In Bible narratives, idolatry is when a material object is worshiped as a god by mortal men. This same concept is true of any number of religious objects, namely talismans, crucifixes, artifacts, medallions, chalices, statues, garments, altars, vases, portraits, holy books, menorahs etc...
According to Christian cultural traditions, objects such as these ought to serve as complements to a religion and not substitutes for the God of that religion. So for example, if you were to start a church, and have a statue of Jesus Christ built inside of it as a compliment to the Christian atmosphere of the sanctuary, then that is not idolatry. However, if you were to begin to bow down to the statue, worshiping it and praying to it, then you would be engaging in idolatry because it is a material object. I should add, that prayer is something that is done before God in Jesus' name and not to Jesus directly (John 14:13, 14).
No comments:
Post a Comment