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The world is not to be our criterion. We are not to associate with the ungodly and partake of their spirit, for they will lead the heart away from God to the worship of false gods. The steadfast soul, firm in the faith, can do much good; he can impart blessings of the highest order to those with whom he associates, for the law of the Lord is in his heart. But we cannot willingly associate with those who are trampling upon the law of God, and preserve our faith pure and untarnished. We shall catch the spirit, and unless we separate from them, we shall be bound up with them at last, to share their doom. {AH 459.4} |
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Not desiring to retain God in their knowledge, they soon came to deny His existence. They adored nature in place of the God of nature. . . . Extensive groves, that retained their foliage throughout the year, were dedicated to the worship of false gods. . . . Men put God out of their knowledge and worshiped the creatures of their own imagination; and as the result, they became more and more debased. {CC 32.3} |
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When Aaron saw the image he had graven, he pleased the people, and he was proud of his workmanship. He built an altar before the idol, "made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play" [Ex. 32:5, 6]. They drank and feasted, and then gave themselves up to mirth and dancing, which ended in the shameful orgies that marked the heathen worship of false gods. {19MR 109.3} |
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Arriving in Egypt, Joseph was sold to Potiphar, captain of the king's guard, in whose service he remained for ten years. He was here exposed to temptations of no ordinary character. He was in the midst of idolatry. The worship of false gods was surrounded by all the pomp of royalty, supported by the wealth and culture of the most highly civilized nation then in existence. Yet Joseph preserved his simplicity and his fidelity to God. The sights and sounds of vice were all about him, but he was as one who saw and heard not. His thoughts were not permitted to linger upon forbidden subjects. The desire to gain the favor of the Egyptians could not cause him to conceal his principles. Had he attempted to do this, he would have been overcome by temptation; but he was not ashamed of the religion of his fathers, and he made no effort to hide the fact that he was a worshiper of Jehovah. {PP 214.2} {CC 74.2} |
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Not without the most determined opposition was the divine purpose carried out. In every way possible the enemy of truth and righteousness worked to cause the descendants of Abraham to forget their high and holy calling, and to turn aside to the worship of false gods. And often his efforts were all but successful. For centuries preceding Christ's first advent, darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people. Satan was throwing his hellish shadow athwart the pathway of men, that he might prevent them from gaining a knowledge of God and of the future world. Multitudes were sitting in the shadow of death. Their only hope was for this gloom to be lifted, that God might be revealed. {PK 687.2} |
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There is a lesson for us in the history of Solomon. The early life of this king of Israel was bright with promise. He chose the wisdom of God, and the glory of his reign excited the wonder of the world. He might have gone from strength to strength, from character to character, even approaching nearer the similitude of the character of God; but how sad his history; he was exalted to most sacred positions of trust, but he proved unfaithful. He grew into self-sufficiency, pride, self-exaltation. The lust for political power and self-aggrandizement led him to form alliances with heathen nations. The silver of Tarshish and the gold of Ophir were procured at a terrible expense, even the sacrifice of integrity, the betrayal of sacred trusts. Association with idolaters corrupted his faith; one false step led to another; there was a breaking down of the barriers which God had erected for the safety of His people; his life was corrupted by polygamy; and at last he gave himself to the worship of false gods. A character that had been firm and pure and elevated became weak, marked with moral inefficiency. {7T 217.4} |
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Unless men shall know God as Christ has revealed him, they will never form a character after the divine similitude, and will therefore never see God. It is a matter for astonishment among the angels in heaven, that any who have once known God should become careless, should permit their minds to be absorbed in any temporal pursuit, and allow their attention to be diverted from the God of heaven, so that they wantonly and willingly forget their Maker, and substitute for him other lords and other gods. The day has come when there are lords many and gods many, and Satan has purposed to interpose himself between God and the human soul, so that men shall not give homage to God in keeping his law. Satan has wrapped about him garments of angelic brightness, and he comes to men as an angel of light. He causes the guilty soul to see things in a perverted way, so that he hates that which he should love, and loves that which he should hate and despise. God is so misrepresented to him that he cares not to retain the true and living Father in his knowledge, but turns to the worship of false gods. He knows not that the love of God is without a parallel, yet Christ has revealed that love to a fallen world. John calls upon the world to behold the wondrous love of God, saying, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God; therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." {RH, March 9, 1897 par. 10} |
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But in the days of Ahab, one of Israel's wicked kings, the people wandered far from God. The heathen Jezebel, whom Ahab married, introduced the worship of false gods, -- Baal and the Zidonian goddess Ashtoreth. Through her influence the people were taught that these idol gods were deities, ruling the elements of earth, fire, and water by their mystic power. They forgot that the hills and valleys, the streams and fountains, were in the hand of the living God; that he controlled the sun, the clouds of heaven, and all the powers of nature. They forgot that in the wilderness, in the day of Israel's need, he had listened to the prayers of Moses, and that in obedience to his word living waters gushed from the smitten rock. {ST, December 18, 1884 par. 2} |
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The phrase "worship of false gods" appears 15 times in the writings of Ellen White
Related Phrase: the Second Commandment |
