In Their Image
"You shall have no other gods before Me."
- Exodus 20:3
Pastor Chuck Smith once told a story about a Papua New Guinea tribe that had a widespread birth defect. Everyone had one leg shorter than the other. Interestingly, the idol they worshipped also had one leg shorter than the other. They had created a god in their own image.
I believe this is the same direction America is going. When people say, "I am spiritual, I am just not religious," it is code for "I'm making it up as I go."
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People effectively make a god in their own image when they say things like, "My god would never judge a person" and "My god would never condemn two people of the same sex living together in a committed relationship." But they just made up their own god. And their god, essentially, is them.
What is the first of the Ten Commandments? "You shall have no other gods before Me" (Exodus 20:3). What is the second commandment? It is related to the first: "You shall not make for yourself a carved image" (verse 4). Idol worship is putting anyone or anything in the place of God.
I read an article in USA Today about the fastest growing spiritual group in America, which claims no affiliation with any faith. The article states, "This group, called 'Nones,' is now the nation's second-largest category only to Catholics, and outnumbers the top Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptists. The shift is a significant cultural, religious and even political change."
It has been said, "When a man stops believing in God he doesn't then believe in nothing, he believes in anything."
We can't edit the Bible. We can't say, "I like this part of the Bible and not that part." If we do, then we will end up with a god that is not the God of the Bible.
