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Exodus 20:2-4 - "I am the Lord your God, who brought you
out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before
me. You shall not make for yourself any idol in the form of anything in heaven
above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to
them or worship them..."
Judges 6:25-26 - That same night the Lord said to Gideon, "Take the second
bull from your father's herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father's
altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Then build a proper kind
of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the
Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the bull as a burnt offering."
Jeremiah 1:9-10 - The Lord reached out His hand and touched my mouth and said to
me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth. Today I appoint you over
nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build
and to plant."
2 Corinthians 10:5 - We demolish arguments and every lofty thing that exalts
itself against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make
it obedient to Christ.
An "iconoclast" is a person who destroys religious
images or icons or anything thought to be idolatrous, taking away from the true
worship of God. Down through 2000 years of church history there have been many
Christian iconoclasts. When you visit certain ruins of ancient Egypt, for
example, some of the carvings have been defaced. Some of these
"erasures" were the work of a new Egyptian dynasty removing the record
of the accomplishments of a previous dynasty, but other defacings were done by
iconoclasts of the early Christian era. Their goal was to remove and destroy
pagan carvings or sculptures, and they did a pretty good job of destruction--to
the disappointment of lovers of ancient artifacts as well as the Egyptian
department of tourism! The Christian iconoclasts operating in Europe and Asia
destroyed not only what were considered pagan images, but also
"Christian" icons and relics that had become objects of worship.
Sometimes the iconoclasts would go too far and destroy Christian paintings and
other innocuous Christian items as well. During the time of Oliver Cromwell in
Britain, for example, not only images, relics and icons were smashed, but
cathedrals were torn down and a great number of people were killed in the name
of God. Cromwell even went to the extreme of banning athletic activities lest
they become "idols."
The Bottom Line
What does the Bible say about iconoclasm? Idolatry of all kinds can arise
out of conformity to our environment rather than conformity to the mind of God,
so recognizing and tearing down the "idols" in our lives and in our
churches is important. Obviously, we are not to go to the extreme position of
destoying every potential "idol," because what would be left?
So iconoclasm without extremes is biblical. But the Bible's bottom line position
on this subject could be summed up by our title: we are to be "more than
iconoclasts." In the second commandment (Exodus 20:4), God instructed
His people to have no graven images or idols of any kind--nothing that would
supersede God in their hearts or lives. Every iconoclast can quote this com-mandment
very well. But the Lord Jesus summed up the whole Law as follows:
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and Love your neighbor
as yourself" (Luke 10:27). God calls us to be more than iconoclasts!
The worship of God does not result from iconoclasm alone. When the nation
of Judah had turned away from the Lord and sunk to the depths of idolatry, the
Lord told Jeremiah that his ministry would be "to pluck up and to break
down, to destroy and to overthrow,"--but also "to build
and to plant" (Jeremiah 1:10). Tearing down idols in our lives and
in our churches is an essential first step, but we must also place a strong
positive emphasis on renewal. When idols have been deposed, a void may be left.
This void must be filled with praise, adoration and celebration of the one true
God and by positive activities which will strengthen and build us up as
believers. God wants us to be more than iconoclasts.
Gideon's Test
The divine principle of "more than iconoclasts" is exemplified for
us throughout the Old Testament. During the time of the Judges, God's people had
been drawn away from the Lord by the alluring licentious worship of pagan gods,
so God allowed the Midianites to overrun and oppress them for seven long years.
In desperation, Israel cried out to God, and God graciously called Gideon to
lead Israel against the Midianites. Before Gideon could go out to the
battlefield, however, God tested him at home. Gideon's father had built an altar
to Baal and had set up an Asherah pole (an image of the Canaanite goddess
Asherah) on his property. These idols were an offense to God, and Gideon was
commanded to destroy them. We know from archaeological excavations that some of
those Canaanite altars were massive rock structures. In fact, the altar that
Gideon had to destroy required the work of ten men and the strength of a bull to
do the job. We might think that pulling down the pagan statue and the altar to
Baal would have a been a good night's work, and enough to satisfy God's
requirement. But we see that God was not satisfied with this significant act of
iconoclasm alone. In place of the idolatrous images and practices, God commanded
Gideon to build an altar to the Lord and offer worship to the Lord through a
burnt offering. Gideon was told to do more than just tear down--he was
called to be more than an iconoclast!
Hezekiah's Revival
As we examine the history of Israel during the time of the kings, the
biblical records indicate that all the great revivals were characterized by more
than iconoclasm. In 2 Kings 18:4 we see that King Hezekiah was an iconoclast. He
not only destroyed the idolatrous images of foreign gods that had been set up
throughout the land, but he even demolished the "high places" where
the improper and illegal worship of the Lord took place. In addition, he smashed
the bronze serpent that Moses had fashioned and set up in the wilderness 700
years before this time! Over the years this object (which had been made at the
direction of the Lord) had become a "sacred relic" and was even
worshiped! Because of this serious misuse of the bronze serpent, Hezekiah
decided it was better to destroy it than to keep it around as an object for
improper veneration and a distraction from the complete and proper worship of
the Lord. God approved Hezekiah's iconoclasm--and this should be a lesson to any
Christian today who is drawn towards the use of sacred icons and relics for
purposes of worship. It is also a lesson for Christians who venerate their
denomination and its historical roots, or "worship" a favorite
minister or Christian author.
In 2 Chronicles 29 we see that Hezekiah was more than an iconoclast. He
filled the void left by the destruction of the idols and pagan rituals with the
proper worship of the Lord. He cleansed the Temple which had been defiled by
idolatrous images and practices--and then he reinstated worship of the Lord with
sacrifices, praise and celebration. In 2 Chronicles 30 we read that Hezekiah
invited all Israel to come to Jerusalem to participate in the worship and
celebration of the festivals of Passover and Unleavened Bread. The people
responded to his leadership and the result was great joy and blessing. "The
entire assembly of Judah rejoiced, along with the priests and Levites and all
who had assembled from Israel...there was great joy in Jerusalem...The priests
and the Levites stood to bless the people, and God heard them, for their prayer
reached heaven, his holy dwelling place" (2 Chronicles 30:25-27). God
greatly blessed Hezekiah by sending revival and blessing to the nation--because
Hezekiah was more than an iconoclast!
Josiah's Revival
By the time Josiah became king, about 100 years after Hezekiah's revival,
the people of Judah had once again deserted the Lord and become mired in
idolatry. Josiah was an iconoclast. The details of his uncompromising stand are
seen in 2 Kings 23 and 2 Chronicles 34. He ordered the priests to "remove
from the Temple all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry
hosts. He burned them outside Jerusalem... He did away with the pagan priests...
He took the Asherah pole from the temple of the Lord to the Kidron Valley
outside Jerusalem and burned it there... He also tore down the quarters of the
male shrine prostitutes which were in the temple of the Lord... Josiah brought
all the priests from the towns of Judah and desecrated the high places, from
Geba to Beersheba, where the priests had burned incense... He desecrated Topheth,
so no one could use it to sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire to Molech."
In addition, "Josiah removed all the detestable idols from all the
territory belonging to the Israelites... Under his direction the altars of the
Baals were torn down; he cut to pieces the incense altars...and smashed the
Asherah poles, the idols and the images." Then in 2 Chronicles 35 we
discover that Josiah was more than an iconoclast: "He appointed the
priests to their duties and encouraged them in the service of the Lord's
temple... He returned the sacred Ark to the temple of the Lord." From his
own possessions, Josiah provided sheep and goats for the people who had come to
celebrate the Passover, and "the entire service of the Lord was carried out
for the celebration of Passover and the offering of burnt offerings on the altar
of the Lord, as King Josiah had ordered." In 2 Chronicles 34:33 we read
that Josiah "had all who were present in Israel serve the Lord their God.
As long as he lived, they did not fail to follow the LORD, the God of their
fathers." So we see that being more than an iconoclast is a divine
principle for revival.
Revival Today
Are we more than iconoclasts? Do we go beyond the tearing down and
destroying process? This biblical principle for revival and blessing applies in
our lives as individuals, in our family life and in our church life. Some
Christians are great iconoclasts. They don't tolerate anything
"unholy" in their lives. They run a very tight family ship. TV is
banned and family activities are monitored with an iron fist. Their children are
purged of all possible connections to the world. Often these Christian
iconoclasts are right up front when it comes to church discipline or sermons
denouncing the worldly idols and practices that have crept into the church or
into the lives of their fellow-Christians. But these well-meaning people often
fall short of being more than iconoclasts!
2 Corinthians 10:5 says, "We are destroying speculations and every lofty
thing raised up against the knowledge of God." That's iconoclastic
thinking, and it's good and godly. But the verse doesn't stop there! It goes on
to say, "and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of
Christ." That's more than iconoclastic thinking! A paraphrase of this
passage says, "we are smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers
erected against the truth of God, and fitting every loose thought and emotion
and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at
hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of
obedience into maturity." Taking every thought captive to the obedience of
Christ and building lives of obedience into maturity goes far beyond
iconoclasm. After clearing our lives of every obstruction, God wants us to move
ahead with positive activity--obedience leading to maturity. Is there joyful
worship in my personal life? In my family life, is there loving and positive
instruction that promotes a love for the Lord in the hearts of my children? Or
are family devotions generally iconoclastic "thou shalt not" lectures?
In my church, is Christ-like love being demonstrated? Is there compassion and
care for the struggling believer? Is there an emphasis on positive obedience to
God's Word and building up fellow-believers toward maturity? Or is my church
characterized by a critical iconoclastic spirit which only tears down and can
lead to discouragement? Our Lord Jesus calls us to be more--much more!--than
iconoclasts.
If we have "destroyed every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of
God," and if we are "taking every thought captive to the obedience of
Christ," our renewed minds will be devoted to Christ. Our lives will be
transformed, reflecting more closely the life of our Lord. A proper and godly
iconoclasm will have its place in our personal lives, our families and our
churches, but we will primarily be characterized by love, compassion, devotion,
worship and celebration. We will be more than iconoclasts!
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