What God Revealed in His Word
about
Idols and Man-created “gods”
Dick B.
Psalm 115
Early AAs read and studied the King James Version of the Holy Bible. And here is what Psalm 115 declares about the subject of false idols and “gods” fashioned by unbelieving men:
“NOT unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth’s sake.
Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?
But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:
They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not.
They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.
They that make them are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them.
O Israel, trust thou in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.
O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.
Ye that fear the LORD, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.
The LORD hath been mindful of us: he will bless us he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron.
He will bless them that fear the LORD small and great.
The LORD shall increase you more and more, you and your children.
Ye are blessed of the LORD which made heaven and earth.
The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD”S; but the earth hath he given to the children of men.
The dead praise not the LORD, neither they that go down into silence.
But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the LORD.”
A Word to the Children of God
It was Bill Wilson who suggested that God either is, or He isn’t. It was Bill Wilson who called God the Creator, Maker, Father, and Father of light [in James 1:17, God is called “the Father of lights:]. It was Bill Wilson who said that the Lord had cured him of his “terrible disease.” And it was Dr. Bob who wrote: “Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!”
There are those who have taken the obscure phrase “higher power” and “made” it into a god of their own conception—a light bulb, a door knob, a chair, Something, Somebody, and the Great Pumpkin, among other absurd names. But the lesson of Psalm 115 is unambiguous. Man has fashioned his own conception of some idol as a god for centuries. But the idols can’t walk, talk, hear, speak, touch, or see. And, to pray to such is what Rev. Sam Shoemaker boldly told AAs was simply a “half-baked prayer.”
It is one thing to refuse to believe in Almighty God. It is another thing entirely to put your trust in a doorknob or light bulb and expect any result from praying to such a man-made object. The choice that early AAs made involved these things: (1) Belief in God. (2) Becoming one of His children through the Lord Jesus Christ. (3) Obeying Him. (4) Learning about Him from the Bible. (5) Praying to Him and seeking His guidance. (6) Being cured of their malady through reliance upon Him. (7) Passing along the glad tidings to others who hadn’t believed, hadn’t gotten well, and hadn’t known how to be delivered from the power of darkness.
Deliverance came from God—not from illuminating one’s life by turning to or on a light bulb.
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