Temples of Ceramic Deities
restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations
Temples of Ceramic Deities
On those rare occasions when a commentator is flummoxed for a topic to write on, where does he turn? Inwardly, very often. So please forgive me for todays column, which is personal at best and theological only in an ancillary way.
It was while worshipping in our wonderful little church in rural Virginia yesterday that I was suddenly struck with an epiphany of sorts. As our preacher was winding down an excellent sermon on the real meaning of Christmas (its not about trees and candles and manger scenes, but about the Savior), I was troubled by an odd specter directly in front of me. It was our communion table. This fairly large-sized table is normally adorned with offering plates on either side and a large-print Bible in the middle, opened to a biblical text (which one, I have never bothered to discover).
Yesterday, however, I noticed that all this had changed. The Bible had been removed from its position of prominence and shuffled off to one side of the table, its place of honor having been taken by a now prominently-positioned manger scene, replete with a ceramic Jesus surrounded by all the typical trappingsanimals, Mary and Joseph, and, of course, the three wise men. On the table was a small Christmas tree, and the table itself was surrounded by several large poinsettia plants that straddled the floor of the sanctuary. A much larger Christmas tree (decorated to the hilt) stood beside the organ, and Christmas candles throughout the sanctuary completed the ornamentation.
What, you ask, did I find so disturbing about this scenario? It is open to criticism from many angles. It fails to grasp the New Testament teaching on the centrality of Scripture (sola scriptura) and the danger of human traditions. It fails the test of historical accuracy (the wise men, of course, were not present at the birth of Jesus but later visited the boy in the house). It confuses church tradition with biblical truth. It misconceives the psychology of Christmas by feeding our capitalistic urges. But the basic criticism must surely be that it loses sight of the Second Commandment, which forbids the worship of God in any way that is unworthy of Him (Exod 20:4-6).
This law, of course, is not limited to crude pagan statues. It includes the more subtle, Christian (if you will) forms of idolatry as well. It points to the principle (stated so eloquently by Charles Hodge) that idolatry consists not only in the worship of false gods, but in the worship of the true God by images. For Christians, this means that visual or pictorial representations of the Triune God, or any Person of the Trinity, for the purposes of worship are forbidden. In the words of J. I. Packer, statues and pictures of the One whom we worship are not to be used as an aid to worship. After all, the Lord God said it quite plainly: Thou shalt not make any likeness of any thing. The reason is that whatever image we concoct, whatever statue or figurine we produce, rather than accurately depicting the Object of our worship, ultimately ends up distorting Him. It inevitable obscures His glory, or His love, or His power, or some other attribute of His and thus conceals, rather than reveals, who He really is.
As I see it, the real difficulty with all of our Christian hubbub at advent season lies not so much in the fact that the early church had no interest whatsoever in celebrating our Saviors birth, or in the fact that the holiday itself is based on a pagan rite (sun-worship), or in any of the many other (valid, in my view) objections that can be made against a Christian celebrating Christs Mass. It lies rather in the fact that the cradle of Bethlehem finds it true meaning only in the cross of Calvary. As James Denny has rightly insisted, The New Testament knows nothing of an incarnation which can be defined apart from its relation to atonement . Not Bethlehem, but Calvary, is the focus of the revelation, and any contribution of Christianity which ignores or denies this distorts Christianity by putting it out of focus. What Denny is saying is that the incarnation is simply not the point. It is its meaning that matters: that the Son of God should take upon Himself humanity and die the death of a common criminal for our salvation.
As I sat riveted to the scene before me, I noticed one last, poignant, thing. Just below all the glitter of Christmasjust below the manger bed, and the ceramic Christ-Child, and the animals, and the little Christmas tree, and the magiwas an inscription written in large letters upon the front of the communion table. They were the words of our Savior: This do ye in remembrance of Me. The Thiswhat, I asked myself, was Jesus referring to? It certainly wasnt the observance of Christmas, but something infinitely more profound. Our Lord Jesus desired for His people to celebrate, not His birth, but His Supper, eaten as a full meal foreshadowing the great wedding supper of the Lamb made possible through the gift of His own body and blood. The Lords Supper was the last meal Jesus shared with His disciples before His crucifixion. It was the one ceremony that Jesus committed to His followers for their faithful observance. Thus we read that the early Christians devoted themselves to the fellowship, that is, the breaking of the bread (so the Greek of Acts 2:42). These believers ate the Lords Supper weekly, and it was, in fact, the main reason they came together in the first place (see Acts 20:7; 1 Cor 11:18). It was, as Steve Atkerson of the New Testament Restoration Foundation likes to put it, the true happy hour of the early church.
I couldnt help but notice the irony. Here we spend a month of frenetic activity in elaborate preparations adorning our humble church sanctuary in candles and greens, in the lighting of the Advent Candle, in the reading of the Christmas story, in decorating trees and tables, in canceling Bible Study so that we can rehearse our Christmas play. Yet how often does our congregation celebrate the Lords Supper, the one memorial that Jesus Himself commanded us to observe? Once a quarter.
As I looked upon those lonely, forgotten words, This do ye in remembrance of Me, my heart was grieved beyond measure. I felt like Paul upon entering Athens, of whom it was said, His spirit was provoked within him as he beheld the city full of idols (Acts 17:16). When I first visited Athens and saw the workmanship of the architects and sculptors, I admired them as works of art. But to Paul they were temples and images of pagan deities. Whatever he may have thought of the art of Athens, the spectacle of a city dedicated to false worship stirred in him the conviction that here were people who needed the truth of the gospel. And I wondered to myself as I walked to my car after the service: Could not the same be said of us who worship in temples of ceramic deities?
December 15, 2003
David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.
together, even though it is not his natural bent. I must say that he is very patient with me, and I really appreciate his desire to work with me even when it is harder for him! We have grown closer over the years rather than experiencing the drifting apart that most people go through after their children create their own lives and homes as adults. 
Christian discipleship is what we are all called to, but it begins with the obedience of baptism. Of course, baptism cannot save. But it is the mark of being a child of God. As someone has put it, baptism is like a wedding ring, to be worn from ones wedding day onward and not after a six month probation period!
shintabet (toilet hole), and a community kitchen (with wood fire). Melli and his wife sleep on a bed, but the boys sleep on the floor. Their bedroom also serves as living room and dining room.
he was riding his bicycle traveling to a rural village. He noticed a group of Muslim men chasing him. He rode faster and faster. The ground was uneven and his bike wheel hit a stone. The bike overturned and he was thrown. I was out of my head for over an hour, he said. When I awoke, I was surrounded by little village children. I dont know what happened to the men chasing me. But God somehow protected me.
they could do him harm. He was trying to go faster and faster, but they were catching up. 
other, and I visited with my Christian brethren. The bridge came alive with all this fellowship! So this band of evil-doers that had been chasing me was undone by the perfect arrangement of our Lord.
walls, wooden windows, and a separate hole toilet house and kitchen. There is one other family living in his compound.
he evangelical church in Ethiopia is much smaller and younger than the evangelical church in America. As such, her church ministries are less professional and bureaucratic. The churches with whom we work in Burji and Alaba as associated with the Kale Heywot fellowship of evangelical churches. This fellowship is the outgrowth of the mission work done by the Sudan Interior Mission (1940-1970s). It has a central office in Addis Ababa, regional zones, and then district levels. The central and regional zones serve to coordinate mission outreach to unreached people groups, assist with advanced Christian education, etc., among the various churches. Workers in these offices are great resources to the district churches. At the district level, there is a mother church; this is usually the largest and oldest church in the district. And it is from this mother church that all the other churches in the district have come.
between these leaders; they also direct the overall ministry of the church and its various outreaches. For its ministry and outreach, the leaders have chosen 14 evangelists. Three of these are administrators; the rest are mobile preachers. They are roughly the equivalent of the itinerant preachers in America 100-150 years ago. They are appointed certain sections of the district, and they travel by foot (or sometimes bicycle) between the villages preaching, teaching and doing various Christian ministry.
men, women, and children) originally had 250 members, but due to financial hardships, it now numbers only 170 members. He said that he ministers around the district, traveling long hours on his bicycle. His wife and children live in town; usually he sees them once or twice a week.
