God Loves… Himself

“Perverted notions about God soon rot the religion in which they appear. The long career of Israel demonstrates this clearly enough, and the history of the Church confirms it. So necessary to the Church is a lofty concept of God that when that concept in any measure declines, the Church with her worship and moral standards declines along with it. The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God.” (A.W. Tozer)

Last time we talked about how perverted notions about God lead to the rot of Christianity. However, we did not really look at one word in the sentence as Tozer wrote it. He says that they will “soon” rot the religion in which they appear. The rotting that appears from perverted notions about God does not happen years from the moment that they appear, but it happens soon. One way to look at this is to note that the idea of this notion appears in men before they began to be taught or at least they stop the true teaching about God. So when the notion appears, the actual idea of it has already been spreading its poison. Another way to look at this is to note that low ideas of God rot the religion soon after the idea even takes hold. No man can entertain low ideas of God in reality and not have it seep through to his teaching in some way. Churches must watch out and guard for men who have low concepts of God. We can simply note that in the history of the Church there have been many heresies that have sprouted. It did not take them long at all to bring rot to the Church. Indeed heresies can flourish in terms of numbers for a while as do many new things that excite people, but the root and heart of that teaching comes from a low view of God and God will not honor it with true spiritual vitality. No matter how smart a man is, he cannot fool God or trick God into coming to church in power and glory.

This particular thought should make all who desire for the glory of God in the face of Christ to be on their knees and on their guards. The things that rot religion may not be all that obvious and can come in the forms of educated and charismatic pastors. The things that rot religion can come in packages of orthodoxy and church growth. The things that rot religion may be very attractive in all sorts of ways. The things that rot religion may come in a very conservative package. However, if any of those things have within them (whether a human or a program) a perverted notion of God, the rot is already happening. We must always remember that wolves come to the church in sheep’s clothing. Wolves come in by saying many attractive things and getting people on the side of wolves while appearing orthodox and like sheep. But the rot is already happening.

Notice how easily this could happen in most churches. The people are starved as to the knowledge of God and so really don’t know the difference between a high view of God and a perverted notion of God. In fact, a perverted notion of God might be far more attractive to the vast majority of people who have never really been taught the truth about God. So a man who is nice and easy-going might come in and sweep the people away with perverted notions about God because he has perverted notions about God. The man with the true teaching of God might not be liked because the truth of God is so hard. Sometimes heresies can be much “nicer” than the truth.

One thing to notice is that if a church likes its heretical teachers or those who have perverted notions about God better than the truth about God, the rot has been there for some time. We live in a nation where the “churches” have for years been watering down the truth about God. We live in a nation where perverted notions about God supply and feed the vast majority of notions about God. The truth about God has been swept away in large proportions by liberalism, neo-orthodoxy, harsh conservatives, rationalists, and many other ways. One reason is that people prefer to study the Bible apart from doctrine (impossible in reality) and to live a more moral life than to know God. The hardest thing in the world is to know God and love Him from the heart rather than to love self. In fact, it is impossible and that is why it must come by grace.

As we stand by and watch the Church is rotting away. Indeed there are many buildings that call themselves by the name and there are a few orthodox (in creed) churches left. But where are those humble and broken souls that love the name of God above all else? Where are those who will fight the rising tide of thinking (so-called) that is essentially leaving the true God out of church and religion and bringing in all manners of idols? I believe that the time for being nice and winsome may be over. We must be like men and fight for the truth with boldness. Indeed we are not to do this without love, but perhaps it is time to take the gloves off and call things what they really are. Christianity is rotting away and we are just standing around playing our fiddles as the rot is consuming it. Where are those with the burden of the Lord and the fire burning in their hearts? Are there any left at all?

“Perverted notions about God soon rot the religion in which they appear. The long career of Israel demonstrates this clearly enough, and the history of the Church confirms it. So necessary to the Church is a lofty concept of God that when that concept in any measure declines, the Church with her worship and moral standards declines along with it. The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God.” (A.W. Tozer)

What is a perverted notion about God? Perverted simply means to twist, change, misrepresent, misuse, or alter. A perverted notion about God, then, is to use His name in vain which is a violation of the 3rd commandment. God’s name is holy and it must not be misused in any way. Believers are to pray, as Jesus taught, for His name to be hallowed, that is, to be treated with reverence and awe or to be glorified (Matthew 6:9). The Greatest Commandment is to love God with all of our being. Surely it is obvious that a true view of God is necessary to love God and to live up to what Jesus instructed us to pray for. So it should be noted and then driven to the depths of the heart that a perverted notion about God has the greatest of ramifications for the Christian life and Church. Anything that violates the 3rd commandment, violates the Greatest Commandment, and diminishes what Jesus taught for prayer must be deadly serious and truly is that which rots true religion.

How would perverted notions about God rot true religion? Remember, without going back into the situation too much, that wrong notions of God is really idolatry. So perverted notions of God is a misrepresentation of God and that leads to the worship of idols. God hates idolatry and He will draw back and leave that religion to itself in one sense and turn it over to its idols with a hard heart in another sense. Anything that perverts the concept of God of necessity turns it into idolatry and something which is judged by God. Let us look at Romans 1:18 and following for the basic concept of how this works in a church. It is true that the passage in Romans is speaking of unbelievers, but let us not fool ourselves into thinking that there are not a lot of churches in name that are filled with unbelievers. Let us also look at the principles in the text that would apply in all cases.

“18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen” (Rom 1:18-25).

The truth that men suppress is the truth about God (vv. 18-20). This can be done in churches or in pagan places, but either way it is the same. When the truth of God is suppressed in unrighteousness by a church or religion in general, it leads to the judgment of God on that church or religion because that church or religion has just been hit with the worst kind of rot. If men are without excuse simply by looking at nature, then how much more are they without excuse when the have the very Word of God? It is abominable for a man to call himself a preacher and teacher of a church and then to suppress the truth about God. Could it be the case that men are suppressing the truth about God in an effort to make their churches more friendly and attractive in order to attract greater numbers? Anytime men suppress the truth about sin they are suppressing the truth about the holiness of God. Paul tells us that he was innocent of the blood of all men because he preached the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:26-27). If men are only innocent of the blood of others because they preach the whole counsel of God, then what does that make them if they suppress the truth about God in unrighteousness? Can it be anything less than the very rot of religion when that happens?

Christianity is God-centered and anything less makes religion rotten to the core. The suppression of the truth of God leads to futile speculations (v. 21) which leads to a darkened heart. This leads to men who think they are wise but are fools and they exchange the glory of God for an image of God. He gives them over to coveting hearts and they have exchanged the truth of God for a lie and end up worshipping the creature. That is idolatry in His name.

“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.

“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)

We will continue on in our thinking through this statement of Tozer and the idea that wrong ideas of God are themselves idolatry and that idolatrous acts flow from idolatrous thoughts. This statement shows the incredible importance of having true thoughts of God. How vital it is for a person to have the truth of God in the mind and to think thoughts after the idea of God. In Genesis 6:5 we see “that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Not only the thoughts were evil, but the intents of the thoughts were evil. So we can see that even if we have good thoughts, we must have proper intents for those thoughts. The issue of idolatry is really at the level of the deepest part of man.

Psalm 10:4 tells us that “the wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, “There is no God.” However, a few verses later (v. 11) “He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it.”” The thoughts of this person (as standing for all men) show that the mind constantly reflects on God in one way or another. Before the sin we have Psalm 10 showing us that the person is trying to deny that there is a God. After the sin the person is telling himself false thoughts of God which is idolatry. He is trying to tell himself that God forgets which is a denial of omniscience. He tries to convince himself that God has hidden His face which denies the immutability of God. He tells himself that God will never see it which denies the omnipresence of God. In all of these an idolatrous concept of God is revealed.

Let us reflect on a few verses from Isaiah 55 for a moment: “7 Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. 8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.” The unrighteous man must forsake his thoughts in order to return to the LORD. Why is that? One reason is because the thoughts of the LORD are not the thoughts of the unrighteous. Man must learn to think after the truth of the LORD and after His thoughts. No one can return to the LORD who does not forsake his thoughts and begin to think thoughts after the thoughts of the LORD. God can only be known by the thoughts of the mind and heart. If anyone does not repent of thinking wrong thoughts and having wrong concepts of God, then there is no returning to the LORD at all. It is utterly necessary. This is also true of each church. For a church to repent means that each church needs to return to the LORD by forsaking its present thoughts.

Notice the connection between verses 14 and 22 in Jeremiah 4: “14 Wash your heart from evil, O Jerusalem, That you may be saved. How long will your wicked thoughts Lodge within you? 22 “For My people are foolish, They know Me not.”” In verse 14 Jerusalem was told to wash its heart from evil and asked how long its wicked thoughts would lodge within it. Verse 22 tells us one way that they did this. They did not know God and had no understanding. Again, the fact that the people had wicked thoughts is demonstrated or leads to the fact that they were foolish and did not know God. Over and over again we can see this point illustrated in Scripture that wrong thoughts of God is sin and leads to more sin.

We need a New Testament example from Romans 8 to close with. “5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” We can see this same concept set out in this text as well. Things start with the mind and the thoughts. The mind set on the flesh is hostile to God. This hostility is not toward a concept only, but is toward God Himself. Whenever the mind is not guided by the truth of who God is, that is, the mind being set on the Spirit, it is hostile to God. Is this true of churches as well? Could it be that churches that are so focused on the things of the flesh and getting numbers are actually hostile to God in their mindsets? It really could be.

“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)

Tozer points out that idolatry starts in the mind and this leads to a series of degrading acts that continue to a lower and lower degree the longer the wrong ideas of God are held. Some would hold to the concept that the acts are sinful in and of themselves and the acts alone are idolatrous. But Tozer says that the acts flow from wrong ideas and the ideas themselves are idolatrous. This is a tremendous insight into the way sin and idolatry work into the lives of people. The thoughts are idolatrous themselves and then lead to idolatrous actions. The thoughts that a person has of God, then, are of immense importance. Let me try to explain this.

“God is Spirit and has not a body like men” is what the children’s catechism tells us. The only way we can know God is through ideas of Him. If our thoughts of God are wrong, then we have an idol that we worship and serve. This is why we must be given over to the study and pursuit of the truth of God. This is why we must wrestle with Scripture and seek the answer how that Scripture displays God. The reason for Scripture is not just to make people more moral, but to make people more like God. There is a sense in which morality is not the same thing as holiness. Man is commanded to be holy as He is holy, not be moral as He is moral. Man can only be holy as He is holy to the degree that man knows how holy God is. Men can only grow in holiness to the degree that they grow in their understanding of God and His holiness.

With the contrast of man being holy as God is holy in mind, we can see that man always lives in a way that conforms to his idea of God. The unbelieving person does the same thing. The unbelieving person might not always recognize or admit that his concept of morality is based on his idea of God, but it is. Men always function or operate according to some idea that they have. Men will always have some concept of God in their mind though they might refuse to recognize it as such. In other words, all men have a concept of God that they operate by. Those with idolatrous concepts of God in reality worship a god that has come from their own desires and so in living according to a standard they are living according to their own desires. But it all begins with the thoughts of the mind and how a person conceives what he thinks is God.

In this sense we can see that a person simply imagines things about God and then lives as if those things were true. In reality, everyone does that. Man can strive for nothing higher or lower than the goal that he is striving for. Man can live for nothing higher than his concept of God and in another sense no one can live any lower than his view that he has of what he pretends to be God. The concept of God is what governs the actions and lives of men each moment. Each moment man is commanded to love God with all of his being and man certainly loves something as his primary love each moment of his existence.

Each church needs to be awakened to see this basic truth. Each church is striving to a goal according to what it conceives to be God. While a church may have a Bible that it gives a nod to as its authority, in reality it is bowing to what it conceives of as God. “Do not eat the bread of a selfish man, Or desire his delicacies; 7 For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, “Eat and drink!” But his heart is not with you” (Prov 23:6-7). Notice the principle here. A man may invite you to eat and drink in order to be nice, but his heart is not there. What a man really is, then, is as he thinks. So man is in worship and so each church is. A church is really no more than what it thinks about God. “Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life” (Prov 4:23). As each person must watch over the heart with all diligence, so the church must watch over itself with all diligence. What is in the core of the thinking of a person guides his behavior and his worship. The same thing is true concerning what the core thinking of the church really is. Each church has a true concept of God that it is pursuing or it has a false concept of God that it is pursuing. In other words, each church is either growing toward God or is growing away from God. It is not the numbers and programs that show this, but rather if the people really desire and love the true God and His glory more than numbers and programs. The concept of God is not something on the peripheral edges; it is at the core and center of all that people do. Whether a person is idolatrous depends on the concept of God that is certainly there, not if it is there. The same thing is true of each church.

“Let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. It begins in the mind and may be present where no overt act of worship has taken place. “When they know God,” wrote Paul, “they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened” A. W. Tozer.

It is commonly thought that idolatry has to do with kneeling before wood or metal objects that have some name of a deity attached. This is simply and deceptively false. “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). When we think that idolatry really has to do with acts of adoration to inanimate pieces of wood or metal with names of deity on them, we have cleared the path to sin without guilt. Colossians 3:5 tells us that greed is idolatry. We can only understand that if we come to the realization that idolatry is primarily spiritual and of the heart. When we are greedy for money or other things, our love is given to those things and we love those things and pay homage to them as more worthy of ourselves than God is. That is idolatry.

If we think of idolatry as being the “entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him, how can we reconcile that thought with Colossians 3:5? Actually, the idolatry in the heart of the person that is greedy for money really consists in lowered thoughts of God. The only way anyone could possibly be greedy is if they traded the concept of the true God for a much lower one. How vile it is for a human being to trust in money rather than God. How vile it is for a human being to give his love to an inanimate object such as money rather than God. Surely, then, the human being has chosen money over God because God was lowered in the mind first.

But what human can be free from idolatry if Tozer’s definition is correct? Who can think thoughts that are worthy of God in His glory? Clearly fallen man cannot have perfectly clear and accurate thoughts of God. However, this is what it really means to be conformed to Christ. Indeed man is to be conformed to Christ in his life, but this can only come when the thoughts of God are growing to be more like God. Jesus Christ was and is the perfect representation of God and His glory on earth. He came to reveal God (John 1:18). The actions of Christ were not just to show us what good works are like, but to show us what God is like. So when we look at an action of Christ, we should learn something of the character and glory of God. After all, Christ was the tabernacle of God and His glory that consisted of grace and truth shone forth from His tabernacle during the whole life of Christ.

The entertainment of ideas of God that are unworthy of Him is a hideous sin but is also the source of all other sin. The serpent in the Garden tried to get Eve to think of God in a way that was unworthy of Him. He insinuated that God was selfish and simply did not want her to be like Him. He insinuated that God did not have her best interests in mind. When Eve began to have unworthy thoughts of God, sinful behavior was sure to follow. The same thing is true of our evangelism, worship, and all that goes on at church and in life. If God has given us all that we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him (II Peter 1:3-4), then this would require the knowledge to be accurate and true. How would the promises of God come through inaccurate information and knowledge of Him? Whatever God has, then, for His people regarding godliness and life comes through the truth about Him. After all, Jesus is the truth and He is the only way to the Father. The only way to be sanctified is through the truth (John 17:17). God regenerates through the word of truth (James 1:18) and He always uses the truth. Eternal life is defined by knowing God (John 17:3) and so people only have the life of God to the degree that they know God. Can one know God and have unworthy ideas of Him?

It must be a priority in the churches to teach the character of God through Christ in order to deliver the churches from the form of idolatry (the root of all kinds) that consists in unworthy ideas of God. There is a sense in which no one really has low or high views of God, but rather true or idolatrous ones. Each church is determined by whether it is even a church or not in a large degree by whether its ideas of God are true or idolatrous. When a man preaches Christ in truth, he is really preaching the truth about God revealed in Christ. When a man preaches Christ apart from the truth, he is simply committing idolatry and not preaching Christ or God at all.

“A god begotten in the shadows of a fallen heart will quite naturally be no true likeness of the true God. “Thou thoughtest,” said the Lord to the wicked man in the psalm, “that I was altogether such a one as thyself.” Surely this must be a serious affront to the Most High God before whom cherubim and seraphim continually do cry, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth” A. W. Tozer.

These words should burn in our hearts and make us approach God in His Word with the utmost care in humility and prayer. A god that comes from a fallen heart will be nothing like the true God. Part of the heart of sin is imagining something about God that is not true. We have seen earlier how this works from Romans 1:18-32. Man is always exchanging something true about God for something that is not in order to be hardened and slide into sin. So when fallen man comes to the Scripture to study it, he needs the help of the Spirit of God in order to be able to understand the truth of God. Man always wants to find a way to sin and get away with it. Man always wants to find a way to make himself feel good about himself. Man always wants to find a way to lessen the glare of the glory of God that shines on him every moment of every day. The only way to do this is to come up with a god that is not like the real one and in man’s arrogance he will determine what is right and true by himself.

The fallen heart hates the truth of the true God and simply wants to be its own god. So it invents aspects of god and attributes those to something it calls “god” and this so-called god is brought into the public consciousness by good and nice people. It is then accepted into the churches and thought of as orthodox because a word or words that the Bible attributes to God is also used of the false god but with a different concept or definition than the Bible uses. This is why man’s concept of God needs to come from Holy Scripture and not from philosophical speculation or cultural thinking.

Once the Church and churches have been infiltrated with the concept of a false god with the terminology or words of the Bible, the deception is hard to expose. What this means, then, is that orthodoxy has taken on the very concepts of heresy and that makes heretical thinking orthodox (in the imagination). This is very deceptive but somewhat common. Can we imagine, then, how many churches in our degenerate day think that they are orthodox in some way while their very worship is an affront to God? If we can picture it like Tozer did our hearts should sink to the pits of our stomachs. God is surrounded by angelic beings who sing to Him about His holiness all day and all night every day. He is perfectly holy and glorious and these beings find their complete joy in singing about His holiness with all of their time and effort. At the same moment some church that has not been careful is trying to sing the same words but is totally off with what those words mean. The dissonance between the angelic worship and that of the church is infinite. What a serious affront to God our worship is if we have based our thinking of Him from our own imaginations though we use terms from Scripture.

We can also know that it is a horrible blasphemy against God to try to form our ideas of Him from ourselves and our society when He has given mankind His perfect image in the outshining of His glory in Christ. Man is to be conformed to Christ in order to be holy as He is holy and yet man ignores the shining of the glory of God in Christ and tries to make God out to be like Himself. The self-centeredness, pride, and self-love of man will do all it can to retain its own godness (self as god) even in the light of the glory of the true God. This is why the true battle in churches, society, and in our own hearts is always for who is really God. Man will not have the true God reign over him and so he resorts to a god of his own imagination. It is truly a battle for God.

What is even more atrocious, however, is that when man worships the god of his imagination which he has made in his own likeness, man is actually worshipping himself. A god begotten from the shadows of the fallen human heart indeed has no likeness to God, but it does have a great deal of likeness to the fallen human heart. So when man pretends to worship God and is in fact worshipping an idol that he has manufactured in his own fallen image, this is nothing but idolatry and the worship of self. This is truly a serious affront to a holy God who will not share His glory with another. What has man become in order to become the object of his own worship instead of God? He has become a truly fallen creature with an idol factory for a heart. Man’s worship and righteous actions are really vile acts before God when he has idols in his heart.

“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)

We have been discussing the concept of idolatry and how man makes his concept of God after his own likeness. The last sentence in the above quote by Tozer is very interesting and very true. Out concept of God does seem to always follow after the person we either are or want to be. People who want to be nice and kind have a god in their imagination that is just like that. Those who are cruel can imagine a god that wants them to kill other people for religious or political reasons. “Kill the infidels” comes from a distorted view of God. It is truly frightening to think that within each church building there are many different concepts of God and those are most likely based on how each person truly is in the depths of his of her heart.

The mean and intolerant god of many staunch conservative sorts is really a reflection of the god that they have in their hearts. They don’t like to hear of how the loving kindnesses of God are new every morning. The tolerant and indulgent god of liberalism is based on the concepts that come from the hearts of the liberals. All in all, it appears that at some point we develop some concept that we like and want to be like and so we conform our concept of God according to that principle and as we become like that concept we think that we are becoming like Him.

The only real cure for idolatry is to know God in truth. We must come to know God in truth because knowledge of a god that comes from our sinful imaginations and hearts is not God at all. Eternal life is defined in John 17:3 as knowing God and His Son. If people are wrong about God, then they do not have eternal life. This is not to say that people have to have a perfect knowledge of God, but it is to say that one cannot know God apart from knowing true things about Him. I John 4:7-8 tells us that all those who love have been born of God and know God. To know God in an intimate knowledge enough to love Him requires us to know Him in truth.

What does God command His people? They are to love Him with all of their heart, mind, soul, and strength. He loves it when His people know Him and hates it when they distort who He is. The Israelites were commanded over and over to know their God. They were not to boast in their learning or their strength, they were to boast in the Lord. There will never be any obedience to God without knowing God and a knowledge of God. It does not matter how moral or religious a person is, that person is an idolater if he or she does not know God in truth. What a job preachers have in trying to stir people up beyond their morality and outwardly good actions. People must see the idolatry that is latent in each heart apart from the Spirit opening a person’s eyes to see the glory of God.

Jesus Christ is the only way to know God. Christ is the perfect image of God and the very outshining of the glory of God. He came and was the temple of the glory of God and as such He revealed the truth of God to all who will turn from their idolatrous ways and turn to Him by grace. Our churches are flooded with people with idolatrous concepts of God and of Jesus Christ. Preachers and teachers must preach and teach with the stated goal of getting people to see their own hearts in the light of His glory. There will be no true revival or true reformation in our land or any other apart from the truth of the glory of God dwelling the hearts through Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit. The idols in the hearts of people now must be torn down and crushed into dust so that the reign and rule of God will be restored.

A church that wants Christ to reign there needs to be as serious about casting out idols from the hearts of the people as King Josiah was about getting rid of idols in the land in his day. Two things never go together and in fact one always grows to the degree that the other falls. Those two are idolatrous hearts and the knowledge of God in truth. Idolatrous hearts must see its idols in false ideas about God and be turned from those in order to have the true knowledge of God living in hearts. We live in a day where the knowledge of God is low and idolatrous hearts are given over to sin. There will have to be a lot of teaching on the glory of God and of true repentance for this to change. We should also be careful not to teach just an academic view of God but to preach and teach the glory of God as that alone sets out the truth of who God is. God will not be mocked.

“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.

“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)

It seems as if most people think idolatry is bowing to a wooden or metal figurine of some sort. Tozer declares that idolatry is really of the heart and the “idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is.” He goes on to call this a “monstrous sin.” Notice what the heart does when it assumes that God is other than He is. It “substitutes for the true God one made after its own likeness.” Simply thinking of God other than He is, as Tozer says, is a monstrous sin. But the idolatrous heart goes even deeper and then substitutes for God one like itself. In other words, at the core of the idolatrous heart is a remodeling of the concept of God and that is a trading the true God for something like the fallen creature. This is a horrible blasphemy to think of God as being like a fallen creature. It is to make God in the image of fallen man.

Let us think of some rather “innocent” examples. Let us imagine a person denying the doctrine of hell because he cannot imagine a God of love sending people to hell. On the surface that rather common position does not sound bad at all. However, let us dig a little deeper. What standard do people go by when they think of God as love? What standard do people have of love? Ah, now it is clear. People determine what they consider as love based on themselves and perhaps the culture around them. So they are judging love by themselves and attributing that to God. Can this so-called innocent and common example really be anything but a case of vicious idolatry? It is simply man turning from the truth of God to another God of his own imagination and living by that. This can be nothing else but idolatry. But again, to refer to some earlier statements of Tozer, what drives our theology is really our concept of God. A weak and effeminate theology is really the result of an idolatrous heart.

Let us think of a second “innocent” example. People refuse to believe in a thorough God-centeredness in theology because of free-will. For example, many believe that God is so sovereign that He allows man free-will. A statement like that is, as Wittgenstein said, “language gone on holiday.” It is simply a ridiculous statement when looked at closely. For example, to say that God is sovereign is to say that He reigns and rules over everything to such an extent that nothing happens apart from His plan and will. To say that He is so sovereign that He allows free-will is to say that He is so sovereign that He is not sovereign at all. A free-will is a will that God is not really sovereign over. The word “free” means something in the term. A free-will is not free if it is free from the reign and rule of God, yet God is not sovereign if men’s wills are completely free like that. The root of that issue, however, is the desire for man to be free of God. It is not as crass as the first example above, but it is still idolatry. It is exchanging the clear declarations about a sovereign God with a view of God that allows for man to be sovereign. Any time man puts something or man in the place of God that is idolatry. The teaching of free-will gives man the freedom to access grace as he wants and the power to successfully resist the Almighty Himself. That is idolatry.

Let me quote from John Owen. “Our next task is to take a view of the idol himself, of this great deity of free-will, whose original being not well known, he is pretended, like the Ephesian image of Diana, to have fallen down from heaven, and to have his endowments from above. But yet, considering what a nothing he was at his first discovery in comparison of that vast giant-like hugeness to which now he is grown, we may say of him as the painter said of his monstrous picture, which he had mended or rather marred according to every one’s fancy, “Hunc populus fecit,”-it is the issue of the people’s brain. Origen is supposed to have brought him first into the church; but among those many sincere worshippers of divine grace, this setter forth of new demons found but little entertainment” (vol 10, p. 114). Owen thought of free-will as a horrible teaching and as that which was an idol. Why did he think this? Because the power attributed to free-will is such that it is a power that should only be attributed to God alone. The doctrine of free-will as taught by many if not most is indeed an assault on the character and rights of God. It is idolatry. Let me leave this with a bit of a teaser. If Reformed people practice evangelism in much the same way as Arminians, what does that say about their true belief in God and of the power of fallen humanity? Is God assumed to be something He is not in our very practice of evangelism? Could it be that not only is our worship idolatrous, but our evangelism is too? Are we the blind leading the blind?