The essence of idolatry.

What is idolatry ?:

Idolatry is understood as the absolutization of any created reality or any product of the imagination of man, where the individual adopts an attitude of fear, affection, or absolute confidence in the idolized object or subject.

Every form of idolatry demands submission and deformation of the person who worships. The term idolatry comes from the Greek "eidolon" and is the composition of two words that are: "idol" and "latria" which means worship. So it is understood that all idolatry is an idol worshiper.

Genesis 11; 4
"And they said: Come, let us build a city and a tower, whose top reaches heaven; and let us make a name for ourselves, in case we are scattered over the face of the whole earth. "

Genesis 11; 6
"And the LORD said, Behold, the people are one, and all these have one language; and they have begun the work, and nothing will make them desist now from what they have thought to do. "

The sin of the people was the desire to dominate the world and their own destiny separated from God through organizational unity, power and great achievements, all centered on man. This purpose was based on pride and rebellion against God.

From that moment God ruined that effort by multiplying the languages ​​so that they could no longer communicate with each other. This explains the diversity of races and languages ​​in the world. At this time the human race turned away from God and returned to idolatry, witchcraft and astrology.

Idolatry is a sin that is repeated throughout the history of the people of God. The first recorded history in the Bible in which all Israel participated in idolatry was in the worship of the golden calf while Moses was at Mount Sinai.

Genesis 32; 3-4
"Then all the people separated the gold sarcillos that had in their ears; and they brought them to Aaron;
And he took them from their hands, and fashioned it with a burin, and made it a molten calf. Then they said: Israel, these are your gods, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. "

This idolatry possessed very attractive qualities for the people of Israel, one of which referred to the pagan nations that surrounded this people and worshiped different gods, making believe that worshiping many gods was better than worshiping only one god. God imitated them instead of obeying God's command to keep holy and separate from them. The gods did not demand the kind of obedience demanded by the Lord God of Israel. For example, many of the pagan religions included sexual immorality with temple prostitutes as part of religious ceremonies. God demanded that his people obey high moral standards as defined in his law in order to maintain a saving relationship with Him. Because of the demonic character of idols, sometimes idolatry would produce genuine and demonstrable results for those who worshiped idols.

Jeremiah16:20
"Will man make gods for himself? But they are not gods. "

The Bible makes it clear that an idol is nothing in itself. An idol is a simple piece of wood or stone, sculpted by human hands, which has no power of its own. Samuel calls vain and useless idols, and Paul states explicitly: "We know that an idol is nothing in the world." For this reason the psalmists and prophets often made fun of idols. However, behind the idols are the demons, spiritual beings dominated by the devil.

Deuteronomy32; 17
"They sacrificed to demons, and not to God, to gods they had not known, to new gods that came close to them that your fathers had not feared"

Psalm 106; 36-37
"And they served their idols, which were the cause of their ruin.
They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons. "

Moses and the psalmist equate false gods with demons. Regarding eating meat sacrificed to idols Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians: "What the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to the demons, and not to God". In other words, the power behind idolatry is the power and activity of demons, and in reality demons have great power in this world. Christians know that the power of JESUS ​​CHRIST is greater than that of demons. However, Satan as the god of this century, wields power in this evil century.

1st of John 5; 19
"We know that we are from God and the whole world is under the evil one."

The relationship between idolatry and demons is seen most clearly when one understands how intricately pagan religious customs are linked to spiritualism, witchcraft, divination, enchantment, witchcraft, necromancy and other such activities.

2nd of kings 21; 6
"And he passed his son by fire, and gave himself to observe the times, and he was sober, and instituted enchantors and fortune-tellers, so multiplied doing evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger."

God does not tolerate any form of idolatry. He often warned against her in the old testament. In the first two of the ten commandments He speaks directly against the worship of any other god. Linked to the order not to serve other gods, there was an order to destroy all idols and break the images of pagan nations in the land of Canaan.

Today idolatry manifests itself in various forms. It appears explicitly in the false religions of the world, as well as in sorcery, Satanism and other forms of occultism. It is found wherever men and women indulge in greed and materialism rather than trust in God alone. Finally, it occurs within the church when people believe that they can serve God and experience their salvation and blessings and at the same time participate in the immoral and ungodly customs of the world. God supports his warnings with the claim that those who participate in any form of idolatry will not inherit the kingdom of heaven.

Galatians 5; 20-21

"Envy, homicide, drunkenness, orgies, and similar things; about which I admonish you, as I have told you before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. "

the destroyer of souls corrupts all that is good and just on earth. He takes the truth and turns it into a lie. In fact, Jesus calls him the father of lies (John 8:44). He has done it from the beginning (Chapter 3). And one of the biggest falsified ancient mythologies that has unleashed on humanity is today's study of the stars (astrology). After the Tower of Babel the false religions of the world are continuously practiced distorting the true message of the Lord's salvation.