'Feet up!'

When Paul says “we trust in the living God,” there’s a sense in which that’s the motto of the Christian life, says Jordan.

“If you chase that expression about God being the living God through the Bible from the beginning to end, every context you see it in will demonstrate that He’s a God who can take action. He’s a God of LIVING things.

“You remember when David went out and faced Goliath? He says, ‘Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?' In other words, in David’s mind, the God of Israel, the God of the Bible, the God of creation, was a God who could get some things done.

“In I Timothy 3:15, Paul talks about how were ‘the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.’

“When he talks about ‘the church of the living God,’ there was another church in Ephesus. You see there are a lot of religious systems. There was the Church of Diana at Ephesus. You know, ‘Great is the temple of Diana’ (Acts 19). She was considered the 'queen of heaven.’ Her idol had fallen down from Jupiter and landed on the earth and the temple of Diana, at the time of Paul, was one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

“He’s contrasting with the dead god. Isaiah 40-48, when it talks about all these false gods that corrupted Israel, God says, ‘You go and worship this idol and it’s just a blockhead. You had to go out into the woods and cut down the tree and bring it in, carve it, set it up there and when you want to vacuum the floor, you got to move the stupid thing!  It can’t even pick its feet up!’

“When I’m at home and my wife’s vacuuming the family room, at least I pick my feet up from the chair so she can get under it. He says, ‘You’re serving and bowing down to a god, an idol, that won’t even do that!’ He says, ‘You’re as nutty as it is; you’re not thinking because it’s DEAD; can’t even move itself!'

“But the God of the Bible is a ‘living God’; a God who has the ability to accomplish great things.”

*****

The other month, when I took one of my residents, 87-year-old Wanda, to the Barnes & Noble in downtown Evanston, I bought a book from the clearance table inside the front door called, “Who’s Who In Religion,” written by Philip Wilkinson. Just the glossy color pictures alone in the reference guide demonstrate how focused other religions are on worshipping dead images they equate with their god.

Among the dozens of religions profiled was the ancient religion of Jainism, born in India in the sixth century BC. A picture showed the “festival of Mahamastakabhisheka” (‘anointing of the head’) that takes place every 12 years at the 56 ft. statue of Gomateswara, a Jain holy man.

“Each Jain temple is presided over by one of the tirthankaras, the early teachers of the faith,” says the book. “Inside the temple there is a statue of the relevant tirthankara and, for most Jains, this image is central to their worship . . .

“One ritual, also used in Hinduism, involves making eye contact with the image of the tirthankara, often while reciting a mantra . . .

“Another form of worship intended to bring the worshipper closer to the supreme beings involves cleaning the image of the tirthankara, anointing it with substances such as saffron, and decorating it with flowers . . .

“As well as the communal temples and shrines, many Jain houses contain small shrines to enable the inhabitants to perform rituals of worship at home. These home shrines can be carved quite elaborately, in a style similar to the temples.”

*****

In a chapter on Buddhism, a picture showed “The Great Buddha (Daibutsu)” at Kamakura, Japan; a giant bronze statue of the Amitabha Buddha that stands more than 42 feet high.

“Amitabha is said to be the ruler of a kind of heaven known as the Pure Land, where he sits on a lotus, glowing with golden light,” says the text.

Another photo showed one of many publicly worshipped “Bodhisattvas,” considered enlightened beings (“Buddhas-to-be who renounce enlightenment in order to help others reach nirvana”) in the Mahayana Buddhism faith. The caption states, “Statues of them, like this one at the Po Lin Monastery in Hong Kong, are widespread.”

The book had another chapter about the three principal Hindu gods, collectively called the Trimurti, made up of Siva, Brahma and Visnu.

According to the book, “Siva is usually shown in Hindu temples and shrines as a male humanoid figure—perhaps a handsome young man or beggar. His face is often shown with three eyes, which stand for the sun, the moon and the fire of Siva.”

Brahma, worshipped as “the creator of the universe,” is known for his four heads. Ganesh, a son of Siva, is recognizable because of his elephant’s head. Kali, a fearsome incarnation of Siva’s consort, has dark skin and a terrifying expression on her face; her tongue drips blood. Then there’s the monkey god Hanuman.

*****

At the summer Bible conference just past was an unexpected attendee—an Indian woman who has a ministry on the Southside of Chicago and was fired up about preaching the gospel.

Jordan recalls, “She kept telling me, ‘You got to get on this thing!’ In downtown Chicago just a month or so ago, in Daley Plaza, there were 5,000 Americans who converted to Hinduism in a ceremony held there.

“She said in her country, in the state she’s from, the newspapers are bragging all the time about how many Americans are being converted. She said the thing that’s so damning is that you can’t teach the Bible in school anymore, you can’t even mention the God of the Bible, but they teach yoga. She said she was converted out of a Brahma level of Hinduism in which yoga is one of the first doorways into Hinduism.

“Now, you go over here to Lifetime Fitness, or wherever you take a yoga class, and don’t think anything of it. But if you get into it, what it does is set you up to go to the next level of, ‘Well, why does this work?’ You thought you were just stretching but then they get you into all of the chakra stuff and business. She said, ‘It’s sucking people in!’

“What she’s saying is all that Hinduism, and the Daoism, and the Middle Eastern religions, they profess to be saviors, but they’re not.

“Paul says there’s only one Savior and that’s ‘the living God’ and he’s the Savior for everybody no matter what, ‘especially those that believe.’ To have Him be your Savior in any effective, applicable sense, you’ve got to believe.

“When Paul says ‘He’s the savior of all men,’ what he’s saying is there’s only one real Savior."