Man, it has been said, is a religious being. Recorded history of
earliest known civilizations bear witness to his relentless attempt to
return to his Creator. Since the days of antiquity, man has sought ways
to win back God's favor which he lost through the sin committed by Adam
and Eve in the garden of Eden. This original transgression caused his
fall from the Lord's grace, his eviction from "paradise" and the
consequent forfeiture of his right to serve the Almighty. The history of
religion is the thrilling account of man's unending quest to be
reconciled with his Maker.
His innate desire to search for his God and the impulse to worship Him
is man's natural response to the invitation of his ever-compassionate
Benefactor:
'''Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned
away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will
return to you,' says the Lord Almighty..." (Malachi 3:7, NIV)
In their earnest effort to return to God, however, many have trod the
wrong path. Instead of taking the road or way that God prescribes, they
established what Apostle Paul described as their "own way" as stated in
Romans 10:2-3:
"I can assure you that they are deeply devoted to God;
but their devotion is not based on true knowledge. They have not known
the way in which God puts people right with himself, and instead, they
have tried to set up their own way; and so they did not submit
themselves to God's way of putting people right." (TEV)
These people seek God with zeal and devotion, their passion is indeed
beyond question! The problem is that their devotion is not based on true
knowledge, that is, they have not known God's righteousness or the way
He puts people right with Himself. Instead of submitting themselves to
the way chosen by God, they decided to set up their "own way." Hence,
their attempt to return to God is already doomed at the outset. What is
one of these futile and unsuccessful ways conceived by man by which he
has sought reconciliation with his Creator?
In writing to the first-century Christians in Rome, Apostle Paul noted
his observation:
"For though they knew God, they did not honor him as
God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and
their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became
fools, and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images
resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or
reptiles." (Romans 1:21-23, NRSV)
It is common knowledge that the ancient Greeks and Romans, to whom
Apostle Paul was sent to preach the gospel, worshiped a pantheon of
gods. They built temples dedicated to these gods and goddesses, carved
out images of them and offered sacrifices before them. What remains of
the glory and grandeur of the said cradles of Western civilization-their
architecture, sculpture, literature-testify to this. A visiting tourist
today can see the ruins of the temple built for Roman goddess of the
hunt, Diana, or the Greek Parthenon for Pallas Athena. Greek and Roman
literature contains rich tales about their gods and goddesses, even
demigods.
Apostle Paul sharply denounced this practice. He lamented that although
they know God, "they did not honor Him as God." In what way did these
people fail to glorify the immortal God as God? They exchanged His glory
for "images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed
animals or reptiles.
" How grievous a sin have they committed? Apostle
Paul continued, "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and
worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is
forever praised. Amen." (Romans 1:25, NIV)
Instead of worshiping the Creator, many opted to serve the things He has
created as well as the images purporting to represent them. Who is the
true God that Apostle Paul and the first century Christians recognized
and worshiped?
The true God who must be worshiped
In his first epistle to the Christians in Corinth, Apostle Paul
declared:
"Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or
on earth -as in fact there are many gods and many lords-yet for us there
is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we
exist..." (I Corinthians 8:5-6, NRSV)
The early Christians acknowledged only one God: the Father in heaven who
created all things. He is a spirit in state of being, that is, He has
no flesh and bones but is invisible and therefore should be worshiped in
spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24; Luke 24:38-39; I Timothy 1: 17). To
worship Him otherwise is to fail to honor Him as God. To serve any other
except Him alone is to serve "other gods" or idols (Exodus 20:3-5). To
think that he has a physical form or image that could be molded out of
gold, silver and stone is blasphemy in the highest order (Acts 17:29).
Pagan worship and idolatry, however, did not originate in ancient Greece
and Rome. Long before the birth of Western societies, the cradles of
civilizations in the East-Sumerian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Indian,
Chinese-had already been worshiping innumerable gods. Every city and
village, every human endeavor, had some inspiring and disciplinary
divinity.
The worship of the sun, the moon, and the stars-known as cosmic gods-is
common to almost all ancient civilizations. The Sumerian pantheon
included, among others, Anu as the Sky God, Sin the Moon God, Shamash
the Sun God, and Enlil the Storm God. In ancient Egypt, the moon was
also a deity, but in their official theology, the greatest of the gods
was the sun. Sometimes it was worshiped as the supreme deity Ra or Re.
In the book entitled, The Story of Civilization 1: Our Oriental
Heritage, author Will Durant states:
"...the Egyptians worshiped not
merely the source, but almost every form, of life. Many plants were
sacred to them:... More popular were the animal gods; they were so
numerous that they filled the Egyptian pantheon like a chattering
menagerie. In one nome or another, in one period or another, Egyptians
worshiped the bull, the crocodile, the hawk, the cow, the goose, the
goat, the ram, the cat, the dog, the chicken, the swallow, the jackal,
the serpent, and allowed some of these creatures to roam in the temples
with the same freedom that is accorded to the sacred cow of India
today." (pp. 198-199)
Nature worship dates back to the dawn of civilization. The Semites,
Egyptians, and Babylonians all worshiped as their supreme deities
heavenly bodies, as well as plant and animal life-things that were only
created by the Supreme Being. God long ago deplored this practice when
He said through Moses:
"You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord
spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very
carefully, so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an
idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, or
like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the. air, or like any
creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below.
And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the
stars-all the heavenly array-do not be enticed into bowing down to them
and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the
nations under heaven." (Deuteronomy 4:15-19, NIV)
India, the birthplace of three of the world's major religions: Hinduism,
Buddhism, and Jainism -is not to be outdone. In the book entitled,
Major Religions of the World, the author, Marcus Bach, said the
following:
"Anyone who travels in India will be struck by the
multiplicity of Hindu gods. There are literally thousands of gods. There
are gods within gods, families of gods, and wives and children of gods.
Here is Krishna, an embodiment or incarnation of Vishnu. Here, too, is
Indra, god of the firmament; Varuna, the all-seeing god; Agni, god of
fire; Soma, personification of the juice of the soma plant. Hinduism
honors Ganesa, the elephant god, and Hanuman, the monkey god. It loves
and respects Sarasvati, goddess of learning, and Lakshmi, goddess of
wealth, and Parvati, who is the wife of the god Siva. Hinduism has gods
and goddesses galore." (p. 26)
The Christian Church, after the death of the apostles, was not spared
from this prevalent but deplorable practice. At first there was strong
resistance from the faithful disciples of Christ against idolatry. The
apostles were at the forefront of this opposition to image worship.
Apostle Paul and Barnabas, when people mistook them as gods after
healing a crippled man in Lystra, exclaimed to the crowd:
"Men, why are
you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you
good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the
living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them."
(Acts 14: 15, NIV)
But the seeds of deception were sown by the false prophets after the
death of the apostles and the Christian Church was led into apostasy.
Historian Will Durant has this to say:
"The early Church had frowned
upon images as relics of paganism, and had looked with horror upon pagan
sculptures purporting to represent the gods. But the triumph of
Christianity under Constantine, and the influence of Greek surroundings,
traditions, and statuary in Constantinople and the Hellenistic East,
had softened this opposition. As the number of worshiped saints
multiplied, a need arose for identifying and remembering them; pictures
of them and of Mary were produced in great number; and in the case of
Christ not only His imagined form but His cross became objects of
reverence-even, for simple minds, magic talismans. A natural freedom of
fancy among the people turned the holy relics, pictures, and statues
into objects of adoration; people prostrated themselves before them,
kissed them, burned candles and incense before them, crowned them with
flowers, and sought miracles from their occult influence." (The Story of
Civilization 4: The Age of Faith, pp. 425-426).
The true Church founded by Christ succumbed to the pressure from its
pagan surroundings and eventually became the Roman Catholic Church,
embracing idolatry during the time of Constantine the Great. And this
practice continues up to our time. In Catholic masses and rituals, a
number of objects of worship and adoration are being used, which include
the cross, holy relics, pictures, and statues of their so-called
saints. The Catholic faithful venerate graven images of these "saints,"
as enforced upon them by their religious authorities. This is recorded
in the Catechism of Christian Doctrine No.3:
"10. What is a saint? A
saint in the strict sense of the word, is one who is in heaven, and has
been presented by the Church for the public worship of
the faithful 13. Is the worship of the saints confined to their persons?
No; it extends also to their
relics and images 15. Ought we to worship holy images? We should have,
particularly in our churches, images of Our Lord, as also of the Blessed
Virgin and the saints,..." (p. 86)
It is indeed unfortunate that a great majority of the people in the
world today practice idolatry and pagan worship. They chose to set up
their own way of returning to God. Instead of serving and worshiping the
only one true God, they have chosen to channel their devotion to the
things He has created and the images allegedly representing them. This
explains the sad plight of humanity at present, as expressed by the
Apostle Paul:
"And the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the
truth... And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave
them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done. They
were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice.
Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips,
slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil,
rebellious toward parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless."
(Romans 1:18,28-31, NRSV)
PASUGO/March 1999 issue, pp. 10-13
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