There is only ONE God.

Mal 2:10; "Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?
Mark 12:29; Jesus answered, "The foremost is, 'HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD;
Jas 2:19; You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.

We are specifically told not to follow any other gods. Here is a small sample, but there are over 60 verses that are similar.

Exod 20:3; "You shall have no other gods before Me.
Exod 20:23; 'You shall not make other gods besides Me; gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves.
Exod 23:13; "Now concerning everything which I have said to you, be on your guard; and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from your mouth.
Deut 5:7; 'You shall have no other gods before Me.
Deut 6:14; "You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you,
Deut 7:4; "For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you.

Anyone who worships another god, or follows another god will be destroyed by God. There is only one God.

... to be continued ...

Jesus always existed, but He didn't always exist as a human man. None of us humans can say we always existed, we were all created.

Gen 1:26; Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
Gen 1:27; God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

God created man. Man didn't always exist (not in any form). But Jesus is the alpha and omega.

Rev 1:8; "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
Rev 21:6; Then He said to me, "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.
Rev 22:13; "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."

Jesus is the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Nothing existed before Him and nothing will exist after Him.
Jesus existed "in the beginning".

John 1:1; In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:2; He was in the beginning with God.
John 1:3; All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
John 1:4; In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

Jesus is the Word here. He was in the beginning "with" God, and He was in the beginning "God". He didn't become a God at some later time. He was God in the beginning.
In fact it says here that everything that was ever created, (all of creation) was created by 'the Word' and nothing was created without Him.
So who/what is the Word here. It tells us a few verses later....

John 1:14; And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:15; John *testified about Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.'"

Who is 'the Word' (who is God) that became flesh and dwelt among men? Jesus. John the baptist was related to Jesus (probably a cousin). John the baptist was about 6 months
older than Jesus. But John says Jesus 'existed before me'. John didn't always exist. He was created like every other man.

John 8:56; "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad."
John 8:57; So the Jews said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?"
John 8:58; Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am."
John 8:59; Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.

Genesis was written thousands of years before Jesus said this. Yet Jesus existed before Abraham was born.
God told Moses on Mt. Sinai that He was "I am" (Exod 3:14; ). Jesus told the Pharisees He was "I am".

At some point before he met Adam and Eve, Satan was cast out of heaven.

Ezek 28:13; "You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, Was in you. On the day that you were created They were prepared.
Ezek 28:14; "You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire.
Ezek 28:15; "You were blameless in your ways From the day you were created Until unrighteousness was found in you.
Ezek 28:16; "By the abundance of your trade You were internally filled with violence, And you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane From the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the stones of fire.

It says God 'cast you as profane From the mountain of God'.

Jesus says He saw Satan fall from heaven.

Luke 10:18; And He said to them, "I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.

Jesus was around before Adam and Eve were in the garden. Even before they were created.

... to be continued ...

Col 1:15; He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Col 1:16; For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.
Col 1:17; He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
Col 1:18; He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.
Col 1:19; For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,
Col 1:20; and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

Again we see in verse 16 above Jesus created everything, 'ALL' things were created by Him.
Creation as we know it didn't always exist. At some point the stars, galaxies, planets, the universe itself was created. At some point the Earth was created.
Jesus created all of this.

Gen 1:1; In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

In the beginning God created these things. Jesus is God. Verse 15 causes some problems for some people.
It says He is 'the firstborn of all creation'. That doesn't mean He didn't exist before creation existed, it simply means when creation was created, He was 'the firstborn' of creation.
I could write a computer game that has many characters in the game. I could write myself in as the "first character"of the game, but that doesn't mean I didn't exist before the game was created.
In fact the game could not exist, unless I did create it.

.. to be continued ...

John 1:1; In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:14; And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The word "Word' here is...

λόγος
logos
log'-os
From G3004; something said (including the thought); by implication a topic (subject of discourse), also reasoning (the mental faculty) or motive; by extension a computation; specifically (with the article in John) the Divine Expression (that is, Christ): - account, cause, communication, X concerning, doctrine, fame, X have to do, intent, matter, mouth, preaching, question, reason, + reckon, remove, say (-ing), shew, X speaker, speech, talk, thing, + none of these things move me, tidings, treatise, utterance, word, work.

Words can be something written or spoken. Some people have a problem with Jesus being 'the Word'. But it really doesn't matter here. The 'Word' could be a hot air balloon, but it's still God.
But the Word in this sense is God's Word. GOD Himself. We have the Bible, now of course Jesus isn't ink printed on paper. But Jesus is the Word of God. The whole Bible is about Jesus.
The Bible contains God's will, God's plan for us, God's character, God's divine nature, the very essence of who God is is in the Bible. The Word is God. Jesus is God. We wouldn't know any of these
characteristics of God without the Word.

John 5:39; "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;

... to be continued ...

It seems one theme these false Christs and false prophets have in common is... you can be 'god'.

This was the original sin of Satan.

Isa 14:12; "How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! (Lucifer) You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations!
Isa 14:13; "But you said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north.
Isa 14:14; 'I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.'

He wanted to be God. In fact the first thing he told Adam and Eve in the garden was...

Gen 3:5; "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Satan tells men they can be 'Like God" and has been doing so since the beginning.

Rom 10:6; But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: "DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, 'WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?' (that is, to bring Christ down),

It seems people are always trying 'bring Christ down'. Some people want to be God, some people want to be equal to, or even above God.

... to be continued ..

B-A-C said:

The Bible warms against false gods, other gods, and idols. But it also warns against "false Christs".

Matt 24:24; "For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.
Mark 13:22; for false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect.

The King James version is worded in a way to sound like "the elect" might not be able to be deceived, but almost all modern translations say it is possible for the elect to be deceived.
Unlike false gods ( Shiva, Allah, Odin, Zeus, Mars etc...) a false Christ is one that under under the guise of the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Son of God.. (Jesus)

Matt 24:24; "For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.
Matt 24:25; "Behold, I have told you in advance.
Matt 24:26; "So if they say to you, 'Behold, He is in the wilderness,' do not go out, or, 'Behold, He is in the inner rooms,' do not believe them.
Matt 24:27; "For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Matt 24:28; "Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

These false prophets are alive and well in the world today, many of them have done and said exactly what the passage above warns against. Many have said
I met Jesus in some clandestine (secret) place out in the woods, or in some secret inner sanctum. But the Bible says if they tell you this... don't believe them.

Mark 13:21; "And then if anyone says to you, 'Behold, here is the Christ'; or, 'Behold, He is there'; do not believe him;
Mark 13:22; for false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect.
Mark 13:23; "But take heed; behold, I have told you everything in advance.

It's interesting that the "first prophet" of the Mormon church supposedly met the Angel Moroni out in the woods with no one else around.
But even Satan can appear as an Angel.

2Cor 11:13; For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
2Cor 11:14; No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
2Cor 11:15; Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.

It says Satan's 'servants' also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. There are many people who 'appear' righteous on the outside, but inside they are lost to the truth.

So make Jesus different? From other gods? From other men? From false Christs? Knowing the answer to these questions is the key to not being deceived.

... to be continued ...

Click to expand...

It is my belief that Joseph Smith the founder of Mormonism was a false prophet. He had an angel visit him. He and Oliver Crowdly wrote the Book of Mormon. I've done massive research on this man and it isn't pretty. He has fooled so many. Even has changed some of the Bible around. It's complicated but I use to belong to the church of LDS and I say don't even let those missionaries in the door just like it says in the Bible if someone comes to you preaching another gospel don't even allow them in your house. My husband is still a member. They actually got to us when we were "searching" for a church home. I just praise God that I finally got out of that mess and now a once again a Bible believer only...they will come in so subtly you don't even realize you're hooked until it's too late. The temple ceremonies, etc.