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How many
Gods are there, one or many?
Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah
43:10; 44:6,8
and Genesis 1:26; 3:22; 11:7; 1 Cor. 8:5; I John 5:7
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One God
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(Deuteronomy
6:4) - "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord
is one!"
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(Isaiah
43:10) - ". . . Before Me [YHWH] there
was no God formed, and there will be none after Me."
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(Isaiah
44:6) - ". . . there is no God besides
Me."
- (Isaiah
44:8) - ". . . And you are My witnesses.
Is there any God besides Me, or is there any other Rock? I know of
none."
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Many gods
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(Genesis
1:26) - "Then God said, "Let Us make man
in Our image, according to Our likeness . . ."
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(Genesis
3:22) - "And the LORD God said, "The man
has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil . . ."
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(Genesis
11:7) - "Come, let us go down and confuse their
language so they will not understand each other."
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(1
Corinthians 8:5) - "For even if there are so-called
gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many
"gods" and many "lords")."
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(1
John 5:8) - "For there are three that bear
witness, the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are
in agreement."
The Bible tells us that there is only one God in
all existence (Isaiah 43:10;
44:6,8).
However, it also mentions "other gods." For example there
is Adrammelech and Anammelech (2
Kings 17:31), Asherah (1
Kings 18:19), Baal (Judges
3:1), Chemosh (Num. 21:29),
Dagon (1 Sam. 5:2), Molech (Lev.
18:21; 20:2-5),
etc. The Bible is not contradicting itself. When the Bible
speaks of other gods it is speaking of false gods that have no true
existence. Gal. 4:8 says,
"Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by
nature are not gods." See also, Isaiah
37:19 and Jeremiah 2:11.
God tells us that he alone is the true God and that all of the invented
gods of man do not exist except in their own minds. So, we can see that
the Bible is not contradicting itself regarding how many gods there are in
existence. There is only one.
Note: in the verses in Genesis that have God
saying "Let us make..., Let us go down . . . , etc." are clues
to the Trinitarian nature of God. God is a Trinity
of persons: a Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There are not three
Gods, but one. There are those who insist that the Trinity is
polytheistic. But it is not. Trinitarians believe in a single being who is
God.
Return to Bible
Contradictions - Genesis to Deuteronomy
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