“Among the sins to which the human heart is prone, hardly any other is more hateful to God than idolatry, for idolatry is at bottom a libel on His character. The idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is-in itself a monstrous sin-and substitutes for the true God one made after its own likeness. Always this God will conform to the image of the one who created it and will be base or pure, cruel or kind, according to the moral state of the mind from which it emerges.” (A.W. Tozer)
The sin of idolatry is a libel on the character of God. No one really likes to be spoken of as worse than he is, so how much worse is it to libel God? Man is the image of God and is to shine forth the character and glory of God. With each sin man not only breaks the Law of God, man lies about God to humanity as well as those in the spiritual realm. Since with each sin man is lying about the character and glory of God, it is clear that man is really choosing things or people over God. With each act of idolatry man is also having another god before God and as such is also violating the first commandment which is a violation of the Greatest Commandment. Each time a man profanes the name of God, that man is also an idolater and has another god (himself). Each time a man breaks the Sabbath, that man violates the first three commandments. Each time a man dishonors his parents (not to mention the Father who is in heaven), he is an idolater and also a violator of the other commandments. The covetous person (10th Commandment) is a person that in his heart is given over to greed and idolatry. The covetous heart desires money, sex, power, and many other things. Within that covetous heart is a heart that does not love God but is fixed on other things as being good for self. In this sense, then, the idolatrous heart is in worship of self. The human heart is given over to idolatry to the degree that the heart loves things for self.
Clearly, then, we can see how idolatry is a libel on the character of God. Men do not usually go around committing idolatry on purpose, they simply create the god they want in their minds and pursue that. The truth of God is hidden beneath piles of notions from the secular or religious world and people go on in life without any real regard for the majesty of heaven. They live as if God really was just as they want Him to be. However, that too is idolatry. There is as much if not more idolatry within the walls of religious institutions as without. In fact, if I may be so bold and perhaps arrogant, there appears to be as much idolatry if not more within the walls of Christian (in name anyway) churches as anywhere else these days. If I am correct, idolatry within Christendom is worse than in the world. I base this on how God treated the Israelites and the Pharisees in the respective Testaments of Scripture. They had more revelation and yet they were still idolaters. They had more light and yet they still abused the holy name of God by their worship and lives.
If idolatry is simply assuming that God is something other than He is, then it is hard to believe that there are more than a few true Christian churches in America. Can it be the case that the majority (if not vast majority) of churches in the United States (even conservative ones) are really in the full practice of idolatry when they meet? If Tozer was correct about the state of the Church in 1961 and its low view of God, then how low of a view of God do we have now? How utterly bankrupt the Church is in our modern day of a truly high view of God. We are given over to glib songs and jokes during the so-called worship (singing). Preaching has degenerated into a mixture of jokes and stories. Even when some preach a text of the Bible it is almost as if God has been forgotten. Where is the true God exalted and declared with reverence and love? Where is God declared as sovereign over all? Where are the churches that desire to have the visitation of God more than human visitors with thick wallets?
In this user friendly day it is clear that idolatry is far more common than true worship. The teaching of sin and of the glory of God has been rejected in favor of ear tickling sermons so visitors will come back and hopefully tithe. Let us be honest, even brutally honest. That is nothing but idolatry and a vicious form of it. The desire to have numbers and visitors at the expense of God’s glory and truth is a hideous form of idolatry. Yet this is probably the most common form of church growth material and perhaps what is taught at the vast majority of conferences. God is not pleased with our man-centered methods to get people in the doors of a building. He is never pleased with idolatry. While we may not be able to read the signs over the doors, yet it is clear that many “churches” have “Ichabod” (the glory has departed) written over them. God will not dwell in idolatrous places and there is simply no other way to term what a place is that is so focused on bringing people in that it has forgotten the truth about God. Not only that, they are not afraid to offend Him in order not to offend human beings. That is idolatry.
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