IDOLATRY
484
IDOLATRY
6. The early Christians ^vere brought into contact with idolaters when the Gospel was preached among the Gentiles, and it became necessary to enact regula- tions for preventing scandal by their being involved in pagan practices, when joining in the private meals and festivities of the heathen [1 Cor. viii). But the Gentile converts do not seem to have been in any danger of re- verting to idolatry, and the cruel persecutions they un- derwent did not tend to lead them back to a religion which its more retined votaries despised. It is, howev- er, not impossible that many who had been originally educated as idolaters did not, on professing Christianity, really abandon all their former superstitions, and that vre may thus explain the ver\' early outbreak of many custom's and opinions not sanctioned in the N.T. — Kitto; Smith.
V. Ethical Vines respecting Idolatry. — That this i3 a cardinal sin, and, indeed, the highest form, if not essen- tial principle of all sin, as aiming a direct blow at the throne of God itself, is evident from its prohibition in the very fore-front of the Decalogue. Hence the tena- city with which the professors of all true religion in ev- erj' age have opposed it, under every disguise and at whatever cost. It has always and natmrally been the associate of polytheism, and those corrupt forms of Christianity, such as the Roman and Greek Churches, which have endeavored to apologize for the adoration of pictures, images, etc., on the flimsy pretext that it is not the inanimate objects themselves which are revered, but only the beings thus represented, are but imitators in this of the sophistry of certain refined speculators among the grosser heathen, e. g. of Egypt, Greece, etc., who put forth similar claims. See IjiAGE-AVORSiiir.
Three things are condemned in Scripture as idolatry : 1. The worshipping of a false God ; 2. the worshipping of the true God through an image ; 3. the indulgence of those passions which draw the soul away Irom God, e.g. covetousness, lust, etc. The Israelites were guilty of the tirst when they bowed the knee to Baal ; of the second when they set up the golden calves; and both Israelites and Christians are often guilty of the third.
1. Lir/ht ill ickich Idolatry zcas regarded in the 3Iosaic Code, and the penalties tvith which it icas visited. — If one main object of the Hebrew politj' was to teach the mii- ty of God, the extermination of idolatry was but a sub- ordinate end. Jehovah, the God of the Israelites, was the civil head of the state. He was the theocratic king of the people, who had delivered them from bondage, and to whom they had taken a willing oath of allegi- ance. They had entered into a solemn league and cov- enant with him as their chosen king (comp. 1 Sam. viii, 7), by Avliom obedience was requited with temporal blessings, and rebellion with temporal punishment. This original contract of the Hebrew government, as it has been termed, is contained in Exod. xix, 3-8 ; xx, 2-5; Dcut. xxxix, 10-xxx ; the blessings promised to obedi- ence are enumerated in Deut. xxviii, 1-14, and the Avither- ing curses on disobedience in A'erses 15-G8. That this covenant was strictly insisted on it needs but slight ac- quaintance with Hebrew historT,-- to perceive. Often broken and often renewed on the part of the people (Judg. X, 10 ; 2 Chron. xv, 12, 13 ; Neh. ix, 38), it was kept with unwavering constancy on the part of Jeho- vah. To their kings he stood in the relation, so to speak, of a feudal superior ; they were his representa- tives upon earth, and with them, as v.-ith the people be- fore, his covenant was made (1 Kings iii, 14; xi, 11). Idolatry, therefore, to an Israelite was a state offence (1 Sam. XV, 23), a political crime of the gravest character, high-treason against the majesty of his king. It was a transgression of the covenant (Deut. xvii, 2), " the evil" pre-eminently in the eyes of Jehovah (1 Kings xxi, 25, opp. to ";"i::'rt, " ^/(e right," 2 Chron. xxvii, 2). But it was much more than all this, ■\^'hile the idolatry of foreign nations is stigmatized merely as an abomina- tion in the sight of God, whicli called for his vengeance, the sin of the Israelites is regarded as of more glaring
enormity, and greater moral guilt. In the figurative language of the prophets, the relation between Jehovah and his people is represented as a marriage bond (Isa. liv, 5; Jer. iii, 14), and the worship of false gods, with all its accompaniments (Lev. xx, 56), becomes then the greatest of social wrongs (Hos. ii; Jer. iii, etc.). This is beautifully brought out m Hos. ii, IG, where the hea- then name 13aali, my master, which the apostate Israel has been accustomed to apply to her foreign possessor, is contrasted with Ishi, my man, my husband, the na- tive word which she is to use when restored to her rightful husband, Jehovah. ]\Iuch of the significance of this figure was unquestionably due to the impurities of idolaters, Avith whom such corruption was of no mere- ly spiritual character (Exod. xxxiv, 16; Numb, xxv, 1, 2, etc.), but manifested itself in the grossest and most revolting forms (Rom. i, 26-32).