Legalism or idolatry as our chief concern?
Oct 13th, 2009 by Nathan White
Recently I came across a few comments in Terry L. Johnson’s book Reformed Worship that caught my attention. Specifically, I was intrigued in reading that, “For Lutherans the enemy of faith was works. For the Reformed, the enemy of faith was idolatry.” (P18)
As he goes on to explain, it was John Calvin who insisted that there were two elements that constituted “the whole substance of Christianity“. These two elements are “a knowledge first, of the right way to worship God; and secondly of the source from which salvation is to be sought.”
Robert Godfrey comments that “Remarkably Calvin put worship ahead of salvation in his list of the most important elements of Christianity.” In other words, worship, and a right worship at that, “is not some peripheral matter, but ‘the whole substance’ of the Christian faith.” (P19)
Wow! That caught my attention!
Pertaining to Evangelism
As I contemplated Calvin’s comments and his emphasis on idolatry, it struck me just how ‘Lutheran’ we tend to be in our evangelism and teaching now days. That is, Luther was chiefly concerned with justification by faith alone in distinction to justification by good works or any sort of personal merit. And don’t get me wrong, this is a very good thing, for legalism and self-righteousness are everywhere in the world and church today.
However, it got me wondering whether we’re leaving a very important aspect of Christianity out of our evangelistic messages. Not to say that specific evangelism against legalism doesn’t already exclude any notion of idolatry, but how often do we explicitly mention it? How often do we preach against it? In our churches, where any faithful minister should repeatedly warn against legalism, works-righteousness, and holding onto any supposed personal ‘merit’ in their profession of faith, do we likewise warn people of idolatry and the mortal dangers of holding onto idolatry in their acts of worship?
The Apostle Paul to the Galatians certainly emphasized faith alone and the absolute worthlessness of any human merit in regards to our justification, but what about his presentation on Mars Hill in Acts 17? There we read of a decided emphasis on their idolatry in verses 22-29, with a call to abandon idolatry and worship in truth in verse 29:
“Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.”
Paul was talking with a very religious culture, but a culture which had very distorted worship. He doesn’t start by going to the Law, convincing them of their sin, or warning them about trusting in their own righteousness (though these are very necessary things and were probably emphasized shortly thereafter); he starts with their idolatry, and he calls them on it. It was from this spring of idolatry that he opens up the way of faith and repentance in Christ.
What about in our day?
I fear that, because we (particularly my generation) have grown up around legalism, that all we do is watch out for and speak out against legalism in the world (evangelism), and legalism in the church (warning to those who profess). But there is certainly another aspect to the culture in which we live in. And yes, this includes the church culture. We are surrounded by idolatry, both professing Christians and pagan alike. And we need to rightly combat this thinking with the true worship of God as is revealed in His word.
In other words, just as even a hint of legalism in our faith is enough to damn us, even a hint of idolatry can do the same. Wouldn’t you agree?
Here’s hoping that more and more of us will get familiar with Calvin and the dangers of idolatry that he saw all around.
And I...
Hi Nathan,
Speaking of balance and our “chief concern”…There’s no doubt that the Church goes through stages of emphasis and over-emphasis (the pendulum effect). Right now, there’s a strong emphasis against legalism in sanct. For the most part, this is needed and healthy.
Also, there’s a strong emphasis today on spiritual idolatry in evangelism and sanct. FWIW, how many times does the NT spiritualizes idolatry? Only twice (Eph. 3:5; Col. 3:5), and both times are in the context of sanct., not evangelism. The only commands God used to summarize ALL the others are “Love God…and love your neighbor,” never idolatry.
Nathan, your title caught my eye. “Legalism or idolatry as our chief concern?” Our chief concern? Well, if by concern you mean “duty,” I’d have to go with love. But, if you mean “theme,” I’d have to go with Christ. I see the NT empasizing Christ (in evang. and sanct.) and love (in sanct.) more than anti-iidolatry and anti-legalism.
So, I guess I’d sum it up by saying, “Preach Christ as our chief theme and love as our chief command.”
Hey Greg-
Perhaps my title of ‘chief concern’ was a little misleading. I wasn’t trying to pit one point against the other. Rather, I was writing from the perspective that us Americans HAVE pitted one point against the other simply because we don’t have a lot of blatant idolatry (wooden idols, pagan temples, etc.) in our culture.
Thus, my concern is that we are so quick to emphasis the dangers of legalism, often times failing to emphasis the equally dangerous idolatry. I see a balance in the scriptures regarding these two things, and too often, I believe, we read nothing but the Pauline epistles and believe there is nothing greater than the danger of legalism.
And of course, the Law is summarized in love, and our chief ‘duty’ is love; but simply saying such falls into the relativism and personal, inward autonomy of faith that is the crumbling foundation of our culture. Who is Jesus Christ? –is there a mailbox in Jerusalem with the last name ‘Christ’ on it? No, He must be defined. Likewise, what is love? Is it how my lost-but-thinks-he’s-saved-moral-neighbor defines it? Or does the summary (love) simply help give the big picture explanation of what it summarizes (the Law)?
I don’t think the answer is to get more ambiguous and relative. I wrote the post with the hopes that we’ll get more familiar with idolatry, what it is and how it’s practiced, so as to recognize it out in the mission field and in our pulpits. I don’t think it’s without significance that Jesus with the woman at the well hit on worship/idolatry, and Paul on Mars Hill did the same; no hint of legalism is found in their messages. So I believe we too must pay attention to our audience and present to them what best meets their particular sin.
Nathan, what would be some practical examples of modern day idolatry in our worship? Obviously, man-centered worship can be an imlicit act of idolatry. But besides that, what are your thoughts?
Davide-
Keep in mind that my post was not aimed so specifically tackle the question of idolatry in worship, but was simply a reminder to Calvinists of a few points of emphasis from John Calvin that many have abandoned in our day. I’d prefer not to take this thread in the other direction.
But how sad it is that we’ll be the first ones to point out legalism, but the last ones to point out idolatry –it’s as if we don’t believe it exists anymore, *especially* in the church among professing Christians. My argument is that it does, among Christians, just as legalism does as well. And this is only a byproduct of my belief that it exists in our culture, and should be targeted in some of our evangelism.
Anyway, to answer your question rather broadly, I believe our Lord rightly defined worship as that which is ‘in spirit and in truth’. Truth, of course, is the Word of God. Truth, of course, is what the Spirit illuminated the prophets and apostles to record. If we believe in the sufficiency of scripture, then we’ll let scripture instruct our worship.
Sadly, however, many have succumbed to the spirit of this age and allowed the culture to creep into our exegesis. In this post-modern age of enlightenment thinking, ‘truth’ is no longer a confession of faith handed down century to century, but is inward, subjective, private, relative, and ultimately pluralistic. If the ‘truth’ in Jesus’ statement of ’spirit and truth’ is defined by anything other than the instructions and examples from the word of God, then we’ve abandoned sola scriptura, we’ve abandoned calvinism, and we’ve cast ourselves firmly into the sea of idolatry.
Nevertheless, it is the inward idolatry that I am most referencing in this post, not simply the outward manifestation of it. Inwardly, without the ‘in spirit’, we’ve succumbed to idolatry as well. Fortunately for the church, however, that is largely the individuals responsibility to combat; the Shepherd is to concern himself most prominently with the ‘truth’.
I guess I’m totally understanding what you mean when you say in your post that there is idolatry in our churches or worship. Maybe, you’ve said it already, but I’m not getting specifically what you mean. Are are saying that anything that takes place in a worship service that would contradict the RPW is a form of idolatry? If you don’t want to get deeper into this discussion, I understand.
Davide-
I’m saying that idolatry is present both in our churches and in our secular society, and that it should be confronted with equal or greater emphasis as legalism. That is the gist of what I’m trying to say; that and a call for us who claim to be Calvinists to actually read more of Calvin and understand the foundations upon which all of his views of God’s sovereignty are built on.
I’m not specifically defending or defining the RPW, though this certainly plays a role in identifying what is or is not idolatry. Many outward forms of worship are or lead to idolatry; many correct forms of worship are idolized by unbelief.
That is, when examining idolatry in regards to our corporate worship, you could probably press me to the point where I would admit that anything that is not commanded or given as an example in scripture is or could lead to idolatry. But even when the forms of worship are according to ‘truth’, we probably fall into idolatry by failing to worship ‘in spirit’.
This is simply the logical outflow of Calvinism. The ‘T’ in total depravity communicates the great distance between us and God. Though this distance is eliminated through the work of Christ on our behalf, we are still confined to this body of death, and must be taught/instructed/guided into right worship by the ‘truth’ of God’s word. That’s why I would argue, when pressed, that a rejection of the RPW is in actuality an undermining of sola scriptura as well as the foundation upon which Calvinism is built upon.
I think I would have to charitably disagree with your original thesis, i.e. idolatry prevails in our churches just like legalism. Maybe I’m not thinking about the issue deep enough, but I just don’t see how you are coming to this conclusion, through Scripture. But I could be wrong though.
However, let me clarify one thing. I do believe that idolatry exists in Catholic Churches, and churches where the worship is completely focused on man and not God. I
Legalism is a form of idolatry just like anything that supplants Christ.
Pete-
I agree. Legalism is a form of idolatry. Bowing down to an graven image is idolatry, but is also legalistic. But legalism expresses itself in many different ways, hence the different categories. The word idolatry specifically indicates an idol and some sort of outward act of worship. Thus, because the popular church (our culture, really) has abandoned physical idols, many think we’ve also abandoned idolatry. But our acts of worship can be just as much idolatry as the image itself. And legalism, of course, is any adding or taking away of God’s word in an attempt to approve oneself to God or rule oneself in practice. Therefore, when we add to God’s word outward acts of worship that are not given in God’s word, we run the risk of practicing idolatry and/or leading others to.
Davide-
As I said before, most Christians now days are not convinced idolatry exists anymore. Our culture, with all its science, rational, and technology, just doesn’t lend itself to pagan myths anymore. So of course I’m not surprised you disagree.
Nevertheless, I’m not arguing that idolatry is limited to certain groups and beliefs; I am saying that is is an issue deep inside all of our hearts, though its manifested in different ways. Thankfully, we have cleansing by the blood of Christ.
I would say, however, that if we were to examine just why you label man-centered and Roman worship as idolatry, we’d probably find some inconsistencies in your position. That is, I don’t see how you can label anyone as tending toward idolatry and not label everyone. Have we all reached perfect sanctification?
Some people argue that all our worship is accepted before God because of the blood of Christ, and in a sense, I would agree. But are our churches packed full of believers only? Or are their false sons in our pale? In addition, we’d also agree that all our legalism is cleansed by the blood of Christ as well; but do we overlook clear legalism in people we know to be Christians simply because they are washed by the blood? Maybe that sheds some more light on my thinking here.
Well, the apostle Paul said that ‘covetousness is idolatry’ (Col. 3), so, of course, every believer deals with idolatry. I wasn’t trying to deny the viable reality of the sin of idolatry among church members. In my understanding, an “idol” at its roots, is ‘anything that we love, cherish, or esteem that stifles or supplants our love for Christ. So if the subject matter of your post deals with idolatry among church members, then yes, I totally agree with you–idolatry is rampant in our churches.
But if you are talking about idolatry in our worship services, specifically, labeling anything outside the RPW, “idolatry” or a slippery slope to idolatry, then that is where I would find disagreement.
Davide-
I guess if you hold to the Anglo/Catholic position on worship (whatever is not forbidden in scripture is/can be true forms of corporate worship), then yeah, we won’t agree on hardly anything.
Nevertheless, our Lord told the God-seeking woman at the well that she worshipped what she did not know; He told the Pharisees that they worshipped in vain because they added their own preferences to the Word of God, so unless we isolate our theology to Pauline epistles alone, the RPW and idolatry go hand in hand.
And that’s just my thing: we americans let our cultural tunnel vision dictate our exegesis and emphasis. Calvin and Luther had very different trajectories, though they had much in common; I’m arguing that we’ve become over-balanced on expressing our hatred for legalism when preaching the gospel. And just as we like Luther over Calvin at times, we also fall in danger of like Paul’s emphasis above all others (like our Lord’s).
And BTW- I wouldn’t say that all violations of the RPW ar idolatry (notice my post doesn’t even mention the RPW). Take infant baptism as an example. I don’t see how anyone not holding to the RPW could raise serious objections to it, but regardless, I don’t think we can say its idolatry.
Tim Keller said on twitter today: ‘while traditional idol worship still occurs in many places, internal idol worship -within the heart- is universal.’
In all honesty, I wrote this post with Keller in mind. Not because of his position on idolatry, but because he has attained such huge success preaching against legalism. He’s one of the ones I had initially thought was a little imbalanced (though his work on legalism is excellent). But obviously I haven’t listened/read him enough. This is good. And I guess this conincides with his new book, ‘Counterfeit Gods’.
When I first read your initial post, I think I misunderstood you. I understood you relating idolatry in a corporate sense (i.e. mode/form of worship is idolatrous), not an individual sense (personal sins). In other words, I obviously agree that idolatry is a huge issue America and among churches today (even in my life). I just thought for some reason you were not specifically talking about idolatry in an individual sense, but rather in relation to a corporate sense–i.e. mode or form of worship being an act of idolatry.
Let me explain: churches today are “corporately’ endorsing legalism in its various forms by focusing on externals and not the heart, by promoting Christianity as a system of rules, by neglecting to emphasize our sufficiency in Christ, etc. etc. But I don’t generally see Christian churches endorsing idolatry in the same way. And this is what I thought your post was talking about. Make sense?
Davide-
Yeah, after thinking about your comment more, I also thought you misunderstood me. Or, maybe not. Because obviously the sins of the people are manifest in the corporate gathering.
In other words, I see both. Legalistic people go to and raise up legalistic pastors. Idolatrous people do the same.
I see idolatry as just as big an issue as legalism. In the human heart, yes (hence my posts’ emphasis on evangelism), and in the corporate gathering. And yes, adding to or subtracting from the Word of God in forms of worship when we meet corporately, though it may not always be idolatrous, and though we ourselves (or all who participate) may not be committing idolatry, is the effect of idolatry, and runs the risk of leading others into idolatry.
But thanks for the clarification. You know me; I always have a hard time expressing/communicating exactly what I’m trying to say
A good resource regarding this subject:
http://www.monergism.com/directory/link_category/Sin–Temptation/Idolatry/