{"id":93108,"date":"2025-09-18T15:03:57","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T20:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/?p=93108"},"modified":"2025-09-18T15:05:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T20:05:07","slug":"making-god-in-our-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/making-god-in-our-image\/","title":{"rendered":"The Consequences of Making God in Our Image"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A dangerous trend is accelerating in our culture among Christians and non-Christians alike. We are streaming hours of content that fill our screens and our minds with messages that celebrate the decay of truth, approve of all lifestyle decisions, and prescribe self affirmation as the best medication for any mental or spiritual struggles. We bathe our minds in these messages for up to seven hours per day.<\/a> The result is cultural influence on a scale never seen before. It\u2019s not only rewiring our brains and impacting our view of the world around us, it is redefining and distorting our view of God. This is a problem worth understanding so we both realize the implications and know how to move forward. First, we need to know this problem is not new.<\/span><\/p>

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An Ancient Problem: \u201cYou thought I was like you\u2026\u201d<\/b><\/h2>

Throughout Psalm 50, God contrasts the righteous with the wicked in Israel and states how the behavior and worship of the wicked is horribly skewed because they willingly put themselves under the influence of ungodly nations. As a result, they\u2019re worshipping God as they want Him to be instead of how He is. They are reciting His name and claiming His covenant promises all while living in rebellion against Him. The way God calls out this problem is by stating in verse 21, \u201cyou thought I was exactly like you.\u201d This was the heart of their problem, and it\u2019s at the heart of our problem too. The implications are disastrous.<\/span><\/p>

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Related: Why You Can\u2019t Use the Bible to Challenge God\u2019s Goodness<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>

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The Sole Attribute of the God We\u2019re Settling For<\/b><\/h2>

The most important thing to consider is what happens when we get God wrong. Our infinite God has dozens of eternal and glorious attributes. The depths of each one could not be mined in a thousand lifetimes. However, the god created in our image has only one attribute worth considering. It is the anti-attribute of the God who is.<\/span><\/p>

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A god who is limited<\/b><\/h3>

The god presented in culture today is limited in power, knowledge, freedom, love and ability. He conveniently conforms to you. His desires are limited to your desires. His plans are limited to your plans. His will is limited to your will. Ultimately, you are his god. This is fully alien to the God we find is Scripture. He shares His sovereignty with none (Is 44:8), He is all powerful (Psalm 62:11), is Himself love (1 John 4:8), knows all (Hebrews 4:13) acts freely according to His pleasure (Isaiah 46:10), and works all things according His will (Ephesians 1:11b).<\/span><\/p>

A god who is limited can have exactly none of these attributes. This god is also a god who is unnecessary, especially for salvation. That kind of god fits nicely in our culture today because the prevailing conclusion from culture\u2019s most streamed voices is that there is nothing from which we need to be saved. Everyone is a good person. Every worldview is correct. Every belief, as long as it\u2019s sincere, is true. This is diametrically opposed to the truth we find in Scripture. We are in desperate need of salvation (Romans 3:23, Isaiah 53:6); God alone is Savior (Isaiah 43:11); He has offered this salvation through Christ alone (John 6:44, John 14:6), and He saves us in the midst of our sin when we call upon Him (Romans 5:8, Romans 10:3) and saves us to the uttermost (Hebrews 7:25).<\/span><\/p>

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A Culture That Needs Redirection<\/b><\/h2>

What step can you take to redirect culture to the truth of who God is? Do we just write culture off as hopeless? Of course not. As mentioned above, this problem isn\u2019t new in the least. It\u2019s only on display for all to see like never before. And herein lies the opportunity. A problem that is easier to see is also easier to discuss. Fortunately, you aren\u2019t called to take on culture as a whole. However, you can start with the culture that surrounds you. Your neighbors, co-workers, family members and more are all part of culture and have almost inevitably been influenced by this information revolution. Now, more than ever, is the time to be prepared to specifically and carefully share about who God is and who we are in light of who He is. Be on the lookout for these moments in discussions with those in your area of influence.<\/span><\/p>

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Related: Your True Identity: Loved by God, Not Used by Culture<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>

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In the age where voice overload never stops, people all around you are reaching a thousand different and contradictory conclusions about who God is. As such, gone are the days where you can simply mention \u201cGod\u201d and have people know to whom you are referring. However, here are the days when people are more open to discuss spiritual things, which makes today a great day to carefully share truths that directly combat the distortions of reality all around us.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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A dangerous trend is accelerating in our culture among Christians and non-Christians alike. We are streaming hours of content that fill our screens and our minds with messages that celebrate the decay of truth, approve of all lifestyle decisions, and prescribe self affirmation as the best medication for any mental or spiritual struggles. We bathe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237743,"featured_media":93112,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"80","_seopress_titles_title":"The Dangers of Making God in Our Image in a Media-Saturated Culture","_seopress_titles_desc":"Modern culture is shaping a distorted view of God, making Him in our image. Learn the dangerous consequences of this trend and how you can redirect the conversation to truth.","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[181,812,184,1213,122],"translator":[],"blog-author":[1230],"class_list":["post-93108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apologetics","tag-apologetics","tag-attributes-of-god","tag-god","tag-image-of-god","tag-truth","blog-author-brock-anderson"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/607\/2025\/09\/gods-attributes-mirror-sightline-8.png","meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237743"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93108"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93115,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93108\/revisions\/93115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93108"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/translator?post=93108"},{"taxonomy":"blog-author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog-author?post=93108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}