IDOLS FOR DESTRUCTION (Hosea 8.41)
Idolatry in the Old and New Testaments
“Only the Creator/God and the Incarnation can avoid Idolatry” (Polkinghorne)
Every worldview in the Old and New Testament context and up to Postmodern Pantheism denied the absolute creation of the universe, and after Kant’s First Critique Perspectivism denied knowledge access to the universe and God, the creator to human reason. Here lies the origins of anti Foundationalism.
In the context of the biblical assertion concerning the creator of the universe, we present a brief note on Idolatry. Israel was a very small nation. It was not her privilege to develop into a mighty state like that of the Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, the Greeks under Alexander the Great, or the Roman empire. It was not her destiny to produce a specific culture as were the Indians, Sumerians, Egyptians, Hittites, or the Greeks. Israel was unimportant in science, art, or law; she discovered no new continents, and only very late in history did his citizens become merchants, spurred onby the Armenians and later the Greeks. Israel’s only lasting contribution was her monotheism, i.e., God who created heaven and earth and the Messiah, i.e., was the redeemer of all the ethnics (e.g. Abraham was a Semite, not a Jew; Ruth was a Moabite, a “goyim”; see Matthew 28 and Acts 17, “A city full of idols.” Note the place of “creation in Paul’s message on Mars Hill and the Roman Epistle.)
Israel’s religion lifted her far above all the religions around her; when her national independence came to a definitive conclusion, her religion unfolded into Christianity (Promise as Unity of OT/NT). Israel marched in triumph over the whole known world. The Messiah, as God incarnate and the creator of the entire universe is under fire in our postmodern cultural and epistemological relativism of the 21st century.
Israel’s religion was grounded in the special revelation to his servants, the prophets, to teach the people His nature and purpose (Jeremiah 7.26). From the days of Moses, Israel enjoyed a unique guidance in belief and practice and this alone explains why even the masses accepted monotheism; while the neighboring nations which far surpassed her in military might, intellectual and political accomplishments, she remained polytheistic.
The Old/New Testaments clearly expose the conflicting views prevailing among the nations, the masses and the scripture message. When scriptures were practiced, the people worshipped Yahweh, condemned idolatry and superstition. This is often a syncretistic fusion of Yahweh worship under the form of a “bull,” “polytheism,” “necromancy,” “magic,” “child sacrifice,” “religious prostitution” and frequently the majority of the people, even kings and priests, fostered such practices. But it is not numbers which decides the tribes as validity of a faith/behavior system (this has always been so; it is especially appropriate to understand that postmodern pragmatism often dominates the culture, even the church. Idolatrous syncretism is never acceptable; see esp. Isaiah 44.17; I Corinthians 3.5; 8.4-8; e.g. the evil spirit from Yahweh; Psalm 51.13; Isaiah 13.10-11; the Book of Wisdom 1.5; I Samuel 16.14; 18.10; 19.9; II Samuel 24.1ff, I Chronicles 21.1; 23.4a (Yahweh/Satan attributed to both the “spirit” of jealousy, Numbers 5.14,30, “Apostasy” Isaiah 19.14; spirit in Babylonian religion, Stoics, Pantheism).
Throughout Israel’s history “folk religions” followed the false rather than the true. When Israel yielded to pleasures, more were derived from syncretistic examples of the Canaanite who believed that Baal should be thanked for the fertility of the land and the increase in flocks (the gods of Israel’s neighbors were constantly a challenge to their belief in Yahweh. Because of the influence of idolatry, Ahab married the Tyrian princess, Jezebel and Joram’s marriage with Athalia, the daughter of Akade and Jezebel’s introduction of Baal of Tyre (Melkart) and further decline of Yahwistic religion in the North and the South (I Chronicles 16.31f; II Chronicles 8.18,27; Isaiah 1.2). The entire history of Israel is covered with spiritual apostasy. The destruction of the Northern Kingdom, the loss of political independence, the exiles of the Northern Kingdom, the cessation of regular sacrificial cults made the Israelites reflect upon God’s ways, upon sin and retribution. In the Diaspora, the Jews came into contact with Greek philosophy. The defection from Yahweh, growing immorality, and persecutions indicate the distinctive character of each successive historical period. (See my paper, “Revival and Church Growth in the 21st Century: Acts 29” (Revival, Evangelism, Missions: Procedures from Old Testament Revival and Church Growth in Acts—diagnosis and prognosis)
Any historical examination of the History of the Religion of Israel would only reveal how people in fact responded to the originating Word of God; it would not expose the truth or falsity of Israel’s response to the cultural progress, i.e., the development of spiritual foundations. It would make the defections from Yahweh’s revelation in Israel’s immorality, persecution and the nature and extent of her idolatry in each successive period. The crucial challenge is to locate what is foundation and what is culturally transitory. The biblical guide must show what the Lord requires of his people. Any historical perspective shows what the religious and moral conditions among His people actually were. Description of any condition is not the same as explaining the situation! (The same holds for Biblical Theology and Systematic/Dogmatic Theologies). The history of religion cannot disregard the heresies or the development of doctrine. When the boundaries of Old and New Testament theology are not the canonical scriptures, then there can be no foundational theological (e.g. in fact, after Kant and Hegel/Darwin, there could be no single event or historical person who is normative for all ages and cultures). The historical Jesus cannot be a theological norm for the 21st century! (e.g. “Let us make man” (Genesis 1.16); “Let us go down and there confuse their tongues” (Genesis 11.7) “At various times and in different ways in ages past God spoke to men” (Hebrews 1.1). God did not reveal Himself for the first time at Mt.Horab. He had already spoken to them when He said to Moses, “I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3.16).
Monotheism is the foundation stone of Old Testament theology and Judaeo/Christian worldview. Thereis a fundamental distinction between the Old Testament religion (Genesis 3.14-15) and that of the ancient Orient. One God created the world and governs it; one God is Lord over the nations. One God revealed Himself to mankind; all peoples will one day worship the “One” true God. This true God is the creator of the absolute origins of the universe (see my essay, “Cosmic Specificity and Astrophysics: World Views in Conflict and the Demise of Foundationalism” on the web site
“Hear, O Israel, Yahweh is your God, Yahweh is one” (Deuteronomy 6.4) From the beginning, God revealed Himself as “I” Yahweh am your God. “He who sacrifices to strange gods shall be put to death” (Exodus 23.19) “By the name of strange gods you shall not swear, neither shall it be heard out of your mouth” (Ex 23.13; 23.24; 34.14; Lev. 17.7; 19.4, 26.1; Dt. 7.4-6; 12.2-3, 30; 13.2-19).
The history of Israel from Moses till the end of the Babylonian exile, and even after the exile, is a history of monotheism’s struggle to win acceptance. Repeatedly, Israel fell back into the worship of false gods. All other gods do not exist (I Chronicles 15.21; II Kings). “Yahweh is God, there is none other besides Him” (I Chr. 45; III Kings) Hosea declares that “strange gods precipitate apostasy and adultery.” (Hoses 1-3) Isaiah asserts that the gods of the pagans are “things of nought” (Isaiah 2.8, 18; 18.10; 19.3)
Even by the time of Judges false gods are called “things of nought” (elilim) (Leviticus. 19.4; 26.1; Ps. 26;5). The Old Testament vocabulary for false gods is “no gods.” (Deuteronomy 32.17,21; Jeremiah 2.11; 5.7) “unreality” (Isaiah 2; 48.2) While Yahweh is presented as the only God when they proclaimed Him God of the universe, the God to whom all nations must render obedience and when all men some day will worship (Isaiah 66.3). The prophets’ apologetic against idols is directed against faith in false gods (Isaiah 45.2; 48.2) “To whom then will you liken God? Or what image will you make of Him?” (Isaiah 40.15).
In Wisdom 13-15 three types of polytheism are distinguished: (1) the worship of natural forces and heavenly bodies (Wisdom 12.13; 14.21f); (2) the worship of images and idols (Wisdom 15.18f); (3) the creator of the universe can alone escape idolatry. Polkinghorne (mathematical physicist) was surely correct that only the Incarnation can avoid Idolatry (see esp. Exodus 12.12). Even later, Jeremiah declares that “Yahweh will punish Amon (Jeremiah 46.25 (as early as Judges 11.24,34, David said “Go serve strange gods” I Samuel 26.19—“Who is God but Yahweh? I Samuel 30.6-8)
Babylonians had many gods with Marduk at the top (e.g. Henotheism) after the time of Hammurabi. The thunder storm god, Adad Rammas, is praised in a hymn (The Ancient Near Eastern Texts, edited by J.B. Pritchard, 386; see also 384f). Every god had his own peculiar field of operation. All Near Eastern gods fought for their control of an area, but there is no claim of the “Absolute Origin of the Universe” except in Genesis 1.1. All Near Eastern religions were pantheistic.
The Neo Babylonian text of Marduk is pantheistic in outlook (and nothing like Genesis 1.1), where every god is in conflict with all other gods for domination. The whole tendency of religious belief as well as the cult as it evolved gradually in Babylon excludes an explanation of the universe upon a monotheistic basis.” (Jastrow, Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens I, 1906, p. 422; II 1912, p. 135f.)
Even the Canaanites had many gods with one seated at the top (Henotheism) with the title “Lord of the gods”, but their Henotheism is not Yahweh, the absolute origin of the universe. The Egyptian Pharaoh Amenophas IV (ca. 1375-1358) introduced a new religion in Egypt. All men are children of the sun god; the sun god gave them their various colors and tongues; he provides for all and all should pray to him. The pharaoh gave him a new name – Atom, “sun disc” and changed his own name to Ikhnaton, “brightness of the sun disk.”
Already the most ancient documents are grossly Polytheistic (see the nonsense of Hicks, The Many Names of God and the Myth of the Incarnation (popularized the “Death of God” movement ).
The Persian religion, that of Zarathustra, is perhaps the least objectionable, yet it appears long after Monotheism had been proclaimed in Israel. Archimedes, Darius I , Xerxes I and Artaxerxes I were Monotheists of this type and sought to repress the polytheistic religion of the Magi. This religion expresses an instance of progressive deterioration (e.g. the entire areas of history and comparative religions and 19th century biblical criticism was grounded in these issues and because of the developments in Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geology, etc., the Bible was examined as shaped by the cultural influences of its environment. Creation miracle claims were reduced to “myth” and superstitious and in the heads of Copernicus, Kant, Hume, Darwin, Marx, Freud, et al are necessary for the rest of the story—for our understanding of Postmodern cultural/epistemological relativism and our multicultural/tolerant anti truth, science, revisionist history, etc. syndromes.
James D. Strauss
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