Spellbound

Today there is much talk about a religious revival. That is good news, you think? Yes and no. Mass-produced popular religion may bring many people to a saving knowledge of the Gospel. It may also trivialize that Gospel, playing down the more troublesome parts of the Christian Faith in order to make it more palatable, more saleable in a consumer market.

The most serious dilution of the faith is the trivializing of the very image of God Himself by means of which God is reduced to a pitiable caricature-as “the Man upstairs,” or as some kind of religious narcotic offering the believer fast relief from life’s everyday anxieties. The Biblical word for belittling God-a good old-fashioned word that continues to come in handy-is blasphemy.

At Mount Sinai, the children of Israel had no illusions that Yahiveh, their God, could be tamed in this way. They had broken their promise of loyalty to Him by worshipping the golden calf-a false god-and they became fearful.…