“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
The Basket Case Chronicles #85
“For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) but to use there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him” (1 Cor. 8:5-6).
This is a place where our use of upper and lower case letters is quite helpful. There is one God, Maker of Heaven and earth, but there are many gods. These gods are among those things which are made (John 1:3), and so they are on the same side of the Creature/creature divide that we are. There is one Lord, but many lords. This can be said in the same spirit that confesses one King, but many kings. This is how Jesus Christ can be Lord of lords and King of kings (Rev. 17:14; 19:16).
So these gods and lords exist, but they exist in the realm of the creature—archangels, men, roly-poly bugs, and gods are all created beings. What the pagans called gods, the Bible calls demons (1 Cor. 10:20-21). An atheist doesn’t believe that Apollo existed at all—Christians don’t believe that he was what he claimed to be. Fallen angels were worshiped under false pretenses, but that is not the same thing as not being there at all. If Smith or Murphy persuaded men to bow down to them and worship them, that would be a bad sin. But it does not mean that Smith and Murphy don’t exist.
The early father Lactantius spends a great deal of time showing how many of the pagan gods were originally human kings (largely from Crete). In a similar way, we can see how some of the gods were spiritual beings (not divine beings). The woman who could tell fortunes at Philippi had (as the text puts it in the original) the “spirit of a python” (Acts 16:16). She was a devotee of the god (or demon) Apollo. The high priestess of that cult was the Pythoness, dedicated to service at the place where Apollo had reputedly killed a great python. According to Scripture, she really could tell fortunes, and she really did have a demon. Her spirit was unclean, not imaginary.
In this place, it is confessed that there is one God, and we are “in Him.” It is also confessed that there is one Lord, the Lord Jesus, and we are “by Him.” Jesus was the one through whom everything was created, and so we are here by His power. We are in God and we are by the Son. It is this form of triune monotheism that drives out all uncleanness.