Evangelical Idolatry - Reforming Worship #5

One of the most well-known passages in the Old Testament is Exodus 32, when the Israelites crafted and worshiped a golden calf. This happens not long after God has delivered them from slavery in Egypt. As they wait at the foot of Mount Sinai for Moses to return from his encounter with God, they grow impatient and decide to make an idol.

What many misunderstand about this event is that they think the Israelites, after everything they saw and experienced, decided to worship a different deity. But that’s not the case. After crafting the golden idol, they said, “This is your god, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” In other words, they thought they were worshiping the very God who had delivered them—the God who judged Egypt through the plagues, who opened the Red Sea, who manifested Himself in thunder and fire at Sinai.

The lessons we learn from this are many, but I want to point out a few. Idolatry does not always mean worshiping a different god altogether. Idolatry can manifest itself in the worship of a false or faulty version of the true God. It can be worshiping the right God the wrong way. Any distortion of the true God—either in His nature or in what He desires—is the creation of an idol. Think of it this way: if someone describes you but misrepresents your appearance, character, likes, or history, they create a false version of you that does not correspond to the real person. The same happens with God. Any misrepresentation of Him ends in the creation of a different god.

There are clear examples of this: Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses worship a false Jesus. They use the same name but describe Him with completely different attributes. Their Jesus is an idol—not the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, incarnate in human flesh. But sometimes this error is subtler. Many evangelical churches don’t distort God as blatantly as these cults, yet they still create idols. They cherry-pick Scripture and craft a half-true Jesus—a Jesus of love but not justice, for example. Or they worship God their own way, promoting the idea that He’s content with whatever worship we offer as long as we’re sincere. They talk about a god who loves self-expression, who’s more concerned about our comfort and well-being than His own glory. And these things don’t need to be explicitly taught; they’re implicit in the way worship is practiced.

What we now have among many evangelicals is a refined form of idolatry—more polished, but no less deadly. It is harder to detect and, for that reason, more dangerous. The problem with idolatry is that, unlike true worship, it brings curse and destruction upon those who practice it. Idolatry is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, sins in Scripture. It is the root of every evil. It is the creation of Satan himself—the father of lies, and therefore the father of false worship.

This is why we must take worship seriously. We need Spirit-filled, qualified men leading churches in true worship; otherwise, the consequences will be dire. But unfortunately, many pastors today fall into the same error as Aaron—trying to please and calm the people, they end up not only approving but leading them into idolatry.

May God be gracious to us, forgive us, and lead His churches in this nation into true worship—worship that glorifies God and is truly good for us.

Nino Marques