Deuteronomy 6:4
Hear O Israel,
The LORD OUR GOD,
The LORD IS ONE
Pick up a Bible and ask the simplest and most basic of all questions:
Who is the one God of the Bible?
Deuteronomy 32:39: “See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no God besides Me.”
Isaiah 43:11: “I, only I, am the LORD [YHWH], and there is no Savior besides Me.”
Isaiah 44:6: “This is what the LORD says, He who is the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of
Armies: ‘I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me.’”
Isaiah 44:8: “Is there a God besides Me, or is there any other Rock? I know of none.”
Isaiah 45:5: “I am the LORD, and there is no one else; there is no God except Me.”
Isaiah 45:6: “So that people may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one
besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no one else.”
Hosea 13:4: “I have been the LORD your God since the land of Egypt; and you were not to know any
God except Me, because there is no Savior besides Me.”
Deuteronomy 4:35: “You were shown these things so that you would know that the LORD, He is God;
there is no other besides Him.”
Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord.”
Mark 12:32: The scribe said to Jesus, “Well said, teacher. You have truly stated that He is one, and
there is no other besides Him.”
It is perfectly obvious that Jesus confirmed the age-old creed of Israel (Deuteronomy 6:4). As every Jew knows, this creed asserts that the true God, the God of Israel, is one Person — certainly not three! Jesus subscribed to the understanding of his fellow Jews. Jesus allied himself to the Jews when he defined God. He said, “We [Jews] know whom we worship” (John 4:22). And no Jew ever worshipped the Triune God. Jesus did not deviate one inch from the unitary, non-Trinitarian monotheism of Israel. He quoted the Old Testament definition of who God is and thus presented us Christian disciples with our basic creed. It is arrogant in the extreme for us Gentile converts to Christianity to interfere with the creed declared with such clarity by Jesus himself.
Note carefully how many persons there are in this creed: “The Lord our God is one Lord.” One Lord is one Person, not three! God is presented as one personal being, denoted thousands and thousands of times by the personal pronouns in the singular: I, Me, Thou, Thee, He, Him. In the Bible
the word “three” never occurs in connection with the word “God.”
God had a unique, virginally conceived Son, the Messiah, and God’s spirit is the spirit of God, His divine presence and power active in the world to enlighten and save. But God never spoke to His own spirit and the spirit never sent greetings, was never worshipped nor prayed to.
John and all the Apostles were outstanding exponents of unitary monotheism (i.e., God is a single Person).
John recorded Jesus as defining the Father as the “the one who alone is truly God” (John 17:3; 5:44).
Now listen to Paul: How does he define the one God in whom Christians believe? Paul tells us precisely who that unique divine Person is: “We know that there is no God but one…
To us [Christians] there is one God, the Father” (1 Corinthians 8:4-6). This is unitary monotheism.
One God – Only the Father is God
By Sean Finnegan
Jesus knew that this was his last time with the disciples before he would be taken into custody. He prayed just before he made his way across the Kidron Valley to the Garden of Gethsemane. The disciples listened earnestly; they were probably still in shock because Jesus had just washed their feet. As he prayed he did not look down, instead he looked up to the Father. In the beginning of his prayer, he made an extraordinary statement about eternal life. He said, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:3). According to this verse, there are two who must be known: the only true God, and Jesus Christ. Jesus considered the Father to be the only God and he considered himself to be distinct from that only God. This simple truth is elevated to the highest degree when he prefaced the statement with, “This is eternal life….” That is to say, eternal life depends on one’s understanding of God and His Son.
In addition, Paul the apostle was inspired by God to write along the same lines in his first letter to Timothy.
I Timothy 2:3-6 NASB This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.
There are two closely linked desires of God listed: 1)for all to be saved, and 2)for all to come to know the truth. In verse four “the truth” does not refer to all true things in general but a very specific truth. The next two verses explain “the truth” that God desires all men to know.
The first ingredient is that there is only one God.
The second is that the man Christ Jesus is the one mediator between the one God and humankind. The third is that Jesus gave himself a ransom for all at the right time.
There is no confusion between Jesus and God; they are fully distinct in nature and in function. According to the greeting of this letter (I Timothy 1:2), God is the Father, and Jesus Christ is our Lord. Just a few verses earlier than where we are now, it says that the only God is immortal. (In the word “immortal,” the prefix, im, means not; and mortal means can die; thus immortal means cannot die — 1 Timothy 1:17.)
However, the third ingredient of “the truth” is that Jesus gave himself as a ransom for all. In order for Jesus to die, he must be mortal. Therefore, we conclude that the one God (the Father) is completely distinct from the one man (Christ Jesus). It is as important to recognize this distinction, as it is to understand that Christ gave himself as a ransom for all.
One God (the Father) is completely distinct from the one man (Christ Jesus)
A third text that offers clarity on this issue can be found in I Corinthians. The context concerns idolatry and eating the foods that are sacrificed to idols. Paul recognizes that there are many who are called gods.
I Corinthians 8:6 NASB Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through him.
This text leaves no wiggle room for complicated definitions of God. He is the Father Who created all things. He is the source from which everything, including Jesus, originated. He is the one God, and we are able to come to Him through the one Lord, Jesus Christ. The Father made everything, and we experience all things through Christ.
There are many other places in the New Testament that speak of God as the Father.
Consider the following scriptures: John 1:18; 4:23 and 24; 6:27; 8:41 and 42, 54; 20:17; Romans 1:7; 15:6; I Corinthians 1:3; 8:6; 15:24; II Corinthians 1:2 and 3; 11:31; Galatians 1:1,3 and 4; Ephesians 1:2 and 3, 17; 4:6; 5:20; 6:23; Philippians 1:2; 2:11; 4:20; Colossians 1:2 and 3; 3:17; I Thessalonians 1:1, 3; 3:13; II Thessalonians 1:1 and 2; 2:16; I Timothy 1:2; II Timothy 1:2; Titus 1:4; Philemon 3; James 3:9; I Peter 1:2 and 3; II Peter 1:17; II John 1:3; Jude 1:1; Revelation 1:5 and 6.
The overwhelming weight of Scripture teaches that only the Father is God. He is the awesome Creator of everything in existence. He is the most powerful Being in the universe. He has no equal, as even Jesus confessed (John 10:29; 14:28). He is called the “one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:6 NASB). About two thousand years ago, He brought into existence His perfect Son who would save mankind from destruction. Jesus, the perfectly obedient one, followed God’s plan flawlessly. As a result today we have access to the Father through him.
FAQ — Who is God?
The Bible, that is, the Scriptures, declares that God exists. God’s very creation declares that God exists (Romans 1:20).
God is the all-knowing, always present, self-existing God.
He is the Creator of the universe, and He is the Creator of all forms of life on earth
(Isaiah 44:24, Malachi 2:10).
In prayer, Jesus identified his God as:
THE ONLY TRUE GOD!
(John 17:1-3).
The word only affirms that there is no other God besides the One God, whom Jesus called,
the only true God
(See Isaiah 43:10, 44:8, 45:5, 21; 46:9, Malachi 2:10).
The Scriptures declare that:
“the LORD is our God, the LORD is One”
(Deuteronomy 6:4).
Jesus affirmed this verse to be his very own central and fundamental creed, defining it as
the “first and the greatest of all the commandments” (Mark 12:28-32).
Jesus goes on to say that we ought to love the Only True God (John 17:3)
with all our heart, mind, soul and strength (Mark 12:30).
Jesus identifies the Only True God as his ‘Father’; that God is both his God and the God of his disciples (John 20:17).
There is no other God besides the Father.
He alone is God and He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
(Romans 15:6; 2 Corinthians 1:3, 11: 31; Ephesians 1.3, 17; Colossians 1.3; 1 Peter 1.3, Revelation 3:12).
Yahweh
God’s name appears over 6800 times in the Hebrew Bible. It is written with 4 Hebrew letters, depicted as YHWH, and commonly pronounced as Yahweh.
Yahweh Alone Is God
Yahweh alone is the one God over all (Deuteronomy 4:35, 39; 6:4).
Deuteronomy 6:4:
“Hear, O Israel!
The LORD [Yahweh] is our God
the LORD [Yahweh] is one!”
This was Jesus’ creed and as followers of Jesus — it must be our creed too.
One God Over All:
Parts 2-4
Parts 2-4
Yahweh Our God, Yahweh Is One
Sean Finnegan presents an excellent presentation on the supremacy of the Father as the one and only God of the universe.
Many great scriptures talked about including the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4.
Yahweh Versus The Idols
Kings Saul and David were loyal to the one true God. However, King Solomon in the “Golden Age of Israel” was unwise and actually provided idols for his foreign wives. Through successive generations the people at times forsook Yahweh.
Yahweh The God Of Jesus
Does God have a God? The answer is clear – No. Yet Jesus does have a God!
Sean Finnegan presents us with a review of the scriptures that teach us that as “Christians” to us the only one who is God,
is the God of Jesus our Lord.