{"id":23126,"date":"2014-04-19T11:50:07","date_gmt":"2014-04-19T15:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=23126"},"modified":"2014-04-19T11:50:07","modified_gmt":"2014-04-19T15:50:07","slug":"the-gods-we-have-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/04\/the-gods-we-have-made.html","title":{"rendered":"The Gods We Have Made"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Brian Bibb<\/a> has written an insightful post about bibliolatry. He writes:<\/p>\n

Judges 17\u201318\u2026mocks Micah for believing that human-made objects could actually be gods. He is presented as a kind of fool who admits that he has constructed the objects that he calls God, saying \u201cyou have taken the gods that I made!\u201d<\/p>\n

Micah\u2019s anger reminds me of the outrage that certain Christians express when scholars ask difficult questions about the Bible. When scholars point out facts that challenge the view of the Bible as an other-worldly divine production, they are accused of \u201cundermining\u201d the Bible or \u201cdestroying\u201d the Bible\u2019s authority.<\/p>\n

When I hear these accusations, I hear \u201cyou have taken the god that I made!\u201d, the cry of someone who has had their idol taken away. Pointing out the human origins of the Bible does not diminish its divinity, because the Bible is not a god. In the context of Herring\u2019s discussion, the Bible may be\u00a0mimetic<\/em>, such that it points in some way to God, but it does not itself embody God\u2019s presence. It is not a divine object\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026May we as a church be less like Micah, clinging to our idols, and more like the people in\u00a0Hosea<\/a>\u00a0who promise, \u201cwe will say no more, \u2018Our God,\u2019 to the work of our hands.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Click through<\/a> to read the whole thing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brian Bibb has written an insightful post about bibliolatry. He writes: Judges 17\u201318\u2026mocks Micah for believing that human-made objects could actually be gods. He is presented as a kind of fool who admits that he has constructed the objects that he calls God, saying \u201cyou have taken the gods that I made!\u201d Micah\u2019s anger reminds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":17130,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[110,5,41,43,51],"tags":[1140,4974],"class_list":["post-23126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1-corinthians-bible","category-bible","category-hosea","category-inerrancy","category-judges","tag-bible","tag-idolatry"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Gods We Have Made<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Brian Bibb has written an insightful post about bibliolatry. 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