The Unlikely Idol

Evan Schaible

"He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love." (I John 4:8)

In the days in which we now find ourselves, that are strangely reminiscent of the days of Noah, we have before us a deadly, yea and even treacherous, form of idolatry. Those of you who are saavy to the direction the professing church is headed, especially in America, perhaps have noticed something peculiar creep over the horizon of modern theological thought. 


Many a professing believer adheres to this deceptive line of thinking, and many a true believer has fallen, or is in danger of falling into the slough. As it continues to rise up over the horizon, the heat of it growing hotter and more intense, and threatening tender shoots of the truth of scripture, we must be wise to the schemes of the enemy, so that the tender shoots will grow to mighty tres of scriptural theology, and no longer be threatened by the heat of the light of heresy.

In my time proclaiming the glorious gospel of peace, and heralding the truth of scripture to thousands of college students, something very disturbing has exalted itself against the exellency of the knowledge of Christ. Multitudes have been taken by this perposterous wind of doctrine, and it threatens to shipwreck many a soul as it fills their sails and carries them towards the rocky shores of heresy. But we must light the lamp, and be a city set on a hill, guiding them safely to the port of Christ. So many students, and so many other precious souls, have been taken by the smart theolgian as he proclaims, above all other things we can know concerning our great and glorious Creator, that God is love.


Now is it not true that God is love? Certainly it is true, and we must believe this in order to rightly know God. God is infinitely loving, and His benevolence shines its rays upon even the darkest of rebels. The rain falls on the just and the unjust, and God, in His unparralelled longsuffering, has saw fit to restrain His judgement upon not only the wicked, but also His people, as He is not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance. The love of God is past finding out, and it is deeper than the deepest sea, and higher than the highest height. It is true that God is love, but it is just as true that love is not God, and herein lies the confusion, the heresy, and the idolatry.

When the person, thinking they are doing God service, thrusts this objection in the face of the message of the justice of God, or the holiness of God, or even the cross, they are actually doing God an immeasurable disservice, and presenting God in an entirely different light than that of the revelation of scripture.