Westminster Shorter Catechism in Modern English - Question #5

Q. 5 Are there more Gods than one?

A. There is only one God,^[a] the living and true God.^[b]

[a] Deuteronomy 6:4

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

⁴ Thou Israel, hear, thy Lord God is one God. (Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God.)

 

Isaiah 44:6

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

⁶ The Lord, King of Israel, and again-buyer thereof, the Lord of hosts saith these things, I am the first, and I am the last, and without me is no God. (The Lord, the King of Israel, and its Redeemer, the Lord of hosts saith these things, I am the first, and I am the last, and there is no God besides me.)

 

Isaiah 45:21-22

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

²¹ Tell ye, and come ye, and take ye counsel together. Who made this heard from the beginning? from that time I before-said it. Whether I am not the Lord, and no God is further without me? [a] God rightful and saving is none, besides me. (Tell ye, and come ye, and take ye counsel together. Who made this heard from the beginning, or from long ago? yea, from the time that I foretold it. Am I not the Lord? and furthermore, there is no God besides me; yea, there is no rightful, or just, God, or one who saveth, besides me.)

²² All the coasts of (the) earth, be ye converted to me, and ye shall be safe; for I am the Lord, and none other there is. (Turn ye to me, and be ye saved, ye peoples from all the ends of the earth; for I am the Lord, and there is no other.)

 

1 Corinthians 8:4-6

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

⁴ But of meats that be offered to idols, we know, that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one.

⁵ For though there be some that be said gods [For why though there be that be said gods], either in heaven, either in earth, as there be many gods, and many lords;

⁶ nevertheless to us is one God, the Father, of whom be all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom be all things, and we by him.

 

[b] Jeremiah 10:10

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

¹⁰ Forsooth the Lord is very God; he is God living, and a king everlasting; the earth shall be moved together of his indignation, and heathen men shall not (be able to) suffer the menacing of him. (For the Lord is the true God; he is the living God, and the everlasting King; the earth shall be altogether shaken by his indignation, and the heathen shall not be able to suffer his threats.)

 

John 17:3

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

³ And this is everlasting life, that they know thee very God alone [that they know thee alone very God], and whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ.

 

1 Thessalonians 1:9

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

⁹ For they show of you, what manner entry we had to you, and how ye be converted to God from maumets [and how ye be converted to God from simulacra], to serve to the living God and very;

 

1 John 5:20

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

²⁰ And we know, that the Son of God came in flesh, and gave to us wit, that we know him very God, and be in the very Son [Jesus] of him [and be in the very Son Jesus of him]. This is very God, and everlasting life.

 

 

Comment on Q. 5

God is called the living God because he has life in himself and is able to give life and help to others. He is the true God because he really is, whereas other gods exist only in the minds of those who worship them. In Deuteronomy 6:4 God is described by a Hebrew word which means a united one not an only one, and so is perfectly consistent with the truth of personal distinctions within the Divine nature (see Q. 6).