Why “The Idol Factory”?

Not to celebrate the idols of our hearts, but to expose them . . . to remind us of the idolatry that constantly flows from them.  The call of Deuteronomy 6 should never be far from our minds.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Deuteronomy 6.5

Anything else is Idolatry.

Where does the idea of “The Idol Factory” come from?

It comes from John Calvin in the Institutes of the Christian Religion:

From this we may gather that man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols. . . . So it goes.  Man’s mind, full as it is of pride and boldness, dares to imagine a god according to its own capacity; as it sluggishly plods, indeed is overwhelmed with the crassest ignorance, it conceives an unreality and an empty appearance as God.

To these evils a new wickedness joins itself, that man tries to express in his work the sort of God he has inwardly conceived.  Therefore the mind begets an idol; the hand gives its birth. . . . Daily experience teaches that flesh is always uneasy until it has obtained some figment like itself in which it may fondly find solace as in an image of God.  In almost every age since the beginning of the world, men, in order that they might obey this blind desire, have set up symbols in which they believed God appeared before their bodily eyes. (I.XI.8)

Who is the author?

Steve Coward is originally from Savannah, GA. After receiving his BA in History from Armstrong Atlantic State University, he attended Reformed Theological Seminary – Orlando. In May 2003, he graduated with a Master of Divinity. On September 27, 2003 he married the love of his life (Adriane). Steve is currently a Pastor at Fair Hill Church in Elkton, MD, and is ordained in the Presbyterian Church in America. He has previously served churches in Willow Grove, PA, Decatur, AL, and Bear, DE.  He and Adriane have three children: Grayson, Shepard, and Adeline.

Follow Steve on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/sacoward and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/stevecoward.  More information on Steve is available at http://www.stevecoward.com.