{"id":67226,"date":"2024-03-28T09:18:39","date_gmt":"2024-03-28T14:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=67226"},"modified":"2024-03-28T09:18:39","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T14:18:39","slug":"theism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/theism\/","title":{"rendered":"Theism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by Zeke Flores<\/p>\n<p>Theism is alive and well. Aside from those religions that venerate men (Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and Islam, to name a few), some worship supernatural deities (Greek mythology, Hinduism, and many other Eastern religions). There are gods of our own making (money, sex, relationships) which we hope will save us from _________ (fill in the blank.).<\/p>\n<p>I remember growing up in Catholicism and seeing the statues of long-dead &#8220;saints&#8221; along with the most venerated female in the world, Mary, the mother of Jesus. I also remember being taught to direct different prayers to different dead people depending on what the need was. There were &#8220;patron saints&#8221; of various activities and places, and prayer directed to them was an appeal for their intercessory help. I&#8217;ve prayed a few in my youth but never got any divine help from them.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s because there&#8217;s only one God, who has revealed Himself in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. How does that work? I don&#8217;t know the intricacies of that seeming paradox, but I do know this: There&#8217;s only one God, and He invites me to Himself through His Son, the only intercessor I&#8217;ll ever need.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<em>Thus says Yahweh &#8230; I am the first and the last; apart from Me there is no God<\/em>&#8221; (Isaiah 44:6).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Zeke Flores Theism is alive and well. Aside from those religions that venerate men (Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and Islam, to name a few), some worship supernatural deities (Greek mythology, Hinduism, and many other Eastern religions). There are gods of our own making (money, sex, relationships) which we hope will save us from _________ (fill in&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[304,1203],"class_list":["post-67226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-idolatry","tag-polytheism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":94231,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-created-god-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":67226,"position":0},"title":"Who Created God? (Hall)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 26, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Perry Hall In \"The God Delusion\", Richard Dawkins asks the question, \"Who created God?\" This is a favorite \"gotcha\" question of atheists. This is ironic because atheists often believe in abiogenesis, the scientific theory that life originated from non-living matter through natural chemical processes. I say ironic because theists\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21774,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/its-obvious-you-have-little-to-do-but-bash-other-religions\/","url_meta":{"origin":67226,"position":1},"title":"It&#8217;s obvious you have little to do but bash other religions","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Regarding \"Should Christians Help Support the Salvation Army?\" It is obvious that you have very little to do but bash other religions. Maybe I should do one about yours. No, that would make me just as un-Christian as you! Answer: Quite a broad generalization based on one sermon outline.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53237,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-were-raised-at-christs-death-and-where-did-they-go\/","url_meta":{"origin":67226,"position":2},"title":"Who were raised at Christ&#8217;s death and where did they go?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Matthew 27:52-53 says \"And the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.\" I have a friend who, based on this, believes all the Old Testament\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12801,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-there-any-other-mentions-of-the-saints-rising-from-the-dead-at-jesus-death\/","url_meta":{"origin":67226,"position":3},"title":"Are there any other mentions of the saints rising from the dead at Jesus&#8217; death?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Matthew 27:51-53,\u00a0it says\u00a0\"And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom; and the earth shook, and the rocks were split; the tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93297,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/science-still-cant-rule-god-out\/","url_meta":{"origin":67226,"position":4},"title":"Science Still Can&#8217;t Rule God Out","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 19, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Buddy Payne via InLight Media Has science really proved that God does not exist? Many people assume modern science has made belief in God obsolete-but is that actually true? In this video, Buddy Payne examines the limits of the scientific method and asks an important question: Can science prove\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94564,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/science-cant-rule-out-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":67226,"position":5},"title":"Science Can&#8217;t Rule Out God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 14, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Buddy Payne via InLight Media Has science really proved that God does not exist? Many people assume modern science has made belief in God obsolete-but is that actually true? In this video, Buddy Payne examines the limits of the scientific method and asks an important question: Can science prove\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67226\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}