Idolatry and Modern Life

Adelphoi,

I offer the following as a meditation for your consideration in the midst of the powerful presence of consumerism and the like in the post-Christmas and January sales.

Modern Idolatry

(The official Elizabethan Anglican Homily - Against the Peril of Idolatry - is based on the first two of the Ten Commandments of Exodus 20 and sees idolatry only in terms of the medieval cult of the saints & the BVM with the associated statues, icons, processions and prayers. It does not consider other possible idols of the Elizabethan age or previous times.)

Idolatry -New Testament

1.The New Testament assumes the fact and truth of the profound OT teaching on idols and idolatry and applies it to the Mediterranean world - see e.g., Acts 17:16; Romans 1:18-32; 1 John 5:21.
2. The N.T. links idolatry with sexual perversion/sexual immorality (see Galatians 5:19-20; Acts 15:20; 1 Cor. 6:9) . The connection is simple - various forms of ritual prostitution took place at temples in order to represent the copulation of the gods & goddesses by which the fruitfulness of the earth, the crops, the animals and the human family was assured. Thus in the context of the Roman world most fornication and sodomy and pediastry took place at heathen temples or other public places.

3.The N.T. links idolatry with covetousness --- 1 Cor. 5:11; Eph 5:5; Col. 3:5; 1 Peter 4:3. Here the reasoning seems to be: Since an idol (or the spirit associated with it) is an object of adoration/desire, covetousness is a form of idolatry in the sense that the one who is covetous (desperately desiring a person or object not his own) becomes an idolater by giving to that desired person or object an excessive and uncontrolled attention and adoration, and this leads on to immorality and wickedness.

Now let us apply the above to our present situation in the West, where we live in a secularised society, throbbing with the claims human rights and marked by intense subjectivism.

A. In the case of 1 above, it would seem that since many people do not openly worship and obey the One Living God, they must worship other "gods". I take it that these "gods" are potentially many and include both persons who are deified (such as "stars" from sport, entertainment, the media and so on) and "forces" that are deified and which are dominant in the world of capitalism, commerce, technology & science (and can include such things as "the spirit of capitalism" and "the supremacy of science" and "the military might of the USA" and so on). The "gods" also include the divinisation of the human ego in its subjectivity and desires and the "world spirit/mind" (practical pantheism or panentheism) that is searched for by this ego in western forms of eastern meditation.

B. In the case of 2 above and modern sexual perversion in 2003 - be it sexual acts between persons of the same sex, or different sexes, or an adult with a child, or the use of pornographic films & book or group sex - may it be said that idolatry is involved? If there is idolatry there must be an idol.

Now what can be clearly said is that there is in sexual perversion the denial of the presence and authority of the living God, not only through the rejection of his law but also through the mis-use of his creation. If there is the denial of God, it may also be claimed that there is therefore subjection to and obedience of another "god" (cf. Romans 1:18ff.). Is this idolatry subjection to the personification of (misdirected and corrupted) human desire? Is it the personification of (misdirected and corrupted) pleasure and gratification? Is it the worship of the invisible, but spiritually potent, Satan/Devil (Rev.9:20; 1 Cor.10:20; Phil.2:10)?

And is it necessary for the worshipper of this other "god" precisely to know the identity of this "god" for him to worship it? I think not.

C. In relation to 3 above, one could say that in the days of credit cards and easy access to borrowing money, that covetousness has become normal, for much of what we desire [and which is not ours by right (for we cannot afford it)] we nevertheless obtain by the use of credit. Here it would seem that there is idolatry and the idol is the media portrait of the fulfilled person who has all that he/she needs for happiness and who is worshipped by us. In our being taken over by consumerism we are aspiring to be like this person who is the creation of the advertising and communication industries. It is a secular deification!

In summary it would seem that any deviation from utter loyalty to Christ Jesus is a form of idolatry ( 1 John 5:19-21, cf. Isaiah 42:8).

The danger that most of us face in starting 2003 is in not taking the presence and the sin of idolatry seriously. Whether we be old-line liberals or new-line charismatic evangelicals, we tend to think that idolatry belongs to ancient times and primitive peoples and we live in modern times and are sophisticated people!

A danger faced by the extreme Protestant spirits amongst us is that of (like the writer of the Homily) restricting the peril of idolatry to the use of cribs and candles, crosses and statues, and missing out on the very major peril of idolatry that our secularised, consumerist and technological society, as well as our own selfish and subjectivised egos, place before us and thrust into our hearts!

The Revd Dr Peter Toon, on the 8th Day of Christmas, 2003