Iconoclasm

The Heidelberg Catechism

Q. What is idolatry?

A. Idolatry is having or inventing something in which one trusts in place of or alongside of the only true God, who has revealed himself in the Word.

As heirs to the reformation, we have inherited a tradition of iconoclasm. We are called to smash idols that exist in culture; those things that interfere with us seeking an honest understanding of God. We have strayed from that iconoclastic path, but I think it’s important to remember that there is not one person who is uniquely associated with God. There is not one country that is uniquely associated with God. There is not one political party uniquely associated with God. The deification of political leaders is a sin. Associating human cruelty with the will of God is a sin. Seeing vengeance as God’s action in the public sphere is a sin.

We can’t allow this. We can’t allow the image of God to be malformed into human failures. We can’t allow the realm of the holy to be identified with a specific people or place.

John Calvin wrote this in his magnum opus, the Institutes:

The human mind, stuffed as it is with presumptuous rashness, dares to imagine a god suited to its own capacity; as it labours under dullness, nay, is sunk in the grossest ignorance, it substitutes vanity and an empty phantom in the place of God. To these evils another is added. The god whom man has thus conceived inwardly he attempts to embody outwardly. The mind, in this way, conceives the idol, and the hand gives it birth.

We can’t allow our vanity to take the place of God. When we create an idol of flawed and cruel humans, we seek to emulate those humans. It degrades our world and abuses the true God of justice and peace.

The reformed branches of the German church addressed this in 1934 in the Theological Declaration of Barmen:

Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death.

We reject the false doctrine, as though the church could and would have to acknowledge as a source of its proclamation, apart from and besides this one Word of God, still other events and powers, figures and truths, as God’s revelation.

And:

The Christian Church is the congregation of the brethren in which Jesus Christ acts presently as the Lord in Word and Sacrament through the Holy Spirit. As the Church of pardoned sinners, it has to testify in the midst of a sinful world, with its faith as with its obedience, with its message as with its order, that it is solely his property, and that it lives and wants to live solely from his comfort and from his direction in the expectation of his appearance.

We reject the false doctrine, as though the church were permitted to abandon the form of its message and order to its own pleasure or to changes in prevailing ideological and political convictions.

The reformed church in South Africa concluded the Confession of Belhar, the theological statement against the apartheid regime, by saying:

We believe that, in obedience to Jesus Christ, its only head, the church is called to confess and to do all these things, even though the authorities and human laws might forbid them and punishment and suffering be the consequence. Jesus is Lord. To the one and only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be the honor and the glory for ever and ever.

In the Presbyterian Brief Statement of Faith the PC(USA) says:

The Spirit gives us courage to pray without ceasing, to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior, to unmask idolatries in Church and culture, to hear the voices of peoples long silenced, and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.

This is our legacy. We are heirs of a tradition steeped in calling out dangerous idolatries in culture.

We are in a time of idolatry.

We are the ones who need to bring us out of it.

Peace,

Jeff

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As people of faith, we are called not only to recognize the idolatries that distort God’s truth, but also to live differently—to embody justice, peace, and love in the world. At Twelve Corners Presbyterian Church, we seek to walk this path together, supporting one another as we follow Christ’s call. Come be part of this community of faith and courage. Join us for worship on Sunday at 10:00 a.m.; all are welcome, and we’re saving a seat for you.