When I Want to Know if They Believe in the Same God

To cite an obvious example, a god in whose name believers cut innocent people’s throats, behead them, burn them alive, and rape girls and women—as is being done at the time of this writing by Islamist terrorists in the name of “the one God”—cannot be the same god as the God of the Torah, the God who gave the Ten Commandments, who commanded His people to “Love the stranger,” and demanded holy and ethical conduct at all times. Likewise, those Christians who in the Middle Ages slaughtered entire Jewish communities in the name of Christ also clearly did not believe in the God of the Bible (let alone in those Church leaders who condemned such atrocities)—as virtually every Christian today would acknowledge.

Yet, there are many people who argue that all those who say they believe in God believe in the same God.

Why do people make this argument? Because all too often they have an anti-religious agenda. They say all those who claim to believe in God believe in the same God in order to discredit God and religion, especially religions rooted in the Bible.

So, then, how are we to know whether any two people who say they believe in God believe in the same God, specifically the God of the Torah?

We can find out by asking three questions:

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Before responding, some people might need to have the term defined. The “God of Israel” is the God introduced to the world by the Jews and their Bible.

This is the God Who created the world, Who revealed Himself to the Jews, and Who made His moral will known through the Ten Commandments and the Hebrew prophets. Obviously, all believing Jews would answer in the affirmative. The great majority of religious Christians would as well.

If, after having “God of Israel” defined, a person cannot answer the question in the affirmative, it is fair to say the individual does not believe in the God of the Torah. He or she believes in another god.

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There are many people today who say they believe in God, but not in a God who judges people’s actions. These people are generally to be found among those who affirm no specific religion. For them, “God” is an entirely personal thing.

Often, they will say “God is within me.” But, of course, if God is only within them, who outside of them will ever judge them? They can be fine people. But the question here is not whether there are any good people who do not believe in the God of the Torah. Of course there are. The question is whether all people who say they believe in God believe in the same God, and specifically in the God introduced by the Torah.

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People who believe in a god who does not morally judge them and all other people do not believe in the God of the Torah. In fact, a god indifferent to the moral behavior of human beings is so different from the God of the Torah that these believers might as well use a word other than “God.”

Now, one might argue Islamist terrorists also believe in a judging God, as did Tomas de Torquemada, the infamous Catholic head of the Spanish Inquisition. But this argument is not pertinent, because such individuals believe God judges people by their faith alone, not by their moral behavior— and believers can therefore torture and kill non-believers. That is not the God of the Torah.

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It should be clear, but in case it is not, it needs to be emphatically emphasized that one need not be a Jew—or a Christian, or a member of any faith—to believe in the God of the Torah. While it is the Torah’s aim that all humanity believe in the God revealed in the Torah, there is not the slightest suggestion anyone needs to become a Jew to do so.

Indeed, the purpose of the Jewish people—the purpose of being Chosen—is to bring humanity to the God of the Torah, which, by definition, also means accepting God’s moral demands (such as the “Noahide Laws” or the Ten Commandments).

The great Benjamin Franklin, one of America’s founders, was one such example: He did not affirm the Christian Trinity, and he was not a Jew. But he believed in the God introduced by the Hebrew Bible, in its moral teachings, and that this God morally judges all human beings. As Franklin wrote in his autobiography: “I never doubted, for instance, the existence of the Deity, that he made the world and governed it by his Providence, that the most acceptable service of God was the doing of good to man, that our souls are immortal, and that all crime will be punished and virtue rewarded either here or hereafter” (emphasis added). Franklin and many of America’s founders were examples of ethical monotheists. They were the type of people the Torah wants all people to be.

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This question also needs to be asked even though it is included in the first question. The reason it needs to be asked is if God never revealed His moral will, how would we know what behaviors He demands from us and what acts He judges as wrong?

None of these comments are a judgment of individuals; they are a judgment of the statement, “I believe in God.” There are people who do not believe in the God of the Torah, and, for that matter, people who believe in no God, who are fine, upstanding individuals—just as there are people who believe in the God of the Torah who are not decent people. But for reasons made clear throughout this commentary, the best moral hope for mankind is to bring as many people as possible to belief in the God introduced by the Torah, though not necessarily to Judaism or any other religion. (While it is usually best to affiliate with a Torah-based religion, one can believe in the God of the Torah and in the Ten Commandments without being a member of a religion.)

Dennis Prager's latest book, "The Rational Bible: Exodus" is published by Regnery. He is a nationally syndicated radio show host and creator of PragerUniversity.com.

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