They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:
Idols have ears but cannot hear and noses but cannot smell, and though fashioned with bodily senses they are lifeless, helpless objects with no perception, response, life, or power of their own and can act only through human hands. They are works of human hands set in contrast with the living Creator, the Maker of heaven and earth, who cannot be represented by human art, and those who worship images are superior to the objects they worship, which exposes the folly of worshiping them instead of God. Image worship treats such lifeless objects as if they could receive prayers and give hearing, help, and deliverance, when in fact appeal to them is vain.
It is astonishing, general, senseless superstition to carry images of saints through streets thronged with people with frantic supplications for deliverance from the cholera plague and from any sudden danger or calamity. The practice continues even where efforts for enlightenment have in some measure broken priestly control, while priests who encourage and lead such demonstrations keep the people appealing to gods that cannot answer. The teaching reaches beyond carved images, since idolatry persists in different forms when people worship false ideas of God or deify nature instead of worshiping the true God revealed in Scripture, Christ, and creation.
Bowing to the works of one's own hands is condemned as trusting in self for salvation, which includes trusting one's own wisdom and devising, depending on riches and power for success, and seeking strength by allegiance with men whom the world calls great while failing to discern the binding claims of God's law. The same applies to secret societies, whose members pay homage to idols that cannot bless the soul or save it. People who have eyes and ears yet fail to recognize and heed God's work and the evidence of His message are like these idols, for their condition is spiritual blindness and deafness, not a lack of evidence or of physical senses.
Religious opposers who pervert truth and make the law of God void are spiritually deaf and blind, unable to be aroused from superficial experience even when the warning is faithfully given. The difference between lifeless idols and the living Creator is most effectively made plain to heathen who know not God by teaching them through God's works in nature, and the same teaching applies to ignorant and neglected people. Learning to know God through His works lays a foundation for the spiritual truths of the written word to elevate and purify character.
Idols have ears but cannot hear and noses but cannot smell, and though fashioned with bodily senses they are lifeless, helpless objects with no perception, response, life, or power of their own and can act only through human hands. They are works of human hands set in contrast with the living Creator, the Maker of heaven and earth, who cannot be represented by human art, and those who worship images are superior to the objects they worship, which exposes the folly of worshiping them instead of God. Image worship treats such lifeless objects as if they could receive prayers and give hearing, help, and deliverance, when in fact appeal to them is vain.
It is astonishing, general, senseless superstition to carry images of saints through streets thronged with people with frantic supplications for deliverance from the cholera plague and from any sudden danger or calamity. The practice continues even where efforts for enlightenment have in some measure broken priestly control, while priests who encourage and lead such demonstrations keep the people appealing to gods that cannot answer. The teaching reaches beyond carved images, since idolatry persists in different forms when people worship false ideas of God or deify nature instead of worshiping the true God revealed in Scripture, Christ, and creation.
Bowing to the works of one's own hands is condemned as trusting in self for salvation, which includes trusting one's own wisdom and devising, depending on riches and power for success, and seeking strength by allegiance with men whom the world calls great while failing to discern the binding claims of God's law. The same applies to secret societies, whose members pay homage to idols that cannot bless the soul or save it. People who have eyes and ears yet fail to recognize and heed God's work and the evidence of His message are like these idols, for their condition is spiritual blindness and deafness, not a lack of evidence or of physical senses.
Religious opposers who pervert truth and make the law of God void are spiritually deaf and blind, unable to be aroused from superficial experience even when the warning is faithfully given. The difference between lifeless idols and the living Creator is most effectively made plain to heathen who know not God by teaching them through God's works in nature, and the same teaching applies to ignorant and neglected people. Learning to know God through His works lays a foundation for the spiritual truths of the written word to elevate and purify character.