Idolatry is defined as the worship of idols.  Worship is defined as excessive homage paid to an idol.  An idol is defined as the image of a natural or man-made entity.  Unregenerate, unconverted man is guilty of idolatry.  He worships, serves, believes and obeys his chosen idol.  The only question is: What is man’s idol?  If one observes people attending rock concerts, sporting events, political rallies, etc. one can observe what openly expressed idolatry looks like in the flesh.  Having grown up during the Elvis Presley era, I can recall seeing film clips of young people crying, screaming and, in some cases, fainting while watching him perform.  To this day would-be Elvises are paid very well to emulate his moves, wear his hair style and don his style of clothing.  During the 1950’s and 60’s fans flocked to see his movies, though they were, by his admission, terrible.  His funeral was an international event.  Some people interviewed following his funeral had traveled from Europe in order to pay homage to his memory.  One person admitted that he had quit his job to be there because his boss would not let him off from work. During the 1940’s Frank Sinatra elicited similar reactions from his millions of fans.  Fans of the Beatles were equally as demonstrative.  Today some bubble gum cards bearing the images of famous baseball players sell for tens of thousands of dollars.  Articles of clothing once owned and worn by some entertainers go for hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Some items have sold for over a million dollars at auction.  Pictures of famous people adorn walls all over the world.  Larger than life-sized statues of some sports figures have been erected outside of sports stadiums and activity centers.  People pay thousands of dollars to sit so far from their heroes that they need binoculars to watch them play with a ball or sing.  One family admittedly drove over 2,000 miles one way to see, not touch, Pope Francis when he visited the U.S.-Mexican border a few years ago.  A man I know personally flew from Dallas, Texas to Rome, Italy in order to have a brief audience with him and to kiss his hand.  I have seen a picture of him kissing his idol’s ring finger.  However, most people, no matter how enraptured they might be with the object of their affection, would never admit to being an idol worshiper or even a fanatic relative to their heroes.  But each would admit to being a fan.  The word “fan” is short for “fanatic.”

“Foolish” is a word used to describe the reactions many people exhibit when in the presence of those who have the “right stuff,” whose presence elicits behavior that the “fool” would otherwise not exhibit.  “Foolish” describes the one who will spend his last dime to purchase a ticket to see the great one(s), or spend a freezing night lying on a sidewalk in order to buy a ticket to see their idol.  “Idiotic” is another term used to describe those who gladly sacrifice their time and effort in order to get within a hundred yards of the object of their passion.  But they would never admit to being idol-worshiping fanatics, a term that suggests the a of mental and emotional control.  The most fanatical among us would refuse to admit to having such a problem.   And they certainly would not admit to being idolaters.

However, such idol worshiping, idolatrous behavior is not limited to the unregenerated, unchurched, unconverted souls among us.  Religious man, even uber-religious man, is capable of suffering from the same condition as that of the sports fan, music fan, movie star fan, etc.  The differences between churched and unchurched fanatics are, 1) the churched keep their idolatry to themselves, and 2) the object of their worship is internal.

To fully understand mankind’s worship of an internal deity we must return to the “womb” of man’s worship of and service to an entity within himself–the Garden of Eden.  In this most beautiful of earthly locations we find Adam and Eve who have been created by the Creator of the entire universe.  This One wanted to create a physical entity in His own image and likeness with whom He could fellowship and deal with on a somewhat equal level.  To do so His human creation would have to operate on a moral level that matched His moral level.  To make the choice strictly voluntary, the human would be given the option of doing so or not doing so.  This is the same option God had given to Lucifer and one-third of the angels.  With Lucifer in the lead, God had assigned the angels the task of caring for the earth where they would live.  Again led by Lucifer, those angels decided that they were better equipped to rule the universe than the One Who created both it and them.  The rest is history.

So the Almighty (Lord) created human beings who would be assigned the same job as Lucifer and his fellow angels.  God’s only caveat was that Adam and Eve obey His Law, one part of which was to avoid the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that, along with the tree of eternal life, stood in the middle of the garden in which they lived and in which they would live forever, IF THEY OBEYED HIM.  Otherwise, they would die.  The choice was theirs.

At that time God was the only God Adam and Eve knew.  He was not only their Creator, He was their companion who came each evening to talk with them face-to-face.  They knew Him as God and knew that His word was Law that must be obeyed in order to live eternally in the paradise He had created for them.  All they had to do was to recognize Him as their God and obey His Words/Law.

Thanks to Lucifer–the Serpent–they were introduced to another option.  The Serpent told them that the One they called God did not have the final say in matters of right and wrong.  Adam and Eve knew that only God could make and enforce spiritual Law.  This was voiced by Eve when she told the Serpent, “God said …,” then recited His Words concerning all of the trees of the garden, specifically the forbidden tree (Gen. 3:2,3).  When she said this she had no doubt as to who God was, and that His Word was unbreakable Law enforced by the threat of death.  God being the only Law-giver, to change the Law required a change of gods.  Adam and Eve, under the leadership of the Serpent, changed God’s Law.  There was only one way they could do this–they would have to make themselves their own gods.  They did, and the rest is man’s sordid history.  Since that time every human being that has thought, said or done anything contrary to God’s Law (Genesis to Revelation) has declared himself to be his own god.

Contrary to universal church opinion, Christ’s death on the cross did not empower man to make his own law–to decide for himself what was right and wrong, good and evil.  JESUS DID NOT GIVE MAN THE POWER TO BECOME HIS OWN GOD.  But that did not stop man from doing so.  Man has his choice of gods.  With extremely rare exception he has chosen himself for godship.  Last Saturday I began a series on my YouTube site (proveallthingsofgod) in which I am naming specific doctrines and customs believed, practiced and obeyed by the whole of Catholicism/Protestantism.  Though I prove Scripturally that each and every doctrine and custom is 100% heathen and is nowhere found in the Holy Bible, those exact doctrines and customs are put forth by church people as “thus saith the Lord.”  When pressed for Scriptural proof of their “truths,” they are forced to admit that God said no such thing.  Nevertheless, they believe and practice them anyway.  Why? Because, “That’s the way I was always taught,” or “That’s what my church teaches.”  What more proof could one want?

Catholics and Protestants are idolaters.  By rejecting God’s version of right and wrong and establishing their own version, they, like Adam and Eve, create new gods–themselves.  By rejecting God’s Word as proclaimed by His chosen vessels, they prove that they reject (“despise”–KJV) both the Lord God and His Christ (Lk. 10:16).  L.J.