Before starting this study on "What are the other gods?", we should understand three invariable universal spiritual principles.
The first one is that truth is one, eternal, and unchanging. That means there is only one truth. It does not have more than one explanation. The truth is always unadulterated. It is always perfect and complete and does not change according to any circumstances. The truth is always the truth. Truth is truth in this world, in the other world, and in the world to come. So, no one can explain or illustrate the truth in different ways. The truth is never personal or subjective. It is always objective. It is the same everywhere and for everyone.
The second principle is the fact that the only written book to understand God is the Bible. The primary intention of the Bible is not to explain to us who God is. God is a spiritual personality who is inexplicable. The Bible is a record of human history, predestined by God. It is not the story of God. The beginning or end of God is not narrated in the Bible. All the thoughts, intentions, words, and actions of God are not recorded in the Bible. The Bible is all about humans.
Through the recorded story in the Bible of humans fall and restoration, we grasp a vague picture of the true God. The picture of God we have is indistinct, partial, and beyond human comprehension. Human knowledge about God is not complete, perfect, or final.
God is eternal, infinite, spiritual, and invisible to humans. He is not limited to any definitions or explanations of humans. He is the beginning. He has no end. He is the creator of all things, visible and invisible, and all were created for His glory. Nothing exists without Him. He is sovereign over all things.
The third principle is that, since humans cannot see, define, or comprehend God in His fullness, God must reveal Himself. Humans know only what God has revealed about Him. Humans cannot know more than what has been revealed. All other explanations and interpretations of God are only human imaginations. Human knowledge about God is finite.
Keeping all these three principles in mind, let us move forward to study "What are the other gods".
The worship of satan or evil angels directly does not come under this study. They are not other gods. Worshiping satan and evil spirits as they are, is not the worship of other gods.
Who is God?
In Judaism and Christianity, God is believed to be the eternal, supreme being who created and preserves all things. They believe in a monotheistic conception of God. God is both transcendent (wholly independent of and removed from, the material universe) and immanent (involved in the material universe). They reject pantheism, which believes that God is of the same substance as the created universe.
In the Old Testament, God is unique, sovereign, and unchanging. He is the creator, sustainer, and only true God of the Universe. The Bible introduces God to humans as Yahweh.
Early Christian views of God were expressed in the epistles of the Apostles and the early Christian creeds, which proclaimed one God.
A name to God, as Yahweh (YHWH) was first ascribed in the book of Exodus. But after the Babylonian exile in BC 6, the Jews used the name Elohim more than Yahweh. Since then, they have realised that Yahweh is not the God exclusively to the Jews, but He is the God of the whole universe and thus the God of all humans living on the earth. Jews regarded the divine name as too sacred to be uttered. So, it was replaced vocally in the synagogue ritual by the Hebrew word "Adonai", which means "My Lord". Adonai was translated as Kyrios (Lord) in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures.
To refer to the attributes of God, more than 1000 words are used in the Bible. But none of them are God’s names. Yahweh is the only name God has chosen for Himself. The name contains a self-revelation. It stands apart from all other names that convey His different attributes.
The name Yahweh is found in the Old Testament about 6800 times. The name is in all books except the books of Esther, Proverbs, and Song of Songs. Jews pronounced this name audibly only during worship in the Jerusalem Temple. So, they never pronounced it after the Temple was destroyed in AD 70.
The first occurrence of the name Yahweh in the Bible is in Exodus 3:15. What the name conveys is very important to understand. Here God is ascribing a name to Himself in an answer to Moses.
God met Moses in the desert and assigned him the task of leading the people out of Egypt to the Promised Land. But Moses was sure that the Israelites would not believe him. They would consider Moses meeting with God and his appointment as a deliverer from their slavery mere stories created by him. Surely the Israelites would demand proof for the meeting. So Moses asked God what he should say if the people asked the name of the God who appeared to him.
This is indeed an interesting demand. God had never revealed a name for Him so far. So the Israelites would not know the name of God. They knew only that the eternal and true God was the God of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then why did Moses think that the people would ask for the name of God?
Moses was born and brought up in Egypt, where the indigenous people worshipped many gods. They had a god for each problem. They had a god to bless and curse their enemies, and another to protect them. They had a god for peace and another for war. All these gods were different in nature and work. They had different names. They were represented by images of living or non-living things carved in stone or wood. Thus, their gods were represented by snakes, crocodiles, frogs, fleas, rivers, etc.
The Israelites had been living in Egypt for more than 400 years. That means the forefathers who migrated to Egypt died long before, and the present generation was born and brought up in the land. There are convincing proofs in the Bible that at least some of them worshipped the gods of Egypt along with the God of Israel. But though the Egyptian gods had a name for each of them, the God of Israel, who was the God of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was not known by a name and had no image.
This is the context of Moses’ demand for God’s name. He could tell the people that the God of their fathers, by name, has appointed him as the deliverer. That would be a convincing claim.
But God the Almighty has no name. No name is necessary for His existence. Still, God found a reason for Moses demand. So, He said:
Exodus 3:14, 15 (KJV)
14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
15 And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.
Exodus 3:14, 15 (NKJV)
14 And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
15 Moreover God said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: 'The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.'
In verse 14, God is self-introduced as "I AM THAT I AM" (KJV). This is the name of God. But this is not exactly a name. It is a self-revelation of Himself. The phrase contains all the mysteries, character, attributes, and existence of God. Everything we need to know about God is contained in the name "I AM".
The Vulgate translation of the Holy Bible in an accepted Catholic version. The translation was made by St. Jerome in AD 405. In it, we read Exodus 3:14 as "I am who I am". But the Septuagint Greek translation is, "I am he who exists". This phrase may be literally translated as "I will be what I will be". So, some scholars have assumed that God was simply telling Moses that He is the same God as their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and will be the same to them in the future as well. He had promised the Promised Land to their fathers, which He is also promising to them.
But there is more to God’s self-introduction than repeating the promises to their fathers. God is simply refusing to contain Himself in a name like the names of the Egyptian gods. He is not equal to the gentile gods. He cannot be compared to or understood along with the gentile gods. He is not a rival to any Egyptian gods; He is the only God. That makes the Egyptian gods false imaginations and human craftiness. He is God; He alone is God, and He will be God for eternity. God’s eternity is not a period; it is the beginning and the end, or it has no beginning and end. It always "is". So, God is "I AM".
"I AM" is a claim to His uniqueness as God. The gentile gods of the time were also used to claim "I AM" to say that they were real gods. So, Yahweh is making it clear that He is not the gentile gods, but He is the real "I AM". The gentile gods have no right to claim, "I AM". It is an exclusive claim. More than one God cannot claim "I AM".
"I AM" means it is me; it is only me in the sense that there is no one else and it is myself. When God said, "I AM THAT I AM", He was saying that there is no other god besides him. He cancels all claims of other spiritual beings or humans as gods.
Because there are no other gods, the God does not need a name like the Egyptian false gods. He is not to be identified with or differentiated from other gods. A being must be known by a name when there are other beings like Him. But there is no being like God; there are no greater, lesser, or equal beings. So, He has no name. He is God.
Many centuries later, the Greek gentile philosopher Plato, in his Parmenides, said that nothing can express God’s nature. No name can be attributed to Him. So, the God who introduced Himself as "I AM" to Moses is the self-existent, eternal, and incomprehensible God. He is the only divine Being; He is the source of all created beings.
Since He is the only God, He grants himself the power of self-description. He is whoever He defines. No other being, including angels or humans, has the authority to describe who God is. None, including angels and humans, will know Him unless He reveals Himself.
After saying that "I AM THAT I AM", in Exodus 3:14, God continues to speak and choose a name for Himself in verse 15. God explicitly said that He needs no name because no one else superior, equal, or subordinate exists besides Him. Then, for humans, He chooses a name for Himself. God might have considered the reality that humans worship other gods with different names.
Exodus 3:15 Moreover God said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: 'The LORD (Y@hovah) God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.' (NKJV)
Here we read the word "Yahweh" in the Bible as the name of God for the first time. God chose the name and commanded, "This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.'" This is to remember their true and only God and identify Him from other gods.
The Hebrew word YHWH (YAHWEH) is found 160 times in Genesis. So, many scholars believe that the name was known before the meeting of Moses with God in Exodus. According to Exodus 6:20 and Numbers 26:59, the name of Moses’ mother was Jochebed (Yowkebed, yokheved, yo-keh'-bed). This name is a combination of two words, "Yah" and "kabed". "Yah" is a short form of Yahweh. "Kabed" means heavy, glory, and something that impresses. So, the name "Jochebed" (Yowkebed) may mean "the glory of Yahweh" or "Yahweh is my glory". Moses’ mother is the first person mentioned in the Bible whose name has the prefix "Yah".
The word "yah" might have conveyed an attribute of God. Israelites might have called their God "yah" or "Yahweh". We are not sure of it. But God Himself chose the name "Yahweh" as "My name forever" and "My memorial to all generations" during the meeting with Moses.
The word "Yahweh" has been interpreted in different ways. Many scholars opine that the exact meaning of the word is "He Brings into Existence Whatever Exists" (Yahweh-Asher-Yahweh). The word also has the meaning "self-originated and self-existent". He is unchanging, eternal, and exists without the help or support of anybody else. His existence does not depend on anybody else, not on lesser gods or humans. The name "Yahweh" contains all these meanings and more.
Thus, the names "I AM" and "Yahweh" mean that He is the only God; there are no other gods beside Him. He is a self-existent God. He has no beginning and no end. He is the creator and preserver of all created things, including the living and the nonliving. He is the only true God, the only being who is called God. He has been God and will be God forever.
A self-originated, self-existent God means He is above time. He has no past or future. He has only the present. He always exists in the present. He is not a God who has been or will be. He is God now. Time, space, and matter are His creations. So He stands above and aloof from it, without being influenced by any of them. He is not an old imagination; He is the truth that exists yesterday, today, and forever.
Yahweh is an unchanging God. Change belongs to the past. Since God has no past, he cannot change.
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
Malachi 3:6 "For I am the LORD, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.
So, God said in Exodus 3:15, "This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.'"
Since there are no other lesser gods, He has no rival as a god in heaven or earth. He has no enemy to fight with or defeat as a god. So, God and the Bible call all other claims of divinity as other gods. That means there are no beings like other gods. Other gods do not exist. Other gods are human imaginations and human creations.
Since ancient times, people around the globe have worshipped a variety of gods. All the surrounding cultures throughout the Old Testament and New Testament periods had pagan religions with multiple gods. The Jews and early Christians alike always bumped into them. Sometimes the Israelites worshipped both the God of Israel and the pagan gods. The Bible records several purges, especially in the books of Samuel and Kings, where people are told to give up other gods. King Solomon himself was famously tripped up because he allowed his foreign wives to bring their gods into Israel.
A frequent way that other gods are referenced in the Old Testament is by calling them "Baal." The word "Baal" means "lord" in the languages of the region and is used in the Bible as a general reference to other gods of the area. Sometimes it referred to a particular false god, and other times the term was used generally. The most famous biblical reference is the great story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel in 1 Kings 18.
So, the Bible mentions other gods worshipped by the nations around Israel. Even Israel worshipped them along with Yahweh at times. That means the other gods are a reality.
Early Judaism did not deny the existence of other gods. Jacob's wife’s family worshipped other gods. Rebecca stole a teraphim with her when they fled from her father’s house.
Genesis 31:19 Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel had stolen the household idols that were her father's.
The Biblical story of Exodus affirms the existence of other gods. It paints the plagues of Egypt not just as a war on the pharaoh but as a war on the gods of Egypt:
Exodus 12:12 'For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.
The author of Numbers also affirms what happened in Egypt.
Numbers 33:3,4
3 They departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the day after the Passover the children of Israel went out with boldness in the sight of all the Egyptians.
4 For the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom the LORD had killed among them. Also on their gods the LORD had executed judgments.
The following verses from Psalms mention other gods.
Psalms 86:8 Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord; Nor are there any works like Your works.
Psalms 95:3 For the LORD is the great God, And the great King above all gods.
Psalms 96:4 For the LORD is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods.
Psalms 135:5 For I know that the LORD is great, And our Lord is above all gods.
Scripture mentions the names of other gods that people worshipped as Baal, Moloch, Chemosh, Dagon, Asherah, etc.
The first Commandment
A famous mention of other gods is in the first of the Ten Commandments.
Exodus 20.3 "You shall have no other gods before Me.
This Commandment is generally interpreted as meaning that the Jewish people should worship only one God, YHWH, and that there is no other god. The commandment prohibits polytheism (the worship of more than one deity) and syncretism (worshipping Yahweh along with other deities).
The word "before me" has caused different interpretations. Does it strictly prohibit Israelites from worshipping other deities along with Yahweh? This is the debated question. Some scholars theorise that the commandment laid down a heavenly hierarchy, with Yahweh at the top. Yahweh was to be worshipped and sacrificed to first, before any other gods. They argue that God said to prioritise Him but did not prohibit the people from worshipping other gods.
The preposition "before" (Hebrew: "al") can mean "above," "besides," or "before." In Hebrew, the phrase is often translated as 'besides me' or 'before me'. It means 'in my presence". So, the verse must be read as:
Exodus 20.3 You shall have no other gods in My presence.
The translation in the KJV and the NKJV as "You shall have no other gods before Me" is misleading because it gives us room to think that other gods are permitted if the true God is first in importance. But in truth, God permits no other gods at all.
There are some other translations that correctly capture the intent of God. James Moffatt says, "You shall have no gods but me." The Knox translation says, "Thou shalt not defy me by making other gods thy own." (Monsignor Ronald Knox). The Spurrell translation reads, "You shall have no other gods beside Me." (Helen Spurrell). The New English Bible renders it, "You shall have no gods to set against me." These translations make it very clear that God will not share His position, glory, or praise with any competitors. It would not be good for His purpose to allow us to divide our loyalties.
Isaiah 42:8 I am the LORD, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images.
God clearly states, "I am," and commands His people to worship Him alone. "No deity, real or imagined, is to rival the one true God in Israel's heart and life" (NIV Study Bible).
The Lord Himself clearly states that He alone is God. There was no god before him, and there will be none after him. None coexist with him. The first commandment addresses other "gods" as false.
Deuteronomy 4:35 "To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD Himself is God; there is none other besides Him.
Deuteronomy 4:39 "Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the LORD Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.
Isaiah 43:10 You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and my servants whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he, before me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after me.
Isaiah 44:6, 8
6 "Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: 'I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God.
8 Do not fear, nor be afraid; Have I not told you from that time, and declared it? You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one.'"
Isaiah 45:18 For thus says the LORD, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: "I am the LORD, and there is no other.
Isaiah 44 mocks the absurdity of these gods. A workman cuts down a tree, uses half of the tree for firewood to warm himself, and fashions the other half into a false god and say, "Deliver me, for you are my god".
Isaiah 44:13-19
13 The craftsman stretches out his rule, He marks one out with chalk; He fashions it with a plane, He marks it out with the compass, And makes it like the figure of a man, According to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house.
14 He cuts down cedars for himself, And takes the cypress and the oak; He secures it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a pine, and the rain nourishes it.
15 Then it shall be for a man to burn, For he will take some of it and warm himself; Yes, he kindles it and bakes bread; Indeed he makes a god and worships it; He makes it a carved image, and falls down to it.
16 He burns half of it in the fire; With this half he eats meat; He roasts a roast, and is satisfied. He even warms himself and says, "Ah! I am warm, I have seen the fire."
17 And the rest of it he makes into a god, His carved image. He falls down before it and worships it, Prays to it and says, "Deliver me, for you are my god!"
18 They do not know nor understand; For He has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, And their hearts, so that they cannot understand.
19 And no one considers in his heart, Nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say, "I have burned half of it in the fire, Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals; I have roasted meat and eaten it; And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?"
The friction between the God of Israel and the multiple gods of the surrounding cultures is a key theme throughout the Old Testament. But it doesn’t appear only there.
In the New Testament, we meet other gods chiefly through Paul’s missionary journeys. A pantheon of other gods was worshipped throughout the Roman Empire. The most notable story is Paul’s visit to Ephesus, as described in Acts 19:23–41. One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World was the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus. Artemis was the goddess of hunting. Her temple in Ephesus was a huge attraction for those who worshipped her and for tourists in general. Craftsmen in Ephesus made a lot of money selling statues of Artemis to pilgrims and tourists. The city’s major income came from those visiting the temple.
Paul also visited Athens (Acts 17:16–33) and went to a statue of an unnamed god, declaring that he knew the identity of that God. He was a different God from the other gods of the natives. The Romans also believed that Caesar was a god, and many of the early martyrs, both Jewish and Christian, met their fate because they refused to give an offering to Caesar and recognised that he was a god.
God has uncompromising enmity with the gentile gods, who stood in sharp contrast to Him. The gentile gods were false, imaginary concepts that led humans away from the true God. Those who worshipped the other gods believed that the infighting and failures of those gods caused events on this earth. In contrast, Yahweh stood constant and faithful. He is alone and the only God.
What are the other gods?
The position in both Judaism and Christianity is that there is only one true God, and any others are other gods. So, the Bible does not speak about any other actual, for-real gods. The things that others worship as gods are not gods at all.
In Abrahamic religions, namely Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the phrase "false god" is used as a derogatory term to refer to a deity or object of worship besides the true and only God. Other gods are regarded as either illegitimate or non-functioning in their professed authority or capability. The same characterization is also used as a definition of "idol".
The Tanakh refers to deities from other neighbouring cultures as "shedim". It is possibly a loanword from the Akkadian language. The Akkadian Empire was, probably the first Empire in the Mesopotamia region. The empire united the people who spoke Akkadian and Sumerian.
In Akkadian, the word "shedu" referred to a spirit that could be either protective or malevolent. The word "shed" (shade) appears twice (always plural) in Deuteronomy 32:17 and Psalm 106:37.
Deuteronomy 32:17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God, To gods they did not know, To new gods, new arrivals That your fathers did not fear.
Psalm 106:37 They even sacrificed their sons And their daughters to demons,
When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek, the Hebrew term "shedim" was translated as "daimones". This gave rise to a dualism between native other gods and Yahweh the God.
The God of the Bible has given us reason to believe in His existence. So, whatever He says on the matter of other gods is also final. When God says that He is the only God who exists, the question of other gods is answered. There are no other gods. If another god does exist, then God cannot be the self-existent, all-powerful God. Two all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere-present, infinite spiritual beings cannot coexist.
In the ancient world, people worshipped one or more aspects of the physical world—the sun, the moon, the stars, the sea, animals, etc. They also worshipped various deities such as Baal or Tamuz, which were often represented by figures made of wood, stone, or metal.
Deuteronomy 4:19 And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage.
The Bible says that other gods have no real substance. They are the imagination of people who worship them. They are unable to help, create, save, speak, hear, or have a relationship with people.
Galatians 4:8 But, then indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods.
1 Corinthians 8:4-6
4 Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one.
5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords),
6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.
Scripture tells us that the other gods are not to be compared with the one, true God.
Isaiah 46:5-7
5 "To whom will you liken Me, and make Me equal And compare Me, that we should be alike?
6 They lavish gold out of the bag, And weigh silver on the scales; They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god; They prostrate themselves, yes, they worship.
7 They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it And set it in its place, and it stands; From its place it shall not move. Though one cries out to it, yet it cannot answer Nor save him out of his trouble.
These so-called gods were inventions in the minds of people who rejected the truth of the one true God. Only the God of the Bible has real substance. The psalmist wrote:
Psalm 115:3-8
3 But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases.
4 Their idols are silver and gold, The work of men's hands.
5 They have mouths, but they do not speak; Eyes they have, but they do not see;
6 They have ears, but they do not hear; Noses they have, but they do not smell;
7 They have hands, but they do not handle; Feet they have, but they do not walk; Nor do they mutter through their throat.
8 Those who make them are like them; So is everyone who trusts in them.
Isaiah 44:9,13-20
9 Those who make an image, all of them are useless, And their precious things shall not profit; They are their own witnesses; They neither see nor know, that they may be ashamed.
13 The craftsman stretches out his rule, He marks one out with chalk; He fashions it with a plane, He marks it out with the compass, And makes it like the figure of a man, According to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house.
14 He cuts down cedars for himself, And takes the cypress and the oak; He secures it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a pine, and the rain nourishes it.
15 Then it shall be for a man to burn, For he will take some of it and warm himself; Yes, he kindles it and bakes bread; Indeed he makes a god and worships it; He makes it a carved image, and falls down to it.
16 He burns half of it in the fire; With this half he eats meat; He roasts a roast, and is satisfied. He even warms himself and says, "Ah! I am warm, I have seen the fire."
17 And the rest of it he makes into a god, His carved image. He falls down before it and worships it, Prays to it and says, "Deliver me, for you are my god!"
18 They do not know nor understand; For He has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, And their hearts, so that they cannot understand.
19 And no one considers in his heart, Nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say, "I have burned half of it in the fire, Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals; I have roasted meat and eaten it; And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?"
20 He feeds on ashes; A deceived heart has turned him aside; And he cannot deliver his soul, Nor say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?"
Jeremiah 10:14 Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge; Every metalsmith is put to shame by an image; For his molded image is falsehood, And there is no breath in them.
Jeremiah 51:17,18
17 Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge; Every metalsmith is put to shame by the carved image; For his molded image is falsehood, And there is no breath in them.
18 They are futile, a work of errors; In the time of their punishment they shall perish.
Jews and New Testament Christians alike confronted other cultures with different religions. But the response is always the same from a Biblical perspective. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the only true God. The others are false and fake. The one God who made the heavens and the earth is the only true God. His name is Yahweh.
Other gods are not always idols. They can be anything we place higher than God in our lives. The Bible defines these as idols. They can be money and possessions, food and careers, or people and relationships. Anything or anyone we place above God is another god. Our marriages, best friends, jobs, houses, habits, and hobbies all take a backseat to the One who numbers our days.
Philippians 3:18,19
18 For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame--who set their mind on earthly things.
The point is that the true God is not only number one but the only one.
Why do people worship other gods?
Is Satan behind the worship of other gods? The answer is yes. Other gods are not Satan or devils, but they are behind their worship.
Though other gods and their idols are nothing, Satan has deceived humans into the illusion that these gods have supernatural powers that can protect and provide for them. Satan never comes to humans directly to tempt them into sin. The only person on earth, to whom Satan appeared personally is Jesus. Satan always uses deceptive devices. Deceptions are falsehoods that appear like truth but are rebellion against God.
2 Corinthians 2:11 lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.
1 Corinthians 8:4–7
4 Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one.
5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords),
6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.
7 However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
The first sin came into this world through the deception of satan. He deceived Adam and Eve. The fall of humans is different from the fall of rebellious angels from Heaven. The evil angels were not deceived by any outside agency. Their choice was not a result of temptation. Pride caused their hearts to rebel against God.
Ezekiel 28:16,17
16 "By the abundance of your trading You became filled with violence within, And you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing Out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones.
17 "Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, That they might gaze at you.
But humans were deceived into sin by an outside agency called satan.
Genesis 3:13 And the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
2 Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
1 Timothy 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.
Revelations 20:10 The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Genesis 3 narrates the fall of humans. The story begins by saying that the serpent was a cunning animal. That is, the story begins by informing us that it is a story of deception and fall.
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?"
Revelation 12;9 and 20:2 say that the dragon, serpent of old is called the Devil and Satan.
Revelation 12:9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Revelation 20:2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;
Though the Jewish traditions say that Adam was absent at the time of Eve’s conversation with the serpent, the narration of the event implies that Adam was with Eve.
Genesis 3:6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. (NKJV)
Genesis 3:6 … She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. (NIV – New International version)
Genesis 3:6 … So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. (NLT – New Living Translation)
Genesis 3:6 … she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate. (AMP - amplified Bible)
The footnote in AMP says that Eve might have given the fruit to Adam sometime later. Jewish tradition says that Adam was absent at the time of Eve’s conversation with the serpent (according to the Talmud). But all the above translations support the view that Adam was with Eve during the conversation between she and satan.
But the serpent talked to Eve, and only she replied. We have no record of any conversation with Adam, and hence we are not sure whether he too took part in it.
From the incident in the Garden of Eden, we infer the following facts:
1. Demonic spirits are spiritual beings and hence immaterial and invisible to the human eye, unless they appear in any form that is visible to humans.
2. They can indwell in any living creature. In the Garden of Eden, satan appeared to humans, possessing a serpent.
3. Satan came to Adam and Eve with a seemingly better theology. He confused Eve about her understanding of God’s commands and then presented an apparently correct theology. He gave a new explanation to the old verse. He offered a better way to become like God. Becoming like God is not sin. But becoming God is rebellion and sin.
Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
To achieve his goal, the positiveness in God’s command was rephrased into a negative sense. God spoke "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat", but satan rephrased it to "'You shall not eat of every tree...".
Genesis 2:16, 17
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
17 "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
Genesis 3:1 … And he (the serpent) said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" (NKJV - New King James Version)
Genesis 3:1 … He said to the woman, "Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?" (NIV – New International Version)
Genesis 3:1 … One day he asked the woman, "Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?" (NLT – New Living Translation)
4. It seems Eve was not firmly rooted in the word of God. She understood from Adam that God said something like this, but she was not sure why God said so, what God’s purpose was, or what exactly would happen if they disobeyed the commandments. She was not serious about God’s commands. So, she thought that they could live the other way too.
5. Through the conversation, satan developed a relationship with Adam and Eve. After thoroughly confusing Eve, satan presented his final false revelation.
Genesis 3:4,5
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die.
5 "For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
6. Satan’s new interpretation is that "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" is the tree of knowledge. There is no death in it. It will open your eyes, and "you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Satan’s new revelation says that the consequence of sin is a foolish tale. Becoming like God by knowing good and evil is his new theology.
7. On these foundations, satan deceived Adam and Eve.
Genesis 3:6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
Deception is the key weapon of satan. He successfully used it in the Garden of Eden. He has been using the same device since then.
Hebrews 3:12,13
12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;
13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
John 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
So satan has been deceiving humans with the falsehood that the other gods they create have divine power.
The deception
How satan has been deceiving humans into thinking that other gods are divine Worshipping other gods gives a false sense of security from a source other than God. Other gods demanded obedience and sacrifice. They promise material blessings according to human appetites.
Whereas God advises us to forget the material and hope for the spiritual. This fundamental difference makes it completely impossible for two diametrically opposed systems to merge in any way.
Hebrews 11:9, 10
9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;
10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Philippians 3:13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
A false sense of security and a promise of material blessings give the illusion of divine control and providence to human beings. Humans are generally prone to seek illusions of control, means to "get what I want", and false moral justifications to serve their appetites. But such a relationship is false and ultimately self-destructive. Accordingly, God forbids such activity.
In contrast to other gods, the only true God desires His people to live in current reality rather than illusion. God is in control.
So, the deceived humans created other gods and idols to live in a false sense of security and control over a supernatural power.
Isaiah 44:20 He (one who worship idols) feeds on ashes; A deceived heart has turned him aside; And he cannot deliver his soul, Nor say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?"
Romans 1:20-25
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,
21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man--and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.
25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
Last words
Let us conclude this study with the following verses:
1 Corinthians 10:19-21
19 What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything?
20 Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.
21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons.
1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Isaiah 44:20 He feeds on ashes; A deceived heart has turned him aside; And he cannot deliver his soul, Nor say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?"
An idol is only human imagination and a product of his craftiness. It is a false god. It has no life, power, or existence as a god. It is nothing. But satan has deceived humans into the illusion that the other gods have control over them. This provides humans with a false sense of security and provision. Since the idols cannot receive anything from humans, whatever they sacrifice is done to the devil, who works behind the other gods. To partake of the demon's table is forbidden to God’s people.
John, in his epistle, testifies that there are evil spirits in this world. They are working even as prophets. We should keep ourselves away from them. That means, evil spirits are not limited to other gods represented by idols. Anything that is against the Kingdom of God is a false God.
A deceived heart cannot save itself. He must be regenerated by the Holy Spirit to receive God’s grace and faith in the true God.
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