This week on The Aspastor John Podcast, we are joined by guest Dr. Richard Lintz, who serves

as the vice president for Academic Affairs and Dean of the main campus of Gordon Conwell,

Theological Seminary, just north of Boston.

Dr. Lintz is also the author of a fascinating book that releases this winter titled Identity

and Idolatry, The Image of God, and its Inversion.

It's published in Don Carson's series, New Studies in Biblical Theology, and it's, in my

opinion, one of the better ones in this series.

And Dr. Lintz, thank you for joining us.

Of course, you know, Biblically, we become like what we worship.

We become like what we behold.

That's a Biblical paradigm in Scripture.

We see in Psalm 115, verses 4 to 8, and Romans chapter 1, verses 18 to 27.

We see it in Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, and we see it in Colossians 3, 10, and

2 Corinthians 3, 18.

It's really all over the place.

We become like what we behold.

Negatively, of course, this is called idolatry.

So to start out our week, can you summarize the Bible's explanation of idolatry and how

idol shape us and change us to the very core of our identity?

Yeah, it's a great question to start with because our attention, especially if late,

has been to think about the way in which that dynamic of our identity is formed negatively.

That is the way in which our desires are drawn to certain objects which in turn shape

...