The gods of our day have been lurking in the unruly weeds of the earth and offering an arrogant alternative to a biblical worldview, like atheism, agnosticism, evolutionism, pluralism, humanism, relativism, hedonism, and others. These self-exalted imaginations along with their variant and hybrid systems of philosophical thoughts all share a common thread; they all support the opinion that the God of the Bible is not the ultimate authority which leads to a denial of the deity of Jesus Christ, His return, judgment (the first doctrine denied by Satan (Gn 3:4), and so forth.
Satan could care less which -ism or position or worldview one chooses as their moral authority or amoral authority as long as it is denigrating and disputing the tenets of Christianity in any way, shape, or form. Lucifer, our adversary, has been deploying all kinds of weaponry from his arsenal, targeting the authority and will of the Creator God since the angelic revolt.
Could God put an end to such imaginative disobediences (ideologies, angelic or humanistic) that oppose and lift themselves above Him? Of course, He could; He’s omnipotent or all-powerful, the Almighty! But until the time that He sets all things in order, we are given weapons, not of human origin (2 Cor 10:3-4; Eph 6:10-18), for spiritual combat, particularly, the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God (Eph 6:17).
The panoply of God provided for us is mighty in Him for the pulling down of strongholds. If we are not on the offensive and assaulting false teachings with the truth of God’s Word, there can be no pulling down. This is no such thing as a passive strategy for addressing error, only a truth-offensive. Who wins a war being passive, anyway?!
One thing I would like to note on the passive-mentality types, specifically in a believer who believes in keeping peace at any cost. If we are truly spiritually regenerated by faith (Eph 2:8-9), war seeks us out for there are no neutralities on the face of the earth. We live in an either-for-or-against world of darkness versus light with no wiggle room or tolerances. The moment we are born again; we appear on the enemy’s radar! Imagine being a lamp among many lamps in a very large dark room. It isn’t difficult to figure out which lamp is glowing among the lamps in the room. As sons of Light, we should be sticking out like a sore thumb; I would say.
In the flesh, speaking as a man, I would rather go down swinging, but in the spiritual realm, every believer is in desperate need of the intervening power of Jesus against the forces of evil (1 Jn 4:4), or we will get our butts handed to us whenever we confront error in the flesh. We must keep things in perspective. Make no mistake; our adversary is a very powerful angel (cf. Jude 1:9). Naturally, Satan is not able to circumvent the power and will of Yahweh, but if we resort to the flesh, God may allow a lesson to be learned, the hard way, through experience.
It could be argued that there are no new heresies or gods under the sun, just a change of clothing because man is still born with a sinful nature as was the first indirect creation of man emerging from the womb; you could say; evil got a head start in the world with Cain, the first firstborn, who happened to side with the evil one (Gn 4:8; Heb 11:4; 1 Jn 3:12; Jude 1:11).
We should not marvel at this though it had to have been a heartbreaker for Adam and Eve; for even Cain’s parents willfully chose to rebel against their Maker, too! Cain was handed a template by his mom and dad. Cain, however, took rebellion to another level; didn’t he? He chose to rebel against the authority of God not by eating some forbidden fruit from a tree he had only heard about from his parents. No, he chose to pick the fruit of murder from his sinful nature that bears all manner of evil fruits and partook of it upon killing his brother, Abel…
The serpent was right; you eat this fruit your eyes will be opened (Gn 3:5; cf. Gn 3:7, then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew). Eve’s startling discovery was that they knew, upon eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was actually bad for food. The tree was something ugly now, and no longer desirable for anything (cf. Gn 3:6). They were like God, knowing good and evil (cf. Gn 3:22a).
It appears that the Triune Godhead was merciful in banning Adam and Eve from having access to the tree of life (Gn 3:22b) to avoid being kept in a sinful condition forever,
And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever, therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life (Gn 3:22b-24).
And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever, therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life (Gn 3:22b-24).
Both Adam and Eve saw the reality behind the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (cf. Gn 3:7). Eve yielded to the threefold temptation: the lust of the flesh good for food, the lust of the eyes pleasant to the eyes, and the pride of life a tree desirable to make one wise (cf. 2 Cor 11:3; 1 Tim 2:14; Jn 2:16; Jas 1:12-15).
This is the process of deception, but Adam was not deceived; Eve was (1 Tim 2:14).
There was an interesting perspective provided by Believer’s Bible Commentary on Genesis 3:22-24, “Adam and Eve had to decide whether God or Satan was lying. They decided that God was... Thus their names are missing from the Honor Roll of Faith in Hebrews 11.” Check it out; the first mention of faith by the writer of Hebrews was Abel (Heb 11:1-2, 3-4). It got him killed by a man full of self, of the evil one.
As with all sin, we always get more than we bargained for, eh? Yes, we have the freedom to choose as Adam and Eve did, but we are never free of the consequences. God will forgive us, but the consequences will still roll our way; it’s called the law of the harvest. When we sin in knowledge, we invite all the consequences of rebellion. We make choices that can produce irretrievable consequences that must play out though forgiven and restored to fellowship.
For some reason, the opponents of the doctrine of eternal security never seem to figure this one out. What reasonable believer is going to get saved and then go and live like the devil? For one, you would have to stand in doubt of a person’s claim to be born again if that was the case rather than taking the position that eternal security is bogus. The validity of doctrine is not determined by the obedience of a believer!
But two, there are those unavoidable consequences. Love (agape) is at the forefront of obedience (Jn 14:15). Disobedience simply does not pay. It is not worth the negative outcomes: grieving the Holy Spirit, broken fellowship, the guilt, and the unknown repercussions, creating a harsh life for ourselves. Oh, the rippling effect of disobedience.
Getting back to those idols of fanciful imaginations of worldview systems (I say idols because of demonic influence and involvement.), the Chancellor of my alma mater defined idolatry as anything that competes with the will of God for your life. So, according to him, whatever it is that is standing between us and God’s will for our lives is an idol of our own making. Idolatry doesn’t have to take the form of man or beast; it doesn’t have to be made of stone, wood, or metal. It can be intangible as an idea, as a worldview, for instance, like the ones above. It can be physical in nature or immaterial. It can be organic or inorganic.
Now, something could temporarily come between God and us; this isn’t necessarily related to a physical idol thing, but there is definitely a disagreement with God on what is a sin. Usually, idols are objects of worship and service. Remember the golden calf at Mount Sinai (Ex 32)? Now, there’s a physical thing. But the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life could become idol-related that keeps one out of the will of God and getting in the way of fellowship with God.
The truth is; we love self; we care for self; we are self-directed, self-seeking, self-reliant, self-serving, self-centered, and self-focused. When our lives revolve around ourselves, we have become an idol unto ourselves. Self, in my humble estimation, is probably the most plentiful, popular, adored, and worshiped household idol on the planet! Oh, we will say we reject humanism, for instance, but in many ways, we embrace it while singing the praises of Jesus; you tracking me? Whenever we are full of self, there is no room for God. You cannot fill a cup that is already full, of self, that is (contrast Eph 5:18; Gal 5:16).
There have been some terrible things done in the worship and service of false gods in the history of man, unspeakable things. The Israelites in Old Testament times had thrown their children into a fire or over fortified walls to appease the gods for one reason or another. So, I am not really referring to these brutal and reprehensible aspects of idolatry.
I just wanted us to think about the gods of our day, and one of those gods is the ego that refuses to submit to the authority of God. It is the god of ego that we pay so much tribute to today. It goes from the simple task of taking care of self to being all about meism. It all began when Adam and Eve chose to go south on God, and unsurprisingly, Cain followed suit. And here we are today, dealing with idolatry in the twenty-first century that is filling the world with so much sorrow and misery, the god of egocentrism.
Please note; if you and I fail to subordinate to the authority of God in knowing and doing His will for our lives, we may have to ask ourselves something that is actually very serious in nature, “Am I guilty of idolatry? Am I one of the gods of our day?” They are everywhere, brothers and sisters in Christ, only a physically or spiritually blind man would miss it. <><
You shall have no other gods before Me (Ex 20:3).
(2Tim 3:1) But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:
(2Tim 3:2) For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
(2Tim 3:3) unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,
(2Tim 3:4) traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
(2Tim 3:5) having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
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