In Scripture we find two kinds of idols. The first is an alternative to the living God from the get-go. When the children of Israel turned aside to Baal or Molech, they were sinning overtly and rebelliously. They were turning from the living God to false gods.
The other kind of idol starts out innocently. God gave His people something to remember Him by, and at first they remember Him rightly. An example of this would be the bronze serpent that Moses fashioned in the wilderness, so that anyone who had been bitten by a serpent could look on it in faith and live (Num. 21:8). Jesus said that this serpent was given as an Old Testament type, representing His crucifixion (John 3:14). It was a gift of God—and yet, Hezekiah was right to destroy it (2 Kings 18:4).
One of the central things we want to do as we build our church building is keep ourselves from every form of idolatry in and through the process. We don’t ever want to be found as having an edifice complex. The last thing in the world we want is to complete the steeple, and find out that the sign outside says Nehushstan Memorial.
So how can we keep ourselves from idolatry in this way? What should we do? The central thing is that our elders must ensure, and our congregation must insist upon, regular and repeated proclamations from this pulpit, the doctrines of the substitutionary atonement of Jesus, and justification by faith alone.
This can be tricky, as you should see at once, for that is precisely the message that the bronze serpent itself declared, and that did not prevent the children of Israel from burning incense to it. But even the word “tricky” is tricky, because if we repent of our subtleties, it is actually very straightforward. Love God, hate sin. Love God through the blood of Jesus, and hate the sin that He died to remove from you. Live in the justification that His resurrection bought. So let the stones cry out.
Curious how you’d answer the charge of the Bible being treated as an idol. It’s one I’ve had thrown at me before in response to phraseology such as “Bible-based” or “Bible-believing” to describe a church/service/minister. It was suggested that such things should be “Christ-based” or “Christ-believing.”
Brinkerhoff, Just a couple of ideas from an old lady; The Bible is the only source of words we have to tell us who Jesus Christ is and how to accurately be “Christ-based” or “Christ-believing”. Personally, I think those who throw the “Bible as Idol” argument out there are quite interested in finding clever ways to be disobedient to Christ and need to be called on that. When you actually think about their assertion, it sounds very silly and I would say that to their face. REALLY!
Every time I’ve heard the accusation of “Bible-olatry”, the “what’s next, then?” answer pretty much shakes out to “stop believing what the Bible says.”
Thus, I’m happy to change the terminology I use, but not when what you really want is to change what I believe.
Melody I brought the topic back up today (co-worker) and mentioned your response (similar to how I’ve responded in the past). He said something like: “the Bible informs us about Christ but it is not Christ and shouldn’t be treated as thus…the lower case word of God should not be confused with the upper case Word of God.” Also this was someone who is very Methodist and very much about the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. So they’d say the Bible is our primary authority but also we can look to tradition, reason, and experience to inform us about Christ (something I don’t… Read more »