Rom. 1:18 -23 – The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
This portion of the history of the church deals more with an insight into the nature of God as embraced by many all throughout the church age, rather than a specific people.
As the mixture of paganism and the church grew together, the making of images representing the Lord while on the earth, His natural mother, certain believers, and even particles of hair and clothing, among other things, began to be worshipped.
Throughout the centuries voices have risen up in protest against these obvious idolatrous practices. The major thrust of the detractors is that only God is to be worshipped and venerated. There is nothing created that is to be lifted up in the hearts and minds of believers.
What is the process they took in doing these things? They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal or created things. They worshipped the creation rather than the Creator. This is still going on to this day.
The key to all of this is to remember what it is that faith in its essence is. As the scriptures teach us: Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. Faith deals with the invisible, not the visible. If we are able to see something, then it cannot be called faith.
After all, our faith in God is in the invisible God. Jesus Himself told the disciples that those who would come after, who had never seen Him in the flesh, would be most blessed because of the element of faith required.
While this all may seem very basic and elemental, in truth, the great majority of Christians don’t really think of the unseen realm that Christ is.
Even when you read the various accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, most don’t understand that Christ isn’t concerned with anything of the outward but on what is within. Even though they talk about when Christ was physically on the earth, they are truly revealing what was happening within Him in fellowship with His Father. If you read the gospels with that thought in mind, you will see and discover things you have never dreamed of before.
The main point was that Jesus lived by another life that couldn’t be seen with the natural eyes, but had to be seen and believed through eyes of faith. This is why many throughout the centuries, since the resurrection of Christ, have opposed the physical image-worshippers. They have been called Iconoclasts by the makers and worshippers of these images. This word simply means “image breakers.” This came about because when many saw these truths about images, they went about destroying them.
The key for us, though, is to see beyond simply destroying physical objects, and look to why they would be accepted and promoted in the first place.
In one simple understanding of God, we can see all of these things as worthless. God is in direct union with those who believe in Him. Using some type of object as a replacement or some type of contact point between God and man is folly, pagan, and superstitious. Our Father is the living God. He is spirit. He doesn’t dwell in objects or attach Himself to parts of dead human beings and make them sacred in some type of dispensing of magic.
Our God is real. And His greatest desire is to be in deep, close, spiritual union with His people, His family.
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