LESSON 1 IDOLS WE NEVER KNEW WE HAD— ARE WE REALLY IDOLATERS? We all worship. We all worship something or someone every day. Functionally, these are our gods. While many people consider idolatry to be the primitive practice of ancient Near Eastern cultures or even of present-day tribal peoples, the reality is that idolatry is as much or more an issue today in the Western world as it has ever been in any corner of the planet. In fact, one could argue that the idolatry practiced today in the United States is more embarrassing and more dangerous than bowing down to little carved images because we don’t even realize we’re guilty of it. Dr. Timothy Keller, known for his insights on idolatry, has said that an idol is created when you take a good thing and make it the ultimate thing in your life. He writes, “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.”1 Years before Keller, Martin Luther made a similar comment about idolatry when he said, “Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God.” 2 Another reformer, John Calvin, said, “The human heart is an idol factory. . . . Every one of us from our mother’s womb is an expert in inventing idols.”3 Keller, Luther, and Calvin all have a clear consensus about idolatry because really they are only echoing sentiments that we find in the biblical text. 4 Ezekiel perhaps said it best. Ezekiel 14:1-5 Some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat down in front of me. Then the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of me at all? Therefore speak to them and tell them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: When any of the Israelites set up idols in their hearts and put a wicked stumbling block before their faces and then go to a prophet, I the LORD will answer them myself in keeping with their great idolatry. I will do this to recapture the hearts of the people of Israel, who have all deserted me for their idols.’” _________________________ 1 Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods, p. xvii. 2 Martin Luther, Large Catechism, p. 44. Similar thoughts are also expressed in his Treatise on Good Works. 3 John Calvin, The Institutes of Religion (1.11). 4 Many additional present-day authors have captured a very similar definition of idolatry. Further examples are
provided at the end of this lesson. © 2016 Northwestern Publishing House. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
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