On September 25, 2012 the Philippine Daily Inquirer carried a news story of how the illegal ivory trade in Africa is fueled in part by the hunger for ivory idols here in the Philippines.  Our country took center stage when the National Geographic magazine published an article that connected the illegal tusk trade with idol carving in the Philippines. In 1989 the Philippines became a signatory to the CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) which banned the trade of ivory.

I’m not interested in the illegal ivory trade. I know very little about it. I’m not interested in the slaughter of elephants although I understand it is cruel and inhumane.  I focus on idolatry.

No Roman Catholic would ever think of himself as worshiping an idol.  Instead, they believe that images remind them of God and they do not think this is covered by the Exodus 20 prohibition. It helps them focus on God when they have a mental image that reminds them of who God is.  They reason that since they worship the true and the living God anyway and not some other deity, there can be no harm if they rely on images to aid them in worship.  The Bible prohibits using images to represent God and to aid us in worshiping him.  The Bible prohibits the carving of images, the bowing down to them and service to them.

God is the Creator and created beings (beasts like the golden calf or man) can never ever fully represent God’s glory or his power or his holiness.  No creation can ever fully capture the infinite essence of the Creator.  This is why we are prohibited from taking carved images of created things as representations of the Creator.  All creation is under the curse of sin and the corruption of sin and it can never represent the holy purity of the sinless perfect God.  Idolatry is an abomination against God in the Bible.  (Exodus 20:3-6)

Roman Catholics have trouble taking Scriptures at its face value because to them it is not the final authority on faith, doctrine and practice.  The liturgy and papal decrees are of equal footing in authority as the Bible to them. Whatever the Bible decrees as prohibited is taken as prior legislation that has become obsolete, or has been repealed or modified by liturgy and tradition.  This is why if you tell a Roman Catholic that the Bible prohibits the worship of idols and the use of idols in worship, that Roman Catholic will smile at you graciously and say, “Nakasanayan na kasi, eh.  Tradisyon namin ito at paniniwala.  Ang mahalaga ay iisa lamang ang sinasamba nating Diyos.”

Roman Catholics do not think they worship idols when they pray to images of Christ. They bow down and serve images of the Crucified Christ or of the Christ Child because it helps them picture Christ while they pray. The image of a crucified bloody man or of a mischievous boy does not depict the fullness of Christ because he did not remain a helpless child or a crucified martyr.  He rose from the dead and sits as the Lamb on the Throne of God. When we insist on using a wooden carving of a crucified man to depict Christ, we rob Jesus Christ of ALL his glory.  When we insist on representing Jesus Christ as a child, we rob him of ALL the glory as Savior and Redeemer he deserves.

Roman Catholics do not think they worship idols when they pray to images of saints; they merely enlist the aid of holy men so that God will be more inclined to listen to them.  In spiritual matters, Biblical teaching is precise:  the job of mediating between God and man belongs only to Jesus Christ.  He is the only mediator God listens to because only Jesus Christ shed his own blood as the price of atonement for sins.  No other saint or holy man has ever given the sacrifice that equals the sacrifice of the sinless Son of God.  The Bible also teaches that every person whose salvation is based on the finished work of Jesus Christ on Calvary has personal and direct access to the throne of God the Father: we need no representative or advocate or fixer to gain audience with God the Father except Jesus Christ who said: “no man cometh unto the Father but by me.”

If God hates idolatry, then why doesn’t he put an end to this practice?  Why does God shy away from obliterating idols and idolaters from the face of the earth if idolatry is really odious to him?  Why does God not send fire to zap idols and images if God hates them so much as he did in the days of Moses and Elijah? Why does God allow idolatry to thrive here and now?

God has given man limited free will. From the Garden of Eden, God has been revealing his righteous decree: do not choose sin and do not choose to disobey God.  God has sent prophets to repeatedly warn us of the consequences of choosing to disobey his righteous decree. But God also gave man the freedom of will to choose for himself if he will obey God’s righteous decree or not.

Applied to the issue of idolatry, Romans 1:18-32 is clear:  God has revealed his righteous decree that idolatry is abomination in his sight (See Exodus 20: 3-6).  God has also revealed his wrath: he has given examples of his wrath against the worship of anything or any man that takes the place of God in our collective imaginations (think of the Golden Calf in Moses’ time; think of Baal in Elijah’s time; think of Herod in Acts 12:20-24).

Given the knowledge that God hates idolatry; given the warning that God will most assuredly punish idolatry; man is now given the chance to choose whether to engage in idolatry or to turn from idols to the worship of the true and the living invisible God.  Given the teaching that God seeks to be worshiped in Spirit and in truth dare we still worship him using idols?

The worship of idols and the practice of using idols in worship are tolerated by God because God has given us time and space to repent.  While judgment is sure, God has withheld the outpouring of his wrath at this time.  God has postponed his righteous wrath for a future time, giving us time to stop, to reflect and to repent.  At the same time, the Biblical message is everywhere: God will surely punish idolatry. The book of Revelation, the final revelation of God, tells us that among those people who will be reserved a place in the Lake of Fire, are idolaters. (Revelation 21:8)

For now, God has “winked at” the practice of idolatry.  God forbears with man’s use of idols in worship.  Jesus Christ himself declared that the wheat and the tares (weeds) will grow side by side until the day of the harvest.  God restrains himself, at this time, from moving against idolatry.  God hates it when we change the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man.  God, in mercy, has withheld judgment although our idolatry has changed the truth of God into a lie and we worship and serve creatures more than the Creator.  God has “given them up” or allowed them to go on; God has allowed man to choose and he will honor man’s choice. God will make sure that man obtains all the consequences and implications of his choice. In so doing, God has also decreed that when we refuse to repent, we store up for ourselves the wrath of God.

Idols are not merely things, they are also mind constructs: anything that captures our imagination and our loyalty is an idol.  Sex, power, ambition, money, influence, fame and even love can be idols; that which takes up our time and our energy can be an idol. Such is the depravity of the human heart.  A. W. Tozer has said “an idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand.” We have to repent of our idolatry for we are all guilty of it.