IS IT IDOLATRY? by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Jul 1, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 25.

IS IT IDOLATRY?

By Editor

AN earnest correspondent writes us with reference to the use of illustrations of any kind in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, and characterizes it as idolatry, and the transgression of the second commandment. Our attention is called to a great many scriptures against idolatry, all of which we have read many times, and always, we trust, with profit.

But it seems to us that those whom our correspondent represents have missed the essential thought in the prohibition of the second commandment: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image; . . . thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them." The thought is that no image shall be made as an object of worship. It was for this reason that God revealed "no similitude" of himself; they could not make an image of the great Jehovah, for they had not seen him.

That images of things in both heaven and earth could be made to illustrate, adorn, and beautify, we learn by the Lord's especial direction in the instruction which he gave concerning the sanctuary and temple. The figures of cherubim, angels, were made over the mercy-seat and inwrought in the gorgeous tapestry which formed the vail and ceiling. The figures of almonds, pomegranates, and flowers were also prominent in beautifying the sanctuary. See Ex. 25:18-20, 31-34; 26:1; 28:4, 33.

The temple structure was also elaborately adorned. This was by the Lord's own direction, and to carry out this instruction did not violate the second commandment or any other prohibition against idolatry. That commandment, then, does not forbid the mere making of things, but the making of things to worship, or bow down to in reverence.

Further, when the Lord sent Ezekiel to the captives of Judah with a message, he was to illustrate it by the picture of a city, a fort, battering rams, and even by himself. Eze. 4:1-7. Still further the Lord directs his people in the latter days to "write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it." Hab. 2:2. When one speaks the word of the Lord, he addresses men by the ear. When he pictures before them such things as are proper thus to portray, he addresses them through the eye. When he feeds the hungry and clothes the naked, he addresses them through their taste and feelings. When he carries flowers to the shut-in ones, he addresses them through the sense of smell. Any and all of these ways are legitimate if employed with an eye single to God's glory; and each and all of them may be made a form of idolatry if the one who uses them sets his heart upon self instead of God. A man can as easily, if he so desire, worship his flowers of speech as flowers which he paints. He is as truly an idolator who worships some theory, and who worships himself for refraining from everything prohibited by the theory, as the veriest worshiper of idols. Idolatry is not alone in outwardly bowing down to gods of wood or stone, but in mentally bowing down to the gods we have set on high in our own hearts.