What are Modern Day Idols?


When we talk about idol worship, many believe that this only relates to those that worship graven images or deities and false gods and therefore do not see themselves as idol worshippers.

In most cases we discriminate ourselves from people who serve inanimate gods, we tag them evil. The truth is that those people are more committed in serving those graven images they call their god. It is difficult for you to see an occult person miss the time he has to worship place, he is always present, dedicate all his attention to the worship, after the series of incantation and enchantment, there is time given for meditation after the prayer and request for blessings, they wait for response from their oracle or altar whatever.

Also read:5 Old Testament Commandments That Doesn’t Matter Now.

You see this is how believers in Christ need to adopt, we Christians don’t get it right in this area. We get distracted once its time to give God worship, the activities in our life which we have put before God has made us not to concentrate and devote time for God, we hardly discern when God wants to speak to us, and that is why we fall into temptations and problems.

In this article, I will be elaborating on the idol we serve unintentionally; these idols have kept us in captive unknowing to us.
The fact is that today’s idols have evolved so much that if you do not pay close attention, you will not recognize them and might fall prey unknowingly. If we can define what an idol is, it will help us to unmask them and recognize them for what they really are despite the disguise they might come in.

An idol is anything that takes the place of God in our lives and heart. It is anything that you crave for, want, enjoy and satisfied by or treasure more than God, those things that when you loose them you can get angry with God and begin to question God, sometimes you decide not to go to church because of the anger. Your job, your family, your money, your processions etc. can be elevated to the level of an idol. Does any ordinary item or activity or person can become an idol to you if you cherish it more than God.

Also read: Terrific Interview And Confession Of Former Church Of Satan And Free Mason Member.

With this definition in place, are you worshipping any idol?. For the sister that cannot go to church or drop Jewelries, Makeup, Worldly fashion despite the constant teachings, it means that those things have become idols. For the brother who cannot close his business for one day to serve God, your business may have become you idol. For those who will rather listen to family than God, your family may have becomes your idol. Are you a brother or sister that will not go to church because your favorite sport team is playing or you are in the church but thinking about the football match going on?. It has become your idol.
Nothing should displace God as number one in your life. Abraham did not spare his precious son when God asked him to sacrifice him. You also must not spare anything that the lord has required from you, be it your money, time, service.

As long as you are holding an idol in your heart, god will not be able to release you from captivity. Give up that idol and make God your number one priority and sit back and see his wonders play out in your life.

THE PURPOSE AND QUALIFICATION OF RAPTURE.

The Greek translated “Rapture” harpazo, and it has several meanings which include to carry off, snatch up, seize, over powering, an irresistible act of catching away due to divine force.
The Latin word for the Greek is Rapturo from which we derive the English word “Rapture”. It is believed that the church will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air (Jn. 14:1-3; 1Cor. 15:23, 51-58). The rapture is the coming of the lord Jesus Christ in the air for the saints. It would be an event that will end the age of grace and usher in all other eschatological events.

THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH (1Cor. 15:51-57)
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed (1Cor. 15:52).

It is important to know the coming of the lord would be in two ways. One is the Rapture, and the other is the second Advent of Jesus Christ. These two comings would be separated by seven years.
At rapture, Christ will meet the saints in air where they would remain during the time, the tribulation would run its course on the earth (Jn. 14:3;, 1Thess. 3:13).
At rapture, Christ will not appear visibly on the earth as he did in the first advent, but in the air to catch up or rapture the dead and the living saints (1Cor. 15:51-57).

The marriage supper of the lamb and the judgment or reward of the saints would take place in the firmament. Then, at the second Advent after the tribulation, Christ and the saints would leave the firmament together to come down to the earth (Matt. 24:30; Acts 1:10-11; 1Cor. 5:10)
At rapture, Christ will come for the saints and at the revelation of Jesus Christ, which is the second Advent, Christ will come with the saints (Matt. 24:30, 16:27; Mark 13:26).

Read Also: 6 Confusing verses in the bible that needs clarification

THE MANNER OF THE RAPTURE (John 14:1-3; 1Cor. 15:51-56; Phil. 3:11, 20-21).
 For the lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first (1Thess. 4:16).

1. All saints shall not die before the rapture, but all shall be transfigured (1Cor.15:51-54. 1Thess. 4:15).

2. It will be a sudden incident, in the twinkling of an eye (1Cor. 15:52).

3. The trumpet shall sound by the Archangel (Matt. 24:31; 1Cor. 15:52).

4. All the righteous /saints who had slept (died) shall be raised with incorruptible body (1Cor. 15:52-53).

5. The living (those who are alive) shall then be transfigured.

6. Both dead and living souls in Christ will put on immortality. However, the living ones will not precede the dead ones in the rapture. (1Cor. 15:53-53; Eph. 5:27).

7. Jesus will appear for his people in the sky (1Thess. 4:16).

8. Both the living and the dead shall be caught up to meet Christ in the air and unite with him (John 14:3; Phil. 3:20b).

9. The rapturable saints shall appear to the BEMA SEATS (i.e the judgment seat) to receive rewards (Matt. 16:27; 1Cor 5:10) in form of crowns (1Thess 2:19).

10.On earth, the ANTI CHRIST will take over.

THE PURPOSE AND QUALIFICATION OF RAPTURE (1Cor. 15:21-23, 51:58)
The we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the (1Thess. 4:17).
To receive saints to himself as he promised (John 14:1-3; Eph. 5:27).

1. To raise the dead in Christ from among the wicked dead (1Cor. 15:21-23, 51-58).

2. To take the saints to the firmament to receive their rewards (John 14: 1-3; 2Cor. 5-10; 1Thess. 3:13) and partake of the marriage Supper of the lamb (Rev. 19:19).

3. To transform the bodies of the saints from mortality to immortality (1Cor. 15:21-23, 2Cor. 5:1-8).

4. To present the saints before God.

5. To receive the fruit of the early and latter rain (John 14:1-3; James  5:7).

6. To remove the one restraining the mystery of lawlessness (2Thess. 2: 1-8).

7. To make the saints to escape the tribulation that is to come upon the earth (Luke 21:34-36; Rev. 3:10).

8. To allow the appearance of Anti Christ. Once the saints have been raptured, the anti Christ would surface to fulfill the prophecies.

Read Also: How To Know God's will for marriage

THE QUALIFICATION FOR BEING RAPTURABLE (1Thess 4:16b)
……The dead in Christ will rise first (1Thess. 4:16b).

1. Be in Christ (2Cor. 5:17-18; 1Thess. 4:16)
Be holy and pure (John 3:1-3); without spot (Eph. 5:27).

2. Watch and pray always (Luke 221:34-35).

3. Walk in the light (1John 1:17; Col. 2:6-7).

4. Live and walk in the spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25-26), demonstrating his fruit daily (v. 22).

5. Be in the way, the truth and the life (john 14: 14:1-6).

6. Crucify the flesh with its affection and lust (Gal. 2:20).

7. Be in the church or body of Christ 1(Cor. 12:13; Eph. 5:27, 1:22,23).

8. Maintain justification by faith and salvation by God’s grace, and obey the truth.

9. Doing good (John 5:28-29).

Where was Jesus for the three days between His death and resurrection?
A key entry in the discourse on where Jesus was for the three days in the middle of His death and resurrection is 1 Peter 3:18– 19, which says, "Christ likewise languished once over sins, the upright for the wicked, that he may convey us to God, being executed in the substance yet made alive in the soul, in which he went and declared to the spirits in jail" (ESV). The word soul alludes to Christ's soul. The complexity is between His fragile living creature and soul, and not between Christ's fragile living creature and the Holy Spirit. Christ's substance kicked the bucket, yet His soul stayed alive. Jesus' body was in the tomb, obviously, yet His soul, having withdrawn at His demise (Matthew 27:50), was somewhere else for those three days.

Diminish gives a tad of explicit data about what occurred in those three days between Jesus' passing and restoration. The KJV says that Jesus "lectured" to the spirits in jail (1 Peter 3:19). The Greek word utilized just implies that Jesus "proclaimed a message"; the NIV deciphers it as "made announcement." Jesus endured and passed on the cross, His body being killed. Be that as it may, His soul was as yet alive, and He yielded it to the Father (Luke 23:46). As per Peter, at some point between Jesus' passing and His restoration Jesus made an extraordinary declaration to some detained spirits.

Where were these detained spirits to whom Jesus talked between His demise and restoration? No place in the Bible are we informed that Jesus visited hellfire. The possibility that Jesus went to hellfire so as to proceed with His enduring is deceptive; His enduring finished when He stated, "It is done" upon the cross (John 19:30). The New American Standard Bible says that Jesus went to "Hades" (Acts 2:31), however Hades isn't damnation. Hades is a term that alludes, extensively, to the domain of the dead, a transitory place where the dead anticipate revival. Disclosure 20:11– 15 in the NASB and the NIV makes a reasonable refinement among Hades and the pool of flame. The pool of flame is the changeless, last place of judgment for the lost. Hades is a brief place for both the lost and the Old Testament holy people.

Our Lord Jesus yielded His soul to the Father, kicked the bucket physically, and entered heaven, as He had guaranteed the cheat on the cross (Luke 23:43). Sooner or later between His demise and restoration, Jesus additionally visited a place where He conveyed a message to soul creatures—most likely fallen holy messengers (see Jude 1:6); these spirits were presumably detained in light of the fact that they were by one way or another engaged with an unfortunate sin before the surge in Noah's time (1 Peter 3:20). Subside does not disclose to us what Jesus announced to the detained spirits, however it couldn't have been a message of recovery, since holy messengers can't be spared (Hebrews 2:16). What Jesus announced was most likely an affirmation of His triumph over Satan and his hosts (1 Peter 3:22; Colossians 2:15).

Ephesians 4:8– 10 may provide another insight with respect to Jesus' exercises in the three days between His passing and restoration. Citing Psalm 68:18, Paul says about Christ, "When he rose on high, he took numerous prisoners" (Ephesians 4:8). The ESV puts it that Christ "drove a large group of prisoners." This could allude to an occasion not somewhere else portrayed in Scripture, specifically, that Jesus assembled all the recovered who were in heaven and took them to their lasting staying in paradise. That is, in the wake of anchoring their salvation on the cross, Jesus brought Abraham, David, Joshua, Daniel, the bum Lazarus, the criminal on the cross, and every other person who had recently been legitimized by confidence, and drove them from Hades to their new profound home.

The majority of this is to state that the Bible isn't completely clear what precisely Christ improved the situation the three days between His passing and restoration. From what we can tell, however, He completed two things: He console the left holy people and conveyed them to their everlasting home, and He announced His triumph over the fallen blessed messengers who are kept in jail. What we can be sure of is that Jesus was not allowing anybody another opportunity for salvation; we confront judgment after death (Hebrews 9:27), not another opportunity. Additionally, Jesus was not enduring in hellfire; His work of recovery was done on the cross.

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