10/40 Window Reach Out Series
Is There Only One God?
— What the Bible Says About the God of All Nations
By Missionary John | missionaryjohn.online | 10/40 Window Reach Out Series
A Question Every Culture Has Wrestled With
Walk through any city in the 10/40 Window — Cairo, Mumbai, Jakarta, Tehran, Karachi, Dhaka, Beijing — and you will find people praying. Not to the same being, not in the same direction, not with the same words. You will find temples and mosques and shrines and altars. You will find people who believe in one God, people who believe in many gods, people who believe in no personal God at all, and people who believe they themselves can become divine.
The question underneath all of it is the same: is there a God — one real God — who is actually there? And if so, who is He?
This question is not a Western question. It is not a Christian question. It is the most fundamental question every human being who has ever lived has had to answer — implicitly or explicitly — simply by the way they live. Because how you answer it determines everything: how you treat other people, what you do with guilt, how you face death, what you believe about justice, and whether your life means anything at all.
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” — Deuteronomy 6:4 (KJV)
Why the Existence of Many Religions Does Not Mean All Gods Are Equal
The most common assumption in pluralistic societies is that all religions are different paths up the same mountain — that whether you call God Allah, Yahweh, Brahman, the Universe, or the Force, you are reaching toward the same ultimate reality. It sounds generous. But examined carefully, it is neither honest nor logical.
The God of the Bible commands exclusive worship and describes Himself as a personal being who loves and speaks and acts in history. The Brahman of Hinduism is an impersonal cosmic force without personality. Allah in classical Islamic theology is absolutely transcendent — fundamentally unknowable in any intimate sense. The gods of animistic traditions are local, territorial, and limited. These are not different names for the same being. They are fundamentally incompatible descriptions of ultimate reality.
They cannot all be correct. Either God is personal or He is not. Either He is one or He is many. Either He has spoken in human history or He has not. Saying they are all equally valid is not tolerance. It is refusing to take any of them seriously enough to ask which one is actually true.
Respect for different religions does not require pretending they all say the same thing. They do not. And the differences matter enormously.
What the Bible Claims About the One God
The Bible opens with a declaration unlike the opening of any other religious text: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Not gods. Not a pantheon. Not a cosmic force. God — one, personal, pre-existing, creative, purposeful.
This God is not a tribal deity protecting one nation. The Bible consistently describes Him as the creator of all things and therefore the God of all peoples, whether they acknowledge Him or not. He creates all human beings in His image. He cares for all nations. He places every person in their time and location with intentionality. He is not the God of the West. He is the God of all that exists — and therefore the God of every person in the 10/40 Window.
The apostle Paul, standing in Athens — a city full of idols and altars — did not condemn the Athenians for their religious instinct. He affirmed it: “Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.” (Acts 17:22–23)
He was saying: the God you have been reaching toward — I know His name. He is not unknown. He has revealed Himself. And the revelation is Jesus Christ.
Why Monotheism Makes the Most Sense of Reality
The idea that there is one God — one ultimate, personal, all-powerful Creator behind all of existence — is not just religious tradition. It is the explanation that makes the most sense of the universe we actually live in.
Science describes a universe that had a beginning. Everything that begins to exist has a cause. The universe began. Therefore the universe has a cause outside itself — something uncaused, eternal, non-material, and unimaginably powerful. That is not the profile of a committee of gods. It is the profile of one Creator.
The moral law — the sense of right and wrong that exists in every human culture across history — requires a moral lawgiver. Societies disagree on many things, but they agree that some things are genuinely wrong: torturing children, betraying trust, cowardice in the face of injustice. That universal moral instinct points to one standard. One lawgiver.
The longing for meaning, for love, for justice, for something that does not end — these universal human experiences make sense only if there is a God who placed them there. One God. Personal. Present. Knowable.
“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” — 1 Timothy 2:5 (KJV)
How This One God Made Himself Known
If there is one God — personal, relational, caring about the billions of people He created — then it makes sense that He would not leave humanity without a clear word from Him. And the Bible’s claim is precisely that: God has spoken. Not through every religion equally, not through vague spiritual intuition, but through specific words, specific events, and ultimately through a specific person.
Jesus Christ is the point at which the one God of the universe stepped into human history in human form. He is not a god among gods. He is the one God — the Creator — entering creation to rescue it. The apostle Paul describes Him as the image of the invisible God — the visible, touchable, speakable face of the God who is otherwise beyond human reach.
This is why the gospel is not a Western message. It is a message about the God who made everyone. It belongs to the Arab and the Han Chinese and the Berber and the Bengali and the Pashtun equally — because He made all of them equally, loves all of them equally, and sent His Son to die for all of them equally.
The God of the Bible is not the God of one nation. He is the God of every nation — including yours — and He has been waiting for you to find Him.
Your Response to the One God
You may have grown up in a tradition that names God differently. You may have worshipped earnestly and sincerely all your life. Sincerity is not the question. The question is whether the object of your worship is actually there — actually real, actually personal, actually able to hear you and respond to you and forgive you and know you.
The Bible says that God rewards those who sincerely seek Him. It says He is not far from any of us. It says He has placed the hunger for Him in every human heart. If that hunger has been in you — if you have been reaching toward something real without being sure what it is — the invitation of the gospel is this: what you have been looking for has a name. He has a face. And He is looking for you too.
God, I do not know You fully yet. But I am willing to. If You are the one true God — the Creator who made me, the Father who loves me — reveal Yourself to me through Jesus Christ. I open my heart. I turn from every false path. Speak to me. I am listening. Amen.
The God who created the universe is not too distant to hear that prayer. He has been waiting for it.
— Missionary John