Modern Day Idolatry
These days we hear more and more about people abandoning their faith in God, “deconstructing” their belief, or having no faith at all.
I truly believe that there’s no such thing as an atheist. I think that people replace their faith in God with other things. It could be politics or science or even family. But people are going to believe in something, whether they acknowledge that belief or not.
Even believers can replace their faith in God with idols from time to time. It’s not always a long-term flirtation with idolatry, but we can take our eyes off our true faith and not even realize it. We can make idols of lots of things: sports, music, money, family. Anything.
I think these days of political disunity and factionalism have led people to turn to political idols more than ever before. Partisans can make idols of their party, of specific positions or policies, and even of particular politicians. And that idolatry can get particularly ugly.
Ideology itself is idolatry as well. Activists can obsess over one facet of life – from race to gender to taxes to marijuana legalization – and read and speak about that issue at the expense of everything else. Wokeism is a secular, godless faith, a form of idolatry all its own, but so is stolen election conspiracy theorizing. People with perfectly righteous causes like the pro-life movement can turn their pet issues into idols.
Who would have thought that a global pandemic could create idols of its own? Far too many people have taken sides and drawn harsh lines. A subject as simple as wearing masks can create an argument. The vaccine itself has become an idol, as people have resorted to pro-vax and anti-vax shaming to try to convince others to come to their side – the ultimate exercise in futility. (The old adage “live and let live” apparently doesn’t apply when it comes to the COVID vaccine.)
To put it as plainly as possible, anything that takes our primary focus off of God is an idol.
Idolatry was an issue that plagued the Hebrews. Initially, an idol was a physical object, a carved image. God commanded His people in the Ten Commandments:
You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Exodus 20:4-6 (ESV)
The Old Testament made clear what God thought of idols:
The OT has a rich vocabulary of idolatry with terms ranging from the merely descriptive, like פֶּסֶל (pesel; “image”; Exod 20:4) or צֶלֶם (ṣelem; “image”; Amos 5:26), to the derogatory and insulting, like שִׁקּוּץ (šiqqûṣ, “abomination”; Jer 4:1) and גִּלּוּלִים (gillûlîm, “idols”; Ezek 6:5), a word used to refer to idols but related to words for dung, especially as used for fire fuel…[1]
Idolatry led to plenty of trouble for God’s people throughout the Bible, and it’s not just the Old Testament writers who railed against it. The Apostle Paul warned the Colossian church:
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.
Colossians 3:5-6 (ESV)
And Jesus told the church in Ephesus, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first” (Revelation 2:4, ESV) because they had taken their eyes of what was most important, namely their faith in Him.
Idolatry is a sin, and it hinders our ability to follow God. At its essence, we can think of idolatry as religion without God. Most of the time when we find ourselves falling for idolatry, it’s a temporary thing. But our idols can dominate our lives if we’re not careful.
If you find yourself taking your primary focus off of God and onto something else, repent. (Yes, I’m stepping on my own toes here and talking to myself just as much as to you.) His grace is enough to cover you, and He will forgive you. And you’ll find that focus on Him to become even sweeter.
[1] Mangum, D. (2014). Idolatry. D. Mangum, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, & R. Hurst (Eds.), Lexham Theological Wordbook. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.