Idolatry in Biblical History

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Schaff's Bible Dictionary

Definitions in Biblical History
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What is Idolatry?
IDOL or IDOLATRY
Whatever receives the worship which is due only to God is an idol. In a figurative sense, the word denotes anything which draws the affections from God, Col 3:5, and in a restricted sense, it denotes any visible image or figure which is consecrated to religious worship, Deut 29:17. Idolatry consists (1) in worshipping as the true God some created object, as stars or animals or men; (2) in worshipping the Deity through the medium of symbolical representations, as pictures and statues. It is the greatest sin, and strictly forbidden in the first and second commandments. Ex 20:3-4; Deut 5:7; Deut 6:14-15; Deut 8:19-20; Jer 44:3-8. The origin of idolatry is involved in obscurity, and goes back to the remotest antiquity. All the heathen are idolaters, and they embrace two-thirds of the human race. The ancient Chaldaeans worshipped the forces and phenomena of nature, as the sun and the moon and the stellar luminaries; the ancient Egyptians all sorts of animals, as bulls, beetles, even cats, monkeys, and crocodiles. The ancient Greeks and Romans worshipped men and women representing all human virtues and vices. Some degraded nations have made the devil himself an object of worship, and made images of the spirit of evil for purposes of devotion. St. Paul gives the best description of the progress of idolatry, with its attending immorality, in Rom 1:18 ff. The Israelites showed a constant tendency to relapse into the idolatry of the surrounding nations. The principal heathen gods mentioned in the O.T. are Dagon, Molech, Baal, and Ashteroth. History of Idolatry among the Hebrews. -- The first definite allusion to idols in the Bible is in Gen 31:19, where Rachel is said to have stolen her father's household gods, the teraphim. To what extent Laban worshipped them it is difficult to say, for he also seems to have acknowledged the true God of Abraham. Gen 31:53. The Israelites became tainted with idolatry in Egypt. Josh 24:14. In the wilderness, so potent was the inclination in this direction that the people clamored till they induced Aaron, in imitation of the Egyptian Apis-worship, to make the golden calf, which is expressly termed an idol by Stephen, Acts 7:41. In the days of Joshua the worship of the true God seems to have been universal, but during the period of the Judges there was a vacillation between the worship of Jehovah and idolatry. Altars to Baal were erected, and, upon the whole, the people leaned toward the abominations of the neighboring nations, from which they were recalled only by special visitations. During the lifetime of Samuel and David a purer worship prevailed, but in the reign of Solomon idolatry was prominent. Solomon's own heart was turned away after other gods, 1 Kgs 11:4, and his wives had their own special heathen altars. By polygamy and idolatry the wisest man became the greatest fool, and left the world the sad lesson, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." The subsequent history of the divided kingdom is the history of a contest between idol-worship and the worship of the true God. At the time of Elijah the whole kingdom of the Ten Tribes seemed to have bowed the knee to Baal, and there were only 7000 exceptions. After the Babylonish captivity the people were more steadfast, and despite the influence of the Greek religion remained true to the worship of Jehovah. The causes of this vacillation and falling away into idolatry are not far to seek. To Israel alone were committed the oracles of God. The other nations had only the light of natural religion, and were, for the most part, grossly idolatrous. Constant contact with these peoples, the intermarriage of the common people and their kings with "strange women," 1 Kgs 11:4-5, and an innate propensity of depraved human nature for idolatry, sufficiently explain the frequent defections of the Hebrew nation from the worship of the one God. It may well be expected, among a people one of the chief designs of whose existence was to conserve the doctrine of God's unity and spirituality, that idolatry would be visited with severe punishments. The first two commandments of the Decalogue forbid it. The individual offender was devoted to destruction. Ex 22:20. Idolatry was a criminal offence against the state and treason against Jehovah. A favorite figure of speech in the O.T. represents the Israelitish people as sustaining a relation of marriage with Jehovah, and idolatry is represented by the later prophets as a state of whoredom or conjugal infidelity. Hos 2:2, Hab 2:4, etc.: Eze 16:28; Jer 3:3. Whenever a good and God-fearing king came to the throne, as Josiah, Asa, Hezekiah, he considered it his first duty to wage a war against the altars, images, and pillars of idolatrous worship. The Canaanites are frequently referred to as meriting national extermination on account of their idolatry. Deut 12:29-31; Ex 34:15-16, etc. The prophets speak of idolatry as defiling and polluting in its influences, Eze 20:7, etc., and Isaiah ridicules the idea of divinity in false gods and idols by a reference to a piece of wood of which a part is thrown into the fire and a part shaped into an image. Isa 44:15-17. The rites of idolatry were often obscene and licentious. When the people assembled around the golden calf in the wilderness for worship, they went about naked, or unruly, as some translate. Ex 32:25. Feasting and revelry were frequently connected with this worship. The Christian Church is exposed to the same peril of falling into the sin of idolatry as was the Jewish Church, although it assumes more refined forms, such as worship of saints, images, and relics, of wealth, glory and pleasure. Paul calls covetousness, or the worship of mammon, "idolatry." Col 3:5. The last verse in the First Epistle of John is the warning, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols."

Bibliography Information
Schaff, Philip, Dr. "Biblical Definition for 'idolatry' in Schaffs Bible Dictionary".
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