Every night my wife and I attempt to read a Bible story (or a paragraph of the story if things aren’t going well) to our 2-year-old son. I say attempt because most of the time he either tries to sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” or yells for his 9-month-old brother in the other room. The simplified explanations of cataclysmic, history-altering events oftentimes make them seem mythical, fantastic and unbelievable. Adam and Eve introduced sin into the world by eating some fruit? God flooded and killed droves of human beings in an extended, apocalyptic flood (while still saving the cute animals and a single family)?
Recently, we approached the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. On the heels of God saving a few from a flood that He initiated to wipe the rest of humanity out, Noah’s family has multiplied vastly. They have grown in number, knowledge, and, ultimately, pride. So what do they do to celebrate? They begin building a tower, “whose top will reach into heaven” so that they will make a name for themselves. In other words, they attempt to rival God. God recognizes their arrogance and sinful attempt to lift themselves up to His heights, thus (at least in their minds) becoming like Him. God will have no rival. From there God goes “down” to the tower (notice the fact that they still weren’t close to reaching His heights) and scatters the people and their language. The peoples’ attempt to deify themselves is met with God’s justice and lovingkindness: people are not meant to hold this position.
The story of the Tower of Babel feels silly to us, in a lot of ways, because it appears so distant and not relatable. My continued realization is that we share much more in common with the cult of Babel than we think. Within this real-life story, there is a nugget of truth that plagues the human heart, whether we live in the ancient Middle East or the post-postmodern West: mankind continues to place ourselves on the perpetual hamster wheel of self-deification. In other words, we continue to define ourselves as gods and goddesses. If this feels like an overreaching statement for you, since you do not ask your neighbors to offer incense to you and you have not built a shrine to yourself in the backyard, let me challenge you on the definition of idolatry.
Idolatry can be oversimplified by an image of a crowd bowing before a statue, or crying out to a celestial object, but let us zoom in and look at the heart. To deify something (or someone) is to submit to its authority, and trust it as the object of knowledge and honor. This could take the face of a tribe offering sacrifices to the heavens for a good crop yield, or the world-plaguing practice of calling out to those ancestors that have passed away. No matter the case, the central piece of idolatry is seeking answers, blessings, or favor from a created being. This is why Paul, in Romans 1:21, could say: “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” He goes on to explain that humanity took the knowledge of God, suppressed it, and then replaced it with a new, more convenient, or self-serving understanding. “For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator…” (Rom. 1:25) Therefore, at the center of idolatry is the suppression and replacement of God. When we understand these things we can comprehend what it looks like when we attempt to exalt ourselves to God’s throne.
Idolatry as Suppression -
The suppression of Him and His truth is at the core of all rebellion against God. God created us to naturally look to Him as our Maker, Provider, and Sustainer. There is no sort of heterodoxy (deviation from original, Biblical teaching) that does not first begin with an attempt to lower God. The only way to get to the next step in idolatry is to denigrate God as something that we can rebel against. Obviously, we could not logically justify running away from God if we believed He was completely good and powerful. In order for us to draw a new sense of morality and understanding, we must first reject God and His order. If we can convince ourselves, or others, that God cannot be fully good or totally in control because of the evil and pain in the world, the door has been cracked to create a new God. We can find the vacuum that must be filled, if and only if, we have “killed God,” to use a philosophically weighty clause. There is no way to eradicate God until we have suppressed the truth about who God is, who we are, and what He has done.
Idolatry as Replacement -
Once the throne has been abdicated by the revolutionary theories, accusations, and feelings of mankind, there is a vacuum. When we remove God from His authoritative position, w cannot leave His position empty. Once we have ousted the ruler of our own hearts, someone or something will inevitably take His place. This is why Paul could astutely declare in Romans 1:25 that man has “exchanged the truth for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator…” Many have experienced this reality in their lives as they have cut out a habit; unless something else is intentionally placed in the position of smoking cigarettes or melting into social media when you are bored, it is unlikely that a good habit will arise naturally. As the saying goes, “water always finds the lowest point.” The same thing is true with our worship: as we remove God and His authority from its rightful throne, we end up making a destructive exchange. The Creator is removed and He is replaced by something that was never intended to rule our hearts and minds: namely, a creature that He made. In my experience, living in a culture that places immense value on self-identification and demonizes anything that would contradict someone’s own self-defining self-realization, it is abundantly clear what (or who) assumes authority on God’s intended throne.
Idolatry as Self-exaltation -
The consummation of suppression and replacement is most frequently evidenced by the exaltation of self. This is why we tolerate the logically absurd notion of “your truth.” It is certainly the primary reason that we have had to add extra definitions to the word truth as anything other than that which lines up with the fact of reality.
When we remove the unitary, foundational decider of truth and replace Him with billions of faces that decide how life should look for themselves, we have bowed down to a deeply saddening version of idolatry. Instead of a society that can point back to foundational principles and the One who made those principles, we have a cornucopia of beliefs that contradict in a million directions, but we have lost the ability to define who is wrong. Hence the phrase “what is true for you is true for you.” We have lost the backbone to stand up for what is right, but more importantly, we have lost the knowledge of what is right. In our Romans passage, this is why Paul can say that the truth has been exchanged for a lie! We have hopped outside of the foundational order of God and we have deified ourselves to decide what is right and wrong. We have traded the truth for a lie.
Paul goes on to explain that our rebellion does not make God any less powerful and sovereign, but He does allow us to run away. “For this reason (suppression and replacement) God gave them over…” (Romans 1:26). He continues by explaining the sexual deviation that mankind runs to, abandoning God’s created order for what we think will satisfy us, redefining what is good and evil (a sure callback to the temptation that led to the fall in Genesis 3). Beyond that, Paul finishes chapter 1 of Romans by pulling the curtains back on the result: not only do we heartily run away from God towards the things that lead to death, but we also give gleeful approval to those who want to do the same. In other words, we invite others to join in our idolatrous practices.
This is a bit abstract, so let’s look at an example. One of the hottest and most controversial topics in American life at the moment is that of abortion. Defined as “the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy,” abortion is the ending of the progression of life in the womb. Forget for a minute the very compelling and almost dogmatic language and viewpoints of Scripture towards the sanctity and nature of human life, and ask what drives the conversation about abortion for those that believe in the “pro-choice” sentiment. The reasons that are given surrounding self and the consequences are ubiquitous. In order to consider the expulsion of a living and growing being, the language of self is deployed with tenacity. Some say that a pregnancy will ruin the mother’s life. Others claim choice in light of the fact that everyone deserves to make their own decision as to what is right. Still, others cling to the rights to privacy and undue burdens placed upon the mother. Who is at the center of each of these retorts? The self!
Justice Anthony Kennedy said the quiet part out loud when he penned the majority opinion in the 1992 Supreme Court Case Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” In this worldview, the highest good is the ability of each person to define life and its parameters for themselves. Notice that this mentality suggests, and allows for, no specific boundaries.
The abortion argument does not stand alone but is indicative of the self-deifying idolatry of our whole society. Affirmation of abortion is nothing other than an overflowing natural consequence of the idolatry of self. Abortion requires us to redefine terms, based upon “our own truth,” in order to protect a person’s view of the good life for themselves, and it would be blasphemous to set a standard on anyone that they do not believe is right in light of their own personal beliefs which they have arrived at. The conversation surrounding abortion is the solution when you add suppression of God with His replacement. This conclusion is sped up when we decide that each person is to be the ruler of their own lives and come up with their own understanding of right and wrong. Not only do we quickly run to indulge in these self-exalting ideologies, we “give hearty approval to those who practice them.” (Rom. 1:26)
We can use abortion as a moral scapegoat, and it is, but there is plenty of other low-hanging fruit on the tree of self-exaltation. Look at the statistics of fatherless homes. Check the objectification of souls made in God’s image with the overt sexualization of everything; observe the business of pornography. Count the number of quickly satisfying, nutrition-less fast food restaurants that litter the street on your drive to work. Count how many social media apps you have on your phone, and the number of photos/comments you have posted in order to give greater glory and attention to yourself. The worldview that we have bought into has attempted to root out God, and replace Him with the face in the mirror. The consequences of this sin and death are rampant in our society.
The question that we must ask ourselves is, “who is on the throne of my worldview?"