Article of Faith: Idol worship, By Femi Aribisala

The man who looks to the hills does not know God.

 I went to buy blank videotapes in a van with Christian VideoNet emblazoned on both sides. Immediately I came out of the van, an Indian man engaged me in friendly conversation.  Soon he was talking to me about “Our Lord.” 

 My immediate reaction was: “Which Lord is this man talking about? What makes him think that my Lord is his Lord?”  My thinking was that, whatever Lord this friendly Indian man was talking about; it cannot be my Lord Jesus Christ. 

My new Indian friend kept on chatting and he was smiling curiously at me.  And then it hit me. When I think Indian, I think Hindu.  But this Indian man was not a Hindu. That was what he had been trying to communicate to me.  This Indian man was a Christian.

Forgive me for having such a one-track mind.  On an earlier occasion, I had met another Indian man.  He was not Christian, but I soon got the impression that he was in the marketplace for a new religion. 

He did not wait for me to witness to him.  Seeing the sign on the van, he wanted me to tell him about Christianity.  But then he had some vital questions he wanted cleared up right at the beginning. 

 “Your religion,” he asked, “does it allow you to drink alcohol?” 

“Yes,” I replied expansively, “we even drink wine in church.” 

“Wonderful, wonderful,” said my Indian friend, brightening up.  Then he asked: “How many gods do you have?” 

I was a bit slow on the uptake and did not quite understand what he meant. 

“What do you mean how many gods do I have?” I asked incredulously. 

“Yes, yes.” The man replied, without any hint of mischief.  “How many gods do you have?” 

“I have only one God,” I said marvelling at him. 

And then I understood why.  He was shopping for another god.  This man was quite simply a “god collector.” 

“Only one?” he asked in disbelief.  “You have only one God?” 

“Well, yes,” I replied, now defensive.  “I have only one God.” 

The man shook his head in a way that said eloquently: “Forget it.”  What is the point of a religion where you only have one God?  That is simply too risky.  What if he happens to be busy at any given time? 

Dear reader, how many gods do you have?  Do you even know all of them?  I know what you will say to me: “How can I have any other God?  I am a Christian.”  But if the possibility of having other gods did not exist, do you think that God would tell us not to have any other gods before him? 

The truth is that many of us Christians have other gods before God.  Many of us don’t even realise that we serve other gods.  But our predicament is similar to that of the biblical nation of Israel:

 They feared the LORD, yet served their own gods– according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away. (2 Kings 17:33).

He is the God who took us out of the land of Egypt.  He parted the Red Sea and we walked through on dry ground.  600 Egyptian chariots and horses chased us when God delivered us from Egypt and Pharaoh.  And yet all of them ended up at the bottom of the Red Sea.  So why would we trust in the same horses and chariots which brought the Egyptians to grief after such a glorious experience?  Why indeed!

The message should be clear.  God saves by faith alone.  He who has Jesus has all the protection he needs.  He does not need chariots and horses.

I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen. (Hosea 1:7).

Nevertheless, the Bible records that Solomon had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen.

 My nephew had some vital questions to ask me. 

“Uncle Femi,” he said, “does God not like his children to save money?” 

 He had been having some difficulty with the Holy Spirit.  Every time he built up a tidy nest egg, the Lord would bring a project to wipe it all off.  He was becoming frustrated.  He did not seem to have any money put away for the rainy day. 

“God does not like his children to rely on money,” I told him.  “He wants his children to depend solely on him.” 

You can put burglar-proofing on your door but don’t rely on it.  They can be cut like paper.  You can buy life insurance policies, but don’t put your hope in them.  The insurance company itself can collapse.  Definitely, you can not have a godfather.  Neither can you have a sugar daddy.  And you can never go to Egypt for help (Isaiah 31:1). 

But faith is a big problem for most Christians.  It is so unreal.  We want a God that we can see: one we can touch.  And so we make a calf and say this is the God that brought us out of Egypt.  But we just made the calf, so how can it be God?  Or, we want a king like everyone else.  But is God not our king?  No.  We want a king that is flesh and blood.

And so we not only weary men, we weary God as well.  We provoke the Holy One of Israel to anger.  God says: “Samuel, tell them what a king will do to them. Tell them that a king will sell them and their children into slavery.” 

But we are not impressed. It does not matter. We still want a king. Everybody has one, and we would like to be like everybody else.