Amos Ministries

A Bible Study On Creating And Worshipping A False God And Idol Worshipping Today

What Is Idol Worshipping And How Are We Doing It Today?

Idol worshipping occurs when we change God’s word to suit us. When we change God’s word, we change His characteristics.

We still believe we are following the one true God, but we have turned the truth into a lie. Thus creating an idol; a god that we have created with characteristics that please and suit us. 

This study will focus on the first 2 commandments including three subtle examples on how we can break these two commandments in our current age, without even realizing it.

These two commandments seem similar. But the difference between these two commandments is between 

1) Fashioning your own god in your mind and heart by attributing different characteristics to God or;

2) Literally fashioning an image/idol that can be seen and then attributing certain characteristics to the idol.

The concept and punishment, however, are the same.

An example of how you can break the first commandment, “Thou shalt not have any other gods before me,”

Exodus 20:23 – Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold.

Exodus 20:2-4 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.”

Deuteronomy 5:6-8 – “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.”

Mixing Man’s Ways With God’s Ways Is Idol Worshipping

Man’s ways, priorities and patterns of thinking is from the world and our own sinful nature (our spirit). They are not in any way similar to God’s ways. 

Isaiah 55:8 – For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

1 John 2:15-17 – Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

In fact, the world is from the evil one (Satan) and we should have no part of it.

John 15:19 – If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

1 John 5:19 – We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

John 12:31 – Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.

We must not begin to attribute man’s and the world’s ways, thought patterns, characteristics and priorities to God. This is a sin.

Luke 16:15 – And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.

Breaking Free From Idol Worshipping

Before we came to Christ, we were of the world and we followed its ways. We thought like those who are in the world and even received our priorities, ethics and morals from the world.

1 John 4:5-6  – They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

But now we have come to Christ. Through careful examination of our beliefs in comparison to Jesus’s teachings, we must make sure that we do not fail to completely rid ourselves from the world’s ways. By declaring the world’s ways as wrong in our heart, we become repentant. This repentant heart will allow us to understand God’s word.  A repentant heart, is a heart that is ready and willing to change and accept responsibility for not living according to Jesus’ standards, knowing that we are all sinners.

Romans 3:10 –  As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one.”

1 John 1:8 – “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

Romans 3:23 – for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”

Maintaining Our Repentance To Avoid Idol Worshipping

Remembering that we are all sinners allows us to maintain a repentant attitude and never lose it. 

Matthew 3:8 ESV – Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

Luke 3:8 ESV – Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

In keeping with this repentant attitude and spirit, we make sure that we will never again practice and follow the ways of the world that we have come from and used to follow, which is a sin.

1 Kings 14:24 -There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.

Deuteronomy 18:9 – When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there.

These scriptures are still relevant for us today. When we first repent and come to Jesus, we stop the ways we used to practice by knowing they were wrong. We then follow the ways and philosophies of Jesus.

How To Prevent Ourselves From Idol Worshipping

However, at any point, we can compromise Jesus’ teachings by mixing his teachings with our old ways through adding exceptions to his teachings. By doing this, we are ‘engaging in the detestable practices of the nations the Lord has driven out’; which refers to the world’s ways.

When you became repentant to Jesus, God drove out the ways and practices of the world. So do not return to those ways and practices again through compromising Jesus’ teachings by adding exceptions to them.

James 4:4 says “you adulterous people,[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”

We must ensure that we rid ourselves of the world’s ways, priorities and patterns of thinking. Our goal should be not to return back to the world by mixing our old ways with the ways and teachings of Jesus.

Romans 12:2 – Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

We can only know God’s will once we rid ourselves of the world’s ways and thought patterns.

Ephesians 4:22-24 – you were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Collosians 3:9-10 – Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”

Psalm 51:10 – create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

2 Corinthians 3:18 – And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate[a] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Romans 8:6 – The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.

Ezekiel 11:19 – I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.

1 Peter 1:14 – As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.

1 John 2:15 – Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.

2 Peter 2:17-22 says “These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18 For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”

20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22 Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,”[a] and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”

Proverbs 26:11 says “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly.”

James 1:27 says “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Jeremiah 16:19 – “LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in time of distress, to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, “Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods, worthless idols that did them no good.”

Jeremiah 10:2-16 – “Hear what the Lord says to you, people of Israel. 2This is what the Lord says: “Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, though the nations are terrified by them. 3For the practices of the peoples are worthless; 

Changing God’s Characteristics & Attributes Is Idol Worshipping

Christians can make their own god with their own imagination when they give God qualities, characteristics and attributes that He does not have. We do this when we dream up our own god by changing his characteristics and distorting his words through compromise. 

Christians can be tempted to change the characteristics and words of God when it doesn’t suit their particular situation. Changing God’s true words and attributes into something that is more pleasing and suitable to us and does not require us to change. Instead, we change God to please ourselves. Thus, we end up worshipping another (false) god.

Turning Away From Idol Worshipping And Finding The One True God

We make up our own god and serve and worship it; making us guilty of worshipping another (false) god. So then, we must not make God what we want Him to be. 

Our goal is to be diligent in finding out the true characteristics and qualities of God without any compromise using repentance and not intelligence.

Luke 10:21 – At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.

Matthew 11:25 BSB – At that time Jesus declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.

Romans 1:18 – For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

The truth is suppressed through changing the characteristics of God and compromising his word; which is considered unrighteousness.

It is difficult to recognize when we are idol worshipping. We can be thoroughly deceived. We must examine ourselves to determine if we are worshipping the One true God or if we are actually worshipping a false god which we have created.

We must objectively study the word of God with a repentant heart. Passion, emotion and intelligence must be removed from the equation in order to gain true Godly understanding and wisdom of what the word of God is actually saying. Repentance and faith, not intelligence must be used to understand the truths in the bible.

Romans 1:19-32 – 19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

This includes giving God the qualities and characteristics of a mortal man.

24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

By changing God’s characteristics, they exchanged the true characteristics of God for a lie. Through doing this, people became depraved. They did horrendous and appalling things thinking it is as per God’s will. We read about this in verses 26 and 27

26For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Once God’s word and characteristics were compromised, all types of immorality became rampant. The people had replaced God with something else that they were comfortable with and more accustomed to so that they did not have to change.

How Christians Can Be Idol Worshipping Without Knowing It

Idolatry Is An Infraction Of The Second Commandment

Violating these commandments is easy to do, even today. Many people in the church are idol worshipping without even knowing it.

Deuteronomy 27:15 – “Cursed is anyone who makes an idol–a thing detestable to the LORD, the work of skilled hands–and sets it up in secret.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

Leviticus 19:4 – “Do not turn to idols or make metal gods for yourselves. I am the LORD your God.”

Isaiah 42:17 – “But those who trust in idols, who say to images, ‘You are our gods,’ will be turned back in utter shame.”

Habakkuk 2:18 – Of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman? Or an image that teaches lies? For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.

An idol is a representation of something you have created. The idol itself cannot speak or do anything, but the maker gives the idol attributes and characteristics he/she can trust in. 

We can do this today by changing God’s teachings to suit ourselves. By applying our own beliefs and philosophies to God, we are making our own god and worshipping our own creation. A creation that cannot speak but rather has attributes given to it by us, its creator.

1 Corinthians 12:2 – You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols.

Psalm 115:3-8  – But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases. 4Their idols are silver and gold,  the work of man’s hands. 5They have mouths, but they cannot speak; they have eyes, but they cannot see; 6They have ears, but they cannot hear; They have noses, but they cannot smell; 7They have hands, but they cannot feel; They have feet, but they cannot walk; They cannot make a sound with their throat. 8Those who make them will become like them, Everyone who trusts in them.

Changing God’s Word Is Idol Worshipping

When we change God’s word, we change His characteristics. We turn the truth into a lie. We create an idol; a god that we worship that is false. This false god cannot teach us anything since we created it. It will always suit us and we will agree with it. It cannot teach us, cause us to repent or change. It is a figment of our imagination that we have created to accommodate and suit us.

Isaiah 44:9-20 – Those who fashion a graven image are all of them futile, and their precious things are of no profit; even their own witnesses fail to see or know, so that they will be put to shame. 10Who has fashioned a god or cast an idol to no profit? 11Behold, all his companions will be put to shame, for the craftsmen themselves are mere men. Let them all assemble themselves, let them stand up, let them tremble, let them together be put to shame.

12The man shapes iron into a cutting tool and does his work over the coals, fashioning it with hammers and working it with his strong arm. He also gets hungry and his strength fails; he drinks no water and becomes weary. 13Another shapes wood, he extends a measuring line; he outlines it with red chalk. He works it with planes and outlines it with a compass, and makes it like the form of a man, like the beauty of man, so that it may sit in a house.

14Surely he cuts cedars for himself, and takes a cypress or an oak and raises it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir, and the rain makes it grow. 15Then it becomes something for a man to burn, so he takes one of them and warms himself; he also makes a fire to bake bread. He also makes a god and worships it; he makes it a graven image and falls down before it.

16Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he eats meat as he roasts a roast and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire.” 17But the rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships; he also prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god.”

Oftentimes due to a lack of faith, we attribute our own human characteristics to God, making this new god more acceptable and understandable to us. However, this is still idolatry. 

The root source of idol worshipping is not the actual image that is created, but the characteristics and attributes that you apply to the idol.

18They do not know, nor do they understand, for He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend. 19No one recalls, nor is there knowledge or understanding to say, “I have burned half of it in the fire and also have baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. Then I make the rest of it into an abomination, I fall down before a block of wood!” 20He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside. And he cannot deliver himself, nor say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”

For Examples Of Idol Worshipping, Check Out The Following Case Studies:

Jeroboam: A Case Study On Idol Worshipping

Idol Worshipping Amongst God’s People