They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.
Idols are lifeless, senseless objects, powerless to bless or save, made and moved by human hands from gold, silver, stone and other precious things, and they are wholly different from the true God who is the Maker of heaven and earth and cannot be represented by them, so that the worshiper is superior to what is worshiped. Those who make them and everyone who trusts in them become like the idols themselves, becoming lifeless and senseless like what they worship. This happens by a law of the human mind that by beholding people become changed and will rise no higher than their conceptions of truth, purity, and holiness. If the mind is never exalted above the level of humanity and is not uplifted by faith to contemplate infinite wisdom and love, the person constantly sinks lower and lower, and by clothing false gods with human attributes and passions worshipers degrade their standard of character to the likeness of sinful humanity and are defiled.
The character of people follows the character of the gods they worship and trust, so worshiping the creatures of human imagination debases people more and more, producing ignorance, sensuality, evil, and crime, a spiritual and moral deadening in which superstition controls people and reason loses its sway. Before the Flood this corruption was already seen when people made images from precious materials, treated their own handiwork as gods, and worshiped it instead of thanking and acknowledging the Creator, misusing for idolatry what God had provided for their benefit. The verse is fulfilled in the worship of images of saints in Italy, where great crowds carry images through the streets and offer frantic supplications to them for deliverance from plague such as cholera and from any sudden danger or calamity. Such widespread superstition, encouraged and led by priests, shows the worshipers made senseless like the idols they trust even after absolute priestly control has been partly broken.
The spread of image worship and prayers to images illustrates the same deadening, and idolatry also includes false doctrines and ideas about God, such as a humanly fashioned picture of God replacing Jehovah and treating nature as divine, which exists in the Christian world as it did in ancient Israel in Elijah's time when Baal was worshiped. The verse condemns as idolaters those whose folly is trusting in self for salvation and bowing down to the works of their own hands, including those who trust in their own wisdom and devising, who depend for success on riches and power, and who strive to strengthen themselves by allegiance with men whom the world calls great while failing to discern the binding claims of God's law. Those who join secret societies that demand homage to powerless objects are likewise paying homage to idols, becoming powerless like them and being drawn away from God. Showing God's works in nature is the most effective way to teach heathen who do not know God, because far more readily than by any other method it makes them realize the difference between hand-made idols and the true Maker, and the same teaching through nature gives ignorant and neglected people knowledge of God that lays a foundation for the spiritual truths of the written word to elevate and purify character.
Idols are lifeless, senseless objects, powerless to bless or save, made and moved by human hands from gold, silver, stone and other precious things, and they are wholly different from the true God who is the Maker of heaven and earth and cannot be represented by them, so that the worshiper is superior to what is worshiped. Those who make them and everyone who trusts in them become like the idols themselves, becoming lifeless and senseless like what they worship. This happens by a law of the human mind that by beholding people become changed and will rise no higher than their conceptions of truth, purity, and holiness. If the mind is never exalted above the level of humanity and is not uplifted by faith to contemplate infinite wisdom and love, the person constantly sinks lower and lower, and by clothing false gods with human attributes and passions worshipers degrade their standard of character to the likeness of sinful humanity and are defiled.
The character of people follows the character of the gods they worship and trust, so worshiping the creatures of human imagination debases people more and more, producing ignorance, sensuality, evil, and crime, a spiritual and moral deadening in which superstition controls people and reason loses its sway. Before the Flood this corruption was already seen when people made images from precious materials, treated their own handiwork as gods, and worshiped it instead of thanking and acknowledging the Creator, misusing for idolatry what God had provided for their benefit. The verse is fulfilled in the worship of images of saints in Italy, where great crowds carry images through the streets and offer frantic supplications to them for deliverance from plague such as cholera and from any sudden danger or calamity. Such widespread superstition, encouraged and led by priests, shows the worshipers made senseless like the idols they trust even after absolute priestly control has been partly broken.
The spread of image worship and prayers to images illustrates the same deadening, and idolatry also includes false doctrines and ideas about God, such as a humanly fashioned picture of God replacing Jehovah and treating nature as divine, which exists in the Christian world as it did in ancient Israel in Elijah's time when Baal was worshiped. The verse condemns as idolaters those whose folly is trusting in self for salvation and bowing down to the works of their own hands, including those who trust in their own wisdom and devising, who depend for success on riches and power, and who strive to strengthen themselves by allegiance with men whom the world calls great while failing to discern the binding claims of God's law. Those who join secret societies that demand homage to powerless objects are likewise paying homage to idols, becoming powerless like them and being drawn away from God. Showing God's works in nature is the most effective way to teach heathen who do not know God, because far more readily than by any other method it makes them realize the difference between hand-made idols and the true Maker, and the same teaching through nature gives ignorant and neglected people knowledge of God that lays a foundation for the spiritual truths of the written word to elevate and purify character.