We have all heard the phrase “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” That’s Paul writing in 1 Timothy 6:10. However, while it is not explicitly stated in Scripture as such, I do not believe I am off-base to suggest that idolatry is the root of all evil. Before I go into that claim, let me review the previous ten posts of this series.
Idolatry is the practice of putting anything before God, be it a person, place, thing, or idea. Any noun that we utilize to seek to supplant God, or replace God, or to get from that which only God can offer, can be or is an idol. As I have read the historical accounts and the prophets, idolatry is the primary sin that is marked above all sins. All the kings were judged by how they handled idolatry: by allowing it, by participating in it, or by shutting it down. The prophets were more interesting because they don’t just describe how the kings did it but also how the average family engaged in idolatry. Jeremiah 7:17-19 describes how a family would all participate in idolatry. Jeremiah 32:29 describes how the roofs of homes in Jerusalem were used to worship Baal. And get this, even while wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, after having received the Ten Commandments and after the Golden Calf incident, the Israelites carried the Tabernacle and also idol of Molech.
In the Old Testament, the idols were the gods of their neighbors and including Baal, Asherah, Molech, Dagan, and many others. The idols took indirect forms through kings and other leaders. And I would suggest that ancient Israel had also crafted their own image of God that they worshipped instead of the true God. Otherwise, the Psalmist would not have rebuked the people for thinking God was like them. Isaiah would not have had to say that God’s ways were higher than our ways, His thoughts higher than our thoughts. And the Jews would have been ready for the Messiah when He came instead of expecting a military leader who would rescue them from Rome.
It was idolatry that made Israel misrepresent the name of God, taking His name in vain. It was in idolatry that they ignored the Sabbath’s purposes and led to dishonoring of parents. Idolatrous practices involved the intentional murder of children, sexual depravity, stealing from God and giving to another, lying about God, and greedily coveting what the other gods had to offer.
Idolatry is practiced today, too, and you can see my posts in this series for those details. But here, I am going to make the claim that ALL sins come out of a root of idolatry. That claim goes back all the way to Genesis 3 and the Fall of Man. One of the lies that Satan used to get Eve to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was that in doing so, she would be like God. This was the tipping point. This was the clincher. You could be like God. You could be the judge of right and wrong. You could rule your own life. You could live as you please. You could live submitting to no one. Eve took the bait, and Adam who was with her let her do a test run before joining her in it. They believed the lie and turned themselves into idols. One of the great sins of original sin was the worship of self.
So, what about the love of money? Actually, that makes money an idol. Jesus said you cannot serve both God and mammon. Mammon was the Greek god of money. What about pride? God hates pride more than idolatry, doesn’t he? Actually, pride is simply the worship of self. The idol of pride is you. The proud and arrogant worships self.
But there is another form of this idolatry of the worship of self: the god of your own making. This one is very subtle, but it’s still the worship of self. Brian McLaren in A Generous Orthodoxy showcases this issue. On pages 84-85, he describes “God A” and begins to list all the attributes of a god he doesn’t like: wrath, anger, vengeance, jealousy, etc. Then he says we should imagine “God B” which has all these lovely and fluffy attributes: love, mercy, kindness, gentleness, etc. Then he says, “I'm not sure which comes first--the kind of universe you see or the kind of God you believe in, but as a Christian who believes in Jesus as the Son of God, I find myself in universe B, getting to know God B.” This is blasphemy. McLaren has sought to redefine God as he would like him to be, while claiming to be a Christian. This is not Christianity. This is an entirely different religion altogether (and I believe he’s gotten a lot of other things very wrong too).
This comes out of post-modern thinking where truth cannot be known and is constantly changing (thanks to Evolutionary thinking). It is a purposeful rejection of truth being defined outside of self. Post-modern thinking is simply the modern version of: “In those days there was no king, and each man did that which is right in his own eyes.” We expect this kind of thing in the world, where sin runs rampant anyway. But it’s gotten into the church and Satan has made it his business to deceive the church to keep us from knowing the truth, let alone speak it.
One of the clearest places I’ve seen this kind of idolatry is through the origins debate. How one views their origins is a reflection of how they view God. If we have a high view of God, we’ll have a high view of the record God gave on origins. If we have a high view of Scripture, we’ll have a correct view of God. But the reverse is also true. If Scripture is “malleable” and “unclear” about one of the fundamental questions about life, and we can basically just “fill in the gaps” with whatever “historical” claims are made by the secularists claiming to be scientists that do not reflect a worship of the True God but a worship of a god that does what we think he should do.
One thing you will notice about “Old Earth” models is that as the “science” changes, so do their models, and so does the account and description of God with it. The “Young Earth” position does not have this issue. While our specific scientific models may change, the core history has never changed because the text of Scripture nor its meaning has changed. When one takes a method of interpretation that changes with the times, one has a god in his mind that changes with the times too. I describe such a god this way: “He likes what they like, dislikes what they dislike, does what they think should be done, does not do what they disprove of, and overall looks a lot like them.” Now, I’m not making this as a blanket statement, but I would suggest it represents a large majority of those in churches today. They don’t worship God on Sunday mornings; they worship their own ideas about God.
The more I study idolatry, the more I see how it is the root of all sin. Sin is by definition a violation of God’s moral character or God’s intended purpose for something. Idolatry is the practice of replacing God with something else or seeking something else to give you what only God can give. So, since idolatry is a rejection of God, it is at the core of every sin. It is the root of all evil. I hope by now we can see why God takes such things so seriously. But there is still hope! God seeks that we break free from our idols. Next week, I will wrap up this series to talk about the One who did not commit idolatry in any way and kept all of God’s Commandments: Jesus Christ.
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