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The Same God
In recent years we have heard and read an increasing number of statements to the effect that almost everyone is worshipping the same God, although some may call Him Allah, others Jehovah and others by some other name. That is supposed to prove, it seems, that how we worship does not matter, and perhaps all of us have an equal chance of being saved.
The theory is wrong from start to finish, but even if it were right in its basic assumption, the conclusion does not follow. Let us try to clarify.
We wonder if those who make those statements would also continue with that idea that we all worship the same God if we added Baal, Zeus, Pluto, Jupiter and/or Beelzebub. If not, why not? The truth is that even those who claim to worship Jehovah do not really worship the same God, for a great majority of people with whom I talk do not have the God in their mind that I have, revealed in the Bible. The average person has a god that is a sort of grandfather type -- a giant of a man with white hair and benevolent eyes who loves his little children and grandchildren so much that he could not think of punishing them for anything, but is willing to spoil them and grant their every wish. The God I worship is a God that is both loving and just. He has goodness and severity (Rom. 11:22). The real God that is revealed in the Bible is an unknown God to the majority of people.
The Calvinist has a god that created men all of whom are now hereditarily and totally depraved, and arbitrarily determined that some of them are going to heaven and some are going to hell, and the number is so fixed that it cannot be changed by any choice or will or act of man.
The God that I serve made man upright and he sought out many inventions (Eccl. 7:29). He made man with freedom of choice and allows him to make the choice to serve God or Satan (Josh.24:15). It has been said that "God created man in his own image; philosophers have reversed the process; they create god in theirs." It is true, not only of philosophers, but of mankind in general.
It is important to know that the kind of god you believe in will determine, to a large degree, the kind of person you are. It is philosophically, theologically and pragmatically true that one becomes more like that which he adores and worships. Be careful that Jehovah God is your God.
T. Pierce Brown
(http://www.oldpaths.com)