusionment. The worshippers of a false god are betrayed into the opposite of what they want.
"Then Elijah said to them,
'Seize the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.'
So they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon,
and slew them there." (verse 40 NAS)
The modern sophisticated gods also disappoint their worshippers. For example, the god of Reason betrays its followers into blind irrationalism. Witness the irrationalism of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution which was carried on in the name of Reason.

Why cannot false gods produce? Some false gods cannot produce because they are non-persons, things. This is the point of Elijah's taunts of the prophets of Baal.

"And it came about at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said,
'Call out with a loud voice, for he is god;
either he is occupied or gone aside, or is on a journey,
or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened.'" (verse 27 NAS)
Baal could not answer because he was not a person who could. It was not because he was preoccupied with musing, journeying, sleeping or anything else that he did not answer. He could not because he was not a being that could. A person is a being that is self-determining, that has free will. And Baal was not that kind of being. It did not even have as much freedom as its worshippers. Here we have our first and minimum criterion for determining which of all possible gods are pretenders and which is the true God -- a god is a false god if it does not have as much freedom as man himself; that is, if it is not self-determining, if it is a thing. But other gods who are persons cannot produce because their freedom is limited. They do not have any more freedom than their worshippers and hence cannot do any more than their followers. Here we have our second criterion for determining which god is the true God: a god is a false god if it does not have more freedom than man himself, a false god has limited freedom. It should now be obvious why false gods cannot produce. They either do not have freedom, self-determination, or their freedom is limited. Since the true God has freedom -- he is a person or persons -- and since his freedom is unlimited -- he is all powerful and can fulfill the promises he can make, he can answer when he is called upon and deliver the one who cries to him in trouble and need.

The Apostle Paul in the first chapter of his letter to the Romans also refers to these same criteria to show that man is without excuse for his idolatry.

"19 Because that which is known of God is manifest in them;
for God manifested it to them.
20 For since the creation of the world
the invisible things of Him,
both His eternal power and divine nature,
have been clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made,
so that they are without excuse." (Rom. 1:19-20 ERS)
In verse 19, Paul refers to a knowledge of God which all men have and in verse 20 he says two things about this knowledge:
(a) This knowledge is a knowledge of the "invisible things of him," of God,
namely, "his eternal power and Godhead" or divine nature.
(b) These two "invisible things of him... are clearly seen (verse 20),
that is, manifested, laid open to public view (verse 19).
This paradoxical way of stating the source of this knowledge raises the question: how are these unseen things clearly seen? The answer is given in the phrase "being understood by the things that are made (verse 20). They are seen by a rational act, the act of the mind, "by the things that are made". For the things that are made are analogous in their being to the unseen things of Him. That which God created reflects the invisible things of Him, the Creator, like a work of art reflects the artist. (Of course, this analogy of the artist and his work cannot be applied to the Creator and His creation without reservations.) All examples of power in the physical world, the earthquakes, storms, even nuclear energy, are like God's eternal power. The creation reflects the Creator in His power. If this be so, then what in all creation is like His Godhead or divine nature? Only man himself is analoguous to God's divine nature because man alone has been created in the image of God (compare verse 19: "that which is known of God is manifest in them"). Man's person is similar to God's person. Paul uses this same analogy between God's being and man's being in his address on Mars Hill, the Areopagus, in Athens, recorded in Acts 17:22-31, to argue against idolatry. After he had quoted one of the Greek's own poets as saying "For we are also his offspring," Paul argues,
"Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think
that the Divine nature is like gold or silver or stone,
an image formed by the art and thought of man."
(Acts 17:29 NAS;
Compare to theion translated "Divine nature" in this verse
with theiotes in Rom. 1:20 which is also translated "divine nature" NAS.)
Since we were created by God in His image, the nature of God must be at least as personal as our nature. Therefore, the true God cannot be a non-person, a thing made of gold or silver or stone, an image made by man. God's being must be as personal as our being, if we are the offspring of God, that is, created in His image.

But not only is it true that in man alone is there found that which is like God's being, but it is also true that in man alone is there found that which is the best analogy of God's eternal power. The human will in its limited power and freedom is the best analogy in all creation of the divine will with its unlimited power and freedom. (Note that power, dunamis, means "to be able", dunamai.) What greater created power is there than the power to bless or destroy? In this sense the human power to choose to use the nuclear bomb is greater than the power of the bomb itself. The power of human freedom of decision is greater than the power of physical energy. In man therefore we find that which is the analogy in creation of God's eternal power and His divine personal nature. The mind of man employing these analogies of being perceives the invisible things of Him through the things that are made or created by God. Thus "God manifest it [the truth] unto them" (verse 19). The unseen things of God are clearly seen because that which is known of God is manifested in them. So man is without excuse for his idolatry, exchanging the truth about God for a lie and worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator (Rom. 1:25). Man has no excuse for choosing a false god. He knows that it is not the true God because a false god is impersonal and/or powerless; it is less of a person than he is and has as little or less power or freedom than he has.

It is this knowledge of what the true God must be like that lies behind all primitive religions, with their anthropomorphic gods. Primitive man knows what a god must be like in order to be the true God. This knowledge derived intuitively from the nature of his freedom makes him uneasy about the things that he worships as god. He knows that the true God must be a living God. But having failed to encounter such a God, he fills the vacuum with what he imagines to be facsimile of Him. And since the highest living being he knows is himself, he makes gods in his own image. He also knows that the true God must be a God of unlimited power, not limited like himself. He therefore identifies these anthropomorphic creations with the powerful forces that he sees in the physical world about him. Beyond the simple and profound suspicion that such a God does exist, he is at the end of his knowledge ("...whom ye ignorantly worship..." Acts 17:23 KJV). [2]

In what way can man find any additional knowledge of the true God? In the same way in which he gets knowledge about another person: by what the other person says and does. But the initiative lies with the other person. If he remains silent and inactive, no knowledge is available in addition to the fact that he is there. Therefore, if man is to know anything additional about the true God, God must take the initiative and reveal Himself in word and/or deed. And God has taken the initiative and has revealed Himself in word and deed. The Bible is a record of the "words and the mighty acts of God." The true God is not silent and He is not inactive; He has spoken and He has acted. This is recorded for us in a book, the Bible. And we know that these are the words and deeds of the true God because they are the words and the acts of a God who is a personal being and has unlimited freedom. The God who is revealed in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament is the living God who created all things.
(The living God - Joshua 3:10; I Sam. 17:26;
Psa. 84:2; Jer. 10:10; Matt. 16:16; Acts 14:15; I Thess. 1:9;
I Tim. 3:15; Heb. 10:31;
The Creator - Gen. 1:1; 2:3-4; Ex. 4:11; Neh. 9:6;
Job 38:4; Psa. 90:2; 102:25; 104:1-5,24; Isa. 40:28;
44:24; 45:11-12,18; 48:12-13; Jer. 10:11-12; John 1:1-3;
Acts 17:24; I Cor. 8:6; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2,10; 11:3; Rev. 4:11).
Because He is a person, He is alive; and because He has unlimited freedom, He is the all powerful Creator of all things. The God of the Bible is the true God, and all other gods are false. The choice of any other god than this one is idolatry.

ENDNOTES

[1] Cherbonnier, "Biblical Metaphysics," pp. 367-370.
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[2] Cherbonnier, "Biblical Metaphysics," p.369.
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