A.W. Tozer wrote in “The Pursuit of God,” “Among the sins to which the human heart is prone [having a natural tendency towards], hardly any other is more hateful to God than idolatry, for idolatry is at bottom a libel [ a spoken or written statement or a representation that gives an unjustly unfavorable impression of a person or thing] on His character. The idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is…The essence [fundamental nature] of idolatry is the entertainment [allowing into the mind] of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.” [amplification in brackets mine]

“No God But God,” edited by Os Guinness, one contributor, Richard Keys observed, “If we do not understand the nature of idolatry, we will not be able to recognize it or guard against it in our lives and communities. As noted in the introduction, the apostle John was warning Christians when he wrote, “Keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). ”

Ray Comfort, a New Zealand evangelist living in Southern California wrote in ‘The Great Deception,” The Cause of the disease of evangelical apathy which is so prevalent in Christendom, is simply idolatry. This is nothing new. It was the cause of Israel’s sexual sin (1 Cor 10:1-14), and was rampant throughout history, in fact, Unger’s Bible Dictionary tells us, `The term for harlot is used figuratively for idolatress…’ The symptom of idolatry is lawlessness within the church, and the cure is a correct understanding of the true nature of our Creator, revealed essentially in the Law of God…Notice that when God commissioned Gideon, the first thing He told him to do was to destroy his father’s idols. Then he was told to rebuild on the rock, in the proper arrangements. We must do the same. With all due respect, I am convinced that our twentieth-century spiritual forefathers (sincere though they may have been), have handed down to us an idolatrous understanding of the nature of God. We must destroy “our father’s idols,” then rebuild on the rock of the true character of God.”

Francis Frangipane in “Truth, Holiness and the Presence of God” wrote, “…the resistance in you against God is an idol. It is the most powerful idol in the human heart.”

Let’s be radical and get to the root of the problem…we can identify idols all day long but that does not mean we will understand the nature of idolatry or know how to deal with it.

I highly recommend this website:
HARDNESS OF HEART – SIN MISCONCEIVED AS BREAKING RULES — Edmond La B. Cherbonnier http://www.philosophy-religion.org/cherbonnier/hardness/main.htm

Mr. Cherbonnier explains that it is impossible for a human being to go through life without SOME center, conscious or unconscious. The proper diagram of even the most selfish life is therefore not a closed circle but an ellipse with two centers, representing the false god around which the individual makes his orbit.

On this website you will find a very long list of cultural icons such as patriotism, beauty, unselfishness, pride, etc. which have been or can be used as “idols” or points around which we can center our lives. If they are false gods, they will be proved so by invariably dissappointing their followers.

FINALLY, after reading this website I have been persuaded that the God encountered in the Bible is far more worthy of becoming the center of my life than any of the other possible points of focus in our cultural world. I only wish I had encountered this gifted teacher seventy years ago.

Actually, I think the book of Revelation may well be the most subversive portion of Scripture dealing with the issue of patriotism in the Church, but the roots are planted in the OT, especially in the prophets, particularly when they employed the figure of adultery, to which I alluded previously.

The gauntlet was thrown down when Israel first requested a king like the surrounding nations. The imagery becomes very graphic in the major prophets, esp. in places like Ezek 16 and 23, where Israel and Judah are characterized as beautiful but whoring sisters because they sought political alliances that were most likely to preserve their secular nation and lifestyle, when they had been called to be a theocracy. The striking thing in the prophets is how such alliances are invariably associated with frank idolatry.

There is an undercurrent of this kind of link between patriotic obeisance and idol worship in the letters to the seven churches that I believe runs through the rest of the book of Revelation and is consummated in the Great Harlot of Rev. 17 and 18. The “overcomers” called out of the seven churches had “ears to hear what the Spirit has to say” and in the rest of the book overcomers would “keep the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” In Rev. 18:4 he says “come out of her my people, lest you share in her sins…”—a clear allusion to the invitation that was repeated throughout the OT to people of God who were tempted to “play both sides.”

Now, what does that mean for American evangelicals? I don’t think it means “come out of the USA, my people…,” at least not at this point in our history. I do think it means that there is an ever-present danger for the people of God to seek “life” in one’s allegiance to the state. In a democracy, that could (or it might not) mean any of the following: glorying in certain aspects of our history as a nation while downplaying or excusing others; protecting social security at all cost; trusting in a fail-safe national health care system; discharging our calling to help the poor and oppressed by increasing taxes to underwrite social welfare programs; preserving global credit markets at all cost; putting teeth into immigration laws; defending the (private) right to bear arms; defending the right to private property; or preserving all individual “rights” to the detriment of the disenfranchised.

I could come up with myriads more—again, I’m not very good at drawing lines.

So, your question then becomes, When does the kind of patriotic devotion I illustrated above in my “American fable” become idolatrous? I don’t think you can ultimately identify the idols apart from living intimately enough in community that we can tell when our brothers and sisters are getting false life from a source other than God, which is my definition of idolatry.

I guess my stake in this question would instead be to turn our attention toward identifying the marks of righteousness in the people of God, as I suggested in my responses to James’ last thread. Could it be that probing into the reasons for a lack of righteousness among our people would surface the idolatry?

“It’s the beautiful things that get us. Perhaps the greatest seduction of not the ANTI-God, but the almost God. Poisonous fruit can look pretty tasty. That’s what is so dangerous about ideas like Freedom, Peace, and Justice. They are all seductive qualities, close to the heart of God. After all, it’s the beautiful things we kill and die for. And it’s the beautiful we market, exploit, brand, and counterfeit.

We find ourselves possessed by our possessions and enslaved by the pursuit of freedom. Nations fighting for peace end up perpetuating the very violence they seek to destroy. Serpents are a slippery and slimy things.

Most of the ugliness in the human narrative comes from distorted quest to possess beauty. Coveting begins with appreciating blessings. Murder begins with a hunger for justice. Lust begins with recognition of beauty. Gluttony begins when our enjoyment of the delectable gifts of God starts to consume us. Idolatry begins when our seeing a reflection of God in something beautiful leads to our thinking that the beautiful image bearer is worthy of worship.”

Jim, you have directed our attention away from the ‘abstract’ question I posed (identify the idols of evangelical Christianity in America) and focused it on HOW we go about identifying them and then HOW we go about dealing with those idols (how ‘disbelief’ is lived out). You have essentially made a somewhat abstract theological question quite pastoral in fact. Derek picked up that shift and shared some insightful comments in that regard (thanks D!). I am not complaining. We need to address those issues as well and they are the ones that fly closest to the surface of our lives so thank you for bringing them up in this context. Now, with that in mind let me share a a couple thoughts.

First, yes (as you say) we need to be vigilant in applying our very best discernment when it comes to actually addressing our idols – putting legs to Christian disbelief whether that be at home, at church, or in the classroom. Simply being ‘prophetic’ isn’t enough if it isn’t accompanyied and driven by careful discernment motivated by love. There are a whole host of other questions we could pursue related to the HOW questions of being a prophet. That is likely a discussion for another day.

Second, Jim and Derek, any chance you have any thoughts on the more abstract issue related to identifying idols? Thus far nationalism, militarism, violence, beauty, and money (capitalism) have been called out as potentials. You want to add any to that list? Jim, you don’t seem to dispute the claim that patriotism can in fact be an idol for American evangelicals – is that true? If so, you want to say more?

Kent’s blog and subsequent example of Boyd brings up a very important issue facing each believer and community – living as salt and light in a decaying and dark world. I admire Boyd’s charisma to challenge his congregants to view the gospel in a new way. Moving the flag out of the place of worship communicates that only God alone is worthy of praise. The gospel imperative commands us to live at times at odds with our culture and nation. The gospel imperative demands that we seek to make peace with those who are violent and cause us pain.

However, in our culture today, some of us (or someone that we know) are willed by God into occupations that place them in positions where violence will occur. Our military and police force exist to protect our communities and nation from violence. They need our support and prayer. According to Kent’s description of Kay’s article, the emphasis of which Boyd confronts is the glorification of violence. Just turn on the television and another add for a violent video game flashes by. Our kids are confronted with mulitple ways in which to kill, maim, injure, and violate images of humans and animals. Long gone are the days of playing cowboys and indians – now the game is how many cowboys or indains one can kill to get to the next level. If those within Boyd’s church who choose to leave due to these two challenges from the gospel, then that is there choice.

Pastor’s exist on the ragged edge between speaking the truth and offering words of encouragement and grace. Just like the church of Revelations that was neither hot nor cold, sometimes it is God’s desire to speak through His Spirit to rattle us out of our evangelical malaise to cause us to remember the experience the gospel afresh and anew. Not many pastors are willing to expose their people to the raw and unfiltered gospel in such a way as to risk the comfortability of their congregants. If this is being prophetic, then at times each pastor is called to such a task.

Boyd’s action might not be for all churches in every place. But his example should be that which each pastor needs to pray and meditate upon. Woe to the pastor whom God wills to preach a “hard” sermon to convict the hearts of man and chooses not too.

I have much respect for Jim and your wife. My wife’s grandfather recently passed away and he was a WWII vet and purple heart award winner during the battle of the bulge. Unfortunately he never evidenced any faith in Christ (we have hope that at the last God was speaking to his heart), but his life still is a legacy that I desire my son to emulate in certain ways.

Any more thoughts – thanks Kent and James and others for continuing this thought provoking exercise.