One of the fascinating (and disturbing) things about popular cultural idols is that they are often (always?) strongly linked to the common grace that we considered in question 3. The reason for this is obvious: Satan is no Creator. He’s a deceiver, a distorter of creation. He cannot create anything new – he can only corrupt the goodness of God’s creation. Think of it this way: idolatry is a trap, and grace fragments serve as bait. It’s genius, really. Satan uses the good things of God’s creation as inducements for rebellion against him. We are tempted by the beauty that is supposed to reflect its Creator, and instead we are mollified by the thing. And thus we are drawn into false worship, and we become trapped. Idolatry uses common grace like a spider uses a porch light: the light attracts the moth so it hardly notices the web until it’s too late and it becomes hopelessly entangled. So keep your antennae attuned for the connections between those shining, beautiful shards of grace and the idolatry at the heart of this imaginative popular cultural world.
- Porterbrook curriculum,
module "Culture", Unit 4
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