The fifth question of the Shorter Catechism is pretty much the definition of self-explanatory.  “Are there more Gods than one?  There is one only, the living and true God.”  However, there is a boatload of implications involved in accepting this answer.  We will deal with two.

First, we can’t all be right.  If there is in fact only one true God, then only one of us can be right about whom that God is.  Atheism is denied on account of the fact that we affirm that there is at least one God.  Every polytheistic (many gods) religion is denied on account of the fact that we affirm that there is only one God.  Islam, Judaism, and Christianity all affirm the existence of only one God; however, since all three define God in fundamentally different terms, only one of the three great monotheistic (one god) religions can be correct.

Second, when we affirm that the God that exists is the living and true God, we affirm that he is not an inanimate object that is worshipped in a temple somewhere.  He is not a god made out of wood or stone or fashioned by the hands of men.  Rather, he is living and is the source of life, in both creation and redemption.  Paul used these exact words, living and true, to set God over against idols in 1 Thessalonians 1.

In a culture that has given itself to pluralism and religious tolerance, these two implications are significant.  If we believe there is only one God and he is the living and true God, the God of the Bible and no other, then it becomes increasingly difficult to love people who reject this God without proclaiming the truth in love.  The right response is not to stop loving those who reject the living and true God, but to love them with the truth.  Do we really love ourselves and our social comfort so much more than other people that we are willing to tolerate them going to hell?  May it never be!