How many gods are there? Why would god order you not to worship OTHER god's if there's only 1?

Question

1 ”You shall have no other gods before Me.”

2 "You shall not make any graven image or likeness of any other god. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

No, Billy. If he said this, then there MUST have been others. Or the whole bible is false.

Answer 1

What kind of jealous God is this who loves those who worship him and brings his wrath on those who do not bow down to him instead of blessing the right people and destroying the wrong ones. Why is this God so scared of other gods? He doesn't sound like God.

Answer 2

Who's to say that all the other religions have it wrong and Christianity has it right? Not me. I am a Christian, but I look at the facts and what individual religions believe. Muslims call him Allah, The Native Americans called him Great Spirit. What does Allah translate to in English? God. That doesn't mean that it's a different god, just a different path to get there. There are a lot of similarities between the major religions of today. Why does one have to be the "right one" and the rest completely wrong. As long as you get to the same destination, what does it matter which path you took.
1. The Old Testament is more a guideline in Christianity. The New Testament is where the basis of our religion comes from. Christ - Christianity, get it?
2. God was refering to man made or created idols of worship. Cars, money, material things.

Answer 3

That's what I always say. Not only are their other gods, but God is frightened enough of them that he made that the FIRST commandment.
And also note the wording "no other gods BEFORE ME" meaning that as long as he's worshiped as top banana, he doesn't care if we worship others.
As far as the other paragraph goes, to broadly interpret it, our avatars and every photo of a person, every statue, the Mona Lisa, are all against the bible because they are a likeness of something on earth. Even the drawings I did as a child of my cat and guinea pig I guess are enough to send me straight into the pit of hell.
Good thing I'm pagan now and don't believe in hell anymore.

Answer 4

Because many religions were (and are) polytheistic; that is, they believe in more than one god. I'm sure you've come across this in school when you studied Greek and Roman mythology, for example. Judeo/Christian religions are monotheistic; that is, they worship only one god. It makes sense for that god to have allegedly said, hey, worship only me.
Just be aware that this is only a different type of mythology.
And I don't think some of you should be commenting on or criticizing religions you know nothing about. Just because a religion is the one you happen to believe in doesn't make it any better or worse than any other.

Answer 5

If He clearly states that there are no other gods than Himself, what is the real dilemma?
one must destinguish between a god that is the product of the human imagination that is fasioned in his own image, and the One True God that created all that is in heaven and on earth and everything that there is in..
the term 'god' is not a name, but an object of worship...the real question is, which One the only true God...the product of imagination that is limited by the human ego and mental capacity, or the one that is far beyond human conceptualisation because He was the One to create it?

Answer 6

oh goodness....here we go....Christianity is not the original religion. in fact christianity is based on all other religions, hinduism, judism, even paganism.
Christianity was the religion that took form those religions and never gave anything back. Christianity is also the only religion where suicide is a sin. When christianity says that there is only one god they took that from all other religions, The messiah, Alah, even Zeus in greek mythology has the same classic look as christianity says our god looks like. Almost all religions have one main god. It is foolish for the bible to claim that there is only the one god. If god was truly the creator of all man he would have made the bible in all languages and given it to all nations. my personal belief is that all gods are THE god, should a god exist.

Answer 7

Yes. I fully agree with you that it is not the God who orders but the timid human beings in the name of God because of typical human weakness called feeling of insecurity of getting out numbered by people having different names for the same God.

God is one; it is an axiomatic truth. This needs no proof either, because whether proved or not the position of God remains unchanged. It pre-exists man and will out-exist man. Therefore, it is infinity.

God need not say not to worship any other God. God knows that in what ever name or shape He is worshipped all the prayers reach him alone. He has equal love for believers as well as non-believers. It is we fools who make distinction between human fellow beings as pagans, gentoos, Kafirs, etc. etc. Sooner we realise it is better for the mankind!

Answer 8

If you place your computer as more important than the one trrue God. The computer is your god. if you sit in front of your computer looking at porn instead of reading your bible and studying God's word, the computer is your god.
Satan has a way of perverting everything that God and man has created. How many gods do you worship? Do you worship the one true God and give Him the praise He deserves?

Answer 9

There is only one true God who created everything and everyone, however, anything can be your god - food, sex, mother, father, friend, car, money, etc. A god to us is anything that we love and cherish more than anything and will do anything to get it. God knew humans had this tendency and therefore he established his law that we should not love and worship anything above him which would be make it a god to you.

Answer 10

For the same reason that I would tell you not to read other Bibles -- because they are false and nonexistent. There's only one Bible.

Likewise, God commands us not to worship other gods because ... they don't exist.

If they existed, then surely God wouldn't have any cause to tell us not to worship them. The fact that they don't exist is the ONLY reason not to worship them!