The Gods We Worship

In world history Athens Greece stands out with ideas and culture that influence us even today. It is said that democracy got its start here, and it was the place that Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates hung out. Even buildings are still today being designed using architecture from the Greek culture.

Another thing Athens was noted for was its gods. At least twelve main gods that we know of are recorded and there is also one extra known as the “Unknown God”. Along with these there were also many oracles, lesser divinities, and other personal gods that made up the subjects of worship in this city. Their kind of religion was known as polytheistic; which means that they worshiped many gods.

This idea of many gods troubles me. I know that there is only one God (I hope that you do also) and He is the Lord God Almighty. What troubles me so much is that the idea held by the Athenians concerning the belief in many gods still lives today, but it is deceptively hidden by our arch enemy, Satan.

What has happened throughout history is that people – smart, intelligent, educated people – have made themselves comfortable with the idea of God by formulating Him in such a way so that He is slanted to their ideas and thoughts. Their made up god believes what they believe and sees things the same way they do.  What makes this even more troubling is that generally they have no idea that they have done this.

I want to share how this happened with a group of people in the Bible, but it happened in a very strange way. These people developed their own view of the Lord God. This willful action actually caused them to stop worshiping the true God and start worshiping the other god (who was the one they had made up in their own imagination). It is important to note that this false god was still based on the true God. How weird is that!

Let's look at a story about them.

Matthew 15:1-9 NIV

1  Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked,

2  "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!"

3  Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?

4 & 5………

6  … Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

7  You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

8  "'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

9  They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'"

They worship me in vain – the idea of emptiness or uselessness is here.

The reason their worship was empty and useless is because they were not really worshipping God, but some false image of Him that they made up in their minds.

The Pharisees were a notorious sort in the Bible. Almost every encounter they had with Jesus was conflictive and divisive. What they did, every time they met Jesus, was try to force upon Him their own view of God. During their times of challenging and questioning Jesus, they came to the conclusion that Jesus just did not fit their view of God. He didn’t believe the way nor act like they thought He should.  And since He neither looked nor acted like their view of God, then He certainly could not be God.

How wrong they were.

It terrifies me that we also do the same thing at times.

Let me illustrate.

Once a friend told me a story how that someone he knew was involved in an affair and was contemplating divorcing his wife to marry the woman with whom he was having an affair.

His reasoning?

He said that he really believed in his heart that God wanted His children to be happy, and since he could not be happy with his wife, he therefore believed that God wanted him to divorce his wife and marry his affair partner with whom he felt he could be very happy.

This guy just created the god he wanted to worship.

He wanted His god to agree with him and act like he wanted him too, so this guy just created a god that he could feel good about.

This makes my stomach lurch…………

But before we have an attack of self righteousness and begin throwing stones, let us look at some of the gods we create when it is convenient for us to do so.

In our religious society today we make up gods also.

Here are a few of the more popular made up gods we know pretty well……..

- gods that believe there is only one translation of the Bible and no other is acceptable.

- gods that think hymns and organs are useless and out of date.

- gods that do not like contemporary Christian music or any music loud or fast in the church setting.

- gods that do not care what else we do as long as we go to church on Sunday and give money to it.

- gods that are legalistic and condemning of people because of their look or       dress.

- gods that always agree with our side and view of things.

- gods that don’t care what we believe or how we act.

These gods are made up after our own beliefs. We make them resemble the Lord God just enough and keep them in our churches settings just enough so that we can try to convince ourselves that our “god” must be the only “real one”.

If I were doing a preacher thing, I would stop right now and ask, “Which god are you worshiping?” – but I'm not going to ask that, because of two reasons. One, I am not doing the preacher thing, and two, we all would tend to give the same answer……. Think about it.

However, I would say this though.

When we approach God, we must do it with fear and trembling, being fully aware of the deceitfulness of the heart and mind that works from the sin that dwells in our flesh. It can really screw up our minds if we let it…but we don’t have to give in to it because believers are no longer slaves to it.

When we do give in, we do it willingly.

Listen, Satan can make a really pretty talk for us to hear when we give him the time. He can convince us to make God conveniently into our own image if we listen to him. That god that he has us make up is always against something or someone and is usually hurt or angry over something. (This happens all the time during church problems and splits.)

Here are some things to remember.

God is so much bigger than we are and we will never, in this life, wrap our minds around Him completely. He goes beyond our education and limited minds, and will never surrender His being God to my level of understanding alone. If we ever get Him fully figured out, then He stops being God Almighty and just becomes our god that we are comfortable with.

The truth is, it would be so awesome for us to abandon words and phrases like:

– God doesn't like……

– God feels……

– God will get you…..

– God is on my side…..

All of these make me sound like I have God all figured out, when really I don’t.

One of the sad things that I have seen is that people sometimes quote Bible verses just to make God say what they want Him to say in order to back up what they want to believe.

This is just another conjured up god to worship…

Scared yet?  I am. There are a lot of gods out there and I am afraid that we obscure the view of the Lord God by the idols we serve – our created gods.

I get amused, but saddened, by the public figures who conjure up their own god to back them when they get in trouble or get exposed for something. Their god agrees with them and is always on their side. I am amazed at people who claim that God is a liberal, or God is a conservative, or God is a Democrat, or God is a Republican, or God is a Catholic, or God is a Muslim, or God is a Baptist, or God is a Pentecostalist, etc. etc.

These folks, who use these phrases (sometimes they are just implied), are just trying to make up a god that fits their purposes for the time being. The good thing about this kind of god is that he will change quickly to fit the situation when they need him to. The bad thing is, he is a skewed version of the real Lord God. Not really real------just made up.

We are pretty good at conjuring up gods to fit what we want to believe and isn't it interesting that our god always believes what we believe?

You may question this whole idea and ask, “Dan, are you saying that denominational differences mean that each church faith is making up its’ own god?”

Nope.

Denominational differences stem from people seeing scripture through different viewpoints. It is when those viewpoints become so strong within people that they begin to mould God around them, that it becomes dangerous.

People who are becoming spiritually mature hold to the truth with an honest heart knowing that we, in our human frailty, can be mistaken—but never God or His word.

People who form gods hold to their understanding of the Lord, whatever that is, and then try to make God fit their own heart and mind. They are convinced that there is no possibility of them being wrong or mistaken. They find great comfort knowing that their god agrees with them completely.

So now what?

Trust these simple truths. 

1 – There is a God.

2 – You are not Him.

The Bible was not written for us to figure out God. Going there to learn about Him is great, but going there to figure Him out is futile and an arrogant move on our part.

The Bible was written to make us aware of God’s presence, and His provision of salvation through His Son. (Ok -- a lot of other things too. But I think you get the picture.)

Give Him the freedom to be more God than what you understand, and also trust Him to be the God that He is. (He can handle it—He’s been God for a really long time…)

Come before Him holding Him in awe.

Psalms 33:8 KJV

8  Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

Come before His Throne with boldness.

Hebrews 4:16 KJV

16  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Realize that He is more God than we can possibly understand.

Don’t make Him any less than what He exists to be. Just love Him and worship Him for who He is.

Humbly Submitted,

Dan