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We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry

By March 4, 2009July 19th, 2014No Comments

G. K. BEALE, IVP Academic, 341 Pages, Paper, $26.00

If you’re studying the subject of worshiping anything that is a substitute for God, you’ll surely want to obtain this volume. Idolatry is rampant today, as the author correctly points out:

We need to remember that the Old Testament idea of worshiping wooden, stone and metal images is still very relevant to twenty-first century people, since we have seen that even by New Testament times idolatry took such nonliteral forms as trusting in dead tradition or in money (recall Paul’s words in Eph 5 and Col 3). The last verse of 1 John says, “Guard yourselves from idols.”

Further, Beale points out that idolatry was a danger in the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3:

These letters are also addressed to all of God’s people until Christ’s final coming. Is the church today experiencing the anesthesia of idolatry? One of the symptoms is less sensitivity to the truth of God’s Word and more reliance on the world’s perspective about how to live.

This indeed is the basic premise of the book, as the very title indicates. We certainly become more like what we worship. The work has an extensive bibliography and several indexes.

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