Angels (Part 1)

How Many Gods Are There?

It may be true that man cannot understand many things about God. To whatever extent that is true, it is also irrelevant. God has chosen to reveal Himself to man in terms that man can understand. God is Father and Son, a family relationship familiar to us all. He has chosen to tell us that Father and Son are "one" in the sense that they are united. This is no mystery. God also ordained that husband and wife, another family relationship, should remain two persons while united as "one flesh" (Genesis 2:24). Another response to the conflict was to conclude that God is a kind of being of which one is supreme. When we read about the "one true God," we are reading about that One who is supreme: God-the Father. Still another version concludes that God is a family, with a Father who is above all, a Son who is subject to the Father, and with many more sons to come. When God says "Thus saith Jehovah the King of Israel, and his redeemer, Jehovah of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last, and beside me there is no God" (Isaiah 44:6), He is speaking as God-the-Father. When He says, "Beside me there is no Elohim," He is saying that there is no elohim who is His equal, for in fact there are other elohim. A Psalm will serve to illustrate.

Read Psalm 82:1-6

1. Who does God judge?

Note: The word for "God" and "gods" is, in both cases, "elohim."

2. Are "children of the Most High" called "gods" [elohim]?

3. Is it possible for "gods" to die like men?

4. How is it possible for elohim to "inherit all nations?" Doesn't one inherit something from another?

Read John 10:22-38

5. What was the provocation that led the Jews to attempt to stone Christ?

6. Of all that Jesus said, what led the Jews to accuse Him of blasphemy?

7. Did they conclude from what He said that Jesus was claiming to be God?

8. The defense raised by Jesus cited the 82nd Psalm. How did He understand the word Elohim from the psalm?

Note: It seems that to claim to be the Son of God is to claim to be the same kind of being as God-i.e., to be God. Otherwise, it is hard to see how they could raise the charge of blasphemy.

9. Was there, then, any conflict in Christ's mind that God could be one and without parallel and yet there could be others who are also called "god"?

Note: We are going to see that God is a family. God is also a kind of being. We will see that both Father and Son are of the same kind and share the same name-as fathers and sons commonly do. But of all man's Old Testament interactions with God, no man ever saw the Father, or heard His voice.