Exchanging the Glory of God
Human history has witnessed many sad spectacles of superstition ruling the day
in the guise of religion. Not satisfied with the true and living God, man has
often turned to baser pursuits in the place of spiritual truth. Paul talks of
this in the first chapter of Romans.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in
unrighteousness,
19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it
evident to them.
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal
power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what
has been made, so that they are without excuse.
21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks,
but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was
darkened.
22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of
corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
(Romans 1:18-23).
Of course that was so long ago. Ancient man did have some rather silly objects
of worship. Perhaps we have grown to a point where such foolishness no longer
occurs. Don't we wish! Notice the following actual headline:
Jedi 'religion' grows in Australia.
Jedi is the faith espoused in the Star Wars films. More than 70,000 people in
Australia have declared that they are followers of the Jedi faith, the religion
created by the Star Wars films. A recent census found that one in 270
respondents - or 0.37% of the population - say they believe in "the force", an
energy field that gives Jedi Knights like Luke Skywalker their power in the
films. Most of the 70,509 people who wrote Jedi on their census forms were
suspected to have done so in response to an e-mail encouraging all Star Wars
fans to get it recognized as an official religion.
Maybe we have not grown all that much after all. "Professing to be wise, they
are still becoming fools."
By Jon W. Quinn
Front Page
From Expository Files 9.12; December 2002
