Which God Do You Worship?

 Which God Do You Worship? In the time when paganism was dominant, people tried to worship all the gods in their religion's pantheon, but usually, they held a particular fondness for a certain deity. For instance, Roman soldiers often preferred Mars, the god of war, while their wives offered special devotions to Juno, the goddess of birth and marriage. Sailors honored Neptune, merchants served Mercury, farmers adored Ceres, young girls revered Venus, and so forth. The question, "Which god do you worship?"would not seem all that strange to them. In a Christian society, however, this question would at least be met with a quizzical expression, if not open hostility. Everyone, it seems, worships the same God—even Jews and Muslims and others—as there are many roads to heaven, right? Sothe common belief runs. Widely different religions and sects can hold various and sundry doctrines, and somehow, the idea concludes, their adherents will all wind up in paradise together. It is a nice, inclusive sentiment but hardly truthful from a biblical perspective. I once had a telephone conversation with a man who claims to be a Christian, but by his beliefs, he does not worship the Jesus Christ of the Bible. From what I gathered from his rapid-fire misapplications of Scripture, He believes Jesus Christ was a created angel whom God chose to be His Son. It does not matter that the Bible makes no such claims; in fact, the Bible saysJesus Christ is the Word who has always been God and with God (John1:1; see also the implication of Hebrews 2:5). His name in Old Testament Hebrew, YHWH, He defines as "I am," meaning He has existed eternally (Exodus3:13-14; John 18:4-8). Some people worship a baby in a mother's arms. Others worship a corpse hanging on a pole. Many profess to worship a resurrected Christ who has gone to heaven to sit at the Father's right hand, yet they refuse to follow His message. In fact,they utterly reject what He preached from one end of Israel to the other, preferring to believe that all He really wanted was for people to give their hearts to Him, and all the rest does not matter. These people think that professing His name will be enoughto let them slide by His judgment seat into heaven. Which God do you worship? In this country, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Christs that people worship. The One that we should worship is the Christ of the Bible, for all we really know of Him is revealed there. However, each denomination teaches a slightly different version of Him. The Baptist Jesus resembles the Pentecostal Jesus—not to mention the Methodist Jesus,the Lutheran Jesus, and several other Protestant Jesuses—but the resemblance blurs further when we speak of the Catholic Jesus or the Orthodox Jesus. Then there are the Jesuses of the "cults" and the "heretical sects." Similar but not the same. Which God do you worship? Most nominal Christians would be aghast to find out about the real Jesus. He is far different from the Jesus they learned about in Sunday School. For instance, He kept God's law, including the seventh-day Sabbath and holy days, and enjoined others to do likewise. He was circumcised on the eighth day, and His parents made the proper sacrifice after His birth. He went to the synagogue every Sabbath—not Sunday—and read and taught from the Old Testament. Physically, He was a rugged, strong man, a builder in stone and wood. Twice, He angrily chased men and animals out of the Temple with a whip made of cords. He probably spoke Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin (or was fluent in the first two languagesand knew at least bits of the last two). He likely wore His hair short, as was proper for a Jewish man in his day, and He spoke with authority, not softly and weakly. He lived His life as He did so that we would have an example to follow. Before taking the title of Christian—follower of Christ—we had better understand the One we follow. Remember His warning: Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast our demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?" And I will declare to them, "I neverknew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness" (Matthew7:21-23). We cannot truly worship Him if we do not know Him, and we will never really know Him unless we follow His example. - Richard T. Ritenbaugh