J. C. Ryle offers the following sober warning that idolatry is not something just practiced by unbelievers:
It is not necessary for a man formally to deny God and Christ in order to be an idolater. Far from it. Professed reverence for the God of the Bible and actual idolatry are perfectly compatible: they have often gone side by side, and they still do so. The children of Israel never thought of renouncing God when they persuaded Aaron to make the golden calf….We may rest assured that idolatry is a sin which occupies a far wider field than this…it is a pestilence that walks in the Church of Christ to a much greater extent than many suppose. [J.C. Ryle, The Definition and Cause of Idolatry.]
[HT: Kenny Stokes]
Words of Grace 