Okay, so we all know that Barack Obama is openly, religiously worshipped by many folks on the Left. Tales of the ridiculous and blasphemous extremes to which his followers often go to express their adoration have become tragically common. As such, they’ve provided fuel for countless jokes and condemnations aimed at Obama & Friends for many long years now.
Most of the humor and many of the critiques are more than valid on many levels.
Obama worshippers have literally crafted, recorded, and distributed hymns of Obama praise and worship.
They’ve painted pictures, written poems, and constructed various religious apologetics advocating his messianic role in promoting the Progressive vision for America.
They’ve chanted, wept, fought, and bled for his “fundamental transformation” of our culture.
So yeah, they’ve got problems. Serious problems.
Now that their problems are our problems, we are well served to take the time to seriously ask and explore why and how this has happened.
How vulgar and twisted must a mind be to make a man into a god that way?
How warped and perverted must a worldview become in order to allow for the open, public exaltation of a man in such a flagrantly blasphemous manner?
How far removed must a person and culture be in order for such rank idolatry to take hold and define a land and its people?
If we’re serious about finding solid, helpful answers to those questions (especially the last one), and we’re not just lazy, hypocritical, self-serving noise makers looking to crack another Obama joke or take another cheap and easy shot at “the Left”, then a great place for us to start in our consideration of this subject is with…George Washington.
Yep.
George Washington.
More specifically, George Washington as depicted in The Apotheosis of Washington, a ginormous, worshipful, and rather flagrantly blasphemous bit of art adorning the dome in the rotunda of our very own United States Capitol Building since its completion near the end of the Civil War, when the supremacy of the State was being cemented into place using any and all available forms of propaganda and idolatry.
Before I go any further, let me present here a few close-up sections from this gigantic display of American idolatry. As you look through them, please keep one question front and center in your mind:
What has the one true God said about this?
Okay then, with that in mind, away we go…
In the “Science” panel of The Apotheosis of Washington, we have Minerva, the Roman goddess of crafts and wisdom, with American scientists and inventors Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Morse, and Robert Fulton looking on. How cool, right? Yay, America!
For the “Marine” portion of our presentation, we see Neptune, the Roman god of the sea. Also depicted is Venus, goddess of love (who was, of course, born from the sea). They are apparently helping to lay the transatlantic telegraph cable. Isn’t that just awesome! We have not one, but two gods helping us out here! Oh yeah! [insert “U! S! A!” chant here]
For the “Commerce” section of this worship-loaded display, we are treated to Mercury, the Roman god of…what else?…commerce. He is shown here giving a bag of gold to American Revolutionary War financier Robert Morris. Cha-ching!
In the “Mechanics” wing of our presentation, we see Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and the forge. The man at the forge is said to represent Charles Thomas, the supervisor of ironwork during the construction of the Capitol dome. No wonder that dome turned out so good, right?!
Here in the “Agriculture” section, we have Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture. “Young America”, in a liberty cap, holds the reins of the horses, while the goddess Flora gathers flowers in the foreground. Another two-fer on the gods front here; America has truly been blessed with a “double portion” in the realm of agriculture!
There’s so much that could (and perhaps should) be said here (I haven’t even gotten to the specifics George’s radically unbiblical portrayal yet), but I want to keep it relatively short and simple:
God has spoken. He hates this. It is flagrantly evil…and most modern day “Christian” Americans love it!
And God spoke all these words, saying,
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
“You shall have no other gods before me.” ~ Exodus 20:1-3 (emphasis added)
Remember: When God commands that there be “no other gods before me”, He is not even remotely suggesting that it’s just fine and peachy to have or allow other gods in the land, so long as they are not ahead of Him in line or above Him in status. No, that’s not what the language here conveys at all.
Its plain, crystal clear meaning is that there are to be no other gods in His sight within the land of His obedient people.
No other gods are to be tolerated, much less openly worshiped.
Even in paintings.
Even when escorted by (or escorting) George Washington. (See: Openly Reject God’s First Commandment? YES! WE! CAN!)
Such displays of worship are always fundamentally evil and destructive to any people who would have (and adore) them.
So the next time we roll our eyes or proclaim our “shock and horror” at the latest repulsive public proclamation of rank idolatry and man-worship from the Left, let’s remember that they’re just following the long established lead of the professing Christian church in America. (See: Judgment begins with the Church…not the Democrats.)
The Orwellian totalitarian American State that we are now watching emerge all around us has come our way first and foremost because professing Christians have allowed and encouraged it to do so through their proud, open idolatry of America, Americans, and patriotism itself.
What I hope and pray we might see through the honest, serious examination of many displays like this one from throughout our history is that we have great sin and idolatry to repent of…and we have been graced with the undeserved opportunity to do just that right here and now.
So will we repent…or will we be destroyed?
Will we beg the Lord for forgiveness and turn to His perfect Word as our standard in practice…or will we proudly cling to our ways en route to our destruction?
Will we lead the way to restoration through repentance, or will we lead the way to ruin through our denial of God, His Gospel, and His Great Commission?
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Soli Deo Gloria!