One True God - Exodus 20:1-3

And God spoke all these words, saying: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.” - Exodus 20:1-3

    I guess it just comes with the territory. Being a Reformed Christian I am daily faced with the erroneous pontifications of delusional people who fabricate their own versions of God. From the rosy-cheek happy-go-lucky “older gentleman in the sky” to the laid-back sandal-wearing bearded hipster preaching “peace, love, and climate-control.” I have heard it all and I have had it!
    You know, if I wanted to learn fly-fishing I would read everything I could get my hands on about . . . fly-fishing! I would consult those who are considered proficient fly-fishermen. I would learn everything I possibly could about the subject, the nature, and the substance of fly-fishing. I certainly wouldn’t attempt to make it all up or to reinvent it myself! So why do people insist on making up their own personal versions of God?
    I seldom hear anyone describe the God of scripture. I never hear them describe the God who hung from a cross and gave His life so that we sinners could find comfort, grace, and salvation in His self-sacrifice. I never hear them describe God as being jealous and capable of wrath. I never hear them describe a God who demands righteousness and holiness . . . even though these descriptions of God are the way holy scripture depicts Him! So where on earth did they get their vision of God?
“The folks who make up God as they go are side-by-side with self-proclaimed believers who claim the Christian label but shed their ties to traditional beliefs and practices. Religion statistics expert George Barna says, with a wry hint of exaggeration, America is headed for ‘310 million people with 310 million religions.’"
"We are a designer society. We want everything customized to our personal needs — our clothing, our food, our education," he says. Now it's our religion.” - USA Today, 9/13/2011
    So why are so many people attempting to take this imaginary route to heaven? I believe it has a great deal to do with the term “Systematic Theology.” Most people don’t like systematic anything! They want to do things at their own pace, in their own time, and in their own way. And if that includes inventing their own “designer god” who is basically a sappy milquetoast being who would never get mad at us and send us to hell, then so be it. This simply betrays the fact that these individuals do not know (let alone understand) what God’s relationship to man is. As our title verse states without ambiguity - “I am the Lord your God!”
    Scripture clearly says that man will be inventors of gods they choose rather than the one true God and it is equally clear how true Christians should respond. “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” - 2 Timothy 3:1-5.
    True Christians know and understand that there is one true God. Even Jesus Christ spoke directly to the idea of knowing the very words of God and believing in them - “But He said, ‘More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!’” - Luke 11:28.
Let us pray that we are never so fallen that we feel the need to invent a god who doesn’t care.