Like pagans of the past, we are just as capable as they were of creating gods in our own
image. We’re just as likely to put our family or job in the place of
God. We’re just as apt to try to meet God on our own terms, to take our
personal and cultural desires and live as though these are the ways to
reach out to God. We are just as willing to listen to the clamoring of
surrounding culture and pretend as though these are the whispers of
divine guidance. These otherwise good gifts of God become, instead,
substitute deities, blinding us to the truth of the true God’s
self-revelation.
We’re also just as likely as our “primitive” ancestors to find our
ethics corrupted because we’ve put our ultimate hope in a limited thing.
They called it “god,” but we call it ideology, identity, or progress.
The effect is the same. We have placed our hope and seek our meaning in
finite goods then wonder why our frail gods fail us.
We worship our autonomy then are shocked that abortion, infanticide,
and euthanasia “suddenly” become palatable to the wider culture. We
exalt sexual expression above all other goods then are puzzled that
yesterday’s common sense ethic is today seen as the vilest bigotry and
hatred. We treat gender and ethnic identities as the most important
thing about us then we are amazed that our social fabric frays more each
day. We disdain any understanding of God that violates our own desires,
then we wonder that this “god” becomes a plaything for our worst
impulses rather than the Creator of all. Our gods are too small.
We most often think of the dangers of idolatry in terms of disloyalty
and infidelity, and this is true, but along with these failings come
the inevitable destructive effects that our little gods have on our
lives. Whenever we limit God to our personal, cultural, or ideological
imaginations, He ceases to be the God of Heaven and becomes instead
merely the projection of our passions and desires.
When we put our
political agendas, national patriotism, or even our otherwise good works
at the center of our understanding, then these demi-gods will not lift
us up to the skies but bring us down to our lowest level. A god bound by
the limitations of our preferences and confined by our judgments will
only deify our already corrupted desires.
The above text was provided by ~ Breakpoints- Timothy D Padgett
Category: Christian Worldview, Timothy D Padgett. April 5, 2019
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