Biblical Refutation of John Mark Comer's Polytheism from "Solid Rock" Portland

It's time for another edition of Fighting for the

Faith. Tuesday, January 29th, 2013.

I've got to tell you, as I come to the microphone today, I never in my apologetics career thought that I would be having to do a program like today's.

Thank you for tuning in. You're listening to Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Rosebro. I am your servant in Jesus Christ, and this is the program that dishes up a daily dose of biblical discernment, the goal of which, help you to think biblically, help you to think critically, help you compare what people are saying in the name of God to the

Word of God. And the reason why this is important is not because I have an axe to grind, it's because Jesus himself said this is important.

Let me remind you again of the words of our Lord from the Olivet Discourse in Matthew chapter 24.

Here's what, here's the setup. I'll read verse 1. Jesus left the temple and was going away when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple.

But he answered, you see all of these, do you not? Truly I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.

And as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, well, tell us, when will these things be?

And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Jesus answered to them, see to it that no one deceives you or leads you astray.

For many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ, and they will lead many astray. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars so that you may not be alarmed, but these must take place, but the end is not yet.

So Jesus' first warning regarding the end times is that you are not deceived or led astray by false teachers, false prophets, false

Christ, people who are teaching false doctrine. And so this is the reason why we do Fighting for the

Faith, to help you not be deceived. Now, real quick, little bit of house cleaning that I need to take care of.

I want to address that, give you some information, and then we're going to move on to the program for today.

We're going to be dealing in a way with a singular topic. It's going to be a long program. There's going to be a lot of Bible teaching in the first hour.

You need your Bibles. In fact, while I'm getting this information ready, if you don't have your Bible, get it.

If you don't have access to a Bible, then get ready to write down the references or don't listen to this episode until you are in a place where you can take notes.

Just let's put it that way. Okay. Now, yesterday I told you all that I will be lecturing in Norfolk, Virginia on March 2nd.

I have the details regarding my lecture engagement and want to share those details with you so that if you want to come and attend, that you can be in the audience and be there.

It's free admission, by the way. No charge to show up. The name of the event, by the way, is

How Not to be Deceived, Bamboozled, or Snookered by Religious Hucksters, Snake Oil Conmen, or Your Own Idolatrous Notions.

That's the name of the event. Let me read it again. How to Not be Deceived, Bamboozled, or Snookered by Religious Hucksters, Snake Oil Conmen, or Your Own Idolatrous Notions.

It's hosted by Trinity Lutheran Church in Norfolk, Virginia, and they are at 6001

Granby Street in Norfolk, and the doors open at 9 in the morning and the first series of lectures begin at 9 .30.

I'll be lecturing from 9 .30 to noon, there will be a one -hour break from noon to one, and then the second round of lectures begin at one o 'clock, and we'll be finishing up around three in the afternoon.

So admission is free, and even though Lutherans are monergists, we will be taking a freewill offering, so just want to let you all know that.

Again, it's on March 2nd at Trinity Lutheran Church at 6001 Granby Street in Norfolk, Virginia.

Would love to, if you can attend, would love to see some of you all from the Fighting for the Faith audience, and just bring something to write with, bring your

Bible. It'll be hopefully a good informative time, and my goal in this is try to kind of pull back the curtain a little bit so you can see the framework that I work with theologically so that you can have these same tools yourself.

There's no point in me keeping them to myself, they belong to the church anyway. Okay, so that's the bit of business that needed to be taken care of.

Let's talk about what we're going to do on today's edition of Fighting for the Faith. Now, as I said at the opening of the program, in my apologetics career,

I don't think I ever anticipated having to do a program like today's, and what

I mean by that is this, okay? How many gods does Christianity believe in?

And while I hear the answer from all of you going, one, right, you've heard of the term monotheism?

Yeah, there are three religions on the planet, world religions, that teach monotheism, okay?

They are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, okay? Here's the fun part, okay?

Today in hour number two, we are going to be listening to a sermon from a seeker -driven multi -site church in the

Portland, Oregon area, okay, named Solid Rock, that's the name of the church, and you're going to hear their pastor,

John Mark Comer, you're going to hear him literally teach polytheism.

I'm not overstating that, that is not an exaggeration, no,

I have not been exposed to any illicit drugs, nor do I, or have

I been drinking, okay? Yes, you heard that right, you're going to be listening to a sermon, and we're going to be reviewing it, and it's the way we do our sermon reviews here, from a seeker -driven pastor.

Now, I called the church, by the way, I called Solid Rock, and I talked to one of the staff members there today, and I wanted more information about Solid Rock Church, because apparently they're not so solid, and you know, wanted to get just a little bit more information about them, about their pastor, and so I called, and was asking questions, and the secretary passed me through to one of the members on the staff there, and well, let me kind of relate to you how the conversation went.

I asked the lady that I was speaking to, I asked her straight up, I said, how many people attend your church, you know,

I mean, are you able to give out, I mean, I see from your website that you're a multi -site church, and I was just curious how many people attend there between your different campuses, or campi, on any given

Sunday, and she was happy to tell me that, that they have literally 7 ,000 people attending on average every weekend there at Solid Rock, they've got a downtown

Portland campus, they've got a west side campus, they've got a sunset campus, and I think they even have one,

I don't know if it's up and running yet, but one that's supposedly going up in Raleigh, North Carolina, I guess, but Solid Rock, okay, so they are a multi -site, seeker -driven church, and with an average of 7 ,000 people in attendance on any given

Sunday, and then I asked the question, has your lead pastor been to seminary, to which, by the way, their lead pastor's name is

John Mark Comer, it's John Mark Comer, and she said, you know, I don't know, and I said, is there a way to find out, she said,

I think he's been to seminary, or maybe he's going, I think he may have gone to Multnomah, or he's still going to,

I'm not sure, that's what she said, okay, and so I asked if there was anybody that I could talk to to find out, and she gave me the contact information, and so then

I asked her, okay, after listening to the sermon, I asked her straight up, I said, so let me ask you, do you believe in many gods, that there are many, many, many gods out there, she says, oh yeah,

I believe that, I said, you are aware that Isaiah 43 verse 10 says that there are no other gods besides God, okay, before me no god was formed, nor will there be any after me, no sooner did

I say that, she said, who is this, and I said, well, my name is Chris Roseboro, and I work for Pirate Christian Radio, and I host a radio program called

Fighting for the Faith, and she says, well, yes, I believe my leaders, this is what she said,

I believe my leaders are telling me the truth about the Bible, and I said, so,

I just quoted to you the passage, and I said, so you're going to believe your leaders rather than the written

Word of God regarding whether or not there's one God or many gods, she said, yes,

I trust my leaders, and the thing that came to my mind is cult, okay, this is a full -blown theological cult at the very least, and so what we're going to do today, and you know, if you sense a sense of urgency in my voice, well, there is, we're going to spend some time today, we're going to take a look, first of all, we're going to look at what the

Bible teaches regarding their only existing one

God, there's not many gods out there, there exists only one, and the

Bible doesn't teach this unambiguously, it teaches it straightforward in very clear and succinct and non -confusing language, which was, to me, one of the frustrating things in listening to John Mark Comer's sermon that you're going to be hearing in hour number two is that he was purposely suppressing and not even bringing these passages to bear, okay, what you're going to hear in hour number two is a full -blown, seeker -driven, multi -site church teaching that there are many gods,

I'm not making that up, so now, like I said, you're going to need your

Bible, and just so you know, there's not going to be a break here, normally I, you know, we have a break at the bottom of the hour, and then we do a break at the top of the hour, the first break for today's edition of Fighting for the

Faith will be the only break that we do for Fighting for the Faith today, so be advised that we're only doing one break today, okay, and the reason why is because I want to spend some time in the biblical text looking at the biblical case for monotheism, not polytheism, monotheism, mono, one, theism,

God, one God, the belief in one God, this is not, I mean,

Christianity has been monotheistic from its beginning, Judaism has been monotheistic from its beginning, and there's reasons for that, by the way, because this is what

God has said, okay, so make yourself comfortable, I don't have any update music for this, make yourself comfortable, grab a pen and paper, get a

Bible if you have it, follow along, I will be reading from my, from the English Standard Version, the

ESV translation, so you know, you know what I'm working from, and if necessary,

I mean, I could dive into the Hebrew text or the Greek text if I needed to, because I've got them open both on, you know, parallel windows here on my laptop, so with that, let's take a look at what the

Bible teaches regarding their existing only one God, and what we're going to do is we're going to start in Deuteronomy chapter four,

I'm going to start at verse, I'm going to look at verses 15 through 35, Deuteronomy chapter four, 15 through 35, okay, let me read,

Moses speaking to the children of Israel as they're getting ready to, you know, they're hearing the law a second time as they're, you know, getting ready to wind up their wilderness wanderings and go into the promised land, here's what

Moses says, therefore, watch yourselves very carefully, since you saw no form on the day that the

Lord spoke to you at Horeb, out of the midst of the fire, beware, lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth, and beware, lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the hosts of the heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the

Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven, but the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace out of Egypt to be a people of his own inheritance as you are this day, furthermore, the

Lord was angry with me because of you and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan and that I should not enter the good land that the

Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, for I must die in this land and I must not go over the

Jordan, but you shall go over and take possession of that good land, take care lest you forget the covenant of the

Lord your God which he made with you and make a carved image, the form of anything that the

Lord your God has forbidden you, for the Lord your God is a consuming fire and a jealous

God. When you father children and children's children and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything and by doing what is evil in the sight of the

Lord your God so as to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over, the

Jordan to possess, you will not live long in it, but will utterly be destroyed and the

Lord will scatter you among the peoples and you will be left few and number among the nations where the

Lord will drive you, and there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands that neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell, but from there you will seek the

Lord your God and you will find him if you search after him with all of your heart and with all of your soul.

When you are in tribulation and all these things come upon you, in the latter days you will return to the

Lord your God and obey his voice. For the Lord your God is a merciful God and he will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

For ask now of the days that are past which were before you since the day that God created man on the earth and ask from one end of the heaven to the other whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was even ever heard of.

Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire as you have heard and still live?

Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation by trials, by signs, by wonders and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and by great deeds of terror, all of which the

Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown that you might know that the

Lord, Yahweh, is God. There is no other besides him.

Now, I read all of that in context because in the sermon that you're going to hear, this secret -driven pastor is literally going to try to make the case that, listen, if you make an idol, you invent it, that's not really a god, but there are real gods out there other than Yahweh.

There are other gods other than Yahweh. But if somebody carves an image, well, that's not a real god.

That's just an idol. Now the reason I read all of that in context is so that you can see what's going on here.

And here's the verse to key in on, Deuteronomy 4 .35. To you it was shown that you might know that Yahweh, that's why it's capital

L, capital O, capital R, capital D. In fact, whenever you're reading your

Old Testament, this isn't the same in the New Testament, whenever you're reading your Old Testament, okay, and you see capital

L, capital O, capital R, capital D, there's a reason why the

Lord there is all caps. And the reason why is because the Hebrew word behind it is the actual name of God, Yahweh.

So here's what it says. To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord is

God. There is no other besides Him. According to that statement, there is no other

God besides Yahweh. How many other gods are there in the universe or anywhere to be found?

Answer, there are none. There's not even one. There are no other gods besides Yahweh.

This is what Scripture reveals. Now fast forward, 1 Kings chapter 8, 1

Kings chapter 8. In this passage, we see, we're watching the dedication of Solomon's temple, okay?

The speaker here is Solomon. Here's what he writes, or this is actually what he said publicly. Blessed be the

Lord, Yahweh, who has given rest to His people Israel according to all that He promised.

Not one word has failed of all of His good promise which He spoke by Moses His servant.

The Lord our God be with us as He was with our fathers. May He not leave us or forsake us, that He may incline our hearts to Him, to walk in all of His ways, to keep

His commandments, His statutes, His rules which He commanded our fathers. Let these words of mine with which

I have pleaded before the Lord be near the Lord our God day and night, and may He maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of His people

Israel as each day requires. That all the peoples of the earth may know that Yahweh is

God. There is no other, okay?

Noticing a theme here? So Deuteronomy chapter 4, 1

Kings chapter 8, verse 60, Yahweh is God.

There is no other. How many gods are there? One. Now, by the way,

God exists in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There are not three gods, but one

God, but the topic of the Trinity is for another time here at Fighting for the Faith. Today we're just establishing what the

Bible teaches regarding the fact that there is only one God.

Fast forward to Isaiah chapter 43, okay? We're going to spend a little bit of time in Isaiah, and unfortunately

I'm not going to read all of these in context, but I strongly recommend, take some time to read through the 40s of Isaiah, you know what

I mean? Start at chapter 39 and read all the way through to 49. When you read this entire section in context, it's brutal and it's straight to the point.

But Isaiah 43, verse 10 is the verse we're going to look at next. Isaiah chapter 43, verse 10, and here's what it reads.

Yahweh speaking to the nation of Israel. You are my witnesses, declares

Yahweh, that you and my servant whom I have chosen so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am

He. Before me, no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me, okay?

So the two passages we read says that Yahweh is God, there is no other. They both say the same thing.

And now, in case you were confused, Yahweh goes on to basically say, before me, no

God was formed. There are no other gods. Before me, no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me.

Now this should alarm anybody who believes in Mormonism. Why? Because the ultimate goal of Mormonism is for you to become a

God. Here Yahweh in Isaiah 43, 10 makes it absolutely patently clear in unambiguous language, there's not going to be any gods formed after Him.

So if your goal is to become a God, a deity, you're going to fall flat because according to Yahweh, before me, no

God was formed, nor shall there be any after me. Isaiah chapter 45, verses 5 and 6, here's what they say.

I am Yahweh. There is no other. Besides me, there is no God. I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know from the rising of the sun from the west that there is none besides me.

I am Yahweh. There is no other. Isaiah 45, verse 18, here's what it says.

For thus says the Lord, Yahweh, who created the heavens, He is God, who formed the earth and made it,

He established it. He did not create it empty. He formed it to be inherited. I am the

Lord, and there is no other. Isaiah 45, verse 22, turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth, for I am

God. There is no other. Isaiah 46, verse 8, remember this and stand firm.

Recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things of old, for I am

God. There is no other. I am God. There is none like me.

Now, just in those passages alone, do you think that's enough evidence to say, okay, there's no other

God except for Yahweh? I'm pretty convinced. I'm hoping you're convinced as well, but let me dogpile for a little bit, okay?

This by the way is not just an Old Testament phenomenon. 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, the

Apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says this, for there is one

God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ. Paul also writes 1

Corinthians. Let me read to you from 1 Corinthians 8, starting at verse 4. Here's what he says, therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence.

Okay? In fact, all false gods are idols, especially in the ancient world, because back then, they took idolatry seriously, at least serious enough to actually go out and make images of the deities that they claim that they believe in.

In fact, I think the idea of a non -idol deity, that was fairly new to the ancient world.

In fact, who was it? There was one Roman general, and he actually, historically,

I got to get my date right here. This is Roseboro's memory, so it's a little bit off. But there was, was it

Antiochus Epiphanes? I think it was him. There was a guy who was a

Roman general, or a pagan general, he may have been Greek even. He actually violated the temple, the

Jewish temple there in Jerusalem, and he went into the Holy of Holies. And I think it's

Josephus that noted the fact that when he went back in there, he was shocked. And the reason why he was shocked is because there was no idol inside the

Holy of Holies. The ancient pagan temples, they had the area called the noose, or the mind, and the mind of the temple.

And in the noose is where the deity resided and lived, and usually there would be a large statue of the deity inside the inner sanctum, the noose of the pagan temples.

So this guy goes back in there, and there's a lamp stand, and you know, showbread, and you know, this is weird, okay?

I'm in this temple, and there's no deity here. Right. Because God forbade that, right?

So anyway, let's fast forward again, back to the New Testament. So the time of Paul, the time of the

Book of Acts, as the church is expanding out into the pagan world, Corinth was a pagan town.

In fact, it was a pagan seaport town. Think of it like you would

Las Vegas for the ancient world. It's kind of like that. And so in order to eat meat, a common practice, if you wanted to have fresh meat, you would go down to the local temple, like the temple to Apollo out there in Corinth, and they would sacrifice animals there and then sell the meat.

And so the question is, if you're a Christian, can you eat food that's sacrificed to an idol? Can you do that?

Because some Christians, they, you know, you can't do that. And other Christians say, ah, it doesn't matter. Well, this is what

Paul's addressing here in 1 Corinthians chapter 8. Here's what it says, starting in verse 4. Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence and that there is no

God but one. Again, listen again. There is no God but one.

For although there may be so -called gods in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many quote, gods and lords, yet for us, there is one

God, the Father from whom all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

Okay. But again, the important verse there is verse 4, 1 Corinthians 4, 8, 4, there is no

God but one. Okay. Fast forward a little bit to chapter 10 of the same book.

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to sensible people, judge for yourselves what

I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

Because there is one bread, there are many, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the same bread.

So consider the people of Israel. Are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?

What do I imply then? That food offered to an idol is anything or that an idol is anything?

No, I imply that what pagan sacrifice, they offer to demons and not to God.

I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the

Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the

Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he is? So those are the passages that are very didactic, at least they say it straight up.

Now there's also in the Bible, several narratives that have to do with Christianity or in the old test, in the case of Judaism, coming up against false gods.

Now according to Yahweh, there is no other God except for him. No other God was formed before him.

No other God will be formed after him. He doesn't know of any other gods. Paul says there is only one

God, right? So these narratives that I'm going to read to you only make sense with the belief and understanding that there are no other gods except for the one

God, Yahweh. Okay. Acts chapter 14, verse eight. Now at Lystra, there was a man sitting who could not use his feet.

He was crippled from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul speaking and Paul looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be well, said in a loud voice, stand upright on your feet.

And he sprang up and he began walking. And when the crowd saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices saying in the

Laconian language, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men.

Barnabas, they called Zeus, Paul Hermes, because he was the chief speaker and the priest of Zeus whose temple was at the entrance to the city brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifices with the crowds.

But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, men, why are you doing these things?

We also are men of like nature with you and we bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to a living

God who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.

In past generations, he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways, yet he did not leave himself without witness for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.

Even with these words, they scarcely restrain the people from offering a sacrifice to them.

Now notice Paul here says that their gods are vain, that they aren't even living and he wants them to turn from these vain things to the true and living

God. Do you think Paul for a second believed that there were many gods out there?

No, he only believed that there was one. That's why he said what he said. Let me give you another example,

Acts chapter 19, verse 23. This is an event that took place in the city of Ephesus.

Now, about that time, there arose no little disturbance concerning the way. It's one of the ancient names for Christianity.

For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, he brought in no little business to the craftsmen.

These he gathered together with the workmen in similar trades and he said, men, you know that from this business we have our wealth and you see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this

Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people saying that gods made with hands are not gods.

And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess

Artemis may be counted as nothing and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all

Asia and the world worship. And so when they heard this, they were enraged, crying out, great is

Artemis of the Ephesians. And so the city was filled with confusion and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them

Gaius and Aristarchus Macedonians who were Paul's companions and travel. But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples wouldn't let him.

And even some of the Asiarchs who were friends of his sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater.

Now some cried out one thing and some another for the assembly was in confusion and most of them did not know why they had come together.

Some of the crowd prompted Alexander whom the Jews had put forward and Alexander motioning with his hands wanted to make a defense to the crowd.

But when they recognized that he was a Jew for about two hours, they all cried out with one voice, great is

Artemis of the Ephesians, great is Artemis of the Ephesians, right? Okay, now this is recorded for us.

This is historical narrative, but it's very clear what's being taught here.

And that's this idea. The reason why Christianity came into conflict with these, uh, with these, uh, pagan religions is because it was teaching the, well, the apostles were teaching

Christianity and saying that idols are not real gods, that there is only one

God and that would be, well, Yahweh. That's what they were teaching.

The reason why they were teaching that is because that's what God had revealed regarding himself. Let me give you another, uh, historical account that I think will be helpful here.

And this is Acts chapter 17, starting at verse 16. Here's what it says.

Now, while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, he was, you know, he was waiting for the other brothers.

His spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the

Jews and the devout persons in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Now, some of the

Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him and some said, what does this babbler wish to say?

Others said, well, he seems to be a preacher of foreign deities because he was preaching Jesus in the resurrection.

And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus saying, may we know what this new teaching is that you're presenting for?

They bring some strange things to our ear. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.

Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who live there would spend all of their time and nothing except telling or hearing something new.

So Paul standing in the midst of the Areopagus said, men of Athens, I perceive that you are in every way very religious.

For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, to the unknown

God. So what therefore you worship is unknown, I proclaim to you.

The God who made the world and everything in it being Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made by hand, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything.

Since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek

God and perhaps feel their way towards him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each of us.

In him we live and move and have our being. For some of your own poets have said, for we are indeed his offspring.

So being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone or an image formed by the art of the imagination of man.

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.

And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. Do you think

Paul believed in polytheism? Not even close. In fact, the only thing that makes sense with Paul's argument and why he argued the way he did is because he believed, truly believed that there is only one

God. Now I want to read a couple more narratives for you. We'll start with 1

Samuel chapter 5. Let me set this up for you. 1 Samuel, in the opening chapters, we learn things are not going so well there in Israel.

This is prior to King David, they have this fact that Samuel the prophet is just about ready to rise to prominence, but he's still a young boy at this point.

And Israel went out to fight the Philistines and well, they decided to help

Israel win. They would take the Ark of the Covenant out of the tabernacle, bring it onto the battlefield and well, things didn't go so well.

In fact, what we could probably do here is read the story from 1 Samuel chapter 4 of the capturing of the

Ark of the Covenant and then kind of go into chapter 5. Here's what it says. Verse 1, now the word of Samuel came to all of Israel.

Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines. They encamped at Ebenezer and the Philistines encamped at Aphek and the

Philistines drew up in line against Israel. And when the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the

Philistines who killed about 4 ,000 men on the field of battle. And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, why has the

Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.

So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of hosts who was enthroned on the cherubim.

And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas were there with the Ark of the Covenant of God. As soon as the

Ark of the Covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all of Israel gave a mighty shout so that the earth resounded.

And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, what does this great shouting in the camp of the

Hebrews mean? And when they learned that the Ark of the Lord had come into the camp, the Philistines were afraid for they said, a

God, a deity has come into the camp. And they said, woe to us for nothing like this has ever happened before.

Woe to us. Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the

Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness. Take courage and be men, oh Philistines, lest you become the slaves of the

Hebrews as they have been to you. And be men and fight. So the Philistines fought and Israel was defeated and they fled every man to his home.

And there was a great slaughter for 30 ,000 foot soldiers of Israel fell. And the

Ark of God was captured and the two sons of Eli and Hophni and Phinehas died. So that's what happened.

And then what happens is they take the Philistines, take the

Ark of the Covenant to Ashdod. Let me read chapter five, verse one then.

So then the Philistines captured the Ark of God. They brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.

Then the Philistines took the Ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon. This would be their deity.

And brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold,

Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the Ark of the Lord. So they took

Dagon and put him back in his place, poor Dagon. But when they rose early the next morning, behold,

Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the Ark of the Lord and the head of Dagon and both of his hands were lying cut off on the threshold.

Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. I think he's like a fish half man, kind of a mermaid looking, a merman kind of looking deity.

So only the trunk of Dagon was left. And this is why the priests of Dagon, all who entered the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.

So the hand of the Lord was heavy against the people of Ashdod and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both

Ashdod and its territory. And when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, the Ark of the

God of Israel must not remain with us for his hand is hard against us and against Dagon, our

God. So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, what shall we do with the

Ark of the God of Israel? They answered, well, let the Ark of the God of Israel be brought back to Gath.

So they brought the Ark of God, the God of Israel there. But after they had brought it around, the hand of the

Lord was against the city, causing a very great panic. And he afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, so that the tumors broke out on them.

So they sent the Ark of God to Akron. But as soon as the Ark of God came to Akron, the people cried out, they have brought around the

Ark of God of Israel to kill us and our people. So they sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the

Philistines and said, send away the Ark of God of Israel and let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people.

For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there.

The men who did not die were struck with tumors and the cry of the city went up to heaven. Now why did all of these terrible things befall those people in the

Philistines? Because Dagon doesn't exist. You can't protect them from the living

God. Dagon is a false god. All other gods are false gods.

Remember Isaiah 43 .10, before me, no God was formed, nor will there be any after me, none.

And now for our last little story, one of my favorite from the

Old Testament. It's from 1 Kings 18. If you have your Bible, go on over.

Again, this story doesn't make any sense if there are other gods, okay? It only makes sense in light of the fact that the

Lord himself has revealed there is no other god. There is no other god. 1

Kings 18. After many days, the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year saying, go show yourself to Ahab and I will send rain upon the earth.

Now remember, there has been a drought there because basically God is judging Ahab, Jezebel, and their false god

Baal, right? So Elijah went and showed himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria and Ahab called

Obadiah who was over the household. Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly and when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the

Lord, Obadiah took 100 prophets and hid them by 50s in a cave and fed them with bread and water.

And Ahab said to Obadiah, go through all the land and all the springs of water into all the valleys, perhaps we may find grass and save the horses and the mules alive and not lose some of the animals.

So they divided the land between them to pass through it and Ahab went in one direction by himself and Obadiah went in another direction by himself.

And as Obadiah was on the way, behold, Elijah met him. And Obadiah recognized him and fell on his face and said, is it you my

Lord Elijah? And he answered him, it is I. Go tell your Lord, behold, Elijah is here. And he said, oh, how have

I sinned that you would give your servant into the hand of Ahab to kill me? As the Lord, your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my

Lord has not sent to seek you. And when they say, they would say he is not here. He would, he would take an oath of the kingdom or nation that they had not found you.

And now you say, go and tell your Lord, behold, Elijah is here. And as soon as I have gone from you, the spirit of the

Lord will carry you to, I don't know where. And so when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me.

Although I, your servant have feared the Lord from my youth. Has it not been told my Lord what I did when

Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, how I hit a hundred of the hundred men of the Lord's prophets by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water.

And now you say, go tell your Lord, behold, Elijah is here and he will kill me. And Elijah said, as the

Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today.

So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah.

When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, is it you, you troubler of Israel?

And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but you have and your father's house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the

Lord and you have followed the Baals. Now, therefore send and gather all of Israel to me at Mount Carmel and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table.

So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel.

And Elijah came near to all the people and said, how long will you go limping between two different opinions?

If Yahweh is God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him.

So then the people did not answer him a word. So Elijah said to the people,

I, even I only am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men.

Let two bowls be given to us and let them choose one bowl for themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire on it.

And I will prepare the other bowl and lay it on the wood and put no fire on it. And you call upon the name of your

God and I will call upon the name of the Lord and the God who answers by fire.

He is God. And all the people answered, it is well -spoken.

So then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, choose for yourselves one bowl and prepare it first for you are many and call upon the name of your

God, but put no fire on it. And they took the bowl that was given to them and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon saying,

Oh, Baal, answer us. But there was no voice and no one answered.

And they limped around the altar that they had made. And at noon, Elijah mocked them saying, cry louder for he is a

God, isn't he? Maybe he's musing or maybe he's relieving himself.

Think bathroom. That's what the Hebrew is talking about there. Maybe he's relieving himself or maybe he's on a journey.

Perhaps he's asleep and he has to be awakened. And so they cried louder and they cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out of them.

And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation.

But there was no voice. No one answered. No one paid attention. You know why?

Because there's no one home. Baal doesn't exist.

As Yahweh has said before me, no God was formed, nor will there be any after me.

There's only one God. This is what the Lord has said. So then Elijah said to all the people, come near to me.

And all the people came near to him and he repaired the altar of Yahweh that had been thrown down.

Elijah took 12 stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob to whom the word of the

Lord had come saying, Israel shall be your name. And with stones, he built an altar in the name of the

Lord. And he made a trench about the altar as great as would contain two saiyas of seed.

And he put the wood in order and he cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood.

And he said, fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.

And he said, do it a second time. And they did it a second time. And he said, do it a third.

They did it a third. And the water ran down around the altar and filled the trench also with water.

Now I'm going to point this out here. Notice the water. How many times is it used? Three times.

It's foreshadowing of baptism. Okay. Father, son, Holy Spirit.

At that time, the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, oh

Yahweh, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that you are

God in Israel and that I am your servant and that I have done all these things at your word.

Answer me, oh Yahweh, answer me that this people may know that you, oh

Lord, are God and that you have turned their hearts back. And then the 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.

And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, Yahweh, he's

God. Yahweh, he's God. And Elijah said to them, seize the prophets of Baal.

Let not one of them escape. And they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the

Brook Kishon and slaughtered them there. How many gods are there?

How many living deities are there? Well, according to Yahweh, and I think he would know before him, no

God was formed. Nor shall there be any after him.

Yahweh, he alone is God. He is the only God who exists.

He is the only God that can hear you when you pray. He is the only deity that has ever existed in all of eternity and will be existing on through eternity.

You will never hear of any other deity who is truly alive because there are none, not one.

And as the Apostle Paul, pointing out under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells us, all other deities, put them in quotes, because they're nothing more than demons masquerading as deities.

That's what they truly are. They're not gods in any sense of the real word.

And anybody who calls themselves a Christian, anybody who is a

Christian pastor, who teaches other than this, that teaches that other deities exist or teaches polytheism, that God is just one

God among many gods, doesn't matter what else he has right, because he doesn't even have the true

God right. He doesn't even believe and teach the true God. He's not a

Christian. He is an enemy of the church and one who should be rebuked and called to repentance so that he can be forgiven for his blasphemies.

That's what's at stake here. And what we're about to hear on the other side of this break is a seeker -driven pastor who claims that his church is all about Jesus, who teaches that there are many gods.

Stay tuned. You don't want to miss that. If you'd like to email me regarding anything you've heard on this edition or any previous editions of Fighting for the

Faith, you could do so. My email address is talkbackatfightingforthefaith .com or you can subscribe on Facebook, facebook .com

forward slash PirateChristian or follow me on Twitter, my name there, at PirateChristian. Other side of the break, sermon review.

First time I've ever reviewed a sermon by a Christian multi -site seeker -driven pastor claiming that, well, there's many gods.

Don't want to miss it. We'll be right back. We don't need to rethink Christianity.

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Thank you for your support. Okay, we're back.

Hour number two, fighting for the faith, sermon review time. And like I said at the beginning of the program, never did it ever cross my mind that I would have to do a program like I'm doing today.

When I launched my launched into doing apologetics. Here we go.

The good, the bad, the ugly, we review it all here at fighting for the faith. We're an equal opportunity sermon reviewing service.

Today's sermon comes to us via Solid Rock Church, Portland, Oregon, John Mark Comer presiding.

The name of the sermon is entitled God has a name Yahweh Elohim.

And I don't even think I need to do much more in preparing you for the sermon.

Be prepared to hear something you've never heard from anybody calling himself a mainstream Christian evangelical.

And that's the teaching that well, there's many gods.

This is a literally a false teaching putting forward polytheism.

That's all I can say. In fact, let's just go ahead and kill the music. And without any further ado, here is

John Mark Comer and his sermon. God has a name Yahweh Elohim.

Here we go. We have a ton of ground to cover.

No time for chit chat. Hello. Good morning. All that boring stuff. Sorry, I'm test driven.

Exodus 34, if you are new or visiting last week, we kicked off a brand new series right out of Exodus 34, six and seven, which is ground zero for a theology of God.

It is the one and only place in all of the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation that God describes himself.

And in essence, and a paragraph says, this is what I'm like. And because of that, it's the most quoted verse, remember from last week in the

Bible, by the Bible, which is crazy to me. And we're going to get back to work in the series.

As you know, we're kind of going line by line through Exodus 34, six and seven. Now, disclaimer before the next four hour teaching.

Just kidding. Two hour teaching. This weekend is right on the edge of dry.

It's going to feel kind of lecturesque because it's a worldview teaching more than a heart stirring kind of teaching.

That's next week. But please stay with me because this idea that I was exposed to about four or five years ago,

I started reading a guy named Greg Boyd with a book called God at War. That was kind of my first portal into this way of thinking about God in the universe.

And to be honest, it really kind of reshaped the way that I view the world. Okay. By the way that I need to make a quick comment.

Greg Boyd is a heretic. He teaches open theism. Okay. So his first exposure to this concept comes from the open theist,

Greg Boyd. It has the ability to do the same for you, but stay with me. There's a 45 minutes before that makes sense.

Okay, let's read the text. Let's start off by reading the text out loud. The words are up on the screens.

Here we go. And he passed in front of Moses proclaiming Yahweh, Yahweh, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.

The plan for the series, as you know, is to work through that paragraph line by line.

Last week we covered Yahweh, which means this week we're going to cover Yahweh.

Now, why I've noticed it's repeated Yahweh or the

Lord, Yahweh, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and on down the list.

Now, why is that? In modern English, if you want to emphasize, if you're writing and you want to emphasize a point you italicize or underline or highlight, but in ancient

Hebrew, if you want to emphasize a point, you what? You repeat Yahweh, Yahweh is the author's way of saying, listen, slow down, take a step back and think about the name of God in depth.

I want you to think about yet another facet of the name of God or Yahweh or the

Lord. Now, the question last week was, what is the meaning of the name

Yahweh? The question for today is, why does God need a name in the first place? What's wrong with God?

Okay, now that's the setup. Why does God need a name in the first place? Let me give you the short answer.

Well, because there's a whole lot of other gods. You don't want to confuse them with one of the other deities. They all have different names.

No joke. We continue. And why is it that God is almost never called

God in the scriptures? Almost never. He's almost always called Yahweh Elohim or the

Lord your God. Almost never called God. Just in the passages that I quoted, he's referred constantly as God, as the only

God. My Bible right here, the NIV says, the Lord, the Lord, the gracious and compassionate

God. But that's actually out of order. In Hebrew, it's Yahweh, Yahweh Elohim or the

Lord, the Lord God, gracious, compassionate, slow to anger on down the list. Why is that?

Why does God need a name? Short answer is because there are many gods.

Turn over to Genesis 1 to the left in your Bible. If that does not pique your interest, whatever.

Genesis. Yeah, you just heard that. The reason why God needs a name because there's many gods.

Now watch what he does. This one to the left. We have a ton of ground to cover.

If if that doesn't work for you, if you want to turn to each passage, well done along with me.

If not, no worries. The words are going to be up on the screens. Genesis 1.

Here we go. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

As you know, from last week, the word God is what in Hebrew? No, the

Lord is Yahweh. Well done. What is God? Anybody remember? Yeah, Elohim. Now, what you may or may not know, and Elohim is a title.

Remember that like doctor or lawyer? It's not a name. But what you may or may not know is that Elohim is can be singular or plural, depending on context.

Meaning it can be translated God, capital G in English, or God's lowercase g.

Now it's God right here because the verb created is singular. And in Hebrew, the subject and the verb always agree in number.

You don't need to remember that. There's no test at the end of today. All right. But the point is the story starts off by saying there is one creator

God. Notice what he just did there. The story is starting out by saying there's one creator

God. It's actually not what it's saying. Okay. He just said that.

But no, this is not what the text says. It's what it says.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. This is what the text says.

It doesn't say that there's one creator God. It says in the beginning, God created.

Now, this goes back to a very important thing that I've been emphasizing.

And that's this, that when it comes to hermeneutics, sound, clear passages are needed and sound, clear passages govern unclear passages.

In this particular case, this isn't even an unclear passage. Okay. Barashit bara

Elohim, very clear. In the beginning, God created. This is just exactly what it says.

Okay. And it doesn't say that there's one creator God. And the reason

I know that it's not saying that is because I have other passages that I can bring to bear on this.

If I were confused and sitting there going, Barashit bara Elohim, Elohim. That's plural. I don't know.

That's singular. I don't get it. Okay. Are there more than one God? Is there more than one?

No, there isn't. Because I have Isaiah 43 .10. Before me, no God was formed.

Nor will there be any after me. So this text is not at all saying that God is, well, one

God. He needs a name because there's a lot of them, but he's the creator God. What John Mark Comer is doing here is literally a hermeneutical crime.

Let me back it up so that you can kind of get again what he's doing here. He's trying to smuggle into Genesis 1 .1.

This concept that there's, well, this text is saying that in the beginning, there's one creator

God, but there's many gods. Translated God, capital G in English, or gods, lowercase g.

Now it's God right here because the verb created is singular. And in Hebrew, the subject and the verb always agree in number.

You don't need to remember that. There's no test at the end of today. All right. But the point is, the story starts off by saying there is one creator

God. And Genesis 1, which is a 20 -hour sermon, is written over against the backdrop of ancient

Near Eastern writings about creation, like the Babylonian Enuma Elish, in which there are many gods who, in conflict with one another, kind of create the cosmos, but not in the

Genesis 1 story. No, there is one creator God. No, there's one God.

If you're confused about this, you just go to Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 42, 43, 44, 45, 46.

Over and again, Yahweh says, before me, no God was formed, nor will there be any after me.

That's what he says. ...who spoke the universe into existence. But that said, there are many

Elohim. Turn over to Exodus 12 to the right in your Bible.

Exodus 12. You know the story. Israel is in slavery in Egypt, and Yahweh comes to the rescue via the 10 plagues.

Now, what you may or may not know is that each one of the 10 plagues is directed at a specific deity in the

Egyptian pantheon. For example, Amnon -Ra was the kind of chief

Egyptian god. He was the sun god, and he was king over all the other gods in the

Egyptian pantheon. Now, what does Yahweh do? He blots out the what? The sun for three days, which is

Yahweh's way of saying, stick it to the man, right? I mean, it's Yahweh's way of saying, listen,

Amnon -Ra is not the king over all the other gods. I am. Now, listen to what

God says right here. Exodus 12. Did you catch that? That's Yahweh's way of saying, listen, Amnon -Ra is not the king over all the other deities.

I am. Now, the reason why he's judging Ra is because Ra doesn't exist.

Ra is the figment of human imagination. Before me, no god was formed,

Isaiah says, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, nor will there be any after me.

Let me read again. Isaiah 45 verse 5. I am Yahweh. There is no other.

Beside me, there is no god. That's what it says.

In fact, the fun part about that verse, Isaiah 45 verse 5, it says,

I am Yahweh, Ani Yahweh, and there is no other besides me. There is no

Elohim. It says, beside me, there is no Elohim. There's no other gods, period.

That's what he says. Okay? That's a clear passage, and it governs all of these other passages where he's trying to basically say, oh, listen, this, you know, the whole

Exodus thing and all those plagues, that was just Yahweh exerting his kingly power over the other existing deities.

Listen, we continue. 12. On that same night, I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn, both of people and animals.

And listen, I will bring judgment on all the what? Gods or Elohim of Egypt, because I am

Yahweh. Fascinating. All we know right here is that Yahweh is at war with the

Elohim or the gods of Egypt. In fact, all of the war. No, he's not at war with them.

He's at war with the people who have set up these idols, who think that they're real. So he's proving that they're powerless.

They don't exist. He's not in a real war. Again, before me, no

God was formed. Apart from me, there is no Elohim. That's what Yahweh said.

Fair that you read about in the Hebrew scriptures, all the violence, whatever that is going on with that.

It's all set up over against the cosmic war between Yahweh and the

Elohim. That's right. And the Elohim or the gods at war with the creator.

Interesting. Turn over to Exodus 15, two or three pages to the right. Fast forward a few weeks to right after Yahweh defeated the gods of Egypt with the 10 plagues.

And we pick up the story right after the Red Sea in a worship song. Exodus 15.

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to Yahweh. I will sing to Yahweh for he is highly exalted.

He is my Elohim or my God. And I will praise him, my father's Elohim or God.

And I will exalt him. And then listen, if you skip down to 11, the text says, who among the gods is like you,

Lord? Interest. Who among the Elohim is like you, Yahweh? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glory and working wonders?

The answer is no other gods are like Yahweh. And you know why?

Because as we learn in Isaiah and in Deuteronomy, there's no other deity at all.

So the reason why there's no other God who's majestic and holiness and awesome in glory is not because Yahweh is like the most awesome of awesomeness of all of the real deities out there.

It's because he's the only one. Not only is

Yahweh the king over all the other gods because he defeated Amnon -Ra on the plagues, but on top of that.

So Yahweh is king because he defeated Amnon -Ra, really? What passage actually says that?

He's in a class all by himself. That's why he is the one and only

Elohim deserving of worship. Think of all the language in this. Oh, okay. So if Amnon -Ra somehow comes up with a sneak attack against Yahweh and defeats

Yahweh, you know, because Yahweh is up there, you know, he's busy running the universe now, and maybe he won't see it coming.

So Amnon -Ra, you know, he mounts a sneak attack and maybe him and Baal and Asherah and Molech get together and they decide to, you know, work together and they actually defeat

Yahweh. Well, that means that Amnon -Ra would be king then, right? Psalms. Here are a few samples.

There is none like you among the gods. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.

He is to be revered above all what? Gods. Right. And the reason for that is because, as he's pointed out in Deuteronomy, in 1

Samuel and in Isaiah and in other passages that I've already reviewed, none of the other gods exist.

The Psalms here are poetically basically saying, you're the only God that exists. That's what these passages are saying.

Worship Him, all you gods. Interesting. The psalmist is singing to the gods. Hey, worship

Him, Yahweh, for you, Yahweh, are the most high. One of the names for God.

Well, what does that mean? The most high over all the earth. You are exalted far above all gods.

Let's keep reading. Okay, now he's quoting Psalm 97 verses 7 through 9. This is where the other important hermeneutical principle comes into play.

Clear passages govern unclear. When you take a look at Psalm 97 in context, it's number one, poetic, and number two, it's not actually saying that there are other gods.

Okay, how do I know this? Because the clear passages govern. That has to be interpreted in light of the clear.

Let me read again. Psalm Isaiah 45, 22. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am

God. There is no other. Isaiah 46, 8. Remember this and stand firm. Recall to mind your transgressors, you transgressors, and remember the former things of old.

I am God. There is no other. I am God. There is none like me.

Okay, we continue. Turn three or four pages to the right to chapter 20.

Are you awake? Yeah? Okay. Exodus 20, as you know, is the 10 commandments, or in Jewish culture, the 10 words, because the opening line is, and God spoke all these words, quote,

I am Yahweh Elohim, right? That's the title used for God all over. I am the

Lord, your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Now, here we go.

First off, you shall have no other gods before me. Secondly, you shall not make for yourself an image or an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

You shall not bow down to them or worship them, for I, Yahweh Elohim, or the

Lord, your God, am a jealous God. Notice there are two commands, not one.

The first command is what? Yep, have no other

Elohim or gods before me. Second command, hey, don't make an image or an idol.

Now, in the modern world, we collapse the first two commandments into one, right?

We lump the gods in with the idols. And because of that, we think of the gods as non -entities, meaning not real.

Think of the language of false gods, right? By that, we mean what? Yeah, not real gods, false, not real.

And that's true of idols, but idols and gods are not the same thing.

Now, track with this argument, okay? Basically, he's trying to make a distinction between an idol and a deity.

And he's going to basically say, yeah, all idols are false gods, but watch the reason why.

Idols are a representation. The gods are the real thing.

What is... Ah, so the idols are a representation, but the God's the real thing. Again, let me read for you from Deuteronomy chapter four, verse 34.

Has any God ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself by the midst of any other nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the

Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you, it was shown that you might know that Yahweh is

God. There is no other besides him. So here, what he's trying to basically argue is that, listen, an idol...

See, that's not really a true God. It just is a representation. That's why it's false. See, it's really a shadowy representation of the real thing.

Using this theology, then we must conclude that he believes that Baal is real, Asherah is real,

Molech is real, that Amon -Ra is real, and that Zeus and all of the other deities of the ancient world are real gods, but their idols were just false representations, you know, representations of them.

Shadow is to a human being, an idol is to a god. Idols are fake and dead, the gods are real and alive, and idols can't do anything.

It's a statue. But the gods can. The gods have power.

The gods can speak, do signs, wonders, prophecy, healings, the miraculous.

Think of the story in the Exodus of Moses and Aaron in the kind of Pharaoh's courtroom with the magicians who are kind of in contact with the gods of Egypt, right?

You remember that story? Yes, and Paul has already explained to us in 1 Corinthians that the false gods got their power from demons.

This is what 1 Corinthians chapter 10 says. Moses, you know, throws down his staff on the ground, and the staff turns into a snake, and the magicians do what?

The exact same thing. Then Moses makes the river turn into blood, they do the same.

Then Moses makes frogs come out of the water, they do the same. And then Moses makes the dust into gnats, and the magicians can't do that.

For whatever reason, gnats are a problem. I'm not sure why. But you can make frogs, but you can't make gnats.

Seriously, come on, get with the program. Um, but the 10 words in Exodus 20 take for granted, listen, that there are other gods.

No, they don't. Because God has revealed in other passages of scripture that there are no other gods.

And see, what he's doing is he's cherry picking the passages that he wants, not discussing the ones that disagree with him, not even bringing them up, and then telling you a story, making it sound like it's biblical, but it's not.

Because he's suppressing and ignoring all of the clear passages that emphatically and directly and unambiguously say there is only one

God. Do not worship other gods means what? Yeah, there are other gods. Don't worship the other gods.

And because of that, Yahweh is jealous. He's jealous. Now in context.

So Yahweh is just one of many gods. He happens to have defeated Amon -Ra. Therefore, it now has the right to reign over the other deities.

Uh -huh. You buying any of this? That jealousy is a good thing.

It's the way a mother is jealous for her children not to get involved with a drug dealer or whatever. And that way

Yahweh's jealous for Israel, the sons and daughters of God. Listen, don't get involved with the other gods.

And that's unique to Yahweh. Remember, the ancient Near East is a polytheistic culture. Worship of many gods.

That was okay. The gods worship as many gods as you want. And that was fine with the gods as long as you pay your due.

But not this God, not this creator God, not this Yahweh. He is a jealous

God. Now keep reading. Turn over to 1 Kings 11 to the right in your Bibles.

Fast forward a few hundred years. 1 Kings, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1

Kings 11. Here's the story. King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter or his wife.

Okay, I want to point something out. It was King Solomon who was speaking in 1 Kings 8 that I quoted earlier in the program.

Let me read it again. 1 Kings 8, verse 59 and 60. Let these words of mine which

I have pleaded before the Lord be near to the Lord our God day and night and may he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people

Israel as each day requires that all the peoples of the earth may know that the

Lord, that Yahweh is God. There is no other. So this same

Solomon that he's going to be citing here from 1 Kings 10. He's the same one who just two chapters earlier confirmed that there is only one

God. There's Yahweh is the only God and that there is no other. Oabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites.

The Hittites are so hot. They were from nations about which

Yahweh had told the Israelites you must not intermarry with them because here's why. They will turn your hearts after their what?

Gods. Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven just because it says after their gods doesn't mean that their gods exist.

You could say after their false gods because all the clear passages say there's no other God but Yahweh.

Hundred of wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. Now I have an amazing wife, but keeping one wife happy is a full time job.

I mean, seriously, 700. This guy's supposed to be wise. He's an idiot, right?

And it comes as no surprise. The next line, his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives, now listen, turned his heart after other gods and his heart was not fully devoted to Yahweh, his

Elohim as the heart of David, his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth, the goddess of the

Sidonians. Moloch, the detestable God of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the

Lord, did not follow the Lord completely on a hill east of Jerusalem. Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the detestable

God of Moab and for Moloch, the detestable God of the Ammonites. He did the same for his foreign wives.

And the story goes on. Notice the gods are called by name and nowhere does the text say they aren't real.

Um, actually, again, you're not telling the truth. Same book.

First Kings chapter eight, verse 60, that all the peoples of the earth may know that the

Lord is God. There is no other. Just because the names of the false deities of the

Moabites and the Ammonites and the others and the Hittites are mentioned by name doesn't imply that they're real.

In fact, just a little tidbit here. Moloch, the name Moloch, that's not what that deity was named.

Okay. If you know your Hebrew, then you'll know this. The name of that deity that is worshiped by those who believed in that false deity, which doesn't exist.

That deity's name was Melech. Okay. But the thing is, is that no

Hebrew who believed in Yahweh would ever, ever, you know, name that deity by that name.

King. Okay. Because that's what Melech means. Instead, they changed the vowel points.

Okay. So that deity was always referred to as Moloch. Okay. Same consonants, different vowels.

But when you change the vowels from Melech to Moloch, it goes from meaning King, Melech, to meaning shame,

Moloch. Okay. So you're not even, you don't even know your Bible here because Moloch was not the name of that deity.

Or they are false gods, meaning not real gods. No. Ashtoreth is the goddess of the

Sidonians. Modern day Lebanon. It's about 30 miles south of Beirut. And so he's basically saying that Ashtoreth is a real deity.

Moloch is the goddess of the Ammonites. Modern day Jordan. What's the capital city of Jordan? Amman. Right.

There are gods in the story with power and authority, listen, over geographic regions and ethnic groups.

Think of Deuteronomy 32, where Moses is saying at the end of the Torah, that at the

Tower of Babel, the nations, when the nations were divided, the nations were given over to the gods.

Think of Daniel 10, where Michael, the archangel is wrestling for three weeks in conflict at war with the

Prince of Persia. Not the lousy Disney movie from a year or two ago. All right. God bless Jake Gyllenhaal.

But with a real spiritual being over the kingdom of Persia. And then after that is the demon is the prince of Greece.

Wow. Interesting. God's real spiritual beings with power and authority over geographic regions.

And Paul in First Corinthians 10 makes it clear they're demons and ethnic groups.

What you and I call nations in the world today. Now, don't please, please listen. Do not misunderstand me.

I am not saying that America is a Christian nation. And India or whatever is a pagan nation.

I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying that the world we live in is populated by real spiritual beings, some of whom have authority over geographic regions and ethnic groups.

I know. And apparently they're deities. Who knew toes? And I'm sure I'm gonna get an email for this one. But why am

I saying it then? Here we go. But, you know, I've like you have been really disturbed by all the shootings over the last month.

And I was there were two this week, too. And I was struck by the first one. Was it Monday? I think the shooting in Colorado.

It's strange to me that four of the worst shootings in US history have all been within a few square miles of each other.

Starting with Columbine and the theater shooting a few four of the worst coincidence.

Maybe I'm a skeptic at heart. Maybe. In fact, probably. Yes. But maybe there is a

God. There is a demonic being with a grip on that area.

And he's malevolent and cruel and violent and evil. Maybe I don't know.

But I do know that in the city I live in and love and call home, there are neighborhoods where there is a spiritual presence and it's dark.

There are times when I walk into a home in my neighborhood or I walk into a business or I turn down a street.

Something is there. You know, that feeling is a record store. I go to one. It's probably just Amun Ra.

I mean, after Yahweh defeated him, he's been homeless, you know, so he probably just swam across the ocean and to the new world.

He hangs out near your house. I mean, the poor guy's homeless. I mean, he's a he's a basically a defeated deity down on his luck.

Now, I don't know why I go there every time I walk in. Something is there. I mean, you walk through the door and the.

Interesting gods with power. It's probably it could be Zeus or Athena, maybe

Artemis, you know, I I've heard that she runs a coffee shop in Denver near the

Denver International Airport. I'm pretty sure of it. Authority. Now, if the language of gods makes you nervous, that's

OK. I'm sorry for that. Modern kind of Christians in the West prefer the language of angels and demons.

Now, there are two problems. That's OK. There are two problems with that kind of language. First off, the language of angels and demons comes with all kinds of baggage from culture by angels.

People think of blonde Swedish supermodels, you know, with a 10 foot wingspan.

All right. And I'm sorry to break it to you, but every single angel in the Bible is male.

I just ruined your Christmas decorations for next year. I'm sorry. All right.

And by demons, you know, we think of the cartoon character on the shoulder with the pitchfork or Will Ferrell on Saturday Night Live or whatever.

Right. I mean, that's how we think of angels and demons. But the second problem is that the language that is used by the biblical authors, at least in Hebrew, at least in Genesis to Malachi, is

Elohim or the gods. And in the story of First Kings, Solomon's heart is turned away, not by a cartoon character on a shoulder, but by the gods.

And notice in the story turned away to evil. On that note, turn to Psalm 82 to the right, right to kind of smack dab in the middle of the scripture,

Psalm 82. Okay, this. Okay, let me point out again what the Apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of the

Holy Spirit, said. First Corinthians chapter 10, verse 19.

What do we then imply? That food offered to idols is anything or that an idol is anything?

No, I imply that what pagan sacrifice they offer to demons, not to God.

I don't want you to be participants with demons. Or First Corinthians chapter 8, verse 4.

Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence and that there is no

God but one. For although there may be so -called gods in heaven on earth, as indeed there are many gods and lords, yet for us there is only one

God. So Paul has no problem basically saying those false deities, they have no real existence.

And it's basically, you can think of it like good puppet work on the part of demons.

This is going to blow your mind up. Gosh, I get excited about weird things.

Psalm 82 is a weird text. It starts off, Psalm of Asaph, starts off by saying

God presides in, and my Bible says the great assembly.

If you're reading the ESV, it's the divine council, which we think is a better way to translate the text.

God presides in the divine. Okay, I'm going to interrupt him. We're going to do this text right. Psalm 82, if you have your

Bible, open up to it. You can think of this as sarcastic irony on the part of God.

Okay, that's what's going on in this text. Read the commentators. It's very clear. Psalm 82 verse 1,

Psalm of Asaph, God, that would be Elohim, has taken his place in the divine council.

In the midst of the gods, he holds judgment. How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?

Give justice to the weak and to the fatherless. Maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy.

Deliver them from the hand of the wicked. They have neither knowledge nor understanding. They walk about in darkness.

All the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said you are God's sons of the

Most High, all of you. Nevertheless, like men you shall die and fall like any prince.

Arise, O God, judge the earth, for you shall inherit all the nations. Okay, what's going on there?

Well, the overall Psalm actually tells you, especially when you get to the end of it.

Verse 6 and 7 and 8 are the things that give you the interpretive key.

I said you are God's sons of the Most High, all of you. Nevertheless, like men you shall die and fall like any prince.

Arise, O God, judge the earth, for you shall inherit the nations.

Who's God talking to, this council of gods? Well, it's real simple. He's talking to men who rule the nations, okay?

So God's basically saying, hey, you guys think you're gods? Well, okay. How come you judge unjustly, you rulers of the nations?

How come you give justice to the weak and to the fatherless, you rulers of the nations, right? That's who he's talking to.

They think they're deities, right? Okay, and in the ancient world, what were there?

There were god kings. That's who God is talking to.

And so God is judging all these other god kings and basically saying, you think you're gods? How come you don't act like God, okay?

You don't show justice to the weak. You don't hold up the cause of the fatherless.

You judge unjustly. You do all these terrible things. And so God basically says the punchline, oh, you are

God's sons of the most high, but you're going to die like men. In other words, you're not gods. And God himself is going to inherit the nations and he's going to do right.

You know, every Mormon missionary out there knows Psalm 82, and they try to use it to prove polytheism.

But when you understand what's going on in this text, it's not what's going, you know, this doesn't teach polytheism at all.

In fact, I'm going to check with the Kretzmann commentary real quick here in a second, just to kind of see what a good commentary says on this.

Council, which you read about right here, you read about in Job 1, you read about in 2 Kings, and it's all over the literature of ancient

Mesopotamia. It's all over Greek mythology. Think of, what was that horrific movie a few years ago?

Rise of the Titans. You know that weird genre of movies of like Greek and Roman mythology and hard rock music, it's really bad.

But you know, there's that scene with the gods, i .e. Liam Neeson and company, who are up in the heavens, having a conversation about what to, and the earth is down below, about what to do on the earth, okay?

That's the divine council. That's what it's called in Greek mythology. Now, the main difference between the divine council and kind of Greek mythology and Hebrew, God bless you, you know, which comes from the

German Gesundheit, which is what you would say because they thought a demon was leaving your body, which is great news for you right now.

Anyway, that was great, yeah.

But the main difference between Greek mythology and Hebrew theology is that in Hebrew theology,

Yahweh is over the divine council. Read the text. God presides in the great assembly.

He renders judgment among the gods. Now, my Bible puts it in quotes.

In Hebrew, there's no such thing. If you're reading the ESV or the New American Standard, it says rulers, that's flat out wrong.

In Hebrew, it's Elohim presides in the great assembly. He renders judgments among the

Elohim. What the heck? God renders judgments among the gods.

Then listen to what God, Yahweh, the creator, says to the gods in the divine council,

How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked?

Defend the weak and the fatherless. Uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy.

Deliver them from the hand of the wicked. Now, here's the thing. Remember the biblical hermeneutical principle.

Clear passages govern unclear. If we were to interpret

Psalm 82 as, well, there's a council of deities, and that means that there's all kinds of deities out there, it's contradicted by the clear passages.

The clear passages, I've reiterated them several times on the program today. Before me no

God was formed, nor will there be any after me. So this is not God holding sway in a council of other deities, like Zeus or the

Olympians or anything like that. Nothing of the sort. In fact, a good commentary, like the

Kretzmann commentary at kretzmannproject .org, you just look this up and you find out what's going on.

Psalm of Asaph. To set forth majesty of the great judge of the earth. God standeth in the congregation of the mighty, in the assembly of God, firm and immovable in the midst of his church, against which therefore the gates of hell cannot prevail.

He judges among the gods, among the judges, the rulers of the earth, for every government receives its authority from God and is responsible to him who will call all the mighty ones of the earth to account for their manner of ruling.

How long will you judge unjustly, engaging in performing iniquity and ostensibility, carrying out justice and accept the persons of the wicked, favoring their faces, that is pervert right justice in their favor.

This is God holding counsel in the gods, in quote, talking about rulers of the earth who don't rule justly.

That's what's going on here. And God's, the punchline again is you think you're gods, but you're going to die like men because that's who he's really talking to.

That's what this text is about. Fascinating. What are the gods doing? Injustice.

And Yahweh saying, stop, knock it off. Stop the injustice, the violence, the abuse, the robbery, the theft, the natural disasters, the oppression, the slavery, the brokenness.

Stop, knock it off. No, he's not. Again, the clear passages govern before me.

No, God was formed, nor will there be any after me.

Couldn't get any clearer than that. What does that mean? That God isn't really talking to other deities?

Because according to him in so many clear passages, no other deities exist.

Where did you learn hermeneutics? Seriously. And he goes on to say, the gods know nothing.

They understand nothing. They walk about in darkness and all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

Meaning the gods are wreaking havoc on planet earth via injustice.

I said you are gods. And here all along, I thought it was Rodan and Godzilla. Well, now, wait a second.

Godzilla might really exist. We're all sons of the most high. Meaning you were all created by the most high, the creator

God. But you will die like mere mortals. You will fall like every other ruler.

You're going down. Right on the horizon for you is demise and defeat.

And then the last line is a prayer. This is Asaph's prayer. Rise up, oh

God, judge the earth for all the nations are your inheritance.

All the nations that at the tower of Babel were given over to the gods who are now rather than working for shalom over the earth are rather wreaking havoc and injustice on the earth.

God, please stop. Rise up and judge. That word judge in Hebrew means put the world to rights.

It's a good thing or a bad thing depending on which side you're on, right? Judge the earth.

Rise up. It's a prayer for God to judge the gods. Now on that note, turn to Jesus.

Turn to Mark. Let's go Mark 5. Jesus comes as the answer to Asaph's prayer.

Rise up, oh God, judge the earth. Enter Jesus. And the gospels,

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are filled with stories about Jesus at war with demonic beings.

Here's one, Mark 5. They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes.

Yeah, turn there if you have a Bible. Turn, because it's kind of longer. Turn. They went across the lake to the region of the

Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him.

Now the Gerasenes are outside of Israel, okay? This is in kind of modern day

Damascus. This is in kind of a pagan nation. When he got out of the boat, a man of impure spirit came.

This man lived in the tombs or in a cemetery. No one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain.

For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart, broke the irons on his feet.

No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills, he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

He's cutting. Any of you have family or friends involved with that? It's dark. It's not always demonic, but it can be.

Right here, we have a man outside Israel, tormented by a demon. When he saw

Jesus from a distance, he ran, fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, what do you want to do with me,

Jesus? Notice, son of what? The most high God. In God's name, don't torture me.

For Jesus had said to him, come out of this man, you impure spirit. Then Jesus asked him, what is your name?

My name is Legion, he replied, for we are many. Legion was a Roman military unit with up to 5 ,000 soldiers.

He begged Jesus again and again, not to send them out of the area. Interesting geographic areas.

A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, send us among the pigs.

I have no clue what's up with that. Allow us to go into them. He gave them permission and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs.

The herd, about 2 ,000 in number, rushed down the steep bank and committed pigicide, right?

And into the lake. And on a serious note, were drowned. That is the dark kingdom's agenda, to run the world into the ground.

The language of Jesus to steal and kill and what? And destroy. And here is a glimpse of Jesus at war with the demonic kingdom.

And notice, with power and with authority, the kingdom is scared to death of Jesus, the son of the most high

God. One more, turn over to Ephesians 6, a few pages to the right. By the way, again, clear passages govern.

What was the point of him quoting that text? Well, according to him, well, see, you have an unclean spirit saying of Jesus, he's the son of the most high

God. See, there's other gods out there, right? That's not what's going on there.

And that's literally reading into a statement made by a demon, okay?

That's what he's doing here. He's literally reading into a demon's statement. Let me read something for you here.

Mark, same gospel, gospel of Mark, chapter 12. And Jesus is being asked regarding, what is the greatest commandment, okay?

And so let me start at verse 28. And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another.

And seeing that he had answered him well, he said, which commandment is most important of all? Jesus answered, the most important is hero

Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Shema Israel, that's from the

Shema, Deuteronomy 6, right? So, okay, so Jesus says, okay, the most important is hero

Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.

The second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, there is no other commandment greater than these.

And the scribe said to him, listen to this, you are right, teacher, you have truly said that he is one and that there is no other besides him.

Right there in Mark chapter 12, this section, verses 28 through 34,

Jesus quotes the Shema from Deuteronomy 6, 4, and he's commended by this teacher of the law for affirming that God is one and that there is no other.

That's exactly what Jesus just did by quoting the Shema, proving that there is no other

God. What this pastor's up to, John Mark Comer, is literally one of the most dangerous things

I've ever heard coming out of a person claiming to be an evangelical Christian. This, by the way, is the edited version.

You don't think that's funny, okay? Ephesians 6 is, as you know, a letter written by Paul to the church in the city of Ephesus, which is a city given over to the worship of the gods, where real spiritual beings, the city's filled with temple after temple after temple, and people are connected not to the one true creator

God, but to the gods. And listen to Paul's language, Ephesians 6, let's start off in 10.

Finally, here's the last thing in the letter, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, put on the full armor of God, kind of imagery, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

That's a whole other sermon. The devil is a malicious God over all the other spiritual beings in the dark world.

He's called by Paul and Jesus, the God of this world. And right here, he's called the devil, for, here's why, our struggle is not against flesh and blood.

Do you forget that? I do all the time. Our struggle is not against a nation or an ethnicity or your boss or a political group.

The devil and his demons are not gods. They are created beings.

They are fallen angels. They are not deities. As Yahweh said, before me, no

God was formed, nor will there be any after me. Apparently this guy is hell bent, pardon the pun, on giving

Satan a, well, a promotion. When it says that he's the

God of this age, it's not saying that he's a deity, okay? That's not what it's actually saying.

Struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Now, notice there is all sorts of language used by the biblical authors.

Rulers, authorities, power, spiritual forces of evil, principalities, princes, spirits, angels, demons, and gods.

The language is ambiguous. We think the gods are powerful spiritual beings with authority over kind of nations, and the demons are lower level spiritual beings who work for the gods.

That's kind of theory, but we kind of, Who's the we there? Because I don't know any

Christian theologians who talk this way. But whether or not that is true, we know for sure that the biblical authors are all making the same point.

There is, listen, there is one creator God who made the universe, who spoke all that is real into existence.

But there is a multiplicity of created gods or real spiritual beings.

Think of them as lesser gods or created deities. So again,

I've got to go back to the clear passages, okay? Has he not read Isaiah? I mean, seriously, let me read again some of the passages from Isaiah because they flat out contradict what this man is saying.

Isaiah 43, 10. Isaiah 45, five.

That there is none besides me. I am the Lord. There is no other.

Isaiah 46, eight. So what he just said, and I got to back the audio up on this again, is flat out contradicted straight up by the clear passages of scripture.

What he's saying is not true. God is not just some creator God who also created other gods or anything like that.

Consensus, but whether or not that is true, we know for sure that the biblical authors are all making the same point.

There is, listen, there is one creator God who made the universe, who spoke all that is real into existence.

But there is a multiplicity of created gods or real spiritual beings.

Think of them as lesser gods or in the language of Gary Beshears, gods with a lowercase g.

And these gods have a measure of free will and autonomy, just like human beings. They can obey

God and serve God or they can rebel and fight God. Some love God. Others hate God.

Some are good. Others are evil. But the fact is there is an invisible world all around you that is just as real as the visible world.

And the majority of you don't buy that. I don't buy that half the time. And we're

Western Europeans. We're educated. We have access. I have no problem believing that there are things that I cannot see.

I confess and then I see and create that God created all things visible and invisible. Don't have a problem with that.

What I have a problem with is what you're doing here. This is literally polytheism. It's a Wikipedia.

Come on, right? And that's not how we think. Even followers of Jesus, for the most part, are what my friend

Gary calls functional materialists. Sure, you believe in God. Maybe you believe he's involved in human history.

Maybe not. For sure, you think he's a Republican. But other than that, you're kind of not sure, right?

Maybe you believe in angels and demons. Maybe, on a good day. But we want to think that all the demonic powers that we read about from cover to cover in the scriptures retired in 80, 70 and moved to Indonesia, right?

But that is flat out not true. The reality is, is that you and I have been deeply shaped by Western European culture, by the enlightenment, by kind of the elevation of the mind, by scientism.

No, not science. We're fans of science, like in droves. Scientism is a worldview, or some call it a religion, that in essence is deeply embedded in Western culture.

And in essence says all that is real is what you can put under a microscope in a laboratory.

That's all. Everything else is superstitious nonsense. And the majority of the world kind of looks at the

West and thinks that's stupid. That is, seriously? You make sense of the world with that worldview?

That's ridiculous. But that is what, for the most part, we believe in the West. Now, here's the problem.

That, I would argue, is not the worldview of Jesus. And it's not the worldview of the biblical authors.

There are three worldviews that I bump into all the time in the city of Portland. There are way more kind of across the globe, but three that I bump into all the time if you're taking notes.

The first, next slide, is kind of monotheism. And it's the idea, and you know the idea well, that there is one

God, and kind of the imagery of a mountain, right? God's at the top of the mountain. And Jesus is how you get to God.

And all the other gods in the major world religions, in Islam and Hinduism and all that stuff, are false gods.

And by that, the majority of Western Europeans mean kind of non -entities. I would argue that worldview is actually not the worldview of Jesus.

That's weird, because I just showed you from the Bible that Jesus confesses that there is only one

God and there is no other. Weird, huh? The second worldview I bump into all the time is kind of universalism, which is a junk drawer title.

I apologize for that. I see it all the time in Portland. I see it all over the place in my generation.

And it's the idea that there is one God. We're not really sure what

God is like. He's out there somewhere in the universe. Or maybe it's a she, or they, or an it, or a state of being, or a nirvana, or I don't really know for sure.

But it's the idea that, put simply, all paths lead up the same what? Mountain.

Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Mormonism, Wicca, spirituality, which is kind of the religion of the day,

Judaism, Baha 'i, Jesus, you know, kind of all paths lead up the same mountain.

Now this view sounds nice, right? I really like this view. I would love for this to be true.

It would make my job so much easier. This view sounds polite. If you actually know the origin of this view, it's not at all.

It's nothing of the sort. This view was born out of Western European imperialism right around the turn of the 19th century.

Western Europeans, who at the most part were ex -followers of Jesus, who were deists with a faith in God, but not a

God that we know as Jesus of Nazareth, not a God with his fingers in the human story, a God who is kind of out there somewhere else.

And these kind of men and women started conquering the world, and in doing so were exposed to all sorts of spirituality, animism in Africa, Islam in the

Middle East, Hinduism all over India, Buddhism in Japan, ancestor worship in China, all that stuff.

And they started saying, well, you know, there are similarities in all the world religions, right?

All the major world religions. And that's true. For sure, there are similarities between the teachings of Jesus and say the

Buddha. Absolutely, there are similarities between the Old Testament and Islam for sure. But there are chasmic differences.

And the problem is that none of the people who were conquered agree with this theory. None of them think that.

They don't think, oh yeah, Jesus and Allah are kind of saying the same thing. They don't think that.

Are you out of your mind? No, they think there's a war on. They don't think that at all.

That view was imposed on them through cultural imperialism by the

West. What they think, what they believe for the most part, is that there are different gods.

And the reality is that there are different people all around the world worshiping different gods.

Which leads me to the worldview of Jesus and the scriptures. Next slide. The technical title in theology is creational monotheism.

And it's the idea that there's not one mountain, there's many. And Allah, I'm sorry,

Islam is the way to Allah. And Buddhism is the way to Nirvana. And Hinduism is the way to the

Brahman. And Mormonism is the way to Elohim. Interesting, that's the Mormon title for God.

And you have Wicca and you have spirituality. And that's a sample. I mean, you literally have however many dozens of mountains with dozens of gods and world religions and spirituality that are set up as the way to the gods.

But next slide, there is one creator god who made all the others, who spoke the universe into existence.

He's called Yahweh. So Yahweh made Allah. Okay. And Shiva and Vishnu and Molech and Baal.

And the Hebrew scriptures are what you and I call the Old Testament. He's called God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in the writings of the

New Testament. And this God, next slide, is nothing like the others. This God comes down the mountain in Jesus.

He comes down the mountain in the incarnation of Jesus of Nazareth.

It's not that all paths lead up the same mountain, universalism. So there are different paths up different mountains.

And it's not that Jesus is the only way to God, monotheism.

He is, don't get me wrong, he is. But it's more like he is

God come to us. Get the difference. He is Yahweh, think back to last week, the creator of the universe, born in flesh and blood.

He is Yahweh come to you and me. That is the gospel of Jesus.

And that I would argue is the worldview of Jesus and the scriptures. Now, I'm well aware that if you're not a follower of Jesus, this...

So, by the way, if you believe in monotheism, you're in disagreement with Jesus, apparently. ...be borderline offensive to you.

And that is not my heart at all. I don't want to continue in that cultural imperialism, much less religious imperialism.

And if you are a follower of Jesus, but like me... And that is what tips his hand. That language shows that he is a postmodern.

That's what he is. Okay. He has bought into the irrational worldview of postmodernity.

That is the language of postmodernity. He's an anti -imperialist postmodern.

That's what we're dealing with here. We continue. ...have been deeply shaped by Western culture.

This may sound jarring to you, but stay with me because there are profound and far -reaching implications for how we think about some three or four things.

If you're taking notes. First off, here we go. There are implications for how we think about the gospel.

We live in a city that is self, and I'm a part of a generation that is self -identified as spiritual, but not religious, right?

People say to me all the time, I don't go to church, but I'm what? Spiritual.

You get that? I get that all the time, right? That's okay. Valid. The follow -up question to that said, nice is, okay, with what spirit?

Because there are many. You're spiritual. Okay. With what spirit? Who are you kind of in relationship with?

There's the Holy Spirit, which is language used by Jesus for the spirit of Yahweh. But then there's the spirit of you fill in the blank.

People say all the time, ah, Jesus. I'm not sure about Jesus, but I believe in God. What does that mean?

I mean, God is not a common denominator. Oh, you believe in God. Oh, okay. That is not a common denominator.

What do you mean? Which one? You believe in God? Which one? He, she, it, they, state of being?

The one you made up in your own head? Yep. That one. He's awesome. Like which one?

I was driving with my son Jude yesterday, and that we passed by one of his friend's house, who's

Jewish. And he said, oh, that's my friend. So -and -so, he just finished Hanukkah or whatever. And I said, is he a follower of Jesus?

I was asking. And he said, oh, he believes in the Lord. I said, oh, dang it.

Well, that's not the same thing. I mean, it kind of is, but, well, he reads the Bible. Well, yeah, but what he means by that is the first part, not the second part.

Not, try that on a seven -year -old, right? Well, the history goes back to the first century.

God is not a common denominator anymore. It's interesting. All that I'm saying is my friends, when you're with family and friends and people that you love and you care about, introduce people to Jesus.

Because in Jesus, God comes down the mountain. That would be the one

God among many gods who currently rules the other deities because, you know, he defeated Amun -Ra and stuff like that.

And says, come and follow me. And this God that we see in Exodus 34, that we see in Jesus, that we see in Matthew and Mark and Luke and John, he's nothing like the others.

Right, because according to him, the others don't exist. That's why he's nothing like them.

He's compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and mercy, and on down the list.

And this God we see in Jesus. Now, secondly, there are implications for how we think about evil.

Please listen. One of, if not the question in the West about God is, kind of, if there's a

God and he's all loving and all powerful, why is there evil in the world? Well, based on this view, could

I assume that he's not all powerful and there's other deities out for him? They want his head?

Theology is called theodicy or the problem of evil. And it's the root cause of unbelief for literally millions of Americans.

I cannot tell you how many people. No, that's not what the Bible says. It says, according to Ephesians chapter 2, we're all born dead in trespasses and sins.

That's the root cause of unbelief. Who don't buy the gospel of Jesus because of that.

If there's a God, if he's all loving, if he's all powerful, you say, I don't buy that. Why is there evil in the world?

Now, what's striking to me is that the scriptures say little or nothing about the problem of evil.

And it's a long book. The closest thing you get is

Job. But that is more about justice than about the problem of evil. Not one of the

New Testament authors are wrestling with the problem of evil. Why? Because in the worldview of the ancient

Near East of the first century and of all the biblical authors, evil is a problem, but it's not a philosophical problem.

It's a problem in real life because evil is assumed.

It's assumed that the universe is filled with real spiritual beings.

Some are good. Others are evil. And planet Earth is, for lack of a better analogy, the site of a war.

That is a worldview assumed by Matthew and Mark. Man, this sounds so similar to Gnosticism.

It's, it's creepy. I mean, what he's describing here is very, very close to what's described, well, refuted by Irenaeus in the second century in his work,

Contra Heresies, where he literally takes on the Valentinian Gnostics and talks about their war in the heavens between the

Demiurge and stuff. This, who, man, I'm telling you, this sounds to me like Gnosticism reborn.

And John and Paul and Peter and on down the list. The problem is that is no longer the worldview of the

West. And when we lost the biblical worldview, one creator God, many created gods, quite a few of whom are at war with the creator.

Again, Isaiah 43, 10, before me, no God was formed, nor will there be any after me.

There are no created gods and wreaking havoc on the earth. When we lost that worldview, we lost a biblical answer to the problem of evil.

Greg Boyd writes, next slide. And this is the problem. This is the fruit of the false teaching of Greg Boyd, the open theist.

When one possesses a vital awareness that in between God and humanity, there exists a vast society of spiritual beings who are quite like humans in possessing intelligence and free will.

There is simply no difficulty in reconciling the reality of evil with the goodness of the supreme

God. It virtually sidesteps the problem of evil. Now, by that, he means philosophically because I want to let everybody know that Greg Boyd's book,

God at War, is nowhere to be found in scripture. Stop wrestling with evil philosophically in your head and with your professor and you start praying against evil.

You stop questioning God about evil and you start fighting shoulder to shoulder with God, the evil in the world.

Does that make sense? Yeah, that means fighting all those other evil deities that he created. To get there, you need a worldview like that Third, if you're taking notes, there are implications for how we think about spirituality, which is a positive word.

I'm spiritual, right? Okay, great. I am too. And the majority of you are not involved at all in the occult or Wicca or tarot cards or palm readers, right?

But it's all over the place and I think it goes without saying, stay away from that stuff because it's real.

Yeah, you might get in touch with one of those other deities that's still upset at Yahweh.

Stay away from anything that is a portal for the demonic and not only the occult stuff.

Drugs, obviously, as you all know, it can be a portal for the demonic. Perverted sexuality can be and not just abuse and stuff like that.

Pornography absolutely can be a way that you open up your life to the influence of demonic power.

There's a line in Ephesians that says bitterness can be a portal. There's that line, do not let the sun go down on your anger and in doing so, give the devil a foothold.

Holy cow. How is that for a motivation to forgive your father? Because if you don't, you actually open the door and give a demonic being with power and authority a foothold in your life, in your head, in your heart, in your future, in your story.

Stay away from that stuff. I got an email a while back from a gal whose friend, who was all distraught because her friend went to a palm reader and the palm reader was able to tell the future.

A few weeks later, what she said out of the blue happened. And this gal, who's a follower of Jesus, did not have a category for that.

She's a monotheist. One God, everything else is a sham. And what's a palm reader? It's either a con artist or it's a man or a woman who is connected with a

God, with a demonic power. You keep doing that. Monotheism, biblical monotheism makes it very clear that they didn't tap into a deity.

They tapped into a demonic power and you keep equating demonic power with deities.

And she did not have a category for that. The reality is that stuff can be, it's not always, but can be real.

Stay away from all that. The reality is that demonic spirits are not bound to time and space the same way that we are and can do signs, wonders, healings, prophecy, the miraculous, all that stuff.

I agree. That's what the demonic can do. I completely disagree with you saying that they are created deities.

There are implications for how we think about spirituality. And then last, there are implications for how we think about idolatry.

On one hand, like I said before, idols are not real. They're made out of wood and stone.

But on the other hand, Paul makes it clear in 1 Corinthians 10 that at the back of an idol, there can be a real spiritual being drawing you away from the worship of the

Most High God. Yeah. Why don't you quote that passage for us? And keep in mind that idolatry in the scriptures is more than the worst.

Yeah, notice he didn't read the passage. Because it would have contradicted what he said. It's giving your life away to anything other than God.

And by God, I mean Yahweh, the God who spoke the universe into existence. Money can be an idol, as you know.

Success can be an idol. Romance, beauty, on down the list. And I think of John, at the end of his life, if you know the author,

John, in the New Testament, Now, I want to point something out. There is no demonic being out there named money, okay?

If you worship money, it's just that you've made it your God. It's not that it's a real

God. 1 John, which was written, we think, in John's 90s. He's the last living disciple of Jesus.

And the last words out of John's mouth are, and closing line of 1

John, little children, keep yourselves from idols. An elderly man, after decades with Jesus, little children, here's the last thing

I have to say, keep yourselves from idols. Um, to end, where are you at?

You, as a human being, whether you're religious, or an atheist, or anywhere in between, you were created to worship.

And you do worship. The same way that you breathe. You're human. You might not think of yourself that way, but you do.

The question is not, do you worship? But what do you worship? What do you give your life away to?

We all worship. Some people worship God and Jesus. Other people worship the gods.

Other people worship success, or money, or fame, or whatever. And here's how you tell.

What do you make sacrifices for? We want to think that the sacrifices we read about in kind of the

Old Testament, and kind of in the developing world are a pre -modern thing. But keep in mind that animals in the ancient world were currency over time.

Yeah, I'm convinced that this guy is like, jockeying to be the next Rob Bell. I think that's what he's trying to do.

It's money. It's investments. You're telling me that when somebody drops 85 grand on a car, that has nothing to do with worship?

No, if that's how much your car costs, please let me borrow it, and don't walk out, all right? Um, but that can be worship.

It's money. It's sacrifice over time. So does that mean that if you're worshiping a car, that it exists out in the spiritual realm, and it's a deity whom

God, the creator God made? What do you spend your money on? What do you spend your time on?

Where do you go for an escape? When you're depressed, when you're tired, when you're down after a long day, where do you go?

A glass, a bottle, a TV show, a website, a relationship, a gym, a habit.

It can be good. It can be bad. Where do you go for an escape? Or here's another way. What are you scared of?

What is there that if you lost, right there, that's it.

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Or in the words of Jesus, love

Yahweh, your Elohim, love the Lord, your God, with how much of your heart?

All. And how much of your soul? And how much of your mind? And how much of your strength?

Law. All with every scrap of who you are. Because in Jesus is life.

All right, so there it is. That was extremely theologically convoluted.

And what he said is not what the scriptures teach. I mean, seriously, to make the claim that, well, we need to worship

Yahweh, the creator God, and that he, God, created other gods. And that, you know, like he defeated

Amun -Ra and all those other deities. I mean, this is just straight up some very slick postmodern, with a thin Christian veneer on it, basically postmodern polytheism.

And I can't tell you, this kid, it looks to me like he's trying to figure out how to take the place of Rob Bell out there in the evangelical constellations of megachurch superstars.

I'm sure he'll probably get there. But he's a polytheist. What he teaches isn't true.

Yahweh is not one God among many gods. According to him, he's the only

God there is. Before him, no gods were formed, nor will there be any after him.

If there are other gods that God created, then

Yahweh is a liar. And you shouldn't be listening to him or following him because he's evil.

He doesn't speak the truth. So who are you going to trust? A man who I demonstrated clearly twisted

God's word? Or are you going to believe Yahweh? When he says, before me, no God was formed, nor will there be any after me.

This is not a neutral issue. When we talk in Christianity, oftentimes we talk about the fact that there are cardinal doctrines.

There are doctrines that cannot be denied. Otherwise, you're not a

Christian, okay? When it touches on the nature of God, that crosses into cardinal doctrine area.

This is a non -negotiable. This is not something that is just, oh, well, it's not that big of a deal.

Actually, this is everything. This is the difference between believing in the one true God or believing a false

God. And the subtleties matter. In fact, the subtleties tell all the stories.

And the fact that he couldn't properly handle a single biblical text as he tried to basically argue that God created other gods, we got a problem.

A big problem. We have a false teacher teaching a false God at a multi -site mega church, large one, 7 ,000 people a week in attendance, who's teaching falsely regarding God.

Those people think they're being taught the truth, the biblical truth, but they're not. They're being taught about a false deity named

Elohim, of course. But that's how that works, isn't it? If you're not sure what I'm talking about,

I'll play tomorrow the Build -A -God sketch during the first break for Fighting for the

Faith. All right, we're at the end of another edition of Fighting for the Faith. If you'd like to email me regarding anything you've heard on this edition or any previous editions, you can do so.

My email address is talkbackatfightingforthefaith .com or you can subscribe on Facebook, facebook .com

forward slash piratechristian or follow me on Twitter, my name there at piratechristian. Till tomorrow, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ.