It is difficult

When you talk about what the Bible says about idolatry, you notice a lot of misunderstanding. Also with your brothers and sisters who heartily love the Lord Jesus and God's Word. Not that people reject what you say so much, but you notice that you quickly talk past each other. Or the look in the eyes makes you think 'I hear what you're saying, but don't really understand what you're talking about'.

Then I blame myself a little, that I apparently cannot explain it in a few simple sentences. So I am racking my brain these days, how to explain the core of contemplation at Ann Voskamp in a talk with a group of brothers and sisters soon.

It took me years myself before I really realized what the Bible means by idolatry. So I won't say the idea is simple, but I still sometimes wonder why it's so hard to penetrate our brains. Apparently the concept of 'serving idols' has also been a difficult thing for the people of Israel to understand. In Joshua 24 they solemnly promised “There is no question that we should leave the Lord to serve other gods” (verse 16), just a few chapters and a generation away”they served the Baals” (Judges 2:11).

Some common reasons why it's so hard

Below are some thoughts on why it is often so difficult to let go of our ideas and beliefs about things.

• We cherish our views that we are familiar with. It is difficult for us humans to let go of ideas and beliefs that we are familiar with. It gives us a sense of security in our existence and why should we give it up? You could say that we sometimes even 'cherish' our ideas and views. We are familiar with a certain 'meaning' of biblical words and hardly ever ask the question whether it is correct and whether it is really what God means by it in His Word. You come across this phenomenon everywhere, even in the most biblical circles.
• What glasses do we use when we read the Bible? How you read the Bible matters a lot. By that I mean through which glasses you read. Of course that has everything to do with the previous points. Whether you wear blue or orange glasses makes a difference in the sense that with each pair of glasses you can or cannot see certain things or see them in a different color. You often unconsciously give a different meaning to what you read. The psalmist knew this when he says in Psalm 119: “(...) if I would keep all your commandments. (…) Unlock my eyes and let me behold the wonders of Your workt” (Psalm 119:6b, 18).
  • Even Bible translators suffer from glasses through which they read and translate the texts. For example, the HSV has translated "elder" in several places (e.g., 1 Timothy 5:19; 2 and 3 John 1:1), where really just "old man" is meant and not some church office. It just depends on what background - through what glasses - you are reading from.
  • This is one of the reasons why we as believers need each other: sharpening each other in the truth and understanding God's Word correctly. “Iron is sharpened with iron, so a man sharpens his neighbor's face” (Proverbs 27:17).
• We according to our pastors without thinking critically ourselves in light of the Bible. When, from childhood, we have been told in the Christian community for decades that idolatry'everything is what stands between God and us' (or other expressions of the same kind) we will of course accept that. Just as much as we accept many other things from the Bible teachers we know well and trust. That in itself is good and a very Christian attitude (2 Timothy 3:14; Hebrews 13:17; 1 Peter 5:5). But in this way we use all kinds of expressions, without exactly 'defining' them. Do we know the biblical meaning of a particular expression? If we don't have that concrete, this increases the chance of mutual miscommunication and, moreover, it increases the chance of misconceptions and deception. We then use words with an undefined meaning and hope that the other person gives them the same meaning as I do. But unfortunately this is less and less the case due to the increasing confusion on Christian heritage. 'follow Jesus', 'Christ in you', 'Having Jesus in your heart', 'being a sheep of the Good Shepherd', 'being a disciple', but also words like 'redemption', 'born again', 'save' are not always suitable for everyone. the same content more and the question 'what exactly do you mean by it?' (which we hardly dare to say) may reveal surprising differences.
  In Corinth at that time, they also used all kinds of Christian words like "Jesus," "the Spirit," and " the Gospel. It all sounded very Christian, very biblical so to speak. But meanwhile, they accepted very easily when someone changed the content of the words so that they no longer believed and practiced the gospel that Paul had proclaimed to them (2 Corinthians 11:4).
  The important point here is whether we are still acting like the Bereans. They tested what Paul taught them to see if this was indeed what the Scriptures taught (Acts 17:10,11). It's not just a few people who do this, but the text shows that the whole group in Berea was doing this kind of critical research. Not just occasionally, but intensively: every day! The effect of this is twofold: a) Paul was tested as to whether what he said was right with the Scriptures and b) in this way they made the Word of God their own so that it could do its work in their hearts and many of them believed (verse 12).

A little more specific about idolatry

Idolatry in the OT and NT 

We have a certain image of the idolatry of Israel in the Old Testament, where we can hardly imagine anything other than that they used images to worship Baalim and Astartes and thereby anger the Lord. Furthermore, we think that the subject of "idolatry" hardly occurs in the New Testament. Paul speaks of eating idols in 1 Corinthians and John warns against idols in one of his letters. That's about it then..... we think.

But in doing so we miss a large part of the message of Scripture. After all, pages are full of Israel's idolatry and its terrible consequences. And if you have an eye for it, even large parts of the New Testament are about it. Many letters deal with the pagan influences on the Christian faith.

Binary either/or thinking

When we read in the Old Testament about the idolatry of the people of Israel, we have the idea that they literally turned their backs on the Lord their God and only became more concerned with idols and their images. We often think way too binary in a way: it's of the one of the other. Kind of like what we think of as "the struggle between good and evil. About that, the preacher Spurgeon seems to have once said that that expression is incorrect and that "the struggle is not between good and evil, but between good and almost good. We often think in opposites that are not there.
In Judges 17 and 18 you will find stories about idolatry as it took place in the Judges' time. Without going into the details (that will come later DV) you can read here how people in Israel served God and mixed it without (conscience) problems with all kinds of elements from the pagan religions. This wasn't of/of but a matter of and/and. Yet the Lord Himself called it idolatry (read Judges 2:11-3:7) for example.

A misunderstood world

Today's Protestant Christian 60+'ers grew up mostly in an environment where it was normal that God's Word and thinking (the mind) were primary. That was guiding your life. That there were people who (believer or unbeliever) lived spiritually in a completely different world you knew, but you couldn't fathom how that would work. They didn't know God or the Bible and that explained everything. From high school many of us remember Kloos' line of poetry: "I'm a God in the depths of my mind …”. But what goes on inside the poet? Not the faintest idea and besides, why bother with that?
But now that the wave of idolatry is lapping all over Christendom, we can no longer afford to remain ignorant. We will have to form a biblical idea of ​​what "idolatry" according to the Bible is, so that we are armed against this latest attack from Satan.

An example for clarification

Finally, here's an example as an attempt to make 'idolatry' a little clearer. If we start from the idea – which I also grew up with – that idolatry'everything that stands between you and the Lord', then that is a broad term and you can mean anything by it. It can be all kinds of things that you spend a lot of time and / or money on and that you completely consume. Everything you can take up so much that you hardly have time for other things. Or it takes up your mind so much that you can hardly think of other things, let alone the things of God. But 'everything that stands between me and God' is a difficult concept, because what exactly does it mean, can we explain that? What is included and what is not? Not that simple I think. Then it remains a vague concept and we cannot make it concrete.

But now the example, remembering that every example is flawed.
In situation A a man has been 'happily married' to his wife for years. Gradually, however, he devotes much of his free time to his hobbies. He obviously pays little attention to his wife. It goes without saying that this does the relationship no good and could lead to serious marital problems. This example is the common view of "idolatry," that is, "everything that stands between the Lord and you'. The hobbies stand between him and his wife. Everyone understands that this is obviously not a good situation; one must then seriously question whether one is really living a Christian life as the Lord Jesus intended.

Conversely, situation B in which the man has no sexual relationship with his own wife. He has frequent sexual intercourse with another woman. I'll leave the rest of the example alone. It should be clear that this situation is much more what the Bible calls 'idolatry', especially because the Bible itself also makes this comparison (see 'Know the Lord').

It should be obvious that situation B is of a very different order than situation A. This simple comparison, I hope, also makes it clear that idolatry according to the Bible is of a completely different order and much more serious than "anything that stands between you and the Lord.

Taking it literally

In that regard, we just need to take the Bible more literally. The Bible makes it clear that people (can) have contact with demons in the unseen world and that God's people are warned not to do the same. If Paul also talks about "fellowship with demons" and "teachings of demons" in his letters, then on this point too we will have to take the Bible literally in what it says and take the word "demons" for what it indicates.

Here is an overview of the places where the word 'demons' occurs in a relevant context.

Leviticus 17:7	They may no longer present their offerings to the demons what they go after as in fornication. This is to them an eternal ordinance, through all their generations
Deuteronomy 32:17	They sacrificed to the demons, not to God; to gods they knew not, to new gods that have recently come, at whom your fathers did not tremble.
2 Chronicles 11:15	He (Jeroboam) had appointed for himself priests for the high places, for the demons and for the calves which he had made.
Psalm 106:37	They served their idols, which became a snare to them. (Moreover) they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons.
1 Corinthians 10:20	No, I say this because what the heathen sacrifice, they do to demons sacrifice and not to God, and I do not want you with the demons have community.
1 Timothy 4:1	But the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith and turn to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons
Revelation 9:20	And the rest of the people who were not slain by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands; they remained the demons and the idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wooden idols, which cannot see, hear, or walk.
Revelation 16:14	These are the spirits of the demonswho perform signs, and who go forth to the kings of the earth and of all the world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God Almighty.
Revelation 18:2	She is fallen, she is fallen, Babylon the great, and a dwelling place of demons become,

So by idolatry the Bible does not mean 'everything that stands between you and God', but then she means literally 'communion with demons'. Then it is also clear how much the Lord our God hates that and warns us against it in His Word as against no other sin!

“Dear children, beware of the idols. Amen” (1 John 5:21)