#208 | The Story of God & Idolatry in Western Culture, Pt. 1 | Mike Goheen

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Sep 12, 2023

Mike Goheen, an expert on idolatry in Western culture, discusses the presence of idols and false gods in the West. The podcast explores topics such as the reduction of faith to ideas, the influence of the American dream, and the marginalization of Christians. They also delve into various forms of idolatry in American and Canadian churches, including freedom, consumerism, and technology. The conversation highlights the failure of the Western story and invites listeners to embrace the bigger story that God offers.

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INSIGHT

Hidden Idolatry in Western Story

The Western story, especially the American Dream, deeply shapes individual aspirations and causes hidden idolatry.
Christians often unknowingly live by this story rather than the biblical story, leading to cultural marginalization and ineffectiveness.

INSIGHT

Newbigin's Missionary Insight

Leslie Newbigin identified Western culture as deeply syncretistic, mixing the gospel with idolatrous humanism.
His missionary experience in India gave him new eyes to see Western culture as neo-pagan and challenged the church to resist cultural absorption.

INSIGHT

The Idols of Western Culture

Major Western idols include autonomy, consumerism, political ideologies, sexuality, and technicism.
These idols promise freedom and fulfillment but enslave and dehumanize those who trust them.

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We all know that cultures such as those in India have their own pantheon of false gods that we often think of as statues, but idolatry is more than the worship of statues. And demons are not only at work in Majority World cultures. Idolatry and the demonic are just as much at work in our Western culture, they just go by more socially acceptable names. In the West, we have idols of materialism, consumerism, unbridled autonomy, technology, and the like. The demonic work through them just as much as he does through statues and witch doctors.

Dr. Goheen, drawing on the work of Lesslie Newbigin, takes us into the heart of Western culture showing us that while the Western culture has brought many advances, it has also brought many dangers that are a threat to the propagation of the Christian faith. You will learn more about how we got to his place of having a secular society, the myth of objective secularism, and be able to identify many of the idolatries at work in the West and in the church. Mike also gives us a vision of the story of God's already/but not yet doctrine of the kingdom and our salvation. All of this and more can be found in Mike's book, The Church and Its Vocation: Lesslie Newbigin's Doctrine of Ecclesiology (Baker, 2018).

Dr. Mike Goheen began his professional life as a church planter in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and pastor in the Toronto area. Then, for over two decades, he taught worldview studies, biblical theology, and missiology at Dordt College, Redeemer University College, Trinity Western University, Regent College, and Calvin Theological Seminary. For most of that time, he has held part-time pastoral and preaching positions in local congregations.

Presently, he splits his time between Vancouver, Canada, and Phoenix, Arizona, where he directs the theological education program at the Missional Training Center (MTC). He also serves as scholar-in-residence for Surge Network of churches in Phoenix.

Mike has authored, co-authored, or edited twelve books, including Introducing Christian Mission Today: Scripture, History, and Issues (IVP, 2014), and A Light to the Nations: The Missional Church and the Biblical Story (Baker, 2011). He spends time each year in Brazil, Chile, and Hungary training pastoral leaders.

Mike has been married to Marnie since 1979. They have four married children and eleven grandchildren.

Learn more about Mike and the Missional Training Center and check out his books.

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