Idolatry and Three-Place Logic

As the study entitled “Six Idols In Daniel” shows, idolatry as seen by the Lord isn’t confined to the act of bowing down to a graven image. Idolatry is the elevation of any human construct or idea above God Himself. In this brief lesson, we will examine the concepts of: antecedents and subsequencies; the Biblical view of the priority of God; three-place logic as demonstrated in Isaiah 44; and the ways that idolatry is seen in world religions, in human intelligence, in sinful attitudes such as greed, in the elevation of traditions above Biblical teaching, and finally in the enthronement of human experience.

ANTECEDENTS/PRIORITIES AND SUBSEQUENCIES

One way of understanding how something or someone can achieve the status of an idol in the mind of another is through the idea of antecedents and subsequencies. Something which is antecedent comes before something which is subsequent in a temporal sense. For instance, we might say that 3:00 is antecedent to 4:00 on a watch dial. 4:00 would likewise be subsequent to 3:00. Another way of saying that something is antecedent is to say that it is prior. When we use the term priority, we are referring not just to the idea of greater importance, but primarily as the idea of something that happens or exists before a subsequency.

In addition, a subsequency which is tied to an antecedent or priority is usually affected in some way by that priority. For instance, rain that falls (a priority) will have an effect on the seed it irrigates (a subsequency.) God portrays Himself consistently throughout the Bible as the ultimate Priority, out of which all cosmic events and human history flow. The book of Deuteronomy, for instance, shows that God will be the cause of geopolitical stability, crop fecunity, and peace (all subsequencies) if His people are faithful; and the cause of war, famine, and distress if they are unfaithful. The book of Job similarly shows that God is the cause (and sole Interpreter) of everything from weather patterns to tides to animal behavior. He is priority, all of nature is a subsequency.

THREE-PLACE LOGIC

Man’s place in this universe of subsequencies is illustrated by what we might term three-place logic. The Bible teaches that God is Ultimate Priority, that man exists as a subsequency to Him, and that all of the world–what we might call material content–is also a subsequency to to Him. It would look something like this:

Priority—->>> —-subsequency ——–subsequency

However, we must understand that in the graphic above, when we “plug in” man and material content, both man and God are subsequent to Him. Thus:

God (p)—->>> —man(s to God) ——material content (also s to God)

However, man has elevated himself above God in several ways throughout history. One way is by thinking that the material world is subsequent to man, not to God. Many people are content to think that believers are indeed subsequent to God but that even though God created the material world it is somehow under man’s authority. By mentally severing God’s priority over the material world, we fool ourselves into thinking that we have ultimate and direct control over our surroundings—which the Bible vigorously denies.

Three-place logic in this case would look like this:

God (p)–>>> man (s)—>>> material content (s to man)

Enlightenment thinkers went a step further by cutting God out of the picture altogether and claiming that man was “the measure of all things.” By elevating human intelligence and assessment to the status of supreme, the thoughts of man were put in the place of God. Thus:

Human intelligence (p)—>>> material content (s to man)

Thus, human intelligence which is a product of man and thus inherently a subsequency, was put into the place of a priority over everything in the world.

THREE-PLACE LOGIC IN ISAIAH

We can see this process very clearly illustrated as idolatry in the book of Isaiah in chapter 44.
God begins this lesson in the first 8 verses by telling His people that He is an absolute priority. He formed them in the womb (v. 2), He chooses nations (v. 2), He controls weather (v. 3), He controls blessings and His Spirit (v.3), and those who obey Him recognize that they themselves are subsequencies to all this (vv. 4-5.) In verses 6-8 He continues on, showing them that He not only existed long before humankind but that He has power to foretell the future as well. All these things illustrate absolute priority.

Then He introduces the subject of idolatry in verses 9-11. Not only are idols nothing, He says, but those who make them are themselves nothing.

To illustrate this, He uses the example of a blacksmith in verse 12. A blacksmith who believes that by using tools, heating metal, and exhausting himself in backbreaking labor he will show his priority over metal. He is so absorbed in his task that he doesn’t eat or drink and becomes faint. He uses all the might of his arm to show priority over that metal to force it into the shape of an idol.

Next we see the example of the carpenter (vv. 13 and following.) Like the blacksmith, he is meticulous in his measuring and planning and execution of priority over wood. He may have even gone so far as to plant the very tree which he carves (v. 14). He continues in his dominance of the wood, a subsequency, by choosing exactly how he will use it. Some he uses to warm himself, some to cook his dinner, some to carve.

It is the portion he uses to carve an idol, however, that is his downfall. That which he has shown dominance over, which he believes to be a subsequency to himself, he illogically elevates to the position of a priority over himself by bowing down to it! He even asks this product of his own hands to save him!

Thus, he has taken that which he believed to be a subsequency and put it in the prior position over himself:

Idol (material content)–> man–> his circumstances

Or:

Subsequency–>> supposed priority–>> supposed subsequency

Thus, by believing that he exercised priority over the wood, he thought he had the power to elevate it to priority over himself.

SOME CONTEMPORARY APPLICATIONS

Of course, not all idols are made of metal or wood. We can see clearly that all forms of idolatrous religions follow this pattern. Hinduism, for instance, takes fears and superstitions and allows them to become regional gods that exercise tyranny over hearts and minds.

The New Testament shows us that greed, the elevation of our human desires to the position of a priority in our minds, makes us subsequents to it. Colossians 3:5 says that greed is idolatry.

Human intelligence, logic and pretensions that take the prior position in our lives are likewise idols. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 shows that we must take captive our very thinking processes to make sure that they remain subsequencies to God, and that He is always in the prior position.

Jesus showed repeatedly that tradition can become elevated to the prior position. That is what happened to the Pharisees, who could not allow Jesus to occupy the prior position because it was already filled in their lives (Matthew 15:3-9, Mark 7:9-13). He further illustrated this by showing how they couldn’t differentiate between the gold of the temple (a subsequency) and the temple which made that gold sacred (a priority) in Matthew 23:16-22.

It’s easy to let things that we create–like our own emotions and past experiences–become idols as well. Here’s the part that is hardest of all: whenever we allow our moods, our feelings about past events, our common sense, our own experience–any human construct–to rule over us, then we become as much an idolator as the pagan cowering before his own handmade image in a straw hut.