“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)
One reason that people have wrong views of God is not because they are stupid or taught badly, but because their hearts are bad and they suppress the truth about God and then turn the concept of God into something more like themselves. We can see this from false religions in the United States today and from religious from the jungles. We see men developing their ideas of God from themselves. The terrorists today have a God that gives them seventy virgins if they are killed in a terrorist act. Could it be that this “god” has been developed from hearts that want to murder and to have many women? Could it be that the very terrorism that the United States is fighting really has its roots in idolatrous hearts? Could it be that all the basic religions that are found in the jungles and from un-civilized countries are from idolatrous hearts as well? Where is the innocent native to be found? What we really find are idolatrous people who have shaped their gods to be like their own fallen hearts. That is idolatry.
It is easy to go on and blast other countries and religions. But what of the United States and of Christianity in this regard? Christianity has certainly had its share of problems in the past such as those who upheld the trafficking of slaves. Remember that the essence of idolatry, as Tozer sets it out, is to assume that God is something other than He is and then to substitute for the true God one made after the likeness of the one doing the assuming about God. Now, let us consider the possibilities. In the United States there are many picture of Jesus. In one picture of Jesus carrying a man across the sand we have a lily white and yet “hunk” as a picture of Jesus. On the other hand, there are pictures of Jesus as an African American. I have heard of Irish pictures that have Jesus with red hair. Using the pictures as an analogy, we can at least see that everyone pictures Jesus as looking like themselves. However, Jesus was Jewish and as far as His human nature was concerned He was none of the above.
Let us consider other possibilities. There are many who utterly against any alcohol altogether. There are others who have certain moral standards. There are others with certain political positions. For example, there are some more of a liberal mindset who think of Jesus as being liberal. They usually think of Jesus as a Democrat. There are others who think of Jesus as being more Republican. Each of those positions usually thinks that the other is non-Christian. What is the real problem? Both of these positions have made God out to be something like themselves. Could it be that God is neither Republican nor Democrat? The Independents would certainly agree with that. But the point is that we take positions and then mentally conform God to our position. That is a form of idolatry.
Let us go to church. How many churches worship a certain way because they like it. How many hold to a creed simply because it is new or because it is old. How many like innovations in church music or in the way things are being done? That means our worship is acceptable because I like it rather than its being acceptable to God. How many people band together in churches over specifics of how God created the world and how many people band together in churches who school their children at home. How many people are disgusted with people who have been divorced and really don’t know why the divorce happened? How many would welcome a former homosexual much less a present homosexual to eat with them? How many consider anybody who has ever had an abortion as godly? I Corinthians 6:9-11 tells us that “such were some of you.” But God says that He cleanses people and makes them new creatures. Do Christians operate with a different God than the one of the Bible? Have we changed God out to be moral just like we are? Isn’t that pretty much what the Pharisees did too? If God can forgive people like this, shouldn’t we treat them as Christians just like all forgiven sinners?
There are still others who think that all Christians must dress a certain way, drive certain vehicles and follow certain rules despite the silence of Scripture on these. One of the major reasons is that many have developed a morality and exterior niceness that they like and expect God to be like that as well. God commands us to be holy as He is holy, but He does not tell us that He will be holy as we think holy should be. Idolatry in the heart is rampant in the churches, in our homes, our politics, and in our morality. We want things as we want them and not according to God. Surely that is idolatry as well.
God Loves... Himself 
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