4 February 2024
I dreamt I was climbing up a building in a way that felt a bit like parkour. The way was full of difficulty — the building shook, the spaces were crowded, I had to hold onto railings, and eventually I took a lift upward. At the end of the lift I arrived at a J** P** training course. Afterwards I was given a box, like a gift for completing the training. When I opened it, I found rotten chestnuts inside.
Before this dream I had already encountered two things that later helped me understand it. I had seen chestnuts as street food in Bangkok, a city I associate with many idols. I had also attended a J** P** event where I saw people treating him with a kind of reverence that looked very much like worship.
The climb, with its shaking floors, crowded spaces, and parkour-like effort, suggested a demanding process of progress. Reaching the J** P** training at the top of the lift represented the desire to learn from someone who speaks about morality, responsibility, and meaning. The box of chestnuts seemed at first like a reward for completing the course. Yet when I opened it, the chestnuts were rotten. Linked in my mind to a place of idols, they became a warning: even something that looks like a prize for spiritual or moral achievement can carry the danger of human idolatry.
Scripture repeatedly cautions against elevating people in ways that belong only to God. Jeremiah writes, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord” (Jeremiah 17:5). The psalmist echoes the same warning: “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation” (Psalm 146:3). Paul rebuked the Corinthian believers for forming personality groups around human teachers — “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos” — and reminded them that such leaders are only servants (1 Corinthians 3:4–7). Jesus Himself told His disciples not to elevate men with titles of ultimate authority, because “you have one Teacher… you have one Father, who is in heaven” (Matthew 23:8–10). Both Peter and the angel in Revelation firmly refused worship and redirected it to God alone (Acts 10:25–26; Revelation 19:10; 22:8–9).
Idolatry is not a light matter. When we give to human leaders the devotion that belongs to God, we provoke Him to jealousy. Paul asks pointedly, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?” (1 Corinthians 10:21–22).
About seven weeks later, around 29 March 2024, I encountered some people from the I** church who were elevating K** M** in a similar way. When I shared this dream with them, the warning against human idolatry became even clearer.
The dream did not forbid learning from insightful or morally serious people. It did, however, caution against crossing the line into worship. The chestnuts that arrived like a gift but were rotten inside became a picture of something that appears to be a reward yet carries the danger of idolatry. Seeing the same pattern both before and after the dream confirmed the message for me.
This lesson is important. It highlights the danger of human idolatry and personality cults that can develop around leaders in many churches. When loyalty to a person begins to rival loyalty to Christ, it becomes a form of idolatry that Scripture warns against.
For more on this, you can refer to https://findgod.help/en/Sin.html, https://findgod.help/en/Sin2.html, https://findgod.help/en/Apostasy.html dan https://findgod.help/en/Apostasy2.html
