For some strange reason I was thinking of the book of Hosea this morning and how the Jewish people had turned away from God and begun worshipping idols. I was reminded of a trip I took to India a few years back. We were using their contract programmers to develop some of our software code. Day in and day out I worked long hours trying to familiarize them with our company’s system. Finally one night we got through a little early and decided to tour some of the sights of the area.
The magnificent Hindu temple was the premiere place to take tourists. The building itself was lavishly ornate and it appeared that no expense was spared in its construction. Its lavish white marble exterior was all lit up with lights and looked absolutely stunning, and our host described the inside as magnificent and insisted that we take a peek.
We were instructed to take off our shoes before entering. As we walked into the building, the temple’s polished marble floors literally gleamed, and the towering white stone walls were decorated in what appeared to be pure gold trim. Elaborate paintings of various colorful creatures with multiple eyes and arms, and beautiful headdresses, lined both walls of the huge halls that visitors walk through to enter into the temple area; (they reminded me of some of the creatures I saw while hallucinating on LSD in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco in the 60’s). Our host explained each painting was of a different God and he indicated that hundreds of Gods are worshipped by various sects within the Hindu religion.
As we entered the temple proper I began to hear eerie Middle Eastern style music being played over a loudspeaker and spooky voices chanting in Hindi. We were standing in line and as we moved forward I could see four peculiar looking guys dressed in white robes down at the front of the temple. They were dancing around behind an enclosure with a waist high glass barrier separating them from the people streaming through the temple. My host indicated that they were the fulltime Hindu priests. They had their heads shaved, save a little ponytail topnotch affair that originated right in the middle of the top of their heads, and they had yellow streaks of paint on their faces and of course the little red dot between their eyes.
As we moved further forward in line I began to get really creeped out. I could more clearly see these guys dancing around in their robes in a mist of incense with strange weird looking trance-like expressions on their faces and fixed smiles. One of them was playing a tambourine; another was meeting with each individual who came through the line and offering them some sort of blessing. Another was dancing around throwing flower petals in the air, and the final guy was throwing some sort of holy water on a huge idol of a golden bull’s head and shoulders.
Okay call me a chicken if you will, but suddenly I came unglued. I was completely unnerved and overcome with fear and dread. This place made me feel like I was in one of those Baal temples of old and I was frightened out of my wits that at any time that fire was going to rain down on my head and burn me up just for being inside this place!
Without a word to anyone else in our party I took off running for the door in my stocking feet like all of the demons in hell were chasing me and nipping at my heels. I beat it towards that door like an Olympic athlete pumped full of steroids. It was a huge building but my head was down, my arms were pumping up and down, my eyes were bulging wide with fear, and I feel quite sure that I could have beaten any world record for the forty yard dash as I streaked out of that place. People were scampering out of the way dodging me and looking at me like I’d completely lost my mind.
I didn’t care what anyone thought – I WANTED OUT OF THAT PLACE!
When I got outside I quickly found and put my shoes back on and then just for safety’s sake put another 100 or so yards between me and that temple. Somehow I found our car in the parking lot where I nervously paced back and forth while I awaited my friends. Slowly but surely I managed to get my heartbeat back below 500.
Some folks here in the United States think the Bible is outdated because the first and second commandments in the “Big Ten” deal with this issue:
1. You must not have any other god but me.
2. You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected — even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.
Today people in this country look around and don’t see any idols being worshipped in Tallahassee Florida or wherever they live and mistakenly think the Bible is written for the olden times.
Please understand that the Bible doesn’t get outdated and that it is written not just to Americans, but to people all over the world including Hindus. God said His word the Holy Bible is the same today as yesterday, as it will be 1000 years from now. It is the unerring word of God and it will last for all time and for all people.
Many folks take the position that we make money, sex, power, fame, careers, golf, and other things our gods and idols and that is the meaning of this commandment in this age. Okay I can buy into that point to a limited extent and am in step with the idea that we should let nothing distract us from God, but let me tell you friends, if you take a look around the world there are still plenty of regular idols that are carved out of stone, wood, or made of gold out there that are still being worshipped today.
The Hindu religion has approximately one billion followers and is the third largest religion in the world. Travel to Asia and there are another half billion Buddhists worshipping their idols of Buddha. It is estimated that there are 1 billion who follow various African sects and pagan religions with their Voo Doo, spiritism, and stone and wooden idols too numerous to mention. There are an estimated 2.1 billion Christians which represents just 33% of the people of the world.
It is sad to me to see so many people deceived by satanic forces. It is one reason we are trying so hard to get our Honey Lake Church Worldwide Ministry established where we will have a platform to stream the truth and Good News of Jesus Christ into these countries through the Internet.
The Bible tells us in no uncertain terms that if we want to see heaven we must turn our lives over to Jesus Christ and worship the one true God and that we are to put no other Gods before Him.
So what happens to the rest of those people?
That is between God and them; only He can know their hearts and He will judge us all in due time. But make no mistake about it the Bible is crystal clear that there is only one narrow gate that we can go through to enter heaven and that is Jesus Christ.
Hmmm . . . Does that mean Christians are narrow minded?
I suppose so, but we are only the messenger. God wrote the message. He is the one who unequivocally states that the road to destruction, (eternal separation from God), is broad and many more will go down it rather than will enter through the narrow gate of Jesus to find salvation.
Why?
I don’t know.
Matt.7:13
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.”