The miracles that God worked through Moses challenged the many gods of
Pharaoh. Yet, in another time, there was a Pharaoh who promoted the belief in
one deity. Pharaoh Akhenaten pointed to the rising and setting sun as the great
deity who gave life to the earth. His religious symbol for Aton, the sun god,
was represented by a single disc of light with emanating rays. Though this
Pharaoh’s idea came closer to the one God of the Bible, it was still idolatry.
When Paul addressed the people in Athens, he was grieved by the idolatry
in that city. Yet he used the people’s imperfect understanding of God to point
them to the God of Scripture. Of their efforts in trying to find God, Paul
said: “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven
and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands” (Acts 17:24).
In our increasingly pluralistic world, the people around us may worship a multiplicity of deities. Yet their spiritual journey need not end there. We never know when someone might be moving toward the kingdom of God. Following the example of Paul, we should respect a person’s religious background, watch for spiritual receptivity, and then point him or her to the one true God of Scripture.
