“Here Are Your Gods”: Faithful Discipleship in Idolatrous Times
Overview
When the Israelites exclaimed, “Here are your gods!” at the sight of the golden calf, they were attempting to hold on to the God of their history while fashioning idols for their own purposes. In today’s Western world, plenty of shiny false gods still hold power—idols of prosperity, nationalism, and self-interest. Christians desperately need to name and expose these idols. We must retrieve the biblical emphasis on idolatry and apply it anew in our journey of following Jesus.
In “Here are your Gods” Old Testament scholar Christopher J. H. Wright combines a biblical study of idolatry with practical discipleship. He calls readers to consider connections between Old Testament patterns and today’s culture, especially recurring temptations to trust in political power.
Now as much as ever, we need a biblically informed understanding of the many ways humans make gods for themselves, the danger of idols, and how God calls us to join him in the battle against idolatry as part of his ongoing mission to be known and worshiped by all peoples.
- Explores connections between Old Testament patterns and today’s culture
- Examines prosperity, nationalism, and self-interest
- Combines a biblical study of idolatry with practical discipleship
Part 1: The Lord God and Other Gods in the Bible
- The Paradox of the Gods
- What Are the Gods?
- Discerning the Gods
- Mission and the Gods
Part 2: Political Idolatry Then and Now
- The Rise and Fall of Nations in Biblical Perspective
- God in the Political Arena
Part 3: God’s People in an Idolatrous World
- A People Shaped by the Living God
- “Seek First the Kingdom of God”
- Following Jesus in Turbulent Times
Top Highlights
“God accepts that humans have indeed breached the distinction referred to above. Not that humans have now become gods, but that they have chosen to act as though they were—defining and deciding for themselves what they will regard as good and evil. Therein lies the root of all other forms of idolatry: we deify our own capacities, and thereby make gods of ourselves, our choices, and all their implications.” (Pages 33–34)
“To conclude this opening discussion: Are the gods we meet in the Bible something or nothing? The paradoxical answer is that they are both. On the one hand, they are nothing in comparison with Yahweh, the one true living God. They do not have any divine existence like his, for he alone occupies that transcendent realm of deity. Yahweh alone is God, and there is no other. Yet, on the other hand, the gods were clearly something within the world of the peoples and cultures that named them, worshiped them, subjected themselves to them, or enlisted them in whatever objectives were being pursued by the powerful among men for their own ends. So what is that something? What are the gods?” (Page 10)
“For we need to be clear that in the Bible the conflict with the gods is a conflict waged by God for us, not a conflict waged by us for God.” (Page 51)
“The issue is more complex and depends on the predicate of such questions (that is to say, to what does the word god refer to?). What needs to be added to the question is ‘Do other gods exist within the same order of existence that Yahweh does?’ ‘Are they the same ‘thing’ as Yahweh is [the same divine ‘something’]? Or are they not what Yahweh is [‘no-thing,’ i.e., no-divine-thing]?’” (Page 5)
- Title: “Here Are Your Gods”: Faithful Discipleship in Idolatrous Times
- Author: Christopher J. H. Wright
- Publisher: IVP Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2020
- Logos Release Date: 2020
- Pages: 167
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Idolatry › Biblical teaching; Christian life
- ISBNs: 9780830853366, 9780830853359, 0830853367, 0830853359
- Resource ID: LLS:HEREAREYOURGODS
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T00:30:24Z