Today, our theological chickens are coming home to roost. As such, we are in the process of creating idols for our own destruction (cf. Hosea 8:4). If we don’t repent, we will be destroyed for our ignorance of God’s Word (cf. Hosea 4:6).
As the Lord’s own unique and special people, poised, as we are, in the second decade of the 21st century, we will either reject, resist, and repent of these destructive heresies, or we will be “cut off.” As free moral agents, the choice is ours. None of us is immune.
Therefore, self-examination is not out of order for anyone, even the most devout Christian. Remember, whatever is on the throne, whatever controls one’s life, is his idol. It may be “mammon” (Matthew 6:24); it may be personal pleasure (cf. Philippians 3:19); it may be one’s work or family; it may be drugs; it may be “omnipotent,” “infallible” science; or it may be just SELF (cf. Daniel 5:23). Whatever it is, it must be abandoned.
Finally, when we do our theology (i.e., out thinking about God), we must be care not to be creating the sham gods of orthotalksy.
Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. So the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods” (Joshua 24:14-16).