At the end of Deuteronomy 12, Moses gives some instruction which is intriguing to me:

“When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’
You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.”
Deuteronomy 12:29-32

In addition to the many warnings in the beginning of Deuteronomy to not forget the Lord, this passage warns to not adopt pagan practices of worship and apply them to their worship of Yahweh. [This clearly does happen, most notably to me at the end of Judges when Jephthah offers his daughter as a burnt offering to the Lord, thinking that it is what the Lord would require.]

I am currently beginning to read my large stack of books on Worldview that have been mostly gathering dust for years, preparing for our Biblical Worldview Bible study this winter. Doing so has again reminded me of the many ways in which contemporary Christianity has lost its foundation of Truth. I think most Christians don’t even realize how far off base their thinking and actions really are!

I don’t believe that this gradual wandering from Truth has been purposeful on the Church’s behalf. A small tweak to make us more “seeker sensitive.” Neglecting to teach and preach about passages in the Bible which make people uncomfortable or may cause conflict and debate. Parents assuming that their church or the local Christian school is doing an adequate job in discipling their children. Lack of serious Bible reading and study on an individual and corporate level. Intellectual challenge from the world against a religious viewpoint that has not been intellectually thought through or taught. You could add a million things to this list… but one after the other, small step after small step, we have lost our foundation. We don’t even know how to think anymore.

Unfortunately, this slow adoption of our culture’s perspective has caused a lack of understanding of the ways, works, and Word of our one true God. Just like this passage in Deuteronomy warns, we have begun to blur the lines between our God and false gods. We don’t really know what He requires anymore.

[By the way, I think this applies to legalism, as well. Check out 12:32 - Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it. Adding to what God has said blurs the Truth just as much as taking away from it!]

Burning children in the fire might sound over the top to you and me – certainly our “civilized” society would never do such a horrid thing. Most of the time, Christians equate this with the modern day holocaust of abortion. True, but I think it’s even deeper than that.

Barbara Mouser, in the study Five Aspects of Woman, claims that we will all end up sacrificing our children to whatever or Whomever we worship. I will quote her here, as she says this much more eloquently and succinctly than I can:

“We always become like our gods, and we always give our children to our gods… Your god, whoever he or she is, is the one to whom you give all… To whom are we going to give our children – to the world? To success? To monetary security? To what purpose are we going to devote them?… There is no such thing as not giving your children to your gods. Whether a man worhsips money, his career, the bottle, or something else – his children will in some way bear the marks of his devotion, just as surely as the pagans’ children did. Certainly we want our children to bear the marks of our devotion to the True God.”

When we do not use the Truth of God’s Word and character as our absolute plumline (not culture, not tradition), we will fail to understand who He is and what He requires.

I have heard believers say that they cannot serve in their church, because they are too busy making money – once they made a lot of money, they would give it to the Lord and that would be much greater service (pretty much in those words!). Please quote me one Scripture passage that supports this idea! Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it…

I have heard women say that they “must” work outside the home, for God has called them to a “greater ministry” – they even said that their small children were being spiritually strengthened by watching Mommy’s great work (from where, day care?) Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it…

I once had a room of high school seniors (most of whom were almost finished with 12 years of Christian schooling and church ministries) argue with me that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego wouldn’t have had to defy the king’s order to bow to the idol – they could have just “pretended” to do it and have been looking at the grass! (see Daniel 3) I was completely unable to convince them that God’s servants even appearing to worship a false god was unacceptable. The thought of sending these students into secular universities terrified me – what were they willing to compromise on in order to save face? Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it…

I could go on, but you get the point. Are we really thinking Biblically, or are we irreverently approaching a holy God, sloppily using His inspired Word, and then justifying our own folly as “the right thing?” We think that we are worshipping the True God, but in fact, we have adopted the perspective, values, and gods of our culture. And we will inevitably sacrifice our children to those gods.

You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. Deuteronomy 13:4