THE DANGER OF IDOLATRY

Psalm 135:15-18

“The idols of the nations are merely things of silver and gold, shaped by human hands. They have mouths but cannot speak, and eyes but cannot see.  They have ears but cannot hear, and mouths but cannot breathe.  And those who make idols are just like them, as are all who trust in them.”

Tim Keller once wrote that we make idols of almost anything. “Idols are usually good things that we turn into ultimate things because we look to them to give us significance and security that can only come from God.” (The Psalms of Jesus, December 9)

Interestingly, the word “idol” in Hebrew is also translated as “demon.” This has even greater import when the Psalmist says that those who make idols, those who worship them, become like them.

It is a common fallacy, a commonly held deception to think that someone can somehow be spiritually “neutral.” Some might like to think they can be a sort of spiritual Switzerland. No one can be in that position. All have sinned. All were born spiritually dead. No one lives in spiritual neutrality.

As the Apostle Paul writes to the young congregation in Ephesus, “You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.” (Ephesians 2:2)

Either the Holy Spirit of God is living out in you the Life and salvation of Jesus Christ, or you remain under the control of the unholy spirit. There is no middle ground. Either you are drawing your significance, meaning and purpose in life from the Lord God who created you, or you are embracing the idols of culture: money, power, control, sexual distortion in all its forms, education, influence, fame, envy, hatred, wokeness, fear, and the like.

The truth is, every other philosophical system, ideology, regimen, religious or otherwise but the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a deception. That does not mean that everything in those other attempts at the reclamation of humanity is false, but the deadly poison in them is the lie that somehow, given enough time and technology, humanity can save itself apart from God. The deception intrinsic in them all is that we, by our own efforts, can be saved from the repetitive and ongoing chaos history reminds us we humans live in.

Only God’s intervention in history by the Incarnation, Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ has opened THE way that is singular, unique, and found in nothing and no one else for humanity to become restored and fully human again. We do not have to stay spiritually dead and alienated from God, controlled by unseen, demonic, spiritual darkness.

What the world system offers as a solution to humanity’s problems will never, ever solve the problem. All we can muster on our own only makes things worse over time. For those who worship idols become like them.

Salvation will never be found in climate-change legislation. It will never materialize through the authoritarian machinations of the World Economic Forum. Military or political power will never reverse the spiritually bankrupt, decaying condition at work in humanity at large.

Only God can give us a new spiritual DNA, a new heart, a new spirit, a new unending Life. There is no cause for us to wring our hands in despair. We do, however, need to humble ourselves and own that we are powerless to change what is spiritually dead into a new, living person. Turning from idols and turning to the Living God is humanity’s only hope. God has done all that is necessary. We can add nothing to it.  All we can say is, “Yes” to Him and “Thank You, Lord.” He comes to live His Life in us, uniting us to Himself, as human life was meant to be, and then He empowers us to live that New Life, the Eternal Life beginning here and now.

The banking ad asks, "What’s in your wallet?" It's time to ask, "What's ruling my heart?"