False Idols vs. Temptations
Money (or worldly gain), power (or worldly honor), and sex (or worldly pleasure) are not idols they are temptations.
A false idol is something like left-wing politics (Marxism, communism, socialism), i.e. worship of the state; or environmentalism, i.e. worship of mother earth; or multiculturalism, i.e. worship of the ‘noble savage.’
These things don’t just replace God, they are sacrificed to (including human sacrifice) and they make the worshiper's conscience feel easy. These false idols forgive their worshipers.
It’s difficult for modern day Christians to see real false idols because most modern day Christians are completely in the power of the false idols they can’t see.
Again, money, sex, power: these are staple *temptations* in the devil’s kingdom, they are not false idols.
Unbelievers have a consciousness of guilt – of sin – that they need to have expiated. They refuse to approach God or the only Mediator between God and man, so they set up a false god.
Molech and Baal were not temptations.
Worship of the state is not a temptation. It is a god that is sacrificed to and that gives expiation to a sense of guilt and sin.
The Hollywood ‘liberal’ who makes a ton of money then gets involved in left-wing politics and issues is looking for expiation and is seeking a god to perform that for him/her.
They will sacrifice their freedom to these false gods. Their individuality. Regarding multiculturalism they will sacrifice their culture and civilization and the very safety of their neighborhoods (the ‘noble savage’ can do no wrong, in fact the more the ingratitude, the more the violence, the more the hatred directed by the noble savage to the false idol worshipers' culture the more the false idol worshipers will feel expiated for their 'sacrifice').
People will sacrifice humans to the state. Genocide. In some cases when abortion is a dogma in a person’s mind it becomes human sacrifice.
Money, power, and sex don't expiate the innate sense of guilt and sin in a person. They are not false idols, they are temptations.
Interesting a modern Reformed author [Tim Keller - Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters] would write a whole book on idols and get it so wrong. This is because Reformed Christians have forgotten about subjects like false idols (spiritual warfare would be another).
Read John Owen’s Biblical Theology to learn about false idols and the worship of false idols.
1 Comments:
I don't want to make this a post on its own, so I'll put it here:
MORE ATHEIST ATTACKS!
>Hm. You have brought no evidence into this discussion and instead cite bronze age text that has been told to people who couldn't read, translated, re-re translated, interpreted, re-re-re interpreted, given to kings to have them put their favorite parts in, then re translated hundreds of times since.
This is ignorant even for an atheist. The original manuscripts were Hebrew and Greek, any translation into other languages goes one time, Hebrew/Greek into modern language. There are more extent New Testament manuscripts and more evidence for the pure manuscript tradition, the received text, than any other work of literature from ancient times. As for the Old Testament, the Israelites/Jews were meticulous in preserving it, but you have to actually learn about it from sources that aren't sitting on the local bookstores' 'Atheist' section. This is also to do with the general shallowness of atheists. You wouldn't know about the language, manuscripts and translation of ancient Greek and Roman classics any more than you know about biblical manuscripts. This is why you are called 'village atheists.' Village idiots who have adopted atheism.
>Oh, and god just spoke to me and told me you're christianity is missing the point. See, how that works?
This is why God has given us His revealed Word in the Old and New Testaments. To test the spirits, and to put everything up against the tribunal of Scripture. So, 'just making sh*t up' may impress a fellow atheist who has no Standard, but not a follower of Jesus Christ who has discernment given by the Word and the Spirit.
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