#daniel strange

Keeping ourselves from idols requires us to put something else in their place, because our hearts are hardwired to worship something.

The despair often reached in our inability to keep God's holy law is one of Satan's main weapons against fallen humanity (he is 'The Accuser').

As Yahweh executes judgment on the gods of Egypt, he shows them to be powerless to defend their worshippers and impotent to enslave his elect.

Christianity offers a unique metaphysics. In contrast to other religions, the Christian God reveals himself to be absolutely independent (a se) and self-contained, and yet absolutely personal, both transcendent and immanent, both 'other to humanity' (we are not like him) and like humanity (we are made in his 'image'). God reveals himself to be triune, both one and many, neither unitarian, henotheistic, polytheistic but trinitarian: one God, Father, Son and Spirit.

It is only because Christ's death is propitiatory that 'Christus Victor' is possible, for in Christ there are no accusations against God's people (Rom. 8:33). No one, not even Satan the accuser and his demonic horde, can make the charge stick. The case is closed - Christ is our righteousness.

In 1 Kings 18:20-40 the contest between God and idols is literal and didactic, the whole encounter being set up for the people of Israel as a revelation of the true God (v. 24). Generally, the story teaches that the name of the true God is Yahweh and not Baal. However, the particulars of the narrative tell us more: Baal is exposed as absent, powerless, unconcerned for his own name and, ultimately, to all intents and purposes dead: Yahweh, by contrast, is present, powerful, jealous for his name and, above all, living. This is not new information for the Israelites; rather, truths already known about the covenant God are brought home by a devastating contrast with his rival. Baal involuntarily helps a recalcitrant Israel to see Yahweh more clearly.

Or, to put all this a little more poetically, we might say that non-Christian religions are not glorious, and yet God can be glorified through them, are not truthful, and yet God can teach us truth through them, are not good, and yet God can bring good through them, and are not salvific, and yet serve God’s purposes in salvation.