New Year’s Check-Up Part Two: Practical Atheism and - TopicsExpress



          

New Year’s Check-Up Part Two: Practical Atheism and Idolatry Whether a person is an atheist or agnostic- a person who rejects the existence of God or is unknowing or ignorant of God’s existence, that person is an idolater. We who know God, know that man was made to worship, which explains his innate spirituality. There is no question man will worship. The only real question is what or whom? But make no mistake, all of the seven plus billion people on this planet- male and female, will eventually worship, as the apostle Paul found when he took the gospel to the Athenian philosophers of Mars Hill in Athens, Greece 2,000 years ago. It was there that, “his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols (Acts 17:16).” In fact, Paul observed their ‘objects of worship’ and an inscription, ‘To the unknown god,’ which moved him to present the truth of THE ONE, Triune God and his gospel to them. However, the perplexing reality is that even a theist, a Jehovah-God loving Jew in Israel, could still fall to idolatry as well as a Gentile who is a practical atheist – yes, a Christian, who can fall privy to the same sin. So being that we’re in mid-January and as per our last post, being high-time and a good time to review our New Year’s resolutions, we want to see what track of worship we’re on. The primary character trait or attribute I chose to challenge you on was to self-examine yourself to see if you might be guilty of ‘practical atheism’, or what my current 12 week daily devotional, Behold Your God, called, “The Danger of Acknowledging God Without Knowing Him.” R.C. Sproul defined the condition of ‘Practical Atheism’ as that which “appears when we live as if there were no God. The externals continue, but man becomes the central thrust of devotion as the attention of religious concern shifts away from man’s devotion to God to man’s devotion to man, bypassing God.” Or, it is the “gap” that exists “between the Christianity we see in the Bible and the kind of Christianity we live,” according to BYG’s John Snyder. Practical Atheism Can Mean Practical Idolatry If we are to truly know- behold and turn to God, we have to work through God’s Holy Spirit to remove our idols. What do I mean by idols? After all, most of us are not worshipping the Baals or Asherahs of the Old Testament period, or other wooden-objects or statues. But as we posted last time, we can make idols of our entertainment consumption, time. money, vocations and even families. Moreover, we can make our own customized idol of God Himself, by making the God of the Bible and His Word, fit our way of thinking and living, as Israel did. To Read The Entire Captive Thought as well as many other archived posts, click the link below: https://mycaptivethought.wordpress/
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 20:13:16 +0000

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