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How an Idol of Jesus is Stealing All the Worship
by Isaac Mwangi Millions of people believe in Jesus and worship Him fervently and with deep reverence. For many of them, the thought has never occurred that they could be worshipping the wrong Jesus. Yet this reality, though painful, defines the experience of perhaps the vast majority of Christians. The only common factor between God and many of today's idols is that both are invisible. To worship an invisible god and to even call him Jesus is not sufficient to escape an accusation of idolatry. We must ask, for example: What are the characteristics of this Jesus? Is he given the highest honour or is there some other purported being that is given a greater or equal measure of honour? Many Christians have in this regard engaged in a measure of idolatry from the earliest times. An uncompromising Christological focus in these last days demands that this situation be rectified. Worshipping an idol cannot possibly please God or bring glory to him. When he appears to answer the prayers of idol worshippers, this can be explained by looking at his abundant mercy as he overlooks the people's ignorance, but should never be viewed as a tacit approval of such wickedness. If we accept that Jesus is the one true God of all eternity, our worship becomes pleasing and acceptable to him. But when our deficient understanding leads us to accord him a lower position or one separate from the seat of God, we immediately set up an idol for ourselves. The difference is simply in the understanding, yet it is profound. There is, then, Jesus the Lord and Jesus the idol: One is the King of Kings, the other a deception of the enemy; one is the Creator, the other a creation of man's imagination; one a Redeemer, the other powerless; one giving us God's spirit, the other a demonic influence; and one moving us closer to God, the other pushing us farther away from the Lord while pretending to take us closer to him. Writing to the Philippians, Paul warned them of certain people who preached Christ out of selfish ambition. Still, the apostle to the Gentiles thanked God that Christ was being preached, whether from false motives or true (Philippians 1: 15-18). The recipients of this kind of gospel were lucky to get the message of salvation, even though they would most certainly have been abused in the process, all in order to advance the influence and other fleshly interests of false apostles. They would be assured of their salvation, though the same cannot be said of the leaders who were misleading them. But not everyone was so lucky as to have preachers who still gave them the true message despite taking advantage of them in a financial or other worldly sense. Paul also warned of a more venomous kind of preacher, one who presented to the hearers a false Jesus and imparted to them a counterfeit spirit (2 Corinthians 11:1-4). What it all means is that Satan has made the Christian's task that much more difficult: He is now hiding behind the name of Jesus, masquerading as an angel of light and his workers as servants of righteousness (2 Corinthians 11: 13-15). That makes the task of discernment extremely important for every Christian who wants to walk the straight and narrow path. It is therefore saddening that the vast majority of Christians have abdicated this responsibility and blindly trusted their spiritual leaders to direct them. In the process, those who are fortunate enough to fall into the hands of greedy shepherds preaching the true Jesus simply lose some of their worldly possessions to the latter but still get the message of salvation, however distorted. Judging by trends in the contemporary church, this is but a small number. Most Christians not only fall prey to greedy spiritual leaders, they are also presented with a false Jesus. The results are tragic: They are not only robbed of their possessions in the name of God, they actually remain far removed from the true God. True to the words of Christ, only a few people discover the narrow path and enter through the narrow gate, while the majority of "believers" blindly walk down that wide road that leads to eternal damnation. They take comfort in the safety of numbers, centuries of false traditions that they consider sacrosanct, and the assurances offered by their leaders. Yet, all these grounds are sinking sand when it comes to spiritual matters. Many of these Christians in spiritual Babylon would be offended to be called what they truly are: Idol worshippers. Yet, save for the absence of physical images, this is an appendage that follows them to the grave. Truly, the people perish for lack of knowledge: The knowledge and discernment about our God. Isaac Mwangi is a Kenyan freelance writer and author of "The Nature of the Apostolic Church". He may be contacted via e-mail: [email protected] Website: www.minachariots.com Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |