29 June 2022
If we understand the historical context, we stand in a better place to know how it applies to us.
The issue of (3) no idolatry is, on the face of it, pretty simple. This was included to prevent ritual defilement in the land Israel had conquered. All pagan worship defiles. It twists Creation to the adoration of demons. As clearly noted in the Bible, every false god is the masquerade of a demon. There is only one Creator, and everything else is fake. Yes, all those poor souls throughout the centuries who did not acknowledge the true God of Creation were bound under demons.
Again, Scripture makes it clear that spiritual birth is a matter of divine election, not anything any human can do. Humans cannot even want it on their own. Secondly, God always honored those who sought honestly to find Him. Paul testifies that a lot of people who never heard the Hebrew message, or its primordial equivalent, managed to obtain a measure of Covenant blessings because they listened to their convictions. Don't get hung up on this; the whole issue with a covenant is to provide blessings on this fallen earth. It's all about obedience. If we obey the light we have, God will draw us to Himself, and grant to us a growing familial relationship.
Thus, the point of including this item in the Code of Noah is that you now do know the truth about the Creator and you have no excuse for chasing demons. The only question, then, is what constitutes idolatry. Some things are obvious. Jehovah was particularly sensitive with Israel mistaking Him for some other pagan deity. At the same time, a great many bits and pieces of the ritual code of Moses are exactly the same as what one can see in pagan rituals. Indeed, the similarities with Baal worship were the single greatest temptation to idolatry after the Conquest. To the fallen Hebrew mind, it looked a lot like the common notion that the same god had many manifestations.
The more modern problem is rather different from that. We struggle with giving too much of ourselves to things that aren't God. White European culture in particular tends to compartmentalization. Our reflex is that religion is one thing; all the other things we do in or lives are something else. That's evil. God does not simply fit in one compartment or another; He is the whole thing, or He is not involved. Every breath we take must be submitted to Him. Folks in the Ancient Near East never struggled with that, but it's a major trademark of Western Civilization to keep everything separate, limiting God's authority to certain boundaries.
We prefer a highly specialized expertise for everything, and God is just one more expert in a small field of specialty. We have other experts for everything else. We condemn the all-encompassing devotion to God as if He were some kind of abusive controlling romantic partner. Our western vision of government competes with God over issues He says belongs to Him. One of the single biggest issues for white people to overcome is stumbling across yet one more issue not yet surrendered to the Lord.
This is the western version of idolatry.
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