The God That Failed

 

One of the most disturbing scenes from Cecil B. DeMille's great movie, "The Ten Commandments," shows Rameses--the Egyptian pharoah--standing before an idol praying fervently for life to return to the body of his dead son.  He confesses that he has not been particularly devout in his commitment to the gods, but promises to build a great temple if the idol would bring his son back to life.  He prayed, "Great Lord of Darkness, show that you are greater than the God of Moses."  The queen finds Rameses praying and taunts him for his failure to kill Moses.  She tells him that it is useless to pray to the idol.  He cannot restore life to their dead son.

 

In view of what we know about idols, how can intelligent people devote themselves to gods which they have made with their own hands?  The apostle Paul told the Ephesians there are no gods which are made with men's hands (Acts 19:26).  The same apostle told the Greek intellectuals: "God who made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; neither is he worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he gives to all life, and breath, and all things" (Acts 17:24-25).  Paul joined a long line of Old Testament prophets and New Testament preachers in showing the stupidity of worshipping idols.

 

We may be deluded into thinking that modern men are too intelligent, too sophisticated and too educated to worship the gods of their own making.  Unfortunately, that is not the case.  When I visited Singapore and Malaysia in the early 1980s, I was startled and disappointed to find idol temples in every city and statutes of false gods in every store.  I heard an Indian scholar say just a few days ago that there are 300,000,000 gods in India--300,000,000.  No wonder India is one of the most backward countries on the face of God's earth.  How can they expect to be brought into the modern world when they are devoted to idol worship?

 

In 1949, Richard Crossman, a member of the parliament in Great Britain, edited a book with the title, The God that Failed (New York: Harper & Brothers; Publishers).  Six brilliant authors wrote chapters for the book.  The writers were Arthur Koestler, who later committed suicide, Richard Wright, Louis Fisher, Ignazio Silone, Andre Gide and Stephen Spender.  These six authors became disillusioned with capitalism and democracy and joined the Communist Party.  They believed that the ills of society could not be cured by democracy, but could be cured by communism.  These men soon learned that communism was not the god it promised to be.  Koestler writes: "At no time and in no country have more revolutionaries been killed and reduced to slavery than in Soviet Russia" (p. 71).  Arthur Koestler concludes his chapter by writing: "I served the Communist Party for seven years--the same length of time as Jacob tended Laban's sheep to win Rachel his daughter.  When the time was up, the bride was led into his dark tent; only the next morning did he discover that his ardors had been spent not on the lovely Rachel but on the ugly Leah" (p. 75).

 

While these authors came from different backgrounds, were educated in different ways, they all learned that communism was not the god of their imagination.  They turned against communism and opposed it vigorously.  They learned from bitter experience that communism was "the god that failed." The title of the book I have just mentioned, "The God That Failed," will be the subject of our brief study today.  I want to show that only the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the living and true God--the one in whom we live and move and have our being.  He alone can save men from their sins and give them a home with him and the saints of all the ages.  I urge you to listen carefully to our study of my topic.

 

The contrast between the God of the Bible and the gods of men's creation can be clearly seen in the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal.  As you know from your reading of the Old Testament, there was a continuing spiritual battle between Ahab, the king of Israel, and Elijah, God's faithful prophet.  Ahab despised Elijah, just as he despised all of God's great spokesmen.  On one occasion, when Ahab and Elijah met, the king asked the prophet, "Are you he who troubles Israel?" Elijah responded, "I have not troubled Israel; but you, and your father's house, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and you have followed the Baals" (1 Kings 18:17-18).

 

Elijah urged king Ahab to gather the prophets of Baal at mount Carmel.  Ahab complied with the prophet's request.  Elijah also asked that the Israelites be present on that occasion.  The great prophet of God asked the Israelites, "How long do you halt between two opinions?  If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal be God, then follow him.  And the people did not say a word" (1 Kings 18:19-21).  Elijah believed he was the only faithful prophet left, but he was dead wrong about that.  The Lord had thousands of prophets who were faithful to his word.

 

Elijah proposed a test to determine if Jehovah was the true God or if Baal was the true God.  He asked that two bullocks be cut in pieces and placed on an altar.  Wood was to be placed under the altar, but no fire was to be used.  The prophets of Baal were to call on their gods to send fire to consume the sacrifice (1 Kings 18:23-24).  The people present approved of Elijah's test.  So one of the bullocks was dressed, placed on the altar but no fire was used.  The prophets of Baal "called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us.  But there was no voice, nor any that answered.  And they leaped upon the altar that was made'' (1 Kings 18:25-26).

 

            Elijah knew from the beginning that the pagan gods could not respond to the prayers and pleadings of the prophets of Baal.  When no fire from Baal appeared, the prophet began to taunt the heathen prophets.  "Cry aloud: for he is god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping, and must be awakened."  The prophets of Baal "cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed upon them.  And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded" (1 Kings 18:28-29).

 

Elijah asked the people to come near to observe what was about to occur.  He built an altar of stone in the name of the Lord, put wood under the altar and laid the pieces of a bullock on the altar.  He asked that four barrels of water be poured on the wood and the altar.  He asked that the same be done a second time and a third time.  "The water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench with water." At the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah came before the altar and prayed, "Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word.  Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again" (1 Kings 18:32-37).

 

In response to the prophet Elijah's prayer, God sent fire and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench." The Israelites who were present had no difficulty understanding the significance of Elijah's test.  "And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God" (1 Kings 18:38-39).  Elijah instructed the children of Israel to take the prophets of Baal and slay them.  Not one of the prophets escaped (1 Kings 18:40).  You can imagine how the slaying of the prophets of Baal angered Jezebel, but I shall have to wait for another time to discuss Jezebel's plot to kill the prophet Elijah.

 

For thousands of years, men and women have constructed their own gods and pretended that those gods had power in their lives.  But there is no behavior that is more inexcusable and inexplicable than making our own gods and serving them.  The Baals of the ancient world were gods of men's own inventions.  They were men's substitutes for the true God of Israel.  But as you can readily understand from my discussion of Elijah and the prophets of Baal, pagan gods have no knowledge, no power and no relevance to humanity.  Only the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ can provide for man's spiritual and physical needs.  Only God can save us from our sins and give us a home eternal in the heavens.  So why would anyone reject the true God for any kind of false god--whether Baal or Ashteroth or any other?

 

            The prophets of the Old Testament strongly condemned all idol worship, even what Ezekiel called "idols in the heart" (Ezek. 14:2-3).  Jeremiah describes what the Israelites did in worshipping idols.  "For one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.  They deck it with silver and with gold: they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.  They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go.  But not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good" (Jer. 10:3-5).

 

Perhaps no Old Testament writer shows the stupidity of idol worship more powerfully than the Psalmist.  "Their idols are silver and gold, the work of man's hands.  They have mouths, but they cannot speak; they have eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears but they cannot hear; they have noses but they cannot smell; they have hands, but they cannot feel; they have feet, but they cannot walk; they cannot make a sound with their throat.  Those who make them will become like them, everyone who trusts in them" (Psa. 115:4-8).

 

In contrast to the idols who can do nothing, our God created the world and all that is in it.  He is also the one who keeps it operating.  But how can I show you the greatness of our God any more impressively than by reading these words: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved" (John 3:16-17).  Could any idol do so much for the human family?  Our God is the living and true God--the God who loves, comforts, sustains, provides for our needs and saves.

 

Very few Americans actually make idols with their own hands to worship. Instead, we invent idols in our hearts, to quote the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek. 14:2-3).  I shall give you one example before our time expires.  Millions of Americans worship the god of prosperity and health.  One national network has dozens and dozens of preachers who constantly emphasize that the god they worship does not want any sick or poor children.  If we trust in God, they argue, he will make us rich and keep us healthy.  Gloria Copeland's book, God's Will Is Prosperity (Ft. Worth: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Inc., 1978), affirms that the Bible "simply reveals that lack and poverty are not in line with God's will for the obedient." She insists that she is not willing to live "in lack" (p. 37).  She says she decided simply to call for the specific amount of money she needed "(p. 43).  She claims that she and her husband, Kenneth Copeland, have told God what they wanted and have never failed to receive it.  They have demanded that God give them houses, cars, airplanes, office buildings and such like.  They believe God has an obligation to furnish their needs (p. 70).  She concludes her book by affirming: If you obey the word of God, there is no power that can keep you from having wealth and riches (p. 125).  The Laws of Prosperity, Kenneth Copeland's book, (Ft. Worth: Kenneth Copeland Publications, 1974), uses the same approach to health and wealth I have summarized in his wife's book.  He argues that the Jews do not believe in poverty since poverty was not a part of the old covenant (p. 32).  Kenneth Copeland ought to know that there are millions of Jews in Palestine and throughout the world who are poor and sick.  Tragically, most of the Jews do not even believe the old covenant.  Kenneth Copeland believes that the new covenant includes, not only salvation, but healing, deliverance and prosperity (p. 38).  Copeland affirms that "the apostle Paul learned the spiritual law of giving and operated it "proficiently" (p. 51).

 

Since Mr. Copeland mentioned the apostle Paul, we should be able to profit by reading the apostle's own words.  He said to the Philippians: "But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me has flourished again; where you were also careful, but you lacked opportunity.  Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, there with to be content" (Phil. 4:10-11).  Was Paul so naive or misinformed that he did not know about the law of prosperity?  Did he not know that all he had to do was demand that God give him what he wanted?  Please listen further to Paul.  "I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all in things I am instructed both to full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need" (Phil. 4:12).

 

The apostle Paul was one of the world's greatest missionaries.  Would God shower great blessings on modern health and wealth preachers and let Paul go hungry?  There were times when his fellow Christians furnished abundance of food and other necessities.  There were other times when they did not.  Paul had experienced fullness and hunger, abundance and great poverty.  Were his suffering and poverty based on Paul's lack of faith in God's promises?  And did you know that some of Paul's fellowworkers were seriously ill?  Paul speaks of Epaphroditus as his brother, companion in labor, and fellowsoldier.  He then writes: "He was sick near unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow" (Phil.  2:27).  Could not Paul command the Lord to make Epaphroditus well?  Why did Paul allow him to get sick in the first place?  Was his sickness a reflection on the faith of Epaphroditus or on Paul or on both?

 

We know very little about a man named Trophimus, but we know he was one of Paul's fellowworkers.  Paul told Timothy that he had left Trophimus at Miletus sick (2 Tim. 4:20).  Does the sickness of Trophimus make sense in view of the so-called 'health and wealth gospel?" Paul should have rebuked Trophimus for allowing sickness to hamper his work in the Lord's vineyard.  Both Paul and Trophimus should have demanded that God restore the sick to his normal walk in life.  I wonder why they did not.  And why does God allow some of his most faithful servants to get sick and die?

 

The god who is supposed to make all his children healthy and wealthy is not the God of the Bible.  He is an idol that some people have created and use for the deception of their followers.  Tragically, only the promoters of this false gospel have access to unlimited wealth.  But even the ones who preach this false teaching get sick and die.  This shows conclusively that the doctrine of prosperity is an invention of men.  It is an idol for destruction.

 

Other idols are worshipped by large segments of American society, such as, the god who is obligated to meet all my emotional needs, the god who favors my gender and others.  But these will have to wait for another occasion.  We need to remember the words of Paul to the Thessalonians.  "You have turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God" (1 Thess. 1:9).  There is only one true God--the God who is revealed in the Bible.  We must love him, serve him and worship him.  He is the God who will judge us in the last great day.

 

Winford Claiborne

The International Gospel Hour

P.O. Box 118

Fayetteville, TN 37334

 

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