Cutting Off Your Personal Idols by Michael Bruce (Free MP3, Read By Elder Lyndon Dohms)

"Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry." - 1 Corinthians 10:14, KJV

Soul Idolatry Excludes Men Out of Heaven by David Clarkson (SWRB Digital Download, Enhanced PDF)

John Calvin called men "idol factories."

Biblically informed Christians are often well aware of the grosser forms of outward idolatry, like what is seen in Paganism, Humanism and Roman Catholicism (and Rome's harlot daughters like the heretical New Perspective on Paul and Federal Vision movements). But how many Christians have carefully looked at the more subtle forms on inward idolatry?

David Clarkson, in Soul Idolatry Excludes Men Out of Heaven, does this very thing pinpointing thirteen kinds of "soul idolatry," showing that "soul idolatry" is just as sinful as the more outward form of idolatry practiced by the Whore of Babylon (Rome) and her harlot Protestant daughters (like those who deny the regulative principle of worship and therefore naturally fall into the more obvious forms of gross outward idolatry).

"He that serves his lusts is as incapable of heaven as he that serves and worships idols of wood or stone," writes David Clarkson, demonstrating that "there are thirteen acts of soul worship; and to give any one of them to anything besides the God of heaven is plain idolatry, and those idolaters that so give it."

Moreover, David Clarkson shows that "soul idolatry" remains even in the lives of true born again Christians and that "those natures that are most sanctified on earth are still a seminary of sin; there is in them the roots, the seeds of atheism, blasphemy, murder, adultery, apostasy, and idolatry."

This is a powerful piece of Puritan prose that should be read by all Christians. "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would" (Galatians 5:17).

Soul Idolatry Excludes Men Out of Heaven by David Clarkson is on the Puritan Hard Drive, as are the Works of David Clarkson (3 volumes).

Soul Idolatry Excludes Men Out of Heaven (Free Non-Enhanced PDF)

In the detailed sermon, Clarkson labels 13 manifestations of "soul idolatry." He argues that secret and inner idolatry is equally sinful as physical and open idolatry. Clarkson writes, "He that serves his [inner] lusts is as incapable of heaven as he that serves and worships idols of wood or stone" and later writes, "there are thirteen acts of soul worship; and to give any one of them to anything besides the God of heaven is plain idolatry, and those idolaters that so give it."

1. Esteem. That which we most highly value we make our God. For estimation is an act of soul worship.

 

2. Mindfulness. That which we are most mindful of we make our God. To be most remembered, to be most minded, is an act of worship which is proper to God, and which he requires as due to himself alone.

 

3. Intention. That which we most intend we make our god; for to be most intended is an act of worship due only to the true God; for he being the chief good must be the last end.

 

4. Resolution. What we are most resolved for we worship as God.

 

5. Love. That which we must love we worship as our God; for love is an act of soul-worship.

 

6. Trust. That which we most trust we make our god; for confidence and dependence is an act of worship which the Lord calls for as due only to himself.

 

7. Fear. That which we most fear we worship as our god; for fear is an act of worship.

 

8. Hope. That which we make our hope we worship as God; for hope is an act of worship.

 

9. Desire. That which we most desire we worship as our god; for that which is chiefly desired, is the chief good in his account who so desires it; and what he counts his chief good, that he makes his god.

 

10. Delight. That which we most delight and rejoice in, that we worship as God; for transcendent delight is an act of worship due only to God; and this affection, in its height and elevation, is called glorying.

 

11. Zeal. That for which we are more zealous we worship as god; for such a zeal is an act of worship due only to God ; therefore it is idolatrous to be more zealous for our own things than for the things of God; to be eager in our own cause, and careless in the cause of God; to be more vehement for our own credit, interests, advantages, than for the truths, ways, honour of God; to be fervent in spirit, in following our own business, promoting our designs, but lukewarm and indifferent in the service of God; to count it intolerable for ourselves to be reproached, slandered, reviled, but manifest no indignation when God is dishonoured, his name, worship, profaned; his truths, ways, people, reviled.

 

12. Gratitude. That to which we are most grateful, that we worship as God; for gratitude is an act of worship.

 

13. When our care and industry is more for other things than for God. We cannot serve God and mammon, God and our lusts too, because this service of ourselves, of the world, takes up that care, that industry, those endeavours, which the Lord must have of necessity, if we will serve him as God; and when these are laid out upon the world and our lusts, we serve them as the Lord ought to be served, and so make them our gods.

 

- From Soul Idolatry Excludes Men Out of Heaven

Soul Idolatry Excludes Men out of Heaven by David Clarkson (Summary At Grace Gems)

Soul Idolatry Excludes Men Out of Heaven (Paperback at Amazon.com)

"The human mind is, so to speak, a perpetual forge of idols." - John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book One, Chapter 11.8, Beveridge Edition

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