By Khen Lim
Image Source: ahermin.deviantart.com
Exodus 20:4 (NASB) says, “You shall not make for yourself an
idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in
the water under the earth.”
While that is the core of the Second Commandment, there is
more if we read on (vv.5-6):
“You shall not worship
them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth
generations of those who hate Me but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to
those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
- A Baptist minister of the NewSpring Church in South Carolina says, “Instead of Ten Commandments that you have to keep if you’re going to be a follower of Jesus, they’re actually ten promises that you can receive when you say yes to Jesus.” (bold are my own)
- He goes on to interpret the First Commandment, saying, “You do not have to live in constant disappointment anymore” rather than, “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
- The same minister makes the claim that not only was his topic “given by God” but that it was God who instructed him to reach out to those who, in their struggle to keep the Ten Commandments, have been prevented from “saying yes” to Jesus.
As for the rest of the article, you can and should read it at
your leisure.
The article is an indicting statement of contemporary
lifestyles. Not that everything about the modern world is bad but stretching or
even distorting the truth has been an expression of emancipation among the
“liberated” population. God’s words, it seems, make for popular targeting
because it is not uncommon to find them persistently tampered with. Commonly
misinterpreted even in churches, God’s Ten Commandments are also fast becoming
a doormat for others to trample on. They too have not been immune to man’s
pesky hands and deliberations.
Defining ‘Idol Worship’
As we bring the Second of the Ten Commandments into sharper
focus, we seek now to reflect on its relevance. We are often told that the
notion of ‘idol worship’ is an ancient preoccupation with little relevance to
what today’s lifestyles are about. That would be true if we confine the
definition of ‘idol’ to exotic false gods that are popularly carved in stone or
wood or even metal. They are, as we know, worn around the body or they exist as
large life-like statues.
In many older parts of Asia, the presence of idols is probably
more widespread than any other parts of North America, Australia or Europe.
Malaysians are privy to idol worship because of the rich mix of polytheistic
religions apparent in Taoism and Buddhism as well as Hinduism. Even Roman
Catholics are not unfamiliar in this case.
But the word ‘idol’ must not be constrained in such a way.
Today the Second Commandment is just as directly applicable in modern society
and its significance is particularly worrisome if we enlarge the scope of
definition of the word ‘idol.’ Some of us feel that idolatrous practices in the
modern world are likely to be more frightening than what we imagine during the
Mosaic days.
Why? Because today’s lifestyles have welcomed idols – or false
gods – in many subtle forms. You find them in abundance if you look hard enough
and when you do, peer not only into the world of arts and education but look
askance at man’s preoccupation with fame (or infamy), material wealth and money
to name but a few.
History has revealed to us that the worship of false gods has
had devastating effects on mankind. Man’s obsession with idolatry has
manifested itself in evil of massive proportions. We can find many examples of
this but perhaps the German Third Reich – or Nazism – and Communism (which
exists in many flavours including Leninism, Marxism, Trotskyism and Maoism) are
easily the ones we can identify. While these are examples on a public scale,
idol worship has also wrecked private lives, leading ultimately to deep
unhappiness.
When we seek to properly understand the significance of this
Second Commandment, we should also consider its preceding Commandment, the
First, which says, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3,
NASB). It isn’t surprising that these two Commandments are lined up in
sequence. We believe God has a purpose in doing so because one flows coherently
into the other to form an unavoidable impression that they are written with
similar overtones. As we study the Second Commandment in light of its modern
application, we can see how this relationship works.
A Multitude of Confusing
False Gods
If you’re like many others, you will assert that the Ten – and
not just the Second – Commandment are all outdated, inapplicable, unrealistic
and impractical. In the Bible alone, the impression of false gods or idols is
well documented. Avid Bible readers will identify at least the following:
Location
|
Idol Name
|
Purported Function
|
Biblical Source
|
Babylon
|
Marduk
|
god of war
|
Jer 50:2
|
Egypt
|
Amon
|
sun god
|
Jer 46:25
|
Canaan
|
Asherah
|
goddess of fertility
|
Judges 6
|
Canaan
|
Ashtoreth
|
goddess of fertility
|
1 Kings 11:5
|
Canaan
|
Baal
|
principal god
|
2 Kings 10
|
Ekron/Philistine
|
Beelzebub
|
lord of the flies
|
2 Kings 1
|
Philistine
|
Dagon
|
god of grain
|
1 Samuel 5
|
Ephesus
|
Diane
|
goddess of virginity
|
Acts 19
|
Taoists and Hindus in Malaysia are also exposed to similar
levels of reverence. For both religions, there are myriad different gods that
function territorially or seek to master certain aspects of human life. We
therefore have gods of rain, kitchen and war as much as there are also those
that purportedly bring luck and material wealth (including gambling) and
representation in the netherworld.
Roman Catholics also have their fair share of such reverence
as they contend with an ever-growing army of canonised saints that offer all
sorts of protection. The Catholic Church refer to these saints as akin to act
like gods with “special intercessory gifts and influences.” It’s not difficult
to find information on these on the Internet. You will find saints with
interesting titles like “universal doctor” (St Albert the Great) or
“evangelising doctor” (St Anthony of Padua) or the “angelic doctor” (St Thomas
Aquinas).
Looking like a list befitting of the size of a metropolitan
telephone directory, the many patron saints are way too numerous to mention
here. The screen capture below reveals only a “modest few” from entries
stretching A to E:
A selected portion (A-to-E) of the whole collection
of patron saints in the Roman Catholic order
Image captured from www.catholicsupply.com
From its expansive list, you might have heard some of them:
St Christopher
|
Patron of travelling and
motorists
|
St Mary Magdalene
|
Patron of penitent sinners
|
St Patrick
|
Patron of Ireland and
slaves
|
St Paul
|
Patron of converts,
writers, novelists etc
|
St Peregrine Laziosi
|
Patron for cancer victims
|
St Vincent de Paul
|
Patron of charitable
societies
|
Even as a Roman Catholic indulges in the existence of their
own false gods, he could easily quote from his Bible God’s instructions that
prohibit such practices. While he understands the forbiddance of worshipping
ancient pagan deities of rain or fertility or titan gods like Zeus or Jupiter
or animistic preferences for Gaia and their ilk, it seems he and many in the
Roman Catholic order fail to see the similarities.
For Protestant Christians, understanding the first two
Commandments does not appear difficult when the traditional definition of the
word ‘idol’ is used. These gods are no threat. They pose little significance or
danger. This is why the Ten Commandments are largely considered irrelevant,
perhaps harmless but certainly pointless. There is no place for them in the
modern world. Many Christians even believe (wrongly) that Jesus came to render
them irrelevant.
But even so, it is very important to understand that the
Second Commandment alone and singularly holds up the whole of the Ten
Commandments. This is because by obeying it, we help ourselves to identify and
hence avoid worshipping false gods. And in achieving this, we can then
genuinely eliminate one of the most abhorrent affronts that God speaks so
bitterly about – false gods. But first, we must properly identify what these false
gods are. For that we must go far and beyond the old-fashioned idea that we’re
talking about pagan deities alone.
When people tie the Second Commandment to images of savagery,
violent brutalities and virgin sacrifices to pagan gods, we miss the point of
its relevance. Modern society provides a perfect platform from which we now
have lifestyles that are far more hedonistic than we can imagine. And they
produce similar end results to the Biblical definition of idol worshipping
except that perhaps we’re all doing it in a more sophisticated, advanced and
technologically stunning manner.
Today the worshipping of false gods extend into many realms
never found during the days of Moses. Our lifestyle offers limitless idolatries
in the form of video gaming, texting, social media networking, gambling,
entertainment, sports, nightclubbing, recreation drugs and unbounded sex and in
fact, anything that tempts us to take our eyes off God.
One God, One People, One
Standard
The principal of our biblical-based monotheism is that we have
only one God. In essence, we have only a need for that one God. Only this God
is our sole Creator of life and the universe. He is also the one God who
demands our attention and obedience in obeying His laws, ordinances and his
moral codes such as the Ten Commandments. He expects us to worship only Him
alone and nothing or nobody else.
Why is that so? We offer you five simple reasons:
1. Dedicated God
One God produces only one specificG and exclusive human race.
There are no other equivalents to us anywhere in the universe. Not even in deep
space. Not even in any notion of unexplored space. There are, therefore, no
aliens living in far-flung galaxies light years away from us.
2. Siblings worldwide
The one God who produces an exclusive human race is the one
same Creator or Father to all of us. That makes each and every one of us
throughout the world, brothers and sisters under the same heavenly Father. In
other words, all of us come from the hands of the same Creator who moulds and
shapes us in accordance to His own image.
3. Egalitarian in God’s eyes
Because we are endowed as brothers and sisters under the same
one heavenly Father, it means that no person or ethnicity or population group
can ever be more valuable or superior or of a higher order than any other. We
are not just equal in God’s eyes but His love for us is the same no matter who
we are and where we are from.
4. Bound by the same laws
As we have only one God, there is only one moral code for all
the people throughout the world who are in fact our brothers and sisters
regardless; that this moral code is enshrined for all the world to know as the
Ten Commandments. These are the standards of living that define us as humans
and as children of God no less.
5. God says so and it is so
With one moral code universally relevant to all the people
worldwide, it means that what God says applies to everyone no matter what. So
if God says thieving is wrong, then thieving is wrong no matter who you are and
where you are from. There is no “other god” to go for a “better answer” or one
that suits you better. Nobody is above His law regardless of whether you are a
common man or a royalty.
Forcing God off-stage to be replaced by some false god is to
ask for trouble. The Bible says so. The Second Commandment affirms it. We do so
at our own risk. And the outcome can only be bad.
Time and time again we see this. Throughout the history of the
world, the result doesn’t change. Irrespective of whichever part of the world,
substituting God with false gods invariably leads to atrocious acts of evil.
This then results in disasters of catastrophic proportions where many die
needlessly. These false gods lead us to the covetous nature that underpins the
world we live in. We find ourselves craving as much material wealth as we can
get our hands on, desirous of far-ranging territorial powers, elevating one
race to dominate and overpower another, to seek superiority that gives us all
sorts of advantages over those who are subordinate to us. All of these often
end in misery. In fact when God is in absentia, even the most beautiful and
invaluable things in life can turn out destructive and tragic.
Tainted and Repugnant
Music
Works of art, as beautiful as they are, can have a seriously
heinous side to them and history has recorded some of the worst. As it were,
choice of music and the people who compose them have been linked to horrific
men and their murderous deeds.
Image Source: bbc.com
For example Hitler’s anti-Semitic Nazi movement has been
firmly associated with a famous classical composer of equal distaste for
Semitism. His name is Richard Wagner. Another, a German poet and philosopher,
Friedrich Nietzsche, has also be inextricably tied to Hitler because of his
ideologies about the “superhuman Aryan race” (übermensch) and the desire to
purify the German blood without acknowledging the existence of God.
Image Source: wikipedia.org
Philosophies taken completely out of context and much to the
political advantages of the expedient Nazi power and dominance, Hitler
propagated Nietzsche’s ideas on a grand scale leading to the mass extermination
of the Jews in what we know as the Holocaust. And throughout all of these,
echoes of Wagnerian music had chilled the hearts and minds of dying Jews and
the survivors who lived to not only tell the tales but often to be reminded in
their latter years.
Inevitably when the great Indian-born Zubin Mehta became the conductor
of the renowned Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) in 1968 before he was elevated
to Music Director for Life thirteen years later, he refrained himself from
including any Wagnerian works in his repertoire as long as there were still
living Holocaust survivors among his gifted musicians.
“While there are still numbers on arms, we cannot play Wagner
here,” he says. For the full article, go
here.
Central to the distaste that the Jews had developed against
Richard Wagner was his grand piece called Siegfried’s Funeral Music (from
Götterdämmerung). This piece became the quintessential Wagnerian iconography of
the Germany of Hitler when it was used as the official requiem of Nazi mourning.
Together with Anton Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony – himself another staunch
anti-Semite – these were the pieces that were used to commemorate the death of
the Führer. Till today, both Wagner and Bruckner continue to be associated with
Hitler, a fitting stigma that simply won’t go away.
In decades past, many notable musicians have tempted fate,
looking for ways to play Wagner pieces in Israel. Understandably these would
lead to impassioned outcries and protests. For a good snippet on this, read Na’ama
Sheffi’s published account in his book titled, “The Ring of Myths: The
Israelis, Wagner and the Nazis.” Among the many tales, the book also reveals
the following:
-
Zubin Mehta
In 1981, Mehta decided he wanted to do something different
with the IPO – he in fact wanted to deliver the “Liebestod” (from Wagner’s “Tristan
und Isolde”) as the encore piece. But beforehand, he cautioned his audience, offering
anyone the chance to leave the hall if they disagreed. As soon as he prepared
to conduct the piece, a Holocaust survivor in the audience, Ben-Zion Leitner,
who was also a hero of the First Arab-Israeli War, walked to the front of the
stage, exposed his scarred stomach and loudly declared, “Play Wagner over my
body!”
-
Daniel Barenboim
In 2001, Daniel Barenboim, a very gifted liberal Jew and
musician himself, experienced similar public opprobrium when he knowingly conducted
the “Tristan” Prelude in Jerusalem despite the predicted outcome.
-
Israel Wagner Society
In 2012, the Israel Wagner Society was forced to abandon a
planned concert at the Tel Aviv University following the latter’s withdrawal of
consent. Even subsequent plans to shift the event to a nearby Hilton Hotel
failed to materialise.
Depraved Educated Minds Go
Awry
Even as many of us value education as a means to giving us a head
start in society and the opportunity to live a justified existence in this
world, there exists a darker side to it, one where, when divorced from noble
causes, goodness and the higher reaches of God’s moral codes, can unleash
forces of evil so great that they can transform the thoughts of even the most
learned minds.
Education, in other words, is in itself meaningless when even
the best minds in living history are known to have participated in some of the
most treacherous and evil events known to man. It is hard to consider that many
of these dark and tragic moments in the annals of history have been committed
or brought on by the inspirations of intellectuals and by all means, highly
educated people.
One of the most startling examples of how good but godless
minds can turn evil is well recorded by Philip Zimbardo, a psychologist who as
a tenured professor of psychology at the Stanford University had conducted a
socio-psychological experiment in 1971 that became the subject of the much-read
book called, “The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil”
(Random House, 2007).
The actual Stanford Prison Experiment (Image Sources: psychminds.com)
In the basement of the campus’ psychology building, Zimbardo
conducted a two-week experiment using twenty-four volunteer subjects who were
all middle-case, educated, college-age men. They were each paid $15 daily for
their participation. To start the experiment, the men were drawn lots as to who
would assume the role of the prisoner or the guard.
In the initial stages of the experiment, there were no
recordable differences among the participants. However in less than thirty-six
hours, the effects were calamitous. Those who assumed prisoner roles were
despondent. Some broke down emotionally. Some were driven into deep states of
depression. A few others were crying uncontrollably. There was another who flew
into a fit of rage. Over the next few days, four of them were released from the
experiment after they were found to be emotionally incapable of continuing
further.
Image from the actual experiment (Image Source: tumblr.com)
On the other hand, those who took the role of “guards” had
developed disturbing traits; traits that reveal unsettling dispensation of
power, superordination and supremacy over the “prisoners.” In their role, the
inmates were made to obey trivial commands, forced to perform tedious but
mindless monotonous works. At times, these were turned into unpleasant that
included cleaning toilets with their bare hands. They were also forced to sing
or laugh at will, or to completely stop smiling on command.
The removal of freedom and the complete subjugation of one’s
control over his ability to express were characteristic of someone who has the
power to do so. We must remind ourselves that those who play the role of “guards”
were educated participants who began the experiment, aware of the difference
between right and wrong.
Called the “Stanford Prison Experiment,” this has become an
important study in social psychology. It clearly demonstrates how situations
can be more powerful determinants of behaviour than what the participants’ personality
characteristics tell us. Here lies proof that abhorrent situations are likely
to give rise to abhorrent behaviour no matter how innocent or sane the people
are to begin with.
For a more detailed article on the “Stanford Prison
Experiment,” click
here.
The Holocaust (Image Source: ushmm.org)
More than thirty years before Zimbardo’s experiment, the
German Third Reich bore witness to the involvement of countless highly educated
people who unstintingly supported Hitler’s ideals and it was their endorsement
that partly propelled the Nazi movement. And if we ever needed reminding, the
German churches were also Hitler’s early adherents.
“A
growing body of scholarly research, some based on careful analysis of Nazi
records, is clarifying this complex history. It reveals a convoluted pattern of
religious and moral failure in which atheism and the non-religious played
little role, except as victims of the Nazis and their allies. In contrast,
Christianity had the capacity to stop Nazism before it came to power and to
reduce or moderate its practices afterwards, but repeated failed to do so
because the principal churches were complicit with – indeed, in the pay of –
the Nazis.
Most
German Christians supported the Reich; many continued to do so in the face of
mounting evidence that the dictatorship was depraved and murderously cruel.
Elsewhere in Europe, the story was often the same. Only with Christianity’s
forbearance and frequent cooperation could fascistic movements gain majority
support in Christian nations. European fascism was the fruit of a Christian
culture. Millions of Christians actively supported these notorious regimes.
Thousands participated in their atrocities.”
Source:
Gregory S Paul, “The Great Scandal: Christianity’s Role in the Rise of the
Nazis”
For
the full article, click here
to read.
The post-war emergence of Communism was also “inspired” by
many Western world supporters who lent their educated but also powerful minds
to the workings of the regimes of monsters like Josef Stalin in the Soviet
Union, Mao Zedong in China and Kim Il Sung in North Korea. Some of America’s
brightest and smartest brains are today condoning the destruction of Israel,
lending their collective voice, influence and wealth to support the anti-Israel
Arab movement to obliterate the tiny Jewish nation. They have since been joined
by large swathes of Hollywood directors, producers and actors.
Image Source: a-w-i-p.com
Despite evidence to the contrary, they have also been
bolstered by a seemingly intelligent – but progressive minded – media that is
too maligned to see the truth much less mete out fair reporting. Instead we
have all been led to believe that it is Israel that has been repressing the
Palestinians and the Gazans.
There is more than enough proof today to demonstrate that not
even the highest level of education and the most intellectually decorated
person is wise enough, kind enough, ethical and moralistic enough to carry out
the agenda that God had set out for all of us to obey. When God is removed from
the underlying basis of education itself, even the cleverest brain on earth is
doomed to evil.
Serious Repercussions
But that’s not all. Remember the two adjunct verses of the
Second Commandment? They are the ones that carry an ominous warning of
disobedience.
In Exodus 20:5 (NASB), God says, “You shall not worship them
or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous god, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth
generations of those who hate Me…”
Then in the following verse 6 (NASB), God
promises tenderness and consideration towards those who “love Me and keep My
commandments.”
Lest we take the matter of idolatry of false gods lightly, God
issues a stern and serious warning. He first says that He is a “jealous God.” The
word ‘jealous’ suggests a feeling or display of resentment fuelled by suspicion
that one is attracted to or involved with someone else. Put another way, God,
being our Creator, expects unanimous attention from us. He does not desire that
we be distracted or interrupted by anyone else when it comes to who we are to
worship. God’s jealousy in this regard underscores His deep hatred and
displeasure towards the practice of worship of false gods. In this case then,
we must take care not to be the idolaters for the implication is that God’s
bitterness and resentment would be aimed at us.
But there also lies another
problem – God also views those who pursue false gods as those who have
expressed strong hatred against Him (v.5). To those who hate Him, He will exact
harsh punishment for three reasons. Firstly when we hate Him we breach His law.
Secondly in worshipping false gods, we offend His royalty or His majestic
presence. Thirdly by turning our backs on God, we also desecrate His covenant
with all of us.
God has spelt out his punishment and most tragically they
involve a visit upon the children of those who transgressed. Herein lies the
devastating vengeance that He would unleash on the subsequent generation of
offspring under the lineage of those who hate Him. In his Commentary, Matthew
Henry says the following:
“The
children shall be cast out of covenant and communion together with the parents,
as with the parents the children were at first taken in. Or He will bring such
judgements upon a people as shall be the total ruin of families.”
The ruination that Matthew Henry speaks of will be so
comprehensive that those who live long enough to see the three to four
generations after them will understand the after-effects of the work of their
own hands. They will witness their destruction, humiliation and shame unless
the children themselves choose not to follow suit but instead abandon or
discontinue the ancestral pursuit of false gods.
No Middle Ground
Image Source: jesus-is-savior.com
It seems incredulous to say this but it is true – the Second
Commandment underscores the ethical revolution of the Bible and of the whole
Ten Commandments. It would not be remiss to say it defines what ethical
monotheism means.
What this fundamentally means is there are two routes for us.
The first is to choose to worship the God of the Ten Commandments. When we do
so, we will be able to make out a good world because God will simply pave the
way and honour our obedience out of lovingkindness and consideration. The
second is to forgo Him in preference for one of the many false gods that
undergird the secular world. Even in the noblest sense of what we hope to
achieve by doing so, we will simply end up completely miserable as we find
ourselves plunged headlong into a world of abject evil and unfathomable
cruelty.
There is no middle ground. Like a light switch, we have only
two positions – either we go with God or we don’t. It’s our choice.
So choose very wisely.
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