THE IDOLATRY OF THE CHURCH IN THE WEST

Don't get me wrong! I love the Church, but I love Christ more. I believe that Christ is building His Church, even out of the blemished blocks here in the West. The "block" that is the local church I have the privilege of co-pastoring, is, at very least, "marred" (I say this with the utmost humility and regard, but I am including even the best of us) with some of the contemporary blemishes I abhor.

"Blemishes" (plural), I say, because there are many. But for the moment, I am going to mention only one – the tendency to manufacture an image of what God is like partly from the Scriptures and partly from our cultural preferences – an image of God that has no stumbling-block for 21st century man

My mind was immersed in such thoughts this morning as I was reading from The Institutes of the Christian Religion, by John Calvin. Let me give you a taste:

"…they think that any zeal for religion, however preposterous, is sufficient…[but] God ever remains like Himself, and is not…to be transformed according to anyone's whim."

We live in a day of evangelical "zeal." It is a zeal that is often born of "preposterous" notions about God and his ways. It is easy to construct an image built of sentimental notions that appeal to the fallen religious instincts of men of our culture. Their worldview can embrace a God that nearly approximates their idea of a "good" human.

Again, reference Calvin:

"Unless they had first fashioned a God to match the absurdity of their trifling, they would have no means dare trifle with God in this way."

I fear for the West! I even fear for the Church hammered out in the West's cultural image. This Church holds out to the culture a God unlike Himself, but Who hates being misrepresented. The anger fueled by this hatred would have cosmic dimensions, if it could be measure at all.

God calls upon men to repent of the idols of their heart, but also the idols that go under the name of Gospel. False prophets say "Peace, Peace, when there is no peace." Get to know and love the God of the Scriptures, who has been made known by the Christ, about whom it was said after He turned over the tables in the temple and threw out the money-changers, "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up."