What does modern day idolatry look like in today’s world? How is modern-day idolatry practiced in our current world? How to understand dominant idolatry in our current world? These are the questions around which the pen of the author Thomson Dablemond will devote himself throughout this article. Thanks for continuing to read this article.
Idols are still numerous today, and their effect on people allows us to understand not only idolatry in the Old Testament but also in the New Testament. We begin this article by starting with a striking example of modern-day idolatry in our current world: the case of India and Hinduism.
In India, for example, each city and village has a favorite god – they worship thousands of different gods. Transportable idols are placed in street corners of big cities.
For pious Hindus, idolatry adds magic to life. Hindus believe that the gods control all events, including disasters such as floods, diseases, and road accidents.
Therefore, it is necessary at all costs to appease these powerful gods (according to them).
But it is according to the character of a god that it can be satisfied, and the gods can be formidable and violent. Some Indians worship idols in the shape of a snake; others adore the goddess of smallpox.
Calcutta, the largest city in India has adopted the goddess, Kali. Devotion to such gods can easily lead man into paralyzing fear. The worshipers of Kali believe that if she is not appeased, she will chastise them cruelly. Other Hindus, less devoted, take a different approach. They treat their gods as if they were lucky fetishes.
A taxi driver will set up a small statue of a monkey-god on the dashboard of his car, which he will occasionally cover with flowers to decorate. If you ask him why he is doing it, he will tell you that he is praying for that God’s protection – but you know the situation of our roads in India, he adds with a laugh.
Modern Day Idolatry in Our Current World
Do you have any idea of modern-day idolatry in our current world? Is there a difference between this kind of idolatry practiced by Indians and Hindus with those of the Old Testament (the gods Baal, Moloc …)? For centuries, men have tended to make gods object, statues. Man was created with a spiritual nature. Since ancient times, after the fall of Adam and Eve, the image of God has been tarnished in man.
In the general introduction, my work entitled ” Path of Life “, I have stated this about modern-day idolatry in these terms: ” The problem of modern-day idolatry with men is that since the sin of Adam and of Eve (from whom we are all descendants) – the man separated from his Creator in a spiritual way. But the spiritual dominates the natural. The Creator of the Universe is a spiritual being. Then the man is constantly in search of contact with his Creator. […] Indeed, the man knowing that he depended, depends and will forever depend on his Creator, thinking that it is far from him; the man will engage in ways and means to be in communion with God … How to be in communion with God? By what and by whom, must we be in contact with God? It is in the bad practice of the answer to these questions that come: idolatry. What did I say? I call ‘Idolatry’, deceiving God or choosing consciously not to worship the true and true God. In other words, idolatry is nothing but the worship of false gods. “(Thomson Dablemond).
Generally, the term modern-day idolatry is limited to statues, objects to which one venerates (makes a cult). Yet, the New Testament gives us a broader idea of the concept of idolatry. The more we understand the term idolatry as taught in the New Testament, we see with good glasses modern idolatry or idolatry in our present world. Because, nowadays, Idolatry is not only related to statues and others.
The New Testament expands the definition of the concept of idolatry to the point that it applies to us, even if Christians do not worship statues. Paul asserted that greed, for example, is idolatry (Ephesians 5: 5, Colossians 3: 5, Matthew 6: 24).
Indeed, things that people become greedy for – money, sex, power, even food – can work like little gods.
When we are depressed, we turn to them for comfort. When we are happy we give them credit. We become little by little their slaves.
But this is precisely the place God and God alone must occupy in our lives. If his place is taken by something, we are as guilty of idolatry as the people to whom Jeremiah addressed himself. God can not share the human heart. Either he is the only God, or he is not at all.
” For where your treasure is, your heart will be there too. ” (Matthew 6: 21). The heart of man is more and more turned to money, sex, power. Men care very little about their salvation. The first priority of man is the material especially so much that the material has become a god in our present world. But also man has made himself a god, putting his trust in the flesh, denying God, and preaching man as god.
Conclusion on Modern Day Idolatry in Our Current World
We understand, from a general point of view, there are still idolaters, idolaters, even today. For, generally, modern-day idolatry is translated as follows:
– To love even a man (no matter the links, relations) that God.
– Putting all his trust and support in the flesh (in man).
– Loving the lust of this world as God.
– To love oneself more than God.
– To love the things of the world, the pleasures of the world as God.
– To love the works of the flesh that God (those of God).
– Loving money, sex, power, human glory, vanity as God.
– The fact to consider nature, instead of the Creator.
– The fact of even considering the servant of God as God himself.
– Loving our interest in relation to God’s.
– Caring for the things or things of this world more than those of God (the work of God).
– To consult (a witch doctor, a charlatan, a diviner, etc). Or to pray, or to worship a statue, an object, an element of nature, a being, etc.
– Diverting our heart from God and then giving ourselves to something else or to someone else …
– Being profane (that is, hating religious things recommended by the Creator God in the Bible)
– Not following the path of God, and following our own path.
– Not to apply or to submit to the way of God.
– Refusing to depend on God.
– Not choosing Jesus as Lord and personal Savior.
– Having another mediator outside of Jesus Christ in our alleged relationship with God the Creator of all things. For example, practicing Mariolatry (the worship of the Virgin Mary considered divine, idolatry of icons or statues representing it and to which miraculous powers are attributed or Angelolatry (the worship of angels), or even the fact of considering a man on this earth as the divine representative or mediator between God the Creator and humans.
However, it is important to know at this pace, vis-à-vis the modern-day idolatry, what is the look of God. In other words, what does idolatry mean or represent in the sight of God? Click here to read the article that answers this relevant topic: Idolatry in the eyes of God.