"YOU MIGHT BE AN IDOL WORSHIPPER IF..."

Dear Friends,

Our culture of information overload, special effects, fast food, and everything geared to entertain has created a generation of people with short attention spans. People don’t read like they used to…especially if a post or article is long. For that reason, I usually try to make my posts to be relatively short and easy reading. This one, however, is a bit longer and is more of a Bible study or a teaching tool. 
As you read keep in mind that in addition to wood and stone idols, there are also idols of the heart (Ezekiel 14:3). Covetousness is also a form of idolatry (Colossians 3:5).  
One purpose of this post is to show the foolishness of mankind in his attempts to avoid the God of the Bible. These paragraphs contain some very good lessons and speak to our current generation which is being flooded with New Age philosophy that is infiltrating the church and causing many to go astray. I encourage you to read the whole thing.
Billy Long

“You Might Be an Idol Worshipper if…”

You might be an idol worshipper if you make and construct your god.

The workman molds an image. Isaiah 40: 19 

A wooden idol is a worthless doctrine. Silver is beaten into plates; It is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz. The work of the craftsman and of the hands of the metalsmith...They are all the work of skillful men. Jeremiah 10:8-9.

God is infinitely above and greater than His creation. There is nothing within the created universe to which He can be compared. There is absolutely nothing man can conceive of or make that could in any way be likened to God? Absolutely nothing. Anything man creates to substitute for God (whether wood, stone, gold, unbiblical philosophies, false religions, or idols set up in the heart) can only be a pitiful and insignificant speck of dust promising what it cannot deliver compared to the Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, and awesome God of the Bible, creator of the universe
How can a person find answers or be at peace when he himself is the source of his resource. By contrast, we know that the existence of an Almighty, Sovereign God, Creator of all things is the basis for faith, the meaning of life, peace of mind, and hope for eternal life. We didn’t make our God; He made us.
Jeremiah said that an idol is a worthless doctrine, a work of errors. So how is it that a person can become enamored with a piece of wood and stone or an idol he has set up in his heart, made with his own hands or created out of the imaginations of his own mind? The idol itself is dumb and useless, but it becomes the residence of demons who receive the “worship” and capture the minds and lives of those who bow before it. People are mesmerized by their idols because of the evil spiritual powers that are attracted and attached to them. Demons gather around the follies of man. (Revelations 9:20, Deuteronomy 32: 15-18).

You might be an idol worshipper if you have to maintain and decorate your god.

The workman molds an image. The goldsmith overspreads it with gold, and the silversmith casts silver chains. Isaiah 40: 19. They decorate it with silver and gold. Jeremiah 10: 4

An idol is a dark and ugly thing. The stone idol was overspread with gold and silver. Idols of the heart are overspread with lies to make them attractive. It’s a sad situation when your god needs cosmetics to make him look good.

You might be an idol worshipper if you have to use treated wood so he does not rot.

Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution chooses a tree that will not rot. Isaiah 40:20.

“Rot” means to undergo decomposition, to deteriorate, or to go to ruin. Jeremiah said, “The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens.” (Jeremiah 10:11). The fact is, all idols will “rot,” no matter what precautions are taken to preserve them.
The Apostle John tells us, “Little Children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). He also says, “The world is passing away, and the lusts of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17). The writer of Hebrews speaks so eloquently. “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You will remain; and they will all grow old like a garment; Like a cloak You will fold them up, and they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will not fail” (Hebrews 1: 10-12.

You might be an idol worshipper if you have to fasten him down or use guy wires to keep him from falling over.

They fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not topple. Jeremiah 10:4
He seeks for himself a skillful workman to prepare a carved image that will not totter. Isaiah 40:20

You definitely don’t want a god who keeps falling over and has to be supported. A rock is not our God, but God is our rock. He undergirds and holds us. He is our firm foundation and a mighty fortress. He upholds and strengthens the weak. He does not need for us to prop Him up. HE is the support of all that exists. The Lord says, “When I choose the proper time, I will judge uprightly. The earth and all its inhabitants are dissolved; I set up its pillars firmly” (Psalm 75:103). He raises up and casts down. He is Sovereign Lord and God of all.

You might be an idol worshiper if you have to pick up your idol when he falls over.

And when the people of Ashdod arose early in the morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the earth before the Ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and set it in its place again. 1 Sam 5: 3

The demons indwelling the idols “talk big” and act like the big rooster in the barnyard until God shows up. Dagon was the “big man on campus” until the Ark of God was placed beside him. The Philistines awoke the next morning to find Dagon had fallen over on his face before the ark. It seems the stone image was acknowledging the power and authority of Israel’s God. The demons believe and tremble.

You might be an idol worshiper if you have to repair your god when he gets broken.

And when they arose early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. The head of Dagon and both the palms of its hands were broken off on the threshold; only Dagon’s torso was left of it. 1 Samuel 5:4

God’s message to the Philistines was very clear. The hands being broken off signified that Dagon had absolutely no power before the true God. The head being broken off signified that Dagon had absolutely no authority before the true God or over the people of God. This story reminds us of God’s first prophetic word concerning Jesus, His death on the cross, and its significance for Satan (Genesis 3:15). He told Satan, “You will bruise His heel,” referring to Jesus’ death on the cross. “And He will bruise your head,” referring to the loss of Satan’s power and authority over mankind.
To repair your idol is like decorating your first-class suite on the Titanic.

You might be an idol worshipper if you have to pick him up and haul him around, if you ask him to go before you, but you have to carry him.

And when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us, for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” Exodus 32:1. They must be carried, because they cannot go by themselves. Jeremiah 10:5

What good is a god that you made yourself? Why would we put our trust in some idol or spirit that hides in dark places. How rational is it to ask a god to go before you when he can go only so far as you can carry him?
When Israel left Egypt and journeyed across the wilderness, God went before them as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. The Bible says HE carried them as a father would carry a child in his arms. When Jesus puts forth His sheep, He goes before them. We follow the Lord because, as the Psalmist says, “He leadeth me… and surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”

You might be an idol worshipper If you substitute religious activities and rituals for repentance and really knowing and walking with Jesus.

Do not trust in these lying words, saying, “the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord…” Will you steal, murder, commit adultery…and walk after other gods…and then come stand before me in this house which is called by my name. Jeremiah 7: 4, 9-10.

Israel was worshipping foreign gods, but thought they might need God’s help when the Philistines attacked. They brought out the ark of the covenant thinking they could use it as a good luck charm. They set it in their midst and shouted the victory. The Philistines, however, defeated them.
Religious symbols, religious activity, church meetings, a crucifix necklace, or a cross tattooed on the arm should not be used as a good luck charm and is no substitute for obedience to God’s word in a personal, living relationship with Jesus. When people make ritual without relationship to be the focus, they cause God to be one-step removed…and eventually lost from view, along with His word. The religious ritual itself becomes an idol.

Micah, a man from the mountains of Ephraim, set up a carved image in his house and hired a Levite to be his priest. He said, “Now I know that God will be good to me since I have a priest” (Judges 17:13). His security was not in a sincere and real relationship with God, but in the fact he had his own priest and his own style of religion. The Danites came along and stole his priest. Substitutes for a genuine relationship with God will be taken away and leaving us empty and disillusioned or prey to the enemy. The answer is not in the ritual, charms, and activity, but in sitting at Jesus’ feet. Jesus said to Martha, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needful, and Mary has chosen that good part which shall not be taken away” (Luke 10:41-42). Our idols and godless philosophies will perish, but what we have in Jesus cannot be taken away. We are kept by the power of God, and He will not leave or forsake us.

You might be an idol worshipper if your god can be stolen or if you have to protect him.
[Laban said to Jacob], “Why did you steal my gods?”
Now Rachel had taken the household idols, put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. And Laban searched all about the tent but did not find them. Genesis 31: 34

You might be an idol worshipper if your god looks like food, or something you might hunt, kill, and eat. If he looks like something you might barbeque, bake, broil, fry, or stuff and mount on your wall.

And he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt.” Exodus 32:4

You might be an idol worshipper if his likeness or representation is ugly and non-human in appearance. If he looks like something from a science-fiction horror movie.

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Exodus 1: 27.
Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Acts 17: 29.

When we eventually stand before God, he will be familiar to us. We are made in his image, and HE will not be some unfamiliar alien creature. Thank God for Jesus who came to reveal the Father to us.

You might be an idol worshipper if your god is made in your image…instead of you being made in His image…If he is content with your unchanged and sinful ways and requires no moral accountability…and if his morals are as bad as or worse than yours.

These things you have done and I kept silent; You thought that I was like you. Psalm 50: 21.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3: 18.

Man’s idols are usually congenial with his lower nature and lusts. He sets up idols of the heart and ungodly beliefs that accommodate his proclivity to sin and which give him license to do whatever he pleases. Israel’s King Amaziah is an example of this principle.
Now it was so, after Amaziah came from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the people of Seir, set them up to be his gods, and bowed down before them and burned incense to them. Now the anger of the Lord was aroused against Amaziah, and He sent a prophet who said to him, “Why have you sought the gods which could not rescue their own people from your hand?” 2 Chronicles 25: 2, 14-16
King Amaziah set-up and worshipped the gods of the Edomites whom he had just conquered. Obviously, he knew he could not depend on them. How could he trust the gods of those he had just now conquered? These idols must have appealed to his lower nature and enticed him with some sensual or idolatrous pleasure in the same way as Baal worship had seduced Israel with its sexual license and immorality.
This shows us that people don’t necessarily serve and follow idols and false religions because of a sincere confidence and logical belief in the idol itself, but rather because its philosophy allows them to indulge their lower nature and their lusts. They don’t have to repent, and so continue in their sin. Israel followed Baal because of the free sex. Many people believe in evolution and New Age philosophies because these beliefs “free” them from the moral restraints and moral demands of scripture and the God of the Bible.

You might be worshipping a false god if you have to look inside yourself to find him.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Matthew 6:9.
Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven saying, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.” John 12:27.
See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven. Hebrews 12:25.

We were created to walk in fellowship and communion with the Lord. But sin alienated us from the life of God. Jesus died on the cross to remove our sins and reconcile us to God. But HE is not “in us” until we surrender to His Lordship. A lost sinner cannot look inside himself to find God. He must repent and surrender his life to Jesus. He cannot find God through human philosophies, meditation, and contemplation techniques. We do not find the Lord by looking inside ourselves as the new age and eastern religions teach. Though He is omnipresent, He is still God on the throne in heaven. To find Him we do not look inward; we look up.

You might be an idol worshipper if you think you can find God by physical positions, postures, and meditation; and if you think man can uncover and understand the deep mysteries of life by human intellect and philosophy and by ancient traditions and non-Biblical, human wisdom.

“When men could not make revelation even seem to tell about the deep mysteries which they were curious to pry into, they brought in human philosophy and pretended traditions to help it, as if one should bring a lamp to a sundial to find the hour.” ---Jamison, Faucett, and Brown's commentary.
The Apostle Paul in the book of Colossians warns us to beware lest anyone cheat us through philosophy and empty deceit according to the traditions of men. The same book tells us that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ Jesus.

You might be worshipping a false god If it is one among many.

Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I found an altar with this inscription: “To the Unknown God.” Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you. Acts 17: 22-23.

The Apostle Paul noted that Athenians was “very religious.” The city was noted for its various philosophies, and was deeply rooted in paganism. It had more idols and statues of gods than any other city in Greece. Paul correctly described them as “religious.” Athens exemplified the truth that a culture giving reverence to many gods does not really know the one true God. A society that accepts the notion that all beliefs and all religions lead to God will be offended at Biblical Christianity which says the Bible is the true word of God and there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved, except the name of Jesus Christ. If you believe all religions lead to heaven, then you are embracing a false god.

God who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though HE needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is nor far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being….Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature Is like silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead. Acts 17:24-31

Little Children, keep yourselves from idols. ---1 John 5:21

Isaiah 40: 15-20; Jeremiah 10:1-16; Exodus 20: 3; Acts 17:16-31; Deuteronomy 4: 12.