“Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” -Romans 1:22-23
“And God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. 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.’” -Exodus 20:1-4
“God wants us to prosper financially, to have plenty of money, to fulfill the destiny He has laid out for us.“ -Joel Osteen
In a prior post we discussed the first of our detrimental views on God which are causing traditionally Christian societies to become lukewarm (at best!) in their faith, namely the view that God does not exist, or that if he ever did, then now he is dead. In this post we will examine another popular view, and probably the one most prevalent in America, that God exists, but that I am free to determine what he is allowed to do. (Another post about this topic can be found here concerning a quote by Tim Keller).
It doesn’t take much consideration to think of an example of a man-made god that you have seen, either in your own peer group or on TV. It comes out in the form of broad statements about God’s character, such as “I don’t believe in a God that would remain silent when so many people are suffering” or “A loving God would not condemn people for being gay.” Surprisingly (or not) these often seem to arise out of some desire to make God look good, make ourselves look good, or both.
But why do we feel the need to do this? Can’t God do his own PR work? Why are we constantly trying to make him look good when put in the situation of interpreting his position on homosexuality or abortion or putting spinners on our Escalade? Are we really doing God a favor, that people won’t want to worship him anymore unless we tell them that God doesn’t mind them keeping a mistress on the side?
No. Think about it. No. Obviously this very noble motivation is not what’s driving us. Because, “if God is God” then he can do his own image upkeep. Instead, I believe that our own motivation is that we know we are supposed to believe in God but either we don’t or we just don’t believe enough to face the hard truths. Am I saying everything is clear in the Bible? Certainly not. But is the Bible pretty straight-forward about most of the things we try and sweep away? You bet your tush it is!
Speaking on the topic of God’s opinion on homosexuality, Presbyterian teacher Dr. R.C. Sproul said that the issue is not what the Bible teaches, since anyone who is being honest to the text knows that the Bible teaches homosexuality as a sin. No, the issue is whether or not we are going to choose to obey God’s Word! Wow! But you know, that’s really what it is. We know that the Bible teaches against drunkenness, sex outside of marriage, gambling, and assorted other things. That’s not the question. The question is if we “[love] the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God (John 12:43)” ?
So, what is the result of such a practice in our societies? Well, the first thing that we see is that it causes us to create a false god, a created god, which is in clear violation of the Second Commandment. God commands us not to create a carved image or anything in the likeness of the things of heaven. This doesn’t just mean a statue, but also that when we create a god in our minds and then worship it as if it were the God of the Bible, we are violating God’s Law.
Moreover, in creating a god of our own liking, we also create all kinds of distorted theology to defend our belief and try to ingrain our thoughts in popular religion. One such PR job is “Open Theism.” In Open Theism the belief is that God is somehow incapable of knowing the future actions of a human being with free will. In a sense this puts God at the mercy of man as to the control of what happens on the earth, stripping his sovereignty. But, what you lose in God’s sovereignty, you gain in removing his responsibility for acts of tremendous suffering such as 9-11 or the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan.
Another popular (false) teaching is that propagated by the likes of Joel Osteen and TD Jakes, that God wants us to be rich and prosperous, and that those who are connected fully to God will be blessed financially. I guess that means Jesus was a sucky Christian since he had “nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20) and had to pay the temple tax with money from a fishes mouth (Matthew 17:24-27). If he were really in touch with God’s will then he would have a phat mud hut in the hills with the latest in turn-of-the-AD features.
As “Christians” being raised in a “Christian” society, it is important to get the right bearings about God. God is not open to negotiation. If we find ourselves worshiping a god of our own creation we must analyze why this is: either we have gotten off track with our theology and are trying to satisfy men and ourselves at the sake of the truth, or we have never known the truth and so feel free to create whatever we want just to have faith in something. Either reason is unacceptable. Instead, we must return to the God of the Bible, the God revealed in Scripture, the God who reveals himself through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. We can no longer stand for the proliferation of a god after man’s own heart if we are to ever see our Christian nations flee from their lukewarm state.
Posted by Todd Burus
Posted by Todd Burus
