CHAPTER GLIMPSES: THE ART OF FOOLISHNESS

The nearly wholesale rejection of God by the race was not without its effect. All are free to make choices but no choice is free of consequences. By rejecting reality, minds become insane at first in principle, then in practice. “They became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Romans 1:21) All vanity must find expression, and this vanity found expression in idol worship. God had designed man to be a spiritual being, a being that was to worship God, who is a Spiritual Being. Therefore by nature, man is built to worship, and when they held truth in unrighteousness by seeking to divorce God from reality, when they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, men were compelled to find another thing with which to replace God and fulfill their natural desire of being worshipers. Before this tragic realignment, nature taught and represented God. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth His handiwork” (Psalms 19:1) When man apostatized, the very heavens were now considered to be gods. The channel through which the blessing and knowledge of God came to man was elevated to being the source of blessing and knowledge. The rule of life that was ensured by the balance between source and channel was disrupted and idolatry was the result.

The worship of the stars, of which sun worship was foremost, was the first and logical step. This was simply the deification of nature, but it was not to be contained only to heavenly bodies, for you see, nature is not the trees, the shrubs, the stars and moons, it is not the animals, all these are manifestations of nature. Nature is an unobtrusive term denoting all these things. And so all these things became gods. But all these things were soon not enough. Man’s heart was not yet foolish as it should be. Because the things with life were not enough to counterfeit and replace God, the things with no life must now be worshiped. And as the little common sense left in man’s heart dictated, it would be stupid to stand before rocks and stones and bow in reverence. Thus idols would be fashioned, “of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone” (Daniel 5:4) Men imagined how God should be and sought to contain Him in an image that they could fashion with their hands. This consequently ushered in the age created gods proper, and moreso revealed the ultimate product of man’s vanity.

(Psalms 115:4) Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.

(Psalms 115:5) They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:

(Psalms 115:6) They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:

(Psalms 115:7) They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.

(Psalms 115:8) They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.

The idols and their makers are alike. Now we know, that when man had completed his experiment, when idolatry was refined and refined again, it ended up showing that all idol worship, is self-worship. Man had put himself in the place of God and this was his new religion. A man’s religion is his spiritual government, which by defining his worldview, thereby defines his concept of government. Thus when man replaced God with himself in matters spiritual, he could only accommodate a system of temporal government where he would place himself in the place of God to other men. The monarchy then was the next logical and apparently necessary step. Monos meaning one, and arche meaning chief. Vanity led to idolatry, and idolatry led to the monarchy. the Age of kings was upon mankind, and the first name to effect this new reality was that of Nimrod. His name is a composite of the Sumerian Nimr meaning leopard, and rada meaning subduer, and from his name, we find the cause for the peculiar kingly habit passed down to us and in all lands where kings array themselves in leopard skins.