No god, many gods, or one God?

It is estimated that there are more than 4,000 religions in the world. Not all of these religions believe in a god or gods. Buddhism, some views of Hinduism, and Atheism, among others, either diminish or deny the existence of a deity. Wow! That is a lot of variety to choose from. How is one ever supposed to know what is real? Well, here are a few things that we can say are undeniable givens.
1. It is impossible that they can all be right simultaneously.
2. It is impossible to choose one god, several gods, or lack of god, follow a completely different set of rules as someone else, and still end up at the same place together in the end.
3. Each, with completely different world views and expectational outcomes, cannot offer the same level of satisfaction in life.
4. If our expectations must match reality for us to be truly satisfied, then there is nothing more important in life than to know what is real.

Now, if there is a being who created us, then it created us with a capacity for knowledge and a desire to use that knowledge to create a life with meaning. We know this intuitively, because it is the universal condition of mankind to strive to create a life that means something. Therefore, if that being created a creature with needs, and did not make it possible to know how to fulfill those needs, then it is cruel being indeed. In fact, the clearer the message of how the creature was made, what problems it would face, and how to satisfy its needs, the more loving that creator would be.

So what god in all of history has ever given that kind of manual? Only one – the God of the Bible. The Bible is not just a collection of random, historical writings, written over 1500 years. Each book, though written by different people, claims to be the very words of God, inspirationally breathed through the author. Yes, there are other moral writings about other gods and other faiths, but none that claim to be the very words of the being that created the cosmos and all life within it. That is immensely significant.

Now, this is not the time where I debate the existence of God, or the authenticity of the Bible. Those are worthy conversations, and we will wrestle with it later. But I am telling you, there are FAR smarter people than I who have written, and are still writing, whole books about these subjects. I have benefitted from many of them. Read them. More importantly, I challenge you to read the Bible. Not: read it just to find ammunition to refute it. If that is the mindset taken to read anything, an impartial conclusion could not be reached. One should read to compare the subject or subjects to truth. And if truth is not known, then to compare to what we see displayed for us in the reality of this world and echoed in our conscience. So read it – beginning to end, not as a bunch of unrelated ideas, but as the story God intended it to be. A story of who he is, and a story of who we are. A story of betrayal and redemption, and ultimately, a story of love.

That is where we now find ourselves – at the beginning of the story. The Bible starts with 4 very significant words: In the beginning, God. . .
It is all about God.