By Todd Paetznick, January 16, 2025

Things can go wrong quickly when we do not think right about God. This is especially true when we believe we know better than God instead of trusting that God knows best, even when we don’t fully understand the purpose behind what happens.  

Idolatry was a problem for the Israelites in the Old Testament. They did not always think right about God and often got in trouble with the one true God because they also worshiped false small “g” gods. Throughout Israel’s history, Israelites lived alongside people who believed very different things from them. Many Israelites were lured into bad behavior because that was what the other people in their communities advocated and did. 

Interestingly, many of the Israelites would continue to worship the true God but would also worship false gods.  Why?  Presumably, to cover all the potential options for how the universe works that they might have missed.  In their minds, if the “heathens” in their community believed that worship of some local god assured them of business success, some of the Israelites might do the same thing, just in case.  Some observable success on the part of the heathens would serve to confirm the power of this local god.  Outside observers would correlate the business success with the worship and power of some other god.  In reality, this other god was nothing more than a man-made thing, but in the minds of believers, this thing brought about their success.

Correlation does not imply causation.

Before we get too hard on the Israelites, please realize that even Christ-followers in our modern world will do similar things and find connections in circumstances that do not exist.  Sitcoms make fun of people who think they need to wear their lucky socks or believe they need to follow some routine to ensure their desired outcome for their favorite football team.  There is something that was done in the past that “worked.” However, there is no causation between wearing lucky socks and their team winning the game.  Wearing particular socks did not cause the team to win.  A similar situation is likely the source of many superstitions.  

We may attend church on Sunday, but we also read self-help books that encourage us to “manifest” a particular outcome in our minds so that the universe will give us what we want.  Manifesting something “worked” for someone who claims to have used the power of the universe to get what they wanted.  If we worship God on Sunday and believe in the power of manifestations to get what we wish, we are falling into the same idolatry trap as the ancient Israelites.  Or maybe we rely on the power of crystals or sources other than God.  Regardless, God plus anything else equals idolatry.  Correlation often attempts to connect something to a desirable outcome when, in reality, there is no connection or cause.  

Sufficiency of God and the Bible.

The apostle Paul wrote to his mentee, Timothy, about the sufficiency of God’s words to reveal Himself to the world.  God is infinite, so we do not believe that even the Bible can contain everything to be known about God.  But the words in the Bible are claimed to be enough; they are sufficient to teach us what we need to know about God and His ways.  Paul wrote “All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man [or woman] of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work” (2Timothy 3:16-17 NASB20).  

Paul did not encourage Timothy to study God’s words and then rely on something else to strengthen the people in Timothy’s church.  Paul wanted Timothy to rely on the words of God as being sufficient.  The words of God were beneficial for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training people to do what is good and right.  Nothing other than the scriptures was noted by Paul as being necessary to equip Christ-followers to achieve the outcomes desired by Paul.  

Where to put our trust?

Jumping to conclusions using correlation without definitive causation is common today. This is fascinating because people who follow science and trust facts also promote superstition and irrational assumptions. The Christ-follower, however, recognizes God as the true power source in the universe. Nothing happens unless God wants it to. Trusting God eliminates the anxiety many people feel as they seek to understand why things happen and for what purpose.  Trusting that God knows best, even when we do not fully understand what is happening, will free us from the anxiety others feel and will result in peace.