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The concept that there is only one God at the same time there is
plurality of ways to reach the ultimate reality, has been around
the Christianity for centuries. Many Christian theologians
came to a compromising view which gave importance to
socio-political and cultural context rather than the word of
God. Aren’t
we all not guilty of the fact that we get soaked up in the
pluralistic view?
In
Ex 20:3-6
“You shall have no other gods before me; you shall not make for
yourself an idol whether in the form of anything that is in
heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the
water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship
them...”
The concept of
worship is expressed by the term serve. In so far as
serving other people is a divine command, a fulfillment of it is
part of
worship to please God. To truly honor God, it is necessary to
obey his law and moral laws. Worship is giving praise and Honor.
The service of worship is simply and outward expression of
everyday inward meaning of our lives in which we show by visible
and spoken signs that we live in fellowship with God.
We find millions of gods and goddesses around us. When we talk
about gods, we limit our thinking with the gods of other
religions. There are more gods other than religious gods- gods
out side the religions. We think gods are in the religions or
for god(s) there should be a religion. But the truth is to
create a god it do not need a religion. The religions never give
birth to a new god but human hearts give birth to gods and
religions.
People and Personalities:
Today in Christianity the worshiping of personalities has
entered and brought in false teachings. Currently, Christianity
in India is mostly based on a person than Christ. Worship begins
with respect/honor and gradually progresses to prayer ends up in
pleasing the person. This is what happens in our own realm. The
leaders forget that Jesus came to this world, “not to be
served, but to serve.” He had a servant’s heart that he washed
his disciple’s feet and showed the example of serving others.
Today, leaders
are gods and God is the servant to the people. Leaders are
worshiped more than God for their personal needs. They worship
and listen to them (leaders) than God’s word. Gradually, the
leader takes the position of God and the church will collapse.
Work & Possession:
Oswald Chamber says ,“Where would you be if God took away all
your work? Too often, it is our work that is worshiped and not
God.”
In this world,
God has given man the opportunity to work and earn his living.
Through this we can earn money, make possessions, fame and
power. But we forget ourselves and invest everything that we
have to get more and along the way these become our gods too.
“There is a saying, “Eagles will not fly over money” i.e Money
is above everything-Money is god!
In
Genesis 31:19, 34-“When Laban had gone
to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household gods.
Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them inside her
camel’s saddle and was sitting on them. Laban searched through
everything in the tent, but found nothing.”
Rachel is very
cunning here. She has taken her father’s household gods and she
lied to her father that she did not take them. She cheated her
father, husband and Jehovah. Often we are more than willing to
lie to anyone to get what we want. Rachel lied to her family and
Jehovah to possess the gods of her ancestors. These gods did not
have any special kind of power. In the above verse she is asking
Jacob when they decided to flee, if they will get any
inheritance from their father. (Gen 31:14-16). Laban did not
give his children the possessions as they expected so Rachel
decided to take what she could when they left. We also do the
same thing. We take small things a possession, which later
becomes our god.
Church & Organizations:
When Alexander the Great conquered Jerusalem in 300 BCE and
brought in the Greek culture and worldview. The people of God
began to lose their morality and Godly behavior. In order to
maintain and preserve the purity of the Jewish culture, a group
was formed. Their name means “Separatists” because they
separated themselves from the influences of the surrounding
culture. They were the ones who memorized the scripture and knew
every word of the Law, living with absolute zeal for
righteousness and holiness. But along the way their zeal for God
turned sour. Instead of centering their lives on God, they
focused on politics. They became proud and externalized all
their religion and faith with a long list of do’s and don’ts to
show themselves as righteous to everyone around them. Later in
the book of Matt 23: 27f Jesus
called them “Woe to you Scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! …
This is true in
today’s churches. Many begin with a great vision to fulfill
God’s purpose and plans, have the right goals, but the
motivation and intensions are lost along the way. Now, the
organization and the church play the role of God. People give
more reverence to the church, or organizations. They even forget
the fact that these churches belongs to God, not the church
exists by itself (Eph 4:15-16).
We Christians
are ready to go down to the streets and fight for the name of
the church and forget what Jesus has taught us in his public
ministry. They forget to love each other, share the Gospel and
follow the great commission. The truth behind is that they give
the place of God to the church. So it can be said in this way,
the church became the God.
Ideology & Doctrines:
Britannica Encyclopedia says, “An Ideology is form of so The
significance of Ideology follows from the fact that power is
rarely exercised without some ideas of beliefs that justify
support. Marxism is based on ideology “centralization of
economy.” In a view, we can say that they believe, honor and
worship the ideology. So these ideologies are the gods for these
groups. In other words, atheists do worship a god, i.e .Ideology
The traditional
Christianity and the protestant Christians like us are equally
facing a challenge inside the church. The traditions and
protestant Christians are sticking on to their doctrines than to
come down and see the common factors of Christianity like God
sent his begotten son, came to earth, died for our sin,
resurrected and ascended to heaven. It is a fact that the
doctrines developed from the word of God but the dangerous side
of it is giving more value to the doctrine than the word of God.
Satan always
built strategies to kill the church. The churches should be
aware of this plot and to fight against him with the double
edged sword- Scriptures
Living in a
pluralistic society, is it possible to share the one and only
God?
Anne Bradstreet
says: Many can speak well but few can do well, we are better
scholars in the theory than the practice part, but he is a true
Christian that is proficient in both. We should not forget, in
the first century church there were only few Christians in the
pluralistic society, but today they reach all over the world.
They saw the works of God, Christ in its centre.
Burn all other
gods in your life and burry their ashes or through them in the
deep sea where they will never come back to you again. Ask God
Jehovah to be in throne of your life and give no space for any
other gods to creep in. |
