Tag Archives: idols

WHY NO OTHER GODS?

Christian Life, ,

God hates idolatry! He prefaced His instructions to His people with an emphatic…

Exodus 20:2-3 NIV
[2] “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery…”

… and launched into His resume of requirements for a covenant relationship with His people….

. [3] “You shall have no other gods before me….”

Throughout Scripture, God insisted that His glory was paramount in everything He said and did, and that His people should reverence Him and promote His glory in all the details of their everyday lives.

Isaiah 42:8 NLT
[8] “I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to anyone else, nor share my praise with carved idols.”

God chose one nation to be the vehicle through which He would display His love and power to the ungodly, idolatrous nations around them; for example, He crushed Egypt with ten plagues and delivered the Isaelites from the power of Pharaoh, exposing the impotence of Egypt’s gods.

Isaiah 43:21 NKJV
[21] “This people I have formed for Myself; They shall declare My praise.”

Idolatry is the worst form of insult to God since idols are man-made, useless, powerless, reflecting the worst of human nature, and are, ultimately, both visible and invisible representations of demonic spirits. Idols are substitutes for the only true God. They can do nothing to us or for us.

The worship of idols is the expression of human defiance against God, unbelief in who He is, and a determined effort to replace Him with self. Since humans create their own gods in one form or another, humans regard themselves as the creator above the great Creator. People create gods in their own image to elevate themselves.

How does idolatry affect people? When people worship anything or anyone other than the living God, they are living out the essence of Adam’s rebellion. “I don’t need God. I can be God!”

The spinoffs of idolatry are clear.

Humans create gods like themselves, worship them and eventually become like them, entrenching in themselves the wickedness of their gods. Idolatry becomes a vicious circle of demonic control and wicked behaviour.

Hosea 9:10 NLT
[10] “The Lord says, “O Israel, when I first found you, it was like finding fresh grapes in the desert. When I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the first ripe figs of the season. But then they deserted me for Baal-peor, giving themselves to that shameful idol. Soon they became vile, as vile as the god they worshipped.”

The greatest tragedy of all is that Israel attempted to marry their idolatry to the worship of God. They attributed to idols what God had done. They urged Aaron to make gods to represent the God who had delivered them from slavery in Egypt.

Exodus 32:4-6 NLT
[4]” Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, “O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” [5] Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced, “Tomorrow will be a festival to the Lord!” [6] The people got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.”

As God’s children, we may no longer worship carved idols, but the remnants of idolatry are in us if we do not guard against the elevation of self in its many subtle forms. Let me highlight three ways in which we set ourselves above God.

  1. Self-importance and self-suffiency go together.

When we inflate our opinion of ourselves above who we are, we think we don’t need God or people. Pride is nothing less than. A form of idolatry. You have heard the statement about a proud person, “He is a self-made man who worships his creator!”

  1. Unforgiveness is another form of idolatry.

An unforgiving person displays an attitude of arrogance. “I am better than you. I didn’t say/do what you said/did. You owe me. I will not lower myself to your level. I will not let you get away with this. I will punish you by withholding my forgiveness. I… I… I…”

Withholding forgiveness is a form of manipulation, keeping the debtor in my power, playing God in another’s life.

Jesus forgave in the most extreme of cruelty and indifference to His suffering…

Luke 23:34 NLT
[34] “Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.”

  1. Self-pity is a subtle form of idolatry.

“Look what has happened to me. I don’t deserve this! Poor me. I am a victim. Please feel sorry for me. Please pay attention to my suffering. Me…me…me?”

Again, it’s all about me!

Jesus is the perfect example of a human who had the correct perspective in life.

Luke 23:27-28 NLT
[27]”A large crowd trailed behind, including many grief-stricken women. [28] But Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.”

In His temptations, He refused to deviate from the Father’s instructions and His commitment to obey Him. “It is written…” was His response.

In His suffering, He entrusted Himself to the Father,

1 Peter 2:23 NLT
[23] “He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly.”

His example offers us a way to escape idolatry.

There are also significant spinoffs in worshipping the living God, the true God of the Bible. Jesus, as God, is worthy of our worship.

Jesus did not reject worship.

John 9:35-38 NIV
[35]”Jesus heard that they had thrown him (the blind man whom Jesus healed) out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” [36] “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.” [37] Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” [38] Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshipped him.”

The same principle is true, that we become like the object of our worship, when we worship Jesus, the Son of God. We become like Him.

2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV
[18]”And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

Likeness to Jesus is God’s goal for His children. He is recreating us into Jesus’s image so that His children will all resemble His Son in His eternal family.

Romans 8:29 NLT
[29] “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

Worshipping God is an attitude and a way of life that witnesses to our belongingness to Him.

Colossians 3:17 NLT
[17]”And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.”

1 Peter 2:9 NIV
[9] “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

Worshipping God, living every moment connected to God as the centre and focal point of our lives, is God’s purpose.

John 4:23-24 NLT
[23]” But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. [24] For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

Worshipping God is the way we live in covenant with Him. In this covenant, sealed with Jesus’ signature in His own blood, is the guarantee of all the benefits of salvation and God’s provision for life. God’s requirement for us is to believe in Jesus. His promises are the conditions of His covenant, ratified and fulfilled by Jesus. We add our “amen” to receive them.

Worshipping God alone is central to everything we have been promised and everything we enjoy in the New Covenant. Conversely, idolatry in any form cancels our participation in this new life we have in Jesus.

1 John 5:21 NLT
[21] “Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.”

THE BOOK OF ACTS – OCCUPIED TERRITORY

Bible Study, ,

OCCUPIED TERRITORY

“The longer Paul waited in Athens for Silas and Timothy, the angrier he got — all those idols! The city was a junkyard of idols.

“He discussed it with the Jews and other like-minded people at their meeting place. And every day he went out on the streets and talked with anyone who happened along. He got to know some of the Epicurean and Stoic intellectuals pretty well through these conversations. Some of them dismissed him with sarcasm: ‘What an airhead!’ But others, listening to him go on about Jesus and the resurrection, were intrigued: ‘That’s a new slant on the gods. Tell us more.'” Acts 17:16-18 (The Message).

Angry? Why was Paul angry when he saw the city of Athens dotted with idols? Did it really matter that they used images to decorate their city?

Yes, it did matter to Paul because idols were the evidence of “foreign occupation”. The city of Athens, capital of Greece was announcing, through the visible symbols of their allegiance, that they were part of the devil’s domain. They were “occupied territory” and subject to his rule and, therefore, they would not be rescued without a fight.

Unlike the countries that Germany occupied during WW2, the people of Athens, and the rest of the world, accepted Satanic occupation without resistance. You see, they didn’t know any better. Satan exploited their ignorance and their gullibility to entrench himself in their belief system because they knew of no alternative.

It is the devil’s avowed intention to wrest worship from the rightful King of the universe, Jesus. Long before God prepared the earth to be a suitable home for man, He evicted the devil from His domain for rebelling against Him, and banished him to the earth.

“And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down — that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.” Revelation 12:7-9 (NIV).

Why was Paul angry? Was he angry with the Athenians for worshipping idols? No, he was angry with the devil for hoodwinking the people. All they needed to do was to follow the whims of their rebellious hearts and they were suckers for any lying suggestion the devil made to them.

Without supernatural revelation from God, human beings cannot know Him or even conceive of a being like Him. All we can do is create beings in our imagination who are caricatures of human beings, and can never be any greater than we are, and then worship them as though they really exist. And the devil is laughing because he is the inspiration behind our foolishness and gets the glory for it.

Whatever we put our confidence in that is not God is an idol. The tragedy is that we become what we worship. People who put their confidence in money, for example, are most often times greedy, stingy and even dishonest to hold on to what they have and to get more.

God said of His people: “When they came to Baal Peor, they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol and became as vile as the thing they loved.” Hosea 9:10b (NIV).

People are not only held captive to Satan’s lies but also suspicious of the truth. Some Athenians laughed at Paul and walked away. Others waited around a little longer to listen to him. What does it take to convince a person that God is telling the truth? It takes an honest person and a mighty, supernatural act of God’s Holy Spirit to rescue a deceived soul from the clutches of the devil and transfer him into the realm of God’s truth.

Occupied Territory

Bible Study, , ,

OCCUPIED TERRITORY

“The longer Paul waited in Athens for Silas and Timothy, the angrier he got — all those idols! The city was a junkyard of idols.

“He discussed it with the Jews and other like-minded people at their meeting place. And every day he went out on the streets and talked with anyone who happened along. He got to know some of the Epicurean and Stoic intellectuals pretty well through these conversations. Some of them dismissed him with sarcasm: ‘What an airhead!’ But others, listening to him go on about Jesus and the resurrection, were intrigued: ‘That’s a new slant on the gods. Tell us more.'” Acts 17:16-18 (The Message).

Angry? Why was Paul angry when he saw the city of Athens dotted with idols? Did it really matter that they used images to decorate their city?

Yes, it did matter to Paul because idols were the evidence of “foreign occupation”. The city of Athens, capital of Greece. was announcing, through the visible symbols of their allegiance, that they were part of the devil’s domain. They were “occupied territory” and subject to his rule. and, therefore, they would not be rescued without a fight.

Unlike the countries that Germany occupied during WW2, the people of Athens, and the rest of the world, accepted Satanic occupation without resistance. You see, they didn’t know any better. Satan exploited their ignorance and their gullibility to entrench himself in their belief system because they knew of no alternative.

It is the devil’s avowed intention to wrest worship from the rightful King of the universe, Jesus. Long before God prepared the earth to be a suitable home for man, He evicted the devil from His domain for rebelling against Him, and banished him to the earth.

“And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down — that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.” Revelation 12:7-9 (NIV).

Why was Paul angry? Was he angry with the Athenians for worshipping idols? No, he was angry with the devil for hoodwinking the people. All they needed to do was to follow the whims of their rebellious hearts and they were suckers for any lying suggestion the devil made to them.

Without supernatural revelation from God, human beings cannot know Him or even conceive of a being like Him. All we can do is create beings in our imagination who are caricatures of human beings, and can never be any greater than we are, and then worship them as though they really exist. And the devil is laughing because he is the inspiration behind our foolishness and gets the glory for it.

Whatever we put our confidence in that is not God is an idol. The tragedy is that we become what we worship. People who put their confidence in money, for example, are most often times greedy, stingy and even dishonest to hold on to what they have and to get more.

God said of His people: “When they came to Baal Peor, they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol and became as vile as the thing they loved.” Hosea 9:10b (NIV).

People are not only held captive to Satan’s lies but also suspicious of the truth. Some Athenians laughed at Paul and walked away. Others waited around a little longer to listen to him. What does it take to convince a person that God is telling the truth? It takes an honest person and a mighty, supernatural act of God’s Holy Spirit to rescue a deceived soul from the clutches of the devil and transfer him into the realm of God’s truth.

A Tragic Trade

Apologetics, , ,

A TRAGIC TRADE

“When Paul and Barnabas finally realised what was going on, they stopped them. Waving their arms, they interrupted the parade, calling out, ‘What do you think you’re doing? We’re not gods. We are men just like you, and we’re here to bring you the Message, to persuade you to abandon these silly god-superstitions and embrace God Himself, the living God. We don’t make God; He makes us, and all of this — sky, earth, sea, and everything in them.'” Acts 14:14-15 (The Message).

O, what a message the world needs to hear! We don’t make God; He makes us.

How can it be possible that millions of people have swallowed the lie that the universe came into being by sheer chance and that we can invent our own gods? Surely the wonder of creation itself should lead us to the Creator! Has anything that we use every day just happened — motor vehicles, aircraft, great ocean liners, buildings, computers, cell phones; you name it — it had to have a designer and a craftsman to fashion it.

Surely any rational and sane-thinking person must realise that there is no such thing as spontaneous change or interim stages in a creation of such complex and intricate function. If any component is missing in a machine, it will not work. Anything in a human body that malfunctions or is not there causes deformity and disease. A single extra chromosome is enough to produce Down’s syndrome.

And what about the unity of creation? How can the entire created order function in such perfect harmony, even galaxies of stars millions of miles apart affecting each other, so that the universe has never gone haywire? Without the laws of nature, humans cannot harness the natural world for their benefit. Scientists could never have put men on the moon without them. The universe functions as one to reflect the perfect oneness of the God who created it.

And what of the gods humans have so cleverly invented? Does a single one of them come anywhere near the nature of the God who had revealed Himself in His Son? Can anyone think that up! We can only imagine what we know. Every god humans have ever invented is a taker, demanding, unpredictable and without love or justice.

Only the God of the Bible, who has revealed Himself to us in Jesus, is a gracious and generous giver and a perfectly righteous and just God. We only need to look at the cross to see love and justice coming together in perfect harmony so that God is free to forgive and restore everything humans have messed up by their irrational and rebellious independence.

We cannot hide behind the excuse that we did not know. “But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate; as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of His divine being. So nobody has a good excuse.” Romans 1:18-20 (The Message).

Why is the world like it is? We brought it on ourselves.

“What happened was this. People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat Him like God, refusing to worship Him, they trivialised themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in His hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside store.” Romans 1:21-23 (The Message).

What a tragic trade! And what was the outcome?

“So God said, in effect, ‘If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.’ It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshipped the god they made instead of the God who made them — the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!” Romans 1:24-25 (The Message).