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Idolatry

“Present your case,” says the LORD. “Set forth your arguments,” says Jacob’s King. “Bring in your idols to tell us what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things were, so that we may consider them and know their final outcome. Or declare to us the things to come, tell us what the future holds, so we may know that you are gods. Do something, whether good or bad, so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear. But you are less than nothing and your works are utterly worthless; he who chooses you is detestable. (Isaiah 41:21-24 NIV)

This is one of the many comments on idolatry in the Old Testament. Psalm 115 is another. We would like to think that idolatry is so self-evidently wrong that of course it disappeared out of this world long ago. It isn’t so. Idolatry may have changed. It still follows the pattern described in Romans 1:20-22:

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities¾his eternal power and divine nature¾have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools. (NIV)

And the results are the same as those described in succeeding verses of Romans 1.

(An excerpt from On Being a Christian by Jim Wilson)

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