Idolsand

Scriptural Idolatry

Published by Elder SeanDistributed by

Yahweh’s Truth in New Jerusalem

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In this Bible Study we will be lookingat exactly what an Idol is accordingto the Bible and Yahweh God,allowing readers to decide if theyhave become Biblical idolaters. ThisBible Study article will be long, as wewill be looking at not just Biblicalverses but the meanings of theHebrew words used in those versesto represent the English words forIdol, Image and Worship, bowingdown or serving (them).References to the words “Image”and “Idol” are interchangeable witheach other in this Bible Study due tothe original Hebrew meanings whichare discussed at the beginning,showing that they mean the samewhere Yahweh was and is concernedin relation to the Bible’sinformation.Let us first look at the Hebrew wordsfor Image and Idols from Strong’s

concordance, the Strong’s HebrewDictionary. The words used in theBible, especially the original Hebrewwords from the Old Testament havea direct impact on onesunderstanding of what Yahweh Godwas informing us of:There are 2 Hebrew words used torepresent idols / images in the OldTestament, these are the words andtheir English meanings:

Strong’s Number: 5566

Transliterated: cemelPhonetic: seh’-mel

Text: or cemel {say’-mel}; rootmeaning to resemble; a likeness: –

figure, idol, image.Strong’s Number: 6091

Transliterated: `atsabPhonetic: aw-tsawb’

Text: from 6087; an (idolatrous)image: –idol, image.

Now let us first look at what Yahwehhas told us about Idols / Images:

NJB Exodus 20:4-64. You shall not make yourselfa carved image or any likenessof anything in heaven above oron earth beneath or in thewaters under the earth.5. You shall not bow down tothem or serve them. For I,Yahweh your God, am ajealous God and I punish aparent’s fault in the children,the grandchildren, and thegreat-grandchildren amongthose who hate me;6. but I act with faithful lovetowards thousands of thosewho love me and keep mycommandments.

The following is taken from the 10

Commandments. Notice that itstates quite specifically that we areto make NO CARVED IMAGE OR ANYLIKENESS OF ANYTHING. Again inDeuteronomy we can see the samething listed where the 10Commandments are set out onceagain for us:

NJB Deuteronomy 5:8-108. `You must not makeyourselves any image or anylikeness of anything in heavenabove or on earth beneath orin the waters under the earth;9. you must not bow down tothese gods or serve them. ForI, Yahweh your God, am ajealous God and I punish theparents’ fault in the children,the grandchildren and thegreat-grandchildren, amongthose who hate me;10. but I show faithful love to

thousands, to those who loveme and keep mycommandments.

Again Yahweh tells us not to makeany images / idols of anything. Withthis information in black and white,directly from Yahweh God, it is hardto think that anybody could say thatit was ok to have images or idols ofanything at all no matter what theidea of them. It is quite clear thatYahweh tells us NOT to make images/ idols in the LIKENESS of ANYTHINGin Heaven or on Earth. Let us look atanother couple of verses from theBible in respect to images / idols.

NJB Deuteronomy 4:14-2014. Yahweh then ordered meto teach you the laws andcustoms that you were toobserve in the country intowhich you are about to cross,to take possession of it.

15. `Hence, be very carefulwhat you do. Since you saw noshape that day at Horeb whenYahweh spoke to you from theheart of the fire,16. see that you do not corruptyourselves by making an imagein the shape of anythingwhatever: be it statue of manor of woman,17. or of any animal on theearth, or of any bird that fliesin the heavens,18. or of any reptile thatcrawls on the ground, or ofany fish in the waters underthe earth.19. When you raise your eyesto heaven, when you see thesun, the moon, the stars, theentire array of heaven, do notbe tempted to worship themand serve them. Yahweh your

God has allotted these to allthe other peoples underheaven,20. but Yahweh has chosenyou, bringing you out of theiron-foundry, Egypt, to be hisown people, his own people asyou still are today.

Note specifically Moses’ commandsfrom verses 15 and 16 which statesquite specifically:“`Hence, be very careful what youdo. Since you saw no shape that dayat Horeb when Yahweh spoke toyou from the heart of the fire, seethat you do not corrupt yourselvesby making an image in the shape ofanything whatever: be it statue ofman or of woman.”If God has commanded us, throughMoses NOT TO CORRUPT ourselvesby making images of ANYTHING, is itnot the same as corrupting ourselves

by owning one of these images also?NJB Deuteronomy 4:23-2423. Be careful not to forget thecovenant which Yahweh yourGod has made with you, bysculpting an image or making astatue of anything, sinceYahweh your God hasforbidden this;24. for Yahweh your God is aconsuming fire, a jealous God.

Again Moses tells us about Images /Idols, and how wrong it is for us tomake them or have them. Yet dopeople listen to our Father inHeaven’s command regarding this?No! They continue to make andacquire images and Idols, things thatare an abomination to God andwhat’s worse is that some evenkneel before these images.It should be noted at this time thatkneeling before them is classified as

praying to them. From Strong’sHebrew Dictionary kneeling orworshipping incorporates thefollowing meanings:

Strong’s Number: 7812

Transliterated: shachahPhonetic: shaw-khaw’

Text: a primitive root; to depress,i.e. prostrate (especially reflexive, in

homage to royalty or God): –bow(self) down, crouch, fall down (flat),

humbly beseech, do (make)obeisance, do reverence, make to

stoop, worship.Some Churches even make imagesand idols of Mary, Jesus’ mother andof the Saints, and kneel before themas well.Some Churches, in fact manychurches and their congregationsalso have images of Crosses made,the torture implements used by

Satan and those that tortured andmurdered our Lord and Saviour,Christ Jesus. Just how disgusting is itthat people would willingly wear orown an image of the tortureimplement that inflicted so muchpain on the one person they claimthey love?Some say that they use their imagesof Jesus or others etc. as we woulduse a picture of somebody we love.Firstly, it is irrelevant, as Yahwehtells us to not have any images ofany kind, (faith in him is enough).Secondly, most of the images of theSaints and especially of Jesus are noteven Jesus or even a close likenessof him, they are purely wrong andfrauds, a quick look at most of theCatholic and most other Church’simages of Jesus for example isenough to prove this point as manyof the images / idols of him show

him with long hair. This in itself goesagainst Yahweh’s command to theHebrews / Jews, so Jesus would havehad short hair not long. This can beseen in the following Biblical Verses:For Priests of Yahweh.

NJB Ezekiel 44:2020. They may neither shavetheir heads nor let their hairgrow long, but must cut theirhair carefullyNJB Psalms 68:20-2120. This God of ours is a Godwho saves;from Lord Yahweh comesescape from death;21. but God smashes the headof his enemies,the long-haired skull of theprowling criminal.NJB 1 Corinthians 11:14-1514. Does not nature itselfteach you that if a man has

long hair, it is a disgrace tohim,15. but when a woman haslong hair, it is her glory? Afterall, her hair was given to her tobe a covering.

Thirdly, many people kneel beforethese images / idols when they pray,which is also against Yahweh’scommands.Jesus said the following aboutworshipping Yahweh God:

NJB John 4:23,2423. But the hour is coming,indeed is already here, whentrue worshippers will worshipthe Father in spirit and truth:that is the kind of worshipperthe Father seeks.24. God is spirit, and thosewho worship must worship inspirit and truth.

If you have Images or idols, then you

are breaking Yahweh’s Commands tous, therefore you are notworshipping him as Christ Jesuscommanded us to worship him inJohn 4:23 and 24, you are notworshipping Our Father in Heaven inSpirit and Truth, but you areworshipping an Idol or image whichis not Truth. You are not evenshowing your faith in him, because ifyou did have faith in him, you wouldnot need an images, or the imagesof your Church.I would like to add some of thefollowing information from Elwell’sEvangelical Dictionary which will giveyou an even better understanding ofthe historical nature of images andidols.

IdolatryThe worship of an idol or of adeity represented by an idol,usually as an image.

Idolatry, as a form of religiouspractice, was common in bothOT and NT times. Literary andarchaeological evidence for thepractice has survived fromMesopotamia, Syria-Palestine,Egypt, and from the RomanEmpire.One of the most distinctivefeatures of Hebrew religionduring the OT period was theabsence of idolatry. Its practicewas prohibited among theHebrews, and thearchaeological evidenceindicates that the prohibitionwas observed for the mostpart.There were two prevalentforms of idolatry in OT times,both banned by theDecalogue:(1) The first commandment

prohibited the Israelites fromworshiping any other god thanthe Lord (Exod. 20:3), therebyeliminating the false forms ofidolatrous religion practiced inneighboring nations.(2) The second commandmentforbade the worship of theGod of Israel in the form of animage or idol (Exod. 20:4-6).Of the two prohibitions, thelatter was crucial to theintegrity of Israel’s theology.To worship God in the form ofan idol would be to reduceGod the Creator to thesubstance of creation (thatwhich was represented in theidol), thereby underminingfundamentally the conceptionof the transcendent creatorGod. The idol gave todevotees a sense of the

physical proximity of a deityand perhaps also theconviction that the deity’spower could be harnessed byhuman beings. The God ofIsrael was immanent, but thatimmanence could not beexpressed in physical ortangible form; it remained theessence of faith and ofexperience.Despite the prohibition ofidolatry in Hebrew law, itclearly remained afundamental form oftemptation throughout Israel’shistory, whether in worshipingfalse gods through their idolsor in reducing the worship ofthe one true God to idolatrousform. Hence, the denunciationof idolatry in its various formsis a recurrent theme in both

the law and the prophets(Deut. 7:25-26; 29:16-17; Isa.40:18-23).In NT times idolatry waspracticed in various formsthroughout the Roman empireand was steadfastly resisted bythe early Christian church. Itwas understood as a sign ofhuman folly (Rom. 1:22-23),representing a perversion oftrue religion. More frequently,however, the NT writers usedthe concept of idolatry in ametaphorical sense,particularly with respect tocovetousness (Eph. 5:5, Col.3:5); covetousness is an “idol”by virtue of becoming theimmediate focus of a person’sdesires and “worship,”displacing the worship of God.In the later history of

Christianity, idolatry in thestrict sense has continued tobe opposed in the terms of theancient biblical prohibitions.But the continuing danger hasmore commonly returned inthe metaphorical sensedelineated in the NT; it is the“worship” (i.e., the totaldedication of a person) of thatwhich is seen and tangible, thegoals of covetousness, ratherthan the unseen spiritualbeing that is God. P. C. CRAIGIE

Bibliography:O. Barfield, Saving the Appearances: AStudy of Idolatry;P. C. Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy;R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel.

The above information outlines farbetter than any I can think ofoutside of Biblical Scripture aboutthe dangers and errors of Images,Statues or other forms of Idols in the

worship, or focus of worship ofYahweh God.There are many other versesregarding Idols and images in theBible, however I see no need to goany further in regard to this biblestudy with them, the evidence andthe Truth of the matter ismentioned just in the few versesalready mentioned in this Article,with further clarifying informationbased on the information producedin Elwell’s Dictionary. Yahweh tellsus not to make Idols / images ofANYTHING, no matter what it is orwhere it is, if you have anything, apicture or statue of Jesus, of Mary orany of the Saints, of a cross or yourchurch has any of these things, thenby Biblical Judgment alone you andyour church is breaking thecommands of Yahweh God by havingIdols.

PLEASE, now that you have read this article, do not just take our word for it. Get your Bible, look at it and read the Scriptures for yourself, and feel free to get our Book of Bible Articles or look at our articleswebsite for further Bible Studies andArticles: Website: http://www.ytnj.orgBible Study Site:http://www.ytnj.org/articles.html