The Idolatry Of Sports

For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal. Jeremiah 11:13

Idolatry of entertainment

Somehow or another, the children of the apostate have mistakenly made entertainers and professional athletes people of importance so much so that they have put their idols, players, and teams in the place of Christ (Exodus 20:13; Acts 4:12).

Idol: An image, form or representation, usually of a man or other animal, consecrated as an object of worship; a pagan deity.

In every city in America, we discover idol worship.

The children of the apostate have their own sports icons and mascots with their favorite teams and players. They have football teams, baseball teams, basketball teams, hockey teams, you name it, they have it covered.

They have red & blue devil mascots, demons pigs, chickens, wolves, gophers, badgers, buffaloes, tigers, goats, rams, hawks, bears, eagles, lions, cougars, elephants, ducks, alligators, bulls, long horns, hound dogs, Constellation (stars) mascots, people mascots, kings, sailors, minute men, knights, cowboys, Indians, warriors, mountaineers, colonels, gladiators, miners, Vikings, workmen, Zorro mascots, fruit mascots, keg mascots, car mascots, etc. Also, consider the fact that this just scratches the surface when it comes to the people’s mascots – idols.

All of this idol worship is in the face of Exodus 20:4-5 where it tells us:

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image (a god to suit your sins), or any likeness of anything that is in Heaven above (constellations), or that is in the earth beneath (man, animals) or that is in the water under the earth.

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me.

Look at what Paul said to the people in Acts 17:22-27 while confronting them at Mars Hill:

Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of Heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed any thing, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us.

In verses 29-31, he adds:

Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent:

Because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.

Sports as the booby-prize example

Again, sports are just another form of idolatry within the ranks of the apostates. Oh, how they love their sports, and it shows you just where their hearts are at (Matthew 6:21). Scripture tells us in 2 Kings 17:33:

They feared the LORD, and served their own gods.

In other words, they said they loved the Lord in being His pretended children, but when it came to the truth of the matter, they served other gods, whom they loved more.

Jesus said in Matthew 15:8, “This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoureth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me.”

The country is being led literally into Hell, and they give their time, money, and efforts over to idol worship.

The wicked (them that know to do the right, but chose to do the wrong) shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. Psalm 9:16-17

Let me give you an example of this in more detail. Let’s take football worship: This is where we see full grown men with tights on, getting paid millions of dollars by demoralizing sponsorships, fighting over a pig ball. This somehow takes precedent over them standing up and defending their own children. Instead, what do they do through their inactions? They sacrifice them to Molech by whoring themselves out to their favorite idols (Leviticus 20:5).

Watch how they behave

Think of this, 70 million babies to date have been murdered by their own government, that is with the permission of these apostates that do nothing but stand by and let their said representatives illegally legislate, as they call it, the murder of children (Exodus 20:13; Matthew 24:12). Also, read the 5th Amendment of the Bill of Rights.

On the other hand, if you ever want to see what motivates these hypocrites and what it is that will cause them to stand up and be counted, look at how they react when their favorite team scores a touchdown. You can literally hear their praise and worship of their deities a mile away!

Incense in the Bible is representative to the people’s prayers going up to God. These apostates that occupy these stadiums every Sunday (Exodus 20:8-11), are giving up their counterfeit incense, praise and worship to their idols (players – teams) on the field (altars of Baal, false gods and deities), which the Lord condemns.

…ye set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal.

Another motivator for these apostates is how they respond when an official on the football field makes a bad call. Or how about when their favor coach is removed from their favorite team for reasons which they disagree. This seems to be what it takes; only then will they see where their anger and indignation lies. Yes, then, and only then, will you see a quick call to action.

Sports trumps Christ, even in church

In the state of Minnesota, we find that these are also the same idolaters that are too timid to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23), but they have no problem with taking off their shirts, painting half their bodies purple, and the other half yellow, all the while, shouting as loud as they can with horns on their heads.

Furthermore, Christians are to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and this unabashedly (Romans 1:16). In contrast, these apostates will spend $129.00 – 384.00 for a jersey with their favorite players name on it while gloating about. They do this on top of the fact that the average ticket price that it costs them to get into these games is $329.00.

Bold and proud they are with an awkward smirk about their faces, and with much to talk about before and after the game.

At a popular church outside of Minneapolis (Luke 16:15), every football season, they set up the stage behind the pulpit area as a football field with goal posts, and with cheerleaders to boot. They promise the apostates sitting in the pews that they’ll cut the service short lest they break into their idol worship.

In other areas of idol worship, these hypocrites have become so dumbed down that they’ll even go so far as to entertain themselves by watching cars go in a circle 500 times. Really?

Other examples

How about this one? Golf. This is where a little white ball gets knocked around a grass mowed field, and the spectators and television watchers are anticipating how many swings it will take to get that little ball into a little, tiny hole.

Look at what the apostates have become. Are they ashamed? Not at all (Jeremiah 6:15).

How could it get any worse? Well, it does.

Men are now beating each other up to a literal death in the UFC cage matches. This is just one step away from the colosseums, in which the gladiatorial games (fighting unto death) were played, and where men, women and children were martyred for their faith in Christ.

That is far-fetched, you might say. Do you say this as if to suggest that history does not repeat itself to those who do not learn from history? If this is what your thought was, you are sadly mistaken; We, as a nation, are now on this precipice that is in plain view.

A major beer company back in the 1980s in the United States had created an advertisement that stated, “So many Christians, so few lions.”

Open your eyes (Jeremiah 5:21).

By rejecting the One, true and living God and embracing their idols instead, these apostates, in the natural (1 Corinthians 2:14), are willfully being entertained out of their God-given freedoms (rights), and possibly even their own lives (Deuteronomy 28:66). In the Spirit, they are continuing to gamble with their own souls (spiritual).

Suppose we forsook sports tomorrow?

Can you imagine these apostates emptying out these stadiums across America (80,000 – 107,000 person capacity), in obedience to the God, that they say they love and serve (Matthew 23:23)? In just one weekend, they could (Zechariah 4:6) change the course of this nation (Matthew 22:37). How many evils could be undone if only they were genuine in their professions (Psalm 94:16).

I ask, should not a disobedient nation be judged for this? Yes, and it is being judged (Deuteronomy 28:63; Jeremiah 5:29).

Even the enemies within are talking. It has been said by those who mean to conquer this nation, “Now is the time to attack, for Americans have made sports their gods,” and so it is (Deuteronomy 28:50).

How does the Lord respond to such idolaters in the time of their need?

But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble: for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah. Jeremiah 2:28