Building better marriages

It is interesting that the September 07 issue of The Briefing should contain both the article by Michael Jensen on “Take care: Words at work” and Rico Tice's Epilogue on “Idol Worship”. In the first of these, we are reminded that words are changeable, flexible and imprecise vehicles for communicating ideas and meaning while the second provides an excellent example of how imprecise usage can lead to an obscuring of the meaning and intention of God's Word.

The popular evangelical concept of equating an object of affection with an idol is a post New Testament idea that really seems to have flowered most strongly in the late 18th to early 20th centuries. Numerous hymns of the period typically suggest that tearing the dearest idols from our heart is a very desirable thing.

This is very different from the way an idol was regarded in Old Testament times and, from Paul's letters, was still regarded in New Testament times. Indeed, the modern secular usage of the word, as in “Australian Idol”, is closer to the original meaning (though still a long way off).

To better understand the original concept and to clarify the dangers of the view offered in the Epilogue article, it may be best to start with what we know of human nature. God first of all has given us physical and emotional needs (drives). Whatever the strengths and weaknesses of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, it is undeniable that these God-given needs are dominant factors in our lives; without them we would quickly perish.

Our most basic needs are physical and are concerned with the need to take in oxygen and nourishment and to eliminate waste from our bodies. If we are unable to satisfy these basic needs, all other needs become inconsequential. However, if these are satisfied to at least some basic level, “higher” needs for such things as sexual fulfilment, recognition and self-actualisation are able to exert their influence. Because needs are a key to our individual survival, a person is motivated to satisfy them. Objectives are the things that we perceive to be the means to satisfying our needs. We prioritise our needs and, as a result, prioritise our objectives in terms of which are likely to provide the fastest or most lasting satisfaction. This prioritisation of our objectives largely determines the kind of person we are and the kind of relationships we seek to develop.

That these needs and the feelings that they engender are of themselves not wrong can be seen in the positive way that the Bible talks about our various needs and can be deduced from such verses as “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psa. 37:4), “For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all of these things will be given to you as well” (Matt. 6:32, 33) and “You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (Jas. 4:2, 3).

It is clear that the real issues are those of priority and purpose. In relation to purpose, it is clear that every God-given need can be corrupted—and has been, with such examples as gluttony and selfish ambition.

I fear that our failure to differentiate between these God-given needs, feelings and affections and their corrupt expressions and to teach our young the difference has resulted in untold damage in many lives. For instance, I know that many Christian young people who have become discouraged and fallen away from following Christ because they have found it impossible to stop experiencing sexual desire and felt that they could never be real Christians.

So much for the “affections of our heart”. Let us now look at the true nature of idols.

Firstly, idols are not necessarily gods.

It seems to be instinctive within a man to look for an external power to blame when something goes wrong or to provide help to make things go right. It is this power that becomes his god. In man's ignorance, the god is either someone to placate or whose favour has to be won. Those who have rejected the Almighty God, creator of the universe, must create their own god, as Paul says in Romans 1. This may be to personify a heavenly body or an earthly object, a created item or an intangible concept, such as “luck” or “fate”. An earthly object or created item may itself be personified as a god (as did the Children of Israel when they created the golden calf. More frequently, such as with statues of Baal or the use of Asherah poles, idols were physical objects that represented a point of contact with the otherwise unreachable.

This is why Moses, in the first two commandments, differentiated between gods, which were to be rejected as sources of power and authority, and idols, which were not to be worshipped as either a power in themselves or as a vehicle through which a god's favour might be sought. Thus, the sin of idolatry needs to be seen as the rejection of God's rightful authority and power in favour of another god who might be more amenable to persuasion to see things our way (even if it means sacrificing some life other than our own!).

When Rico Tice describes people who, as professing Christians, seek fulfilment of their felt needs in unacceptable ways, these are not examples of people setting up idols in their hearts—they are inappropriate behaviours intended to achieve an objective that they see as likely to satisfy very real needs in their lives. They don't need to repent of idolatry, nor do they need to rationalise away their heartfelt longings as something disreputable. Instead, they need Christian counselling and support and to be shown more acceptable objectives and behaviours. Above all, they need to be told that their feelings are real and valid, even though their priorities may be wrong, and that God knows and understands their pain. They need to learn to present these issues to God for him to resolve in his time and his way.

It is at this point that the greatest danger for a Christian lies. Rather than bringing our problems to God, we often present him with our solutions and ask him to bless them, regardless of what God's plan might be for us. When he doesn't answer the way we want, we frequently go ahead without him, sometimes even telling ourselves that we are acting in faith. We need to see that our problem then is not one of idolatry—it is instead the original sin in the Garden, that of choosing to act independently of God.

Neville Piper of Oyster Bay, AUS (17/10/2007)

I was reading the latest Briefing and read your discussion on Biblical theology in “Resource Talk” p. 8. I thought I would add my 2 cents' worth. I think that Biblical Theology is the study of the way the Bible itself does theology. The Bible is not just a collection of facts that we do theology with. It has its own theological method, that is, there is a Biblical way of doing theology. When you trace a theme through the Bible you see how the Bible interprets/does theology within itself.

Sam Green of Sandy Bay, AUS (17/10/2007)

Thanks for your Epilogue articles. They are a good resource when meeting with people 1.2.1. This week I read ‘Idol Worship’ by Rico Tice (Briefing 348) with a woman who has been a Christian for years. After reading the article, the woman said that she had always thought of idols as things such as the golden calf etc, but now, for the first time, she understood clearly what the idols were in her life. She spoke about where she tries to find security apart from the gospel of Christ, the fact that we call idols by other names and so they don't sound so serious, and that other Christians can help us justify our idols by saying we deserve it, everyone does it, it is normal etc. So thanks very much for an article that helped us to be more realistic about our sin and that helped us turn back to Jesus Christ.

Jane Tooher of Canary Wharf, UK (25/10/2007)