True Christianity: The Portable New Century Edition, Volume 1

it is necessary to begin with the oneness of God, and to prove it point
by point:

1. The whole of Sacred Scripture teaches that there is one God, and

therefore so do the theologies of the churches in the Christian world.

2. The recognition that God exists and that there is one God flows

universally into human souls.

3. As a result, every nation in the whole world that possesses religion and

sound reason acknowledges that God exists and that there is one God.

4. For various reasons, different nations and peoples have had and still

have a diversity of opinions on the nature of that one God.

5. On the basis of many phenomena in the world, human reason is

capable of perceiving and concluding, if it wants to, that God exists

and that there is one God.

6. If there were not one God the universe could not have been created

or maintained.

7. Those who do not acknowledge God are cut off from the church

and damned.

8. Nothing about the church is integrated in people who acknowledge

many gods rather than one.

These points will be explored one by one.

1. The whole of Sacred Scripture teaches that God exists and that there is 6
   one God, and therefore so do all the theologies of the churches in the Chris-
   tian world.The whole of Sacred Scripture teaches that God exists,
   because at the core of Sacred Scripture there is nothing but God, or the
   divine quality that comes from God. Scripture was dictated by God and
   nothing else can come from God except what is God and is called divine.
   This is what lies at the heart of Scripture. In the derivative layers of
   Scripture that come from that heart and lie below it, however, Sacred
   Scripture has been adapted to the comprehension of both angels and
   people in the world. In these layers too there is divineness, but in differ-
   ent forms that are called heavenly, spiritual, and earthly divine qualities.
   They are in fact the layered clothes of God. What God himself is like at
   the heart of the Word is something that cannot be seen by any created
   person or thing. When Moses prayed to see the glory of Jehovah, Jehovah
   replied that no one can see God and live [Exodus 33 : 20 ]. The situation at
   the heart of the Word is similar, where God exists in his own underlying
   reality and his own essence.
   [ 2 ] Although that inmost divine quality is covered over with ele-
   ments adapted to the comprehension of both angels and people in the

§6 god the creator & creation 7