“Then followed the worship of idols fashioned after the likeness of men and birds and beasts and creeping things. But this series of degrading acts began in the mind. Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true.” (A.W. Tozer)
It is so important to understand that idolatry starts with the mind and in one sense never leaves it. The essence of idolatry always begins with a lowered view of God or with a view of God that is not true. In one sense the extreme legalist and the extreme liberal begin at the same point and both types of idolatry run in parallel directions. Neither of them have a true view of God in their minds and hearts. They both began with a wrong idea of God and ran from that view to end up where they are. Their wrong ideas of God were simply not the same wrong idea.
Let us consider the case of Jonah: “While I was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, And my prayer came to You, Into Your holy temple. 8 “Those who regard vain idols Forsake their faithfulness” (John 2:7-8). This was the prayer of Jonah while in the belly of the fish. He ran from God because of wrong ideas of God. Here is his concept of that, or at least I think it is clear that he is referring to himself as well in this. In regarding vain idols people forsake God (their faithfulness). To the degree that a person has an idol in the mind, that person forsakes God Himself. Jonah was so wrong concerning several things about God in the book of Jonah, but God taught him and all who will hear about Himself. But Jonah had idols in his mind and so forsook God.
In Hosea 4 we have God complaining about his people: “12 My people consult their wooden idol, and their diviner’s wand informs them; For a spirit of harlotry has led them astray, And they have played the harlot, departing from their God.” The people had consulted their wooden idol and they were informed by that. What was that? It was spiritual adultery and it was a departing from God. Idolatry, then, is spiritual adultery and the leaving or departing from God is a violation of the covenant. Throughout the book of Hosea we are told that Israel was in sin because it did not know God and that is committed spiritual idolatry. Another theme throughout Hosea is that of Israel’s spiritual adultery or of spiritual harlotry against God. These two concepts are linked in devastating fashion. Those who are not faithful to God spiritually are those who leave Him for idols. That makes the idolater a spiritual harlot. The idolatry (v. 12) itself leads them astray. In consulting idols people are led astray from the truth and depart from God. But we must always remember that to consult an idol means that the concept of the true God has already changed in the mind.
How does this work out in the churches today? Two texts of Scripture instruct us in at least one way. “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry” (Col 3:5) and “For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God (Eph 5:5). Churches can become greedy and covetous of many things too. When a church is greedy or covetous for money, it is idolatrous. When a church is greedy for property or buildings, it is idolatrous. When a church is greedy for greater numbers and it waters down the truth in order to get them, this is simply idolatrous. Can that really be true?
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Exodus 20:17). In the Exodus passage we have instructions on what it means to covet. Coveting property, a neighbor’s wife, or anything that belongs to another is to be guilty of covetousness and is a violation of the 10th command. But Colossians 3:5 and Ephesians 5:5 both tell us that covetousness is idolatry. In other words, churches across the United States are guilty of the great sin of idolatry. We have also seen from the Old Testament that idolatry is considered by God as spiritual harlotry and adultery. What does this make a vast number of churches today? It makes them guilty of idolatry, spiritual harlotry, and spiritual adultery. Is there any wonder that God is judging the United States and the Church too? We may think that the practices of some churches are simply different or not as desirable as others. We need to think this through again. We need to make sure that the true God is in the minds of the churches in order that He is worshipped and not other things or people. Idolatry starts in the mind by lowering the truth of who God is and ends up in coveting many things in the name of its false god. Such is the state of the Church in the United States and other nations.
God Loves... Himself 
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