Idol Minds

INTRODUCTION — THE ALTAR IN THE MIND

If there is one truth humanity proves in every century, in every culture, in every language, it is this:

We never stop worshiping.

You can strip away temples, rituals, church buildings, religious vocabulary—

you can call yourself modern, enlightened, scientific, secular—

but not a single human being has ever lived without a god.

Because the human heart is not a courtroom searching for evidence.

It is a temple searching for a throne.

We don’t become unbelievers.

We simply become re-believers

—trading the God who made us

for the idols we make.

And those idols no longer sit on stone pedestals.

They sit in imaginations.

They sit in desires.

They sit in phone screens.

They sit in political platforms.

They sit in the places where we look for meaning, identity, comfort, and control.

The world says we’ve moved beyond idolatry.

But Scripture says idolatry has simply moved into us.

The mind becomes the sanctuary.

The heart becomes the altar.

And something—someone—will sit there.

Not every idol has a name.

But today, Scripture gives us six that perfectly describe the spiritual climate of our age.

And we begin not with the idol of money or politics—

We begin with desire.

Because idolatry always starts in the heart

long before it ends in the hands.

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I. ASHERAH — THE IDOL THAT SEDUCES

We start with Asherah, the ancient goddess of sexuality, pleasure, and erotic freedom.

Her worshippers said,

“Follow your desire.

Trust your feelings.

Do what brings you pleasure.”

Does that sound ancient?

Or does it sound like today’s billboards, movies, music, advertisements—

and yes, the scripts we quietly follow in our own minds?

Asherah hasn’t disappeared.

She has multiplied.

She streams into homes.

She shines from screens.

She dances in pop culture.

She whispers through algorithms.

Not as a statue—

but as a worldview.

Her modern names?

“It’s my body.”

“It’s just entertainment.”

“I can handle it.”

“It’s natural.”

“You do you.”

“No one can judge my truth.”

But the truth is this:

What the heart worships, the life obeys.

Asherah trains us to believe that desire is destiny,

that pleasure is freedom,

that boundaries are oppression,

and that holiness is outdated.

But Scripture whispers a counter-message: “Be holy, for I am holy.”

Because desire without devotion becomes a prison,

and freedom without truth becomes slavery.

Asherah seduces.

She tells us the body is god.

She tells us lust is identity.

She tells us that whatever feels good must be good.

And countless lives testify that she lies.

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II. MAMMON — THE IDOL THAT CONSUMES

If Asherah seduces the desires,

Mammon consumes the soul.

Jesus didn’t say Mammon was dangerous.

He said Mammon was a master.

“You cannot serve both God and Mammon.”

Mammon is not money.

Money is a tool.

Mammon is the spirit behind money—

the whisper that says:

“You are what you own.”

“You are what you earn.”

“You are what you can buy.”

“You need more.”

“You are falling behind.”

“You must protect yourself.”

“You must secure your future.”

Mammon is the storyteller of capitalism,

the liturgist of consumer culture,

and the high priest of anxiety.

You don’t have to love money to worship Mammon.

You just have to worry about it all the time.

You just have to think it will save you.

You just have to measure life by possessions instead of peace.

Mammon replaces contentment with comparison.

It turns blessings into burdens.

It makes us chase numbers instead of God.

It fills homes with things and hearts with emptiness.

Mammon demands more— just a little more— always more.

But the soul was never designed to be filled by something that rusts, breaks, depreciates, or burns.

Mammon consumes.

And the more you feed him,

the hungrier he gets.

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III. MOLECH — THE IDOL THAT DEMANDS SACRIFICE

If Asherah seduces

and Mammon consumes,

then Molech reveals the terrible cost of both.

In ancient times, Molech was the god who demanded the ultimate sacrifice: children.

No Israelite parent woke up one day wanting to surrender their child to the flames.

But they believed a lie: “If I sacrifice the innocent, I will gain something for myself.”

And that is the soul of Molech.

Today’s world recoils at the idea of child sacrifice—and yet the spirit of Molech is everywhere.

Every generation that sacrifices its children

for adult pleasure,

adult convenience,

adult ambition,

adult comfort—

is bowing to Molech,

even if no one calls him by that name.

We sacrifice children in different ways now:

Neglect in the home

Abuse behind closed doors

Abortion normalized as empowerment

Exploitation disguised as culture

Screen-based pacification instead of presence

Families split apart because ego demanded more space

Schools expected to raise children because parents will not

Molech does not need a furnace anymore.