IDOLS FOR DESTRUCTION, by Herbert Schlossberg. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1983, 344 pp. $8.95 paper.

This extraordinary book has gained praise and recommendations from a variety of sources. Carl F. Henry called it “one of the best, if not the best buy of the year,” and John M. Frame, in a 6-page review in the Westminster Theological Journal, characterized it as a worthy and, in some respects , superior successor to Os Guinness’ “magnificent” 1973 The Dust of Death.

Mr. Schlossberg has a Ph.D. degree in History from the University of Minnesota and a Master’s in Public Administration from The American University. He has taught history at the University of Waterloo, been Academic Dean at Shepherd College (West Virginia), and, in the book, was reported as currently a tax and investment consultant.

The title of the book was evidently suggested by the Scripture text mentioned on the title page, Hosea 8:4, “. . . they made idols for their own destruction.” Dr. Schlossberg’s thesis is simple and can be briefly stated: The current widespread pessimism and despair which one sees throughout our society can be best understood and explained, not by various secularist explanations, but by the Bible’s teaching of God’s judgment on man’s idolatries. “The bulk of this book is an exploration of the forms these idols take in late twentieth-century America” (p.6). Chapters are devoted to idols of (1)history, (2)humanity, (3)mammon, (4)nature, (5)power, and (6) religion. Two concluding chapters look toward the future, suggesting the course Christians should take.

1. History

The ancient (and Eastern) world tended to explain man’s history as a series of cycles (running in circles and going nowhere—“G.K. Chesterton said, it is fitting that the Buddha be pictured with his eyes closed; there is nothing important to see”). “Western civilization, in keeping with its Christian underpinnings, has always valued history highly.” But, having departed from the faith, it sees history not as “the arena in which (God’s) providence and judgment meet the obedience or rebellion of man,” but sees history as itself “the vehicle of salvation” (p. 13). Thus history is made “the whole show”—an “idol.” When historians took this course, they “entered a blind alley.” That “could account for the general abandonment of the study of history that began in the colleges in the 1960s, “when students” turned in greater numbers to the social sciences, which claimed . . . the ability to contribute to the solution of social problems and thus promised to be more useful to people who wished to make a contribution to society” (p. 25).

2. Humanity

“Eve was the first humanist,” tempted to rebel against God with the promise, “You will be like God” (p.39). Subsequently, self-worship became, in a variety of guises, the main religion of mankind. This humanism replaced Divine law with human desires. When human desire becomes supreme it produces envy or what is called (in French) “ressentiment,” a festering hatred of the one who is envied. This attitude, often fostered in the guise of love for the poor or the right, is frequently the more or less hidden drive for social revolution. Schlossberg describes in considerable detail how this mechanism of envy drives much of the socially and politically “Liberal” movement of our time. Accordingly, as society moves toward equalizing incomes the demand for equality is not satisfied but intensified. People do not envy the millionaire as much as they do their neighbor who makes ten percent more than they do. “The leveling movement has nothing to do with justice, because its impulse is not to raise those who are down but to topple those who are up . . .” (p.55).

Our attention is directed to efforts to foster and exploit feelings ofguilt because there are economic inequalities. John Kenneth Galbraith “wants rich countries to feel guilty because poor countries exist” (p.57). “It is ironic that those who have denied the existence of any objective reason for believing in guilt should be the ones to accompli sh their ends by fanning guilt feelings” (p.57). “As wealth increases people redefine poverty.” In this social movement, it no longer means a need for food, clothing and shelter, but a lack of anything which someone else has. “Humanitarian ethics finds it necessary to ‘upgrade’ the poverty minimums in such a way as to prevent the number of poor people from declining. Thus social service agencies may develop a vested interest in preserving or even increasing the number of their patrons.

“Humanitarian literature is studded with contempt for . . . the work ethic or the ‘Puritan’ ethic,” but is seldom “contemptuous of the fruit of the work ethic” (p .64). When social insurance makes it pay to be unemployed it is simply a fact that many people prefer not to work. The writer cites Moynihan’s observation that “dependency is a creation of the welfare system itself. France, which has no institutional structure to create and maintain dependency, does not have a problem even remotely like ours. There are dependents but not the vast bureaucracy that feeds on and maintains dependency. One of the governing assumptions in France is that people are responsible for taking care of themselves”’ (pp. 67 ,68). “Moynihan contends that the custodial quality of the welfare system is to be found nowhere but in the United States.” Calling attention to our multiplying social problems, noting especially the growing atrocity of legalized abortions, the author shows how these may be best understood in Biblical perspective as exhibiting God’s current judgments on the idol of humanity. “The god that failed is man.”

3. Mammon

Our Lord, when He said that it is impossible to serve both God and mammon, called attention to one of the most popular idolatries of our time, the making of money and material possessions the goal of life. Schlossberg shows how this pursuit of money and the material, exalted to official government policy, has produced our monstrous problem of inflation. Governments , simply by increasing the amount of money which they print, proportionally decrease the value of that money as it competes in the marketplace for the same amount of goods. By this kind of manipulation of money supply, governments transfer property from the people to themselves. Thus they legitimatize what is really a form of theft. The policy has popular appeal to all who borrow, because it enables people to buy with expensive dollars and pay back with cheaper. Thus the inflation “that wipes out one’s debt” “destroys another’s wealth.” “A society that inflates its currency tampers with a moral value.” ” Inflation is like a country where nobody speaks the truth.” “The Hebrew prophets denounced . . . changeable weights and measures as a form of oppression that merited judgment” (p. 101). “Inflation is both a cause and effect of moral decline. The citizens like it because they perceive that it gives them something for nothing.” As our seemingly uncontrollable government deficits and consequent inflation increasingly worry people on all levels of our society, Schlossberg appropriately reminds us that these problems of our country and others who depend on its economy should be seen in the light of the Bible as God’s judgments on our worship of the idol, mammon.

4. Nature

Ancient Israel, called to worship God who had revealed Himself in history as its Savior and Lord, was constantly tempted to join its neighbors in Baal-worship, the idolatry of nature. In an essentially similar way, man today worships nature and the study of nature, natural science, as his idol. In a variety of ways the writer traces the development and the destructive consequences of this kind of idolatry in our present society and men’s disillusionment with it.

5. Power

“Perhaps the most characteristic feature of modem history . . . has been the development of the nation-state.” That has come to be regarded as the savior, the idol of our time. “It is only the action of the state,” says Schlesinger, “that can solve our spiritual problem and lead us to ‘the promised land.” Thus the state is transformed “from being a gift of God, given to protect us against violence, into an idol. It supplies us with all blessings, and we look to it for all our needs.” “When Galbraith says that in the power of the state lies our only chance for salvation, he gives us a premier example of what Ellul calls ‘the new soteriology.’” Attention is directed to the way in which the Internal Revenue Service regards “any money the citizen is permitted to keep” “as if the state had graciously given it to him”—plainly revealing the assumption that “the state . . . is the real owner of everything.” Thus we see the development of socialistic schemes which promise utopias and the development of government (and academic) bureaucracies which seek totalitarian control of our lives. Our public school system is being developed toward centralized control and exploited to serve that purpose. That state control in a variety of ways attacks and undercuts the family. In both the totalitarian states and the “democracies” which move in the same direction, we see the development of an idol that calls for and exhibits the judgment of God upon all idolatry.

6. Religion

“Any institution can become idolatrous, but it appears to be a particular hazard with institutions of religion.” A final chapter dealing with current idolatries focuses our attention on the way in which churches become apostate. Schlossberg reminds us that Christ was crucified by both church and state. “When the state joins forces with historicism and humanism in forging the great brutalities of the future, we should not be surprised to find the representatives of the establishment churches fuglemen (leading soldiers) for the idolatries, earnestly assuring us that God’s will is being done.”

Looking Ahead

After this comprehensive survey of some prominent idolatries, the author hazards some predictions about the future. “We shall be painting a somber picture of the: future of this society, but . . . as the wicked generation that populated Nineveh was saved by repentance, so can any other” (p.261). “When the people turn to idolatries, and the outcome of those faiths become incarnated in society’s institutions, . . . rot sets in.” We see especially among educated people a “flight from moral behavior,” with desires (often called “needs” or “rights”) taking the place of obligations (p. 266). Thus our Western culture returns to its pagan past. We must wake up to realize that we are in a religious war. One sees this coming to expression especially in the increasing opposition, sometimes from the government, to the multiplying Christian schools. Our increasing economic problems are really moral, and they resist solutions because “moral government does not come from an immoral people.” Indicative of the same demoralization of our society is its increasing lawlessness. In these developments we are seeing how idolatry destroys those who indulge themselves in it, just as Israel’s prophet said, “With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction.” People, as the psalmist said (Ps. 115:8), become like the idols which they have made. Unless we seek the remedy for our predicament in repentance and faith, “the future holds nothing but grim judgment.”

Exposing the idols of our age is only a preliminary step. We must positively return to the true gospel in both faith and practice. That includes a return to the standards of God’s law. The church must unmask the idols and expose them for what they are–something it can do only on the authority of the Bible. God is the Owner of all things and we must learn to regard ourselves as stewards of what He has entrusted to us. In unity with fellow believers we must oppose the powers of our age. That may entail persecution, as it has done for believers in the past. “Biblical faith finds great power—as does its imitator, Marxism—in the conviction that history is going its way. Or rather, that since Christ is the Lord of history, it is going history’s way.” “Thy kingdom come . . . is not a pious wish, but a certainty.” “Christians’ minority status in a world headed for the brink of disaster holds the promise of providing more excitement than most Christians are expecting.” “In the late twentieth century the West is . . . plagued with major and minor idols, some of them all but invisible. It is hard to imagine a more important or satisfying role than to embark on the spiritual, intellectual, and political adventure of working toward stripping them, root and branch from the land.”

It is impossible in a review to summarize many of the fascinating observations of this remarkable book. Although one may be inclined to question some details of Schlossberg’s treatment, his thesis, that we must understand many of the perplexing developments of our time in the light of the Bible as manifesting God’s judgment on men ‘s idolatries, is true. And Schlossberg’s reminder is urgently needed. The Apostle John concluded his first letter’s marvelous summary and application of the gospel with the warning,  “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” We need to heed that warning and to seek also to tum others “from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven . . . even Jesus who delivered us from the wrath to come” ( 1 Thess. 1:9 , 10). May Schlossberg’s book encourage many to join in that adventure.