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1. No other God

Some years ago, I served as a pastor in Kandy, a beautiful town in the central highlands of Sri Lanka. I was responsible for a weekly Bible study program for the SCM students at the university in an adjoining town. One day we were discussing a Hindu festival that was being planned to be held on the campus. "We usually do not go to the festival," said one of the students, "because we don't worship the Hindu God." The formulation of that statement fascinated me. "Do you mean that you don't agree with the way that Hindus understand God," I asked her, "or are you saying that there is a Hindu God, different from a Christian God?" "I don't know," she said with some hesitation, aware now that I had difficulties with what she had said. "But don't the Hindus and Muslims worship their gods, but we worship the true God revealed to us in Jesus Christ?"

 

This indeed is the crux of the issue with regard to the Bible and people of other faiths. In one sense, what my student friend said is true. There is in fact a Christian, a Hindu and a Muslim conception of God and, when worship is offered, people have a particular conception of God with which others may agree or disagree. One must say that, even within the same religion, sometimes one's own conception of God is very different from another person's. But how many gods are there in the universe and beyond it? Are there many gods to choose from? Is there room for a Christian god, a Hindu god and a Muslim god?

 

Beginning where it all began

The whole Bible stands on one firm foundation: there is one God, no other. Apostasy in the Bible is to believe that there are other gods, that they are real, and to worship them. The Bible therefore begins with creation, a biblical concept that is funda­mental to our relationship with people of other faiths.

Significantly, it is the story not of the creation of the church, or of Christians, not even of Israel, but of the cosmos: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." This belief that God is the creator of everything and everybody is basic to the Bible. There is nothing that is outside God's providence; there is no life, no experience, no worship, no liberation, no salvation that can happen outside the scope of God's love and knowledge. This theme of the universal lordship of God over all creation is the resounding theme of many of the psalms: "The

 

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world and all that is in it belong to the Lord; the earth and all who live on it is his" (Ps. 24).

The creation psalms make the claim that all life totally and entirely depends on this one God for its being. Psalm 104 presents this thought in beautiful poetry:

 

Lord, you have made so many things!

How wisely you have made them all!

The earth is filled with your creatures...

all of them depend on you

to give them food when they need it.

You give it to them, and they eat it;

you provide food, and they are satisfied.

When you turn away, they are afraid;

when you take away their breath they die

and go back to the dust from which they came.

But when you give them breath they are created;

you give new life to the earth (vv. 24-30).

 

The basic assumption of the Bible, then, is that there is no other provider but God - the one God - who is the creator of everyone. People may or may not have an adequate understand­ing of who this God is, and their worship may or may not do justice to their understanding of God; but ultimately this one God provides for them all. Therefore, from God's side there can only be one family, the human family.

 

Universal Covenant

The opening chapters of Genesis are not about any particular groups of people but about the whole human family. In the Bible, Adam and Eve are prototypes of every human person, of whatever religion or race. They are created in the "image and likeness" of God. God blessed them abundantly and assigned to them the care of the earth.

 

In the same way, the tragedy of human alienation from God, depicted in the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, is also a paradigm of the predicament of the whole human race. It is meant as a story that describes the broken state of relationship between God and every human being.

 

It is indeed significant that the Bible begins with the affirma­tion of the common humanity of all people, both in their participation in the life of God (image) and in their state of

 

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alienation from that source of life (in the "fall"). Even though the Bible story is, only one way of describing who human beings are and how they relate to God, it is surely not without interest that the opening chapters choose to speak of the human family as a whole rather than deal with a section of it.

 

It does not stop there either. These chapters go on to develop the concept of God's covenant relationship with the whole human family. The Universal Covenant, which God makes with Noah (ch.9), goes in fact beyond humanity to embrace all living things. It is a moving account of God's compassion for all creatures and God's decision to bless them again that they might multiply and fill the earth.

 

The special word "covenant", which implies mutual trust and responsibility, is used to describe the relationship between God and all of creation. It is signed and sealed, as it were, by the sign of the rainbow:

 

As a sign of this everlasting covenant, which I am making with all living beings, I am putting my bow in the clouds. It will be a sign of my covenant with the world... when the rainbow appears in the

clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between me and all living beings on earth... (Gen. 9:12, 16).

 

The opening chapters of the Bible, up to Genesis 12, where God calls Abram, who was later named Abraham, are an affirmation of God's relationship with all people. The biblical story could easily have begun with chapter 12 with the call of Abraham. But there seems to be almost a conscious attempt to place the story of Israel in the broader context of God's creative, redemptive and covenant relationship with the whole of human­ity and all created order.

 

The Chosen People

From Genesis chapter 12, however, this universal story narrows down to the story of Israel. It is important to note this, because one can never understand the Bible unless one recog­nizes that from this point onwards the Bible is primarily con­cerned with the story of Israel and not of other nations. The other nations, their histories and their faiths, are considered mainly from the standpoint of Israel. In fact, the histories of great empires like those of Egypt, Assyria and Babylon are all

 

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seen from the standpoint of Israel’s history and religion, and not from the perspective that God is God over all nations.

 

It is also important to consider some of the elements involved in this narrowing down of the scope of the Hebrew Scriptures that are called "Old Testament" in the Bible used by Christians. For it has much to do with the self-understanding of the church and its relationship with people of other faiths.

Three aspects stand out. First, there are many clear passages in the Bible, which say that God chose the nation of Israel to be God's own people. This is seen as a conscious choice that God makes from among all the nations. Second, there is the under­standing that God made a fresh covenant with Abraham, reaffirmed many times, especially through the covenant with Moses based on the Law. Third, there is also the belief that Israel is the "light to the nations", or that God will bless the nations through Israel.

 

The church, which grew out of Israel, inherited all these three, appropriating them as part of its understanding of the church's relationship with God. In fact, the church went further than Israel and claimed that God has expressed a new prefer­ence. Thus, the special scriptures of the Christians (called the New Testament) claimed that the Christians were the true Israel, God's chosen people for the new age, which Jesus inaugurated. The teaching comes through in the writings of Paul, Peter and the author of the Letter to the Hebrews. "But you are the chosen race, the King's priests, and the holy nation. God's own people," writes Peter to the Christians under persecution. "At one time you were not God's people, but now you are his people; at one time you did not know God's mercy, but now you have received his mercy" (1 Pet. 2:10).

           

The Christian community was also convinced that God has made a new covenant with the followers of Christ. That was why the Hebrew Scriptures, which became part of the Christian Bible, were called the Old Testament, meaning the old covenant, and the Christian writings were classified as the New Testa­ment, or new covenant. Paul argues that the old covenant, based on the Law, leads to death, and the new covenant, based on grace, leads to life (Gal. 3). He goes on further to contrast Adam with Christ. The creative order based on Adam, who was created of dust, leads to death, but the creative order based on

 

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Christ, the new humanity, leads to life eternal (Rom. 5). Thus, "if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation" (Cor. 5).

 

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews takes every institution on which the life and faith of Israel is based - the temple, the sacrifice, the Law, the high priest who mediates between God and people - and attempts to show how and why the Christian community is the true Israel that has replaced the old.

 

The church, it is further claimed, is "the light of the nations". It is through its ministry that the nations are to taste the joy of salvation. To begin with, the claim is made for the Logos, the Word that became flesh. He is "the real light - the light that comes into the world and shines on all mankind" (John 1:9). Very soon, however, the community that accepted him as Lord and bore his name is seen as the channel, at least the agent, of salvation. This community, according to Peter, has been called "out of darkness into his own marvelous light" (1 Pet. 2:9). Paul is convinced that the ministry of reconciliation is entrusted to this community. They are now "the chosen race", "the holy nation" and "God's own people".

 

Does God choose nations?

The church's understanding that it is the newly chosen people has created great difficulties in its relationship with the Jewish people. St Paul in his Letter to the Romans deals with this difficulty at some length and attempts to arrive at some com­promise, which need not concern us at this point. But since Judaism continues to this day as a living, vital religion, and believes that the covenant which God made with Abraham, Jacob, Moses and others are valid to this day, we are faced with the anomaly of conflicting claims to the status of God's chosen people.

 

This is a difficult subject, and a sensitive one. Here we deal with the self-understandings of distinct religious communities, which hold so much meaning for them. And yet any discussion of God and the people of other faiths cannot avoid facing this question of God's choice of peoples.

 

The first question, therefore, is whether God in fact chose Israel from among the nations for a special ministry and rela­tionship. Unfortunately, there can be no objective answer to this question. A Jew would have no doubt about this because that is

 

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precisely what it means to be a Jew, and their scripture bears ample testimony to it.

 

To a Hindu this may appear an extraordinary claim, for how can one say that God did not, or does not, choose other nations and establish special relationships with them? How does one deal with the equally strongly held convictions in the sacred scriptures of others where God is said to have revealed the divine will for them, and has asked them to be a light to the nations?

 

Can we therefore conclude that Israel and the church were misguided in their belief that they have a special relationship with God? Indeed, we cannot. We must respect Abraham's conviction that God had called him out of Ur with a definite purpose and for a special relationship. If we have no objective evidence to confirm it, neither do we have evidence to con­tradict it. In the same way we cannot prove or disprove, accept or reject, Israel's belief expressed in their scriptures that they are a covenant people chosen by God. It is a self-understanding that governs the whole of the life of Israel.

 

Outside the context of faith, however, and the community which lives by that faith, such claims have little value or relevance. While the belief that God chooses one nation over another looks natural to Israel and to the church, a Hindu will find it difficult to accept that God can ever do such a thing. A Muslim will claim that inasmuch as the Prophet has had the latest revelation, the Qur'an now reveals the definitive will of God. Christians tend to treat the choice of the Jewish people as the preparation for the new community in Christ. What have we to say about these other claims?

 

God of the nations

When we return to the Bible, we do not get much help. For the Bible, as we have said, are the history and the celebration of the faith of the Jewish and Christian peoples. It reflects and reinforces their self-understanding.

 

A closer look at the Bible, however, also reveals a parallel tradition. There are a number of passages in scripture, which continue the theme of creation even within the context of Israel's self-understanding. These suggest that Israel's own self-perception cannot be used as a comment on God's relationship

 

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with other nations, whether in love or in judgment. Such verses are few and far between, but they certainly throw some light on our concern.

 

The opening chapter of Amos, for example, puts all nations, including Israel, under God's judgment.

 

The Lord says, the people of Damascus have sinned again and

again, and for this I will punish them...

The people of Edom have sinned again and again, and for this I will

certainly punish them...

The people of Moab have sinned again and again, and for this I will

punish them...

The people of Israel have sinned again and again, and for this I will

certainly punish them.

 

Amos goes much further in chapter 9:

 

The Lord says, "People of Israel, I think as much of the people of Sudan as I do of you. I brought the Philistines from Crete and the Syrians from Kir, just as I brought you from Egypt" (Amos 9:7).

 

It is of course impossible to argue from a single verse in the Bible that there is a clear teaching to the effect that God cares for all nations as he does for Israel, and that he brings all of them out of oppression as he did Israel when they were slaves in Egypt. But Amos' message is indicative of a theme that is in fact present within the Hebrew Bible more often than is realized.

 

The books of Isaiah take up the theme of the universal lordship of God over all nations. Here in many passages the prophet looks forward to the time when harmony will be restored to all nations and indeed to the whole of creation. In chapter 19, for example, the Lord God proclaims himself not so much as the God of Israel as the God of the nations. Egypt and Assyria, the bitter enemies of Israel, are seen to belong to God as much as Israel. There is a promise that God will do for Egypt all that he did for Israel, including the people's redemption from oppression:

 

When the time comes, there will be an altar of the Lord in the land of Egypt and a stone pillar dedicated to him at the Egyptian border. They will be the symbols of the Lord Almighty's presence in Egypt. When the people there are oppressed and call out to the Lord for help, he will send someone to rescue them. The Lord will reveal himself to the Egyptian people and they will acknowledge and worship him and bring him sacrifices and offerings (19:19-21).

 

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The passage goes even further to point out that God will establish this relationship not through Israel but directly, and that Israel itself will be just one among the nations that God loves.

 

When the time comes, there will be a highway between Egypt and Assyria. The people of those two countries will travel to and fro between them, and the two nations will worship together. When that time comes, Israel will rank with Egypt and Assyria, and these three nations will be a blessing to all the world. The Lord Almighty will bless them and say: "I will bless you Egypt, my people; you Assyria, whom I created; and you Israel, my chosen people" (19:23-25).

 

The prophets thus saw God as the Lord of all nations. When Israel overcame other nations, of course it was interpreted as victory given to them by the Lord. But when they were defeated and taken captives, they interpreted it not so much as a victory God gave to other nations as the punishment God meted out to them for the sins of the nation. The logic, however, leads to the conclusion that God is the Lord of the history of all nations.

 

The outstanding acknowledgment of this is seen in Isaiah 45 where Cyrus the king of Persia is called the "chosen" of the Lord:

 

The Lord has chosen Cyrus to be King! He has appointed him to conquer nations;

he sends him to strip kings of their power;

the Lord will open the gates of the cities for him (45:1).

 

There are many similar passages in the Bible, which celebrate the theme of the universal Lordship of God over all peoples and nations.

 

It is obvious that such verses cannot serve as conclusive arguments. For there are many other verses in the Bible that can be cited to show that Israel had a special relationship with God which was not shared by other nations. There are passages that appear exclusive, and judgmental of all other nations.

 

The point we are making here, however, is a different one. The Bible, especially the part that is common to Jews and Christians, is the scripture of the Jewish people. It is based on the self-understanding of the Jewish people as the people of God. It is literature and history interpreted and written within

 

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that self-understanding. Its truth and validity can never be tested or proved outside the context of that faith and self-understand­ing. The people of the Hebrew part of our scripture may even have thought of their choice among nations as an objective truth. And yet the outsider can view it only as a subjective experience. That experience cannot be denied, but it has no meaning for those who are not part of it.

 

The biblical verses we have been looking at are not quoted to disprove that self-understanding, but to show that Israel kept the concept of chosenness within God's universal relationship with all nations. We should remember that it is not outsiders, but Israel's own prophets who remind the nation of its own convic­tion that God rules over all people.

 

The passages also show that Israel constantly kept under review its own self-understanding as the chosen people. They indicate that God's calling of Israel is not so much to be his "favorites" as to fulfill God's own righteousness. It is certainly revealing that Israel's own traditions kept these themes alive within the scripture. However, few the passages may be it is important that they are there and they should inform our understanding of the Bible as a whole.

 

We must now return to where we began this chapter, to the theme of creation.

 

If God is the creator of the whole universe, and its provider, what does it say about those of other faiths? If God has indeed made a universal covenant with the whole creation (in Noah), does God then go back on that covenant?

 

The Christian understanding that the new covenant abrogates, supersedes, or "dates" the earlier ones as "old" is a curious one. It is an attempt to "update" God who is beyond time and in whom time itself has meaning. Does God go back on the covenants he makes?

 

The logical implication of the biblical teaching of God as creator is that God indeed is the creator of all people, whether Christian or Hindu, Jew or Muslim. The biblical teaching that God is the provider simply means that there is no other God who provides; it is God the creator who provides for all living beings. All beings live, move, and have their being in that God. There is no Christian God, Hindu God or Muslim God; there can only be Christian, Hindu and Muslim understandings

 

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of God – or the denial that God exists by those who do not want to believe in God. The biblical teaching is that there are no two gods, only God. There can be no other god.

 

This point needs to be emphasized over and over again because the university student who talked of a "Hindu God" is not untypical of the average Christian in Asia. While the average Christian in Asia would affirm, at the intellectual and doctrinal level, that there is one God, there is a functional polytheism that pervades the Asian Christian way of dealing with people of other faiths. One only needs to probe at some depth, as I have done a number of times, to discover that it is the Christian, and not the Hindu as is often claimed, who is the polytheist. For while a Hindu will have no problem in affirming that we worship the one God, the Christian will have consider­able difficulty. Somehow, God in the Christian mind has become "a tribal God". Christians have enormous difficulty in accepting that the Hindu, the Buddhist and the communist are in fact created and sustained by God the creator to whom the Bible bears witness.

 

Let me anticipate a possible misunderstanding here. What we have said so far about the implications of the biblical under­standing of God as creator does not mean that all religions are the same. Nor does it warrant the assertion that "all religions lead to the same goal". No, it does not mean that people have the same or equally valid understandings of the nature of the ultimate reality in which they have their being. Not all religions have equally challenging ways of describing what one's faith in God involves for human relationships and social ordering. Not all religions show us how to relate to these in a way that really fulfills the purposes of creation. Religions differ. They are not the same. They are not equally valid nor equally true. But while they are different, each holds enormous validity and truth for its own believers. And all of them have in them their demonic elements as well.

 

But what the above consideration does mean is that there is no person, no history, no culture, no spirituality that is outside God's creation and providence. What it does mean is that all yearnings for God, all attempts to know and love God, however right or wrong, appropriate or inappropriate, happen within God's providence. A radical recovery of God as creator means

 

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that my Hindu or Buddhist neighbor, whether I like or dislike the way he or she worships God, is still the child of God. God is as much his or her creator as I am. For there is no other God but the God who is the source of all being.

 

It is in this context that we must look at the doctrine of election, or the understanding that one or another religious group has that it is "chosen" by God. Such a self-understanding is valid only insofar as it does not violate the doctrine of God as creator. Israel's or the church's understanding that they are the chosen people is only a comment about themselves and not about others. The claim in Amos that the Lord brought "the Philistines from Crete and the Syrians from Kir" and the affirmation in Isaiah that "Israel will rank with Egypt and Assyria" are a corrective to the possible conclusion that God has abandoned the other nations or does not listen to their cries.

 

Christian theology should allow God to be God; it should not own God, as we own a piece of private property. We cannot fence God in and say: "Well, if you want to know God, come through this gate." We do not own God; God owns us, and God owns the whole of creation. This is the message of the Bible.

 

It is this biblical faith that drives us into dialogue. If my Hindu, Buddhist, or Muslim neighbor is as much a child of God as I am, and if nothing that either of us does to reach or know God can fall outside the mercy and the providence of God, then we are indeed brothers and sisters. We are pilgrims, not strangers. We have much to learn from each other. We belong together to God our common creator.

 

Perhaps this section may be concluded with an interesting insight from a less familiar book in the Bible, which carries a warning against making a private property of God.

 

The Book of Malachi was written in the fifth century B.C., after the temple of Jerusalem was rebuilt. The prophet's own intention is to call the people of Israel to a renewed faithfulness to God. In fact, he is not speaking about God and the people of other faiths. But in the course of challenging the priests to commit themselves to sincere worship, he comes out with a startling statement. "Now, you priests," he says, "try asking God to be good to us. He will not answer your prayer, and it will be your fault... I am not pleased with you; I will not accept the offering you bring to me" (1:9-10).

 

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And then comes the challenge:

 

People from one end of the world to the other honor me. Everywhere they bum incense to me and offer acceptable sacrifices. All of them honor me.

 

It proves nothing. But it stands as a constant reminder that ultimately the point of reference of the biblical religion is the God of creation in whom all people live and to whom all people belong.