Vol. 39, No. 2 ✞     February 2008

    Gerald R. McDermott has written two important books on the relationship of Christianity to other world religions (theology and philosophy of religions). They both raise questions seldom raised by evangelicals. The first book, Can Evan-gelicals Learn from World Religions? Jesus, Revelation and Religious Traditions (Inter-Varsity, 2000), invites the reader to raise such questions as, “Can one’s Christian faith be enriched by [an] encounter with the Analects of Confucius? Could God’s saving deed and disclosure in Jesus Christ alone include a wider grace at work in the wisdom of other world religions?” (from back cover). McDermott’s answer is yes.

     McDermott’s second book appeared in late 2007: God’s Rivals: Why Has God Allowed Different Religions? Insights from the Bible and the Early Church (InterVarsity, 2007). In this case, the questions raised include, “Was the God of the Bible wise in allowing for other religions? Can they serve any purpose?” (from back cover). This book is also a helpful resource for those teaching Old Testament theology.

     Regrettably, McDermott’s Seeing God: Twelve Reliable Signs of True Spirituality (InterVarsity, 1995), is now out of print. However, in 2005 Hovel Audio made available an un-abridged reading (by Michael Kramer) of this important book in both MP3 and regular CD. Because of McDermott’s interest in Jonathan Edwards, together with the fact that, as Mark Noll says, there are more varieties of Christianity available today than Baskin-Robbins has flavors, it is not surprising that he would relate and expand Edwards’ thinking on spiritual discernment. Wheaton College professor Mark Noll further comments concerning this resource:

These are times of pluralism and disenchantment with organized religion. How do Christians today know which leaders and companions in faith to trust? For help, Gerald McDermott returns to the work of Jonathon Edwards, the eighteenth century preacher and college president widely regarded as the greatest American theologian ever. Edwards wrestled expertly with similar questions arising from frontier revivalism. Now McDermott, not only a leading Edwards scholar, but also a master teacher, makes Edward's insights accessible and practical for today's Christians. Seeing God offers a clarifying glimpse at the signs of genuine Christianity - yesterday, today and for the ages. The joyful, God-centered theology that undergirds this book provides just the right foundation...for a discriminating assessment of what is solid, and what is ephemeral, in a life of godliness (Mark A. Noll, publisher marketing).

We do not mean to imply the best resources available on world religions are all by Gerald McDermott. However, because resources of this nature are sometimes overlooked when pastors and teachers deal with world religions, we wanted to highlight McDermott. Further, in this issue we wanted to give readers a taste of some of McDermott’s insights in the larger area of philosophy of religion. Teachers who desire a full bibliography of the primary and secondary resources EMOS recommends on world religions are encouraged to contact us.

     For many readers, one of the most fascinating questions McDermott raises in God’s Rivals has to do with the existence of other gods and spirits. Based on passages like 1 Corinthians 8:4 (“So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one.”) and Revelation 9:20 (“The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood - idols that cannot see or hear or walk.”), evangelicals often argue that idols are “nothing” in the sense that an idol is nothing but a piece of wood, stone, etc. that is not alive and cannot see or hear. Therefore, there are no other deities.

     But look again at the context of 1 Corinthians 8:4. Paul continues and says in the next two verses:

⁵For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), ⁶yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.

Does this passage imply Paul believed idols and pagan gods were non-existent? Or, look carefully at Deuteronomy 32:17. In this chapter we read of God (Yahweh) apportioning the nations to the “sons of the gods” (Deut. 32:8). In verse 17 we read:

17 They sacrificed to demons, which are not God -
gods they had not known,
gods that recently appeared,
gods your fathers did not fear.

What do these passages, which are found all through the Old and New Testaments, imply? Certainly they teach that Yahweh is the only true God, and He has no rivals or competitors in the sense that He is God alone. But, do they teach, as many evangelicals often understand them, that there are no other real, supernatural powers beside Yahweh? In other words, are other religions, whether simple or complex, simply the con-struction of human self-deception and ignorance? McDermott, who is not the first to put forward this idea, says no. His argument is that the people of God in the Old Testament and in the New Testament viewed those of other nations and faiths as following other gods, real beings, and thus not knowing the one true God.

     This means there is a spiritual dimension to all religions. This is not to say that there are not human dimensions to religions, but what McDermott emphasizes is that religions are caused by both natural and supernatural factors. If a person gives the devil a foothold, he will seek to expand and develop his territory.

     Christians who are reluctant to embrace the idea that there are other supernatural beings posing as gods are encouraged to look at what the Bible teaches. We often talk about the fact that when God called Abraham, He had the whole world in mind (Genesis 12:3; 18:18; 22:18). We also affirm that the Hebrew people were to be a nation of priests, or mediators, (Ex. 19:6; cf. Psalm 72:11, 17) to make the true God known to the rest of the world.

     In Romans 1 Paul makes it clear that the knowledge of the one true God existed outside the Hebrew and Christian traditions. He wrote:

¹⁸The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

²¹For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²²Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. - Romans 1:18-23