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About Jesus Steve Sweetman
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Our Generic God
Oct. 19, 2001
Recently I was watching a baseball game on television. I heard the announcer
say, "we pray that God bless our troops that are overseas". A couple of
weeks ago I heard a prominent Muslim leader say that there is no real difference between
the Islamic God and the Christian God, so we should pray that God bless us all. At
the Washington D.C. memorial for the Sept. 11th victims a Christian minister prayed to
"the God of Abraham, the God of Mohammed, and the Father of our Lord". It
seems that the whole world is asking God to bless them these days. The phrase
"God bless America" is heard on our television sets with great frequency.
I am now wondering if the God that everyone is talking about being blessed by is the same
God that I serve.
It may not sound patriotic by questioning these words, but my allegiance is first to the
Word of God, that I believe is the Bible. The Bible clearly states that there is
only one God, and He is the God and Father of our "Lord Jesus Christ". Did
the baseball announcer pray that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ bless our
troops? Did the Muslim leader mean the God of our Lord Jesus Christ bless us
all? I don't think so.
Even as I type this article, I hear an advertising of TV selling "God bless American
flags" Are they talking about the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ? I can't say conclusively, but I doubt it.
I am reminded of what God told Israel in Exodus 20:3, "you will have no other god's
before (or besides) me". God clearly told His people that He is God and that He
does not want us to have any other gods except for Him. I am wondering if this
"generic god" that we all are talking about is actually "another
God". I don't think this generic god is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
In my early days of being a Christian I was told that Jesus must be at the centre of all
that we believe. I still believe that today. We cannot separate Jesus from
God. They are one. A God without Jesus is not the God of the Bible. It is not
the God that true Christians serve. As Christians we need to be aware of what
"God bless us" really means. Just because someone uses the word God in
their vocabulary does not mean they are talking about the same God that we believe in as
Christians.
There may be a positive aspect to our return to this generic god. It gets people
thinking of God again. We had convinced ourselves in the sixties that God was
dead. We have now resurrected him in our time of need. We as Christians now
have a prime opportunity to declare that the God people are talking about should be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul, in Acts 17 took a similar opportunity when he was in Athens. He saw that the
city was "given to idolatry" (Acts 17:16). He therefore disputed with
these people daily. (verse 17) The Athenians thought that he set forth "a
strange god" because he spoke of Jesus and the resurrection. (verse 18)
Paul saw that these people did believe in some sort of god. They had an altar to
"the unknown god". (verse 23) He used this as a springboard to tell them
about the true God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We too have a similar opportunity today. We can use the talk about God today to show
people the real God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Mind you, not
everyone will believe our report, in the same way that everyone did not believe Paul's
report. But many did believe Paul, and many will believe us.
Pray that we have opportunities to show the real God to the world around us, the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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