The Living God Confronts Idolatry - Part 5

"To refuse to glorify God, and even worse, "to exchange the glory fo the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles" (Romans 1:23) is to frustrate the purpose of our very existence. Idolatry is radical self-harm.

It is also radically, terribly ironic. In trying to be as God (in the original temptation and rebellion), we have ended up less human. The principle affirmed in several places in the Bible that you become like the object of your worship (Psalm 115:8, Isaiah 41:24, Isaiah 44:9) is very apparent. If you worship that which is not God, you reduce the image of God in yourself. If you worship that which is not even human, you reduce your humanity still further."

-Dr. Christopher Wright, The Mission of God, p. 172, 173