Trading Down

Fundamental to idolatry in biblical terms is the idea of an exchange —swapping the true God for something else. Thus Jeremiah laments that ‘my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols’ (Jer. 2:11; cf. Ps. 106:20), and the apostle Paul comments that ‘they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator’ (Rom. 1:25; cf. v. 21). 

That idolatrous exchange can occur in various ways. Someone might exchange the true God for an alternative ‘deity’, such as the pagan god Baal who proved so tempting for God’s people in Old Testament times. Alternatively, someone might exchange the true God who genuinely blesses for something else supposed to bring blessing, such as sex or money (Eph. 5:5). Or the exchange may amount to modifying God’s character, airbrushing out attributes we deem problematic to make a more convenient God in our image. This last kind of idolatry is hardest to spot, because we can indulge in it while retaining Christian vocabulary. We continue to speak enthusiastically of ‘God’, and even about ‘Christ’ and ‘the gospel’ while all along we are operating with an imitation forged by our own sinful imaginations. When we suppress certain truths about God (e.g. his holy wrath against sin) or distort others (e.g. his love) to produce our own designer deity, then we are guilty of false faith, and are left with a ‘counterfeit God’.

Quoting from Pierced for Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution by Steve Jeffery, Michael Ovey, and Andrew Sach.

Theological Term of the Week

bibliolatry
The worship of the Bible instead of God. (While technically it may be possible to commit bibliolatry, high esteem for and submission to the Bible is not bibliolatry, but rather worship of God through reverence of and obedience to his revelation to us.)

• A proper attitude toward scripture from scripture:

I have stored up your word in my heart,

that I might not sin against you.

Blessed are you, O LORD;

teach me your statutes!

With my lips I declare

all the rules of your mouth.

In the way of your testimonies I delight

as much as in all riches.

I will meditate on your precepts

and fix my eyes on your ways.

I will delight in your statutes;

I will not forget your word.

(Psalm 119:11-16 ESV)

• From The London Baptist Confession 1689:

Chapter 1: Of the Holy Scriptures

5. We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the church of God to an high and reverent esteem of the Holy Scriptures; and the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, and the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man’s salvation, and many other incomparable excellencies, and entire perfections thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God…

• From Freedom and Authority by J. I. Packer:

[I]f Jesus was God incarnate and spoke with personal divine authority, and if by sending the Spirit he really enabled his apostles to speak God’s word with total consistency. it follows that both Testaments (that which his gift of the Spirit produced as well as that which he knew and authenticated) ought to be received as “the very words of God” and as “God-breathed and … useful … so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped” (Rom. 3:2: 2 Tim. 3:16. 17). Only as we seek to believe and do what the two Testaments, taken together, say have we the full right to call ourselves Jesus’ disciples. “Why do you call me. “Lord. Lord,” and not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). Scripture comes to us, as it were, from Jesus? hand, and its authority and his are so interlocked as to be one.

Bowing to the living Lord entails submitting mind and heart to the written Word. Disciples individually and churches corporately stand under the authority of Scripture because they stand under the lordship of Christ, who rules by Scripture. This is not bibliolatry but Christianity in its most authentic form.

1. GotQuestions.org: What is bibliolatry?
2. Blue Letter Bible: Does Belief in Inerrancy Cause Worship of the Bible?
3. Kevin DeYoung: Is Bibliolatry the Real Danger?
4. Tim Challies:  Bibliolatry
5. S. M. Baugh: Is Bibliolatry Possible?

Related terms:

• authority of scripture
• inerrancy of scripture
• infallibility of scripture
• inspiration of scripture
• sola scriptura
• special revelation
  
• sufficiency of scripture

Filed under Scripture.

Do you have a term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.

Grandmother On Assignment

Daughter and granddaughter

I’ve been a grandmother for less than a year, not long enough to be an expert, but long enough to know that all the grandmas who went before me were right: It really is the best thing ever. I see my grandchildren as blessings from God in a way I didn’t see with my own children, not because I didn’t know my kids were blessings, but because when you’re the parent, little blessings come with loads of work and responsibility. The unrelentingness of parenting can shade our view of the blessing side of children.

Grandmothering is not like that. Grandmothers do, of course, have responsibilities toward their grandchildren (I’ll say more on that later.), but not in the ultimate way that parents do. In the end, the kiddies go home; our joy is not tempered by day to day care.

I didn’t have much say as to whether or when I became a grandmother. I had children who grew up to have children, and the role is now mine. It is as simple as that.

Or maybe not. It is also, I’d argue, an appointment from God. In the context of writing about the family and social relationships of new believers, Paul writes:

Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him… (1 Corinthians 7:17 ESV).

There’s a general principle in there for us all: Family circumstances and relationships are assignments from God. I am called by him to be a grandmother; it is a God-given role. God summons me to serve him in the vocation of grandmotherhood.

I’ll return to this theme again, looking at what duties God assigns me in my new vocation and how I can fulfill this calling. Meanwhile, I ask you:

• Are you a grandmother? If so, how do you serve God as a grandmother? 
• Are you a mother or father? Then how has your mother or mother-in-law served God by serving you as a parent? Or your children as children?
• Are you a person who has or has had a grandmother? How does/did she serve God in her relationship to you?