There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords. But for us, there is one God, the Father, by whom all things were created, and for whom we live. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created, and through whom we live. [1 Corinthians 8:5-6 (NLT)]
I recently met Esha while walking and we occasionally stop to chat. Although the bindi (mark) on her forehead told me she is a Hindu and the cross I wear told her I am Christian, our different faiths have not prevented us from talking about God and our beliefs. My younger son’s marriage brought many Hindus into our extended family and I try to understand this complicated religion.
When talking with my Hindu friends like Esha, they often say, “It’s all the same God.” While there is, indeed, only one God, the true God is not the one about whom they speak. Esha, like most Hindus, believes in one supreme god (often called Brahman) who manifests himself in a sort of hierarchy of lesser gods. Different Hindus worship different gods according to their own needs and perspective. One person may worship Ganesha while another Vishnu or Shiva.
Christians, however, believe that there is just one God and, as diverse as Christians are, we all worship the same God. While God is one in essence, He has three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. As Father, He is creator of all things, all-powerful and all-knowing; as Son, He is Jesus Christ: God in human form who lived on earth; and, as Holy Spirit, He is invisible, yet present in people and across the world. These three persons, however, are not lesser gods or worshipped apart from one another. While each personage is distinct and fully and completely God, they are simultaneously and eternally just one. Christians worship one true God who eternally exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Although most Hindus see their supreme god as genderless, the lesser gods are viewed as being male, female, androgynous, or even gender-fluid. Although God presented as a man with Jesus’ incarnation, God is a spirit and, as such, has no bodily parts, size, or weight. In spite of speaking of God as “our Father” and referring to Him with male pronouns, God is genderless. That we’re created in God’s image doesn’t refer to His physical characteristics. We are made in God’s image because He endowed us with His spiritual characteristics—we have mind, intellect, emotions, will, and moral capacity.
My friend Esha often speaks of God being everywhere and we agree on that point. God is omnipresent. He is everywhere all at once—throughout the entire universe—from the deepest depths of the ocean to beyond the farthest star known to man! He fills every part of heaven and earth with His holy presence. While there is no place God does not inhabit, Esha and I disagree on exactly how God does that. As a Hindu, she believes that God is in everything and everything is in God. To her, God is some sort of transcendent force or energy. Since this energy inhabits the universe, the universe is God and anything found in the universe is God. As a result, if the universe should cease to exist, so would God.
While Esha and I agree on God’s omnipresence, we disagree on His nature. Rather than some sort of supernatural force or energy, God is a being! While evidence of God’s character and magnificence is found in His creation, He is as distinct from His creation as a painter is from his painting. God doesn’t need the universe to exist. As its creator, God would exist even if the universe ceased to exist!
There is only one true God, but the gods of faiths like Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Confucianism, and a host of other isms are not Him! That does not mean that we can’t be friends and respectful of one another’s beliefs. Let us remember that the same God made us and, regardless of our beliefs, we all are God’s children. Nevertheless, let’s never fall for the line that “It’s all the same God!” when it isn’t God at all.
In a classic Peanuts comic (drawn by Charles Schulz), the meek Linus asked his bossy big sister Lucy, “Why are you always so anxious to criticize me?” She answered, “I just think I have a knack for seeing other peoples’ faults.” When Linus queried, “What about your own faults?” Lucy replied, “I have a knack for overlooking them.” Along with her over-sized ego, Lucy has what psychologists call “fundamental attribution error.”
Since we both attended liturgical churches as girls, my friend and I were trying to recall the terms for the various parts of a traditional church building. We knew the foyer is called the narthex and the congregation sits the church’s nave. We also knew the altar rail usually separated the nave from the chancel in the front. It’s from the chancel that the service is conducted and where the altar, pulpit, and lectern are located. We even recalled that the sacristy was the room holding Communion supplies and linens. Since we were worshipping in a park that morning, my friend asked the location of our sanctuary. In historic usage, sanctuary and chancel were synonymous but, in modern usage, a sanctuary consists of the entire worship space of a church. With no building, we had no narthex, nave, or chancel but we did have a worship space; our sanctuary was a gazebo in a county park.
The Israelites had just crossed the Jordan River and were preparing to conquer Canaan when Joshua came upon an armed man. Joshua was a stranger in a foreign land and, as Israel’s general, he may have been scrutinizing Jericho’s defenses to determine his plan of attack. I wonder if Joshua brandished his sword (while shaking in his sandals) as he queried, “Friend or foe?” The man, however, was neither ally nor adversary. Identifying himself as the commander-in-chief of the Lord’s army, his loyalty was to neither side. His allegiance was to God and the only side he was on was God’s! God wasn’t on Israel’s side any more than He was on Canaan’s. Israel, however, was on God’s side because their conquest of Jericho was part of His master plan of redemption. It was because they were on God’s side that the fortified city’s walls collapsed.
I lost my first father the same year I gained my second one. I only had my birth father for twenty years, but I was blessed to have my father-in-law for thirty-seven! Dad J lived his life well—with vigor, enthusiasm, joy, laughter, and a whole lot of love. Compassionate and generous, responsible and helpful, good-humored and resourceful, he was a man of faith and integrity (with a large dose of mischief on the side). The Bible might describe him as a man after God’s heart.
When reciting the creeds as a youngster, I wondered why I said we believed in the catholic church when we didn’t go to one. My family didn’t attend the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our priest was married, and our service was in English, so why did we attest faith in the catholic church? It wasn’t until my confirmation class that I clearly understood that the creeds weren’t referring to the Roman Catholic church. Coming from the Greek katholikos (derived from kath holos, meaning “throughout the whole”), catholic simply means universal! The term originates from the first century and the words of Ignatius of Antioch: “Where Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic church.”
