This article is not about worshiping false gods in the way you may be thinking. We have all heard that we worship false gods like power, money, sex, drugs, beauty, education, comfort, children, and maybe most dangerous and prevalent…self. While honesty requires us to acknowledge that many of us worship these things to some degree at times, the focus here is on a different context pertaining to worshiping a God of our choosing.
With that said, I do want to make one comment. There is a quick and simple question that we can ask ourselves that will at least point us in the direction of determining who or what we worship. The question is this: how much time do we devote to what? That’s it. It is that simple. Of course, we spend a lot of time working, caring for family, etc. That’s not what I’m talking about. What do you do when you are not fulfilling those basic responsibilities? For example, think back over the past 12 months. Did you spend more time in a movie theater than you did in church? Did you spend more time in a sports facility than you did in church? Did you spend more time on social media than you did in church? We all live in glass houses so there are no stones being thrown here, but maybe it is something to consider if your answer to the question “what do you worship” is: God. Is it? We are all guilty of some form of that lie, but we also must admit that saying you do something doesn’t make it so. There seems to be a dangerous and significant cultural thought process today that if I say something enough, or if I just say it at all, then it is true. It is not.
The context here does not center around the fact that we worship identifiable false gods as mentioned above. Rather, it seems that more and more, we will give the God of Abraham the “privilege” of being worshiped by us, but we want to worship God as we choose Him to be and not as He has revealed Himself to be. If He can conform to our way of thinking, we’re in. In other words, we take the true and living God, add to Him our perception of the world as we want it to be, take away the things that we don’t think are fair, add what others think God should be, take away the accountability of God, add a completely new set of rules allowing anyone to do or be anything they want, take away the rules we don’t like but have been given to us by that very God, add our sense of self-importance, take away somebody else’s sense of self-importance, add deciding for ourselves who or what God is or isn’t, take away exactly who God told us Himself that He is, and abracadabra…we are worshiping the very God that we have created in our own minds. In other words, we worship the God of our choosing.
One of the ways we can know this is by the increase of those who do not associate with any traditional religious group. We all know these are the “nones”, and they are the fastest growing religious community in America. Research by companies such as Pew and Gallup show that one in three U.S. adults are nones.
Statistics show us that generational patterns have always played a role. In other words, throughout history, as people age, they tend to find their way back to some specific traditional religious affiliation. What is significant today is that there are a larger number of nones across all ages.
As foundation and context, we can look at the following statistics from a 2021 Pew Research study: 63% of the U.S. population self-identify as Christians. This is down from 75% just ten years earlier. 30% consider themselves religiously unaffiliated. This includes atheists, agnostics, or nones. Today, Christians outnumber nones by 2:1. In 2007, that ratio was 5:1.
The most prevalent decline occurred in the Protestant faiths. 40% of U.S. adults are Protestant. As a share of the population, that is a decline of 4% in the last five years and 10% in the last 10 years. 21% of U.S. adults are Catholic. While that number declined between 2007 and 2014, it has remained steady since that time.
Since we are waist deep in the statistic pool, let’s keep going so that we can gain perspective in terms of the premise. Of those surveyed, 45% of U.S. adults say they pray daily. In 2007, that number was 58%. More than half say they feel a deep connection with nature, and 37% say they are “spiritual” but not religious.
If 63% of the U.S. population identifies as Christian, yet those who are actively involved in a religious community is declining, then we need to ask the question: “what God are you worshipping?” We must be worshiping the God of our choosing, the one that fits the way we think and the way we want God to be. In other words, we’ll find a way to worship my-way God without affiliating with religions whose God is not in line with my way of thinking.
As children most of us heard some form of these words: “if you are living in my house, you will follow my way or there will be consequences!” What makes us think that the God of creation is any different? God is love. Period. Why would He order anything that would not show us that love? It might be different if we were not given God’s way, but that is simply not the case. Any thoughts to the contrary only proves the point that we will worship God if His way matches what we think His way should be.
As we grew, we realized that the ways of the house were there for our own good, our own protection and well-being, and out of love. We couldn’t see it when we were complaining that the ways of the house didn’t match what we thought they should be, but experience taught us otherwise, and we even passed some of those once hated ways down to our children. We many not fully understand it, but we accept it. Sounds a little like faith.
Any cursory study of scripture will show that from the very beginning, literally, God gave us His way. In fact, in John 14 Jesus refers to Himself as the Way and leaves no room for interpretation as to the importance of that way. He also told us exactly how we are to worship Him. He never said “give this a try, and if you don’t like it, try that, and if that doesn’t entertain you or is not convenient for you, maybe just come up with something else. Whatever works for you works for me. Forget what I revealed and make up your own form, method, and time of worship.” He not only never said that, but He condemned that way of thinking. It easier for us to simply think that if God is a loving God, and if I am basically a good person then I should be a shoo-in for heaven. I should be able to be nice without much additional obligation of proper worship and be ok for eternity. While being nice is certainly important, Jesus emphatically reminds us in Matthew 7 that the road and gate to heaven are narrow, and few will enter. The good news is that He gives us very specific directions, His way. On the other hand, He also emphatically reminds us that the road using the directions of “me and my way” is very wide, many will follow that road, and it does not lead to a great destination.
God revealed everything to us, but somehow as a society, we find ourselves usurping the prerogative that belongs only to the Creator. What we are seeing in the world today is the same self-glorifying stance that has been around since the beginning. Out of sheer love and goodness, God gives us a complete and ordered creation, and makes it very clear how, for our own good, we are to interact with that creation and worship Him. Often, we respond with “nah, God you’re not thinking right. If you will conform to my way of thinking…become the God of my choosing, then I will worship you, but only in the manner that I want.” In other words, we demand that our new self-truth must retroactively become God’s eternal truth, not the other way around. What gets lost is our relationship with Christ. It becomes very one sided.
Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 that worship requires sacrifice. He tells us “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.” For “nones” and those worshipping a God of their choosing, the sacrifice is completely lost. There is no accountability. It’s comfortable, which is something Jesus tells us time and time and time again that following Him will not be, but He also promises that the reward is worth it.
Ironically, there are not many Christians who would admit that they think God changes or has changed over time, and that society has not changed. Of course, God does not change. Yet, somehow, we have contorted ourselves as a society in believing that God is pliable. We can bend Him and mold Him in a way that fits our social agenda, our politics, our own likes and dislikes, our way of thinking, and sadly, the way we require God to think. The result is a
you-do-you world where anyone should be able to do what they want as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone. The result is that now anyone who disagrees with that is evil, the enemy. Tribalism runs rampant. In some cases, the vocal minority demands that everyone must conform to that way of thinking. Even crazier is the fact that the majority seems to allow it. Maybe it’s just not worth the fight anymore. But that shouldn’t be the reason because we are commanded by Christ to always fight all battles for the good of getting souls to heaven.
God has revealed to us everything we need to know and exactly how He is to be worshiped. He revealed it out of complete love. Every day we seem to take that knowledge, add, and subtract our own thoughts, attitudes, cultures, and ways until God as we know Him (as opposed to who He has clearly said He is) is exactly who we need him to be so that we can justify the disordered lives we have chosen.
The battle for souls is not new, but it is certainly still a battle. Given the statistics above, it does seem that the form of battle has changed. Society has been distancing itself from God in very substantial ways. God’s truth doesn’t matter as much as “my truth.” It’s no longer simply the choice between believing in God or not. It’s turned in to “can I turn God into who I want Him to be?” Satan is all about divide and conquer. Look at what this pursuit of new truth has done to many traditional Protestant denominations. They have divided and will continue to do so over these very issues. It looks like satan’s idea to divide and conquer might be a great plan.
It’s interesting that society spends so much effort worshipping a God of its choosing, we forget what John 15 tells us about the very essence of Christ…He has already chosen us. We simply must choose if we orient our lives toward the truth as He revealed it, or if we turn our backs on, as Jesus described Himself, the truth and orient our lives toward our own self-truth, our own way, and our own convenience. As was the case when we were children in our parent’s creation, if we choose not to worship God as He revealed Himself, but rather worship the God of our choosing, we should also at least consider the consequences. Or have we convinced ourselves there are no consequences?