(By John Bevere) I want to show you the most insidious deception that is leading Christians into idolatry—even right now. To do that, I want you to think of the story of the golden calf at Mount Sinai. If you remember, God had just saved Israel from Egypt through many powerful miracles and had led them through the wilderness to Mount Sinai. He spoke His commands to them, but they all shrank back and insisted that Moses go up the mountain to talk to God alone. While Moses is gone, the people lose patience. They go to Moses’s
brother, Aaron, and demand that he make them gods to lead them into the Promised Land. Now, the word they used for “gods” is Elohim, which is used in the Old Testament to refer to both pagan gods and the true God, so we don’t really know who they are talking about yet. Aaron bows to their demands, fashions a golden statue of a calf, and they say, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt” (Ex. 32:4b). We still don’t know which God they’re talking about, but Aaron makes it clear right away. READ MORE
