Deuteronomy

None Other Gods

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: 13-110

Genre: Talk

Track: 013

Dictation Name: RR187G13

Location/Venue:

Year: 1993

Let us worship God. Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest and causes to approach unot Thee that he may dwell in Thy courts and be satisfied with Thy goodness, even of Thy house, of Thy holy temple. Oh come let us sing unto the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise to Him with psalms. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God we come into Thy presence joyful in Thy mercies. Delighted with Thy word. Expectant of all Thy promises to us in Christ Jesus. Strengthen us by Thy word and by Thy spirit that we may be enabled to do that which Thou wouldst have us to do, to serve Thee with all our heart, mind and being. WE come knowing that Thou art He who dost undertake for us. Not in our wisdom but in Thine wisdom. Not in terms of our expectations but in terms of Thy sure mercies. Bless us and use us. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Our scripture is Deuteronomy 5:7. Our subject: None Other Gods. Deuteronomy 5:7. None other Gods.

“Thou shalt have none other gods before Me. “

This the first commandment is the fundamental one. The whole of Biblical faith rests on this premise, none other gods. The issue is polytheism versus theism. God’s many versus the triune God. This issue in the modern age has been a concealed one because polytheism is now identified with ancient pagan faiths such as Greek or Roman where a whole pantheon of gods were recognized. Rome regularly added gods to that pantheon, usually dead emperors.

Polytheism is held by scholars to be a phase in the development of evolving man, from gods many to one God to no god than to the triumph of reason and science. In this evolutionary view prior to polytheism there was pantheism and pandemonism. This evolutionary perspective was in evidence very early among the Greeks for example. Syphones called attention to the fact that the Ethiopians believed that the gods were black and flat nosed whereas for the parathions the gods were red haired and blue eyed. Well this tells us something about polytheism. First, in polytheism the gods are created in the image of men. They reflect their color, their cultural outlook, their ideas. When God bans all other gods he denies to men the freedom to make a religion to suit his needs and desires. This is a major temptation for men. They want a god in their own image. Too many times I have heard people declare that they cannot believe in a god who would ordain things which they find morally reprehensible. Man’s fallen moral sense is used by such people as a standard which God must meet and by which he must be judged. This is idolatry and a form of self-worship. Such people are affirming that their moral judgment is god over all. None other gods means that our will and reason cannot function as judges over God. Then second, a very revealing fact about polytheism as for example among the Greeks and Romans is the immorality of the gods.

In Greek and Roman mythology the gods and goddesses freely and without conscience practiced adultery, deceit and much more. To be a god was to be beyond good and evil. The thinking of Niche was anticipated by Greco-Roman paganism, polytheism. The Roman emperors on their way to deification anticipated it by their flagrant contempt for morality. When they became emperors they felt they could flout every moral law because they were on their way to becoming gods. They held other men to their word while feeling personally exempt from any faithfulness to their own word. Power for them meant the privilege of exemption from the moral and legal ties binding ordinary mortals. And through the centuries ungodly men as they gained power feel that they are now exempt from the laws that bind ordinary people. But our Lord requires a way of life radically at odds with the pagan way. We read in Luke 22:25-26 the kings of the gentiles exercise lordship over them and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors but ye shall not be so. But he that is greatest among you let him be as the younger and he that is the chief is he that dost serve. Again in Luke 12:38 our Lord says ‘for whom so ever much is given of him shall be much required and to whom men have committed much of him they shall ask the more’. Statements such as these and others make clear that the whole order of paganism and polytheism is rejected by our Lord. The greater the privilege the greater the responsibility and the greater the accountability. In the pagan perspective statists confer exemption from morality and law.

For example, Cicero defended [unknown] on a rape charge in 54 B.C. by saying that it was an old privilege of aristocratic youth and while his client was innocent the act was one and I quote: “he was privileged, permitted by privilege to commit.” Unquote. It could thus be said of polytheism that the greater the status and privilege the greater the freedom from law and morality. In this perspective the people in power have the right to use those below them at their will and how they will. And this has been the working idea of polytheism. Then third, polytheism is implicit if not explicit in every society where the church is reduced by its own thinking to the spiritual sphere only. Theology is rightly the queen of the sciences, of all areas of life and learning. To separate the various areas and to affirm what Clark Kirr, a multiverse and a multiversity instead of a universe and a university is to affirm polytheism. The appeal of this to the modern mind as to pagan man is that it is the denial of any overarching and absolute truth and a denial of the god of truth. A multiverse of values means that men can choose their values and their life style. And this is what modern education holds to. Homosexuality, necrophilia, incest, bestiality, theft, murder, lies and more all gain an equal liberty as lifestyles. In a world that affirms democracy this means that all men have an equal right to play god and to live according to the morality of their choice. Our present moral decay is a product of this polytheistic faith. We cannot recover as a people and a culture without obedience to this first commandment. Thou shalt have none other gods before Me.

Then fourth, we are the most dangerous of these other gods. Our original sin is that in Adam we have as our essential urge the submission to the tempters program. In Genesis 3:4-5: “Ye shall not surely die. For God doeth now that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil.” Man’s original sin is his will to be his own god, his own determiner of what is good and evil, of law and morality and one whose eyes are open in that he knows himself to be the master of the world. It’s God, not God’s covenanted worker for the kingdom of God. So, when God forbids all other gods He means emphatically that we ourselves must recognize that as His creation we must serve and obey Him. Our Lord, the last Adam is very man of very man and he set the pattern for us in the garden of Gethsemane praying with respect to the crucifixion: oh my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt. All the commandments are governed by this one. Thou shouldst have none other gods before me. It establishes priority in our lives. Our Lord says if ye love Me, keep My commandments and again in answer to the question ‘which is the great commandment in the law?’ ‘Thou shouldst love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment’. Faith, love and obedience are simply different facets of the same fact, knowing and rejoicing our status as the creation of God. Let us pray.

Our Father, we acknowledge that too often we have had other gods before Thee. Most of all ourselves, Lord forgive us, give us grace to give thee priority in all things. To know that Thou art God and beside Thee there is none other. Teach us to love and serve Thee with all our heart, mind and being. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson?

As we shall see as we go through the law, this sets the temper for all law, the priority of God and His will. That God requires that with all our heart, mind and being, we give Him the priority. And the problem in our modern world is that Christianity has ceased to be theistic. It sees one God in the church and one in education, too often, another in the state, another in the workplace and so on. This is polytheism. Every area of life and thought must be governed by this. Thou shouldst have none other gods before Me. But there are no questions or comments, let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father we thank Thee for the truth of Thy word. Thy word is quicker and sharper than any two edged sword. It cuts to the heart of all issues, to the heart of Thy being and it enables us to see things truly and holy. Grant oh Lord that we give ourselves unto Thee and to Thy word day by day. That we become the people of Thy word and of Thy spirit. That we rejoice in the things that are of Thee. That we say with our Lord, not my will, but Thine be done. How great Thou art oh Lord and how merciful unto us. We thank Thee for Thy patience with us and for Thy mercies. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, Amen.