Woe to the Idol Makers

Woe to the Idol Makers

Satan is the ultimate corrupter.  He first seeks to corrupt the Word of God.  He wrests and twists biblical principles where in turn he corrupts the knowledge of God.  He causes people to question the authenticity and veracity of the Word of God.  Then, he seeks to corrupt the worship of God by incorporating worldliness into that worship.  His ultimate source of corruption is when he joins a local church in the form of corrupted professors of Christ.  

In paganism, this corruption and enticement took the form of numerous sexual perversions incorporated into the worship of pagan idols.  When Israel was delivered from Egyptian bondage, the mixed multitude that came with them to Mt. Sinai easily convinced the Jews to worship Jehovah in the form of a golden calf and with sexual licentious practices (nudity and dancing).  God has always hated these corruptions.  He speaks in a general condemnation to the foolishness of false worship practices and idolatry in Habakkuk 2:18-20.

“¹⁸ What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols? ¹⁹ Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it. ²⁰ But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him” (Habakkuk 2:18-20).

          In these last three verses of Habakkuk chapter two, we have the fifth “woe” pronounced upon five different lifestyles.  This “woe” comes upon the idolatrous lifestyle of false worship.  Any form of false worship, or false worship practice, is idolatry.  Idolatry comes in many forms and with many names.  Idolatry is the worship of anything or anyone other than the God of the Bible.  This includes any form of worship or exaltation of something or someone other than God.  All bases are covered in the first commandment.  “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).  The intent here is that nothing or no one was to be worshiped other than the one true God of the Bible.

          Secondly, God must be worshiped in a specific way.  When Jesus spoke to the women at the well in John chapter four, He spoke against the perverted worship practices of the Samaritans and gave specific instruction about the only acceptable way in which the true God could be worshiped.  The methods and means we use to worship God must be distinct from the world. 

“¹⁹ The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. ²¹ Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. ²² Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. ²³ But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. ²⁴ God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:19-24).

          Jesus told the Samaritan women “Ye worship ye know not what” (John 4:22).  Understand the context of the discussion recorded in John 4:19-22.  This was a woman with a reputation that was contrary to the Law of God that she professed to believe even as a Samaritan; “^17b Thou hast well said, I have no husband: ¹⁸ For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly” (John 4:17b-18).  The Samaritans believed in the five books of the Law and in the same God that the Jews believed in.  However, they did not read the prophets or the Psalms and Proverbs.  Therefore, they had a very shallow and superficial theology. 

          The fact that this woman was a publicly known adulteress, and was still living, revealed that the Samaritans did not enforce the Law they professed to believe.  In other words, they had corrupted justice, condoned moral turpitude, and had abandoned the sacrosanctity that was to be established by the Law of God in the Pentateuch.  Therefore, their knowledge of God was corrupted and, although they called God by His Bible Names, they did not really worship or know the God of the Bible.  Before they could worship properly and in sacrosanctity, their knowledge of God (Theology) had to be corrected. 

True worship is only acceptable when it is offered though a sanctified life.  A sanctified life is not necessary a sinless life, but rather a life that is cognizant of sin, repentant and remorseful about sin, and is accompanied by a genuine heart motivation to live for God.  The whole of the Levitical Law was to establish the necessities of sacrifice to maintain a sanctified heart before God.  The sacrifices were completely empty in the eyes of God if they were not preceded by cognizance of sin, repentance and remorse about sin, and accompanied by a genuine heart motivation to live for God.  God spoke to this problem of worship without sanctity of the heart in Isaiah chapter twenty-nine.  God says that Israel had gotten the sacrifices “upside down.”  In other words, the issues of the heart MUST precede the offering of sacrifices.  Outside of the sanctity of the heart before God, all worship forms are reduced to mere idolatry. 

“¹³ Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear {moral reverence in that they are sinners before a holy God} toward me is taught by the precept of men {just talk}: ¹⁴ Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. ¹⁵ Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us? ¹⁶ Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding” (Isaiah 29:13-16)?

          Perhaps the greatest form of false worship is that worship that lacks moral reverence (awe and fear) because people are not cognizant of the sinfulness of their sin, nor are they cognizant of holiness of God.  This ignorance leads people into false worship practices in that the ignorance corrupts the character and nature of God.  A false god is created in the image of man while people ignorantly believe they are worshiping the true God.  Simply defined, idolatry is any form of distorted worship.  The Samaritans had perverted worship to such an extent that Jesus said they didn’t know what they worshiped, let alone who they worshiped (John 4:22).  They were idolaters in two senses of the word.

1. They worshiped God in the form of graven images.

2. They worshiped in an unapproved place.

In the Old Testament, formal sacerdotal worship was only accepted through the approved Levitical priesthood (sanctified and consecrated to God) and at the approved place signified by the presence of the Ark of the Covenant.  Prayer, reading of the Scriptures, and general adoration of God as forms of worship were acceptable to God at any time and from almost anywhere.  However, means and methods of worship contrary to holiness and the sacrosanctity of the heart were never acceptable to God at any time or anywhere.  There is abject foolishness in much of Convergent and Emergent Evangelicalism regarding what is acceptable forms in the means and methods of worshipping God.  For such people, it seems they govern themselves by one simple principle – ANYTHING GOES!

          In order to escape the pollution and defilement of idolatry, a believer must worship God spiritually because God is a Spirit.  He is not an idol and (other than the incarnation) He is not a man.  God is not to be worshiped with artificial semblances of superficial forms.  Any such forms cannot adequately represent God.  Therefore, by the very nature of that inadequacy, they will misrepresent God.  Thereby, they change “the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things” (Romans 1:23).  When the character, nature, and/or attributes of God are corrupted and misrepresented in any way, God is de-glorified in that misrepresentation.  To the degree God is de-glorified, idolatry is created. 

          This is why we have no sculptures of Jesus, no portraits of Jesus, or even any drawings of Jesus.  God does not want Him to be worshiped because of the form He took, but for the substance of what He accomplished as the “last Adam” and the essence of His Person (communicable attributes), to which every believer is being conformed through progressive sanctification.  True worship, genuine worship, is born only from a genuine desire for this inward conformation to the image of Christ. 

“¹⁹ For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. ²⁰ For the creature {creation, the original formation} was made subject to vanity {uselessness}, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, ²¹ Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. ²² For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain {to birth the New Genesis “in Christ”} together until now. ²³ And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit {into the New Creation}, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 6:19-23).

Secondly, before worship can escape the definition of idolatry, worship of God must be “in truth.”  In other words, a believer must worship God for Who and What God really is as defined by the Word of God.  This requires an accurate understanding of God’s revelation of Himself in the Scriptures.  As John 4:24 says, “God is spirit.”  In other words, God is not corporeal.  God is evident only as “light” referred to as “glory” in the Bible.  However, the “glory” of God is the manifestation of all of the attributes of God.  It is difficult for human beings to even comprehend a non-corporeal being like God, Who yet is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient.  It is because humanity cannot comprehend God as a non-corporeal Being that they so quickly are prepared to give Him some artificial form with which they might identify. 

          The great problem that unbelieving people have with the God of the Bible is that He is incomprehensible to their intellect and intangible to their senses.  Therefore, the God of the Bible angers them because the very essence of His existence declares them ignorant in that the very nature of God is far beyond them.  The narcissistic worshipers of the human intellect cannot believe in a Being who cannot be comprehended by their superior intellects.  Therefore, they angrily shake their puny little fists in the face of the God they proclaim as non-existent as if that gesture somehow makes Him non-existent.  What fools!

          If there is any distortion of our understanding of Who and What God is, our worship will be misdirected to something other than the God of the Bible.  Instead, we will worship a distortion of Him and therefore not be worshiping Him at all.  Whatever the degree of the distortion of truth that defines God is the degree of our idolatry.  The degree of this distortion of truth is the degree the God that we worship becomes a man-made (manufactured) god.  Even though a person may use biblical names to describe the god he worships, his god may still be an idol if that god does not correspond accurately with the Bible’s description of God.  God cannot be worshiped in any corporeal form.  He MUST be worshiped as the Spirit that He is as defined by His revelation of Himself in the Word of God. 

The fifth “woe” of Habakkuk chapter two comes against both the makers of idols and the propagators of idolatry and those who ignorantly follow their leadership. 

Much of what professes to be Christian worship these day is nothing but modified idolatry.  The actual idols may be in pastor worship, music or musician worship, or social networking worship, but all such nonsense is still idolatrous in nature.  The point of such forms of idolatry is that these are reasons why people attend church services.  They may not even consider that the object of their attention and focus is supposed to be upon the adoration, worship, and praise of their Redeemer.  They are willing to listen to a self-help sermon to improve their lives.  They can sing songs or listen to performances of music that mention God.  They can look forward to seeing friends and to social interaction with those people.  They can do all of these things with little or no acknowledgment of the presence of or without having a personal relationship with God.  They can do all of these things without ever considering the sinfulness of their natures before God.  Neither are they cognizant that God is holy and awesome.  Therefore, they have no awe of God or genuine reverence for Him.  In either case, genuine worship is absent.  

The question that God addresses to the Israelites through the prophet Habakkuk is a simple one.  Has idol worship, and following those who propagate idol worship, ever gotten you anything except God’s wrath?  

Idolatry is defined as worshiping someone or something other than, or before, the true God of the Bible.  Even trying to represent God in some form is idolatry.  Idolatry can also be worshiping God with worldly methods or more specifically with non-sacred instrumentality.  Worshiping God in any form is unscriptural.  Worshiping God through worldly instrumentals is equally unscriptural. 

Contemporary worship propagators tell us that the mechanics of worship and the means we use to worship God are insignificant as long as the attitudes of our hearts are right about God.  This is foolishness.  We know this with certainty merely from God’s response in Exodus chapter thirty-two to those that sought to worship Jehovah in form of a golden calf and through the means of riotous music and dancing.  The pagans worshiped their gods in this manner.  God would have none of it!  There is no evidence in the text that their heart attitudes about God were wrong.  The people offered sacrifices and sought to worship Jehovah.  However, the mechanics (form) and means (riotous music and dancing) of their worship was unacceptable to God. 

We read of numerous other warnings in the Old Testament regarding the worship of idols and the abominable worship practices that went along with idolatry.  One prime example is II Kings 17:1-12.  This text defines the historical foundation for the corruption that became the Samaritans. 

“¹ In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years. ² And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him. ³ Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents. ⁴ And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison. ⁵ Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. ⁶ In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. ⁷ For so it was, that the children of Israel {the ten Northern tribes} had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, ⁸ And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. ⁹ And the children of Israel {the ten Northern tribes} did secretly those things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. ¹⁰ And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree: ¹¹ And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger: ¹² For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing” (II Kings 17:1-12).

Centrally, each of the “woes” detailed in Habakkuk chapter two were an answer to Habakkuk’s question of how God can seemingly bless the Chaldeans by allowing them to overthrow the nation of Israel.  The “woes” are actually upon the Chaldeans and all nations like them.  Israel had become a nation like them.  The only thing that kept Israel from total destruction was the covenant promise of God to Abraham.  The “woes” come to us individually as a promise to those who refuse to become like the heathens in that God’s justice and righteousness is sovereign and will prevail.

Image makers give form to false gods.  The “teacher of lies” refers to the pagan priest who gave the idol a voice by becoming the idol’s voice.  The only way the dumb idol could teach was through the idolatrous priest.  The very nature of an idolatrous priest is one of deception (“lies”).  His income and well being is totally dependent upon how many people he can deceive into worshiping the idol.

The greatest folly of idolatry is to make up a god and then worship and pray to the god you just created.  What kind of idiot goes into the woods, cuts down a tree, carves it into the shape of some animal or person, overlays it with gold and precious stones, and then offers sacrifice too it?  What kind of idiot people chisel a statue out of stone or mold one out of metal, then build a fire in its outstretched arms and sacrifice their children to it?  The only idiots who would do such things are satanically deceived idiots.  

There must have been a great deal of satanic activity involved in all of this or there must have been some very deceptive and manipulative priests (“teacher of lies”).  Beware of people who claim to speak for God but do not believe in God’s Word or preach God’s Word.  There are many such preachers in the world in these last days; more than what we can imagine. 

“¹¹ And I beheld another beast {the false prophet} coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. ¹² And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast {the Antichrist} before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast {the Antichrist}, whose deadly wound was healed. ¹³ And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, ¹⁴ And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live” (Revelation 13:11-14).

“Woe unto him” (Habakkuk 2:19) refers to the person deceived by idolatry and who is the “teacher of lies.”

There is no “woe” on the idol because the idol is nothing more than a piece of decorated wood; a piece of stone or metal.  The idol is nothing (I Corinthians 8:4). Satan’s deception does not come through the idol, but through the men who make the idols and teach the lies about them.  Idols are not judged or damned.  Idolaters are judged and damned.

“⁴ As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. ⁵ For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) ⁶ But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him” (I Corinthians 8:4-6).

To “behold,” regarding the made up god, means to take hold of it.  The Hebrew word is taphas (taw-fas’).  The challenge is to examine it carefully to see if there is any life or reality to the thing being called a god.  When the examination is finished, the conclusion will be that the thing is lifeless.  Common to the mystery religions were the practices of Ecstasism and Enthusiasm. S. Angus, in his book The Mystery Religions (New York: Dover Publications, 1975) details these two practices.  This is the same experience created by using C.C.M. in churches.

“...Ecstasy (ekstasis) and Enthusiasm (enthusiasmos), both of which might be induced by vigil and fasting, tense religious expectancy, whirling dances, physical stimuli, the contemplation of sacred objects, the effect of stirring music, inhalation of fumes, revivalistic contagion (such as happened in the church at Corinth), hallucination, suggestion, and other means belonging to the apparatus of the Mysteries.”

          Both Ecstasy and Enthusiasm were used to promote a heightened sense of euphoria and human experience.  In this euphoric state, the participant experiences a feeling of having communed with deity.  His involvement has been with the supernatural realm, but not the divine.  Both Ecstasism and Enthusiasm are Satanic in origin.

          “But” (Habakkuk 2:20), this is not so of the real God.  The evidence for the existence of the real God is overwhelming.  There is but one true God and He dwells in His Holy Temple.  God’s statements to backslidden Israel are redundant with affirmations of His singularity as the only one true God. 

“Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God” (Isaiah 44:6).

“Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any” (Isaiah 44:8).

“⁵ I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: ⁶ That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:5-6).

“Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me” (Isaiah 45:21).

Unlike a lifeless idol, God is transcendent; meaning He is above and beyond all His creation.  This means that God is separate from His creation, which is now fallen and corrupted.  God is not dependent upon this creation in anyway or for anything. 

We have a movement in professing Christianity that seeks to remake God in a contemporary way.  In doing so, they create a false god that is extemporaneous (obsolete).  God cannot be recreated to fit the whims and fancies of the Church Growth movement in order to placate the crowds of carnals that want a semblance of religion without any real knowledge of, or responsibilities to, the God they profess to worship. 

“For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones” (Isaiah 57:15).

Even though God is transcendent, He is immanent, meaning He is present with us and wants fellowship with us.  This God wants personal contact with His children.  He wants us to talk to Him (prayer).  He wants to talk with us (preaching and reading His Word).  He wants intimacy with us in that He lives within us in the Person of His Holy Spirit.  He wants to fill our lives to overflowing with His communicable attributes to which He refers as the “fruit of the Spirit.”  Very few professing Christians ever realize the practical aspects of God’s immanency.  The fact of God’s immanency means there is no place, no thought, no emotion in our lives that escapes His attention. 

“²³ Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off? ²⁴ Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD” (Jeremiah 23:24).

“⁷ Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? ⁸ If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. ⁹ If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; ¹⁰ Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me” (Psalm 139:7-10).

A Bible knowledge of God should naturally generate a silent awe when we know we are in His presence.  “Let all the earth keep silence before Him” (Habakkuk 2:20).  If we know the holiness of God and how far short we come of His glory, we will stand trembling in silence before Him.  The intent of the words, “Let all the earth keep silence before Him” is that all men should stand in silent awe awaiting God’s judgment, for it is to be soon upon us!

          If the God of the Bible is real, He deserves our full devotion, absolute worship, and solemn fear.  God’s concluding statement in Habakkuk 2:20 should be the resolve of everyone who believes He is real.  What God says He will do, He will do! When you think of the God of the Bible, do you stand in hushed awe before His immanent presence?  God is both immanent (near) and eminent (soon appearing).  Do you realize this and live in this reality?  If you do not, perhaps you do not know the God of the Bible.

Anonymous comments will not be allowed. Numerous studies and series are available free of charge for local churches at: http://www.disciplemakerministries.org/ Dr. Lance Ketchum serves the Lord as a Church Planter, Evangelist/Revivalist. He has served the Lord for over 40 years.

Destroyed Foundations!

Destroyed Foundations!

          Faith is a choice, but biblical faith is not a blind leap into the darkness. God does not define faith in that way. Biblical faith finds its foundations in the inspired Words of God. In other words, biblical faith begins with believing that the Bible is the very Word of God. Faith apart from the knowledge of God that comes through the knowledge of God's inspired Bible is really not faith at all in that it has no foundations.

"¹ To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. In the LORD put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? ² For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. ³ If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? ⁴ The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD'S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. ⁵ The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. ⁶ Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. ⁷ For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright" (Psalm 11:1-7).

          Every new generation of Christianity morphs itself into some abstract of reality. This generation of professing Christians at the beginning of the twenty-first century are four or five generations away from ever having to really "earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3). In most part, we are a generation whose only knowledge of Liberalism is some abstract sense of outcomes and dictionary definitions. There are few alive today who actually wielded the Sword of the Lord in the middle of the onslaught of the attack of theological Liberalism as it sought to undermine and destroy the very foundations of the faith. Most professing Christians have very little comprehension even of what theological Liberalism is. They certainly do not understand the birth children of theological Liberalism known as New Evangelism, Ecumenicism, Theonomic Reconstructionism, or even such things as the New Age Movement.  

We are a generation of Christianity that has grown into some abstract sense of spiritual immaturity when in fact we do not even know what spiritual maturity looks like, let alone what is involved in being spiritually mature. We have bathed ourselves in the socially engineered propaganda provided by Liberalism inviting it into our homes in the forms of public Humanistic education, television, worldly music, and Hollywood films. The foundations have been destroyed while we stood on the sidelines and watched it happen. We have allowed true biblical Christianity to be marginalized by the world by allowing Bible doctrine to be minimized in our churches.  

We have this lofty idea about ourselves as we see ourselves standing above the problem when in fact we are very much a part of the problem. This was exactly the condition of the nation of Israel when God raised up the prophet Isaiah. The vision of the Lord that Isaiah received is a vision every Christian living when the foundations have been destroyed MUST see. We must understand Isaiah's vision of God because this vision reveals to us the basic meaning of destroyed foundations.  

Every new generation must have a renewed vision of God and our purpose in His plan because every new generation of Christians are an extension of the foundation upon which the next generation must build. Each new generation of Christians are the foundations that are being destroyed by compromise and corrupted, liberalized doctrine. A foundation of Christianity is destroyed when that generation is weakened in its resolve to fight the fight of faith and to battle against the world's efforts to incorporate us into something that distorts the image of God.

"¹ In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. ² Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. ³ And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. ⁴ And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. ⁵ Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. ⁶ Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: ⁷ And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. ⁸ Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me" (Isaiah 6:1-8).

        We often read this text and miss its instructional intent. Although the focus is upon Isaiah's vision of God in all His glory and holiness, the emphasis of the text is upon how that understanding of God changed Isaiah's view of his own spirituality. In turn, Isaiah's understanding of the Person of God changed Isaiah's view of even the most spiritual in the nation of Israel. The statement of Isaiah 6:5 is profound in ways we cannot even comprehend. "

Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." The Hebrew word translated "I am undone" means Isaiah was brought to silence as he viewed in awesome terror the holiness of God. Yet, even that does not give us the total meaning of Isaiah's transformational understanding of humanity compared to the character and nature of God. Isaiah saw his own character and nature compared to God's.  

          Most of us are like Isaiah. We are saved and no longer live like the rest of the world. However, we confuse having a knowledge of righteousness with being righteous. We see ourselves as part of the solution to the world's problem when in fact we are, in most part, still partners with the world and part of the problem. This is what Isaiah saw when he saw himself and the rest of the best of Israel compared to God. The foundations are beginning to crumble under our feet because we do not see that our feet are part of the crumbling.  

Generation after generation of Christians degenerate and morph into abstracts of the real thing because we lose the historical context through which previous generations fought. Liberalism was birthed out of German Rationalism, Higher Criticism, and Lower Criticism. These were professing Christians that questioned everything. The verbal plenary inspiration of the Scriptures was questioned, critiqued, and morphed into every abstract of reality possible. The outcome was that very few professing Christians any longer trusted their Bibles as the foundation for absolute truth. The Liberals considered this outcome progress. Once the foundation of verbal, plenary inspiration was destroyed, the Liberals began to attack the cardinal doctrines of the faith. The foundation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was destroyed for many by destroying faith in the virgin birth, and the deity of Jesus. The foundation of the doctrine of redemption was destroyed by destroying the doctrine of substitionary atonement and the elimination of any teaching on the Blood of Christ. Liberalism left Christianity emaciated and powerless to engage the world because Christianity now held in common the world's values. The problem was that in the transition this new Christianity ceased to be true Christianity.  

True Christianity was demonized and radicalized by Liberalism and then marginalized into cultural irrelevancy. From that position of irrelevancy many began asking the same question David asked. "

If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do" (Psalm 11:3)? Their answer to the question was to try to make God relevant to the world once again. From this, the already compromising New Evangelicalism morphed into the Emerging Church and even more corrupt, inclusive forms of Ecumenicism. The corruption of separatism and militant Fundamentalism morphed into soft separatism using Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) and became a new kind of New Evangelical converging itself with all forms of theological corruption in the pursuit of something called cultural relevancy.  

Like Isaiah, this generation of Christianity does not even comprehend the problem, let alone understand it, and therefore becomes part of the problem. They do not understand the problem because the problem is not that God is irrelevant to the world. The problem is that God has been made irrelevant to world because the God of the Bible is no longer the god the world knows. God has not changed. The world has created a false, liberal idol that has replaced the God of the Bible.  

The world is always changing by becoming more ungodly and antichrist with every generation. The problem is that the liberal world has changed Christianity when they recreated God in their image. Although most Christians may not be as unbelieving and as corrupt as the unbelieving world, in most cases we are just a few steps behind them.  

Thinking themselves to be somewhat righteous by comparing their lives to the way the world lives, they fail to look back over our shoulders to see just how far short of the glory of God they really are. We have raised a generation of children who think it is more important to be cool and sexy than it is to be holy and righteous. We are now a generation that has been so corrupted that somehow we have even convinced ourselves we can be both cool and sexy as well as holy and righteous. The foundations have been destroyed!  

Because we have lost the historical context of the struggle between righteousness and truth with unrighteousness and deception, we cannot even understand what David is asking in Psalm 11:3. Historical context is more than just important. Historical context is CRITICAL! In Psalm eleven, Saul is the king of Israel. Saul has surrounded himself with counselors who were feeding his paranoia regarding David usurping the throne of Israel. There was no danger of David doing that, but this is what Saul had allowed his mind to be filled with. In I Samuel 26:20, David states his belief regarding Saul's pursuit of David's life - "

for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains."  

David has also surrounded himself with friends who were bad counselors. In Psalm 11:1-3, David is actually questioning the counsel he is receiving from his friends, "^1b how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? ² For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright" (Psalm 11:1b-2). David's friends were telling him to take himself out of harm's way and go hide in obscurity in the mountains. Yes, Saul wanted to kill David. Yes, Saul was corrupting justice and promoting unrighteousness in Israel. Is the solution to these kinds of problems running away and hiding thereby silencing the voice of justice and righteousness by securing your own safety? When righteousness is threatened by unrighteousness, should the righteous flee in fear?  

What should the righteous do? The point of the discussion is that the best thing the righteous can do is BE RIGHTEOUS in the midst of unrighteousness! When the foundations of righteousness have been destroyed, true believers should become part of a new foundation of righteousness!  

This is why it is important to understand human nature and the subtlety of our propensity for Centrism. Because of our corrupted nature and our hatred for rejection, when confronted with a choice between radical unrighteousness and radical righteousness, our natural propensities for acceptance leads us to put ourselves somewhere in the center of these two radicals. Most people will do that because that is where the vast majority of people involved in making the same choice will put themselves. There is an innate tendency for the doctrinally shallow and spiritually weak to follow the majority.  

Do you think Satan understands that aspect of our corrupted character? Of course he does and he uses it against us. This is what defines progressive Liberalism. This is why and how every new generation of Christianity progressively digresses away from biblical normalcy morphing themselves into some abstract of the real thing.  

The second thing Satan depends upon is biblical ignorance. There are three progressive essentials necessary in order to avoid personally becoming part of destroying the foundations of righteousness. These three progressive essentials keep us from becoming progressive Liberals.

1. Knowledge of God's Word (II Timothy 2:15)

2. Understanding what you know ("Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way." Psalm 119:104)

3. Wisdom is knowing how to apply and live what you understand

"¹ Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. ² For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. ³ For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. ⁴ He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live. ⁵ Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. ⁶ Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. ⁷ Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. ⁸ Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. ⁹ She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee. ¹⁰ Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many. ¹¹ I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths. ¹² When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. ¹³ Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life" (Proverbs 4:1).

Herein lies the problem that defines why the foundations are so easily destroyed. Every new generation begins with NONE of these three essentials to the continuation of righteousness. We begin with complete ignorance of God's Word and no comprehension of its value to our lives and existence. Therefore, we have not real motivation to learn the Word of God or invest the thousands of hours necessary to understanding the Word of God. We are naturally untrusting of people and our ignorance keeps us from being able to choose the right people to help us know what God's Word says. Human nature normally rationalizes that the majority is correct and therefore chooses what the majority chooses. Human nature avoids what the majority considers radical. The majority way is what Jesus calls the "broad way."

"¹³ Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: ¹⁴ Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matthew 7:13-14).

Our natural propensity for Centrism leads us to constantly morph ourselves into some manufactured abstract of the real thing until there are hundreds and thousands of levels of corruption. Most people have little comprehension of grammar and syntax and so they do not even have the most basic tools necessary to understand God's communication through words and language. They certainly cannot understand the use of the anthropomorphisms, similes, metaphors, or colloquialisms used so often by God in His Word. Such ignorance cripples them in the basics of understanding and applying the Word of God. Because learning all of that is hard work, most people never even make the effort. Hence darkness engulfs the light and evil commands the high ground through cultural apathy and indifference to God.  

Theological Liberalism has created political Liberalism. Political Liberalism has morphed out from theological Humanism into secular Humanism. The transition takes place from a Humanistic view of God to removing God altogether from the view. When God is taken out of theological Humanism all that is left is secular Humanism. Removing the very notion of God from the discussion is the goal of political Liberalism and secular Humanism. This is the purest and heinous form of Antichristism. Secular Humanism seeks to completely remove moral absolutes based upon the Bible with their own moral absolutes based upon political correctness.  

Removing all moral absolutes based upon the Bible and replacing those moral absolutes with politically correct absolutes are the hidden philosophies within the Common Core Curriculum being promoted by our national government. This is certainly evident in the curriculum's sex education where experimentation regarding gender oriented sexually is encouraged. Liberalism hides its real agenda behind the clouds of noble causes where the ignorant and careless are easily duped as dopes.  

"If the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do?" The answer is found in Psalm 11:4-7. The answer is that there is a message for which the righteous are responsible to proclaim when confronted by the destroyed foundations of unrighteousness in any generation. The solution against the unbelief of scientific Empiricism is not a debate that offers the axiomatic defenses of apologetics. The solution against the unbelief of scientific Empiricism is the declaration of God's existence and God's sovereignty over His creation regardless of their rejection of His existence. The answer to unbelief is a message. The answer to the unbelief of Liberalism is a proclamation that there is a holy God upon His throne and unbelievers will be judged by Him in the near future. "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). The message is Psalm 11:4-7.

"⁴ The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD'S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. ⁵ The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. ⁶ Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. ⁷ For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright" (Psalm 11:4-7).

The point of these verses is that even if the foundations of righteousness in this world have been destroyed, the foundations of righteousness in Heaven have not been destroyed. Even though the "born again" Christian seems powerless in the midst of the onslaught of unrighteousness, he is not. We can say with Job, "For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth" (Job 19:25). Psalm 11:4-7 tells us that we can know that God alone creates a majority in His sovereignty. Therefore, join that majority and proclaim that majority!  

It would appear that Liberalism, as in the days of old, has once again risen to a position of dominance. A nation founded upon the governance of God's Laws of righteousness has been corrupted by the very courts of Law designed to protect the Rule of Law. Moral absolutes defined and established by belief in the inspired Words of God have been replaced by the Humanistic moral absolutes of political correctness. Constitutional Law and justice have been corrupted and replaced by case history Law through the undermining of Fluid Constructionism. Churches, that once proclaimed belief in sola scriptura, have abandoned the Word of God for cultural relativism. It would seem by all appearances that righteousness is dead and its foundations have been destroyed. What does this tell the true believer living in the days of destroyed foundations? This apparent defeat tells us we are close to the revelation of the righteous One.

"³ Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, ⁴ And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. ⁵ For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: ⁶ Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: ⁷ But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men" (II Peter 3:3-7).

The point of II Peter 3:3-7 is similar to Psalm 11:4-7. God is still upon His throne! Unbelief, the advances of Liberalism, and the world's attack against everything that is holy and righteous is just a façade of victory. Do not run and hide.  

Do not let the world silence your voice or relegate your testimony to hide yourself away in obscurity. We are not the first of God's people to face this kind of dilemma. Noah faced it and preached the righteousness of God (II Peter 2:5) for the one-hundred and twenty years he spent building the Ark. The unrighteous world mocked him and ridiculed him daily as he spent all his time and resources to build and ark of survival against the judgment of God that would come in something called rain. The message to unbelievers has never changed. As we watch the advances of Liberalism and unbelief capture the hearts and souls of this world, the message we have from God is repent and believe! There is no compromise! No unbelieving Christ rejecter will be spared! God is consistent in His dealings with mankind and God's judgment is an imminent historical constant in this world.

"¹ But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. ² And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. ³ And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. ⁴ For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; ⁵ And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; ⁶ And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly" (II Peter 2:1-6).

What is the point of religious freedoms in a society that rejects belief in God or in most part radicalizes and ridicules people of real biblical faith? According to Bill Nye the science guy, belief in a literal interpretation of a book that is thousands of years old is an endangerment to our next generation's ability to advance and compete on a global scale where other societies are not hampered by such archaisms. Or, consider the new Catholic Pope's proclamation that belief in a literal Hell or a God of wrath and condemnation no longer fits in with our New Age view of a God of love, peace, and tranquility within the vast diversities of religious beliefs. Do any of these proclamations of pseudo-wisdom change God's eternal dynamics in any way? They certainly do not. Paul's proclamation to the corrupters of the Gospel speaks just as loudly two-thousand plus years after he declared it as the day he declared it.

"⁶ I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: ⁷ Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. ⁹ As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1:6-9).

The main point of Psalm 11:4-7 is that the true believer's victory over the apparent domination of unbelief and unrighteousness will not be found in human alliances. Yet this it seems is the solution to which humanistic thinking first leads us. We rationalize that evil is advancing and unrighteousness is prevailing therefore we must become more inclusivistic in our alliances. We make such rationalistic and logical deductions without even considering that such thinking is humanistic and pragmatic. We have example after example of God's condemnation of this kind of rationalism in His dealings with the nation of Israel. When God's people make ungodly alliances to reinforce their strength by increasing their numbers, they do so at the sacrifice of their alliance with God. God hates this kind of thinking for it is really a manifestation of unbelief.  

We know that after the exodus and the twenty-six year record of the events recorded in the book of Joshua, the very next generation abandons their faithfulness to God and begins to incorporate the pornographic compromises of paganism in their midst - ONE GENERATION! The point before us is just how fragile a culture is when a culture loses its emphasis upon maintaining the purity of faith and doctrine. In one generation after the miraculous victories of the land of Canaan the miraculous is taken for granted. God is forgotten and the promises made in their covenantal declarations to Joshua are broken. Take a careful look at two Bible texts that record events just two years apart - Joshua 24:15-22 and Judges 2:10-15.

"¹⁵ And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. ¹⁶ And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods; ¹⁷ For the LORD our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed: ¹⁸ And the LORD drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the LORD; for he is our God. ¹⁹ And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. ²⁰ If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good. ²¹ And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the LORD. ²² And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the LORD, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses" (Joshua 24:15-22).

"¹⁰ And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. ¹¹ And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim: ¹² And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger. ¹³ And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth. ¹⁴ And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. ¹⁵ Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed" (Judges 2:10-15).

"In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6).