What is…
idolatry
Thou shalt have no other gods before me
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image —The 10 Commandments
The Apostle Paul describes the origin of idolatry in Romans 1:21-25, saying men forsook God, and sank into ignorance and moral corruption (Romans 1:28). People worshipped and paid divine honor to created images rather than the one true God (Yahweh), the Creator of the universe.
Forms of idolatry
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WORSHIP OF NATURAL THINGS
Various of things in God’s Creation were eventually worshiped as supposed representations of unseen god(s) — Sun, Moon, stars, planets, trees, rivers, hills, mountains, stones, animals, fire, lightning, etc.
FETISHISM—objects such as small stone carvings of animals, false gods, Satan, demons, or sexual images supposed to have magical power to aid or protect their reverent and devoted owners
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Astrology, Divination, Sorcery
- What’s wrong with practicing astrology?
- Astrologers in the Bible
- stargazers
- What is divination?
- What does the Bible say about sorcery?
- soothsayers
- enchantments
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Nature Worship
People have worshipped natural forces or unseen beings as the supposed power of nature and the source of all life.
Modern forms of this include:
- Gaia (Mother Earth) / Gaia-Goddess worship movement / and related extreme Environmentalim and Globalism
- Evolutionism as a force supposeduly taking humanity to ever higher god-like levels
- The New Age Movement
- The Force of Star Wars
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Self Worship
Self-worship generally starts with denying or ignoring the obvious reality of our Creator God and His sovereignty (atheism, agnosticsm) and arrogantly, pridefully elevating one’s own self to the place of most important being in life—the ultimate decider of what is true and good. One’s focus generally becomes almost totally inward, feeding personal feelings, lusts and self-interests.
The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God;
God is in none of his thoughts. —Psalms 10:4 NKJVToday, “Just believe in yourself… Be true to yourself” is a common worldly view and message. Is that what God urges us to do? What does His Word reveal?…
YOU ARE BORN SPIRITUALLY DEAD, and remain so if you are not born-again.
Ever since Adam’s first sin, all humans are born spiritually DEAD, in rebellion against God and a continual slave to sin. If you have not been reborn into the Kingdom of God, you are in the kingdom of Satan, the Great Deceiver.
- See: What is spiritual regeneration (being born-again)?
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If you, do NOT fear God, you can NEVER become truly wise.
THE FEAR OF THE LORD— What is it? Why is it very important? Answer
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One of the world’s biggest and most common sins is SELF-CENTERED EGOTISM—sinful pride and selfishness.
Drop your pridefulness— HUMILITY before God is vitally important. Humility opens your eyes to truth and wisdom.
Don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought —Romans 12:3
Conceit comes before a fall into condemnation (1 Timothy 3:6).
What does God love, and what does He hate? He loves a humble repentant heart. He hates a prideful sinful one.
If we suffocate pride, we will starve every other sin of its oxygen.
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CONFIDENCE in what? Yourself? For a Christian, self-confidence is in who we are in Christ, not who we are in ourselves. He is our identity, and God’s Holy Spirit dwells in us. Believe in what GOD can do THROUGH YOU.
Devote your life to serving God faithfully, pursuing holiness, righteousness, being one who truly loves (an action, not an emotion)—doing good works.
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Allow the Holy Spirit of God to ALIGN YOU WITH GOD’S VIEW—your heart, thoughts and actions.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” —Proverbs 3:5-6
I must decrease, but He must increase. —John 3:30
Become the kind of lover that God intends. For a follower of Christ, what is LOVE?
What is sanctification?
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Invention of a God of One’s Own Liking
Many people create a “God” of their own liking, a false god, and acknowledge and praise him instead—telling themselves that he is the real god. This idolatrous god in their mind, is a self-delusion, and often results from false teachings, both in ancient times and today.
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Rejecting the Word of God
Maintaining a rebellious, insubordinate, stubborn, presumptious spirit
“For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
He has also rejected you…” 1 Samuel 15:23 NASB excerpt“…And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. …you have rejected the word of the Lord…” —1 Samuel 15:23 NKJV excerpt
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Hero or Ancestor Worship
The worship or extreme veneration of deceased ancestors or heros
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Covetousness / Greed
In the New Testament covetousness (greed) is defined as idolatry (Colossians 3:5; Ephesians 5:5; Matthew 6:24; Col. 3:5; Luke 16:13; Ephesians 5:5).
The Bible’s Warning About Idolatry
Joshua warned the Israelites to throw away their foreign gods and “choose this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15 NKJV). Both the psalmist and the prophet Isaiah warned that those who worship inanimate idols will become like them—unseeing, unfeeling, unable to hear the truth that God would communicate to them.
- About the fall of mankind to worldwide depravity
- What is SIN AND WICKEDNESS? Answer
- Learn about SPIRITUAL DARKNESS versus spiritual LIGHT
- THE FEAR OF THE LORD— What is it? Why is it very important? Answer
Very serious heathen depravity and its punishment
In Scripture, idolatry is regarded as of heathen origin, and as being imported among the Hebrews through contact with heathen nations. The first allusion to idolatry is in the account of Rachel stealing her father’s teraphim (Genesis 31:19), which were the relics of the worship of other gods by Laban’s progenitors “on the other side of the river in old time” (Joshua 24:2).
During their long residence in Egypt the Hebrews fell into idolatry, and it was long before they were delivered from it (Joshua 24:14; Ezek. 20:7). Many a token of God’s displeasure fell upon them because of this sin.
The idolatry learned in Egypt was probably rooted out from among the people during the 40 years’ wanderings, but when the Jews entered Canaan, they came into contact with the monuments and associations of the idolatry of the old Canaanitish races, and showed a constant tendency to depart from the living God and follow the idolatrous practices of those heathen nations. It was their great national sin, which was only effectually rebuked by the Babylonian exile. That exile finally purified the Jews of all idolatrous tendencies.
The first and second commandments are directed against idolatry of every form. Individuals and communities were equally amenable to the rigorous code. The individual offender was devoted to destruction (Exodus 22:20). His nearest relatives were not only bound to denounce him and deliver him up to punishment (Deuteronomy 13:6-18), but their hands were to strike the first blow when, on the evidence of two witnesses, at least, he was stoned (Deuteronomy 17:2-7).
To attempt to seduce others to false worship was a crime of equal enormity (13:6-10). An idolatrous nation shared the same fate. No facts are more strongly declared in the Old Testament than that the extermination of the Canaanites was the punishment of their idolatry (Exodus 34:15-16; Deuteronomy 7; 12:29-31; 20:17), and that the calamities of the Israelites were due to the same cause (Jeremiah 2:17).
“A city guilty of idolatry was looked upon as a cancer in the state; it was considered to be in rebellion, and treated according to the laws of war. Its inhabitants and all their cattle were put to death.”
Jehovah was the theocratic King of Israel, the civil Head of the commonwealth, and, therefore, to an Israelite, idolatry was a state offense (1 Samuel 15:23), high treason. On taking possession of the land, the Jews were commanded to destroy all traces of every kind of the existing idolatry of the Canaanites (Exodus 23:24, 32; 34:13; Deuteronomy 7:5, 25; 12:1-3).
ANGELS appeared to men to rebuke their sin of idolatry (Judges 2:1-4).
Practices of various idolaters in various cultures
Practices varied widely. Far too many actions of idolaters have been so perverse and awful that we dare not cover them in any detail here, or even list them all. Suffice it to say that they include such as the following:
- Heathen feasts and festivals
- Drunkenness
- Sacrifices of food, libations, animals, personal objects and possessions, money, etc.
- Fertility rituals
- Veneration of images (idols)
- Washing and dressing idols
- Kissing or caressing idols
- Bowing
- Praying
- Chanting
- Incessant repetition of words, phrases, prayers, ritual recitations, incantations or verbal charms believed to have supernatural effect
- Babbling of sounds and words with no discernible meaning
- Men and women devoting their lives and personal freedom to being priests or priestesses to false gods
- Sacrifices to the dead
- Consecration ceremonies for new idols
- Washing or cleaning of the idols mouth — It was claimed these gods eat and drink from the sacrifices presented to the, and that through this acquire the necessary energy to be and acts as living gods.
- The construction of home shrines, public shrines, huge temples, ziggurats (pyramids), and numerous elaborate high places devoted to the dieties —sometimes at enormous expense of time, money and lives
- Perverse cultic and sacrificial practices regularly performed at high places / One such place was Baalbec (Baalbek, Baalbeck), where Baal was worshipped.
- Erection of standing stones or pillars devoted to dieties
- Pilgrimages
- Cutting and tearing of human flesh
- Continual burning of incense
- Complete animals sacrificed at the foundation of structures (foundational sacrifices)
- Sexual worship
- Fornication
- So-called sacred prostitution was sometimes commanded (heterosexual and homosexual)
- Prostituting of women before marriage (sacrificing their virginity)
- Sexual orgies
- Burnt offerings of various kinds, including animals and even humans
- Human sacrificed in an attempt to pacify the god(s) or prevent catastrophes — droughts, plagues, earthquakes and other calamities
- Burning children to death — crisis-based sacrifices could involves hundreds of children tossed alive into the flames / The ancient euphemism for child sacrifice was causing a child to “pass through fire.”
- Beating of drums, sounding of flutes, lyres, and tambourines — sometimes to cover the screams of the sacrificed
- Foundation sacrifices — sacrificing one’s firstborn son at a foundation to the city’s patron god / Bodies were placed under the structure’s foundations or walls.
- Buying children for the purpose of sacrifice
- Divination
- Sorcery
- Peresecution of non-idolaters (those who do not believe or worship the gods or perform their required practices)
- Snake worship
- People living, fighting and dying for causes they were told were commanded by their god(s) / “The will of the idol was a divine imperative not only in religious matters but also in the political affairs of the state and the private affairs of the individual.”
- Worshipping and serving men and women who claimed to be divine
- Heathen funeral rites and rituals performed and paid for
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Cannibalism — There are reports of Canaanite Baal priests eating the firstborn. Such ritualized and loathsome cannibal feasts have been reported in various cultures. Some pariticants believed they could attain spiritual and/or physical power through this. Some perversely considered it to be the most holy of rituals. Human blood was also drunk.
According to Alexander Hislop, “the priests of Nimrod or Baal were necessarily required to eat of the human sacrifices; and thus it has come to pass that ‘Cahna-Bal’ (cahna meaning priest and Bal referring to Baal) is the established word (cannibal) in our own tongue for a devourer of human flesh.” According to him, in the Chaldean language Cahna-bal means “Priest of Baal,” with Cahna being an emphatic form of Cahn, “a priest.” However, we have not yet been able to confirm this origin of the word cannibal from a separate source.
- Practice of magic
- Soothsaying
- Occultic rituals and rites
What is the Occult? Answer
THE OCCULT—What does the Bible say about it? Answer
False gods mentioned in the Bible or closely related to them
- Adrammelech (Adrammalech)
- Amon
- Anammelech (Anamelech)
- Anath (aka Anat and Anatu) (many cultures, goddess of warfare and hunting)
- Apis (Egyptian) — See: What is a Golden Calf?
- Asherah (Asherim) (Canaanite goddess)
- Ashima (2 Kings 17:30)
- Ashtoreth / “the queen of heaven” (Asherah, Ashtoreth, Ashtaroth, Ishtar, Astarte, Ashtoret, Ashtarot, Astartu, Uni-Astre, Ashtart, Aset, Athtart)
- Baal (Hamman)
- Baal-berith
- Baal-peor
- Baal-Zebub (Baalzebub, Beelzebub)
- Bel
- calf
- Castor and Pollux (Acts 28:11)
- Castor and Pollux
- Chemosh
- Chiun
- Constellations
- Dagon (“Lord of the gods,” “Lord of the land,” “dew of the land”) (Philistines, Canaanite, Phoenician, Sumerian, Mesopotamian agricultural god)
- Diana (Roman goddess of the hunt and wild animals)
- Fortune (aka Gad)
- Gad (aka Fortune)
- golden calf
- graven image
- Ashima (Canaanite goddess of fate — 2 Kings 17:30) (see: Hamath)
- Hebat (Heba, Hebatu, Ḫepat, Hepat, Khepat) (Hurrian goddess)
- Hermes (Mercury)
- host of heaven—worshipped
- Heqet
- Ishtar (Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian “queen of heaven”) (aka Inanna, Anath, Anat, Anatu, Isis, Astarte — Mesopotamian goddess of love, beauty, sex, war, justice, political power)
- image of jealousy—an idolatrous object seen in Ezekiel’s vision
- Jupiter (Zeus)
- Zeus / Jupiter
- Malcam (Malkam, Malcham, Milkowm, Milcom) (Ammonite god)
- Meni
- Merodach
- Milcom (Malcam, Malkam, Malcham, Milkowm)
- Moloch (Molech, Milcom, Malcham) (Canaanite god of fire, husband of Ishat)
- Sin (Nanna, Nannar, Sīn, Sin, Suen) (Mesopotamian Moon god, including Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian, Babylonian)
- Nebo (Nabu) (Mesopotamia)
- Nergal
- Nibhaz
- Nisroch
- Noph
- Rimmon
- Satyr
- Serpent
- Sikkuth (Amos 5:26 ESV)
- stars
- Succoth Benoth
- Sun
- Tammuz (Dumuzid, Dumuzi, Adonis)
- Tartak
Other false dieties in Biblical times
- Abzu / Apsu (Mesopotamian)
- Achlys (Greek)
- Aeolus (Greek)
- Aether (Greek)
- Aglibol (Canaanite Moon goddess)
- Ahuramazda (aka Ahura Mazda) (Persian, the Zoroastrian false creator god and god of the sky, whose name literally means “Lord of Wisdom”)
- Aion (Greek)
- Amphitrite (Greek)
- Amun (Egyptian god of the air)
- Amurru / Martu (Akkadian and Sumerian)
- Ananke (Greek)
- Angelos (Greek)
- Anshar / Anšar (Mesopotamian)
- Anu (Anum, Ilu, An) (Mesopotamian)
- Anubis (Egyptian god of the afterlife)
- Aphrodite (Greek)
- Apollo (Greek)
- Ares (Greek)
- Arsay (Canaanite goddess of the underworld)
- Arsu (Canaanite god of the evening star)
- Artemis (Greek)
- Aset (Egyptian goddess of healing and magic) (see: Ishtar)
- Ashara (Elamite)
- Ashtar-Chemosh (Moabite goddess)
- Ashur (Asshur, Ashshur, Ašur, Asur, Aššur, Assur, Bêlu Rabû—“great lord,” Ab Ilâni—“father of gods,” and Šadû Rabû—“great mountain”) (Assyrian)
- Atargatis (Canaanite goddess of fertility, wife of Hadad)
- Athena (Greek) / Minerva (Roman)
- Attar (Canaanite god of the morning star)
- Atum / Ra-Atum / Tum (Egyptian creator god / sun god)
- Azizos (Canaanite god of the morning star)
- Ba‘alat Gebal / Baalat Gebal (Canaanite)
- Baalah (Canaanite goddess)
- Ba'alat Gebal (goddess of Byblos, Phoenicia)
- Baalshamin / Baal Shamem / Baal Shamaim (supreme sky god of Palmyra, Syria)
- Bast / Bastet / Lady of the East / Goddess of the Rising Sun / Sacred and All Seeing Eye (of Ra) / Goddess of the Moon (Egyptian goddess of protection, pleasure, and the bringer of good health)
- Bel / Bol (chief god of Palmyra, Syria)
- Berith (Canaanite)
- Bes (Egyptian god of music, merriment, and childbirth) / The Spanish isle of Ibiza is named for this God—“Island of Bes.”
- Boreas (Greek)
- Buchis (Egyptian)
- Ceto (Greek)
- Chaos (Greek)
- Chronos (Greek)
- Demeter / Démétér (goddess of agriculture) (Greek)
- Dionysus (Greek)
- Djehuty / Thoth (Egyptian god of the moon, sacred texts, mathematics, the sciences, magic, messenger and recorder of the deities, master of knowledge, and patron of scribes)
- Eileithyia (Greek)
- El (Canaanite)
- Enki / Ea (Sumerian, Canaanite, and Hittite god of water, knowledge, mischief, crafts, and creation)
- Enlil / Elil (Mesopotamian, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian god of wind, air, earth, storms)
- Enyo (Greek)
- Erebus (Greek)
- Ereshkigal (Mesopotamian goddess of the underworld)
- Erinyes (Greek)
- Eris (Greek)
- Eros (Greek)
- Ersa (Greek)
- Eshmun (Canaanite goddess of healing)
- Eurus (Greek)
- Eurynomos (Greek)
- Gaia (Greek)
- Geb (Egyptian)
- Glaucus (Greek)
- Hadad (Adad, Ishkur, and Ramman) (Canaanite / Mesopotamian) / equivalent to Zeus/Jupiter/Baal
- Hades (Greek)
- Hathor (Egyptian goddess of love, beauty, music, dancing, fertility, and pleasure / protector of women)
- Hebe (Greek)
- Hecate (Greek)
- Hemera (Greek)
- Hephaestus (Greek)
- Hera (Greek)
- Hestia (Greek)
- Hišmitik / Hismitik (Elamite)
- Horon (Canaanite god of the underworld)
- Horus (Egyptian god of war and the sky)
- Humban (Enlil) (Elamite)
- Hymen (Hymenaios, Hymenaeus, Humén, Humen) (Greek god of weddings and son of Apollo)
- Iacchus (Greek)
- Inshushinak (Ninurta) (Elamite)
- Ishara (Canaanite goddess, wife of Dagon)
- Ishat (Canaanite goddess of fire, wife of Moloch)
- Ishmekarab (Elamite)
- Ishtaran (Sumerian, god of city of Der)
- Isis (Greek) (see: Ishtar)
- Jabru (Anu, Enlil) (Elamite)
- Kiririsha (Elamite)
- Kirmašir / Kirmasir (Elamite)
- Kotharat (Kotharot, Kathirat) (Canaanite goddess of marriage and pregnancy)
- Kothar-wa-Khasis (Canaanite god of craftsmanship and weapons)
- Kunzibami (Elamite)
- Lagamar (Nergal) (Elamite)
- Lahmu (Mesopotamian / Nineveh)
- Liluri (Canaanite)
- Liluri (Syrian)
- Malakbel (Canaanite Sun god, and of vegetation, welfare, angel of Bel)
- Manungal (Sumerian, Babylonian, and Akkadian goddess of the underworld, punishment, prisons)
- Manuzi (Canaanite god of weather and husband of Liluri)
- Manuzi (Syrian)
- Manzat (Elamite rainbow goddess)
- Marduk (associated with planet Jupiter) (Babylonian god of creation, judgment, water, magic / patron god of the city of Babylon)
- Marqod (Baal-Marqod) (Phoenician god of dance)
- Mašti / Masti (Elamite)
- Ma’at (Egyptian goddess of truth, justice, balance, and paintings)
- Melinoë / Melinoe (Greek)
- Melqart (Phoenician / god of Tyre, the underworld and cycle of vegetation)
- Misor (Canaanite god)
- Moirai (Greek)
- Mot (Mavet, Muth, Maveth, Maweth, Mutu, Mūtu) (Canaanite god of death)
- Mummu (Mesopotamian)
- Nahhunte (Utu / Shamash) (Elamite Sun god / Babylonian)
- Naiads (Greek)
- Nammu (Sumerian) / Tiamat (Babylonian)
- Napir (Elamite Moon god)
- Napirisha (Enki)(Elamite)
- Narundi (Ishtar or Nanaya —Mesopotamian goddess of love) (Elamite goddess known from Susa)
- Neith (Egyptian goddess of creation, wisdom, weaving, and war, and funerals)
- Nephthys / Mistress of the House (Egyptian goddess of the air)
- Nereids (Greek)
- Nereus (Greek)
- Nergal / Nirgal / Nirgali (Meslamtaea, Erra and Irra) (Mesopotamian)
- Nikkal (Canaanite / Phoenician)
- Ninazu (Sumerian god of the underworld and of healing)
- Ninegal / Belet Ekallim (Mesopotamian goddess)
- Ningishzida (Mesopotamian)
- Ninḫursaĝ / Ninhursag / Ninkharsag (Damgalnuna or Ninmah) (Sumerian fertility goddess and mother goddess of the mountains)
- Ninlil (Sud / Assyrian: Mulliltu) (Mesopotamian)
- Ninshubur (Sumerian)
- Notus (Greek)
- Nut (pronounced “newt”) (Egyptian goddess of the sky and heavens)
- Oceanids (Greek)
- Oceanus (Greek)
- Osiris (Egyptian god of the dead)
- Ourea (Greek)
- Pabilsag (Sagittarius) (Mesopotamian city of Isin)
- Papsukkal (Mesopotamian)
- Persephone (Greek)
- Phanes (Greek)
- Phorcys (Greek)
- Pidray (Canaanite goddess of light and lightning)
- Pinikir (Ishtar, Ninsianna) (Elamite goddess of love and sex; “queen of heaven”)
- Pontus (Greek)
- Pontus (Greek)
- Poseidon (Greek)
- Proteus (Greek)
- Ptah (Egyptian god whose breath was said to give life to everything at the beginning)
- Qadeshtu “Holy One” (Canaanite goddess of love, desire, lust)
- Qetesh (Egyptian, Canaanite)
- Ra (Egyptian Sun god / king of the deities and the father of all creation)
- Resheph (Canaanite / Egyptian god of plague and healing)
- Ruhurater (Ninurta) (Elamite)
- Sarpanit (Mesopotamian goddess of birth)
- Sekhmet (Egyptian goddess of the hot desert sun, plague, chaos, war, and healing)
- Šennukušu / Sennukusu (Elamite)
- Set / Seth (Egyptian god of the desert, foreign lands, thunderstorms, eclipses, and earthquakes)
- Shadrafa (Canaanite god of medicine or healing)
- Shahar (Canaanite)
- Shalim (Shalem, Šalām, Salam, Salem, Salim) (Canaanite god of dusk and netherworld)
- Shapash (Shapsh, Shapshu, Shemesh) / Sun god or goddess (Canaanite Sun goddess)
- Shu (Egyptian)
- Šihhaš / Sihhas (Elamite)
- Simut (Nergal) (Elamite)
- Sobek (Egyptian lord of crocodiles / creator of order / creator of the Nile River — associated with fertility)
- Sydyk (Canaanite god of righteousness or justice)
- Tallai (Canaanite goddess of winter, snow, cold and dew)
- Tartarus (Greek)
- Tefnut (Egyptian)
- Tethys (Greek)
- Thalassa (Greek)
- Thaumas (Greek)
- Thetis (Greek)
- Thoth / Djehuty (Egyptian god of the moon, sacred texts, mathematics, the sciences, magic, messenger and recorder of the deities, master of knowledge, and patron of scribes)
- Tiamat (Mesopotamian)
- Tirutur (Elamite)
- Tishpak (Akkadian / Babylonian goddess)
- Triptolemus (Greek)
- Triton (Greek)
- Trophonius (Greek)
- Upur-kubak (Elamite goddess of light)
- Uranus (Greek)
- Yam (Canaanite god of the sea and river)
- Yarhibol (Sun god, “lord of the spring”)
- Yarikh (Canaanite Moon god)
- Zephyrus (Greek)
More information
List of IDOLATERS—people, cities and nations
- King Ahab
- King Ahaz
- King Ahaziah
- Ai—city
- King Amaziah
- Ammonites
- Amorites
- Assyria
- King Baasha
- Baalbec (aka Baalbek, Baalbeck, Heliopolis, Heliopolis in Syria, and Coelesyria)
- Babylon—a city (Babel) / Is there archaeological evidence of the Tower of Babel? Answer
- Kingdom of Babylon
- Bajith—city
- Beth-aven—place of idolatrous worship
- Bethel—city
- Beth-shemesh—idol sanctuary in Egypt
- Canaan—a land filled with extreme idolatry
- Canaanites
- Caesar
- Caesarea—city
- Caesara Philippi—city
- Chaldea—a land
- Princess Cozbi
- Edom
- Egypt
- Ephesus
- Tribe of Ephraim
- Eth-baal
- Gilgal
- Greeks
- Hadad-rimmon
- heathen
- Herod Agrippa I
- Jehoahaz
- Jehoram
- Jericho—city
- Jerusalem
- Jews
- Jezebel, princess and queen
- Kingdom of Israel
- Kingdom of Judah
- Tribe of Manasseh
- King Manasseh, son of King Hezekiah
- Nimrod (Nimrud)
- Nineveh—city
- Noph
- On—city
- Petra
- Philistia—a land
- Philistines
- Phoenicians
- Romans
- Samaria — Samaritans
- Shechem
- Sepharvaim
- King Solomon
- Syria
- Tiberias
- Tyre
- Urijah—a High Priest who constructed an idolatrous altar like one King Ahaz had seen at Damascus, to be set up instead of the brass altar
- Zidon
References of interest
MOSES’ BODY HIDDEN—In Jude 1:9 mention is made of a contention between Michael and the devil about the body of Moses. This dispute is supposed to have had reference to the concealment of the body of Moses so as to prevent idolatry.
TO FEED ON ASHES (Isaiah 44:20), means to seek that which will prove to be vain and unsatisfactory, and hence it denotes the unsatisfactory nature of idol worship. (Compare Hos. 12:1).
Hebrew and Greek names for idol worship
Greek: εἰδωλολατρεία —transliteration: eidólolatria —meaning: image worship
Hebrew: תְּרָפִים —transliteration: teraphim —meaning: some kind of idol made for worship (possibly a household idol)
Hebrew: פֶסֶל —transliteration: pesel —meaning: an idol, image
More information
- Idols of the Bible
- What is abomination?
- Aholah—a symbol of the idolatry of the kingdom of Israel
- Aholibah—name of an imaginary harlot, applied symbolically to Jerusalem for idolatry
- Amos—prophet who fought against idolatry
- King Asa—rooted out idolatry
- Astrologers
- Bamah—a high place where the Jews worshipped idols
- banners—of Rome had idolatrous images upon them
- bowing—to idols
- cake—offered to idols
- Calf—offered to idols
- Cutting—an idolatrous practice
- Abomination of Desolation
- Food—offered to idols
- fornication
- Gehenna
- Hanging—curtained structures for idolatrous worship
- King Hezekiah—abolished idolatry
- Hinnom
- Hosea, Prophecies of—deal with Israel’s apostasy
- The prophet Isaiah —who repeatedly warn people about idolatry
- King Jehoshaphat—cleansed the land of idolatry
- King Jehu destroyed a temple of Baal, but tolerated the worship of the golden calves at Dan and Bethel
- The prophet Jeremiah —who repeatedly warn people about idolatry
- King Josiah fought idolatry which had practically been the state religion for some seventy years
- kerchief—worn by idolatrous women of Israel
- Kid—offered to idols
- Kissing—idols
- Malachi—rebuked the people for their intermarriages with idolaters
- Mishael—refused to worship an idol
- Moon worship
- Mount of Corruption
- Nehushtan
- Offering
- Quarries
- Who is Satan, the enemy of God and all people?
- Is Satan a real person that influences our world today? Is he affecting you? Answer
- SATAN’S STRATEGY—What is one of Satan’s most successful strategies in dealing with followers of Christ? Answer
- What are devils and demons in the Bible?
- Teraphim
- Thummim
- Worship
- Worshipper
- Astrologers
- About astronomy in the Bible
- False prophets
- HINDUISM
An open letter to disciples of Hinduism
What is Monism and Pantheistic Monism? Who believes in Monism? Is it biblical? Answer
Mysticism—Can mysticism lead to God? Answer
Reincarnation—Does the Bible allow for this possibility? Answer
INDIA—Did Jesus go to India as a child and learn from Hindu Gurus? Answer