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Idolatry has been a problem a lot longer than 500 years. All sin has it's root in idolatry. If Eve would have truly known The Lord and known that He is always merciful and just, she would not have disobeyed God. If she would have known of His wisdom and love she would not have ate the fruit of that tree.
500 YEARS of FIGHTING IDOLATRY
-extracts by Tony Reinke
Five hundred years ago, God ignited a small flame in Wittenberg,
Germany, and it grew into the golden blaze of the Protestant
Reformation. What started in the hands of Martin Lutherīs fabled
hammer swings, soon became a battering ram which rung across
the culture, smashing every false image of God in the cultural
worship of the day.
It got messy.
Yes, it smashed images and statues and shrines and icons and
relics. But these were simply outward manifestations of the
invisible idols rooted in sinful hearts - idols sometimes
perpetuated under the guise of "Christianity."
"The Protestant Reformation was a declaration of war on vain
thoughts about God."
The Reformers perceived the ancient expression of idol-making
as simply the expression of an inner idol, a falsely placed
confidence. The Protestant Reformation was a declaration of
war on vain thoughts about God. And when war is declared
against vain thoughts about God, war is declared on the cultureīs idols.
Idol Factory
John Calvin fought in this battle, famously writing that "Manīs
nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols." But listen
to what Calvin says a few sentences later.
"Manīs mind, full as it is of pride and boldness, dares to imagine
a god according to its own capacity; as it sluggishly plods,
indeed is overwhelmed with the crassest ignorance, it conceives
an unreality and an empty appearance as God." (Institutes, 1:108)
Nothing is more dangerous than religious confidence in a fake
god of our own imagining.
Luther might have abandoned many sinful practices of the RCC, but he did not reform all of the sinful practices. The Lutheran church still walked in idolatry by insisting that the communion wine and bread was the actual blood and flesh of Jesus. Calvin also was not free of idolatry.
500 YEARS of FIGHTING IDOLATRY
-extracts by Tony Reinke
Five hundred years ago, God ignited a small flame in Wittenberg,
Germany, and it grew into the golden blaze of the Protestant
Reformation. What started in the hands of Martin Lutherīs fabled
hammer swings, soon became a battering ram which rung across
the culture, smashing every false image of God in the cultural
worship of the day.
It got messy.
Yes, it smashed images and statues and shrines and icons and
relics. But these were simply outward manifestations of the
invisible idols rooted in sinful hearts - idols sometimes
perpetuated under the guise of "Christianity."
"The Protestant Reformation was a declaration of war on vain
thoughts about God."
The Reformers perceived the ancient expression of idol-making
as simply the expression of an inner idol, a falsely placed
confidence. The Protestant Reformation was a declaration of
war on vain thoughts about God. And when war is declared
against vain thoughts about God, war is declared on the cultureīs idols.
Idol Factory
John Calvin fought in this battle, famously writing that "Manīs
nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols." But listen
to what Calvin says a few sentences later.
"Manīs mind, full as it is of pride and boldness, dares to imagine
a god according to its own capacity; as it sluggishly plods,
indeed is overwhelmed with the crassest ignorance, it conceives
an unreality and an empty appearance as God." (Institutes, 1:108)
Nothing is more dangerous than religious confidence in a fake
god of our own imagining.
Luther might have abandoned many sinful practices of the RCC, but he did not reform all of the sinful practices. The Lutheran church still walked in idolatry by insisting that the communion wine and bread was the actual blood and flesh of Jesus. Calvin also was not free of idolatry.