If you have been in a Catholic church you might have something called Creed. Paragraphs of text that church attendances know by heart:
We believe in One God, the Father Almighty, Creator of all things visible and invisible; and in One Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten as the only-begotten of the Father, this is, from the essence (ousia) of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not created, consubstantial (homo-ousios) with the Father, through Whom all things were made, both in heaven and earth; Who for us men and for our salvation came down and was Incarnate, was made Man; Who suffered and rose again on the third day, ascended into heaven, and shall come again to judge the living and the dead; and in the Holy Spirit.
Why does the identity of God matter so much? Can we instead just say “We believe in God”?
The problem is, with Atheist people, we as Christians argue over existence of a God who is One, Almighty, Creator of all things, and so on. The discourse is over whether or not such a God exists. But with satan worshippers, the story is quite different. Here both sides of the discussion believe in a God. Here we argue over who is that God! That is why if you found yourself in a church were they talk a lot about greatness of God, but never talk about Jesus, his crucifixion and his resurrection, were they talk about a very generic aspect of God, chances are their God is a different God than the one in the Bible. And that if they also refuse to read the Bible more than a couple of selected verses every week, you might want to get out of that church before it is too late!
If someone wants to steal something from you, he needs to take away the ownership of that object from you. For example, how do you show that you own a car? You might say: “Well… the car is locked, and parked in a place controlled by me, and only I have the means to go and turn it on and use it”. That is why if a thief wants to steal your car, he will breach the lock and turn the car on without your permissions and move it to a place that is unknown to you and out of your control. But let’s say you catch a thief in action, and you call for police. To your surprise, the thief claims to be the owner of the car that actually belongs to you! So the police will first ask for papers of the car. There is a name of the owner on those papers. Next the policeman will ask for Your documents. That is your Identity. If your identity matches those in the car papers, then you are the owner.
But what if you notice that you have also lost your documents, or the policeman is corrupt and refuses to believe in genuinity of your documents?! And that is what satan is trying to achieve among us. To make us forget or even doubt the identity of God. That is why you as a christian should not assume every deity that people of other religions worship is the same as the God of bible.
Isaiah 45:22 says:
- Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
That is why you should never believe that mantras of meditation in Buddhism and Hinduism are talking about the same God of Israel. They are not about the Father, the Son and the Holy spirit. Every idol worshipper speaks great of his God, but their God is hand-made and has no actual power! Now one might say:
Mark 9:39
- Jesus said, “Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me.”
Remember in that passage in the bible, in the previous verse, John says:
Mark 9:38
- …“Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name”…
Once again identity matters here. That person in above passage was casting out devils in Jesus name. Identity of God matters so much that when Paul spoke in Athens, he first made emphasis on identity of the Lord:
Acts 17:23-24
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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.
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God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
If you confuse the identity of God, satan still cannot take away the ownership of God from him. But you might loose your connection to God. Because how can you find someone in your address book to contact him if you have forgotten his name?! This is why you must constantly remind yourself of the identity of the one, whose image is on you! To remember who owns you and who owns the world and everything in it. To say that we just believe in a God, and to ignore other details of it, is like saying this car must belong to someone, but not caring who actually. It is in your best interest to recognize and respect the identity and ownership of your creator.