FEW DARE TO CALL IT IDOLATRY

By Travis W. Lewis

February 2, 2025

Many years have passed since some, though not all, views I had held in high reverence since childhood started to appear distorted. I can still recall with distinction their original forms which with closer study and ardent prayer were beginning to progressively appear twisted and even false. I had yearned and prayed for light to see our attempts at worship and service as God would judge both. And the more intense my prayers became, the more ominous would become what I beheld.

All the while, my petition was for the ability to comprehend to my fullest capacity why, if at all, the most basic elements of attempts at worship had taken on trappings of who and what our imaginations had formed of who our Creator, God, really is. Retreat from that view has changed to surrender to the belief that the highest crime and guilt of the human race for which we must someday stand in judgment is idolatry. And most alarming is that its fungus has long since migrated into the hearts of individuals and congregations alike, all of whom still make attempts at worship – even in regular, serious, and most spirited forms.

Human nature drives us to adore whatever we can imagine seeing with our eyes or touching with our hands or molding within our minds, then shaping it into a thing of which we take pride as being self-crafted. Once formed, we continually adorn it with whatever stimulates the mind and emotions further. Almost invariably, the zone into which we migrate is one of comfort, being composed of what we have imagined God to admire as much as we ourselves do. Scriptures are molded into acceptable paradigms and become barely detectable overtones as we attempt to worship. Efforts to “reprove and rebuke” are crafted so that no one senses having been either reproved or rebuked. This way, views of God become both manageable and measurable. For whatever we can measure, we can manage. And whatever we can manage, or control, eventually takes on our own nature as it nourishes our vain pride. So, with an image of God confined to our own thoughts, we have reduced our view of Him to a manageable form.

But an idol crafted within the mind, or a false image of God having been molded into our thought patterns, must be as offensive to Him as one we have carved with our hands. In no uncertain terms, Jesus proclaimed that, “Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.” But we restrict God the Father to whatever we imagine with the powers only of our carnal mind. As such, God becomes a composite of the religious pictures we have seen with our own eyes, or from images drawn by the most revered teachers we have known or heard, or all the magnificent ideas we have crafted within our own minds, or possible spinoffs from the titillations generated with the music by which we have been charmed.

The innate desire for a sense of security continually drives us toward a satisfactory view of who God is – what He looks like, how He views us as individuals, and how pleased or displeased He is with the conduct of our lives, especially with our manner of worship. However, once a view of God is formed that places us into a comfort zone, that is where we tend to settle. But, should we ever be content with a paradigm that we know God as intimately as we would need or like? In actuality, we may know Him as intimately as we would like, but never to the extent of our need. That feeling of security solidifies as we sense control of our own lives within a group who postures itself as being prestigious and wise. And, once that level of false security is reached, yearning to know reaches a plateau, and we settle into a zone of comfort. Be assured that at the level upon which it settles, our growth toward knowing God ceases.

While we remain mortals, we will not have the capacity of understanding God to the fullest. We are landlocked by the calamity we know of as the Fall. We must be aware of our natural separation from God and that, even after salvation, we remain plagued with feelings of discouragement and adversity and a craving to know God more intimately. The foggy mist of temptation to gloat in our supposed godliness never ceases to drift across our view, causing our spiritual eyes to strain to see clearly enough through it all. As this occurs, we begin to lose sight of who God still is and why Jesus remains who He has always been. However, once settled into the zone that offers security such as “group think” often does, or continuous accolades assuring us of how close we are to God compared to others around us, we have reached the plateau of a comfort zone. A state of spiritual criticalness has set in. Gone is the hunger to comprehend the God whom we otherwise would know to be incomprehensible. Gone is the yearning to know more about the One Who cannot be fully known. Gone is the longing to breach the landlock of mortality and return to the Source of our origin.

But idols, whether handcrafted or merely mental, easily become influential realities in our lives. And without early teaching and an instilled desire within the heart of the infant Christian to learn of the God of Heaven, he or she may never glimpse His majesty. If so, Satan readily supplants reality with an idol. And the father of lies, deception, and eventual ruin is highly skilled in identifying, adorning and presenting the phony and guileful to be genuine and good. I suppose no one intends to worship and follow a dumb idol, regardless of its form. So, though the idol will appear to be authentic and real, it is tragically deceptive. Unless mentored regularly by an admired and wiser spirit, the inquisitive new believer will be misled into accepting the idol as a part of the work of the living God.

Left unled, untaught, uncorrected, and in the absence of intense, objective private prayer, the young believer accepts the dumb idol that offers the warmth and softness of a comfort zone to which every mortal is attracted. The idol will not present itself as the evil that it is, and probably not as an openly shameful immorality, the description with which most of prevailing culture might concur.

The idol may even present itself as “churchy” stuff itself – possibly in mere “church” attendance or becoming associated with a prestigious church group or joining some “church mission” effort that is lauded as being so “outreach” focused or in some other popular group-think way of life. The distracting idol may be in the dependable rigidity of the service order itself – an opening song by the congregation as it stands to its feet, then a welcoming skit, followed by a model prayer with the same “be withs” and “bless” this or that which are almost invariably expected, then one or two “special” songs (many of which obviously strike little if any melody in the hearts of those occupying the pews) sang by one or more who apparently enjoys entertaining; then another song as the congregation stands often simultaneous to the offering plate being passed around; the congregation then quietly and patiently warms the pews and listens as a thirty to thirty-five minute monologue is delivered. Near the end, an invitation is extended to repent and openly “accept” Jesus as Savior or to “join” the church, after which regular attendance, along with performing church chores are insinuated nevertheless expected. A final prayer signifies the “service” has ended. Sounds from “I Surrender All”, about which was sang only moments ago, immediately change into boisterous laughter and conversation about politics, sports, and “what’s for lunch?” The somber thought of “surrender” has been left behind until near the end of the next meeting, but “that’ll do for church today.”

All the while, those purporting to be leaders who would be imitated and followed may well be focused on the same idol as the one who has just chosen to follow the leader whose guidance is dictated by tradition, structure, cliques, applause, station in life and the list goes on. Nineteenth century French lawyer and political operative, Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin, once in his constant attempts to navigate the political landscape to his advantage, stated, “There go the people; I must follow for I am their leader.” Aspirant leaders still often navigate by using the same map.

Though blind following of any mortal inevitably leads to disappointment, a vital factor in avoidance of idols is in making a wise choice regarding a mentor, or one who is chosen to be paid heed and, at least to some degree, followed. However, even then, danger often lurks. Regardless of life’s station or style, whether “churched” or not, rigidly religious or a rebellious renegade, all mortals are fallible and will eventually disappoint. Though God equips some to become teachers and leaders, He alone is worthy of being life’s premier Guiding Star. The life He exemplified and the record He inspired to be written must not be displaced in pursuit of His intimacy. A seemingly insignificant deception today, another minor distraction tomorrow may temporarily raise a red flag, but soon comes one who seems to have all of life’s answers and makes it so easy to be followed and imitated. This way, not much effort of analysis in pondering study and persistent prayer on the part of the follower is required to feel dialed in to God. At that point, however, that person who would be blindly followed is well along, whether intentionally or not, toward becoming an idol to an unsuspecting victim. And the more distracted one becomes from a personal search to know God more intimately, the more apt the learner is to accept such an idol in His stead.

Development of a vigilant eye for idolatry does not come easily which points again to the importance of choosing a wise leader to follow in our search. Even then, a laser-like focus must remain on Jesus and His sound words of advice. As important as a mentor may become, he or she is never infallible. Wisdom in discernment of idolatrous spirits as opposed to the Holy Spirit must have grown to a higher level than that of the follower. Otherwise, whenever he or she stumbles, the blind will be leading the blind.

The opening paragraphs of this essay revealed my serious alarm with what I progressively saw as the “church” falling away. That concern continues to compound almost daily. It is not so different from what the prophets saw in God’s earthly people, Israel, nearly three millennia ago. Ironically, genuine concerns are still heralded as a need to humble ourselves and pray and “return to the Lord,” and upon which we will receive a blessing from Heaven which we “will not be able to contain.”

Though we are not Israel, the promise to His people is still the same. Even so, we continue to petition God for revival, then often wonder why it occurs only sporadically, at best. Renowned twentieth century author, theologian, and pastor, A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), offered a sensible explanation: “If Christianity is to receive a rejuvenation it must be by other means than any now being used. If the church is to recover from the injuries she suffered in the (twentieth century), there must be a new type of preacher. The proper, ruler-of-the-synagogue type will never do. Neither will the priestly type of man who carries out his duties, takes his pay and asks no questions, nor the smooth-talking pastoral type who knows how to make the Christian religion acceptable to everyone. All these have been tried and found wanting. Another kind of religious leader must arise among us. He must be of the old prophet type, a man who has seen visions of God and has heard a voice from the Throne. When he comes (and I pray God there will not be one but many) he will stand in flat contradiction to everything our smirking, smooth civilization holds dear. He will contradict, denounce and protest in the name of God and will earn the hatred and opposition of a large segment of Christendom.”

Reverend Tozer obviously spoke of what society will describe as a revolutionary – possibly an outsider to the structure he would see collapse. He will be one who sees the idols that time and tradition and emotions have endeared to, and rooted deeply into, our hearts. But removal of any harmful thing, having been allowed to take root and grow for so long, is always painful. However, removal requires probing, identifying, and removing even to its roots. Idols must be identified and called out by name. With Christ’s example, he must love the people of God and weep over them – even as he pronounces their doom.

This has broadly described my view of where the people who purport to be the church find themselves in this first half of the twenty-first century. We have established dumb but colorful idols and imagined them to provide a better and more beautiful way of life and worship. We have substituted worship with entertainment; for the sake of numbers and dollars which measure our success, “church membership” has become easy to gain and even easier to maintain; symbols are substituted for reality, and sacred Holy days have become secular holidays.

Yet, few appear daring enough to call it idolatry. Ω