30. “The Lord our God is one Lord.”

“The Lord our God is one Lord.”

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 30

Ave Maria Series

Chapter One—I Believe in God the Father

30.  Why do we believe in only one God?

We believe in only one God because, according to the testimony of Sacred Scripture, there is only one God and according to the laws of logic, there can be only one.  [200-202, 228]

The Trinity, with three human figures, but identical.  By artist Jean Fouquet.  …..30

If there were two gods, then the one god would be a limit on

the other; neither of the two would be infinite, neither one perfect; in these respects neither of the two would be God.  Israel’s fundamental experience of God is:  “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:4).  Again and again the prophets exhort the people to abandon their false gods and to convert to the one God: “For I am God, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:22).

The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.  Mark 12:29-30

MONOTHEISM  (from Greek monos=only and theos=God, doctrine about the existence of only one God): the teaching that God is a unique, absolute, and personal being, the ultimate ground of everything.  Monotheistic religions are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

[200-202, 228]

"I BELIEVE IN ONE GOD"

200  “I believe in one God”   These are the words with which the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed begins. The confession of God's oneness, which has its roots in the divine revelation of the Old Covenant, is inseparable from the profession of God's existence and is equally fundamental. God is unique; there is only one God: "The Christian faith confesses that God is one in nature, substance and essence."( Roman Catechism I,2,2.)³ –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition 

201  To Israel, his chosen, God revealed himself as the only One: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might."( Deuteronomy 6:4-5.)⁴  Through the prophets, God calls Israel and all nations to turn to him, the one and only God: "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.. . To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. 'Only in the LORD, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength.'"(Isaiah 45:22-24; compare Phiippiansl 2:10-11.)⁵ –CCC

202   Jesus himself affirms that God is "the one Lord" whom you must love "with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength".(Mark 12:29-30)⁶ At the same time Jesus gives us to understand that he himself is "the Lord".( Compare Mark 12:35-37.)⁷  To confess that Jesus is Lord is distinctive of Christian faith. This is not contrary to belief in the One God. Nor does believing in the Holy Spirit as "Lord and giver of life"

introduce any division into the One God: We firmly believe and confess without reservation that there is only one true God, eternal infinite (immensus) and unchangeable, incomprehensible, almighty and ineffable, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; three persons indeed, but one essence, substance or nature entirely simple.( LateranCouncil IV: Denzinger-Schonmetzer 800.)⁸ –CCC

IN BRIEF

228 "Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD. . ." (Deutronomy 6:4; Mark 12:29). "The supreme being must be unique, without equal. . . If God is not one, he is not God" (Tertullian, Adv. Marc., 1, 3, 5: Patrologia Latina 2, 274). --CCC