“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” James 1:17
If you’ve been around here for very long, you likely know that I’m a photographer. Photography is a technical art which requires a great deal of time on the part of the artist to study and observe the two most important elements in an image: light and shadow. In order to create an image that is pleasing to the eye, photographers attempt to find the right balance between these two elements. Photography is like a very subjective math equation (an oxymoron outside of the subject of art). The vision is the answer. Light and shadow are the two numbers added together to reach the chosen desired result.
Photographer’s vision = light + shadow
Which combination a photographer choose depends upon what they are trying to communicate with the image (their vision). The light in the equation is also a flexible element – it can be existing light, created light (flash), or a combination of the two. How the light is handled affects the shadow element of the equation. Subjective manipulation of the light and the shadow can be done by the photographer in various ways in order to achieve the end result.
Take for example the photograph below. I had a vision of the final image I wanted to create for these beautifully colored eggs given to me by one of my students. In an attempt to highlight texture, color and mood, I created the light with flash, shaped and softened the light on the left with reflectors, suppressed the light on the right with a black backdrop to increase the shadows, and positioned both the light and the eggs exactly where I knew the light would fall off at the edges of the eggs to allow for a more dramatic shadow effect. After many attempts, this was the image that was most pleasing to my eyes.
If we had 20 photographers working with these same eggs and tools that I used, we would have 20 different images, each most likely formed exactly as the photographer had envisioned his final image.
This manipulating of light and it’s multitude of results according to personal vision is necessary for the art of photography. Art is subjective and to use subjective math to reach a personally pleasing outcome is fine. I can hang this final image on my wall, you don’t have to. There is no long term consequence to this kind of subjectivity. There is caution to be noted – all of life is not subjective, all of life does not revolve around our personal preferences, and this manipulating of reality cannot – does not – apply to all areas of life.
If you’ve been around here for very long, you also know that I’m a Christian who firmly believes the Word of God in it’s entirety and as the only source to know the One, True, Living God. As an avid reader of the Scriptures I must come to them differently than I approach photography. The Bible tells us clearly, “God is light and in Him is no darkness.” (1 John 1:5) And though He is light, He is not the kind of light we can shape, form and manipulate into a likeness of our vision of Him. God is not like this light of photography. He is not subjective.
“God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” (Exodus 3:14)
The Almighty God, Creator of the ends of the earth, is not a subjective being, but a clearly stated real being who is who He is; who is who He says He is; and who is unchanged by anyone’s opinion of Him.
The amazing thing is that God knew we fallen humans would be tempted to mold, shape and manipulate Him into something other that who He is, as though we were all master artists creating God according to our vision. Have you ever heard of the Ten Commandments? Number two is this:
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” Deuteronomy 4:8-10
Simply stated, this commandment addresses worship and tells us not to create something that we can see or relate to (carved image) and then proceed to call it God and worship it. This can be a tricky one for us 21st century North Americans who {for the most part} do not bow down to statues or other carved images and worship them – our worship happens in church each Sunday. However, we can still be guilty of breaking this command when we subjectively make God into something He is not – perhaps with our opinions or false understanding. In a world where everything is relative, this form of worship is not hard to spot.
There is an account given to us in the Old Testament in Exodus Ch. 32, written down for our instruction, to show us the breaking of the Second Commandment – live. I’ll summarize, but I encourage you to read the whole account for yourself (Exodus Ch. 19, 20, & 32).
- God had just delivered Israel out of Egypt with mighty signs and wonders and is now leading them toward the Promised Land. Before they go too far in their journey, God brings them to the mountain of God (Mount Sinai) and here He displays His holiness and speaks to the people, but the people are afraid:
“Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” (Ex. 20:18-19)
- Moses then goes up the mountain himself to hear the Law given by God – laws for worship, life and justice, including the well known 10 Commandments which He had already given them in thundering voice at the foot of the mountain. Moses is with God for 40 days and in his absence, the people grow impatient, decide to forget about this fellow Moses, and go forward to the Promised Land on their own. So they pay a visit to Aaron, Moses’ brother, second in command and say, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” Ex. 32:1b
- Aaron gathers all their gold jewelry, fashions it over a fire with a graving tool and makes a golden calf and says, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt!” Ex. 32:4
- The people gladly worshipped this golden calf. After all, it was much less intimidating and fearful than the God who shook the mountain, and spoke in deafening thunder. And they could see this new god, it was visible and down at their level – subjectively comfortable, pleasing to the eye and the conscience.
It didn’t go so well for the Israelites as the end of Chapter 32 tells us. Yes, even the hard things are written for our instruction, so we will not follow their path and do as they did. God was not pleased with Israel when they shaped and formed God into something more pleasing to their felt needs. He is not pleased today when we commit the same sin.
Have you ever said, or heard someone say, “God wouldn’t do that” or “God is not like that” or “That’s ok for you, but I have another way to worship“? Wrong views of God run rampant even in Christian America. Professing Christians have created a golden calf of their own imagination. This god is one that isn’t quite so holy, one they gladly worship. To be sure, this god of theirs is not the God of the Bible.
There is a research poll that is conducted each year in the US which looks at the State of Theology in the nation. Below are some examples from the results of the 2022 poll to show us some of the gods of our imagination:
- 66% of people surveyed believe that God is a perfect being and cannot make a mistake. That’s good news, because He is a perfect being that cannot make a mistake! However, apparently the remaining 34% of those surveyed think God is not perfect and can make a mistake.
- Yet God says of Himself, “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all His ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He.” Deut. 32:4
- 67% believe that God accepts the worship of all religions including Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
- Yet Scripture says, “I am God and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me...” Isaiah 46:9; and “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6. Since Jesus is the only way to the Father, and Christianity is the only religion pointing people to Jesus, then clearly, God does not accept all religions. Just one.
- 52% of those polled believe that God learns and adapts to different circumstances. If He learns, than He cannot be perfect and if He adapts, then He can change – you know, to be up with the modern times, and not always be so, well, archaic.
- Yet Scripture clearly teaches God is immutable (unchanging), “For I the LORD do not change;” Malachi 3:6; and “He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.” 1 Samuel 15:29.
- 53% believe Jesus was a great teacher, but not God; which is consistent with the 55% who believe that Jesus was the first and greatest being created by God. For if Jesus was created, He can’t be God.
- Yet Scripture tells otherwise – “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” John 1:1-3
- 53% surveyed believe that the Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths but is not literally true. I guess if you don’t believe that the Bible is literally true, than what it states about God, His Son and His plan for your redemption isn’t very relevant nor believable.
- Yet God clearly states the authority and truthfulness of Scripture. “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.” Psalm 19:7-8; and “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17
The survey reveals people made in the image of God have taken the light we have been given (the knowledge of God) and have shaped and formed it to our liking. We have suppressed the reality of who God is. We have manipulated His truth with the imagination of our hearts. All of this is done in an attempt to create something we can worship that is pleasing to us – it’s edges softened, it’s mood tender, it’s texture smooth as silk, comfortable. The only problem is, this thing we have created and call ‘god’ is no god at all. It can do nothing for us except make us {temporarily} feel comfortable. Scripture clearly shows us that when we do this we are breaking the second commandment and it warns us that we will be held accountable for violating the law. For God has given His Word, the Scriptures, for us and he has “commanded {His} precepts to be kept diligently.” Ps. 119:4
It’s ok to take the light and form it, shape it, manipulate it to do what I want it to do in order to create a photographic image that is pleasing to me. That’s art. It’s subjective. It is also using God-given creativity to enhance beauty in the world. This is a good thing.
It is not ok to take the Light we have been given, the revelation from God, and then form it, shape it, manipulate it to look like what we want it to in order to create a god that is pleasing to ourselves. That is idolatry and is a great and grievous sin which, though He may be patient right now, will evoke the wrath of God on the final day, “For you may be sure of this that everyone…..who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” Ephesians 5:5
John MacArthur sums up this point very nicely with these words:
“When we talk about worship, we’re talking about something very specific, very objective, revelatory, unfolded for us on the pages of Scripture. It is not private, it is not personal in the sense that you define it yourself. It doesn’t rise out of your intuition. It doesn’t rise out of your experience. It doesn’t rise out of your imagination. It isn’t the invention from your own mind of what you want it to be. True worship is simply treating God in the way that God has commanded us to treat Him. That’s what it is.” The Kind of Worship God Desires, John MacArthur
Maybe it’s time we really searched our hearts to see if we are truly on the straight path that leads to life; to see if we have some of these wrong assumptions about God, Jesus and the Bible; to initiate an honest, sincere gaze into our hearts and minds and ask ourselves some hard questions: What do I believe to be true? What does Scripture say about this belief I have? Am I worshipping a god of my own imagination? Am I truly worshipping the God of Scripture? The only source for our answers is our Bible. I encourage you, plead with you, to humbly open your Bible, read it, seek the right answers until you find them (Prov. 2:1-11), and see if you are in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5). Your eternity depends on it.
Take Up and Read:
Exodus Ch. 19, 20, 32
Psalm 119
Isaiah 40
John Ch. 1, 14
The Light for My Path 
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