One True God Series

Introduction

Welcome to Week 2 in our series foundations with the Bible engagement app. I'm so glad that you've chosen to join us this morning as we continue to look at our foundations in the word and what we believe here at gateway Christian community.

If you missed last week, I'm really sorry but it didn't get recorded you had to be here but last week we talked about how the Bible is the inspired word of God useful in teaching us what is true making us realize what is wrong in our lives correcting us when we're wrong and teaching us what to do right. Further the Bible is what God uses us to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.

This week we're talking about something that is so fundamental to Christianity and to humanity as a whole. Today we're talking about who God is and understanding his true nature towards his creation. The Bible never gives an argument for the existence of God it's simply recognizes that God must be. Genesis 1:1 starts “in the beginning God…” Psalm 14:1 declares, “Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good!”

The existence of God is so fundamental to human thinking that to abandon this concept is to embark into a wild desert that leaves us without meaning or purpose. Today there are plenty of people that question the existence of God but just about without fail they are searching for meaning and purpose in this life. Recently I've been working with an individual who had lost his purpose when his marriage fell apart. He had said to me I don't need to go to church they don't teach true Christianity anyway I've read the Bible, and it just doesn't seem like there is such a God as the God the Bible talks about. We spent almost an hour talking about spiritualism and in the end, he still admitted that there must be a God, but he just doesn't believe in the God of the Bible.

Well church Satan’s goal is to steal kill and destroy he is the father of lies and if he can get you to deny the existence of God or deny the God of the Bible then he has gotten you on a path straight to hell and it will only change when you acknowledge the existence of God the creator and who he is.

Historical Story

In 1913 a great crowd gathered in the Arroyo Seco Of South Pasadena, California, to hear Mrs. Mariah Woodworth-Etter and what was called a worldwide Pentecostal camp meeting. One night an immigrant from Danzig, Germany John Scheppe, woke everyone up shouting the name of Jesus. He had just received a vision that made him feel that Jesus needed to be given a greater honor.

One of the pastors present, Fank J Ewart, a former Baptist minister, soon took advantage of this and said that the best way to give honor to Jesus was to have everybody rebaptized water in the name of Jesus only. Soon somewhere declaring that those who refuse this rebaptism would actually lose their salvation. They declared that there is only one person in the godhead: Jesus, who filled the offices or modes of father son and Holy Spirit as the time or occasion demanded. Those who revived this doctrine soon became known as Jesus name, Jesus only, or oneness, and they referred to their doctrine as quote the new issue End Quote although they had actually revived a very old heresy dating all the way back to the 3rd century AD but had been rejected by the majority of Christians in those days.

Shortly after the Assemblies of God was formed in 1914 some began to spread this doctrine among the movements. To counteract this, the general counsel of the Assemblies of God met in 1916 To define the terms the distinctions and relationships of the godhead and to solidify this foundational statement:

WE Believe there is one God, eternally existent in three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19; John 14:16–17).1

But who is this God that we're talking about? From the beginning of time the world has tried to define their idea of God and make him in their own image… to mold him as idols in the form of man or of animals to be able to control who he is but this goes against the very nature of who God is and the fact that we , humankind, are made in his image.

From a secular viewpoint God is one of many ways to get to heaven. Many see God as the author of the chaos that is in the world today. So many equate the creator God with the god of Islam. We worship the same God, right? That is what the god of this world would have you believe. But it is not true. The truth is that many people believe in a god of their own creation and expect him to live up to their expectations.