Calvin on Creating God in our own image

When I listen to or read the works of many that claim to be evangelicals today, I sometimes wonder which God they worship. Some of these people simply do not preach or believe the whole counsel of God, on God. Inevitably, they create for themselves and their congregations a 'god' in their own image!

John Calvin writes:

"In saying that some fall away into superstition, I mean not to insinuate that their excessive absurdity frees them from guilt; for the blindness under which they labour is almost invariably accompanied with vain pride and stubbornness. Mingled vanity and pride appear in this, that when miserable men do seek after God, instead of ascending higher than themselves as they ought to do, they measure him by their own carnal stupidity, and, neglecting solid inquiry, fly off to indulge their curiosity in vain speculation. Hence, they do not conceive of him in the character in which he is manifested, but imagine him to be whatever their own rashness has devised. This abyss standing open, they cannot move one footstep without rushing headlong to destruction. With such an idea of God, nothing which they may attempt to offer in the way of worship or obedience can have any value in his sight, because it is not him they worship, but, instead of him, the dream and figment of their own heart. This corrupt procedure is admirably described by Paul, when he says, that “thinking to be wise, they became fools” (Rom. 1:22)."
Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1.4.1.

Also read:
Which Jesus do you serve?