Have you made God over into your own image, coming to believe He thinks and is like you? The first two commandments state in summary that you shall have no other gods before the true God and shall not make and bow down to any graven image (Exodus 20:2-5). In the spiritual intent, that includes false images in the mind. Have you become your own God? Have you decided for yourself what is good and evil?

The words of an old Don Williams song illustrate how people have made God over into their own image: “I don’t believe that heaven waits for only those who congregate . . . but I believe in love.” It’s often said, “I believe God just wants us to be good people and love everybody.” Yet the Bible tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together (Hebrews 10:25).

The song lyrics conform to surveys of modern Christian believers. Even around 20 years ago, more than two thirds of American evangelicals surveyed doubted Scripture’s words regarding salvation through Jesus alone. When asked if they believed “good” people of other faiths could also go to heaven at death, 68 percent of evangelicals said yes. Among American Catholics an astounding 91 percent answered yes, with 79 percent of American Christians altogether answering yes (“The Pearly Gates Are Wide Open,” Beliefnet, August 2005).

Besides the great misunderstanding here about going to dwell in heaven at death as the reward of the saved—the Bible teaching instead that believers will be resurrected to reign with God and Christ on the earth (Revelation 5:10; 20:4-6)—the need for Christ is effectively dismissed.

The vast majority of those identifying as Christian apparently no longer believe Jesus’ statement that He is the only way to God (John 14:6), echoed in the apostle Peter’s testimony that there is only one name given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Jesus died for the sins of the world. He is the Savior of the Jews and gentiles. So the plan of salvation is inclusive. It includes all races, nations and ethnic groups. But the way to salvation is exclusive. There is only one door and one way (John 10:7-9; Matthew 7:13-14).

So why would Christians come to a different conclusion? Scripture itself warned: “Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). We live in an age in which, as Isaiah prophesied, truth and justice have fallen in the street. Drive by a large box store on Sunday morning, when many think church services should be held (though mistakenly), and you’ll find the parking lot full. Increasingly people see no need for church and seek only to discover the purpose God has for them and set out to accomplish their mission.

Rather than viewing God according to our thinking, we need to see what He reveals about Himself and us and look to His direction and help.

People attempting to know and define God on their own

Can a person forge a direct relationship with God apart from the Word of God? This is one of the great fundamental questions of the ages. That is, can you know God apart from divine revelation? People are born illiterate, and even after they learn to talk and read they are for the most part spiritually illiterate. They form their concepts about God based on the culture and spiritual environment in which they are nurtured. Generally, Buddhists beget Buddhists, Hindus beget Hindus, Muslims beget Muslims, Jews beget Jews, Christians beget Christians. There are exceptions, of course. Through proselytizing and immigration, the various religions of the world have made inroads into other cultures.

With mass transit and mass media, and especially now through the Internet, people are able to access the cultural concepts and mores of people around the world far more quickly than in the past—even with just the click of a mouse. All of these things have brought about a mixing and merging of various religious concepts. Forms of Christianity have spread around the world, but ironically the Christian religion has been influenced more by Eastern concepts the other way around.

In addition to these factors, we continue to witness a perpetual assault on the veracity of the Bible by the so-called scientific world and the broader culture. Evolution is taught as a fact, thus denying God as the Creator of humankind. Science in effect teaches that there is no spirit world and that all things in the universe are formed and governed by natural laws.

Yet the entertainment world is saturated with references to the supernatural. Almost every new television season abounds with programs that depict encounters with the paranormal. A large percentage of movies produced in recent years portray some kind of supernatural force. Cartoons and movies produced for our children are filled with evil supernatural characters such as ghosts, witches, fortune tellers, vampires, etc.

Sadly, mixed in with all this is the fact that many prominent church leaders have been exposed as hypocrites more concerned with fleecing the flock than feeding the flock. Furthermore, many of the men and women who teach theology in the universities and seminaries don’t really believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God.

Yet there is something within the human psyche that yearns to transcend this mere mortal, physical existence—that causes him to reach for the stars, so to speak. In ancient times, people yearned to understand the how, what and why of their existence. So they turned to the heavens and formed themselves gods from what were not gods. In other words, they made God into their own image.

The prophet Jeremiah gives us an amazing description of the comparison between the gods made by man and the true God of the Bible: “Thus says the Lord: ‘Do not learn the way of the Gentiles [the pagan nations]; do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples are futile; for one cuts a tree from the forest . . . They decorate it . . . they fasten it . . . so that it will not topple . . . They cannot speak; they must be carried, because they cannot go by themselves. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, nor can they do any good.’

“Inasmuch as there is none like You, O Lord . . . A wooden idol is a worthless doctrine . . . Thus you shall say to them: ‘The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens’ . . . Every metalsmith is put to shame by an image; for his molded image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are futile, a work of errors . . . The Portion of Jacob is not like them, for He is the Maker of all things, and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; the Lord of hosts is His name” (Jeremiah 10:2-16).

People are left with two alternatives: 1) accept the God who has revealed Himself in the Bible through many infallible proofs; or 2) accept gods that are the product of human imagination. As previously noted, human beings are physical, finite, mortal and subject to sin and death. They are spiritually illiterate apart from revelation.

Ignoring the only real Source of spiritual power

Modern science denies revelation. So we cannot expect it to lead us to the true God. Even the major religions of the world are confused in looking for the advent of a great spiritual messiah to lead the world into a new age. The Buddhists are looking for the fifth Buddha, the Hindus are looking for Krishna, the Muslims are looking for a grand Mahdi, the Jews are looking for the Messiah but as a human leader. None of these religions is looking for the very Son of God as a spirit being filled with power to rule the earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And even most professing Christians who believe in Christ’s return don’t understand His nature or what He’s coming to do.

Sadly, people have long made God over into their own image. When it comes to the great social issues of the day, they employ human reasoning over what God would do. They argue: Would a loving God exclude anyone? So shouldn’t we not exclude people practicing alternate sexual lifestyles? Yet these actually exclude themselves by embracing what’s not in keeping with the Word of God.

God loves people and wants them to repent of sin. And we are to emulate Him, as in the expression “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” Yet we are being conditioned to effectively love the sin as well. Thus, films that embrace today’s corrupt culture are nominated for picture of the year. And very often such films are the big winners.

People go to church and listen to the minister, but they only perk up when he talks about current events or tells a gut-wrenching emotional story they can identify with. When he preaches the truth, their eyes roll back in their heads, and they begin to daydream and think about where they will eat lunch and what they will do with the rest of the day. In other words, they ignore the only real source of spiritual power.

In 2 Timothy 3:1-5, the apostle Paul graphically describes the corruptions of modern society that today’s churchgoers have sadly followed in, the list ending with “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.” And in the next chapter he puts it on the line to the ministry: “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Timothy 4:2-4).

Truth comes only through divine revelation and relationship

Have you made God over into your own image? Have you denied the only source of true revelation—the Spirit of God and the Word of God? Note what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:9-12: “But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him. But God has revealed them to us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man, save [by] the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knows no man, but [by] the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God” (verses 9-12, American King James Version).

You cannot know the true God apart from revelation, and God reveals Himself through the pages of the Bible. This is the only way to know God and understand why you are on this earth. You were created for a great transcendental purpose. The god of this world is blinding the minds and hearts of the peoples of the world to the glorious truth of the gospel, but you don’t have to remain blinded. You can come into the light. You can know the truth, and the truth can set you free from fear, ignorance, superstition and the dogmas of men who have made God over into their own image (John 8:32).

Jesus Christ said of Himself, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (verse 36). The only way that you will ever have the power to become a son of God is through Him. True Christianity is the only religion that teaches that you can become a son of God in the literal sense. Nominal Christian ministers talk about being the children of God, but they don’t mean that as the Bible reveals (see Romans 8:14-17).

But most who profess Christianity don’t really understand who God is, what God is and what His purpose is. Neither do they understand who man is, what man is and what is his purpose. God has made it possible through Jesus Christ for human beings to be reconciled to the Father so that we can receive the Holy Spirit, the very essence of God, and become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). Just as we are begotten by our physical fathers, God the Father begets us with His Spirit so that we can become the literal sons of God.

The Word of God means what it says when it says we are children of God. As sons and daughters of God, believers will not go to some kind of ill-defined concept of heaven or paradise. They are going to reign with God and Christ on the earth, following perfectly the will of God.

Making God over into our image is a denial of reality doomed to failure. Instead, we need to cooperate with God in His work to transform us into His image so that we will ultimately be like Him—the awesome purpose for which He made us!