Questions
23: How do you know that there is only one true and living, all-powerful God?
Answer: The Philadelphia Confession of Faith (September 25, 1742) puts it this way: “The Lord our God is but one only living and true God; whose subsistence is in and of himself, infinite in being and perfection, whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but himself; a most pure Spirit, invisible ... who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, who is immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, every way infinite, most holy, most wise, most free, most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will for his own glory, most loving, gracious merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, the rewarder of them that diligently seek him, and withal most just, and terrible in his judgments, hating all sin, and will by no means clear the guilty. ... he is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things, and he hath most sovereign dominion over all creatures, to do by them, for them, or upon them, whatsoever himself pleaseth; in his sight all things are open and manifest, his knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature, so as nothing is to him contingent or uncertain; he is most holy in all his counsels, in all his works, and in all his commands; to him is due from angels and men whatsoever worship, service, or obedience, as creatures they owe unto the Creator, and whatever he is further pleased to require of them. In this Divine and Infinite Being there are three subsistences, the Father, the Word (or Son), and the Holy Spirit: of one substance, power, and eternity, each having the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided; the Father is of none neither begotten, nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son, all infinite, without beginning, therefore but one God, who is not to be divided in nature and being, but distinguished by several peculiar relative properties and personal relations; which doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of all our communion with God, and our comfortable dependence on Him"
At numerous other places in the Bible, we hear the great
Bible prophets and godly kings confess their understanding that there is truly
only one all powerful God – and that everything else that man is bowing down to
and worshipping is merely man’s own creation of wood or stone. In King Hezekiah’s great prayer to the Lord
for protection from the Assyrian army, he says: “Of a truth, LORD, the kings
of