jlay wrote:Whether one shapes a god out of gold, or shapes one in their mind, it is still idolatry. When a person says, "Too me, God is......." they are committing the oldest sin in the book. They are shaping a god in their own mind, which of course is no God at all. The great philosophical minds of antiquity postulated that a supreme being would have certain traits. Natural theology is about 2,400 years old, and has demonstrated most of what you present to be false.
Interesting.
You correctly understand that applying a human imagined concept of God is a sin even if one does not physically represent it. However, you have an error in your perception of what constitutes an exhibition of this error. Here is an example of why it is wrong;
To me, God is: Holy, love, a consuming fire, jealous, merciful, one lord, my refuge, perfect, gracious, judge, faithful, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, true, witness, light...
As you can see I have not commited a sin by saying "to me, God is"... all the things I said. A decent concept of how representing God incorrectly becomes a sin can be seen in the biblical account of the israelites when Moses had gone up to meet with God;
Exo 32:1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
Exo 32:2 And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.
Exo 32:3 And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
Exo 32:4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
Most people believe that this story is depicting the israelites performing the act of worshipping other gods. The fact is they were worshipping the God that had led them from Egypt as it is clearly stated "and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." Their intent was to keep the God who had brought them to this place on their side and they simply thought that all they had to do was worship him via their own methodology. They had no intent to worship a different God. The problem was that when they created a representative form for God they sinned because they assumed that represenations of God would be understood by God to be his earthly representation where the people could come to worship him.
So ultimately it is not a sin to say "to me, God is" followed by the truth. Sin occurs when you follow it with untruth. So if you hold a belief about God that comes from anything other than God's word then you are sinning. Examples of this and its similarity can be easily seen in;
The beliefs held within mormonism where they believe that God is simply one in a series of Gods and that some day we could become a god just like him.
The beliefs within catholocism where they believe we can pray to saints and Mary as intercessors to God which missrepresents the governing architecture of Gods kingdom.
The belief that God is a trinity.
