God or? The Insidious Nature of Idolatry

November 28, 2024

Isaiah 40:18: To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you compare him to?

The concept of idolatry is explicitly mentioned over a hundred times in Scripture. But why is it so prevalent?

For the answer, we can come to the main message of the entire Bible which seems to sum itself as — Love God and Trust in Him, for without this, there is hubris.

The general idea of idolatry is explained in the 1st and 2nd commandments: “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3) and “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” (Exodus 20:4).

Essentially, idolatry is about mistaking the map for the territory — the territory here being God. When God is not at the center, then something else will be — idolatry.

Idolatry in its deepest sense is anything at all, whether physical, mental, or spiritual that places ultimate value or love for anything other than God.

“Fulfillment” in All The Wrong Things

Proverbs 3:5–6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.

But why is idolatry so insidious? The short answer: pride.

Humanity, having basically always been corrupted by pride, places all sorts of things and ideas as the ultimate thing over God, and especially one’s own self. Sure, most of us perhaps know that money, power, and fame will not lead to any lasting happiness, but actually, nothing at all can lead to any lasting happiness except for God. God is happiness to begin with among all things that are good and perfect. To feel otherwise is to be enslaved by pride, and pride being the idolatry of self.

IdolaTree

Romans 1:25: They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator.

At just the third chapter of the Bible itself (Genesis 3), the hubris of idolatry plays out in the Garden of Eden. God gives Adam and Eve clear instructions to eat from anything except from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the “IdolaTree” so to speak. However, they are tempted by the serpent and submit to their own desires and promise of being “like God” over their trust in God’s word. By reaching for the forbidden fruit, they are taken by idolatry like Lucifer before them when he attempted to usurp God by essentially worshipping himself, forming himself into an idol (Isaiah 14:12–15; Ezekiel 28:12–17). Adam and Eve’s disobedience is known as the original sin, which led them to fall from grace.

The Tree of Life or “FideliTree,” on the other hand, symbolizes an unbroken connection with God, embodying trust and love for Him.

The Many Faces of Idolatry

James 1:17: Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

In contrast to the Tree of Life, idolatry takes countless forms beyond literal carved images. Again, placing anything at all as the ultimate thing is idolatry.

Placing a sports team, race, gender, sexuality, nationality, science, technology, physical appearance or achievement as the ultimate thing is idolatry.

Placing a spouse or child as the ultimate thing is idolatry. As Jesus said in Matthew 10:37, “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”

Even placing one’s church and religious rituals, Orthodox icons, or Catholic rosary as the ultimate thing is idolatry. As Jesus said in Matthew 15:8–9, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.”

In the New Age circles, placing healing, self-manifestation (“The Secret”), or a vague impersonal concept of love is idolatry.

Idolatry in Disguise

Isaiah 55:8–9: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

Idolatry can also take on sneakier forms. Consider the way some in the New Age circles view creation as a whole for example, choosing to say “The Universe” in place of “God.” This, too, is idolatry — confusing the creation with the Creator. It is an example of the Zen saying, mistaking the finger pointing at the moon for the moon itself.

And speaking of Zen, even Buddhism’s ultimate state, referred to in various ways such as Nirvana, Clear Light, or Gateless Gate, can be viewed as forms of idolatry. This is because no state — no matter how profound or transcendent — can replace God. Attributes or properties of God do not equate to God in His totality, and our attempts to conceptualize the ultimate God (the Father) will remain ultimately impossible and mysterious, as is evident in the Christian mystical writings of the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing (14th c.) and the works of John of the Cross (16th c.), especially in his writings on the Dark Night of the Soul. Both mystics emphasize the ineffability and transcendence of God the Father.

So transpersonal states, while pointing toward an experience of a perceived ultimate reality, are still merely fingers pointing at the moon, never the moon itself. Granted, Rinzai Zen, for instance, does attempt to convey this through koans — paradoxical writings designed to challenge ordinary thinking in order to push the practitioner beyond conceptualization. However, what is missing in this framework is the explicit acknowledgment of God as the ultimate source of all truth, goodness, and reality.

True encounter with the ultimate can only happen through God — God who is not reduced to an impersonal force, nor merely a conceptual process of negation, non-thinking, or a feeble attempt at meta-mapping or non-duality. It is only through a relationship with God that one may encounter a glimpse at the ultimate truth.

Jesus: Not an Idol, But The Way

John 14:6: Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Jesus declares Himself as the only way to the Father, emphasizing His divine identity and unique role in salvation. This stands in contrast to the Muslim view, which argues that worshiping Jesus is idolatry, as they see Him only as a prophet. But this perspective misunderstands who Jesus truly is.

Jesus is fully God and fully man. Unlike idols, which are human-made representations of false gods, Jesus is not a created being, but the eternal Son of God (or the living Logos) who perfectly reveals the Father and reconciles humanity to Him.

The essence of idolatry, in both the biblical and Islamic understanding, is the worship of anything other than the one true God, but Jesus is God Himself, not a mere representation or a created thing, and so cannot be said to be an idol. His role is that of God’s ultimate revelation and the mediator between humanity and the Father.

Lose the Idols

So idolatry’s insidious nature distorts the relationship humanity was created to have with God. By placing ultimate importance on anything other than Him, we elevate created things to a status they were never meant to hold. This is an act of pride which inevitably leads to a fall. Yet, those who humbly love and trust God above all else will find true fulfillment in His glory — a glory no idol could ever replace.