IDOLATRY by E. A. Stillman

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 17, 1900

IDOLATRY

By E. A. Stillman

E. A. STILLMAN.

(Westerly, R. I.)

I was glad to see Brother Sadler’s article on the Virgin Mary, in the REVIEW of February 27; for it touches one of the most vital issues.

Another phase of the same subject has made a deep impression on my mind, striking, as it does, at the very root of the doctrines held by Catholics; namely, the adoration, or worship, of God through the crucifix or other images, pictures of saints, angels, and the nativity, passion, and resurrection of our Lord, etc.

All such adoration, or worship, when viewed in the light of the law of God, is found to be idolatry, a direct violation of the second commandment of the decalogue. And it is right here that the truth of God “crosses swords” with error, as the law condemns both the making for worship and the using of such things in worship of the true and living God.

While the law of God spoken upon Mt. Sinai condemns in the strongest terms every form of such departure from the truth, it is a most serious blot upon the Christian name that any such practice should ever have found a place in the Christian church.

It is no wonder that foreign nations are perplexed when missionaries to their shores carry such perverse doctrines to them for acceptance, when the very Word upon which their faith is said to be founded condemns their course. It is with this that our missionaries in South America and elsewhere have to cope as they present the plain, unadulterated truth of God, and teach obedience to his commandments. They must show that God forbids the making and the using of images, pictures, or any other object calculated to stimulate the imagination or attract the mind thus toward God.

The Lord has spoken so plainly concerning this that we must not hesitate to protest against it wherever we find it, and in whatever form it may appear. “Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace,” is the divine injunction. “He [Christ alone] is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him.” “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Let us hold fast these truths. Let us spread the light of the second commandment as fully as that of the fourth, or of any other, realizing that God’s remnant people must keep his commandments and the faith of Jesus. If, as we believe, light has shone upon the law of God by our study of the sanctuary question, that light as truly reflects the divine beauty and truthfulness of the second commandment as it does of the fourth, seventh, or tenth.

Brethren, let us be bold in the Lord, not rash, but wise. These forms of idolatry, in all their cunning and subtlety, are so wide-spread, so flagrant, and so common, that, appearing as they do as part and parcel of the Christian system, unless we are on our guard and meet them with a “Thus saith the Lord,” there is a strong possibility of being ensnared in their meshes. Nothing short of a plain adherence to the life-giving Word will carry us through the trials of these last-day perils.

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Remember the divine injunctions: “Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry” (1 Cor. 10:14); and “keep yourselves from idols.” 1 John 5:21.