Inform Your 'Faith'

This may seem like a strange or irksome question. I understand why. But it is a particularly relevant and pertinent question. My interest here is not to attract interest or to razz anyone. That being said, I am interested in counteracting a commonplace proclivity of ours to accentuate certain particularities of God that attract our attention or idiosyncratic interests that we tend to promote beyond all others. This tendency is a pitfall that we often succumb to without intending to. All the more reason to maintain an honest and humble cognizance of such a 'blindspot'.   

It was God, after all, that forbad idolatry in the first place (Ex.20:4). The Decalogue is clear on that point. It is imperative we understand that the first two commandments fittingly preserve God's place as "the Lord your God" (Ex.20:2). He will not tolerate any form of ignoble usurpation.  God made it unequivocally obvious that He is a jealous God that will not tolerate any substitute. In conjunction with the giving of the new tablets, imminently after the 'golden calf' debauchal, the Lord our God reasserts His jealousy by way of amplification. Instead of remarking, "I the Lord your God am a jealous God" as He did in Ex.20:5b He vociferously states, "for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." (Ex. 34:14)

Well then, how is it possible to idolize God? First we must recognize that the antiquarian idol worship of antiquity, particularly germane to the O.T epoch, is not the idolatrous worship of our day strictly speaking. Then, idolatry precipitated carved figures and hand crafted images more or less.This represented more of a reduction of metaphysical speculations to inanimate statues. This was the product of a irreverent religous spirit.

Idolatry takes on different expressions in our day post Renaissance and Enlightenment.  It takes on shades of autonomy and  the characteristics of self gratification devoid of metaphysical interest for the most part. Present day idolatry is very much an existential practice that revolves around corporeal (physical) cravings in a  much different way.  This is indicative of a reverent irreligous spirit.

As Christian's who worship the Lord our God, as revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ, we must guard against incorporating existential idolatry into our spheres of worship. Our idolatry rears its ugly head in how we worship the Lord our God. The tendency within Christendom is to aggrandize certain features of Gods being or to gravitate to certain attributes of His nature. This is exhibited when we 'amen' aspects of a sermon that highlights God's mercy while failing to 'amen' sermons that magnify His justice. Or we sing the songs that praise His 'forgiving grace'' while failing to sing the songs celebrating His 'electing grace'.

      

This idolatry is also seen in how we read His revealed word. When we gravitate to passages that accentuate the responsibility of Christians in sanctification while glossing over or ignoring the role of the triune God in sanctification for instance. The former 'in isolation' promotes moralism, legalism and self-righteousness while the latter 'in isolation'  promotes passivity, anit-nomianism and quietism. This is especially true within the dialectic of grace/law and election/free-will.

The Psalmist described idols as the 'work of human hands' in Psalm 115. He goes on to say, "they have mouths , but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet but do not walk, and they do not make a sound in their throat..." Now pay attention to the effects of idolatry..."Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them." (Psalm 115:4-8)

This has application for Christian idolatrous worship. For example when we worship Gods justice exclusively and hand craft a God of justice stripped of mercy the tendency is to not 'hear',  'taste', 'see' or 'feel' God's mercy and compassion because all those capacities are governed by blind, deaf, tasteless and apathetic justice. The opposite is equally true. When we worship God's mercy exclusively the tendency is to not 'hear', 'taste', 'see' or 'feel' God's justice because all those capacities are governed by blind, deaf, tasteless and empathetic mercy.

It is idolatrous to tout one or even two attributes of God's being to the exclusion of all other revealed eternal qualities. Such worship confuses God's unity, eternality, majesty,simplicity etc. This practice invariably idolizes God and reduces His attributes to the things worshipped rather than God which actually renders aspects of God to be demi-gods which  is more indicative of gnostic-mysticism.