Contemporary Idolatry Exposed

Contemporary Idolatry Exposed
Part One

What images and thoughts come to mind when I say idolatry???

• Worship of nature and created things
• Worship of a golden calf or other religious images
• Worship of heroes
• Worship of deceased ancestors
• Materialism
• Sexual Immorality
• Addictive and obsessive behaviors

You developed in a world system, where you learned relationship styles, cultural, and religious beliefs. You get to choose what and who you believe and who you will serve. If you find yourself in a bondage of fear, abuse, addiction, negativity, and much more it is a form of idolatry. Idolatry can operate through a thought pattern, belief, or life skill.

Idolatry- (noun)

Worship of religious idols, excessive or blind adoration, reverence, and devotion
Synonym: obsession, fetishism, glorification, hero-worshiping, or extreme admiration.

• Adoration – Fervent devotion, and honor

• Reverence – A feeling or attitude of deep respect or regard, an outward
manifestation or gesture to express those feelings, a bow or courtesy
• Devotion – Profound dedication, consecration, and attachment to a cause or person, a
religious observance
This defines the way many of us continue in beliefs that we trust over God.
“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Romans 12:2 (NLT)
God has to tear down before He can restore.
Tearing down your faulty thinking is a command not a request!

How do you walk as new creations in a life filled with abundance and fruit? Change your thinking. You have to believe in agreement to God (without faith you cannot please God) and apply the Truth. The Truth only sets you free when you apply it.
Your faulty thinking is the opposite of applying the Truth; it is also the key to why you don’t know God’s will. When you cannot discern well it is because everything is blurred through the cloud of your cognitive distortions and faulty perceptions that are in agreement to the world and contrary to God. Putting anything before God is a form of idolatry.
Contemporary Idolatry is Agreement with:

• Life Experiences
• Faulty Core Beliefs/ Mental Stronghold
• Human Reasoning and Rational Thought
• The opinions of the world, religion, authority figures, family, or friends that is contrary to the Bible

Example: Self Protection because of any of the following experiences:

Rejection – Emotional Wounds – Physical Harm – Embarrassment

For example, if you have experienced soul wounds understand you are not a victim of your environment. You may have been victimized by what has happened to you but your identity and agreement is that you are a child of God, an overcomer. You can be all that God called you to be.

When you embrace self protection and wear the identity of a victim you will embrace unhealthy thoughts and life skills that have you trust in them as an idol versus God and His promises. This requires you to tear down the thinking and behaviors that you have embraced that are contrary to God. When you hold fast to any belief contrary to God it is a form of an idol that you believe and trust in.

You can self protect and end up sabotaging healthy relationships through lack of openness or honesty, not allowing anyone to close, no trust and being accusatory toward others, rejecting before being rejected. You may try and protect yourself from failing, or looking foolish, or being maligned with an uncomplimentary comment, or it may be that you protect your physical safety by being hyper vigilant. (ie. protecting yourself from airplanes, animals, physical activities, etc.)

The protection that God provide is through Him, His character, His leading, and the application of His Truth. We self protect by using biblical thinking and life skills to discern and set boundaries and consequences.

To self protect in any other way you are revering and agreeing with the way that you were conformed to the world through your thoughts and feelings above God’s Truth and provision. Do you excessively hold steadfast to protect the stronghold belief and life skills with an honor, respect, and deep regard for them above God’s Truth? Then you are visibly dedicated to them, showing your devotion to the belief, or behavior through what you think, speak, and choose to do.

Idolatry in the biblical dictionary is defined as image worship or divine honor paid to any created object. This could be toward anything and includes world philosophies, religious traditions, or doctrines. It can also include your financial dealings or approach in business, and church and family dynamics.

When you agree with dedication to these beliefs and act upon them daily it becomes an idol against biblical principles. When you misplace your priorities in relationships, and seek acceptance, or make life and relationships skill choices based on a faulty belief system you are demonstrating a form of idolatry.

The Bible dictionary states that the first example of idolatry was found in Genesis 31:19. That is the account when Rachel stole Labans’s idol. This is labeled as the first clear picture of idolatry. When an authority and educational book states something as fact to you, do you hold to the belief and disregard God if He challenges it? That was something I faced when I felt God say that was incorrect when the Bible dictionary did not consider the forms of contemporary idolatry that I have listed above.

So immediately in my study of idolatry I realized God was challenging me to listen to Him over what even a wonderful Christian tool was stating. I had to choose which to hold in priority. Remember God is never going to contradict His Word, but our understanding of it may not be accurate and we should allow God to change our mind.

God told me in varying ways that idolatry started with our thinking and the corruption of our beliefs and creation of mental stronghold began in the garden. Hence, I choose to tear down my thought and agree with what God spoke versus what the commentary in the Bible dictionary stated.

So if God tells you something contrary to the Bible dictionary, your life experiences, what you’ve been taught, or anything else that you hold up as accurate what are you going to choose? To believe, operate, and speak the safe thing, or say the Truth?

If you don’t agree with God because of your past experiences of betrayal, your faulty core beliefs that scream unworthy, the feelings of fear of failure or rejection, your human reasoning that may lead you astray, or your fear of people’s opinions of you, then you may have unknowingly submitted to an idol. You could be choosing to dethrone God and His Truth because of your life experiences, faulty core beliefs, feelings, reasoning, and the opinions of others, even those that you respect.

So consider what thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors you have trusted in. Do you adhere to them even if they are contrary to what God says in His Word? Life experiences have promoted beliefs within you that scream truth but in reality are a lie. The Bible says in Proverbs 16:25, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” Do not devote yourself to strongholds that contradict God because they are idols that lead you to harm. Search yourself and ask God to help you to identify, and tear down anything that you hold in reverence that does not reflect Christ. Chose to no longer embrace or trust that which is contrary to God and destroy every idol in your life.