Did Paul Preach That All Gods Are The Same?

In this regular feature Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call.  Here is this week’s question:Dear Mr. Hunt and Mr. McMahon, I have problems with Christians who like to appeal to Muslims on the basis that we worship the same God.That is, Jehovah and Allah are the same.They are clearly not the same.Yet the argument goes that such an approach is what the apostle Paul used on Mars Hill when he was attempting to evangelize the Greeks.I don’t believe it was the same at all.What do you think?

Tom:

Dave, let me read the verses from Acts 17 and I’ll go from verse 22 to verse 27: “Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:”Dave, I’ve heard it before.People say look, we’re just trying to demonstrate that in somebody else’s religion they’re really following after the same God even though he’s been corrupted.But that’s not what Paul is indicating at all here.

Dave:

Well they’re talking about an unknown god and Paul is talking about the true God is the one that you don’t know.

Tom:

He’s not saying that Zeus for example, “look if you just understood Zeus correctly you would be okay.”

Dave:

No, on the contrary.He’s saying that none of these gods are the true God.You have an altar to the unknown God.The one you don’t know, he’s the true God.This is the one you are ignorantly worshipping, although you are not worshipping him as he desires to be worshipped.For example, Hebrews:11:6But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
See All... says, “He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them who diligently seek him.” And in the Old Testament God makes the statement and it is a promise that we can offer to anyone.He says “You will seek for me and find me if you seek for me with all your heart.”Not if you seek some false God, some God of your making, then you will automatically be worshipping me although you have all kinds of erroneous ideas as to who I am and so forth.You are blaspheming me in many ways, but yet I will accept that.No!But God says if you really want to know me, the only true God, so that you can do what I will reveal that you must do and you seek me with all your heart, you don’t seek something else.You seek me with all your heart, you will find me.God promises he will himself.The problem Tom is that most people don’t want the true God.Most people who are involved in a cult, in a false religion, let’s say a Mormon.One of the most famous sayings in Mormonism is, “As man is God once was; as God is man may become.”And the goal of every Mormon male although most of them don’t even come close to qualifying, they don’t get into the Temple and go through the ceremonies and so forth, but their goal is each of them to become another god.So the Mormons have more gods than the Hindus.The Hindus only have 330 billion.The Mormons have, well if there’s another two or three million males from this planet who become gods, you’ve got another 2-3 million gods out there, and it’s been going on forever Joseph Smith says. So there is an infinite number of Mormon gods. Although the Bible clearly says, “I am God, there is none else. Is there a god beside me? I know not any. There is no one in this universe that is the true God except I myself,” God says.But the Mormons are seeking; I would have to say willfully, not ignorantly.You couldn’t be so ignorant as to believe that you could become God.That’s impossible, but they are willfully following the serpent’s lie to Eve.You can become one of the gods too.It’s plainly laid out in the Bible as the lie of the serpent.This is the goal of Hinduism, self-realization, we talked about it before—to realize the god within, the potential within, that Atman, the individual soul and Brahman the universal soul are one in the same.So all I’m trying to say is if you seek something other than the true God, you will find something other than the true God and you cannot blame the true God for not revealing himself to you.It’s like, what do they say, they complained at Columbine, where was God at Columbine? Why wasn’t he there?And God says, “You threw me out.Don’t blame me, you threw me out.”

Tom:

Talking about our school systems.

Dave:

Right and if you want to know the true God?Or do you want to know a god that you can manipulate?Who will answer your prayer to give you what you want?Do you want to know the true God who created you for a purpose and who wants to reveal himself to you?And are you willing to obey him and to know him.You can seek him and he will be found—you can ask him and he will reveal himself to you.

Tom:

Yes, Dave, one last aspect about this question.It’s sad that in trying to introduce Muslims or whoever to the God of the Bible, they would use the term Allah.It’s really a problem.

Dave:

Allah is not the God of the Bible.He hates Jews.He commanded Muhammad to fight everyone everywhere and force everyone to worship him.That is not the God of the Bible who is love.