Christian

“An Idol Cast in the Image of Culture”

Cindy Dawson

Certain behaviors people used to call sin have now become acceptable by liberal, progressive churches. These churches focus on God’s love and refuse to condemn what the Bible calls sin. But God does not change.

“An obstruction-free path that avoids the absolutes of holiness does not lead to God – at least not the real one. Instead, it creates a progressive god of one’s own making – a beautiful idol cast in the image of culture rather than the words of the Bible.” (Amir Tsarfati, Discovering Daniel)

Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13-14 NIV

Do you remember the Golden Calf that Aaron made while Moses was away on the mountain? Aaron’s golden calf represented a mixture of the true God and pagan methods of worship. Aaron wasn’t giving them a new god. He created an image of God the people wanted. Sound familiar? Don’t some do this even today?

“When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”

Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.”  So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.  He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.”  So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings.” Exodus 32:1-6a NIV

Aaron gave the people the image of God that they desired, one more like the pagan nations around them. Then they used it to worship God. This didn’t end well. (Read the rest of the chapter!)

An idol is any created image of God that does not align with the Word of God. The Bible warns us many times about the danger of idols. Below are a few examples:

“What good is an idol carved by man, or a cast image that deceives you? How foolish to trust in your own creation!” Habakkuk 2:18 NLT (emphasis mine)

As our culture continues to drift away from Judeo/ Christian values some are advocating for compromise. As a result, some “Christians” support sinful behaviors such as abortion, gay marriage, and transgender ideology.

The thinking is that if we don’t compromise we will not be able to reach the lost. The theory is that if unbelievers are offended they will turn deaf ears to the Gospel. This faulty thinking may be more widespread than you think.

The problem is this: Only TRUTH will set the captive free. Jesus said that. (John 8:31-32) Our image of God must be that found in the Scriptures alone.

“Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.” 1 John 5:21 NIV

In His Love, Cindy

Do you want to know more about Jesus? See my page Who Is Jesus?

Pray for Israel

RealChristianWomen.blog  

18 thoughts on ““An Idol Cast in the Image of Culture””

  1. My how God works, just finish reading this, this very morning. Problem is that people think an idol is only a physical thing. They do not equate ideologies as being idols, like family cultures, evolution, gender pronouns, etc. Sometimes cultures hang onto things as idols. I grew up in one (Catholicism) and married into such a family. One did not dare to suggest that any cultural habits are sinful even if the Bible says so.

    Often we do not see these things in our own lives until we are renewed by the Word of God. It is such a blessing Cindy that you keep focus on His Words and bring lessons from such.

    In the beginning of the walk of faith, there was such a mixture of cultural beliefs I was told was from Scriptures only to find out they were not. My family history is from the old world, too many to list. My husband’s family is Celtic, Indian and foot hills of the Ozark mountains. Talk about God having to reveal a lot of truths. Superstition abounded in both my husband and mine families.

    When God revealed that family culture can sometimes hold us back from truth, it was freeing for me. Jesus fought traditions of man with truth, that is nothing new under the sun. The problem is that growing up I thought I was a Christian only to fine out it was cultural, not based of Christ. Far too many generations have been raised that way. So now it is a mess.

    But before this turns into an article just wanted to say thanks Cindy.

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    1. Thank you for sharing your thoughts! Your background is very interesting. There will always be a problem if a person’s beliefs are based solely on what they have been told by families, TV, or even their church. The important thing is that we can go to the Word of God, THE source of truth. We can and should trust the Bible ALWAYS. The thing is, people have to love truth more than they love their own opinions. That can be hard for some to do! God bless you today, Eileen. I’m always interested in what you have to say!

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      1. We go to the word of God and before I read scripture or preached I am in prayer for quiet sometime before hand. I am in prayer for days leading up to my preaching. What was written in the true writing of scripture is not total accurate in English and I am so to say over the centuries man has changed these words. As I say precious I take everything I say or teach very important and I relate on Christ and the Holy Sprite to lead me as the Gospel tells us when the time comes it is the Holy Spirit who speaks through you
        Blessings

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        1. ” All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV

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  4. Anyone who is a liberal doesn’t mean we are wrong. First off we are all sinners every human being that walks the earth and the only person was and is Jesus Christ himself. As a liberal and part of a church who is we welcome all into our churches and all who walks through our doors are all sinners. We do not worship any idols we worship God The Almighty, we do not judge anyone regardless of who they choose to love. There is plenty of proof the way someone was born. The word homosexuality was added to our Bible around 1946 by men who wanted to control their congregation. The true scripture writers in Greek (Koine) the word homosexual was not written

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      1. First off I will totally disagree with you and anyone who believes that being homosexual is a sin. I will use me as an example: I have shared many times about my daughter who is chronically ill, my daughter is known as a human chimera she has two sets of DNA in her body it was proven with genetic testing besides many organs that would of been her sister. My daughter is nether male or female which is called intersex she is missing chromosome, and doctors also believe that I was carrying another child at this time and that child never develop so she would of been a triple. For centuries this has happen in the womb where when a woman is carrying her child she truly is carrying twins or more and it was common practice up until the late 1999-2000 that doctors would never tell a woman this fact and yes I was one of them that doctors knew and lied to me about my daughter’s birth we both were critical and could of died. There are also times when doctors believe that the child is female and only years later find out the girl don’t have ovaries or uterus and truly has the male parts that never came down to develop. Over the years when my daughter was in patient the doctors had to Urinary catheters and it was almost impossible because of being so tiny in the area such as a boy would be. Yes I can go on however I believe you get the picture. Cindy for years I believe the way you did and other Christians and I was so wrong, it is this journey that I have been on with my daughter since she has been born that I have come to understand differently and I will never judge someone who is homosexual. If my daughter ever came to me and said she was a gay woman I would never judge her I would be happy she found someone to love. In closing this is why it is so hard to keep doctors on my daughter case and why she is so sick, I thank God she is still with me, I found out she was not suppose to live past the age of ten.

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        1. Eileen, I am heartbroken for you. I know it has been really hard for you. I’m thankful that you know the Lord and He strengthens you and comforts you every day. I pray for you and your girls every night. 🙏💕

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          1. PLEASE, Cindy do not be heartbroken for me or anyone who has been born the way my oldest daughter has,God already knew all about Victoria before she was even born. She loves the Lord totally and before she became sicker she served in leadership in our church, a Sunday School teacher, different mission trips she went on even went to Taze, France when she was sixteen, feel sorry for yourself because you judge anyone who doesn’t believe in the way you do. In my own journey to become a pastor I had a mentor and I ask the question in reference to homosexual and I was told there is no proof that person lied to me because their is plenty of proof to many people refuse to believe the truth. I rejoice when the UMC which I am apart of and have been since 1997 has allow this group of men and women to be ordained. Why you may ask because we were not a part of the congregation with them and God when God called them into ministry, just like me when too many believe that a woman should not pastor a church, No one except me and God was a part of this conversation with me, for me it was not something that happens overnight it is a long process and you must go in front of a board of ministry who makes that decision once you meet with them and you go in front of this board each and every year. Jesus calls all of us to love regardless of who they are and who they love. We are all sinners plenty and simply their sin is not worst than yours or mines. I welcome all into the house of the Lord and stand with me to worship our Lord in Spirit and Truth.

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    2. Lev 18:22; 20:13, Jude 1:7; Rom 1:26-28; Gen 2:24. The word trinity in not in scriptures but we understand the concept. The word Bible is not in the scriptures either. There are many words in English not found in Koine Greek, but the concepts expressed in English are still the same as those expressed in Greek. It is about context expressed in other languages but the same truth from God’s Word. The word propitiation is not in a lot of languages when the Bible is translated into those languages, yet the concept can be translated contextually. Just because a word was not in the original language does not mean the concept is lost, or did not exist. I am no expert but understand how hard this is as I try to translate the English language into signing English. There are simply no signs in ASL or signing English for a word but the concept can still be made.

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