Idolatrous Israel Continued to Worship Yahweh, Just as Evangelicals Continue to Worship Jesus

The God of Judaism and Christianity does not like company.

Yahweh (for Jews and Christians), the eternal Father of Jesus Christ, the Son

of God (for Christians), is the one and only creator God throughout both the New Testament and the later writings of the Old.

It’s called monotheism.

Although the Old Testament prophets condemned ancient Israel for both idolatry (the worship of false gods) and apostasy (the abandonment of their religion), their condemnations were aimed at a people who never stopped worshiping Yahweh.

How could that be?

If Israel never stopped worshiping Yahweh, why did the prophets foretell judgment and captivity as divine punishment for abandoning Yahweh?

Israel’s error was their syncretism.

Syncretism is the mixing of different religious elements from a variety of cultural sources. So, I doubt very much if any Israelite ever stopped praying to Yahweh, the God of their fathers. But they added other items of devotion to their liturgies and turned Yahweh into a god of cultural appetites.

Read the books of 1 and 2 Kings for its many references to these idolatrous Canaanite additions to Israel’s Yahweh worship. For example, in Canaanite religion, Asherah was the mother goddess of creation who was typically married to a male deity such as Ba’al.

Well, guess what. During their periods of rebellion, the Israelite’s — deciding that they must conform to the society around them — played match-maker and married off their Yahweh to the Canaanites’ Asherah. They even made room for her masseboth (the word for a “standing stone” commonly erected to symbolize a deity) inside the Jerusalem temple (2 Kings 23:6; one of the reasons it was finally destroyed by the  Babylonians)!

No, the Israelites never abandoned their prayers to Yahweh, but they finally bore the brunt of Yahweh’s condemnation because they couldn’t help but “punch up” their worship by adding a few cultural icons to the mix.

So, what does all this have to do with American evangelicalism, you ask?

As I argued in my book, I Pledge Allegiance, our favorite idols are worshiped  through the pervasive influences of nationalism, patriotism, militarism, American exceptionalism, politics, and consumerism. These are the evangelical idols of today.

No, we have not given up worshiping Jesus. Jesus Christ remains the deity on evangelical lips, but he is no longer Jesus of Nazareth.

We worship an image of the Son of God who is wrapped in an American flag, singing the national anthem as He returns on the clouds, swinging a sword to cut down our political enemies (because the opposition must be demonic, never a sincere person with an honest difference of opinion), all in order to protect our materialistic, consumerist way of life.

God bless America!

Today I came across this video of an “Evangelicals for Trump” rally held in a “Christian church.” Take a look (it’s a little over 19 minutes long; this congregation should immediately be stripped of its tax exempt status).

I will give you a preview: it is 19 minutes of idolatry, led by false prophets and pagan priests.

President Trump has replaced the goddess Asherah. He surrounds himself with false teachers who tell him what he wants to hear, just like the false prophets in the days of king Ahab, the apostate.

Red baseball caps, “God Bless America,” and fire-breathing Republican  prophets of Democratic doom have replaced the court prophets that jumped, flailed, and prophesied nationalistic lies for king Ahab and his wife, Jezebel.

Yet, the same fate awaits all false religion, even when the worshipers still call out in the name of Jesus.