Lecture

2.1
Idols of Our Time
Stuart McAllister

“Little children, guard yourselves from idols.” 1 John 5:21 Notes

Idolatry is the biggest challenge to love and faithfulness.

What is Idolatry?
Idolatry is when we serve some ultimate other than God himself.

“The gods we worship write their names on our faces; be sure of that.
And a man will worship something – have no doubt about that, either.
He may think that his tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of
his heart – but it will out. That which dominates will determines his
life and character. Therefore it behooves us to be careful what we
worship, for what we are worshipping, we are becoming.” i
Ralph Waldo Emerson

All of us worship, the question is what?

• The true God
• A caricature
• Something else that serves as a “god” for us

“What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything

that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to
give you what only God can give… A counterfeit god is anything so central
and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly
worth living.”ii Tim Keller

“There is one God, there is no god but God, and there is no rest for any
who rely on any god but God.”iii Os Guinness

The Struggle for Hearts and Minds

Ephesians 5:1-7
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in
love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us,
an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be
named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be
no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting,
but rather giving of thanks. 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. Let
no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these
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Notes

things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of
disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them.

“Such is each one as is his love.” iv St. Augustine

The power and pull of love

Ephesians 5:1-2
Matthew 22:36-40 The shema
Exodus 20:3 “no other God before me”

Idolatry is primarily a love issue.

The potency of other loves

Ephesians 5:3-5
But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even
be named among you, as is proper
among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly
talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but
rather giving of thanks. 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.

Throughout Scripture we witness the struggle of other loves. Idols provide

alternatives to faithfulness in God and they offer fast-track solutions to
happiness.

“An idol is something within creation that is inflated to

function as a substitute for God.”v John Seel

“If anything becomes more fundamental than God to your

happiness, meaning in life, and identity, then it is an idol.”vi
Tim Keller

Idols become stumbling blocks that blind people to God.

For people that have never heard the gospel, idolatry controls and
shapes their life because they are still worshipping something.

Idols become seductive attractions luring God’s people from their

true love.

Idolatry is a serious business.

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Notes

The peril of false loves

Ephesians 5:6-7
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of

these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of

disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them…

Idolatry provokes the wrath of God

It is at root a rebellion and rejection

“The natural human response to the true God after the Fall is
rebellion and avoidance. Sin predisposes us to want to be
independent of God, to be Laws unto ourselves or
autonomous, so that we can do what we want without
bowing to His authority. At the most basic level, idols are
what we make out of the evidence for God within ourselves
and in the world – if we do not want to face God Himself in
His majesty and holiness.”vii Richard Keyes

Why is idolatry so appealing and effective?

We believe these things somehow lead to true happiness.

“Happiness is now a person – relative concept, often

associated with individual choice, agreeable circumstances, and
pleasure-giving experiences. Happiness is often focused on
the trivial and the ephemeral, catering to feelings and the flesh,
even if such a basic pattern of life is punctuated by an
occasional generous and selfless act.”viii John Schaar

The promise or hope for satisfaction, for significance or for security

without reference to God or His will, lies at the heart of idolatry.

The Seductive Power of Idolatry

Idols of our modern era

Paul Johnson: “Birth of the Modern” around 1840

• Man was the measure of all things.

• Reason would overcome superstition, religion or history
• Science and technology would give us self-improvement
• Progress would be unlimited and constant

Alternative Salvation Narrative:

Rational men and women in control of their own destinies.

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Notes

Metaphysical rebellion

“When the throne of God is overturned, the rebel realizes

that it is now his own responsibility to create the justice, order,
and unity that he sought in vain within his own condition, and
in this way to justify the fall of God. Then begins the
desperate effort to create, at the price of crime and murder if
necessary, the dominion of man.” ix Albert Camus

John Calvin: the heart is a “Fabricum Idolatrum” - a factory of idols

Three Modern Idols

Where do we fabricate alternatives to the will and way of the living God?

Individualism: turn to human autonomy

Desire for freedom from all governing power or norms

“When I became convinced that the Universe is natural – that

all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain,
into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the
feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled
and fell … I was no longer a servant, a serf or a slave… There
was for me no master in all the wide world – not even in
infinite space. I was free – free to live for myself and those I
loved … free from devils, ghosts and gods. For the first time I
was free. There were no prohibited places … I was free. I
stood erect and fearlessly, joyously, faced all worlds.”x
Robert Ingersoll

However: Turning to self is not so liberating. Jeremiah 17:5-6

Negative Freedom: “freedom from”

Positive Freedom: “freedom for”

This type of idol cannot answer the human condition.

Relativism: denial of objective truth

The focus and authority of truth becomes our emotions or tastes. We

move from the objective world to the internal.

When God is rejected, the needs and norms of life get replaced by
something other than God but which are treated with the reverence and
behavior due to God.

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Notes

Romans 1:18-23
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of
men who suppress the truth in
unrighteousness, because that which is known
about God is evident within them; for God made it
evident to them. 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. 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 hearts were
darkened. Professing to be wise, they became
fools, 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.

“Part of the enthralling promise of an age of reason was, at

least at first, the prospect of a genuinely rational ethics, not
bound to the local or tribal customs of this people or that, not
limited to the moral precepts of any particular creed, but
available to all reasoning minds regardless of culture and –
when recognized – immediately compelling to the rational
will.” David Bentley Hart

The Enlightenment: Rational men and women, by reason alone, would

build the new world.

2-Fold Movement of Idolatry

• We relativize absolute truth
• We absolutize relative truths

Narcissism: preoccupation with self

The infantile fixation on feelings, pleasure, self-gratification

Be happy at any cost, by any means

“Freedom as the dream of ever-expanding emancipation, ever-

multiplying liberation movements and ever-deepening
fulfillment is being pushed from behind by the memory of a
thousand oppressions and pulled from ahead by the promise
of unrestrained choice and unhindered creativity leading to
unlimited possibilities (“Infinite in all directions” as the futurist
cheerleaders say.)”xi Os Guinness

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Notes

Focus on the immediate promise of happiness

“Self-trust is the first secret of success, the belief that if you are
here the authorities of the universe put you here, and for
cause, or with some task strictly appointed you in your
constitution, and so long as you work at that you are well and
successful.”xii Ralph Waldo Emerson

These spiritual maladies are governed by pride, they result in ignorance

and arrogance, and they lead to a selfish, self-centered life that is both
personally and socially destructive.

The Surprising Pull of True Life

The gospel is about life.

John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came
that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

Ephesians 2:1-10: we were “dead in trespasses and sins”

Life is the issue. There is a search, a desire, a hunger for the real life, which is
found only in the gospel.

3 Trajectories for Possible Engagement

Idolatry is a denial of reality

It cannot meet the tests of correspondence, coherence or logic.

Examples: Nazi racial superiority, social engineering under

communism
(Stalin’s Soviet Union, Mao’s China, and today’s North Korea).

Idolatry by definition is unlivable

Jeremiah 17:5-6

Idolatry lives by a false ultimate, creates and follows ideological values that
can’t deliver, ignores the true depth of the human condition, and it cannot
offer real freedom or internal liberation.

“True liberty is being able to do what one ought to want and

in not being constrained to do what one ought not to want.”
Montesquieu

“Freedom is not the permission to do what we like but the

power to do what we should.”xiii Os Guinness

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Notes

Idolatry enslaves and leads to deep inner and outer bondage. Christ
liberates, the gospel delivers.

Idolatry is always less than hoped for

The argument from desire, the deep sense of longing, the haunting vision
of something “more” is always before us.

We never find satisfaction in idolatry. It leads in the wrong way and to the
wrong end.

“If you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does

not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road,
progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the
right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is
the most progressive.”xiv C.S. Lewis

“There is one God, there is no god but God, and there is no

rest for any who rely on any god but God.” Os Guinness

i Paul Stiles, Is The American Dream Killing You? (NY, NY: Harper Collins Pub Inc, 2005), Intro.
ii Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods (NY, NY: Dutton, 2009) Intro xvii – xviii.
iii Os Guinness and John Seel, Editors, No God But God (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1992), 28.
iv David Naugle, Reordered Love, Reordered Lives (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm B Eerdmans Pub Co, 2008),
intro xii.
v Guinness and Seel, 32.
vi Keller, Intro xix.
vii Guinness and Seel, 31-32.
viii D. Naugle, 10.
ix Albert Camus, The Rebel (NY, NY: Vintage International, 1991), 25.
x Mary Poplin, Is Reality Secular? (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2014), 115
xi Os Guinness, A Free People’s Suicide (Downers Grove, IL: IVP books, 2012), 18.
xii M. Poplin, 127.
xiii Os Guinness, 153.
xiv C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity San Francisco, CA: Harper San Francisco, 2001), 28.

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