In earlier times, idols looked like movie stars. Thor and Hercules were big, strong men. Venus and Diana were beautiful women. The better class of idols represented somewhat decent human feelings and desires. As one moves farther in distance or time from Abraham, idols get weirder. Some have heads of dogs or elephants. Some have many arms. Now, many idols resemble personifications of perversion.
Mercury, Venus, Apollo, Jupiter, Thor and other ancient idols represented some human desire or personality. Idols whose priests implemented good marketing plans gained wider appeal. Some amassed donations for centuries and often lent those deposits at interest, becoming powerful profit centers.
St. Paul saw more clearly. He describes idols as “demons”. In I Cor 10: 20, he explains to the ages what it truly is that idol-worshipers do: “. . . the sacrifices that they offer they sacrifice to demons who are not God.”
Those in the business of making, selling, and fostering belief in idols are outraged to hear that they are feeding “demons who are not God”. When their livelihoods are threatened, they explode in riot.
The leaders of the riot at Ephesus understood the danger when they heard St. Paul’s teaching. Their reaction to the threat of truth is described in Acts: 19: 27-29: “Not only is there danger that this trade of ours fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis be regarded as worthless and that she whom all of Asia and the world worship will even be dethroned from her magnificence.” When they heard this and were filled with rage, they began crying out, saying, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” The city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia.”
Idol-makers always riot when the livelihood their idols provide is threatened. Today, the seven tribes of demons, Pride, Envy, Greed, Gluttony, Anger, Lust and Sloth wear two masks: “Concern for others and fulfillment of self.”
Those possessed by the idols of Envy may become Earth Worshipers and others working to make everyone poor. Idols of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity disguise Pride, Greed, and Anger. Gluttony, Lust, and Sloth hide behind “My right as a person to self-fulfillment.”
Every fraud, from global warming to public education, is served by divisions of the damned. Actors, announcers, politicians, and “stars” of every sort vie for the opportunity to feed as many demons as possible.
Those who serve the corrupting viruses do great harm. Thousands of unborn children are killed each day. Christians are plundered, raped, and exterminated. Demons demand to be fed.
The idol-makers’ greatest threat? Those who tell and live the truths of Jesus. The idol-makers of Ephesus did not feel threatened until St. Paul, the early Catholic Bishop, brought the truth to them. Disciples of Jesus met the same fate in every nation. Every Apostle but John is reported to have been killed by different gangs of demon-feeding idol worshipers.
In our own day, many Pastor Bobs have become idol-worshipers. They water down Jesus’ message and worship that diluted version. They say it is not necessary to believe Jesus’ words “If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood you do not have life in you.” Those who feed the demonic idol of watered down, partial-Christianity insist “The Body and Blood of Christ is an ‘allegory’. It is ‘symbolic’, not a literal statement of fact. It is wrong take literal interpretations of what Jesus said ‘too seriously’.”
Some Pastor Bobs, in the process of turning Jesus into something less than God, have begun to make themselves into idols and seek worshipers to feed them.
