“God Is …"

The Force of Christian Idolatry – part 1

"God is love and grace, all the rest is extras"’ or something like this has been said to me so many times during vacation that I felt I must engage a topic of Humanisms affect on the church to create Christian idolatry.

To begin with we must define idolatry. Idolatry is the creation of a god or gods from the human mind and heart that suit that human mind and fit that person'’s concepts of what God should be. Ultimately though if you look at idolatry it is the worship of man himself. It is about the forces of flesh given an image and form to worship. Greed, lust, evil desire, and pride are all given worship using these images as mediums of adoration. Humanism is the core of all this. Humanism says that the sole reason for being is the happiness of man. ManÂ’s happiness becomes the object of worship.

Now this is what the world does and I expect nothing more out of them. The unrighteous can do nothing else. But what concerns me is when such an attitude infiltrates the church and boy has it done so. Both the liberal and conservative sides of the church have done this. The liberal says: "‘The goal of religion is man'’s happiness while he is alive"’. The conservative says: "‘the goal of religion is man's happiness after he dies"’. Both are based on the humanistic idea of man'’s happiness being the central goal of life. I submit to this is both unchristian and idolatry in Christian garb.

One way this is displayed is the "‘God is...…"” statements people make. Now most of these statements are true on the surface but the problem results when those statements are looked at through the eyes of humanistic idolatry and when any of them are placed as core of all that God is.

The act of looking at them through humanistic eyes produces what I would call the "‘me centered God"‘. It is looking at a particular attribute of God for the purpose of self benefit. For instance when a person commits a grievous sin as Christian they run with wholehearted passion to the God of love and grace. They argue strongly that this is the central core of God'’s being. Because it is true? No. Because that is what they desire out of God and that is what they need God to be for themselves and THEIR OWN WELL BEING. It is a self-centered image of God created by themselves for themselves. This goes for the "‘God is holy"’ crowd as well. In a world where sin is the dominate profession they need a God that is righteous to make order for themselves and to know that the Lord of the earth will do right. The problem is they think it is about their holiness and not God'’s.

This creating of a single attribute to cover God always amazes me as if God is small enough to be contained by a single attribute. "‘God is...…"’ statements are in the Bible but no single one of them can encompass all that God is. That is why there are more than one of them. God is holy. God is love. God is righteousness. God is mercy. God is justice. I could go on and on because God is all these things and more (Scripture says so) -– all in perfect balance.

The key issue here is to give up the idea that the whole reason for existence is the happiness of man. It is the first step to freeing oneself from this idolatry by discovering the purpose of man and it is not our own happiness. But that will be the subject of another post.

Source: I want site a source for many of my thoughts on this issue. A sermon called "“Ten Shekels and a Shirt"” by Paris Readhead. If you want to hear it is on Sermonindex.net.

Bible Bull – “Dead in Sin"

Ok, I know what you are thinking – how could I say this is ‘bull’. Well word search time on BibleGateway.com. Perform a Bible search for ‘dead in sin’ – the exact phrase. Search any version you like and you know what you find. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Now maybe like the concept of the Trinity. The word is not actually used but the idea is there if you look at a couple of Scriptures and do the math. Ok, new search –dead, sin – match all words. Now I used five versions, KJV, NIV, NASB, NLT and ESV. I got 10 hits, but I had to eliminate Number 6:11 and 1 Samuel 25:39 because this is the dead body thing or someone died because of their sin against God. I also had to remove Romans 6:1, 2, 11 and 1 Peter 2:24 because it is about a believer being ‘dead to sin’. Romans 6:7 and 13 are dismissed as well because it is the same context as the others about ‘dead TO sin’. That leaves only two verses that might say something directly Romans 7:8 and 8:10.

Romans 7:8, in context, is talking about how death came to Paul through the commandment. When he realized he had broken the law he died. That of course brings up a question: How is it possible for one to die through sinning (committing acts of sin) if one is already dead in a state of sin? In any case, it is not really helpful in proving that we are dead in a state of sin because that is not the point of the passage.

Romans 8:10 doesn’t help either. It talks about our bodies being dead because of sin but our spirits being alive through Christ. It is in context about the new life a believer has in Christ and because of this it does not help the discussion about ‘are we ‘dead IN sin’ before salvation.

This leaves us in a quandary. Well, one more search ‘died, sin’. 5 hits and once again once we eliminate Numbers 27:3 and all the ones from Romans 6 we are left with Romans 7:9. This unfortunately has the same context as Romans 7:8 – gone.

Only one verse in the whole Bible comes close to saying ‘dead in sin’ – Ephesians 2:1-2:

“1And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.”

Now here is the problem. This does not say we are dead in a pre-existent state of sin, but through actions of ‘trespasses’ and ‘sins’ were are dead or better the idea is we were killed. Verse 2 also gives us a cause. No it is not flesh or sinful nature – but the prince and power of the air and the world system through the sons of disobedience. In is not a state we are born in – we are taught it.

I have to painfully conclude that the idea that we are ‘dead in sin’ is Bible Bull – it isn’t there. That leaves a very painful possibility that all of us in some way face our own Garden of Eden like experience with commandment – and we all fail. The why is the same reason that Adam and Eve failed in that same garden: ignorance and arrogance. The fact is that our parents didn’t make us do it. Oh they have been the devil’s henchmen in presenting the temptation, but it is we that made the choice to sin willfully against God. It is not: ‘I couldn’t help it I am a born sinner’ it is “I was presented with an option and I willfully took the one that made me an enemy of God.” Ignorance of the consequences and/or arrogance that they would not affect us is why we sin- not a preexistent state.

It is interesting however how much people defend this idea to the bitter end but then turn around and say the Christian is still a sinner despite at least four verses if not a whole chapter (Romans 6) that directly say the opposite in straight shooter language too. Why is it the ‘dead in sin’ is hailed as absolute truth, with no direct Biblical support and no indirect support either, but the concept of ‘dead to sin’ is debated when it has several verses that directly say so? Because our flesh (our earthly nature) likes the one doctrine and not the other, that’s why. It is simply the fact that carnal Christianity has done a bang up job at justifying sin inside the pure and spotless bride known as the church. But more on that subject for another day’s writing.

‘Dead in Sin’ –Sorry that’s Bible Bull.