Christian Mission Outreach

Although I know there is only one God, I was surprised and happy to see a Scripture on TV exalting the LORD, our God, and ending, “I will pray to no other.” But I have not found yet which translation or Bible book it is in.

However, right from the beginning, God was the only one that His people were to worship and adore. The only One to whom they were to pray. It was He alone who walked and talked with Adam, answering his prayers in the cool of the evening before he disobeyed and lost that privilege. But in Adam’s grandson Enosh’s time, “men began to call upon the name of the LORD.” (Gen. 4:26 NKJV)

It was God alone who spoke to Abraham and made a covenant with him becoming His God, and to God alone did Isaac and Jacob pray. (Gen. 25:21; 26:25; 32:9-12) They gave up the idolatry of their forefathers, although Jacob’s wife Rachel stole her father’s household gods, bringing the statues with her. (Gen. 31:19)

When God later wrote the Ten Commandments for Moses, God made it abundantly clear that we were to pray to or worship only Him.

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.

You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” (Ex. 20:2-6)

Because we were not taught the second commandment when I was a child, (v. 4-6,) I did not know it until I read it and Isaiah 44 in the Bible the night the LORD spoke to me in an audible voice in 1981. I stopped praying through statues that night and to saints for salvation and healing from them. And yet, having been raised as a staunch Catholic, it took another encounter with the living God to get through to me. I did not understand until Nov. 25, 1994, that we were not even to pray to Mary and the saints to ask them to pray for us in Jesus’ name. We are forbidden to pray to those who have died, even if they were holy saints. We can ask saints alive on earth to pray to God for us. But as Jesus said,

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) (For more details about these things please read my book-set, JESUS THE BRIDGE, It is available online in a book and e-book low-cost, easy-read, format. Please tell a friend or book store too.)

Angels have appeared to people at times, but we are not to pray to them either, because that would be a type of worshipping them. An angel gave revelation to St. John, but when “he fell at his feet to worship him [the angel said,] ‘See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.’” (Rev. 19:10)

When a man was healed at the hands of Peter and John, St. Peter made it clear where their power came from and to whom we should pray. He said to the people: “‘Why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?...And His name, through faith in [Jesus’] name, has made this man strong.’” (Acts 3:12, 16) And to the Sanhedrin he said, “‘Let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth… this man stands here before you whole. This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:10-12)

It is written: “I am the LORD, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me.” (Isa. 45:5)

And: “Someone may say to you, ‘Let’s ask the mediums [psychics] and those who consult the spirits of the dead. With their whisperings and mutterings, they will tell us what to do.’ But shouldn’t people ask God for guidance? Should the living seek guidance from the dead?” (Isa. 8:19 NLT)

Jesus said of those in heaven, “He called them gods, to whom the word of God came.” (John 10:35 NKJV) But we are commanded to put no god or idol before the one true God. And we are forbidden to contact those who have gone to heaven before us, whether angels or saints. The saints in heaven are alive in Christ, but dead to us and God is above them all. It is God who hears and answers our prayers.

“Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.” (Lev. 19:31)

“O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together.” (Ps. 34:3)

“The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.” (Ps. 145:18)

“For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek [non-Jew,] for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For ‘whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.’” (Rom. 10:12-13)

I will pray to no other.