False religion

The nature of false religion

Man-made images are worshipped

Acts 17:29 ESV

29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

See also Dt 4:28; Da 3:4–7; Ps 115:4–7; Ps 135:15–17; Is 44:10–20; Je 10:3–5; Je 16:20; Ac 19:26

Created things are worshipped

Romans 1:25 ESV

25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

See also Je 19:13; Je 8:2; 2 Ki 21:3; Eze 8:16

Secular authorities are worshipped

Re 13:4 The dragon in Revelation may be understood as the devil and the beast as the antichrist: the forces at work behind the human authorities that defy the rule of God.

See also Re 13:8; Re 13:12; Ac 12:21–23

Demons are worshipped

Deuteronomy 32:17 ESV

17 They sacrificed to demons that were not God, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded.

See also Re 9:20; Le 17:7; Ps 106:37–38; 1 Co 10:20

False religion is based on man-made traditions, myths and philosophies

Col 2:8; Col 2:20–23; 1 Ti 1:4; 1 Ti 6:20

False religious practices

Immorality

1 Kings 14:23–24 ESV

23 For they also built for themselves high places and pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, 24 and there were also male cult prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations that the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.

See also Ho 4:13–14; Eze 16:16–17

Human sacrifice

2 Kings 17:17 ESV

17 And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.

See also Le 18:21; Ps 106:37–38

False religion ensnares its adherents

It offers no help in time of need

1 Samuel 12:21 ESV

21 And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty.

See also Is 45:20; Je 11:12; Is 46:7; Jdg 10:14; Is 16:12; Is 44:17–20; Is 57:13; 1 Ki 18:29; 2 Ki 19:12

It prevents people from finding the truth

Jonah 2:8 ESV

8 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.

See also 2 Co 4:4; Mt 23:13; Lk 11:52

It devalues, degrades and defiles

2 Kings 17:15 ESV

15 They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them.

See also Je 2:5; Ps 106:39; Eze 20:18; Ps 115:8; Ps 135:18; Is 44:9

It leads to immorality

Numbers 25:1–2 ESV

1 While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. 2 These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.

See also Re 9:20–21; Nu 25:3; Nu 25:6–8; Ro 1:23–31

It enslaves

Galatians 4:8 ESV

8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.

See also Ga 4:3; Col 2:8; Dt 12:30; Ga 4:9–10

False religion receives the full force of God’s anger

Jeremiah 16:18 ESV

18 But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”

See also 1 Ki 13:1–3; Zep 1:4–5; Na 1:14; 1 Ki 13:33–34; 2 Ki 17:18–23; Je 22:8–9; Mic 5:13–15