Did you see the INTRODUCTION to this A to Z series? Check it out here.
Are you picturing the poor sap moving into his shabby, forlorn apartment in hell? He lets out a sigh as he stumbles in, tripping over those darn chains shackled to his ankles: "I'll have to get used to these things quickly!" he says aloud. and then begins to look around. Deciding to "make lemonade" out of this sour state of affairs, his first goal is to find just the right nook to set up the idol he brought with him; that dear friend he has loved and been devoted to all of his old earthly life.
Not! In reality (as I imagine it) the idol will be there, but it will no longer be the complacent object or passive focus of attention it was content to be all of those years on Earth. Now in hell, the idol, or more to the point, the IDOLATRY, will aggressively act out its given position as the hell-dwellers god. Inasmuch as it was always given the place rightfully belonging to God, it now exerts the authority of God. Now the symbolism of the cardinal letter "G" is rightly applied to what was once only vying for a place in the spotlight of man's attention. The IDOL will have become a vicious tyrant. And instead of being posed and giving you a nice place to bow before it, it will spend eternity inventing ways to berate and depreciate you.
There have always been stone or wooden idols: Objects created by men who were eager to direct that inner knowledge of their own created nature away from that good understanding, toward the presumptuous illusion that they themselves were the creators! IDOLS were made and set up to take the place of the real God and to replace the real nature of man's need for humility and repentance.
Modern man is not so honest. Instead of material objects, we prostrate our lives before ideas. Or we devote ourselves to programs and policies. We let the few years of our lives be digested by "entertainment" and "amusement." Ultimately, we set our own selves up to be IDOLS, and then continually bow down trying to slake our own self-made demands for gratification!
Paul tells the Colossian believers that greed is IDOLATRY and he explains what must be done with such dangerous IDOLS.
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature:sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Colossians 3:5
They must die. If they are not killed here and now they will live on and on. We IDOLIZE some of those things listed above, hoping to be satisfied by them. But think about this: when the tables have turned, and your IDOL is finally given the place of the true and fully enabled GOD you only pretended it to be, the very sins you have chosen and elevated and IDOLIZED will be your uninhibited rulers.
What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?
2 Cor 6:16
By the way...MILLERWRITES copy is COPYRIGHTED. Why cut and paste when you can simply copy the link?
Sobering warning.
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